Salsa con pomodori freschi e bacon

Even though this is ideally a summer dish, when ripe tomatoes are available in abundance, the weather was so nice this weekend with blue skies and radiant sun shine, that I couldn't resist making myself a dish which was equally light and radiant. (Plus I had a whole bunch of (over-) ripe tomatoes to use... ). You'll notice that it closely mimics the quintessential Italian dish, pasta all'amatriciana. This is just my own take on that classic recipe, where I used whatever I had lying around the fridge.

It's easy, fast, and most importantly, tasty!

The only things you need are:

For two people:

8 medium-sized ripe tomatoes

Olive oil

4 strips of bacon

Fresh spring onions

Black pepper

Preparation:

1. Clean the tomatoes, and remove any brown spots around the area where the tomatoes was connected to the plant. Leave the tomato whole, do not cut it up in pieces

2. Boil a pot of water and put the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 2-3 minutes.

3. Take the tomatoes out of the water and leave them to cool down for a few minutes.

4. Remove the skin of the tomatoes, which should come right off now that the tomatoes have been lightly blanched. Cut the tomatoes in halves and remove the seeds and any hard parts.

5. While heating some olive oil over a low fire in a frying pan, dice the bacon in small pieces. When the oil is hot, add the bacon. Stir frequently as you don't want the bacon to go brown.

6. Dice the tomatoes, and add the pieces to the bacon. Add freshly ground black pepper and stir well. Let the whole cook slowly over a low fire for about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally, in order to mix the juices.

7. Boil water and prepare the pasta.

8. Chop up some fresh spring onions and add the majority to the tomato sauce, while saving a small portion of the spring onions. Stir them into the sauce and remove the frying pan from the fire. Let the sauce sit for another 2 minutes.

9. Pour the salsa over the pasta and sprinkle the remaining spring onions over the sauce.

Serve with some fresh ciabatta and a dry, light white wine!

Buon appetito!

Panzanella alla Senese

Panzanella is another favorite of mine. Traditionally, it was a poor man's dish, and I discovered it during my studies in Siena, Italy, where it rapidly became a favorite among cash-strapped students. Panzanella is a typical Tuscan dish (the Sienese will say typical Sienese...), whose ingredients can vary according to the region or city that you're in. It's a great summer salad, with bright and fresh colors which just entice you to eat it even more.

This version is the basic one and my favorite one, but I've also had it enriched with parsley, little cubes of pecorino cheese, carrots, capers and artichoke hearts. I even had one with anchovies once, but I prefer this basic recipe. Either way, it's a great way to use those last remaining slices of the leftover white bread.

If you wanna try some really funky alternative versions of this traditional dish, check out Heidi's 101 Cookbooks Blog at http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/spring-panzanella-recipe.html

What goes in it?

500 g of old, somewhat stale white bread (you can do it with ciabatta, but it'll work better with Italian-style farmer's bread or what the Italians call pane casalingo)
5 ripe tomatoes2 red onions
a large handful of fresh basil leaves
6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar


This will serve about 4 or 5 people.


Let's get cookin'


1. Take a large bowl or cooking pot and fill it about halfway with cold water. Place the slices or pieces of old bread in the water and leave them to soak for about 10 minutes.

2. Remove the bread from the water and tear it up into rough pieces and squeeze out the water with your hands. Now, break up the pieces into large morsels and put them in a large pot. Make sure that the morsels of bread are almost completely dry.

3. Cut up the tomatoes into eights (or quarters if the tomatoes are quite small, the aim is to avoid having slices which are either to thick or thin) and remove the seeds from the inside. Cut the onion into thin slices (rings). Also, cut up the majority of the basil into long slices, but leave some leaves to decorate the dish with later.

4. Add the tomatoes, basil and onions to the bread. Use your hands to mix all the different ingredients.

5. Add salt, pepper and olive (about 4 of the 6 tablespoons). I tend to add quite a bit of salt and pepper, as the bread, oil and tomatoes soak up a lot of the salt. Softly mix all the ingredients.

6. Leave the salad to rest for about half an hour in the fridge. Afterwards, right before serving it, add the wine vinegar and the remaining two spoons of olive oil. Decorate the salad with the remaining leaves of basil.


A feast for both eyes and tastebuds!!


Buon appetito!

Italian Sausage with Rosemary Potatoes

I saw this recipe on tv recently, and as my saliva already started dripping from the corners of my mouth during the show itself, I couldn't resist preparing this dish myself. So tonight was the night to try it, and even though I felt quite lazy, I found this recipe to be a breeze; 20 minutes of preparation and then (about) 40 minutes of relaxing while the food was cooking in the oven. Serve with a fresh green salad.

What do you need?

As stated above, this is a pretty simple recipe, for which you'll need the following:

5 or 6 midsized potatoes
2 italian sausages or any other type of sausage with herbs (make sure they're thick enough, otherwise they will dry out during the cooking process in the oven)

Olive oil
4 or 5 whole cloves of garlic (unpeeled)
coarsely ground salt / seasalt
black pepper
6 sprigs of freshly cut rosemary


This should serve two, although I was hungry as a horse and ate the entire thing myself...

In the pictures, you'll see chili powder and large breadcrumbs. The original recipe called for these ingredients, however, I have found the dish to be better when leaving these ingredients out.

Preparation:

1. Peel the potatoes, or you could even clean your potatoes thoroughly and cook them with the skin still on. This will give them a delicious crunchiness on the outside!

2. Put olive oil in the tray in which you're going to cook the dish. Just a drizzle, so that there's some on the bottom of the tray.

3. Slice your potatoes into slices of about 0.5 cm thick. You don't want to make them any thicker than this as you'll end up with potatoes which are still somewhat raw in the middle...
Once you've sliced them, put them in the tray.

4. Cut your sausages into pieces of about 6-8 cm long, and preferably cut them in the same way you cut your potatoes, to attain a certain similarity of shape. Place them in the tray with the potatoes.

5. Add the unpeeled cloves of garlic and sprigs of rosemary.

6. Add the coarsely ground salt, black pepper to the whole.

7. Pour good quality olive oil all over the contents of the tray, to add some moistness to the dish and to ensure proper baking when placed in the oven. Not too much, as the sausages will also release their fat and moisture. Once you've added the oil, just mix it all around. Use your hands. Get dirty.

8. Place in the oven and cook for about 40 minutes at 180-185° C.


9. Invite a friend, open up a nice bottle of wine or a fresh beer and enjoy!

A table!!