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Mocca, Again!
Wasn't I just talking about how fabulous Mocca is?
Seriously, my favorite seafood salad. Never gets old. Plus, you dine al fresco - makes it even much better!
Racconti di Natale (Italian language)
Nel blog della mia amica Paola trovate quattro Racconti di Natale scritti da me.
Sono inseriti nel post "La corona dell'Avvento: raccontarsi una storia a lume di candela" e verranno anche inseriti in un'apposita sezione del sito
I titoli sono:
"Un albero in casa"
"Nell'abbaino"
"I folletti di Natale"
"Una nave nella neve" Buona lettura!
"Un albero in casa"
"Nell'abbaino"
"I folletti di Natale"
"Una nave nella neve" Buona lettura!
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The Green Agenda
http://twitter.com/thegreenagenda
Kawaii Cute Japanese Ring Pasta With Seafood by SouZouCreations
via etsy.com
This is soooo cute! There is a big plate of pasta with seafood! There is even a fork twirling the pasta!
It is on a silver tone adjustable band that will fit most ring sizes. It measures about 4.5 cm wide and 4.5 cm high.
Lasagna Love
Jason and I picked up his parents from the airport and stopped by Pasta Primavera in Walnut Creek for dinner. I was craving for some lasagna and this one hit the spot.
Bubbling hot with layers of pasta, ground beef, red sauce and cheese. Delicious.Did I ever tell you the first time I had lasagna was in Ireland? It was the best. OK, OK, how can I say it's the best when it was only my first time and had nothing to compare? Seriously, thinking back, the first bite was amazing and I've never forgotten it - even 15+ years later. If only I had the recipe...
Mmmmince
Whenever I feel like whipping up a speedy supper (although speedy is definitely a relative term once I get hold of a pan), I almost inevitably turn to some kind of mince. Cheap, healthy-ish, and pretty hard to get wrong, mince has been a student staple for years. However, gourmet that I am (ahem), I try and steer away from the grey-mince-and-jar-of-gloopy-sauce concoctions that have become a bit of a student stereotype. So in attempt to take my mind off the gloomy weather we’ve been having oop north recently, and also to make a dent in the forest of basil that is currently taking over my windowsill, here is an easy Italian classic. Hope it brightens your day!
(download)(download)
Spaghetti ‘n’ meatballs
Serves 2-4
100g breadcrumbs
1 tbsp grated parmesan
1/2 onion, finely grated
1 egg For the sauce: 3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
a small bunch of basil, stalks finely chopped, leaves set aside
a pinch of dried chilli flakes
400g can chopped tomatoes 75-100g spaghetti per person For the meatballs, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together thoroughly (with hands if possible) and season well. Shape into walnut sized balls (I have no idea how many this should produce - 20?). Heat a glug of olive oil in a large frying pan and brown the meatballs on all sides, 5 mins. Once browned, remove to a plate and set aside. In the same pan, sizzle the garlic, basil stalks and chilli flakes, then add the chopped tomatoes. Once everything is simmering, add the meatballs back to the pan. Cook on a medium-low heat for about 20 mins, until the meatballs are cooked through and the sauce has reduced (note: if the sauce is reducing too much, add a splash of water). Rip the basil leaves over just before serving, and serve with the spaghetti. Buon appetito!
The Sunday Sauce: Scenes from The Soul Kitchen
Back in August I posted about a family tradition: the Sunday Sauce. Each Sunday my old man would make a homemade pasta sauce. There is lots of Italian blood running through both sides of my family. Have a read of that post to find about more about the tradition if you like.
Today is Sunday and I needed the plasma. I cooked up a batch of sauce and took a few snaps. As always, the key ingredient was used: music. Nothing like spending an hour or so making sauce with good rhythms and good blues playing in the background.
I have an iTunes playlist I created that I use as the soundtrack to my cooking; its called, 'Blues With a Feeling". It is a great blend of Blues, Gospel, Country, Soul and R&B...all old, old school. Just the way I like it.
A little bit of garlic, a little bit of oregano, a little bit of Booker T. & the MGs, a little bit of Waylon Jennings and a heathy dose of Bettye Lavette.
Perfect
Click here to download:
the-sunday-sauce-scenes-from-the-soul-kitchen-HABjEphhaybppndrJfAj.zip (16554 KB)
p.s. I made enough for everyone. Come over if you want. Bring wine.
(If you've never heard this Bettye LaVatte song...LISTEN NOW! The Drive-By Truckers are backing her up)
Weeknight Dinner, Part 5
Oh my. I made it. I seriously made it.
I managed to follow a week of dinners without any glitches or spontaneous weeknight dinners with friends. Well, actually, a friend did invite us to dinner and we had to decline. I was committed to finish this personal challenge! The last meal, on Friday night was spaghetti with sweet potatoes and ricotta. This was my least favorite dish out of the entire week. Kind of disappointing, since I wanted to leave with a bang.The pasta was dry, even though I added extra butter and oil into the dish. I was hoping the ricotta would melt more and create some sort of sauce, but nope, it didn't. The flavors of the sweet potato, ricotta and spaghetti were fine, but I personally like more sauce on my pasta dishes. This week, I was able to broaden my (non-existent) culinary skills and try new flavors. I'm quite happy with all the dishes. Out of all the meals, I liked Monday night's the best. It's something I'd usually cook and maybe that's why I liked it the most. The article in Real Simple was actually for a month's worth of easy dinners, so technically, I have three more weeks of this, if I really want to step it up. haha. I'll take it one week at a time, for now. :)
Village life in northern Italy
Pic terrace Baiardo
Baiardo
I found my next placement via the website Idealist.org. It was a placement with ACLE, an organisation that mostly specialises in teaching English to Italian children. However they are also involved in the northern Italian village of Baiardo, situated 20 minutes drive inland from Sanremo, where they are working to restore some of the old houses or ‘rusticas’. ACLE is based in Sanremo and I first went to the office to meet the boss, Arrigo to discuss what I would be doing. I had to show that I was up to date with tetanus shots, my GP provided me with a card before I left home, and had to put in writing for the ACLE files that I would be working at ACLE as a volunteer of my own free will etc. Arrigo said that this was because in Italy the concept of ‘volunteerism’ wasn’t widely embraced and that he needed to be able to prove that I wasn’t there as an illegal immigrant.
My job as a helper was to clean up old stone walls, it was hot work, physically demanding but rather enjoyable as over the two week period I achieved quite a lot and saw the area go from a rubbish dump to a cleared terrace lined by beautiful, if crumbling, dry stone walls.
The personal dynamics at Baiardo were somewhat challenging, mainly due to one particularly difficult character. Most of the people that I met were wonderful but at the time I arrived some were going off in various directions, either because they were a bit fed up, their visas were running out or they had fallen in love and were following their hearts. It made for a very interesting time and I was able to practise my Italian as very few of the locals spoke English. I was also able to travel to nearby Sanremo on at least three occasions.
I recorded my impressions:
Baiardo Monday September 11 (1am)
Beautiful Baiardo – I am forced to speak Italian and a good thing it is too. Baiardo is a very pretty hilltop village with a vista to the Mediterranean, glimpses of the Riviera and the French Alps. Interesting people – quite a mix of ages and nationalities and stories. A few pains in the backside, the biggest being a chancer called Jimmy who is definitely here for a free ride. A Northern Irish girl, Eileen, who speaks with her mouth closed so is very hard to understand, Andy who wants to be an actor but doesn’t want to stray too far from home. Then there’s Max sort of a foreman, his gorgeous son Michele – a great cook, budding musician and apparently also a Buddhist.
Baiardo Wednesday September 12 (12.40am)
More about the people at Baiardo – there’s T who is fortyish, from the US and has a bloke in the next village, she is lovely and is a sort of ‘house mother’. She cleans up after everyone and looks after things although she doesn’t stay here much. Then there is beautiful and intelligent and passionate H – an archaeologist. She is kind and very down to earth.
Dinner at Corso Trattoria
Contemporary Italian food in Downtown Berkeley. Brought to you by the people who brought us Rivoli.
Good eats, for sure.
