Baccalà and pizza have one thing in common: they can be prepared in endless ways. Let’s just try to imagine all the pizza variations we have seen recipes of, and the salted cod recipes: An infinity. Baccalà fillets, is an ingredient that I connect to my childhood in Iceland. For children the mashed potato version was and sure still is a big favorite….. with some butter of course to make it even more appetizing. In time I’ve made a pizza version of my beloved baccalà & potato mash.
Spring is a wild season, an awakening season, so full of new, fresh perfumes. One of the top ingredient of the season is the wonderful asparagus. So delicious, so versatile, so rich of minerals and vitamins, and so joyfully green, or sweetly pale. Love it on the pizza with eggs, creamy cheese and parmigiano cheese, maybe with an egg, and some parma ham. This one is a wild one, topped with pea pesto as well, pine nuts and detox artichoke. Feta or fresh goat cheese on top. Whole grain pizza loaded with greens.
Zabaione, known also as zabaglione or zabajone, is an extremely simple italian dessert made of egg yolks, sugar and sweet wine. Marsala or vin santo are the most common wines used in the preparation, but moscato wine is also a delightful ingredient choice, and gives this fantastic dessert a “summerly” air. Topping it with fruit in summer is popular, in winter you could dust some cocoa powder over it for extra comforting richness in taste. The classical lady finger biscuits (savoiardi), or other hard biscotti are always a delicious way to spoon up this tempting egg nog pudding, that N.B. inspired the creation of the historical egg liquor Vov in the 19th century.
Sweet Sunday Morning. When starting the day with a sweet bite, it becomes even sweeter itself. That is at least my theory. Some honey in your tea, a little cinnamon in the milky rice, some fruits in your yogurt, a marmalade on your toast…. and once in a while a little more indulgence, like these mini pancakes, with caramel ricotta, chocolate covered “in season” strawberries & toasted pine nuts. Various fruits are perfect here, use your fantasy and look out for possibly what’s in season.
Spring on toast & toast for spring. Grab the season of rebirth and cherry blossoms into your hand and savor these springful toast slices accompanying your senses into the new cycle of life with colors, delicate taste, seasonal food, elegance and a completely natural sparkling wine from LaStaffa, a classical method biodynamic verdicchio wine with a small percentage of trebbiano grapes, a true rarety, cultivated in the rolling hills of Staffolo nestled in the hills in the north of the Marche region, in the Esino valley. In fact its name is “Mai sentito” (Never before heard of). It is a perfect match here and its so appropriate to make a toast to spring, summer coming up and Mother Earth, with this fresh, crisp, fruity and extremely convivial natural spumante, expressing in such a beautiful way the distinct characteristics of the area.
Fried zucchini flowers are one of Italy’s most elegant and graceful street foods. Like so often in Italian cuisine, the variants are numerous, and every region has its traditional recipe. Then you can make your own variations to the theme of course. When its delicately crunchy surface gives in to the soft filling, is a magical moment for the senses. It’s an authentic sensation, unique. Normally sparkling water is used in the batter, but I made a sparkling wine variant to the theme, that I thing is matching perfectly with the mild flavor of the flower dumplings. The chopped chive is also giving a mild contrast to the cheese in the filling. A romantic tête-à-tête dinner or an elegant appetizer. This is your dish.
In difficult times and crisis, the thirst and hunger for art seems to become a general need. Pablo Picasso wrote a sentence that crystallizes in a glimpse what art means for our soul: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”. So true and a beautiful metaphor at the same time. Just think of what a difference it makes, if you just pay attention to your breakfast, that it is not only nurturing, but as colorful as possible, that you inhale some extra minutes the enchanting perfume of your favorite coffee listening to a great song or symphony. In everyday life maybe we take art too much for granted, and don’t make the most of our own private moments, creating small works of art out of our lives. In times of crisis it is the soul who seeks by itself its food, as if telling us it has to be nurtured, it needs to rejoice, to be caressed caress it in midst of a storm. Art reconfirms itself yet another time as our official food for the soul.
I visited Rome two days in pre-spring, vivid, charming and fresh as ever, embracing the rinascimento season with its timeless flavors & perfumes, its warm gazes full of profoundly rooted joie de vivre and gestures loaded with centuries of savoir faire. I put on the timeless and comfortable ballerina shoes of Audrey Hepburn (the style of shoes she loved to wear), ideal for tippling quietly yet elegantly through one of the city’s most characteristic neighborhoods, Trastevere, tasting, observing and odouring its magic, its genuineness, its passion for life and the beauty that lies in the little things. Accompanied as before by beautiful Berta. Let’s dream together of Rome and try to imagine the sensations produced by its numerous flavors, perfumes and colors. Rome is resting now like all Italy, resting and fighting like all Italy in order to make this beautiful spring continue, more vivid and colorful than ever before.
Simple things are often the best things. Let’s think of the omelette, a freshly made bread with simple butter….. and a simple pasta with sugo, a heartwarming tomato pasta sauce. In this case meatless, just canned tomatoes, oil, garlic, onion, carrot and some aromas. All ingredients that you very probably have in your kitchen cupboard and that will save your day. Freshly grated parmigiano cheese on top would then make it just perfect. Buon appetito!
There are few things more romantic that I can think of than Rome in spring, or should I say breathlessly charming? Observing Flora’s season exploding with its million colors and perfumes into the timelessness of the city is somewhat unique.
When I think of Rome, and when I go there, my spirit automatically travels back at least to the mid fifties and sixties when Audrey Hepburn had already left her inimitable footprints in the eternal city, first with Vacanze Romane (1955),
and later living there for many years. Celebrating International Women’s Day by getting into her beloved ballerina shoes and tap through her most dear Trastevere neighborhood in the company of the border collie Berta and photographer Danilo Mecozzi.
