briciole

kokoda: marinated raw fish salad / kokoda: insalata di pesce crudo marinato

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] making kokoda fish The sixteenth country of our World Culinary ABC1 is Papua New Guinea (Papua Nuova Guinea). To celebrate this stop, I chose to make my version of kokoda, a marinated raw fish salad—the Pacific Islands' version of ceviche.2 Apart for lemon, lime and coconut milk, the ingredients I chose are local. This was the first I worked on a recipe using raw fish. The idea to look for a fish recipe came from the current selection of our Cook the Books Club, Yes, Chef, the autobiography of Chef Marcus Samuelsson.... Read more →

panzanella (bread and tomato)

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] a bright plate Panzanella is a way of dressing up bread that is no longer fresh (pane raffermo). There are many variations of this traditional dish, which you can find (and eat) throughout central Italy, but I like my father's recipe the best. During my childhood, every August my family would spend three weeks in Poggio Catino, my father's native village, located in the historic region of Sabina, north of Rome1. In the morning, my father and I would often go for a walk in the woods of the Monti Sabini above... Read more →

crema di fagioli / refried beans

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] painted pony beans (table runners from La FABBRICA del LINO) The seventh stop of our World Culinary ABC1 is Mexico. To celebrate our virtual visit I made a personal version of frijoles refritos. [Note that the prefix re- in this case means "very" or "well".] I had some pinto beans and that's the variety I used initially for the recipe. According to wikipedia2 "In northern Mexico and in American Tex-Mex cuisine, refried beans are usually prepared with pinto beans, but many other varieties of bean are used in other parts of Mexico,... Read more →

crema (da spalmare) di fagioli e zucca / bean and winter squash spread

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] an appealing and appetizing spread on placemat from La FABBRICA del LINO A roasted winter squash is a gift that keeps giving. In other words, roast once, use in many ways. One day that I had a small amount leftover and I had just cooked some beans, I tried to combine the two and the result is a nice spread that, as I described in my previous post, I even used to dress pasta. my idea of a candy store (negozio di caramelle) I have made this spread with various squashes (like... Read more →

pâté di olive con fichi e menta / tapenade with figs and mint

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] a nice couple ready for the table A tall woman and a French man were preparing a chicken for roasting, while conversing amiably. She wiggled her hand into the space between the bird's skin and the flesh, something I had never seen anybody do before. I could not quite figure out to what extent the two in the kitchen were serious. My mother-in-law was watching this on her television when we arrived for a visit and we watched it with her for a while. It was my introduction to Julia Child and... Read more →

torta salata con cavolo riccio novello e crescenza / savory tart with baby kale and crescenza

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] ready for the plate Last week was a difficult one at briciole's headquarters due to the major disruption brought to TypePad, my blog service provider, by multiple distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. For several days, visitors could not access posts or pages and starting Monday, they would get an error message stating that the domain did not exist. It feels good to be able to write again on my blog. It was also a busy week for briciole's writer, as I attended a bread-baking class at the San Francisco Baking Institute, which was... Read more →

tortino di verdure stile sklandrausis / sklandrausis-inspired vegetable tart

a three-[layer/texture/flavor] tart In Latvia (Lettonia), I went down the wrong path — figuratively, of course. Having baked eight types of bread out of 20 dishes from the EU countries visited so far in our virtual tour, I decided to bake a Latvian bread. I found a recipe, I made it a couple of times, was almost ready to write about it and then decided I was not enthusiastic enough about the recipe to share it on the blog. So, I started researching Latvian dishes again and finally found one that intrigued me: sklandrausis. The sklandrausis, a small... pie made of... Read more →

Halloumi col sugo / Halloumi with tomato sauce

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] Halloumi and Anari Fresh goat milk season in my kitchen means homemade Halloumi. I love this cheese: It is relatively easy to make and once I have it in the refrigerator, I can turn it into a lovely meal in no time. ready to be sliced What's so special about Halloumi? "Halloumi is also unique in having a high melting point and so can easily be fried or grilled... it softens significantly but it does not melt." [source] Last year, I served my homemade Halloumi with roasted cherry tomatoes, a variation on... Read more →

fasole bătută

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] a creamy, flavorful spread Would you like something creamy to spread on bread or crackers that is flavorful, nutritious and healthy? Look no further than my rendition of fasole bătută, a Romanian dish made with mashed beans seasoned with various aromatics (source). I read a few recipes and then went my own way, using what I had available and adjusting the quantities to my taste. This recipe suggests to fry the onions, which gave me the idea to caramelize shallots and use them as topping. I really liked my version of fasole... Read more →

semi di zucca tostati / toasted pumpkin seeds

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] a view of Warren Creek Farms pumpkin patch The best part of Halloween is going to the pumpkin patch to choose pumpkins (zucche), some for carving and some for cooking. A visit to Warren Creek Farms during the month of October entails also a visit to their corn maze, which has a different design every year. The fact that I am writing this post indicates that we made it out of the maze safe and sound (thanks to my husband's orienteering skills; I am hopeless at finding my way). pumpkin patch shopping... Read more →