Tag: Italian

Leftover Italian cooking

Since we’ve arrived in Florence, everyday I’ve been cooking something different for dinner: simple vegetables and salad, pasta, risotto, cereals… I’ve tried them all. And I’ve been using as much as possible things I don’t usually find in Japan, and that I love extremely: artichokes, fennels, lamb lettuce and a great variety of cheeses. And what I’ve been doing is make sure that each time I would have some leftover for my lunch the next day. Indeed, what’s better than working all morning, going for a walk at noon, coming back at two cold and starving, and having already the lunch half prepared? And what’s better than olive oil pan roasted pasta or risotto when them become all crispy and golden? For me leftovers are a real treat! And top them with some new sort of cheese everyday and it’s pure happiness, and pure energy for working the rest of the day!

Here are my two favorites from this week: leftover pasta with newly added artichokes, and fennel risotto with newly added plenty of tomme cheese. For the first one (top picture), simple pasta leftover is good. Then boil one or two artichokes remove the leaves and keep the hearts, slice or chop them. In a heated pan generously add olive oil, the pasta, the artichokes. Stir once in a while until the pasta are golden crispy. Top with a bit of parmigiano and eat right away!

The second one (bottom picture) is even simpler. I actually made some fennel risotto with some pork roast, so I just cooked it again in a pan with a lot of olive oil and didn’t stir until it got really crispy on the edges, then I served it with plenty of some tomme cheese I bought at the market, a much softer cheese than parmigiano but not less fragrant.

Life in Florence

So, it’s been four days we’ve been in Florence, except for Sunday that we spent walking around the city as described here, it’s been a rather studious time. A. leaves early in the morning while it’s all dark and comes back late at night, and this gives me more than plenty of time to work, write and spend a little hour or two outside walking around the city in the cold and shopping for lunches and dinners.

I’ve now explored both the San’Ambroggio market and the San Lorenzo market, got to see everything twice or thrice to decide what to buy choosing between all the delicious cheeses, fresh pasta and all the fruits and vegetables that are alien to Japan. I must say that I passed on fish, not being fully satisfied with the stands and on meat as there was too many options and I am not good with meat too much… but I guess that I will have to try some for A.. For the moment I’m sticking to speck and San Daniele and it’s been perfect. I also got my tea from La Via del Te as recommended by Giula from the beautiful Juls’ kitchen. And really I am more than happy with my little kitchen and the simple cooking I can do!

So far the things I have really been enjoying are the greens: I packed on lamb’s lettuce, rucola, zucchini, fennel and artichokes and I have been using them in many various preparation. My best being this delicious dish of pasta with olive oil roasted fennels and zucchini and topped with rucola. It is so simple and so fresh, and so easy to make, that here is my recipe:

Pasta with zucchini, fennel and rucola (for 2)

– 125g of pasta

– 1 zucchini

– 1/2 fennel

-1 handful of rucola

– olive oil, salt and pepper

– additionally some fresh parmigiano or some other cheese

Boil the water for the pasta and the pasta. In the mean time, wash and cut the fennel and the zucchini, and in an olive oil greased frypan cook them, but not overcook them! Add the drained pasta, salt, pepper, and olive oil, top with rucola and stir, serve immediately. Add cheese if you like!

And have a great Wednesday! 

Butternut squash lasagna

With a tight schedule: in Nagoya yesterday, a rehearsal for the show next Tuesday where our robot appears, a few lectures and talks to prepare and the preparation for moving in less than a month, days are pretty short! But I am always happy to prepare a dinner for friends and never cancel an invitation! And with a bit of planning and organization and waking up 30min earlier to have the time to prepare the vegetables and start cooking nothing is impossible. Of course for week days dinner I usually cook simpler recipes, and to celebrate A. new job and our new life I prepared an Italian inspired dinner. In that case, lasagna are a very good option (though they are hard to plate!!!). This time, I had a beautiful butternut squash and used it as the base. I only added a bit of chicken breast and rosemary and topped with gratted mozzarella. Everybody loved it!!!

Butternut squash lasagna 

– 1 butternut squash  

– 2 skinned chicken breast

– 1 or 2 branches of fresh or dried rosemary

– lasagna pasta ( homemade, fresh or dry) 

– some cream

– some olive oil

– salt and pepper

– mozzarella to grat

First cut the butternut squash and steam it with the rosemary. Once it has cooled down, peel it and remove the seeds. In a pan greased with olive oil cook the chicken breast until golden. In a blender mix the chicken and the butternut squash, add a few leaves of rosemary, and a little of cream. It must not be liquid but rather a purée. If you use dry lasagna pasta poached them. In a large oven dish greased with olive oil lay a layer of pasta, cover with a layer of the chicken-butternut mix, add a bit of cream, add a layer of pasta, then of mix then a bit of cream… up to where you want. Finish with a layer of pasta, and cover with gratted mozzarella. Bake in the oven at 150 deg until the mozzarella is golden!

Enjoy! 

Risotto “fond de frigo”

Sometimes there are a few things remaining in the bottom of your vegetables drawer in your fridge, and you don’t know what to do with them… typically a leek, a little piece of kabocha, a tomato, a little piece of cauliflower… well it makes a very nice base for a vegan risotto. 

First, a bit of olive oil in a large frypan, add the leek cut just the way you like, and stir at low-medium heat until it is all soft and melty. Add the riso: arborio or carnaroli and raise the heat. Stir. Once the rice is translucent add water to cover the rice and salt and pepper, some herbs if you like: thyme or rosemary. Cook at low heat. When the water is half gone add the kabocha cut in small bites and the tomato, diced. When there is almost no water add the cauliflower (I personally like it crisp rather than too soft), and finish the cooking under cover. Serve and season with pink pepper, you can additionally add grated cheese. Have a nice weekend!!!

Ricotta-basil-prosciutto ravioli

I can’t help making ravioli. And even more when I have fresh ricotta. But because A. doesn’t like cheese too much I added prosciutto to the basic ricotta-basil filling. And I prepared a tomato-basil-prosciutto sauce to go with it. It was a very simple dinner to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary enjoyed in our country house after a very intense week. 

For the ravioli pasta, same recipe as usual (100g of flour, 1egg, a bit of salt and olive oil), for the filling I used a pack of fresh ricotta, 3 branches of fresh basil, a few slices of prosciutto. In a bowl mix the ricotta, the basil washed and cut, salt and pepper. After making the pasta and setting one layer in the ravioli shapes, I put a few pieces of prosciutto in each ravioli then cover with the ricotta mix. Add the second layer of pasta and finish the ravioli. Boil in a large amount of water. Fresh pasta takes only a few minutes to be ready, once they float remove and drain. Serve immediately.

For the sauce I used 2 tomatoes, 2 branches of fresh basil, a few slices of prosciutto. Wash and cut the tomatoes and the basil. In a heated frypan or a pan, add some olive oil, the tomatoes, salt and pepper, stir until most of the juice is gone. Then the basil. In the very last minute of cooking add the prosciutto, you don’t want to cook to much. Use to top the ravioli. 

 

Japanese style pasta

In Japan there are plenty of Italian restaurants but many serve not a genuine Italian company cuisine, but rather pasta, or more spaghetti, with a strong Japanese touch. The much classic would be mentaiko – 明太子, some kind of poutargue, or spucy fish eggs, with nori. But it goes much beyond that. At first it is a bit strange to eat spaghetti with Japanese flavours, but there are some really nice combinations. In particular, I find that the nori goes very well with pasta. So I prepared some Japanese style pasta for lunch. I didn’t have spaghetti, so I used penne. And because I had some pickled Chinese cabbage to finish, I prepared some tomato sauce and serve the whole thing together. Deliciously confusing!

Penne Japanese style: 

– 200 of penne

– 3 tomatoes very ripe

– 1/8 of pickled Chinese cabbage, if not pickled, you will need a little of white vinegar of your choice in addition, and a pinch of salt 

– 1tbs of rice oil, or vegetal snd neutral oil

– 1 handfull of thinly cut nori

– black pepper  

Boil water for the pasta, in the meantime in a saucer set the tomatoes diced. Cook at medium heat until it reduces. Cut the cabbage in bite size and add to the tomatoes. If you are using non-pickled Chinese cabbage do the same but add 1tsp oc vinegar and a pinch of salt. Add the ground black pepper to your liking. Once the penne are cooked, deain and serve in the plates. Add the tomatoes-cabbage sauce and complete with a topping of nori. Serve immediately.

 

Speck and shimeji ravioli

When Japan meets Italy and Gentiane is cooking, it gives a new recipe of ravioli. Now well equipped with my new ravioli rack for large pieces I can prepare ravioli with more granulous and rough filling. The first thing I tried back in Japan was speck and shimeji. Shimeji are a very Japanese type of mushrooms with a typical taste, speck brings in a salty-smoky note. I prepare the filling first and always wait until it has cooled down to make the ravioli, otherwise the pasta dough melts with the heat and moisture and the ravioli break. I chopped thinly a bundle of shimeji and a little piece of speck, and cooked them in a heated frypan. Add salt and pepper to your taste. No need to add fat, you want the filling to be rather dry. Once it is well cooked, let cool down. In the mean time I prepared the pasta dough with my classic recipe (100g of flour, 1egg, a pinch of salt, a litlle of olive oil), rolled it. If the air is dry, like in Japan in winter, you can moist it a bit, otherwise by the time you’ve rolled it, it is dry and cracks. Then I made the ravioli. Finally, when diner time has come I boiled them and served with freshly grated parmegiano, olive oil and grilled shimeji.

Souvenirs from Sicily

After one week in the south of Sicily trying local products and visiting historical sites, it was obvious I would not come back to Japan with empty hands.  And with both Christmas and my birthday I was spoiled. Here is a bit of the Sicilian delights and gears I took back with me. Starting from the top right corner and going clockwise. First a new ravioli rack and the wooden roller, for large ravioli this time. I already tried it for the foie gras ravioli and for the ricotta ravioli, amazing! Very easy to use, larger ravioli seems much easier to make than smaller ones! Then a cooking book of Sicilian cuisine: “la cucine Siciliana”. My rusty Italian has gotten much better this year, so reading in Italian would not be a problem. Then some speck, some fresh ricotta salata. A little gnocchi rack to shape my gnocchi instead of using a fork! Sicilian flours for bread and pasta, polenta. A ceramic fruit plate from Caltagirone, I am totally in love with these ceramics, but I had a hard time finding some vintage ones. And in the background a new apron! So, very soon on Tokyo-Paris sisters some recipes using all these! And you, what do you bring back when you travel?

Tagliatelle

Being in Italy we eat fresh pasta quite often. And being with our mother we cook all together. This time it’s a recipe that our mother created. Very simple, taking advantage of the seasonal products and that can easily be prepared ahead and for large tables. This is tagliatelle with radicchio, spinach, speck and pine nuts. Served with fresh parmegiano. You need one radicchio, a few bundles of spinach, a few slices of speck, a handful of pine nuts, olive oil, fresh parmegiano. In a large pan, heat some olive oil, wash and cut in bite size the vegetables, cut in bite size the speck. Add all in the pan and stir until soft but still colorful. In a small pan, grill the pine nuts, when golden roughly crush them, add to the vegetables. Boil the tagliatelle (homemade, fresh or dry), when al dente, drain them and add them to the vegetables mix, add olive oil, stir well and serve. Top with parmegiano. 

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