briciole

macco di fave / fava bean purée

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] In a recent post, I wrote about cooking fave secche (dried fava beans) for the first time. For my second experience, I decided to realize a dish from Calabria (a region in southern Italy), whose recipe I had seen on the Accademia Italiana della Cucina site a while back: macco di fave (fava bean purée). The English version of the recipe is available in the book by the Academy called La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy. I soaked one cup of dried fava beans in plenty of water overnight (16 hours... Read more →

una storia a lieto fine / a story with a happy ending

Most of my homemade cheeses age in what I call my cheese fridge, a mini refrigerator rigged to maintain a temperature of 50 F, a rough approximation of what would be the ideal place, namely a cheese cave. As of this writing, my cheese fridge is nearing retirement, after about 16 months of honorable service, but I'll have more on this in a future post. The story of the title has, of course, a sad beginning. In a recent post, I wrote about my positive experience making my first blue-veined cheese: Fourme d'Ambert. A positive experience is worth repeating, so one... Read more →

involtini di bietole / rainbow chard roll-ups

I ♥ colored varieties of Swiss chard (the Italian word for chard is bietola, plural bietole, also called bieta). When I bought the leaf in the photo and its companions at the farmers' market, my intent was to make involtini with them. I guess I am in an involtini phase (see my recent post on involtini di peperoni). To make sure I prepared the chard leaves properly, I turned to my main resource in the kitchen, "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison, where in fact I found an explanation of how to prepare the leaves as part of the recipe... Read more →

salsa cremosa di peperoni rossi arrosto e mandorle / roasted red pepper and almond dip

In a recent post, I talked about Round of Hungary peppers (a.k.a., pimento peppers). Together with the Italian long peppers featured in my most recent post with recipe, they are my current favorites in the pepper department. I have been experimenting with roasted peppers in several recipes with varying degrees of success. On Saturday morning, I roasted seven Round of Hungary peppers, which gave me enough material for a couple of experiments. One of them was a success worth relating. In looking around for ideas for a dip to pair with my version of Lavash crackers (which have become part of... Read more →

riepilogo del weekend di erbe aromatiche numero 253

Weekend Herb Blogging #253: the roundup As the host of last week's edition of WHB, I have the honor of presenting an interesting set of posts submitted by bloggers from around the world. Before I continue, however, I would like to take a few lines to thank all the people that voted for me in the first and second challenge of the Project Food Blog by foodbuzz. I did not advance to the third stage, but that does not mean that I will stop following the event. I will read the interesting posts that answer its various challenges and cast my... Read more →

involtini di peperoni / pepper roll-ups

(one of an infinite number of possible variations) Summer lingers at our farmers' market in the shape of tomatoes and peppers, while fall makes itself known in the shape of winter squashes. In a recent post, I described my use of Round of Hungary peppers. In an older post, I described that of bell peppers. Yesterday morning, I purchased four peppers called Italian long from a farmer that grows a wide range of pepper varieties. I tried his Italian peppers for the first time last year, as a result of a recommendation from my friend Christine of Christine Cooks, and I... Read more →