Jun

2

Quick Summer Meals, Italian style

June 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment


Summer season is getting closer, actually it’s already here in Italy and cooking becomes more difficult with warm weather. I’m always searching for quick and refreshing meals to prepare so thought I’d collect some traditional Italian dishes that we all eat in Italy during summer season for you as well as some others that are typical in my family but always and truly Italian. I’m sure that some of you already know them or already tried them, maybe prepared in slightly different way

I hope you liked them. Here’s the collection:

1. Cantaloupe with ham: I think that “prosciutto crudo e melone” is one of the most classic Italian dishes ever. You can find it everywhere during summer time, the only difference is the presentation that varies from restaurant to restaurant. It is served as an appetizer but also as a main dish if you want to eat light. You may think of an unusual combination of ingredients, the salty and delicate flavor of prosciutto crudo and the sweetness of cantaloupe. My husband who is an American thought so at first Read more

May

24

Zucchini salad

May 24, 2008 | 2 Comments

Zucchini Salad
This week I bought zucchini with their flowers still attached because I wanted to prepare risotto with zucchini flowers. Risotto came out really good so I published it on my site Cooking with Patty.

I was going to cook the zucchini with onions and olive oil (zucchini in tegame) but they were so fresh that I decided to make a salad out of them. I usually don’t like to eat raw zucchini, however when they’re still small and very fresh they taste really good raw. They’re usually added to mixed salads to give them an extra refreshing touch but this time I tried to use only zucchini. Read more

May

5

Baked millet with squash

May 5, 2008 | 3 Comments

Baked millet with squash

I started using millet few years ago when my doctor told me to eliminate wheat from my diet for awhile and since then I developed some recipes that now are part of my family’s eating habits. I was also very surprised that when I introduced solids in my baby’s diet he loved millet right from the start, first as ground flour or flakes and later as hulled seeds.

In modern times millet has been mostly known as bird food, but it has been now reintroduced as an important element in everyday nutrition mainly by persons that want to have a healthier way of living as well as a more varied diet. I discovered that millet is mostly cultivated for cereal in Africa, in the Middle East and Asia and been consumed by the populations of these regions for many centuries though prepared in different ways. In China it was considered by the ancient Chinese one the the five sacred crops, drank as wine during the Han period and prepared as a gruel cooked in milk during the Ming dynasty. In Italy it was already utilized during the Roman empire mostly as flour and mixed with other flours to prepare flat bread as well as in India where it’s still used to make roti. Read more

Apr

28

La Festa della Sparasina

April 28, 2008 | 1 Comment

Every year in Pigozzo, a small village about 10 kilometres from Verona, they celebrate the Festa della sparasina, the Wild Asparagus Festival. Sparasina is the word in dialect for Asparagus Acutifolius from the family of Liliaceae. These wild asparagus grow spontaneously in the woods and close to rivers between April and May, and it’s in this period that the Festival takes place.

I’ve always heard of this Festival but I’ve never been to it or to Pigozzo. This year I saw the advertisement and decided to go right away. Pigozzo is a really small village surrounded by hills that are covered by vineyards, olive trees and forests which made for a perfect setting. It was a fantastic day, sun was shining and the weather was so warm that I ate outside. Read more

Apr

16

Echoes of winter: Mostarda

April 16, 2008 | 1 Comment

Mostarda

It’s spring, warm weather, flowers blooming or at least I thought it was spring. In the last few days it has been cold again so I decided to allow myself one last winter treat, I bought Mostarda Di Cremona: whole fruits in a sweet syrupy sauce spiced up with few drops of mustard essence. Here’s the name Mostarda from the French “moutarde” but only because it uses mustard essence in fact it has nothing to do with moutarde or mustard.

A must in the Italian cuisine during the winter and especially at Christmas time. Mostarda is served along with other typical sauces with bollito misto (boiled meats) a real traditional Italian dish. It is also served with cheeses or used in the fillings like Tortelli con la zucca (tortelli with squash) . I love to eat it accompanied with fresh and creamy Stracchino cheese (Crescenza) as you can see in the picture above but most people prefers to eat it with Mascarpone cheese. I personally think that Stracchino is much lighter and tastier. Read more




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