SALUTATION TO 2011

2011
a bit sweet, a bit sour and a bit crunchy!

My RAVIOLONI WITH CRANBERRY AND PINENUTS
represent perfectly the qualities of this year,
that I salute and let go!!!!

Prepare a pastry like the one I use to make a "crostata",
roll it very fine and then cut it with a round cutter.
Prepare some cranberry jam: mix 1 cup of cranberries with
1 TBS sugar, 1 TBS lemon juice and a cinnamon stick and
boil for 15 minutes or till the cranberries pop; let it cool.
Put half tsp of jam in the middle of the round pastry,
add a pinch of pinenuts, then cover with another pastry circle
and press borders with fingers to make them stick together.
Prepare all the ravioloni and then transfer on a baking shit
lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 15/20 minutes or till golden.
Serve with a sprinkle of confectionary sugar!
Bite into it and savour the balance between the sour, the sweet and the crunchy!!!

GOODBYE 2011!!!!

BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM AND STAY HEALTHY

We love parties!!!!!
We eat, we enjoy sweets, we drink nice champagne, then we drink again wine, we dance and our spirits rejoy.
Our bodies, though, don't agree with our spirits and become stressed!
Let's help them feel stronger preparing a super-healthy-recharging concoction!
Shitaki mushrooms: super antioxidant
Kombu seaweed: detoxifing and full of mineral salts
Ginger root: anti-inflammatory and digestive
Miso paste: super powerful probiotic
Soy sauce: source of good ferments

After drinking it for few days, your body will be ready for all the Holidays fuss!!!!

DEPURATIVE AND RE-ENERGIZING MISO SOUP

Boil 4 cups of filtered water with 1 piece of Kombu, 2 inch fresh ginger and 4 shitaki mushrooms for 30 minutes.
Remove from stove and add 2 TBS soy sauce and 1 TBS barley or rice miso paste (salty taste can be adjusted adding more soy sauce).
Strain and serve only the liquid in a cup.

Get ready for Christmas!!!!

My favourite sweet bake ever is the "CROSTATA"!
I prepare it with different flavours but this time, as Christmas is very close by,
I have decided to fill it in with marmelade (a nice bitter orange jam made with Sevilla oranges)
and dark chocolate.
Perfect ingredients to warm up our Christmas table!
I have just prepared one to offer as a Christmas present to some dear friends and i'm going to share my recepe with you all!

Have a sweet Christmas!!!!

ORANGE AND DARK CHOCOLATE CROSTATA

Ingr. for pastry: 300 g flour
100 g white sugar
130 g butter
1 egg
juice of half big orange
grated orange zest

Ingr. for filling: 1 jar of Sevilla oranges marmelade
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Prepare the pastry forming, on a wooden base, a sort of vulcano with the flour.
Break the egg in the center of the vulcano mouth, add sugar and start mixing the two ingredients with a little flour.
Put cold butter in microwave for 40 seconds (I know, i know! Microwave is not good for you but only for 40 secs sooooo convenient!) to make it soft then add to the mixture into the vulcano mouth and start mixing all the ingredients together with your hands (what a good feeling!) till the dough is smooth.
Transfer dough in a small bowl, cover with the left-over butter paper and let it rest for 10 minutes in the fridge (again.....I know, I know! They say for 30 min. but i don't like to wait and the result is the same!).
Wash your hands, swicth on the oven to 375 degrees in America or 200 in Europe, make a nice cup of tea and go back to the fridge to pick up dough.
Flour the wooden board and with a rolling-pin press on the dough with a gentle rolling movement till obtaining a very thin pastry.
Butter a round baking tray and transfer dough on it.
Cut the overboarding pastry with a dented rolling cutter and cover with marmelade and chocolate.
Use the left-over dough to make thin stripes to dispose on top of the jam forming a grill shape.
Bake at 350 (or 200) for 25 minutes, then high up the heat to 400 (or 250) for 5 minutes, till the top is brown.

"Ecco fatto!" the crostata is ready!

It's advisable to share with friends while sipping champagne or having a nice coffee!

BUONE FESTE!

LA POLENTA

My sister brought me a gourmand surprise from Italy: a shiny, golden corn flour to make our traditional polenta.
We had fun preparing the nice creamy polenta together on a sunny sunday lunch.
Here is the recepe, that you can also find in my book "Memorie d'infanzia".

LA POLENTA AL POMODORO
Ingr. for 4 people

500 gr corn flour (for polenta)
2 litre water
salt

marinara tomato sauce prepared with olive oil, garlic, oregano or basil and crushed peeled tomatoes

Bring water to boil and add 2 TBS coarse salt.
Add flour little by little stirring with a big wooden spoon.
Keep adding flour and stirring for about 30 min.
Let it boil longer if needed.
The polenta is ready when it's sticky but still runny.
Take off stove.
Meanwhile prepare plates with a layer of tomato sauce and pour polenta with a big spoon to cover the sause layer.
Cover with more sauce and sprinkle with grated parmesan.

Tonight....RISOTTO

Today i had a strong desire for risotto, so i decided to make a butternut and onion risotto for dinner.
The other day i went to Arthur avenue in the Bronx, to the cheese shop, and i bought a nice caciocavallo.
I used a slice to make my risotto FANTASTIC!
Here is the recepe.

RISOTTO BUTTERNUT AND ONION

Ingr. for 4 people:
Half butternut
1 onion
1 slice of caciocavallo
2TBS grated parmesan
olive oil, pepper

1litre of vegetable broth prepared with half onion, half fennel, 1 carrot, 2 celery sticks, water and salt

In a pot pour 2TBS of vergin olive oil and cook the thinly sliced onion for 5 minutes, then add the cubed butternut and let it cook till very soft.
Add 4 handful of arborio rice and cook for few minutes till translucent.
Then start adding the boiling broth, 2 ladles at the time.
Stir occasionally and keep adding broth when rice gets dry.
Cook rice for 20 min, then add parmisan, caciocavallo and a pinch of pepper.
Take off the stove and let it rest for few minutes before serving.

DELICIOUS!

SOUP...again?!?

To stay in theme, a very nice soup for the fall season came in my mind.
My teacher Melanie Ferreira at the Academy of Healing and Nutrition taught me how to make it.....
it's deliciously healthy!
It contains MISO, that is a powerful probiotic made with fermented barley or rice, and
LOTUS ROOT, that is a good ingredient to strenghten your lungs during the cold season.

AUTUMNAL SOUP

Ingredients:

1TBS sesame oil
1 leek
1 carrot
1 cup butternut
1/2 fennel
1/2 lotus root or, if you can't find it, 1/2 daiqon
6 cups water
2 TBS barley miso
1 tsp ginger juice
parsley or watercress

Rince and slice thick all vegetables.
Heat sesame oil in a soup pot and add all the vegetables.
Saute' till translucent, then add water and bring to boil.
Let it simmer for 20 minutes.
After you switch off put a strainer in the broth and stir in the miso using a spoon.
Grate a small piece of ginger and squeez the juice with your hand.
Garnish with parsley.

The next day you can blend the left over to make a nice creamy soup.


Check this web: www.academyhealingnutrition.com

TIME FOR A NICE SOUP

When the first cold arrives, my body starts craving for a nice warming soup.
Then I take out from the cupboard my heavy cast-iron pot and open the soup season.
Every week I make a deliciously flavoured soup for the joy of my family and friends!
The other day I was doing my shopping and I saw extraordinary fresh baby spinach....
they were really attactive, so I decided to buy some to prepare my soup of the week.
I invented a very tasty recepe!
Here it is for you to try!

SPINACH AND MUSHROOMS SOUP

Ingredients for 4/6 people:
2 bunches of vibrantly fresh baby spinach
1 nice dose of patience to clean them...leaf by leaf
1 big fat onion (when dicing it put your head as far as you can to avoid crying)
2 cups of vegetable broth (you can use the organic veggie's broth already made for you)
1 cup of filtered water
1 cup of champignon mushrooms
1/2 cup heavy cream
extra virgin olive oil
freshly chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse well the spinach and put them aside.
Clean mushrooms with a cloth, slice them and saute them in olive oil for 5 minutes or till the water they release evaporates, add salt, pepper and finely chopped parsley.
Top the bottom of a pot with olive oil and cook the finely chopped onion till translucent.
Then add spinach, cover the pot with a lid and let them wilt for couple of minutes.
At this point add liquids and bring to boil.
After 20 minutes take it out of stove and process in a blender to get a creamy soup.
Put it back in the pot and add cream and sauted mushrooms and cook for other 5 minutes.
Check salt and pepper and soup it's ready to be served!
ENJOY IT!

PIZZA NIGHT

It's tradition at my house that on saturday night i make pizza.
I prepare the dough in the morning and let it rise many times to get
a soft and crunchy pizza.
As i make pizza every week, i don't want it to become boring, so i
make it always interesting and inviting preparing different toppings.
Onions, peppers, zucchini, eggplants, mozzarella and salami, white
with mozzarella and prosciutto, feta, sundried tomatos and artichokes
and many more!
When the pizza is in the hot oven and the smell start rising we prepare
our coffee table in the TV room and get ready for a nice movie....
...it's a "must" to eat pizza casually, with your hands in front of TV
sipping coke, chinotto or beer.

Pizza dough for four pizza's trays:


1 Kg of flour, preferably 00 or bread flour
2/3 cups of lukewarm water
1 tsp of yeast (or 1 packet)
1/2 tsp sugar
3 tsp salt
2 TBS olive oil

Pour the flour with salt in a big bowl, make a hole in the middle.
Melt the yeast in one cup of water with sugar.
Add the yeast in the hole and start mixing it with some flour.
Add oil and more water, keep mixing the flour and the water
to obtain an homogeneus dough.
When the dough it's not sticky anymore but it is smooth and soft you
cover it with a cloth and let it rise for 1 hour.

After 1 hour knead the dough in the bowl for few times, then cover it again and
let it rest for another hour.
If you are only using the dough much later you cover it with cling paper store it
in the fridge. Take it out at least 1 hour before you need it.
When you are ready to prepare the pizza, transfer the dough on a wooden surface
and knead it again. Let it rest covered for 30 minutes.
Then knead it again and divide it in 4 parts. Knead each piece, form 4 balls,
cover and let them rest for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile warm up the oven to 450 degrees farenheit or 250 celtius.

When you are ready to bake the pizza, oil a pizza tray and put the ball in it flatten 

the dough with your hands till it will be very thin.      

Top it with tomatos sauce, olive oil and oregano and bake.

Of course You can use all different kind of toppings!

Next cooking class will be about making PIZZA!

                                       

When the weather gets colder and colder.....

When the weather gets colder and colder our bodies crave
more sweet and warming foods, that's why in winter we eat
more chocolate and more soups.
As we are allowed to more sweetness it doesn't mean that
we have to abuse it.
An easy way to make sweetness healthier is to avoid refined
sugar substituting it with sweetners with higher glycemic index.
Maple syrup , applecider and agave are more gentle on our system.

This is a guilt-free sweet dessert!

Pistachos and dates super-delicious balls


Ingredients for 30 balls:
1 cup unsalted pistachos
1 cup pitted dates (around 8 fruits)
1 TBS maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1TBS grinded pistachos and 1 pinch salt for topping

In a small food processor grind pistachos to a fine meal.
Remove pistachos and chop the dates.
In a bowl mix pistachos, maple syrup and cinnamon with your hands to obtain a sticky paste.
Form a small ball with your hands taking 1/2 tsp of paste, then toss it in the salted pistachos meal.
Repeat same operation till paste is finished.
You can keep the balls in an airtight container for 1 week.

DELICIOUS and EASY!

First cooking class

Today i have hosted the first cooking class in my kitchen.
We made tagliatelle with a Genovese sauce and a special tiramisu' with berries.
It was fun and.......yummy!!!!!!
Following is the recipe to make nice home-made pasta.

TAGLIATELLE

Ingredients:

400 g/3cups FLOUR

4 EGGS

1tsp salt

Place a wide wooden board on the kitchen counter.

Mound the flour on the wooden surface and make a deep well in the center with your hands.

Crack the eggs into the well and add salt.

Mix the eggs with a fork and then start incorporating the flour from the side of the well.

When the egg mixture is no longer liquid start using your hands to incorporate the rest of the flour and to start kneading the dough.

Scrap up any dough that sticks to the wooden surface with a knife and keep kneading

for about 5 minutes,  till the dough becomes smooth and elastic.

Cover dough with a ceramic bowl and let it rest.

Meanwhile prepare the pasta machine.

Knead dough again and cut it in small pieces.

Roll each piece in the machine starting with the widest setting, ending with the finest one.

Sprinkle the pasta stripes with flour and cut them in the tagliatelle side of the machine.

Toss the tagliatelle on a floured wooden board to dry.

You can serve tagliatelle with a tomato sauce, ragu' or with butter and parmesan.

If you want to learn how to make other special sauces........

.........come to my classes!!!!!!Ah!Ah!Ah!

Home-made bread

The fragrant smell of home-made bread takes me back to my childhood.

To my holidays with my grandparents, in the countryside, where big, round bread loaves with sweet smell were taken out of rustic ovens.

The thick and soft slices, spread with jam or Nutella, would become my daily snack and the joy of my taste buds.

A slice of bread covered with oil and sugar was my grandmother suggestion and became my favorite choice.

When I get nostalgic of the olden times of my infancy, I decide to bake bread to revive the smell of the past.

Sometimes I prepare a rye bread because it contains less gluten and it’s easier to digest.

This is the recipe:

Rye bread

Ingredients:

350 g rye flour

150 g wheat flour

1 yeast packet (10 g)

1 cup water

1 pinch sugar

1 TBS salt

In a bowl mix ½ yeast packet with ½ cup lukewarm water, a pinch of sugar and 100 g of rye flour.

Let it rest covered with a cloth for about 2 hours.

In another bowl mix the rest of yeast with ½ cup of water, salt and flours.

Add the rye mixture and knead well.

Form a ball, cover with a cloth and let it rise for 30 minutes.

Then knead the dough again, form two loves and put them on a baking tray.

Let them rest for 1 hour.

Prepare oven at 250 Celsius or 450 Fahrenheit and bake bread for 30 minutes or till golden brown.

It goes very well with chocolate spread!

Carme's kitchen

Kitchen is my reign
I'm the queen and the joker,
steam wistles from the pot on the stove
inviting smell sneaks from the oven door
candid cream splashes from the cake blender
colourful herbs look at me from the windowsill.
Kitchen is my reign
I am the humble cook and the artist,
sweet decorations are like confetti
music flows in all cooking tools
flavour of parties and fun pervades it all!