I like San Gimignano in the early morning, when it is still not crowded with tourists, when you see the local people passing along the streets almost incredulous to have San Gimignano for themselves, yet still for just a few more minutes. I like it when the footsteps echo on the cobbled shady streets, resounding between the high walls of the houses.

I like the gray colour of the stones, especially when they have just been washed by the rain of the early spring. In San Gimignano, along the main street that goes to the Cathedral from the park outside the walls, just after the main gate on the left you find the Pasticceria Armando e Marcella, one of my favourite pastry shops in the world. Every time that mum took me there as a little girl, just entered my question was always the same: Mum, could you buy me a rice tartlet?

The subtly lemon scented rice pudding tartlets were my favourite sweet treat as a child, whether bought by mum on a common Saturday when we went to visit my granddad Remigio who lived there, or by my aunt Silvana in an early morning before going to the market when I used to spend in San Gimignano a few days during the summer holidays.

It might depend on their special character or in their essence interwoven with childhood memories and flavours, but they are still my favourite choice on the rare occasions when I have breakfast in a bar, or when I enter in a baker’s shop and they have just been baked and are still warm with a gentle creaminess inside.

I baked them just before leaving for London, in one of those days when you need comfort from food and memories, using my grandma’s rice cake as basic recipe and working on it.

I scribbled down the recipe, took a few pictures and came to London meaning to write this post from here, from the warm and cosy kitchen in South East London, where there is always an Italian coffee. But then, as it always happens to me abroad, I felt like cooking home food and I baked again my rice pudding tartlets for breakfast along with minestrone, my mum’s veggie soup (not for breakfast!). The rice pudding tartlets, changing the country, have changed as well.

In Italy they are and should remain the tartlets you buy in a pastry shop, or better, in your favourite baker’s shop, round or softly oval, wrapped in a paper towel. They are supposed to be eaten standing up, perhaps with a coffee if you’re a grown-up or with a thick pear juice if you are a child, they are covered with icing sugar, that icing sugar that will inevitably dust your best dress in sweetness in the most important morning of your life.

Here in London, in the foodblogger headquarters, where any excuse is good to take new pictures or experiment a new combination, we played around with flavours and presentation. No icing sugar but a spoonful of thick greek yogurt and a drizzle of raspberry sauce, cooked with just a hint of sugar, to add a nice tart note. It goes well with our plans for tomorrow and a cup of Earl Grey.

Now you are spoilt for choice on how to serve these subtle lemon scented rice pudding tartlets, I already tried and tested the recipe for you!

Behind the scenes

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Mum, could you buy me a rice tartlet? The Italian rice pudding tartlets

You should be interested also in:

1. Light rice pudding
2. My Greek dinner: rice pudding
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Every time we indulged in the entranced reading of the menu as if it were a Michelin starred restaurant, evaluating with interest pairings and news: tacos, flat bread with Nutella, bruschetta, wraps… The strong point of the pub were the panini, though, hot and cold, 18 for each category. When I was unsure about what to order, I went on with my favourite one: a hot 16 and a lager beer, a small one or I won’t be able to drink it all!

The 16 was the panino I used to choose when I wanted to be reassured, when I could not lose myself in the contemplation of the menu because I was telling Laura word-for-word the developments of one of the many unrequited loves, which needed to be analysed in great detail from every point of view.

The 16 was the panino with artichoke sauce, smoked cheese and cured ham: it’s a combination that worked so well with the lager beer that I turned all the ingredients into a winter risotto, which still has the taste of those long Saturday nights of chats and great expectations.

What made this risotto so special?

# spalla cruda, that is cured pork meat from the shoulder of the animal instead of the leg, from which you make ham, a traditional Tuscan product, tasty, perfect accompaniment for our Tuscan bread without salt, with an aromatic and tasty fat that goes well with the savoury and dry meat.

# organic smoked goat cheese, brought here in Tuscany by Zita, a much appreciated gift from Hungary.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Beer and artichoke risotto with crumbled goat cheese

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It’s hot, it’s really hot here. I’m tired and I keep forgetting things and making silly mistakes. I live in a constant haze, trying to figure out how not to make collide dreams, reality, expectations and future projects. Maybe I just need holidays, after all!

Today I just want to take the chance to introduce you the new G2Kitchen issue, fresh, summery and made with the usual passion and enthusiasm. Unfortunately this will be the last issue, it has been an extraordinary experience, I lived for a while the dream of working in a real editorial staff! As usual, here you can read one of my recipes from the magazine translated in English.

You won’t be able to convince me that eating light is boring, sad and above all that we can not eat something sweet! Just take this rice pudding: I would have done the classic version with fresh cream instead of half skimmed milk and I would have used a little more sugar, but since it’s summer and you know how things go when you have to show the winter laziness on a beach, you can also decline it in light version.

The rice will release the starch, which will give you a creamy feeling without adding any additional fat and the vanilla pod, with its intense and tropical aroma, will wrap you in a sweet cloud.

LIGHT RICE PUDDING

Ingredients:

• 250 g of rice
• a pinch of salt
• 500 ml semi-skimmed milk
• 1 vanilla bean, split open
• 6 tablespoons sugar

Directions

1. Cook the rice in boiling water with a pinch of salt for 15 minutes (or according to the packaging instructions), drain and transfer to a non-stick pan.
2. Cover the cooked rice with 500 ml of low-fat milk, add the vanilla pod and 6 tablespoons of sugar. Allow to simmer gently over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula to prevent from sticking. Let it simmer until the milk has been almost completely absorbed.
3. Remove from the heat and blend partially the rice with an immersion blender.
4. Divide into small individual bowls and refrigerate.
5. Just before serving, sprinkle with a dusting of icing sugar or desiccated coconut, or, as in this case, with a spoonful of rose petals jam. It ‘s also very good served with a few tablespoons of chopped fresh fruit.
6. I have served the rice pudding with the delicious rose petals jam made by Emiko.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Light rice pudding

You should be interested also in:

1. Mum, could you buy me a rice tartlet? The Italian rice pudding tartlets
2. My Greek dinner: rice pudding
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I’m not very much into dancing and sometimes I prefer staying at home to cook or write, rather than going to a club… Yet, the harsh life of a single woman would require an attendance, if not constant at least assiduous, of socializing sites to get this label off. Despite this behaviour, I am good company and I like parties, those parties crammed with friends, where you have the chance to talk, to laugh to tears and, obviously, to eat. If at the disco my eyes start to close at the stroke of midnight (what an anachronistic person I am… will it be the influence of Cinderella’s tale?), at a party with friends I can stay up till late chatting over a set table, losing track of time and enjoying the atmosphere.

I’ve always had the dream of throwing large parties, like in the movies, with music, colours and set tables in my garden. I live in the countryside, this is one of the many benefits I have: no time constraints, no grumpy neighbours, open spaces to fill with joyful hands, feet and smiles. But until a few years ago there was a problem, to fill that garden, until…

Three years ago, a summer afternoon chatting with a friend.
“I would love to throw a garden party, but how can I do? do not know enough people to make it memorable!”
“Do you have a garden? are you sure you want to offer your garden for a party?”
“Of course I am”
“OK, you deal with the food, I deal with the people “.

From that moment on, everything changed. I became a couchsurfer, I met many special people who are now among my best friends and I have no more problems to fill up the garden when I want to throw a party… just think of that night, a concert under the stars with 101 friends who made memorable ​​that summer night. I made ​​peace with my social being, and I realized that I am a social person, but I have to find myself in contexts where I feel at ease and possibly with a pair of comfortable shoes on!

One of the most successful parties was the Hawaiian Luau: bright colours, flower garlands, lanterns, and the right music in the background, Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz, liquid and engaging notes that made a Tuscan evening into a night under the stars on the Honolulu beach.

Very little is needed to make a memorable party. You definitely need the right people, but the right choice of the right food helps: fresh, appetizing and easy to make food is a winning point in a memorable party. When we threw the Hawaiian Luau at my uncle’s house, we made a rapid research on what was the more suitable food for a Hawaiian party. Checked the ingredients and slightly adapted to our taste, this is one of the most appreciated result. It’s summer, be ready to add a magic touch to your Hawaiian party!

HAWAIIAN RICE NOODLES WITH BACON AND CRAB MEAT

Ingredients (serve 4):

• 200 g rice noodles
• 200 g bacon, diced
• 200 g crab meat
• 100 g salted peanuts
• 1 tablespoon of ​​fresh onion, green part only, thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced ​
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Greek yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon nigella seeds or sesame seeds
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions, drain and cool them under cold running water. Cut them with scissors 3 to 4 times, to help you seasoning them.
2. In a large non-stick pan stir fry the bacon and let it cook until it turns pink. Now add the crab meat thinly sliced ​​and stir for a few minutes with a wooden spoon until the bacon is golden and crisp.
3. Put the rice noodles in a large bowl, then season them with the bacon and crab meat, the salted peanuts, the sliced celery and the sliced green  ​​onion. Add the Greek yoghurt and the mayonnaise. Mix the noodles with your hands to season them evenly.
4. Just before serving, sprinkle the rice noodles with the nigella seeds or the sesame seeds, preferably the black ones for a nice colour contrast.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Hawaiian rice noodles with bacon and crab meat

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1. Born to impress: pasta with zucchini and bacon in an unusual shell!
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3. Light rice pudding

I love colourful and distinguishing bridal bouquets, especially if they have unusual flowers and intricate interwoven green leaves. There’s a bouquet that beats them all. If ever a destiny will resolve me to leave my single status to get married, my bouquet will look like a bouquet garni! How I would love my father to walk me down the aisle, me holding tight in my hands a bouquet of fresh herbs, maybe some chili and certainly a lot of mint. After the ceremony, no way I’d throw the bouquet to the bridesmaids, it would end up directly into the pot to make us a risotto or a roast meat!

Last summer I visited Provence and Camargue: the stalls along the road were selling Provençal tablecloths, pottery, wrought iron souvenirs and bunches of fragrant lavender along with these small intense bouquets garnis, made with some of the most scented herbs of Provence. Again and again I was tempted to buy a whole bag of them, even though this would have meant finishing the trip in a car overfilled with thyme and laurel smell. Then I realized that it is much easier and cheaper to make them, instead of buying a bouquet garni as a common turist.

How to make a bouquet garni. The bouquet garni is a bundle of herbs used in Provençal cooking to create gourmet recipes, enhancing the flavour and interest of traditional dishes and giving them a greater depth. Using a bouquet garni is like casting a spell and binding together with a red thread the bluish lavender fields studded with ruined castles and stone abbeys, the Louberon hills covered with vineyards, the brackish air of the salt-works that stretch as far as the eye can see in Aigues Mortes and the Camarguaise marshes with the wild white horses. And like all magic, this one has a formula:

“Cut a generous length of a natural cotton thread and tie together 3 stalks of parsley, 2 sprigs of thyme and 1 bay leaf. Secure one end of the thread to the pot handle and add your bouquet garni to any stew, sauce or casserole you’re preparing on your stove. When your dish is ready, remove the bouquet garni fishing it out from the secured thread: your magic potion is ready to conquer the favour of your guests! “

All the magic lies in these few herbs tied up with a thread of Mistral wind. To make the bouquet more aromatic, you can add also rosemary, sage, fennel, lavender, mint, basil, oregano, lemon or orange peel…

And now you’re ready to let your imagination wonder on the Mistral wings in a swirl of Provençal scents that will leave you breathless as after a run in a mint and wild fennel field. I used my bouquet garni in a Southern France recipe, made with one of the most typical products that I have bought last year, the red rice of the Camargue.

RIZ ROUGE DE CAMARGUE AU FENOUIL CONFIT – CAMARGUE RED RICE WITH FENNEL CONFIT

Chef Michel Vanhoed’s recipe

Ingredienti:

• 2 medium spring onions
• 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 100 g Camargue red rice
• 150 g fresh tomatoes, diced
• 1 bouquet garni (made with 3 stalks of parsley, 2 sprigs of thyme, 1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of wild fennel and 1 spring of fresh oregano)
• 500 ml vegetable broth
• 150 g fennel diced
• salt and pepper

Steps

1. Slice thinly two spring onions and sautée them in a cast iron or thick-bottomed pot with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil until they get soft and golden brown.
2. Pour in the Camargue red rice and stir with a wooden spoon to toast it and enhance the flavour.
3. Add the diced tomatoes and the bouquet garni and cover the rice with hot vegetable stock. Stir quickly and cook for about 50 minutes: the broth is supposed to be completely absorbed now so that the fragrance of the bouquet garni has given a rich depth to the taste of rice.
4. While the rice is cooking, cut the fennel into small cubes and stew it in a pan over low heat with a tablespoon of olive oil for about 20 minutes: make it soft and golden.
5. Add the fennel confit, and season with salt and pepper – I haven’t added salt because the rice was very tasty, having fully absorbed the broth. Cover the pot and let the rice stand 5 minutes before serving.

It is almost unbelievable: a few ingredients and a simple cooking. Yet thanks to a bunch of herbs, the rice comes to life and becomes a white canvas for Mediterranean flavours that tells a story of vine covered pergolas overlooking the sea, sunny afternoons and earthy vegetables still warm from the Provençal sunbeam. Do not give up the fennel confit, it is an essential element in the dish and gives a sweet balance to the savory and crispy rice.

I leave you with some postcard pictures from last year trip.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Riz rouge de Camargue with fennel confit

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I have already told you that in my family there are a few culinary dogmas that have to be met and that characterize our lives since childhood. In addition to the dogma referred to legumes, you have to observe the one about stuffed vegetables, one of the main dishes I truly adore in summer, a dish able to sketch – with vibrant colours and entangling aromas – many evenings spent chatting around a table under a ceiling of olive branches and stars piercing the black velvety sky.

You deeply sense the weight of tradition with stuffed vegetables, of how things should be done, but you can also appreciate the confidence that a combination of ingredients studied and refined through years of tests and trials can give you in the kitchen.

The rules at home are very simple. Stuffed eggplants? No doubt, make them with minced meat and tomatoes, an ever since true statement, as it is true that Christmas falls on December 25 each year. Stuffed zucchini? What a question?! Fill them with tuna and breadcrumbs, a combination that always works and that every summer shows up in the kitchen as fireflies do in the fields. Stuffed tomatoes? Cook them with a fresh cheese and basil, or bake them with a sprinkling of breadcrumbs and capers. Stuffed peppers? Use rice, absolutely rice, a neutral base that can be varied as desired with the addition of some ingredients that give character and flavour to the dish.

These are the rules that give enough self-assurance to those who approach for the first time a recipe, as to lead them to add a touch of creativity to the recipe. Besides the rules, then comes the trial, which grows and gains confidence because it has years of efforts, trials and errors under its belt.

Ingredients (serve 4):

• red or yellow bell peppers, 4
• Parboiled rice, 200 g
• eggs, 2
• grated Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons
• scamorza cheese (kneaded paste cheese), 150 g diced
  
• cooked ham, 1 slice 1 cm thick diced
  
• onion, 1/2
• extra virgin olive oil
  
• organic vegetable stock cube, 1/2
• breadcrumbs
• tomato sauce, 1 tablespoon
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Wash bell peppers and remove the hat. Cook the rice in boiling salted water according to cooking times. Drain and cool it down under running water. Stir the rice into a large bowl with all the ingredients: eggs, Parmesan cheese, diced ham, diced scamorza and if you want a spoonful of tomato sauce to give a shade of colour. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Sautée a finely chopped onion with extra virgine olive oil in a cast iron pan: this material is the best way to cook the peppers as if they were in the oven with an excellent heat diffusion. Place the peppers into the pan, one next to the other, and let them cook for few minutes. Add 1 cup of hot water and the organic vegetable stock cube. Close the lid and cook over medium heat until the pepper is softened: it will take at least 30 to 45 minutes.

When the peppers are cooked through, remove the saucepan from the heat, sprinkle the peppers with breadcrumbs and a dash of olive oil and now put the casserole into the oven (preheated at 180°C) without the lid. Make peppers brown for a few minutes, then remove from oven, garnish with a few leaves of fresh basil and serve, sprinkling the peppers with the cooking liquid.

Tasting test. The winning flavour of the whole recipe is the cooking liquid made of olive oil, vegetable stock and onion, as it is cooked slowly and blends with the flavour of the pepper. When you pour a few tablespoons of cooking liquid over the peppers before serving them, all dormant flavours and aromas awaken and revitalize the plate, making this simple stuffed vegetable one of the most representative recipes of my summer.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Stuffed bell peppers and the weight of traditions

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It took me two weeks, but finally I can show you the Greek dessert I made for my Greek dinner with friends for Valentine’s Day. It was such a long time I wanted to make the rice pudding again, one of my favorite desserts, but I wanted a Greek dessert… I was wrongly convinced that the riz au lait was French until I found the very recipe into the Greek section of the book of Tessa Kiros’ Falling Cloudberries! Perfect I would say, uh?

And allow me a “I still remember when…” moment, I was such a small foodblogger… it has been over a year since I posted the recipe for the rice pudding, it was on February the 11th, and it was my eighth post and I was still taking measures to photos and how to write. Let me show you the recipe again, changing the proportion of ingredients and cooking times according to Tessa’s directions. The result is very exciting!

::::: RICE PUDDING :::::

Ingredients:

• rice, 250 gr (choose a kind of rice that allows to rice grains to become soft, creamy and sticky after cooking)
• wholefat milk, 2lt
• caster sugar, 12 tablespoons (I was supposed to use 3 tablespoons… but I wanted it sweet!)
• vanilla pod, 1 split open

Put the rice in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Boil for 20 minutes, then drain the rice completely. Pour the milk into a saucepan and when it begins to ripple (the milk actually does so) add the rice and then return to the boil.

Lower the heat and let simmer for 20 minutes, add the vanilla pod and sugar and stir often to prevent sticking. Cook for another hour (the recipe calls for 10 minutes, I needed 1 hour more for the milk to absorb and become a creamy pudding).

Make it rest and and cool completely for at least 15 minutes, then serve warm or cold from the fridge.

I thought about serving it with crunchy muesli or a dusting of bitter cocoa, then the idea of a wine reduction, and with the collaboration of Alessandro we made this delicious sauce!

Ingredients for the wine reduction:

• red wine (it was a Tuscan red wine, I cannot say more, unfortunately), 125 ml
• caster sugar, 2 tablespoons
• cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
• bitter cocoa, 1 tablespoon (Alessandro’s touch of genious)

Heat the wine in a non-stick pan and let it simmer slowly, then add sugar, cinnamon and cocoa. Stir with a wooden spoon and let the wine reduce for about 5 minutes until it becomes a viscous and shiny fluid.

Pour a tablespoon of red wine reduction over rice pudding and eat at once: it is really GOOD, it has a hypnotic fragrance and blends perfectly with the creaminess and sweetness of the rice pudding.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

My Greek dinner: rice pudding

You should be interested also in:

1. Mum, could you buy me a rice tartlet? The Italian rice pudding tartlets
2. Light rice pudding
3. My Greek dinner: moussaka

I was so happy to be featured at Our Krazy Kitchen, it is my first time being featured, so I studied a lot to find the right recipe. I could choose sweet and chocolate cakes, roasted meat or colorful side dishes… until I met this rice with Batavian Endive in an Italian Cook Book. Isn’t it amazing?
I think this is what makes a recipe a great recipe: just a few ingredients – good quality ingredients – and a simple cooking procedure. Nothing more, nothing less. Your dish will we delicious and you’ll be able to surprise your guests and have plently of time to chat and laugh with them, without spending hours in the kitchen.

Have a look here and discover a new way to cook a delicious yet light rice.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Rice with Batavian Endive

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As soon as I had the first bite, I was in love. This risotto is not included into the culinary traditions of my family: before last Sunday, nobody had ever heard of it, I must tell the truth!
The first time I tasted it was in the restaurant of a friend, Barbara – she propose it as extra menu dish to give me a try: I was fascinated from the richeness of flavors and from the way the taste of reed tripe was enhanced by the preparation and the rice. I had no idea of the recipe, so when I found myself with leftover reed tripe I tried to figure out a way to make this risotto, but in the end I discovered that my procedure does not differ much from the traditional recipe of Florence, where reed tripe is not only well known, but I would say celebrated, part of the culinary tradition of the city.

Let us see how to recycle the leftover reed tripe, or – changing perspective – how to make a slightly unusual risotto!

Ingredients for 4 people:

• reed tripe, about 500 gr
• celery, 2 stalks
• red onion, 1 (half for the stock and half for the risotto)
• carrots, 1
• ripe tomatoes, 2
• salt
• rice, 400 gr (a creamy rice to make risotto)
• extra virgin olive oil
• Parmesan cheese
• ground black pepper

As you can see, the ingredients are almost the same as last recipe for the making of reed tripe panino. Add all the ingredients in a pot of cold water: reed tripe – previously rinsed – celery, onion, carrot and tomatoes. Add a generous handful of salt.
When the water begins to boil, cook the reed tripe for about an hour, so that it becomes soft and gives all its flavor to the broth.

When an hour has passed, remove the pan from heat and drain well reed tripe, cut it into thin stripes of about 1 cm wide and 5 cm long.
I make risotto with extra virgin olive oil, but you can also follow the tradition and use the butter: cover the bottom of a nonstick skillet with extravirgin olive oil and then sautee the onion, chopped finely. Add reed tripe and rice and stir to toast and flavor the rice. Then cook the rice adding gradually reed tripe broth: remember to stir often, because doing so the rice will release its starch and become much more creamy, without the addition of ‘helping’ tricks!

Once cooked, add a few tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese and mix with conviction and strenght the risotto. Serve with a freshly ground black pepper.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: reed tripe risotto

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3. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: lampredotto sandwich

Telling you about this cake is like opening the door of my house, showing you the fireplace where my grandpa used to stand, with his hands behind is back to warm himself, it’s like offering you a barley coffee in my grandma tin cup. It’s like walking together on the same path I used to follow coming back from school with the rucksack on my shoulders, waving hello to my neighbours as they appeared at the window. It is a simple and sweet cake we make very often, the main ingredient is rice! It’s a foolproof cake, you’ll love it for is hearty and unique flavour.

Mum loves the central part of the cake, coated with melted sugar, I prefer the shortcrust pastry shell instead, crumbly and orange scented. What I’m going to show you is not the canonical procedure to make shortcrust pastry, but this is how we usually make it at home since I can remember. When I make my shortcrust pastry is like watching an old family movie, one of that movies with bright colours and external voices belonging to people that are not here anymore, but who still live in your heart: it is a reassuring mantra and today we’ll make it together!

::::: RICE CAKE :::::

Ingredients:

• rice, 300 gr (use soft sticky cooking rice to make puddings and desserts)
• milk, 1 lt
• a tablespoon of liqueur (use the one you fancy more)
• peel of one lemon
• eggs, 2
• sugar, 5 tablespoons

Shortcrust pastry:

• plain flour, 300 gr
• sugar, 150 gr
• softened butter, 150 gr
• egg, 1
• baking powder, 1 teaspoon
• peel of one orange, grated
• salt, 1 pinch

Firts thing first, let’s make shortcrust pastry. Put the flour on a working surface, make a well in the middle and add sugar, salt, baking powder, grated orange peel and softened butter, diced. Rub all the ingredients with your fingertips and make crumbles. You must be light and rapid!

Beat the egg in a bowl, then add it to the crumbles and keep rubbing the ingredients with tour fingertips until you have a nice and smooth ball of dough. Wrap it in cling film and place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

While the shortcrust is resting in the refrigerator, pour milk in a large pot and bring it to the simmer with a lemon peel. When it starts simmering, add rice and let it cook completely (it will depend on the kind of rice you chose: it must be throughly cooked, soft and sticky). Remove from the heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of sugar. Let it cool down completely.

When the rice is cold, add 2 egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of liqueur as well. Stir well with a wooden spoon until it is well blended. Whip egg whites and fold them softly into the rice mixture.

Roll the pastry out and line a round baking tin (26 – 28 cm wide) with it: roll out the pastry to 5mm of thickness and line bottom and sides of the mould, leaving some extra pastry on the sides. Pour in the rice mixture and fold extra pastry over the mixture. Bake for about 40 minutes in preheated oven to 170°C.

Let it cool down completely and dust with icing sugar to serve.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: rice cake

You should be interested also in:

1. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: chestnut cake
2. Mum, could you buy me a rice tartlet? The Italian rice pudding tartlets
3. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: Prato Cookies

I’m proud to present you the first episode of the cooperation between Juls’ Kitchen – that’s me! – and Mettiamocilatesta.it, a project that will offer you from now on until February some good ideas for your lunch box, something that can feed and satisfy you, paying attention to ingredients’ quality and cooking process simplicity. This is our saying:

EAT QUALITY FOOD, EAT WITH CREATIVITY

Mettiamocilatesta.it – that means more or less use your brain – is a project that stress the mistake in cutting communication budget in this period of general crisis. We decided to cooperate to offer you lunch box of quality, creativity and healthy food! Let’s hit the first recipe!

::::: RICE WITH VEGETABLES :::::

Ingredients:

• Carnaroli rice, 80 – 100 gr
• zucchini, 1 medium
• carrot, 1 medium
• Parmigiano cheese
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• mint or lemon peel

Put a large pot of salted water to boil and add diced zucchini and carrot. When water boils add – after 10 minutes – rice and cook according to packaging instructions. Drain rice and vegetalbe and season with extra virgin olive oil and mint – fresh or dried – or grated lemon peel.

If you have a microwave oven in the office, you can add parmesan cheese and warm your rice at lunch time, bringing your lunch in a colourful Tupperware! If don’t have a microwave, let the rice cool in your lunch box and add parmesan when the rice is cold, then mix again! Your lunch is ready!

All you need now is a colourful tablecloth to cover your desk. You’ll have a balanced lunch: proteins from extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan cheese, vitamins and fibres form vegetables. Beside that, carrots and zucchini will flavour the rice without adding anything else. This is the proof that you can eat quality food if you just use your brain: less time, more quality!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Lunch box

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Here the second episode of my office lunch box. This time, have a look outside my windows, since you already know my computer.
This is one of the most classic omelette, a potato omelette, slightly varied to be more lighter but more satisfying.
As usual, it is made the day before and warmed up in the microwave, and you get a just made omelette! Eat it with a side salad of lattuce and carrots and you’ll have a complete but light meal.

Ingredients:

• medium potatoes, 2
• zucchini, 1
• leek, 1/2
• milk, 50 ml
• extravirgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons
• vinegard, 2 tablespoons
• salt & pepper

Peel and dice potatoes. Dice zucchini too.
Boil them in salted water with 2 tablespoons of vinegard until the vegetables are soft and tender.
Drain and sauté them in a non stick pan with some leek, thinly sliced.
Whisk 2 eggs with salt&pepper and some milk and pour the mixture into the pan to cover the vegetables.
Make the eggs set, then turn upside down the omlette (with the help of a dish if you’re clumsy as am I) and let it set for a minute more. Now it’s ready!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Lunch box, episode 2

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Ingrediens for 4 people:
basmati rice, 300gr
leek, 1 big (white and green parts)
shallot, 1 small
courgette, 1 small
savoy cabbage, 50 gr
egg, 1
cooked ham, 1 thick slice – 100 gr
peas, 100gr
extravirgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons
soy sauce, 3 tablespoons
salt, if necessary

Bring a stockpot of salted water to boil, put the rice in the boiling water and cook according to the indicated time on the packaging.
Slice the leek, the shallots, the courgette, the savoy cabbage and cut the cooked ham in little cubes. Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan or in a wok and add the leek and the schallot finely sliced, then add the cabbage, the cooked ham and the peas (better if already cooked).
Lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the courgette is soft (but still a bit crunchy), adding at the end 3 tablespoons of soy sauce: season with salt only if necessary.
In the meantime, prepare an egg omelette, chop it and add it to the vegetables the wok.
Drain the basmati rice and add to the rest of the ingredients in the wok.
Sauté for a few minutes and serve immediately, drizzled with soy sauce.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Chinese Fried Rice

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