We love risotto and so I think of new risotto recipes on a regular basis. The basis of almost each risotto is risotto rice, onion, stock, white wine, butter, and parmigiano. The type of stock and other ingredients added determine the … Continue reading Cauliflower Risotto (Risotto al Cavolfiore)
There isn’t much Dutch cuisine to speak of, but a popular tasty dish that is available all along the coast is “schol met patat en sla”, or fried plaice with fries and salad. Plaice is a flatfish that is common … Continue reading Fried Plaice with Remoulade Sauce
I love to prepare sea bass sous-vide followed by crisping up the skin in clarified butter. This way it is possible to have crispy skin (using flour and clarified butter) combined with tender juicy flesh (by cooking sous-vide). Everybody loves … Continue reading Sea Bass with Triple Fennel
If you like chocolate, you will love these chocolate bombs. They use the same batter as the flourless chocolate cake I posted ages ago, but they bake more quickly and there is no need to glaze them. The secret ingredient … Continue reading Flourless Chocolate Muffins
Homemade ravioli are my specialty. I love to serve them at dinner parties and delight my guests with those parcels of delicate pasta with a scrumptious stuffing. The keys to good ravioli are to make the pasta as thin as … Continue reading Shrimp Ravioli (Ravioli ai Gamberoni)
When we paid Jo of My Home Food That’s Amore a visit this summer, she gave us some goodies including a box of calamarata pasta. Thanks, Jo! The name of this pasta sounds like calamari, because these pasta rings resemble … Continue reading Calamarata Pasta with Swordfish Ragù (Calamarata con Ragù di Pesce Spada)
Black autumn truffles (Tuber Uncinatum) are in season and they are not as expensive as white truffles (Tuber Magnatum Pico). They are also not as fragrant, but for fragrant truffles their freshness is more important than their color. I’ve already … Continue reading Fresh Truffle Risotto (Risotto al Tartufo)
This is what I came up with when I put my mind to creating a dessert made from vegetables. I sweetened freshly juiced beetroot, fennel, and ginger and then turned it into a sorbet. To keep the flavor as fresh … Continue reading Beetroot, Fennel and Ginger Sorbet
When we told Lucia of the B&B we stayed at in Roseto degli Abruzzi that we were going to visit the Calanchi di Atri, a beautiful landscape close to the town of Atri, she advised me to also check out … Continue reading Pan Ducale
Bologna is famous for being the food capital of Italy. The best-known pasta dishes from Bologna are tagliatelle (not spaghetti!) alla bolognese and lasagne alla bolognese, both made with fresh egg pasta and the famous ragù alla bolognese. Being the … Continue reading Gramigna al Ragù di Salsiccia (Fresh Pasta with Sausage Ragù)
This recipe is best when cooked sous-vide, but it is also great to prepare in the oven. The two sauces are what take it over the top. Even if you don’t like lamb or you don’t cook sous-vide this post … Continue reading Lamb Shank with Eggplant and Yogurt
Indonesian cuisine is very popular in the Netherlands, which is not surprising due to its deliciousness and our shared history. One of the best known side dishes is stewed spicy green beans (or long beans), often referred to as sambalboontjes. Indonesian … Continue reading Indonesian Spicy Green Beans (Sambal Goreng Buncis/Sambalboontjes)
We love blue cheese but I had not prepared anything with blue cheese in a while. Then for some reason I thought of pairing celeriac with blue cheese in a pasta dish, and it works! The celeriac becomes slightly sweet … Continue reading Pasta with Celeriac and Blue Cheese
Don’t these look great? I made and posted about vegetarian stuffed round zucchini a while ago. When I saw REMCooks’ post Stuffed 8 Ball Zucchini with the round zucchini stuffed with ground meat, I was inspired to create these round zucchini … Continue reading Round Zucchini Stuffed with Pork and Chipotle
This looks like a perfectly normal plate of Tagliatelle alla Bolognese. But in fact it is not, because these homemade tagliatelle have been made without gluten. A friend who suffers from celiac disease was coming over for dinner, and I decided not … Continue reading Homemade Gluten Free Pasta
What many of us know as ‘Mexican food’, is actually Tex-Mex or another Americanized version of Mexican food. And so I was very excited when I was invited to a party of my new Mexican friend Alain, for which he … Continue reading Chicken with Chipotle and Mushrooms (Pollo con Chipotle y Champiñones)
Many of our favorite recipes have come about as a way to use up leftovers. Nowadays we are so used to an overabundance of food in large parts of the world, that eating too much is more of a problem … Continue reading French Toast Sous-vide
In 2007 during our first wine discovery tour through Italy, we visited Castello di Brolio in Tuscany and had dinner at the restaurant that was part of the winery. They served a tasting menu to showcase their wines, and with … Continue reading Cheese Ravioli
When I saw the Blood Orange Polenta Cake on Please Pass The Recipe, I made a note on my Coming Soon page to remind myself to make it. It was a logical choice as dessert for the gluten free dinner … Continue reading Orange Almond Cake
Many pasta dishes are great for a weeknight meal, as they take no longer to prepare than it takes to cook the pasta. This is another example of such a dish, not a classic Italian recipe but something that came … Continue reading Pasta with Rabbit and Fennel (Penne Coniglio e Finocchio)
Today’s recipe is Mediterranean-style lamb shoulder marinated and then cooked sous-vide in a yogurt marinade, and served with lamb stock-infused cous cous and grilled zucchini. The combination of all three together is delicious. I had never prepared lamb marinated with yogurt … Continue reading Lamb Sous-Vide with Couscous and Zucchini
For the first time ever I’m going to cook dinner for someone who is gluten intolerant. (Luckily her version of the intolerance allows me to use my regular kitchen equipment as long as it has been cleaned.) I’m not going to … Continue reading My First Gluten Free Bread
Giallo Zafferano is one of the most popular Italian cooking websites, with anchorwoman Sonia Peronaci now on Italian TV daily with a recipe. Recently she presented Cicatielli con cozze e fagioli. The combination of mussels and beans was a new … Continue reading Fresh Pasta Dumplings with Mussels and Beans (Cicatielli con Cozze e Fagioli)
Fish is easily overcooked, and so the precise temperature control of sous-vide cooking is great to always obtain tender juicy fish that is perfectly cooked. Moreover, vacuum sealing the fish with a marinade allows the marinate to penetrate optimally while … Continue reading Thai Style Sole Sous-Vide
Etxebarri is a restaurant unlike any other restaurant I’ve ever eaten at before. It located in the Atxondo valley in the Basque country between San Sebastian and Bilbao. Etxebarri is an “asador”, a grill restaurant that cooks on a wood-fired … Continue reading Dining in Spain: Etxebarri*
The Basque city of San Sebastián boasts one of the highest densities of Michelin stars in the world. We went there for a few days to try the local cuisine, and one of the highlights of our trip was our … Continue reading Dining in Spain: Martín Berasategui***
Different types of pasta can be found all over Italy. Especially the shapes are different everywhere, but there are also differences in the pasta dough. Generally speaking, fresh pasta is made with eggs and 00 flour in the North, and … Continue reading ‘Water’ Gnocchi with Sage Pesto (Gnocchi all’Acqua al Pesto di Salvia)
The secret to a great linguine ai frutti di mare is to use fresh seafood and to use the juices of the vongole and a stock made from the shrimp heads and shells for the sauce. It is a bit of … Continue reading Linguine ai Frutti di Mare
We love to eat seafood and I prepare it at least twice a week, but for a food blogger with an Italian inclination it doesn’t provide much material to blog about. The Italian kitchen is very diverse with different dishes in each … Continue reading Fish Sous-vide Cajun Style
Marinara sauce is the American-Italian term for tomato sauce, but in Italy it usually refers to a sauce prepared in the style of the seaman’s wife and is a tomato-based sauce with seafood. I really liked the risotto alla marinara … Continue reading Risotto alla Marinara (Risotto with Fish)
