Italian Kitchen Secrets

This is just a salad, not even a recipe you can say.

It's true but try this mix and you'll make it over and over again!

Peaches with smoked bacon and blue cheese are a perfect match you'll fall in love with it!

Yuo can use lettuce or baby spinach (the youngest and more tender leaves), I prefer spinach.

For each serve:

a bunch of lettuce or baby spinach

2 tbs diced roasted smoked bacon

1/2 peach (nectarine if possible) sliced in thin slices

1/4 cup diced blue cheese (gorgonzola if possible)

extra-virgin olive oil

salt & pepper

1 tbs balsamic vinegar if you like

1 tbs roasted pine nuts if you like

Wash and dry salad, put it in a bowl and season it wih oil then add all the ingredients, mix and taste: then add salt and pepper if needed.

I keep on going with summer and easy recipes, this one is so tasty according to me.

It remember me of my summers at university where I share an apartment not far from the sea with some Greek and English students: we had so much fun together, parties, tea times, plain dinners that became a fancy mix of food from our countries.

Now I start to become over-sentimental so let's go with the salad!

You can decide measures quite roughly, don't need weights :)

You need:

red and ripe tomatoes, I usually prefer San Marzano (the ones long and thin with less seeds that you can see in the picture)

fresh basil leaves

salt

pepper if you like

extra-virgin olive oil

a garlic clove if you like

greek yogurt, how much it depends on how many you are but I use roughly a big spoon of yogurt for each serve

Cut tomatoes in tiny cubes, put them in a bowl with their sauce, add salt, pepper, oil, garlic and the basil leaves well washed.

Mix well, add the greek yogurt, mix again and let rest in fridge for about a couple of hours mixing now and then.

Greek yogurt is really thick but mixed with oil and tomato sauce it will get dilute and your tomatoes will be covered with a tasty creamy sauce, quick and really healthy!

It's perfect with grilled meat or fish, with hamburgers or other dishes.

 Today an easy and tasty recipe that fits the need of something fresh and light we have with the first really hot days of the year.

Spelt is a cereal, quite common in Italy, very used in some regions like Tuscany and Umbria.

It grows even in poor grounds, it's the less calorific cereal and contains about the 15 % in proteins.

For 2-3 persons you need:

7 oz. spelt

salt

extra-virgin olive oil

some red and ripe tomatoes (great the cherry ones)

a bunch of fresh arugula

3 spoons of freshly grated parmesan

3 spoons of good balsamic vinegar

Let the spelt soaking all night long, then cook it in salty water the time written on the packaging.

Drain it and let it get cold, meanwhile cut tomatoes in little cubes, if you have cherry tomatoes split them in 4 parts.

Put them in a bowl and add cold spelt, olive oil as much as needed, Parmesan and balsamic vinegar.

Mix very well then put on the serving dish.

You can spread it or put it into a big round-shaped cookie cutter to give it a most elegant presentation.

Put on top of spelt fresh arugula well washed then add another drizzle of oil and vinegar.

Isn't it tasty and nice?

Enjoy it!

Nothing easier, nothing faster this recipe is a informal appetizer or a quick single course.

It's common along all the Peninsula but you will not easily find it in restaurants because it's considered a little bit coarse...

But the taste is great and almost everyone, at home, prepare it now and then.

Of course you can omit onion if you don't like it or use the white one if you can't find the red.

For 4-6 serves:

4 cups cooked beans (Cannellini or Borlotti, in this preparation I prefer Borlotti but it depends on you; the canned ones work great)

2 medium cans oil packed tuna

1 small red onion sliced thin as much as possible

salt and pepper

extra-virgin olive oil

Drain beans from their water and tuna from its oil, put the beans in a big bowl and crush tuna to avoid too big pieces and add it to beans.

Add the sliced onion and season with salt, pepper and extra-virgin olive oil.

Mix well and serve.

If you want you can add a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

For this easy and budget recipe you need tomatoes at their best: fresh, ripe and flavourful so maybe it's more a summer recipe but if you find some good plum or cherry tomatoes you can do it anyway.

You can use them on pasta, on bruschetta, into salads or just as tasty side dish from informal meals (they're great with grilled meat so bbq's are welcome^^) to formal ones (with tuna fish fillet, for istance).

You need:

15-20 good tomatoes

2 finely minced garlic cloves

1 spoon of sugar

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 275 F°, cut tomatoes in half, sprinkle with salt and put them on a dish with the skin up (they have to lose some water) for an hour.

Now put them with skin side down on a baking sheet and add garlic, pepper, more salt, sugar and oregano sprinkling, then drizzle with abundant oil.

Bake in the oven for about 2 hours or untill they're dried but still soft.

Serve hot, warm or cold: anyway is a good way for them!

It's a very peculiar recipe, light and tasty, great to break the long series of heavy lunch and great dinners of the Christmas period.

It's a winter recipe because oranges and fennels are typical winter vegetables, it's most used in the South of Italy where citrus grown.

If you like the two main ingredients you'll love it!

I had a housemate at univeristy than used to eat it almost everyday...

For two persons:

2 oranges

2 fennels

salt and pepper

3 - 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Slice the oranges (peel them carefully and keep off the white part) and arrange them in a serving plate.

Clean the fennels, cut them very thin then transfer the fennels in a bowl to season them with oil salt and pepper.

Transfer the fennels on the oranges, dizzle with a little more extra-virgin olive oil and serve.

If you like you can slice thin a little red onion too and add it to the salad.

Or more banal?

No, but you can create a tasty dish if you take care of the preparation and of the ingredients, the preparation is quick and you can surely afford and recover the things you need.

It's a light second course, ideal for the ones on a diet: low fats, digestible.

You need:

2 chicken breasts

2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil

salt and pepper

a stick of fresh rosemary

1 garlic clove

half a lemon

Slice each chicken breasts in 3 thin slices.

Pound the slices with a meat pounder to make them thin and tender.

Cook the chicken on a simple grille or even a non-stick pan.

Do not use any fat or oil to grease the pan, just rub the garlic clove on the whole pan few times to give a light garlic smell.

Season with the extravirgin olive oil, add salt and freshly grated pepper if you like then some rosemary needles and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Serve warm with plain fresh salad or with stirfried spinach.