HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

No time to update my blog, many things to do, a new bakery course, work, relatives to visit, friends to keep in touch with.
But not too busy to forget a happy halloween to everybody!!!

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.

Chocolate salami dessert (Salame al cioccolato)

The shape it's the one of salami, it's served sliced like a salami...But it's not a real salami!^^

Today it's time for a chocolate delight, a sweet dessert easy to prepare, you can even involve children, for their joy!

I remember when I was little and I had the occasion to prepare it with my mum, I always had had a lot of fun!

Ingredients:

3 onces cocoa powder

1/2 once hazelnuts

3 1/2 onces sugar

2 1/2 onces butter

5 onces biscuits (plain ones)

1 egg + 1 yolk

icing sugar

Bake hazelnuts in the oven untill they're toasted (if they're not still), break them in little pieces.

Put biscuits in a plastic bag for food and crush them with a rollpin or something similar: they must be well broken but not completely pulverized.

Keep off the butter from fridge and let it getting soft.

Put in a bowl the egg and the yolk, mix them with sugar untill you have a smooth cream.

Add cocoa powder and butter and mix again very well.

Add hazelnuts and biscuit, mix untill everything is well amalgamated.

Pour the mixture on a big oven paper sheet, give it the shape of a big salami and put in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours.

Before serving keep off the paper and powder the dessert with icing sugar, then slice it and make your family and guests happy! ;)

Cheese and courgettes tureen (Terrina di formaggi e zucchine)

This recipe comes from a cooking magazine I book every month: it's pocket, well organized and it's also have menus and shopping list for the whole month.

It's called "Cucina no problem", Mondadori ediction: maybe you can find it abroad, I see on the first pages foreign prices...

For this recipe you need:

a tureen plum cake shape

9 onces ricotta cheese

7 onces robiola cheese (or philadelphia or any similar creamy cheese)

4 courgettes

3 eggs

nutmeg

5 spoons of grated parmesan

1 garlic clove

butter

extravirgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Wash and clean courgettes, cut in thin slices, then stirfry them in a pan with oil and the garlic clove for about 3-4 minutes.

Keep off garlic and add salt and pepper.

Open eggs in a bowl, add ricotta cheese, robiola or philadelphia, 5 spoons of grated parmesan, a little grated nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Mix ingredients with a fork untill you have a smooth cream.

Pass butter on the tureen walls, cover bottom with the cream, then add half of the courgettes and another cream layer and finish with courgettes.

Cook putting the tureen in another saucepan with a little water ( it's called "bagnomaria" here in Italy) at medium heat in the owen for about 45 minutes.

Let it getting warm before serving, you can decorate with chopped mint leaves if you like or put ham or bacon between layers.

Light and healthy but tasty!!

Perch fish with lemon sauce (Pesce persico al limone)

Today I have a very quick and easy recipe, light and tasty, a great solution for dinner when you don't want to cook for hours.

Take a perch fish fillet (one per person), flour it on each side, put it in a pan where you melted a little butter with a garlic clove, let it golden then add the juice of two lemons and salt.

Let it cook for a while (perch is really quick to cook), keep off garlic and at the end add a little parsley if you like.

Here you are the dinner!

So fast and so good...Isn't it easy?

If you don't like lemon you can do the same with white wine.

Of couse you can serve it with any kind of side dish, boiled potadoes and carrots are the best according to me.

Stuffed mushrooms with sausage ( Funghi ripeni con salsiccia)

Another mushrooms recipe today: we're in the season and I love them so much I buy them almost every week.

Stuffed mushrooms are ok as appetizer or side dish, count about 2-3 each person, now we count about 8 persons.

Ingredients:

24 mushrooms (champignons, not too big)

5 oz sausage

parsley finely chopped

salt and pepper

3 tablespoon milk cream

1/2 glass white dry wine

extravirgin olive oil

1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

Clean mushrooms and keep off the stems.

Leave the caps apart, chop in very tiny pieces stems, stirfry them in a pan with oil, salt, pepper, parmesan and the white wine, then add ginned (? I'm not sure about the word) sausage, add parsley and milk cream at the end.

Put everything in the mixer and give a quick turn, then fill the caps with the cream and put in the oven, bake at medium heat for about 15-20 minutes.

They're really great, one leads another!

Pot roast with porcini mushrooms ( Arrosto ai funghi porcini)

To celebrate Fall today I post the recipe of a great "sunday special": pot roast with porcini mushrooms.

You can use any other kind of mushrooms of course but porcini are definetely the most yummy according to me!

I often prepare this pot roast when I've friends for dinner: it's always loved.

Ingredients:

2 lb beef roast

2 garlic cloves

2 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil

1/5 oz dried porcini soaked in warm water

1/2 lb fresh porcini, chopped or frozen chopped porcini

1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley

1/2 cup white dry whine

1/2 cup meat broth (or canned broth)

salt

pepper

Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper, in a saucepan put the butter, the oil and the garlic cloves turn the heat (medium) and when the fat starts foaming add the meat.

Brown the meat on each side add wine and let it evaporate.

Drain the soaked porcini and chop them, filter the brown water and add it to the roast with broth and mushrooms.

Add also fresh/ frozen porcini and turn the heat to moderate.

Turn the meat a couple of times during the cooking, let it cook covered until the meat is tender, near the end add parsley .

To slice the meat you must let it become cold or at least warm: then put it again in the pan with sauce and warm it, then serve.

So good with roasted potadoes or potadoes puree!

Have a nice fall!