….. cook, and already as a little girl, I began to sneak into the kitchen. Together with my mom, I baked cookies and buns, and while my brothers spent all their time climbing trees and playing war, I spent hours in the kitchen, learning all my mom’s tricks.

Today I have a very casual relationship with food. It must be relaxed and not too complicated….. especially those days when I come tired home from work …..

Here is a tip for a quick but fantastic Gazpacho (2 servings)

Ingredients:
1 dl tomato juice
One slice of white bread
1 red pepper
½ cucumber
1 box cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic
Juice from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Pepper from the mill
A few drops of Tabasco

Do this:
Let the bread soak in tomato juice.
Mix bread, vegetables, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil in a blender.
Taste the soup with salt, pepper and Tabasco.

Gazpacho is a typical dish from Andalucia, where also the flamenco and other hot stuff comes from. Here you eat simple, green and strong.

Enjoy!

….. chocolate ice cream with Italian influences.

Ingredients
200 g dark chocolate 70%
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum
4 egg whites
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 cup cream
2 cup Greek yogurt
5.1 dl Muscovado sugar 
 Garnish / Topping:
0.5 dl Muscovado
1 box fresh strawberries to serve

Do this:
Melt the chocolate in a water bath or microwave.
Whisk egg yolks and granulated sugar until fluffy and white.
Beat the egg whites and granulated sugar to a white foam.
Whip the cream until fluffy and fold in yogurt.
Stir chocolate and rum into egg mixture, and add creamyoghurt and finally the beaten whites.
Add nearly 1 ½ cup of Muscovado sugar (there will be some lumps of sugar in ice cream batter).
Fill in any form or bowl and top with the rest of the Muscovado sugar.
Freezer for at least four hours (it has to be “semi-frozen”).
Scoop into glasses and serve topped with strawberries.

….. food experiences in my life, they Italian ones are top of the list….. Italians are very focused on quality when it comes to food.

No matter where you are in Rome, you often just have to round a corner, if you want to enjoy a meal. And these great meals are one of the many reasons, why I just love my holidays in Italy….. and as you may have noticed, I try to bringing a little piece of Italy with me home, every time I’m there.

And what is Italy, if not fresh pasta

Basic Recipe
This is a simple delicious dough. The dough is more than enough to any pasta for 4 people and if you make ravioli there will be enough for about 25-30 pieces.

Ingredients:
5 dl durum
4 x organic egg

Do this:
Measure out the flour on a breadboard and make a big pit in the middle.
Crack the eggs into the pit and beat them with a fork.
Whisk the flour into the eggs with a fork, little by little.
Use your hands when dough begins to merge until smooth, soft and elastic (for about 10 minutes).
Cover dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge before it rolled out.
Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll out one at a time. Cover the rest with plastic film and place them in the fridge. Flatten pasta dough with your fingers and run it through the pasta machine thickest level. Roll the dough through the machine all levels by the thinnest level.
Shape to any pasta: spaghetti, tagliatelle or ravioli.
Cook the pasta al dente in about 3 minutes in salted water.

Enjoy a fresh pasta with truffles. Quick, easy and luxurious!

Ingredients:
Fresh pasta
1 x carrot
0:25 pc celeriac
0.5 pc leeks
1 x small can black truffles

Do this:
Boil salted water.
Add the pasta and boil (depending on brand and thickness).
Peel roots, vegetables and leeks and make long “spaghetti straws” of them using a potato peeler.
Boil them briefly in water, together with the pasta for a couple of minutes.
Drain water from pasta and vegetables.
Divide into 4 deep bowls.
Stir in olive oil and shave little slices of truffle over.

….. that people tend to exaggerate when they add topping, and often end up with something more reminiscent of a vegetable tart than a pizza.

Try to keep it simple!

Pizza with potatoes, mozzarella, rosemary, thyme and tomatoes

6 tablespoons tomato sauce
4 cooked new potatoes
A small handful of fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon thymetips
Extra virgin olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
85g mozzarella

Smear the tomato sauce evenly over the pizza base. Slice the potatoes into 0.5cm/¼ inch thick slices and toss in a bowl with the rosemary, thyme, a good glug of olive oil, a small squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt and pepper. Scatter them over the pizza base and put small torn-up pieces of mozzarella into the gaps. Cook until crisp and golden.

Venerdì Santo e buon appetito

Lizzy

….. for many Romans….. at noon, the small Trattoria and Ostaria start calling as irresistible sirens.

Soon my Italian friends will be seated in their favorite café….. and just the thought makes me long for the raw cozy atmosphere, that always occurs when the steaming dishes are served….. together with a few glasses of the golden Frascati wine….. which can lift the mood considerably and might get a discussion flowing lively between tables….. often it may seem as if the Italians quarrel….. and they properly do, but they feel wonderful doing so….. and nothing is as good as a nice lunch quarrel.

Ever since the antiquity, the cafes have been like a magnet at lunchtime….. the word “Trattoria” is also derived from the term “tracta” which in medieval times was a kind of dining ticket that pilgrims could use in special inns, where the pope gave them a free meal….. and at that time as well as today, lunch was a dear occasion for Romans to interrupt the day’s work…… and one of the most fascinating things about Rome, is that constancy.

Anyway, all this talk about lunch has made me hungry….. it is time for pranzo, a high value - loaded word in Rome….. translated, it means lunch.

And what’s Rome without pizza?

And a nice and easy pizza dough is the foundation for a really good pizza.

Ingredients
50g fresh yeast
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt flakes
0.5 dl olive oil
3 cup warm water
7 dl Italian wheat flour

Do this:
Mix yeast, sugar, salt, oil and lukewarm water (37 degrees).
Stir in flour, little by little, until you get a firm and elastic dough.
Jas dough in the bowl, under a tea towel, in about 25 minutes.
Divide the dough in 4 pieces and roll them out with rolling pin on floured board.

….. while Rome wakes….. and you move from pleasant sleep to reality….. accompanied by the quiet murmur of a fountains in the background….. darkness fades behind the open shutters, and dawn breaks forth….. closely followed by the sounds of a moped moving up the street….. then a car alarm and a couple of dogs….. sounds which separates night from day.

Delicate tones of church bells spreading happiness….. meanwhile the waiter in the bar downstairs at street level, warms his espresso machine….. steam passing through the filters under high pressure, and the sound of the indispensable transistor….. in short, a new day is on its way!

Fountain is still there. The continuous sound of water. Light spreads through the room….. joy trickles down along your backbone….. you are awakened to another day in Rome.

….. first stop is the local bar, which provides you with today’s first espresso; a freshly baked cornetto and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice….. and now you are ready for some happy hours of joy.

Cornetto

Ingredients
1 Roll (250g) fresh chilled puff pastry
100g Nutella
75 g Of dark quality chocolate 70%
100g Marzipan
1 Orange, grated
1 Organic eggs
Almonds
Icing sugar

Do this:
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees, hot air.
Divide puff pastry once lengthwise, and then each half into four pieces.
Spread a dollop of Nutella on the short side of each puff pastry square.
Chop the chocolate roughly, grate marzipan and orange zest and spread over pastry squares.
Roll the pieces from the short side and put the rolls with seam side down on a sheet of baking paper.
Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with almonds.
Bake them golden in the center of the oven, approximately 20 minutes.
Dust the icing sugar on top of bread before serving.

Buongiorno

Photos: Private, Woman-hood

And talking about food….. and especially breakfast…..

….. breakfast is one of my favorite meals, and when I travel, I usually look for cozy cafes where I can test the local breakfast specialties. Mine most memorable moments are from the local cafes in Tuscany, Siena, Bassano and Florence….. and I have also tried many of New York’s legendary coffee shops in pursuit of the perfect breakfast….. and from these wonderful places, I’ve collected a notebook full of recipes of all my favorites….. for example these lovely:

Ricotta pancakes with bananas and maple syrup
3 eggs
250 g ricotta cheese
2 ½ dl milk
2 ½ dl flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt
2 bananas

Maple syrup and fresh berries for serving

Part eggs.
Mix ricotta cheese, milk, baking powder and salt and stir until all is dissolved.
Whip the egg whites fluffy and fold them gently into batter.
Cut the bananas into slices and fold them into batter.
Fry pancakes in butter at medium heat until they have a lovely golden color.
Server pancakes with fresh summer berries and maple syrup.

Buon appetito!

….. is there anything better than the sound of the food market?….. the almost visible aroma of green….. the sweet scent of sun mature fruits, cool water from the local water fountain….. I could go on.

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than in those carefree mornings in Italy (have I mentioned that I lived there a couple years ago?), where I, with the sun as my only companion, walked around the corner and entered the local market…..

And in Rome there is a quantity of these markets, from Campo dei Fiori over Pizza delle Coppelle and Piazza de Monte d’Oro up to the corner of Via della Croce and Via Bocca de Leone….. just to mention some of the markets you may encounter on your way through Rome’s historical center.

….. just thinking about them, and the many wonderful people you meet there, puts me in a good mood……

….. and the quality of the products from the Roman hinterland south and north of the city is world class….. and the main reasons why I always travel with two suitcases….. one is empty….. it’s intended for the gastronomic luggage that I carry on the return journey.

And one of the things I like to reserve space for is “Prosecco” it’s a dry sparkling white wine that is great as an aperitif….. and if served with raspberry sorbet, it’s even lovelier….. perfect on a sunny summer day.

Prosecco aperitif (2 serves)

2 tbsp. raspberry sorbet (pre-purchased)
30 cl. prosecco

Mix sorbet and one third of the wine with a hand blender.
Pour into two champagne glasses and top with the rest of the wine.

ENJOY

67,4 kg

….. Via Viminale near Piazza della Repubblica almost every day. Here she sells her hometowns finest specialties….. and this is her recipe for homemade Olio piccante:

Mamas Chili Oil
½ kg fresh, strong Peperoncini
2 tsp. Salt
3 tbsp. White Wine Vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil

Use plastic gloves when cleaning the chili by wiping them in paper towels (don’t rinse them). Remove the green stalks. Cut the chili in small pieces with seeds and all. Pour into a sieve and place it in a bowl. Add 2 tsp. salt and let it drip for one day. Press lightly with a spoon so the water runs off. Add 3 tbsp. white wine vinegar and stir. Let it drip an additional day and press again with a spoon.

Pour chili mass into small sterilized jars and fill with olive oil. Keep this Olio piccante cool.

An important tip: Always make sure you fill the glasses, little by little with olive oil. Chili pieces may not get air (then it can become moldy).

This recipe for homemade Olio piccante is both fresh and strong but without being too violent. It is ideal as an accompaniment to grilled vegetables, meats and fish (but we are talking about drops, not shovelful’s).

ENJOY!