Fruit crisps are underrated. This American dessert :: dolce americano doesn’t get the attention like apple pies or cheesecake do, but it is just as delicious, if I dare not say, more delicious.
I love to eat crisps for breakfast :: colazione. They go great with a hot cup of dark roasted coffee. I also love them after dinner as a decadent dessert; they absolutely beckon for creamy vanilla ice cream or a swirl of caramel sauce.
This time I’ve spiked the caramel with some whiskey. I thought it quite fitting as I am going to be making this dessert at a Blues Festival next weekend. Have I ever mentioned that Italians love America and host all sorts of “American events”. In November I did a showcooking event at an American Wild West exhibition and in December, I cooked ::ho cucinato on a stage at an American themed Christmas trade show. It was funny to see men dressed up like cowboys, yet speaking in Italian.
There are many ways to make fruit crisps. The easiest way is to chop up the fruit, throw on the crisp and bake it in the oven :: forno in a large casserole dish. The fastest way is to cook everything on the stovetop like I did with my apple crisp. The most beautiful way (or at least I think so) is to serve the crisp directly in the fruit itself like these little pear boats. Aren’t they just darling?
This pear crisp with whiskey caramel is an irresistible dessert…don’t count on having any leftovers!
Serves: 4
Ingredients
For the crisp:
2 ripe pears
¼ cup (45g) flour
¼ cup (30g) rolled oats
¼ cup (50g) dark brown sugar
¼ teaspoon (1g) ground cinnamon
¼ (1g) teaspoon salt
4 walnuts, chopped
15 almonds or pecans, chopped
8 tsp (40g) unsalted butter, chopped
For the salted caramel:
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (100g) sugar
3 tablespoons (42g) butter
¼ cup (60ml) heavy cream
1-2 pinches teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon (15ml) whiskey
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a large baking dish with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, walnuts, almonds or pecans and butter.
Rinse the pears well, cut them in half then remove the ends and stem. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon so that you have a small hollow cavity. Slice off a little piece of the outside of each pear and set them cut side up on the baking dish; by doing this, the pear won’t wobble or tip. Put a few spoonful of the crisp inside each of the hollowed centers. Pop the pan into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the pears are soft when poked with a fork.
In the meantime, make the whiskey caramel sauce. In a medium saucepan, cook the sugar over medium heat without stirring. After a few minutes, the sugar will start to melt around the boarders. At this point, drag the sugar towards the center with a rubber spatula so the liquid doesn’t burn. Instead of stirring rotate the pan with your hands (that are obviously tucked nice and snug in a pair of oven mitts.)
When the sugar has completely melted, has turned a caramel color and there are no sugar clumps, add the butter and stir rapidly for a few minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the heavy cream and stir vigorously. Be extremely careful in this step as the cream will try to boil up and out of the pan and it is very very hot. Add the pan back on the stove and cook for another minute, while constantly stirring.
Remove the saucepan from the stove and add the salt and whiskey. (Adjusting also to your own tastes.)
When the pear crisp is ready, add a scoop of gelato and/or a drizzle of whiskey caramel sauce.
*Store the whiskey caramel sauce covered in a glass container in the fridge and heat before use. (Although I highly doubt any sauce will remain!)
This baked goat cheese with tomato and olives is ridiculously easy to prepare, looks fancy and is absolutely delicious. This is the perfect appetizer for when unexpected guests stop by or when you don’t have a lot of time (or desire) to cook an elaborate appetizer, but want to avoid using processed foods.
When I said that this baked goat cheese was easy to prepare, I wasn’t joking. All you need is 5 minutes to throw the ingredients in a baking dish then let the oven work away for 15 minutes. The result is creamy goat cheese that you can slather onto toasted artisanal Italian bread topped with mouthwatering roasted tomatoes and flavorful taggiasche olives.
For those of you interested in learning a few cooking words in Italian so you can read the menu on your next trip to Italy, here is a quick recap of the words seen in the video:
goat cheese :: formaggio di capra
tomatoes :: pomodori
parsley :: prezzemolo
olives :: olive
oregano :: origano
sea salt :: sale marino
black pepper :: pepe nero
extra virgin olive oil :: olio extra vergine di oliva
This baked goat cheese with tomato and olives is easy to prepare and the perfect appetizer for when unexpected guests stop by or when you don’t have a lot of time (or desire) to cook a elaborate appetizer, but want to avoid using processed foods.
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1 goat cheese log (6 ounces/180g)
10 grape or datterini tomatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
¼ cup Taggiasche olives (or kalamata olives)
2 pinches of dried oregano
1 pinch of sea salt
A few cracks of black pepper
A good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Fresh artisanal Italian bread
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cut the goat cheese in half and place it in a small baking dish. Top with tomatoes, parsley, olives, oregano, salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes.
In the meantime slice the bread and toast in the toaster or stick in the oven for a 1-2 minutes, flip the slices and bake for another minute or two.
Serve the baked goat cheese with the toasted bread. Buon appetito!
You may tend to eat salads just in the spring and summer; have you ever tried a salad with winter veggies? This spinach salad with chia crusted tuna and roasted winter vegetables is packed with nutrients and flavor. Top it off with a creamy homemade cashew dressing and you’ll find yourself in the ultimate food heaven.
Even vegetables :: verdure can be as stunning as Hollywood’s stars in high heels and sparking dresses strolling down the red carpet at the Oscars.
What’s not to love about plump green Brussel sprouts? Don’t be frightened by your childhood years when your mom probably overcooked them until they were soggy, waterlogged balls that smelled of rotten eggs. Trust me, cooked correctly, brussels sprouts are like candy :: caramelle that you want to just pop in your mouth, one after the other.
Beets also get a bad rap. Many people hate them, including Mr. Italicano. That is, until I roasted the beets to caramelize and concentrate their flavors :: sapori and snuck them into various salads and pastas. Now Mr. Italicano is a converted beet lover.
Fennel is an underrated vegetable that often times gets neglected, yet, it is one of the most aromatic vegetables and can add intense anise flavors to any dish :: piatto. Here in Italy, we love to eat raw fennel dipped in a simple vinaigrette made of extra virgin olive oil, salt and lemon.
If Popeye the Sailor Man eats spinach, so should we. Their bright green tender leaves :: foglie are packed with iron, fiber, vitamin C and vitamin K. Spinach is extremely easy to work into your daily meals. Make a salad, toss the fresh leaves into your egg scramble or serve it warm as a side.
In the spring and summer I grill vegetables; in the fall and winter I roast them. Roasting vegetables intensifies their natural flavors and turns ordinary vegetables into mouthwatering succulent goodness. Many people skip out on using fresh vegetables because they are time consuming to prepare. Roasting vegetables is one of the simplest methods to reduce consumption of processed foods because you can cook with whole foods in just 3 easy steps:
1. Chop up whatever veggies you have in your refrigerator
2. Lay them out on a baking sheet and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and salt; if you’re feeling wild, add some dried spices.
3. Shove the pan in the oven and roast at 400°F (200°C) for 25-45 minutes. I don’t mix the vegetables until they have been roasted as vegetables have different roasting times. (Brussel sprouts and fennel will take about 25 minutes whereas beets and potatoes will take 45 minutes). Just peak at them every so often to make sure they are not burning and give a quick stir.
In the meantime, relax with a glass of wine or help your kids with their homework. Roasting vegetables allows you to cook with whole foods without a lot of hands on work. Eat the roasted vegetables as a side or vegetarian main course, toss them in salads, add to pasta or grains like quinoa and couscous, use them as fillings for quesadillas and wraps or blend them up and use as a healthy sauce :: salsa or dip.
Where I live in Italy, it’s quite impossible to find salad dressings :: condimenti—I love this. We use extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dress our salads. At first I missed my bottles of ranch and blue cheese dressings that I always had in the refrigerator, so if you’re not ready to make the leap to a lighter dressing, I understand; yet, at least make your own. One of the worst things about most salad dressings is all the added chemical ingredients to preserve their shelf life. You don’t want to put those unknown ingredients that you can’t even pronounce into your body. Making this cashew salad dressing is so simple: just put the 6 ingredients into a food processor or use a hand held mixer and blend. And, voilà, it’s done.
Hah! This is funny, I’ve been pronouncing “chia seeds” wrong for the last year since I started cooking with these little beauties. I just had to watch a youtube video to get the English pronunciation right. I’ve been calling them “key-uh”, like how we pronounce them in Italian. Apparently in English they are pronounced “chee-uh”. So, why do I use chia seeds a lot in my cooking? They are a remarkable “super food” and are packed with protein, fiber and omega 3 fatty acids. Here is a great article that explains other health benefits :: benefici salutari.
I hope you enjoy this spinach salad with chia crusted tuna and roasted winter veggies all topped with a creamy cashew dressing. It has quickly become one of my new favorite winter salads.
Spinach Salad with Chia Crusted Tuna and Roasted Winter Vegetables
This spinach salad with chia crusted tuna and roasted winter vegetables is packed with nutrients and flavor. Top it off with a creamy homemade cashew dressing and you'll find yourself in the ultimate food heaven.
Serves: 2
Ingredients
For the salad:
20 Brussel sprouts, cut into 4
1 small fennel, cut into slices.
1 small beet, peeled and cut into cubes
2 fillets of fresh tuna
¼ lime or lemon
Chia seeds, as needed
4 handfuls baby spinach, washed and dried
For the Cashew Dressing:
1 cup (130g) cashews
1-2 small cloves garlic, finely chopped
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¾ cup water
½ lime or lemon, juiced
1 handful Italian flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper, as needed
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Put parchment paper on two baking sheets.
Put the Brussel sprouts and fennel on one tray and the beets on another. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, add some salt and stick the trays in the oven. Check the veggies every 10 minutes and give a quick stir. Take out the tray with the Brussel sprouts and fennel after roughly 25 minutes and take out the tray with the beets around 45 minutes.
In the meantime, make the cashew dressing. In a food processor add: cashews, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, water, lemon, parsley, salt and pepper. Blend until the dressing is creamy and homogenous. Add more water to arrive at the consistency desired.
Drizzle some lime or lemon over the tuna fillets then roll them in the chia seeds and cook in a medium pan over medium-high heat for a few minutes on each side, leaving the center raw but warm. Cut the tuna into strips.
To prepare the salad: divide the spinach among two plates, add the Brussel sprouts, fennel, beets and tuna strips. Top with the cashew dressing. Buon appetito!
*Store the remaining cashew dressing in the refrigerator and use it on other salads, stirred into grains like quinoa, couscous or millet or eat it as a dip with crackers.
It’s a sunny :: soleggiante February Monday morning in Rome, but I am in an over air-conditioned Italian TV studio. I find my hands shaking and my stomach fluttering with butterflies as my lips tremble in an awkward, unnatural smile towards the various cameras pointing at my caked on make-up face. Why am I so nervous to return on the La Prova del Cuoco? I was on this live Italian TV show for an entire week in September. Get it together, Cindy. I tell myself.
I woke up at 4:30a.m. with a startling nightmare: I was watching myself on stage, my mouth was opening but no words in Italian would flow out. I’m still tired even after having drunk three espressos; that wasn’t the best idea, I feel jittery :: agitata. Stay calm, Cindy. Stay calm and breath. The show is about to start. I squint my eyes at the bright lights and try to hold my lips wide so they don’t noticeably shake. My eyes are becoming irritated—too much eyeliner and mascara. I hate TV make-up. All of Italy is about to watch me, criticize my thick American accent and grammatical mistakes and judge my every move as well as my recipe choice. Oh, God. Why did I choose to make Salmon Wraps with Kale Chips? They’re absolutely delicious…but no match for my competitor’s dish…mouthwatering Phad Thai. I would vote for her dish….I love Phad Thai. I mean really really love Phad Thai. It’s the first thing I eat when I go back to America to visit family and friends. Oh man, I’m going to get schooled. I place my hands on the counter, trying to appear relaxed as I wait for Antonella Clerici, one of Italy’s most famous presenters, to introduce me to the home audience.
My knees begin to shake :: tremare. I already know I’ve lost. Don’t be melodramatic, Cindy. It doesn’t matter who wins or loses, you’re on the most popular Italian television cooking show! That in itself is quite an accomplishment that most new bloggers don’t get. My inner positive voice says trying to cheer me up, but it’s a little too late; I’ve lost my focus. All the questions and key phrases I rehearsed the days before disappear. All of my reminders of talking slow, giving short responses and communicating interesting information get disregarded like streamers after a party—stuffed in bag and thrown in the trash, never to be seen again.
So I do what I do best when I’m nervous: talk too much and extremely fast. Actually, I do that normally; I am quite the chatterbox :: chiacchierona. Yet, this time on TV, it wasn’t just chatterbox Cindy, but turbo speed Cindy….in Italian. Oh dear. Poor poor home audience, I feel sorry for you.
Long story short: I didn’t do my best, I lost the competition, and I self pitied myself for half a day lounging around the house in pajamas eating Nutella on toast and watching funny American sitcoms; then I got over it. Don’t get me wrong, losing sucks; but, that wasn’t the cause for my downer mood. Losing is part of the game, any former athlete knows this. The thing that stings my pride is that I know that I didn’t domy best.Regardless if the judges :: giudici liked my recipe, I know I could have expressed myself better in Italian on live TV. On a positive note, I now know what to work on, and this experience will only make me a better on-camera presenter.
Plus, I can’t complain, there were many other exceptional things that came out of the day: I met two amazing and talented bloggers, Vatinee Suvimol, my competitor and blogger at A Thai Pianistand Natalia Cattelani, one of the judges and blogger at Tempo di Cottura; I got to cook again with the sensational Antonella Clerici; I worked with the wonderful staff on the show (thank you Valeria and Nicoletta) and I got to hang out with my two girlfriends photographer Michelle Aschbacher and life style blogger Sara Whitewho are expats like me and live in Rome. Talking of amazing gals, Vatinee also introduced me to an incredible group of new girlfriends, Le Bloggalline, a group of over 400 women food bloggers who got each others backs. I am still overwhelmed with gratitude on all of the sweet and kind messages many of them left me. Women are the salt of the earth. A big thanks to everyone who voted and supported me.
Although, these salmon wraps didn’t win on La Prova del Cuoco, they are still winners in my mind. This recipe showcases a lighter version of some of my favorite Pacific Northwest flavors: salmon and tartar sauce. I despise mayonnaise so I’ve lightened it up by using greek yogurt. Sitting on a bed of spinach and cuddled by some avocado slices is a delicious herb-rubbed salmon topped with crunchy almond slivers for a delicious and satisfying good ol’ American wrap.
These salmon wraps are light, flavorful and simple to prepare. Eat them on the go for lunch with some crispy kale chips or serve them with a side salad for a healthy dinner.
Serves: 2
Ingredients
For the salmon:
2 fillets of salmon (about 6 ounces (175g) each)
Extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
½ tablespoon of lemon zest
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
½ clove garlic, finely chopped
For the greek yogurt sauce:
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
6 tablespoons greek yogurt
½ tablespoon capers, desalinated
¼ lemon, juiced
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Other ingredients:
2 tortillas
½ ripe avocado
2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach
Extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Put the salmon fillet on top and drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil. Put all the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl, mix and spread on top of the salmon fillet. Bake for around 8-12 minutes.
In the meantime, put all the ingredients for the greek yogurt together in a bowl. Mix and set aside.
Toss the spinach with a little extra virgin olive oil.
Heat the tortilla in a medium sized pan for a few seconds then remove and set on two plates. Divide the spinach mixture between the two tortillas and divide the salmon and sauce. Wrap the tortilla like a burrito. Enjoy.
Fruit crisps are underrated. This American dessert :: dolce americano doesn’t get the attention like apple pies or cheesecake do, but it is just as delicious, if I dare not say, more delicious.
I love to eat crisps for breakfast :: colazione. They go great with a hot cup of dark roasted coffee. I also love them after dinner as a decadent dessert; they absolutely beckon for creamy vanilla ice cream or a swirl of caramel sauce.
This time I’ve spiked the caramel with some whiskey. I thought it quite fitting as I am going to be making this dessert at a Blues Festival next weekend. Have I ever mentioned that Italians love America and host all sorts of “American events”. In November I did a showcooking event at an American Wild West exhibition and in December, I cooked :: ho cucinato on a stage at an American themed Christmas trade show. It was funny to see men dressed up like cowboys, yet speaking in Italian.
