Monthly Archives: November 2008

Tips for Thanksgiving with a Vegetarian at the Table

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Thanksgiving is one if my favorite family holidays and even if I’m not American, my husband is, and so  it has become an important festivity for me even as much as Christmas. I’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving for many years now but most of the time we are in Italy. The atmosphere here is a little bit different, shops are all open and everybody is working, but we have always managed to have all day free to cook no matter what. We celebrate Thanksgiving at our house together with family and closest friends. In the past it was not so easy to find a good size turkey but we finally found a place that provides them even if we’re not so close to Christmas, which is the season farmers grow their turkeys for. I’m personally not so fond of the  turkey itself, I’m more a stuffing kind of person not to mention my unconditional passion for all the side dishes and desserts. Continue reading →

Quince preserve

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In late autumn quinces, Cydonia Oblunga appear on our markets with their bright golden yellow color and intense perfume. Quince has an hybrid shape between an apple and a pear, a hard flesh and a very acid taste. The unripe fruit has a downy skin, while the ripened fruit has the smooth texture of its relatives (apples and pears). They’re inedible if eaten raw so they’re mainly used for marmalade, preserves, cotognata and mostarda. In the old days they were placed in the closet to perfume the linens. If you want to have a natural air freshener, take a fruit with the stem and peel it, insert some cloves in it (optional) and hang it in your closet by the stem or in a room you’ll smell its fragrance for about 6 months. Continue reading →

Confetti soup

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Today I made this colorful soup that warmed up my gray and rainy day. The basic recipe is taken from one of my favorite books, The New Moosewood Cookbook by Molly Katzen. I made few changes from the original recipe and added different ingredients, but as always this book is a great guide and inspiration.

I called this soup “Confetti” because these colored vegetable dots made me think about the confetti (coriandoli in Italian) thrown during the parade on Carnival. I like this soup because it’s lightly spiced and the flavors are well balanced. The sweet from the sweet potatoes and the bell peppers add a special twist to the recipe. Continue reading →

Pennette with Nori and Pine Nuts

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The pasta I prepared today is a perfect connubial between Italian and Japanese cuisine: nori sheets, pine nuts, shoyu soy sauce and extra virgin olive oil. Porphyra, commonly known as nori, is one of the most widely consumed seaweeds in the world. It’s mainly used in the Japanese cuisine for sushi rolls but also for flavoring noodles and soups. In Italy seaweeds are not commonly used. They are best known for use with sushi.

I started to get to know seaweeds a long time ago when my father approached the macrobiotic cuisine for a while and I’ve been amazed by the things you can make with seaweeds. It was not so easy to find them before but nowadays they have a decent variety in natural stores. Continue reading →

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