CHRISTMAS EVE SEAFOOD DISHES

The Christmas Eve dinner can consists of as many seafood and fish dishes you want. As stated in other posts, the magic number is to have is 7 for La Vigilia di Natale-the wait for midnight birth of the baby Jesus.

Fresh shrimp, calamari and scallops are my favourite. Cleaning and cutting the seafood, put on a slightly greased cookie sheet and bake in the oven until cooked. Like the picture, the shrimp should be pink when done.

My family love the many dishes. Shrimps and scallops ready for the oven- then ready for eating!

A nice platter of cooked scallops and shrimps with wedges of lemon make a tasty dish. Have tartar sauce and cocktail sauce and add to your plate if you like to use them.
 Barb likes tartar sauce with her breaded fish and calamari.

My little grandchildren love calamari rings-store bought. I added some breaded halibut fish to the platter for them.

From a seafood salad to a pasta dish

using clams, shrimps and scallops in a tomatoe sauce on freshly made fettucine, the seafood dinner is way under way.

You can have a baccala soup too.

Or simply roll fish pieces in flour and fry in oil and garlic.

Along with your platters of seafood add any vegetable dishes you want. Mine this year were red peppers and rapini salad. Fresh buns are added to the table Italian style! In Italian homes around the world and especially here in Canada, this meal is such a tradition on Christmas Eve. Buon Natale!

LA LA LA PESCE FRITA- BACCALA

Baccala  is the common dish for any Christmas Eve Seafood dinner. It is salted cod. The trick is to soak the cod in water for even as long as a day to reduce the amount of salt before cooking.
Dishes include simply frying some pieces in oil and garlic on the stove.

It can be rolled in a breaded  mixture or  flour and baked in the oven along with other fish/seafood dishes.

My mother used to make a baccala soup by putting some pieces in a tomato mixture.

I don't make the soup because no one else really eats it. My family like some baked cod or baccala from the oven.

This can be dish # 3 and # 4 depending on whether you make the soup.

Baccala is a good addition  to have for anyone who has a shellfish allergy and wants to partake in the Christmas Eve Seafood dinner.

Added note- don't over soak the fish in water to remove the salt. One year I did that and there was no taste left of the fish. It was very bland!

An old Italian rhyme- la la la, pesce frita, baccala!

CHRISTMAS EVE SEAFOOD PASTA

A  Christmas Eve Seafood dinner would not be complete without a pasta dish. The dish I make is a simple clam sauce.

Buy tins of clams to make this dish easy.

Using my basic tomato sauce- saute the onions and garlic in some olive oil, add a can or two of plum tomatoes, simmering until mixed then drain the water from the clams before adding to the tomato sauce.

If you want, you can use a seafood medley as used for the appetizer.

Let the seafood sauce simmer for about an hour.

Make your own linguine or fettucine if desired or buy fresh pasta from the store or simply use the packaged kind. A long wide pasta works best with this sauce.

Cook the desired pasta, drain and add the sauce on a nice serving platter.

This can be dish #2 for the Seven Fish/Seafood dishes of Christmas Eve.

Last Christmas Eve- 2011, I made two kinds of pasta since there was a mixed crowd. The one in the foreground had a meatball sauce while the one in the background had the clam sauce. I actually used fresh clams for that night. Some people ate both pastas.
Last night- December 15, 2012, I made a seafood sauce using clams, shrimps and scallops again with the simple tomato sauce on fresh fettucine.
Added note- a good cook will improvise with the crowd being served. A seafood sauce can include whatever combination you like.

CHRISTMAS HONEY BUBBLES OR STRUFFOLI

My mother always made honey bubbles at Christmas. One of my favourite treats since I would particularly eat one whole circle myself. It is actually called Struffoli and is a Neapolitan dish. Many people throughout Italy make a variation of it.

INGREDIENTS

Dough- 3-5 cups of flour depending on how the dough holds.

4 large eggs

Tablespoon of butter

Some grated lemon rind.

Some grated orange rind.

Salt to taste.

Honey mixture- 3/4 pound( 300g) honey.

3/4 cup (150 gm) sugar.

13/cup water

Some people will put some pieces of walnut or cherries or candied orange, lemon on top at the finished product. I use Christmas sparkle or sprinkles or whatever you call them.

Added note for the dough-As with any dish that requires eggs and flour, the exact combination may vary with each cook and region. Eggs can be classified in various sizes depending on the country. So use good cook judgement by making sure the dough is firm and held together as well as using your own egg to flour ratio.

DIRECTIONS.

Put all the ingredients for the dough in a bowl and mix then knead and knead until made into a ball.

Let it sit for an hour or more.

Should be stiff.

Take off a piece at a time,  can use your pasta machine to flatten into even pieces then cutting off some and  rolling into long shapes like a skipping rope or snake making it very thin.

Cut the shapes into very tiny pieces. Sometimes a helper comes in handy.

As you are cutting the tiny pieces, the helper can be frying the cut pieces in oil. Olive oil can be used but I use vegetable oil.

Damp dry the oil off the cooked pieces.

For the honey mixture-

Put the honey, sugar and water in a pot, big enough so it can boil safely.

Boil until the foam dies down and the honey starts to turn a yellow colour.

Turn down the heat then add the cooked pieces- bubbles or struffoli.

Stir until it is completely mixed.

I put wax paper on the plate before pouring the mixture.

It is usually shaped into a wreath. Add your own topping. Mine is the coloured sprinkles. If the honey is cooked correctly, the finished product should not be runny. If it is, eat it anyway as the taste remains the same- very good!

You can see the uncooked pieces in the picture. There are two versions of the finished product. Sometimes adding little Christmas items like the Santa in the sleigh gives some festive fun.  I have not made this dish for a couple of years. It is very tedious and requires lots of patience.

For the record this is Post # 50. Again Barb made me do it.
#struffoli#italianchristmasdish#timeconsumingbutgood#gooditalianchristmasfood#honeybubbles#lotsofhoneymakeagoodstruffoli

A CHRISTMAS EVE SEAFOOD APPETIZER

For a complete Italian Christmas Eve Seafood dinner, it is fun to have  seafood or fish for every course except dessert. A simple shrimp ring with cocktail sauce could suffice if the cook is in a hurry. Another easy dish to have is the seafood salad.

INGREDIENTS

Fresh or frozen shrimp. Precooked is the easiest

Fresh or frozen calamari. Precooked is the easiest.

Or simply buy a frozen bag of seafood medley mix as featured in the photo.

Celery- one stalk.

Two garlic buds or more if wanted.

Fresh lemon or two.

Olive Oil- one or two tablespoons.

Salt, pepper to taste.


DIRECTIONS

Defrost and drain frozen seafood or cook the fresh seafood.

Chop into bite size pieces.

Chop the celery stalk into small pieces.

Dice the garlic into small pieces.

Put the ingredients into a bowl.

Add the olive oil and mix the ingredients.

Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the fresh juice onto the mixture. A second lemon does add more flavour to it. Mix well.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put in the fridge for at least two hours before serving. This allows the dish to marinate.

It can be made a day ahead if needed and kept in the fridge until ready to serve.

There are several brands of frozen ready seafood appetizers that can be added to the meal. Other non-seafood appetizers can be offered if wanted for Christmas Eve too. It depends on the crowd you are serving and what is preferred.

If trying to serve 7 seafood dishes, this could be number 1! Numero Uno!

#christmaseveseafoodappetizer#calamari#shrimp#celery#addalemonforzing#asimpleappetizerforChristmasEver#granpaloveshisseafoodappetizer#marinatetheseafoodappetizerinlemonandoliveoil#sevenseafooddishesforChristmasEve

CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER/LA VIGILIA DI NATALE

Christmas is Italy was a religion holiday. There was always good food. For Catholics there is no meat before the religious days. Thus the tradition of having seafood and fish on Christmas Eve while everyone waited for the birth of the baby Jesus. My mother would cook a variety of dishes. Apparently according to some research I did, eel is the most popular delicacy. We never had eel because no one liked it. The meal also is called the Feast of the Seven Fishes or Festa dei Sette Pesci. Coming to Canada when I was 9, we started to acquire Canadian customs such as a Christmas tree and exchanging presents on December 25th. The one important Italian tradition maintained in not only our home but other families of Italian descent was the Christmas Eve seafood dinner. For many Southern Italians not just those from the Ciociaria area, baccala-salted cod fish was the basic staple for the meal as it was very affordable to the poor. Today baccala continues to be eaten in a soup, fried or baked in the oven. There are several dishes to make for this festive meal. Over the next weeks, I will post a dish or two at a time. Years ago when my mother was alive, she would make the Christmas Eve dinner and Barb would make the Canadian Christmas dinner- a real blend of two cultures. Our children love seafood too. During the year both Barb and I try to enjoy a meal from the sea as was apparent from our trip to the St. Lawrence Marked last summer when we bought some fresh PEI mussels. Canada is home to a variety of fish and seafood. Just ask any Maritimer about the great lobster. Once a meal for the poor, anyone who purchases fresh fish and seafood knows it is actually a very costly endeavour.

#ChristmasEvedinner#\italiantraditiononChrismasEve#theprescipio#feastofthesevendishes#festadeisettepesci#lavigiliadinatale

SOUPS SOUPS SOUPS

With the cold weather approaching, soups become a staple in our home. Barb loves to take some to work a couple of days a week for her lunches. I have written recipes for several soups- Minestra, Basic Broth and Vegetable soup. The smell of soup cooking on the stove fills the house with a warm feeling. So I am going to try to find more soup recipes to feature here. Meanwhile I think I will go and have a bowl.
#soupsandmoresoups#vegetablesoup#soupisgoodforapackedlunce#granpalovestomakesoups#minestra#basicbroth#soupmakesagreataromainthehouse#granpalovestocook

CIOPPINO-ITALIAN FISH SOUP

Cioppino is not a Ciociaria dish. It is really from the Genoa area of Italy. You know home of Christopher Columbus before he sailed for Spain and Isabella! It is a hardy soup which originally used the catch of the day. I did some research on the soup because my card buddies at the Richmond Hill Italian Social Club were wanting a lunch one day so this dish seemed like a worthy adversary! If you like fish it is made with a variety of seafood items- shrimp, scallops, mussels, white fish( maybe cod or halibut or your favourite white fish) and clams. If you like crab and squid it can be used too. There are many recipes online and I actually used one for our lunch. So I must stay honest on this blog and only post my own recipes not others. Some more interesting tidbits- ciuppin in the Ligurian dialect from the Genoa area means to chop or chopped. So the seafood must be "chopped" as well as the vegetables that are cooked in the dish.  One of the ladies from the Club actually made lunch for us. Barb was at work so there are no pictures to illustrate the dish. Since we do love seafood, I may make my own batch someday to share with you.
Talking about soup- The National Post paper has a section entitled Gastropost. Barb entered my Minestra soup and it was one of the soup dishes featured November 10, 2012. For those of you who love to cook check out their weekly missions and as long as you get your item with a picture sent to the address mentioned on their page by 10:00 a.m. Wednesday mornings you may get a spot. So come on fellow cooks and bakers like Roy, Edna, Kathryn- try your hand on one of their missions that might contain an item you make- so I can see your name there too!
#ciopinno#Cioiaria#shrimps#scallops#granpamakescioppino#seafoodatitsbest#lotsofmussels

PARSLEY/PREZZEMOLO-AN ITALIAN COOK'S STAPLE

Parsley can not be made into an individual dish. It is an ingredient that is added to so many dishes.

I like to grow some in my summer garden to use it fresh in dishes. Drying the excess allows a nice stash in the house. Although now, it is possible to buy bunches of parsley fresh year round. It is a staple in Italian cooking as it is added to my sauce, soups, stew and even the Easter Canascione for a little colour and taste. Barb adds it to her devilled eggs as a garnish on top and her turkey bread stuffing. It even adds some calcium to the meal. It is a rather an understated vegetable or is it a herb? 

This post may warrant some research about parsley. Barb asked me. Where did it originate? Why do Italians use so much of it in their cooking? I just know that it is one of my staples in the kitchen.

WHAT ITALIAN WOULD BE WITHOUT HIS TOMATO/POMODORO?

Every Italian cookbook accompanied by a cook uses the tomato/pomodoro in a variety of ways. The Italian garden must have tomato plants or it is not a real garden!

Even have a few photos from previous years.

Do you know the history? Barb reminded me and did some internet research of how the tomato originated in Central and South America-Mesoamerica. She likes history. It was even cultivated in Mexico in 500 BC. Two versions- Christopher Columbus working for Spain- an Italian from Genoa- brought the tomato back in 1493 or the second version when the Spaniards-Cortes, 1521 conquered the Aztecs brought the plants back to Spain. Piertro Mattioli, in 1544- an Italian physician and botanist wrote about the tomato being a new kind of eggplant. In 1548 in Italy- Cosimo de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany-  wanted a piece of the action and had a basket of tomatoes sent to him. He even named them pomi d'oro- golden apples!

As we all know there are several kinds of tomatoes. Beefsteak make great hardy field tomatoes and grow in any vegetable garden in Canada.
For the pomodoro di passata, the roma tomatoes are the ones that are commonly used. My mother used to make bottles of passata every fall for use in the red sauce. I buy the ready made passata that comes from Italy now- always trying a new brand to see if it makes a difference in my cooking. Less work and the same taste. Like many modern cooks, freezing fresh tomatoes that can be used over the winter is another method of using them.There is another variety the San Marzano tomato which is Napolitana. Plum tomatoes from the can make a good addition to many recipes.

The cherry or grape variety are fun in appetizers. Or a welcome addition to any salad.

Boccincine and some tomatoes on a stick made a nice dish at one of my daughter's parties. Or go to the St. Lawrence Market to buy them ready made!
Any red sauce has tomatoes as the base. But fresh tomatoes simmered with some basil and salt and pepper to taste make a quick sauce on spaghetti.

Or fresh or frozen added to a vegetable soup!

Some more history- in 1897 Campbell in the United States marketed Campbell's tomato soup which is still enjoyed today. Comes in a can! Barb likes to eat it occasionally with toast for a quick lunch! Although it is a North American commodity, Canadians love Ketchup-made from tomatoes- on several foods.

A fun use for tomatoes is Bruschetta.


INGREDIENTS

2-3 fresh tomatoes.
Garlic buds.
Oregano.
Salt. Pepper
Olive Oil

DIRECTIONS

Chop up the tomato into little pieces.

Dice the garlic and add to the tomato mixture.

Add a teaspoon or two ( 20 ml) of oregano to the mixture. Or a pinch or two!

1-2 tablespoons ( 100 ml) of olive oil to the mixture.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Let sit by putting it in the refrigerator for an hour or so before serving.

Put on toasted bread or your favourite cracker or bun.

A fast bruschetta is just sliced tomatoes adding the same ingredients and putting on a slice of bread. It has the same taste.

Tomatoes in a tossed salad or a simple cucumber/tomato salad are best eaten fresh. I will miss the summer and fall garden with those homegrown ones. Back to greenhouse or the hothouse variety again through the winter.

I have even been adventuresome with growing tomatoes.

I tried growing some hanging tomatoes in 2012 but the plant wanted to grow up! I'll continue the traditional way next year. My final word on tomatoes- although there can be yellow ones- I prefer the red ones. According to the lastest trends in nutritional advice, eating lots of tomatoes or tomato based foods is very healthy! Fresh, frozen, bottled as passata or in a paste, it sure is a staple in Italian cooking. Regardless of its history coming from Mesoamerica, I think the Italians perfected its use!

PROSCIUTTO AS AN APPETIZER

For family gatherings or dinner parties, a quick fun appetizer is prosciutto on a bread stick.

Buy very fresh, thinly sliced prosciutto. Wrap it around the breadsticks as close to the time you want to serve them. They can be eaten alone or provide your favourite dip. Bread sticks can be thin or thick. The regular ones are okay but you can also use the multigrain if you prefer them. For those folks that just love prosciutto plain, ditch the bread stick!

BRUSSEL SPROUTS-CANADIAN YET ITALIAN

Barb and I love Brussel Sprouts. It is a regular dish at Thanksgiving and Christmas and in between.

I boil them first usually early in the morning for any festive dinner.  Since I am up at 2 or 3 in the morning, what else is there to do.

Closer to the dinner, I fry some garlic in olive oil then put the brussel sprouts in the pan flipping them to get some oil and to heat them. If it is just Barb and me, I add some flecks of hot peppers to give them some kick. My kids love them too as it is another vegetable to add to any dinner. Does anyone have a different way of preparing Brussel Sprouts? I would love to hear as I will try something new.
#brusselsprouts#canadianfood#greatatThanksgiving#greatatChristmas#agoodvegetable

THANKSGIVING CANADIAN TURKEY STUFFING

I do love to cook. However, Thanksgiving dinner belongs to Barb. Italians did not celebrate Thanksgiving until they came to Canada. Initially, I was not too fond of a Turkey dinner. It is not the most difficult meal to prepare but it is very tasty. Barb wanted to put her Bread stuffing on my blog. She learned to make it from her mother.

Barb says:
My Mom or Nana's Bread Turkey Stuffing was always a part of our Thanksgiving and Christmas festive dinners. Some Italians in Canada try to claim that a rice stuffing is better in the turkey. Rice stuffing belongs in a duck or cornish hen dish. For me, why try to reinvent a dish that is a great Canadian tradition.

BREAD STUFFING

1 loaf of white Canadian bread.
1/2 loaf of brown or whole wheat Canadian bread.
2-3 Garlic buds.
2 or 3 celery stalks- keeping the leafy middle pieces.
1 onion. White cooking onion or the red onion depending on  your choice.
Fresh parsley. The leafy portion
Sage.
Butter or Margarine- 2 or 3 tablespoons
Salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have decided what time you want to put the turkey in the oven. Make the bread stuffing about 1/2 hour prior.

DIRECTIONS

Washing your hands well before preparing the dish, it is important to wash all the vegetables to be used.

Get a large bowl to mix the ingredients.

Break the bread into bite size pieces mixing the two types together.

Finely dice the garlic buds. You can add more to the mix if you want.

Finely dice the celery stalks and the leafy middle pieces. The leafy pieces help to keep the stuffing together.

Finely chop the onions.

Finely chop the parsley. Use the leafy pieces not the stems.

Mix all the ingredients together.

Add sage- couple of teaspoons  and again mix in the dish. You can add more if you want. Again to taste.

If using butter, cut a few cubes of butter or use a few tablespoons of margarine and place on top, middle and bottom of the mixture.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Put aside.

Take the Turkey- Fresh or Frozen-which should be thawed and rinse out the cavity of the bird.  Put it in the roasting pan. Wash your hands.

Take your bread stuffing and forming handful balls put it in the cavity of the turkey, pushing and really packing it in there. I also put as much as I can in the backside of the bird.

If I can not sew or tie the legs together to keep the moisture of the stuffing intact while cooking, I place tin foil over the stuffed cavity.

Since my children and families love my stuffing, I often double up the recipe ingredients so I have more stuffing than room in the turkey.

I use a casserole dish to cook the extra stuffing. I add some of the beginnings of the gravy being slowly cooked on the stove with the turkey neck, organs for flavour.

The trick to good stuffing is it absorbs the flavour of the turkey while cooking inside so when there is extra stuffing that is cooked separately it does not get the same flavour and can be dry. So mix the stuffing from the bird and the extra together when serving to try to solve that problem.

I also have bought extra turkey thighs to cook. This is another way to cook the extra stuffing. In a casserole dish or separate pan, put the stuffing in the middle with the turkey thighs on the side, again packing them closely, putting on the lid or covering with tin foil to keep the moisture intact.

Depending on the size of the turkey, it is cooked until done. The stuffing is scooped out of the cavity and served in a bowl.

It is one of the main dishes at Canadian Thanksgiving dinners. Adolph and my girls love it so I would not make it any other way!!
#CanadianThanksgiving#breadstuffing#turkeydinner#recipeforbreadstuffingintheturkey#sagemakesthetaste#oldtimeCanadianrecipe

A LOCAL FARM VISIT

Near us at Weston Road and Major Mackenzie is the Mini Farm or the Vaughan Food Terminal. Barb bought her friend at work some Kale plants from this farm in the Spring. We went back today to check it out- at Barb's insistence. I could have stayed on the couch watching golf!

Lots of bushel baskets with onions, peppers, hot peppers, eggplants, potatoes and containers of squash.

Looking around it was typical of so many small farm markets this time of year.

Maybe there are some of the onions we saw a couple of weeks ago in Holland Marsh?

Barb bought a few squash, corn and some apples.

Here are Barb's squash purchases. She wanted a variety for our upcoming Thanksgiving dinner in two weeks. Barb usually likes to make 2-5 different kinds depending on who is coming for dinner. The large yellow one or spaghetti squash will be used for a casserole dish. The green ones- acorn and hubbard will be sliced and baked. The little ones will be used for decoration and eaten at a future date in a weekly dinner. I don't like squash. Perhaps if I actually tasted it I could change my mind!
#alocalfarmvisit#squash#freshvegetables#corn#apples#onions#buyingatalocalmarket

STUFFED EGGPLANT/MELANZANA ALLA PARMIGIANA

The summer harvest is in the markets. One vegetable that is plentiful is the eggplant/melanzana. You either like the vegetable or you don't. My mother used to fry it in thin slices but it absorbed so much oil, it is not a dish I make anymore. Some Italians like to slice it and put it in jars in oil to eat as an appetizer or on a sandwich throughout the year.

I use it in my veggie mix. However, one of my favourite ways to make it and Barb loves it, is stuffed.

STUFFED EGGPLANT

INGREDIENTS

Eggplant- regular or Sicilian. One eggplant makes two servings.

Garlic- 3 buds or more.

Bread crumbs- 1/2 cup per 1/2 eggplant. Some Italians like to make their own by using stale bread, made into cubes soaked in some water for moisture.

Parmesean/parmigiano cheese. Grated. Have as much as needed for the number of people you are serving.

Can of diced or whole tomatoes. You can use a fresh tomato if you want.

Olive oil.

Parsley.

Orgeano.

Salt, pepper.

DIRECTIONS

1. Wash the eggplant well.

2. Cut off the stem end. Cut the eggplant lengthwise in half. Place in a cassorole dish.

3. Scoop out the belly of the eggplant, leaving some pulp in the shell.

4. Dice the scooped eggplant. Dice the garlic buds, Chop the parsley.

5. Mix the eggplant, garlic, parsley with the bread crumbs and some olive oil-enough to make it moist. Add some oregano, salt and pepper to taste.

6. Put the mixture in the shells.

7. Add a generous portion of diced tomatoes on top. If whole tomatoes, chop into pieces to add on top.

8. Sprinkle with parmesean cheese on top of the tomatoes. Again add as much as you like to eat. Some people would also add mozarella or pecorino cheese. As a diabetic person less cheese is less calories so I do not use additional cheese.

9. Put in a preheated oven at 375 degrees.

10. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the outer shell is tender when poked by a fork.

11. When removed from the oven, let sit for awhile so it sets.

This dish is a good one to make when you are baking or making other oven dishes. Saves on energy.

As you can see the portions are big. Barb usually eats 1/2 of a piece, taking the other half to work for her lunch the next day. So one eggplant could make 4 servings if needed. Yes, it smells good when baking in the house.
#stuffedeggplant#parmigianocheese#bakingintheoven#sicilianeggplant#twokindsofeggplant#regulareggplant#buyingvegetablesatalocalfarm#cookingeggplantItalianstyle

THE ONION/LA CIPOLLA-A MUST FOR COOKING

Onions are used in cooking constantly. I don't eat an onion like I would eat a piece of fruit or a vegetable. I love fried onions- cooked in a little oil with no garlic- as a side dish on a steak or by other meat. Of course a slice of onion on a hamburger adds to the flavour!

Ordinary cooking onions are used in my sauces, soups and salads. Sometimes I buy the red onion to use in Greek Salad. Barb made a potato salad for a family event using them as a garnish on the top.

I was not impressed as I thought she put too many onions. She does not like to mix them in the salad but allows for people to decide if they want any onion or not. She thinks if the onion stays too long in the potato salad it begins to taste like onion!

Over the Labour Day weekend, we took one of our final little summer jaunts. We took a morning drive to the The Holland Marsh area north of Toronto and not very far from us.

It is a large wetland and agricultural area growing many vegetables especially carrots and onions.

There were still some onions growing in the fields ready for harvest.

On one road we saw crates of onions waiting to go to market.

The odour was quite pungent. You knew there were onions in the crates.

We stopped at one market in Bradford- the major town in the area.

I didn't buy any onions but some cauliflower and grapes. Barb wanted to make some grape jam for me- my favourite!
#cipolla#onion#goingtomarkets#granpalovestocook#adolphdimambro#onionsarepungent

CANADIAN COTTAGE FOOD WITH AN ITALIAN FLAIR

Last weekend Barb and I went to a friend's cottage on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario. Near the small town of Wiarton on Colpoys Bay on Georgian Bay( Lake Huron). The lovely cottage had room for three couples. I prepared my sauce to put on penne, roasted peppers, rapini salad, beans from the garden and the ingredients for Greek Salad.

Barb bought the colourful bowls with lids at a kitchen store that are ideal for travelling.

The nice thing about the weekend was the lunch. Rose has Sicilian background-Southern Italy. She prepared a delicious lunch. One of the dishes- Melanzane in Carrozza/ Eggplant in a carriage was a welcome change for me.

Rose put a tomato for extra colour. The eggplant is prepared by cutting thin slices and let stand to ease out the moisture. It can be baked or fried. The trick is the mozzarella cheese in the middle. Dipped in flour, egg and then bread crumbs it can be fried or baked in the oven. So in carrozza means in a carriage. Or like a sandwich- the cheese is in the middle.

The presentation of the lunch was quite impressive.

Along with the melanzane in carrozza was a spicy Italian sausage, tossed salad and a stuffed yellow pepper. I need to share my stuffed pepper recipe sometime. It is very similar to the stuffing Rose used. I researched the internet for some recipes for the eggplant. Curious- two recipes say the dish Rose made is from Calabria and one says it is Neapolitan- from Naples. I will make it sometime and share my version of the recipe. Meanwhile we had good times eating good food. Too many cooks spoil the broth but in this case it was fun to have other cooks in the kitchen!
#cottagefood#calabriafood#melanzaneincarrozzawithaspicyItaliansausage#tossedsalad#eggplantrecipes#mozzarella#tomato

PREPARING FOR A COTTAGE WEEKEND

Friends of Barb and me invited us to their cottage. Another couple is coming too. Everyone  does some meal preparation. I have been busy the last two days. Prepared the sauce with meatballs and sausage yesterday. It will be served with penne lisce. Taking the ingredients for a Greek Salad. The rapini salad and the roasted peppers are ready and in travel containers. I must remember to get the Feta cheese for the salad from the fridge. Perhaps, Barb will take some pictures of the meal. Dessert is a store bought chocolate cake to help celebrate two August birthdays of our friends- Rose and Mary. Previous posts will provide the recipes. Now to decide what to have for breakfast!
#cottageweekend#pennelisce#sauce#granpalovestocook#adolphdimambro#rapini#fetacheese

FROM A FRESH APPETIZER TO A HEARTY SOUP

I eat lots of vegetable. For any gathering or a family barbecue at the cottage a fresh vegetable appetizer platter is always a hit with some spinach dip. We all eat a variety of vegetables.

From broccoli

to cauliflower

to carrots

to a variety of peppers- red, green, yellow, orange- vegetables are best eaten fresh.

What to do with the leftovers? The next day make them into a dish. Soup/zuppa well is my second best way to eat them. With a little olive oil in the bottom of the pot simmer some chopped onions and a couple of buds of diced garlics. When simmered add the chopped vegetables left over form the veggie platter. I added some frozen peas, a zucchini, a little swiss chard piece, and some celery too. All chopped into small pieces. Of course salt and pepper to taste.
Ecco la!

Una zuppa di verdure! A hearty vegetable soup! Barb always tells me she loves the smell of soup simmering in the house. I just love eating it!