“Submit it to the test”...Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 4

Bread is Gold: Extraordinary Meals with Ordinary Ingredients

When a Cookbook calls you to contemplate more than just the food...

Lets see what happens, 400 pages and approximately 170 recipes to discover

Woke up and started thinking about ice-cream, toffee ice-cream and yoghurt ice-cream.  Two recipes I have dog eared this week in Bread is Gold.  This is what it has come to.  I was also thinking about my sore ass and whether it is wise to go roller skating with the girls again.  Deep thoughts on a Wednesday morning.....

Seasonality  - one of the pillars of the slow food movement and something I am trying to honour when I cook from this book, there is no point in making it if the asparagus has to come from Mexico, I can wait till spring for that particular dish.    Visit:  www.foodforsoul.it

In my life there is no separation between life and art.  Everything has significance, I dance between the extremes of my own making.  Sometimes I don't know if it is sensible to take on so many things, yet some how it all turns alright.  Recipes have a mind of their own that is true, a bunch of things have to be lined up for ingredients to sing their merry song.  

Underneath these parallel events I think at heart is intention.  I like what Lara Gilmore said recently on Instagram, that by joining the “call to act” there is value in the shared mission.  I have thought about this a lot, three simple words.  The call to act can change everything.........Behind every detail an artist, I who tended the sage leaves in the garden, the ceramist who painted this dish, the Publisher who commits to donating royalties to 'Soul for Food' an Organisation that connects people and fights against food waste.  You who gets the message to try a little harder, my kids who recycle the egg shells to the chickens and think more about soft plastic, and whether to get the bottle of water over a tap water...the list could go on

Recipes from Bread Is Gold Continued…..

25. Pasta with Anchovy, Caper, and Tomato Sauce  P.  312

Last night I cooked two dinners. I know I am turning into a restaurant, however sometimes it’s better to just do it and then all are happy, especially me.  I made the Anchovy and fish pasta above and found myself reminiscing over a meal I once had on a Tuesday in Rome on a perfect autumn day.  The next day for lunch I cooked Skye Mc Alpine’s ‘Olive Focaccia’ from her beautiful book A Table in Venice and I must add I have cooked some bread before mostly ciabatta style and this one definitely takes the cake.  So soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside, it was devoured instantly.  It was a great accompaniment to the sauce in this pasta dish as it calls to be mopped up with bread.

Turning to Bread is Gold: Extraordinary Meals with Ordinary Ingredients on page 306 I learn about Alex Atala’s food, his traditions and his intention behind the food he cooks.  I learn that the anchovy is a wise friend in the meal that can reproduce quickly in the food chain, unlike tuna that can take a year or so to grow.  I did not know that and revel more in the deep flavours that this sauce shares.  The key take away here is to add anchovy to the garlic in oil part as it dissolves into the sauce adding flavour and boldness.

26. Chocolate Bread with Toffee Ice-cream  P. 49

This could be our new favourite easy, happy dessert.  Just eggs, sugar, bread, cocoa and milk, who doesn't have that on hand?  And it’s Yum.  Home made toffee ice-cream adds a delicate touch to the rich chocolate pudding style dessert.  So good and a keeper.......(And this is a great stale bread recipe situation, doesn't even use eggs!!)

Book underneath the dessert; the beautiful Picardy: An Australian garden inspired by a passion for all things French by Marion Somes.  The ceramic plate is from Orvieto, Italy.....

The Jewish Ghetto Rome, one of my favourite finds in the ancient city of Rome

If I find myself coming home from work and recipe testing I know it is a sign.  If wake up thinking about ice-cream I know something has changed.  Julia Child always said, “submit it to the test”, implying you will never know unless you give it a try.  One thing leads to another and I am finding deep fulfillment not only in the contemplating of kitchen staples like old bread from the kitchen cupboard, but how anchovies and a few pieces of fish tossed through some penne can elevate a simple pasta dish to have me musing over a lunch in Rome’s old Jewish Quarter I once had.

  27. Radicchio and Fennel Salad   P.  416  (below)

These next two recipes are from Alice Delcourt.  Her foundation is “simplicity, fresh and seasonal produce, and above all, respect.  For Alice, salvaging food is part of everyday life.  She is clearly devoted to keeping waste to a minimum”.  Certainly if you run a restaurant you have a responsibility, yet we can take this food philosophy into our own kitchens and make choices that reflect what is on hand at any given time.  I like that.  These two meals were easy to manage as I shared the fennel between each dish.  I am good at making the decision to push ingredients further, and whats more I get to try a new set of flavours, one a soup and one a salad.

28. Minestrone 

Ordinary ingredients they are, yet something about toasting my own home made bread lavished in olive oil sends this soupy pasta into a dreamy place. I used some orecchiette pasta, a southern Italian style of pasta that married beautifully, a bit of luck there. Many minestrones will have some sort of meat added or beans, this one uses potatoes, carrots and fennel, delicate homey flavours that work to capture the mood of autumn on a plate....

29.  Banana and Strawberry Salad with Yoghurt Ice-cream  P. 312

Yes, the bananas are missing but that doesn't mean this simple little yogurt ice-cream does not pack a punch, stick it in the freezer and you are good to go.   A tub of natural yoghurt and some lemon juice and sugar makes a happy mix.  I wish it was summer so I could really enjoy this treat.  Autumn it is and the maple trees are turning red.  

I was reminded when taste testing this recipe of a trip to Italy on Air France of the mini tubs of yoghurt we had on our dinner plate.  The lovely french lady sitting next to us shared we needed to add sugar from the sachet to sweeten this like they did in France.  Voila, the sweet tooth is fixed.