Baking, Eaten out

First time in Trentino and some exceptionally good sourdough.

Leave a comment

Heatwave. Not just in Italy, across Europe. Even in Poland they are baking. And speaking of baking; I’m sure the temperaure helps, but the bread I’ve been making lately has been particularly good. I use the same recipe and method from Food Language, leave the loaf in the fridge overnight and bake it in the morning, before even turning on the coffee machine. The one last week looked great, tasted divine, also the day after, toasted, with mandarine marmalade.

This morning I was up at 6.30, went out to water everything, enjoyed an hour or so of a nice, fresh Tuscan air free of flies and mosquitoes at this hour, then proceeded to bake the loaf I had started yesterday. This one had some toasted sunflower seeds. With stracciatella, tomatoes, sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil it is just perfect.

Last week we’ve popped out for a little break to check out Lake Garda. We got to see a bit of Emilia Romagna, Lombardia, Trentino and even Veneto. I wanted to taste some of that German-Italian food in Trentino and I did. Followed Makล‚owicz’s footsteps to Cantina Agraria in Riva del Garda, tried trentigrana- excellent cheese.

Tried carne salada, one of the nicest meals I had in quite a disappointing food scene in Limone sul Garda; disappointing especially service wise, I appreciate the fact it was very hot, but the staff everywhere did absolute minimum. Nobody told them about upselling, we often fancied a dessert after the meal, but as nobody bothered properly clearing the table, let alone offering some dessert, so we often paid and left. In Limone, their lemon sorbet was fantastic, served in frozen lemons, expensive, at 6,50 euro a pop, but delicious.

On Sunday we drove to beautiful Malcesine and took the funivia to Monte Baldo, where we’ve had a surprisingly delicious lunch (mine were ribs, polenta and funghi), the service was impeccable, for a change.

Enjoyable, Trentino, loved coming back home though. ๐Ÿ™‚

Baking

Summery citrus cake with apricots.

Leave a comment

An exceptionally well turned out cake, which I’ve made yesterday. Hot days are upon us, so baking in the kitchen is quite nice and cool in comparison with 33 degrees outside. ๐Ÿ™‚

I used one of my favourite lemon pound cake recipes for this, only lemon juice got replaced with yuzu, which I still have a small bottle of. 110 g of soft butter got creamed with 160 g of sugar and vanilla sugar, plus zest of the whole lemon. To this, one by one, 2 whole eggs. 2 tbsps of olive oil. 30 ml of yuzu juice. 185g of plain flour, plus 1 tsp of baking powder and a pinch of salt. 120 ml of milk. All gently combined, not overmixed, into the lined tray. Quartered apricots and a handful of blueberries on top. Baked in 160 degrees for about 45 minutes. Once baked, glazed with yuzu glaze. Half of it went to Casa Del Debbio and was very enthustastically received. ๐Ÿ™‚

Made in Torcigliano

Pierogi con cinghiale.

Leave a comment

Poland meets Italia on the plate. Last Sunday we had Festa di Polpo again, in the same delightful company of LauDe and the neighbours. Nadia brought some delicious, tender chunks of wild boar, simply cooked, I made 3 contorni to go with it, but we had some of that meat left, so yesterday I decided to stuff it into pierogi. I cooked down some onions, carrots and zucchini first, a handful of porcini too, before adding the boar, then blitzed it altogether, but not into a baby food consistency, a bit more roughly. Made a solid portion of pierogi, a portion of which I had taken over to Nadia and Cri’s to taste. The message that came later that evening confirmed that there is enthusiasm for Polish cuisine in Torcigliano. Pierogi were enjoyed at Casa Del Debbio. Shame I can’t offer them any of the ruskie ones, as Nadia has lactose intolerance.

Uncategorized

Yuzu pannacotta 2026.

Leave a comment

I ordered a bottle of yuzu juice from Amazon. Eyewatering 30 euro for a 200ml bottle, but it brought so many great memories. And when I looked up the recipe here and found we were making it in Dinings 15 (!!!!!) years ago, I was aghast. This evening we had some Asian food, the side of broccoli dressed with yuzu ponzu ( soooo good), but then I had to make the pannacotta. With an Italian cream. There doesn’t seem to be much choice in Italian shops in terms of cream, there is panna, no double or single one like in the UK, so I hope the recipe works, I skipped the milk altogether. Slightly reduced the sugar too, I can quite believe that 15 years ago 120g of sugar didn’t even make me wink, now it does, so with 350 ml of cream, about 90g of sugar, some of it vanilla sugar, about 60ml of yuzu juice, 2,5 gelatine leaves. I should maybe wait for tomorrow to see how they turned out, before I blog them, but hey, they only just went to the fridge.

So, to be continued.

…And on Friday evening; tastes excellent, not sickly sweet, but a bit too set, I guess the addition of citrus juice messes up the gelatine a bit.

Uncategorized

Ossobuco. Debut.

Leave a comment

We went to Siena last weekend with the Swedes. On Saturday evening we dined in Taverna di San Giuseppe, a place with great reviews, a queue outside of the door and a sign saying- we are full, piss off, don’t bother. Expectations were very high, but we were not blown away. Daniel and I went for ossobuco, which left us both quite disappointed. I never cooked it before, but when eating it I thought- I can do it better. For sure. And yesterday in Esselunga I came across some veal ossobuco, grabbed them off the shelf immediately and cooked them today, having first consulted Luca Pappagallo and Max Mariola.

I seasoned them first with salt and pepper, then dusted them in flour, before browning them off on olive oil and butter. Some soffritto was ready and chopped, added to the meat, then a glass of white wine, after a few minutes some beef stock, lid on and it cooked on medium heat for nearly 2 hours, much longer than both chefs suggested. I wanted mine falling off that bone, in the Taverna I had wanted my veal softer.

When I was happy with the cooking, the potato puree was ready, I made a little finishing touch, as suggested on youtube, finely chopped rosemary, parsley and lemon rind, all sprinkled on the meat before serving.

Served with mash, broccoli and some decent red, the family said they liked it, I rather did too, but I’m thinking I’d give it a sauce, a ballsy, big sauce, maybe roasted tomato/pepper thing, maybe even some olives, not sure how authentic it would have become…

Not said the last word on ossobuco yet.

It tasted and looked much better than on the photo. :-/

Uncategorized

Spaghetti alla Nerano.

Leave a comment

Inspired by Stanley Tucci’s delightful book “Taste” that I have finished reading last night. Swifly moved on to his “What I ate in one year”, which so far doesn’t contain any recipes, but is still a great read.

I’ve made the spaghetti for lunch today. Never had it before, so can’t compare it to anything, but I love the idea of its simplicity and I love courgettes, so I had a go. Without provolone, which I had none of, but will get a piece when I come across it next time, for science and research, of course.

I started by thinly slicing 4 small courgettes, Stanley reckons the smaller the better, on a mandoline, deep fried them in olive oil in batches, while the spaghetti was cooking for about half of the recommended time on the packet. One of the chefs on youtube suggested that if one had no provolone, one could just chuck a knob of butter onto the olive oil and don’t be shy on the parmiggiano, I did both. A chopped clove of garlic, a few chopped basil leaves onto the butter/olive oil mixture, then most of the deep fried courgettes, before the pasta goes in, straight from the water. I kept adding more and more of the pasta water to finish cooking the spaghetti, then a bit of salt, but not too much, as I salted the courgettes once I fried them. Parmiggiano in, quite a lot, black pepper. When on the plate, I added the remaining fried courgettes.

From what I understand the sauce could have been more creamy, if one had the provolone, but I was very tempted to add a sprinkling of chili flakes in there, I still might next time.

It was a nice plate of pasta, not a spectacular one, but will be made again.

Baking

Banana and chocolate chip loaf.

Leave a comment

Molly’s recipe, which she shared with me last Sunday. I took a photo of her recipe card, handwritten, with American measures like cups etc. As I sat down yesterday to decipher it with the help of Google, Florek came along and asked- whatcha doin? Looked across my arm, took the laptop out of my hands and swifty employed Chat GPT to do the job. Gave it the photos of Molly’s recipe cards. It swiftly translated all the cups and “8 tbsps of butter” into grams for me, but then also simplified the baking method, the way I like it; instead of a 2 long sentence brag “combine all purpose flour, baking soda, cocoa ” etc before adding to the creamed butter and sugar combo, it served me with quick and efficient step by step instructions, which I much prefer. I really was impressed by what AI can do these days, but as Florek says, I ain’t seen nothing yet.

And so, on a wet and rainy Tuesday morning I decided to make the loaf. I used 250g of over ripe mashed bananas, 120 g of sour cream. 120g of plain flour, 1 tsp of baking soda, a pinch of salt, 2 tbsps of cocoa. 100g of sugar, mixed brown and white, which I have creamed with 115 g of soft butter. Once nice and flully, I added the mashed bananas and cream, 1 whole egg, then all the dry ingredients, taking care not to overmix everything. Finally aabout 120 g of good quality chocolate chips and some chopped pecans( which were not in the recipe). All this went into a lined loaf tin and into the oven at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes, until the skewer came out clean.

While it baked, the house smelled fantastic.

The loaf is very moist, not too sweet, chocolatey and wonderful. It will not be a snack free afternoon, unfortunately.

Ps. AI helped to enhance both photos, taken with my phone. Yikes!

Eaten out

Parigi, for the first time in nearly 6 years!

Leave a comment

I felt like popping in to Paris and seeing Moka for quite a few months, but it took time, her dad died, our catch- up had to wait. But I got there in the end, last Friday.

We spent a very nice weekend together, we still have the connection, like did 25 years ago at college. Vino still tastes great together, the things we talk about changed a bit ( peri-menopause!….:-).

Moka patiently took me around Paris, we ate well, as always. Saturday morning I inhaled 2 wonderful croissants, nevermind my wasteline. I’m pleased to say that mine are not far from the French ones, if only I had that wonderful French salted butter.

We stopped for coffee and some more pastry, as Moka said I had to try a cinnamon bun full of butter ( surprise!), sprinkled with sea salt flakes, divine, we shared it and struggled to finish it, after the tiny breakfast we had.

For dinner Moka led the way to a Lebanese place, a first for me, as I don’t know much about middle eastern food, but I liked it a lot. Never had confit lamb before, this one was as soft as you like, gently, but confidently spiced. Hummus, different than mine, moreish, excellent with Malbec.

Then, for Sunday lunch we went to Vaudeville, a traditional French, popular spot, which I loved before I even tasted anything. Such nice ambience and always a pleasure to watch a well trained waiter at work. This place was full them. We shared some duck pate with green salad, then cozze for Moka, beef tartare for me, wonderful fries.

We then saw a waiter passing by with a stunning looking dessert, which I had only seen on Masterchef before, but I knew this was the place and time to try it, so we shared a floating island. Drizzled with salted caramel and sprinkled with well toasted almonds, what a treat that was.

Possibly the best thing I had during the whole weekend.

Orly airport had a lot more to offer than Pisa one, I wasn’t surprised to see a Laduree shop there, but I didn’t go in, not a single macaron this time, my sweet tooth and an obsession with them belong to the past. For the best I guess.

Most delicious weekend. I hope we’ll do it again soon.

Eaten out

La Cantinetta di Bolgheri.

Leave a comment

For our second mid week trip in search of great food with the Svedesi, we invited Molly and Enrico along. Enrico crashed out last minute, but Molly came and having dropped off the kids at school at 8.30, we boarded tesla and headed to Bolgheri. For us it was the second time. Beautiful, warm day in excellent company.

Having had a coffee and a walk around town, having purchased some vino, we started paying attention to the menus displayed outside of the restaurants and ended up in La Cantinetta di Bolgheri.

An absoluetly superb service. The owner, a chunky lady with a good sense of humour looked after us really well, made sure Molly was taken care of with her dietary requirements, served us 2 bottles of great Bolgheri with lunch- it was the third choice of wine, as the other two, we were told were out of stock.

We started with a tagliere of meats and cheese and some bruschetta. Beautifully presented, delicious, especially the artichokes.

Daniel had a plate of pasta, Molly some eggs, then baked aubergine, I have fallen into a trap of tagliata di “wagyu”. I should have known better that at 25 euro it ain’t no wagyu, but I still did. The meat was chewy, had zero marbling, a bit of disappointment. Courtney and Daniel chose a beef cheek in a sensational wine reduction, of which I had tasted a bit and I wished I had chosen it. It wasn’t as soft and gelatinous as the cheeks I used to cook in England, but it was delicious and I’m thinking maybe a visit to macelleria will be in order soon.

Florek had gone for a beef tartare with truffles in a freeky charred bun, that was a very pretty plate.

Excellent meal with lovely people, Daniel did Sergio’s trick and paid the bill on the way to the loo. Grrr!!!

After the coffee we were so stuffed that in the evening we skipped dinner altogether (apart from Izzie) and had only some green tea. Oh, and towards the end the owner brought us a bottle of wine we ordered as a first choice, turned out there was one last bottle and it was given to us free of charge. Will be enjoyed next Saturday while we celebrate Izzie’s birthday.

Eaten out

La dolce vita a Capannori.

Leave a comment

Last Sunday we were invited to Casa Linden for one of those great, Italian lunches,where, after 4-5 hours of eating and drinking one just wants to have a nap on a sofa somewhere, so it’s time to go home. Courtney and Daniel prepared a selection of delicious things to start with and then we all made our own pizzas, which were then baked in the oven on the terrace. The kids had a blast, fun and creative way to get them involved.

Molly made an appearance with her brand new short haircut, away went the wig, she looked radiant and healthy, but continues on a strict diet, so with Courtney they had a pumpkin soup with wonderful fresh eggs, of which we also got a few.

Later in the evening I started a new WhatsApp group for us, Boaratis and Svedesi, we had such a good time together. Next time we’ll repeat this here, Izzie’s birthday will be an excellent excuse to have them all around.

On the joys of cooking and eating