The Sunny Kitchen - An Italian cook in Amsterdam

Souvenir de Bruxelles

After a day of work in Brussels I treated myself to my favourite Belgian chocolate...

 

:)

Eating together: lamb legs in the oven with honey, rosemary and garlic

Cooking together and eating together are two of my favourite things in life. Lots of friends at a big table, bubbles, laughter, several appetizers and one "important" dish.
Two lamb legs of about 3 kg per piece, boneless and simply seasoned with finely chopped rosemary, whole garlic cloves, salt and black pepper on the inside, honey on the outside.
A recipe from Gigi, a friend who's a fantastic cook and a big meat expert. Unluckily for us, he could not attend this dinner.

Once you've rolled the meat up and bound it with kitchen string, massage it with some honey and lay it on a big roasting tin with grill rack (this one from Ikea is fantastic). Lay the meat on the rack so that it gets evenly cooked all around.
Sprinkle the meat with some extra vergine olive oil and put them in the pre-heated oven - 100-110°C - for about 2,5 hrs. From time to time measure the internal temperature. When it reaches 55°C the lamb legs are ready, nice and juicy and rosé inside.
Let the meat rest for 10 minutes inside the roasting tin covered with tin foil and then carve thin or thick slices according to your personal preference.

I don't have a picture of the meat once ready because we were eating and because we had to carve it before it got cold.

Everybody, look surprised! :)

Crunchy red peppers strips au gratin

I love "eating colours" - lots of colourful vegetables and fruit - especially in the dark winter months.
I really believe that bright, shiny colours can enhance our mood not only when around us but also when "inside" of us.

Chromotherapy uses coloured lights to bring more balance in our personal energy and I think that brightly coloured food can do that too. After all, we are what we eat.

Think of lovely deep orange pumpkin, beautiful yellow and red bell peppers, sweet carrots and sunshiny oranges and youl'll understand what I mean. I get a happy feeling inside just looking at them. :)

One of my personal "chromotherapy recipes" is this very simple one including just a few ingredients: red (or yellow) bell peppers, made crunchy and savoury through the use of bread crumbs and good olive oil, plus a few capers in vinegar to contrast the sweetness of the peppers with their lovely tart taste.
Simple, fast and perfect as an appetizer or as a side dish!

Today's music comes from one of my favourite Italian singers, Ivan Segreto.

Peperoni gratinati con i capperi

Serves 4-6

4 red or yellow bell peppers
bread crumbs
olive oil extravergine
3 tablespoons of capers in vinegar, drained
salt
black pepper

Wash the peppers and cut them in halves.

Remove the stems and the seeds. Cut the pepper flesh in thin strips.

Lay the pepper strips, internal side up, on an oven dish covered with baking parchment.

Drizzle with olive oil and dust with abundant bread crumbs.

Season with salt and black pepper to taste and garnish with the capers, drained and rinsed with cold water.

Cook the peppers in the pre-heated oven (200°C) for about 20 minutes or until golden and crunchy.

Edible landscapes: Carl Warner

Photographer Carl Warner creates wonderful landscapes with all sorts of edible stuff, from lovely wavy pink salmon to bright green broccoli.

I've spent quite some time looking at the details of some of his pictures to discover what he used. Take for example the home curtains made with pappardelle pasta and the little bowls made with mushroom caps and green olives: pure genius. :)

Warner's portraits remind me of the beautiful creations of Italian Reinassance painter Arcimboldo.

It's great to see how this guy transforms everything he uses into fabulous settings in which I'd definitely like to stroll like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz!

   

Snapshots of a New Year's Eve in Amsterdam

Four friends.
Ivan preparing a wonderful duck in the oven.
Me storming in with "The Mystic Eye" and "The Book of Answers" under my arm, screaming "Mystic Meg is in da hoooooooouse!"
Champagne to start the evening with, Prosecco by the meal and a wonderful single malt whisky with the panettone.
Asking funny, at times surreal questions to the games.
Laughter.
Zapping from silly TV program to sillier TV program.
More laughter.
Singing along.
Popping another cork.
Bubbles.
Fireworks...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!





You can almost hear her think "Stop taking silly pictures of the food and let's eat!!!" ;)





Vegetarian quiche, stuffed duck, yummie salad, roast potatoes to die for.





Oh my, how many glasses of Prosecco did I drink already? Can't really remember...





Villia taking a peek at her fabulous future with the The Mystic Eye.




Huh... what shall I ask???





Ms. Brontë,  Ms. Brontë... ;)




Concentration to get an answer from The Book of Answers. One that makes sense, that is. ;)





THE perfect fortune-telling kit (crackers not included).




Fireworks on Amsterdam




More fireworks...



P.S. No, there's no picture of moi because the camera that was being used was my own and because I wouldn't be caught dead posting any of the two photos that were taken of me ;)

An impressive pasta dish for a stylish beginning of the new year!

During the Christmas festivities Italians have a tendency to eat more than they normally do.
A lot, that is. Often too much, to be completely honest.
Christmas Eve, the two days after that, the evening of the 31st and then lunch on New Years Day are real over-eating feasts after which everybody immediately starts a diet. ;)

This wonderful dish is a recipe from my mom, Gabriella, and has been prepared and eaten with pleasure by la famiglia during one of these festive eating occasions.
The recipe is quite labour-intensive and yet not difficult to make, as it often is the case with Italian dishes.
A bit of creativity and some artistic disposition are a plus but even if you're not Michelangelo I'm sure you'll be able to concoct a beautiful pasta pie like this one. :)

The type of pasta Gabriella used is the tortiglioni but of course you can use any other type of short pasta, for example penne or rigatoni.
If you cannot find the scamorza affumicata (a kind of smoked cheese that resembles a drier, harder smokey mozzarella) you can also use any other type of smoked cheese or just plain mozzarella.

Buon appetito and my best wishes for a wonderful 2008!!! (e grazie alla Mamma per la fantastica ricetta!) :D

TIMBALLO DI TORTIGLIONI ALLE MELANZANE
(pasta pie with aubergine/eggplant and smoked scamorza cheese)

Serves 6-8

For the dough:

400 gr plain flour
200 gr butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
salt

For the filling:

400 gr tortiglioni
1,5 kg good canned peeled tomatoes (with juice)
fresh basil leaves
1 big onion
a couple of garlic cloves
a couple of red chilli peppers, dried
2 medium sized aubergines/eggplant
olive oil extravergine
300 gr scamorza affumicata (Italian smoked cheese)
200 gr grated Parmesan cheese

Make the doug by mixing briefly flour, butter, 1 egg, 50 ml water and a pinch of salt in the kitchen robot until you get a coarse mixture (you can also do it by hand with a fork, of course).
Transfer this mixture on a working surface previously sprinkled with flour and kneed it (not too long so that the crust will stay crunchy) until you obtain a nice, smooth dough.
Leave the dough to rest under a clean kitchen towel until it's time to use it.

Prepare a classic tomato sauce (spicy version) by frying the finely chopped onion and garlic in abundant olive oil until soft - preferably on a low fire with the lid on the pan so that they can soften up gently in their own steam). Add the chopped peeled tomatoes and the chillies and leave the sauce to simmer on a low fire for some time until it thickens. Remove from the fire, add the shredded basil leaves and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Chop the aubergines in little pieces and fry them in olive oil until completely cooked and tender.

Cut the smoked scamorza cheese in chunks.

Cook the pasta very al dente (it will cook further in the oven!), then drain and mix well with the tomato sauce, the cooked aubergines, the parmesan cheese and the scamorza chunks.

Divide the dough in two parts, one of which twice as big as the other one (respectively 2 thirds and 1 third).
Roll out the dough giving both pieces a rounded shape and lay the biggest piece on a deep ovenproof dish, previously buttered and dusted with flour. Make sure you leave enough dough at the edge of the dish for folding and sealing the pasta pie.
Fill the oven dish with the pasta and sauce mixture and cover with the other piece of rolled out dough.
Roll the edges on top of eacht other to seal the pie, make a hole in the middle of the "lid" so that the excess humidity can escape leaving the crust crunchy and garnish, if you want, with some dough left overs (flowers, leaves, stars etc.).
Brush the top of the pie with some egg yolk and put the pie in the pre-heated oven (180°C) for about 30 minutes.

Let the pie cool off a bit, remove it carefully from the oven dish and serve sliced.

   

I walk

 

"I walk a path of beauty, walk a path my ancestors laid out before me. I make a path of beauty, hold my vision, roll my dreaming out before me."*


On this special day I give my thanks to all those who "walked" before me.
I'm grateful and I'm moved by your Beauty and your Wisdom.

*Native American Chant

Tribute to the Native Americans

I found the picture here

Cooking Holidays in Tuscany, April and Sep.-Oct. 08

Cooking Holidays in Italy with Nicoletta Tavella
of Italian cooking school La Cucina del Sole

Update 2008: HERE YOU CAN FIND THE LATEST SCHEDULE OF THE 2008 CULINARY HOLIDAYS IN TUSCANY

NEW!
October 14-21, 2007
COOKING HOLIDAY IN TUSCANY!

TUSCANY, October 14-21, 2007: We cook at agriturismo "Il Cantastorie" next to Montecatini Terme (in the Pistoia province), a lovely resort with a breathtaking view on the beautiful green valley with lots of olive trees, charming and peaceful surroundings and a fantastic, brand new professional kitchen where every evening we will prepare a complete meal with dishes from different Italian regions, Tuscany included of course!
During each hands-on cooking lesson we will prepare a complete four-course meal and then eat together at a nicely set table. We will explore the dishes typical of the rich Tuscan tradition and that of other Italian regions and drink wines that go perfectly well with what we cook.
We can choose between the Roman, Tuscan, Milanese, Piemontese, Neapolitan and Sicilian cuisine, or pick several other Italian regions. We could also dedicate a lesson to the yummiest antipasti (the rich starters and nibbles, the "Italian tapas"), other interesting dishes from the Ancient Roman cuisine or from the Italian Renaissance and of course the fresh pastas that make the Italian cuisine so famous: ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach, tagliatelle, spaghetti alla chitarra and maltagliati, all of them with their own specific sauces that will make our cooking experience complete.
For our cooking lessons we always use seasonal ingredients of the very best quality.

PROGRAM (slight changes are possibile):

The cooking lessons are given in English by Nicoletta Tavella, chef cook and owner of Italian cooking school La Cucina del Sole in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Nicoletta was born and raised in Italy and and teaches Italian cooking since 2001. She published het first cookbook "Antipasti" in 2006. Before becoming a cooking teacher she has been a professional interpreter and translator for 15 years.

.

13-14 October arrival at agriturismo "Il Cantastorie"
14 Oct.    welcome dinner cooked by Nicoletta

15 Oct.    morning: free;

              afternoon (starting at about 17.00 hrs): cooking lesson with dinner

16 Oct.    morning: visit to Pistoia's historical center with a professional guide, then lunch in Pistoia;

              afternoon (starting at about 17.00 hrs): cooking lesson with dinner

17 Oct.    morning: stroll in the woods around the estate with an expert game keeper. We'll be looking for wild edible mushrooms that we will use during our cooking lessons.

              afternoon (starting at about 17.00 hrs): cooking lesson with dinner

18 Oct.    morning: free;

              afternoon (starting at about 17.00 hrs): cooking lesson with dinner

19 Oct.    morning: visit to a wine maker, wine tasting and lunch

                           OR visit to an artisanal chocolate producer, tasting and lunch

              afternoon (starting at about 17.00 hrs): cooking lesson with dinner

20-21 October departure

Prices

• Price € 945,00 based on a 2 persons room (extra for a 1 persons room: € 180,00)
• 7 night stay at a 3-star hotel in the centre of Montecatini Terme incl. breaksfast
• Welcome dinner cooked by Nicoletta at "Il Cantastorie" on Sunday evening by arrival
• 5 cooking lessons at "Il Cantastorie" in its professional kitchen
• 3 excursions incl. lunches

Transfers from and to the airports of Pisa and Florence are possibile, upon request and for an extra fee.

For info and for booking this October cooking holiday in Tuscany
please call Cristina and Michael at "Il Cantastorie",
tel. +39 0572 67 44 96
of send an e-mail to info @ ilcantastorie.eu (without spaces)

Cristina and Michael speak English, Italian and Dutch

Click on pictures to enlarge. For more pictures of "Il Cantastorie" click here.

Nicoletta Tavella, the cooking teacher
(photo: De Telegraaf)

Click on pictures to enlarge

Vegetarian lasagne with ricotta and spinach for Mackenson

Oh man, have I been away for a long time. Far too long (seven months).
Lots of things have happened that needed my energy and my attention and blogging went to the background for a while.

Now I'm back to stay with renewed energy and lots of things to write about. For example one of the yummiest vegetarian dishes I know, the lasagne with ricotta cheese and spinach. :)

I've recently made them with "la famiglia", my little chosen family here in The Netherlands (if your real family is away you can always create a new one which includes your friends, their children, cats, dogs, rabbits and cavias, don't you think?) :D.

My chosen family is very important to me. That's why I try to be available every time I'm needed even if it's just driving them somewhere with my Ferrari red... Panda. :D
And if "helping" equals "cooking something nice" then I'm twice as happy to help. :)

Recently Claudia, an Italian friend of mine and beloved member of la famiglia, promised to cook something typically Italian for her son's school to be sold for a benefit during their yearly Open Day celebration.
Mackenson goes to the most fabulous school that I know, the European School in Bergen, The Netherlands, where children from all over the world learn that dealing with different languages, religions, skin colours and cultures is a very positive and exciting experience.

Since April 1st I have my very own professional kitchen (Kookstudio Oud-Zuid in Amsterdam) in which to give my cooking courses and prepare my caterings (finally a big space!) we decided to cook together - Mackenson, Camilla, Claudia, Simonetta and myself, and of course my little dog Mirtilla that came into the kitchen to check our work regularly - to prepare some lasagne vegetariane (vegetarian lasagna).
Twenty medium-sized and six smaller trays, to be precise, that were sold during the Open Day on Sunday the 3rd of June.
Ahum, not only sold, to be completely sincere, since we kept the smaller trays for ourselves and ate them on the evening of our cooking get-together at Simonetta's on her beautiful roof terrace with a view on the Amsterdam panorama (see pictures). A few more friends that received a last-minute invitation joined us and shared the pleasure.

What a fabulous way to end a fantastic day: eating lasagne and lots of other great stuff with your friends while enjoying the beautiful sunset and sipping a nice glass of wine.
La vita è davvero bellissima. :):):)

Here the recipe for lots and lots of lasagne. Of course you can wait until it's time to organize a big dinner, put part of the lasagne in the freezer for later use, halve the quantities or call the local homeless organisation to ask if they want to come to your place and pick up some. Lots of karma points, right? :)

Lasagne ricotta e spinaci

Ingredients:

1 box dry lasagne sheets, 500 gr/1,1 lb (we used the Barilla ones) that don't have to be pre-cooked

Filling:
1 kg/2,2 lb ricotta cheese
1 kg/2,2 lb frozen spinach, thawed
200 gr/0.44 lb grated Parmesan or Grana cheese
nutmeg
salt
black pepper

Béchamel sauce:
2 l/33.8 fl. oz. milk at room temperature
400 gr/0.88 lb plain flour
280 gr/0.61 lb butter
nutmeg
salt
black pepper

Tomato sauce:
2 kg/4,4 lb sieved tomatoes (passata di pomodoro)
4 garlic cloves
2 big onions
a handful basil leaves
extravergine olive oil
salt
black pepper

Plus:
A lot of extra grated Parmesan or Grana cheese

Preparation:
First prepare the tomato sauce and the béchamel because they're quite labour-intensive and need time.

For the tomato sauce: peel and finely chop the garlic. Fry it gently in with the chopped onions in 12 tablespoons of olive oil until soft and glazy. Add the sieved tomatoes and 5 dl/16.9 fl. oz. of water. Mix well.

Bring the sauce to a boil and let it thicken for about 10 minutes on a low flame (longer if the passata isn't very thick and concentrated).
Season with salt (optional if the passata is already salted).
Remove from the flame and add the hand shredded basil leaves and some freshly ground black pepper.

For the béchamel sauce: melt the butter in a pan, add the flour (through a fine sieve, to avoid lumps) and fry gently for about 1 minute. Add the milk (better if at room temperature) and slowly bring to a boil. Lower the flame and keep on mixing until the sauce gets a bit thicker (not too thick because béchamel, just like tomato sauce, has to be quite fluid so that the dry lasagna sheets have enough moisture to cook properly). Season with salt, pepper and some freshly grated nutmeg.

Leave the béchamel to cool off a bit.

Prepare the filling mixing ricotta, spinach (first remove the excess water squeezing the cooked spinach very well), a pinch of salt, the grated Parmesan of Grana cheese, a pinch of ground nutmeg and some black pepper in a big bowl. Of course you can also use fresh leaves instead of frozen ones (preferably wild spinach), the only thing is that you need a lot more than 1 kg. (2,2 lb) fresh leaves to obtain the right amount of cooked greens (about 2/3rds more).
Leave the filling to rest for a while and then mix half of it with the béchamel sauce. Put the other half aside.

Pour enough tomato sauce in a big oven dish so that you abundantly cover its surface. Lay enough lasagna sheets to cover the sauce - just one layer - and cover further with a good amount of ricotta-spinach filling. Sprinkle with grated cheese and lay one more layer of lasagna sheets over the filling. Cover with another layer of filling and some cheese.

Make a last layer of pasta sheets, tomato sauce and béchamel. Let the two sauces mix with one another and complete the dish with some grated cheese on top.

Put the oven dish in the pre-heated oven (180°C-356° F) for about 30 minutes or until the lasagne have a nice little crust.

Serve the lasagne only after they've been out of the oven for a while so that they can become nice and compact and are not too hot and fluid.

TIP: Lasagne taste even better if you make them one day in advance. You only need to warm them up very well before serving them!

LINGUISTIC TIP: the singular "lasagna" indicates just one sheet of pasta, while the plural "lasagne" indicates the complete dish.

Beautiful music for a wonderful lasagne-sunset

Fry onions and garlic...
  ...to prepare a delicious tomato sauce. Mackenson and Camilla make the filling


Mixing the filling with some béchamel Filling the oven dishes... ...and some more filling.

Future food blogger in action. :) Enjoying food, wine and company The beautiful sunset on the Amsterdam rooftops

Heston and bolognese

Seen yesterday evening on the BBC: Heston Blumenthal's version of an Italian classic, the bolognese sauce (il ragù, as it's called in Italy).
My father would define Heston's working methods "Ufficio Complicazione Affari Semplici", literally translated as "Bureau for the Complication of Easy Matters". And with a reason.
As a matter of fact - incredible but true - Heston succeds in turning one of the most perfect and simple recipes ever - with or without milk, cream or whatever it is that people in the different parts of the Emilia Romagna region use or don't use - in a flavours' nightmare. With an orgy of ingredients like ketchup, sherry vinegar, star anise, tabasco, coriander, tarragon and even NAM FUCKIN' PLA!!! (Thai fish sauce, that is), to say it Gordon Ramsay's style. And with complex working methods that would discourage the most patient of cooks.

The nice thing about bolognese is - except for its divine texture and taste - that this sauce requires a simple preparation and then becomes practically "independent" during the cooking phase. Letting it slowly simmer for at least 2-3 hours on a very low flame after a short preparation (making soffritto - the base of a good bolognese sauce prepared with finely chopped onion, celery and carrot - can be easily done in a couple of seconds with a kitchen robot and then it's just a matter of letting it slowly soften, browning the meat in it and splashing it with wine) is enough. The result: a combination of different - not too many - flavours that complement each other wonderfully.
In the Italian kitchen less is more. In Heston's kitchen this is clearly not the case.

I'd like to try this sauce. I don't doubt that - in a subtly perverse way - it probably tastes quite good but - PLEASE! - don't call it bolognese.


For Heston's bolognese recipe read here.
Foto: www.combichemlab.com