ITALIAN FOODIES

No, you are not seeing things, I actually did some baking this weekend. As you have probably guessed from my blog, baking would not be my forte, it’s not that I don’t like it, it just always seems to get pushed down on my “to do list”. Baking is definitely a luxury past-time in my life but with the princess getting older and already having a keen interest in cooking it will become a regular thing in the italian foodie house.

          
The weather was so bad on Saturday evening and we were pretty depressed ( 2 sad faces looking out  the window type of depression) as the new local park had opened after a long wait and we still couldn’t go because it was raining so bad. I was demented from colouring and jigsaws so I decided to give some “mammy and baby” baking a go and she absolutely loved it. I got her all dressed up in her chef’s outfit and sat her up on the counter beside me and basically let her run riot with her little wooden spoon. It was a bit messy and she was a bit high after all the “ummy” sugar and butter mix but she thoroughly enjoyed it. She was so excited watching the cakes cook but then declared “not like it” when I gave her one to eat, she basically ate the flower and stuck her fingers in the icing!

what you need:
this recipe is based on 2 recipes from Olive and Delicious magazine

 - 125g unsalted butter

 - 125g golden Castor sugar 

 - zest and juice of 1 lemon

 - 2 eggs beaten

 - 225g plain flour

 - 1 tsp baking powder

 - 100 ml milk

icing

 - 30g unsalted butter softened

 - 150g icing sugar

 - 1 tsp vanilla sugar

 - zest and lemon juice of 1 lemon

 - 150g cream cheese

what to do:

 - heat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole cake tin with your bun cases

 - cream the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy, she was afraid of the noise so I had to hold her hand and whisk with the other hand.

 - add the lemon zest, continue to whisk and hold hands and gradually add the egg.

 - sift together the flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture with a spatula.

 - add the milk and lemon juice and stir until smooth.

 - divide the mixture between the paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cool in the tin for 5 mins and then transfer to a cooling rack.

 - to make the icing just beat all the ingredients together in a bowl and spread on top of the cakes and decorate with yellow flowers or white buttons.

I must say they were absolutely delicious and if you have never baked before and would love to try or you are a novice baker like me they are so simple to make. Just make sure you have you have the necessary baking equipment

• scales
• fairy cake tray
• electric mixer
• mixing bowl
• spatula
• wooden spoon
• sieve
• grater
• measuring jug

buon appetito!!

Every time I return from Italy the batteries are recharged when it comes to food, the one thing I always take away with me is “keeping it simple”. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I can spend ages looking through cookbooks and food magazines looking for something new and interesting to cook and then have to go shopping because I don’t have half of the ingredients. It was one of those days yesterday when I had nothing in the fridge except tomatoes, a couple of cloves of garlic, and a blooming basil plant on the windowsill, a simple pasta with home-made tomato sauce it was then! Everybody has their own way of making tomato sauce, this is mine:

what you need:

 - 500g tomatoes, I have to say there may be a recession but Superquinn’s tomatoes are still the best. I use a mix of their SQ superior Irish tomatoes and their Italian mix of 3 types of cherry tomatoes. Both are excellent and are perfect for making tomato sauce. 

 - 1 clove of garlic peeled

 - 8 basil leaves

 - olive oil

 - 1/2 tsp sugar

- sea salt and black pepper

 - Parmesan cheese

 - pasta of your choice, my favourite is spaghetti

what to do:

 - fill the base of a pan with olive oil and cook your garlic until it is brown and remove, leave your oil cool down a little.

 - bring a pot of water to the boil, add salt and your pasta and cook until al dente.

 - add your tomatoes and cook for about 10-15 mins until sauce has thickened. If it gets too thick just add a little water.

 - season, add your sugar and basil and cook for a another 5 minutes.

 - drain your pasta, return to the pot and mix in your sauce.

 - serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and some fresh basil leaves.

buon appetito!

I loved this little van selling Italian meats like proschuitto, Italian sausages, salami etc, they also had a great selection of Italian cheeses. They were a father and son team and were really happy and very friendly, there was 3 old ladies buying their meats while I was taking their photos and they all thought it was really funny, I don’t think they get many tourists wandering around taking photos of them very often. I loved the presentation of the meats and wish we could do that here but I don’t think the health board would be too happy about it, it always amazes me how we are all in the EU with the same regulations but it definitely differs from country to country.

italian sausages - mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

teamwork

ciao:)

Monday is market day in Atina and the centre of the village is taken over by stalls selling everything from clothes, shoes, cooking utensils and lots and lots of fabulous fruit and veg. It’s always a bit crazy as the roads can’t handle the traffic and there is always a traffic jam right outside our apartment, the road is so narrow, something always happens so there is lots of horn blowing and Italian profanities which is great to watch - “stress Italian style”. There was so much to photograph so this is just a little snapshot!

I love this collection of mokas;

Since getting my garden done I have become a “flower freak”, for any of you who don’t know me personally this would be totally out of character for me. I even have window boxes!! I drove Bruno mad commenting on the colours of flowers etc everywhere we went, I think he’s ready to trade me in:) The flowers at the market were so vibrant and colourful and I loved this stall selling every type of lettuce possible

The selection of vegetables and fruit is always amazing in Italy as there is so much more variety than you find here and take a look at the prices!

there was lots of beans including borlotti which I’ve never found here;

we had the sweetest tomato sauce made from these tomatoes:

peaches, pears, peppers - OH MY!!

courgette flowers which are up there in my top 5, love them deep fried 

olives anyone?

and here’s the road outside the apartment with Bru carrying home all of our purchases

ciao:)

p.s. taking photos of the local market isn’t the easiest thing to do in a small village, I got a lot of very suspicious looks except at the Italian cold meats van which I will do a seperate post on as they were so nice.

The first week of our holiday was spent in Deva Marina which is a small little beach town about 30 mins from Genova, Bru’s Zio Bruno and Zia Maura have lived there for years in a fabulous house up in the hills with the most amazing view. Their house was full up so we stayed in a small hotel near the beach and then went up there to eat every evening out on the terrace. I’ve spoken about Bru’s uncle before, he was a world champion boxer and there was a book released about him while we were there which was pretty exciting.

Zia Maura is a great cook and her favourite words are ”mangia, mangia, she will not rest until you have eaten until you can eat no more. There was lots of steak and Italian sausages done on the outside grill:

some rabbit or stuffed veg anyone?

Bru’s uncle loves his wine so we had lots of really good local wine, he also grows his own vegetables so the salad was fresh from the garden every evening.

Strawberries is the only fruit the princess will eat at the moment so she was in strawberry heaven as they have loads in their garden. 

I don’t think there is any left 

I love that their house is only 5 mins drive from the beach

but then this is the view from the terrace:

ciao:)

we hung out here and we were officially the whitest people on the beach!

we had these with fresh ”cornetti” every morning for breakfast!

we had “aperitivo” every evening before dinner!

we had lots of family dinners “al fresco” on the terrace!

we had lots of these after dinner!

and quite a few of these too;)

and then went for a “passeggiata” in the evenings and walked it all off:)

p.s. we also went to a 2 Michelin Star restaurant and met one of the top pastry chefs in Italy, will post about them all later! Almost forgot, more importantly the princess got her first pair of baby crocks and her first anklet:)

ciao
xx