The Wandering Cook

The Indie Travel Challenge, week 4: Winter Getaways

2012-02-01T07:32:00.001-05:00

It's week number 4 of the Indie Travel Challenge, and I have to say that this week's topic couldn't be more appopriate. The good folks at Boots'n'all want us to talk about our dream winter destinations. You can see the prompt here.

Saturday night I cam back from a 3 day mini vacation to Leukerbad, in the Valais canton in Switzerland. It was one of my 2012 travel resolutions to see more of the country I live in and going on this trip showed me how much I had ben missing. Switzerland is tiny, but is also very diverse in landscape, language, culture and food. In Tessin, where I live, we have a fiarly mild climate, everyone speaks Italian and things aren't as organized and rigis as one might think. Only two hours away, though, Leukerbad folks speak French and German, the cuisine is definitely not ass-friendly and the Alps, which I see from a distance here on lake Lugano, are so close and beautiful, they take your breath away.

I traveled there by train -total travel time 4 hours and 20 minutes- and was definitely happy not to have to deal with having a car there. It's not a car friendly village, unless you have a 4x4 with snow tires. I was greeted by a gorgeous blue ski and 29°F, perfect weather for a little exploring and working up an appetite. You can see my rendition of rösti, the Valais "national" dish, here.

View from the Alpentherme pools

After lunch it was thermal baths time. Leukerbad is famous for its hot springs and, even more, for the amazing Alpentherme, a complex that features indoors and outdoors hot water pools, saunas, steam baths and everything else your heart might desire. I went there both on Thursday and on Friday, after skiing which was heavenly. The best part? The 100°F outddors pool you can reach from inside, with a view of the Alps and massage jets. A 5 hour pass that includes access to all areas of the complex is 39 CHF, about 45 dollars. a little steep, but worth every penny.

Leukerbad also rocks because of its beautiful ski slopes. I spent Friday skiing at the Torrent station, at about 8900 feet. The weather, again, was wonderful, so skiing was even more enjoyable. Not to mention how enjoyable it was to stop at a bar at 8000 feet and drink a cold beer on the terrace, with my face in the sun.

I was lucky enough to see an abundant snowfall on Friday night, after I was done skiing. And Saturday morning, it was still snowing as I woke up. I lingered in bed, under the comforter, watching the snow fall out of the window. It was quiet and peaceful and beautiful, all at the same time. It reminded me of similar mornings back in the 90s, when my parents still had an apartement in Val Gardena, in the Italian Alps. It's alwasy nice to time travel while you are traveling. It made me feel like an 8th grader again, wishing the weather would turn so bad it would keep me from going back home.

Too bad it didn't happen. Not then, not now.

Rösti, a Valais specialty

2012-01-30T14:02:00.002-05:00

So i just came back from a mini vacation in the Valais canton in Switzerland. I spent three blissful days skiing and hanging out at the thermal baths in Leukerbad, a gorgeous alpine village that looks exactly like a Swiss mountain village should look. More about that in my next post, which will be all about Leukerbad.

I'm working the closing shift at the paper tonight, so I don't have much time to dwell on my vacation right now. Still, I want to give you a little taste of the cuisine in Valais. Rösti is one of their signature dishes, something that is very similar to hash brow potatoes, but is served for lunch or dinner with many different toppings that range from pancetta to mushrooms and from ham to tomatoes. My favorite rendition is a simple one: potatoes, ham, fried egg and a little cheese. Heaven on a plate, I tell you.

Makes 1:

1/2 pound of potatoes, boiled in their skins the day before

2 to 3 tablespoons of butter

1/2 medium onion

salt to taste

Raclette (or other salty) cheese

Sliced ham

1 fried egg
Peel the cooked potatoes and grate them through a coarse grater. Slice the onions into thin wedges.

Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan and add the onions and cook them until they look glassy and transparent. Add the grated potatoes and the salt and stir through. Fry while stirring them around in the pan for about 3 to 5 minutes. Press together to form a flat cake and fry over medium heat until there is a golden crust on the bottom.

Place a serving platter on the pan and turn the pan upside down, so the Roesti falls on the platter with the crust on top.

Top with grated cheese, ham and fried egg. Stick under the broiler for 30 seconds and serve.

Egg salad

2012-01-26T04:04:00.000-05:00

As you read this, I'm riding a train to Leukerbad, in the Western side of Switzerland, where I'll spend a couple of days skiing and hanging out at the beautiful thermal baths. In case you are wondering, no, I'm not always on vacation, as one of my friends said the other day. It's just a little weekend getaway, which will make the coldest days of the year easier to bear. I know it may sounds a little crazy to go to the mountains during the chilliest week of them all, but I'd rather be cold ina place where nbeing in cold weather is fun, rather than freezing my ass off by the lake, with the humidity killing me and making me shiver to bone.

Before leaving I didn't bothered going grocery shopping, so I had to get a little creative with my lunches. Egg salad sandwich sounded like a good idea - I hadn't had the stuff since I left the U.S. in April of '10 - so I improvised with what I had in the fridge. It turned out great, exactly what I had in mind: to make it low fat, I used yogurt instead of mayo, added some paprika for flavor and capers and for saltiness.

EGG SALAD:

1 hard boiled egg, minced
1 tablespoon of capers, minced
2 small pickles, minced
2 tablespoons minced onion
Salt and paprika, to taste
3 tablespoons of plain low fat yogurt (or more if you need it)

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl.

Wordless Wednesday: Tate Modern, London

2012-01-25T10:33:00.000-05:00

London in pictures, day 3

2012-01-24T22:00:00.000-05:00

Lately I've become a huge fan of public transportation. Not so much where I live, since Bissone is not exactly very well connected to the rest of the world via public transportation, but when I go elsewhere I'm very happy to abandon my car and use trains, buses and subways. In London, especially, I took advantage of its awesome public transportation system by purchasing an Oyter card, on which I loaded 7 days of unlimited travel for 29 pounds. It may seem a lot, but it really isn't. The Tube rocks and so do duble decker buses, although on my first day I managed to piss off a driver for being impatient. Gotta love that.

After a brief visit to the outside of St. Paul Cathedral (I would have had to shell out 14 pounds to get in... are they insane?!?) I walked across the Millenium Bridge to reach the South bank, where Tate Modern is located. As most museums in London it's free, which is pretty amazing if you think about it. The art inside is the kind of art that one can only describe as kind of crazy, but so cool it deserves a post on its own... so stay tuned for that.

In the aftenoon I visited another great museum, the British Museum. Again, it was free, and the art there is definitely more conventional, ranging from ancient Egypt's Rosetta Stone to more modern masterpieces from all over the world.

I had some time to kill before dinner so I walked around, stopping in a pub every once in a while to rest and recharge (and drink beer, of course)

At night we took it is. I showed up at the pub where my friend was just in time for the kitchen to be closed, so we ended up cooking at his place. I made pasta, so there was no weird both cubes involved ;-)

The Indie travel Challenge, week 3: "Learning through travel"

2012-01-24T08:44:00.002-05:00

Travel is learning. If one travels and manages not to learn anything, I suspect he or she could very well be braindead. I mean, how can you not absorb everything that is new and different around you? Art, language, food, traditions. You name it. One of the most exciting aspects of traveling is meeting different people, who live in ways that are foreign to us for reasons that are part of a history that is not our own.

Week 3 of the Indie Travel Challenge deals with this. Learning and traveling. Except for when i attended summer school to learn English in California (every year from 1992 to 1998) I have never really taken classes while abroad, but that doesn't mean that I haven't learned a lot while traveling. i guess I'm just not much into taking organized classes while I'm on vacation. My bad. I'm sure that if I had taken, let's say, some cooking classes while abroad I would have learned to cook the same recipes I know how to cook now, but without all the trial and error.

One thing, though, I have learned by traveling, and that is appreciating art. When i was in high school Art History was possibily one of my least favorite subjects. Watching works of art printed in a book isn't that exciting and we were never taken to any museums, despite the fact my school was across the street from the church where Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper is. I know, I know. Terrible.
Anyhow, I had to learn to love art as an adult, by browsing art museums on my own, without the aid of an art expert. Sure, I'd probably learn even more if I had someone telling me about focus and composition and the likes, but would I enjoy, and therefore learn, from the experience that much? Probably not.

So alone I go to museums of all kinds and I let the art speak to me. If the art in question doesn't, well, no biggie. Not all art can move us, which is what makes art so interesting. For it to arise my interest, it has to surprise me, amaze me, even shock me. Or, some other times, to make me discovere that even a mirror placed on wall of a museum can surprise us, ^making us realize that us, too, are works of art.

Self portrait, Tate Modern, London.
January 2012

Asian lettuce wraps

2012-01-24T02:36:00.000-05:00

Happy Dragon year everyone!

I thought I'd take a little break from posting travel pictures and post a recipe, just to remind myself 8and all of you) that this still is a cooking blog after all. Travels are cool, but unfortunately I don't travel every day. On the other hand, I do tend to cook on a daily basis, especially in the winter, especially when I'm trying to get back in shape after over two months of food and drink orgies.

Since the world is celbrating the Chinese new year, I thought I'd cook one of my favorite Asian recipes, one that I used to eat at PF Cheng's when I lived in Florida. I know, Cheng's isn't exactly a real Chinese joint, but their lettuce wraps rocked and they are light enough and veggie packed enough to satisfy both my weight loss challenge and my healthy habits- eat more veggies! challenge.

So here it is. Maybe not the most adventurous Chinese recipe, but a good, solid one.

ASIAN LETTUCE WRAPS

1 pound ground chicken

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon dark sesame oil

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon siracha

1 tablespoon sweet and sour sauce

To serve:

Lettuce leaves

Bean sprouts

Shredded carrot

Shredded cabbage

Cooked brown rice

Heat a non stick skillet or a wok. Mix soy sauce and next 4 ingredients in a bowl. Add chicken to skillet and stir to crumble. Pour sauce over it and cook for about ten minutes, until chicken is done. If the meat should get dry, add a little more sauce. I added siracha because I love the heat it gives to the dish!

When chicken is done, cover and remove from stove.

Serve with lettuce leaves.

London in pictures, day 2

2012-01-22T11:45:00.002-05:00

My second day in London was awesome. Filippo had the day off, so we got to hang out together all day, which is always awesome. We dedicated the afternoon to the exploation of one of my favorite neighborhoods in London: Notting Hill. I hated the movie, but absolutely love the streets and stores and market stalls you find there. It made me wish I could ship a crate of furniture, books and knick knacks back to Switzerland, but since I couldn't I had to restrain my self and refrain from buying everything I saw.

It was hard. It was very hard.

I mean, how can you walk into Alice's and not buy an old wooden coffee table you absolutely have no room for or a trunk that will only set you back 300 dollars or so? I didn't actually buy any of the above, but had I been there by car I would have. So, good thing I was traveling by train, I guess.

Only a few doors down Portobello road I found another store that me want to move to London instantly. It's called Books for cooks and, you've guessed, only sells cookbooks. Again, I had to refrain from buying everything in there and my heart ached for all my wonderful cookbooks I've left behind in Florida. I know I'd never have the time to use of all them, but it's a collection. It exists purely for the purpose of pleasing me, no matter how useless and bulky a collection it may seem. And, as collections go, actually, it's far more useful than others. Stamps, for instance. Or coins.

I manged to leave the store with only one purchase, a British food book called, well, British Food, which I selected both because I thought it would have been dumb to by an Italian cookbook in London and because it was fairly small. I could have (and would have) spent the whole afternoon there, but Filippo was fidgeting, so I figured that a half hour was enough for him. The poor guy was already putting up with my obsession to find a grey coat (which I didn't find, by the way), so I decided to go easy on him with the cookbook shopping.

We then kept walking around Portobello road, which is really as charming as in the movies, full of little quirky details and even quirkier little stores.

On the way back we stopped in a store that sold funky t-shirts and, I was hoping, grey coats. Although I didn't fiond the damn coat, I made friends with the store cat, who hang out by the cash register, sleeping on piles of t-shirts and being overall one of the friendliest cats ever.

For dinner we decided to stay home since we kind of already had a bad lunch experience invoving a pub, a microwaved burger and a Brooke Shields sighting. Filippo asked me to make risotto and I obliged. A tiny catch: they were out of Knorr beef broth cubes, so I had to use Oxo's version. I was terrified. I mean, look at the freakin' box, for crying out loud. The broth turned out to be extremly dark and not too flavorful, but overall the ristto was good, if maybe a little off colorwise.

London in pictures, day 1

2012-01-21T06:48:00.000-05:00

Welcome to London! First off, London has always been one of my favorite cities in the world. When I was 5 my dad used to work there, so my mom and I would go there at least once a month. And I loved it already. 25 years later, I still love it. Not to mention that now I can also enjoy the beer... so what's not lo like?

Anyway, I started off my exploration in Trafalgar Square. The weather was chilly but sunny, so it was really pleasant walking around, looking at Admiral Nelson, on top of his column, staring into the distance. It was also a Tuesday morning, so the city wasn't packed with other tourists, which is always nice. Gives you the feeling that you have more space to move and take pictures and take in the views without feeling rushed.

On my way to Covent Garden I couldn't resist taking this picture of two quintessential icons: the London tube sign and the red, British phone booths.

Coven Garden itself is kind of a huge tourist trap, with expensive stores and even more expensive food. But it's worth checking out, if only to take a couple of pictures. But then, of course, is better to go shopping and dining elsewhere.

Before lunch I also had to take one of my infamous self-shots in front of the National Gallery. Some guy asked me if I wanted my picture taken the proper way, and I let him, but then deleted the pic he took and kept my crappy one. It's a tradition, what can I say?

I made sure to be in Chinatown around lunch time. I browsed the streets, taking in the sweet and spicy fragrance of Asian food wafting through the air, then decided to eat at a wonderfully depressing Vietnamese restaurant that was called, this is truly awesome, "Vietnamese Restaurant". Sheer genius, right? And the pho!! Oh, the pho was divine. No other words to describe it. The broth had an intensity and a depth of flavor you don't encounter everywhere. That and a pint of beer sent me to lunch heaven.

I then made the HUGE mistake of walking down Oxford Street. I had been so good at not buying stuff while I was in Paris, but all of the sudden I turned into a crazed shopping Godzilla. I kid you not. Between Primark, Urban Outfitters and Pull&Bear I bought tons of clothes I didn't need. The good thing is, I now own really cool clothes nobody else is wearing around here. Totally worth it, if you ask me. So after all that walking and shopping I had to stop at a pub and drink a couple of pints to regain my strength. I love pubs and I love beer, so I really enjoyed my down time, waiting for my friend Filippo to be done with work so we could go out to dinner.

I met him at the Angel tube station and we walked to a Turkish restaurant nearby, called "Cappadocia". As we often do when we are together we ordered too much food. An appetizer sample platter that featured everything from hummus to eggplant dip, and then a main course each —chicken in sauce for him and spicy Turkish sausage for him. Delicious. The only drawback was that it was a little bit difficult to digest, so we ended up having weird dreams all night. Oh well. A little price to pay, I say.

Stay tuned!

More London pictures are coming in the next few days!

Healthy habits: Eat more veggies! Vegetable frittata

2012-01-19T01:00:00.000-05:00

Since apparently I didn't have enough stuff to do with my other challenge, the Indie travel challenge, I decided to embark in a healthy eating challenge as well. "Cooking Light's 12 healthy habits" seemed like a good option, since it isn't too demanding but at the same time it does push you toward a better way of eating and living.

January's challenge (I know, I'm a bit late, aren't I?) is to eat more vegetables, specifically to "Add 3 more servings of fruits and vegetables to your diet each day". Since I'm intolerant to most raw fruit and I don't really care for cooked fruit, I have decided to add vegetables to my daily diet and call it a day. It isn't too much of a challenge for me, as I really like veggies anyways, but I have decided to concentrate on some good vegeterian recipes that I can take to the office with me and eat for lunch.

Today I brought a nice frittata packed with tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini and fresh herbs. Easy to make, delicious to eat and, most of all, nice and light, so I didn't feel that after-lunch fatigue overcoming me.

VEGETABLE FRITTATA:

2 eggs
1 teaspoon butter
1 small zucchini, cubed
A few cherry tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper

Cook vegetables in a small pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a bowl beat eggs, add salt, pepper and thyme. Add vegetables.

Heat butter in a small skillet, pour egg mixture into it and cook, about three minutes per side, or until desired degree of doneness.

The Indie Travel Challenge, week 2: "What is an indie traveler?"

2012-01-18T04:44:00.001-05:00

So here we are. Week two of the indie travel challenge. This week's prompt is a question I knew would arrive sooner or later, but I was hoping it would arrive later rather than sooner. The question is: what is an indie traveler? And my problem with it is: why do we always feel the need to define everything?

Defining an indie traveler is pretty mucg impossible, in my humble opinion. There are as many types of indie travelers as there are travelers. So who am I to say that I'm indie and someone else is not?

Of course there are those who consider themselves better than most because they go to the most exotic, hard to reach, unknown spots of the world and kind of look down at anyone who would get excited about going to any place where you can get a hot shower and a decent bed. And there are also those who would never leave the beaten path, who would never try whatever food the locals eat (unless they are in Italy or France, that is) and are afraid of getting robbed pretty much everywhere.

Those, of course, are extremes. Then there's a whole bunch of us who are somewhere in between. Who like nice hotels and crowded hostels just the same, who like to explore less traveled by destinations, but won't disdain a touristy museum or monument. We would love to take a whole year off and go travel around the world, but for a number of different reasons -both financial and personal- we just can't do that right now, so we have to travel when we have time off, or suring weekends or even explore our own town on a Saturday afternoon.

Does that make us indie travelers? I think so. Being an indie traveler is more of a state of mind rather than a collection of stamps on your passports. Is that need to go and see what the rest of the world is like, no matter if the rest of the world is 10 or 1000 miles away.

Paris in pictures, day 3

2012-01-17T19:00:00.000-05:00

My third, and last, day in Paris was packed with walking and sightseeing. The weather was fairly nice and I decided to walk from the Latin Quarter to the Eiffel Tower. Normally it's a 5 kilometer walk, but I kind of zigzaged around, making it almost a 9 kilometer affair. Not that I'm complaining. I had to burn off some of the calories I had ingested the previous day, after all.

What I love the best about wandering around big cities, is that you never know what awesome little (or big) view awaits for you around the corner. I literally took hundreds of pictures of random windows and doors, which are my latest obsession. Don't ask why. It's something I've devolped last summer in Greece and I just can't stop.

I walked and walked and walked trying to avoid the largest streets and concetrating on the little allways and courts.

...and then, when I started to feel hungry, I dove into a little brasserie by the Musèe d'Orsay and ordered one of my favorite dishes: entrecôte with french fries. As it always is, it was delicious and very satisfying. It would have probably been even better with a glass of red wine, but I was so freaking thirsty, only beer sounded good.

After lunch I finally reached my destination, where I took this self-portrait. One thing about traveling alone is that you can't count on someone taking pictures of you.

And that same night I was off. I went to the Gare du Nord where I boarded the Eurostar to London. I was very excited, both because I had never been in an underwater train tunnel and because I hadn't been in London since January of 1998. What adventures laid ahead?

If you want to see the whole picture album go here (and no, you don't need to be on Facebook to see it):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150483043670186.367880.515600185&type=1&l=c383b0f5fc

Paris in pictures, day 2

2012-01-17T04:34:00.001-05:00

My second day in Paris was a wonderful, family-oriented day. Not my family, of course. I spent the day with my friend Virginie's family, celebrating her birthday. It was really great to spend time in their Montmartre apartment, sipping wine and eating homemade food.

We started off with some salami I brought as a gift. When I bought it in a boulangerie that morning, I was a little perplexed because it felt too hard, but decided to buy two anyway because they were all like that. I figured that showing up empty handed would be far worse than showing up with salami that is a little too hard. I picked an Italian one with black truffles and a smoked one from Corsica. They were both really good and not hard at all. Turns out they were just cold from being near the fridge in the store. I guess I could have figured that out, right?

Then there were oysters. Many, many, delicious oysters to be eaten with a spash of lemon juice over buttered hazelnut bread. I had never eaten oysters like that before, but I have to say it beats the Tabasco and saltines.

We then had a pork roast with roasted winter vegetables and, after that, we indulged in a trey of cheeses. Hard to tell which one was the best. Wish my stupid camera would have had some battery left to pictures of it, but of course it didn't. Oh well. More to come, people!

Paris in pictures, day 1

2012-01-10T04:11:00.001-05:00

So I finally have loaded my pictures on a real computer, so I can actually post them. iPads are fun, but trying to update your blog from one is a pain in the ass.

Here are a few pictures of my first day in Paris.

I woke up after an exceptionally good night of sleep on my Milano to Paris sleeper train. I would have never dreamed a train would be so comfortable, especially since I was not traveling first class.

I had breakfast with my friend Virginie, who was kind enough to pick me up at the station in the morning. Loved the lamps in the cafe' where we drank coffee. Wished I could have some of those at home.

I walked aimlessly through the Latin Quarter, looking at cute little restaurants and taking in the atmosphere.

I visited Notre Dame, because for once in my life I found no line to get in. It was about time since I've been trying for years!

I rode the metro. It's funny how I used to hate taking the metro as a teenager, and now I could ride it all day. Probably because I now live ina place that has no metro at all.

And I made friends with Banti, my friend Annapaola's cat. He's adorable. Now that I left Paris and I'm in London I miss him already!

The Indie Travel Challenge, week 1: "Planning for 2012"

2012-01-04T12:29:00.000-05:00

So I'm not much of a planner. Nor am I much of a resolutions person, mostly because - let's be honest - I'm horrible at keeping resolutions. Or follow through with my plans, for that matter. There is one exception, of course: travel planning. I absolutely adore travel planning. I buy Lonely Planet guide books on a whim, whenever I see them, even when I'm not planning a trip. I constantly scan the internet for insipration, as if I needed more crazy ideas running through my head. When relatives ask me what I want for Christmas or my birthday, I usually ask for train passes or more guide books or anything, really, that is travel related. It's a sickness, similar to only one other sickness that I have: cookbooks. But that's another story.

Let's focus on the traveling. And the planning. I read about the Indie Travel Challange while I was browsing the web for my upcoming Paris and London trip, and I thought it would be a fun little (errr... not so little actually) way of pushing myself both as a writer and a traveler. Ever since I moved from Florida to Switzerland I have missed writing the travel articles I used to write for the Naples Daily News, so why not taking up travel writing seriously again? After all, is only one of my two dream careers (the other one being a food writer for a large newspaper).

So here's week 1, a week about planning for 2012. After reading Boots'n'all travel resolutions for the upcoming year, I feel pretty inspired, and ready to share my list. Here's a link to their resolutions and the challenge: http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/11-12/travel-resolutions-to-keep-this-year.html

Speak French while I'm in paris, even though my French is poor, to say the list
Get lost around the little streets of Bruges, Belgium
Eat perfect, greasy, salty fries from a street vendor in Brusselles
Try a new dish I've never tried before, everywhere I go
Visit all cantons in Switzerland, including the one where I live, which I don't know quite as well as I'd like
Take a German class
Go to Oktoberfest
Buy a ticket to go to Vietnam in January 2013
Swim in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland
Blog about my travels more consistently

That's it. Well, I hope you all will follow my adventures... as I travel, eat and drink my way around Europe.

Baked eggs... and a happy new year to everyone!

2012-01-04T04:02:00.001-05:00

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope you had a great New Year's Eve and all that. As for me, I was fighting a cold, so it wasn't spectacular, but other than that I can't complain. 2011 was a good year for me. Lots of positive changes came along, and although it wasn't always easy to stay optimisitc and smile, it wasn't too hard either. I've found a job a like and friends I love, traveled to Sweden, Greece, Czech Republic and Germany... so, seriously, what's not to love?

And here I am again, super excited because the day after tomorrow I leave for a nine day vacation in Paris and London. How cool is that? I can't wait.

Of course I hope I'll find plenty of wi-fi connections so I can keep you posted while I'm visiting the cities and eating all that delicious food... but in the mean time, I want to leave you with a recipe I made on New Year's, a simple, no fuss dish that tastes great and is very comforting: baked eggs.

BAKED EGGS

(Adapted from Cooking Light)

Cooking spray

4 (1-ounce) slices French-style country bread, cut into (1/2-inch) cubes

1 thinly sliced onion

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper, divided

2 tablespoons water

6 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

Dill

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Lightly coat 6 (8-ounce) ramekins lightly with cooking spray. Spread bread cubes in an even layer on a baking sheet, and lightly coat with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until bread is crisp and lightly browned, stirring after 5 minutes.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper to pan; cook 10 minutes or until onion is tender. Increase heat to medium-high. Stir in 2 tablespoons water, and cook 5 minutes or until golden brown, stirring frequently. Evenly divide onion among prepared ramekins; top with croutons. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper evenly over croutons.

Carefully break 1 egg into each ramekin on top of croutons; drizzle 2 teaspoons milkover each egg. Arrange ramekins in a roasting pan lined with a dish towel (to anchor them in the pan). Pour boiling water halfway up the sides of the ramekins to make a water bath. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until the whites are almost set. They should be slightly underdone as they will continue cooking in the hot dishes when you take them from the oven. Garnish with dill sprigs, if desired.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T05:45:00.001-05:00

I wish you all a happy Christmas and a wonderful 2012... and I also want to thank all of you who have read my blog and been part of my adventures this year!

My famous homemade pate'

2011-12-19T04:41:00.001-05:00

Ok, so my homemade pate' is not actually that famous, the only thing that it's famous for is that it disappears at the speed of light every time I make it. At some parties I didn't even get to try a bite of it because it was gone so fast. Not joking. What's the secret? Easy. First of all I don't tell anyone that it's made with chicken livers. At least not until they have tried it and loved it. I'm not sure why, but most people seem to have a big problem with chicken livers, so why tell them? Second, I use a lot of butter. I can't stress this enough: if you are going to make pate' you have to use tons of butter. There's no other way around it. No making it "light". Unless you want your pate' to suck, that is.

So here's the recipe. I usually serve it along with cranberry sauce or some other type of berry jam, but it's also good on its own, with a slice of bread.

HOMEMADE PATE'

One onion
1 pound chicken livers
1 spoon of capers
Butter at room temperature

A shot of brandy
1 glass of broth
Salt and pepper
Fresh thyme

In a pan, sauté the finely cut onions in butter until soft and add thyme and the liver ready cleaned and washed. Sauté them until browned. Add brandy and cook for 20 minutes on low heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Let everything cool. Add capers and place in a food processor.

Process, adding butter one tablespoon at the time until you reach a smooth consistency. Pour in a loaf pan, cover and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Things I loved about Zurich

2011-12-10T05:59:00.001-05:00

Rosti. What's not to love about a generous serving of shredded potatoes, hash brown style, mixed with raclette cheese and ham bits and topped with a fried egg? Swiss perfection on a plate.

Gothic cathedrals against the cloudy sky. I don't usually love cloudy skies, but the clouds I saw on my first day in Zurich where very picturesque and made everything look even prettier.

Serious Christmas lights. This city doesn't mess around when it comes to Xmas decorations and lights, they are in every street and on every building...

...including super-cool toy store Franz Carl Weber, a multi story kid's (kid at heart) paradise filled with toys, puppets and games of all kinds.

Oysters at Brasserie Lipp, a wonderful art deco restaurant with one of the biggest and best raw bars I've ever seen. The original Brasserie Lipp is in Paris, but this Swiss replica is as cool looking as the original and serves impeccable food as well.

Christmas markets. I could have bought virtually everything there, although the prices where not exactly affordable. Still I found some cool little presents for my family and friends and vowed to go back next year for more.

Very cool looking bars. Case in point the Heineken New Bar opposite the Central train station. Neon lights and thousands of booze bottles neatly stocked on the walls.

And speaking of drinks, hot mulled wine of course, or as they call it in Zurich, Glühwein. Throughout the city there are hundreds of little wood huts selling fragrant perfectly spiced mulled wine. The bartenders are dressed like elves and the wine is prepared in big witch-like cauldrons. How cool is that? I wondered what they do with the little huts in the summer. I'm guessing they use them to sell beer.

Fondue chinoise. One of my favorite dishes ever. There's something so satisfying about cooking your meet in hot steamy broth and then dipping it in one of the six sauces it's served with: curry, sweet and sour, garlic, cocktail, tartar and spicy tomato.

Christmas cookies galore!

2011-12-05T03:58:00.001-05:00

I'm working today and tomorrow, then I have four days off, which means that I will have time to start baking some Christmas cookies. Although I'm not a cookie person, I know how much people like them, so I make them every year, then take them to the office and hand them out as gifts when I go to Christmas parties. I don't know which ones I'll make this year, but in the mean time here are some recipes that I tried last year and the year before, my personal cookie hit parade.

Baci di Dama: Italian treats. I have no idea why they are called "dame's kisses", but what I know is that they rock. They are a little labor intesive, but totally worth it. Trust me.

Pepparkakor: Swedish cookies. You can buy them at Ikea, but they are mich better when they are made from scratch. The key is to roll out the dough real thin, otherwise they don't turn out quite as good. These are perfect for those who like spices in their cookies, they feature nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. Great after meal cookie.

Brünsli: these cookies are from my nick of the woods. They ail from Switzerland and they are the perfect combination of chocolate and nuts. They are very similar to truffles and they are by far my favorite cookies. What's not to love about dark chocolate and walnuts? Careful though, once you eat one, you might want to eat the whole batch.

Vanillekipferl: as the name implies, these horseshoe shaped cookies have vanilla in them, and lots of butter, which makes them great. I especially like them dipped in Marsala wine, which shouldn't surprise you since I love pretty much any cookie dipped in Marsala =)

Spicy Mexcian cookies: Last but not least, some dark chooclate cookies that feature crushed red pepper... Mayan style, baby! If you like the spicy and sweet combo, these cookies are for you.

Vin brulé (hot mulled wine)

2011-12-01T12:11:00.001-05:00

It's December already. Ever since I've started working in August, time has gone by at the speed of light. So here we are, already counting down the days till Christmas. Temps are still not very wintery and I'm a little disappointed because it hasn't snowed yet, but I'm making up for it by decorating the house and preparing Christmasy foods.

Vin brulé, aka hot mulled wine, is one of my favorite things about this time of the year. I first tried it when I was about 14, mingling at a Christmas market in the Dolomites with my friend Giovanna. We were freezing, so we decided to give it a try. It was the beginning of an obession. I liked it so much I order it everwhere I go if I see it on the menu. No wonder I liked Prague so much, they sell it on every street corner at a price so cheap, you just can't say no.

Of course I also make it home. Last night I had it while putting up the Christmas tree and, I have to say, it was one of the best recipes ever. Try it, you won't be sorry.

VIN BRULE'

1 bottle dry red wine

Peel of one orange

Peel of one lemon

2 cinnamon sticks

1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

8 whole cloves

1 cup of sugar

Place all ingredients in a sauce pan. Slowly bring it to a boil, then simmer for about ten minutes or until sugar has dissolved. Discard solids and serve.

Potato and mushroom cups

2011-11-30T05:19:00.001-05:00

I'm soooo tired these days. Last night I had the closing shift at the newspaper and afterwards, I stayed up drinking beer and watching The Mentalist until 3 am. Not smart, I know, but I have such a hard time unwinding, especially after a night like last night, when people seem to drive you crazy on purpose. When the alarm went off this morning at 9, I was tired, but thought I felt pretty good for how little I had slept. It's now 11:24 and I just hit a major wall. I could curl under my desk and go to sleep. Instead I have an interview to transcribe, pages to take care of and the thought that tonight it's Christmas tree/decorations time!

Of course I could sleep during the weekend... not this one though. Friday morning I'm leaving for Zurich, so I guess I won't be sleeping too much. Oh well. Thank God the weeened after that is a four day weekend, so I guess I'll have plenty of time to nap then!

As for my "detox diet" (read: I have to shed at least 4 pounds because I hate the way my jeans fit me right now) it's going well. I bought a really cool cookbook called "Ammazzacicca" which literally means "fat killer". Gotta love that. There's all kinds of good recipes, all under 500 calories, so I'm enjoying food, yet losing some weight. So far just .5 kilos (1 pound), but hey, I've only started on Monday. Here's a good little recipe for you: simple, yet very satisfying.

POTATO AND MUSHROOM CUPS

1/2 pound potatoes cubed
2 shallots
A few sprigs of rosemary and sage
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 pound mixed fresh mushrooms, sliced
Salt and pepper

Sautèe shallots in olive oil, remove from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the same pan add potatoes and minced herbs, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for about 7 minutes. Remove lid and cook for another 7 minutes. Add shallots.

Place potato mixture in a muffin pan to give it a cup shape.

Sautèe mushrooms and garlic in the same pan for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve potato cups with mushrooms on top.

Roasted potatoes with thyme and shallots

2011-11-25T05:33:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving weekend is over, at least for me. I work on most Sundays, so here I am, sitting at the office, already looking forward to next weekend. Friday and Saturday I'll be in Zurich, Switzerland, to check out some art museums, eat fondue and, hopefully, bump into some Christmas markets. I was also kind of hoping for snow, but I just checked the forecast and, apparently, we are going to get fog on Friday and rain on Saturday - a wonderful combo to take pictures...

Oh well, maybe they are wrong. We'll see, I guess.

Other than that, I'm trying to eat light this week, after gorging on way too much food over the holiday weekend. That doesn't mean I won't be posting recipes, luckily I'm always behind when it comes to posting, so I have tons of recipes from the past 15 days still unpublished. See? Procrastination can be a good thing.

So here's the first one: these are the potatoes I served on Thursday night. I was tired of serving rosemary potatoes, so I decided to dress them up a bit with thyme and shallots. It was a very good idea, believe me.

ROASTED POTATOES WITH THYME AND SHALLOTS

Fingerling potatoes, peeled
Salt and pepper
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 shallot, minced
1 cup vegetable broth

Place potatos in a baking dish, season with salt and pepper, add shallots and thyme and pour 1/2 cup of broth in the dish, so they won't stick to it.

Cook in a preheated oven at 375° for about 30 minutes, adding more broth as it evaporates.

Eat your Brussels sprouts!

2011-11-25T04:08:00.001-05:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was great, filled with amazing food and even more amazing friends. It's hard to cook for 19 people, especially in a tiny kitchen, but with my mom's help and two days worth the cooking we managed to serve a turkey meal that everyone enjoyed. Company, of course, was lovely too and it was a pleasure to see everyone loving the food so much.

The turkey is all gone. All of it. And so are most of the side dishes, except for the stuffings (but that's not a problem. I love stuffing.) I was afraid Brussels sprouts were not going to be overly popular because, let's be honest, they usually aren't. But dressed up with pancetta, shallots and garlic they were much better than usual... they actually had flavor, which isn't their strong suit. Pancetta makes everything better in my opinion, kind of like butter. So if you are wondering how to make Brussels sprouts that don't suck... here's the recipe, adapted from Cooking Light, the November issue.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH PANCETTA AND SHALLOTS

6 slices center-cut bacon, chopped
1/2 cup sliced shallot (about 1 large)
1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add bacon, and sauté for 5 minutes or until bacon begins to brown. Stir in shallot, and Brussels sprouts; sauté 4 minutes. Add garlic, and saute for 4 minutes or until garlic begins to brown, stirring frequently. Add the chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes or until the broth mostly evaporates and the sprouts are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in salt and pepper.

Cornbread stuffing with sausage, apples and fennel

2011-11-23T10:40:00.001-05:00

It's almost 5 pm now and I have made some progress. I'm actually proud of myself, since I have baked two batches of cornbread, made homemade pate', cranberry sauce and, last but not least, this wonderful stuffing.

Making this was actually one of the easiest tasks today. I mean, between finding the freaking turkey - which is hard to come by whole in Switzerland - and making the cornbread, I'm already exhausted. It's a lot of cooking, I'll tell you. And right now I'm baking a pumpkin cheesecake, which is particularly stressful for me because I hate baking and I hate making dessert. So you can figure how much I hate BAKING DESSERT.

Anyhow, here's the recipe for the stuffing, which I have tried and is delicious. Trust me, it doesn't get much better than this!

CORNBREAD STUFFING

Cooking spray
2 links hot Italian sausage
10 ounces frozen pearl onions
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 small red Michigan apples, skin on, chopped
1/2 large fennel bulb, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 loaf cubed cornbread (about 8 cups)
2 eggs
1 cup chicken broth

In a large skillet brown the sausage in its own fat, crumbling with a wooden spoon. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Add frozen pearl onions and sprinkle with brown sugar. Cool until the onions are tender and sugar has dissolved, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add celery, fennel and apple (I left the skins on for color, but you can remove them if you like.) Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with thyme and cook for about ten minutes.

Spray a 10x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Mix vegetable mixture and bread cubes in it. In a small bowl beat the eggs into the broth. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over bread and veggie mixture, toss to coat. Bake in a 400F oven for 45 minutes.

Skillet cornbread

2011-11-23T05:28:00.001-05:00

Here I am, on Thanksgiving Eve (does that even exist?), trying to make stuff ahead so I don't lose my mind tomorrow like I did in 2008, break my knee like I did in 2009 or end up with food even in my hair like I did in 2010. You live, you learn, they say. We'll see.

As of now, it's 11 am on Wednesday and I've already baked cornbread for my gluten-free stuffing. That's all folks. It's not like I'm crazy ahead, but in the next few hours I'm going to crank out some serious food... at least the appetizers, the stuffing and the cranberry sauce.

I'll keep you all posted. Hope you are having a great almost-holiday weekend =)

A funny note: buttermilk doesn't exist in Switzerland. Or if it does they hide it so well I couldn't find. So my day started by having to make buttermilk, which is not complicated, you just mix a scant cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice... but it kind of makes you think about the challenges ahead.

SKILLET CORNBREAD

3 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Coat bottom and sides of a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with bacon drippings; heat in a 450° oven for 10 minutes.
Whisk together buttermilk and egg. Add cornmeal, stirring well.
Stir in baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour batter into hot skillet.
Bake at 450° for 15 minutes.

Goat cheese appetizer balls

2011-11-22T03:00:00.000-05:00

It seems like yesterday that I was thinking about Thanksgiving being two months away. And now it's here. Only two days away. Of course I havn't even started cooking or prepearing for it, mostly because this working full time thing has kind of gotten in the way ;-) Since Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Europe I had to take the day off and, while I was at it, I also took tomorrow off, so I have two days to prepare the feast! I have to say that I'm super excited about cooking. I hadn't really noticed it, but since I've started working I have been cooking less than I used to and I really, really miss it.

It sounds a little crazy, but it's true.

So tonight I'm baking cornbread that I will use for the stuffing, so that my celiac friend can eat it too. Tomorrow I'll make what can be made ahead: my famous homemade patê, a pumpkin spread for my vegetarian friend and, most likely, the pumpkin cheesecake I intend to serve as dessert. Thanks to Debbie at Feast for the eyes I will also make the gravy ahead. That way on Thursday I only have to make the turkey and the side dishes. Sounds like a good plan, right? We'll see if I actually follow it through. I'm famous for not following through, so chaos and disorder are always around the corner...

Anyhow... if you are looking for an easy to make and cool to look at appetizer, here's a recipe for you!

GOAT CHEESE APPETIZER BALLS

2 goat cheese packages

2 tablespoons ground almonds

EVOO, 1 tablespoon

2 teaspoons honey

Salt and pepper

Mix cheese, oil, honey in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Place in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

Using your hands make balls out of cheese mixture. Dredge them into ground almonds.

Serve with a honey drizzle over it.

Things I loved about Prague

2011-11-21T04:46:00.001-05:00

Back from 48 hours in Prague, Czech Republic. The place is absolutely fantastic, so great I wish I could have stayed there at least twice as long. To see the whole photo album, here's a link you can use even if you are not on Facebook.

Prague ham... at all times of the day, even for breakfast. Alwaya accompained by creamed horseradish and a Pilsner Urquell beer. The smokiness of the ham goes together well with the smooth, bold pils. A breakfast (or lunch, or snack) made in heaven.

Gorgeous, colorful houses in Mala Strana and Stare Mesto, the two oldest neighborhoods in town. One on each side of the river Moldava, they are so pictoresque they almost look fake. The best thing about them is they are 100% real.

Old Town Square and its Astronomical Clock looking dramatically beautiful. The square has been the heart of Prague since the 10th century.

Amazing doors and doorknobs that lead into even more amazing churches and sinagogues.

A Middle Ages themed tavern, where the waiter slams a tray full of grilled meat in front of you and says "Eat with your hands!"... what's not to love about that?

Art Deco everywhere. I swear, you cannot turn your head without bumping into some of it.

Grilled vegetables mock lasagna

2011-11-17T04:00:00.000-05:00

One thing I miss about summer the most once fall sets in is eating flavorful fresh vegetables. Fall veggies are fine, but they are definitely not the same, not just because of their color, but also because of their flavor. Let's face it: parsnips are ok, but they are no fresh baby zucchini.

Still, I have promised myself that I wouldn't buy out of season vegetables that come form the other side of the world this year, that I would make more sustainable choices in the months ahead. And, to be honest, summer veggies don't taste that good when you eat them in the fall, they just aren't the same.

Unless you grill them, of course.

See where I'm going here?

I bought a last batch of summer veggies -zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant- grilled them and used them to make this mock lasagna. Again, I call it "mock" because it's not made with lasagna noodles, but with pane carasau, a Sardinian flatbread.

This isn't really a recipe. I just grilled the vegetables, chopped them and alternated layers of flat bread, layers of veggies and sprinkled them with shredded mozzarella. Then I baked it at 350°F for ten minutes and... voilà. Dinner is served!

That's all floks. I won't be around for a few days, I'm going to Prague tomorrow... so have a great weekend everyone, and see you on Monday!

Wordless Wednesdays: Locarno, Lake Maggiore, Switzerland

2011-11-16T15:15:00.001-05:00

A guest post: gluten free carrot cake

2011-11-14T06:07:00.001-05:00

I'm proud to announce a guest post for today. Last week, I was checking out Facebook while at work and saw that my coworker Samantha had posted a picture of a gorgeous looking carrot cake on her profile. Later that day, she showed up in the newsroom with a generous amount of it and she put it on the meeting room table for us to try while we discussed news and pages. It was delicious. And, to my amazement, it was gluten and butter free. So I asked her to write a post on my blog and she graciously accepted. So here she is and here's her recipe:

"As soon as I found out I couldn’t eat any wheat anymore I felt desperate. I thought it was a complete nightmare, also because I love every kind of baked sweets. Ok, after a few months I have to admit it’s not actually nice, but from that day I tried to cook my own dishes a little more and discovered that gluten-free food can be delicious as well. I tried many carrot cake recipes but this is my favorite, both because it’s really simple to make and because the result is great. That’s why I’m writing this post for my new colleague and I’m really honored to!"

Ingredients

300 gr (10 ounces) carrots

300 gr (10 ounces) grated almonds

300 (10 ounces) gr sugar

80-100 gr (3.5 ounces) gluten-free flour (or simply white flour)

4 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

grated lemon rind

Eventually, to decorate:

icing sugar

marzipan carrots

Peel and grate the carrots. Mix them with the grated almonds, the sugar and the lemon rind. Add the eggs and stir. Finally add the flour and the baking powder and keep mixing for a couple of minutes. That’s it, you can now put the mixture in an oiled baking pan (no matter what shape, I actually like ring shaped cake). Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes at 175° (aria calda). When the cake got cold, you can decorate it with icing sugar and marzipan carrots or with a lemon frost made with water, lemon juice and icing sugar. Enjoy!

The 2011 Thanksgiving Challenge

2011-11-13T11:37:00.001-05:00

Holy crap, Thanksgiving is almost here! Seriously, it snuck up on me this year. While I usually plan the meal well in advance, this year I had no idea the holiday was upon us until I started notcing everyone posting Thanksgiving recipes on the web.

For the second time in a row I'm hosting a European Thanksgiving extravaganza, where the extravagant part is cooking it all in a ridicolously small kitchen. For about 15 guests. I know it sounds crazy, but I did last year, I can do it again this year, right? Not to mention that this time my mom and dad will be here, so they can help too. On top of that, I had my mom bring me some brining begs form the U.S., so I can prepare the turkey like I did in 2009, which was the best bird ever... ruined only by the fact that I broke my knee while preparing the meal.

So since I'm a little bored today I thought that planning this year's menu would be a good idea, even though every year I end up changing some of it at the last minute. And this year, other than the tiny kitchen challenge, I have a second one: one of my guests is a vegetarian, another one has to eat gluten free. Here's what I have so far:

Homemade patê

Pumpkin Spread (vegetarian and gluten free)

Mushroom Crostini (vegetarian and gluten free)

Maple-Cider Brined Turkey with Bourbon-Cider Gravy (from Cooking Light)

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon and Garlic (from Cooking Light)

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes (vegetarian and gluten free)

Apple and Cranberry Sauce (vegetarian and gluten free)

Ciabatta Stuffing with Chestnuts and Raisins (from Cooking Light) (vegetarian)

Corn Bread Stuffing with Sausage and Apples (gluten free)

Pumpkin Almond Cheesecake (from Cooking Light)

The travel bug

2011-11-09T06:09:00.001-05:00

...I admit it. I'm sick. The travel bug is back, stronger and meaner than ever. This time it looks like it's going to take over my body, my mind, my whole life worse than the other times before.

It got into me a little bit last year, but the problem was I had no freaking money to travel with, so I couldn't do too much about it. Then I got a job and, almost instantly, I started itching for some more travel. New destinations. New adventures. Even if just for a weekend.

Then this morning, while I was looking for a my scarf, I came across a travel wishlist I had scribbled when I first moved to Switzerland, a year and a half ago. I have it here, on my desk. And it makes me smile, because it's awesome. But it also makes me want to pick up my crap and just go.

Seriously, every time I walk by the Lugano train station I feel this urge to jump on a random train and go wherever. But since working is a necessary condition to have money for traveling, I won't do it. What I will do is make sure I go to each and every place on my list as soon as possible.

EUROPEAN TRAVEL WISHLIST

Lisbon, Portugal
~~Madrid, Spain~~ (July 2010)
~~Barcelona, Spain~~ (August and October 2010)
Bilbao and San Sebastian, Spain
~~Stockholm, Sweden~~ (February 2011)
Dublin, Ireland
Oslo, Norway
Tallin, Estonia
Bruxelles, Belgium
Bruges, Belgium
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Prague, Czech Republic (going next weekend!)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Krakov, Poland
~~Berlin, Germany~~ (October 2011)
Reykjavík, Iceland
Sicily, Italy
Belgrade, Serbia
Croatia
~~Greek Islands~~ (July 2011)
Istanbul, Turkey
Zurich, Switzerland

Acquacotta... much more than just "cooked water"

2011-11-08T08:06:00.002-05:00

Acquacotta in Italian means, literally, cooked water, but as you can tell by the picture, there's much more to this Tuscan soup than just cooked water. There's a poached egg, there's a rich mushroom and tomato broth and, underneath it all there's a thick slice of bread sprinkled with Pecorino cheese. It's a very comforting dish, easy to make and, above all, it's very cheap. Mushrooms are plentiful in this season, but I had so many bags of dried porcini (don't ask, I'm not sure why) in the pantry I used those, and it turned out great.

ACQUACOTTA

Serves 4

2 large onions, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

Extra virgin olive oil

2 pounds mushrooms, sliced

5 tomatoes, cubed

5 cups tasty stock

Grated Romano cheese

4 eggs

4 large slices country bread

Salt and pepper

Dried marjoram

Heat a bit of EVOO in a large dutch oven, add onions and sautee on medium heat for a ten minutes, stirring so it doesn't burn. Add garlic and mushrooms, sautee for three minutes. Add tomatoes, season with salt, pepper and marjoram and cook for about ten minutes. Add broth, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

In the mean time, toast bread and place each slice on the bottom of a large bowl. Sprinkle with cheese. Pour very hot soup in each bowl. Crack an egg in each one. The broth will cook the egg. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Things I loved about Berlin

2011-11-03T06:14:00.001-05:00

The Riverside Lodge Hostel, Berlin's tiniest hostel. And I'm not exaggerating: it consists of two rooms and two bathrooms, all spotless and clean, with cool murals and a super nice host, Enrico. The bed was comfy and warm and I loved how everyone had to take their shoes off at the hostel entrance.

Art on every wall, around every corner. Even at a small playground in the middle of the Turkish quarter. My playground, as a kid, never looked this cool.

Beer gardens. Despite the temperature (it barely broke 50F during the warmest hours of the day) everyone enjoyed sitting in the sun, sipping on a good, cheap, draft beer.

The incredible architecture. The Berliner Dome and the Alexanderplatz needle are just two of the many amazing buildings you see as you stroll down the roads in Berlin.

Street vendors still capitalizing on Berlin's DDR past, selling CCCP flags and other (fake) communist memorabilia to tourists.

The sky over Berlin. No wonder Wim Wenders named his movei, Der Himmel uber Berlin, after it. It's temperamental and dramatic, just like the city below it.

Branderbourg Gate. Because seeing it on tv is one thing. Hanging out below it, remembering people cheering for their newfound freedom in 1989 is priceless.

Amazing city sunsets, which are always my favorites. Because let's face it: it's easy to see a great sunset on an island in Bora Bora, but it's much more scenic when you see a monument in the way.

The East Side Gallery, aka what remains of the Berlin Wall. Hundreds of incredibly gifted artists from all over the world have contributed to transforming a symbol of repression into one of freedom and hope.

Street musicians, playing, singing and smiling despite the cold Northern wind that blew relentlessly throughout the day.

Feeling part of a history that, until now, I had only seen on tv and read in books.

Impromptu art galleries placed in abandoned buildings, where mostly homeless artists place their sculptures and live together.

Paying my respects to the victims of the Holocaust. A sobering experience that anyone who's visiting Berlin should partake in.

Drinking beer for breakfast. Scratch that: drinking incredibly good, tasty German beer for breakfast, and not being the only one in the bar to do so.

And most of all, hanging out with my old friend Cass, who invited me to meet her in Berlin while she was visiting the city.

Risotto with pumpkin and pancetta

2011-11-01T06:43:00.004-05:00

Happy belated Halloween everyone! I hope you are not tired of pumpkins and pumpkin recipes because lately I have been cooking a loooooot of pumpkin. I just haven't had time to post any recipes, nor have I had time to visit other people's blogs. I'm not sure why, exactly. Maybe because I have been traveling and when I was home I went out to restaurants a lot. Maybe I've just been lazy. Maybe I was trying to enjoy the last few days of warm fall weather because, so far, we have had the most amazing October I've ever seen. So it was a great time to take walks by the lake and go to outdoor festivals. Next week, though, we are supposed to get some really shitty weather, so I guess I'll have tons of time to dedicate to my blog then.

Back to pumpkin, though. Here's a recipe to make risotto with pumpkin and smoked pancetta which is very, very good. And I'm not just saying so because I invented it. It was truly amazing, perfect for any fall dinner party you might be hosting. Or even for a family dinner, really.

PUMPKIN AND PANCETTA RISOTTO

1/2 cup EVOO

2 cups finely chopped onion

1 cup chopped pancetta

2 cups arborio rice

1 cup dry white wine

About 6 cups of hot vegetable stock

1 pumpkin, one half baked in the oven and then pureed; the other half, peeled, cut into small dice, and sauteed in a little oil and butter until tender

1 cup grated Parmesan

4 tablespoons butter

In a medium-size heavy dutch over, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and a tablespoon of butter. Add the onion and pancetta and saute, stirring continuously, just until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the rice and continue to stir, using a wooden spoon, to coat the rice with the oil.

Add the white wine and continue cooking, stirring often, until it has been absorbed by the rice. Pour two ladles of broth to cover the rice and continue to cook, stirring often, until all the liquid is absorbed.

Pour in 1 cup more of the remaining stock and stir and cook until it has been absorbed. Repeat with 1 more cup. Add the remaining cup and cook, stirring, until the rice is al dente, tender but still very chewy, and most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Stir in the pumpkin and reduce the heat to very low so that the risotto doesn't simmer anymore. Stir in the cheese and butter to give the risotto a nice, creamy finish. Spoon it immediately into heated shallow serving bowls.

Open faced pulled pork sandwiches

2011-10-17T04:13:00.001-05:00

I've been kind of lazy with my blog lately, but I have a good excuse. At least, I think it's a pretty good one. With my parents being here visiting from the U.S., we have dined out a lot, especially since it's venison season and most local restaurants serve all kinds of delicious dishes.

Also, I've just been out of town for the weekend. I went to... drumroll please... BERLIN! I had always wanted to go and, finally, I've made it there. It was amzing trip, although a short one. I'll tell you all about it in a different post, though, with pics and all that other fun stuff.

For now I'm just going to share a recipe with you, the first ever made with my brand new crockpot. You have to know that slowcookers are not popular in Europe. I know, I know. It sounds crazy, since they are so awesome and useful... still, you cannot find them anywhere. Most people don't know what they are. I missed mine so much, I started thinking about having my mom ship it to me from Florida. But then I found one on Amazon.it and forwarded the link to my sister asking her to give it to me as a birthday present. And the rest is history. I now have a crock pot and it came just in time for me to make some good slowcooked, fall recipes.

I decided to inaugurate it by making spicy pulled pork. It turned out great, and when I came home from work the house smelled delicious.

PULLED PORK
Adapted from http://www.skinnytaste.com

2.5 lb pork shoulder
6 cloves garlic cut into slivers
cumin
garlic powder
1 cup chicken broth
2-3 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
2 bay leaves

Season pork with salt and pepper. In a medium sauté pan on medium-high heat, brown it for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Using a sharp knife, cut small holes into meat and insert garlic slivers. Season with cumin and garlic powder all over.

Place chicken broth in the crockpot, add bay leaves and chipotles. Add pork in crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. After 8 hours, shred meat using two forks and combine well with the juices that accumalated at the bottom. Adjust salt and cumin. Let it cook another 15-30 minutes.

A wonderful fall lunch at Osteria Ciona

2011-10-09T04:21:00.000-05:00

Friday the high temperature dropped from 81 to 69 and a cool Northern wind kept the sky clear and the air chilly.It has been a beautiful fall weekend so far, one during which I've eaten all kinds of awesome autumn dishes.
Yesterday my parents and I drove up in the hills over Lake Lugano and had lunch at a place called Osteria Ciona, a traditional Swiss restaurant that specializes in venison this time of the year. It was amazing. The restaurant itself, as you can see, is something out of a postcard. Service is, as it usually is in Switzerland, impeccable. We sat on the terrance, figuring we would take advantage of the last days of warm-enough-for-outside weather. And of course we ordered from the "Fall specialties" menu... because that's what we had gone there for. It was hard to choose, I have to say. There were all kinds of yummy options, ranging from wild boar to deer, cooked in all kinds of ways. In the end we settled for a deer salami as a shared appetizer. It was a great choice. The salami was fresh and tender and so delicious it was almost too good to eat with bread. For our main courses, my mom picked deer filet with polenta and chestnuts (pictured on the right). The meat was tender and cooked just right - juicy and pink on the inside.
My dad also opted for a venison main course. He ordered deer stew, which also was excellent. As for me, I decided to have venison filled ravioli, served with melted butter and sage.
As you can tell there was a lot of butter involved, which made the dish even better. All in all, it was a fantastic lunch. We drank a locally produced merlot which complimented the meal very nicely.
There were other things on the menu that I wanted to try, so I guess I'll be back there pretty soon. The biggest problem around here is that there are too many great restaurants... and so little time.

Wordless Wednesday: the doors and windows of Carona, Switzerland

2011-10-05T02:27:00.000-05:00

Meatloaf with onion sauce

2011-10-04T04:13:00.000-05:00

For the whole month of September I have eaten and drunk as if it where the holiday season, partly because I was trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer, party because my birthday is on Spetmeber 29th, which means that I feel entitled to party for the whole month.

The result is that now I feel full even before I start eating and that my clothes are a little tight on me, especially my beloved jeans. This, of course, means that I have to lose a couple of pounds and that I have to watch what I eat for a couple of weeks.

What does all this have to do with meatloaf, you might ask? Well, everything, if the meatloaf in question is nutricious yet low fat. And tasty, of course, because I'm a firm believer that if somethig tastes horrible it won't help your diet.

TURKEY MEATLOAF WITH ONION SAUCE

Cooking spray

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup minced mushrooms

6 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound ground turkey breast

1 large egg

1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)

For sauce:

3 onions, chopped
A glass of white wine
Chicken broth

Preparation

To prepare loaf:
Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

Combine onion, breadcrumbs, and next 7 ingredients (through Tabasco) in a large bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons ketchup.
Shape mixture into a loaf shape. Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for an hour.

Heat a large pan over medium high heat, coat with cooking spray. Sautee loaf on all sides, turning carefully. Add onions to pan and wine. Let onions cook for a few minutes. Continue cooking loaf for about 30 minutes, basting with broth if sauce gets dry.

This time tomorrow...

2011-09-28T13:36:00.000-05:00

...where will we be?
On a spaceship somewhere sailing across an empty sea
This time tomorrow what will we know?
Well we still be here watching an in-flight movie show
This time tomorrow what will we see?
Field full of houses, endless rows of crowded streets...
(The Kinks)

This time tomorrow, I will also be a year older. When I wake up tomorrow morning I'll be 31, which will feel kind of weird since I have just recently gotten used to be 30.

Not to mention that 30 was extremly good to me. One of the best years of my life, actually. I would have never expected it, mostly because I spent all of last summer dreading turning 30. Then, on the eve of my birthday, my car got towed in Milano and I had to spend several hours and hundreds un Euros to get it out of the impound lot. That's when I figured out that 29really sucked (for more than just that reason, of course, but i won't bore you here with why it was one of the worse years of my life) and that, well, I couldn't wait to be 30.

So on September 29th last year, I woke up in a great mood, feeling that 30 would be a great year.

Turns out I was right.

30 was a great year.

And this time tomorrow I'll be 31. I have a good feeling about it. We'll see.

By the way, I strongly suggest you listen to The Kinks' song. It's awesome: http://youtu.be/AtNP5U_Khd0

Vegetarian pad thai

2011-09-25T04:35:00.003-05:00

I've recently became a tofu eating freak. Don't get me wrong, thre's nothing wrong with eating tofu, or with being a freak for that matter. The wierd thing about my tofu eating habit is that I have loathed tofu for so long, I was actually famous for campaining against "that cardboard-like crap". I would tell to everyone that listened to me that never would I dream of ruining a perfectly good dish by putting tofu in it. And so on.

The problem, if you are wondering what my problem was, is that the only way I had ever had tofu was in miso soup and, let's be honest, when you eat it like that it doen't taste like much. And I find that the broth makes it kind of slimey too, which is not my favorite consistency in the world.

I had to go to a Japanese restaurant in Milano to change my mind. There, because of a mistake, they brought me a noodle dish with tofu instead of chicken. What a revelation. Because it was sauteed in spices and condiments, it was actually yummy. There and then I decided that tofu would become part of my diet. I bought it shortly afterward and tried my first tofu recipe at home, adapting a Cooking Light pad thai recipe. Success!

VEGETARIAN PAD THAI

Sauce:

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons apple vinegar

1 to 2 tablespoons hot sauce

1 tablespoon honey

Noodles:

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

2 cups thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps (about 5 ounces)

1 cup matchstick cut zucchini

1 garlic clove, minced

8 ounces extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 cup light coconut milk

1 cup (1-inch) sliced green onion tops

1 cup chopped fresh basil

1/3 cup dry-roasted peanuts

8 ounces uncooked wide rice stick noodles (Banh Pho), cooked and drained

5 lime wedges

To prepare sauce, combine first 4 ingredients, stirring with a whisk.

To prepare noodles, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, zucchini, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add sauce and tofu; cook 1 minute. Stir in coconut milk; cook 2 minutes. Stir in green onions and next 3 ingredients (lettuce through noodles); cook 1 minute.

Serve with lime wedges.

Corn fritters with fresh tomato sauce

2011-09-20T03:12:00.000-05:00

Another great summer recipe. This year I'm definitely trying to hold on to summer more than last year, although I have to say that it feels pretty damn great to sleep under the covers with the windows open. Last night I enjoyed a glorious rainstorm, one that made the temperature dip from Saturday's 81 degrees to a high of a mere 68F and a low of 52F. I know it's not freezing by any means, but it was quite a shock. The ten day forecast looks good, though. Today is still a little chilly, but from tomorrow on we are going back into the low 80s, hopefully until the 29th, when I'm hosting my birthday party at an outdoors venue.

But enough about the weather. Let's talk about food, shall we?

I had toyed with the idea of making corn fritters for a while, but for some reason I never got around to actually make them. Something would always come up and I'd cook something else, postponing the fritters indfinitely. I mean, between cookbooks, cooking magazines and blogs, how on earth is one supposed to try all the delicious recipes one finds? Seriously, how do you guys deal with this recipe overload?

Anyway, I finally made the fritters... and now I wish I had made them earlier on because they are de-li-cious! Also, they are very easy and quick to make, so I definitely suggest you try them as well.

CORN FRITTERS WITH FRESH TOMATO SAUCE

1 large can of corn (or you can use fresh, if you have it)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 red chili pepper, minced
2 scallions, finely chopped
A bunch of basil, chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons of water
Salt and pepper

2 tomatoes
1 scallion
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil, torn into pieces

To make sauce, cube tomatoes, slice scallion, mix together with fresh basil and season with salt and pepper.

To make fritters, place corn in a large bowl. Add garlic, basil, scallions, chili pepper, soy sauce, flour, eggs and water. Mix well.

Heat some oil in a large skillet. Spoon batter into skillet, one tablespoon at the time, then, using a wooden spoon flatten the batter and make the fritter as round as possible. Cook for two minutes, then carefully flip and cook on the other side for two minutes. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with tomato sauce.

Oven-fried zucchini chips with basil dipping sauce

2011-09-18T03:56:00.002-05:00

The end of summer is near. Yesterday the weather was hot and humid, the kind of day that makes you run to the nearest gelateria for a good ice cream cone or to the bar for an ice cold beer. Today there's a high of 69 and the rain is falling heavy upon Lake Lugano, making it look like the midst of November.

Seriously, it's quite a shock. Yesterday flip flops and a sun dress. Today leggings and boots. As the old people would say, where the hell have the half seasons gone?

Nobody knows.

Still, yesterday I went grocery shopping and, since the weather was still nice out, I bought a bunch of summery ingredients, mostly fresh produce and such. By the time I got home, the clouds where rolling in, the wind had picked up and the lake was white capping. But I had no choice. It was too late to make stew or a roast. So I made this recipe that I found a while ago on Reeni's blog, which is wonderful and you should visit if you have never done so.

I tweaked the recipe a little bit because I didn't have the exact ingredients. It turned out great. As soon as the chips where out of the oven they were all gone.

OVEN-FRIED ZUCCHINI CHIPS WITH BASIL DIPPING SAUCE

1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup vegetable broth
2 small zucchini cut in 1/4-inch-thick slices
Cooking spray or vegetable/olive oil

Preheat oven to 425° F. Grease a large oven-proof wire rack set on a baking sheet.

Whisk together bread crumbs, Parmesan, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Place broth in a separate shallow bowl. Dip zucchini slices in broth then in breadcrumb mixture patting the crumbs on. Place slices on wire rack. Repeat until all are coated.

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately with basil dipping sauce if desired.

BASIL DIPPING SAUCE

1/2 cup plain yougurt
A big bunch of fresh basil, chopped
1 scallion, chopped
1/2 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Use a blender or food processor to combine all ingredients except salt and pepper until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.

Provencal pork stew

2011-09-16T06:35:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you all remember that, lately I've been cooking with tomatoes a lot, with homemade tomato sauce, to be precise. Ever since my coworker flooded the newsroom with beautifully ripe beefsteak tomatoes I've been making homemade tomato sauce like crazy and, subsequently, had to figure out ways to use it, other than using it as pasta sauce of course.

I found this recipe on Cooking Light's website. It caught my eye not only because it called for a lot of tomato sauce, but also because it called for other ingredients I love and had on hand: fennel, black olives and oregano. Well, I'm glad I tried it because it was amazing. I'm also glad I made a lot of it, so I had some leftovers to enjoy a couple of nights later, when I didn't feel like cooking. I love my new job but sometimes I'm really tired at night and I don't always feel like cooking. This stew keeps really well in the fridge... I'd even say it was better after two days!

PROVENCAL PORK STEW

1 tablespoon olive oil, divided

4 cups sliced fennel bulb (about 2 bulbs)

3 1/2 cups thinly sliced onion (about 2 large)

8 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 ounces)

2 pounds pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup fat-free chicken broth

1 tablespoon herbes de Provence

3 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup niçoise olives

1/2 cup capers

Chopped fresh oregano

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add fennel and onion; sauté 8 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Spoon fennel mixture into a large bowl.
Place flour in a shallow bowl or pie plate. Dredge pork in flour, shaking off excess. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add half of pork mixture; sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Cook 6 minutes, browning on all sides. Add browned pork to fennel mixture. Repeat procedure with remaining pork mixture, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.
Add wine to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Stir in pork mixture, broth, herbes de Provence, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes or until pork is just tender.
Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and olives. Simmer 10 minutes or until pork is tender and sauce is thick. Sprinkle with parsley, if desired.

A new project, a new beginning

2011-09-14T08:00:00.001-05:00

Please, take a minute to check out my new project, 365: a year in picturs. Today I posted my first picure... and I'm looking forward to a year of (hopefully) good photography. Enjoy!

Veggie and mozzarella pie

2011-09-12T03:43:00.001-05:00

If you think that I'm obsessed with savory pies, you are 100% right. I am. My obsession springs from the harsh reality that more than once savory pies have saved my ass when I had to throw a meal together at the very last minute. Also, another great quality of theirs is that you can fill them with virtually anything you have at hand so there's no need to run to the store and get ingredients when you are already running late.

As you might have guessed by now, I happen to run late a lot in the kitchen. I always have these grand plans of prepearing everything in advance so that I have time to clean up the kitchen and take a shower and welcome my guests happy, clean and relaxed... then I usually end up greeting them looking like a freak with food all over my hands and half the stuff still in the oven or on the stove. But I guess they love me anyways, because they keep coming back. And they love my savory pies, even though I admitted to all of them that the only reason there's almost always one on my table is that I'm incredibly disorganized.

Oh, well.

In case you have missed my other savory pie recipes, here they are:

Zucchini blossom savory pie
Spring vegetables savory pie
Zucchini savory pie
Savory yogurt pie

VEGGIE AND MOZZARELLA PIE

1 refrigerated pie crust
1 yellow bell pepper
1 small eggplant
1 onion
2 small zucchini
1 mozzarella, cubed
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh or dried oregano

Chop all vegetables. Heat some olive oil ina large skillet, add vegetables, season with salt and pepper and saute for a few minutes, until crisp tender.

Unroll pie crust, scatter half of mozzarella on it, add vegetables, then other half of cubed mozzarella. Season with oregano.

Cook in 350F oven for about 25 minutes.

Homemade tomato sauce

2011-09-07T16:57:00.000-05:00

There's tomatoes and then there's Tomatoes, with a capital T. The Tomatoes one of my coworkers brought to work yesterday definitely belong to the latter category. Fresh, plump, pretty much just-off-the-plant. My coworker's father grows them (along with other vegetables) in his garden and they are absolutely delicious. They were extremely ripe so I decided to turn them into tomato sauce right away, before it was too late. Making tomato sauce is not something I do very often, but when I do I enjoy every second of it, mostly because the whole house smells amazing five minutes into it.

Fresh tomatoes, onions, extra virgin olive oil, fresh basil, salt and a little crushed red pepper. That's it. That's my recipe for perfect tomato sauce. Of course there's a gazillion different ways to make sauce, as many as there are Italian (and non-Italian) cooks. But this is the way I made it. And, believe me, it was amazing. I'm looking forward to using it all week long to cook several dishes I already have in mind.

Note: I don't peel my tomatoes to make sauce because I actually like the way the sauce stays thicker that way, but you are free to peel them if you prefer.

HOMEMADE TOMATO SAUCE

10 large tomatoes

2 onions, chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt, to taste

Crushed red pepper, to taste

A bunch of fresh basil

Place whole tomatoes and chopped tomatoes in a large dutch oven, pour some olive oil on top, season with salt and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, breaking the tomatoes with a wooden spoon as they become soft.

When tomatoes have cooked for about half hour, season with crushed red pepper, torn basil and toss it in the sauce. Cook for ten more minutes. Turn the heat off and let cool. Use sauce for pasta, pizza or whatever other dish calls for tomato sauce.

Herbed roasted chicken with root vegetables

2011-09-06T14:12:00.002-05:00

There's something in the air. Mornings are brisk, and so are nights. Alas, the end of summer is near. The days are still bright, sunny and warm, yet you can tell that in a month or so, it will be over. It will be time for coats and socks and autumn ingredients.

When I was little, I used to be kind of glad when summer was over. It meant going back to school, but it also meant that my birthday was coming up, that I would be able to play with my best friend again, that ski season was approaching fast.

Last year I was even more excited. It was my first "real" fall after nine years of Florida. I was thrilled to see the leaves going yellow and reddish and brown. I couldn't wait to put on my winter clothes and spend evenings reading in front of the fire.

This year, things are a little different. I've found myself more than once wishing summer could last a little longer. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that while last year I traveled a lot between June and Spetember, this year I only went to Greece for a week. Which was fabulous, of course, but didn't last long enough.

Enough with the whining, though.

To get ready for the change of season I'm slowly incorporating "fall" recipes in my diet, so that when tomatoes and basil are no longer tasty and delicious it won't be too much of a shock.
Which brings me to today's recipe: an easy, simple roasted chicken with root vegetables, with a kick: the bird is smothered in fresh herbs. Just to make summer last a little longer ;)

HERBED ROASTED CHICKEN WITH ROOT VEGETABLES

1 whole chicken
1 lemon, quartered
Salt and pepper
1/2 stick of butter
Fresh herbs, such as basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme
2 onions, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
3 potatoes, coarsely chopped
1 glass dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth

Preheat oven to 400F.

Season chicken cavity with salt and pepper, then place quartered lemon into it. Truss chicken.

In a food processor pulse butter and herbs until you obtain a smooth paste. Being careful not to rip the skin, place a little herbed butter between the skin and the breast, then use rest to rub chicken all over. Season with salt and pepper.

Place chicken in a oven safe baking dish. Scatter chopped vegetables around it. Pour wine and broth into baking dish.

Cook for 45 minutes in preheated oven. Should the top of the chicken brown too fast, cover with foil.

Thai style fried rice

2011-09-05T05:02:00.000-05:00

"Let's make Thai (or French/Chinese/Moroccan/etc.) food this weekend."

You often here me announcing such things on Monday or Tuesday night, as I enjoy a post-work drink at my favorite new bar, the Borromini Art Caffè. I won't lie to you: I announce such things at the beginning of the week because I can't wait for the weekend already. As much as I love my job, I still love cooking and doing nothing all day a little better. Waking up at 10... going dowstairs to have coffee with my friend Samy... taking my sweet time to make it to the pool... what's not to love?

And, of course, having time to cook for 8 or 10 people ROCKS. That is probably my favorite part of the weekend. I cook, they bring the wine/beer. It beats going to the restaurant, both because of the price and the quality of the food.

Every week I come up with a theme, then go with it. My friends are adventorus eaters, thank God, so they never turn down the opportunity to try something new. This past weekend I had my heart set on Thai food, so I made my green curry and also fried rice. As much as I love curry, I have to say that the rice was my favorite part of the meal.

THAI STYLE FRIED RICE

Adapted from Cooking Light

1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon lower-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste), divided
1/4 teaspoon salt, divided
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 bunch green onions
2 tablespoons peanut oil, divided
2 1/2 cups cooked and cooled brown rice
1/4 cup vertically sliced onions
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup julienne-cut bell pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
Cooking spray
2 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
4 lime wedges

Preparation

Combine first 4 ingredients, 1/2 teaspoon sambal oelek, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine eggs and remaining 1/2 teaspoon sambal oelek in a bowl. Separate green tops from green onions, and diagonally chop; set aside. Cut green onion bottoms into 1-inch pieces; set aside.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons oil to pan, swirling pan to coat evenly. Add rice; stir-fry 1 1/2 minutes, stirring constantly. Transfer rice mixture to a large bowl. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in pan. Add onions to pan; stir-fry 30 seconds or until tender. Add brown sugar mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute or until liquid thickens slightly, stirring occasionally. Add to rice mixture.
Wipe pan clean with a paper towel; return pan to medium-high heat. Add remaining 2 teaspoons oil to pan, swirling to coat. Add broccoli and bell pepper; stir-fry 3 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add the remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt, green onion bottoms, and garlic; stir-fry 1 minute or until fragrant. Add rice mixture to pan, cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
Add egg mixture to pan, swirling to coat pan; cook 30 seconds or just until egg is set. Top with green onion tops; garnish with lime wedges.

Chicken cutlets with balsamic bell pepper sauce

2011-08-31T08:33:00.000-05:00

First things first, I apologize for the poor quality of this photo. See, the thing is, I took it with my phone because I couldn't find my camera for the life of me and the food was getting cold, so I had to use the phone. Then, of course, as soon as I was done eating my camera reappeared, but it was too late. The food was all gone.

Saturday morning my friends and I went grocery shopping in Italy. With 100 Euros I bought groceries (and wie, of course) to last me at least 10 days, so I was really excited to get back in the kitchen. After being so lazy for the whole month I kinda missed cooking and enjoying my meals at home. Now I don't have an excuse anymore: my fridge and my pantry are busting with all kinds of food. So beware, readers, I'm going to start posting like crazy again!

Also, the weather is not as hot as it was last week, when it was pretty much unbearable. It's still sunny and beautiful out, but it cools off enough at night that I actually feel like standing in front of the stove. Which brings me to this chicken dish I made for the first time the other night. I had the most beautiful and plump red bell pepper I'd seen in a while, but I didn't want to use it in the usual way, i.e. grilled or baked in the oven with potatoes. So I made a sort of sauce out of it, that I served with sauteed chicken cutlets. While it cooked it smelled divine and once it was ready it was a big hit with everyone. It's definitely one of those dishes that tastes better than it looks!

CHICKEN CUTLETS WITH BALSAMIC BELL PEPPER SAUCE

Serves 4

8 chicken cutlets
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 red bell peppers
1 small onion
EVOO
2 tablespoons capers

Season cutlets with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet sautee chopped onion and bell pepper in olive oil for about 10 minutes. Place vegetables in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Set aside and keep warm..

In the same skillet cook chicken, two minutes per side, then add balsamic vinegar and let it reduce for 30 seconds. Add bell pepper sauce, capers and cook for a minute or two.

Mock vegetarian lasagne

2011-08-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while I have a stroke of genius. I know I'm not being very modest here, but if you had tried this mock lasagna the other night, you would have called it a stroke of genius too, I promise. The heat has been relentless lately. We have had high temperatures in the low and mid 90s and lows barely dipping below 70. For Lake Lugano that's very hot.

Of course everyone started bitching.

Gotta love people. In July they were practically crying over the fact that it was rainy and not warm enough. Several of them were parading around crying that summer was already over. Already? It practically started in April, for crying out loud. And now that it's hot out, they are moaning and crying again. Go figure.

My only problem is that we don't have an a/c system in the office yet because the company just moved, so working, especially in the afternoon, is challenging. When I get home I usually sit in front of the a/c for a few minutes to cool off and come back to life. Then I can think about cooking, usually while I drink an ice cold beer.

The other night I invited a couple of friends over and, over some chilled prosecco, I came up with this mock lasagna recipe, using what I had on hand. I call it mock because instead of using lasagna noodles, I used pane carasau, the Sardinian flatbread I had used in this other yummy recipe.

MOCK VEGETARIAN LASAGNA

Pane carasau (Sardinian music bread)

1 large eggplant,sliced

3 cups tomato sauce with basil

2 tubs light cream cheese

Salt and pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

Greated parmesan cheese

Lightly grease a baking dish with olive oil.

Place eggplant slices on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and cook for ten minutes at 350°F.

Soak bread in warm waterfor a few seconds. Place a layer of bread on the bottom of baking dish. Cover with a layer of eggplant, a layer of tomato sauce and a layer of cheese. Repear until you tun out of ingredients. Sprinkle top layer with parmesan cheese, then bake in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Berry pie

2011-08-23T02:45:00.000-05:00

A super easy pie, for those of you who, like me, are not much into dessert. But sometimes you just have to serve it because, let's say, you have planned dinner for 6, but you end up with 10 guests.

No biggie. The more the merrier and all that crap.

But if you don't want everyone to leave your house hungry, you have to come up with something. Recently, when a few extra friends stopped by for dinner, I had to rethink my menu a little because the pasta I wanted to serve was not enough for everyone. So I made a savory pie for an appetizer and made this berry pie for dessert. Lots of pies, I know, but they had a buy-one-get-one-free offer on refirgerated pie crust at the store, what else could I have done?

Basically this is a non-recipe. I bought some fresh berries, but frozen will do the trick. I washed them and sprinkled them with brown sugar and lemon. Then I unrolled the pie crust, poured the berry mixture in it, folded the edges and put the pie in a 350°F oven until it looked done. I sprinkled it with powder sugar... and voilà! Dessert is done.

Wordless Wednesday: My Hipstamatic village

2011-08-17T04:23:00.000-05:00

Stuffed zucchini, Ligurian style

2011-08-11T09:52:00.000-05:00

Monday I started working as a journalist at http://www.tio.ch and I absoultely love the job. I didn't realize how much I missed working until I started working and writing again. I missed it a lot. I missed it so much that it dawned on me that until Monday I wasn't feeling like my real self. I'm not exaggerating, I swear.

The only downfall of working again is that I have less time to cook, but I guess it's more of a question of getting organized. I mean, I used to cook after work all the time back when I worked at the Naples Daily News, so I don't see why I can't do it here.

First I should probably go grocery shopping since my fridge and pantry look like they have been raided by a hoard of hungry mineworkers. Then I should skip my daily aperitivo at the Bar Lido, where I inevitably end up pigging out so much I'm then too stuffed to even think about dinner. The problem is, I kinda feel the end of summer upon me. It's crazy, I know, because after all there's still three whole weeks in August and the weather in September is definitely summer-like around here. Still, I've experienced this weird anxiety lately, so I'm spending time outdoors whenever I can.

So forgive me if I haven't been around posting on my blog and visiting yours.

Anhow, although I have cooked sporadically, I have indeed cooked something. I made these stuffed zucchini a few days ago, after looking up th recipe online. My grandma used to make these, but of course she never wrote down the instructions, so I had to ask for help to my dear friend Google. That's how I found out that the recipe hails from Liguria, a skinny and small region overlooking the Tirreno sea. I have no idea how my grandma had come across it, since she wasn't from there, but who cares? The zucchini tasted exactly like hers, so I was satisfied.

STUFFED ZUCCHINI, LIGURIAN STYLE

1 anchovy fillet

3 tabelspoons of capers

2 onions, minced

Breadcrumbs

A bunch fresh basil

Fresh oregano

Extra virgin olive oil

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

1 large can of tuna

2 eggs

4 zucchini

Boil zucchini in boiling hot, salted water for about 8 minutes. Let them cool off, then slice in half and carve pulp out with a teaspoon. Reserve pulp.

Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet, add the anchovy and let it melt. Add onion and zucchini pulp and sautee for a few minutes. In the mean time place tuna, herbs and capers in a food processor and pulse a few times. Place zucchini mixture and tuna mixture in a large bowl, add eggs, cheese, a couple of tablespoons of breadcrumb and mix well.

Spoon mixture into hollowed zucchini halves. Place them in an oven safe dish, previously oiled with EVOO. Cook at 350F for about 30 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday: Oia, Santorini

2011-08-10T02:03:00.000-05:00

"Skinny" eggplant Parmesan

2011-08-05T03:44:00.000-05:00

First things first. I have an announcement: I HAVE FINALLY FOUND A JOB!!! And not any job. A kick-ass journalism job here in Switzerland. I couldn't be happier. After 18 months of forced "vacation" I'm back in business.

Back in May a friend asked me if I had seen the ad in the paper looking for journalists. I hadn't. So I bought the paper. Went home. Sent my resume along with a presentation email to a guy. And then of course got pissed because he didn't write me back the next day. I'm crazy like that. Anyways, he didn't write back for 5 weeks. Then, when I had practically forgotten about it, he sent me an e-mail asking me to go for an interview on June 30th. The interview went well. Then they asked me and the other candidates to write an article to see our abilities. And then they didn't say anything until last week, when they wrote me to inform me that they had picked ME!

I won't lie: I started dancing around the kitchen like a complete lunatic. But hey, finding a job in journalism these days it's not easy. It definitely called for a celebration. So I decided to make eggplant Parmesan, because ever since I've been to Greece I'm madly in love with eggplants. Only, I made a light version of it because deep fried eggplants are great, but they make your ass become the size of Brazil. And since it's still bathing suit season I decided to bake them in the oven instead. Also, I didn't have any mozzarella in the fridge, so I used ricotta. They turned out great, so great I wish I had made more!

SKINNY EGGPLANT PARMESAN

3 eggplants, sliced
16 ounces ricotta
2 pounds tomatoes
1/2 onion, sliced
Fresh basil
1 cup grated Parmesan
Extra virgin olive oil

To make tomato sauce: wash tomatoes, cut them into cubes and place them in a dutch oven with the sliced onion, 5 basil leaves and a little olive oil. Cook for about 20 minutes, then process them with an immersion blender, season with salt and cook for another 30 minutes on low heat.

Drizzle sliced eggplants with salt and olive oil, place on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes at 350F.

Lightly grease a baking dish with oil and distribute eggplants on the bottom. Follow with a layer of ricotta, sprinkle with Parmesan, then add a layer of tomato sauce. Repeat layers until you run out of ingredients. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

Fregola with clams

2011-08-03T07:58:00.000-05:00

First things first, I'm sure you are all wondering..."what the heck is fregola?" Very simply put, it's a special kind of pasta hailing from Sardinia, made by mixing water and semolina in a large terracotta bowl and then by kneading the grains between the palm of your hands with a circular movement until tiny irregular balls are formed.

Now, did I do all that? Absolutely not. I bought it a the grocery store for 2 Euros for a pound. Rumor has it they also sell it in specialty stores around the U.S., although I'm not sure how much it would cost over there. Regardless, I highly recommend it. Its rough and porous quality is ideal for absorbing the scents and flavors of the ingredients you cook it in because, unlike regular pasta, you don't cook it in water. You cook it in whatever sauce you are going to serve it with.

Since it was my first time making fregola I went with the most traditional Sardinian recipe I could find: fregola with clams. Definitely worth a try.

FREGOLA WITH CLAMS

Serves 4

2 pounds littleneck clams, soaked in water and salt to remove sand

5 garlic cloves

A glass of dry white wine

32 ounces vegetable broth

Olive oil

1/2 pound fregola

1/2 pound chopped canned tomatoes

Salt and crushed red pepper

Fresh basil

Rinse clams and soak in water and salt for about an hour to remove sand. Rinse again.

In a large casserole pour a few tablespoons of olive oil, add two garlic cloves and saute for a few minutes. Add clams and wine and cook over medium high heat until clams open. Remove from heat. Throw away any clams that haven't opened and separate most clams from shells, discarding shells (leave a few for decoration if you wish). Reserve cooking liquid.

In the same casserole heat up olive oil, add remaining garlic and crushed red pepper and saute two minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, cook for a couple of minutes, then add broth, reserved cooking liquid and the fregola. While fregola cooks keep an eye on it, should it absorb all broth add a little water. Cook for about ten minutes. At the very end, add clams. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh basil on top.

Wordless Wednesday: Fira, Santorini

2011-08-03T06:16:00.000-05:00

A Greek interlude

2011-08-02T04:57:00.002-05:00

I'm in love with Greek food. This might come as a surprise for those who know me well, for I am famous for NOT liking Greek food at all. See, the thing is, I had always had Greek food in Greek restaurants abroad. That is until last week, when I took a last-minute trip to the island of Santorini. Of course I was excited to go on vacation and the picture of the cliffs and the Med looked amazing on Expedia, but I had very low expectations about food. I'm not particularly fond of feta and I can't eat cucumbers. I figured I would spend the week eating tomatoes.

Well, I was wrong. First of all, the feta they serve in Greece is completely different from the stuff you buy elsewhere. It has a nice, almost sharp flavor to it. Second, I shouldn't have worried about cucumbers. I didn't see half of one while I was there. But the tomatoes? Oh yes. They were everywhere. And they were delicious.

Spinach pie @ Mathios Hotel Village, Akrotiri

Also very delicious was the spinach pie they served practically everywhere. As you know, I love savory pies, and this spinach and feta combination is really delightful. Especially since I've found out that feta, in Greece, tastes like cheese, not like cardboard. My favorite rendition of the dish was the one they served — lucky me! — at the hotel restaurant, a little affair pinched in between two gorgeous swimming pools. I promise I'll post some pictured of the trip... for now I'm going with the food, since I liked it almost more than the vacation itself ;)

Fried calamari @ Taverna Maria, Akrotiri

Of course fish was plentiful too. And of course they served everywhere. But I don't know how you roll when you're on vacation... I usually find one or two places I fall in love with and then I become kind of a regular there, since I keep going back for more. Taverna Maria is one of those places. It's tiny, family-run and they barely speak any language that is not Greek, but boy, can Maria cook! She cooks. Her husband sets the tables. Her son and her daughter in law serve the food. Her other son... well, he just sits there really. And tries to pick up German girls with a very approximative English. Greatly entertaining, I tell you. Anyway... the calamari (and many other things) there were excellent. I kind of miss not being able to walk to Maria's at night.

Stuffed tomato and stuffed pepper @ The Boat House. Kamari Beach

Of course I didn't just eat the whole time. I mean, I also went to the beach and read books and occasionally I even ventured into the water. Then I was so exhausted I had to find a new restaurant and try some more Greek food. I'm glad I've discovered stuffed tomatoes and peppers pretty early in the vacation so that I could order them over and over again. They are stuffed with rice and cheese, so they are a great vegetarian option.

Mixed grilled fish @ Cave of Stolidas, Akrotiri

As I said already, fish was particularly good, especially at Cave of Stolidas, a small waterfront taverna owned by a man who can definitely cook some serious fish. The best part of it? Probably the fact that you can order whatever fish and shellfish you like and he just arranges it for you, grilled to perfection, on a big platter. Another perk: it cost 15 Euros per person. You just can't beat that, considering you are three feet away from the sea.

Fried Eggplants @ Taverna Perissa

And of course one cannot go to Greece without sampling some good eggplants. It's not my favorite vegetable, mind you, but I loved the way they deep fry them in a skillet and serve them with just a little salt to bring out the flavor of the eggplant. I found them pretty much on every menu at every restaurant, but — as it often happens with this traditional dishes — no rendition was alike. One thing they had in common: they were all delicious.

Gyros @ Taverna Perissa

Another Greek favorite is gyro — shaved meat on warm pita bred served with raw red onions and a yogurt and cucumber sauce. The meat is cooked slowly, so it's tender and juicy, and the onions and sauce compliment it perfectly. The only drawback is that you can't kiss anyone for a while after eating it. But, hey, it's worth it! I ordered mine with chicken once and with a pork and beef combination the next. Hard to tell which one was my favorite.

Tomato fritters @ Skala

One of Santorini's specialties is tomato fritters. They intrigued me from the get go when I saw them on a menu described as "a must-try". Then I saw them being served in the table next to mine and I knew I had to try them. Well, I wasn't disappointed. Crunchy on the outside, gooey with a mixture of tomatoes, feta and peppers on the inside, they are sold as an appetizer, but since all restaurants give you four of these giant fritters, they can easily be ordered as a main dish for only 4 Euros.

Stuffed squid @ Taverna Perissa

And speaking about delicious and gooey stuffing, stuffed squid was probably THE revelation of my vacation in Santorini. Besides the size of the thing, they some how stuff it with fresh chopped tomatoes, feta and olives and then grill it. Simple, yet a work of art. One of those things that makes me miss the island almost as much as its quaint towns and black volcanic beaches.

Zucchini blossom savory pie

2011-07-22T03:29:00.000-05:00

I love savory pies. They are so easy to make and so versatile, but most of all they are yummy both hot and cols, so they are also perfect as leftovers. Seriously, there's nothing I don't like about them. Plus, this summer I'm being kind of lazy in the kitchen, which means that I tend to gravitate towards quick and easy recipes that pack in a lot of flavors and fresh ingredients.

Zucchini blossoms are easy to come by here in Switzerland and in Italy, both by themselves or still attached to baby zucchini. If you can't find them in your area you can make the pie with baby zucchini by themselves, it will still be good. Or you can make this other savory pie with spring vegetables.

ZUCCHINI BLOSSOM SAVORY PIE

One pie crust, such as Pillsbury
2 eggs, beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper
1 pound ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 cups chopped baby zucchini
8 zucchini blossoms
Salt and pepper

Grease a round pie pan and unroll the pie crust on it.

In a bowl, mix eggs, cheeses and zucchini and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour mixture into pie crust. Decorate top of pie with zucchini blossoms cut in half.

Preheat oven to 400F. Cook pie in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Light and cool cream of tomato soup

2011-07-19T11:15:00.000-05:00

A summer recipe. As if we needed them around here. Seriously, folks, it's raining and storming and haling pretty much every other day, if not every day. Whenever the weather is nice I practically run to the Lido (pool and lake access here in town) to catch some rays and read in the sun. Otherwise I'm home, doing laundry and the likes.

Maybe I shouldn't be complaining too much. The end of June and beginning of July have been really nice. I just don't get why we have had so much rain in the last ten days. I kid you not, yesterday the weather was so gloomy we went up to Lanzo d'Intelvi, right after the Swiss Italian border and we ate homemade tagliatelle with deer ragout. I mean, that's something you do in October, for crying out loud. Right now we should be frolicking in the water, drinking margaritas and eating fresh produce, right?

So whenever there's a gorgeous day out I do my best to cook up some summer fare because I know, I just know it, that come September I'll start moping around blaming myself for not having taken advantage of the bounty of summer produce enough. Last week I made this cold tomato soup, a recipe I've found in an Italian cooking magazine, Cucina Moderna. It turned out great. Next time I'll make more so I can have some leftovers to enjoy once the weather turns horrible again...

LIGHT AND COOL CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP

Serves 4

2 pounds of ripe tomatoes
2 onions
1 tablespoon paprika
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 pound yogurt
1 teaspoon sugar
Fresh thyme
Olive oil
Salt

Wash tomatoes, cut in half. Chop onions, place them in a Dutch oven with tomatoes, a tablespoon of olive oil, salt to taste, sugar and paprika. Cover and cook for 20 minutes on medium heat.

Add broth, stir and cover for 10 more minutes. Process with an immersion blender until smooth. Let it cool. Add yogurt, stir well and regulate salt.

Sprinkle with fresh thyme and serve.

A trip to Porto Ceresio, Italy

2011-07-18T05:41:00.000-05:00

The weather so far has been kind of crappy this summer. Yet, I try to make the best of it, because really, there's enough people moaning and bitching and crying about it, I seriously believe we don't need one more whiner in town. Sure, it would be greatly appreciated if it didn't rain on the weekend every once in a while... but what can we do about it? Nothing. Other than move to Spain, maybe. Since that is kind of out of the question right now, I try to enjoy the sunny (and even the overcast) days when I can by traveling around Lake Lugano, exploring little towns I've never been to before and, of course, trying whatever specialties they offer in restaurants, osterie and grotti (grotto being the Swiss Italian word to describe an informal, family run restaurant).

Porto Ceresio is one of those cute little lake villages. It's located on lake Lugano, on the Italian side of the lake, which makes it an ideal destination if you are trying to save some money. Switzerland is a wonderful country, but eating out is extremely expensive, which is why many that live near the border like to take trips into Italy to dine. I know because I do it at least once a week and let me tell you: 15 minutes by boat or car are totally worth it.

When I was in Porto Ceresio last weekend I ate at Trattoria del Tempo Perso, right across the street from the Lake. Tempo perso means "wasted time", although in Italy it doesn't necessarily have a negative connotation. Wasting time leisurely, slowly enjoying food and wine, is considered a rather positive thing there and, if you happen to taste the food the owner makes there, you'll understand why. She literally makes everything from scratch, including the olive ascolane (picture below), a specialty of the Marche region in Central Italy. Large green olives are pitted, then filled with a meat filling, breaded and deep fried. Seriously, what's not to love about them? Mind you, they can be horrible and soggy and greasy. But not at this little Trattoria. There they are crunchy and delicious and perfect.

Also amazingly good where the fried zucchini blossoms (photo below), something yours truly just cannot resist. I was practically in heaven, with the Trattoria's menu proposing pretty much all my favorite dishes. Besides the two appetizers, the main course I chose — stuffed veggies — was also very good. A zucchini and a red bell pepper filled with a meat and cheese filling was just what I had in mind for my Sunday lunch. The tagliatelle with meatsauce my friend ordered also scored high.

Too bad we had to leave in a hurry because the weather — surprise, surprise — was getting ugly and we had arrived there by boat. My consolation is that Porto Ceresio, and the trattoria, are only 15 minutes away from Bissone where I live, so I can already see my self going back there to try more of their homemade specialties.

Trattoria del Tempo Perso
Piazza Bossi, 17
21050 Porto Ceresio (Varese)
0332 917136

Thai dinner in Switzerland

2011-07-14T02:19:00.000-05:00

Who said you can't have delicious Thai food in Switzerland? With a view of the lake? Under the stars? Let me tell you, the Thai dinner we had at the Lido di Bissone, the bar/pool/lake access/beach in the little town of Bissone where I live, was simply amazing. The two chefs came from Chiasso, on the Italian/Swiss border, where they have a little take-away restaurant that I must try asap. So they came here and they cooked in a tiny ass kitchen (I know because I work there, so I realize how difficult it is to produce food for the masses in that kitchen) for five hours, always smiling, never raising their voice, being efficient and quick and precise all at the same time. Let's just say that they should be an example to many others who do less and get pissed about everything. Just sayin'.

Anyhow, the food was amazing. The menu offered spring rolls — crunchy and not at all greasy, made to perfection — followed by pork red curry (picture above), Thai shrimp (first picture), chicken with cashews (picture below), fried rice, rice noodles with vegetables, beef in oyster sauce, tuna with five spices. It was served buffet style, so you could go back as many times as you wanted to get more. And many times we went. I have a thing for noodles with vegetables, so I'm not ashamed to say that I ate three portions. I know, I know. But what can I say? I love the stuff. I love it so much that I didn't even have time to take a picture of it.

So the Thai dinner was a great success. Many had never had Thai food before and it was great to see how curious and interested they were in a cuisine that is very foreign to them. For those of us who had had Thai many times before was a welcome change. There aren't many Thai restaurants in the area. Hell, there aren't many ethnic restaurants in general. To have all this great food brought practically at our doorstep was a real treat. And eating it at sunset overlooking the lake was just the icing on the cake. What can I say? On Saturdays they usually have BBQs at the Lido, but I hope they will repeat the Thai dinner at least once before summer is over. If they do I'll starve myself all day, so I can eat a fourth serving of noodles!

An update

2011-06-24T01:07:00.000-05:00

I'm still alive. There's reasons why I haven't posted anything in a long time. The first one being that I've been on a diet, so there wasn't anything exciting going on in my kitchen for a while. But I promise I will start cooking and posting again soon. In the mean time, I have been enjoying the end of spring and the beginning of summer. I love this time of the year here on Lake Lugano. I mean, look at that mama swan carrying her baby on her back... I had never seen anything like that before.

I've also been writing some articles for a local newspaper, which is nice because I really missed writing. For a job, I mean. And because of that I got to attend some pretty cool concerts in the area. I've also been going to Lugano a lot because in the summer there's a free outdoors concert pretty much every night. Lugano in the summer rocks.

And last but not least, I've started bartending at the local pool bar, the Lido di Bissone. Pretty, isn't it? Summer is off to a great start, I can tell.

Olive and pancetta bread

2011-05-28T04:46:00.000-05:00

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a baker. I don't like using yeast, mostly because I'm afraid that the dough won't rise. And I'm usually right. When I try to bake something that requires the dough to double in size and all those other things that doughs are supposed to do I almost always give up and pick a different recipe. What can I say? I'm a chicken when it comes to baking. I'm sure it's all about perfect measures and proportions which, as you might have guessed, are not my forte.

So the only type of bread I know I can bake is the kind that you cook in a plumcake tin, the kind that doesn't require kneading and resting and all that. I think people refer to those breads as "easy" or "quick" breads, which is what drew me to them in the first place. And they were right, they are easy and quick to make and, to top it off, they are also delicious and totally customizable. Once you have the base recipe down you can pretty much put whatever herb or vegetable or meat you like and make a different bread every time. So far olives and pancetta is my favorite combination, but who knows? I might change my mind soon...

OLIVE AND PANCETTA BREAD

2 cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup skim milk
3.5 ounces pitted green olives
3.5 ounces pitted black olives
3.5 ounces chopped smoked pancetta
3.5 ounces chopped Swiss cheese
once packet of yeast
salt and pepper

Preheat oven at 350 F.

Spray stamp with cooking spray or cover with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine eggs with oil and milk. Then add flour, cheese, olives and pancetta. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well, then slowly add yeast. Pour into prepared stamp and put it in the oven immediately.

Bake for about 50 minutes. Let the bread cool before removing it from the stamp.

Pane frattau (Sardinian music bread with eggs and tomatoes)

2011-05-19T04:30:00.000-05:00

Again have disappeared and haven't posted anything in what seems like an eternity. Also, I haven't been able to visit other people's blogs, which is even worse than not posting. The thing is, it seems like there's finally going to be a paradigm shift in my life —I won't say more because I don't want to jinx myself— and I have been hoping and wishing and dreaming too much to concentrate on cooking and writing. Plus, my parents just arrived from the U.S., so we have been going to restaurants a lot and we have been visiting family and friends, so there hasn't been a lot of cooking going on in our kitchen.

Sunday, though, my sister came to visit with her kids and we decided to make a special dish my parents used to eat while vacationing in Sardinia before I was born: pane frattau. Sardinian music bread is very thin and very brittle, which is why you have to dunk it in broth briefly before serving it. It's a very satisfying and yet very light dish... its only problem is once you eat it you want to eat it over and over again.

PANE FRATTAU

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Half an onion, chopped
2 (14.5-ounce) cans whole plum tomatoes, undrained and coarsely chopped (such as San Marzano)
4 large eggs
4 sheets pane carasau (Sardinian music bread), each broken into 4 wedges
1/2 cup (2 ounces) finely grated aged pecorino Sardo
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Vegetable broth
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion to pan, cook 3 minutes or until fragrant, stirring often. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Reduce heat to low. Working with one egg at a time, crack eggs over tomato mixture, about 1 inch apart in pan. Sprinkle eggs with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Remove from heat.
- Bring broth to a rolling boil. Dunk pane carasau in broth for a few seconds, until soft. Arrange pane carasau on each of 4 plates; spoon 3/4 cup sauce over each serving. Top each serving with 1 egg, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons grated cheese. Top each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil.

Reeni's curried chickpea and cauliflower couscous

2011-05-05T06:01:00.000-05:00

I should do this more often. And by "this" I don't mean eating wholesome, vegetarian dishes. I mean, I should do that more often as well, but what I was referring to is using other blogger's recipes. The problem is I have so many cookbooks and so many magazines I inevitably fall behind in my "recipes to try" schedule. Especially now that the weather is getting nicer and nicer I often opt to eat outdoors al local grottos (restaurants). Still, I wish I could make more new recipes because I feel that every time I find a new recipe that I like —which happens often— I have widened my horizons a little bit, which is always a good thing.

This particular recipe was found on Reeni's blog, "Cinnamon, Spice & Everything Nice". If you have never checked it out before, I strongly suggest you do so as soon as possible. She's a terrific cook and a terrific photographer, so you'll find both beautiful pictures and awesome recipes there.

As for my version of the dish, I tweaked it just a little, mostly because I didn't have almonds but I had a pint of cherry tomatoes I wanted to use before they went bad. The result? Delicious. I'm going to make this over and over again in the summer, since I ate the leftovers cold and it was still a great dish!

REENI'S CURRIED CHICKPEA AND CAULIFLOWER COUSCOUS

Adapted from Reeni's recipe

1 small yellow onion, diced

olive oil, for sauteing

sea or kosher salt and fresh black pepper

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons hot curry powder

1/3 cup golden raisins, chopped

2 cups cauliflower florets, cooked

1 can (14 ounce) chickpeas, drained and rinsed

3 cups fresh spinach leaves

3-4 cups instant couscous (whole-grain)

1/3 cup green onion, diced

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

plain yogurt, optional

In a large skillet saute onion in olive oil over medium-low heat until tender. Season well with salt and pepper. Add garlic, saute until fragrant. If pan is dry add more olive oil and mix in curry powder. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add raisins, cauliflower, chickpeas and spinach. Cook over low heat stirring often until heated through and spinach is wilted, seasoning well with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile prepare 1 + 1/2 cups dry couscous according to package directions.

Fluff up cooked couscous and mix into the chickpea mixture along with the green onion and cherry tomatoes. Serve as is or with yogurt if desired.

Wordless Wednesday: Easter Monday celebration

2011-05-04T06:09:00.001-05:00

Smoked salmon deviled eggs

2011-04-30T05:05:00.000-05:00

Pasquetta (Easter Monday) is kind of a big deal around here. First of all it's a holiday, so everyone loves it. Anything that makes a weekend last longer is a blessing, even when you are unemployed. Because let's face it, it's more fun to play when you have tons of people to play with. Also, when Easter happens to be a late Easter like this year, chances are Pasquetta will mark the first cookout of the season. That's how it was here In Bissone last weekend. It was nice enough out and we had big plans for our first outdoors party of the season. Huge plans that involved grilling pork and chicken at the communal grill, while drinking draft beer (they had 5 liter kegs on sale... too good an opportunity to let it slip by...) and munching on the many appetizers and side dishes I was going to prepare. We were excited, I tell you. Excited and a little scared because the weatherman kept being a freaking killjoy, threatening us with the notion that it might rain.

"Screw him."

We said that about a million times. And Friday, a friend and I passed the border and went to Italy to buy groceries. They do have grocery stores here in Switzerland, in case you are wondering, but everything is more expensive here, so it's worth the trip, especially when you have to buy meat and alcohol. Needless to say, you are supposed to tell the customs officers that you are bringing meat and alcohol back into Switzerland, but no one does it. Which adds a certain thrill to the whole experience, like you are some kind of much lamer, much tamer rum runner or something like that.

We went, we bought, we came back. We stuffed another friend's fridge with out loot —he has a real bachelor fridge if I've ever seen one. I mean, he doesn't even have ketchup in it...— then we all went to the bar to celebrate our successful expedition. Saturday and Sunday flew by ina whirlwind of parties, Easter lunches and trips to several lakes. I actually hung out at three different lakes in three days. But that's another story.

Monday rolled around and we packed all our stuff, ready to party by the lake. The menu included slow roasted tomatoes , potato and arougola salad, cold cuts and, of course, these deviled eggs, stuffed with smoked salmon and dill —two of my favorite ingredients. They were delicious. The meat was delicious. Everything was great and we had an awesome time. But weatherman, that bastard, was right. It did rain. At 4 o'clock, only for a half hour, but violently enough to send us all packing and running for shelter.

Oh well. It was still fun. So screw him.

SMOKED SALMON DEVILED EGGS
Adapted from Cooking Light

8 large eggs

1/4 cup fat-free yogurt

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons minced fresh dill

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces cold-smoked salmon, finely chopped

16 small dill sprigs (optional)

Place eggs in a large saucepan. Cover with cool water to 1 inch above eggs; bring just to a rolling boil. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 15 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold running water until cool.
Peel eggs; cut in half lengthwise. Place yolks in a medium bowl; mash with a fork until smooth. Add Yogurt and the other ingredients (through salmon); stir well. Spoon mixture into egg white halves (about 1 tablespoon in each half). Garnish with dill and tarragon sprigs, if desired.

"Hospital" shrimp

2011-04-22T04:53:00.001-05:00

No. They are not called 'hospital' shrimp because they are served in hospitals. As good as Swiss hospitals are, they don't serve gourmet food. The reason why we called them 'hospital shrimp' is that my dad saw this recipe on a tv show while he was at the hospital with pneumonia back in December. He saw it, liked it, and told everyone in the family about it, so a few days later, when he was released from the hospital, we decided to make them on Christmas Eve as an appetizer. They pleased the whole family, so they have become a family staple since then. The beauty of this dish is that is very easy to put together, but it looks really great and it's easy to serve at parties as finger food. So, if you are hosting a little Easter get together this might be a good addition to your menu.

"HOSPITAL" SHRIMP

Large shrimp, peeled with tails on

1 packaged pie crust

As many thin pancetta slices as you have shrimp

1 egg

Poppy seeds

Wrap each shrimp with a slice of pancetta. Cut pie crust into half inch strips and wrap each strip around the shrimp over the pancetta.

Beat egg in a bowl with a tablespoon of water and baste shrimp with egg mixture. Sprinkle with poppy seeds. Place directly on the oven grid (if you palce them in a pan the bottoms will be soggy).

Bake at 400F for about 25 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Tomatoes stuffed with farro

2011-04-21T04:04:00.000-05:00

I'm obsessed with farmers' markets. There, I said it. It's kind of weird because I used to hate markets when I lived in Milano, mostly because I was a pissy teenager and because markets meant only one thing to me: traffic and blocked roads. Also, I didn't like vegetables, so I really saw no point in going to farmers' markets. But now things are different. I love veggies and I love seeing what a great selection markets have these days. Saturday I went to the market in Ponte Tresa, a town on the lake on the border of Italy and Switzerland. And when I say 'on the boarder' I really mean it. I parked my car in Switzerland, crossed the bridge and went to the market in Italy —the reason being that during weekends there's a mile long line to get through customs. I was in heaven. The vegetables, fruits and herbs were wonderful and cheap. With less than 10 Euros I walked away with a bunch of tomatoes, spinach, a cauliflower, zucchini, fennel and asparagus. Not bad, uh? I was so proud of myself, saving money and buying fresh veggies and herbs. And then, of course, I saw a stall where they sold really cute and funky dresses and spent another 30 Euros to buy a dress and a t-shirt. Oh well. I swear, I really really needed both of them.

Anyway, I wanted to make good use of my tomatoes and herbs, but didn't want to make the same old pasta dish, so after some thought I decided to make stuffed tomatoes. What to stuff them with, though? I picked farro because I had some in the pantry and also because I thought it would be a good, healthy choice. I was right. They turned out great, light and refreshing.

TOMATOES STUFFED WITH FARRO

Serves 4

8 fresh, round tomatoes

2 green onions

2 tablespoons capers

2 tablespoons black olives

Fresh herbs

1/4 pound farro

So first you chop the green onion, the capers and black olives and you mix them in a bowl. You really don't need to season with salt because the capers and olives infuse the mix with their natural saltiness.

Then cut the tops of the tomatoes off and hollow the tomatoes with a teaspoon. Pick whatever fresh herbs you like — I used rosemary, basil and thyme— and mince them.

Cook the farro according to packaging directions in abundant salted water. Drain and add to olive mixture. Add whatever tomato you have hollowed out to the bowl and sprinkle with the fresh herbs. Mix well.

Spoon Mixture into hollowed tomatoes and place caps back on. Place in an oven safe casserole with a half inch of water in it. Cook in a preheated 350F degree oven for about 30 minutes. Serve either hot or cold.

Wordless Wednesday: Springtime by the lakes

2011-04-20T03:45:00.000-05:00

The (in)famous Negroni

2011-04-19T03:09:00.003-05:00

I hate fou fou cocktails. I really do. Perfect example: I cannot stand any variations of the good old Martini. There's only two Martinis in my world —one is made with gin and vermouth, the other one is made with vodka and vermouth. Period. I don't like Cosmos and I certainly don't like Appletinis —they remind me of this green apple shampoo my sister used to wash her hair with in the 80s.

But I do love classic cocktails, the ones that taste like the 20s and 30s, smoky Paris lounges, Hemingway and guarantee you the mother of all hangovers. What can I say? I don't drink cocktails often, so when I'm drinking them, I want to drink a good one. A classic. Something that has some serious history,

In other words, a Negroni. Classic, classy, boozy. Very boozy. Extremely boozy. One part gin, one part sweet red vermouth, one part Campari, this drink ain't for sissies. And to top it off it has a lot of history. As it happens with most classic there are many stories, mostly contradicting one another, about how the cocktail was invented. The one I like the best is the one about Count Emilio Negroni who back in 1919 asked the bartender at Caffe' Carsoni in Florence to strengthen is favorite drink, the Americano. The good bartender, instead of adding soda water to the Campari and vermouth concoction added gin, substituted an orange slice for the regualr lemon garnish, and the rest is history. A star was born.

I don't order a Negroni very often, but I do enjoy drinking one every once in a while. That said, I enjoy it even more when I make myself one at home. because then I don't have to worry about driving and stuff, and I can just melt into an armchair and enjoy my Negroni. And it's always worth it.

NEGRONI

1 ounce gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 onuce Campari
1 orange slice

Fill a tall glass with ice cubes, pour the gin, vermouth and Campari in the glass and stir well. Garnish with a slice of orange.

To find out how to make a variation of the Negroni, called a Negroni sbagliato (wrong Negroni) click here.

Vietnamese spring rolls

2011-04-18T03:31:00.000-05:00

When I was a child most of the ethnic options available in Milano were greasy, depressing looking Chinese restaurants where the food was cheap and the smell of fried food lingered on your clothes long after you had left them. Nevertheless my parents loved Chinese food, so we went every weekend, even though the only thing I liked in the menu was steamed white rice. My sister, on the other hand, loved spring rolls. Even though I was only about three at the time I have this very clear memory of her devouring one fried little roll after the other, usually eating so many that they ended up being her main course instead of her appetizer.

As I grew older I started liking Chinese food just fine, and became a fan of many dishes, especially the spicy Szechuan ones, but I have say... spring rolls never really won me over. Don't get me wrong. I like them alright and I do enjoy the occasional Chinese spring roll, but ever since I've discovered the non-fried kind I have become addicted. They are so fresh and packed with crunchy vegetables you can actually feel that they are good for you while you are eating them. I'm not kidding. I was munching on one last night and felt the vitamins just flowing through me. I made them for a little Asian dinner I put together yesterday and decided to make them 100% vegetarian, but they are also very good with the addition of chopped shrimp. You decide.

VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS
For 6 rolls

6 round rice paper rolls
6 leaves of lettuce or spinach
1 zucchini, matchstick cut
1 carrot, matchstick cut
A bunch of bean sprouts
1 spring onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce (or less if you don't like the heat)

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon water

Submerge rice paper in warm water until soft, doing one sheet at the time.

Mix all vegetables except for lettuce and season with chili paste thinned down with a little water. Toss well. When rice paper is soft place it on a plate, add lettuce leaf, then spoon three tablespoons of vegetables over it. Roll up. Repeat with remaning ingredients.

To make sauce whisk soy, fish sauce, sugar and water in a bowl.

Vegetarian for a month

2011-04-14T07:09:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows I love meat. Pork especially in all its forms —from tenderloin to prosciutto— but also beef, especially when it's raw like in carpaccio and steak tartare. Heck, I even like poultry, which most of my family members despise. So to go vegetarian for a month is quite the challenge for me. I have to be careful not to munch on cold cuts when I'm out drinking an aperitivo. I have to remember not to order tartare when I'm out. I have to give up most of my favorite recipes and discover new ones that showcase vegetables and seafood, which is a good thing I guess. And another good thing is that I will have the perfect excuse not to eat the damn Easter lamb this year. I really don't like it, so I'm excited about having a great way to say 'thanks, but no thanks' without offending anyone.

Other than that... it's going to be a long month. I decided to do this for one main reason: to cleanse my system a little bit. It's part of my quest to be healthier this spring, since I kinda overindulged during the winter. But it's hard. Today it's my fourth day without meat and already I'm dreaming of it. I wonder if it will get easier as the days go by. I wonder if I'll like it so much that I'll end up being a full time vegetarian. I doubt it, but who knows?

Yogurt pudding with warm berry sauce

2011-04-05T06:39:00.000-05:00

You know how some people are dessert kings and queens? They bake beautiful cakes and pies, their chocolate suffles are flawless, they even make their own pie dough, for crying out loud. Well, I'm not one of them. I very rarely make dessert —mostly because I don't particularly enjoy eating it, so I just kind of assume that other people don't care about it either. Which is not true, since I know that there are many who live for dessert. I'm quite the opposite —I'd never skip a savory appetizer to keep room for dessert— but sometimes, when you invite people over for dinner and you know that they like dessert... well, you have to come up with something. I usually take the easy way out and just buy gelato. But last week I figured I'd give dessert a try. I was flipping through my cookbooks and saw this yogurt pudding with berry sauce. It looked good —much better than the photo above— and it sounded light and refreshing so I went for it, even if it involved using gelatin, something I've never done before. Well, had I known it's so easy to use I would have started using it a long time ago.

Before I go on with the recipe, I just wanted to thank all of you for visiting my blog and leaving me so many nice comments. March was my blog's most successful month ever, and that's thank to you. Also, here's a link to my Facebook page, if you aren't a fan already: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Wandering-Cook/

YOGURT PUDDING WITH WARM BERRY SAUCE
Makes 4

6 ounces white, low fat yogurt
2 tablespoons sugar
5 ounces heavy whipping cream
1 sheet of gelatine

1 pint mixed berries
1 tablespoon good quality honey
1/2 glass of red wine
ground cinnamon

Mix yogurt at room temperature with sugar in a bowl. Soak gelatine in warm water, squeeze out excess water and melt gelatin over low heat with a tablespoon of cream.

Add gelatine mixture to yogurt mixture and stir. Whip remaining cream and incorporate whipped cream into yogurt mixture. Divide mixture into four metal individual metal cups and place in the fridge until they set.

20 minutes before serving, place the puddings in the freezer.

In the mean time, make sauce by cooking the berries with honey, wine and cinnamon until warm and syrupy.

Remove pudding from molds and serve with warm sauce.

Fondue chinoise

2011-04-04T03:19:00.000-05:00

There are a few things that are very Swiss. Most stereotypes are... well, just stereotypes. Case in point: the famous punctuality of Swiss trains. Yeah. Right. I take a train from here to Milano twice a week because it's more cost effective than driving and let me tell you, Swiss trains are NOT always on time. This particular one is almost always 10 to 15 minutes late and it comes from Zurich, mind you. Swiss people from Zurich speak German and like to think of themselves as "the real Swiss", implying that the Swiss from the south, who speak Italian, are not as Swiss as them. Well, I guess that regardless of that, they still cannot get the train to Chiasso in time. Unless I'm running late, of course. Then it's there early, of course.

So if we cannot count on Swiss trains being on time, what can we count on? Amazing cheese. Even better chocolate. And fondue. Fondue is quintessentially Swiss, in all its forms. There's of course cheese fondue. And chocolate fondue. And then there's fondue Bourguignonne —cubes of filet mignon cooked in sizzling hot oil— which is delicious but makes your house, your clothes and your hair smell like a cheap Chinese restaurant for days. Which is why, when I eat fondue at home, I prefer the Chinoise (Chinese) version: thinly sliced beef —think carpaccio— served raw, then cooked by each guest in an aromatic broth, and accompanied by the same dipping sauces you would use for a Bourguignonne.

So here's the thing. First you have to have good meat, as good a meat as you would use to make carpaccio. Second, you have to make a good broth —it's simply not enough to throw some random canned broth in a pan and use it. If you can't make your own broth, which is understandable because it takes a long time, at least use the best cubes money can buy and add some herbs and spices to it. Last, but definitely not least, don't buy crap jarred sauces. Seriously. I'm famous for my hatred for jarred mayo and the reason is if you have an immersion blender there's absolutely no excuse not to make your own mayo and, therefore, your own sauces. It takes literally two seconds to make the basic mayo and a few more to customize it into four delicious dipping sauces. Traditionally, fondue is served with white rice and french fries as sides. If you ask me, making the rice is pretty much superflous since everyone attacks the fries and nobody eats it, but it's tradition. So I make it anyway.

FONDUE CHINOISE

1/2 pound of thinly sliced beef tenderloin per person

Note: slice the beef right before serving so it doesn't get dark around the edges.

For the broth:

8 cups of water

4 beef broth cubes

Fresh thyme

One onion, chopped

A few black peppercorns

Prepare the broth in a regular stock pot or directly in the fondue pot, then place in the middle of the table and fire up the flame to keep it nice and hot.

And now, for the dipping sauces...

Basic mayo recipe:

Place 1 egg, 1 cup of oil, a pinch of salt, the juice of a half lemon and a teaspoon of mustard in a cup. Place immersion blender all the way to the bottom, turn on and slowly lift it to the surface. Done. It's that easy.

Curry sauce:

Add garam masala, cumin, turmeric and onion powder to basic mayo recipe.

Cocktail sauce:
Add two tablespoons of ketchup, a splash of cognac and a splash of Worcestershire sauce to basic mayo recipe.

Tartare sauce:
Add one chopped hard boiled egg, three minced gherkins, and a tablespoon of minced capers to basic mayo recipe.

Horseradish sauce:
Add horseradish to taste to basic mayo recipe.

Crepes with zucchini filling

2011-03-31T05:22:00.000-05:00

If I start annoying you with my never ending babble about spring vegetables, please do tell. I don't want to become one of those persons that annoy the crap out of me because they keep talking about the same stuff over and over again, repeating themselves until you pass out from boredom. The thing is, I mostly cook for just myself, which means that a bunch of asparagus or a bag of zucchini go a long way. So bear with me as I cook my way through pounds of vegetables. I seriously can't help it. I see a farmer's market and I just lose it and end up buying tons of veggies. I guess it could be worse, though. Right? I could be hoarding expensive shoes. But I don't. I just buy tons of cheap ones. And tons of vegetables.

CREPES WITH ZUCCHINI FILLING

2 eggs

2 cups of milk

1 cups all purpose flour

Butter

1 small onion

1 zucchini

Olive oil

1/2 chili pepper

2 cups tomato puree

1 garlic clove

A few leaves of fresh basil

Salt and pepper

Mix milk and eggs in a large bowl. Slowly incorporate flour, mixing with a whisk. Season with salt and let rest for 20 minutes.

Finely chop the onion and sautee it in a little olive oil in a large skillet with the crushed chili pepper. Chop zucchini and add to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring until zucchini is cooked and tender. Process with a food processor until smooth.

Prepare tomato sauce by simmering the tomato puree with a crushed garlic clove, season it with salt and add basil at the end.

To make crepes, heat a small skillet over medium high heat. Add teaspoon of butter, let it melt then immediately pour a ladleful of batter in the skillet. Cook for two minutes. Flip. Cook for another minute. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Fill crepes with pureed zucchini, fold and serve over tomato sauce.

Five-spice salmon and leeks in parchment

2011-03-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

As a child I loathed fish. As a teenager I still loathed it. It took me a 5000 mile move to Florida to get me to like the stuff. Fish in Florida was different. It was delicate and it came with all kinds of fruity sauces. It tasted of Caribbean vacations and summer nights and drinks at sunset. In other words, it didn't taste like fish at all.

There was one exception though. Salmon. Salmon was the first fish to make it into my plate... or, actually, I should say into my mouth, because there was no actual plate involved. It involved a screaming child, an unprepared set of parents and a smoked salmon sandwich. To this day, every time I see or eat smoked salmon I can't help but thinking about these modern parents I see going everywhere —China, the post office, on a walk— with a bag full of food for their kids. My parents never carried food for me. There was absolutely no eating allowed in the car and, in general, eating in between meals was frowned upon. It will ruin your appetite.

But there was one time where this strategy backfired. Big time. It all happened when I was a toddler a few months short of 2. En route from Milan to the United States my parents and I had a layover in London. And I got hungry. So hungry that I started screaming on top of my lungs. I wanted food. And I wanted it right away. The only option seemed to be a little cart where an old man served smoked salmon over thick, salted butter and brown bread. Not exactly baby food. But, hey, desperate people do desperate things. My dad bought a sandwich and they shoved it in my mouth. I instantly stopped crying. And I ate the whole thing. From that day on, salmon and I were friends. And for about twenty years after that day, salmon was my only friend of the seafood variety.

Later on, I learned to enjoy fresh salmon as well as the smoked kind. I have to thank Tommy for this, because he's the one who made it for me for the first time, baked with a Mexcian style salsa on top. And that was beginning of many other fresh salmon recipes, including this one that my great friend Carolina and I made at her place last week. One last note: if you have never tried wild caught salmon, do so immediately. I cannot stand the farm raised variety and once you'll try the wild kind, you'll never go back either.

FIVE-SPICE SALMON AND LEEKS IN PARCHMENT

(adapted from Cooking Light)
Serves 4

2 teaspoons whole fennel seeds
8 whole black peppercorns
2 whole cloves
1 whole star anise
1 (1 1/2-inch) cinnamon stick
4 (6-ounce) skinless salmon fillets
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 leek, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (about 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 425°.
Combine first 5 ingredients in a small skillet over medium heat; cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Transfer toasted spices to a spice grinder or coffee grinder; grind until fine.
Cut 4 (12-inch) squares of parchment paper. Place 1 fillet in center of each square. Sprinkle evenly with salt and spice mixture; top fillets evenly with leeks. Fold paper; seal edges with narrow folds. Place packets on a baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 20 minutes or until puffy and lightly browned. Place on plates; cut open. Serve immediately.

Farro with porcini mushrooms and pancetta

2011-03-22T05:06:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of spring. While the weather gets better and better, I'm sorry to report that my allergies have completely taken over my life. Last night my eyes got so puffy I couldn't even put in my contacts this morning. So on top of the general feeling of discomfort that has affected me for the past few days, I am now also blind as a bat. Ok. That's a slight exaggeration since I'm only -1.50 on each eye, but still. When you are used to wearing contacts and seeing perfectly, not being able to do either thing drives you insane. And before you all tell me to wear my glasses instead, here's a dirty little secret about me: I never bought them because, I figured, why have glasses when contacts are so much better? Sheer genius, I know.

Anyway, the point is I needed some comfort food to make me smile after a whole day of sneezing every ten seconds, so I decided why not farro? It's easy, it's cheap and it's good for you. Farro is one of the most ancient cereals known to men and it's a staple in many central and southern Italian regional cuisines —it's also low in fat and sugars and high in fiber, which are only some of the reasons why I've been preparing it so often lately. It also happens to be cheap, not to mention the fact that is good cold, hot, prepared as a dry dish or in soups. Seriously, what's not to like?

Last night I decided to make it warm, with porcini, pancetta and roasted pinenuts —mostly because I had all the ingredients on hand and the recipe on the Barilla farro box sounded really yummy. I'm usually not one to make recipes found on boxes, but let me tell you: this one was delicious. And comforting. And easy. It was all that I needed after the sneeze-fest that was my day yesterday.

FARRO WITH PORCINI AND PANCETTA

Serves 4

9 ounces quick-cooking farro
2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
4 ounces minced pancetta or bacon
2 ounces pinenuts
1 small red onion, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
EVOO
salt and pepper

Get porcini ready by soaking them in warm water for about 20 minutes and then shopping them. Warm up olive oil in a large skillet, add pancetta, porcini and onion and sautee for a couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Toast pine nuts by cooking them on high in the microwave for 4 minutes.

Cook the farro in abundant salted water, drain and add to the skillet with other ingredients. Sautee for a minute, stirring constantly. Top with roasted pine nuts and serve.