5 (Covid Confinement) Things

1) We have a great fromagerie around the corner, so we're still able to enjoy French cheese. Phew!




2) The nuns at the Catholic maternity clinic across from our apartment have been coming out on their roof terrace to join the 8pm applause for the health care workers, and then staying on to sing a couple of songs for the neighborhood. Complete with tambourines




3) Zonked out




4) Sunday is now pizza day! This one from last week was sautéed red onions, red peppers and Spanish chorizo




5) There were flour, egg and sugar shortages at the beginning of the lockdown, so when I walked into our local G20 grocery store and spotted this, I felt like I'd won the lottery



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5 (Roman) Things

1) Monti

2) Fontana delle Tartarughe




3) A difficult  choice!

4) Oculus




5) The classic


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Delicious Bologna

Oh, Bologna! What have you done to me?

You had me the minute I stepped up to the counter at that busy neighborhood café and ordered an espresso - it was deep, deep brown with notes of bitter chocolate and had the perfect amount of chestnut colored crema on top.
I ordered a prosciutto panino alongside and once I took a sip and then a bite, I was hooked.
Then I asked for the bill. The total came to €2.30.
I had to look again.
€2.30?

Only €2.30? For a perfect espresso and a prosciutto di Parma sandwich?

How soon can I move?

Then of course, there is the gelato.
Have you ever tasted salted pistachio gelato? Not just pistachio, but salted pistachio?
It will change your life (kind of like Normandy salt butter, of which I'm sure Italy has its own version). But so will the fresh strawberry gelato (in season). The pine nut and mascarpone. The hazelnut. The sour cherry. The dark chocolate. The Sicilian lemon.
Basically, you just want give up every other kind of food and only eat gelato. Forever.

Until you have the pasta.

And the pizza.





I haven't even mentioned the gorgeous seasonal fruit and vegetables yet. Have you ever seen such beautiful tomatoes? Or wild asparagus at such a reasonable price?
And those little peppers pack some serious heat!

Let's not forget the cheese. This is Parmigiano-Reggiano country, after all.
But Italy has much, much more to offer when it comes to formaggio. They claim to produce over 450 varieties - my kind of place!

This list of deliciousness wouldn't be complete without mentioning proscuitto di Parma, cured sausages and mortadella, which originated in Bologna.

I savored all of it, maybe a little too much! My jeans were uncomfortably tight by the end of the trip.

Now that I'm back in France and diving into the seasonal chèvre, the brie - which is so perfect right now - and enjoying a daily baguette, I know that I would long for these delicious French foods if I lived in Italy.
So I'll try to visit as often as possible, leaving plenty of room in my luggage.
This time I brought home 2.5 kilos of Parmigiano-Reggiano, a couple of bottles of Balsamico di Modena and a ridiculous amount of Calabrian chiles.
That should hold us...for a while.

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Delicious Autumn

Oh Autumn.  How I've missed you!

Yes, I love the fresh produce of summer:  cherries, tomatoes, basil, peaches, apricots, zucchini, nectarines, melons, all best served with a minimum of fuss.  And I love the simplicity of summer "cooking."
But I have to admit that by the time August 15th rolls around I can hardly face another salad.  I long to get the Le Creuset out of storage and do some serious cooking!

Then comes autumn!  Give me braises.  A bubbling pot of minestrone.  Tarte Tatin and poached pears.  Homemade sausage, pepper and onion pizza.  Pumpkin, Brussels sprouts and Savoy cabbage.  Long simmered lamb curries.  Confit de Canard and Cassoulet.

I plan on savoring every moment.  And every bite.

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Photo du Jour - Please, Oh Please....

Wishing and hoping that the pizza will fall. Pin It

Homemade Pizza Recipe

Pizza is an extremely popular meal in our house.
Mon mari was born and raised in New York City so he has a great love for pizza (and for Chinese food, but that's another story). No pizzeria within a 4000 mile radius of our village meets his high standards, thus I've taken it upon myself to become an expert pizza maker. And I have to admit, I love it!

Pizza is fun. It is versatile. And it allows for endless creativity.

What is your favorite combination of ingredients? Make some pizza dough and use your imagination. It is the perfect blank canvas.

Got a can of plum tomatoes and some leftover cheese? Throw it on.
Maybe you have a bit of pesto, half a container of crème fraîche, a zucchini and an onion...a great combination.
How about some fresh sausage, roasted red peppers and sun-dried tomatoes...those make delicious toppings too.

Yesterday I used up a link of smoked sausage, a yellow onion, a ball of fresh mozzarella and half a brick of feta cheese that I scattered over homemade pizza sauce. It was fabulous!


The Dough recipe that I use comes from the New York Cookbook by Molly O'Neill. It never fails to come out crispy and perfect.

Evelyne Slomon's Perfect Pizza Pie

• 1 cup warm (105 to 110 degrees) water
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 3 to 3¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt

1. Pour the water into a mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Stir gently with a fork until the yeast dissolves and the liquid turns a light beige in color.
2. Add 1 cup of the flour and the salt; mix well. Stirring with a wooden spoon, add a second cup of flour. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl and begin to form a soft, sticky mass.
3. Sprinkle some of the remaining cup of flour over a work surface and your hands. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead in the additional flour a bit at a time, until the dough no longer feels sticky. Push the heel of your hand down into it and hold it there for 10 seconds. If your hand comes up clean, the dough is done; if it sticks, a bit more kneading is necessary.
4. Lightly oil a 2-quart bowl with vegetable oil. Roll the ball of dough around in the bowl to coat it with the oil. Tightly seal the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place, preferably in a gas oven with a pilot light. For electric ovens, set the thermostat at 200 degrees F for 10 minutes, turn the oven off, and place the bowl inside. Let the dough rise until doubled in size, 30-45 minutes.
5. Punch down the dough, remove it from the bowl, and knead for about 1 minute. Set aside to rise a second time until doubled in size, 1 hour.
6. After the second rising, the dough is ready to be shaped, topped, and baked. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
7. Roll into two 18-inch pies or into four 10-inch individual pies. Add the toppings of choice now. Bake on clay baking tiles for even baking if possible (if not, use a baking sheet) until the crust is golden, 20 to 25 minutes for a large pie, 15 to 20 minutes for small pies.

Serves 2 pizza fanatics or 4 polite people.


The Sauce is my own creation.
Sautée 2-3 whole, fat cloves of garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a medium sized saucepan until light brown.
Crush up a large can of Italian plum tomatoes and add to the browned garlic. Simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes.
Add 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional) and simmer for about 25-30 minutes. Smash the softened garlic cloves against the side of the pan and mix it into the sauce.
Taste and adjust seasoning.

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Photos du Jour - Pizza Oven

Our friends bought an enormous wood fired pizza oven and hosted a Make Your Own Pizza Party.





It was just like being in Italy! Pin It

Challah

Bread baking, other than pizza or the old standby, olive oil bread, has been few and far between lately. An article about challah caught my eye last week so I decided to give it a try.

I used a recipe from A Blessing of Bread: The Many Rich Traditions of Jewish Bread Baking Around the World by Maggie Glezer, and the results were fantastic!

It was slightly sweet, with the subtle perfume of honey, and soft as a feather.


yeast slurry and egg/honey/oil mixture




before the flour goes in


ready for first rising


after second rising, ready to go into the oven


golden loaves


Here's what I wrote about challah on Like to Cook earlier this week. Pin It

La Fête du Fromage-Week Ten

This week is the tenth Fête du Fromage. Are we sick of cheese yet? No way!

I've become very creative in the kitchen in my attempt to use up all these little pieces of cheese we have crowding up what has now become a very smelly fridge. Maybe I should have started La Fête in the winter when we could have stored the cheese outside...
Been making a lot of cheese and vegetable tarts, pizza al quattro formaggi, cheesy pasta dishes and plan on making some fromage fort this week. Thank you Donna for the idea.

pizza al quattro formaggi

The last week has been very decadent! We've been out every night eating and drinking with friends. Friday night was a delicious curry at one house, Saturday night was the Tapas night, Sunday was a barbeque that started with some delicious Pimms and last night was another invitation to dinner, complete with homemade Americanos, (yes, they were strong so we only had one each) We didn't get home until quite late.

Americanos



Basically, we haven't eaten a meal at home in five days. So, I have the cheese, just haven't had the time to taste it! I hope to remedy this today at lunch. Pin It

Bread

This morning I was scrolling down my list of links, as I do most mornings, and had a look at Farmgirl Fare to read about the lambs being born on Susan's farm only to find that she and two other foodie bloggers have started a project called A Year in Bread.



Bread was the subject of my first post on this blog and I'm always looking for new recipes and ideas when it comes to bread. I try to bake my own at least once a week and I love making pizza, calzone and focaccia.

Sourdough continues to give me problems. The starter always looks and smells great but then the bread comes out too sour tasting or the bread is too heavy and impossible to chew. I'll go through the whole process, then end up with bread we either don't like or can't eat! It's rather frustrating.
A few days ago I made my standard, quick and easy, olive oil bread that always comes out delicious. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, that evening I decided to attempt yet another sourdough starter. I mixed the flour and water, let the bacteria do what it needs to do for a couple of days then used half of the deliciously yeasty smelling stuff to make some dough which I let rise last night. It was nice and puffy this morning so I shaped it into a ball and it is currently rising again for a couple of hours before it goes in the oven.
I'll report on the outcome later...

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