POTATOES AND RED PEPPERS FRITTATA

Perfect for a rich pic-nic in the country, but also nice as an apetizer, cut in small, nit square, while you're sipping a glass of fresh, sparkling, white wine with your guest, waiting for a special pasta to be cooked "al dente".

Ingredients

4 eggs

1 red pepper (remove pepper's stalk and seeds and dice it)

2 potatoes speeled and diced

1 shallot, peeled and chopped

100 g of grated parmesan cheese and 50 g of grated mature sheep cheese

1 small courgette (for a nice hint of green), sliced in rounds

1 teaspoon of dry rosemary

1 teaspoon of dry marjoran 

salt

ground black pepper

4 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil for stewing the veggies and half a glass of olive oil for frying the frittata

In a large pan, stirfry the red pepper, the potatoes, the courgette and the shallot. Add salt, black pepper and the herbs. Let the veggies get a nice golden colour on their surface, turn the heat down and cover with the lid. 

Apart beat the eggs with parmesan and sheep cheese and very little salt, add to the veggies and blend. Pour the nice chunky mixture you got  in a frying pan with half a glass of olive oil and fry carefully both sides of your frittata.

Serve at room temperature

LEEK AND PARMESAN MINI SOUFFLES

More and more leeks. I think I'm just fallen in love with these gorgeous veggies and it's so hard to stop me from buying them!

Frankly I  believe that they have a "just-perfect-for-every-dish-taste" and that they give to your food a hint of irresistible homey flavour.

Ingredients for ten souffles

200 g grated parmesan cheese

350 g of bechamel

6 egg yolk, beaten

6 egg whites, beaten until stiff

2 leeks sliced in rounds

salt

ground black pepper

2 tablespoons of butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil

breadcrumbs for dusting the oven shapes

Stew the leeks in a large pan with butter and olive oil.

Add the cooked leeks to the beaten egg yolks; pour the bechamel and the parmesan cheese, add salt and ground black pepper.
At last pour the egg whites and stir very gently from the bottom to the top.
Butter the shapes and dust them with breadcrumbs.
Divide the mixture into the shapes and cook in preheated oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees and for 15 minutes at 150 degrees.

OLD FASHION FALL SOUP

 I love smooth soups, but every now and then I long for one of those old fashion, chunky ones, the ones the one italians call minestrone. 
Here's a very easy one, perfect for this season. Fall hasn't kicked in quiet yet, it's struggling against a very stubborn summer which doesn't want to be left behind.

Ingredients per 4

250 g di peas (Birds Eye's are perfect)

10 small champignons mushrooms (sliced along their wide section)
6 baby potatoes (diced)

1 leek (sliced in thin rounds)
a mix of chopped herbs (dry or fresh depending on what you have at home) such as marjorane, basil and parsley.

1 tablespoon of butter 
3 tablespoons of e.v. olive oil 

half a teaspoon of very hot chopped dry chilly pepper
salt 

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the olive oil and stew the leek, potatoes and champignons. Pour the peas, hot chilli pepper, salt and herbs i piselli. Cover with boiling vegetable stock or  boiling water and add salt according to your taste.  
Cook for about one hour and serve with croutons.

CREAMY CARROT AND EMMENTHAL CHEESE RISOTTO

Risotto, mon amour.

Fall's kicking in and I just can't help but think of confort food: creamy and hot dishes suddenly fill my mind and the cooler air makes me long for cooking again.

Here's a great recipe for both children and grown-ups.

Serves 4: 

350 g arborio rice
1 thick slice of  emmenthal cheese - about 250 g
50 ml of fresh cream, 1/2 litre of milk and 1/2 vegetable stock, 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
half  a glass of white wine, 6 medium size carrots, a tablespoon of butter, salt and white pepper

Peel the carrots and blend them with the white wine. Pour this cream in a large pan with the olive oil, cook for 5 minutes than add your rice. Stir and allow the rice to get all the flavours. Now start adding milk and stock little by little and one after the other, always stirring in order to avoid that rice sticks to the bottom of the pan.  Add salt, freshly ground white pepper, the fresh cream and the butter. Add the diced emmenthal cheese just 5 minutes before you turn the heat off. Allow the risotto to stand for another 5 minutes before serving and finish with a nice handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

RAIMBOW CAKE

Sometimes kids ask for unusual stuff, but now and then their requests can be really inspiring.
My three years old daughter Isabella asked for a supercoloured cake with loads of pink in it; well, few days ago I baked something similar to her description and despite the genetically-modified look it was delicious!
It can be a great idea for children birthday parties or even for halloween if you just pick the right colours...lots of orange and extra dark cocoa powder.
Here's trhe recipe.

200 g plain flour
100 g caster sugar
60 g icing sugar
100 ml sunflower oil
100 ml fresh full fat milk
2 and a half teaspoons of baking powder, about 14 g
food colours

Turn the oven to 180 degrees then butter and flour your tin.
Beat the egg whites with the icing sugar until stiff, apart beat the yolks with the caster sugar and add to the whites very gently. Pour the other ingredients one by one, mix carefully and add the sieved flour at last. Mix again until smooth.
Divide the mixture into 4 or 5 parts (or more if you really want a raimbow effect!) and colour them with food colours.
Pour the coloured mixtures in the tin one by one, put in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes.

CHILI CON CARNE

Great for informal dinners with friends you feel totally confortable with, because your fingers are going to get dirty and so are the corners of your mouth.
In winter chili is the panacea for surviving the coldest days because it really warms your body and in summertime, by raising your body temperature, it makes you sweat and sweating is the most natural remedy to desperse heat. Try to believe!

for 6 people

500 g mixed mince meat (pork and beaf)
3 red peppers
1 medium size white onion
250 canned black beans
250 g peeled chopped tomatoes
half a glass of white wine
1 tablespoon of ketchup
2 teaspoons of tabasco
2 teaspoons of chopped fresh parsley
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of ground chilli pepper
1 teaspoon of sweet paprika
salt

Wash the peppers, cut them in halves and take all the seeds off. Rinse and drain them. Peel and chop the onion, fry it in a large saucepan with the olive oil till soft, add the mince meat and cook at high flame. Add salt. When the meat has got a nice golden shade add the white wine and let boil off. Add the peppers, beans, the chopped tomatoes, parsley, ketchup, chilli pepper, paprika, and tabasco. Cover with lid and turn the heat down to a simmer fiamma. Cook for an hour and a half.
Serve hot with tortillas and nachos chips.

CAVIAR, PRAWNS AND COURGETTES CREAM FUSILLI

This is the creamiest pasta I've ever made, warm and reassuring in winter time with a hint of fresh cream, or light and zesty with the addition of grated lemon peel on a lovely summer day.

for 4 people

400 g of fusilli
2 medium light green courgettes
3 or 4 spring onions
300 g of prawns
40 g of caviar
100 ml of fresh cream
30 ml of brandy
1 teaspoon of dried thyme and marjoram
5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
salt and white pepper

Carefully wash  the courgettes, drain them, chop them and put them into a large pan with 3 tablespoons of  olive oil. Do the same with the spring onions then cook until the vegetables will soften. This will take about 15 minutes. Add salt, ground white pepper, thyme and marjoram and the fresh cream, then transfer into the beaker of your blender. Blend until smooth and creamy, add the caviar and stir gently, then pour into a large pretty serving dish.
Meanwhile bring the water to the boil in a large pan. Add salt and fusilli when water's boiling.
Apart, in a small pan quickly fry the prawns. I've been lazy and I used the freezed ones...they are not as good as the fresh ones but they will do the trick, plus you won't have to shell them, which is one thing I hate!
Pour the brandy into the frying prawns and let boil off, add a little salt and take off the heat. Add the prawns to your courgettes cream, drain the fusilli and pour them into the cream, stir gently then serve with extra freshly ground white pepper. Your guests will simply adore it!