The Food Of Italy: Sicily and Sardinia

Ciao Darlings!

We have reached the end of our Italy tour of all of the foods of each region. I still have two more posts to do regarding previous regions, but as of today, this was my last cooking class. Next week is our written final and the week after that is our practical final. Tears! Sicily and Sardenia are two big islands of Italy and our menu today is Pane Carasau and Cannoli.

My cooking professor and I

Pane Carasau:

Ingredients 

400gr buffalo mozzarella

4 bell peppers

Rosemary

2 garlic cloves

4 green olives

4 black olives

4 slices pane carasa

Oil, salt, pepepr



Slice the buffalo mozzarella, and put it in a colander to drain for 20 minutes. Roast the bell pepper in the oven until soft and browned then remove the peppers from the oven, and put them in a ziplock bag for a few minutes to steam. Peel the peppers, take out the seeds, and cut the peppers into big strips. Salt them and add quite a bit of chopped rosemary, chopped garlic, and oil. Take out the seeds from the olives, and cut the olives in big pieces. Place two pieces of pane carasau on a big sheet of foil. Top it with about a third of the mozzarella, bell pepper, and olives. Place another piece of pane carasau on top, more toppings, then the last pane carasau, and the rest of the toppings. Close the edges of the dish with foil, and bake for 15 minutes at 200 degrees C.

Before

After

Cannoli:

Ingredients

150gr flour

10gr sugar

1 egg white

2 tablespoons marsala liquor

Pinch of salt

30gr Crisco

250gr ricotta

100gr powdered sugar

30gr mini chocolate chips

Chopped pistachios

Powdered sugar

Carefully melt the Crisco in a pan over low heat, and immediately remove from heat to let cool. Place flour out on the table and make a hole in the middle for the sugar, salt, egg white, marsala liquor, and melted Crisco. Mix it all together with your hands until you've made a ball and leave to rest for an hour. Wipe the cannoli molds with crisco. Take a little piece of dough. Roll it very thin, as thin as possible and cut it in a circle. Roll the dough around the cannoli mold and make sure to close the edges very well, otherwise it'll open up when you fry it. Deep fry the cannoli forms in very hot oil. Dry them on paper towels. Take out the molds when cool. Be careful; they break easily. Mix ricotta with powdered sugar and chocolate chips (or candied fruit) until just mixed. Put it in a pastry bag and pipe the filling into the cannoli. Dip the ends into chopped pistacchios (or put a candied cherry on each end), and then sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve!

 

I'm off to my final destination of my weekends traveling. I'm going to the city I have dreamed about for forever: Paris! I'm extremely nervous about traveling by myself, but can't wait to explore the city :)

Eternally yours,
Stephanie

Photo Credit:
Katie S. blogspot 

Royal Fever

If I could be anyone for a day, it would definitely be Kate Middleton on her wedding day. She looked stunning in her Alexander McQueen gown and her makeup and hair was flawless. She and Prince William looked so in love and their day must have been magical. Ah, to become a Duchess!

Credit: By Me

Ciao Darlings, 

As promised, here are some pictures that I took of Christy when we visited the Boboli Gardens last week. I still have a lot to learn regarding photography, but I think I'm getting hooked! I especially love the sound of the clicking and feeling so professional.

For those with professional camera skills, do you have any helpful hints and tricks that I could learn?

Eternally yours,

Stephanie

Thicker Than Water

Ciao Lovelies,

In front of my mom's old house in the Italian mountains

Over Easter weekend, I traveled to Emilia-Romagna to visit cousins I haven't seen since 2007 and relatives that I haven't seen since I was eight years old. I was most excited for this weekend and was planning it since February, using my mom to help me translate e-mails since my Italian is very broken and my cousin, who I am staying with, speaks broken English. Stepping off the train, I was excited and nervous. Two hours into the visit, I was exhausted; my brain literally hurt from trying to translate the Italian into English, comping up with a response and then translating it from English to Italian. I was also extremely overwhelmed knowing that even though I haven't seen or spoken to my relatives in years, I was a welcomed guest and treated like royalty. This weekend was one for the memory books.

The town where my relatives live

Only in Italy would you find fresh ravioli pasta in an ice cream freezer

I remember this from when I was eight year old!

Mom's house :)

The view outside my mom's old house

I'm sorry for all of the scenic pictures. The one above was the only picture that did not have family members in it.

Eternally yours,

Stephanie

Don't Hold Your Breath

Nicole Scherzinger - Don't Hold Your Breath

The Food of Italy: Calabria and Puglia

Ciao Darlings!

Today in cooking class, we explored Calabria and Puglia, two regions in the south of Italy where a Mediterranean diet is consumed. Our menu for the day was orecchiette con calamari e zucchine which translates to "little ears" pasta with calamari and zucchini and involtini di pesce spada ai carciofi  which ia swordfish rolls stuffed with artichokes.

Oecchiette con Clamari e Zucchine

Ingredients

500gr fresh "orecchette" pasta

500gr small calamari

250gr zucchini

1 shallot

Margoram

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Chop the shallot and the zucchini and saute the shallot in oil. Add the zucchini and cook for five minutes and add salt. Chop the body of the calamari into rings and cook the head first in a pan with oil for two minutes. Then add the body cut in rings. Cook for 3 minutes and add salt and the zucchini. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water and then drain the pasta. Saute it in the zucchini and calamari with some marjoram leaves, and serve!

Involtini di Pesce Spada ai Carciofi

Ingredients

5 slices of swordfish

2 fairly large potatoes

3 artichokes

1 shallot

1 garlic clove

Sugar

Wild fennel

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Chop the shallot and the wild fennel and place on top of the fish, with a pinch of salt, sugar and a drizzle of oil. Let it marinate in the fridge for an hour. Clean and slice the artichokes then saute in oil with a whole garlic clove. Peel and slice the potatoes and saute them with oil and salt in another pan until they are golden. Once the potatoes are done, place them in a baking pan. One at a time, place the fish fennel-side down on a plate. Put some artichokes on top at the bigger end, and roll up the fish. Place them on top of the potatoes and bake 15 minutes at 200 degrees C.

Buon Appetito!

Eternally yours,

Stephanie

Photo Source: Katie S.

Croatian Craziness

Ciao Darlings,

This past weekend, the usual gang took a 12 hour bus ride through northern Italy, passed into Slovenia and arrived in the beautiful Split, Croatia! The weather was pretty chilly and not ideal for beach weather, but the city was filled with friendly locals, a brand new hostel, bustling markets and vendors (I bought so much fruit, some coral jewelery, and lavender satchels) and delicious seafood. The best part was that the kuno, the Croatian currency, was a lot cheaper than both the euro and the dollar so that everything was so much cheaper. I am both proud and ashamed to admit that myself and Christy were the only two champions who went to the evenings pub crawl and saw it through to the end.

Another fun part of any trip, especially this one, was the hostel. We stayed at Golly + Bossy which was a department store that was converted into a brand new hostel. It was so new that it was still being refurbished. The beds were not beds but pods, beds in the wall - I had a really difficult time climbing to the top bunk-pod. i met this cool kid who was literally backpacking through Europe through Help Exchange, a site where you can exchange work at farms, hostels, etc. in return for free accommodation. It's how kids these days are seeing the world.

Fish dish - including head and tail

Fresh strawberries and juicy kiwi

I bought some fresh smelling lavender fro myself and my mom

With a limited number of weeks left until I return home to New York, I'm starting to panic - I'm not ready to leave. I'm creating a bucket list of normal everyday things that I need to do while in Europe.  

Do you have any suggestions??

Eternally yours,

Stephanie

One Short Day

Ciao Darlings,

I have Mondays off so I decided that I was going to explore the other side of the Arno River which is more local than the touristy side that I live on. My solo exploration was delightfully sidetracked when Christy suggested going to the Boboli Gardens. With great company and beautiful weather, how could I say no? Along with looking at the beautiful scenery and talking about our travel plans after our program ends, we stumbled upon a grassy area that had sunlight pouring in at various spots. A silly photo shoot took place with Christy's Pentax camera (I have to ask her what model.)

I am wearing: Shirt and Necklace: (Charlotte Russe); Jeans: (Calvin Klein Jeans); 

Headband: (Forever 21); Flats: (Unlabeled); Ring: (purchased at a Croatian market)

One of many outtakes

This looks like my high school senior photo!

If I get her permission, I might be able to do a post with the pictures that I took of Christy.

Eternally yours,

Stephanie

Photo Credit: 

Christy B.

The Food Of Italy: Campagna

Boun Giorno Lovelies,

Today, in my cooking class, we learned about Campania, a southern region in Italy where Naples is located, most famous for their pizza. The dough that the people of Naples use is lievito madre, which is a natural yeast. The cheese used on the pizza is fior di latte mozzarella. Today, the menu is:

Pizza Alla Napoletana 

Torta Caprese

Pizza Alla Napoletana:

Ingredients

1lb. Plain Flour, sifted

1/2-1 teaspoon salt

1/2 oz dried yeast

8 fl oz warm water

Pinch of sugar

In a bowl, put 1 pound of flour, the pinch of salt, and a drizzle of olive oil. In a second bowl, put some warm water, a pinch of sugar, and fresh yeast. Mix the yeast around with your fingers to dissolve it and dump the yeast bowl into the flour bowl. Mix with your hands, adding more warm water if necessary. Start punching it with your fist until it turns into the right consistency - it should be very soft and almost sticky. Then cover it with a warm, damp towel and let it rest an hour to double. For the sauce, take your tomato sauce and finely chop garlic clove. Then add a big pinch of salt, a drizzle of oil, a pinch of oregano and some hot pepper. Let it chill on the counter. When the dough has risen, roll it out on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Lightly oil a baking sheet and put the dough on it. Then, cover the dough with the tomato sauce, leaving the edges free for the crust. Put it in the oven at 480 degrees Fahrenheit. When the crust has turned a golden brown, take it out of the oven and place sliced fresh mozzarella on top. Sprinkle oregano on top of the cheese and then put it in the oven again till the cheese is all melted. Take it out and put the basil on top and drizzle with a more olive oil.

The colors of Italy, all in one dish!

Torta Caprese: 

Ingredients

100gr Bitter chocolate

100gr butter

3 eggs

100gr sugar

1/2 tbs flour

1/2 tbs powdered sugar

1/2 glass of coffee liquor

1/2 small ecup of espresso

150 grs almond

1/2 tbs baking powder

Melt the 100 grams of bitter chocolate and let cool. Add half a small glass of coffee liquor and half a cup of Italian espresso. In another bowl, mix 100 grams of butter with 100 grams of sugar. Separate 3 eggs and add the yolks one at a time to the butter and sugar. Add the chopped almonds and half a tablespoon each of flour and baking powder. Add the melted chocolate. Whip the egg whites and gently fold them into the mixture. Next, butter and flour a springform pan. Place the mixture inside and bake 40 minutes at 180 Celsius. Then take it out of the pan and onto a serving plate. Then sift some powdered sugar on it - we used a stencil to add some decoration. Add almonds and chocolate shavings as desired.

Buon appetito!

Eternally yours,

Stephanie

Foundations

Kate Nash - Foundations

Mid-Morning Cupcakes And Afternoon Tea

Ciao Darlings,

One of the things that I was most looking forward to when I knew that I would be in England was getting tea. I know that it sounds pretty stereotypical, but how could I leave the beautiful city without trying the one thing that I always look forward to when I need to relax and feel better? Meg was kind enough to bring me to a fabulous bed and breakfast that offered afternoon tea as well as a delightful cupcake shop. While the prices for the tea were pretty expensive, the tea was delicious and the scones were fluffy and warm. The number of scones that I ate will be a secret that only myself and Megan will ever know.

The Hummingbird Cupcake Shop

Chocolate Cupcake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

The beautiful hotel where we had afternoon tea

Choices, choices :P

Eternally yours,

Stephanie