Serves 4

Ready in 10 mins

8 thin slices of lean beef (carpaccio)

8 slices of cheese (such as edamer or gouda)

100 ml sweet soy sauce (ready or prepared as indicated below*)

8 skewers

1 tbs vegetable oil

*To prepare the sweet soy sauce, in a small casserole bring to a boil (and let simmer 10 miniutes) the following ingredients: 200 ml soy sauce, 50 ml water and 100 gr white sugar

Let cool before use.

Cut the slices of cheese into smaller strips, roll each slice of cheese into a slice of meat as shown in pictures (and on a skewer). Make sure the cheese in well wrapped.

Heat the vegetable oil in a pan. Dip each skewer into the sweet soy sauce and fry them, both sides, for a couple of minutes or until the cheese is starting to melt.

Serve with sweet soy sauce.

Sicily, yet again. The way they make vegetables in Sicily is beyond imagination. Here a very quick recipe, perfect as a side or even bette ras an appetizer with a nice glass of white wine – better if Inzolia or a Sardinian Vermentino.

Serves 4

Ready in 1H

3 aubergins/eggplants medium size

200 grams breadcrumbs

80 grams pecorino cheese, grated

1 tbs minced parsley

1 minced garlic clove

salt and peper

Extra-virgin Olive oil (as needed)

White wine vinegar (as needed)

Slice the eggplants vertically into 2 mm thick slices.

Heat a pan and grill each slice 3 minutes on both sides (make sure you add some salt to the empty pan before you add the eggplants).

Meanwhile in a conatiner mix all the remaining ingredients, add 5 tbs of olive oil, mix well adding water until the mixture is compact but crumbly.

In a small container mix tigether 5 tbs olive oil and 2 tbs white vinegar. Coat every slices with the olive oil-vinegar mixture, put each slice on a board, with your hands make small balls with the breadcrumb mixture and roll the slices around it.

Put each roll into a baking pan and bake for 15 minutes at 200°.

Serve warm or cold.

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Here we go again in Korea.

Japchae are potato glass noodles sauted with coloured vegetables (always balance between greens, reds and whites), and eggs. Usually served as a side dish, but I can eat a full plate by myself quite easily. All ingredients are cooked separately, and then assembled and mixed to the hot noodles the very last moment before serving.

Serves 4

Ready in 40 mins

100 gram onion roughly sliced

100 grams carrots (filangé)

100 grams zucchini (filangé)

100 grams button mushrooms (sliced)

1 minced garlic clove

150 grams potato glass noodles (or soya or rice in case you can’t find them)

2 eggs

vegetable oil (as needed)

salt

Seasoning sauce:

4 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

2 tbs sesame oil

In a pan with 2 tbs of vegetable oil fry separately all vegetables for 5/6 minutes (until lightly translucent but not overcooked), season with salt before setting aside and letting cool.

Separate yolks and whites, lightly beat them in 2 separate bowl.

Heat 1 tbs of vegetable oil in a pan and cook the whites on both side for a couple of minutes (until lightly crunchy). Repeate with the yolks. Slice both frittatas into 1 cm thick slices. Set aside.

Cook the glassnoodles as per directions in boiling water. Drain and wash them under running fresh water. Drain well.

Meanwhile mix in a small bowl the ingredients for the seasoning sauce.

Heat 2 tbs of vegetable oil, fry the minced garlic for 30 seconds and add the glassnoodles. Stir fry, medium heat, for 1 minute. Add the sauce and stir fry for further 2 minutes. Retain from heat and add vegetables and sliced eggs. Mix well and serve.

Welcome to a wonderful trip to the South of China. The first time I tried this soup I was in Hong Kong, then I was told is a very rare recipe, cause it requires hours and hours (and nowadays is found in reastaurant, rarely into homes).

We akll know from our grandmothers that the best stock is the one boiled for at least 3 hours. Can you imagine what can happen to a stock, boiled twice for 3 hours in total?

Magic for your palate and, also for your eyes.

4 young coconuts

600 ml  chicken stock*

4 tsp goji berries

1 – 2cm stick fresh ginger

4 small bunches of shitake mushrooms (or 4 pleurotis mushrooms)

* Chicken stock

2 chicken tights cu tinto 2 cm pieces

1 liter water

1 onion

(if you like: half carrot and half celery stalk)

1 tbs salt

* To prepare the stock, put everything into a pot and bring to a boil. Leti t simmer for 3 hours at very low heat. Set aside.

Cut the coconuts at three quarters of their height (help yourself with a strong knife), pour the coconut water into a container and keep the top parts (you wil use it as lids).

In each emptied coconut, put the 1 bunch of shitake mushrooms (or 1 pleurotis mushroom) , one tsp of goji berries, 2 pieces of chicken. Add the coconut water (to reach half of the coconut and pour in the chicken stock up to 1 cm from the edges of the coconut. Close the coconut with their original tops.

Put them in a casserole big enough to fit them (or put them into 2 separate casseroles). Put water into the casserole 4 centimeters of water. On high heat bring to a boil, cover the casserole(s) with a lid and lower the heat to minimum. Simmer and cook covered for 3 hours (check every now and then that the water does not evaporate fully – in case add some).

Retain from fire, take the coconuts gently out of the water and let sit for 20 minutes before serving directly at the table. The soup must be eaten directly from the coconut.

Per 4 persone

Pronti in 40 minuti

8 capesante (2 capesante per persona o una se lo servite come antipasto)

500 gr di topinambur

300 gr di patate

10 gr di aneto tritato

30 gr di burro

Sale e pepe nero macinato

Olio EVO

Pepe bianco macinato

8 scallops (2 per serving or 1 if served as an appetizer)

500 grams Jerusalem artichokes

300 gr potatoes

10 grams dill

30 grams butter

salt

ground black pepper

ground white pepper

Boil separately potatoes and the jerusalem artichokes. Peel them and mash them with a potato masher. Set aside.

Clean the scallops and retain the red coral. Wash the sacllops under running water and pat the dry woth a cloth or kitchen paper. Set aside.

In a casserole, heat the butter wtih a pinch of black pepper, add the potato and jerusalem artichokes puree and mix well at high heat until the exceeding water evaporates. Season with salt and set aside.

Chop finely the red coral, put it in a heat-resistant container, add 1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt, and put the container into a casserole with soft-boiling water. Mix the red coral until it starts to become hard. Set aside and stir every now and then until you serve it.

Heat 2 tbs of oil in a pan. At high heat, reach the smoke point (when you see the oil starting to create a burning smoke), add the scallops (side up down). Keep high heat and let it fry for 1 or 2 minutes maximum per side. Season with salt and retain from fire.

Put a ripe tbs of puree in the center of a plate, top with the scallops and top the scallops with a teaspoon of its caviar. Season with a little olive oil and a pinch of white pepper. Serve.

Ok, not really a diet solution but hey, this is incredibily awesome. Easy to make and so tasteful that you can organize an entire dinner with rivers of beers and fried sfincitelli. You can also substitute the cooked ham with anchovies, or salame or any other filling yo might like (cheese too).

500 grams ready pizza dough (Recipe here)

150 grams cooked ham (or 10 anchovies fillets)

500 ml frying oil

After the first proofing, punch the dough and divide it into 10 balls 50 grams each. Divide the ham into 10 portions of 15 grams each. Take each dough ball in your hand palm and press at the center one portion of ham (or one anchovie fillet). Close the dough and seal well.

Let it proof again for further 20 minutes before cooking.

Meanwhile heat the frying oil to 180° C, plunge gently the balls onto the hot oil. Deep-fry them for 3 minutes all in all (always keep the ball in movement by turning the oil into the pan with a spoon).

Vietnamese specialty, the Goi Cuon are spring rolls filled with shrimps, noodles and vegetables, prepared directly at the table with edible rice paper.

The rice paper, once kept for a few seconds in cold water, softens and becomes a transparent and elastic film. The rice film has to be put onto the plate and filled freely with all the ingredients available.

Once filled, it has to be close and rolled up. First by folding the lowest side of it until you cover half of the filling, then folding the two side and finally rolling it up on itself.

The filling will be trapped inside but visible from outside.

The Goi Cuon must be eaten with hands and dipped into one of the two sauces below. In Vietnam they prepare in advance and serve as they are, I prefer to give the chance to guests to make their own directly at the table. Entertaining is key.

A wonder for the eyes and the palate.

Serves 4

Ready in 45 minutes

Peanut Sauce

200 grams penauts butter

100 grams water

juice of 1 lime

5 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp chilli pepper paste

half tsp minced garlic

Whisk the peanut butter with the water and the lime juice until you have a smooth and liquid sauce (add water if necessary). Add the remaining ingredients and set aside for one hour before serving.

Spicy Lime Sauce

Juice of 3 limes

Half glass of fish sauce

3 minced garlic cloves

3 minced shallots (or small onions)

one third of glass of sugar syrup

1 hot chilli pepper finely sliced

In a container mix all ingredients above and set aside for 1 hour before serving.

For the spring rolls

20/25 edible rice paper

2 carrots (julienne cut / small sticks)

1 cucumber (julienne cut / small sticks)

16/20 cooked tropical shrimps

1 hot chilli pepper finely sliced

20 grams clean and fresh leaves of cilantro

20 grams clean and fresh leaves of mint

20 grams clean and fresh leaves of basil

1 small red bell pepper in sticks

100 grams of rice or glass noodles

(cooked, washed under running cold water and well drained)

half small lettuce in slices

50 grams soy sprouts

Other fresh vegetables at your choice

Bring all fresh and clean vegetables, shrimps and noodles directly at the table in a big tray or on a big cutting board. Each guest will need a flat plate to fill in the rice paper, a bowl to drench the rice paper sheets, and 2 small bowls each guest with the two sauces. The filling is according to taste, no limits to creativity, is to be eaten with hands dipped into one of the two sauces.

A cold soup is a traditional recipe from the Mediterranean area. The Romans were making it with wine, the Greeks with yogurt. The cold soup we call Gazpacho, is no doubt of Spanish derivation (from the region of Andalusia). Ripe tomatoes, green bell peppers, onions and cucumbers are mashed into a cream with stale bread and diluted with vinegar, cold water and olive oil. A perfect recipe to freshen up your hot summers. It is a great start of a dinner too.

Here you go with my recipe!

Serves 4

Ready in 20 mins + 2h in refrigerator

500 grams ripe red tomatoes

200 grams cucumbers (peeled)

150 gr green bell peppers (better the small italian quality)

1 small red onion

1 garlic clove

1 jalapeno (or more according to taste)

half glass white vinegar

half glass extra-virgin olive oil

1 slice of stale bread

salt

Cut all vegetables into big chunks and put them into a mixer with the bread (drenched with half of the vinegar).

Add the vinegar (if it is too dry also add some water if necessary), until they are all creamy.

When the vegetables creamy, add slowly the olive oil, the colour will turn from red to light red or orange. Season with salt (and more vinegar according to taste).

Sieve through a sieve mixing it with a spoon and make sure that the most of it is sieved.

Put the gazpacho into the refrigerator for 2 hours before serving.

Those who know me, know too well that I simply love Hawaii. When my job takes me to that side of the planet I alwasy try to sneak in 3 or 4 days to go back to one of the most magic places on earth.

This recipe comes from my beloved Hawaii, Oahu North Shore. It is a very simple street-food, served two steps from the shoreline (magic picture: isn’t it?).

I suggest you eat them with your hande. Yes, feeling ashamed is possible, but trust me, if you follow my recipe, you will love them even more!

500 grams clean shrimps

half head of garlic, minced

juice and grated zest of one lemon

80 grams unsalted butter

1 tbs all-purpose flour

1 tsp ground black pepper

a generous pinch of salt

Steamed rice:

200 grams rice

300 grams water

Soak the rice and wahs it with running water for 3 or 4 times (until the water is clear). Put i tinto a casserole, add the water and bring to a boil. When it boils, cover with a lid and reduce the heat to minimum, cook for 3 / 4 of time of direction.

Dry the shrimps with a clean cloth. Put them into a container and mix them well with all ingredients (excluding the butter). Set aside and marinate for 20 minutes.

Heat the butter in a pan at high heat. When melted add the shrimps, and stir fry them for 3 or 4 minutes. Retain the shrimps (and set aside).

Continue instead frying the sauce for further 7/8 minutes or until the garlic gets golden. Put shrimps back, season with salt if necessary and serve with the steamed rice.

350 grams minced pork meat

1 green chilli pepper chopped

1 tbs ground red chilli pepper

1 tbs ground black pepper

40 grams glutinous rice (or basmati rice)

6 big spring onions

3 kaffir lime leaves chopped (if you like not mandatory)

2 shallots

2 stalks lemongrass (you can skip this in case you can’t find any)

100 grams fresh cilantro

30 grams fresh mint leaves

6 limes

2 tbs fish sauce (or soy sauce for a vegan version)

2 tbs vegetable oil

1 tsp sugar

salt

Heat the vegetable oil in a pan. Add the fresh chilli, the ground chilli and the black pepper. Fry for one minute and add the minced pork meat. Stir-fry for 8/9 minutes until cooked. Season with salt and set aside.

Toast the rice into a hot pan, until hazelnut colour. Use a pestle or a grindr and grind it into a powder. Set aside.

Meanwhile, squeeze the limes and put the juice in a bowl, add the fish sauce (or the soy sauce), 3 tbs of water, the sugar, mix well and set aside.

Dice the spring onions and the shallots into medium-small pieces. Chop roughly the cilantro and the mint leaves. Set aside.

In a bowl, put the meat (warm) with its liquids, add the onions and the shallots, cilantro, mint, kaffir, and mix well. Season with the lime-fish sauce mixture and mix well.

Serve with steamed rice.