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.
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.
When I make those butter fried slices of bread for late Sunday breakfast or whenever I need extra sunshine into my morning, the lines from Richard Rodger’s score of “Oklahoma” automatically come to mind: “Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh, what a beautiful day”, and I feel like Gordon MacRae admiring the golden meadows on a super sunny day. That is what food can do to us. In addition to nurturing us, it takes our spirit on the most incredible “voyages”. Use the fruit you have in season for topping.
Icelandic-Italian fusion. Tastes that remind of late summer and autumn. Birch smoked Icelandic trout, barley bread with freshly milled organic barley from Móðir Jörð, Vallanes, Iceland, pomegranate seeds from the amazing autumn fruit, pomegranate, freshly picked in Puglia, sheep ricotta cheese from Staffolo, Marche, a dash of orange Sicilian orange blossom honey and a couple of free range eggs. These fabulous ingredients come together in this “smörrebröd” open sandwich suggestion. The scrambled eggs match heavenly with the trout and the pomegranate gives a great acidity contrast to its slight fattiness. Autumn really tastes good, and this toast is in theme with its beautiful colors as well.
The soft, fluffy inviting Italian dessert “par excellence”, tiramisù, offers variation possibilities in the creamy consistency part as for the topping. I love to make the dessert with ricotta and mix in with the heavy cream and without eggs. You still will have an extremely fluffy and rich dessert, beautifully white and tasty, but a little “lighter” in calories. I adore buffalo ricotta in the recipe, but you can of course use sheep-, cow or mixed ricotta depending on your taste preferences.
