Hummus (Chickpeas sauce).

I didn't write for so long but I had a lot to do: it's not only a matter of pregnancy, it's a matter of organization.

Medical check-ups, house revolution to change the guest room in baby room, storms into every baby-related shop to find the right stroller, the right cradle, the right everything.

Today I show you a recipe that's not Italian, it comes from Middle-east and it's common in Arabia as in Turkey as in many other countries around there.

I eat it quite often because a family friend teached me and I find it delicious on toasted bread or with raw vegetables like carrots, celery, tomatoes...

It's really really easy.

For 4 serves you need:

1 can boiled chickpeas

extra-virgin olive oil

salt

paprika or chili

1 garlic clove mashed

chopped parsley to decorate

1 spoon thaini (it's a paste made from sesame seeds, you can find it in ethnic shops)

Whisk all the ingredients untill you have a smooth cream, if it's too thick add a little water and mix well.

Sprinkle with parsley and serve room temperature or cold with toasted bread or raw vegetables.

Enjoy!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009 for me and my family has been a really hard year, lot of matters, unlucky and other ugly things.

I really really hope 2010 will be better, happy and quiet.

I wish the same to all the followers of this blog and everyone else.

Keep on reading...And cooking Italian way! ^^

Glass cookies ( Biscotti di vetro).

from lascimmiacruda.info

Hi everyone!

I'm still here, hanging around my blogs: little time to post but I don't want to give up, really!

The pregnancy is going on very well but I still feel sickness even if I passed the first three months: it's a little trouble compared to the happyness of the event but it still could be a big trouble if you manage a kitchen blog. ;)

This recipe is easy as one two three, you just need shortcrust pastry to make cookies, cookie cutters and hard candies, the colours and the flavours you prefer.

Now spread pastry about 1/4 inch and cut the shapes you like.

Inside the shape cut another hole, the same shape but little or rounded, it depends only on your creativity.

Crush hard candies on a chopping board and with candy's crumbles fill the hole in the centre of the cookie.

Cook in preheated oven for about 15 minutes at 345 F°, the crumbles will melt and create a nice "glass" panel inside your cookie.

They're so beautiful you can use them to decorate your Christmas' tree...

They would be nice in heart shaped and red for Valentine's day!

Thanksgivings' little roasts (Arrostini del Ringraziamento).

As I told to a blog reader in a comment in Italy Thanksgiving is not a holiday: we just celebrate Christmas.

This doesn't mean we don't know about this very important U.S.A. holiday and today on tv I saw a Thanksgivings' recipe really easy and fast that could be loved abroad.

Turkey is surely the main dish served during this day, turkeys are really big and I heard U.S. ovens are so big just to cook things like turkeys.

Is it true? :D

Our standard ovens are probably too little to cook a whole turkey, so this is my version of a classic recipe!

You need:

turkey's thin slices, 2 per person

some bacon in a single slice, how much depends on how many you are

1-2 red onions peeled and sliced

half a spoon of sweetcorn per person

a little dried prune without kernel per person

extra-virgin olive oil

salt

rosemary

white dry wine

all pourpose flour

string to tie meat on

Chop bacon in tiny pieces, put them in a pan with onions and stirfry for a while, then add sweetcorn and prunes and cook untill tastes are well amalgamated: this is the roasts' filling.

Spread a turkey slice and put a spoon of filling in it, close the slice with string, do it with every slice.

Pass the little roasts into the flour, then in the same pan where you stirfried the filling, add extra-virgin olive oil, heat it and put roasts in.

Let it cook with a glass of white dry wine and rosemary, add salt if needed.

Cook softly for about 25 minutes, then serve with mashed or creamed potadoes.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!

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!

Yes, I' m alive.

Yes, I'm alive, even if I don't write often.
To tell you the truth it's not my fault...
It's because I'm pregnant!
It's a big happy news, me and my husband (and the whole families and friends) are very very joyful and we feel so blessed!
Anyway pregnancy has got it's own side-effects...
I can't even think about food and recipes, even in abstract, because I suddenly feel so sick so I can't really face to update a food related blog :P.
I'm also quite tired and listless, I suppose it will gettin' better soon, I hope you don't stop checking this page!
With love,
Claudia

Onion soup ( Zuppa di cipolle)

Maybe it's because the cold is slowly coming, maybe it's because I feel in need of comfort food but I'm here with a soup recipe again. :D

It' warm, creamy, tasty, cheap: anything better?

Don't worry about your breath, cooked onions don't make it smell!

For 4 serves you need:

2 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

15 small blonde onions

salt and pepper

4-5 cups meat (better) or canned broth

1 cup fontina cheese chopped in dices

1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan

8 big slices of rustic Italian bread, thick and stale

Heat in a big pan oil and butter, add finely sliced onions and let them stirfry mixing often.

Keep them on fire untill they're soft and golden.

Add salt and pepper.

In individual soup bowls put a dipper of meath broth, then a piece of stale bread, then cover with onions and add some fontina cubes.

Cover with another layer of bread and onions, add another little dipper of broth, spread a generous part of grated cheese.

Cover with an allumionion foil and put in preheated oven (around 375F°) and cook for about half an hour.

Check if the soup needs a little more broth, keep off the alluminium foil and cook 10 minutes more untill the grated cheese is brown, remove from the oven, let it rest for few minutes and serve hot or at least warm.

P.S.: You can use Pecorino cheese instead of Parmesan and another stringy cheese instead of Fontina if you can't find it.