Monthly Archives: June 2024

Made in Torcigliano

Home made BBQ sauce.

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Internet is a wonderful tool sometimes. I had some pork in the oven, as we didn’t have pulled pork in too long, but I had no BBQ sauce to finish it or to serve it with. And we were not supposed to be leaving the house today, we were promised a new asphalt on the drive – but as it was raining, they will do it tomorrow, hopefully.

So I looked up how to make a simple and delicious BBQ sauce and I was stunned how easy and delicious it was. That’s why I’m keeping the recipe!

In my small KA food processor I blended about 160g of brown sugar, 125g of ketchup, about 60ml of white wine vinegar( red was recommended, I had none), 60ml of water, a good splash of worcester sauce, some mustard- traditional, I had no powdered one. Some hot paprika, salt and pepper. I simmered it for maybe 15 minutes and when I tasted it I was surprised at how good it was and it needed nothing else!

It went down a storm with our pulled pork burgers, the cucumbers seen on the photo have grown on the patio. 🙂 A glass of Italian Cabernet was enjoyed alongside.

Baking

Torta morbida ricotta e pere.

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Some very sad pears were sitting in the fruit bowl, so I looked up Giallo Zafferano and turned them into a lovely, light and moist cake. Unusual for me, to bake without butter, but instead I used a tub of ricotta.

First thing, the pears were peeled and chopped into small cubes, drizzled with some lemon juice and set aside. KA was busy whipping 250 tub of ricotta together with 130g of sugar, plus some vanilla sugar( we’re off to Poland in 2 days, will be stocking up on essentials!), to this went 3 whole eggs, one by one, a generous amount of lemon zest, 16g pack of powdered yeast and finally 220 g of flour. All this nicely combined together, pears in and into the lined baking tray. It baked in 180 degrees for over an hour. Once baked, finished with icing sugar. Might take a chunk over to the neighbours. 🙂

Good Food

Melanzane parmigiana.

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Inspired by Vincenzo’s plate, but also by my deep affection for this lovely cheap and versatile veg, which I fell in love with in early days of living in Italia.

We’re enjoying a few child free days, the child is having some quality time in Versilia with Lara, Ilan and Lydia, so this evening there was a bottle of a rather excellent Bolgheri and the said parmigiana.

I started with the tomato sauce, again, Vincenzo’s way, so a large onion and 2 carrots blitzed into a creamy pulp with some olive oil, panfried for 10 minutes, before some chili flakes went in and a bottle of passata. Cooked under the lid for about 40 minutes, fresh basil leaves added, seasoned with salt and brown sugar.

Aubergine were cut into 1 cm slices, salted and left to sweat. Then patted with kitchen towel, dusted with flour and fried until golden brown. Next time I will choose a wider pan for frying, it took bloody forever, luckily I had Maneskin to keep me entertained.

Once the aubergines were all fried and rested on the paper towels, I could put the parmigiana together. Tomato sauce on the bottom, melanzane, tomato sauce, fresh basil leaves, chopped mozarella, some grated pecorino. Melanzane again, sauce, basil, cheeses.

I did 3 layers, finished with tomato sauce, covered with alu foil and into the oven for 30 mins in 180 degrees. Foil off, a generous dusting of parmesan, 10 more minutes.

Once baked I let it rest for a good 15 minutes before cutting and serving. An excellent dish, basta cosi.

Made in Torcigliano

Festa Dell’Polpo.

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Festa della Repubblica yesterday, it would have been a day off for everyone, if it didn’t happen to be Sunday. But we had guests for lunch and ended up spending a beautiful day with Laura, Dennis and Nadia and Cristian – it is priceless to have great neighbours!

Grilled octopus was my choice for our main course. Sometime ago Dennis cooked some for us before Christmas, it was spectacular, yesterday we made it even better. The beast was from Garfagnana, Dennis chucked it into the pot of boiling water with 3 bay leaves in it, no salt, having initially dipped it in 4 times “for shock effect”. It cooked for 30-40 mins, until the fork went into it easily, then the pot was taken off the heat and left to cool with its contents for about 3 hours. Then it was chopped up, seasoned with salt, pepper and lime juice and was ready to grill.

We served it on a delicious bed of broad bean puree, made with some fried aubergine and onions too and also grilled asparagus. Phenomenal plate of food, it tasted as good as it looked.