Viva Italia lunch !

I've stopped eating meat for a while and then suddenly it hits me, a graving for some old-fashioned red meat, but with a delicious sauce, to smother over some pasta or rice.
Yes, that's what I'm totally into right now and with the prospect of having a meatless spring to "clean" ourselves for Greek easter, I think this is a fabulous choice to put on our dinner table !
A great meal for a Sunday lunch, easy on a weeknight, food that everybody loves somehow...
All you have to do is to get the ingredients, put them all together and let the sauce simmer by itself.
This dish can be served with anything from mashed potatoes to your favorite pasta. I am serving it with brown rice, just as great I would say. Side dishes could be some braised baby carrots, a green salad or green peas? Let your imagination lead you on that one...


Ingredients:
1 kilo minced meat (pork mixed with veal)
400 gr chopped tomatoes
250 gr cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
3 tblsp. olive oil
1 red onion (chopped)
4 garlic cloves (minced)
pinch of:
oregano
marjoram
sweet chilly pepper
cinnamon
Some salt and fresh black pepper
1 large glass of water
250 gr. mozzarella di bufala  (cut into chunks)
To serve:
handful of grated parmesan cheese
fresh basil !


Start with heating up  two spoons of olive oil in a large casserole.
Add the onion and fry it slowly until it has a golden color. Then you add the garlic, stir a few times and remove both from the pan.
Add the last spoon of oil and now saute the meat. While you cook it make sure to break up all the pieces into little ones, the meat should brown evenly and get a light crust while you cook it.
After about 5 minutes you add the onion and garlic mix again to the pan.
Now stir in the tomatoes, the spices, the water and season.
Leave the sauce to boil at medium heat for about 15 minutes. Then you add the cherry tomatoes, stir a few times more to soften the pieces and take the casserole of the heat.
Stir in the chopped up mozzarella pieces and preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
Place the casserole in the middle of the oven and cook for another 10 minutes or so, just enough for the cheese to melt and give that extra touch to your delicious sauce.
When your meat is in the oven you can work on your side dishes and your pasta, rice or whatever you have chosen to serve this with.

Enjoy it like I did !
Serves 4-6

With love,
esther.

Involtini with Pine Nuts, Raisins and Parmesan!

Here's what I do when I want to impress, but don't feel like creating a huge mess in my kitchen.
I make involtini's , these are basically meat rolls filled with a stuffing. One can also use aubergines for a vegetarian version.
This recipe is made with pork schnitzels, because it's still kind of cold outside and it gives you this warm, homey, winterly feeling that we all long for every now and then!
I serve my involtini's with mashed potatoes, but a homemade tomato sauce or a big pan of pasta would also be a great combination.
Make your life easier and prepare them ahead of time, so you just have to heat them up when your guests arrive...

Viva Italia once more!


Ingredients:

4 pieces of schnitzel (pork or chicken)
4 to 6 slices of parma ham
50 gr. grated parmesan cheese
50 gr. black raisins
50 gr. pine nuts
2 tblsp. chopped parsley
1 glass white wine
2 tblsp. olive oil
1 tblsp. butter
kitchen rope
salt, pepper
bit of water

Start with making the filling.
Put the raisins, the parmesan cheese, the pine nuts and the parsley in a little bowl and stir so the ingredients get a good mix.
Put one piece of meat flat on your working board and cover it with a slice of parma ham.
Then add about 2 to three tablespoons of the filling on one side of the meat.
Roll up the meat and now your involtini is ready.
Tie up the involtini with kitchen rope, so it will stay in place during the cooking process .
Continue with the other 4 pieces of meat and then heat up the olive oil together with the butter in a large frying pan.
As soon as the oil/butter mixture is really hot you add the involtini's to the pan.
Saute them for about 5 minutes, making sure that all sides of the meat get a really nice golden crust !
Then you lower the heat and you add the wine and some water to the pan.
Leave the involtini's for another 15 minutes on a low heat to cook through and then you're ready to serve.

With love !

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Baking cookies is something I love to do during long winter nights. The house smells of childhood memories and if I want a little snack after a late night out, I can always rely on homemade cookies with a warm glass of milk!
I only have one concern, that it's easy to make and easy to eat. No weird colored icing on top, no awkward decorations, honest and simple is what works for me.
This recipe is very versatile, you can add nuts, cover them with icing sugar, pile them up and smother them with extra melted chocolate, at this hour, anything goes!
These cookies were first made by accident, apparently someone tried to create a recipe with cookies and melted chocolate inside. Well, the chocolate didn't melt, but by eating these one does get the sense of excitement when one gets to the tiny bits of chocolate with every bite one takes.
I guess that's the reason why this recipe became so popular !
Enjoy and do involve friends and family when you bake. It's so much more fun!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flower
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 spoon hot water
pinch of salt
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Cream the butter in a bowl, add the sugar, then beat in the eggs.
Continue with the vanilla and slowly add the flower, keep stirring and add the rest of the ingredients.
If you do add the walnuts, try to add them at the very last.
Shape the dough into round, flat cookies, keep them at a distance from each other, cause they will grow during the baking process.
Put them on a baking sheet and bake them for about 10 minutes in your oven.
Depending on the strength of your oven, they might need 2 more minutes.
Let them cool, warm up your milk and you're good to go!!!!

With love !