Viaggi e Sapori

Nuovo blog // New blog

2011-11-01T15:18:00.001-07:00

I just moved to my new blog here:
blog.sabrinagiacometti.com/

Ciao.

Crema di cavolfiore

2011-10-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

I got the idea for this creamy soup last week when watching the program ”Master Chef Australia” on TV. I made some changes to the original recipe and the result was so good… creamy and smooth! I will have to make this again and again.

CREAMY CAULIFLOWER SOUP

Ingredients: 1 cauliflower, ¼ onion, beef broth, extra-virgin olive oil, 3 Tbsp. cream, salt & pepper.

Take a large sauce pan and put some oil and chopped onion. Fry slowly for about 10 minutes until the onion gets golden color and has softened. Clean the cauliflower and cut it in small pieces. Put the cauliflower into the pan and fry for about 5 minutes, add the beef broth and cook slowly until the cauliflower is soft. Use a blender to make it smooth like a cream, put back to the heat and season with salt and pepper, add the cream and cook for 5 more minutes. The result should be a creamy soup, dense and smooth.

Serve warm with some extra-virgin olive oil on top.

Il mio ultimo raccolto di quest'anno

2011-10-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

My first cherry tomato plant that I bought last May has been so prosperous... I got many small and sweet tomatoes. And in August, when I did not think I could get more... I got many. Here is how I found my little plant after summar holiday: it had grown a lot and become more vigorous and strong then ever and was blooming, in September! Yes, this year it has been one of the best autumn here in Stockholm... so warm and sunny and my little plant made more tomatoes... it is really a Swedish plant!

These green tomatoes in the photo are the last ones for this summer... they were so cute and I did not want to throw them immediately. I was thinking if I could make something but they were really not many... next time maybe I can make a green tomato jam.

Torta con i bianchi d'uovo

2011-10-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have 7 egg whites and I did not know what to do with them... then I remembered about this cake that my mom makes when she has many egg whites... it is very soft and delicious.

I used this recipe "Torta ai bianchi d'uovo di Agnese", it is very easy and perfect. On this link you can also find a table for making this cake with 1 to 10 eggs, all other ingredients are also updated depending of the number of eggs used.

The good part of this cake is that you can decide what flavour to give it... I chose lemon so I used lemon zest in the mixture.

CAKE with EGG WHITES

Ingredients: 7 egg whites, 245 g sugar,

133 g flour, 133 g butter, 1 lemon zest.

Whip the egg whites with the sugar untill

until hard peaks form. Add flour and

mix well. Melt butter and it has cool down,

add it to the egg mixture. Add the lemon

zest at the end. Cook the cake in haten oven

at 160C for about 50 minutes.

This cake is perfect for breakfast or for the afternoon tea!

Gnocchi di patate

2011-10-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

I love gnocchi! In North of Italy, where I come from, potatoes gnocchi are a typical dish.

I seen making gnocchi at home and I have partecipated in making gnocchi since I was a little girl, it is one of those things you do not make yourself but the whole family participate... working in a chain... and having fun.

I remember my grandma was making the gnocchi dough, my aunt was making long small salami, then cutting them in small pieces. My mom, my dad and I (and my brothers and counsins) were helping rolling gnocchi on the back of a Parmigiano grater och a fork, as I did in this case.

And we were then moving the gnocchi onto a clean kitchen towel, all in line, ready to be boiled. It was a lot of fun and one of those memory I will never forget.

Still now when I go home and my mom makes gnocchi, we all help.

Here is the recipe...

POTATOES GNOCCHI
Ingredients (for 4 people): 500 g potatoes, salt, 1 egg,
3 Tbsp flour (or as more if you need).

Boil the potatoes with the skin on. When they are cooked,
take the skin of and press them with a potato press.
Mix with 1 egg, salt and some flour (not too much, you
do not want the gnocchi to taste flour). Make gnocchi and
cook them in salted boiling water until they come up to
the surface, then you can take them out of the water.

When we make gnocchi in my family we also make a very good meat ragù, it is a classic, as "nonna" used to make it. But I also like gnocchi with butter and salvia... just delicious!

Crostata di mele svedese

2011-09-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I made this applepie... a typical Swedish applepie with cinnamon. I was surprised of the result, the pie was delicious and I am not sure why. I think it was the type of apple I used.

I bought the Swedish apple "alice" (Wikipedia: apple Alice), it is a little apple of red and yellow color with white flesh and a very nice flower parfume, the fruit is very sweet and taste delicious. I do not know why but I have never used this apple in baking... what a nice surprice.

Here is the recipe:

SWEDISH APPLEPIE

Ingredients for the pie dough: 300 g flour, 150 g butter, 100 g sugar, 1 egg and 1 pinch of salt.

Ingredients for the filling: 4 apples "alice", 1 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.

Mix flour and butter with your hands and make crumbs, add sugar, egg and salt. Mix and work a little bit, let it rest 20 minutes. Rool the dough out and cover a form of 24 cm diameter.

Wash the apples, take the skin off and cut them in small slices. Add the sugar and the cinnamon, mix well and fill the pie. Bake in warm oven at 180C for 40 min.

I have to go out now and buy more apples... I want to make another pie.

Uovo in camicia

2011-09-18T12:29:00.000-07:00

It might be strange but this is the first time I have tryed to make poached egg... it was not difficult but it took me three eggs to have one perfect poached egg. It was delicious, perfectly soft in the middle.

Here is how I did...

I put water with some vinegar in a pot and brought it to boil, lowered the heat and let it boil slowly. I cracked an egg in a plate. I spinned the boiling water before dropping the egg.

I carefully dropped the egg into the center of the whirlpool and cooked for 3 minutes.

I remove the poached egg with a spoon and put it in a pot with cold water for few minutes to stop the egg from continueing to cook.

Here is my little cherry tomato plant... incredible but after summer, and after I picked all the tomatoes, it continued to grow and made new leaves and flowers. It started blooming again at the end of August and now it is full of small tomatoes again;) This plant is definitely Swedish... it likes the cold Swedish summer.

Let's see if the tomatoes will turn red, I am not sure it will happen because it is already Autumn here in Stockholm and it is quite cold... 14-16 degrees and it is raining a lot. For the moment my cherry tomato plant is still on the balcony.

BUT let's see, I will let you know in the next post.

Tagliatelle fresche all'uovo con prezzemolo

2011-08-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is just a short post to say hi to everybody after summer holiday. I got very inspired during my holidays in Italy to make fresh pasta more often, it was a long time I did no do it.

And I have to say that people from Napoli can really make delicious dishes of fresh pasta with fish and shellfish!

Here is the basic recipe of egg tagliatelle:

200 g flour,

2 eggs,

salt.

to this I also added some fresh parsley, perfect to any sauce with fish.

Couscous con sgombri al forno

2011-07-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight I did not have a clear idea of what I fel to eat... pork maybe. Yes, I will have pork and salad. Then I entered the supermarket, one of my favorite supermarkets and I saw the fish desk, I immediately change my mind. I do not usually come to this place but when I do I cannot avoyed buying fish. They had different fish and mussles but the mackerels caugt my eyes... they looked very fresh and so nice.

No idea yet on how to cook the meckerels... in the oven... yes, I will bake them in the oven with some garlic, parsley and oil... nice, I thought. Then I started thinking of couscous, so I boiled some. When the fish was ready I decided to take the flesh and mix it to the couscous, add some cherry tomatoes, black olives and fresh parsley. And the dish was done... quite improvvised but deliscious!

COUSCOUS WITH OVEN-BACKED MACKEREL

Ingredients (for 2 people): 1 dl couscous (to be cooked in 2 dl boiling water with salt), 2 small mackerels, 1 garlic clove, 8 cherry tomatoes, 8 black olives cut in slices, fresh parsley, extravirgin olive oil, salt.

Put the mackerel on an oven tray, fill it with garlic, fresh parsley and oil, cook it in the oven at 180C for 30 minutes. Prepare the couscous. When the fish is ready take the flesh, in medium pieces, and mix it to the couscous, add cherry tomatoes cut in half, sliced black olives and oil, mix well. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve.

Pasta con zucchine e gamberetti

2011-07-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

I was looking on the Internet for ideas for something to prepare tonight that I am at home alone, a dinner only for me. I like zucchine but I was looking for something different... I found this recipe, I read it very quickly and it sounded very easy and quick so here it is my version.

PASTA WITH ZUCCHINI AND SHRIMPS

Ingredients: zucchini (cut in slices), shrimps (I only had frozen onces but they worked very well here), garlic, fresh parsley, fresh basil, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Heat some oil (quite a lot actually in this recipe) with garlic in a pan over medium heat, add the zucchini and cook for about 15 minutes, until the zucchini are nice and soft. Add salt and pepper. Add the shrimps and mix well. Let cook until part of the liquid is absorbed. In the meanwhile cook pasta in salty boiling water. When pasta is ready, drain it and add it to the zucchini and shrimps, mix well and serve warm.

I think I will make this recipe again next weekend when someone is back home... and let's see if he will like it.

In one of the comments below I got suggested to use some cream... yes, next time I might try that, I am sure it is very good with cream too. But I have to say this dish is already good like it is, the trick is to use a lot of oil!

Resti di pasta sfoglia...

2011-07-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

I am back after a fully-immenrsion weekend in boogie woogie, which was a lot fun! I learned to dans boogie woogie in just 2 days and 7 lessons of 80 minutes each, and today when I got up my legs hurt a lot;) but I had a real good time.

I found my fridge totally empty this morning but I was tired and I did not want to go out... and when you feel like having a dessert, you find the way to use some blackberry jam and puff pastry dough left overs from the friday pie.

I made a last minute puff pastry pie with blackbarry jam, it takes just 10 minutes to prepare: you roll out the puff pastry on floured surface and put it on a buttered oven form. You fill in with some jam (I used blackberry jam). You pre-heat the oven at 180C and bake the puff pastry pie for 20 minutes, you can make small cakes or a big one if you like.

In just half an hour you have a delicious cake for your afternoon break or "merenda" as we call it in Italian.

La raccolta delle fragole

2011-07-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

On the Midsummer weekend, on the way back from the countryside, we stopped by a strawberry field outside Linköping and picked strawberries.

Last year we could not find any strawberry around Stockholm and I was very disappointed... so on the way back to Stockholm we had to stop by a place where I knew we could find many. The period was perfect, the end of June, the beginning of the strawberry season in Sweden. The day was warm and the field was crowded of people and children, I really enjoyed this time in the countryside.

The strawberries we picked in the field were so sweet and perfectly ripe... delicious! It was not a good idea maybe to eat the best strawberries first... all other strawberries we have bought at the market since then were not as good.

And what is the perfect way to eat strawberry... a breakfast smoothie with banana and soya milk.

Il mio orto sul balcone

2011-06-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

It was long time ago I was thinking to dedicate myself to growing herbs and vegetables. I used to have some fresh herbs in my old apartment but they did not seem to like it there at the window and they did not survive long, I also tried to sow some herbs before but it did not work.

Now that I finally have my first balcony I have decided to try it again so in April I bought a lot of new plants, flowers and even seeds. Here are my three pots with fresh herbs, rosemary and thyme that I bougth and the peppermint from China, which I got from a colleague of mine that brougth it with him from China. All three plants like it a lot on my balcony, with its 3 hours of sun in the middle of the day and specially the latest weeks when the temperature was about 28C here in stockholm.

I received my peppermint plant during winter and I kept it inside because we had a lot of snow this year and the temperature was really low, with the dark days up here my little mint was very fragile and it did not look good but when the nice season arrived and I moved it outside to the balcony in a new pot and new soil it began to grow and grow and grow... it looks really good now and it grows so quickly.

I also tried to sow basil again and this time it was a success, I got something like 25 little plants. I am keeping them inside at night and moving them outside when the temperature is over 18C. They are growing very well and they are perfect little presents to give away to family and friends.

And this is my plant of cherry tomatoes, which I bought one months ago. It is still making new tomatoes every day but since the temperature is quite low at the moment I will have to wait a while to have nice and ripe tomatoes for my salad.

Here are my pink and white belargonium, I bought four of them in different kinds of pink and they like it a lot on my balcony, they put out new flowers all the time since two months ago and they drink like crazy;)

I also did not resist and I bought a little lemon plant, it was not that little acually and had 4 gigantic lemons attached... I am just wantering how they did to grow such big lemons on a small plant.

Anyway, all the lemons are gone now but with the right fertilizer my plant has already grown 20 cm on each branch and I can see a lot of new buds and 5 new small green lemons... I am so looking forward to see them turning yellow.

The first plant I bought at the end of winter was this beautiful viola, it is still blooming every day, I just need to remove the dry flowers and it will make immediately new ones. The amount of water this little plant needs is just incredible... I need to water it every day and if the soil gets dry all the flowers will go down, but they will come up as soon as they will receive some water. This is an incredible plant, so resistent to sun, wind and cold temperature (like -5C).

I could not resist one month ago when at the grocery store I saw these plants of alpine strawberry from Italy, I just had to buy them. Sinde then they have beeing growning a lot, putting a lot of flowers and now I can see a lot of strawberries.

I bought two plants, one of them was a bit ahead than the other and already had flowers when I bought so now there are a lot of strawberries, the other one is still blooming and just putting out some strawberries.

I have actually alredy tasted two alpine strawberries last week, they were perfectly ripe and delicious, so sweet and with a nice vanilla taste. The weather has been really nice in the last three weeks and perfect for my plants but now we are back to 18C... typical Swedish sumer;) so it will take a while before the other strawberries will be ready for eating.

This one down here is my mini pink rose, I just bought it the other day and I hope to be able to keep it in good shape, the other time I bought a rose plant few years ago it became really bad after few weeks.

Torta di meringa di Jamie Oliver

2011-06-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

This fantastic meringue cake comes from Jamie Oliver... yes, I follow him on his tv shows. I am not a real fun of meringue, actually since I ate too much once when I was little I cannot really enjoy it now. Anyway, if you are a meringue lover this is the cake for you. Since it was someone special's birthday few weeks ago and he loves meringue I made this cake for him... and yes, he loved it!

I used Jamie's recipe and left out some ingredients that I do not fancy much: the stem ginger and the orange zest.

Here you find the original recipe:

Jamie Oliver's Meringue with Pears, Cream, Toasted Hazelnuts and Chocolate Sauce

Pasta con asparagi, pinoli e feta

2011-06-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

I made this dish few weeks ago in full asparagus season. I saw this recipe at my favorite Italian cooking program "La Prova del Cuoco" and where Anna Moroni showed this pasta dish. Since I had all ingredients I trieded, it is a differnet combination for beeing an Italian pasta but interesting. Well, I have to say the combination is good and this is definitely a past dish I will make again.

In Sweden you still get a lot of asparagus, imported from South of Europe, mainly from Italy and they are getting cheaper and cheaper... I bought 2 more bouchet today too.

Here is the recipe, it is very quick and the ingredients you need are just 3... asparagus, pinuts and feta cheese.

PASTA WITH ASPARAGUS, PINE NUTS and FETA CHEESE

Ingredients: short size pasta, asparagus, feta cheese and extra-virgin olive oil.

Cook the asparagus for 10 minutes in salted boiling water. Take them out (keep the water), cut them in small pieces and put them in a pan with some oil, cook for few minutes. Take the water that you used to cook the asparagus and use it to cook pasta "al dente". Sprinkle some feta on the asparagus. When pasta is cooked mix it to the asparagus and feta. Toast the pine nuts in a pan with some oil and sprinkle them on pasta.

Your dish is now ready... server warm and enjoy!

Pasta con zucchine e panna

2011-05-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite pasta dish and I have learnt it from my mom. I remember when she tried it for the first time (I was about 12) and the whole family got to taste it... everybody loved it. My mom found the recipe on a cooking magazine and decided to give it a try, in our family we did like too many changes in the dishes, we liked the classic dishes she was cooking and did not want to try new things, especially my dad. Now I like to try new food from different part of the world and test new recipes.

This recipe requires very few ingredients but they must be high quality: zucchini, fresh basil, Parmigiano Reggiano and cream. The quantity of each ingredient is up to you and what you like, I usually use a lot of zucchini and little cream, a lot of Parmigiano and basil cut in big pieces, I like to taste the basil in my mouth. For this dish I recommend short size pasta.

PASTA WITH ZUCCHINI AND CREAM

Ingredients: pasta (short size pasta), zucchini, cream, fresh basil, Parmigiano Reggiano, extra-virgin olive oil and salt.

Cut zucchini in thin slices, put it in a pan with oit and cook until soft, add cream, salt and cook for few minutes. When the mixture is ready take away from the heat and add some chopped fresh basil. In the meanwhile cook pasta "al dente", when pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the zucchini and cream, mix well. Sprinkle with grated Parmigiano and server.

In Italiano

PASTA CON ZUCCHINE E PANNA

Ingredienti: pasta corta, zucchine, panna, basilico fresco, Parmigiano Reggiano, olio extra-vergine d'oliva, sale e pepe.

Tagliare le zucchine a rondelle e metterle in una padella con un po' d'olio, far rosolare finché le zucchine non sono di morbide (non devono diventare marroni). Aggiungere la panna e cuocere qualche minuto finché la panna non si è assorbita e la consistenza del sugo è cremosa. A questo punto aggiungere il basilico fresco tritato grossolanamente. Cuocere la pasta e quando è pronta mescolarla alle zucchine e panna. Spolverare con Parmigiano e servire.

Spring has finally come to Sweden too... it was cold and only 5 degrees 2 weeks ago and now it is 25 degrees and summer. It is funny how fast the changes are here in Swede, I am not used to it yet... the season chages in Italy happen slowly and of course each season lasts longer.

Last weekend we were in a nice little Swedish town called Gränna in the Swedish countryside, it was so nice with all the flowers blooming and the trees of a light green color...

Crema di asparagi

2011-05-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

This morning when I walked up it was snowing... in May, can you believe it? I can't... so back into the winter jacket, scarf and gloves. BUT soon spring will come back, I am sure;)

I made this wonderful asparagus soup for dinner, a spring vegetable in a warm and smooth creamy soup. The soup is so creamy and absolutely delicious! This is now one of my favorite cream soups and I was not the only one who liked a lot... someone else loved it this evening at dinner;)!

This recipe comes from one of my friends who has a company and is doing Italian cooking courses here in Stockholm. She always finds/creates fantastic dishes.

Here is the recipe.

CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP

Ingredients for 2 people: 200 g asparagus, 1 medium potato, 1 big shallot, 0.5 dl cream, 0.5 dl white wine, 3 dl water, 1 tsp sugar, butter, extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, fresh herbs (I used parsley, thyme and basil), salt and pepper, grated Pecorino romano.

Clean the shallots and chop them. Put them in a pot with butter and sauté them until they get nice golden color. Add the whine and the sugar, cook for a few minutes untilhalf of the wine has evaporated. Clean the potato and cut it in small pieces, add it into the pot. Add water, cream, salt and pepper and let cook until the poteto is soft. Clean the asparagus ans cut them in small pieces (put the asparagus tops aside) and put them into the soup, cook for about 10 minutes. Chop garlic and fresh herbs. Serve the soup in small bowls with some asparagus tops, mixed of fresh herbs, Pecorino and extra-virgin olive oil on top.

Parmigiana di melanzane

2011-05-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

Today was cold... freezing cold... just +5 degrees outside... this is the weather we found in Stockholm after a summery Easter in Italy with 26 degrees. This past weekend we bought a lot of flowers and put the outside on pur balcony but now it is too cold... my poor flowers and plants had to come inside again... for a while.

I will put soon a picture of my balcony when I can take all my plants and flowers outside again. I bought a plant of cherry tomatoes that I put in the my kitchen fo the moment, the plant has 40 (and I say 40) little green cherry tomatoes, two of them are already turning red!!! I also bought basil, parsley and thyme... but this cold weather was not so good for my pour basil.

I made eggplant Parmigiana tonight and dreaming about real spring and warm weather. The recipe is easy but it might take a while, you need to grill the eggplants first, this is why you can prepare the eggplantds the day before.

And this above is another of my creations with crochet... I am learning and making huge amount of pot holders ;)

Salsa verde light

2011-04-10T02:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made "bollito", which is a typical dish from the Italian region where I come from: Piemonte. "Bollito" means "boiled meat" and I think it is one of the most delicious dishes, specially is accompanied by this sauce "salsa verde", which is also typical from Piemonte. The "green sauce" has a typical sharpness and this adds contrast to the boiled meats making this dish delicious.

The classic recipe of salsa verde contains: parsley, anchovies, garlic,capers, vinager, cooked egg yolks, bread, lemon juice, oil and salt. But yesterday I wanted to make a lighter version so I skipped eggs and bread... very good anyway.

SALSA VERDE light (for boiled meat)

Ingredients for 4 people: 120 g fresh parsley leaves, 2 anchovies filé in oil, 2 Tbsp red wine vinagre, 8 salted capers (wash under water to take away the salt), 1 garlic cloves, 1 lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil and salt.

Mince together the parsley leaves, capers, anchovies and garlic using a sharp knife. Put in a bowl and add vinagre, extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice. Mix well and taste, add salt if needed.

Note: you should keep this sauce in the fridge for some hours, you can also make it the day before.

In Italiano

SALSA VERDE light (per bolliti)

Ingredienti per 4 persone: 120 g foglie di prezzemolo fresco, 2 filetti di acciughe sott'olio, 2 cucchiaio di aceto di vino rosso, 8 capperi sotto sale (vanno lati per togliere il sale), 1 spicchio d'aglio, succo di mezzo limone, olio extra vergine di oliva e sale.

Tritare con coltello o mezzauna il prezzemolo con l'aglio, le acciughe e i capperi. Mescolare bene e mettere in una ciotola. Aggiungere l'aceto e l'olio, mescolare. Aggiungere il succo di limone e mescolare bene. Aggiungere sale se necessario.

Nota: Lasciar riposare per qualche ora, ancora meglio se fatta il giorno prima.

Germogli di Alfa-alfa

2011-04-10T02:03:00.000-07:00

Now that I have entered the sprouts world... I am trying all different kinds that I can find.

Here you can see the alfaalfa sprouts, Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is a flowering plant in the pea family. The alfaalfa seeds are very common and easy to find, and they are really easy to grow, after 3-4 days they are usually ready to eat. Their taste is nice and they are one of my favorite, they are very sweet and taste like fresh peas.

If you, like me, did not know much about alfaalfa, here you can find some more info about them: Alfalfa.

Feta sauce

2011-03-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

I found this recipe on a Swedish magazine... salmon (I like salmon), brown quinoa (I like quinoa too, with its crunchiness and it is very healthy) and feta sauce (I love feta)... it immediately made me very interested so I asked A. to make it for dinner and I just loved it from the first taste.

The recipe is quite simple: it is salmon cooked in a pan and make it crispy on both sides and soft in the middle (I do not like when you cook salmon too much... it gets dry and boring) and boiled quinoa for the salad with red onion cut in small pieces and rucola. I actually eleminated 3 ingredients which I did not think were maching well the rest of the ingredients for the salad: raisins, hazelnuts and sunflower seeds. Instead I added some boiled potatoes cut in small pieces. BUT the top of everything was the feta sauce... just delicious.

The result was really good, I enjoyed every bite, here is the recipe for the feta sauce:

FETA SAUCE
Ingredients: 150 g feta cheese, 2 dl crème
fraiche, 1 garlic clove, black pepper.
ggg.
Blend the feta cheese and the crème fraiche and
make a smooth cream, press the garlic clove and
add it to the sauce. Add some pepper. Mix well
and the sauce is ready.

My suggestion:

I think this feta sauce can mach very well grilled meat or vegetables.
I will definitely try it this summer with the barbecue ;)

________________________________

In Italiano

SALSA CON LA FETA
Ingredienti: 150 g feta, 2 dl crème fraiche, 1 spicchio
d'aglio, pepe nero.
hh
Schiacciare la feta con una forchetta e mescolarla
alla crème fraiche fino ad ottenere una crema
liscia, aggiungere lo spicchio d'aglio spremuto ed
il pepe nero. Mescolare bene e servire.

Carnevale a Venezia 2011: Ottocento - Da senso a Sissi - La città delle donne

2011-03-15T04:58:00.000-07:00

Few weeks ago we went to Venice for the Carnival! I have visited Venice a coupple of times but this was the frst time during Carnival... I saw it on tv many tomes andwished I could go there there sometimes dirign this period of the year... you was fun!

Venezia is a really beautiful city... its very special architecture, which includes so different styles and forms the Venetian style, is just spectacular.

And the sea... the Canal Grande... it is so rich of beautiful building... full of art!

Then you have the beautifula nd big Rialto bridge... always crowded.

And then you have the "maschere" during Carnival... everybody (not only children) are walk around the city dressed up. The theme of this year is "1800".

One of the best part was the market... with all the fresh vegetables and fruit. And those fresh and cleaned artichokes... they are so good.

And the fish market, just at Rialto bridge... this is very special. All fish comes fresh every morning.

Look at those shrimps... they arrived the same mornign at 3 a.m. and they were still moving at 12:00 when I was there... the guy selling them asked meis I wanted to test one raw. Well... "They are still moving" I said, "of course" he answered, I can show you how to do. I really wished I could buy some and take them with me to Sweden!

The face painting was real fun!

And the gondola tour... ;)

The narrow canals and the cute little bridges... every single corner of the city is a full of art.

Pasta con le lenticchie rosse

2011-02-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

This is a very easy to make pasta and absolutely delicious... and you can do it when you do not have anything in your fridge, like me this morning. I only had onion and dried red lentils, and this is what you need to make this dish. Of course you can enrich it with other ingredients if you have them, for example you can had pancetta.

This is a very good pasta dish, even those who do not like lentils, will enjoy this dish... just try.

RED LENTILS PASTA

Ingredients for 2 people: 160 g pasta (short size pasta), 150 g red lentils, 1/2 onion (finely chopped), water, 2 bay leaves, Parmigiano, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

In a pan put the onion and let it get gold color, add the lentils and cook for a couple of minutes. Add now water and cook a medium eat for about 20-30 minutes until the water has absorbed and the lentils are cooked. Cook pasta "al dente" and blend it with the lentils sauce, add some water from pasta and mix well. Serve with grated Parmigiano on top.

In Italiano

PASTA CON LE LENTICCHIEROSSE

Ingradienti per 2 persone: 160 g pasta corta, 150 g lenticchie rosse (sono decorticate e cuociono in poco temo), 1/2 cipolla (tritata), 2 foglie di alloro, Parmigiano, acqua, olio extra vergine di oliva, sale e pepe.

In una padella far soffriggere la cipolla in un po' d'olio. Aggiungere le lenticchie e far tostare per 5 minuti a fuoco alto. Abbassare il fuoco e aggiungere acqua, far cuocere per 20-30 minuti (aggiungendo acqua se servere) finché le lenticchie sono cotte ed hanno assorbito il liquido. Cuocere la pasta al dente e condire con le lenticchie e un po' di acqua di cottura. Spolverare con Parmigiano gratuggiato e servire calda.

Germogli di broccolo

2011-02-06T08:12:00.000-08:00

Here you see my broccoli sprouts... I read a lot about sprouts during Christmas holiday and a new world opened to me... the sprouts world!

I decided to begin with broccoli sprouts, it is very easy to grow sprouts, there are many sites on the Internet where you canfing the procedure, a very good Italian site is http://www.erbaviola.com/2009/12/11/piccola-guida-alla-germogliazione-casalinga-parte-i.htm. After 5 days the sprouts are ready, you can put them in a salad, in a panino or use them when cooking asian dishes.

The broccoli sprouts have a nice and a bit bitter taste of broccoli, this disappears when you eat them with other food. Now that my broccoli sprouts are ready I have put them in glass jar in the fridge and I will eat them during the coming week.

The broccoli sprots are really helthy food, you can find more info regarding the broccoli sprouts on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broccoli_sprouts

Today was cold but a nice sunny day in Stockholm... the ice was melting and it was perfect for a walk around the city near the water.

Pollo allo spumante... per "i giorni della merla"

2011-01-31T13:00:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most delicious chicken recipe I have made and tasted. The recipe comes from my aunt Maria in Italy, while she was listing the ingredients I was thinking... interesting. And when she was describing the recipe I thought... I definitely have to try this. And so I did... I bought a goood spumante this past weekend. I bought a good chicken and planned the recipe, which is very easy to make. At the end you will have the chicken and vegetable swiming in a delicious sauce with such a nice spumante taste.

Chicken is comfort food... and perfect for these days... infact the past 3 days (29-30-31 Jan) in Italy are called "i giorni della merla" and are considered the coldest day of the year... infact it snowed yesterday in my home town... can you believe it? Again!

Spumante is an Italian sparkling wine, which is characterized by the production of foam when you open the bottle. The foam comes from the carbon dioxide present in the wine, this is produced by natural fermentation.

SPUMANTE CHICKEN

(for 4 people)

Ingredients: 1 big chicken cut in pieces, 1 bottle dry spumante, 5 big carrots, 3 selleri stalks, 2 big onions, salt and peppar, 1 garlic clove, extra-virgin olive oil.

In a pan put some oil and sauté the garlic clove until it gets a nice golden color, then remove it from the pan. Add the chicken pieces and brown them on all sides. Add all the vegetable and cook for few minutes until them get brown, then add 1/2 bottle spumante. Cover and cook for about 1 hour. Take the cover off and let the liquid absorb to form a nice dense sauce.

We ate the chicken with a simple salad... it was so good especially if accompanied with the spumante left from cooking.

Pizza... con zucchine e con prosciutto crudo

2011-01-23T07:05:00.000-08:00

Have you made pizza at home? It is very easy and it taste so good... it is perfect for a Saturday at home. I made one pizza divided in two: pizza with zucchine and basil, and pizza with prosciutto crudo.

PIZZA DOUGH

Ingrediends for 4 people: 400 g flour, 25 g yeast, water and salt.

Melt the yeast in water first, add it to a bowl with flour and work to make a smooth dough. Add salt at the end and work for at least 15 minutes. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 2-4 hours in a warm place.

Ingredients for zucchine pizza: tomato sauce in a can, thinly sliced zucchine, fresh basil, mozzarella, extra-virgin olive oil and salt.

Heat the oven at 180C. Roll out the pizza dough, spread the tomato sauce on it, the sliced zucchine and the fresh basil. Put extra-virgin olive oil on top and sprinkle with salt. Cook in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Ingredients for prosciutto crudo: tomato sauce in a can, prosciutto crudo, origano, mozzarella and extra-virgin olive oil.

Heat the oven at 180C. Roll out the pizza dough, spread the tomato sauce on it, the prosciutto, mozzarella and sprinkle with origano. Put extra-virgin olive oil on top and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Minestra di patate e prezzemolo... e la mia prima presina all'uncinetto

2011-01-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

In the last few days the temperature went down again and it has been cold... so during the weekend I made this very good minestra. My mom makes this during winter... but it was a lot time I have not eaten it.

It very a very easy minestra to make, you just need potatoes, onion, fresh parsley and rice. Here is the recipe...

MINESTRA WITH POTATOES AND PARSLEY

Ingredients for 2 people: 3 small potatoes, 1 small onion, fresh parsley, two fistfull of rice, water, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Clean the potatoes and take the skin off, cut them in small piecies and put them in a pot of water. Chop the onion and add them to the water. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 30 minutes (until the potatoes are cooked). Mix everythign with a handblender. Bring to boil again and add the rice, cook until for about 15-20 minutes (until the rice is cooked). When the rice is cooked had the chopped fresh parley and serve with some good extra-virgin olive oil on top.

I also entered the wonderful world och crochet! At the moment I am making pot holders of different colors... just for training... it is fun!

Tagliatelle all'uovo con farina di castagne

2011-01-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

Do you like chestnuts? I do... especially roasted chestnuts but I lile chestnuts cooked in any way. I never tried chestnut tagliatelle but I read a lot about fresh chestnut egg pasta on the Internet and it is a long time that I wanted to try, the only problem... I could not find chestnut flour in Stockolm. Well, since I was at home in Italy for Christmas I bought some chestnut flour. My plan is to use it to make pasta, desserts and much more... we will see.

The recipe for fresh egg pasta is easy, you use 1 egg per 100 g of flour (this is the basic rule for fresh egg pasta) and a pinch of salt.

FRESH CHESTNUT EGG TAGLIATELLE

Ingredients for 2-3 people (2 big portions or 3 normal ones): 100 g wheat flour, 100 g chestnut flour, 2 eggs, 1 pinch of salt.

Mix the two flours and put them on the table together with the fork. Make a well in the center of the flour, lightly beat the eggs and pour the mixture into the well. By using a fork, gradually draw in the flour from the inside wall of the well. Beat gently in a constant direction to prevent air pockets from forming. Use your free hand to protect the outer wall until the wet mixture is well integrated.

When the mixture becomes too stiff to work with a fork, scrape the dough from the fork into the well and continue forming the dough with your hands. Continue working the dough until it gets firm (it can be a bit hard to work but it si ok, continue for a few minutes to get a nice smooth dough). Let the dough rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Take the dough from the fridge and divide it in small balls. By using the heels of your hands flatten the dough ball. Flour a table and roll out the dough by using a "Nonna Papera" (which means "granma duck" and it is how the pasta machine to roll out fresh pasta is know in Italy) to a thin sheet. Using the same machine you can make tagliatelle.

Put the tagliatelle on a flour try, covered with a kitchen towel and let dry for at least two hour. Now your pasta is ready to be cooked in salted boiling water for 2 minutes.

For this pasta I have decided to make a sauce with leeks, "speck" (the Italian salt-cured and smoked ham) and a little bit of cream... and of course Parmigiano on top. It was delicious!

Våfflor - le cialde svedesi... dolci e salate!

2011-01-10T05:51:00.000-08:00

As soon as we came home from the Christmas holiday we had to test our present... the waffles maker. Ours is a big one that makes gigantic waffles! It is electric, non-stick and with a timer. It is a great present.
And by reading at the instructions I realized I can just make anything with it... from waffles, to toast, to chicken or grilled meat...

The first recipe we decided to try was a salt waffle with potatoes and we ate it with spenach and cheese. It was quite good BUT there are many more to test...

With this recipe the waffles gets soft in the middle and crispy on the outside... exactly how I like them.

SALT WAFFLES with potatoes

(8 small waffles or 4 big ones)

Ingredients: 200 g flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt , 75 g melt butter, 3 dl milk, 1 small potato (grated).

Mix all ingredients (except the potato) and prepare the batter, let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. After 30 minutes add the grated potato to batter and make the waffles with the waffle maker.

And then we also tried the sweet waffles, which are my favorite. They came out perfect... they are so good with a bit of vanilla taste. We had them with whipped cream and strawberry jam.

SWEET WAFFLES

(8 small waffles or 4 big ones)

Ingredients: 200 g flour, 75 g sugar, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp vanilla sugar, 75 g melt butter, 3 dl milk.

Mix all ingredients and prepare the batter, let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. After 30 minutes you can make the waffles with the waffle maker.

Kanelbullar (dolci svedesi alla cannella)

2010-12-27T01:44:00.000-08:00

And because there were not enough sweets and cakes in the last couple of days... my brother wanted to make kanelbullar, the typical Swedish cinnamon buns.

We made small mono-portion kanelbullar... really cute ones. They were really good! And here is the recipe...

KANELBULLAR (Swedish cinnamon buns)

Ingredients for the dough: 500 g flour, 2,5 dl milk, 75 g butter, 45 g sugar, 25 g yeast, pinch of salt, 1 Tbsp cardamom.

Ingredients for the filling: butter, cinnamon and sugar.

Ingredients for the topping: egg, pearl sugar.

Melt butter, add milk and warm up a bit. Add the yeast and let it melt. Add sugar, salt and cardamom, mix well. Add flour and work for at least 15 minutes.

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough in a rectangle, spread butter on it and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Roll it and cut in 3cm high pieces.

Put kanelbullar in an oven form and let them rest for 40 minutes.

Brush the kanelbullar with egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Bake in heaten oven at 250°C for 8-10 minutes.

Rotolo di Budapest (dolce svedese)

2010-12-17T07:20:00.000-08:00

Every day I discover a new Svedish recipe that I like... it happened like this for this cake. I normally do not like meringue, I never did BUT I loved this cake form the first bite.

Few weeks ago a colleague of mine bought a "Budapest roll" at a bakery and took it to work... I did not know what it was made off... so I tasted and loved it. Then I realized it could have been meringue... no, I thought... it cannot be... I do not like meringue! But it was meringue flavored with hazelnuts, it was delicious. This cake is very easy to make and super quick... it takes 30-40 minutes total.

I went on the Internet to look for the recipe and I found so many, then I asked at work and one of my colleague told me her mom makes the best Budapest roll so she promised me the recipe. And she was right... the result was a delicious Budapest roll.

Here the recipe from my colleague's mom Eva-Britt.

BUDAPEST ROLL
Ingredients for the roll: 6 egg whites, 3 dl sugar, 100 g hazelnuts (crushed in medium-small size pieces), 1/3 vanilla pod.
Ingredients for the filling: 3 dl cream (whipped), preserved clementine slices.
Ingredients for the decoration: dark chocolate (optional).

Whip the egg whites with the sugar to hard peacks. Add the seeds from the vanilla pod and the crushed hazelnuts. Mix well and spread on a rectangular cake-form covered with baking paper. Bake for 20 minutes at 175C.Take a baking paper and sprinkle sugar on it. Take the cake out of the oven and put it upside-down on the baking pater with sugar. Let cool down.
Whip the cream to stiff peaks and spread it on the cake. Take the preserved clementine slices, dry them with paper and sprinkle onto the cream. Now it is time to roll the cake. You can also melt some chocolate and pour it ontop of the cake if you like (I skipped this).

If you are a fun of meringue you are going to love this cake, and even if you are not.

LUSSEKATT con pasta madre (brioche svedesi allo zafferano tipiche di Santa Lucia)

2010-12-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

This is the second year in a row that I make "Lussekatt" ("Cat of Saint Lucy", called like this because of their form), these are typical Swedish saffron buns that appear every year on Saint Lucy's day (13th December) here in Sweden. I personally like a lot these buns, they are not too sweet and they have a nice saffron taste and 2 raisins in it.

The recipe I used is the one with "sourdough" that I found last year on a blog of a Swedish girl... since I started again my sourdough last October I am decised to use it as much as I possibly can. So after last year test of this recipe, which gave me a perfect result and fantastic soft lussekatt, I have used it again and wrote it on my secret recipe book with the indent to use it every year.

LUSSEKATT with sourdough

Ingredients for the dough: 850 g flour, 50 g sourdough, 5 dl milk, 150 g butter, 1 dl zucchero, 1 pinch salt, 2 g saffron.
Ingredients for the decoration: egg+cream, raisins.

Preparation of the dough the evening before:
Mix first milk with saffron, add all other ingredients one at a time. Mix well and work the dough at least 20 minutes. Let the dough rest in a covered bowl over night (for about 10 hours).

The morning after:

In the meanwhile form the lussekatt and put 2 raisins on each lussekatt. Let rest covered for 1 hour. Warm up the oven at 225ºC. Brush with egg+cream mixture and bake for 8-10 minutes in oven at 225ºC until they get a nice golden/brown color. Let them cool down before eating.

With this recipe I made 30 lussekatt. I kept some outside to eat during the day and I put the rest in the frizer... every time I feel like I want a lussekatt I can just take it out and let it defrost at room-temperature. They are delicious even after defrost!

Torta di noci

2010-11-28T09:41:00.000-08:00

Outside is snowing a lot... and it is -9°C. Yes, it is cold but if you have the right equipment it is ok. The city has been dressed up with Christms decorations and Christmas markets have opened... a lot of music and many people around. I have also decorated my apartment with Christmas decoration... it is so nice!

This cake is definitely a winter cake. If you like walnuts you are going to like this cake... it is delicious! I made it yesterday and today I only have half left. The recipe is very easy and quick to make.

WALNUT CAKE

Ingredients for the cake: 300 g flour, 300 g butter, 300 g sugar, 3 eggs, 8 g baking powder.

Ingredients for the filling: 2 eggs, 150 g sugar, 100 g walnuts (without shell).

Heat the oven at 180°C. Mix well all the ingredients for the cake. Mix all ingredients for the filling. Take a cake form (24 cm diameter) and pour half of the cake mixture, pour the filling over that and on top the rest of the cake mixture. Bake the cake in over at 180°C for about 1 hour.

Torta al cioccolato dal cuore tenero

2010-11-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

This chocolate cake is super easy and quick to make... and it always comes out perfect! It is also very good. What you need is very good dark chocolate 70%-75%, in this cake there is no flour so it is a good recipe for all people that have gluten intolerance.

The name of this cake "cuore tenero" in Italian means "tender heart", which refers to the fact that this cake a crusty top and a soft, smooth and moist center...

CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH SOFT CENTER - Gluten free
Ingredients: 200 g dark chocolate 75%, 100 g butter, 5 eggs, 100 g sugar.

Preheat oven at 200°C. Melt chocolate "bagno Maria". Melt butter in a pot and mix it to the chocolate. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and add to them the chocolate and butter mixture. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and add it to the rest, blend very carefully. Put everything in a cake form 24 cm diameter. Cook in oven at 200°C for 5 minutes and 30 minutes at 180°C.

Serve the cake completely cold and sprinkled with icing sugar.

Wok di manzo e verdure miste

2010-11-11T11:18:00.000-08:00

This is a very quick dish... it takes less then 20 minutes to make and it has a lot of different variations yan make. Since I have been to China and Singapore I have began to love Asian food, my favorite dishes are Xiaolongbao, delicious dumplings from Shanghai, all sorts of noodles and noodle soups that I tested in Singapore were so good. Another dish I love is Chicken rice from Singapore and the chili and pepper crabs. Chicken cooked with green tea that I had in Hangzhou last year was wonderful... well I could go on and on and on... I tasted so good food in China and Singapore.

One of the dishes I like is the wok... is so quick to make and you can use whatever you like. In my case I used beef, baby sweet corn, broccoli and carrots. You can use shrimps instead of beef or pork or chicken. I also used some fresh ginger to give a nice flavor, garlic of course and soy sauce. The good thing about a wok is that you can really make a big amounts in few minutes... and I had my perfect and delicious packet lunch ready for the day after.

My favorite rice is Jasmine rice... with its nice of Jasmine... I could eat it just like that, boiled and nothing with it. And with the rice-cooker (which I like a lot) the rice gets just perfect and is ketp warm until it is time to serve...

BEEF AND MIXED VEGETABLE WOK

Ingrediends (for 4 p.): 500 g beef cut in into thin slices, a mix of vegetables that you like (I used baby sweet corn, broccoli, carrots), fresh ginger, 1 garlic clovelight soy sauce, dark mushroom soy sauce, oil.

Marinate the beef with light soy sauce for 10 minutes. Heat the wok and add some oil, garlic clve and fresh ginger cut in small pieces. When the garlic is golden color had some light soy sauce. Add the beef now, stir to separate the pieces and for about 5 minutes (high heat). Add now all the vegetables and cook for about 10 minutes. Add some more light soy sauce and at the end some dark mushroom soy sauce to give it more color.

Server hot with boiled Jasmine rice.

Risotto alla zucca

2010-10-31T07:38:00.000-07:00

A perfect autumn dish definitely includes pumpkin as ingrediends... the season is now for pumpkin. I cooked my pumkpin into the oven 2 days ago with the intention of doing biscuits, I even looked up on the Internet for some recipes. Well, I postponed and postponed during the weekend and then today I changed my mind and felt for a warm autumn risotto, and what is more perfect for that then pumpkin.

PUMPKIN RISOTTO
Ingrediends (for 4 p.): 100 g risotto, 250 g cooked pumpkin, fresh rosemary, 1/2 onion, extra-virgin olive oil, butter, Parmigiano Reggiano.

In a medium-size heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute until softened. Add the diced pumpkin and rosemary and cook for 5 minutes. Add the rice and continue to stir, using a wooden spoon, let the rice toast for 5 minutes at high heat. At this point ycan add some chicken stock and stir once, allow the rice to absorb the liquid. Add more stock and repeat this operation until the rice is cooked. Add a little bit of butter and cover for 5 minutes. Serve sprinkled with Parmigiano Reggiano.

I like taking a walk near the water and walking on the leaves that have already fallen to the ground... it is almost winter here. The first snow arrived one week ago... but did not stay. It was ages the snow did not arrive so early here in Stockholm.

As you can see there still are beautiful colors on the tries... I like those trees with golden yellow leaves or the other ones with bright red leaves... and what about those tries that have all the ranges of colors... from green to red to orange to brown and yellow... beautiful!

Spaghetti con pane e acciughe

2010-10-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

This is a very easy dish that you can make it when you have nothing at home... and today it is exactly like this for me... my fridge is totally empty.

I was looking at "La Prova del Cuoco" on RAI1 when Antonella Clerici mae this pasta, which came up perfect for me. She took out some basic ingredients that everybody has at home: Pasta, Anchovies, Bread Crumbs and Lemon. Well, I did not even have the lemon but tried this pasta anyway and it was not so bad... but next time I will try with the lemon.

SPAGHETTI WITH ANCHOVIES AND BREAD CRUMBS

Ingredients (for 2 p.): 160 g spaghetti, 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, 3Tbsp bread crumbs, 3 anchovies, 1 lemon.

While pasta is cooking in salty boiling water, put the oil and the bread crumbs in a pan and toast it. Add lemon zest at the end. In another pan put some oil and the anchovies, let them melt and add lemon juice.

When pasta is cooked mix it to the anchovies and lemon and sprinkle the bread crumbs on top.

Crostata con confettura di albicocche

2010-10-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

Here is the family pie filled with jam. It is very easy and in just 1 hour you will have a delicious pie! I like it with apricot jam but you can put any filling you like.

APRICOT JAM PIE

Ingredients for the dough: 300 g flour, 150 g butter, 100 g sugar, 2 eggs, lemon zest.

Ingredients for the filling: apricot jam.

Mix together all ingredients for the dough and work well BUT not too long to make a smooth dough. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.

Heat the over at 180C. Take a pie form and cover with the dough (leave some for the decoration), fill it with apricot jam and decorate on top with the dough left. Cook in oven at 180C for about 30-40 minutes.

This is actually more like a summer cake.

Cottage Pie - Tortino inglese di carne tritata e patate

2010-10-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

This is what we ate tonigth... a delicious dish... a cottage pie.
I had a mountain of potatoes in the kitchen and mince meat so this is the first dish I thought of cooking- Last time I made it the potato puree was too thick... but this time it was just perfect.

The recipe is very easy and I will post it soon.

Kanelbullar - Brioches svedesi alla cannella

2010-10-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today, 4th October, in Sweden is the "Kanelbulle" day... everywhere around the city, in any bakery or café you can find kanelbullar, you could even ordered kanelbullar in advance. If you like cinnamon you are going to like this... "kanelbulle" in fact means "cinnamon bun" in Swedish.

I was thinking of kanelbullar the whole day... and I decided to make them this evening. The recipe is very easy, you just need some time and patience. I found the recipe on the Internet and modified a bit...

The result was perfect... I really got good kanelbullar, soft and moist. They are perfect to eat with afternoon tea... or for breakfast "Italian style".

KANELBULLAR
(for 40 small kanelbullar)

Ingredients for the dough: 8 dl flour, 25 g yeast, 75 g butter, 2 1/2 dl milk, 1/2 sugar, 1 pinch salt.
Ingredients for the filling: 100 g butter, 1 dl sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon.

Ingredients for brushing: 1 egg, sugar.

Cut the yeast in small pieces in a big ball. Melt the butter and then add the milk, put on the heat (just warm this up, do not boil). Put the milk with butter in the ball and stir gently to melt the yeast. Add salt and sugar. Mix well and work the dough for at least 15 minutes. Put the dough aside and let rest covered for 1 hour.

Prepare the filling: mix all ingredients until you get a nice soft cream.

Take the dough now and roll it out on a floured surface (make a rectangulare). Spread the filling on the dough and roll it. Cut about 1 ½ cm thick slices and put them on a bulle form. Let them rest for about 30 minutes.

Bring the oven to 200. Brush each kanelbulle with the egg and sprinkle with some sugar. Bake on oven at 200C for about 15 minutes.

Istria... bellissima regione della Croazia

2010-10-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

I am back after two weeks of pure relax in Istria... beautiful peninsula in Croatia. What a wonderful holiday... sleeping, eating and swimming for 2 entire weeks.

We were on the East side of Istria peninsula, in the little town of Lovran (called "Laurana" in Italia), a beautiful place. Here you have the mountains that go down into the sea... so if you like the mountains you can do a lot of excurtions by walk or by bicycle. And if you wan to spend your time near the sea, you can find a lot of platforms where to swim or you can take a boat and go to see some of the island in the archipelago, as we did one day.

The food is just delicious, fish, shellfish and more fish. I thought I was going to get bored of eating out to restaurants every evening for two weeks... but I was wrong! I ate fish every day and never got bored. First I can tell you there are a lot of different kinds of fish in the Mediterraneous... so you can try a different one every day, then there were scampi (my absolute favorite) and calamari, octopus and mussles... The fish was cooked at the barbecue maily... so good. The scampi were made at the barbecue or "Buzzara" stuyle (with tomato sauce) and this was my favorite. Calamari were grilled, "Buzzara" style or fried (very good).

You could also find meat, grilled meat and the most typical dish as called "cevapcici" (see picture above), they are Istrian "polpette"... really good ones.

There was also a vegetable I fel in love there and I had almost every day... it is called "bietola" in Italian and "Swiss Chard" in English. So good with potatoes and some garlic and extra-virgin olive oil.

Lovran is a nice and quite town where you can really find relax... the old time has some antique building that are really nice preserved.

In this area you can fin a lot of olive trees... you can find very good extra-virgin olive oil here.

The "lungomare" from Lovran to Opatjia (called "Abbazia" in Italian) is a nice walk... there is a pathc that goes between these two towns the whole way on the sea-side.

The vinyards are may and you can find very good wines in this region, especially white wine. So when you go to the restaurant try the local wine and you will be surprised how goo that is.

Pasta con i broccoli

2010-09-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time ago since we had pasta with broccoli... which is maily a winter dish. This is a very easy dish to make and it is delicious.

PASTA WITH BROCCOLI

Ingredients (for 2 p.): 180 g pasta (short size), 1 head fresh broccoli (cut into florets), 1 clove garlic, 2 anchovis (in a jar under oil), salt and extra virgin olive oil.

In a large pot of boiling water, cook broccoli until soft. Drain them and keep the water aside. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Saute garlic until lightly golden, being careful not to burn it. Add anchovis and let melt. Add the broccoli. Saute, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. I like broccoli to be soft (this is only my taste). Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water (the one you used for broccoli). Drain, and place in a large serving bowl. Toss with the broccoli.

For this pasta you do not need any Parmigiano, you have the anchovies that give the dish saltiness and accentuate the flavor of broccoli.

And with this I say "See you soon! We are going on holiday...

Pasta al forno

2010-09-05T04:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight I just wanted to test my new oven... pasta al forno was the choice, easy and so good... a real confort food. Who does not like pasta with meat, tomatoes, besciamella and lots of cheese, so creamy and at the same time crispy on top... We like it a lot and ate 2 portions (someone 3)!

I think this is a perfect dish to make when you have lots of guests or, like me, if you want to prepare many packed lunches to bring to work.

PASTA AL FORNO

Ingredients (for 4 p.): 360g pasta (short size, I used penne), Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, besciamella, mince meat, tomato sauce in a can, salt & peppar, extra-virgin olive oil, rosemary, bay leaves, cheese (mozzarella is the best), onion (diced), celey (diced), carrot (diced), red wine.

Prepare the ragú: start cooking the onion with celery and carrot in oil. Cook until the onion starts turning brown. Stir in the minced meat, after the meat juices evaporate, add the wine (I did not have this so I skipped it). Stir and let the wine evaporate. Now you can add the tomatoes sauce and some water, bay leaves and rosemary. Stir well, lower the heat and let it simmer covered for at least 1 hour (better if 2-3 hours or more).

Cook pasta for 5 minutes, drain it and mix it to the ragú. Take a big oven tray and put some pasta on the bottom, add some beciamella, mozzarella and Parmiginao and mix. Do like this several layers. Put on top some besciamella and lots of Parmigiano. Put in the oven for 20 minutes until you see a nice golden pasta gratin.

It is so nice to look into the oven while pasta gratin is getting brown and crispy on top...

Involtini di vitello

2010-09-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

This is a family recipe, my mom has made involtini "this way" since I was little. "Involtini" means "meat rolls" and they can be filled with whatever you like.

This recipe is very easy and one of the few recipe where I get to use sage, one herb that I do not use much. I still have some sage left in the frizer, it is from our garden in Italy... it has such a strong taste and smell, I really need to use few leaves to give my dishes a very nice taste. Unfortunaly you cannot find good sage here in Sweden... it usually is very mild... so you end up putting more and more but the result does not taste much.

This recipe is for 3 people, I usually try to make more food in the evening so we can bring it with us the day after for lunch... somehow I always make too little... or maybe it is because we eat too much in the evening:)

VEAL INVOLTINI

Ingredients: 6 big veal cutlets (very thinly sliced), sage leaves, thinly sliced prosciutto crudo (dry-cured ham), Fontina cheese (cut in small cubes), extra-virgin olive oil.

Cut each veal slice in two pieces. Take the first topside slice of veal and put it onto a working surface, put 2 leaves sage on top. Put one slice of prosciutto crudo and some pieces of cheese. Now you can roll the veal and make small packages. Tie the roll with a piece of string, this will keep the roll together during the cooking. Repeat the procedure for all 6 invorlini. Take a sauté pan, put the oil in it and heat it (medium/high heat). Put the involtini in the pan and cook until golden brown, you can add some water (if you have some white wine, this is the perfect moment to add it).

This is my recipe for veal involtini, I hope you like it.

Cucina nuova

2010-08-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

We just moved to the new apartment... so big and so beutiful. The kitchen is huge and really nice... soon... as soon as I have all my cooking tools back in place (12 boxes to empty only with kitchen stuff) I will cook and post something special to celebrate the moving in.

Ciao.

Bigné ripieni di crema pasticcera

2010-08-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

For my first post of my new reopened blog I chose the "bigné" as we call it in Italian, filled with vanilla cream... they are so good!

This is also the first time I have tried to make bigné... the recipe is very easy but you have to be careful with few things otherwise you will happen to through away all of your bigné... as it happened to me. My mistake was that I took the bigné out of the oven to early, I thought they were ready, they became so big and looked so good, BUT they actually were not ready... in fact they were not completely cooked inside so when I took them out of the oven they collapsed and I ended up with nice flat disks instead of fluffy puffs.

SO I had to begin from the beginning... and this time it was a real success!

CHOUX PASTRY (for bigné)

Ingredients (for 8 pieces): 125 g flour, 125 g water, 50 g butter, 3 eggs.

Filling: vanilla cream.

Place butter and water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and, with a wooden spoon, quickly add the flour. Return to heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball (about 5 minutes). Once the dough is lukewarm start adding one egg at a time and mix until you have a smooth thick paste. Spoon 8 bigné with the dough onto the baking sheet. Bake into ovet at 200C for about 15 minutes, until they get a nice golden color.

When the bigné are cold you can filled them with vanilla cream or anything you like... Nutella, whipped cream, etc...

Reopening...

2010-08-27T03:57:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I closed this blog some months ago because I did have much time to update it BUT I missed it.
SO here I am... opening this blog again with new recipes and new inspirations and a brand new kitchen.

My first post will be about "bigné alla crema pasticcera" (or "Bigné filled with vanilla cream")...