And it has been really, really bloody wet. For over a week now. At times it’s really intense, so yesterday when we were driving home from school, we were looking at this….

Country roads resemble small rivers, so this morning we decided to give Izzie a day off school, weather forecast for next 3 days looks a bit more optimistic.

I baked some doughnuts today, the recipe is already on the blog, exactly the same, I took my time though, all the lights were on most of the day, as outside is grey and dark- I ended up with one of the best ones ever. They are disappearing quickly too.

And a few days ago I fancied kotlety mielone. I had some minced veal, which was a first for mielone, normally it is pork. I added lots of chopped, fried onions, some stale bread soaked in milk, a handful of parmesan, seasoned them well with salt and pepper. Tossed in breadcrumbs, panfried, served with truffle mash, as you do, when it rains and one can be bothered! They were fantastic, I might make them for the dinner with Blackmores in 2 weeks time.

Anna, the lovely lady who lives next door, has given me 2 bowls full of veggies from their garden. The day before we had lunch together in our place, just to thank them for being so lovely to us from day 1. Nadia and Cristian came too, as did Anna’s husband, Francesco, largely responsible for growing all this fantastic produce.

The big tomatoes are on the windowsill for the colour to develop, but the little, sweet datterini were not kept waiting. I turned them into a lovely tomato sauce, spiked with a bit of chili, with lots of onions and garlic and a touch of fresh mint too. We had it with penne, a bit of aubergines and crispy guanciale completed the picture.

With our apetitivo we had some bruschettas, the best ones were those with stracciatella and datterini, the others with Anna’s aubergines, panfried with shallots and garlic. We devoured them with a glass of Santa Cristina bianco.

Next spring I will attempt growing some veggies, the neighbours and Steve set the bar really high!

Nicoise onion tart, which I have first come across while browsing Rick Stein’s book “French Odyssey”. When Moka was here last week , we’ve made one together for lunch one day, but I knew from the first bite that I will be making it again MY WAY. 🙂

This was our joint effort;

We had the ready made pastry from Esselunga, Moka has prepared the onions, I put the whole thing together and baked it. It was very tasty, made a great lunch, but the onions could have been softer. Moka panfried them and wasn’t interested in adding fresh bay leaves or thyme from the garden ( I smuggled some through at the end for garnish), which I found rather surprising.

So yesterday, on a first rainy day in over a month I made the pissaladiere again. My onions were cooked under cover for over 40 minutes with a generous bouquet garni. This made a huge difference. Once I removed the herbs, I gave it another 20 minutes uncovered which made the consistency almost spreadable.

Black olives on top take the 15 minutes in the oven well, anchovies don’t. These should definitely be added after the baking.

Excellent light supper alongside Greek salad and some good chianti.

Molly and Enrico invited us over to dinner last night. As usual it was lovely to catch up with them and spend a few hours with their lovely kiddos, who not only know how to behave at the table, they also eat everything that’s served (salad??!!) and are simply a pleasure to be around.

I offered to make the dessert, sponge cake with whipped cream and fresh pineapple, this time however I’ve made the sponge from a different recipe than my mom’s, I used Dorota’s from mojewypieki.com. 3 whole eggs, 3 tbsps of plain flour, 3 tbsps of potato starch, 6 tbsps of sugar/vanilla sugar and 1/4 tsp of baking powder. After less than 30 minutes in the oven I ended up with a perfect sponge.

I have no picture of the ready thing, sadly, but it was enjoyed and some was left for today, to Elio’s delight!

I tried homemade caponata for the first time and I loved it. And I can’t wait to make it myself this weekend. Sweet and sour, served with crusty baguette and prosecco sfuso. Life is good!

The main were wonderful, light, soft, pillowy gnocchi with pesto. All made fresh! Just how they should be. Might also make some one of these days!

Or, as Marion called it in her video, a Japanese butter garlic fried rice with a mystery ingredient. I saw this video previously and while stocking up on my Asian ingredients last week at oisshiiplanet.it I have added some KewPie mayo, just to try.

Whether this was Japanese, errr, not so much. My rice was a shortgrain, all purpose rice from Conad, but I rinsed it prior to cooking and followed Marion’s tips, so for a mug of rice I added a mug and a quarter of water, so less than I normally would. And texture was perfect, no less! Once it was cooked I tossed it with 3 tbsps of that KewPie, a first for me, but not the last, it gently added to the flavour. I had 2 eggs in the bowl, cracked and gently whipped, 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped and also some peas, as this was going to be our lunch today, so I needed a bit of something more.

A generous knob of butter into the pan, the garlic, not for too long, just to soften it slightly. Rice in. A good splash of soy sauce. After a minute or so, the rice was shoved to the side of the pan and the eggs went in, to scramble nicely, then tossed together with the rice and peas. Marion added some parsley at the end, I opted for finely chopped spring onions. Salt, to finish with, a bit more soy( never enough for Izzie, who would have it in the glass if she could) and we were done.

Nice and simple little dish, I’m thinking it would go well with chicken teryiaki skewers. I invited the Blackmores for Sunday lunch next Sunday, so might just go down that route. 🙂

Oh, and that pretty bowl the rice is sitting in- Maison du Monde. Thumbs up.