The blog of San Lorenzo

Hi there.

This week I have been a good neighbourgh. My new acquaintance, Miriam, whose little boy goes to the same reception class as my daughter, sprained her ankle while walking him to school. Since bad news come in twos (or multiples), she had the additional problem of good-willing in-laws coming to help from Devon on the very same evening and nothing ready for dinner.

When I spoke to her on the phone she was in distress: she was limping around in pain, trying to cope with her newborn twins and wondering how on earth she was going to feed the guests with a half empty fridge and no Nescafe (this, apparently, was a real issue, since her mother-in-law goes through pints of this coffee look-alike hot drink). In an impetus of sisterhood I volunteered to go shopping for her and cook dinner.

I mentioned lasagne with meat sauce. Miriam started asking weird questions: ‘Do you add flour to the meat sauce?’ Flour in my ragu’, as we call it in Italy? I tried to sound polite and I explained the ingredients. She sounded relieved and finally told me she is allergic to gluten. That wasn’t really good news. There is certainly no flour in the meat sauce, but there is plenty of it in my bechamel sauce and in the home made crepes I was planning to use instead of the usual lasagna.

A trip to the supermarket ‘free-from’ department opened a window of hope. I found gluten-free flour and though I was a bit suspicious of what might have been the outcome, I decided to try the modified gluten-free version of my recipe. Contrary to my pessimistic expectations the result was really good, so, I thought I would share with you some tips I have learned from this new experience.

While cooking, gluten free flour absorbs much more liquids than regular one and at twice the speed. So, when you start adding the milk to the butter and flour blend melting in the pot for your bechamel sauce, be generous and pour it faster to avoid the formation of grains. But, when you mix uncooked flour, egg and milk to make the crepes, you will have to add more flour; so, if you like the taste of eggs, you will probably have to increase the egg ratio. The crepes ended up being slighly thicker, but nevertheless, very smooth and nice.

Have a look at the explanatory pictures for the final touches.

CREPES

RAGU’

BECHAMEL

Now, first layer od the lasagne: crepes, bechamel, ragu’, parmesan cheese:

And the final outcome, before cooking (it was for my friend, not for me, so that’s the best you can get to see for now).

The following evening I used the leftovers of the crepes to make some cannelloni with spinach, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, nutmeg and one egg. Well, I forgot to take a photo of the nutmeg, sorry. And by the way, if you like a lighter result, you can avoid putting the egg in the filling.

Finally, the cannelloni, covered in tomato sauce and parmesan cheese, straight from the oven.

And they were every bit as good as they look.

So, the gluten-free challenge ended in glory.

And another one of my food prejudices went down the drain.

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Scritto da admin alle 14:04, in Main category

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Last Friday I made pizza.

I have been making pizza once a week for longer than I can remember, so you are entitled to strong doubts whether this could be considerd original subject matter for a food blog.

Last week, though, something new happened. My daughter Sophia loves preparing the dough with me and she is normally allowed to make her own little pizza. Unfortunately on Friday she was at school and once she discovered that her favourite bit - kneading the dough - was done already, she got really upset with mummy. If you have a stubborn four-year-old in the house you know what I mean.

My brother Diego came to the rescue with a brilliant idea. He asked Little Miss Grumpy to choose an animal shape and offered to mould the pizza accordingly. In a matter of seconds all clouds disappeared from the sky and I had again a chatty and happy child looking forward to her t-rex pizza (Sophia has always been partial to dinosaurs and her enthusiasm has lately been fuelled by a couple of visits to the National History Museum).

She also had a second go with a more traditional subject: a wee mouse (good old Mickey is hard to die).

The moral of the story is not rocket science. Children live (and eat) with their wonderful imagination ignited and blazing over this boring world. And sometimes they drag our adult old bones into their fantastic adventures. Seldom making pizza has been so much fun.

Thank God for Small Things. Thank God for Children.

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Scritto da admin alle 23:02, in Main category

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Well, well. It seems that tomato sauce hit a soft spot. It certainly did in my family.

My brother Diego (currently visiting me) who is a creative and original cook, with a very personal approach on how food should be prepared, got all excited by this tomato sauce issue and asked to join in with his favourite recipe, which he cooked for me. Believe me, it is really as good as it  looks in this very unprofessional pic (sorry, first attempt to take photos of food).

The extra advantage of his recipe is that once you have the ingredients, it’s dead simple and super-healthy. For instance, the best olive oil is added at the end, uncooked, to retain all its flavour and the short cooking time preserves most of the nutrients of the fresh tomatoes.

So I will quietly leave the stage and let my  my family guest  do the talking (no nepotism meant).

****************************************************************************

Hi there.

Here is my favourite recipe.

If you can, please buy fresh datterino tomatoes produced in Salerno or Sicily. Having tried hard to find them in the local stores without success, I made a few alternative trials. The best result, at present, has been achieved with cherry vine tomatoes Cherubino from Sardinia (Waitrose). My only suggestion is to try and stick to similar shaped original Italian tomatoes. I recently saw marzanino tomatoes in another supermarket; the big wording stated correctly that marzanino is an Italian variety, but, alas, they were produced in Spain. I tried them, but they had no tomato smell and very little taste. Avoid!

Now the recipe.

Pour boiling water on the tomatoes (I bought approximately 800 gr). After a few seconds you can easily peel them.

Cut them in half, remove seeds and excessive water (if the tomatoes are ripe and good quality, it should be very little). This is the only boring part of the job: do not give up.

Take a pot with a thick stainless steel base, pour the peeled tomatoes in with some fresh basil leaves (hand picked, since metal tools could oxidise them) and one piece of peeled garlic and start cooking at low fire, stirring regularly.

Once the sauce is thick enough and creamy (it should take only 20 minutes or so), turn off fire, remove garlic and basil, stir in one drop of quality balsamic vinegard, (even a cheap one will do, but do not expect the same taste) one small teaspoon of brown sugar, a pinch of salt or more to liking. If you prefer a smoothier consistency, use a blender.

Finally, add a few spoonful of extra virgin olive oil (the best you can get hold of). Mix the sauce with your pasta cooked ‘al dente’  (always one minute less than stated on package), add fresh basil and - if you like it - a tiny amount of fresh butter to melt on top (less than a coffee spoon).

Enjoy with care: strong emotions may be dangerous…

Ciao

Diego

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Scritto da admin alle 9:40, in Main category

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This is a mini-blog for two reasons: it’s late at night and I’m simply introducing the subject.

Last week one Polish girl I know asked me how to make a good tomato sauce.

Blimey, I thought, what a question! Everybody knows how. It’s like the ABC of cooking. But, on a second thought, it was a pretty good question and not at all one you can dismiss with two sentences.

Because, there are as many recipes for tomato sauce as birds in the sky and you can introduce very many variations by simply choosing different tomatoes (fresh or canned, being the first big choice you can make) and from this point on, the sky is the limit.

Do you have good recipes for tomato sauce? Have you introduced a personal variation you treasure?

Do let me know. I will get back here soon with my very favourite tomato sauce versions, from quick to elaborate. And let me tell you something, a simple pasta dish with a GOOD tomato sauce, is another item for your list of things to eat (possibly on a regular basis) before you die.

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Scritto da admin alle 22:18, in Main category

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When it comes to blogging, I still feel like the new girl in the block.

Every day I learn something new, or a new rule (it’s funny, but any ‘free’ community abides to rules or sets up new standards, that everybody feels compelled to follow).

The 31st of August, for instance, was a list-your-favourite-blogs kind of day. Well I missed that: I simply found out too late.

And search-blogging around, I recently discovered that sometimes bloggers give tasks to one another and the hottest one seems to be the following: list the 5 things you need to try before you die.

This is as far as food blogs are concerned, of course.

Well, I thought about it a lot. At first I was sort of frozen. My mind started spinning and I could not think of a single thing. Then, like the miraculous multiplication of bread and fish, memories started crowding my brain and I almost wanted to cry: stop, enough!

I cannot guarantee I will list 5 things only. Age is the culprit. You do not reach forty and travel around the world food-spotting to end up with only 5 good things worth trying. In order to limit the number, I gave myself another rule. I will only list the best Italian food I tried and forget about the rest. The reason has no link with xenophobic attitudes. I simply think I am better equipped to judge all stuff Italian.

And mind you, should I remember something really worth it, I might end up writing it in the next blog.

So, here is my top five, in no specific order.

1. Mozzarella (either buffalo or regular ‘fiordilatte’) straight from ‘caseificio’ i.e place of production. Campania is the best region to try it, but all central and southern Italy has strongholds of mozzarella production, so you have plenty of choices. If you go early in the morning, you can buy mozzarella that has less than an hour’s life. Please, take my word, its texture and taste are the ultimate experience of food sublime and simply shade ridicule on any attempt to make food a product of technological jargon (apologies to the Fat Duck’s fans).

2. ‘Culatello’ from Zibello (a type of ham). Produced in the very heart of the Parmesan Reggiano DOP region, in an area possibly smaller than Regents Park, it tastes like Parma ham at the cubic power. Try it at Trattoria ‘La Buca’ in Zibello, the most amazing gourmand experience.  For opera lovers, it’s not far from the house of Giuseppe Verdi (I’m trying hard to give you some more excuses, but the truth is, you do not need them).

 3. Whole porcini mushroom’s head grilled on wood fire (a speciality of central Italy, like Tuscany and Umbria). It’s so good and has such a meaty texture, that it could convince any carnivore to turn vegetarian. Just try it to believe it.

4. Coffe granita (granita al caffe’) with fresh cream and straight from the wood oven baked brioche (nothing to do with the French croissant, I’m talking about a very buttery pastry with bread texture and not too sweet). It is THE breakfast. experience To be consumed in Sicily (even if you can find good ones in Calabria as well).

5. While in Sicily, I will mention something every chocolate lover should try: authentic chocolate from Modica, without cocoa butter. Forget the Belgian overly sweet sticky stuff. This is the real thing. With or without chilly pepper.

And this does not end my list, but it ends today’s blog (from 5 to 5 I could go a long way).

More yummy-in-my-tummy food next time.

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Scritto da admin alle 9:20, in Main category

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