Mozzarella cheese and eggplants' patties.

We are in season for eggplants, we love them and we often eat them.

These patties are easy, healthy and loved by children too: they can be served with tomato sauce but I prefer to eat them plain.

3 servings:

1 big round eggplant

1 cup breadcrumbs plus some to roll the patties in

3/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1 egg

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

1 garlic clove

5-6 basil leaves

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

Dice the eggplant and stirfry in a pan with olive oil and the garlic clove untill tender.

Add salt and pepper to taste, when it's cold put it in a blender with diced mozzarella, parmesan, basil leaves, breadcrumbs and egg.

Blend untill well combined, if the mix is too soft you can add some breadcrumbs.

Make small patties the size of a ping pong ball, roll them in the breadcrumbs and cook untill golden in olive oil.

I love them hot so the mozzarella form strings :D

Zucchini and saffron farfalle.

A delicious pasta dish, easy to prepare but with a sophysticated allure due to the basil and lemon notes.

It's seriously one of my favourite for the spring-summer season.

Ingredients for 4:

14 oz. pasta (farfalle but you can also use fusilli or penne)

3 oz. creamy cheese like robiola or philadelphia

3 small zucchini

1 bag saffron powder

2 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil

salt & pepper

4-5 basil leaves

lemon zest

Cut zucchini in small dices, sautee in a pan with oil, salt and pepper.

When zucchini are golden add saffron, mix then add the cheese and the basil leaves roughly cutted, mix again.

Bring salted water to boil then cook your pasta, drain it and pour into the pan with 2-3 tablespoon of cooking water.

Turn the fire on and mix very well.

Put your pasta into dishes then add lemon zest on top.

Can't be easier uh!?

Sicilian pesto (Pesto alla siciliana).

As promised I'm here with a recipe.

This is a pesto recipe: I've already posted the genovese one, now it's time for "pesto alla siciliana"!

It's a lovely and tasty recipe, very quick and good for the summer season, you just need good cherry tomatoes and fresh ricotta cheese.

As often happens there are many version of this recipe: some don't include ricotta cheese, some use almonds instead of pine kernels son don't be surprised if you find the same recipe around with different ingredients.

4 servings:

1 garlic clove

a bunch of fresh basil

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1/4 cup pine kernels

2/3 cup fresh ricotta cheese (cow or goat)

2 cups cherry tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

Open tomatoes in half and squeeze them to remove juice and seeds, put them into the mixer cup.

Add washed and dried basil leaves, pine kernels, oil, the garlic clove, Parmesan, ricotta cheese and oil.

Close the blender lid and mix for a while: you can choose pesto's thickness, if you like it creamy mix a little bit longer, if you prefer to taste pieces mix just few seconds.

Taste it and add salt and pepper, you can preserve it into a glass holder for about two days in refrigerator.

Cook the pasta you prefer, drain it and save a little cooking water, mix pasta with pesto and add water as needed to whisk well.

Mozzarella shots ( Bicchierini di mozzarella)

Need a quick appetizer?


Do you want a nice "Italian style" entree?


This is what you need!


Take as many liquor glass (so, small and short) as the guests are, then you need:





mozzarella cheese (fresh, good, the one that if you cut you can see the milk dripping, not the plastic balls you find sometimes at supermarket)





a red and ripe tomato (more or less it depends on how many people you have to serve)





fresh basil leaves





extra-virgin olive oil





salt

PLEASE NOTE: this recipe is a lot better with "burrata" that is a special kind of mozzarella filled with milk cream and stripes of mozzarella itself.

It's a great cheese but I suppose it's not so easy to find abroad so I used mozzarella for this recipe.

If you find it anyway don't esitate: use burrata!

Crush the basil leaves with oil and a little salt untill you have a rough pesto alla genovese, put a coffee sppon of this pesto in each glass.


Now chop the mozzarella cheese in very tiny pieces, put them into the glasses, the same quantity in each, fill almost 'till the top.


Cut the tomato in very tiny cubes, season them with salt and oil, add a little spoon of them on top of mozzarella cheese.


Pay attention to put same quantity of the three ingredients in glasses, just to give all of them the same look.


Now you have a nice Italian flag appetizer, enjoy!

Pasta salad with mozzarella cheese and tomatoes ( Pasta alla crudaiola con mozzarella e pomodori)

This is probably the easier recipe of cold/warm pasta you can find.

Often here in Italy pasta salads are filled with so many ingredients that they become real calories bombs and, according to my experience, abroad is the same if not worse.

The same with rice salads and I don't really like that mix of different tastes, so many that you can't almost understand what there's inside (and sometimes, when you use canned pasta salad mixture, is probably better...).

This dish instead is plain, simple, with few but good ingredients and you don't need a lot of time to prepare it.

For 4 serves you need:

1 pound short pasta: penne, rigatoni, tortiglioni, farfalle ( 1 pound for 4 is quite a large dish, you can use less pasta)

1 big mozzarella cheese (if you can find mozzarella made from buffalo's milk is even better)

extra-virgin olive oil

3 medium red and ripe tomatoes

5-6 fresh basil leaves, washed

salt and pepper how much you like

Cook pasta at least 2 hours before serving if you want it cold, half an hour before if you want it just warm.

In a big bowl put tomatoes and mozzarella cheese chopped in tiny cubes, add basil leaves, salt and pepper and a generous pour of oil.

Mix well, add cold or warm pasta, mix again.

Store in fridge if needed, mix again before serving.

You can add a garlic clove to preparation to give a stronger flavour.

Tomato salad with greek yogurt ( Insalata di pomodori con yogurt greco)

I keep on going with summer and easy recipes, this one is so tasty according to me.

It remember me of my summers at university where I share an apartment not far from the sea with some Greek and English students: we had so much fun together, parties, tea times, plain dinners that became a fancy mix of food from our countries.

Now I start to become over-sentimental so let's go with the salad!

You can decide measures quite roughly, don't need weights :)

You need:

red and ripe tomatoes, I usually prefer San Marzano (the ones long and thin with less seeds that you can see in the picture)

fresh basil leaves

salt

pepper if you like

extra-virgin olive oil

a garlic clove if you like

greek yogurt, how much it depends on how many you are but I use roughly a big spoon of yogurt for each serve

Cut tomatoes in tiny cubes, put them in a bowl with their sauce, add salt, pepper, oil, garlic and the basil leaves well washed.

Mix well, add the greek yogurt, mix again and let rest in fridge for about a couple of hours mixing now and then.

Greek yogurt is really thick but mixed with oil and tomato sauce it will get dilute and your tomatoes will be covered with a tasty creamy sauce, quick and really healthy!

It's perfect with grilled meat or fish, with hamburgers or other dishes.

Vegetable burgers ( Hamburger di verdure)

This is a great recipe for vegetarian and for children who don't love vegetable.

It's easy, quite quick and tasty, you can prepare mixture in advance.

For 4-6 serves you need:

about 2 lb mixed vegetables ( carrots, leeks, spinach, courgettes, green beans...)

7 oz. potadoes

2 eggs

1 egg white

4 tablespoons grated cheese

breadcrumb

basil

salt and pepper

frying oil

Boil potadoes in salted water.

Clean vegetables, chops them in pieces and boil "al dente".

Drain them then mince and let the remaining water drain.

Pass potadoes in the potadomasher.

Mix vegetables with potadoes, add eggs , cheese and minced basil plus salt and pepper.

Create little burgers, pass them into the egg white then in breadcrumb.

Heat oil in a pan then cook burgers untill they're gold on both sides.

Serve hot with a plain salad or into a sandwich like a meat hamburger.

Canned tuna tomato sauce (Sugo al tonno)

Surfing the web I saw we are all on the same boat: financial crisis is a global matter and families with low incomes and on a budget are a lot here in Italy and abroad.

So today I want to post a cheap sauce for pasta, so cheap and easy that here is quite famous as "student dish": ingredients don't need to be refrigerated and everyone can afford them.

Ingredients:

half a bottle or a can of tomato sauce

salt

basil (even dried one)

garlic (even dried one)

1 can of tuna (with oil if you like or just steamed if you want a light dish)

chili pepper if you like

extra virgin olive oil

Put in a pan two spoons of oil, add garlic and let it fry for a while.

Add tuna, well crushed, mix then add tomato sauce.

Let it boil gently for half an hour then add salt basil and chili as much as you like.

Here you are your sauce, it's perfect with spaghetti, penne, rigatoni, farfalle.

Genovese pesto (Pesto alla genovese)

As said few posts ago it's time for basil: what recipe can give all the best from this herb if not Genovese pesto?

It's worldwide famous but often the one you buy at supermarket is: expensive, made with low quality oils, low percentage of basil or dried basil, cashew nuts instead of pine-kernels.

Having a good and healthy pesto is not that difficult, so why don't you give a try?

To prepare a real pesto you should have a lot of patience and a marble mortar and pestle.
Probably you don't have it (I don't have it!) and then I'll give a quick solution at the end of the recipe, but it's an Italian kitchen blog so let's have the traditional recipe first!

Ingredients / 6 persons:

about 20 oz.. pasta ( trofie as seen in the photo are the best but you can also use linguini, spaghetti, gnocchi, penne)

a big bunch of fresh basil (tradition says 30 basil leaves each garlic clove, of course it's up to you at the end)

a glass of extravirgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves

1 spoon pine-kernels

3 spoons of grated cheese ( parmesan, grana padano or pecorino from tuscany, sicily or sardinia: your choice)

a little salt

Important things to know before starting: you should end the preparation as soon as possible to avoid oxidation and having it at enviroment temperature.

Wash basil leaves in cold water, let them dry on a kitchen napkin.

Put a garlic clove in the mortar, crush it and then add, little by little, the leaves: the movement of the pestle should be round and gentle, you haven't to crash leaves, it's the only way to let basil's essential oils spread at their best.

Add salt (big grains, just some).

When you see a green juice comes from leaves it's time to add pine-kernels: they help to mix the sauce and give a gentle flavour.

Turn pestle again and again and then you can add cheese and oil very slowly while mixing.

Now your pesto is ready to give taste to your dish, just remember to save some spoons of the cooking water when drain the pasta: they'll help amalgamating pesto sauce and pasta and have a creamy and soft Italia dish.

Ok now...What can you do if you don't have a mortar and/or no time to act like a 19th century cook?

Whas the leaves, put all the ingredients into a mixer and then mix untill you have a fine cream.

Not to much or the basil and oil become hot with the mixer's turning and it's really bad.

It's not the perfect way of which a Ligurian would be proud of , but it's good enough to invite your friend for dinner and save your wallet and your health in a tasty way!

Basil (Basilico)

I had some suggestions about what to put in this blog.

Some ask me to learn more about typical Italian herbs and spices.

I'll start with basil: it's the king of all the herbs used in our dishes, I love it so much!

Basil has got so many varieties: little leaves - Ocimun minimum-(the most common here), big leaves (each leaf could be 10 cm!), violet basil (it's of a deep violet with pink flowers, it's a little bit spicy and good in salads).

It's quite easy to grow up: you can plant seeds in a pot around march-april, water often and keep it in a very sunny position: on july- august you'll have leaves enogh to be conserved in freezer all year long.

Basil doesn't like long cook: you have to use it fresh if you want his best, in hot preparation put leaves just a minute before serving.

It's the king of herbs so it's not ok to be mixed with others like rosemary or oreganon.

The most well-known recipe with basil is PESTO ALLA GENOVESE: it's fantastic but unluckly long to prepare, the ones you buy at supermarked usually have dried basil and many chemical flavours, nothing compared to the real one (recipe will come soon!).

Do you usually use basil only in tomato sauce?

Try it in a pasta fresh salad: cook pasta, drain it, let it get cold, then chop tomatoes and mozzarella cheese in tiny pieces, add extravirgin olive oil, fresh basil leaves and mix the pasta.

It's a great lunch or dinner douring the hottest day of summer!!

More recipes to come, now holidays are everyday nearer!! :)

Vegetable pastries ( Fagottini con verdure)

4 serves, easy recipe, great results!

Ingredients:

1 carrot

1 courgette

1 little white onion

2 red and saucy tomatoes

extra virgin olive oil

salt

2-3 basil leaves

1 pack of pastry

Chop tomatoes in little cubes and put in a bowl with abundant oil, salt, basil leaves mix and let it rest in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Wash carrot, courgette, put them in the mixer to obtain a sort of purea, peel the onion and chop in tiny pieces.

Put the onion in a pan and fry gently with oil and salt, let it get gold then add purea.

Cook on low fire for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile open the pack of pastry, divide it in 4 squares; when the vegetable purea is read put in the centre of each square a big spoon of purea and close squares in the desired way.

Put in the oven for about 15 minutes, medium heat.

Serve them hot with cold tomato cubes and its sauce.

The perfect tomato sauce (Sugo di pomodoro)

Let's start from the basics ;)

As many know tomato sauce is one of the most important thing in Italian cooking: it's perfect when plain with pasta, it's the base for amatriciana, ragu' alla bolognese and other worldwide famous dishes.

How to make the perfect sauce?

Of course the quality of the "sugo"can't be indipendent from the tomato quality.

According to me MUTTI sauce is the best on the Italian market, truly I don't know if it's avaliable abroad too.

For 3 persons I usually use half a bottle of sauce (350 gr.), you can anyway count about 100 gr. of souce/person.

Cover the bottom of a pot with olive oil (extra virgin olive oil, I always use that in my recipes if not specified) and add a garlic clove crushed gently with the side of a large knife.

Let the garlic get blonde (no black!! it's bitter!) then add a sprinkle of salt (how much only your taste can say;) ) then 2/3 leaves of fresh basil (yes you can use the dry one or the frozen chopped one but to have the best you must use the most fresh ingredients) and the sauce.

Lower the fire under the pot at minimum, mix once then let it cook for at least one hour.

Tomato sauce needs a long cook, it's not a well known detail.

of course pay attention not to burn it:)

The sauce is ready to use on pasta (spaghetti, penne, maccheroni) with a bit of fresh grated parmesan, or on a slice of good toasted bread, you can store the sauce into the fridge for 1-2 days.

GREEK TOUCH: at the end of the cooking, minutes before tourn off fire add some cubes of feta cheese and dissolve them in the sauce.

use it on pasta...

It's simply delicious!