It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort to cook a delicious meal. This quick pasta dish was inspired by Simona’s insalata di pasta, salmone e pomodori. Her version was made with canned salmon and uncooked tomatoes and served lukewarm by mixing the cooked pasta with the cold sauce. That would certainly … Continue reading
It is not often that fresh apricots are available here, and as they were not very ripe I thought they’d be most suited to make a sauce. I decided to follow the example of Conor, the king of meat with fruit, and serve the apricot sauce with pork. I decided on pork tenderloin, but pork … Continue reading
If it’s too hot right now to turn on the oven where you are, save this recipe for later, because it is easy and delicious. Cod, potatoes, and tomatoes are all cooked together in the oven with garlic and herbs (the tomatoes with basil, the cod and potatoes with rosemary). The only difficult part to … Continue reading
These fennel ravioli are heavily inspired on these fennel ‘meatballs’ (polpette) that I discovered in Sicily at the great trattoria Tischi Toschi in Taormina. I prepare a lot of fennel, either in a salad, in pasta, or braised as a side. Usually I don’t use the tops/fronds, and save them in the freezer to make the … Continue reading
Even in the moderate Dutch climate in summer we have days that are so warm that it is nicer to cook outside than inside. What is locally called “barbecue” is usually a festive meal where everyone participates in the cooking process. This involves mostly cheap meat that ends up burnt on the outside and undercooked … Continue reading
The popularity of picanha as a cut of beef to be prepared on the grill (BBQ) hails from Brazil, and that is why the cut is known under its Brazilian (Portuguese) name. It is called rump cover or rump cap in English, or staartstuk in Dutch. It has a triangular shape and is covered by … Continue reading
A simple fruit salad can be made special by the addition of a bit of rose water. Rose water is made by steeping rose petals in water and originates in Iran and India. It has a wonderful smell of roses. Berries you buy in the supermarket are sometimes a touch underripe, so a bit of honey … Continue reading
This is an elegant dish for a dinner party that is easy to prepare. Flatfish with mint sauce is a combination I saw in one of Biba Caggiano’s cookbooks. In this case I used sole. If turbot is the king of flatfish, then sole certainly is the queen. But you could also use turbot or … Continue reading
Spain is very proud of its jamón iberico, and rightly so. The cured ham is made from a special breed of pig (known simply as iberico in Spain, but abroad often called pata negra because of the black hooves) and the best quality is fed with acorns (bellota). Jamón iberico isn’t cheap, so when you … Continue reading
It is always a treat when friends cooks for me. This simple but tasty dish is based on an appetizer that our friends Merel and Barthold served at a dinner party at their house. As usual with simple recipes, it all comes down to the best quality ingredients and good technique. Ceviche is a latin … Continue reading
Scaloppine are a popular secondo in Italy because they are delicious and quick to prepare. Thin slices of meat are pounded even thinner and then served with all kinds of sauces, like balsamic, Marsala, with eggplant, mozzarella and tomato, or the most famous version with prosciutto and sage: Saltimbocca. They are supposed to be veal, … Continue reading
Rillettes are usually made from meat, cooked slowly in fat until tender enough to be easily shredded, and then mixed with the fat. When my friend Robert mentioned he’d been gifted some skate and asked me to prepare it, skate rillettes is what I came up with. Rillettes are usually cooked in fat of the same animal, … Continue reading
Sachertorte is a famous cake from Vienna that I had never made before. Thanks to CampariGirl’s post I was reminded of it. A Sachertorte is a chocolate cake with two layers, separated by a layer of apricot jam and finished with a chocolate glaze. It was invented in 1832 and is still served in the Sacher Hotel … Continue reading
If you’ve been following my blog for some time, you may have noticed I really like the pairing of smoked eel with celeriac. And here is yet another dish based upon that combination, with the addition of toasted hazelnuts. The celeriac is pressure cooked with baking soda to caramelize it and deepen the flavor. The smoked … Continue reading
In Italy many recipes have a “rosso” version (with tomatoes) and a “bianco” version (without tomatoes). For instance, a “pizza bianca” means a pizza without tomatoes. This also goes for pasta sauces, amatriciana is usually rossa, but amatriciana bianca also exists (which is also called alla gricia). A famous recipe from Tuscany and Umbria is papparadelle … Continue reading
Stefano of Italian Home Cooking has done it again: he posted a delicious traditional Italian recipe that I had not heard of before. I love Ragù alla Napoletano, which is a large piece of beef braised in tomato sauce. The tomato sauce obtains a wonderful beefy flavor, and is served over pasta as primo piatto. Then … Continue reading
I don’t prepare enough classic French dishes, but luckily Nadia of Maison Travers keeps posting recipes to inspire me to cook more of them. In this case monkfish with Américaine sauce. This sauce, originally named Armoricaine, doesn’t have anything to do with America but has instead been named after Armorica, the ancient name for the … Continue reading
This dish requires only seven ingredients: lamb shank, salt, pepper, thyme, flour, egg, and pecorino cheese. The lamb shank is cooked sous-vide, then shredded, and fresh homemade pasta is tossed with the shredded meat and the juices from the sous-vide bag. Finally it is served with freshly grated pecorino cheese. That’s it. For such a … Continue reading
Boeuf Bourguignon is a famous beef stew from the French region of Burgundy. The beef is stewed with red wine and served with mushrooms and pearl onions in a rich beefy sauce. I’ve posted before how to make it on the stovetop or using a pressure cooker. It is delicious, if you succeed in stewing the beef … Continue reading
Slow roasting is my favorite way to prepare cauliflower, and this time of the year I prepare it often (using this recipe or something similar). Slow roasting means it will take longer (90 minutes to 2 hours), but the cauliflower will have much greater depth of flavor compared to roasting it quickly in a hotter … Continue reading
There are so many food blogs out there that it is hard to find the really good ones. But once in a while I discover a new food blog that I really like, and one of those is Stefano’s Italian Home Cooking. After trying his hand at being a cookbook writer and chef, he now teaches … Continue reading
I don’t prepare artichokes very often, because they are usually too expensive for what will be left after you clean them. This is what I commented when Jo of Frascati Cooking That’s Amore recently blogged about a recipe from Lombardia for oven-roasted artichokes with parmigiano, breadcrumbs, and mint. Lo and behold, just a few days … Continue reading
When I saw swordfish on sale at the market, I knew what we were going to have for dinner. I love swordfish, but it is often hard to get it fresh (frozen means it will be dry) and for a reasonable price. Swordfish is very meaty with a mild fish flavor. I served with ratatouille … Continue reading
One of my favorite Italian food bloggers was Silva Rigobello. Unfortunately I have to write in past tense, as she passed away in 2015. I still prepare her recipes from time to time, and in this case it is a pineapple and coconut cake that is more American in origin than Italian. I wish she could … Continue reading
Following other blogs is a great way to discover new recipes. I saw a Mexican shrimp meatball soup on my blogging buddy’s Kathryn’s blog, Anotherfoodieblogger. Regular albóndigas from Spain are meatballs cooked in tomato sauce, but these shrimp balls are cooked in something that is more like a tomato soup. You should buy shrimp with heads and shells for … Continue reading
In summer there is ample choice of fresh produce to choose from, but in winter we have to make do with what is available, especially if you want to cook with local seasonal ingredients. Fresh peas are only available in summer, but dried split peas are available year round. In the Netherlands they are used … Continue reading
Celeriac and smoked eel work very well together, and I’ve posted recipes using them before. This time, I added hazelnuts to the mix and created a restaurant style appetizer. The celeriac is prepared in three ways: as a very smooth creamy puree, smoked cubes, and as a crispy chip. The smoked eel is used to … Continue reading
Recently we had green apple and goat cheese as dessert at Restaurant Jacob in Leiden. I have a few bottles of a wonderful late harvest Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre that I thought would work particularly well with that combination. And that is how I came up with this very simple but delicious dessert of green … Continue reading
You can encounter baby octopus in a hot red sauce all along the long Italian coastline. “Alla diavola” refers to the use of chilli flakes. You can make it as hot or as mild as you like. If you are fortunate enough to have access to good ripe tomatoes and fresh baby octopus, all the … Continue reading
After reading Conor’s post in which he showed us how to prepare delicious roast leg of goat, I got curious and wanted to try goat meat, too. Now there are a lot of goats in the Netherlands, kept primarily for milking, but since there is no local market for the meat it all gets exported. And … Continue reading
