Yesterday was a beautiful, bright sunny day that had me thinking that spring might be just around the corner. It was one of those days when being outside in the sunshine was a million times better than being inside, stuck in front of a computer.
I went down to the local market and picked up a few fresh ingredients for the next couple of days. The produce is still decidedly winterly – artichokes, various green leaves, particularly the various delineations of cabbage and cauliflower, and a couple of lonely fennel bulbs. In terms of the fruit selection: you have a vast choice between clementines or oranges, oranges or clementines…
Feeling that spring in my step, I made a simple, raw salad to go with lunch. With minimal effort required, straight into the serving bowl, I mixed fennel, tips of puntarelle, slices of clementine and pomegranate seeds (from the freezer.) I used just extra virgin olive oil and salt as the seasoning but squeezed some clementine juice over the top to give some acidity and sweetness. I more commonly use lemon juice but using clementines is something I’m going to do more often. Not only does this salad look bright and colourful, but it tastes great too.
Unfortunately, today is back to being grey and unforgivingly cold. “Un tempo cruo ” in the local dialect. Personally, I’d never heard the weather being described as “raw” / crudo before but I understand the meaning. It’s a cold that gets into your bones.
In the kitchen today, I’m making a rustic vegetable soup, loosely adapted from the first of these recipes from Anna Jones in the Guardian. I started with the soffritto, only to realise that I’d forgotten to buy carrots at the market. I knew that, actually, but last night I’d dreamt that, in order to make this soffritto, I successfully found a carrot lurking at the back of the fridge. It turns out that there was actually no carrot and I’m now ever so slightly concerned about the lucidity of my dreams. I can’t be the only person who spends their valuable shut-eye imagining what they’re going to cook later in the day… am I…?
Anyway, once my half-hearted soffritto was ready, I added a potato (peeled and cubed) and some similarly sized pieces of the rind of aged Monte Veronese cheese (the equivalent of parmesan in my area.) Following more or less the method outlined in the recipe, I have added vegetable stock, tinned datterini tomatoes, borlotti beans, tips of the fennel that I didn’t use yesterday in the salad and some more of those puntarelle leafy greens, again. I’ll leave it aside for a little while and when I’m ready this evening, I’ll pop down to the bakery to pick up some bread which’ll be used for dunking. The dog is always happy to accompany me for a walk into the village.
My next challenge is to figure out what to take to a lunch on Sunday. I’ve been told to bring a dessert (does that sound familiar? no? click here.) As it happens I have a ton of milk to use up so I thought about a riz au lait. The problem is that I can’t find the trusty recipe that I used many years ago so I’m having to wing it. I’ve checked a couple of recipes online but I’m going to spend this afternoon giving them a test run. To keep the saucepan covered or not. That is the question…
The Burnt Cream Blog 