Category Archives: Gluten free

Bacon and tomato dip

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Summer is finally here and for me it means barbecues with friends and family. With my husband being American we like to alternate and organize  either American or Italian barbecues though sometimes we mix up our traditional meals.

In Italy we usually like to grill sausages, salamelle (thicker but shorter than a sausage) pancetta, capocollo (pork neck chops), pork ribs, hot dogs or kebabs (alternating pieces of sausage, chicken, pancetta and bell peppers). The meat is often accompanied with grilled vegetables and grilled polenta, big salads and while the meat is cooking bruschetta is often chosen as an appetizer. We absolutely don’t put any sauce over the meat but we sometimes marinate it with olive oil and fresh herbs before grilling.
I personally like to grill some sausages, my favorite are with fennel seeds, but I also like chicken flavored with thyme, rosemary and sage. Continue reading →

Quinoa with cream of leeks

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Few years back, as some of you already know, I decided to vary my diet introducing different cereals like millet, kamut, spelt, barley and quinoa to name few of them. Quinoa made quite an impression on me for its  organoleptic properties and nutritional value.

Quinoa is actually a pseudo-cereal, closely related to species like spinach and beets. It has been cultivated in the Andean highlands for nearly 6000 years. Considered sacred by the Incas it was called, chisaya mama, the mother of all grains. Nowadays the majority of quinoa is still imported from South America where it grows in poor soil, arid climates and high altitudes. There are over 100 species of quinoa, but only three main varieties are cultivated: the white or sweet variety, the red and black quinoa.

Quinoa is highly appreciated by vegetarians and vegans for its high content of proteins. It’s actually a complete protein, meaning that one can obtain all 9 essential amino acids from the grain. It’s also a good source of dietary fiber phosphorus and is high in iron and magnesium. Quinoa has more calcium than milk and its fat, mostly polyunsaturated, provides the essential fatty acids our body needs. Being gluten-free it’s an alternative for people with celiac disease. Continue reading →

Broccoli salad with tangerines

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Every year I like to try a new side dish for Thanksgiving. I usually choose cooked vegetables because I feel they go better with the rest of the dinner. This year for a change I’ll introduce a broccoli salad to my usual menu. The recipe is inspired by a dish I found years ago on Taste of home. It’s an easy salad to assemble, and should be prepared one hour in advance, which is very helpful when you have one dish less to think about before guests arrive.

Quality ingredients are important for good results. Don’t buy the broccoli florets in the plastic bags, they’re already dry and have lost part of their flavor, not to mention their properties. It will take a little bit more time to prepare the salad, but your efforts will be worth it. I bought mine at my local farmer and made the salad right away. The broccoli were so fresh that I used part of the stem too. The day after broccoli were still crispy and didn’t get soggy at all. Buy your tangerines fresh, don’t even think about getting them canned. Be careful when choosing your mayonnaise, make sure it doesn’t have honey or spices in it. It should only contain eggs, oil and vinegar otherwise it will change the flavor of your salad. Continue reading →

Spiced basmati rice with vegetables

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In this period I’m craving spicy food and in particular Indian. I’m fascinated by this cuisine and particularly interested in the primary role spices and herbs have. I’m amazed by all the different aromas and flavors each individual spice can have: whole and popped, grounded and then cooked, toasted, soaked and more. I have a few books on Indian cuisine and I’ve tried quite a few recipes with success. Notwithstanding I should say I feel I still don’t know anything about it. For the moment I will learn from the books I have, but sooner or later I’m going to follow some cooking classes to learn more about the usage and the different combinations of spices and herbs.

The dish I made today is adapted from a recipe in The Turmeric Trail: Recipes and Memories from an Indian Childhood by Raghavan Iyer. If you have never heard of this book and you’re interested in Indian cuisine you should definitely have it. It’s a beautifully written book where the recipes are well explained and very precise. Each recipe is introduced by an episode from Mr. Iyer’s personal life that captures your attention and brings you on a time travel through India and its world of spices. I’m never tire of reading his recipes and personal notes again and again. I’m planning to try all his recipes and looking forward to going to the States where, thanks to his indications, I can find certain ingredients that I haven’t found in Italy . Continue reading →

Baked salmon steaks with balsamic vinegar sauce

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I like fish but we have never been so fond of cooking it in my family until I met my husband and things changed drastically. He loves fish, he loves to fish too as he used to go fishing all year long when living in Minnesota. As a matter of fact he wants to bring me ice fishing this winter, but I’m not so sure I’ll have the courage to go on a frozen lake with the car. Anyway when we moved to Italy he was amazed about all the fresh fish he could find, and we decided it was time to learn how to cook it, or at least learn to cook something different than the usual trout and cod fish. We bought a nice book, complete with instructions for cleaning fish because I didn’t know how to clean any kind of fish. I started by cleaning a squid and after I finished with it I didn’t want to eat it anymore. The squid salad I made with it wasn’t so appealing after I eliminated its brain, eyes and beak. I managed to taste it and finally eat, and after that first experience I started to think about something else while cleaning fish. I’m glad I didn’t give up or I would have missed some amazing dishes that we have prepared since then. Continue reading →

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