A Little Cooking…At Home

  We've been busy setting the apartment up "just so", the way we like it…which includes getting the refrigerator stocked with all the things we love to eat here.

  I am very passionate about cooking, though I'll be the first to admit that my repertoire is lacking, to say the least. I do a few things well, and am inclined to fall back on these few things.

  What can I say? These are good things! Things I love to eat, as well as prepare.

  I hope to branch out this trip (like every year) and try some new dishes, but for the first week here, I'm relying on old standards.

  Like frittata. Simple, easy, soul-satisfying.

  This particular evening, it was zucchini and onion, with some wonderful eggs gathered just down the hill, and good parmesan cheese.

Onions and garlic cooking in olive oil,
what's better?

Add zucchini….

…sauté until just starting to brown a bit.

  I loved being gifted some of our friend Katia's Grandma's eggs. Nonna still tends her chickens every day, at the ripe young age of 96. Good Italian stock, she is.

  You know the drill. Scramble the eggs up, and pour over the veggies. I don't add milk or cream, too rich for me…but I will add some salt and pepper, and even some parmesan at this point.

Cook on the stove top until edges just start to brown.

Some top notch parmesan to sprinkle on top...

Into the oven she will now go.
I just put the broiler on, and keep a very close eye on it.

  In the meantime, and while still keeping an eye on the oven action, I make a quick tomato and fresh sheep milk ricotta salad. 

  We were treated to this amazing ricotta by our pals at Fontemanna, the best little cheese/yogurt shop ever. 

  Thanks, Gesuita and Antonio! Ci vediamo a presto!!

Unbelievably tasty.

Beautiful tomatoes from Sicily...

Drizzle with olive oil, a dash of balsamic,
and a little salt & pepper.

Serve tomatoes with ricotta…
Dig in!

  Ok, frittata is smelling too good, so we get dinner on the table...

Enough for dinner and lunch tomorrow, too.

Dinner is served, fireside, of course.

  On another night, because I needed to use those eggs up, I made this frittata. It's with left over pasta with kale and cannellini beans. I love, love…LOVE using left over pasta in my frittata.

Just add some cheese, and toss in the oven.

  Since we were having a couple of rainy days, I wanted to make a hearty soup. So I headed to the shop that sells veggies to see what Yolanda had that day.

  Also, I wanted to try out this little mini-food processor I bought for the apartment. I like the option of "whizzing" things up sometimes, to put on crostini, or add to soups.

  I picked up the trifecta of onion, carrot and celery…along with garlic, to start my soup. With my little chopper good to go, I was able to chop it all up fine for a wonderful "soffritto", the base of all great soups.

  I added some thinly sliced leeks, and a small bit of fresh herbs. Once this all sort of melted together, I added water, with a splash of white wine in it. Enough to loosen things up.

  While this pot of goodness was doing it's thing, I had cut up half a head of cauliflower into small bits. I tossed these in olive oil with salt & pepper, and some small cloves of garlic.

  This was spread out onto a parchment paper covered pan and put into the oven to roast until nicely caramelized.

This is good as is, and I had to slap Mr. J's hand several times,
to keep him from chowing it all down.

  I then pureed the cauliflower in small batches, added to the soffritto, a little more water to thin it out some….

Just needs more water, or broth…which I didn't have,
but also didn't really need.

Presto! A perfectly divine zuppa.
I love my new little choppy thing!