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!

ROMAN-STYLE GNOCCHI

I simply love gnocchi di semolino: they are the quintessence of confort food, the food I'd dream to plunge my fork in when I'm feeling cosy, on a freezing, rainy evening. It's something I'd definitely cook for my children on a feast day
Here's the super-easy recipe.

for 4-6 people

750 ml of milk
200 ml of semolina
3 egg yolks
120 g of butter
5 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
salt

Heat the milk in a non-stick saucepan and, when it starts to boil, add salt and sprinkle in the semolina, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the semolina is very stiff and hard to stir. Take the pan off the heat and add 80 g of butter, 3 yolks and 3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese. Mix well until the mixture becomes smooth and not sticky.
Now, this is how I cut the semolina rounds.
Place a sheet of baking paper on the table and on top of that lay your semolina mixture. Leave it there until it's cold. Switch on the oven at 200 degrees and grease a nice baking dish with a little butter.
When the semolina's cold you can start rolling it with the rolling pin to the thickness of 1 cm. Now cut the rounds with a glass or with a biscuits cutter.
Start to fill the baking dish with the scraps, and between a layer and the other sprinkle some parmesan cheese and few butter flakes. Last of all arrange the rounds of semolina overlapping them partially. Dust with more parmesan cheese, add the chunks of the remaining butter and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes.
People sitting at your table today will adore you!

WHITE WINE AND TERRAGON SALMON

This dish brings me back to Dun Laoghaire and reminds me of its colours and perfume. The sunday market, the peaceful morning walking along the seaside and the cold wind messing people's hair.
It's happening again...I'm feeling homesick more than usual and I need a taste of HOME.

for 2 people

2 fresh salmon steaks
half a glass of white wine
3 tablespoons of olive oil
a teaspoon of dry terragon

a teaspoon of chopped fresh parsley leaves
salt
ground black pepper

Put the salmon steaks into a large pan with the olive oil, add salt and cook until both surfaces are kind of crispy. Add the white wine, the terragon and let boil off for two to three minutes on a high flame, then turn the heat down to a simmer and cover with the lid.
Cook for about 20 minutes.
Turn the heat on again and add the parsley and the black pepper, cook for another 5 minutes and serve with boiled baby potatoes or peppers.

PUNTARELLE FRITTATA

This is definitely the last minute frittata, I prepared with the external leaves of the puntarelle salad. they were so nice and  tender I couldn't possibly throw them away!

for 4-6 people

the external leaves of the puntarelle salad (more or less 200 g), thoroughly washed and drained.
3eggs
3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
extravirgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
salt

Cut the leaves in about 5 cm long segments then put then into a pan of 20 cm in diametreporle in una padellina with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a garlic clove. Fry on a high flame and remove the garlic clove before it gets brown. Cook for about 10 minutes, then take off the heat and let cool.
Apart, beat the eggs with the parmesan cheese and a pinch of salt, add the cooked leaves and transfer the batter into the same pan (cleaned out with kitchen paper) with 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Fry until both surfaces of the frittata become crispy and golden.
The result is super especially for the sweetness of puntarelle.