ITALIAN FOODIES

The new place is slowly coming along, we still haven’t signed even though we are nearly there. It’s amazing how much is involved on the legal side and how long it takes. Alessandro is getting impatient as he is dying to get stuck in and get started but it will be another couple of weeks. Once we have signed we are going straight to Rome for 3 or 4 days to meet a couple of wine suppliers and equipment companies. We met with our interior designer and architect last week and they have the restaurant and kitchen layout completed which was really exciting to see. We will be able to seat 80 people inside and about 30 people outside, we want to have an open kitchen and grill so the next step is to meet with the health board and fire chief to see if this is possible. We’ve never used a designer before so it’s really interesting to see how it all works, she had 5 mood boards with different restaurant styles, it’s quite a complicated process and I think we are probably driving her a bit mad as we keep jumping ahead while she is trying to go through the whole process stage by stage, whereas we’re picking chairs off the Internet  etc and we don’t even know what  our theme or style is yet so we’ve calmed down a bit and are leaving it to the experts. This setup is a lot different to La Cucina as it is so big, everyone we have contracted is doing all the work so we are just meeting with them to discuss everything which feels a little strange for us but I’m sure this will all change as we get closer to the time, then the stress begins:)

I have to admit I’m not very adventurous when it comes to salads, I tend to stick to the old reliables likes rocket and Parmesan, french bean & egg, cherry tomato and red onion and Italian green salad. In the summer we rarely cook potatoes and always have a salad with meat or fish so the above can become a bit boring, I recently picked up a copy of Maxine Clark’s “Italian Salads” in Tk Maxx so you’re going to be seeing a lot of salads around here for a while. It’s coming towards the end of the asparagus season so this recipe is great if you are looking for a new way to get your fill before the season ends. I really liked this recipe as it was really simple and I had most of the ingredients in the cupboard already so there is very little involved. This would work great as a starter or just on it’s own with some crusty bread for a light lunch. If you are not a lover of anchovies a simple Italian dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar would work perfectly too!

what you need:

 - 500g asparagus

 - olive oil

 - 4 free range eggs hard-boiled

 anchovy dressing

 - 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

 - 4 anchovy fillets in oil, rinsed and drained.

 - 1 tsp salted capers, rinsed.

 - 1 tsp balsamic vinegar

 - freshly ground pepper

what to do:

 - cook your asparagus until tender, drain and rinse under cold water, mix in a little olive oil and set aside - you might be able to see from my pictures that mine are a bit over-cooked, blame the 18 mth old:)

 - to make the dressing mix all the ingredients in a mini- blender until smooth. Season to taste with black pepper.

 - arrange the asparagus on a serving plate, cut the eggs into quarters and place on top with the dressing drizzled over the top.

 - serve and enjoy:)

buon appetito!! 

“foodie watch”
 Superquinn have fresh oregano plants in stock and they are also stocking fresh marjoram in the pre-packed herb selection. My favourite Italian biscuits have also returned “Tortina” - yummmmmmmm!!

p.s what is your favourite biscuit???

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:)

 I have to admit when it comes to salads we tend to be a bit boring, we always have them as a side to meat or fish but never as the main dish. So, when browsing through Jamie Oliver’s site the other day I saw this tasty little number and decided to throw caution to the wind and ditch the pasta and have a salad for a change. The princess decided to make my little adventure a little difficult by deciding that bedtime at 8pm is for babies and 10.30pm is a much more suitable time! We tend to eat when she goes to bed as she is such a little minx, she’s 8 and 1/2  months going on 2, I can’t leave her for a second! My mother minds her on a Wednesday and she decided to give the poor women a heart attack last week by eating a piece of her Barney book and getting it caught in her throat! Luckily she got it out, a friend and neighbour of ours who is a doctor looked surprised when I told him the story and asked me “but was it a book for babies?”. Well no not exactly but she loves the pop out pictures - BAD MOTHER, it’s probably for a 3 year old!!!

She is such a tearaway, I call her the princess but she’s as far removed from one as a baby could be! She’s doing her damn hardest to walk by herself and is nearly there, she knows no fear, she decided yesterday who needs a table I’m going to stand on my own and she managed it! Now a lot of mother’s might brag about this but my advice to all you future parents is let them eat and sleep until they’re 6 months old, none of this new age stuff of reading them stories at 2 weeks old and getting them to stand at 3 months, the next baby is going to be so neglected the poor thing:)

Anyway we ended up eating our salads one at a time while the other tried to put her to sleep but she’s so bloody clever she knew one of us was in the kitchen and kept calling and trying to play. They make fools of you these babies, they just pretend to be cute and cuddly but as they say in Big Brother they all have a “GAME PLAN”.

The salad was delicious if not a little lonely and would be a great starter for a dinner party I think!!

WHAT YOU NEED FOR 2 - MAIN COURSE

• 2 fresh tuna steaks - I got mine in Superquinn, I have to say they always have a good selection of tuna at the weekends
• 2 bunches asparagus
• 1 punnet of good cherry tomatoes chopped - I used Irish but they’re not great at the moment - the weather???
• handful fresh basil leaves
• handful black olives pitted - I used Kalamata from Superquinn. They do a good pre-pack Italian brand called Salviani.
• 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp creme fraiche
• sea salt and black pepper

WHAT TO DO 

 - heat a griddle pan and cook your asparagus until it has the charred marks on it. Put a heavy pot or pan on top and press down to cook faster. Leave to cool down.

 -  put your asparagus in a bowl with your tomatoes, half the basil and olives, season and pour over some olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

 - rub your tuna steaks with a little oil and season them. Heat up your grill pan again and sear them for about 2 minutes each side.

 - pound the rest of the basil in a pestle and mortar, add the creme fraiche, season and add some lemon juice.

 - serve the salad on a plate and place tuna on top and creme fraiche on the side.

Verdict - Bruno would have preferred it without the creme fraiche but I liked it. It would still be as tasty without!

p.s. I have to say a big THANK YOU to our neighbours Dr John and Dr Lesley(parents of Alessia’s future husband, he’s 7 months), they took on the daunting task of inviting us to a BBQ last night. John was shaking in his boots about cooking my steak right and it was absolutely perfect - RARE just the way we like it! The grilled banana with dark chocolate sauce was surprisingly good and the espresso ended off a perfect evening. Thanks guys!!:) 

A couple of years ago when we were in Positano, the lido(cafe) on the beach did the best “insalata di riso”. We had it everyday for lunch along with a caprese salad, a mixed squid and calamari salad and probably 2 panini with the freshest buffalo mozzarella and parma ham and 2 Peroni beer or white wine to wash it down! I know - savages!! It is such a nice change for us when we go to Italy for someone else to do the cooking and we can relax and enjoy the good food and wine!!

When the weather is really nice here it always brings up memories of past holidays in Italy and of course this always involves what food we ate. We were trying to decide what to eat in this weather and this salad is perfect, Bru’s mom often makes it and she showed me a couple of years ago how to make it,  not for my benefit mind you but for her son! Italian “mammas” and their sons!

There’s a little bit of work involved in the preparation but it is worth it, jars of vegetables are used instead of fresh as it would be too labour intensive if you had to cook all the vegetables!!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• Carnaroli rice -  I used half a box
• jar of carrots - finely chopped  - I used half.
• jar of french beans - finely chopped - used half.
• 10 green olives - finely chopped
• jar of Italian onions - handful finely chopped
• jar of artichokes - handful finely chopped
• 2 slices cooked ham - diced
• 2 slices mortadella - diced
• 1/2 block emmental cheese - diced
• handful frozen peas cooked and cooled.
• teaspoon of mustard
• red wine vinegar
• salt
• olive oil

WHAT TO DO:

 - if you don’t like any of the above ingredients just omit them and replace them with whatever you like. Basically any vegetable can go into this salad. I’ve just given a rough idea of the quantities I used but you can put in as much or as little as you like

 - cook your carnaroli rice in a pot of  boiling water until soft - takes about 18-20 mins! Don’t over cook and make sure you stir occasionally so it doesn’t stick together. Drain when cooked and rince under cold water until it has cooled to prevent it from cooking anymore.

 - in the base of a large bowl mix your mustard and red wine vinegar.

 - add in all your ingredients, season with salt, add some olive oil and mix together.

We had a huge salad bowl which lasted a couple of days, the picture above is a result of me sitting out on the deck in the evening sun when the princess had gone for a snooze, it was so nice just to relax with a glass of vino bianco and a big bowl of rice salad all on my lonesome - pure bliss!!

Buon Appetito!

 - another entry for the heart of the matter blogging event!