The perfect stuffing for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has crept up on us with the stealth of a lion stalking its prey.  Where does the time rush off to in such a hurry?   Sometimes I with I had a brake-pedal so I could slow everything down just a little. If Thanksgiving is launching itself at us, that means that Christmas is not far behind it with its jaws gaping, ready to bite. It’s now time to push down the mild panic creeping over me and start getting a little organised!  One of the recipes I have been making regularly over the last few years for our Thanksgiving meal is this bread and apple stuffing.  Yes, I know that I’m not an American, but I do have a very good American friend living nearby who we celebrate with.  I’m very willing to sacrifice myself to taking on a festival from another country that’s all about eating!

How to control the cooking panic at Thanksgiving

The stuffing is cooked outside of the bird so that the top of it gets nice and crunchy. It’s perfect to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas too, as you can prepare it the day before up to the last step where you uncover it and put it in the oven to crisp up. While the turkey is resting after its roasting, you can throw the stuffing in the oven for about 20 minutes to finish cooking it. Well, don’t literally “throw” it in the oven, as you may end up with a bigger cleaning job than you already have….just slide it in nice and calmly with none of that last minute panic you may be sliding into because the gravy’s burning, the dog is trying to get at the turkey, half the guests haven’t turned up yet, and all your family keeps barging into the kitchen, one after the other, to ask for random unnecessary things.

Some other dishes to go with the stuffing

To get a full Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, look no further than Italian Kiwi! You could serve this stuffing alongside brined turkey, perfect roast potatoes, Bianca’s Slow-cooked Carrots, and for some extra colour: Stewed Red Cabbage with Apple! Then for a light dessert, you could make ahead some panna cotta.  There you go: a whole menu for you so now you don’t have to think about anything except for the grocery list!

Cookbook of the week

This week, instead of a travel photo of the week, I would like to tell you about a very important collaboration I worked on this year.  I am a moderator on a large community on Google+ called Foodies+, and we have been working to put out a book full of recipes from our members in time for the holiday season.  We’re very proud of the final result! This bread and apple stuffing is one of the many recipes that are in the book. The recipe book can be bought from any Amazon store and put on your Kindle or other device.  The best thing is, that all the proceeds will go to the charity Action Against Hunger: a world-wide organisation supporting those in need. So, get yourself a gift for Christmas and help hungry people at the same time!

By Lisa Watson

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Bread and apple stuffing

This stuffing is perfect to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas too, as you can prepare it the day before up to the last step where you uncover it and put it in the oven to crisp up.  

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

• 300 g Rustic bread 10.5 oz
• 1 medium Onion
• 150 g Celery 2 stalks
• 250 g Granny Smith apples 2 medium
• 50 g Butter 1.7 oz./3½Tbsp
• 250 ml Apple cider 1 cup
• 350 ml Water 1½ cups
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Chicken Bouillon Cube
• 1 tsp Salt

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 180 C/350 F.
• Chop the celery and onion. Peel and dice the apple into rough cubes.
• Cut the bred into cubes, approximately 2cm/1 in square, and put in a large bowl.
• Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Sauté the celery, apple and onion for 10 minutes on a medium heat.  Stir frequently. Take off the heat.
• Mix the cider, water, eggs, salt and bouillon cube together, then pour over the bread and stir well.
• Add the celery mixture to the bread and stir.
• Scrape the prepared mixture into a baking pan that is at least 20 x 30 cm/ 8 x 12 inch. Cover the pan tightly with aluminium foil.
• Cook in the oven for 35 minutes.
• Uncover the pan and bake for a further 15 minutes.
• The first cooking step can be done a few hours in advance.  When you are almost ready to serve your meal, put the stuffing in the oven for the last baking step and bake for 20 minutes.
• Make this stuffing vegetarian by adding vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.

Getting ahead of the holiday panic

 Thanksgiving and Christmas are stealthily creeping up on us, and are about to jump from behind a door and scream, “BOO!!!!”. I thought I’d head them off at the pass and get you thinking about an idea to make for the holidays already, so you won’t be so scared when they do try to tap you on the shoulder in a dark alley. This beef pot-roast makes a delicious main dish to serve at your festive feast!

Wine to use with a traditional Italian pot-roast

My Italian mother-in law serves this pot-roast up for our Christmas meal every year. The meat is simmered for hours in a heady mixture of vegetables and aged Barolo wine from the Piedmont region in the North-West of Italy. If you cannot find Barolo, you can use any heavy-bodied red wine, and the results will be excellent.  Barolo wine comes from around the tiny, but beautiful village of Barolo in the wine area below Turin, called The Langhe.  Barolo also has a fantastic wine museum.  I know it’s sounds boring, but it’s not at all!  It’s very artistically done (in a good way!) and interactive (though doesn’t include wine samples, more’s the pity!).

What can you pair with the main dish?

You can pair the pot-roast with pretty much any side you like. I particularly like it with roast potatoes and braised onions. Usually in the Piedmont region of Italy, you would have a table full of antipasti, then a pasta or risotto as a starter, then the pot-roast with some vegetable sides. By the time we get to the roast, our stomach’s are complaining, so we only eat a little bit of it. That’s alright though as it keeps very well for days afterwards.

What wines to pair with  Brasato al Barolo?

To get a suggestion for good Italian wines from the Piedmont region of Italy to drink with this Northern Italian recipe, look no further than the Independant Wine Company, based in the UK.  They have an interesting blog attached to their site with all sorts of good advice on which wines to drink with various dishes, and tell you the difference between the wines that come from the Langhe region.

If you have an electric knife, it makes cutting the meat very easy.  It’s perfect if it is cut into thin slices. If you don’t have an electric knife, use the sharpest knife that you can find.

By Lisa Watson

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Italian Red Wine pot roast (Arrosto al Barolo)

Italian pot roast in Barolo sauce. The meat is simmered for hours in a heady mixture of vegetables and aged Barolo wine from the Piedmont region of Italy.

Course entree, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Resting time 1 day day

Total Time 1 day day 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg Boneless Beef Roast 3.5 lb
• 1 clove Garlic
• 1 Carrot medium-sized
• 1 Onion
• 1 stick Celery
• 2 sprigs Rosemary
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 bottle Red Wine 750 ml

Instructions

• Dice the onion and peel and dice the carrots. Peel the garlic and slice it. Slice the celery stick.
• Place the beef in a Dutch Oven, or heavy-based pot with a well-fitting lid.
• Add all the other ingredients, including the wine to the pot.
• Bring to a simmer on the stove-top, then put the lid on the pot.  Leave it to simmer on a medium-law heat for 2 1/2 hours. Turn the meat over two or three times during the cooking process.
• Remove the lid and continue to let the roast simmer for another 30 minutes to allow the liquid to decrease in volume.
• Remove the roast and let it cool.  When it is cool, cut it into thin slices, about 0.5 cm (1/4 inch thick).  This is easier to do with an electric knife, but if you don't have one, use a very sharp meat knife, or cut them more thickly.
• You can leave the wine sauce chunky, or if you prefer it to be smooth, blend it using a food processor.
• Layer the meat in a stain-proof container with a lid, and pour the sauce over the top of it.  make sure all the slices are covered.
• Close the container and place it in the fridge overnight, and up to three days.  This allows the flavours of the sauce to sink into the roast.
• To serve, heat in the microwave, or gently in a pot of the stove-top.

Enjoying the food in Munich, Germany

Recently, we were lucky to be able to visit the beautiful city of Munich, Germany and took in a visit to Legoland. The Munich part was for the adults in the family and the Legoland part was to convince the younger members of the family to wander around a city for a couple of days. Nothing like a good old-fashioned bribe of a near-future visit to a fun place to get the kids to not whine about their tired legs and about how we’ve already seen two churches and why do we have to see another one! Aside from the architecture, one of the great things to do in Munich is eat (you thought I was going to say “Go to the Oktoberfest and drink like a fish, didn’t you!). Well, the Oktoberfest wasn’t on, and with a couple of kids in tow, fish-drinking is not the done thing, so we went to eat.  One of the delicious sides that you can get everywhere is red cabbage stewed with apples; a dish that brought back many good memories from when I used to live in Heidelberg many years ago. To make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything, I also made myself eat large helpings of fabulous cakes and pastries.  Of course, it was only in the name of research and something I would never normally do…..

Red cabbage everywhere!

While wiping pretzel crumbs off our faces, before moving onto a beer hall to eat large amounts of meat with sides of red cabbage, potatoes and sauerkraut, we stopped to watch the show of the Glockenspiel in the tower of the town-hall on Marianplatz.  At certain times of the day a whole procession of figures cavort around to the tune of the chiming bells: knights, dancers and wedding guests all take a turn to spin in and out of sight of the crowds watching below. The different scenes show events that marked Munich’s history.  It’s worth reading about before you see it (um, which I didn’t do) so that you can really appreciate the show.

Must-buys when you go to Munich

After stuffing ourselves, we went window-shopping and decided that maybe the traditional dirndls and lederhosen weren’t quite for us.  Though it would certainly make us into talking-points if we wore them back in the French village where we live.  It maybe better just to stick to recreating the red cabbage and apple side dish and leave the dirndl wearing to the Bavarian experts.

Just a note for slicing the red cabbage: if you have a mandoline slicer, it’s actually very quick to shred.  Chopping it by hand will take quite a long time, unless you are an expert knife-wielder.

This cabbage goes exceptional well with brined turkey!

By Lisa Watson

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Stewed red cabbage with apple

Stewed red cabbage and apple is a typical South German side dish. It's good enough to eat by itself!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine German

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

• 1 Red Cabbage
• 50 g Butter 2 Tbsp
• 1 Onion
• 2 Apples
• 1/2 lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
• 150 ml Red Wine 1 cup
• 150 ml Vegetable Broth 1 cup
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 2 Bay leaves
• 4 Cloves
• 3 Juniper Berries
• 1 Tbsp Flour
• 1 Tbsp Redcurrant Jam optional
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Slice the cabbage into thin strips. I used a mandoline slicer for this.
• Chop the onion finely. Peel, core and chop the apples.
• Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Sauté and onions and apple until the onion becomes translucent.
• Add the cabbage and lemon juice. Stir.
• Sprinkle with 1 - 2 tsp salt, then add the vinegar, wine, broth, bay leaves, cloves, juniper berries and sugar.
• Cover and simmer on a low heat for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, stirring every 10 -15 minutes.
• Mix the flour with a little water in a cup to make a runny paste. Add this mixture to the cabbage and stir in to thicken the sauce.
• Add the redcurrant jam, if using.
• Taste and season with more salt if needed.
• The cabbage can be made a few days in advance and kept refrigerated until needed.

The story of the ravening monster and the pumpkin

This week, I’m starting with a very sad story of emerging life, and sudden loss.  I had a pumpkin plant sprouting in my vegetable garden. Every day it unfurled its leaves and grew bigger and longer. Unfortunately, also the weeds around it basked in the warmth of the early Autumn sun and grew overnight into a giant forest of prickly heads that covered the valiant pumpkin plant from view. An ignorant monster (that would…ahem….be me), flew into a frenzy and pulled out all the weeds in large handfuls.  In this fit of frantic gardening, the monster snagged some of the pumpkin plant and snapped the growing stem off at ground level. No amount of roaring and gnashing of teeth (nor superglue) could bring the pumpkin plant back to life, thus the monster was forced to go to the supermarket this year to buy pumpkins.  And that my friends, is why you should never let the weeds in your garden grow too much.

A Fall-coloured risotto

So, I went to the supermarket and got a wonderful butternut squash to make this pumpkin and speck risotto.  I know in my heart-of-hearts that the risotto I would have made with a pumpkin from my own departed pumpkin plant would have been much more satisfying, but what can you do? This pumpkin risotto is a wonderful way to kick off the Fall season.  The orange of the pumpkin and the brown of the speck seem like sprinkles of falling Autumn leaves mixed in with the rice (aren’t I just so poetic today!). Of course leaves mixed in with rice would taste revolting, but pumpkin and speck make a very tasty combination.

If you can’t get speck, either use raw Italian ham, or bacon.  The recipe I’ve written below is for making risotto in a pressure cooker.  If you want the traditional way of making it, click here to read the instructions.

Travel Photo Of The Week

This photo comes from the area of Italy called the Veneto region, near Venice, where they often use pumpkin in pasta and risotto dishes. This hill town is called Bassano del Grappa, and if you haven’t guessed already, it’s where they are renown for making grappa, a strong liqueur made from the bits that are left over after the wine-making process.  It has, of course, a museum dedicated to grappa, where you can have tastings then reel out of the museum and fall into the river.  It also has a beautiful wooden bridge and old town to wander around in.

By Lisa Watson

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Pumpkin and bacon risotto

Pumpkin and Speck risotto makes a wonderfully colorful first course or all-in-one meal to celebrate the flavors of the Fall season.

Course entree, first course, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

• 250 g Butternut Squash 8.8 oz
• 1 half Onion
• 1 cup Carnaroli or Arborio Rice
• 1/3 cup White Wine
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 Chicken or Vegetable Bouillion Cube
• 1 1/2 cups Hot Water
• 40 g Speck 1.4 oz or bacon
• 4 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese

Instructions

• Finely chop the onion. Peel the pumpkin and chop it into small cubes. Dissolve the bouillion cube and salt in the hot water.
• Heat 3 Tbsp of olive oil in a pressure cooker. When it is hot, fry the onion for 2 -3 minutes. Add the pumpkin and sauté it for 5 -10 minutes, stirring often.
• Add the rice and sauté, until it starts to brown slightly.  Stir the mixture often.
• Add the wine and let it boil off.
• Add the water mixture and stir everything together.
• Put the lid on the pressure cooker.  Let it start to whistle and then turn down the heat to medium-low and cook for 6 minutes.
• While the risotto is cooking, slice the speck finely.
• Take the lid off the pressure cooker and stir the risotto vigourously to crush some of the cubes of pumpkin.
• Add the speck and grated parmesan cheese and mix in.
• Serve immediately.

The joys of scraping ice, cycling in the snow, and kale

It’s getting a teensy bit colder….not as cold as it should be at this time of the year, but cold enough to start making soup every now and then.  I feel cheated: I’ve only had to scrape ice off my car window twice so far this Winter!  Usually, it’s pretty much every day.  I actually enjoy doing it.  Probably because I now live in a place where it doesn’t get too cold.  I remember having to do it in Germany for months and cursing the fact that I had to get out of bed two minutes earlier every day to do some scraping.  Well, actually in Germany, I gave up on my car as it never wanted to start anyway and just slipped and slid my way to work on the snowy bicycle paths. Nothing like riding a bike on snow to wake you up quickly in the morning! But, I’m waffling;…this post is meant to be about soup and the kale I found the other day to put in it.

What’s so great about kale anyway?

So, I’ve been hearing about this wondrous green stuff called kale for the last few years. People rave about it and eat it as though it’s going out of fashion (or more because it’s in fashion, maybe!).  Anyway, a new greengrocer opened up recently near us and when I went to have a sniff around, lo and behold! I found some kale staring at me from the shelves!  I had to buy it of course, and then had to decide what to do with it as it lay gently wilting on my kitchen bench. In the same greengrocer I found some topinambour (Jerusalem Artichokes) which were another thing I’d heard about, but never really seen here, so of course, I bought some of them too.  All this impulse buying is a little dangerous, but it did get us to eat something new.  I also didn’t really know what to do with these tubers. So, what to do with vegetables when in doubt? Make soup!

The wonderful thing about soup

I chopped everything I had (vegetable-wise) up and threw in in a pot with some chicken broth and simmered it for a while, and yet another miracle (after the kale appearance) happened: once I blended it all up, it tasted really good!  I love soup!  It has so many possibilities for subterfuge. Anyway, the kale gave the soup a wonderful bright green colour. I’m still not sure that it’s worth all the hype, but I’ll be buying it again.  Maybe next time I’ll figure out a recipe to use first before going to buy it.  Actually that would make a great phone app: when you’re in the supermarket you point it at a fruit or vegetable and it gives you a recipe along with a list of ingredients you need to buy to make it. I’ll take a commission from whoever develops that one!

Travel photo of the week

I sprinkled on Piment d’Espelette at the end.  It’s a not very spicy chile with a smokey flavour that comes from the Basque Country area in the South-West of France. If you go there you can see strings of these chillis hanging up everywhere to dry.

And now for the travel photo of the week!  Since I’ve written about piment d’Espelete here, I thought I’d show you an area in France near where the powder comes from.  Unfortunately, I have no photos of the Basque Country to show you as we went there way before digital photos, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it’s very beautiful!  This photo is from near Toulouse, in the Tarn region of France. It’s the South-West of France as well, so it will give you an idea of what the countryside is like there.

So, all that’s left in to say Happy Holidays!  I hope you all have a wonderful time doing whatever you are going to be doing.  See you all next year!!

By Lisa Watson

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Kale and root vegetable soup

How to make kale and root vegetable soup

Course entree, first course, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Mediterranean

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 1 Onion
• 200 g Jerusalem Artichokes 7.9 oz
• 200 g Pumpkin 7.9 oz
• 200 g Parsnip 7.9 oz
• 1 bunch Kale
• Chicken broth or stock cube with water - to cover
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Piment d'Espelette to taste

Instructions

• Chop the onion finely and sauté it in 3 Tbsp of olive oil.
• Peel and chop all the root vegetables into cubes of roughly similar size (for even cooking).  Wash the kale, then cut it into strips.
• Add the vegetables to the pot, then cover with broth or water.
• Let the soup simmer at a medium heat for about 10 - 15 minutes until soft. (When you can stick a fork or knife through with little resistance).
• Take the soup off the stove and blend it with a handheld blender until smooth.
• Sprinkle with Piment d'Espelette (or another mild chilli powder) just before serving.

When the cold weather hits, it’s time for soup

I think we’ve been picked up by Dorothy’s tornado and transported somewhere not half as interesting as Oz. We live in a place where it hardly ever rains, until a couple of weeks ago.  It started and pretty much hasn’t stopped since.  My husband and I were out in the torrential rain last week trying to stop water from flooding into our back door and over our lovely new floor tiles and freshly painted walls (we succeeded!).  Every day there are photos in the paper of people sitting on top of their cars with water lapping up around the driver’s door, mudslides and flooded shops.  What is going on??!!  Well, we all know what is going on, even if some people don’t like to admit that it’s true.  Since this isn’t a political blog, or even a scientific one, I’m not going to start raving about climate change here, except to say, how can people not see what’s happening?! Deep breath…..  Anyway……since we’ve been having all this rainy weather, I decided we needed a good dose of farro and chickpea soup to warm ourselves up.

What is farro?

Farro? Chickpeas? What are they? Farro is an ancient grain, used often in Italy, that goes by many names. You quite probably have heard of it under one of it’s other aliases, such as wheat-berries or spelt.  It’s one of those super-good-for-you grains that have come back into fashion lately. If you can’t find farro, barley makes a pretty good substitute. The other name for chickpeas is garbanzo beans.  There is contention as to whether these names signify two different legumes of the same species, or whether it’s just an American thing to call them garbanzo (I love that name!  Makes me think of Gonzo from the Muppets). Feel free to call them what you will.  They will taste the same!

How to cheat at making soup

Now, you can go all out and make this soup from “real” scratch if you want (or you can just catch a plan to Lucca in Tuscany and have some of their farro soup.  It’s fabulous!). It is honestly worth it, but I don’t do that very often either as it takes lots of pre-planning.  Who ever remembers to soak beans and chickpeas the night before, or have a container of chicken broth ready to go?  It is already incredibly good if you use canned borlotti or cannelini beans and chickpeas.  The chicken broth can be made with water and a boullion cube. The farro, you have to cook, but it only takes about 20 minutes if you get the right variety, or the pre-cooked kind. Oh, and of course, you can make it vegetarian by using vegetable brother and omitting the bacon.  It’s that kind of guy: super flexible and still will taste great!

Travel photo of the week

So, I think at this time of the year, the travel photo for this week should be something snowy, right?  Or, how about an Autumn scene? Ooohhh, here’s one of my favourite photos from when were in Quebec a few years ago. I love the colours of the maple leaves.  If you ever get a chance, try to get there in the Fall. It’s stunning!

By Lisa Watson

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Chickpea and farro soup

How to make Spelt and Chickpea Soup, with a special cheat's way included. Nobody will know the difference!

Course entree, first course, Soup

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Soaking time for dried chickpeas 1 day day

Total Time 1 day day 2 hours hours

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 medium Carrot
• 1 medium Onion
• 2 leaves Sage
• 50 g Bacon
• 4 Tbsp Tomato puree
• to cover Chicken broth or bouillion cube with water
• 100 g Farro (Wheatberries)
• 200 g Cooked Chickpeas 1 cup
• 125 g Cooked Borlotti Beans (or other dried beans) 4.4 oz
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

• If you are using dried chickpeas and beans, soak them for 12 hours, then boil them in unsalted water for 20 minutes  to 1 hour depending on the type of legume.
• Finely slice the onion and chop the carrot into small cubes. Slice the bacon into small strips or squares. Mince the sage leaves.
• Heat 2 -3 tbsp of olive oil in a large pot. Sauté the onion, sage, carrots and bacon until the onion becomes translucent.
• Add the tomato puree.
• Add the farro and pour in broth or water with a dissolved bouillion cube in it into the pot until the farro is covered. Let it simmer until the farro is nearly cooked.  This depends on the type of farro. Add more water if needed.
• Add the precooked (or canned) chickpeas and beans.  Let the soup simmer for 5 minutes more then season with salt and pepper.

I know that since my post last week on making fresh pasta at home, you’ve all been madly producing kilos and kilos of the stuff. It’s hanging off every hanging surface you have: chairs, clotheslines, broom-handles, and now….what to do with all that bounty?!  Just a boring old tomato sauce doesn’t make the pasta shine, which you want it to do after all the hard work you’ve put into kneading it and rolling it out. Here’s the perfect recipe: maltagliati alle lenticchie. Maltagliati means “badly cut”, which is a great kind of pasta to make for those of us who are maybe not as perfectionist as others are (um, like me). You can cut the pasta any way, and into any shape, you want.  Maltagliati are often made with the side bits of fresh pasta that are abandoned once the rest of the pasta has been made into beautiful ravioli or long perfectly-formed tagliatelle strands.  It’s a shame to waste it, as it tastes just as good, and you don’t want to give the castout bits of pasta a complex now, do you?

I suggest using brown or green lentils for this pasta sauce.  You want to use a lentil that will hold its shape well once it’s cooked.  Generally, the yellow and coral lentils that are used for dishes like dahl turn into mush; delicious mush for sure, but mush none-the-less. I’ve used both green and brown and they both come out very well.  Of course, you don’t have to use maltagliati to eat this pasta sauce. You can drape it over any kind of pasta you like, including the dried stuff.  It does really go well with fresh pasta though, and if you’re going to actually make the pasta at home, maltagliati are truely the easiest ones to make as you really don’t need any fancy-pantsy pasta machines or cutters.  You can just roll out the dough, as thin as you can get it, with a rolling pin, and then cut it with a knife if you don’t have a pizza cutter (like I used).  If you don’t have a rolling pin or a knife, you can try ripping it with your teeth, or maybe just go to a restaurant instead. 🙂

This recipe is adapted from a recipe I found in one of the series of La Repubblica cookbooks they put out a few years ago.  They take up a whole shelf in my kitchen as there are about 15 volumes, but these things are the bibles of Italian cooking, so they’re worth the space they hog.

Happy pasta making!

To find out how to cook pasta like an Italian does, check out my handy guide.

By Lisa Watson

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Fresh hand-cut pasta with lentil sauce

How to make fresh hand-cut pasta with lentil sauce. 

Course entree, first course, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 350 g Maltagliati 12.5 oz
• 120 g lentils (green or brown) 2/3 cup
• 1 Onion
• 1 clove Garlic
• 1 Bayleaf
• 4 Tomatoes medium-sized
• 1 large handful Parsley
• 1-2 tsp Dried oregano
• 1 crushed optional Dried chilli (perperoncino)

Instructions

• To make the maltagliati: follow my recipe to make fresh pasta here.

To Make the Sauce:

• Finely slice half the onion. Add it to a pot with the bayleaf and washed lentils. Boil the lentils in lots of water until they are soft, following the packet instructions.  Depending on which lentil you choose will depend on how long they take to cook.  The brown lentils I used took approximately 30 minutes. (The lentils can be cooked the day before)
• In the meantime, make the rest of the sauce. Halve the tomatoes and remove the seeds.  If you like you can also peel them (I didn't). Cut the tomatoes into small chunks.
• Finely dice the other half of the onion and garlic together.
• Saute the onion/garlic mixture in 3 Tbsp of olive oil until the onion becomes translucent. Add the tomatoes, the chilli (if using) and a pinch of salt, then cook on medium-low for 10 minutes, stirring often.
• Add the lentils, oregano, and chopped parsley.  Cook for another 5 minutes.
• Cook the pasta, drain it, then add it to the sauce.

Risotto with a difference!

This risotto with sausages and spinach has an extra special guest hitching along for the ride.  Instead of using the usual wine to make the risotto, you actually use beer.  It gives the risotto an extra depth of taste, especially if you pair it with good pork sausages. I added spinach to the risotto to make my kids eat something green, but it does actually go very well in the dish!  At the moment there are all sorts of spinach-type things popping up everywhere in the shops.  They probably should be popping up in my garden so I can go all Mother Nature on you and write “and the spinach I gathered fresh from my own garden….blah, blah”, but as I’m terribly lazy when it comes to gardening, all I can offer you is spinach grown in a local market-garden…..it’s almost like it comes from my garden, except I didn’t do any of the work, and I have to pay for it.

Why you should never give a student a home-brew kit for their birthday

This is a much more refined way to have beer.  I remember in my dark, far-off student days, when men were men and beer was free-flowing, some friends and I made the mistake of giving one of my flatmates a beer-making kit for his 21st birthday (turning 21 is a big deal in New Zealand. as years ago it used to be the age to start drinking and voting).  My flatmate, who shall not be named (you know who you are, Al!), took to beer-making with gusto and churned out gallon after gallon of revolting beer.  That being said, we drank the whole lot since we were penniless students, and even better we often dragged our couch outside into the front garden and sat in the sun drinking it (at this point all our parents should cover their eyes)….ahem, probably instead of going to lectures………luckily, digital cameras didn’t exist way back then so there are no photos I can show you of that time.  Instead, let me leave you with a photo of hundreds of sheep staring at you from my Dad’s farm.  That’s enough to make you feel paranoid that someone’s watching you and may even drive you to home-brewed student beer…..

Anyhow, enough about random sheep and drinking home-brew that’s not ready to drink….using beer to make risotto is less damaging to the liver, as the alcohol boils off, leaving the taste of the beer.  Try to use a stronger tasting beer to make the risotto, and not a lager, as it really does make a difference.

By Lisa Watson

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Risotto with beer, sausage, and spinach

Risotto with a difference! This one is made with beer instead of the usual wine. It goes wonderfully with the sausage and spinach.

Course entree, first course, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 400 g Arborio or Carnaroli rice 2 cups
• Chicken stock stock cube
• 1 small Onion
• 4 Sausages approx 200g
• 250 ml Beer 1 small bottle
• 150 g frozen Spinach or 1 bunch fresh
• 40 g Parmesan cheese 4 Tbsp
• 1 tsp Salt

Instructions

• Put the chicken stock, or pot of water with the bouillon cube in it, to simmer on the stove top.  Chop the onion finely and saute it in olive oil in a second pot. When the onion becomes translucent, crumble the sausage and add it.  Stir the mixture until the sausage is browned.
• Add the rice and saute until it browns slightly.
• Add the beer and let it boil off.
• Add the frozen spinach, or chopped fresh spinach and 1 tsp of salt.
• Pour in enough water/broth from your simmering pot to cover the rice mixture. and put the timer on for 13 minutes.  Now, STAY THERE AND DON'T MOVE!!  As the rice is cooking, watch the level of the water.  As it goes down, add water from the simmering pot, one ladle-full (or cupful) at a time. Stir the rice often.
• As the time gets to around 12 minutes, start tasting the rice to see how done it is. The type of rice you have may vary the cooking times, so I'm being conservative here. If it's close to being cooked, don't add any more water and let the water in the rice boil off....and don't forget to stir it.....
• Add the Parmesan cheese and stir it in.

With the nights getting colder, beef stew is very welcoming

Winter’s rolling in.  There’s frost on the grass in the mornings and ice on the car windows. Though, luckily where I live (at least in my opinion!), the temperature then rises to about 15 to 20 degrees C or so during the day.  It does make it hard to dress if you’re going out for the whole day.  You end up sweating copiously while having to carry huge winter jackets, hats, scarves and gloves (yes, we’re not very cold-resistant here).  Anyway, it means that the evenings are cold enough to light a fire in the fireplace and eat hearty dishes like “spezzatino”.  Spezzatino is a delicious, slow-cooked beef stew, which literally melts in your mouth if it’s cooked long enough. It’s fantastic served with polenta or mashed potatoes to mop up all that good gravy that comes with it.

It never snows in Southern France

Although it stays pretty warm in the South of France most of the Winter, we do get one or two days of snow a year some years, as you can see from the photo below.  Fancy a dip anyone?!  The kids are always delighted because as soon as there are two flakes of snow, the schools close and they get to make snowmen that last pretty much until the sun comes out and everything melts at the speed of light!

A handy hint or two for making beef stew

Anyway, back to the spezzatino a minute: if you have a pressure cooker (I know I’m always harping on how marvelous they are, but it’s true!), you can make the stew in under an hour.  I’ve written the instructions under the traditional ones.  It’s good eaten the day you make it, but it’s even better if it’s left to sit around and develop its flavours.  It takes a while to make, but most of it is just letting it do its own thing in the pot without you lifting a finger.  Just a little babysitting is all that’s required!

By Lisa Watson

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Beef and carrot stew

Italian beef and carrot stew is a wonderful way to warm up on a cold evening.  find the recipe on Italian Kiwi.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings 6 - 8 people

Ingredients

• 1 kg Stewing Beef (e.g. chuck or bottom round) 2.2 lbs
• 1 Onion
• 1 whole clove Garlic
• 300 g Carrots 10 oz
• 1 450 g tin of crushed tomatoes 50 oz
• 2 medium potatoes optional
• 300 g Tomato puree 2 1/2 cups
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 Bay leaf
• to taste Pepper
• to cover Water

Instructions

• Chop the onion and the carrots. Cut the beef into chunks approximately the size of a ping-pong ball.
• Saute' the carrots, onion and whole clove of garlic in olive oil until the onion is translucent.
• Add the meat and brown on all sides.
• At this point, to make the sauce richer, you can add 1 cup of red wine and let it boil off.
• Add all the other ingredients, except the potatoes.  Add water until the meat is covered.
• Bring to a simmer and cook for approximately two hours, until the meat starts to fall apart. Stir occasionally and top up the water if the stew is becoming dry.  Add the potatoes, cut into chunks, after 1 1/2 hours.
• Turn up the heat and boil to reduce the liquid.
• This dish is best made a day or two before it is eaten to let the flavours develop.

If you have a pressure cooker

• Follow the instructions until number 5.  Close the pressure cooker and let cook for 30 minutes from the whistle. Take the lid off and add the potatoes, then close the lid and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Why you should never volunteer for a school camp

Normally, I would start a recipe post with a photo of the “dish of the day”, in this case “rolatine” that I am about to rave on about, but today, I’m starting with a photo taken of a beach just before the rain started.  This is to explain why you haven’t heard from me for the past week or so.  I spent a week helping out on a school camp with my eldest son’s class.  If you have never thought to imagine what it would be like to be stranded on a island for 5 days with 26 eight year olds when it’s raining and cold and you have to force them to go out sailing, knowing that they’re going to be doused with freezing sea water, now’s the time to do it.  And now, breathe a sigh of relief that the person you’re imagining was me and not you and go back to drinking your piping hot mug of tea or coffee. If you’re curious, the island in question was Île Sainte-Marguerite, one of the beautiful Îles des Lérins, just off the coast of Cannes.  It’s where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned many hundreds of years ago.  I don’t think the accommodation has been much updated from when he was there……I strongly urge you to go visit if you get the chance.  But, I also strongly urge you to go when it’s warm and sunny……….and NOT to go with a class of 8 year olds.

What are rolatine?

So, I’m back on the “mainland” now, and finally warm again, so I can post this recipe.  It’s another one of my mother-in-law’s favourites (along with carote di Bianca and frittata di spinaci ). I have had requests from my husband’s old school friends to put this one up.  When they used to go over to my husband’s place back in high school, my mother-in-law would often make a huge pot of rolatine for them to eat.

Where did the name “rolatine” come from?

The name “rolatine” comes from my mother-in-law, but this type of preparation is common throughout Italy.  The more common name is involtini. Involtini can be very diverse.  The basic precept is to use slices of meat of some kind or aubergine  and wrap it around a filling, which can range from vegetables, to cheese, to breadcrumbs or rice.  Your imagination is your only limitation (well, that and good sense for what goes together…….for instance, chicken stuffed with chocolate may be a bad idea). These rolatine are made with very thin slices of beef, and stuffed with a mixture of vegetables and prosciutto, then simmered in a tomato sauce.

Are you toothpick challenged too?

This is a great “make-ahead” dish, as the flavours deepen if it is left overnight after cooking it. The only tricky thing is to be good and sticking toothpicks through things.  My mother-in-law manages to use one toothpick and stick it straight through the centre of each rolatina so that you have an inbuilt nifty handle when eating it, and don’t need a fork (which is great for parties!).  I am toothpick-challenged though and when I try to do this, everything falls out left and right.

By Lisa Watson

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Rolatine: stuffed fillets of beef

This delcious recipe for stuffed beef fillets froms from my Italian mother-in-law. Try it out today!

Course entree, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 500 g Thin slices of beef 1.1lbs - depends on appetite of people!
• 1/2 Onion
• 1 Carrot
• 1 Celery stalk
• 200 g Prosciutto or cooked ham 7 oz
• 500 ml tomato puree
• Simmering water or broth to cover
• 1 Beef bouillon cube
• Toothpicks

Instructions

• Cut the slices into pieces approximately 8 -10 cm wide (2 inches).
• Chop the onion, carrot and celery in a food processor, or get your good knife out and mince the vegetables.
• Lay the slices of beef on a plate or chopping board.  Spread a few teaspoons of the vegetable mixture on them, then add a layer of prosciutto or cooked ham.
• Starting from the narrowest end (if there is one) roll the beef slice up and secure it with a toothpick (or two if you're like me).  Repeat this process for all the slices of beef.
• Heat olive oil in a frying pan on medium-high and brown the beef rolls on all sides.
• Lower the heat to medium/medium-low and add the tomato puree, 1 tsp salt, and the bouillon cube.
• Add water to just cover the rolatine and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• If the sauce is too watery at the end, turn the heat up to let the sauce thicken a little.

Notes

Rolatine keep well in the fridge for 3 - 4 days.  They can be frozen.  Just cover them in their sauce and freeze in a tightly sealed container.