When I want to seek inspiration for my meals I know exactly where to go. Online, of course. I’m not tempted yet by food magazines which would end up in a tall pile of dusty magazines I always forget to go back to when I need. I know exactly which blogs to visit, the ones that inspire feelings of awe and never cease to surprise me. The ones that makes me feel like cooking more, improving and trying out new ingredients and cuisines. Here I’ve selected a few recipes that were published this week and that I appreciated the most. Food shown at its best, thanks to mesmerizing pictures, great composition and tantalizing combination of ingredients.

1. Beetroot pelushki with baked pumpkin 

Polish gnocchi cooked in oil and butter and served in lovely mini pumpkins. John Bek is the creator of creative recipes that always leave me drooling.

2. Thai tofu and noodle salad

If there’s a blogger that can turn a salad in a nutritious treat this is Kiersten. The Spicy Asian Dressing on this salad does the trick.

3. Edamame Basil Hummus

More than chickpeas. So fresh and light that I could snack on this all day long.

4. Chocolate Avocado Mousse Tart 

What Kiran cooks is poetry to me. She can be brave in the kitchen like no others. An example? For this tart she used wheat pastry flour, almond meal, ripe avocados and fresh expresso.

5. Mysore masala dosa

I have a crush on Indian food and Dassana, with her stunning vegetarian recipes, is the blogger I want to learn from when it comes to Indian recipes.

These recipes stuck in mind. What do you think of them? I’d love to hear about your favorite recipes and get inspired even more!

This is the week of “smoothie cravings” for me. Whatever the reason is, I found myself fancying fruit during the whole week. Every evening, once at home and always before dinner so to soothe my hunger, I quickly prepared a shake by blending all the fruits on hand. Most of my smoothies comprised orange, apple and honey.

One day I included a different ingredient, a root in place of a fruit. The outcome is this beautifully colored, dense and flavorful smoothie. A concentrate of antioxidants (both beet and strawberry are on top of the list of highly concentrated antioxidant foods).

I’ve already written about beet in a previous post, where I outlined the benefits of including this betaine-packed plant in our diet. You know what? I regret I haven’t consumed beet as much as I should. Now it’s time to make up for the time lost and with the handy help of a blender I have no excuse anymore not to get my antioxidant punch from a tasty, quick and healthy smoothie.

On Saturday I had a lady’s night out in a cute Austrian place called Bodo’s Shloss located in High Street Kensington, next to the Royal Garden Hotel, London. I almost thought of myself as a trendy girl. Almost. Soon after I opened my wardrobe to get ready for the chic night out, the collection of my clothes pulled me back down to the earth.

Nothing is posh in my wardrobe and the same goes for my food recipes. I can use ingredients that (sometimes) someone may find difficult to get, ingredients such as black rice or Fragolino, but all in all my recipes are pretty simple, never too expensive and I rarely suggest to go for a particular brand so that you can opt for your favorite local ingredient (local produce is always the best option, by the way).

The Austrian restaurant was not too expensive either. Or better, this is the impression I got before I was actually  served the food I ordered: ‘Kasnudeln’, Austrian ravioli filled with potato and cheese grilled with butter. Let me be precise: 4 Austrian medium sized ravioli. My stomach was ready for a more hearty meal but my pocket was not prepared to pay for another main course so I decided to get along with this beautifully decorated and pretty empty dish.

A the end of the meal I felt like I was only half way through it and with a stomach crying out for justice, I promised myself that once at home I would have cooked the same dish, or something similar, even tastier and above all in a “normal size” so to satisfy my just slightly teased appetite. What a torture a fancy restaurant can be!

So now you know the story behind these Pierogi with cheese, potatoes and caramelized onions. If you are thinking that “Pierogi” does not sound like Kasnudeln and it’s not even Austrian but Polish, you’re thinking right. However both Pierogi and Kasnudeln are dumpling, both are usually filled with potato and cheese, the dough is made with the same ingredients and both are extremely good and fulfilling – especially when in your plate you get more than four ravioli :).

During my stay in Warsaw first and in the Masurian Lake District after, the simplicity of these  popular dumplings of unleavened dough won me over so since then I nourished the wish to make them at home. The recipe you find below serves two people and leaves even space for small seconds.

Yes, I agree with you. The decoration of this birthday (not mine) cake sucks. It is my first attempt at decorating a cake with frosting and beginner’s luck did not to assist me, this time. I can at least say I kept alive the family tradition of  hand-craft ugly cakes.

We Italians like to keep our food rustic and rough. I personally grew up in a family where the ugliness of the homemade birthday cake could only grow from year to year.  The word “frosting” was unknown. “Cake Boss” and the use of whipping cream was inconceivable. Our mums (I can speak for me and all the kids in the neighborhood) didn’t give a damn about the aesthetic and we kids born in the 80′s, couldn’t care less either: the concept of good aesthetic was pretty debatable at that time (when people tease their hair that much what can you expect?). So, provided a couple of candles were involved, we could celebrate with any form of edible shame.

Why do I publish something that is maybe worthy to be awarded with the honor of  ”best unsightly cake of the day”? One and a half reason.

First, I’ll be truly happy if someone could take my cake in to consideration for this type of award. Any sort of award or consideration that can fill an empty space in my side banner is welcomed (especially the space I keep reserving to Foodgawker). The other half reason is the taste of the cake itself: I’d say very good. I mean this mountain of chocolate meets all the standards of a good chocolate cake. So you may find useful to look at the ingredients and be wise/smart enough to avoid a few mistakes I made and that I’m going to list below to spare you a disaster.

Don’t:

1. Do not dare to touch the cake when it is hot or warm. Put your hands on ONLY when it’s cold. Once out of the oven, the cake needs its time to settle down and get a firm consistency. Don’t be impatient like me and wait at least 30 minutes (not 10 mins as stated in the recipe I’m linking to below) before thinking of moving it and 40 minutes before actually touching it.
2. Do not use a spring form cake tin. I don’t tell you why, trust me, don’t do it.
3. Do not use all the sugar reported in all the major recipes. So much sugar is unnecessary. I wish I added half cup of sugar less.

On the other hand a couple of things went really well so I’m going to share with you what made a positive impact on the taste of my cake.

Do:

1. Make a batter according to this recipe: Midnight Sin Chocolate Cake.
2. Fill this double chocolate cake with something fruity and not too sweet. Chocolate on chocolate is way too filling and nauseating, I believe. A thick cut orange spread with no added sugar by St. Dalfour is a great choice (I wish I added more than 284 gr). You can look for something similar and cheaper in your country.
3. Use natural unrefined Molasses Sugar. Dark, intense, sweet and dense enough not to be required in great quantity. One and half cup is about right.
4. Pour some Rum in the batter. It speaks of its place and adds a full bodied aroma without giving unwanted alcoholic flavors.

Italy is the kingdom of Pizza and Naples is its capital. It is not surprising that Italians, despite being notoriously die-hard when it comes to feed themselves and their families, love to experiment in the kitchen to create different pizza bases and make meals, I’d say, “pizza-ble” (definition from my personal dictionary: food gussied up for a pizza twist). However, after all their culinary experiments they end up with a cuisine rooted into their culture and they never stop serving the classic and timeless Pizza Margherita and Spaghetti all’arrabbiata.

Italian food traditions are now successfully branded; after all we’re all easy to tempt with a pizza topped off with fresh mozzarella and extra virgin olive oil on a layer of creamy and tangy tomato sauce. I bake pizza at least once a week myself, usually in the weekend to create a special atmosphere of festivity, and it is almost always a simple dough base with on top mozzarella, tomatoes and olives. If you like to find out how I make a dough for a thin pizza check my 8 Golden Rules to Make a Tasty Crusty Pizza.

I do also like to try out new recipes, though. Among the interesting alternatives to pizza dough that are getting popular on the web and on Pinterest, from the cauliflower crust pizza to the portobello pizza crust, I chose something that is light, healthy and, above all, versatile. This recipes can be served as an appetizer and even as a party food. I found inspiration from an italian food blogger, Chiara of La voglia Matta, a blog title that sounds like “The Crazy Craving” (love it!). You may not understand her language but it is still worth to pay her a visit if you’are a foodie looking for real Italian recipes (sometimes a pic is enough to get the idea of what is in the plate, in all the other cases there’s Google translate).

Since I love all things spicy I replaced tomato with Ajvar, a kind of relish popular in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, made by baking and grinding together red bell peppers, eggplants, garlic, oil and vinegar. A tasty and aromatic vegetarian spread that worked unexpectedly well on my aubergine pizzette (mini pizzas, in Italian)!

Living in London means many things. One of these is that just 15 minutes long tube rides can take you to the countryside – to a farm inhabited by pigs and ducks – and to a busy, metropolitan and eclectic district. This is my Saturday in pics, a day spent visiting the Mudchute farm in the Isle of Dogs and walking around Brick Lane, a street bursting with galleries, Indian restaurants and vintage markets, in the heart of the vintage head quarter of the capital, Shoreditch. A few shots – taken with a not so fast lens, unfortunately – to show you how diverse and multiform London can be.

Just another different Tiramisu recipe.

Where’s the coffee gone? I haven’t forgotten it, I swear. I’ve just decided to cheer myself up with another very popular Italian product, instead. Limoncello. Here citrus notes replace the caffeine kick of one of my favorite baverages. Why so? I had to share a cake/dessert with someone who doesn’t like coffee (oh yeah, this kind of person exists). Sure, I could have prepared any other dessert but Tiramisu is always my first option when I need to be sure to get a palatable dessert.

Since I have a bad relationship with the oven (meaning I systematically burn everything that goes inside), I welcome every recipe requiring no baking skills at all. Not even the “Baking for dummies” guide would help. I am too rebel to follow a recipe to the letter. That means sometimes my cakes turn out good, some (many) other times don’t. Absolutely don’t.

Tiramisu is a different story. It ALWAYS tastes delicious (and I don’t need to put in the oven ). It’s what I call a comfort dessert.

A delicious bottle of a different type of Limoncello (Limoncino, made with grappa), has been gleaming yellow and mighty in my fridge for a few days. Strange and surprisingly enough, although it’s made with real Sicilian lemons, this elegant bottle didn’t arrive from Italy but from Denmark. Brought over by my dearest bloggers, Milana and Gordana. The combination limoncino/tiramisu was a natural consequence (I like to think)!

p.s. It’s summer in London. It’s uplifting (but how many hours will it last, I wonder). What’s your weather like?

This year, the lengthening of the day surprised me as never before. Or maybe just like every year, when after a couple of hours of daylight more it feels like a new change is about to come. Many months of darkness and freezing weather made me feel like an automaton adapted to live in black and white, wear heavy clothes and drink hot tea. So now that the nightfall runs late and the days become brighter everything looks different.

Refreshing drinks, colorful clothes, trees in bloom, clear sky and sunshine are a bless in London. However I can’t stop thinking of Italy and in particular of the first hot days of the year in Italy. It’s when you breathe something wonderfully vital in the air, a breeze that’s  like a maternal breath, warm and reassuring. Any garment is way too many, heat sticks to the skin and you sweat and melt. The first hot day in Italy is also a day when you feel particularly free.

If it happens to you to be late, public transport will multiply your delay and any bus will be much more hotter than you can bear. Wherever you go nothing is worth rushing, no one can respect deadline and be punctual under such a melting sun, all the birds chirp in the air and all the light dazzles and enchants you. When it’s really hot in Italy you have to take your time, slow down, maybe pop in a bar for a cold coffee, have a chat with someone about a football match of the day or the political scandal of the moment. Nothing special happens on those days of  summer in Italy, however a peaceful state of mind can sprout up in you.

It must be because of my almost mythological memories of the Italian weather  that I started dabbling with coffee based recipes. An espresso to grab in an Italian bar where to stop, alone, to take a concentrate break, tells more about Italy than thousand books. I know that this tasty Coffee Banana shake will not revive the Italian summer I am sure it has already settled down in the “Bel Paese”, making everybody sweat and, I like to think, happy. But it is a good way to start the day off.  It’s fresh and energizing because of the coffee and useful to normalize blood pressure because of the potassium-rich food it contains, the banana. For the time being, considering that a chaotic tube ride is waiting for me, that’s more than enough.

When I woke up this morning I could almost smell sweet pancakes in the air. I could almost visualize those small, thick and spongy crepes that would make my breakfast a happy and cheerful moment. Too bad it was just my imagination. Even worse, I did not have a plain flour. Not to step off on the wrong foot in my weekend I did not give up on my craving and focused on solutions.

What if I use semolina instead? Semolina comes from the Italian word semola, meaning ‘bran’, although it is still just a product of the milling of durum wheat. It cannot be too bad to replace white flour with semolina, I thought and – above all – hoped. So I embarked in a new recipe (for me) by mixing almost all the ingredients survived in the back of my fridge (always empty at the end of the week). That’s the story of my Yummy Semolina Yogurt Pancakes, fluffy but not too floury and sandy, sweet but not sugary, nutritious but not too heavy. I really loved the rustic  taste of these semolina pancakes and I plan to make them this way again and again. A good alternative to sour breakfast.

When temperatures soar, a cold coffee drink is a refreshing alternative to the usual hot black coffee. “Caffe’ Shakerato” is the most popular Italian coffee shake, a go-to cold coffee which is classically prepared by shaking together a few ice cubes, 3 teaspoons of sugar and one or more cups of espresso (to taste), preferably at room temperature.

Since I stop making myself a moka (British habits are taking over!) and I only own an instant coffee powder, I customized the recipe by adding a bit of milk and used a blender instead of a shaker. Lovely result: this coffee shake is as scrumptious as the one I used to have in the best Italian bars! Refreshing and energizing, with a creamy texture without containing any cream, it is absolutely my favorite non alcoholic summer drink. Make this coffee for your guests. I’m sure they’ll be amazed by it.