Palate luxury comforts: chocolate über Alles

There are months of the year (always) in Edinburgh in which the rain doesn't stop tear-dropping from the Sky and this perpetual Fall is the common scenario we have to face. The sharp contrast you may notice in Spain, South France, Italy and Greece here is much more mitigates. The temperature never goes higher than 20 °C and you're pushed to indulge on some luxury goods that in southern Europe would annihilate your metabolism.

As a matter of fact, a great comfort was invented by Ferrero when he brought out onto the market Nutella. Despite this popularity, I prefer to attach my attention on more niche-ish products, whose ingredients are carefully selected and also the taste gives back the value of the price. Good quality products are a sort of cuddle, you aren't probably saving money, but investing it into a more adequate filed rather than booze or fish and chips or deep-fried-Mars (apparently irresistible, but deadlier than a bullet.

Four self-gifts that have changed 

my week into a radiant chain of trammeled

little pleasures:

Rigoni  di Asiago, spreadable chocolate,

Fair trade dark chocolate,

Tyrrells hand made lightly salted crisp bag,

Border ring-shortbreads with chocolate chips.

Twinings provides a wide range of good teas,

yet only some of them are 

over the top in fancy pillow bags

(my mum's favourite, btw)

Green & Black organic chocholat bars:

superfluous to say, but they are excellent

as a dessert with friends because of the variety of tastes

(majestic if served within a yogurt cup)

Gressinghram duck & pork sausages with apple and honey

(unbelievably succulent)

and an organic half-loaf of white bread

(very wise to have a slice with some extra-virgin olive oil)

A smoked ham for the East of Italy 

Trieste, the gate to Slovenia

[soon a recipe with this delicatessen]

EAT LESS EAT BETTER

An idle starter: cheese as poppies

 Very often I notice that people struggle to invent starters that then delude the guests' expectations. A starter shouldn't be too substantial, otherwise it is going to spoil the rest of the meal. Even in some expensive restaurants here in Edinburgh, I came across starters that were actually main courses: very complicated and misplaced. A starter, instead, has to be idle, lazy, capturing, even better if it falls within finger food. Starters are like the poppies into a corn field: it is the first scarlet element you perceive, but then you begin to notice all the rest, and then you are lost into the contemplation.

Vladimir Volegov, Picnic amongst the fields

(http://www.villagegallery.com/volegov.html)

 Starters are those allures that attire your attention and warm up your appetite. Today I have chosen different cheese, because they are extraordinary and indulgent, especially on crackers and oatcakes, easy to find and it is difficult to resist to their call!

A rose of crackers with cheddar 

and raspberry preserve,

gone in five seconds

Cheesy valley

(the european answer to the Silicon Valley)

goat cheese from Somerset (left), 

French Brie (horizon), 

Italian Parmigiano scales (front).

French creamy cheese with herbs, 

Tarallini from Puglia (the heel of Italy),

pistacchio, 

and Strolghino (the best salami in the world, 

BECAUSE it is made with ham)

Preaching to a cat, decoupage with poppy & ribbon,

no cheese in this shot :) 

Atlantis & the pulses (beans and chickpeas)

Almost casually, when I took the first pictures of this dish-in-progress, I realized the scenario might have evoked something related to an island, because of the colours themselves, of the presence of the water, and the disposal of the ingredients. You will judge by your wonderful selves. All the rest is told in the Plato's Thimeus.

The final result of this preparation was a sort of legumes-pure into which I cooked some rice and then i dressed it with some extra-virgin olive oil.

Let your pulses mixture soak for 8 hours

Nevertheless, the main novelty I decided to introduce ware some dried porcini mushrooms...not too many though, otherwise their powerful flavouring is certainly overcoming the other tastes.

Atlantis in its splendour 

with palm trees, potato sea-rocks,

the onion hill, carrot beaches,

and innocent hammer porcini sharks 

The island sank, add some thyme, a pinch of salt, 

a leaf of siege

After 1 h 10 mins of cooking, adjust salt and pepper

Save some pulses and mushrooms 

from the pure operation,

add some water and cook the rice inside the pure,

stir often because it tends to stick

Dress with olive oil and enjoy 3 minutes after serving

Glamorous Carbonara

One of my favourite dishes is Carbonara, because it is simple, rich, tasty, and evocative of Rome. My opinion, but an exhausting debate is still open and I won't get stranded on it, is that the name reminds to those people who dealt carbone, that is to say coal and needed a nutrient preparation to support their fatigues. Another challenging suggestion is that the generous sprinkle of black pepper you have to grind on top could have lead to the present name, because of its resemblance with coal.

Nevermind. The most important thing to know is that cream shouldn't be added: the creamy version, although perfectly licit in a democratic climate of food sharing, is a barbarism or, if you prefer an understatement, is a contamination. Break the yolks with a whisk and add Pecorino Romano and black pepper.

Fry in some extra-viring olive oil

some stripes of bacon 

(or it would be even better some lard from the pig's cheek)

Soften them with a drop of white wine (facultative)

Let the wine get absorbed but not too much,

before draining the pasta 

add a ladle of salted cooking water,

this trick will make prevent the egg from sticking

The second main issue is that as soon you add the eggs you have to take the pan off the hob, stir well and serve quickly. The egg (4 yolks and 1 entire egg) shouldn't become as if scrambled (my picture example is a limit-example, perhaps many Romans [hopefully not the ancient ones] might contest me), but it should turn out fluid and moist.

A closer view on the final dish: each spaghetto

should shine due to the eggs yolks

Ready to be sprinkled with some Pecorino Romano

Carbonara kissed by the sun

If you go to Rome do not trust every restaurant. Go in search of non-turistic ones and you will enjoy the true pleasure and the true size of this preparation. If you stay home, try the recipe and you will surprise yourself and your eventual guests: choose carefully the ingredients.

The miner's stew (lentils and diced pork steak)

Chop a white onion

Dice two pork sirloin steaks

Prepare the vegetables

Wash the red lentils 

(it is said they also bring good luck)

Dust with black pepper, salt and nutmeg

An island of lentils

The ruby heart of the preparation

The miner's stew is ready

A serving idea with polenta 

The title, I must confess, may sound a bit provocative, but this recipe is proteinic bomb and a big indulgence on the taste side. My father, at every meal, insisted that mixing up different proteins would have produced an heavier digestive process for the stomach...it may be plausible, but the combination of some tastes reciprocally enriches them to a level that it is almost pointless not to combine them: take carbonara for example, eggs and bacon produce an outstanding mixture and we will develop this dish philosophy very soon. The miner's soup is a happy solution in terms of time and final outcome: in the end you can have it plain as a soup or as a side dish wether accompanied by cous-cous, basmati rice or polenta.

The bread balls from the snowy Alps (canederli or Knödel)

Sometimes it is hard to deal with your bread two o three days after the date of purchase: it is not exactly fresh and tasty as the first day and it certainly doesn't appeal your organoleptic sympathy. How to re-use stale bread then? The bread shouldn't of course be moldy, but some people will throw it away in disgust: if I am not mistaken the percentage of throw-away bread in the UK is simply preposterous! People ignore there are at least three methods with which you may turn a disadvantage into a pleasing opportunity:

1. grilled: so to obtain a bruschetta (pronounce brusketta) and it should be dressed with freshly chopped tomatoes;
2. moistened: dress the bread with a bit of extra-virgin olive oil, put on top a creamy cheese such as Brie or Camembert, sprinkle with a touch of oregano and toast in the oven until the cheese melts;
3. make canederli (also called Knödel in the German-speaking world).

Canederli are balls of stale bread stuffed with many ingredients: the recipes vary a lot but the bread (either white or whole-wheat) is the only ingredient that never changes. If you leave the croutons to marinate into the milk for some hours it will turn out easier to manipulate the new relived pastry:

Ingredients:

• 2 liters of broth (either meaty or vegetarian);
• Butter 30 gr (to melt and add to the bread);
• Chives & parsley: according to taste;
• 1 table spoon of flour;
• 150 ml of milk;
• a sprinkle of nutmeg;
• 200 gr of still bread;
• 100 gr of speck;
• 2 organic eggs.

Cutting the speck (an Alps ham) in small squares: 

buy around 150 gr of speck,

100 for the recipe, 50 gr for the irresistible temptation

to taste it .

The bread wetted with whole milk, the  eggs, 

some home grown chives and speck before kneading

The pastry: how the universe was before

the big-bang

How they should look like before cooking:

if all the ingredients were fresh, 

they re suitable for being frozen

After having cooked 15 minutes in broth, 

they can be dressed with some butter

or served in a bowl with some broth.

And the happy parenthesis on dishes based on broth may be concluded, for the moment!

Crêpes in broth with a Marsala aftertaste

Many people associate crêpes to the French food culture and it is a righteous attribution I won't contest: I shared this misperception for years. Nonetheless, there the geographical proximity between Italy and France, the several military and gastronomic exchanges Italy and France had during the centuries lead to various contaminations. This recipe is a delicate example in which the pastry of the crêpe becomes an exquisite main course, resembling tagliatelle but keeping a spongy texture.

The crêpes shares a similar nature of the pancakes, but they are thinner and more fragile. Handle with care then, on a nonstick pan, wet with some butter, pure the mixture (250 gr white flour, 3 eggs, 1/2 milk, a pinch of salt, mixed herbs as chives, parsley, basil, thyme, marjoram, and 10 ml of Marsala wine) and flip with a paddle.

A nest of Medusa's hair:

they will petrify you, but in a good sense

Delightful strings with (or without) these cute beef meatballs

To drew a correspondence between the taste of the crêpes and the broth add 10 ml of Marsala directly to the broth itself. When the broth is boiling add the crêpes and switch off immediately the hob. It is very dainty to serve them into a soup tureen: in this case pour the boiling broth into the soup tureen and then add the crêpes. 

Broth against stock (and change)

Since I was a child, I enormously appreciated the calming and warming up effect of the broth. Nowadays society pushed us believe that rushing is a natural upshot of a modern and dynamic approach to life. I still look with suspicion to such a life-style, because it is unnatural. Depriving a person of her/his time means stealing that unique good she/he won't be able to reproduce once it has elapsed: money, in fact, is always a metre for prizes not for values. I regard artificial stock cubes as a synthesis of this philosophy and curiously enough it shares the name with the exchange market: industrial stock is something not just disgusting, but frankly deceptive and unhealthy. The idea is that of saving time, but the quality of it becomes worse and unwillingly salty.

For a vegetarian (preferably organic) broth put down a carrot, a medium potato and an onion into cold water, and when it shall start boiling add a rib of celery, a tomato (and if you wish 1/4 of a courgette). Here are four serving ideas: tortellini, little surprises, passatelli and crespelle (very similar to crêpes, but I'm going to tackle this last recipe in the following post).

Tortellini: Venus' belly button

Litte suprises: a format of egg pasta

flavoured with nutmeg

Steaming in the light

Passatelli: they look creepy they act properly

Broth takes only one hour: prepare it the night before, so cooling down all the veggies will release their flavour in a better way. Add salt and pepper according to your personal preference.

The flower inside

Food basically relates on four aspects: taste, scent, colour, and your momentary mood. When one's hungry, she or he would be able to eat unpleasant combinations of aliments in the quickest way possible. The education to good, high quality food, slow-food if you wish [http://www.slowfood.com/], is that of making of (almost) every meal a sort of personal feast, an emotion that has to warm up you belly, your psychical state and your day. I couldn't help myself noticing that the presentation and the atmosphere around your dishes, even if they are as simple as a fired egg on a Sunday morning might dramatically change.

Double coloured turbans 

guarding a chickpeas soup with rice 

Delicatessen lying at the anchor on a violet sea

Awakening of daffodils 

A garden brunch on the table

Home baked goodness

There are alien-shaped forms that may grow inside our kitchens, unbeknown to us: they possibly are doughs of bread, we aren't used anymore to see as part of our domestic world. Making bread is one of the most dear legacies my grandmother has left me (amongst many others): bread is caressing the blond head of hair of the earth throughout the crops. Bread is kneading your hands into a living substance, due to the brewer's yeasts, that  makes you feel relaxed, because your energies flow inside the pastry: you do not buy the ingredients, you MAKE from raw materials a refined entertainment for your eyes and appetite. Bread is above all the way in which I deal with all the ancient memories my grandmothers constantly delivers me without uttering a word.

Durum wheat flouer (1kg), 

tepid water (500ml), 

a generous pinch of salt, 

extra-virgin olive oil (2 tbs),

 1 cube of brewer's yeasts,

work with ELBOW GREASE onto a wooden board,

produce cuts on the dough you

wish to turn into bread,

while leave the others untouched,

let it rise for approximately 1 hour under a woolen cloth.

Spinach battle spaceship: remove the bowl and cover

with a second rolled out disk of pastry. 

Dress the spinach leaves with extra-virtgin olive oil (20 ml or more),

a pinch of salt and hot chili.

Spinach pie (the so-called "scaccia", a Sicilian focaccia),

but you can stuff it with finely chopped broccoli as well

or potatoes, onion & cheese.

Amber brown and tremendously tasty:

looks like a bird feeding a starving chick

Pies in their golden majesty