Posts filed under ‘Cooking’
Beautiful Barolo
It’s difficult to capture the beauty of this place in a photo. Barolo is a famous wine region in Piemonte. We’ve visited many of its towns and villages over the past few days – La Morra, Alba, Asti, Treiso and Barbaresco, to name a few.
Everywhere you go there is a panorama of rolling hills threaded with thousands upon thousands of rows of grape vines and pretty towns at every turn and vista. The churches are particularly beautiful and I am enchanted by the Italians and their quiet but clear love of gardening and flowers – roses, irises, olive trees, and window boxes stuffed with petunias, pansies and geraniums are a constant preoccupation for me and my camera.
The food is wonderful, too, although it is not the easiest place to be a vegetarian – this is a region that loves meat. I’ve only ordered wrong once, but it was really wrong as you’ll see from the beautiful plate of salumi below. The area is packed with Michelin star restaurants – too rich for us, but we’ve heard wonderful things from others. I think I’m happier with the traditional food in the osterias, trattorias and pizzerias, anyway.
Wine rules everything in this place. It is serious business and all the other tourists we’ve met are here for the wine and well versed in the intricacies of the region. I’m trying to keep up…I don’t have the same knowledge base or passion for the ‘big name’ wineries, but my taste buds are definitely enjoying the education.
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Florence – Firenze
Here we are in Florence. It’s a pretty city with museums, piazzas filled with beautiful churches, open air sculpture and lots and lots of tourists.
History is everywhere, but there are modern things, too – shopping and fashion are the most noticeable (and wonderful) and restaurants. You’ll see below my pretty new shoes and a meal from Ora d’Aria, and other pizzerias and bars.
The highlight for me had been the old stuff, though. Florence – Firenze is the birthplace of Renaissance art and today I saw paintings and sculptures I’ve been in love with since my first art history course in university.
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Butternut squash soup + fancy grilled cheese
Everyone knows how to make grilled cheese – bread + butter + cheese. This is a grilled cheese turned a bit fancy – delicious chia seed bread, leftover garlic butter, a combination of mozzarella, aged cheddar, Grana Pandano (a hard cheese similar to asiago or parmesan) and sprinkled with chopped green onions and parsley and then grilled golden brown. On the side is an old standby – butternut squash soup. What a lovely lunch.
Butternut squash soup
Serves 4-6 people
1 package of chopped, frozen butternut squash (or one small butternut squash cut up into 1″ cubes)
2 medium sized carrots, coarsely chopped
2 medium sized potatoes or 5-6 baby potatoes, coarsely chopped
1 medium apple, cored, peeled and chopped
3 shallots, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried herbes de Provence
1 litre of vegetable stock
Combine squash, carrot, potatoes and shallots in a bowl and toss with oil and herbs. Spread out on a large baking sheet and bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Pour them into a large pot and add the vegetable stock and blend until smooth with a hand blender (or blend the veggies and stock in batches in a regular blender / food processor). Simmer on low until the mixture is heated through, and add water to adjust the thickness of the soup.
Island time
We spent the Easter long weekend enjoying four days of beautiful weather in East Sooke. It was the first break I’ve had from work and school since January and it was so nice to be away from the routines of life for a few days. Early spring is an idyllic time to be on Vancouver Island, as you can see from the photos here. We did a whole lot of nothing while we were there …
… went for walks on quiet country roads
… sat on the deck and stared out at the ocean
… checked out the creatures on the beach
… puttered around the garden
… imagined apples growing on summer trees
… visited the Sooke Harbour House for Easter lunch (and remembered getting married there almost seven years ago!)
It was bliss. I can’t wait to go back.
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Tomato and olive gnocchi
As you might remember, I recently tackled what I long felt was a daunting recipe: homemade gnocchi. I’ve made it three times now and as long as you can summon your patience it is easy to make these beautiful potatoey pillows.
Cooking is a huge source of relaxation to me and this recipe really fits with that. There is lots of meditative prep work to do preparing the dough, an endless array of choices for dressing the gnocchi and the satisfaction of sitting down to something special and handmade.
We had this olive and tomato gnocchi last weekend. We weren’t doing anything special, but it was Saturday and there is more time for cooking. We spent the day painting the main floor of our house (a beautiful robin’s egg blue) and puttering around outside in the garden (finally a warm weekend!). There is a celebratory feeling about both of those things, so I thought it was a good night for a special dinner.
Olives are a wonderful match with a simple tomato sauce, giving it a good zing of salty, tangy flavour.
Tomato and olive gnocchi
Serves 4 (at least)
1 recipe of homemade gnocchi
1 jar homemade tomato sauce
1/2 cup of pitted green olives, coarsely chopped
Grated parmesan, chili flakes and chopped fresh herbs to garnish
Doesn’t that sound easy and delicious? It is! I made the gnocchi from dough I had frozen in the freezer since I made more than we could eat the last time. This works perfectly fine, just defrost the dough thoroughly and use extra flour when you are making the little gnocchis.
