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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Thailand is a magic place. And also the simplest things like these sauteed eggplants can surprise with and explsion of taste despite the simple ingredients it is made of.

These eggplants are perfect  by themselves and when paired with grilled or baked fish (check into the website under the fish section some recipes and make your own pairings!).

Serves 4

Ready in 30 mins

2 garlic cloves in thin slices

4 cm fresh ginger root, grated

1 kg long eggplants

3 tbs fish sauce (or soy sauce)

20 grams fresh basil leaves

5 tbs vegetable oil

2 hot chilli peppers

salt

Cut the eggplants (unpeeled) into big chunks (6/7 cm long 3/4 cm wide)

Slice the garlic cloves into thin slices, Heat the oil into a large pan and add the garlic and the grated ginger root. Fry for 3 minutes. Add the eggplants and a generous pinch of salt. Fry – high heat – for 12/15 minutes or until they become soft.

Add the fish sauce (or soy sauce) and the chilli peppers (sliced). And fry for further 3 or 4 minutes. Add the basil leaves and retain from fire after 1 minute.

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.

This soup is good in winter (hot) and in summer (warm). Adding the Feta cheese is up to you, the lemon zest is giving to the overall soup a great taste already. In Italy we eat lentils for NYE, they say it bring you loads of money. Not true. But never give up traditions! This version will shift the eating moment from a traditional need to a pure pleasure.

Serves 4

Ready in 1H

300 grams brown lentils

200 grams Feta cheese

1 small onion

2 spring onions

1 small red bell pepper

1 bay leaf

1 cinnamon stick

grated lemon zest

1 tbs of tomato paste

3 tbs white vinegar

1 lt stock (or water + stock cubes at your choice)

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Chop roughly the onion and the spring onions. Dice the bell pepper.

Heat the olive oil and stir-fry the onions and the red bell pepper.

Meanwhile wash the lentils under running water for a couple of minutes. Add them to the onion and red bell pepper mixture. Fry for 5/6 minutes high heat stirring.

Add the vinegar and let it evaporate completely (i twill take a couple of minutes).

Add the tomato paste, the stock, the bay leaf and the cinnamon stick. Simmer for 45 minutes (or until the lentils are soft).

Add the grated lemon zest and 50 grams of Feta cheese and let simmer stirring well until the Feta cheese melts down.

Serve hot (or warm), topped with the remaining Feta cheese crumbled and a pinch of fresh lemon zest.

Serves 4

Ready in 30 minutes

400 grams Feta cheese (in 4 slices 100 grams each)

150 grams cherry tomatoes

1 small green bell pepper

1 lemon

1 tbs capers

pepper

30 pitted Kalamata olives

Extra virgin olive oil

Oregan

Pre-heat oven to 190° C.

Clean and half the tomatoes.

Clean and slice (3 millimeters thick) the green pepper.

Spread 4 aluminium sheets on a table, put on each of it a slice of Feta cheese. Season each slice of Feta cheese with one quarter of tomatoes, green pepper, capers, olives and 2 slices of lemon each.

Season with pepper, oregan, 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil each and seal the foil starting from the sides. Seal them and put them on a dripping pan.

Bake 20 minutes. Serve.

To bake it a little, open it and bake for further 8/10 minutes opened.

Serve.

Serves 5

Ready in 30 minutes

400 grams of bread (unsalted if available)

1 small cucumber

200 gr of ripe tomaotes

2 carrots

2 medium size red onions

one third of glass fo vinegar (according to your taste you can increase or decrease quantities)

half glass of water (as needed)

salt and pepper

5 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Slice the bread and cut off roughly the crust. Put it in a container and drench it with half of the vinegar and the water. Make it moist back again but do not over-moist it, it should soft but still compact.

Meanwhile slice finely the onions, the peeled cucumber and the carrot. Put in a container the onions and season them with salt and pepper and the remaining vinegar. Set aside for a few minutes the other vegetables while preparing the other ingredients.

Dice the tomatoes and add them to the onions along with the other vegetables.

Crumble roughly the marinated bread onto the vegetables, mix well, add the diced tomatoes, season with olive oil and salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 2 hours to get the best.

Before serving season with, oil, salt and vinegar and add the basil leaves roughly chopped. Sprinkle with pepper.

Per 8/10 sformatini (a seconda delle dimensioni)

Pronti in 1h

800 gr di broccoli già lessati

50 gr di parmigiano grattugiato

250 ml latte

40 gr burro

40 gr farina

2 uova

sale e pepe

un pizzico di noce moscata

2 cucchiai pangrattato

extra burro

Fonduta di Parmigiano:

100 ml di panna liquida

60 gr di parmigiano

un pizzico di pepe

Preparare la besciamella: in una casseruola fare sciogliere il burro. Quando sarà sciolto unire la farina e lasciare sobbollire per un paio di minuti, unire lentamente il latte freddo e portare ad ebollizione. Dalla presa del bollore lasciare cuocere per 2 o 3 minuti. Togliere dal fuoco e aggiustare di sale. Mettere da parte. Imburrare e spolverare di pangrattato 8 mini-stampi da sformato.Preriscaldare il forno a 180°.

Frullare i broccoli in un mixer, versare quindi in un recipiente. Unire la besciamella e incorporare bene.

Unire prima i rossi, poi i bianchi (senza montarli) separatamente. Unire infine il parmigiano. Aggiustare di sale qualora fosse necessario.

Versare negli stampini.

Porre in uno stampo più grande che li possa contenere e versare acqua bollente fino a 2/3 dell’altezza dello stampo. Infornare a 180° per circa 35 minuti.

Nel frattempo preparare la fonduta. Portare la panna ad ebollizione, togliere dal fuoco e unire il parmigiano, mescolare finché il parmigiano non sarà ben amalgamato. Tenere in caldo (non fare mai bollire dopo che il parmigiano è stato aggiunto altrimenti i due ingredienti si separano).

Quando i flan sono pronti, sformarli su un piatto e accompagnare con la fonduta.

Yes, I love garlic: fresh, cooked, rubbed on toasted bread, as a base in many preparation. It does not matter how, it matters to enjoy it. And I am sorry for friends and relatives who have to bear me when I browse around as a toxic cloud. To minimize this I elected a specific day to eat garlic (and when I do I do it professionally!): My Garlic Friday. So I have a full weekend to go back to normal.

Here it is baked in oven, to make it creamy and soft. You have to squeeze the skin as you would do with a toothpast tube. The cream of garlic is perfect on toasted bread. Top with with fresh salt and a little of extra virgin olive oil. Voilà!

Serves 8

Ready in 45 minutes

5 heads of garlic (fresh if available)

15 grams thyme leaves

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

salt

toasted bread (at your choice)

Heat the oven to 200°.

Half the heads of garlic horizontally and put them in a baking pan (cut sides up).

Season with salt, thym and extra virgin olive oil.

Cover with aluminium foil and bake for 20/25 minutes. Uncover the tin and bake for further 10/15 minutes until golden. Set aside and let cool down. Estrarre e lasciare intiepidire.

Meanwhile toast the bread and then squeeze the half head of garlic on top of it. Season with extra olive oil and salt and serve!

Tofu, again. I am making a few experiments and I must admit that it is a very versatile ingredient. You can deep fry it, grill it, stir-fry it, cook it in sauce and it keeps its shape and it does not crumble. On top, its spongy texture makes it very tasty (as it absorbs aromas and juices), as in this version, cooked with soy sauce reduction.

Here I introduce also a universal and vegan salad dressing: the peanuts dressing. Make more and preserve it in the fridge for one week. It is a perfect dressing for all vegetables and it can be used as a marinade for the Chicken Satay (Chicken Satay recipe).

Serves 4

Ready in 30 minutes

350 grams fresh tofu

80 grams baby spinach

250 grams lentils (boiled)

50 grams bean sprouts at your choice

4 tbs soy sauce

2 tsp sugar

1 tbs rice vinegar

2 tbs water

peanut dressing*

First prepare the peanuts dressing (see below).

Cut the tofu into half centimeter slices. Dry them with a dry cloth and set aside.

Meanwhile in a small casserole put the soy sauce, the rice vinegar, the water and the sugar a bring to a boil. Let simmer until reduced of two thirds. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a pan. When hot, put the tofu slices and let them fry high heat for 3 or 4 minutes per side (or until golden). Now reduce the heat and add the soy sauce reduction. Turn the slices continuously until the liquids are all evaporated. Retain from fire and set aside.

Toss the lentils with 4 or 5 tablespoons of peanuts dressing.

Compose the plate: put a few spinach on the bottom of the plate, put the lentils and top with the tofu slices. Before serving decorate with sprouts at choice.

*Peanuts dressing

200 grams peanuts butter

a quarter of a glass of soy sauce

a quarter of a glass of rice vinegar

one glass of water

3 tsp sugar

3 cm ginger root

2 garlic cloves

3 tbs vegetable oil

Heat the vegetable oil in a pan. And stir-fry the minced garlic (I keep the whole clove to retai nit once golden), and the grated ginger until golden.

Add the remaining ingredients and on medium-low heat mix everything until smooth. Set aside for later use.

As a general rule, this sauce, once cold, can be kept into the refrigerator up to one week.

In Italy we always tend to boil the broccoli before we strip fry them. This recipe instead uses raw broccoli. In Asia they cook the vegetables very quickly to maintain savor and nutrition properties. That’s what I am proposing you with these charred broccoli.

Serves 4

Ready in 20 minutes

300 grams broccoli florets clean

2 garlic cloves finely sliced

2 hot chilli peppers

4 tbs extra-virgin olive oil

30 grams butter

salt

Dry the broccoli floret with a cloth (they must be really dry to char well).

Stir-fry the garlic and the hot chilli peppers with the olive oil.

Add the butter and a pinch of salt.

When the butter is melted, add the broccoli florets.

Let them char – high heat – for 12/15 minutes. Shake the pan every couple of minutes.

Seve.