Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

B arilla No. 7 Spaghetti is the best type to use for this recipe because they are thick and fill your mouth very pleasantly with the ingredients. The parmesan cheese gives a general fantastic taste.   Ingredients:    Serves 5 - 500 gms Spaghetti no. 7 - 500 gms of Portobello mushrooms cubed big. - 150 gms Gorgonzola cheese room temperature. - 4 big cloves of garlic smashed and passed thru the garlic press. - 500 ml of fresh cream 35% fat. - 50 gms of fresh butter. - Salt and pepper to taste. - Ground nutmeg to taste. - Parmesan cheese. Procedure: - First make the sauce then the spaghetti. - In a small pan dissolve the Gorgonzola in the cream and keep hot. - In a big pan melt butter, add the cubed mushrooms, and saute slightly 1 minute. The mushrooms must not soften. - Add garlic and stir 1/2 minute. - At this point boil the water for the spaghetti (100 ml of water per 100 gms of spaghetti). - Add the cream/Gorgonzola mixture...

O rzo can be treated as rice. Some Mediterranean ways of cooking orzo or rice is by frying in olive oil or butter first till all the grains are coated  before adding the right amount of water, covering the pot, lowering the temperature to minimum and letting it cook for 20 minutes.....

O ven roasted chicken with orzo is a typical Greek home dish. Nothing fancy just chicken and orzo. But the secret is how is this done....

We love seafood and pasta. Got my hands on a bunch of cheap frozen mussels the other day, so I decided to divide them into two. We creamed the first half  (previous post )and decided to have the second half with peas, basil and a spicy tomato sauce. Now you'll say where did I get fresh basis during this time of year...

S affron and Turmeric are two fantastic anti-oxidants that not only give a delicious refined taste but also a beautiful color to the cream and the whole dish in general. The finely chopped dill, the zest of one lemon and a splash of Samos sweet wine makes this starter even better....

Casseroles are usually very welcome during cold days of winter. When you have some left overs in your fridge such as small quantities of certain vegetables, grated cheese, or cut pasta (not spaghetti) in your pantry, they could be used to make up a casserole......

B oy I tell you this recipe is pure heaven. I had to import this type of spaghetti from Italy because Greeks don't eat hot spaghetti and cannot find them in the market. They already contain the chili inside and that is why they are orange!! In fact you can just boil and eat them neat with your favourite grated cheese but...

P iment de Spelette is a very "gentile - civilized - suave" kind of chili because unlike the Jalapeño or Habanero, is mild but still has that bite which even a lady can enjoy. They all have the same size, grow in the Basque area of South Western France/Spain around the area of the town of "Espelette". It can be found fresh, dried, and in powder. I personally have the dried ones very beautifully strung on a cord. In this recipe I used ¾ of one snipped very thinly with a pair of scissors.....

Ragù Alla Bolognese by Sonia Peronaci www.giallozafferano.it T he famous meat sauce called Ragú alla Bolognese, means meat sauce, a specialty of Bologna, the capital of the region of Emilia-Romagna in Italy....

O nce you went through all the trouble of making a batch of 1 kg of fresh pasta which you can cut anyway you like, it is worth your while to use it with different toppings. Last week I made a batch of 1 kg. Cut in half and used it for a meat sauce competition between friends living in the same building where we got second prize! First prize went to our friends from the third floor, and third prize went to our friends from the fourth. We all ate a lot and drank a lot. We live on the sixth and last floor. The other half of the batch we used to eat with smoked salmon and salmon roe. Fantastic....

T agliatelle Emiliani are a specialty of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Courtesy of Google As you can see from the map this region includes the well know cities of Parma (Parmesan cheese), Modena for the manufacture of the super cars, and Balsamic Vinegar,  Bologna for its famous Bolognese sauce and women with special skills.... It is said that the bolognese sauce,(  Ragù alla Bolognese in Italy , meat sauce in the States) was registered by the Culinary Institute of Bologna with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce in 1982 where it is mentioned that the sauce is made of a mixture of ground beef, ground pork, and salted pork belly (pancetta tesa) and most important the addition of milk and or fresh cream at the end. In general, the region of Emilia-Romanga is known for excellent food. That is where I gained my first excess weight back in 1971 working on the drilling rigs. Emilia is also know for its special tagliatelli Emiliani which are also made of flour and eggs...

Fideuá  is a  Spanish noodle seafood dish in which noodles replace the rice...

S emolina comes from wheat. It is very cheap and is used in Greece to make sweets. Today I used it to make semolina cakes to pour a string bean curry over them. Here is how...

Fresh Coriander Instead Of Parsley. F resh Coriander, Cilantro known in Hispanic circles, or Coriandolo in Italy, is used extensively in foods to give a special "note" to the overall taste.  Fresh coriander is very much used in India, Pakistan, and other Eastern and Far Eastern countries for their wonderful dishes. It is also used in Mexico, Central and Latin America. Fresh Coriander On The Left, Dry Coriander Corns In The Middle, Finely Ground, Right. Courtesy Of Google Dried Coriander is very much used in the Middle East for Falafel, Foul, Humus, mixed and fried with garlic for Molohia soup. In short it is one of the most used herbs/condiments in oriental cuisine.

Maria loves lasagna!! For today Sunday I promised her lasagna al pesto which she loves...Since we are not eating pasta made out of wheat flour anymore, our pantry had some pasta left. I was sure we had a whole box of lasagna (500 gms) . When it was time to make the lasagna I saw I only had 5 sheets of lasagna but I had a whole box of canneloni!! Since I could not go back on my word, I used the canneloni as well. This, guys, might happen to you someday (when you get old like me). So this is what I did....

O ctopus is one of the favorite sea food of the Greece. Eating air-dreid and grilled octopus while drinking ouzo by the sea means summer is here!! This time I propose using octopus for something different. Pasta.....

A Persillade is a mixture of parsley, garlic, olive oil, herbs and vinegar all blended together to make a smooth paste. My persillade is just parsley, garlic, and oil blended together to give a smooth paste and added to any food especially to fish needing the freshness of parsley and garlic. You could add hot chili peppers if you wish to make things more interesting....

Spelt is the English word for Farro in Italian and Zeas in Greek. It is one of the oldest staples in Europe ever since the Bronze Age. Now, because many people suffer from diabetes and are susceptible to gluten in plain wheat flour, flours such as Spelt, Buckwheat, Rye and many other are coming into "fashion" and are being used to make bread, pasta and other products where wheat is being used. These flours have a low glycemic index (an article really worthwhile reading) without causing sudden increases of the blood sugar in the body. But, most breads made with such flours are compact even though baking soda, baking powder and natural fresh or dry yeasts are used. The main reason wheat flour is used is the existence of gluten which causes the bread dough to rise.  Take for example the Spelt bread I made a couple of posts ago, not only when sliced, it is compact, and tastes delicious, it can be sliced very very thin to accommodate a nice slice of smoked salmon ......

Spirulina is a food supplement. We are lucky that somebody in Europe (and why not the Italians) has thought of making spaghetti for diabetics out of Spelt and Spirulina.  Spelt flour has saved the day for us high blood pressured diabetics!! Here is a nice recipe which I would certainly recommend to gluten intolerant readers who feel like eating spaghetti....and by the way Spelt in Italian is Farro and in Greek, Zeas found in Organic shops.

If you have some fresh mushrooms (any mushrooms) in your fridge, lemon or lime, and any short pasta in your pantry you can make yourself one heck of a quick pasta meal. Ingredients: -  500 gr. of farfalle or any short pasta (neither linguini nor spaghetti). -  500 gr. any kind of mushrooms (except pleurotus) washed and thinly sliced. -  Rind of one lemon or lime. -  Juice of the same lemon or lime. -  Thyme. -  Extra virgin olive oil. -  1 finely grated garlic. -  Parmesan cheese. Method: -  Add thinly sliced mushrooms to a large deep plate or pan. -  Grate lemon or lime and mix. -  Juice lemon or lime and mix. -  Add grated garlic. -  Add thyme to taste. -  Salt and pepper to taste. -  Meanwhile: boil the pasta to the desired doneness. -  Strain and add while hot over the mushroom mix. -  Pour desired quantity of oil over the whole. -  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese....