At the end of summer you can still find good, cheap aubergines and tomatoes, and the best thing you can do with them is making a layered main course, Parmigiana.

This dish is usually made with sliced and fried aubergines and tomato sauce (heavily seasoned), so what you get is something good but very very heavy on the stomach.

The version I prefer is totally guilt free and still tastes good!

Basically you grill the aubergines instead of frying them, and use fresh sliced tomatoes.

I am not giving any quantities, it all depends on your taste and on the size of your aubergines!

You can also use individual ramekins.

You could also eat it as a salad, but in this case you need to cut up the slices of cooked aubergines.

INGREDIENTS:
Aubergines (roughly 1 per person if medium sized)

Tomatoes (must be fresh, red and smell like tomatoes!)

Basil leaves or pesto sauce

Vegetarian Parmesan cheese (grated)

Mozzarella (about half per person)

Slice the tomatoes (no need to de-seed or skin), layer them on a plate, and sprinkle with little salt and pepper and the torn basil or some pesto sauce.

Slice the aubergine about 1,5cm thick, brush both sides with a little olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt, then put them under a grill or on a cast iron grill pan and cook them thoroughly.

Assemble the dish: put a layer of aubergines first, then the tomatoes (drained), then the mozzarella and the grated cheese.

When you’re finished, put the dish in an hot oven (180) until the mozzarella melts.

Buon appetito!

in the photos the dish is not yet gone in the oven.

I have been terribly lazy, spring is gone and it looks like summer is fading away quite quickly.

In the world of blogs I have been very very absent, and a few months is a long time.

But one thing I’ve done is growing my vegetables, I have had some peas, but finally realized that the spot I chose for them was unsuitable, so next year I’ll plant them somewhere else.

I had strawberries, but they are never as many as I would like.

I still have courgettes, an Italian heirloom variety which is extremely tasty even when it gets to the marrow stage.

My autumn fruiting raspberries have just started turning red, they are huge!!!

And I am keeping my little eyes peeled for the glut of tomatoes that my tiny garden will hopefully produce, I have 3 different varieties: a beefsteak, a “regular” (smallish round, forgot the name) and the all-time-favourite San Marzano, which you won’t find anywhere in he UK.

San Marzano are “the” tomatoes that you find in the real neapolitan pizza, they a specialty of the Campania region and are canned whole (no skin though).  San Marzano are quite special, they look long and sort of rectangular (yes, yes), the flesh is quite dry and the flavour improves tremendously when cooked, they get much sweeter than your regular tomato.

Last year I halved them and dried them in the oven with herbs and they were amazing.

So, you see, in the end I was doing something…

There have been no aeroplanes in these skies for more than 4 days.

While airline companies complain about the loss of money, I feel happy.

Happy because Europe has reduced its carbon emission without having to pretend they are doing something, happy because to me this is a very clear message: humans can mess up with Mother Nature, but in the end, she’s going to have the last laugh.

And let me say it, if Ryanair looses a lot of money, that can only make me happy, I hate them!

Last year I got a bit overexcited with tomato seed and planted a whole packet, too late in the season and it wasn’t a real success, this year I am taking it professionally, and given that I have a garden the size of a post stamp, I am planting out very few plants.

I have 2 different kinds of tomatoes and a first batch of peas (the ones on the top right), and I am soooo looking forward to planting them out!

At the moment the peas are “hardening”, staying outside during the day and inside at night.

There is nothing better than growing vegetables and fruit, it’s easy, cheap and everything tastes much nicer!

It’s the season of this little tubers, and yes I am happy! They are not easy to find but worth trying, also they seem to be terribly easy to grow, so if you have some space in your garden think about Jerusalem artichokes.

They come in different shapes, they are smallish (bigger ones could be tangerine-sized), the ones in the photo I got from a supermarket and they are ready washed, their texture when raw is crunchy, more frozen apple than potato.

Their taste is very good, they do remind artichoke hearts, hence the name, but creamier if possible.

What to do with them is really up to you, they fit in every recipe, from risotto to stir-fry and are very good in soups.

Lots of recipes calls for roasting them with skins on, which you can eat, but I really didn’t like the skins.

The only drawback of these beauties is that they will very likely give you wind…well, let’s drink a fennel tea and keep the windows open then!

This is more of a snack than it is a dish, but you could always put some salad next to it to make it healthy!

You only need a few ingredients to make it, but do try to find the best mozzarella (buffalo is the best) and a very good bread, the one in the photo is granary wholemeal, but I think it might work better with italian breads, olive or tomatoes or just a sliced ciabatta. Don’t forget the olive oil has to be very good strong flavoured extra virgin.

This recipe is basically an Italian version of cheese on toast (or Welsh rarebit)

1 thick slice of bread per person

mozzarella (sliced) at room temperature

Extra virgin olive oil

salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice

Toast the bread and drizzle with a little olive oil, put the mozzarella, more olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and a few drops of lemon juice, don’t skip this because it give a right kick to the toast!

Put under a hot grill until the mozzarella starts to melt.

Eat straight away!

This film is an ecological documentary in which the story is told mainly by the beautiful images, and it’s about how humans are exploiting planet Earth, using up all the non-renewable energy without thinking of the consequences.

It is a very good film to show to young people as well, it is very simple and straighforward.

However hard “normal” people try to be as green as they can, the governments are so tied up by the interest of big companies that are extremely slow in doing anything, and quite often the steps they take are just silly or ineffective.

But the laziness of the governments should not stop each one of us to try and do our best, even if we are doing it with a huge feeling of frustration.

Whatever happen next, we’ll all be paying the price of what we have done.

The author gave up his rights and you can watch it online, I recommend it strongly.

Writing about this film made me a bit gloomy, oh dear!

Outside is all covered in snow.

Good night

Ingredients for 1 (multiply as needed!)

4 tablespoons of brown basmaty rice

1 small sweet potato (red flesh)

1 small red onion

2 tablespoons of cashew nuts

soy sauce (about 1-2 tablespoons, depending on how you like it)

2 tablespoons of groundnut oil (or other similar seed oil)

Wash the rice and put in boiling salted water, let it cook until the grains start to “open” (this will take some time, depending on the quantity of rice, for 1 portion it takes about 20 minutes).

While the rice is cooking, peel the onion, cut in half and slice thinly.

Skin the potato and cut in small chunks.

Heat the oil in a pan and put the potato, let it cook gently turning them every now and then, add the onions.

When the potatoes are nearly cooked put the cashews (no need to roast them, they taste just as lovely), cook a few more minutes and take off the heat.

When the rice is ready, strain it through a sieve, put it back in the pan and cover with a lid, let it fluff up for 2 minutes.

Transfer the potatoes on a dish, put a little bit more oil (one tablespoon is enough), heat the pan and throw the rice in.

Add the soy sauce and stir well.

What you are doing now is making the rice crunchy, it must form a golden crust, so turn it with a spoon so you can have as much crunch as you possibly can, that’s without burning the rice!

When the rice is almost done, put the potatoes back in the pan and mix everything together to heat it up.

Put on a plate and eat!

If you want, you can add crumbled cheese but if you do you might want to skip the say sauce or it can be too salty!

It’s gone really cold here in little-north-of-London town, and this has got to be the greatest warm drink you could have: it’s sweet, it’s spicy, the kichten will smell lovely and you can have it at night because it’s caffeine-free.

Then, if you have some left, cause this is the season to give, you can share it with any child around you.

Basically, it’s a children alchool free version of mulled wine.

What I really love about this drink is the contrast between the sweetness of the agave nectar (or sugar) and that certain tangy kick of the apple juice.

You can multiply the ingredients accordingly to the number of people.

For 1 person

1 mug of good quality cloudy apple juice

1 slice of organic orange

1 slice of fresh ginger

2 teaspoons of agave nectar or a sweetener of your choice (yes, sugar will do!)

mixed spices, I used 4 cloves, some cinnamon stick, 2 black peppercorns (whole), some grated nutmeg, a slice of fresh ginger.

You can also buy ready made mixes of spices for mulled wine, they will work in this recipe, use only the quantity you need, a whole sachet usually calls for one bottle of wine (750 ml).

To measure how much juice you need, fill the cup in which you are going to drink as much as you can, then pour the juice in a pan, put all the other ingredients, stir with a spoon and bring to the boil.

Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, then take off the heat and let it rest for one minute or even less.

Strain through a sieve and serve in the cups.

On the weekend I went to see the latest Miyazaki’s film, called “Ponyo on the cliff by the sea”.

We have bought all the dvds from the Studio Ghibli collection, and we adore everything Miyazaki ever did.

Italy has a strong connection with Studio Ghibli and with Miyazaky himself, who showed his love for medieval Italian towns in his films, also he had some good Italian friends who worked in tv (he even named the main carachter after Marco Pagot in “Porco Rosso”), that’s one of the reasons why all Italians of my age know Hayao Miyazaki, we all have seen the serie “Heidi” on tv when we were kids, and I still think it is extremely good.

Studio Ghibli also produced a serie of cartoons based on Sherlock Holmes stories, but in which all carachters are dogs, and while it has been shown in Italy many times, it’s unknown in Japan!

But, coming back to Ponyo, it was really lovely, it is a rather long film, but it has no “dead” moments, it’s the story of a magical fish which get stranded on a beach and gets saved by a boy who wants to take care of it. The fish’s father is a sort of king of the sea, who once was a human and wants his child back, but the fish wants to be a human and live with the boy.

It is told in a lovely way, and of course the drawings are amazing, altough there is a lot of computer graphics involved.

If you have never seen a film by Miyazaki, it’s better late than never! Many of his films have a very strong enviromental story, even in Ponyo there’s lots of rubbish underwater.

My favourite Studio Ghibli films are “My neighbour Totoro” (if you have a child, it is a must), “Princess Mononoke” (one for the grown-ups, enviromental story set in medieval Japan, with the most amazing music) and “Spirited away”…actually, I love all of them!

PS

the photo shows the Italian DVD (in Italy the film came out one year ago!!!)

And let me show off my gorgeous soft toys!!!