🍆🍅🧄Food for Thought 🧄🍅🍆

I planned to publish recommendations for things to binge-watch on the various streaming services - but I'm feeling inspired instead to write about food.

In my family, during lunch, we would discuss what we were having for dinner - or if eating out, which restaurant we'd visit next. You could say we are a family of foodies. I've had the good fortune to take many cooking classes over the years, including some in lovely destinations. The photo above was taken during our last visit to the little hill town in Abruzzo that's home to Abruzzo Cibus (my happy place!) and I'm looking forward to a return visit once we are able to get out in the world beyond our front door.

During this time when we are staying in, I'm seeing lots of posts about cooking and food - it seems like folks are taking up baking bread, or making homemade soup; last week for St. Patrick's day my feed was filled with images of corned beef and cabbage. I've attached a couple of video cooking demonstrations below, which I hope will inspire you - and this Sunday I'm participating in a Zoom cooking class. Please let me know what's cooking in your place!

Finally, please support your local restaurants - they really need our carryout and delivery orders. Many have set up virtual tip jars for laid-off staff members - if you have a favorite restaurant that you're missing, and are in a position to do so, please consider making a gift.

Keep calm and make it from scratch,

Joan

Involtini di Melanzane - From Abruzzo, Italy

(Click white arrow below to watch video featuring Massimo and Chef Dino -(trust me, it's awesome!)   Recipe follows video.

INVOLTINI DI MELANZANE (EGGPLANT ROLLUPS)

Today we cook one of our favourite dishes: involtini di melanzane, eggplant rolls with Parmesan and ricotta cheese. Simply delicious!

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• Pepper
• Salt
• Fresh ricotta
• Parmigiano
• Raisins
• Onions
• Pecorino
• Eggplants 

Cooking time:

15 minutes

Directions:

Fry a little bit the red onions in a hot pan with small amout of olive oil. Cut the eggplant in thin slices, pass them in the flour, then fry in sunflower oil (which has a lighter taste than extra virgin olive oil).

To make the stuffing for the involtini di melanzane, we need fresh ricotta. Add the caramelized onions, a bit of pepper, salt, raisins, pecorino and parmigiano. Mix together the ingredients. Add just a little bit of salt and pepper to the eggplant. Now put the stuffing on the eggplant slice and then roll it. Put the eggplant rolls in a terracotta pan, add more pecorino to create a little crost.

Cook the eggplant in the oven at 375 F for 15 minutes.

Empanadas from Barcelona

On a trip to Barcelona with Rich's daughters, we had a great food outing with Chef Yves. He met us at the market, gave us a tour, and together we decided what we would prepare. We then went to his home, set on a Barcelona hill with a sweeping view, for a lesson in preparing food, Barcelona Style. These days Yves has shared a virtual lesson in making empanadas. He makes the dough from scratch, using duck fat (!) and a pasta machine to roll it - if you don't have either duck fat or a pasta machine handy, you can use pie crust or even wonton skins for the dough. Cheers!