A Passionate Life

Discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary

Italian journeys

 

 

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!

Buon Natale

 

Happy Christmas

Wherever in the world you are — from Australia, we wish you peace and happiness with your family and friends for the festive season.

Auguri di Buon Natale! 

Colleen

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! 

Recipes for my Italian summer

Recipes for my Italian summer
Italian recipe books from my bookshelf

I love cooking and I’m a cook who needs a recipe, so they are always on my reading list. I’ve been known to while away a few hours looking though cookbooks when there is an occasion coming up (and even when there isn’t one!).  I have lots — not only Italian, also Thai, Vietnamese and Greek. My favourite chefs are Delia Smith, Nigella (who also loves Italy and Italian cooking), Luke Nguyen and  Aussie chef Karen Martini whose recipes feature Italian, Greek and Lebanese food. I also have recipe books dedicated to Italian food, as well as books that focus on Italian regional cuisine. Now I have another excuse to while away some time looking at recipes for my Italian summer. It’s research, right?

A few years ago I received from amore mio a tome of a book called La cucina – the regional cooking of Italy. It’s from the Accademia Italiana della Cucina (Italian Academy of Cuisine) which was founded more than 60 years ago, to preserve the the culinary heritage of Italy. With more than 2000 recipes from all regions of Italy, it’s a veritable encyclopaedia of traditional Italian cooking. You can find recipes on their website. (It’s in Italian and you have to register to access the recipes)

Authentic Italian recipes for an italian summer
La Cucina, an embodiment of authentic regional Italian cooking

When I first opened the book, I was intimidated. Not a picture in sight! And recipes for anything from smoked goose to polenta fruitcake, laurel liqueur to wild herb soup, and pasta in a myriad ways.

I haven’t cooked many dishes from the book but my Italian summer plans call for another look. I hope I can do justice to these traditional Italian recipes.

Here’s a peek . . .

Braised asparagus
Recipe for braised asparagus

Even though some of the recipes come from traditional kitchens when Italians grew most of what they ate, they are open to interpretation. As Paolo Petroni, founder of the Slow Food Movement says,”tradition is in perpetual motion and new life must always be breathed into the past”.

Here’s to giving new life to ancient traditions!

Buona cucina! 

Colleen

 

 

PS: Do you have a favourite Italian recipe that’s been passed down from your nonna? Please share if it’s not a secret!