ITALIAN FOODIES

                                      

Can't talk, too busy getting a tan so I can look like an Italian:) Just a quick salad recipe for this lovely weather we are having, I love this salad with fish or meat or simply on it's own with some crusty bread!!!

what you need:

 - fine green beans I used a 250g pack from Superquinn (surprise, surprise)

 - 3 hard boiled eggs

 - 2 boiled potatoes cut into cubes

 - sea salt and black pepper

 - 8 tbsp olive oil

 - 3 tbsp red wine vinegar

what to do:

 - bring a pot of water to the boil, add salt and cook your beans until tender. Drain and rinse under cold water and leave to cool down.

 - cut your eggs into quarters and scatter over the beans.

 - add your potatoes, season and dress with olive oil and vinegar.

 - serve and enjoy the sunshine!!!!:)

                                   

buon appetito!!!

p.s I got my new camera last week and it's still in the box, I haven't even used it yet it's been so busy:(

p.p.s. the princess is with the grandparents so mama and papa' are off on the town - yahooooooo!!! Bring on the hangover!!

Ciao!!

So my 5 minutes of fame didn't materialise today, Paulo had to cancel again, does he not realise what a busy Ladeee I am??? All I can say is what a waste of 6 brandies;) It's still going to happen but I don't have a definite date yet but when I know you will know! The worst part was that I was all prepared, had my little notes done out and everything, it was like being back at college getting ready for a presentation. In the end I wasn't as nervous today as I thought I would be but that probably would have all changed once I was in the studio and had a breakdown live in front of the whole country:) I was talking to "THE MIL" yesterday about it and she was looking at me wondering "what the hell has happened to this world???" here was her "IRISH DIL" not even married to her son by the way who used to call gnocchi "yucky" going on national radio talking about Italian food, the one she had to beat Italian food into!! "THE FIL" couldn't give a damn, I started to tell him in the restaurant while he was sorting out the reservations for Saturday night which is never a good idea anyway and he just walked away while I was mid sentence "do you know Paulo Tullio??" yaaaaaa and he was gone so no brownie points earned there then, DAMN!! these Italians are tough!!!!:)

With all this talk of authentic Italian food I was just watching The Barefoot Contessa, she has the best "pantry" ever, it's huge and everything looks so organised and in it's place, I want a cool American pantry for Christmas;)! Tonight's episode was about pasta, I'm always amazed by the amount of ingredients she uses in everything and the amount of butter and cream but tonight she made pesto and even I was shocked. She used all the regular ingredients but then added walnuts, lemon juice, mayo and loads of pepper to make it "spicy" - WHY??? She made a pesto and pea pasta salad using both farfalle and fusilli?? and then they all ate it on the beach out of Chinese take-away cartons with chopsticks - now she is really pushing it! PAULO!!!!!

This is one of those recipes to use up whatever you have left in the fridge, every time I go to the market I buy too many olives and sun-dried tomatoes etc so this salad is great for using them up! You can add whatever you like to it!!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 250g fusilli -
• can Italian tuna
• black olives
• green olives
• cherry tomatoes or sun-dried - we have really good cherry sun-dried tomatoes in La Cucina at the moment.
• 1 bag mozzarella cheese - diced
• basil or flat leaf parsley
• red wine vinegar
• tea spoon mustard
• olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper

WHAT TO DO

 - cook your pasta in a pot of salted boiling water until al dente, drain and leave to cool.

 - mix everything together and ENJOY!!!

BUON APPETITO!!

The lovely Limerick lady bloggers met up for dinner again last night, myself, Laura, Maz, Mary T and Val who we all met for the first time as she has just moved back to Limerick. It's funny when you meet other bloggers as you feel like you know them already and we all get on great. We went for Indian in Copper and Spice which I have to say is our regular take-away haunt so it was nice to actually sit down and eat it fresh - nan bread just isn't the same from a foil bag:) I was driving so an early night was had by all. Mary T is off to Australia in September so we just want to wish her all the best and hope she has a fabulous time , we did the year in Australia in 1995 and loved every minute of it.

Maz was talking about my last potato salad post and how she has made it for everyone and they all love it and I was telling her about this one I made a while back from Angela Hartnett's new book but was in 2 minds about posting it as it is quite similar. As she pointed out Irish people can't get enough of potatoes so I said "what the hell!"  This is Angela's Nonna's (grandmother)recipe:

WHAT YOU NEED:

• new baby potatoes - washed and skins left on
• 300ml olive oil
• 100ml white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 garlic clove, lightly crushed with the palm of your hand or in my case  smashed with a knife;)
• 1 shallot or red onion finely chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped flat parsley - as you can see we were all out of greenery!!
• sea salt and black pepper

WHAT TO DO:

 - place the potatoes in  a pan of salted water and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 mins until soft

 - In a large bowl mix the oil, vinegar and mustard. Add the garlic to infuse and season to taste.

 - when the potatoes are cooked, drain and cut in half, do this while they are still hot.

 - add the hot potatoes( they absorbe the flavour better) and shallots to the vinaigrette and mix. Remove the garlic and season to taste.

 - scatter the parsley over the top(my photo would have looked better with greenery) and SERVE!!

 BUON APPETITO!!

p.s. I got my first email to my gmail account so I need your help with a query. Where can one buy fresh yeast in Dublin 2? If you know just comment or send a quick email.

Grazie a tutti:)