peaches with chocolate/amaretti filling

It has been a while.... Sorry. But here I am again. As usual after a summer vacation in Europe, I come up with a truly Italian recipe. So simple, delicious, and addicting. I can't stop making it. Peach season is almost over. So hurry up!

ciambellone al limone di Luciana

My in-laws know that I am a lemony-ish person. So they thought of me when a friend offered them this "ciambellone al limone". They asked her the recipe and sent it to me. How cute! The term "ciambellone" refers to the shape of the cake (a big donut). Its texture is somewhere in between a cake and an angel cake. Anyway, the "ciambellone di Luciana" was well appreciated by the lemony-ish person and by all the other members of her family.

Thanks beloved in-laws for being so thoughtful & Thanks Luciana for sharing your  awesome recipe. (Grazie Cesare&Luciana per essere cosi' gentili & Grazie Luciana per la tua ottima ricetta)

la torta verde della rina

I miss Italian food. The food I eat when I am back to Italy for a vacation. With family and friends. In their houses or at restaurants. I did not use to prepare it myself though. But I have no other options... I'm doing my best to duplicate the recipes Italians prepared for me. The "torta verde" - especially the one baked by Rina (ciao Rina!) - is among the food I miss the most. Basically it's a veggie pie covered by an irresistible olive oil crust. The typical vegetable used in the "torta verde" is called "trombetta". It's a special kind of zucchini grown in Liguria, Northern Italy (and also here in my Californian garden!). But you can use whatever in-season veggie. Here, I used a mix of butternut squash, English peas, and chards. Make your own combination and let me know how it worked for you.

vivalafocaccia.com - 2

Variations sur le meme theme..... Same recipe as the one posted 2 weeks ago + some cherry tomatoes on top. If you like focaccie, you have to try one or another recipe from vivalafocaccia.com: a 100% reliable blog.

fried zucchini flowers

I have been growing some Italian zucchini  in my backyard this year (a special type called trombetta). The zucchini are still too tiny to be eaten. However,...  there are the flowers! Eat them raw, eat them baked, eat them fried, whatever you like, but EAT them! They are too good to let them go. And by the way, you don't have to grow zucchini to get flowers, you can buy them at the Farmer's market when they are in season (now).

stuffed summer squash

Last Monday, Farmer Pete had too many squashes, so he told us -his lucky customers- to take as many as we wanted. I took a lot. Really a lot. After making a big pot of soup and a good-sized bowl of ratatouille, there were still some left. In fact I kept the cute spherical ones for last. I didn't know yet what to do with them but I was pretty sure that I would end up doing something nice. These "stuffed summer squash" are inspired by the "verdurine ripiene" we usually eat during summer in Italy at my in-laws'. 

vivalafocaccia.com

I love focaccia. Especially the "real" focaccia "Genovese". I used to make a recipe I already wrote about (here, a very quick and easy one). This time around, I tried a recipe from the vivalafocaccia.com blog. It's an exhaustive blog written both in English and Italian. I wanted to try one of its recipes since long time ago, but never found the right moment to do it. The blogger's family used to have a bakery in Genova. He adapted the original recipes for  home use. Most of the recipes have an accompanying video (among them: the focaccia's). Useful for the newbies. The result was very convincing. The only weak point was the crust: a little bit too soft for my taste. But this could have been due to my poor execution.

+ Ricetta in italiano

+ Recipe in English

le melanzane di luciana

My in-laws were here a few days ago. Like every Italian mother-in-law, my mother-in-law cooks. And YES, she cooks delicious Italian meals. But NO, she doesn't cook the typical ones requiring hours of preparation. She likes easy and fast recipes. So my mother-in-law is not a typical Italian mother-in-law. Her single portions of melanzane are simply delicious. They also freeze very well.

crustoli

Let's celebrate Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday by making - and especially by eating! - some "crustoli" (typical carnival-ish Italian sweets). Alike all carnival-ish treats around the world, the crustoli are..... fried! But they are not too sweet. They are not too greasy. They are not too filling. They are crispy. They are tasty. They are gooooood!!!!!!!

Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi with Sage Butter

Finally a savory entree and not a dessert! Instead of being made of potatoes+egg+flour like the "regular" gnocchi, these "green" gnocchi are made of spinach+egg+ricotta+Parmesan. They can (should) be frozen. Be patient. The effort you spend doing the work is worth it. You will recover it later, when you will save time by having the gnocchi ready to eat out of the freezer.

Green Pea Risotto

I love risottos. So does my family. The following recipe is very basic; nothing really fancy about it, but that's the way I like it. It's in french, but there is a similar one in English here. For the Italians, no need for a recipe... Right?

Basic Tomato Sauce

I don't like the industrial tomato sauces for pizza. So usually I buy the simplest tomato sauce that I can find and add some salt, garlic, and olive oil before putting it on my pizza dough. And until now, it was OK. But then I tasted a pizza at the Big Sur Bakery&Restaurant... And then I've tried the recipe of their tomato sauce at home... And then I've changed my way of looking at tomato sauce forever... Of course you can use this tomato sauce as a base in many recipes. Even simply on top of pasta sprinkled with (a lot of) Parmesan cheese. Yummmmmyyyy!

Focaccia and Pizza Focaccia

An Italian classic. When you'll try it, you won't buy any pizza anymore.

Cantuccini

I've always wanted to bake these famous biscotti from Tuscany. I've tried this recipe (here). They are so goooood. They would taste even better dipped in a Vin Santo (Italian dessert wine), which I don't have. Too bad.