The Sunny Kitchen - An Italian cook in Amsterdam

Summer lunch on the balcony - courgette flowers stuffed with lemon tagliolini

My mum is the BEST cook in the world, no doubt about it.
Don't ALL Italians say that? Well, I can assure you, in my case it's true. :)

Yesterday we had lunch on her balcony overlooking the lungomare (the beautiful promenade along the coast) of Bari to enjoy the little bit of available cool air and make the hot day more bearable.

She prepared a great primo piatto, delicate and yet very savoury: lovely zucchini flowers stuffed with lemon-flavoured tagliolini (the thinner version of the classic tagliatelle). An absolutely fantastic dish, perfect for that one-day-to-summer day.

After eating something like that we didn't need much more and had just a fresh caprese with oregano accompanied by some great porcini mushrooms in oil.

The wannabe sommelier chose a bottle of citrusy and bubbly Verduzzo-Prosecco frizzante delle Venezie IGT 2008 from Giordano that went perfectly well with the lemony taste of the tagliolini.
Ahem, "chose" is a big word. To tell the truth, nothing but the truth, it was the only bottle of wine my mum had in the fridge so it HAD to go perfectly well with the lemon pasta. ;)
The thing is... it actually did!

Here's the recipe, to be enjoyed as long as courgette flowers are available (which hopefully is going to be all summer long!).

Fiori di zucchina ripieni di tagliolini al limone

Serves 4

300 gr thin tagliolini
4-5 courgette flowers per person
40 gr. butter
2 big organic lemons
160 gr cream cheese or cooking cream
salt and black pepper

Wash the zucchini flowers briefly under the tap, open them delicately on one side so that they become strip-like, remove the fleshy pistils and lay the flowers on a clean kitchen cloth.

Melt the butter in a saucepan on a low fire but don't let it fry and get all golden brown.
Grate the lemon rind and mix it gently with the warm butter and the cream cheese in the saucepan. Set aside.

Cook the tagliolini in salted boiling water till only half cooked and drain.
Transfer the pasta in the saucepan and toss with the sauce. If you like, season with salt and black pepper to taste.

Take a forkful of tagliolini and roll it well on the fork. Use this little "nest" to stuff a courgette flower and proceed in the same way until all the flowers have been filled.
Enclose the little tagliolini rolls within each flower wrapping the flowers around the pasta. Lay the stuffed flowers in an oven dish and scatter a few pieces of butter all over them.

Cook for about 5 minutes in the pre-heated oven at 250°C and for 2 extra minutes under the grill.
Serve immediately.

 

 

Before going into the oven

 

  

Beautiful flowers

 

  

Miami or Bari? ;)

 

 

Me in my favourite type of mirror ;)

 

Bari, summer is already here...

Just arrived in Bari, Puglia.
We landed last night at 2.00 after a nice - and a bit delayed - flight with my friend Claudio, also living in Amsterdam and born in this beautiful southern Italian city to which I come back so often, lately.
My dog Mirtilla was sitting in a travel bag at my feet, panting a bit and looking a tad unhappy, but stoic enough to stay in the small bag for two hours without protesting, just looking at me from time to time to make sure I was still there.

This morning I got up early and took her out for a little walk along the shore - my mum is lucky enough to live in a beautiful apartment overlooking the famous (and sometimes infamous) "Pane e pomodoro" beach.
It's already soooo hot at eight in the morning that it's no good idea to take Mirtilla to the park to play with the ball, she would be panting and sweating after 2 minutes, so we'll wait till around sunset time.

At 8.30 the beach was already alive with people bathing, playing or just lying in the sun which, at this time, is already quite hot.
What a difference in temperature from the 15°C of Amsterdam yesterday evening when we left!
Here it's already summer and Mirtilla is not the only one who's panting now...

"Pane e pomodoro" beach this morning

 

 If you decide to drown after six it's your friggin' problem ;)

I DO like Mondays, the Boomtown Rats were WRONG big time (with BBQ sardines)

Since I started following the AIS sommelier course in Amsterdam my Monday evenings are sooo much nicer because there's always someone - one of my fellow students or moi - who organises some nice event: a dinner, a wine tasting or, like last Monday, a BBQ in a beautiful Amsterdam garden.

Iris invited us for a wonderful evening of eating good food, drinking excellent wines and being merry.

Victor was Master of The BBQ for the whole evening producing wonderfully juicy meat, Giovanni made grilled sardines (since I was too busy drinking wine I didn't actually see how he made them so I'll give you my own personal recipe) and we all brought a bunch of GREAT bottles of wine to taste (doing a sommelier course you always have a great excuse to drink, haven't you?)

Thank you Iris! And yes, the Boomtown Rats were wrong.

Oh gawd, I'm dating myself. :)

 

 

 

Grilled sardines al limone

Serves 4

4 big sardines p.p.
A handful of garlic cloves
A small bunch of parsley
2 lemons
1-2 fresh red chilli peppers
Olive oil extra vergine
Salt and black pepper

Remove the heads of the sardines (if you do that with a movement from up to down as if you wanted to make them "nod" the guts will come off with the heads; at the same time, open the bellies with your thumb to make this easier).

Rinse the fish under cold tap water and marinate for half an hour with lemon juice, abundant olive oil, the finely chopped peppers and some peeled and sliced garlic cloves.
Fill the bellies with some parsley leaves and one garlic clove, remove the excess marinade and grill until nicely cooked.
If you want to protect the delicate meat of the smaller sardines (like the ones in the picture) put some tin foil between them and the grill.
Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.