How to freeze lemons to use year-round

It's the height lemon season right now, and if you have a tree of your own, you may have more lemons than you know what to do with. Well, not worry because one of the best things to do with all those lemons is also the simplest and most healthy.

Freezing your lemons is becoming popular now that research has shown it's the healthiest way to ingest the sour fruit. Lemon water is known to detoxify and alkalise the body, but beyond squeezing a wedge into the glass, the peel of the lemon is usually discarded. The problem with that is the peel is the most powerful part of the fruit!

Roasted Pumpkin Gnocchi

It's no secret that autumn is my favourite season. From the chestnuts, to the mushrooms; from pears and clementines to pomegranates and persimmons; Autumn brings us some of the most savoury and sweet produce. Pumpkin is a fantastic vegetable full of beta-carotene and fibre. By oven roasting the pumpkin (or butternut squash) first, it creates a drier base for using as a thick sauce or as a puree for desserts.

The base of this recipe is incredibly versatile, working well as a filling for homemade ravioli, mixing in for a sweet and savoury risotto, or just as a delicious side dish to a classic fall menu. But the quickest and simplest dish is to stir it with fresh gnocchi. But be careful, like risotto, gnocchi can be very filling and heavy, so I recommend a smaller portion than you may be accustomed to.

Dinosaur Kale

If you frequent Pinterest or any healthy/Paleo food blogs, you are aware of the recent Kale Chip craze. Picture after picture of crunchy, curly kale looked so good to me and I wanted to try it. But that lush, curly kale just doesn't exist in Italy. I certainly haven't seen it, even after searching far and wide. What I did find, however, was a very dark veggie with long flat spears that look just like, well, spears. I discovered that this "cavolo nero" or black cabbage, is called Dinosaur kale in English. The flavor is very similar to curly kale, but it is a bit stronger and mostly stalk with very little tender leaf. I'm not sure how it compares to the curly variety nutrition wise, but eating it makes me feel very strong and healthy! I even suspect this is what was in Popeye's spinach cans!!

Wild Asparagus!

I am a huge fan/supporter of harvesting wild food. You can see my Wild Caper and Chestnut posts as proof. Food just tastes better when it grows wild and going for a hike or hunt to find it makes it an fun adventure. Last year, when reading about Kate Little's adventures in the woods above Levanto to find wild asparagus, I was delighted at the idea of finding asparagus and determined to discover these skinny, hidden jewels myself.

Come March, during a celebration of our friends' bar opening (see Bar dell'Amore) in the Cinque Terre, a friend from Riomaggiore told me that he was making asparagus risotto from a bunch of wild asparagus he gathered that morning. I got excited and asked him where I could find some, to which he told me that it grows all over the hills of the Cinque Terre and I could even find it above the bar.  Fortunately, another friend from Vernazza pointed out that all of the Cinque Terre is a protected reserve and I could get a huge fine for taking any kind of plant. After much discussion about what could be said to the cops and how I could pretend to be a tourist that didn't know any better, I decided it was best to just look for it elsewhere!

Grapefruit and Fennel Salad

The weather has finally turned warm again and taking advantage of the sunny day and the flat of fennel bulbs in the pantry, I decided to make a lovely and refreshing salad: Grapefruit and fennel, topped with crispy, crunchy prosciutto crisps. Now, this is just as delicious (but not as salty) without the prosciutto, so to make it vegetarian/vegan, just omit it.

By broiling thin slices of prosciutto crudo for about ten minutes, they become like salty, savoury crisps that you can eat as is, or break up into pieces. It’s sooooo good! Plus, a salad based on fennel needs something nice and salty, so it is a great combination.

Crunchy Grapefruit & Fennel Salad: 

Pepperoni Pastina

Having a nearly empty fridge can cause some very creative dishes. Seeing as how I try to have fresh vegetables in everything I make, I took the last fresh veggies from my fridge (a trio of pepperoni or bell peppers) and whipped up a deliciously creamy and vegan pasta dish. Super simple, light and nutritious! Here's how to make it:

As Easy as...Quiche?

Although I am Italian, live in Italy and speak Italian, my personality, mentality and actions are more French than anything else. In fact, my Italian husband always asks me why I didn’t marry a Frenchman! Anyway, my style français is most evident in my cooking style. I love to cook all types of food, Thai, Indian, Mexican, etc. but the dishes that I consider my mainstays are always French in nature. This brings me to my all-time favorite lunch: La Quiche. In France, lunch specials abound with different quiches served with a salad, or even better, fresh, hot, pommes frites! Mmm…

The best thing about quiche is that you can make unlimited versions. But since we all know quiche to have a crust, it can be a deterrent for whipping one up at home (it was for me). Fortunately, there is a much easier way. Here is my recipe for a crustless quiche that will be the easiest quiche ever! Actually, there is an even easier version, which uses leftover grilled vegetables (thus no sautéing), and is really my favorite. But it’s still winter here, so no grilling. For this quiche, I have used zucchini and tomatoes (because that is what I had on hand) but I encourage you to use your favorite ingredients.

Strange Fruit

Every once in a while, I come across some kind of fruit or vegetable that I either have never seen, never eaten, or never dared to prepare. But seeing as how I am intrinsically curious and always up for a challenge, I like to give it a try. I am actually quite a bit more daring than my husband, but when I was struck with fascination at the container of bovine nerves, he quickly put the kibosh on it. At least I have gotten him to like vegetables enough to conquer the plant world. So what would you guess this is? (I have not altered these pics, it really is this color)

Chestnuts Everywhere!

As my last post showed, autumn brings with it some of my favorite foods. In Italy, October starts the season of one my fall favorites—le castagne (chestnuts). So, after another Sunday lunch, bellies full and nothing to do…my husband suggested we go up into the hills above La Spezia and pick some fresh chestnuts. Now, if you have learned from my earlier stories, nothing entices me more than the combination of food and adventure! Plus, I had never seen chestnut trees before--it was a very exciting proposition.

Autumn in Italy

After spending a good deal of time in northern Norway, my return to the splendors of Italy was certainly welcome. But this time, instead of returning to Sicily, I returned to La Spezia, in northern Italy, about an hour east of Genoa and an hour west of Pisa. Markets in Italy are always seasonal, so what you see is what is best. It is fall now, and that brings with it some of my favorite foods. Fresh pumpkin, mushrooms, grapes, apples, chestnuts...these are the fruits of fall.

My first day brought me to the daily vegetable market. Oh, what splendor...

As the old adage says: 

"A picture speaks a thousand words"

How To Preserve Capers

This may have been the most fun thing I made during my time in Sicily. Not just because it was so simple, but because it included an adventure! Scouring the countryside for cappero bushes was an experience I will not easily forget. We searched for them down small roads and along stone walls. They were slightly elusive, growing in dry fields, among clumps of fan palms and other similarly shaped bushes. But it was the delicate, creamy blossoms that would give them away. For a detailed account of my caper adventure, see Wild Capers!

So after you gather your capperi, you need to wash them thoroughly. If you have enough, you can sort them according to size. The small, baby sized capers are what we are accustomed to getting at the store. But capers can get rather large as they get closer to blooming. Italians like these larger ones for salads. I was picking all the cute little buds that I was familiar with and my husband was picking the large buds that he preferred. Then there are the caper “berries”, which I had not known about previously. These are the seed pods that form after the flower blooms. They look a little like mini torpedoes, but they have a slightly different taste than the buds do.

Now, there are two ways of preserving capers. They can be preserved dry in salt, which is very common in Sicily, or they can be pickled with vinegar. I have done both, but I prefer them pickled.
  

To make capperi sotto sale, or preserved in salt, you must first butare l’acqua, or get the water out. Put your washed capers in a colander or strainer resting on a bowl and toss them with a generous amount of salt. Using a large grain salt works the best if you can find it. Leave the capers like this for two days, adding additional salt as needed, as much of it will drip out with the caper water. This is the time that your whole house will fill with the aroma of capers. After about two days of releasing their water and they seem a little shriveled, it is recommended that you leave them in the sun for a bit to dry out. Then you put a layer of salt on the bottom of a jar, layer the capers and continue to alternate layers of salt and capers until you get to the top. There is no boiling needed, as the salt does all the preserving for you. You can’t get more antique than that. Close the lid tightly and you can keep them for quite a while--maybe even forever. Store them in a cool, dark place for at least a month, and then you can start eating them. When using capperi sotto sale, take the amount you need and rinse them under cold water before using. If they still seem too salty, soak them in water for a few minutes.
   

Capperi sott’aceto, or pickeled capers, are much quicker and easier to make. Pack your fresh, washed capers into sterile jars. Bring a small pan of white wine vinegar to boil (measure enough vinegar to fill your jar) with a bit of salt and an optional bay leaf. If your vinegar is really acrid, you can add a pinch or two of sugar to cut the acidity. Pour the boiling vinegar over the capers, filling to the rim, close the lid tightly, and your done! Turn the jar upside down for twenty minutes to get a good seal and store in a cool dark place for about two months before using. Personally, I couldn’t wait that long and I tried mine after two weeks. They were so delicious!

Making Sun-Dried Tomatoes

The process of making old-fashioned pomodori secchi (sun-dried tomatoes) is actually incredibly easy. So easy, in fact, that you really don’t have to do much of anything. And yet, the mere mention of these shriveled little things seem to excite the senses and conjure up visions of Italian lunches overlooking the rolling hills of Tuscany.  So how can something so simple to make only be known to us from jars imported from far away lands?

First and foremost, the key to making great sun-dried tomatoes is delicious, ripe, juicy tomatoes.  You cannot have good sun-dried tomatoes without great tomatoes. Period. And due to the cardboard like flavor of our good old American tomatoes, it would explain why we are not known for sun-dried tomato production.  But, thanks to the ‘growing’ popularity of organic gardens and home-growing, you can take your own juicy tomatoes and give it a shot. 

In Sicily however, you don't need your own garden to get amazing tomatoes. Here, they are just sold on the side of the street, in wooden crates.
 

Good tomatoes are not the only necessary ingredients. 

Here is what you need:

-Delicious, ripe tomatoes (plum or roma are best)

-Good quality olive oil

-Salt

-Hot, dry weather with plenty of sunshine (August is the time this is done in Italy)

-An absorbent and breathable surface (wood is the traditional surface used)

-Protective cover, i.e. screen, toile or cheesecloth

-Time. Lots of time

Wash and cut the tomatoes in half, lengthwise and arrange them on a portable surface, like a wood cutting board or a small table. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and place them outside in full sunlight. Cover your tomatoes with some type of screen or netting to keep insects and other stuff off your food. For best results, put your tomatoes out in the morning and take them inside in the evening. During the night, humidity rises and can undo some of the drying from the day, and prolonging the moisture can encourage bacteria. I should mention here that if you don’t have a hot, dry climate, don’t try this—it won’t work.

When using small plum or roma tomatoes, you will need anywhere from one to two weeks for them to completely dry. This is where patience comes in. But, it’s a fun process and bringing them in and out each day keeps you up on the progress.

When your tomatoes are finally dry, they are ready to be jarred. This is where they will take the unmistakable flavor you know. You could taste them at this point, like I did out of curiosity, but I don’t recommend it. They are hard, sour and just kinda yucky. Lay the shriveled tomatoes one on top of the other in a jar. Pack them in well, top with a clove or two of garlic and a few basil leaves if you have it. Then you fill the jar with extra virgin olive oil, seal it up and store it in a cool dark place for at least a month.

When your tomatoes are sufficiently marinated, they are ready to eat!