Cauliflower Soup

I have a wonderful recipe that will warm you up on one of those cold winter evenings.

Ingredients for 4 people:

Half a head of Cauliflower

I medium carrot diced

1 stalk of celery diced

1 medium potato diced

1 small onion diced

1 cup of pumpkin diced

Handful of bacon or pancetta diced

1 1/2 tblspns of tomato paste

olive oil

salt

pepper

small broth pasta

Instructions:

Add some olive oil to your pot and add the diced bacon or pancetta and cook for a few minutes. Dice the onion, carrot, celery, pumpkin and potato and add to pot with the bacon/pancetta. Secondly add the cauliflower florets and cook for a further five minutes over medium heat or until the vegetables start to soften. Add your tomato paste and mix well into the vegetables and cook for a further 2 to 3 minutes. Add enough hot water to cover the vegetables by at least 1 inch and cook for a further 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water if necessary. Final step in a separate saucepan cook the pasta until al dente, drain and add to the cauliflower soup and cook for a couple of minutes.

Serve in soup bowls with freshly grated Parmesan cheese or if you like it hot add some chili flakes. Enjoy!!

Fettunta

One of the most simplest and tastiest comfort food you can make is "Fettunta". Basically means to toast or grill some bread( preferably ciabatta) then rub with some garlic and drizzle with good extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Doesn't sound like much but believe me this type of fettunta will have you addicted in no time. Even better enjoy with a good glass of red!! Perhaps Chianti ???

Simple Tomato Sauce

Sometimes there are days when I am too tired to cook anything that requires a lot of preparation and sometimes i have nothing in the fridge or pantry except for some canned tomatoes, garlic and basil. Well i usually make this very simple dish and allthough it's simple it's very very tasty!



Ingredients:



500g canned tomatoes (good quality of course)

1 clove garlic

olive oil

6 basil leaves

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

your choice of pasta



Preparation:



Put enough olive oil in a pan and add the diced garlic. Cook garlic until it just starts to turn golden brown. Add the can of diced tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 20 min. In the meantime bring a pot of water to the boil add salt and cook pasta until al dente!. When pasta is cooked, drain and add to tomatoes and toss together with basil leaves. Serve hot with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Hint:

Taste the tomatoes whilst they are cooking as you may need to add a teaspoon of sugar if tomatoes have too much acidity. Also add hot chilli peppers when frying the garlic if you like it hot!

Enjoy!!

Osteria d Pinocchio

What a great business idea!! I came across this website whilst I was surfing the net and couldn't help but write about it. If you're thinking of starting a business this has got to be one of the best ideas around and the best thing about it is that they are offering franchises, most likely in Italy for now but who knows if you get in touch with them maybe they would
consider franchising worldwide. Just love this idea check it out here www.osteriapinocchio.it

Frittata di Ricotta

Ingredients:

500g Ricotta
3 eggs
Salt
Pepper
2 tbsp parmigiano reggiano
oil for frying

Preparation:

Cut the ricotta into slices about 5mm thick use ricotta that is dry and not runny. If the ricotta has too much liquid put it in a colander and leave to drain until all liquid has gone. Heat the oil in a a medium based frying pan and add ricotta slices, in the meantime beat your eggs add salt and pepper to taste and parmigiano reggiano. Cook the ricotta slices until golden on both sides then add the egg mixture and again cook until golden and then flip to other side and cook until golden again. Serve hot or cold either way it's delicious!!

Pasta con Broccoli

Pasta con i Broccoli

Ingredients for 4 people:

400g Spaghetti
1kilo of Broccoli
2 cloves of Garlic
4 Italian Pork Sausages
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt

Preparation

Bring to the boil a pot of salted water add the Broccoli (that have been washed and cut into florets) and the spaghetti at the same time. In the meantime prepare the pork sausages by taking them out of the skin and rolling them into small balls, that resemble meatballs. Add enough extra virgin olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic that have been diced. Add the pork sausages and cook until the sausages have browned. When the pasta is al dente and the broccoli are soft and broken up, drain and toss in the pan with the sausages add a little more olive oil, salt and pepper if needed. Serve hot with grated parmesan cheese or salty pecorino or salty ricotta cheese.

Tips: You can substitute the pork sausages with bacon or pancetta
You can cook the spaghetti separately if you wish, just add the cooked broccoli to
the sausage and then add your pasta
You can also add peperoncini if you like it hot or just use hot sausages.
Substitute the spaghetti with penne!

NOT SURE IF THE KIDS WILL LIKE THIS PASTA THOUGH!!!!

Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino

Here is another simple and tasty dish and certainly very popular in Italy. Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino.



Ingredients for 4 people


2 cloves of Garlic
2 hot Peperoncini
400g Spaghetti
Extra Virgin Olive Oil


Preparation


Bring to the boil enough salted water and add your spaghetti. In the meantime heat the oil in the pan. When the oil is hot add the peperoncini either sliced or whole and add the garlic either sliced or whole. Cook until the garlic becomes translucent.


Drain your spaghetti al dente and add to the pan and toss for a couple of minutes.


Serve your spaghetti hot!!



ENJOY!!