Farro e limoni.

Farro has been bought and it was cooked and enjoyed yesterday. And it will be eaten often; research has been done, it is very good for you, it is tasty and it is versatile.

I wanted a nice, simple salad for lunch, so after a good rinse I added my farro into a pot of salted, boiling water and cooked for about 30 mins until it was soft, but still had a bit of a bite. Cooked it like pasta, in Molly’s words.

To this I added some cooked broccoli, green beans, fresh cherry tomatoes, a shallot, some spring onions, sweetcorn,some pecan nuts, seasoned with salt and pepper and generously drizzled with that fabulous olive oil from Lara. A sprinkling of parmesan was a bit of afterthought, but extra flavour nevertheless.

It was enjoyed by myself and Florek, who said he wouldn’t have it every day, but he liked it enough.

While enjoying an evening glass of sangiovese riserva I took out the remains of the salad out of the fridge and had some still, even though I wasn’t at all hungry!

Then, at school in the afternoon I was given a bag of homegrown lemons by Steve. I gave him a chunk of my carrot cake last week, for which I use candied orange peel. He said I should try making candied lemon peel and that he could help sourcing the best lemons. I didn’t need any more encouragement and the wonderfully fragrant peel has been soaking since last night. To be continued! ..:-)

L’Olivo.

It was our turn to invite Sergio and Lara to a restaurant ( after they grabbed the bill at The Butterfly” last month). I’ve been wanting to check out L’Olivo for a while, having heard a lot of good things about it, yesterday we finally got to go.

It was a delicious evening in a great company. First we had an aperitivo at Sergio and Lara’s beautiful house on the hills of Cappella. Lara made a few lovely snacks to go with it, including a simple and delicious salad with farro, tomatoes, onion and olive oil- olive oil of their own making and I have been given some! I have tasted farro before at Molly’s, but now it’s on my shopping list. I’ve just done some research and will be wanting to eat it a lot more often.

L’Olivo, when compared with poncy Butterfly, wins for me big time, hands down. I liked the ambience, the staff were excellent, but most importantly we ate really well. I’ve checked out the menu as early as with my morning coffee, so I knew what I wanted. The stuffed baby squid with a creamy white bean puree was an absolute delight. I’d go back just to have some more.

Izzie had some fresh pasta with seafood ragu, her choice and she did a good job dealing with the plate. Florek and Sergio ordered pasta too, Lara had a chick pea starter and then a platter of cheeses, but Ilan and I both went for duck breast, which was not on the menu, but we were advised there are 3 pieces available. Duck was beautifully pink and tender, roast potatoes nearly as good as at Nonna Clara’s, wonderful chickory, slices of apple and a side of spinach. Ilan destroyed his within minutes and soon asked if he could order another portion. That’s how good it was.

The weakest link was the dessert, semifreddo so bloody sweet, that my teeth hurt.

I feel like throwing a nice dinner party for these lovely people, such a pleasure dining with them every time.

Chocolate and cherry muffins.

Yesterday after school I have succeeded in making the impossible happen- I convinced Florek to purchase 2 pairs of new shoes for himself. One of the baits was a promise of chocolate and cherry muffins. Florek hates clothes and shoe shopping, but we got through it. And now there is a tray of warm, delicious muffins on the kitchen top and they are delightful.

I used the recipe from mojewypieki.com, nice and simple, but I added some of the posh cherries we first tried when Molly brought over her cheesecake.

I used 450 g of ripe bananas, the wight before removing the skin, mashed them in the blender, plus 2 eggs. 225 g of plain flour, 3 tbsps of cocoa, 80g of brown sugar, 1 tsp of bicarb soda, 125ml of veg oil and also some chopped dark chocolate, because why not, indeed? Cherries, though quite small were chopped in halves. All nicely combined together, baked in 170 degrees for about 20 minutes.

They are light, moist and seriously delicious.