Sweet November

November! The saddest month of the entire year. At least for me. Even the name sounds sad, November! The sun is going down at 4 PM already, temperature is going lower, is cold outside and the only thing you are up to is to stay under your duvet sleeping. They should allow to the human race the hibernation as for animals. Duvets ready, pillows, your cosiest pyjamas and I'll see you in March!!! Unfortunately that is not possible, so what we can do instead to get us out of bed. The answer is really simple: bake cake of course! And not any cake, a cake that reminds of the autumn but is colourful and tasty, but at the same time healthy and rich in vitamins, really important in this season. A nice and orange carrot cake with hazelnuts. This recipe I am about to introduce you contains the most healthy hazelnut in the whole world, hazelnuts that come from my father's garden in our country house, in the beautiful coast of Cilento.  

INGREDIENTS:

100g plain flour
150g of shredded carrots
150g of hazelnuts
125g of sugar
3 eggs
16g of yeast
few drops of vanilla extract
40g of vegetable oil or butter

METHOD:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°. Put 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks (don't throw away the white part of the two eggs) in a large bowl with the sugar and start to mix with a hand mixer. Then add the vegetable oil(or butter) and continue to mix.

Meanwhile put in another bowl through a sieve the flour and do the same with the yeast, putting them in the same bowl with the flour and mix.  Add in the mixture of sugar, oil and eggs few drops of vanilla extract, then add the shredded carrots and hazelnuts and keep stirring. At this point you can add at the mixture the flour with the yeast and blend it altogether. In another bowl, with a hand mixer whip the egg whites until they become like candid snow that you will add to the previous mixture  and stir from the bottom upwards for few minutes. When the mixture will be smooth and homogeneous you can put in a round tin previously greased and floured. Bake in a hot oven for 40/45 minutes approximately and always try with a toothpick if is dry inside. If is still wet let the cake in the oven for other few minutes.

 

 

You can serve it with icing sugar on the top and enjoy for breakfast or tea time...or whenever you want!

Cheers!!!

 

How to make your own preserves: Peppers sott'olio

It is always amazing when I go food shopping and I find something that makes me shout like a teenager when she sees her idols. At my age we had Backstreet boys (honestly my girlfriends had, my idols were Queen, Beatles,U2 and so on...still are), now should be 1 Direction if I am not wrong...But anyway, this is not the point. What I mean is that, teenagers shout when they see 1Direction and other groups like them...I shout in the market when I see food that I like. Last time, with my boyfriend (fiancée, almost-husband, roommate), we were in North End Road market, a market that I love because I always find what I need...fruits, vegetables  fresh and tasty. Even tomatoes are tasty and is quite unbelievable in England. Of course they come from Africa, or Spain...sometimes Italy as well...and this is a thing that makes me cry more than shouting.  So, we were in the market...and suddenly I shout: "Oh my God, look at those peppers!" - My boyfriend usually hates when I shout in this way or when I make noises of astonishment, because he says that he gets scary...like something bad is happening...boys... Well of course I bought those amazing peppers (after carefully smelled and touched), with other wonderful vegetables and some delicious strawberry that didn't taste like pee. I say that 'cause my friend Federica from Milano told me that she bought strawberries that tasted like pee....I don't know where honestly...but she lives in Chiswick, so I would avoid that area. Anyway, for your reference the market stall where I buy vegs and fruits is almost at the end of North End road,  in Fulham area, just in front of Sport Directs. He has the best things... I guarante you.

Since I bought quite a lot peppers, I decided to preserve some, in order to long-term eat.

So guys, below you can find my own way to make peppers preserved.

Ready?

INGREDIENTS (for 1 jar)

4 large mixed peppers

2/3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

2/3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

salt

2 garlic cloves

fresh parsley

1 teaspoon of chopped chilli

one clean empty glass jar

METHOD:

Put in a large baking tin the peppers. Turn on the oven at 200 ° fan and put the peppers inside for 30/40 minutes, or check until they are well cooked and smoothed.

                            Take the tin outside the oven and set aside until the peppers cool down.

 When the peppers are ready to be touched, we carefully peel them off and remove the seeds and put the naked peppers in a bowl. If you like me are allergic to everything, I kindly advise you to use disposable gloves. 

Then we put in the bowl with peppers the liquid saved in the tin to give extra-taste.

 Then we chop the two garlic cloves and the fresh parsley and we add at the bowl, with an handful of salt and we mix everything. 

We take the glass jar and we start to put the peppers in it. When is half full we put one tablespoon of olive oil and one of vinegar and half teaspoon of chilli. We continue to put the peppers in the jar and when we finish we add the rest of the vinegar, of the olive oil and the chilli. 

With a teaspoon we mix a bit and then we close the jar with the lid and we make sure is well screwed.

 We flip the jar on a tablecloth for at last 24 hours. In this way we make pressure on the lid and we can save our preserve for a while....of course not for a year. 

Once opened save in the fridge...or eat them all!

Tips: this kind of preserves are perfect as antipasti with cheese and meats selections, but they are also amazing in a sandwich with goat cheese! 

Yum

Eat Italian

Italy is the country of food.  Every region or city in Italy, has its typical dish, or even more than one and they all have special kinds of cheese, olive oil and wine and a local type of bread. Probably no other country in the world has so many recipes and ways of cooking divided into regions and cities, even if tourists and foreigner, too often think that Italy is  the country of pizza, pasta and cappuccino. But once they've come in Italy, they can't believe at the variety of food that the country has to offer. From north to south is a feast of colours, perfumes and especially flavours.

Most Italian think that once you've visited Italy, you may never  want to travel anywhere else. If you have not visited yet you may ask why? Well, apart the delicious and authentic cuisine, in Italy you can find  one of the most diverse and beautiful landscapes in Europe, the world's greatest art treasures; spectacular cities and building and  a climate that is on the whole benign.

But this is not a blog that advise you to visit Italy, but listen to me, you should do it once in a lifetime, it is really, really worth it! Anyhow, this is a blog (or at least it try to be) about food. You will find in it recipes, personally cooked and snapped by me, advice and everything related with cuisine.

YES! I will tell you to eat, like a grandma would say...or at least like my grandma would say! "Mangia bella a nonna, mangia che sei sciupata!" > "Eat sweetie, eat, you look too skinny".

I want to reassure you guys that I don't look skinny at all...unfortunately I like eat too much, and I like cooking...and I want to share with you all this passion of mine. You can ask why? You know, you really have too many questions...just joking.

I want to share because I want that you all eat with "gusto" and not just because you're hungry. You should eat and moaning "mmm...mmm", but not the type of moaning that you make during sex, you know what I mean, don't you? Ok, I know, I am going beyond, I should stop.

Ok guys, let's start our cooing sessions, shall we?

Hope you'll enjoy!