italian foodies

tomato, pancetta and borlotti bean soup….

Posted in antipasti, food for kids, soups by lors on November 7, 2009

It’s wet, it’s cold, it’s winter and I’ve got my cooking mojo back – YAY!! I’ve been a bit lazy in the cooking front for the last while. This little blog is going nearly 3 years now and it is hard to cook something new every week, for the last while I’ve just been cooking my old reliables and didn’t even look through a cook book but I spent the last few days sorting out all my cooking magazines, I signed up for a yearly subscription for Taste Italia magazine as my local Easons doesn’t stock it anymore and took out the Silver Spoon again today and cooked Lasagna Napoletana. I’ve never cooked this before, the MIL always cooks it on Christmas day and it would usually be cooked for a special occasion in any Italian household in the South of Italy and is always cooked by the “mamma” or the “nonna” so I’m feeling pretty proud. There’s a bit of work involved in it but I’ll post it anyway during the week.

I often make this minestrone but it’s always wintertime so I can never take any photos because it’s too dark so I made the effort to keep some and take a pic the next day. My sister and her hubby stayed with us for a week recently and I had a big pot of this bubbling away on the cooker one night when they were heading out without their bambino for dinner for the first time in ages. They nearly cancelled their reservation upon tasting this, I had to drag the 2 of them away from the pot and convince them to leave. Minestrone is one of those underestimated dishes but is so tasty when executed properly. I blitz it for the princess as she won’t eat veg as you know and she wolfs it down everytime so it’s a great recipe for kids too. I make a big pot so it does us for dinner and lunch the next day.

what you need:

2 carrots finely chopped

2 celery finely chopped

1 onion finely chopped

1 400g tin borlotti beans(drained)

1 400g tin cannellini beans(drained)

1.5 – 2 litres veg stock (at home I always use Kallo cubes)

1 400g tin chopped tomatoes

100g pancetta cubes

8 tbsp olive oil

tbsp flat leaf parsley

sea salt and black pepper

parmesan cheese

what to do:

heat your oil and cook your carrots, leeks and onions until soft but not coloured for about 10 – 15 mins over a low heat.

add your pancetta and cook for about 5-10 mins until cooked.

add your stock and tomatoes , bring to the boil, season and then leave to simmer for about 15-20mins.

add your beans and leave to simmer for another 15 mins or until your veg is soft. Add a little extra stock or water if the soup gets too thick.

add your parsley and extra seasoning if required.

serve with lots of grated parmesan on top.

buon appetito….

Tagged with: bean soup, borlotti beans, italian soup, minestrone

a rice dish for a princess….

Posted in food for kids, rice by lors on November 4, 2009

The princess is 3 this Monday, I can’t believe it. I started this blog when I was on maternity leave when she was a couple of months old to save me from the loneliness I felt being at home on my own with a new baby. I found it quite hard as I was so used to going to work everyday meeting lots of people and basically talking all day long about food so this little blog became my outlet to do that from home. I’ve found it more difficult to keep it updated now as she doesn’t sleep during the day anymore and that used to be me and my blog time.

Despite my best efforts to feed her the best food possible since she was born, never using a jar, no chocolate until she was about 14 months etc she is a complete nightmare when it comes to eating. She has no appetite which will probably be great when she’s 15 and wants to be a supermodel and she refuses point blank to eat a vegetable in it’s natural form, the only way I can get veg into her is through soup and pasta. She is a chocoholic and is constantly looking for her next fix, she loves chips and ketchup and her new thing is a “cuppa tea” and biscuits, this is obviously from her Irish grandparents. Her Italian grandparents introduced her to a drop of espresso with 7up and a spoon of sugar in an espresso cup. (aghhhhhhh). She’s very healthy though and rarely sick so I don’t worry about it too much and never force her to eat.

I often make this rice dish for the 2 of us if Bru is working but I have to tell her the peas are from the garden, if she thinks they’re from the freezer she won’t eat them. What have I created??? She’ s as cute as a button(like her mother)……

what you need for 1 adult and 1 toddler:

250g carnaroli rice

1/2 onion finely chopped

1 garlic clove finely chopped

2 handful of peas( don’t know the measurements)

20g butter

2tbsp olive oil

1/2 stock cube

2 slices of Italian cooked ham chopped.

what to do:

bring a pot of water to the boil, add salt, rice and your stock cube and cook for about 15-18 mins until tender. Add your peas half way.

heat your oil and butter in a pan, add your onion and garlic and cook for about 10-15 mins until softened but not coloured. Add your ham and cook for 1 minute.

drain your rice and reserve some of the cooking water.

add your rice, peas and parmesan to your pan and toss for a couple of mins. Add some of the water if dry.

serve with lots of parmesan on top.

buon appetito!!

p.s. her new thing is asking when she’s getting a brother or sister so no pressure there then;)

Tagged with: ham, parmesan, peas, rice, rice dish for toddlers

2 comments

orecchiette with broccoli and italian sausage…

Posted in pasta by lors on November 1, 2009

It’s a busy time in the italian foodie house at the moment as we’re doing a mini renovation in La Cucina, we have to close for a couple of days in November for the building works so there’s lots of organising and stress at the moment but hopefully it will be worth it. I’m really looking forward to it as we will have a much better seating area rather than a take-away with a few uncomfortable stools and become more like a mini restaurant, we’re still restricted by space but we hope to make better use of what we have. We plan to get a wine license and do a lot more of the food that you see here on the blog so exciting times ahead.

I’m sticking with my southern Italian theme with today’s pasta recipe. I love this dish, I prefer to use young broccoli but find it quite hard to get my hands on any so regular broccoli is fine too.

what you need for 2:

- 2 italian sausages with skin removed.

- 200g broccoli stems trimmed

- 350g dried orecchiette

- 1 garlic clove peeled

- 1 chilli finely chopped or dried chilli flakes

- 1/2 small red onion finely chopped.

- 25g grated pecorino cheese or parmesan is fine too.

- 3 tbsp olive oil

- sea salt and black pepper

what to do:

- cook your broccoli in a pot of salted boiling water for about 2 mins and drain.