If I were to go on a space mission and I had to eat the last meal on Earth before a diet of colorful pills, I would choose a lavish aubergine parmigiana, even if I were already dressed in a white bulky spacesuit and I had one foot on the shuttle.

If I have an afternoon craving, one of those sudden pangs of hunger that make you feel like chocolate, chips or doughnut filled with cream, nine times out of ten I’d rather have a warm dish of aubergine parmigiana.

If out of the blue you ask me what I would like to eat in any moment of the aubergine season, and especially in the last days of summer when the daylight hours are getting shorter and you start to feel a nice chilly, my answer would always be an aubergine parmigiana. No, I lied. The answer would be the same even during the heath of mid-August or in the rigours of winter, without offending the seasonality of vegetables.

If you had not yet understood, the aubergine parmigiana, or as we call it the melanzane alla parmigiana, is my favorite dish, as Lost in Translation is my favorite movie and Bruce Springsteen my favorite singer: they hold a special place in my heart.

I am pretty sure I had melanzane alla parmigiana as an afternoon snack more than once when I was a child, stealing the leftover lunch from the fridge, eating them guiltily cold, leaning against the kitchen counter. I am not able to savour it with small delighted bites, I always have big mouthfuls, I get embarrassingly greedy when I’m dealing with aubergine parmigiana, or simply with the slices of fried eggplant. If it is true that fried is good also a slipper - as we say in Tuscany -, the fried aubergines reach inconceivable levels.

I’m a generous person, I love sharing food with other people, and when I choose something from a tray I tend to take the smaller piece or the less impressive, it is a form of inbreed courtesy. I always do that, but for melanzane alla parmigiana.

When aubergine parmigiana is served at the table I quickly choose the largest serving, the one oozing mozzarella and parmesan, the one with the golden crisp crust. I wolf it down even if it is scorching hot, even if I consciously know that it would be better when it’s warm, when the flavors mature and the biting aubergines and Parmesan are more pronounced. But I can not resist. Luckily there’s always a left serving, and then with the leftovers I get my glorious moment.

This is my grandma’s recipe. Do not start an argument, please! This is not THE recipe for melanzane alla parmigiana – or parmigiana di melanzane, if you prefer – this is a recipe, the recipe I like, the recipe I ate during my childhood and the same recipe I have now, every now and then. It always comes with all the options: fried aubergines, not grilled, a generous sprinkling of Parmigiano (it is called parmigiana with a reason), a mozzarella still dripping milk and beaten eggs. I still wonder why I eat my favourite food only once every two years…

Now just read my version, then at my signal unleash hell and tell me which is your version for melanzane alla parmigiana, or at least which would be your last meal.

Link love

These are some of the recipes for melanzane alla parmigiana that I found on line and that I liked:

• Eleonora’s melanzane alla parmigiana, it’s really fun the introduction, incredible ow our Parmigiana became a Chicken Parm abroad.
• Jamie’s melanzane alla parmigiana, I am so happy to see they’re very similar to our parmigiana, good job Jamie, keep spreading the Italian food!
• La parmigiana di melanzane di Antonio Carluccio, baked aubergine with cheese and tomato.
• After Jamie and Carluccio, who else but Gennaro Contaldo? Aubergine parmigiana with fresh tomato
• Last but not least, Under the Tuscan Gun recipe for Eggplant Parmesan

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Thanks for your fabulous feedback on the pomarola sauce post. It opened an interesting debate on Italian food and why foreigners appreciate it so much: authenticity, quality, respect of nature and traditions. All these aspects can be found in this photo recipe.

Yes, a photo recipe, because you just have to look at the picture to steal the idea and make it again right away, playing on the match of flavours and fragrances. And obviously tomatoes again, since we are just in the middle of the week completely dedicated to the sun ripened tomatoes.

This is not a stylistic and perfect dish, but it has that rustic and improvised character that puts everyone at ease and makes every lunch or dinner a special occasion, whether served as an appetizer or as a side dish, with a roasted pork, for example.

Today I’m leaving for my holidays: a nineteenth-century train travel towards Paris, where I’ll spend 30 hours, just 30 little and lonely hours to enjoy la Ville Lumière, where I’ll be for the very first time! I have not a plan yet, though I have a long journey by train to read my guide and shape my short – very short – tailor-made itinerary. After Paris, I’ll move to London, by train again, where for the first time I will spend about ten days, instead of the usual hit and run weekend!

But here we are with the second recipe for our midsummer night’s dinner. Since I am a fresh pasta maniac, what could be the first course if not a good deal of fresh pasta?!

The lasagna is one of the dishes that best suits a dinner with many friends, because it can be made ​​in advance and slightly warmed just before serving. In summer, try this lighter and fresh version, it will soon become one of your favorite dishes.

Cherry tomato and mozzarella lasagne

Ingredients (for 3 medium sized baking tin):
For the fresh pasta: 500 g of plain flour, 500 g of semolina flour – 1 teaspoon of salt – 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
For the filling: 2 kg of cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters – 1,5 kg of mozzarella cheese- 400 g of grated Parmesan cheese – fresh basil – extra virgin olive oil – salt – freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. To make the fresh pasta follow this recipe.
2. Grease the bottom of the pan with extra virgin olive oil, then cover it with a layer of fresh pasta.
3. Scatter the quartered tomatoes over the fresh pasta, the thinly sliced mozzarella, abundant fresh basil leaves, the grated Parmesan cheese and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
4. Make 4 layers and finish with fresh pasta, then sprinkle the last layer with grated Parmesan and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
5. Bake in preheated oven to 180°C for at least 30 minutes, until the pasta is cooked and the lasagna is golden on the surface.
6. Leave it for half an hour in a warm oven before serving.

On Sunday I went to the sea. Even though it’s September, although the schools have already started and this summer is running out, this was my first time at the sea. If I didn’t have to get back to the office, I wouldn’t have even had a shower, to keep the brackish smell of sea, sun and sand on my skin. Autumn and winter will be long, and I wanted to save the salty memories of a day at the beach with Claudia as long as I could.

We went to Castiglione della Pescaia in a tiny beach that stubbornly defends its golden sand and Mediterranean plants from the surrounding bathing establishments. It’s the same beach where I used to go as a child with mom, dad, my cousin and my aunt and uncle. Claudia was too young to remember it, but it’s there that she made ​​her first bath in the sea and ate curious her first handful of sand.

Nothing has changed, the smell, the sounds, the light … everything was the same as in my memories.

The shortest route to the sea is winding and shadowed, it is the road where, as a little girl, I trained my stomach to face the carsick by focusing firmly on the final goal. At the beginning of the travel, along the road you can still find signs written by hand by local bartenders willing to promote panini and drinks down the street: these are old fashioned panini, thick slices of crusty bread with a generous slice of pecorino cheese and salty ham, mouth-watering and filling. Then for a while the traces of civilization disappear and you meet only woods, leafy trees and faded signs that lead to churches and monasteries.

Suddenly, going downhill on the other side of the woods, small villages begin to appear and little by little you spot shops that live just for a few months every year relying on families and tourists heading to the nearby sea. Just as in my childhood memories, they proudly display air beds, balls, sand shovels and beach buckets in bright colours: you can hear, smell and feel the sea, it’s getting closer. Then it appears, the blue expanse of the Tyrrhenian Sea, emerging behind a corner and playing hide and seek for a while behind the latest hills that separate us from the beach.

To remember this day at the beach today I’m presenting a fish dish. The tub gurnard, according to the Slow fish calendar, can be eaten in the Mediterranean area from spring to autumn. We are therefore in the right period to enjoy it. In addition to this, although it is considered a ‘poor’ fish, it is tasty and beautiful, with its rosy red tones. This is the main reason it is one of the most popular fishes in still life painters!

There are rules in my family, rules that must be followed if you don’t want to be banned from the kitchen: bell peppers have to be stuffed with rice. When you come to small green peppers, though, the story is totally different! This is a recipe that comes from the South of Italy, from my father’s branch of family, from Melfi (PZ).

The recipe belongs to my Aunt Patrizia (known as zizi), my granddad’s sister. When Aunt Teresa and Uncle Cesare go to Melfi to visit her, she knows that, as soon as they pass Rome, everything they expect and foretaste are these stuffed green peppers. Zia Patrizia makes the stuffed green peppers the day before, because if you give them a little while to rest, they are still better and gain a deeper flavour.

These peppers come in the late summer and are wisely filled with leftovers, with what is left in the house after the heath of the summer months. The poor version is made only with stale bread, capers and some anchovy fillets, nothing more. With the passing of time the technique has been refined and you end up putting into the stuffing tuna, some pickles and a generous handful of green and black olives.

The importance of bread. As you can see, breadcrumbs are the most important ingredient in your shopping list, but I’m not talking about the classic breadcrumbs you can buy in a bag, with a sandy texture and a sawdust after-taste. I mean a bowl of fragrant breadcrumbs made in the moment, something that you can store for months in the refrigerator in an airtight jar.

As it happens in many families, you can have leftover bread: do not throw it away, but grate your home bread or blend it into a liquidizer until you get a rustic crumbly texture. It is a breadcrumbs that brings its origins intertwined into its flavourful crumbs: the breadcrumbs made from the South Italy bread will be darker and tasty, the one made from Tuscan bread will be sciocco, without salt. Yes, even Dante Alighieri, the most renowned Tuscan poet, pointed this out:

Tu proverai sì come sa di sale lo pane altrui
​Thou shalt have proof how savoureth of salt The bread of others

Are you curious to know something more about the cooking of Lucania, this tiny region in the South of Italy? Here you can find a couple of suggestions:

• rich lasagna from the South of Italy, the festive dish. When my big and loud family gathers for special occasions, this baked lasagna with all you can imagine inside can’t be missed!
• Oriental style peppers, a colourful side dish, a tempting appetizer, a break in the afternoon with some crusty bread… choose your moment, you’ll love them!

I clearly remember my past life’s Sundays: a well known lump in my throat, the Monday unavoidability and the gloomy return to an office that was getting more suffocating every day. Now Sunday has a different mood. If I think about it, if I pause and think about my life, I’m happy. It is not one of those sugary happiness you are not able explain, it is not the fluttering butterflies in the stomach, a feeling I would warmly welcome, though, even tomorrow. This is a conscious happiness.

I know that I am so blessed as to be able to do what I love, tomorrow morning and in the following days: cooking, writing, photography, cooking classes, where every time I’m so lucky to share a different experience with interesting and curious people. In the far from being simple rhythm of my daily life – yes, I am not come yet to the perfect organization and I still live hand to mouth – I also try to frame new experiences, some exercise - not too much, though – and some exciting projects.

You’ll discover one of these exciting projects tomorrow, but for today I want to share with you a quick recipe, suitable for a maniac Monday, just to start the week off right with some information for a conscious purchase of the right sustainable fish.

We start the week with a cheap, sustainable and good for your health fish: anchovies. I won’t tell you anything more and I’ll skip directly to the recipe, while you should go and read Emiko’s thoughtful post about sustainable fish and where to get the information to make a difference. It’s the same post that inspired me this recipe, so go on and enjoy it!

Link love​

• A slideshare of mouth-watering ideas on how to use anchovies: 12 Game-Changing Anchovy Recipes from Bon Appétit. My favourite so far? Mozzarella di Bufala with Anchovy and Celery-Herb Salad.
• On the healthy side, Spaghetti with Walnuts and Anchovies, from The New York Times, based on a Nancy Harmon Jenkins’s recipe.

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I have already told you that in my family there are a few culinary dogmas that have to be met and that characterize our lives since childhood. In addition to the dogma referred to legumes, you have to observe the one about stuffed vegetables, one of the main dishes I truly adore in summer, a dish able to sketch – with vibrant colours and entangling aromas – many evenings spent chatting around a table under a ceiling of olive branches and stars piercing the black velvety sky.

You deeply sense the weight of tradition with stuffed vegetables, of how things should be done, but you can also appreciate the confidence that a combination of ingredients studied and refined through years of tests and trials can give you in the kitchen.

The rules at home are very simple. Stuffed eggplants? No doubt, make them with minced meat and tomatoes, an ever since true statement, as it is true that Christmas falls on December 25 each year. Stuffed zucchini? What a question?! Fill them with tuna and breadcrumbs, a combination that always works and that every summer shows up in the kitchen as fireflies do in the fields. Stuffed tomatoes? Cook them with a fresh cheese and basil, or bake them with a sprinkling of breadcrumbs and capers. Stuffed peppers? Use rice, absolutely rice, a neutral base that can be varied as desired with the addition of some ingredients that give character and flavour to the dish.

These are the rules that give enough self-assurance to those who approach for the first time a recipe, as to lead them to add a touch of creativity to the recipe. Besides the rules, then comes the trial, which grows and gains confidence because it has years of efforts, trials and errors under its belt.

Ingredients (serve 4):

• red or yellow bell peppers, 4
• Parboiled rice, 200 g
• eggs, 2
• grated Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons
• scamorza cheese (kneaded paste cheese), 150 g diced
• cooked ham, 1 slice 1 cm thick diced
• onion, 1/2
• extra virgin olive oil
• organic vegetable stock cube, 1/2
• breadcrumbs
• tomato sauce, 1 tablespoon
• salt and pepper to taste

Wash bell peppers and remove the hat. Cook the rice in boiling salted water according to cooking times. Drain and cool it down under running water. Stir the rice into a large bowl with all the ingredients: eggs, Parmesan cheese, diced ham, diced scamorza and if you want a spoonful of tomato sauce to give a shade of colour. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Sautée a finely chopped onion with extra virgine olive oil in a cast iron pan: this material is the best way to cook the peppers as if they were in the oven with an excellent heat diffusion. Place the peppers into the pan, one next to the other, and let them cook for few minutes. Add 1 cup of hot water and the organic vegetable stock cube. Close the lid and cook over medium heat until the pepper is softened: it will take at least 30 to 45 minutes.

When the peppers are cooked through, remove the saucepan from the heat, sprinkle the peppers with breadcrumbs and a dash of olive oil and now put the casserole into the oven (preheated at 180°C) without the lid. Make peppers brown for a few minutes, then remove from oven, garnish with a few leaves of fresh basil and serve, sprinkling the peppers with the cooking liquid.

Tasting test. The winning flavour of the whole recipe is the cooking liquid made of olive oil, vegetable stock and onion, as it is cooked slowly and blends with the flavour of the pepper. When you pour a few tablespoons of cooking liquid over the peppers before serving them, all dormant flavours and aromas awaken and revitalize the plate, making this simple stuffed vegetable one of the most representative recipes of my summer.

My grandad Biagio used to have canaries, when I was very very young. I do not remember the canaries, but I remember a lot of cages that were hung in the barn for years – that was my fantasy world full of corners to explore and adventures to be lived – along with boxes filled with millet. Since then, for me, millet is inextricably linked to canaries.

Then I went nuts for cereals, captured by the desire to discover something that went beyond wheat and rice. After the barn at home, my place of adventures and discoveries has become the NaturaSì (an organic shop) of Siena, my favorite corner of the world, the starting point for journeys to distant lands, following the crumbs, as Tom Thumb, of Camargue pink rice, South America quinoa, Central America amaranth or millet, indeed!

It is not a matter of arrogance: pasta with tomato sauce or white rice with butter and cheese are more than good to me, it’s just a matter of curiosity: cereals to try are endless, in every shape, color, texture, origin and type. And everyone, if possible, should be organic.

Millet was a discovery. It ‘a very ancient grain, grown since prehistoric times, spread around the world from India. Nowadays it is grown almost exclusively in some parts of Asia and Africa. He has a fascinating history, closely linked to developments of civilization: in the Middle Ages, for instance, was one of the most widely used cereal because it was considered an excellent substitute for meat during the Lenten prescribed by the Church. Today is mainly used in animal feed – see the canaries of my grandfather – but it has high nutritional properties, is rich in vitamins, is gluten-free, so suitable for people with celiac disease, and contains nutrients for the beauty of nails and hair. At this point – considering that it is also really good and versatile in cooking – I wonder what are you waiting to try it! I’ve already tried it, with this simple recipe full of perfumes.

Millet with vegetables and herbs

Ingredients:

• hullet millet, 200 g
• red bell pepper, 1
• aubergine, 1/2
• white onion, 1/2
• mixed herbs, as basil, marjoram, chives, terragon
• salt
• soy sauce
• extravirgin olive oil

Hulled millet I bought (Ecor) cooks in boiling salted water for 30 minutes without previous soaking. While millet is boiling, thinly slice onion, cut into thin strips red bell pepper and eggplant and chop herbs, except basil. Sautee onion and vegetables in a wok with a tablespoon of warm olive oil, cooking them but leaving them crispy. Add herbs to the very end. Season with a pinch of salt.

Drain millet: it will remain quite wet and a bit sticky. Pour over vegetables, and sautee over high heat, adding at the end fresh basil and soy sauce for a touch of intense flavor.

Tasting test. Eat millet as soon as it is ready, otherwise it will get a bit glued and sticky! I did it with peppers and summer herbs, but this is just a way to cook millet – resembling slightly a risotto .. I’d say a millotto. It can be cooked with any kind of vegetables, even the autumn or winter ones, like pumpkin, cabbage, carrots…

One of my favorite cartoons when I was a little girl was Jem and the Holograms, where the protagonist – Jem, a beautiful and exuberant singer – always played in between the real and the virtual world, the real Jem and her hologram. Well, last Saturday, in Viareggio (LU), at Lombardi store, I shifted from the virtual Juls from Juls’ Kitchen to the real Julia, made of  flesh, bones, knives and cast iron pans! I reckon I was a bit scared: being the star of a small and personal cooking show, baking sweet and savory crumbles and vegetable terrines.. it all gave me that little trickle of anxiety due to questions like : will I be able to that? will it be all right? will I put the right amount of salt?

But then, with the arrival of Sara & her boyfriend and Dario from Rome everything fell at its proper place and we really enjoyed ourselves, learning to handle knives as professionals, discovering the secrets of cast iron pans and perfect cooking. As Sara rightly stated, after you have had the chance to use Zwilling knives and Staub cookware, it’s hard to turn back, the quality is so high and everything is so reliable that you really can’t turn back to old knives and cookware without being disappointed! Moreover, all the staff at Lombardi store was fabulous, helpful and have greedily enjoyed crumbles and terrines, giving me tons of confidence and satisfaction… they are simply incredible.

Now let me show you the terrine recipe I made on Saturday, then you’ll have the chance to peek some of the cooking show pictures!

Veg terrine wrapped in crispy speck

Ingredients:

• Aubergines, 2
• Small courgettes, 4
• Smoked scamorza cheese, about 300 g
• Speck (smoked ham), about 200 g thinly sliced
• 5 cereals bread, about 4 slices
• Grated parmesan cheede, 30 g
• Egg, 1
• Milk, 50 ml
• Frying oil
• Salt
• Nigella seeds, 1 tablespoon

Slice aubergines into 5 mm thick slices, put them in a colander, sprinkle with coarse salt and put a plate on top with a weight, in order to make them loose bitter water. Slice zucchini into 5 mm thick slices and grill them in a cast iron skillet. Rinse aubergines, pat them dry and deep fry slices in steaming hot oil, then set them aside on a a few paper towels to remove extra oil.

Beat the egg with salt, grated Parmesan cheese, a tablespoon of nigella seeds and milk.

Line a terrine or a plumcake mold with speck slices, leaving at least 1/3 of slice on all sides of the mold (see pictures below). Make a layer of fried aubergines, then a layer of bread – previously soaked in egg mixture – then a lyer of cheese cut into thin slices, then grilled zucchini, eventually two slices of speck.

Start over again with aubergines, bread soaked in egg mixture, cheese and zucchini. Seal speck slices over the top of the terrine, folding one slice over the other, then bake in preheated oven at 200°C for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven easily and turn the terrine out on a serving dish. Let it  rest 5 minutes, then serve, cutting it into slices about 2 cm thick. If you want, you can serve it with a side dish of diced tomatoes seasoned with garlic, olive oil, salt and a tablespoon of nigella.

Tasting test. Not a light meal, especially if you decide to fry both eggplant and zucchini (give it a try, belive me!). But, even if you decide to grill both eggplant and zucchini, it remains a rich and tasty dish, perfect to impress and amaze with a very little effort! It takes just a few minutes to assemble it, but the smoky flavor from speck and scamorza and the crispy shell  make it a dish for special occasions, a signature recipe and a warm cuddle all at the same time!

And now, thanks to Sara, some photos of the day! As soon as I have more pictures, I will update the post!

This is only the first of many other times! Do you have any special request? We will definitely have fun together!

Let’s talk about those profiles you have to fill up when you register in a social media. I don’t remember if I had to do something like this on Facebook, but I certainly had to fill up the profile on MySpace, and this put me in a difficult position. Gender: Female, and this is simple. Hair: brown, easy again, excluding streaks, highlights and temporary experiments. Body: that’s THE point. Body…

There were choices, of course: slender, yeah, right, in my dreams. Overweight: social suicide, no, I won’t write this word associated to myself! Robust: come on, it could be ok for an oak, for a wine or a beer, but not for a girl… Where does the feminine go? I’d rather use this word, Mediterranean. Yes, I like to define myself Mediterranean!

Mediterranean implies the banquet opulence of the people who historically worship the sacred hospitality, the warmth of a sun that ripens juicy fruit, the salty sea from which foam Aphrodite was born, the smell of aromatic herbs, the olive oil and the folk music that invites to dance.

Isn’t it better to define yourself Mediterranean rather than robust? It sounds much better, it should be legislated on it: you may not use the robust adjective to describe the body of a young girl. Mediterranean is an adjective that immediately boosts you self-esteem, a natural prozac!

Two weeks ago, in Barcelona for an event with other European foodbloggers, I saw the Mediterranean word resonating in every alley, in the generous smile of every woman, in any shady yard, in every rich and flavourful dish. I wandered in the neighbourhood of El Raval, I got lost admiring Gaudi’s imaginative volutes, I breathed the sea breeze at the port and, above all, I heard the voices of the Mediterranean people at the Boqueria, one of the most beautiful food markets in Europe.

From the Boqueria I brought home a piece of chorizo ​​and a small parcel of pimentón, a tasty smoked paprika typical of many Spanish dishes. Here’s what I did with my treasures.

You can perceive the vibrant Mediterranean soul that shakes this side dish directly from the colours, but certainly the Mediterranean accent isn’t limited to the nuances: the fava beans, for example, are very popular in the Italian cuisine and in the southern France traditions as well. Italy lives in this side dish thanks to the sweet Pachino cherry tomatoes and the match between beans and sausages – typical of many local recipes -, while Spain, perhaps the main country, is represented by the chorizo ​​and the pimentón.

I admit that the process of preparing the fava beans is quite long, it will take at least twenty minutes, but I assure you that it’s worth it because this reduces greatly the cooking time: the tomatoes are so juicy, just browned on the outside, while the fava beans keep their grassy flavour and their fresh green colour. To finish the mental picture of the dish that you have just depicted, add chorizo ​​and pimentón to richly glaze the beans and tomatoes, making them shiny and tasty. Did I convince you?

Fava beans with chorizo and pimenton

Ingredients (serve 2):

• 2 kg fresh fava beans (500 g of shelled beans)
• extra virgin olive oil
• a dozen of cherry tomatoes
• 2 spring onions
• salt
• pimentón (smoked paprika)
• 4 thick chorizo slices

Shell the fava beans and blanch them for one minute in boiling water. Drain, pass them quickly under cold water and then carve them with a knife, pressing them between two fingers to pop them out. Put them in a small bowl.

Heat a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pan and add the thinly sliced spring onions, the halved or quartered tomatoes, the shelled beans and the chorizo cubes. Season with salt and pimentón. Sauté the beans for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon to prevent them from sticking. Serve warm.

Before bringing you with me in a short trip to Barcelona, it’s time to announce who won the How to feel like a princess with a very low budget give-away: you made me astonished, amazed, deeply moved. You made me smile and you gave me something to think about, but eventually I had to choose one. Ruchi, please send me your address and soon you will receive a little low budget parcel!

And now, take a seat and let’s go to Barcelona!

Every now and then, during a train or bus trip, when I am listening to the music with half-open eyes and the landscape looses its contours, I let my thoughts go and begin to dream. I do love dreaming, I’ve always done it since I can remember, dramatizing stories and plots, depicting daily life scenes in bright colours.

Dreams are sometimes an escape route from a reality that doesn’t suit you, sometimes an incentive to transform that very reality in a life you’d rather live. In my daydreams I love to surprise: in everyday life I am the one that can be described as the girl next door. Never too much over the top, never colours too flashy. I do not wear high heels, because I’d stumble and fall disastrously to the ground after two meters.

I can not speak out or impose myself into a group, I often find myself nodding to point out my ideas. In my mind I build impressive speeches that sometimes leave me speechless, but then in my daily life I can never be so incisive and direct.

That’s why in my dreams I love to impress and write an imaginative screenplay in which I can make turn that boy that usually doesn’t even see me, I can walk on beautiful high-heel red candy shoes, sing in a karaoke bar with a mighty Aretha Franklin’s voice, sinuously dance in a disco and give to those who deserve it a piece of mind.

Cooking is just like daydreaming: you dramatize another likely reality in which you can control the ingredients and most often even the result. The way I cook reflects who I am, it is a compromise between my being the girl next door and my desire to surprise that breaks out in my dreams… just like today’s pasta with zucchini.

What could be more simple than a dish of pasta with zucchini and bacon? This is the everyday Juls, good but not striking special. Then I half-close my eyes and begin to embroider on the reality to impress. With a pinch of magic the everyday pasta changes, pulls out a soul queen voice and wears a flowing red dress: it becomes a tasty filling of a soft and delicate shell. These are the harmonic notes of a dish created to impress, with a reassuring home-made feeling.

Pasta with zucchini and bacon in a zucchini shell

Ingredients – Serve 2:

• 4 round zucchini
• 6 baby zucchini, small
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 200 g sweet bacon, diced
• 120 g short pasta
• 100 g medium mature pecorino cheese, diced
• 4 tablespoons of mature pecorino cheese
• some fresh oregano leaves

Directions:

1. Empty the four round zucchini with a tablespoon and steam them in a pressure cooker for 7 minutes. They should be al dente, not fully cooked.
2. Slice thinly the baby zucchini and sauté them in a large pan over medium heat with a tablespoon of olive oil, a clove of garlic and 200 g of sweet bacon. Stir often with a wooden spoon to prevent the zucchini from sticking. If they get too dry add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the pasta cooking water. Cook for about 15 minutes.
3. Cook the pasta al dente according to the packaging directions and drain.
4. Toss the pasta with the sautéed zucchini and bacon, pecorino cheese cubes and a few leaves of fresh oregano.
5. Fill the steamed round zucchini with the seasoned pasta, sprinkle them with the grated pecorino cheese and drizzle with some olive oil.
6. Grill them in a preheated oven at 200°C for about 10 minutes until golden and serve them as an unusual and tasty first course.

I just want to stress you with two last things:

1. I’m hosting Meeta’s May Monthly Mingle. The theme I chose is Fresh Pasta. Roll up your sleeves and mingle with us!
2. You have time until Friday to leave a comment on my post How to feel like a princess with a very low budget where you can tell me your favourite low cost tips to plunge into a fairy tale. Surprise me! There’s a tiny giveaway for you!

When a month ago I took the first breath of the evening fresh air and looked at my four weeks of holidays unwinding in front of my eyes, I suddenly felt a child again, full of projects and ideas scribbled down on sheets of notebook paper. The time expanded and I could not see the end of my vacation beyond the map of my journey.

Then, in the twinkling, here I am again, back to the starting point. I am still not completely aware of what has happened between that first night of holidays and this morning, when I left my light dresses and my flip flops for a more appropriate business clothing.

If I had a magic wand, I would like to live again this past month, I would press rewind on a remote control and review a few scenes that made ​​me laugh so much, or moved me to tears. I would savour again my thirtieth birthday cake or the evening green tea in London, the first beer in Germany with my sister Claudia or the sweet idleness of a few gifted days.

We are here, though. And now? now, there is an American saying that I really find appropriate: when life gives you lemons… make a lemonade! That is, when life puts up hurdles along your path, turn them into opportunity, squeeze out the best, just as you would do with a lemon. Isn’t it genius? This will definitely be my motto in the coming months.

Let’s talk about this lemonade, more than recipe a trick to find an immediate refreshment, made bright with the brilliant shades of yellow and turned on by the light note of fresh ginger.

And if I could rewind the tape, this would be what I would live again…

50′s Party

I think I have obsessed till exhaustion friends and relatives to the third degree of kinship with my desire of having a proper celebration of my 30th birthday. I’ve always admitted to have a soft spot for my birthdays, and consequently for all the bells and whistles, including celebrations.

Then the chance to celebrate my 30th birthday with a very dear friend who was going to be 40… it was the perfect opportunity to set up a ‘50s style garden party, with the proper music, atmosphere, dresses and makeup, and especially almost all my friends dressed up as pin-ups, Fonzie, Guys and Dolls and Grease! I have wonderful memories of that evening, mixed with colourful straws, bright lights and rockabilly notes!

Paris

I skipped Paris, you will not find photos of Paris. I was so smart and bright to check my documents just one hour before my departure, just to discover that my identity card was expired 3 weeks before!

So, when life gives you lemons… make a lemonade! I carved out unexpectedly 4 days of old-fashioned holidays, the kind of holidays I used to have when I was a child, made of swimming pool, sofa and TV in the dim light of a fresh living room, a new book and short trips in the surroundings with friends.

London

London, eventually. London, again. My holidays in London! Do I sound repetitive? I was beside myself with trepidation, 10 days to spend with Sarka: it was a year since we started planning what to do, what to eat, what to cook and photograph. We enjoyed that days together with Beth, Joslin and Zita.

We have explored every London tube line and colour, from north to south, from east to west, we took advantage of the multicultural choice offered by the city I love the most in the world eating Lebanese, sushi, noodles, and above all we enjoyed ourselves in the kitchen with a glass of wine (they) and a cup of green tea (I). But I didn’t know that there was a surprise waiting for me… a proper English afternoon tea at the Ritz.

We decided to spend the afternoon shopping for the perfect outfit or the fancy accessory that could give you that bit of extra confidence to not feel completely alien in that muffled and far away from everyday life scenery. Then we entered with a beating heart the gleaming lobby of the Ritz. After the second ma’am and lady all my fears disappeared and I felt again a princess, even though only for a few hours. After that dreamy experience crammed with laughter we ran home, but one of my shoes decided to leave a dream, and I almost left my sole. I tried to be a modern Cinderella and leave my slipper on the stairs at the Ritz, but it did not work!

What do the foodies do when they have a free morning? they go to the market! The Borrough Market, twinned with La Boqueria in Barcelona, is one of my favorite places on earth: everything is so fresh, pulsating with life, colours and scents. If you’re lucky enough you could meet Jamie Oliver here, how can I not love this place?

I read Carolina‘s post about Neil’s Yard and I did not want to miss it, a hidden courtyard in London that you discover following a narrow back alley, an explosion of colours.

Portobello Market, Notting Hill. Do I need to say more? I know the film by heart, pauses, accents and looks included. Every time I come to London I like to walk along Portobello Road, because, as Hugh Grant in Notting Hill says…

Notting Hill, not a bad place to be. There’s the market on weekdays, selling every fruit and vegetable known to man. The tattoo parlour, with a guy outside who got drunk and now can’t remember why he chose ‘I Love Ken’. The racial hair-dressers where everyone comes out looking like the Cookie Monster, whether they like it or not. Then suddenly it’s the weekend, and from break of day, hundreds of stalls appears out of nowhere, filling Portobello Road right up to Notting Hill Gate and thousands of people buy millions of antiques, some genuine… and some not so genuine.

… and at the very beginning of the Portobello Market is impossible not to stop at the Hummingbird Bakery, attracted by the sparkle of the windows that makes it look like a jewelry store. Cupcake with rhubarb and custard, or a diamond ring? I assure you that the choice is difficult, and that cupcake was really good!

Fifteen London. Our pilgrimage on Jamie’s footsteps brought us, after Borrough Market, to the Fifteen, one of his restaurants that is definitely more than a place to eat (well), but also a foundation to help young people from 18 to 24 years, to teach them a job and make them discover a passion.

One of the main reasons that brought me to London, along with friendship and love for England and Pimm’s, was the Food Blogger Connect 2011, the first European conference dedicated to the world of foodbloggers. The first time I was there, during June 2010, it opened up a new and exciting world to me and I began to dream a little ‘bigger’, because my dreams and my plans were intertwined with those of other foodblogger friends.

This year, Food Bloggers Connect has been again a major source of inspiration and courage. I had the opportunity to meet and listen with admiration really interesting people who generously told us about their beginnings and the secrets of their work: among many others, Jaden Hair, Babette Bepaj, Fiona Beckett, Jemma Watts and her, the one I was expecting with trepidation, Béatrice Peltre and her Food Photography workshop.

The workshop with Beatrice was surreal, Alice through the looking-glass effect. I was physically on the set of one of her beautiful pictures, and she did everything with measured gestures, with experience, yet remaining a simple and smiling person, willing to explain every millimetric movement of red currant berries in the composition of her shot.

What I will keep in my heart after the London experience are all those we’ll do, we’ll see, we’ll go, we can, whispered in a low voice during late nights in front of the PC with a cup of green tea with Sari, shouted with Beth and Zita on the subway to cover the buzz of other people or scribbled down on a sheet of paper with Emiko during the most relevant and inspiring speeches at Food Bloggers Connect. We can.

Stuttgart

I left London in the morning, bathed in a thin drizzle, well aware that I’ll be back soon because my favourite city and I have still a lot of things to do together, and I flew to Stuttgart for the last stop of my holiday. Claudia was waiting for me at the airport, my little sister in Erasmus in Germany for 6 months.

We spent 3 days together, but this time, when she walked me to the airport, no tear-jerker scenes like last time (and the first time I did it all by myself on the escalator, she was quiet, I am just a too apprehensive elder sister). Why? well, I’m not less apprehensive, she was coming back home after 2 days!

My sister, who is no longer a tiny girl but an independent young woman speaking a fluent German, took me around Stuttgart and showed me all she adored of the city that welcomed her for 6 months. I especially loved the wonderful museum of modern and contemporary art: it was truly exciting to see for the first time, just a few centimetres away from my nose, some masterpieces by Gauguin, Picasso, Mirò and Kandinskji.

On the plane back home, I brought with me a notebook, trying to give an order and a priority to the hundreds of thoughts and projects that still occupy my mind, and once home I started to check the list step by step. First, make a refreshing lemonade, because it’s important  to make the most out of these lemons!

Second, give you the opportunity to subscribe to my blog feed via e-mail, as to give you a good morning every time I publish a post with a mini email alert in your inbox. Do you like the idea? So just sign up in the top right sidebar of the blog.

Now, I think I have said all I wanted to tell you, so… let’s start with enthusiasm the new Juls’ Kitchen season!

Speaking about lemonade…

• I love this lemonade made by Claudia from Il Gatto Goloso: we both adore red striped paper straws!
• how not to mention Heidi Swanson from 101 Cookbooks, my favourite blogger at the moment for her honest and true approach to food, life and photography, and her blackberry limeade.

I’m not very much into dancing and sometimes I prefer staying at home to cook or write, rather than going to a club… Yet, the harsh life of a single woman would require an attendance, if not constant at least assiduous, of socializing sites to get this label off. Despite this behaviour, I am good company and I like parties, those parties crammed with friends, where you have the chance to talk, to laugh to tears and, obviously, to eat. If at the disco my eyes start to close at the stroke of midnight (what an anachronistic person I am… will it be the influence of Cinderella’s tale?), at a party with friends I can stay up till late chatting over a set table, losing track of time and enjoying the atmosphere.

I’ve always had the dream of throwing large parties, like in the movies, with music, colours and set tables in my garden. I live in the countryside, this is one of the many benefits I have: no time constraints, no grumpy neighbours, open spaces to fill with joyful hands, feet and smiles. But until a few years ago there was a problem, to fill that garden, until…

Three years ago, a summer afternoon chatting with a friend.
​“I would love to throw a garden party, but how can I do? do not know enough people to make it memorable!”
​“Do you have a garden? are you sure you want to offer your garden for a party?”
​“Of course I am”
​“OK, you deal with the food, I deal with the people“.

From that moment on, everything changed. I became a couchsurfer, I met many special people who are now among my best friends and I have no more problems to fill up the garden when I want to throw a party… just think of that night, a concert under the stars with 101 friends who made memorable ​​that summer night. I made ​​peace with my social being, and I realized that I am a social person, but I have to find myself in contexts where I feel at ease and possibly with a pair of comfortable shoes on!

One of the most successful parties was the Hawaiian Luau: bright colours, flower garlands, lanterns, and the right music in the background, Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz, liquid and engaging notes that made a Tuscan evening into a night under the stars on the Honolulu beach.

Very little is needed to make a memorable party. You definitely need the right people, but the right choice of the right food helps: fresh, appetizing and easy to make food is a winning point in a memorable party. When we threw the Hawaiian Luau at my uncle’s house, we made a rapid research on what was the more suitable food for a Hawaiian party. Checked the ingredients and slightly adapted to our taste, this is one of the most appreciated result. It’s summer, be ready to add a magic touch to your Hawaiian party!

Hawaiian rice noodles with bacon and crab meat

Ingredients (serve 4):

• 200 g rice noodles
• 200 g bacon, diced
• 200 g crab meat
• 100 g salted peanuts
• 1 tablespoon of ​​fresh onion, green part only, thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced ​
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Greek yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon nigella seeds or sesame seeds
• salt and pepper

Directions

• Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions, drain and cool them under cold running water. Cut them with scissors 3 to 4 times, to help you seasoning them.
• In a large non-stick pan stir fry the bacon and let it cook until it turns pink. Now add the crab meat thinly sliced ​​and stir for a few minutes with a wooden spoon until the bacon is golden and crisp.
• Put the rice noodles in a large bowl, then season them with the bacon and crab meat, the salted peanuts, the sliced celery and the sliced green  ​​onion. Add the Greek yoghurt and the mayonnaise. Mix the noodles with your hands to season them evenly.
• Just before serving, sprinkle the rice noodles with the nigella seeds or the sesame seeds, preferably the black ones for a nice colour contrast.

I have a recurring daydream: I leave my house, close the red door behind me and I step in a green scenery crammed with earthenware pots and old repainted wooden boxes, where flowers, herbs and berries grow luxuriantly. Then I walk along a tiny path and I reach my well-cultivated vegetable garden, where I put nice wooden tag next to every plant, with their names neatly written with white paint. Next to the garden, the orchard, with olive trees and fruit trees. In a corner I can see a wicker basket with my gloves, a pair of wellington boots and a girly straw hat. I dream of bringing home boxes of soil covered vegetables, picked up a few minutes before in the early morning, then wash them and store them in my pantry, where you can see my preserve jars neatly arranged with labels for the winter.

There is only one obstacle that stands between me and the realization of my dream: time. I’d have the space to do this, the desire, but I am already playing with the delivery times for larger and smaller projects, markedly reducing my sleep hours. So I keep telling me that autumn is the perfect time to start working seriously on my daydream.

Then I remember that this autumn I’ll be eventually moving in my small apartment across the yard, and I realize that maybe I should wait a little longer for this green dream to become real…

To cheer me up and make me feel a little closer to my daydream, there’s my growing rhubarb, which is almost ready to be finally used – though I still have to decide what to to with the small amount I’ll get, but it will definitely be a party! – and two apricot trees.

From what I hear, the 2012 will be remembered as the year of the apricots: they tell tales of bent branches, overwhelmed by the ripe fruit, of neighbours lurking outside your house with wicker baskets crammed with juicy apricot, of jars of jam that will be enough for many a winter… Here, we collect every day a small box of apricots, tiny as walnuts and deep flavoured, we bake cakes and churn sorbets when we do not boil massive pots of jam, my mother’s favorite summer activity.

Take a Sunday like any other, sultry though spent in the kitchen among stews and fresh pasta. This apricot ice cream was the most pleasant moment of the day: it was refreshing, creamy and tangy. What made it even more special is the fact that I have not lifted a finger to do it, it was my sister Claudia’s idea, she’s fond of ice creams and sorbets! We always joke that if we will ever open a café or a bakery, I would deal with cakes and cookies, she would take care of tea, coffee and ice cream… So we kept our roles and she made the apricot ice cream, while I baked the soft spongy biscuit and whipped up the Italian meringue.

If you do not have much time, the apricot ice cream is perfect on its own, put some scoops in a chilled glass and your summer dessert is ready. Though, if you have some play time and no fear of turning on the oven during summer, I would recommend this ice-cream bombe that reminds me of a Baked Alaska of a few years ago.

Do not be scared by the length of the recipe. It can be broken down and made in several times, keeping the various components of the ice cream in the refrigerator and freezer. You can also make only a section of it: the Italian meringue, for example, is a basic pastry element that can be used in many a summer recipe, such as frozen desserts. The ice cream, as we have said, has a reason on its own, while the soft biscuit is nothing more than a thin sponge cake that can be rolled up and stuffed with chocolate, custard, jam or… ice cream, again! But if you combine all the ingredients, magic happens!

Link love

Since this will be remembered as the apricot year, my link love is fully dedicated to one of my favourite summer fruit:

• Apricot Tarte Tatin has been in my wish list  for ages, now I want to try it before summer ends, and I might follow Bron Marshall‘s recipe, extremely tempting,
• after the French inspired Tarte Tatin, a classic American tart, Joyofbaking’s luscious Apricot Tart,
• from Meeta, What’s for lunch honey, an apricot and pistachio frangipane tart. As she said, apricots baked in a nutty, creamy frangipane and the crunch of a crumbly pastry can’t be beaten. Enough to send me into a whirlwind of dreams
• and my favourite one, Sarka’s Apricot Galette, from Cook your dream. Simple and summery.

Everytime a child says I don’t believe in fairies, there’s a a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead. Peter Pan.

When you stop believing in a dream, it happens the same thing. A fairy dies, a flower closes down, a star burns out, a smile fades away. That’s why you must keep on believing in your dreams, whatever happens, that’s why I keep on believing my dreams, no matter what.

I have many dreams, some are more realizable than others: likely I won’t end up on the stage of the Wembley stadium so that Robbie Williams could sing me a song, like, say… She’s the one, but there are other dreams that I feel here, close to me, so close that if I stretch out my hand I can almost graze them and tickle them.

And yet, there are days when even the more achievable dreams seem too far, wrapped in a thick cotton-like fog. Even though the dreams are made ​​of intangible breaths, the best way to reconnect to them is getting active, doing something concrete.

What can I do? I take a brisk walk, I walk so fast that my eyes almost weep for the wind and the sun. I reorder my cookbooks and put signs with a post-it on the recipes I want to make in the future. I make a cheese, from milk to curd in a very short time. You manage to affect reality with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, you change the material and I feel like I’m doing a magic … if I can do that, I will also realize my dreams, right?

Speaking technically, this is not a proper cheese, but a curd. But we know that in dreams a little magic and fantasy never hurt. I recently discovered goat milk and goat cheese, but as I have said, it has an unusual character, you hate or love it. I love it!

Home made goat ricotta cheese

Ingredients:

• 500 ml goat milk
• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

Directions

• Heat the milk in a saucepan, keeping an eye on the temperature.
• When it reaches 80°C, pour in a tablespoon of vinegar and stir on low heat, preventing the milk from taking the boil.
• When  it starts to curdle, that is the curdled milk starts to separated from the whey, remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool at room temperature.
• When completely cold, line a colander with the cheese cloth, place it on a bowl and pour the curdled milk into the colander.
• Let it drain overnight in the fridge, and the day after the goat milk ricotta is ready!

And now, how can we serve our home made goat milk ricotta? I whipped it with a drizzle of wild flower honey to sweeten and soften it, then I baked a handful of sweet little plums with a tablespoon of lavender flowers, some tablespoons of honey and a split open vanilla pod, then I served them together.

You can also serve it as an appetizer, marinating the curdled goat milk with the spices I used here.

Today is my birthday. Today I am 30 years old! I told you last year, and I’ll repeat it: my birthday is one of my favorite days throughout the year, along with Christmas. Those blessed five minutes I spent under the sheets before getting up are full of expectations, of a rarefied happiness that makes me feel slightly different and special all day long. Today is special for another reason, too.

When I turned 28, more than one person told me, with a worried yet enthusiastic look, that I was entering into the Saturn Return. Astrologers believe that when Saturn returns to the point where it was when you were born, you cross a major threshold and enter the next stage of your life.

Since Saturn is the planet that represents the time, the responsibility, the inner strength that helps you achieve your goals, those ranging from 28 to 30 are two years in which you cut dead branches and leave behind heavy burdens, but in the meantime you reconfirm the values ​​you believe in and the important people in your life. These are the years when you have to make choices, and you finally realize that these choices, for the first time, depend only on you, not on your parents or on social conventions.

And so today I put ideally a full stop after two intense, sometimes tiring but always interesting and challenging years. From now on, I start a new journey, with a little more awareness of my goals, my dreams, who to consider a friend, who to rely on… and mostly who I am.

My birthday cake is affected by these changes as well. I sat at the kitchen table, with some trusted good books you know you can count on in the important moments, a squared notebook and a pencil, and I started thinking about what I wanted for my special day, because there is no doubt that my 30th birthday cake will be remembered for a long time.

I indulged in my last preference: I usually feel like a cake that is not too sugary, which has a rustic and natural flavour, made ​​with an interesting flour. I like simple cakes, simple to make and simple to taste, with no complications, something that makes you feel good, with seasonal fruit to give freshness. I believe this is a kind of cake very similar to me, now.

So, this is the recipe, described picture by picture …

… and now, the real recipe! Enjoy it!

Poppy seed buckwheat cake with fresh red currants

My 30th birthday cake, recipe adapted from 1-2-3 poppy-seed cake, from Nicole’s Delicious days book.

Ingredients:

• 250 g soft butter (plus a bit more for the pan)
• 5 room temperature medium or large organic eggs
• 200 g of caster sugar
• 100 g of fresh cream
• grated zest of 1 organic lemon
• scraped seed of 1 vanilla pod
• 100 g of ground poppy seeds
• 200 g of buckwheat flour (plus a bit more for the pan)
• 2 tablespoons of baking powder

Ingredients to make the butter cream filling:

• 100 g of butter
• 175 g of icing sugar
• grated zest of 1/2 organic lemon
• a few tablespoons of cherry/strawberry/wild berries syrup

To decorate::

• icing sugar for dusting
• 200 g of fresh red currants

Directions

1. All the ingredients should be at room temperature for optimal baking results, so be sure to take the butter, eggs and cream out of the refrigerator ahead of time.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C and brush a 18 cm round pan with butter and dust evenly with the flour.
3. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy with the whisk of the hand mixer.
4. Add gradually the eggs while mixing continuously.
5. Wash the lemon with hot water and grate the zest on a fine grater directly into the bowl. Add the scraped seeds of one vanilla pod.
6. Whisk in the fresh cream and the poppy seeds.
7. Stir in the buckwheat flour and the baking powder.
8. Scrape the batter into the pan and bake in the oven for 45 – 50 minutes.
9. Take the cake out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then turn the pan onto a wire rack and remove it. Let it cool completely.
10. To make the filling, whip the butter at room temperature with the icing sugar, the grated zest of half of an organic lemon and a few tablespoons of your favourite berry syrup.
11. When the cake is completely cold, slice it horizontally and spread half of the cake it with the butter cream, sprinkle with half of the red currants and top it again with the second half of the cake.
12. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with fresh red currants. Let it set at least half an hour in the refrigerator before serving it.

This year, the first year of my new life as a self-employed food addict, I discovered Winter and Spring as new seasons, I admired them with curiosity as they unfolded their chilly and bright days in front of my eyes, I learned new rhythms and I made them mine. With Summer is different, it’s a season I know, I used to live every second of it at home as a child, during the long school summer holidays. It’s reassuring to see how it all happens again this year in the same way as when I finally tucked away all my books and pulled out my bicycle and my striped shorts.

After years, I recognized the smell of early morning, when the birds still sing happily before the cicadas take their place. I rediscovered the habit of closing doors and shutters as soon as it too hot outside, to reopen them in the evening, at the first hint of a breeze.

Yes, I am a lucky girl, even during the most sultry summer here you can enjoy a light breath of wind in the evening. It brings the sea smell, or at least, I always smelled the sea with my imagination. Yesterday, I felt the balsamic note of the sea again, when in the still silence of the night I watered the orchard and the garden.

I was a child again. I was watering the flowers against the wind to enjoy the cool tiny drops of water that the evening breeze will vaporize back on you… this is one of the best memories of the past summers, as beautiful as the afternoons spent in my Grandma’s big bed devouring books about other worlds, other times, other adventures.

Despite the heat, which suddenly broke out, I feel bursting of energy, ideas and projects, just as a small child. I am already simmering at the idea of afternoons spent canning and filling up jars and bottles to face the next autumn and winter, I feel the time is ripe, just like the wheat, now shining in the evening of a lunar glow.

We celebrate Midsummer, the Summer Solstice, we celebrated fertility, abundance, success. It’s the time to seize the opportunity and enjoy the moment, now that the days are endless and that the light steals precious hours to the night. This is the season of the massive old oak, warm colours, lavender, chamomile, rosemary and sage. In the Celtic rites they consumed fresh fruits and vegetables, ale, mead and fruit juices.

Today’s ritual mead and peach cake celebrates Midsummer, the days of light, abundance and harvest, and was inspired by the Celtic legends that have always fascinated me since the first fantasy books I’ve read, many summers ago, in that fresh bed in my grandmother’s house during one of that long summer afternoons of my childhood. It’s a cake that would suit woods and forests, fairies and leprechauns, it’s crammed of fresh fruit, ripe peaches, lit by a drop of mead.

Enjoy this beautiful summer, my friends!

As you can see from the ingredients, it is a cake that apparently is not very sweet, it has only 110 grams of acacia honey. If you prefer, you can increase the amount of honey adding up to 60 g, but if you use very ripe peaches I’d rather keep low the amount of honey, to appreciate the sweetness and juiciness of the fruit.

Mead, perhaps the world’s oldest fermented beverage, is made from honey and was known as the drink of the gods. You can replace it with sweet wine, vinsanto or even a splash of orange juice, but in this ritual cake mead earns its place of honor!

Serve a slice of cake with a cool fruit juice (peach, apricot or pear). Add some ice and a splash of mead for the grown-ups!

Do you have more ripe peaches? Here some ideas to use them!

• White Peaches and Lavender tart, from the 2011 Summer collection, add a floral touch to the season
• Joy of baking peach tart, and you know it can’t go wrong…
• something wholesome and delicious? Head to Heidi Swanson’s blog and you can be sure you’ll find something, as this plum and peach crisp

There are many things that make me happy.

An evening spent in a cinema to watch a Hollywood movie, one of those you have been waiting for months and that gives you the shivers right from the opening credits, with a bag of caramel popcorn, your glasses to see clearly from the distance  and not miss a shot, your best friend in the chair beside you and two hours to spend in the dark, comments in a low voice and giggles included.

A windy day with turquoise sky and white clouds running high, the trees talking to each other in an ancient language, the branches caressing each others and intertwining. All your heavy thoughts are swept away by the wind and the air becomes lighter.

An unexpected free afternoon at home, four gifted hours, a to-do list that gets thinner and thinner, the time to put in order a shelf or the lazy books that lie on the bedside table, to make a long-waited phone call or simply to pet Kira, now old but even sweeter, with her soulful and grateful eyes.

The scent of lavender, that instantly takes me on holidays, being it in my garden or in a still village in a Provençal afternoon, with painted shutters, flowers on the windowsill, the ivy around the door and your steps that resonate in the stone back lanes.

Baking a fruit cake, using ripe peaches, organic eggs, flour and butter, just to feel a bit better, loved.

These momentary vivid thoughts often go through my head, sometimes overlap and give life to hybrid dreams that give you one of the most beautiful things in life, a moment of pure ecstasy and bliss.

The other day I inadvertently passed very close to the lavender bed and rubbed my hands through the flowers: the purple scent of lavender wrapped me and immediately made ​​me think of peaches, white and juicy. And then came the idea of this cake, born from a spontaneous association of ideas, happy, easy and instantaneous.

And now if you want to enjoy 5 minutes of  bliss, here’s the recipe (do not be scared by the length, it is very easy to do, I’ve just been very detailed!)

White peach and lavender tart

Ingredients for the almond short crust:

• 100 g of almonds, peeled and roasted
• 150 g of sugar
• 200 g of plain flour
• 150 g of cold butter, diced
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Ingredients for the pastry cream:

• 8 egg yolks
• 4 cups (1 l) of milk
• 8 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
• peel of 1 lemon

Ingredients to finish the tart:

• approx. 15 medium-sized white peaches, not too ripe
• a few sprigs of lavender
• a few tablespoons of sugar

Let’s make the almond short crust…

1. Blend the almonds, previously peeled and roasted, with a spoonful of sugar, with rapid and repeated pulses of the blender, so as not to heat them and let them release their oil.
2. Combine the flour with the ground almonds and the sugar, then add in the butter cubes and rub it with the flour until you obtain a crumbly dough.
3. Now add the lightly beaten egg, stir quickly until the dough comes together, form a ball, flatten it lightly and place it in the fridge for an hour, wrapped in waxed paper.

Let’s make the pastry cream…

1. Pour the milk into a saucepan with 6 tablespoons of sugar and the lemon peel (just the yellow part) and bring to a boil. As soon as it takes the boil, remove from the heat.
2. Beat the egg yolks with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stir in the cornstarch, mixing well to remove any lumps.
3. Filter the milk and pour it in a thin stream over the egg yolks, stirring constantly with a whisk to prevent scrambled eggs.
4. Cook the cream in a water bath on low heat, stirring constantly, until it veils the spoon, about 15 minutes.
5. Remove from the heat, cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool completely.

… and now let’s finish the tart!

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Remove the pastry from the fridge, roll it out with the help of a rolling pin and a some flour and line a 26 cm round pan or a rectangular mould (10×30 cm).
3. Prick the bottom of the tart.
4. Spread the pastry cream onto the bottom of the tart and top it with the peaches, previously peeled and cut into thin slices.
5. Sprinkle the peaches with a tablespoon of sugar and a crushed sprig of lavender.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the surface becomes golden.
7. Let cool and serve with a generous dusting of the icing sugar.

It has been ages since the last time I had home-made fruit pops. Then the sudden heat, the still air and the cicadas have reminded me of a little good habit I used to have as a child.

At that time I was well away from the appeal of the ice cream maker and the unusual ingredients, so I used to blend some randomly chosen fruit into the big blender glass (an ugly brown plastic blender glass, dramatically ’80s fashion), to add some water or orange juice and then pour the fruit purée into round little moulds, where you could insert a toothpick to use as an ice cream stick. Then I used to tuck them into the freezer for a few hours, waiting patiently to enjoy them as refreshing afternoon snack.

How I loved those summers! Long, calm, full of books and Mickey Mouse strips, little sheds built in the backyard, long bicycle rides and shooting stars.

When Claudia was just a little puppy, there was the Polaretti fashion instead. When you ate them, your tongue would get coloured for sure, they tasted a bit fake but they were so fun and easy to make, even for a cute little blonde girl with scraped knees as Claudia. Every time she put them into the freezer, she just missed slipping into the drawer, being so tiny!

Mu – mu – mum will you buy me the po – po – Polaretti? huh? when she was very young she used to stammer the first syllables, it was so fun!

And then comes the summer of 2011, the honey flavoured cantaloupes from the farmer’s market and the ruby red cherries… Add some honey to the fruit, to enhance the almost spicy and floral hint of the melon, one of the most fragrant and sweet fruits of summer. Combine the fruit with Greek yoghurt to give to the popsicles the same soft creaminess of an ice cream.

Cantaloupe & cherry pops

Ingredients:

• 300 g of ripe cantaloupe (about 1/2 cantaloupe)
• 2 tablespoons of lime juice
• 2 teaspoons of mild flavoured honey
• 1/2 cup (170g) of Greek yoghurt
• 1/2 cup of cherries, pitted

Directions:

1. Remove the skin and cut the cantaloupe into cubes, put them into the blender glass along with the lime juice, the honey and the Greek yoghurt. Blend until you get a creamy mild orange purée.
2. Pour the cantaloupe purée into the popsicle moulds (you can use vodka shot as well), sprinkle in a few cherries here and there and put into the refrigerator. As soon as it gets a bit firm, insert the wooden stick. Return the moulds to the freezer.
3. Freeze for several hours or better overnight, until solid.
4. To serve, run hot water on the sides of the moulds to help you to release your fruit pops. Good refreshment!

If you usually make fruit popsicles to avoid milk and dairy products, you can easily use orange juice instead of Greek yoghurt.

I do not need a psychologist, I have my whip and my bowl.

Perhaps in some moments I really need someone to talk to, someone who can fathom the twisted reasoning of my mind, demolish my fears and insecurities and give me stronger legs to walk with. In those moments, when I’m in a dead-end alley where the only alternative is to start screaming loud, I turn to the most effective psychologists: neither Jungian nor Freudian. They are my whip and my mum’s bowl.

It usually happens this way. I get home from work, walk into the kitchen, grab the eggs and set them on the table, then I sit down and look at them. I look at them and rejoice myself with their smooth lines, the perfect shell, the soft colour.

Then the inspiration comes out of the blue, I grab my whip and the bowl and I begin to wash away bad thoughts, anxieties, sorrows and people who take away the good feelings from life just with their bad influence. And I get through the bad moment, with a subtle charm, just like Vianne casting her spells in the rear of her shops, intertwining her fate with the spirals drown into the hot chocolate pot. You stir and change direction to the events. It happens. It works.

Last week I was stuck into one of those dead-end alleys, I needed badly to feel like Vianne for an afternoon, to believe that a whip could change the direction of events. As I was staring at the eggs, a phrase whispered with a distinctly French accent on my doorstep in a winter night came to mind: I tell you a secret. Make the crêpes batter, add some more sugar and pour it onto a bake tin with some cherries. You will get a French dessert, the clafoutis.

I grabbed the whip and I have changed the course of events.

The beautiful cherries you see in the pictures come from a fruit and vegetables stall I have just discovered a few kilometres from my house: the sell only seasonal products, only local ones: I feel very lucky! These wonders of nature, naturally coloured with these hues, are called tardiole, they resemble sour cherries, deliciously tart and refreshing.

Cherry clafoutis

Ingredients (serve 4):

• 3 eggs
• 3 heaping tablespoons of flour
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 cup (250 ml) of milk
• 1 cup (400 g) cherries, pitted
• butter, to grease the moulds
• icing sugar to dust
• mint and lemon zest to decorate

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Break the eggs into a bowl and add the flour, the sugar and a pinch of salt: whisk well.
3. Pour in the milk in a thin stream and whisk until the batter is smooth ans silky.
4. Grease four ramekins (1 cup capacity) or a larger mould and scatter the pitted cherries on the bottom.
5. Pour the batter over the cherries to cover them completely.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the clafoutis is set and lightly golden browned on top (it depends on the size and depth of the mould you have chosen).
7. Serve warm, sprinkled with plenty of icing sugar, grated lemon zest and fresh mint leaves.

I am amazed by how easy to make clafoutis is, how reassuring and comfortable it is to eat it warm with a spoon directly from the ramekin, charmingly dusted with icing sugar and sprinkled with grated lemon zest and fresh mint. A little dessert, nutritious and simple, a child’s favourite.

I just want to thank you for the love and friendship you gave me in the last post: you are the best!

It’s tea-time, a few minutes of quiet in the mid-afternoon since I can remember, a break from my homework to be spent with mum, grandma and Claudia. Often an elbow was leaning on my books, the Greek translation or the marketing manual, while the other was struggling to have space on a colourful place-mat between a cup of tea and some biscuits. Those minutes have always been precious, to spend some time together and talk and comment on our day so far. But the tea-time has a meaningful sense even when I’m alone, just my cup of tea and me, following the drawings of the sun on the kitchen floor, to clear up my mind and recharge myself with new energy, dreaming about what would have happened if…

…what would have happened if she had pursued her dream and had turned the tea-time, the moment that she preferred in the day, into her life, to live a never ending tea-time, to stop the clock at that moment when the kettle whistles, your eyes go through the many teas on the shelf to find a suitable flavour for your mood and the cake looks inviting on the table.

Follow me in this story written for La Ciliegina and her contest E’ sempre l’ora del tè, along with a recipe for a sweet and fresh lemon cake and a cup of fruity tea.

IT’S MY CUP OF TEA

Giulia had thought about it for a long time, had weighed up the pros and cons. Job security on the one hand, on the other one risk and adventure: every time she poured the tea into her favourite cup, sometimes amber, sometimes dark and deep, sometimes a transparent and refreshing green, she depicted her dream with vivid colours. A tea room in the neighbouring town, the days spent baking cakes and biscuits to be served in the afternoon, a selection of tea to travel around the world sitting comfortably in an armchair.

Then one afternoon, clutching her cup of steaming tea, she got lost in the wisps of steam rising from the cup, she felt nursed by them, she felt good and safe, and she made ​​her decision. Many days, banks, checks and sleepless nights later, she hung proudly her wooden shop sign over the glass door of her tea room and went back inside into the smell of butter, sugar and vanilla, waiting for the bell above the door to ring as the first customer would step inside. That silver tinkling was not late to come and in the following days it was a symphony of bells.

It worked: she was offering simple things, good for your soul. A quiet, friendly, unpretentious place, where everyone could feel at home, with armchairs of all shapes and sizes, colourful chairs, small tables scattered on a wooden floor that creaked gently under each step. Her tea room was the ideal place for those who wanted to read a book in a peaceful scene, talk for hours with a friend, work on the beloved project or just find themselves, clutching a cup of steaming tea, just as had happened in that afternoon when she had made ​​the decision that changed her life.

She was proud of her glass jars full of cookies: chocolate, lemon, dried fruit and oriental scents, or simple shortbreads for those who wanted to rediscover the taste of childhood in a bite. On the counter there were four or five cakes of the day, they changed in colour, fruit and frosting with the seasons. But there was one cake that was there everyday, being it sunny or rainy, the white chocolate and lemon cake, the one she had served to the first person who stepped into her tea room and, in the very same day, into her life.

Every day, before opening the shop in the afternoon and starting the dance of cakes, cookies and clinking china cups, she treated herself with a cup of tea and a slice of cake, often the lemon and white chocolate cake, to live again the excitement of those black eyes who smiled at her ordering that lemon cake and kept smiling at her every day since then. Chasing her dream and finding the courage to turn it into reality, she had received a gift far more precious than she had dared to hope.

This Giulia’s favourite recipe, a lemon and white chocolate pound cake. In winter, garnished with caramelised oranges or cinnamon pears, it is the perfect match of a cup of steaming tea. During the summer, topped with the most beautiful seasonal red fruit, goes perfectly with a glass of iced tea. It has a very strong citrus hint, softened by the presence of the white chocolate in the dough: the mascarpone and red fruit frosting is attractive and fashionable, but I do assure you the cake is worth a try even on its own, with a dusting of icing sugar.

Pound cake with lemon & white chocolate

The recipe is the well known pound cake and, therefore, weigh the eggs with their shells and use the same weight of flour, sugar and fat. In this case, the fat component is given by the butter and the white chocolate. I have also slightly reduced the amount of sugar not to have an excessively sweet cake. Choose organic lemons in order to use their peel light-heartedly.

Cake ingredients:

• 4 medium eggs, at room temperature (about 260 g)
• 200 g caster sugar
• 100 g white chocolate, melted
• 150 g butter, melted
• 3 organic lemons, grated peel and squeezed juice
• 250 g plain flour
• about 8 g of baking powder

Frosting ingredients:

• 250 g mascarpone cheese
• 100 ml cream, whipped
• grated peel of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• strawberries and cherries
• mint leaves

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, melt the white chocolate in a double boiler and the butter on a very low heat or in the microwave.
2. Beat the eggs and the sugar until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. Pour in the melted butter and white chocolate and whip the batter.
3. Add the flour, the baking powder, the sieved lemon juice and the lemon peel. Stir until everything is evenly mixed.
4. Pour into a rectangular cake tin, previously greased and floured. Bake for about 1 hour until golden and dry in the centre (use a toothpick to check). Let it cool down completely before unmould.
5. Make the frosting: whisk the mascarpone cheese with the whipped cream, 2 tablespoons of icing sugar and the finely grated zest of a lemon. Spread the mascarpone frosting over the cake, then decorate with plenty of strawberries and cherries and a few mint leaves. Serve immediately or store the cake in a cool place until ready to serve it.

The tea. I chose my favourite tea of the moment, bought in London at Greenwich market. It is Wilkins and Edwards’ Notting Hill, a black tea flavoured with mango, passion fruit, orange and marigold. I love it steaming hot and black, without adding any sugar, or cold with a slice of lemon. It is strong, energizing and fruity, a perfect match with a slice of this pound cake.

My friends and I love picnics: genuine food, open air lunches and the sun playing among the tree branches, that’s our perfect day. Every time we organize a picnic, we try to be as much eco-friendly as possible, that is, we try to reduce the impact on the environment. No plastic dishes or cups, each one of us carries his own dishes, glass and cutlery and we share the food from our lunch boxes. At the end of the day everyone just collects his own dishes to leave completely clean the lawn or the shrubbery. As I said, zero impact.

Then a few weeks ago I saw this article posted on Facebook by Alex, a volcano of interesting ideas: I immediately saw those little jars with chalkboard paint lids as perfect lunch boxes for a picnic. Just imagine: a red checkered blanket, a large straw bag, your favorite book, the play of light through the trees branches and many small glass jars with coloured chalk writings on the black lids. A scene that is a cross between Le déjeuner sur l’herbe by Manet and the Mad Hatter tea time banquet in Alice in Wonderland. More or less playful writings and explanations, each one free to choose the jar he fancies the most. At the end of the day, just wash the jars and clean the lids with a damp cloth and they are ready for the next picnic. Zero impact, greatest fun.

Simple and easy to carry recipes. Practical glass jars that can be customized every time with colourful chalk and ribbons to match. A picnic in the shade of the trees on a lazy Sunday afternoon. That’s our theme, today!

I made four recipes that have one thing in common: they can be eaten with a spoon or a fork without the need of a knife, you need just one hand, then you can lazily lay on a blanket with the other hand holding a book, or sit on a log watching your friends playing football in the clearing of pine trees. Quantities are all intended for 2 to 3 people.

… And what to drink? A floral Bancha green tea made with cold infusion: two tablespoons of tea leaves in 2 litres of water with a sprig of mint kept in infusion in the refrigerator overnight and filtered the morning before the picnic.

Corn and rice couscous is my favourite one, because it is very tasty even without any seasoning and has a beautiful natural golden-yellow hue. I used the corn flour also to coat the aubergine nuggets, which are therefore golden and crunchy outside and juicy inside.

Corn and rice couscous with aubergine nuggets

Ingredients:

• 175 g (1/2 cup) precoooked couscous
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• 1/2 large aubergine, diced
• 1 tablespoon of fresh mint, chopped
• 1 tablespoon desiccated oregano
• 2 tablespoons of corn flour
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 mozzarella (125 g), diced

Directions

1. Cook the couscous according to the package directions. Fluff the couscous with a fork and place it in a large bowl.
2. Mix the corn flour with the oregano and the chopped mint in a large bowl and then add the chopped aubergine: toss the bowl to coat each aubergine cube with flour.
3. Heat in a large pan a generous dash of extra virgin olive oil with a clove of garlic and stir fry the aubergine over medium heat for about 20 minutes, until they are golden brown and crispy outside, yet soft inside. Remove the aubergines from the pan and leave them to cool on a dish lined with paper towels. Season with salt.
4. Season the cold couscous with the aubergines and the mozzarella. Season with salt if necessary and spoon into individual jars.

Let’s shuffle the cards. The panzanella, the classic Tuscan salad made with stale bread, tomatoes and cucumbers, is proposed here with the bulgur instead, reminding a Middle Eastern and Lebanese tabbouleh.

Bulgur panzanella

Ingredients:

• 175 g (1/2 cup) bulgur
• 1 large ripe tomato, chopped
• 1 medium cucumber, sliced and quartered
• basil leaves
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• white wine vinegar

Directions

1. Cook the bulgur according to the package directions, drain and let cool.
2. Season the bulgur with the chopped tomato, the sliced cucumber, plenty of basil, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a splash of white wine vinegar. Season with salt and divide into individual jars.

To define the following one a recipe is an exaggeration, let’s say it is a small list of ingredients that get along well and are good for you, your heart and your soul.

Good for you yoghurt

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon flax-seed
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
• 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon dark chocolate chips
• 125 g (1/2 cup) Greek yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon of wild flower and lavender honey
• fresh strawberries

Directions

1. Combine all the seeds and the chocolate and put them on the bottom of the glass jars.
2. Stir the Greek yoghurt with the honey using a with a spoon, until you have a smooth cream. Spoon the yoghurt on top of the seeds and chocolate.
3. Top the yoghurt with the strawberries.

I have already told you how much I love sweet and fruity couscous salads. Well, I love them so much that I decided to try another recipe, changing slightly the ingredients and the mood. Maybe I like this one even more than the first attempt! It has a Middle-Eastern fairy-tale appeal, thanks to the presence of two of my favorite spices – cinnamon and cardamom – and the sweet dried figs from Turkey. The final touch is given by a tablespoon of dried rose petals: soaked in vinsanto (Tuscan sweet dessert wine) they get fleshy and intense and bring you on a flying carpet in the starry nights of Baghdad (how many times have I seen Disney‘s Aladdin? I do not count them anymore…)

Orient night sweet couscous salad

Ingredients:

• 175 g (1/2 cup) precooked couscous
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 dried figs
• 5 cardamom pods, crushed
• 1 tablespoon dried rose petals
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) of vinsanto
• 1 tablespoon almonds, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Make the couscous according to this recipe.
2. Chop the dried figs and soak them in vinsanto along with the crushed cardamom pods and the rose petals, for at least 30 minutes.
3. Squeeze the figs and the rose petals and stir them gently into the couscous, along with the chopped almonds. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Taste the couscous and if it’s not sweet enough add 1 up to 2 tablespoons of sugar. Divide the couscous into individual jars.

WHERE TO SHOP

1. I bought the chalkboard paint in my local hardware store. The half kilo paint pot was not cheap, I paid it 18 €, but I think I’ll paint with it all the lids of all my spice jars. Well, it was definitely worth of my 18€! To paint the lids I followed this tutorial suggested by Alex.
2. The jars are the beautiful Quattro Stagioni by Bormioli, a great classic, they have a vintage appeal I love so much!
3. The colourful ribbons are form CupcakeConfessional on Etsy.
4. The wooden cutlery are from Etsy as well, from my favourite FromSoul shop.