A Passionate Life

Discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary

Living like an italian

Italian tomato tradition

Homemade tomato sauce - Living like an Italian

The end of summer is fast approaching and it’s peak time for tomatoes. The Italian tradition (at least, here in Australia) is to make sugo di pomodoro (tomato sauce). And as I mentioned at the beginning of my Italian summer, to live like an Italian, the Italian tomato tradition is definitely one to embrace.

We have an abundance of these summery red orbs, so it was into the kitchen and on with the sauce. I made two different sauces – Sugo pronto, a ready-made sauce which can be used as a base for tomato sauce based dishes. The other, Passata (tomato puree), using roasted tomatoes flavoured with garlic, herbs and a small amount of cipolla (onion).

home grown tomatoes
Tomato heaven!

Both sauces turned out well, but we were surprised at the small amount of sauce we ended up with compared to the huge quantity of tomatoes we started with.

There are lots of recipes for Sugo pronto (homemade tomato sauce) with different combinations of ingredients included with your tomatoes. For my sauce, I used cipolle (onions), aglio (garlic) and cedano (celery), with the addition of oregano, basil and sage which I tied into a bundle. I’ve included a few photos of my sauce making efforts.

 

Ingredients for Sugo pronto
Ingredients for Sugo pronto

 

making tomato sauce
Heat olive oil and sauté the onions. garlic and celery until soft

 

Cooking the tomato sauce
Cooking the sugo

For the passata (roasted tomato sauce), we used our cherry tomatoes. The process was simple and the end result was gustoso (tasty).

Passata

Roasted tomato sauce
Roast all the ingredients in the oven until the tomatoes begin to collapse

Ingredients:

Ripe tomatoes

Salt flakes and freshly ground pepper

Oregano  and basil sprigs

2 fresh bay leaves

Small red onion sliced (you can use sliced french shallots, if you prefer)

Garlic, sliced (to your taste)

Olive oil

Method:

  1. Halve the tomatoes and place in a single layer in a baking dish.

  2. Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

  3. Add the onion, garlic, oregano, basil and bay leaves.

  4. Pour over the oil.

  5. Roast in a 150 degree preheated oven until the tomatoes begin to blister and collapse.

  6. Remove the herbs and bay leaves.

  7. Pass the tomatoes, garlic and onion through a sieve to remove the skins.

  8. Blitz the sauce in a food processor.

  9. Pour into sterilised jars and heat seal if you plan to store it for the winter.

Bottled tomato sauce
The bottled sugo

Italian tomato traditions are not only for Italians. If you have a bountiful harvest, why not try and make your own! The taste is so much better than anything you’ll find in your local store.

Buon lavoro e buon appetito! 

Colleen

 

 

PS: I’d  love you to share your recipe for tomato sauce!

 

 

The most romantic day of the year

Verona in love
Verona in love.   Photo credit: Tourism Verona

Valentine’s day (La Festa degli innamorati), the most romantic day of the year is fast approaching. And Verona, the city of love and those star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, is the most romantic place to be. The whole city breathes love, with special events to mark the occasion.

‘Verona in love’ is a four day festival dedicated to lovers — those wanting to express their love, renew their love, or those with a secret love. Chocolates, love letters, Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet feature prominently. The city streets are lit up with big hearts and there’s a huge red heart painted in the middle of Piazza dei Signori, one of the most beautiful squares in the city and my favourite.

To get the best view of the heart, take a walk to the top of the Lamberti Tower (Torre dei Lamberti) which is 85 metres high. If the 238 steps are too much for you, there’s a lift. The tower provides 360 degree views of the city. Go at sunset if you’re taking your loved one -.the view is spectacular and romantic.

If you have a sweet tooth, visit the Loggia Vecchia which is transformed into an elegant lounge, for chocolate tastings. There is also a showcase of Italian master chocolatiers. If chocolates aren’t you thing, why not send your secret love a Valentine’s day message.

messages from the heart
Messages from the heart      Photo credit: Tourism Verona

Write a message from the heart and pin it (alongside hundreds of other love notes) to the board in the square. Or do it the old fashioned way, with a love letter. There are thousands of people who write to Juliet each year.

The Juliet Club (made famous by the movie Letters to Juliet) answers around 10,000 letters written to Juliet each year from people all around the world wanting advice about love or sharing their love stories. This year there is an award ceremony for the best love letter.

Love is in the air over the entire city with ‘Romeo and Juliet’ tours, a treasure hunt for lovers, performances of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and other plays, music and food.

Valentine’s day cakes
Give a Valentine’s Day cake to your loved one   Photo credit: Tourism Verona

It’s enough to melt the most cynical heart. Commercial interests play a part, but statistics show that on Valentine’s Day all over the world, lovers take the time to declare their love with cards, chocolates, flowers and dinners. (In Australia alone we spent over $14M on Valentine’s Day cards last year).

What will you be doing on the most romantic day of the year?  Share your stories!

Vi voglio bene 

Colleen

 

 

Grazie mille to Tourism Verona for information and photos

Celebrate summer’s bounty

homegrown tomatoes
First blush

My Italian summer is going well. Most of my plantings have been successful and to celebrate summer’s bounty (so far!) here are some photos of of my produce:

green tomatoes
Tomatoes, growing well

As you can tell, my tomato vines are producing well, although I don’t know if there’ll be enough to make sugo (tomato sauce) …speriamo! Of course, the taste is squisito (exquisite)!

You’ve seen my purple beauties (see my previous post). Aren’t they magnificent? And there are lots more coming along!

eggplants growing
Purple beauties

The apricots have been harvested and also shared with the birds.

Apricots ripening
Apricots ripening
Summer’s bounty - homegrown apricots
Delicious, juicy apricots

Cucumbers are tumbling over each other to be picked:

homegrown cucumbers
Cucumbers asking to be picked

And the nectarines and pomegranates are ripening!

Nectarines ripening
Nectarines ripening
Summer’s bounty Pomegranates
Pomegranates

Can you think of a better way to celebrate summer’s bounty!

Alla prossima!

Colleen

 

 

PS: What’s growing in your garden right now?

Purple beauties

eggplant
Purple beauties, first of the season

After a week away from my garden, I found some glossy, purple beauties peeking through the leaves in my vegetable patch. My slim ladyfinger eggplants whispered, “pick us”.

Eggplant is such an modest name — the Italian melanzana, and the french aubergine, roll off the tongue easily and seem more fitting names for these beautiful purple fruits.  Yes, even though it is treated as a vegetable, it’s a fruit because it bears seeds within the flesh – much like the the tomato, which is from the same botanical family.

Introduced to Italy by the Arabs, they were initially grown as ornamentals and were avoided in the kitchen. Hard to believe, as the Italians have perfected the art of cooking melanzane in a variety of different ways — Melanzana alla parmigiana (Eggplant parmesan) is one of the most popular and Melanzane ripiene (stuffed eggplant) is also delicious.

purple beauties
Three purple beauties

As I only had three mature fruits, they weren’t enough for these classic Italian dishes, but they were the perfect quantity to marinate and include on my antipasto platter.

As usual, I reached for my recipe books. I found a quick and easy recipe for marinated eggplant in Italian Kitchen, a book filled with classic, simple Italian dishes. I adjusted the quantities for my three eggplants, but here is the original:

Marinated eggplant (Melanzane marinate)

Serves: 6-8    Prep time: 15 minutes    Cooking time: 15 minutes

marinated eggplant
Marinated eggplant – melanzane marinate di Isabella

 

Ingredients for marinated eggplant
Melanzane marinate – ingredients for dressing

Ingredients:

750gr eggplant
60ml olive oil, plus extra (I used extra virgin from Primo Estate, a winery in McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide)
2 tblsp balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 anchovy fillet, finely chopped
2 tblsp chopped flat leaves parsley

Method:

Cut the eggplant into thick diagonal slices. Put in a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave to stand over a bowl for 30 minutes.(I omitted this as my ladyfingers aren’t bitter). Rinse under cold water and pat dry.

sliced eggplant
Sliced eggplant, ready for frying

Heat a little oil in a frying pan and brown the eggplant in batches. Transfer to a bowl, toss with the dressing and parsley and marinate for 4 hours. Serve at room temperature.

Dressing for marinated eggplant
Dressing ingredients: extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and anchovy

Dressing:

Whisk the oil, vinegar and anchovy until smooth. Season to taste.

My final result was a hit and the dish is now a fixture on my antipasto list, especially as it is so quick to prepare.

I’m looking forward to harvesting a few more melanzane and I’d love to try my hand at preserving some of these purple beauties.

Giardinaggio felice! (Happy gardening)

Colleen

 

 

PS: If you have a favourite Italian recipe for melanzane, I’d love to hear from you!

Christmas Canestrelli

Afternoon tea with Christmas Canestrelli

‘Tis the season to be jolly — and to continue my Italian summer theme, I’m baking some Christmas canestrelli to give as gifts. Don’t you think they look beautiful in my beautiful glass container by Creative Glass Gifts?

Canestrelli are delicious buttery Italian cookies originally from the Italian region of Liguria. Traditionally they were baked at Easter and they are also served at weddings and christenings. But these flower-shaped shortbread cookies which are generously dusted with icing sugar, are a great alternative to my usual Christmas shortbread.

Canestrelli means ‘little baskets’ which refers to the baskets in which the cookies were placed to cool after baking.

My recipe is adapted from cookbook  La Cucina – The regional cooking of Italy and is really simple to prepare.

Canestrelli

Servings: approx 30 cookies   Prep time: 20 minutes   Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Ingredients for Christmas canestrelli
Ingredients for Christmas Canestrelli

150 gr all-purpose flour
50 gr potato flour
100 gr butter, cubed and softened
zest of 1 lemon
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 egg separated, egg white beaten until frothy
pinch of salt
70 gr icing sugar
pinch of baking powder
extra icing sugar for dusting

Method:

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix ...simple!
Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix …simple!

Sift the flours into bowl.  Add the butter, lemon zest, vanilla, egg yolk, salt, icing sugar and baking powder. Mix with a fork until the mixture comes together. This can also be done in a food mixer.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball. Wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough to form a sheet about 5mm thick and cut out flower shapes with a small hole in the centre.

canestrelli ready to be baked
Canestrelli ready to be baked

Place the cookies on a baking sheet and brush them with the egg white.

Bake at 190 degrees for 10 minutes, or until pale golden.

Dust with icing sugar while still warm and again when cool.

Christmas Canestrelli - ready to eat
Christmas Canestrelli – ready to eat!

Enjoy with your morning coffee, or in Australia, serve at afternoon tea. Or give as a gift in a beautiful container.

Buon appetito!

Colleen

 

 

PS: Do you have a favourite Italian biscotto that you serve at Christmas? I’d love you to share the recipe!

You say tomato, I think Italiano

An Italian journey through food - Tomato plants

When you say tomato, what comes to mind? Pizza, pasta sauce, summer salads? To me, those bright red globes are quintessential Italiano summer fruits. But even though the tomato is an essential ingredient in many iconic Italian dishes, it isn’t native to Italy. The tomato originated in the Andes and the Spaniards distributed them throughout Europe where initially, they were regarded with suspicion. When they first arrived in Bel Paese, they were grown as ornamentals, for their beauty.

Today, tomato consumption per capita in Italy is around 60kg per year compared to around 20kg per capita in Australia. Globally, it’s the most important fruit (yes, it’s a fruit) crop with 160 million tons produced in 2011. That’s a lot of pomodori!

Tomato plants 1 metre tall
Tomatoes – late November

My tomatoes are looking beautiful right now. Some plants have grown to almost a metre high, with plenty of flowers. There are a few fruits, but I hope that soon there’ll be lots of red orbs of summeriness!

Tommy Toe tomatoes
Tommy Toe tomatoes, coming along fine!

Toward the end of summer, cooking the sugo di pomodoro (tomato sauce) is a ritual practiced by many Italo-Australian families. The sauce is bottled and stored for use throughout the year. This year, I hope to make my own sugo with some of the tomatoes from my garden.

Hope that my sugo looks like this!
I hope my sugo looks like this!     Photo credit: Wayne Marshall

Historically, the word pomodoro appears to have a number of origins. It was known as pomo di moro – apple of the Moors, as it was a favourite of the Arabs; the French thought the tomato had aphrodisiac qualities and called it pomme d’amour – love apple; another version is the Italian pomo d’oro, which translates to golden apple.

But whichever version you like — if you say tomato, I think Italiano!

Alla prossima!