Inviato dal mio telefono
Inviato dal mio telefono
Inviato dal mio telefono
Inviato dal mio telefono
For sunday brunch, I decided it was finally time to make something interesting… I picked up chestnut flour at the coop last week
|
|
|
|
and have been wanting to make this easy ricotta
|
|
|
|
Turns out castagnaccio goes well with ricotta, and with all the rosemary just outside my door…
Mix 1 c. chestnut flour with an egg, sparkling water, and a bit of the whey leftover from the ricotta to make a slightly thin batter. Add some finely chopped rosemary and chopped peach. Heat a spoonful of sunflower oil in a frying pan, pour the batter into one large pancake and cook for a few minutes on each side over low heat. Serve with fresh ricotta, sliced peaches, fresh rosemary and saba.
|
|
|
|
Bella wouldn’t try it 
But it was really tasty, not super sweet at all as the saba and peaches were the only sweetness in it.
Pickles are one of my absolute favorite foods. Funny, because I hate cucumbers. I was the only one in my family that liked pickles. Whenever we went to McDonalds, before the chicken mcnugget days, I got all my brothers’ pickles. I hated Burger King because they could order their burgers “ketchup only” … I was in heaven in Russia any time I could get pickles, and Russians love their pickles! However, in Italy I don’t see pickles too often.
Just to torture me, I’m sure, this week two different friends wrote about their pickle-making adventures, so I decided I had to try it. Jenn said she made bread and butter pickles with zucchini… perfect for me, plenty of that here, and one of my most favorite kinds of pickles. Mark made the famous “half-sour” pickles… those super crunchy fresh tasting pickles that I crave and have to go to Saul’s deli or special russian stores to find in the US…
For the sweet pickles:
Sliced 3 zucchini + two small red onions including the green tops;
|
|
|
|
layered with salt and covered with ice; let sit covered for a few hours.
|
|
|
|
Made a brine of 1/2 c sugar, 2 cups white wine vinegar, 1/2 c red wine vinegar, 1/4 c balsamic vinegar, cinnamon, coriander, whole pepper corns, dried ginger & fresh basil — this smelled amazingly good!
|
|
|
|
Boiled the vegetables in the brine, placed it all into four jelly jars and processed for several minutes…
|
|
|
|
While cooling the seals all popped down and they look pretty good so far! We’ll see in a couple weeks.
|
|
|
|
For the sour pickles:
Made a brine of 1/2 c salt and 2 cups water; 3 cucumbers each cut in half, packed into the brine jar with fresh rosemary, grape leaves and garlic.
|
|
|
|
Fortunately I only have to wait a few day for these…
|
|
|
|
More yummy local beer!
I had planned to make this yesterday, and had started marinating the breast in the morning, but having ended up with the car for an extra day, i decided to make use of that and go to the gym last night instead.
So today, after getting the car to the rental place in Lucca at exactly 10 am, I took the train back, swam for a couple hours in the town pool, then climbed the hill back home. Bella had decided to take the day off and do the dishes instead. And when I got home, she was hungry, and so was I, so early dinner was the verdict.
The marinade consisted of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pepper, dried sage, rosemary and basil, and garlic. I used just enough to cover it on one side with herbs and with garlic on the other. After 24 hours, it was pretty infused.
Bella had wanted chicken tenders, so I told her I’d cut it up into pieces, bread it with leftover focaccia and fry it. Close, yeah? I crushed the 2-day old bread in the new food processor, added some corn meal along with pepper and pink himalayan salt. In another bowl I beat and egg with some milk and lots of fresh rosemary. Sliced up the chicken breat, removed the bone, and tossed it into the egg. In the frying pan I heated up olive oil with garlic and green onion, then tossed the chicken into the bread crumbs, and fried it up. Bella loved it!
|
|
|
|
I also threw in some red onion with the frying chicken and that turned out nice and crispy. I took the flowers off the zucchini I got for making pickles (i love how zucchini ALWAYS comes with the flowers here) and stuffed them with pecorino and fresh basil, and used up the rest of the egg and breading, adding a bit of whole wheat flour to make it into more of a batter coating. Fried them on low heat, and served them with a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar. Very successful!
|
|
|
|
Couldn’t get a very well focused photo, but this was the nest the evil wasps came out of. Now, it is ashes in my fireplace.
Powered by FireStats
