10 steps to (better) cooking: be brave, be confident

10 steps to better cooking, On the Spotlight,

Once a chef throw in front of me a whole salmon fillet and said: “And now thinly slice it”! Form the panic in my eyes he understood I’ve never had done such a thing. He gave me a good knife and said: “Be confident, the most you can do is making one or two slices

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Pissaladière

On the Spotlight, Starters, , ,

A French classic nonetheless: found all around Côte Azur, is a quick and tasty snack, either good for goûter or as a starter. This is my cheat version: the original one calls for bread dough as a base, little Provençal black olives and fresh anchovies. This is slightly different, but it won’t loose in taste

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Orecchiette alle cime di rapa

On the Spotlight, Simply Italian, , , , , ,

An Italian Classic, from the South of Italy, and more precisely from Puglia, the heel of the peninsula. And as most of the traditional Italian dishes is simple, satisfying and tasty 🙂 In the list of ingredients, in parenthesis, you can find not so traditional substitutes, as I’m afraid most of the ingredients are difficult

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10 steps to (better) cooking: How to read and execute a recipe

10 steps to better cooking, On the Spotlight,

After choosing a recipe, from the internet or from a book or a magazine, you need to do it, to cook the dish. And here it comes the trickiest part! The rules: Read it, from the ingredients list to the last step. Then read it again. And then one more time. Prep everything! Take out

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Moelleux au chocolat et beurre salé

Dessert, cakes and sweet stuff, On the Spotlight, , , , ,

A French classic. And as Julia Child used to say, French cuisine has 3 basic ingredients: butter, butter, and butter. So do not be afraid  by the amount of fat there is in this recipe: it’s French! The recipe comes from n. 138 of Cuisine et Vins de France, which called for unsalted butter, but

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10 steps to (better) cooking: How to choose a recipe

10 steps to better cooking, On the Spotlight, ,

You are surrounded by recipes! Not only from this very blog, but on the entire internet you’ll find billions of recipes! Now even Google has a dedicated search! But not all recipes are the same and not all recipes are trustworthy… It happens, and quite often, to read recipes that call for 300 ml of

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10 steps to (better) cooking: Cut, cut, cut!

10 steps to better cooking, On the Spotlight, , , , ,

Cutting is one of the basic elements of cooking. To cut food and not yourself you need just few basic rules. 1. Knives You don’t need many of them. Actually 3 are more than enough, but they have to be top quality! If your knife is harp there are much more less chances you end

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Pizza dough

Bread, On the Spotlight, Simply Italian, , , , ,

If I say pizza and what do you think? I hope you think of Italy, because it comes from here and more precisely Naples. No pineapple, no salami, no strange, exotic  toppings. The one I prefer is the simplest of all, a pizza margherita: tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil. Sometimes the better pleasure in life

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Finnish buns

Dessert, cakes and sweet stuff, On the Spotlight, , , , , , ,

This buns are just perfect! There is nothing more to say about this velvety dough and sensational French brioche texture! The original recipe is from Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes, by Tessa Kiros: I recommend this book to anyone interested in real, down to hearth, simple and satisfying recipes! I’ve tried many and

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Cooking like an Italian: Bucatini all’Amatriciana

On the Spotlight, Simply Italian, , ,

Bucatini all’amatriciana: oh my, how many difficult words are in this simple dish? Bucatini: it’s a thick spaghetto with a hole (buco) in the middle Amatriciana: it’s a kind of pasta sauce, originating from Amatrice, a village north of Rome. It is a basic Italian dish, but as all basic Italian dishes, every family has

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