Fagioli all’uccelletto / Fagioli all’uccelletto

Today I present you with a Tuscan recipe which I revisited, Fagioli all’uccelletto. A meat dish just for a change, a once in a while diversion from the usual bread baking routine. A nourishing and warming dish. Fagioli all’uccelletto is a traditional Tuscan dish, typical of the Florentine area. According to Pellegrino Artusi the name derives from the herbs and aroma used to cook this dish (especially sage) which where once used to flavour dishes made which had wild birds (uccelletti) as the main ingredient. This dish employs ingredients which are more readily available and serves as a mock version of those recipes. A rustic and rich meal, with plenty of animal and vegetable proteins, which is perfect to warm up the body and lift the spirit during those cold and gloomy winter evenings. I don’t know about you, but the perfume of meaty dishes, the sound of tomato and legumes splattering, mumbling and rumbling in a saucepan always get me in a good mood. It just smells like home…

A Spring Menu nr 2 / Un menù di primavera nr 2

Here we are with the second appointment with my spring menus. Aren’t you curious to read what’s up for this week? Here are the four courses of the second menu:
Savoury Short Pastry Nests with Cheese Cream, Chicory and Black Olives
Rosemary and Candied Lemon Peel Risotto
Rabbit with Beer, Honey and Herbs Glaze with Roasted Potatoes
Almonds and Orange

Is your mouth watering yet?

Of favourite dishes and comfort food: Pasta ccu li brocculi / Piatto del cuore e comfort food: Pasta ccu li brocculi

Forgotten in a dusty folder in the darkest recesses of my “limbo” folder, yet another recipe part of the project that never came to light of which I wrote about in my previous post. A saviouor to me, being this one a tough moment where I am finding it very hard to have control on both blogs, switching from macro to bread and non-macro recipes, feeling a bit drained and uninspired. This dish became a staple at my parents place in the past few years, and my father cooks it divinely. I worked on the basic recipe from the book Le migliori ricette della cucina regionale Italiana which I used as an inspiration for my sweet rice cakes, too. Sicilian traditional food never disappoints. A light salty note is given by sardines, counterbalanced by a slightly sweet touch confered by raisins and fennel seeds. The texture of blanched cauliflower and pine nuts add an irresistible crunchy touch to a dish which I never get bored with. Savour it bite after bite, chew religiously. The aromas and textures will blend, caressing your taste buds and you will inevitably fall in love. Simple ingredients, minimum time of preparation, the ultimare comfort food…you couldn’t ask for more!

Autumn warmest colours and flavours: Polenta gnocchi with mushrooms and chestnuts sauce / I caldi colori e sapori dell’Autunno: Gnocchi di polenta con funghi e castagne

In my culinary imagination polenta has always been linked to more or less special occasions. You might think this is strange, as polenta is amongst the basic ingredients of my region’s cookery and its presence on our table during the cold season would be taken for granted. Being my mother English the most common dishes cooked during autumn and winter time are Shepherd’s pie, Lancashire hot pot and a range of stews. Polenta has always been eaten at my aunt’s place.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Savoury Muffins with Salami and Cheese / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Muffin salati con salame e formaggio nostrani

It’s Maroggia’s Mill Friday again! This recipe wasn’t meant to be published, well…not really. In fact I made it up for Azione, a quick job that was commisioned to me in a short time and I was able to pull together in just one hour prior to leaving home and going to the shop where I work part time. Needless to say there are just few pics I shot for my own database. But then my friend Michela, whom is always up to date and informed of my experiments, tried the recipe out and asked me to please please please post it so she could then make her own blogpost. That’s how much she loved the muffins, and trusting her as I trust my own judgment well…I could not decline!

Protetto: Chocolate Éclairs / Éclairs al cioccolato

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Depressed soufflé, Shrimp, Turnip and Redo Oranges zest Soufflé with Licorice sauce / Del soufflé deprimé o anche un soufflé ai gamberi, rapa bianca e scorza d’arancia rossa con salsa di liquirizia per l’MTC

I will be very straightforward and come clean to all of you. This month my participation to the MTC Challenge was more painful and depressing than ever. I’ll try to be brief and exhaustive listing the various problems that I encountered. I’m not a soufflé lover, which doesn’t help. Definitely more prone to be attracted to the sweet version of this recipe I had to deal with the strict rule imposed by Tiziana, aka Tagli e Intagli, MTC‘s hostess for this month: only savory recipes. Panic. I admit that although the blog post date had already been written down on my blog-schedule after the “recipe of the month post” came out (the last day of the contest as usual) I did not have a single idea until the end. Or rather, until the day that I set out to cook the recipe.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Cream Biscuits with Saffron and Raisins / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Biscotti alla panna con zafferano e uvette

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook is back, this time with some cookies which in reality are a little of a failed experiment from an aestethic point of view but then such a delightful for the tastebuds I decided to publish them anyway. Let’s call them ugly but tasty cookies!

Chocolate, Orange and Hazelnut Vegan Tart for Nevia, but not for Mimi / Crostata vegana al cioccolato, arancia e nocciole per Nevia ma non per Mimi

Veganism. A choice, a rigid lifestyle and to me, I must admit, a bit of a problem when it’s up to baking and desserts. Until a few months ago I never had to wonder about cooking or baking vegan, but then met Mimi and Nevia.

Spiced Baumkuchen, a layered cake for Daring Bakers / Torta albero speziata per i Daring Bakers

The January 2014 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Francijn of “Koken in de Brouwerij“. She challenged us all to bake layered cakes in the tradition of Baumkuchen (tree cake) and Schichttorte (layered cake).

I admit it, when reading Baumkuchen on this month’s Daring Bakers pdf’s document for just a slight moment I had the illusion we had to bake the Polish version (Secakz)
of this cake common in Northern Europe regions such as Germany, Austria, Hungary and funnily quite popular in Japan too. Scrolling down to read more, excited and quite scared, I won’t deny my relief discovering that Francijn choice’s had fallen on the German version of this sweet loaf.