So in Milan we did a lot… of eating!
We arrived in Milan early Friday afternoon. After taking a taxi to the apartment and drinking coffee, we walked to the grocery store across the square. I was amazed, this was a small, little grocery store, compared to American, or even Dutch stores. The selection, however, was amazing. The deli counter had everything you’d possibly ever wanted.
I got francescani bread (actually not sure about the name anymore…), some porcetta, a piece of asiago cheese and a tomato. We went back to the apartment and ate a wonderful lunch.
After lunch we went to the Duomo, into the mall, I spun around on the bull’s balls for luck, we had a drink, we went into La Rinascente where I bought a chef’s hat! We then slowly started walking back towards our own area. It was about an hour’s walk, but it was really hot, so we kept taking breaks, sitting down in a park and such. When we got closer to home we still didn’t feel very hungry, probably due to the heat, but figured we had to start looking for a restaurant. We ended up at a little restaurant fairly close to home. We ordered a bottle of water and a half-bottle of white wine and received some fresh hot flatbread (pizza crust with olive oil, basically). We agreed on ordering a full meal instead of just a pizza (it was a ristorante/pizzeria so just pizza would’ve been acceptable). I couldn’t choose between the plain penne all’arrabiata and fussili alla carbonarita or carbonarina or something like that (I completely forgot the name, it wasn’t carbonara, but the first part of the name was completely alike.) We swiched plates halfway through our pasta course.
We followed the pasta course with the meat course. We had the tagliate (thin sliced beef) with pepe verde (green peppercorns) and rosemary. And monza with a grean pepper cream sauce. Both very very tasty and again swiched halfway through. Loved both! We ended out dinner with a cup of espresso, which led to the waiter telling us his whole proud story about the coffee and how good it was. It WAS good!
The next morning started out with coffee at home. We proceeded towards the castello and had our breakfast at a little cafe down there. We had cappuccino’s and cornetto’s (croissants). I then proceeded letting L eat mine and ordering a brioche with chocolate, as we got a croissant filled with marmalade, which I don’t eat. The chocolate brioche was wonderful!
After the castello and a lot of walking around we went home for lunch. I got the same breads as the previous day, though Saturday I bought some spianata calabra, some prosciutto di parma, a fresh mozzarella, some fresh pesto and more tomatoes. I got a lot, as the store would be closed on Sunday. We went home and ate and took a nap. It was too hot to do anything anymore anyway.
That evening we went to the Brera district. We had a gelato (I had nocciola, hazelnut and amaretto flavors. Yumm! We went on to a terrace for a drink, then started walking around until we found a not-so-touristy restaurant. It really was just a neighborhood dive, which was just what I hoped for!
I ordered spaghetti alla carbonara, the real deal, no cream, and then a grilled steak which had a name on the menu which L didn’t even recognize. I figured I was adventurous and would go for it. It was just a perfectly grilled bone-in piece of meat, served with a piece of lemon to squeeze over. I also ordered a side salad. L had spaghetti with pesto and scallopina alla marsala, which was awesome as well (I demanded a bite!). We had white wine yet again, as it was nice to drink something chilled in the hot weather, and ended with another nice cup of espresso. I don’t usually drink caffeine that late at night, but you can’t not drink espresso in Italy, right?
Sunday morning. Yet again coffee at home, then outside and cappuccino’s and cornetto’s at a coffee place around the corner. We wanted to go to an antique market, but it apparently wasn’t there anymore. We proceeded on to the cemetery to walk around then home for lunch, the rest of the previous day’s food.
Another nap and cooling off in the apartment and outside for dinner. Back into the center, a little walking, an aperitivo at a cafe in the Duomo area. I didn’t really want to eat there though, as it was all way too touristy. Now it’s impossible to find bad food in Milan, I’m convinced, but still, didn’t want the touristy stuff. So we went and walked again, then took the subway more towards our own area (though not quite) and ended up in a tiny little restaurant. They specialized mostly in fish, but they had meat dishes too. I started off with gnocchetti alla taleggio and then had another tagliate with rosemary and green pepper. It was wonderful yet again. L had a steak with a mustard sauce, which was absolutely amazing. (We make a point of not ordering the same dishes, so we can taste each others, or so we don’t look like the stupid couples who want the same of everything. We didn’t want to take the Fiorentine, as that was just tooooo big and the 4th and last meat dish was sold out, which explain my re-run of tagliate). Sunday evening was the first time we ordered dessert, I wanted a piece of tiramisu and L was willing to help me eat it. Coffee to end all with again.
Mondaymorning meant shopping for me, but not before our usual cappuccino and cornetto. I bought a couple of dresses and a pair of pants and then we walked on down the corso buenos aires. Halfway through we were ready for cold air and lunch, so we went into a restaurant that had air conditioning. I had a wonderful panino with breaded chicken, tomato and lettuce. Once cooled off we walked on for a little bit and then proceeded home to cool of, shower and rest. Around 8-ish we walked over to L’s cousin’s across the street, where we’d been invited for dinner.
At L’s cousin, we started off with aperitivo and pleasant conversation. It was hard, and not that well-performed, but I did practice my Italian more that I’d had the rest of the week. We had spaghetti with fresh made pesto (the basil was cut from the garden about 5 minutes before dinner) and cotoletta alla Milanese with melanzane (eggplant) and zucchine. I skipped the after-dinner fruit, but did enjoy a limoncello before my coffee. It was absolutely wonderful.
Monday marked our last day. After the usual cappuccino and cornetto and 2 new pairs of shoes we got our usual bread and meat lunch (Salami Milanese and Parmacotto) and finished off the last of the tomatoes and pesto. We cleaned up the apartment and left for the airport. Then we bought a giant hunk of parmigiano cheese to take home and left Milan.
It was a wonderful, lovely and very very tasty vacation!!!!
So I’m all Italian themed here, as you can see. 2 Italian dishes in a row. But both had been promised previously. I’ve been wanting to make my own gnocchi for a long time, but still haven’t succeeded. I don’t have one of those potato strainers, or whatschamacallit, which is essential for good home made gnocchi. I figured I could get away with buying it once more though, instead of making inferior gnocchi myself.
Now there are about a zillion different recipes for gnocchi, like there are insane amounts of general pasta recipes. One of the versions I like, is the ‘alla Sorrentina’ version. Or at least something like that. I’ll always have to improvise a little, obviously.
Now while I was cooking this, I was also cleaning the kitchen, which led me to not look at it all too closely, which resulted in it almost burning. Oh-oh. Fortunately I thought of it just in time and saved the dish.
Now this is a very very simple version. It’s gnocchi al forno, from the oven. Most of the cooking, as usual, is done outside the oven though. Making the sauce, cutting the meat, boiling the gnocchi, but all in all it still isn’t all that much work.
[print_this]Gnocchi alla Sorrentina-ish
- 1 package of passata di pommodoro
- 1 clove garlic
- some olive oil
- 1 beef shank
- 1 package gnocchi
- some fresh basil
- 1 piece of fresh mozzarella
Pour some olive oil in a Dutch oven and place the shank and a crushed clove of garlic in there. Once the shank has browned a slight bit, Pour in the tomato sauce. Let it simmer for a while, to infuse the flavors. Once the meat has been fully cooked and you feel like it’s been cooking long enough, remove the shank from the pan, cut the meat off, into little pieces and put the pieces back into the tomato sauce.
Boil the gnocchi, they’re done once they start floating. Remove them from the pot using a slotted spoon and place them in the tomato sauce.
Cut the basil into thin strips and stir about 3/4 of it through the gnocchi/tomato mixture. Pour all of that in a casserole dish. Sprinkle the rest of the basil on top, cut the mozarella into smallish pieces and place that through and over the gnochhi. Place in a hot oven until all the mozzarella has melted and the top pieces have browned just a slight bit. Enjoy!!!
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I still owed you my ham and pea pasta recipe. We ate it when I needed a quick dinner after I came home way late after a meeting. I didn’t even feel like making my own pasta anymore, I was so tired. and making pasta really doesn’t take all that much time. But I couldn’t help it, I was beat.
Kinda like now, I should really get myself to bed, but I can’t go, still have to write this up. That’s how much I love you! Aren’t you flattered? Oh please, say you’re flattered.
So I was tired, and needed food. Something tasty, something comforting, something quick. I still had some ham in the fridge, there’s always cream and so this dish was born.
I can tell you, it was comforting!
[print_this]Pasta with ham and peas
- 1 serving pasta per person (fresh or dried)
- A package of sliced ham
- about a cup of frozen peas
- a generous pour of heavy cream
- italian seasoning
- olive oil
- pepper
- salt
- parmigiano
Put a pot of water on your stove and get it to boil. Drizzle some olive oil in a pan and add the ham, brown it a little, add a pinch of salt, some fresh ground pepper and the italian seasoning. Pour the cream into the pan with the ham, add the frozen peas. Cook until everything is heated, but don’t let the peas get mushy. In the mean time cook the pasta, drain and add the cooked noodles to the pan with the sauce. Stir (don’t squish the peas) so that everything is covered in sauce. Sprinkle a little parmigiano over the pasta and enjoy!
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As you might’ve noticed by my lack of blogging, food hasn’t been on top of my list of priorities lately. I’ve been very busy with more time pressing matters.
- Getting our house ready for viewings, squeaky clean houses apparently sell faster.
- Visiting our new house, and being amazed by how much the yard grew. In size, ya know!
- Thinking about how to decorate the house.
- Browsing around the interweb to find cute findings for the house.
- Trying to decide whether or not to build a walk-in-closet into our new bedroom.
- Fantasizing about what to do with different rooms in the new house.
- Fantasizing about my giant kitchen, where to put everything, what kind of big table I’d like.
- Watching tv and hanging out with L.
- Not posting too many pictures, so I don’t exceed my bandwith before L moves my website.
- Trying to fix bugs.
- Work.
- More work.
- Meetings.
- Sailing classes.
- Mentally preparing for a long weekend in Milan.
- Trying to decide whether I should buy new shoes for Milan here, or in Milan.
- Deciding I should do both!
- Deciding what kind of kithcen gadgets I’ll need to buy while in ITaly.
- Browsing around the interweb to find fun things to do in Milan, even though L already knows everything.
- Procrastinating, and trying to convince myself to do my laundry.
- Procrastinating a little more and realizing I need to also clean the kitchen.
- Instead of cleaning the kitchen, watch tv and write this blog.
- Eat ice cream.
See, that’s a long long list of things I’m doing instead of blogging, even if blogging is one of those things. Sort of.
I still promised you all the recipe for my fancy-schmancy potatoes. I got the idea and the cutting technique from Kayotic Kitchen. I then rolled with it and made it my own. I hope you like them!
[print_this]Fancy-schmancy potatoes
4 medium potatoes
- about 4 heaping tsp of lard
- a generous sprinkle of Mt. Elbert all purpose seasoning
Pre-heat your oven to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Peel and wash your potatoes. One by one place a potato on a spoon and cut into thin slices. They’ll still be attached at the bottom, kind of like a harmonica. Sprinkle a generous amount of Mt. Elbert seasoning over the potato. Then drop a heaping teaspoonful of lard on the potato and using a knife or a finger spread it all over the potato and slightly into the cuts. The seasoning will be mixed with the lard and pushed into the cuts with the lard. This is a good thing. A very good thing!
Repeat for all 4 potatoes and place them in the oven dish. Place dish in the oven and bake until the potatoes are tender, 30 to 45 minutes depending on the size of the individual potatoes.
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These potatoes, cooked in lard are so incredibly tender. You can just eat those, with nothing else.
So tender, so tasty.
I have no idea how they’d turn out cooked with something else than lard. I do have the feeling that the lard contributes largely to the tenderness, but I bet they’d still be tasty cooked with butter as well.
So believe it or not, I’d never ever had Angel Food Cake before this week. I kid you not!
Angel Food Cake isn’t something that really exists in Holland, or at least I’ve never encountered it. And for some reason I’d never had it in the US either. I’m guessing my friends and family just like other types of cakes better.
I had a ton of egg whites left after making ice cream and tiramisu. To be quite honest, there’s another jar full of egg whites in my freezer now. 18 cupcakes for 2 people is enough, thank you very much! I will not make more until we’ve finished those. They’re in the freezer now and I’ll just defrost them as we go, all 14 that are left right now.
Now I’d been looking around for recipes that would use up my egg whites. A souffle would use egg whites, but I still haven’t found the perfect souffle dish. While browsing around the most egg-white-rich recipe I found was Angel Food Cake. It even called for far more egg-whites than I had left.
Now every recipe said to use a special Angel Food Cake pan. Since I don’t have one, I figured cupcakes would have to do.
I was amazed at the recipe. Even though it called for a lot of whipped egg whites, surely a cake batter would need butter, and yolks and lots and lots of flour???
I couldn’t really believe it. It was all sugar and eggwhites, just your average meringue, with a tiny, tiny amount of flour.
Surely this wouldn’t become cake, right? It can’t be! It’s impossible, or is it???
I figured now that everything’s been whipped, it doesn’t hurt to try. I lined a total of 18 muffin tins (are they still tins if they’re plastic, or silicone?) with cute red and white polka-dotted cupcake liners. I scopped in my cake batter, which wasn’t as easy as it sounds. The stuff will not release off your spoon without some serious effort. But I prevailed and 10 minutes later the cupcakes were baking.
Now timing is everything, so I think I’ll leave them in a few minutes less the next time I make them. Or I’ll invest in the special pan and not worry about figuring our how long individual cupcakes take compared to 1 big cake.
Also I’ll be more careful removing them, to prevent collapse. It’s all a learning curve. The good thing though, is that now they have a nice flat top, which will work great for frosting, if I decide to do that one day.
Not now though, right now I’ll just post my pictures and recipe here, and take a look at the breakfast casserole that’s in the oven.
[print_this]Angel Food Cupcakes (recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com, makes 18 small cupcakes)
- 3/4 cup egg whites (approximately 6)
- 1/2 cup and 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (fine) castor sugar
Separate the eggs and get the egg whites to room temperature (don’t discard your yolks though, you can use them for ice cream, or tiramisu). Add the cream of tartar, extracts and salt to the egg whites. Whip them and once they come close to soft peak stage, slowly add in the castor sugar. Keep whipping the egg whites until they form very stiff peaks.
Sift the flour and powdered sugar together a couple of times, to make sure it’s fully mixed and every possible lump is gone. Using about a third of the flour mixture at a time, carefully fold the flour into the egg whites. Make sure to do this VERY gently so they don’t deflate too much.
Line muffin tins with cupcake liners (use cute ones!) and fill the liners with the cake batter. Make sure not to grease them as the cake won’t rise (as much). Place the cupcakes in a pre-heated oven (350 degrees F/175 degrees C) for about 15 to 20 minutes. Check for doneness. If they are nice and light brown on top and bounce back if you gently push them, they’re done.
Handle them carefully so they won’t collapse too much and let them cool completely (or be like me and eat one warm!!)
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For those of you who are like me, and have never had them before. Think meringue cake. They’re really really fluffy and have a texture between meringue and airy fluffy light cake. The crispy top layer tastes exactly like meringue. Try them, you can’t go wrong, they’re seriously good!
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