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Tomato Bruschetta And A Little Bit Of Sunny Tuscany

August 29, 2014 by Zizi

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In the last few years we traveled to Tuscany a few times – thanks to our friends, Giulia’s and Emiko’s invitations – but I didn’t write about these experiences on my blog. Two years ago we spent a few days in Cecina with our dear foodie friends: Emiko, Giulia, Karin and Regula.

Cooking together with friends is always so much fun and it’s a great way to learn something new. I gained so much inspirations from these trips, I learnt many new recipes so I would like to share a few of them with you (step by step). The first one is bruschetta… one of the best ways to enjoy the bounty of summer. A delicious and easy appetizer that captures the flavors of ripened tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, and good quality olive oil.

I’m so sad because it looks like summer is really over here in Hungary… We can still buy sun-ripened tomatoes at the markets so until the season is over make sure to make tomato bruschetta at least once!

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Tomato Bruschetta
(Recipe: from Giulia’s second cookbook, I Love Toscana)

Ingredients

– few slices of sourdough bread, toasted
– 400 g riped tomatoes, chopped
– 2 cloves garlic, chopped
– extra virgin olive oil
– fresh basil, chopped
– salt, freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put the chopped tomatoes into a large bowl, season with salt and pepper, the chopped garlic and basil, plus add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Make this well in advance, allowing a few hours to let the tomatoes infuse the flavour. Leave the bowl covered in the fridge.

If you are ready to serve the bruschetta, spoon the tomatoes over slices of toasted bread. Drizzle with more extra virgin olive oil.

*****

Few photos of the trip…

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IMG_4218_aMaking authentic bruschetta

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Cecina

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Filed Under: vegan Tagged With: bread, Italy, salad, sandwich, tomato, travel, traveling, Tuscany

Chickpeas And Tomatoes Pasta Or Pasta E Ceci

September 23, 2013 by Zizi

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Pasta e ceci… the famous, delicious comfort pasta dish from southern Italy. I learnt the recipe from my friend, Emiko but I also read about it in Jamie Oliver’s cookbook, Jamie’s Italy. In the book he says he can’t quite decide if it is a pasta or a soup (a kind of thick one). He thinks it leans slightly more toward being a soup – so he put it in the soup chapter in the book. (Read more about the history of this pasta on Emiko’s blog here.)

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Me and my friends cooked this pasta dish on a cloudy, grey summer afternoon when we gathered together to spend a long weekend at lake Balaton just like a year before. Although the weather was slightly cool we sat at the terrace and warmed up our bodies and souls with this comforting pasta lunch, served with a big bowl of mixed salad.

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The usability of chickpeas is very versatile, they can be cooked and eaten cold in salads, cooked in stews, soups, ground into a flour, ground and shaped in balls and fried as falafel. They are a noted ingredient in many Middle Eastern and Indian dishes such as hummus and curries. I didn’t know that some varieties of chickpeas can be popped and eaten like popcorn.

As for the nutritional value chickpeas are rich in fiber and it’s one of the best source of protein for vegetarians and vegans. Combined with a whole grain such as whole-wheat protein, they provide amount of protein comparable to that of meat or dairy foods without the high calories or saturated fats. They can boost your energy because of their high iron content. They are also a great source of zinc and folate. So why not eat as much as you can?

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We followed exactly Emiko’s recipe to cook this pasta meal so if you would like to try it, head over to my friend’s blog and cook it for yourself and your family!

Enjoy!

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Filed Under: vegan Tagged With: chickpeas, cooking, Hungary, pasta, tomato, travel, travelling

Zucchini Flower And Tomato Tian From Emiko Of The Emiko Davies Blog

June 20, 2013 by Zizi

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Let me introduce you my third guest, Emiko who writes her wonderul food blog Emiko Davies. We met a few years ago, thanks again for Food Blogger Connect (it really connects people!). Giulia introduced her to me and I think we had our first long conversation on the first day of the conference at dinner time. Since then we haven’t stopped talking! 🙂 Emiko loves historical cookbooks and of course she brought a recipe inspired by Elizabeth David, one of her favourite food writers. Here is Emiko…

“Elizabeth David is one of my favourite food writers of all time. Her writing is witty, decisive and entertaining. She wrote about the real food culture and traditions of sunny Mediterranean countries, educating and inspiring the mid-century British palate. This tian recipe is inspired by one of her articles on a simple and rustic Provençal picnic dish consisting of eggs and seasonal vegetables. Named after the earthenware dish it is baked in, the tian, like so many good country dishes, doesn’t really have a strict recipe, it changes from kitchen to kitchen and season to season. The basic idea is to use what you have on hand: a good proportion of cooked seasonal vegetables, perhaps spinach or potatoes (or both), zucchini, even a rich tomato sauce or rice can be added to the mix for colour or texture; plenty of fresh herbs; some grated cheese; and eggs, beaten like you would for an omelette. Eaten hot or cold, it’s a great portable dish to take on picnics or barbeques. This recipe includes mixing a fresh tomato sauce through the eggs for a marbled effect of rich red sauce and golden eggs. It is topped with fresh zucchini flowers and is just as pretty to look at as it is tasty!”

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Zucchini Flower And Tomato Tian

Ingredients
– 500 gr of ripe tomatoes
– 1 clove of garlic
– a handful of fresh herbs, such as parsley, thyme or marjoram
– about 6 zucchini flowers or enough to cover the tian
– 6 eggs
– a handful of grated Gruyere or Parmesan
– salt and pepper to taste
– olive oil

Method

You will need a suitable pan to bake this in, preferably earthenware if you want to be traditional, about 20cm long and at least 5cm deep. Heat the oven to 160°C.

Prepare a sauce with the tomatoes by first scoring the skin with a cross on their bottoms, then blanching them for 1 minute in boiling water. Place them in a bowl of cold water and then you will easily be able to peel off their skins. Dice them roughly.

In a large skillet, very gently heat up the chopped garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until it just begins to colour. Add the tomatoes and let simmer and reduce for about 10 minutes. Set aside but keep warm.

Prepare the zucchini flowers by cutting them in half, length-wise and taking out the stamen (you can leave the stalks on if you like) so that you now have flat flower halves.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl until frothy, add your favourite herbs, chopped, the cheese and season with salt and pepper. Pour into the baking dish, mix through the hot tomato sauce (it is important that the mixture be hot not cold) and arrange the squash blossoms on top, flattened out, to cover the surface. Drizzle a couple of glugs of olive oil over the top and bake for about 20 minutes or until the eggs are set and golden brown.

Serve hot or cold with plenty of crusty bread.

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*****

Interview to get to know Emiko a bit more…

Where are you from? Where do you live?
E: It’s not an easy question to answer in a short sentence for me as I’m such a roamer! But I now live in Melbourne – it’s been one year exactly since I moved here from Florence with my husband Marco. I was in Italy for 7 years and before that 4 years in the US and before that 8 years in China, but I am half Japanese and half Australian and grew up in Australia!

What is the name of your blog?
E: My blog doesn’t really have it’s own name as is the usual thing to do – it’s part of my website, emikodavies.com.

How long have you been blogging?
E: I can’t believe it as it seems just like yesterday I started blogging but last December my blog was 2 years old!

When did you start cooking/baking?
E: As soon as I could reach the stove top (helped with a small stool), I can remember my grandmother teaching me how to make scrambled eggs. I’ve always loved being in the kitchen.

Who (where) did you learn cooking/baking from?
E: When I was little, I learned a lot from helping my mother and my grandmother in the kitchen. As a teenager, I loved baking and devoured cooking magazines and cookbooks – I have to say that the very first of Donna Hay’s cookbooks when she was with Marie Claire and Jamie Oliver’s first two cookbooks were vital in my college years and I cooked so much out of them I memorised many of the dishes!

What is your signature dish?
E: I don’t think I have one, I’m usually trying out different dishes! There is one that I love eating but I always get Marco to make it for me – tagliolini with a lemon and goats cheese sauce. It’s a staple in our house.

What is your favourite vegetarian/vegan meal?
E: Oh, so many to choose from. The ones that come to mind first also happen to be some of my favourite comfort foods, like eggs poached in tomato sugo (another staple!) or a Japanese dish of fried eggplant topped with miso sauce. Even just simple spaghetti with aglio, olio, peperoncino (garlic, oil and chilli) is hard to go past!

Where do you get inspiration from?
E: Above all from traditional regional Italian cooking. During the many years I spent living in Tuscany I developed a great fascination with traditional, even historical, dishes. I have a growing collection of historical cookbooks that I love reading through for ideas – from Pellegrino Artusi (1891) to Ada Boni (1927) to Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) to Elizabeth David (1956)!

What was the most memorable food you have eaten during your travels?
E: There is almost too much to write about for this question – a holiday in Puglia in Italy’s deep south was truly eye-opening for me, in terms of food. But another unforgettable experience was an amazing cooking class that my husband Marco and I took in Marrakech. After a treasure hunt for the ingredients in the souks, we made a fish tagine and the most heavenly Moroccan carrot salad and sesame biscuits. The carrot salad I have made over and over again. We were also on our honeymoon so that could have also helped make it so memorable!

Name three things you always have in your fridge!
E: Unsalted butter, free-range eggs and organic, whole milk.

Is there a food that always reminds you of home?
E: My mother always made such a variety of dishes, some Japanese, some “western”, that there isn’t really one thing that stands out. But maybe the closest thing is a quick dish that she used to make for us as kids; it’s the sort of thing I’ll make when I don’t feel well. It’s simply an egg, beaten with some soy sauce and scrambled with steamed or boiled rice. It’s nice eaten with some crunchy dried nori!

What would people be surprised to find in your kitchen? Is there anything you want to share?
E: I own a garlic crusher. It’s maybe not the craziest item to be surprised by in the kitchen but I love Elizabeth David’s article on garlic crushers being the most useless utensil in the kitchen – when she owned a homewares shop, she even refused to stock them! I personally like to crush garlic with the back of a knife and leave it at that, but the garlic crusher was a house warming gift and actually, I will admit to using it every now and then!

—

All photos are courtesy of Emiko Davies.

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Filed Under: guest post, lacto-ovo Tagged With: baking, salty, savoury, tomato, zucchini

Zucchini Cherry Tomato Ricotta Toast

August 20, 2012 by Zizi

This zucchini ricotta toast is really an easy to make summer dinner we ate one night at Lake Balaton. Lighting candles in the terrace, “listening the silence”, breathing in the fresh air and drinking a glass of white wine made the evening perfect.

We spent a relaxing-reading a lot of books-life without Internet-laying in the sun-swimming a lot in th lake week at the “Hungarian sea”. Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe. The mountainous region of the northern shore is known both for its historic character and as a major wine region, while the flat southern shore is known for its resort towns. If you’re in Hungary, don’t miss the Balaton experience!

I adapted the recipe from Sprouted Kitchen but I also added cherry tomatoes to the toast. Sara’s wonderful new book The Sprouted Kitchen – a tastier take on whole foods has been published. Watching her cookbook trailer makes me want to hold her book in my hands.

Hope my boyfriend, I. is reading this and getting the idea which cookbook(s) he should surprise me with for my birthday in October. 🙂

Zucchini Cherry Tomato Ricotta Toast

Ingredients (serves 2)

– 1 medium size zucchini, cubed
– 20 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
– 250 g ricotta
– 1 small red onion, chopped
– 2 teaspoon Dijon mustart
– 1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped
– 10 leaves fresh basil, chopped
– couple of slices whole wheat bread
– salt, pepper
– extra virgin olive oil

Method

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180C (356F).

In a bowl mix together zucchini and cherry tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with two tablespoons of olive oil. Spread this mixture onto the parchment paper and roast until golden brown for about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile in another bowl mix together ricotta with chopped red onion, Dijon mustard and a bit of salt and pepper. Toast the bread slices, spread two tablespoons of ricotta mixture, pile roasted zucchini and cherry tomatoes on top and sprinkle with the fresh herbs (parsley and basil).

Enjoy!

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Filed Under: lacto Tagged With: guide, Hungary, sandwich, tomato, travel, traveling, zucchini

Raw Tabuleh

July 11, 2012 by Zizi

Raw tabuleh… why is it raw? And how? Raw because I replaced the cooked bulgur with cauliflower. The tiny little white specks look pretty much like bulgur when mixed with all the other ingredients.

The idea comes from a friend of mine, Giulia, who made cauliflower-walnut pesto for me, Karin and Regula last October when we visited her in Tuscany. Then and there I fell in love with Tuscany: the landscape, the weather, the crisp fresh air, the cypress trees and the food we ate and made at Giulia’s gorgeous place. Tuscany has a very special kind of magic that you feel immediately when you arrive.

I made this tabuleh salad for a picnic spent with great friends in a park in Budapest. You can eat it as a salad with other yummie bits and pieces or as a side dish with grilled vegetables or meat.

Raw Tabuleh

Ingredients (serves 4)

– 1 medium sized cauliflower (about 400 g), cut into small florets
– 3 bunches of parsley, chopped
– 1/2 bunch of mint, chopped
– 4 tomatoes (about 350 g), chopped
– 2-3 spring onions, chopped
– 150 ml extra virgin olive oil
– 100-150 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
– salt, pepper

Method

Place cauliflower florets (use the stems to eat it raw or make soup) in a food processor then blend into grain-size pieces. Place it in a large bowl and toss with the chopped parsley, mint, tomatoes and spring onions. Add olive oil, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Place the bowl in the fridge and leave it there for at least 2 hours.

Picnic with friends in Istvan Szent Park, Budapest…

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Filed Under: vegan Tagged With: lemon, picnic, raw, salad, tomato

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