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.
Marion’s. Simple, delicious, no fancy ingredients. It was all eaten last night and thoroughly enjoyed by all 3 of us.
I had 2 pieces of very decent speak from Esse, which I have sliced thinly and marinated for about an hour in some soy sauce, sesame oil, a sprinkling of baking soda and cornflour. Chopped up my white onion, lots of ginger and 3 cloves of garlic. Made a sauce out of soy, oyster sauce, dark soy, a touch of white vinegar, some sugar and sesame oil. The rice was ready and waiting under the lid. Aromatics into the wok for a couple of minutes, mushrooms in, 3-4 minutes, then the beef, after a couple of minutes the sauce and it was ready to serve. Finished with sesame seeds and spring onions. An excellent end to a productive day in the kitchen.
I have made my third batch of strawberry jam, baked a sourdough, but this time half of the flour was manitoba, half was integrale. I have to say that on the day it was baked it was fantastic, the next day, toasted, was ok, no fireworks. I also baked some Danish pastries yesterday, as on Tuesdays Izzie has has her Italian buddy over in the afternoon. It’s been a good, foodie day!
One has arrived at the point in one’s life, when one is ready to start making jam. 🙂 Ha!!
Our last shopping trip to Nice resulted in bringing( among shit loads of other foodie stuff) some blackcurrant jam, for the sole purpose of making my favourite cake, but also some raspberry confiture, which Izzie has destroyed within a couple of days. The strawberry season is slowly coming to an end, what we grow in the garden is nowhere near enough for jam making, not this year anyway, so I got 3 packets in Esse yesterday, got some Fruttapec and made some jam this morning, for the first time in my life. Hopefully not the last too. I really enjoyed making it.
I started with sterilising a few jars, washed, they went into the oven for 10 minutes at 180 degrees, while the lids sat in boiling water the same amount of time.
I took my time cooking down 1,5 kg of strawberries. When they were mostly all dissolved, but some pieces left for texture, I added 300g of sugar together with 1,5 packets of Fruttapec, I weighed it all, can’t be too sure you’re getting stuff right when making something for the first time.
Cooked and stirred the mixture for about 4 minutes, then divided it between my jars waiting on the side, screwed the lids on and turned the jars upside down for about an hour, before setting them straight up.
Once the stuff gets tasted and tested by all the Bankses, ideally on top of a wonderful toast, I might think of purchasing some jars and getting on with filling up a shelf in the pantry. Onwards and upwards!
Those two gorgeous, fluffy dough balls left over from last night were made into pizza this lunch time. Simple and delicious, lots of tomatoes, some olives and fresh onion. I can feel my waistline expanding, as I write this, but hey…. 🙂
Last Saturday at Casa Boarati( casa nuova!) we have been treated to some lovely food again. It was lovingly prepared in their new kitchen, with fire burning, while vino was being enjoyed and conversation was flowing together with the said vino. One of the courses were small calzone made my Enrico, with Molly’s filling of spinach and ricotta. The dough was beautifully thin and crispy, I wish I could have had more, but there was fresh tagliatelle being made with veggie ragu, so I didn’t pig as much as I wanted.:-)
But I asked Enrico for recipe and made my first calzone today. Started in the morning, made a wonderful dough, far too much of it, which is why we will have pizza for lunch tomorrow, I saved some dough in the fridge. So, after Enrico, I used 550g of manitoba flour, 150g of semola di grano duro, fresh yeast 5g, some salt, some olive oil. KA did the kneading, then I stretched and folded it twice every 30 mins. Left to prove for about 5 hours- it’s grown beautifully, then, before we had to go to school for Izzie, I shaped the dough into 5 handsome balls to rest further.
Quickly pan fried some onion, red pepper, aubergine, spicy sausage- not spicy enough- and when we came back from school we could get cracking.
Having watched some videos on calzone last night I used some ricotta as well as mozarella and tomato sauce. Sun dried tomatoes were brilliant. What it needed and next time I will be ready, was some heat, some chili, either flakes or fresh. Maybe some olives, black ones. Lots of room to play and play I shall!
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! ..:-)
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.
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.
A couple of weeks ago we made new friends. Lara and Sergio, parents of Izzie’s friend from school, Ilan, entered our orbit right before the school’s Christmas spectacle. After 5 minutes we have agreed to have pizza after the performance and chat some more. Lara, Sergio and Ilan, true Italians love their food and talk about it eagerly. Ilan is the only 9 year old I knew of, who orders a rare pidgeon in the restaurant and deals with it within minutes. I also loved when he referred to American food as “spazzatura”. 🙂
Last night, as per Sergio’s suggestion, we went to “Butterfly”, a posh little place outside of Lucca, boasting a star. We’ve never been there before, but happily obliged.
This was by far the poshest place we have dined in in Italy so far. The service was excellent. There were lots of small plates between courses, all beautifully presented and explained. Water was constantly topped up, as was wine. I must read up on Sauvignon; the chap brought us a bottle of local Sauvignon from 2013, which surprised me; I remember from wine training in Dinings, that Sauvignon Blanc should not be served older that 2 years old, is Sauvignon different? Homework to be done!
My favourite thing in Butterfly was bread. A good selection of it, different flavours and textures, aniseed grissini, but the sourdough rolls they brought were phenomenal. Wonderfully crusty and moreish. I wish I could eat more of that bread…
We had lots of seafood, I loved my prawns, cooked so delicately I couldn’t get enough. Lobster, which followed didn’t wow me, it was barely cooked. Florek had some wagyu, which I tried too. Very good, but light years away from anything Masaki cooks in Dinings.
The dessert, pannacotta, looked spectacular, but tasted disappointing and was barely set, very unconvincing.
Izzie and Ilan had a great time, playing Kluster on the table and making a bit too much noise for that kind of place, but nobody kicked us out onto the rain.
Lovely evening in a lovely company, in terms of food however that meal we had in Dinings in April 2022 remains on top spot for us and its top position is not in any danger.
Sergio was being naughty and annoyingly grabbed the entire bill on his way “to the bathroom”, so next time we will pick the place and make sure he leaves his wallet at home.
We invited Alice and Ken, who brought Caroline along and thank God for that, is all I will say! 🙂
Food wise it was a bit challenging- lots of cooking for 6 people most days, no Mariusz, no Bozenka, no sous chefs, solo io. One fussy vegetarian.
I decided not to make tons of food, like my mum always has for Christmas, I did a few classics, but opted out of trying too hard. Vino sfuso was drunk, also one good bottle of Chianti we have brought from Greve. I would have loved some sledzik, I missed my mum’s cooking, next year we will try hard and get them over here.
For Christmas Eve I’ve served some excellent barszcz (Caz loved it) with paszteciki, recipe of Robert Maklowicz. I felt zero urge to slave and make uszka, not for this crowd. Paszteciki were excellent and I’m keeping the recipe; 200 g of plain flour, 120 g of soft butter, a tbsp of sour cream, quite a serious sprinkling of salt and 2 egg yolks. All this kitchen aided and chilled in the fridge for an hour. The filling for them were porcini and cup mushrooms. Important to seal the edges with some egg white before sticking together. Baked for 20-25 mins in 180 degrees. Lovely and crumbly.
I also made “ryba po grecku”, which was enjoyed by every fish eater at the table. Some golabki with rice and mushroom filling, clementine cake with creme fraiche to finish.
Christmas Day was again all mine to prepare, the main event were turkey wraps with mushroom filling served in a creamy, luscious marsala sauce, roasted veggies, baked red cabbage, pigs in blankets. Orange creme brulee and cantucci for dessert. Grappa bottle was unexpectedly finished.
On Boxing Day we went to Trattoria Nonna Clara, lots of lasagne was eaten, I however had some wonderful chestnut pasta with duck ragu, oh yeah! A real treat!
Izzie and Caz became best of friends this Christmas, here seen enjoying some focaccia in Lucca.
Also worth mentioning are those fabulous oranges we get in Esselunga, the juice from them is pure perfection. Gino enjoyed the box. 🙂
12 months to go, but I think we will aim for The Stronie Team to be here next winter.
