PRETTY LITTLE THINGS

...man weiss nie, was einen erwartet. Ich bin ja eine ungeduldige Sau, und bei meinem neuen Projekt konnte mir der Farbwechsel meiner beiden Kauni-Knaeuel gar nicht schnell genug gehen. Dabei kam mir diese "Erleuchtung" - wenn man nur gedulgig ist, wird sich aus dem scheinbaren Farbdurcheinenader ein Muster ergeben, beim Stricken wie auch im Leben.

Und mit dieser leicht philosophysch angehauchten Einleitung geb ich mir selbst das "Welcome back" in meinem geliebten, aber arg vernachlaessigten Blog, mit der Kauni-Damask-Tasche.

This recipe I made quite often this winter when comfort food was all I wanted to think about when planning dinners. Made with chestnut flour, rolled out by hand and cut into long thin stripes (tagliolini) or wider ones (tagliatelle), takes about an hour from start to yummy.


Here's how to:

Prepare the dough with 200 gr chestnut flour (keep any remaining flour tightly closed in the fridge as it tends to go rancid very fast once opened), 200 gr all purpose flour, 100 gr semolina flour, 5 eggs and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Let rest for about half an hour.

Once rested, roll the dough as thick or thin as you like (I made mine 1 mm thick), dust heavily with flour, roll the dough as you would a cream roll, cut as desired (around 1 cm thick for tagliatelle), unroll the scrolls to stripesand let them rest under a towel while you prepare the sauce.

For the sauce, heat some butter in a pan, add 200 gr of sliced mushrooms (champignons are fine), 200 gr of pancetta or very thinly sliced bacon and 100 g of walnuts. Let brown. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the pasta , drain, add to the pan with mushrooms and pancetta, let mix the flavours for some seonds, serve with freshly grinded black pepper.

... is this marvelous girl? She's Beatrice, one of 9 (NINE) puppies born 1 month ago by our beloved Alice, a splendid Maremma-Abruzzo Sheepdog. Beatrice is the cutie we're gonna keep, and in her free time she likes, or so I hope, posing for my new dog clothes line :)



He is Ciccio, Beatrice's brother, the "face" (do you call it "face" in a dog??) of the "boys" line :)

Come back soon to know more about Beatrice, Ciccio, Buddy, Belle and Boule, Blanco, and two more for which we still don' t have names!

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

I have to admit that at the beginning I was a bit skeptic - the recipe seemed too simple. Oranges, cream, and that's all? But fortunately I was proved wrong. I made the tian following the recipe step by step for my Birthday celebration last Saturday (more on that to come soon!) using a Bundt Cake mold. What should I say - it was delicious, kind of Panna Cotta with caramelized oranges and cookies :) Thank you for the great recipe!

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.
As usual when Italian dishes are part of the challenge, I'm (too much) critical .... after all, Tiramisu is THE Italian Dessert, and in Rome I've been living across the street from Pompi, a pasticceria/bar that claim to have the best tiramisu in Rome, and they're probably right. They've got the classic one, the one with Nutella and banana, and in summer the one with fresh stawberries (without coffe). But for the challenge I went the straight way, following the given recipe in detail. Let's take a look at the tiramisu parts:
- Mascarpone from scratch - I think that's the best part of the challenge. I've never made mascarpone from scratch, and I could't stop liking the spoon, testing whether it's firmed up ... which it did nicely. I'm only sorry that I didn't have any remains to eat plain ...
- Zabaglione from scratch - definetely tasty. I used espresso to flavour it, but next time I'll surely try Marsala wine.
- Pastry cream, from scratch, obviously - nice, but for my taste too swett, and has got nothing to search inside a tiramisu. Sorry.
- Savoiardi from scratch - really good. Different from storebought in more than one way, I enjoyed the fact that I could made the shape just as I fancied. I planned on serving individual portions, so I piped the batter circle-shaped to fit the individual serving glasses.
- Whipped cream .... nothing to search inside tiramisu, again. Sorry, I know I'm annoying ...

The result - following the recipes in detail I used all the required ingredients, including pastry cream and whipped cream. It was very good, but I think I'll scip both of them the nect time. And there will be a next time, for sure!

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.
For me, this challenge was the equivalent of finding oneself at the perfect place at the perfect time, in a way that a vegan friend was going to come over for lunch the weekend after the challenge was announced. Even though me and my BF eat vegetarian meals 5 days out of 7, cooking vegan is another pair of shoes altogether. No cheese, no cream, no eggs, no honey .... I know, there're substitutes, but the only one I can stomach is the veg cream. I don't consider tofu an adequate substitute for cheese or eggs, even if it may help with the consistence, but surely not tastewise. So, usually vegan lunches/dinners are quite a challenge in themselves. For this particular occassion I have chosen to make not only the required hummus and pita, but a whole lot more from Michele's site, and some more still :)


So, on the menu that day were:
-being in Italy, a pasta dish is obligatory, so this time I made wholewheat strozzapreti with walnut-thyme sauce (adapted from here, made without cheese)
- Hummus (I was not very happy with the recipe, as it was a bit too lemony for my taste, but it was Ok)
-Pita (made on the stovetop and really delicious)
- Yogurt-Cucumber Raita (not new to me, always refreshing and tasty)
-Cucumber-Yogurt Salsa (variation of the raita, but without yogurt, as I have realized at last second only that yogurt was not vegan.....)
-Baba Ghanoush (eggplant roasted in the woodstove which gave it a realy fantastic smoky taste. In fact, this was the best part of the meal!)
-Lentil salad with roasted veggies and mustard vinaigrette
-Felafels (baked in the oven, not fried - still delicious


And, to put th cherry on top of all this, a Upside-Down-Orange-VEGAN CAKE (Adapted from here)! Made with Muffin-like batter without diary/eggs and baked over a layer of melted brown sugar and sliced oranges, it was actually really delicious and a keeper even for non-vegan occassions.

All in all, I would give this challenge a 10 out of 10 - the best and timely challenge ever! Hip-hip-hooray fo daring Cooks!