I was realizing last night that I promised recipes to several of you before I left and have never fulfilled my commitment. Here are a couple of my favorites. It sounds so simple, but truly, Italians appreciate each ingredients flavor, so most recipes don’t have more than a couple items in it. A few tips I have picked up: 75% of the taste is based on the quality of each ingredient, so buy fresh when possible! Most American pasta is cooked for too long making it soggy, cook for less time and just until it’s not crunchy. Older Parmesan is better to use for cooking because it has more flavor-grad it yourself. The type of pasta you use with the type of sauce is the key to pasta making. “Chunkier” sauces need a pasta that will catch the sauce. Thinner sauces can handle smooth pasta. Ex. Spaghetti with olive oil based sauce. Most sauces are tomato based. I have eaten a cream based sauce probably 3 times while here. America has it all wrong. It is totally expected and almost always done to clean your pasta plate of remaining sauce with bread. -And just plain yummy!-
The first recipe my host mom makes often-varying one or two ingredients each time-they are all wonderful and one of my favorite types of pasta. I am guessing on the exact ingredients and put as much of each as you would like and last thing, I have not made the first couple myself (I don't have a kitchen to use), so it is based on observation of ingredients and my own taste buds (that's my legal contract for any law suits coming my way):
Pasta:
Shopping list:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil-the fresher the better
Fresh garlic
Tiny red peppers-desired strength
Sun dried tomatoes
Spaghetti noodles
Sautee the EVOO with the garlic, pepper and tomatoes for flavor. Don’t add much garlic. The flavor of the garlic should not be strong at all. Cook noodles “al dante” (spell?) (just past the crunchy stage but not to the mushy yet). Enjoy!
Tips: one of my favorite variations of this was with FRESH parsley finely chopped instead of tomatoes and pepper.
Tuscan peas:
Frozen peas, thawed
Olive oil
Garlic
Bacon, finely chopped and partially cooked
Onion, finely chopped
Pepper
Combine olive oil, bacon, onion, peas, garlic, (just a little!) and pepper to taste. Sautee until peas are heated and oil is flavored. Serve with remaining oil. Enjoy!
Compliments of a cooking class:
My favorite pasta of all time!!! (and one of the easiest dishes to make)
Gnocchi di patate al pesto (Gnocchi with pesto):
Gnocchi (as freshly made as possible)
2 cloves garlic
100 g fresh basil
50 g grated parmesan (freshly grated is better)
50 g EVOO
Salt and pepper
Pine nuts or almonds if desired
In a mixer, combine all ingredients except olive oil and parmesan. Gradually add olive oil with the pulse button. Add the grated parmesan. Mix with pasta or gnocchi and add nuts if desired. Top with extra parmesan (again, if desired). Hint: it’s much better with gnocchi or a pasta that will catch the sauce.
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Actual blog:
Christmas! Yes, I am that dork who sings Christmas carols walking down the street, whose face lights up when she sees anything Christmas-esc, and who must cover the Christmas with tinsel so it doesn’t shrivel up and die. Every time I see something new for Christmas being put up in a store window, I have to say the word, with extreme enthusiasm, CHRISTMAS!! A giant ever green tree was put up next to the duomo Thursday (Thanksgiving, although I don‘t think it had anything to do with that), I just had to call someone and get my excitement out for this new fact. I have finally allowed myself to break out the new Dave Barnes Christmas album-after one day I have all the song lyrics memorized. Firenze is being covered with everything Christmas and it’s the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time. I always new I loved Christmas, but being in a new place has put more perspective on things and I’ve learned, I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME.
Wednesday night, several of us went to an English movie theater and saw Harry Potter. As I had not seen the others, the highlight of the evening was being able to drink beer in the theater. I don’t even like beer that much but simply the fact that I could a- buy it because I’m not 21 but it’s totally legal b. buy it at a movie theater and c. I’m in Italy! Everything seems so much cooler doing it here. So, my first whole beer I ever drank by myself, totally drank in a movie theater. While watching the legendary HP. In Italy. Epic. -Turns out, the random beer I got was fairly good.
Thanksgiving was just a normal day for me, that’s what I’m telling myself anyway. I was telling people “happy thanksgiving” and such, but I never allowed myself to think about the day. I just kept saying over and over in my mind, it’s just a normal Thursday. I knew if I let myself think about it, it would ruin my day. However, I did break that a little my calling my grandparents. It was so good to hear my grandmother’s voice. I didn’t realize I needed to hear that until that moment. My host family did not do anything special, although they did wish me a happy thanksgiving : ). The school made 3 different types of pies for us to grab a piece from, so I got pumpkin pie (even though I’m allergic, it was my only source of anything Thanksgiving, so I ate it). My Italian prof let us out 1 whole hour early! She NEVER lets us out early so it was a surprise when she did. I think she sort of knows what we were going through that day because she is hosting 2 girls from the program. The school was so sweet and gave us a list of places where we could buy a turkey, and pumpkin pie ingredients, etc. My roommates mom was here, so they were going to Amsterdam, which would have meant I would do it all by myself. As it turns out, I got my usual pasta craving about 3 o’clock so was happy to go home and eat my host mom’s pasta. Yummy!
I went to Lucca with my photography class on Friday. Lucca is near Pisa and about a 1.5 hour train ride from Florence. We went for a digital photography exhibit. It’s a super cute town and very small, not like Florence at all. As I heard it perfectly described once, Florence, and most of Italy has prostituted itself out to tourism. While in Lucca, I did not get the feeling that this city had though. I hardly saw any tourists. It was a lot more tranquil and silent compared to most cities I have to also. Since it was farther north, it was absolutely freezing, we even had some sleet. By the end of the day my fingers where so stiff and sore from the cold it was difficult to open a bottle of water. The exhibits were wonderful though! My favorite was probably a photojournalism one with multiple photographers. It was very humanitarian-esc…..go figure why I liked it. With each photograph, there was a brief description of the situation. One that stands out the most to me was a photo of a young girl (maybe 7 yrs. old) who had been buried by rubble from counter attacks by Israel. She was obviously dead. I won’t be able to forget her expression for a while.
I am truly appreciating Italy more these days. If the way I felt about Italy these past months were a graph, there would be MAJOR spikes throughout it all! One week/day I love it, the next I’m ready to get out of here, very unstable (coming from a psy major). I have gone back to the “I love Italy” stage for this post though. I think it has taken me seeing the end is near to honestly appreciate everything here. I love the feeling of not having pressure on me all the time to look “put together” and thin. Here, it’s either that I can’t understand the language, the culture doesn’t emphasize it like Americans do, or my mind set it different. I think it’s a little of both. That whole theory of me viewing things different here just about sums up my life over the past 3 months. I don’t feel the pressure to conform, society telling me I need this and that to be happy. I am more adventurous. I eat things without asking what it is (ok ok, out of fear sometimes). I actually eat tomatoes now! I know, right!! (just on things, but it’s a major step!!) I love certain aspects of who I am here. It has only taken 3 months to realize that….haha
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