Aubergine PARMIGIANA for vegetarians: an heideggerian dish

Who has the chance to exchange an opinion whether with a parent or grandparent on nowadays food will realize something: even in regions of the world more hospitable in terms of climate like Italy, Greece, Florida, California or Southern France, the approach to food going back to the fifties, the sixties or even the seventies was severely different. The following painting shows how a man of the lower laboring classes in Europe used to dine. Legumes or pulses were more affordable, bread and pies substituted meat, which only upper classes were able to consume regularly. Moreover, preparations were simpler, since kitchenware and stoves were not as accurate as nowadays.

XVI century, Annibale Carracci, 

Il mangiafagioli (the bean eater),

Galleria Colonna, Rome.

The recipe I am proposing today is the vegetarian variation* of the aubergine Parmigiana: a recipe that takes into account only seasonal ingredients. Aubergines (or eggplant) is the vegetables around which the entire preparation rotates. I wish to suggest a mono-portion recipe, which is excellent for singles, yet also scenographic if used as a starter: it is lighter to digest in comparison with the original recipe which prescribes a double frying process. It is also lighter cause the portion itself is smaller that what "granma would impose you!". Let's begin:

Wash the aubergine

if you find the pale violet variety

is even better, because it is sweeter

Summer is the season of plenty: each day basil, tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, French beans, peppers, beans are yielded their fruit-bearing plants. Eating seasonal product is a logical attitude, although supermarkets, television and the fridge made it appear an almost old-fashined behavior. It seems indeed easier to grab from the shelf a product that we fancy, without thinking how much it may cost in terms of health and pollution to have peppers and tomatoes in Winter or spinaches and cherries in Summer and oranges in Autumn: these products are old or they come from distant countries only to please our impatience, which should be tamed a bit more.

Summer by Antonio Vivaldi, violin, XVIII century

First of all, prepare a nice tomato sauce, you can either use five fresh tomatoes or a tin of plum tomatoes: perfume it with a clove of garlic, a leaf of basil, a helpful pinch of salt, a sprinkle of black pepper and in the end, after having switched off the hob, add a generous pouring of extra virgin olive oil.

Cut in slices of medium thickness 

and fry in abundant extra virgin olive oil.

The action of listening to nature produces a double benefit: it gives us the chance to think about the natural cycle of seasons and helps us to be silent in front of our artificial yearns. After having lost this compass, we dismissed the common sense of consumption, transforming food in a compensation for the stress caused by the capitalistic conception of productivity in life: if every material entity can be objectified we mislay the distance between real objects and non-objects, such as human beings are. Then if you objectify the mass production of your food, which is your fuel, you end up with the idea that we are only a gear of this manufacturing process. The act of listening is one of the main concepts on which Martin Heidegger stressed his perorations, without listening you lose the possibility to receive a sort of call from what is more authentic in you. Moreover, I found a convincing exposition of his concerns about the exploitation of the worlds sources in an interesting essay called The Age of the world picture, in The question concerning technology and others essay:

http://jft-newspaper.aub.edu.lb/reserve/data/s11218/s11218.pdf

Lorenzo Oropallo, a dear friend of mine,

will salute with enthusiasm this contamination

between food and philosophy

Salt gently: I prefer using Maldond salt, 

cause it is JUST salt, produced

onto the British soil:

The majority of the other salts I came across

are rich of bicarbonate:

http://www.maldonsalt.co.uk/

These salt flakes are also pleasant as garnishments

Slice mozzarella (possibly not the buffalo one, 

cause it is too juicy)

Slice an organic hard boiled egg

Dispose into layers: 

for each terrine 

3 slices of fried aubergine;

1 slice of mozzarella;

1 slice of hard boiled egg,

tomato sauce.

There are various ideas on the origin of this dish: some believe it has its origin in Naples, some others in the oriental part of Sicily. It arrived probably with the arabs, around the tenth century after Christ, because the aubergine, an asiatic vegetable, was unknown to the romans. The name itself seems to derive from a distorted turkish word (padmegian) that became Parmigiana in the local dialect. My personal idea is that the Parmigiana imitates the idea of the Lasagne, a dish you can eat in Emilia and in Parma, and perhaps, then, the multi-layered preparation was original platonic model. Subsequently, th hybrid between the procedure of the Lasagne and the use of aubergiens produced the modern version of Parmigiana: that's way it may have been originally called Parmigiana di melanzane (aubergines Parmigiana) and not Melanzane alla parmigiana (aubergines done according to the Parma fashion).

Distribute the sauce with the help of a table spoon

Grate some Parmigiano,

I recommend the well 30 months

matured one

Sprinkle with a cheesey snow

This procedure with allow the cheese to melt

onto the the tomato sauce.

Sprinkle with some bread crumbs,

and put it inside the oven for 30 mins,

at 210 °C, gas mark 7-8:

The bread crumbs will give a delightful 

crusty armour.

A practical solution to cook them together 

in the same baking tray. 

Serve on a small dish with some bread,

and above all serve it cold.

*The original recipe would also include a slice of ham steak.

A light critic on Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson is aesthetically impeccable, this is certainly the first striking impression the eyes catches: not only her kitchen is neat, her preparations are particularly beautified, but her approach to the recipes is deeply personalistic. It is not a superior how-things-should-be-done authority that speaks for her, as in the case of Gordon Ramsey or Michel Roux jr, who are superb chefs explaining theri art to mortals. These chefs appear genuine and spontaneous, often too defiant for my personal taste: in essence, I think they became a character, without creating a character. Ramsey bolognese with Worcester sauce has to be forgotten and fined (by public officers), but his skills are not debatable.

Gordon Ramsay

http://www.gordonramsay.com/index2.html

Nigella Lawson, on the contrary, is the pivotal element of her show, her website, her merchandise: she represents the grace of aristocracy infused into food. When you decline a cloth you may come across H&M and Gucci, they are both cloths yet Gucci is far better crafted. Mrs Lawson is the same: she brings to a different level of seduction something usually more down-to-earth. She is extremely elegant, she describes her recipes with an upper class vocabulary, which implicitly reminds to the fact she is both intelligent and learned. I would personally ascribe the undebatable perfection of her features to that Pantheon where Sophia Loren, Liz Taylor, Laetitia Casta, and Monica Bellucci dwell. So, my post is not criminalizing her appearance, I won't be polemic on the knowing smiles and sights she launches to the camera, this is not the point: all television is built up on a more explicit link between something (news, cooking, divulgation) and an appealing lure. Even Game of Thrones, a saga of incredible value, is fueled by constants outbursts of nudity and sexual references.

Sophia - Liz - Laetitia

Where is the flaw? In my opinion, and it is just an opinion, she offers to the media arena not just what the audience may want (which is difficult to circumscribe), but a combination of unconscious elements: beauty, frustration and everyday food. Thus, I disagree on the angle given to this approach: a curvy iconic beauty becomes the a symbol of self-condemnation. She represents, although I do not think she really is, a sort of sacrificial victim, the stereotypical woman, who works in the backstage of her family, unnoticed and detached. She nourishes the others but she does not seem to partake to the shared aspect of con-division, she has to be beautiful as a model, capable as a chef, sophisticated as a journalist, desirable as one of her creations. Yet all this "as" made her distant from her ambitions what may be: she always operates in function of the others's imagination.

Nigella - Monica: both desperately beautiful

The message is a curious mixture drenched in Gluttony and glamour: food becomes an excuse, it is something that relates to appearance. Food then stops being a temple of reflexion on ingredients, quality, history, and becomes, instead, the clue to give voice to desperate housewives' idiosyncrasies. A knowledgeable, stupendous subaltern woman chained to a rule, where creativity is subdued to a social position. I strongly disagree with this marketing choice, although it is victorious, in terms of incomes. 

Nutella Lawson as a friend of mine

brilliantly re-named her! 

Nigella Lawson could have been the perfect ambassador to join together style and emancipation, love for good twinned with a great beauty, fame and daily life. The flirtatious manner that springs out from her show, appears to me as a sort of sweetener given to the audience, as a remark on the fact that a woman that passes the best time of her life behind the hobs is still on the market and she does what she does because women has to be impeccable, even if everything around them is unsatisfactory. This message is very linkable to the awaiting of Prince Charming, the Prince Charming motif: "sooner of later some real men will discover me, and I shall disclose the goddess that I am". The problem I detach and that makes me feel uncomfortable is only that all this scenario isn't pushing for a better understanding to food, but is ars gratia artis, the art for the art, the tool for the tool, whereas her potentials are higher than just this.

Nigella Lawson and Spaghetti alla Carbonara 

(I guess)

Three brief things surprised me more than others: Nigella Lawson comes from a tremendously well off family, whose prestige, wealth, and culture allows her to sit into the world élite. She has a great experience in her sector, first as a restaurant critic, then as an editor and menager. Lastly, she claims to be a great fan of the Italian cuisine or of good cuisine in general, but her "food pornography" as it has been stated is not seeking for quality. In fact, she keeps herself close to the traditional reception of dishes:

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/true-italian-mamma-spaghetti-bolognese-1671

My main concern is that she does not make love with food, she produced, instead, a freudian sliding between the lack of affection that too many people experiment in real life and the plenty of the fridge. Her symbolism and winks are capturing. She basically incarnates an eating orgasm, stressed by generous décolletés, and never-ending references to a higher level of satisfaction, which is the primordial alimentation that every human experimented in the mother's womb. It is then an extremely well wrapped trick to reproduce the idealized food paradigms sewed on an insicure and vulnerable audience target.
This mirroring works, Mrs Lawson, is undoubtedly an incredible person, but she renounced to tackle a major message: i. e. "your lifestyle and the essence of your eating shape what you become, you cannot actually become a domestic goddess only mimicking my program" [http://www.elle.com/life-love/entertaining-design/fresh-take-tamasin-day-lewis-426324]. You cannot become what you are not, what you'll never be, for birth, money, and skill.

That's why I prefer Tamasin Day-Lewis idea of cooking: first of all she relates on what she has in the fridge, and she appears to care more on the quality of primary ingredients: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/tamasin-daylewis-its-shocking-to-see-so-many-grotesquely-overweight-children-7594747.html

Tamasin Day-Lewis with a porcelain tureen

The REAL bolognese: spaghetti bolognese do NOT exist (part 3)

The misperception of this dish is incredible. Recipes are free to be received and receipted in the freest way possible, but as it would sound unusual to eat an hamburger inside two pancakes, rather than into a bread roll, so it sounds unusual to dress spaghetti with the bolognese sauce. The reason, in my opinion is mainly one, that is to say spaghetti are the wrong past format to welcome the sauce. The real bolognese asks for a porous pasta that can absorb and emphasize the taste. The second objection is that Spaghetti are from the area around Naples, whereas Bologna is seven hundred kilometers far north: approximately the same distance between Edinburgh and London, Paris and Lion, Berlin and Munich.

Giuseppe Gallone's shot

In Southern Italy there are many varieties,

yet

- the main distance is given by amount of tomato sauce;

- the second one by the fact they use no milk;

 - finally, the third one by the kind of meat used 

 and the way it is prepared 

(minced in Bologna, diced in the South)

The bolognese* is denser:

here Giallozafferano (Yellowsaffron) offers the authentic recipe

unfortunately in the English video they changed the ending

to play up to the audience, which is a real shame

ITALIAN VERSION

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk6q80LZI-A]

ENGLISH VERSION

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwyCUOijLeE&lr=1]

I was very fortunate because I had the chance to make many experiments thanks to Bruno's patience: Bruno, a dear friend of mine, accepted the challenge and also my apologies for being so repetitive. Here was the result:

Use preferably tagliatelle (Tesco Finest 1,67 £), or a grip-pasta,

such as penne rigate or fusilli or maccheroni

Here I used Tesco organic fusilli (less than 1 £),

keeping them boiling in salted water for only 10 mins.

There are two final considerations I wish to point out. The first one is related to the recipe itself. My flatmate inherited his recipe from an American auntie. There is nothing wrong in this, the problem is that the two recipes are so different that it is almost impossible to name them after the same town. His recipe is pretty decent as well, but sometimes he adds whether chili or peppers or mushrooms that alter irremediably the taste and transform the bolognese in something unnatural. Secondly (and lastly), there is a generalized misinformation on the recipe as a dressing: this argument shall be developed with a more solid apparatus in the following post, where I will contest directly Mrs Nigella Lawson. For the moment, I can only anticipate that it is a pity that many famous chefs keep telling the wrong recipe, never mentioning tagliatelle (at least as an alternative) and fail to inform their audience, instead of mirroring it!

* Ingredients:

• broth: 250 ml of stock or water
• butter: 20 gr (in the end)
• beef: minced beef (folder, cover or fesone, Walkers shoulder) 250 gr
• pork: chopped (thigh) 250 gr
• smoked bacon: 50 gr
• carrot: 1
• onions: 1
• stalk of celery: 1
• red wine: 1 glass
• milk: 1 cup fresh whole
• Extra-virgin olive oil: 3 tablespoons (to fry the herbs)
• pepper & nutmeg: freshly ground to taste
• tomatoes: 30 grams triple concentrated or 2 peeled tomatoes
• Maldon salt according to taste

The REAL Bolognese: the (overrated) tradition, transmission or betrayal? (part 2)

It is always pretty delicate to define tradition. This word so simple to pronounce keeps in its chest a number of incredible nuances. It derives from the latin tradere to transmit, so it is something you may offer as a legacy to your offspring even if you just worked that out by yourself. Yet, tradition it is also a something you inherit by your ancestors, by your country, by your culture in a wider sense: it is an agreement on a shared value. Is it something you should keep in a shrine as a relic? Or is something we are allowed to innovate and implement? My view is that tradition should be taken as a general spirit, especially because it shares it philological root with tradire as well, which means to betray: you actually cannot manipulate it too much, otherwise it loses its nature, but likewise you aren't obliged to follow it in an dogmatic way. To say the truth, it doesn't hold water to label something too different from its origin with a tag that does not correspond anymore to that mark: an homo sapiens is not a primate anymore, right?

I would suggest reading this interesting analysis on tradition

[http://ebisinspirations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/why-tradition-in-schools.html]

In Italy, we have the word ragù, which is surprisingly the equivalent of bolognase sauce as known abroad: on the contrary, ragù alla bolognese is the proper bolognese sauce and its recipe is something that varies in each area of Bologna and in each Bolognese family, but it mainly shares a mutual range of ingredients (vegetables, pork, beef, pancetta, tomato, milk, butter, nutmeg, salt and black pepper). The kind of ragù prepared in Naples, in Foggia, or in Palerermo is DIAMETRICALLY different for the bolognese variety. To make a dangerous comparison: making bolognese suace detaching too much from the accepted recipe is like using horse to make sheppard pie! (only a provocation!) So what?
I reached two conclusions: too often there are contaminations that are taken as traditionally stated, such as in the american outcome of Italian cuisine, because people excessively relay on their family memories and often they involuntarily fell into stereotypical attitudes. Secondly, Italian cuisine is fashionable in some restaurants during some occasions, but also every-day based in normal situations! To sum up, curiosity, knowledge and good taste here are indispensable skills one has to develop to understand when, how, and why she/he is eating that sort of aliment. Misplacing it would damage its essence, as a painting in the wrong light.

Chop even more finely than this:

1 carrot;

1 celery rib;

1 medium onion

What you are looking at, dear reader, is called soffritto: these three gently fried vegetables are the base of bolognese sauce. Do not overdo them, but fry them gently for five minutes, and browning them.

Add 60 gr of smoked pancetta, chopped finely 

in little squares (avoid diced pancetta)

The meat (prefer a meat breed locally and traceable):

250 gr of minced Scotch beef;

250 gr of minced Scottish pork.

The meat will cook for 10 mins, stir it often, 

until it changes uniformly colour, 

then add a glass preferably of red wine 

(Sangiovese superiore, for instance)

Sangiovese is the same kind of grape used of Chianti

[http://www.designwine.co.uk/Search_Wine]

When the wine is absorbed add three peeled tomatoes,

and approximately 300 ml of water 

(many people recur to tomato concentrate and meat stock)

LET IT COOK REALLY GENTLY FOR 1 HOUR AND A HALF

add then a glass of whole milk and let it go for another half an hour

Lastly, to conclude this post, I wish to report a sophistical dispute that took place on the magazine Waitrose kitchen, March 2012, p. 42-42. Two food critics Marina O'Loughlin (for the London Metro) and Oliver Payton (judge on BBC Two's Great British Menu) had to answer the thorny question: is Italian food overrated? Oliver states that yes we are so stuck to tradition and people do not wish to experiment, whereas in the UK the afflux of different worldly foods broadened the eating approach ("Brirtain has really woken up to [quality] food"). What he pretends to fail to understand is that if you are aware of how good food should taste, you scarcely will go to a brand new restaurant, where you spend a fortune to eat the smell of something you dream. ITALIANS STILL THINK IN LIRAS AND ARE PAIED IN LIRAS, this is for sure!

Oliver's website

http://www.peytonandbyrne.co.uk/profile/index.html

Yes, we are conservatives, both in fashion, in politics and in cuisine. It would be better to say we are cautious, because we have been diddled for centuries since the fallen of the Roman Republic in 30 B.C.

Marina's blog:

http://marinaoloughlin.tumblr.com/

Marina admits we "resist innovation", but she understand that our chauvinism is implicit in the food variety and quality we actually posses. Why would you necessary change something that is working very well? Each region strikes for something irreplaceable, the innovation there is keeping it as it is, protecting those foods that risk to be badly copied by the irresponsible food industry (especially in Germany, China and America). We do not suffer of a real luck of creativity, in terms of preparations and implementations: instead, in my opinion, we are behind in terms of how to promote our food culture whit a unique voice, how to fight against forgery, how to teach tourists to eat well avoiding gips, and finally how to sensitize people involved in the business to strive for an artistic approach to cuisine.

The REAL Bolognese: Preliminary considerations on the ingredients (part 1)

This post is not a simple task, it is closer to a war fought on three different battlefields: ingredients, tradition, and mainstream reception of this outraged recipe! I wish to start from a consideration on the ingredients. It is useless to say that good ingredients contribute to the realization of a better recipe. Nonetheless we do not have to be self-enslaved by the idea that only organic products provide the certainty of healthy food, because it would be a perspective falsification, but our life-eating-style can benefit of the use of organic aliments: fanaticism never helped any cause.

Therefore, for instance, organic (category 0) eggs fried in organic butter aren't healthier than an hard boiled egg of category 1 (the free range) perhaps accompained by a home grown salad [I shall discuss this argument further on, so to give to it the proper evidence and bring more logic examples] Or again if you combine an healthy meal with a sugary beverage (even if labelled as sugar-free) you are going to spoil anyway your efforts. Or finally, if you speed up your cooking process with the microwave you are possibly exposing your digestive system to a atrocious and unnatural solicitation, provoked by the microwaves themselves.

Let's just say, for the moment, that eating is a primitive form of chemistry so the entire process of eating from breakfast to dinner including snacks and non-forecasted assumptions of food has to be taken into serious account: the word "exception" is a key work in shaping a regular relationship with what we are eating (even when you buy a small bag of crisps, a chocolaty bar, a random dessert). Being hungry is a natural condition of our body, being hungry every ten minutes is counterproductive also, eating every ten minutes is a disaster in terms of money, calories assumed and, of course, for our body, kept constantly under stress. Sometimes it solely depends on how attentive we are to the mental processes that bring us to produce ourselves in some specific actions: stress, boredom, family habits may affect our perception on food, preventing us to see how irrational many of our behaviors are.
Here is the symbol of nourishment and breeding, a symbol of life: are we really paying attention to the milk we drink? Do we know the implications of milk mass production on cows, soils and final diary products?

The offer of Organic milks in Scotland

http://www.scottishorganicmilk.com/where_to_buy_organic.html

Milk is one of the most important ingredients also in the REAL bolognese: it lightens up the coulour of the final preparation, it provides taste, softens the texture of the meat itself, and keeps the mixture moistered cause it has to remain on the hob for two hours, yes two hours. Making a quick research I came across different offers of Milk, both in the UK and in the North America.

There is a debate between organic and donkey millk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/17/which-milk-is-best-organic-or-donkey

Here there is the Marshall California organic milk,

but also the Canadian cousins are doing their best:

http://harmonyorganic.on.ca/page/who_we_are

Here in the UK, the highly underestimated Prince Charles, is doing a great personal job. Prince Charles, in my view, is the future under many aspects. He has the knowledge, prestige, charm, and social network to promote a wider change in society. Unluckily the 2008 crisis made his company Duchy wobble too much, in a moment in which it was not yet prepared to stand alone, and so Waitrose had to take over [http://www.theweek.co.uk/people-news/20883/waitrose-buy-prince-charles-food-range]

What happened it is an enormous pity because Prince Charles' efforts are genuine and wise and part of a world movement, which encourages a reasonable turnabout. He could have stayed behind the guarded walls of his castles, but His Grace is spending his time, energies and credibility to send a message. And now that he does not own his former company He appears even more credible. Here you may enjoy is polished writing along with Mr Carlo Petrini's one and the nobel prize Mrs Vandana Shiva's one (one of my modern heros).

This book provides you with a multi-layerd idea(l), 

I am suggestion to buy it on Amazon.co.uk,

because is more practical, 

but every bookshop is a parallel universe 

(do not let the area bookshops die)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manifestos-Future-Food-Vandana-Shiva/dp/0896087778/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1342365300&sr=8-5

I leave you today with this image on a smoked Italian pancetta

(pick it up at your favourite delicatessen shop,

mine are Peckhams and Valvona & Crolla

here in Edinburgh, although I suspect that Marchmont area

offers some surprises as well)

I cut it in both directions as a meaty chess-borad:

this is the second main basic ingredient of the Bolognese sauce

Meatballs: the ladybird missing dots (polpette in tomato sauce)

Meatballs are, perchance, the Italian answer to hamburger: the concept is similar, minced meat, dressed in a certain fashion, etc. I will come agin on the hamburger topic, because I appreciate them very much, when they are a dish made to order and the ingredients, bread and sauces included, are not industrial products. But this is not the place where to discuss such a delicate amount of considerations. Thus let's go back to Meatballs: first of all they are perfect as finger food, if fried, so they also are ideal for a picnic, secondly they accompany salad very well because they are tender and tasty, third they may be served with some yogurt sauce, according to the Greek fashion of the bifteki.

A galaxy of one-bite spinach meatballs, 

orbits around a semi-hamburger

(the invisible secret ingredient is a potato*:

aunt Mary's recipe)

Finally, however they can be cooked in a rich tomato juice. The tomato will surrender its natural tenderness, the meatballs will disclose their closest secrecies. The combination is so intense, happy and justified that you have the chance to use the sauce to dress some pasta and the meatballs as a second dish, without spoiling their ierogamic unity. Who does not remember the deeply touching and tender scene of the Disney's Lily and the trump? Unreal but pleasing for the eye!

I would warmly discourage you to combine

this type of sauce with normal spaghetti,

cause spaghetti are a slippery format of past,

but I am not a dictator!

I would instead appoint my choice on pennoni (big penne),

maccheroni, conchiglioni (big shells)

or mezze maniche (litterally half sleaves),

or malloreddus (Sardinian gnocchetti).

Only a small sample so to be even more confused

Perfect format: Maccheroni alla chitarra De Cecco

http://www.dececco.it/EN/

[Square section egg-spaghetti]

Anyways, the reason why this recipe reminds me of a ladybird is double: a more than dear friend of mine, Morena, likes ladybirds, they are her totemic insect, and she also likes to prepare some chard meatballs, which look beyond expectations, and taste beyond imagination.

Cut the Swiss card in to little peaces, 

fry it 5 minutes in some extra-virgin olive oil,

add it to the meatball mixture 

and release them into the sauce.

Add to the tomato sauce some

basil and a siberian tiger tusk...kidding is a clove of garlic.

My mom's recipe:

500 gr beef minced meat;

100 gr of grated Parmigiano;

1/2 grated onion;

80 gr of breadcrumbs;

1 generous sprinkle of salt,

black pepper and nutmeg;

1 egg;

1/3 glass of white wine.

How beautiful they look like in the end, and how exquisite:

gleaming in the indulgent oily confirmation.

The final result in a recipe from Abruzzo,

Robert De Niro's region.

The picture is taken by

http://www.madeinkitchen.tv/blog/slideshow/cosa-avete-cucinato-oggi-27-settembre-2010/

* Meatballs with herbs and potatoes (x 8 people)

Ingredients:

• 5-600 gr. minced meat: half pork, half beef.
• 100 gr. (or more) grated parmesan cheese;
• 1 medium potato;
• 1 egg plus a yolk [if the eggs are small, add 2 entire eggs];
• 2 slices of white bread;
• milk (for softening the bread);
• ½ a glass of white wine [excellent Marsala liquor too];
• parsley (fresh is better, but dried one is excellent though);
• nutmeg (a flavoursome sprinkle);
• black pepper (a generous sprinkle);
• salt (the right amount);
• chives [or a fresh grated onion];
• extravirgin olive oil for frying.

Cooking tools:

• a large bowl;
• a board [if you have to chop the onion];
• a flat pan;
• a wooden paddle;
• a plate lined of blotting paper;
• a platter;
• a pinch.

Procedure:

1. Boil the potato, mash it and leave it there to chill [the egg has not to touch the hot potato];
2. Mix all the ingredients in the bowl [you might use a fork];
3. Prepare the meatballs;
4. Fry the meatballs in hot boiling oil;
5. Do not turn them too often;
6. Put them on a platter;
7. Serve with roasted potatoes;
8. combine with red wine.

Double sausage dressing: the palate version of the Sistine Chaple

The bolognese is difficult, saucy island to approach: your durum wheat boots has to be well prepared for the landing. That is why I am delaying the recipe. It is always like if something is missing to the patchwork to see the whole nature of that preparation. Some dishes are lovely juxtaposition of ingredients. Fine. Bolognese is not just know-how, but it is tradition, appropriateness and primary sources. This is the main reason that leads me to a preliminary consideration on other sort of meaty sauces, that aren't so specific.

Duck Gressingham sausage (delicious: in front) 

& 

Tesco Finest leek sausage (peculiar: at the back).

Let's start from the greasy side of fauna: the pork! One of the most tasty sauces you may prepare to accompany pasta, rice, polenta or potatoes is based on the concept that sausages have already texture, personality and flavour. This implies that the effort you make is smaller: the biggest issue is to buy a good variety of sausages and a good plum tomato tin (unless, of course, as in the last post, you produce your own tomato juice). I would say straight away Cirio tomato sauce is the best Italian brand you can EASILY find in the UK:

http://www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-79264-Cirio+peeled+plum+tomatoes

Nonetheless, I am getting very well accustomed with Parioli, which is more than decent:

Sweet taste: I normally correct its acidity with honey

Napolina is a bit more acid, but discrete as well:

i normally correct its acidity with sugar

As you may have certainly noticed, I always prefer to deal with plum tomatoes: they are more reliable because the whole single tomato was sound and entire when it was plucked. And it is also a matter of personal taste and offer of the moment, I won't argue! :) Secondly you have to pass them with a mix or with a fork, but there is no haste for this.

Truly a remarkable discovery: 

its taste is between poultry and venison,

there are apples and honey inside, 

what a delicacy: your palate

shines at that moment, as the Sistine Chapel

after Michelangelo's frescos.

In a teardrop of extra-virgin olive oil fry the sausages:

it releases its true nature and the honey inside

Add the base vegetables for soffritto 

(onion [or leek], carrot and celery finely chopped) 

300 ml of hot water,

a tin of plum tomatoes,

some salt and black pepper,

a leaf of home-grown basil.

After 50 mins at low gas, this is approximately the result.

Let it rest for some hours, 

so the flavours will mix up together well

 and then...

... warm again up the sauce, and dress your 

maccheroni al dente.

Sprinkled Parmigiano on top is optional