Some weeks ago I was then invited to a mexican cooking class in the Waitrose cookery school: Mexican food, the cookery school I wanted to visit since ages… That was an appointment I couldn’t miss!

Gently offered by Discovery ( the brand of mexican products) and by Benito’s Hat a little Mexican chain in London, I had one of the most funniest nights in months. They welcome us with an amazing margarita cocktail and then the chef teach us 2 nice mexican dishes, tasty but also easy to prepare and that I can’t wait to cook them again!

The first was Jicama salad, a fresh starter made off cocumber, lime lemons, peanuts, parmesan cheese and this Jicama, a vegetable similar to a potato. The recipe is something to surprise anyone. The second dish was  king prawns tacos with a spicy sauce made with Discovery Chipotle Paste, that was just gorgeous and that solves lots of my problem with mexican food.

Do you know what happened next??? We had the chance to use the kitchen and have a little mexican cooking competition between bloggers: I loved it! I recreate the dishes plus some little variations. I made chicken, sesame and spinach tacos with the Discovery tortillas, and then prawn tortillas with the magic chipote sauce (1 little spoon of this and 2 big spoon of mayonnaise).

But the great thing was to use all that great kitchen stuff without thinking about washing or cleaning! It’s really a privilege and they have really everything! It was really a great experience! So thanks to Discovery, Benito’s Hat, the girls who invited me and Waitrose for the space!

Ps. of course I didn’t win the competition considering there were so many great food blogger, but here is my favourite recipe: Colin from Shizzling who cooked a fantastic green mole!

Never like in the last months I met so many people in love with cheese and wine: french and italian of course, but also english, east european and australian too! The combination of good cheese, crackers, grapes or apples and a great red wine is always a winner.

So what I lately received is a beautiful cheeseboard with some vouchers to try some danish cheeses: Castello.

I normally buy cheese in the supermarket more than in delis, but mainly for a matter of time. Some of the supermarket cheeses are great anyway also if I miss lots of italian cheeses.

Castello cheeses are great for a classic cheeseboard: mainly blue cheeses but with taste and consistencies really different between them and great!

When I went to look for them, I was a bit disappointed to find in the most common supermarket just the 2 different blue cheeses , the danish blue and the creamy blue, and the reserve Herrgard, but when I tried them they were really different and great for the purpose: one milder and harder, the other one slightly different and extremely creamy that with the nutty taste of the Herrdgard … Made anyone happy!

And the cheeseboard where you can write the name of each cheese and dispose all the stuff in the most perfect way, it’s gorgeous!

I really liked and enjoyed my Castello night…and i think you can see it in these pictures!

Un sacco di pomodori (sempre utili in estate) 3 uova una scatoletta di tonno, un po’ di maionese Calve’ residua ed un po’ di formaggio. Ed ecco che mi sono inventata il rotolo di frittata tonnata!

Ho aperto il tonno, l’ho scolato e messo in un piatto con la maionese Calve’ rimasta e un po’ di sale. Da un’altra parte ho sbattuto le uova con il formaggio rimasto grattato e con un po’ di sale.

Ho cotto la frittata e nel mentre o svuotato I pomodori dal centro acquoso e li ho tagliati a pezzettini piccoli e aggiunti al tonno. Quando la frittata si e’ cotta l’ho lasciata raffreddare e poi l’ho ricorperta di un bello strato di tonno, mayonese e pomodori.

Ho creato il rotolo e poi ho fissato degli stuzzicadenti per delimitare le fette e mantenerle intatte.

Ho tagliato le fette e le ho servire con uan bella insalatina fresca.

Che ve ne pare? Io vi posso dire che era buonissimo questo rotolo ☺ e ho fatto la felicita’ di mia mamma svuotandole il frigo!

]]> http://tiltproject.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/ricetta-zero-rotolo-di-frittata-tonnata/feed/ 0 tilt2009 calve 1 Picture 1b Picture 2 Picture 3 calve 4 Picture 1 http://tiltproject.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/meringues-the-end/ http://tiltproject.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/meringues-the-end/#comments Wed, 26 Jan 2011 12:15:10 +0000 tilt2009 http://tiltproject.wordpress.com/?p=2603 Continue reading →]]> Final recipe! I still can’t believe 70 weeks are passed and 140 recipes has been cooked BY ME!! However I have loved it but like all the nice stuff, it needs to finish!

And I wanted to finish it in the best way, with a little cake for me, my 30th birthday, the end of my challenge and the 6 kilos lost! Ok I didn’t win the challenge, but I reached what I wanted: I saw that a total change is possible, that you can loose weight also enjoying food, that I’m strong enough to decide something and reach the end and finally that I can even cook my mum recipes!!! It was an amazing adventure!!!

The final recipe needed to be Meringues because it’s one of my favorite sweets and because I tried to do them so many times without any good result, that I need to solve the mystery once for ever! So here is the recipe that finally make me have my fantastic meringues that I use to make a “zuppa inglese meringata”.

Ingredients for around 30 meringues of a medium size: 4 eggs white (around 150gr), so 300gr sugar, and a pinch of salt. Then for the cream for the “zuppa inglese” just use: the 4 yolks egg remained, 4 spoons sugar, 2 spoons flour, and 400ml milk.

Start preparing your mixer. Put in it the 4 white eggs, a pinch of salt and the turn on the machine. At this point add the sugar little by little and let the machine go for around 30 minutes. Don’t stop until the point that if you place a spoon in it, the spoon will come up with a spongy dense cream that won’t fell. If really never get dense you can add a pinch of flour.

Turn on the oven at 140 degree and place some baking foil on the baking pan. Put all the mix in a pipe and create some round meringues.Put them in the oven at 120 degree for around 40 minutes or until you see them get burn underneath.
The pass them at a low grill for other 20 minutes and then again on the fire for 40 minutes. In this way they will come a bit colored and crunchy.

In the meantime use the other eggs to make this cream; mix the eggs with the sugar and then add the flour and a bit of milk just to made it fluid. Let boil the rest of the milk and then add it to the mix. Put all on a low fire until it gets thicker.

When the meringues will be ready, smash one of them in a glass,   add the cream and a full meringue on top. Enjoy my meringued zuppa inglese… I think the perfect recipe to close my blog.

PS. Mamy vi ho stupito con effetti speciali eh? Non pensavate mi potessero venire eh? E l’abbinamento con la crema?? Vuoi vedere che TILT dopo tutto questo cucinare e’ anche diventata una semi esperta???

I love also the blended version also called in french ‘potage’. That’s my favourite! It’s always good to have some of it in the fridge and take it out when you don’t really know what to eat.

The ingredients my mum uses for 3 people are:  a little piece of celery, 2 carrots, 2 courgettes, half onion, a quarter of cabbage, 1 potato, some parsley, a garlic clove, 150 gr beans 130gr chopped tomatoes, 1 stock and water.

The process is a bit long but easy: place some olive oil in a pan and hot it up. Then add the finely chopped onion, garlic cloves and parsley. When the onion starts to become goldish, add the peeled tomatoes sauce and the beans already drained by the water.

Mix it all and let it cook. In the meantime cut the cabbage in thin slices and then in half again. Add it to the saucepan and pour a good quantity of water. Mix all the ingredients every now and then to avoid them to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Wash and cut in cubes the courgettes, the carrots and the potato, and then add them too to the pan. Let it cook for around 20-30 minutes and then have a try to know if it’s missing some salt, pepper or anything else.
When the Borlotti are cooked, add the pasta if you want: the right pasta shape for this dish are little tubs but quite thick.

Let the pasta cook in the same pan with the soup so the starch released will give taste and thickness to the minestrone. When ready, serve it hot with some grated Parmesan, parsley or simply olive oil if you like it.

PS. Mamy il minestrone m’e’ venuto benissimo un po’ piu’ denso e meno verde del tuo, sospetto per la verza che era bella grossa e l’ho usata tutta… ah che bello finalmente posso fare anche io il minestrone qui!!! Come sono contenta!

Ingredients for 4 people: 400gr penne (this shape is a must for this recipe), 300ml of passata of tomato, olive oil, 1 chili, 2 garlic cloves, some parsley, salt and some grated Pecorino cheese.

Put some oil in a pan with the garlic cloves in pieces and the chili cut in slices. Let the oil take the taste of these ingredients and when the garlic start to get colored turn of the fire to get the oil inven more tasty. I prefer to take off the garlic after but this depends by your taste.

While boiling the pasta(the recipe is quick so you can do both together) add the passata to the pan and let it cook a bit adding some salt if needed. When the pasta is ready toss it in the suace and serve it just adding the chopped parsley and some grated Pecorino! Easy and delicious! Enjoy!

PS. Mamy e’ proprio vero, i piatti piu’ semplici sono sempre i migliori. Erano anni che non mangiavo penne all’arrabbiata e devo dire che non deludono mai!

Let them cool down and pass all in a mixer. Then whip the cream and add it to the apple mix to create the mousse. When ready, just place it in the fridge.

While the apples mix can be prepared the day before and put it in the fridge, the zabaione need to be prepared the same day that you are going to serve it and placed on top of the mousse and in the fridge. In this way, this recipe it’s perfect when you have guests and you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen or fight with the oven!

PS. Mamy, questo dessert ha battuto ogni aspettativa…anche da parte mia! a me che non piace molto lo zabaione, il misto con la mousse di mele e’ sembrato meraviglioso. Insomma addirittura meglio di cio’ che ricordassi! Buonissimo…io c’ho pure aggiunto una spruzzata di cannella all fine!

I cook this meat in a friends place and it was great to spend the cooking time with a chat and a glass of wine instead to be alone and waiting for the meat to be ready… and they simply loved the dish!

Ingredients for 4 people: 700gr of veal shoulder (i found it in Waitrose), 200gr mushroom, 125gr grated Emmenthal, 500ml milk, 3 spoons of flour, 4 spoons of butter, 1 spoon of olive oil.

Put some oil in a big sauce pan and place the meat in there to cook slowly for around 1hour, 1hour and half, turning the meat every now and then.  In another pan place a spoon of butter and the mushrooms finely chopped. Cook them for 15 minutes.

Then start preparing the besciamella like explained here, and put some spoons of besciamella in the mushrooms with all the grated Emmenthal and steer.

When the meat is all well colored, cut it in slices, so you can als check the state of the cooking. Place the meat on a baking pan with some alluminium foil. Put some of the mushroom and cheese sauce under the meat, betweek the slices and on top.

Place all in the oven already hot, but at a low temperature for a round one hour, but it also depends by the status of the meat if it’s already well coocked or not. I suggest you to cover it with alluminium paper  and then take it of the last 10-15 minutes before to serve it. In this way it will be crusty on top but not burn.

PS. Mamy questa carne e’ il massimo! Era proprio la ricetta mancante per completare il blog. La salsa poi e’ inresistibile …dovevi vedere le facce dei miei amici!

Here the ingredients for 5 people: 70 gr. basil,  half a glass of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2 garlic cloves , 3 spoons of pine nuts, 3 spoons of Parmesan, 1 spoon of Pecorino cheese and a bit of gritty salt. Of course the pasta will be around 500 gr. better if the shape is “trofie”.

The procedure is quite easy, but to be traditional, you will need a marble mortar and a wooden pestle. This because instead to chop the leaves you will need to crush them to have the leaves’ oil necessary for the sauce. Wash the basil leaves in cold water and dry them on a paper towel. Don’t squeeze them.

Then crush in the mortar the garlic clove the pine nuts and the basil leaves, add  the salt, the Parmesan, the Pecorino cheese and keep pounding using a light circular movement of the pestle.

Add some of the Extra Virgin Olive from time to time and keep  mixing until  you obtain  a smooth creamy sauce. Pesto should not be greasy and the amount of oil used must be well absorbed and not floating on top.

Trofie and Trenette are the pasta used in Liguria, however linguine or spaghetti al dente will make a good companion to this sauce. Just put some sauce in each plate with sme spoon of water from the boiling pasta and mix. In this way the suace will be more creamy and ready to be mixed well with the pasta.

Just add a sprinkle of Parmesan on top and Buon Appetito!

PS. Mamy che buono! L’ho portato a casa di amici e non sai le facce quando hanno sentito l’odore appena aperta la scatolina! Fantastico e la pasta non ha nulla a che vedere con il pesto pronto! Grazie questa ricetta me la tengo proprio stretta!

Ingredients for 3 people: 50gr dried porcini mushroom and 50-100 gr fresh mashroom, garlic, salt, oil, 300 gr tagliatelle, Parmesan, white wine onion and parsley.

Put the dried mushrooms in some warm water and let them there a bit. Then pass them on the fire and let them boil. In the meantime put to boil the water for the tagliatelle. Then drain them keeping their water in a side and place them in a pan with garlic onion oil and some parsley.

Then add the fresh mushrooms in slices, some salt and some of the water you put in a side. When evaporated, add the wine and wait for it to evaporate too. Then add some more water if all the mushrooms are not cooked. When the water for the pasta will boil, add the tagliatelle following the time written on the bag. If they are really fresh they won’t take too much.

When almost al dente, I added just a bit of milk to the mushroom to make them more creamy, and then I toss in there the tagliatelle as soon as drained.

Serve it hot with some chopped parsley and Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Ps. Quant’era che non mangiavo le tagliatelle? Non mi ricordo proprio piu’! Tu le facevi ogni tanto con i funghi porcini, ma qui sono impossibili da trovare percio’ ho unito secchi con qualche fungo fresco ma ho anche aggiunto troppo rosmarino che dava un po’ un sapore amarognolo. Meglio stare alla ricetta!