Spaghetti with meatless meatsauce

Brrr. We have been hit by a tremendous cold front, which has brought tons of snow (or at least, tons by lake Lugano standards) and very cold temperatures, temepratures I had never seen around here. We are talking teens. We are talking "what the hell am I going to wear to work?" kind of temperatures.

I have pretty much locked myself in the house every single night. Going out for drinks or dinner? No thanks. All I wanted to do was sit by the fire or bake stuff in the oven to warm up the house.

The upside of it is that I've spent a lot of time cooking. The downside is that I haven't spent a lot of time writing about it because the cold made me lazier than usual. What can I say? That's the way it is some days.

Now the situation has improved a little, although we look like we are still very far from seeing the beginning of spring. Which is sad, because I have just realized that I'm so freaking done with winter. It's funny because I actually like the winter a lot and love the snow and skiing and all. But I reach a point, and this year that point was reached today, where I just cannot stand it anymore and I desperately want to wear spring clothes, eat asparagus and zucchini and sit outdoors with the sun warm on my face. So I keep looking at the forecast and end up being annoyed when I see no signs of spring in the near future.

And while I wait for spring to come I keep munching on winter vegetables that by now have really grown old, to say the least. I can barely stand them anymore. So I try to stick them in sauces and stews like this one, my first experiment at making "meatsauce" with seitan. I'm not a vegetarian and I will never be one, but I was intrigued by the description my friend gave me of seitan and wanted to try it. Well, it makes a really good "meatsauce", believe me.

SPAGHETTI WITH MEATLESS MEATSAUCE

For 2

1/2 pound spaghetti

1 seitan patty, processed until ground

2 carrots, minced

1 onion, minced

2 celery stalks, minced

1 cup tomato puree

1 cup water

1 vegetable borth cube

1 glass red wine

2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper

Evoo

Warm olive oil in a dutch oven, add onion, carrot and celery and sautee for a few minutes, until soft. Add ground seitan, season with salt and pepper, sautee for a minute or two, then add red wine. Let cook until it's almost evaporated, add tomato sauce, water, broth cube and bay leaves and lower heat. Simmer on low for at least an hour.

Serve with spaghetti.

My famous homemade pate'

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.  

Potato and mushroom cups

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.

Goat cheese appetizer balls

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.

Grilled vegetables mock lasagna

 

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!

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

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.

Risotto with pumpkin and pancetta

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.

Meatloaf with onion sauce

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.

Veggie and mozzarella pie

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

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.

Mock vegetarian lasagne

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!

Stuffed zucchini, Ligurian style

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.

"Skinny" eggplant Parmesan

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

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. 

Pane frattau (Sardinian music bread with eggs and tomatoes)

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.

"Hospital" shrimp

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

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.

The (in)famous Negroni

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.

Yogurt pudding with warm berry sauce

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.

Crepes with zucchini filling

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.