Bread and Egg Soup (Bred and Eg Soop) Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs
• 1 Large slice of bread
• 1 Beef stock cube (to be dissolved in ¾ pint of boiling water)
• Enough Parmesan cheese (grated) for a generous sprinkle
• A generous knob of butter
• An oven proof dish to contain the soup

Note 1:

The Ingredients in the list are for one person, but if you have guests, always consider 2 eggs and 1 slice of bread per person. About the stock, I had all the ¾ pint for myself so, in case of guests, prepare more stock.

Note 2:

Eggs must be absolutely fresh and I would not use anything that is not organic.

Note 3:

In the past, stale bread was used for this recipe. Use whatever bread you want but a home made loaf of countryside bread is the best bet!

Directions:

Before we start, put your oven proof dish in the oven because we need it hot for a later stage (you can set the oven to the minimum, but I recommend the use of oven gloves when it is time to take the dish out of the oven). Next, cut a slice of bread.

Remove the hard crust and cut the big slice in two parts.

Prepare the stock, dissolving the stock cube in ¾ pint of boiling water.

Now, take a shallow pan (a frying pan will do the job) and melt the butter.

Fry the bread until both the sides are golden brown.

This is the kind of colour we have to achieve.

Once the bread is ready, take the oven proof dish out of the oven.

Put the bread inside the dish, pressing it down so that it stays on the bottom of the dish.

Break the eggs over the bread.

Now, a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

The dish is ready for the adding of the stock. The stock must be boiling hot (not simmering) so raise the heat before adding it into the dish.

We add the stock to cover. The heat of the stock will partially cook the eggs. You can cover the dish with a plate and leave the dish alone for one minute or two, then you can serve the dish.

With this soup the eggs will never be thoroughly cooked, but this is it and I cannot change the tradition. However, if you are serving the soup to children or old people, you may consider poaching the eggs before laying them onto the bread; then you add the stock. Alternatively, before adding the stock, you can pass the dish under a grill, in order to cook the eggs, but you need to be careful not to burn the bread. Try it and find the solution that best suits you.

Feel free to add some ground black pepper if you wish.

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Polenta (Polintaa) Recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 Litres of water
• 30 g (2 level tbs) Coarse salt
• 1000 g (2.2 lb) Traditional polenta flour

Note:

polenta flour is made by ground corn kernels and it has a coarse finish. You can buy traditional polenta flour on the internet or Italian deli shops. Supermarkets usually sell "ready made" or "fast" versions of polenta but by buying them you would miss the point!

Directions:

For 1000 g of polenta flour, you need a big pan (a copper cauldron for the purists!) containing 4 litres of cold water. Put the pan on the heat (high heat - only at this initial stage) and immediately add the salt into the pan.

When the water is tepid, add the flour gradually. In Italy we say to add the flour "a pioggia", that means like a gentle rain.

Now, whisk with energy for few seconds so that you prevent the forming of any lumps.

Next, bring the heat to medium/low and, slowly, start stirring with a big wooden spoon (in the photograph you can see that I am using a specific polenta spoon). I am sorry for your arms but now you need to keep stirring for 30-40 minutes (if you are bored, have a glass of wine and listen to the music or chat with someone).

This photograph shows the polenta making after 10 minutes stirring.

This photograph shows the polenta making after 20 minutes stirring.

This photograph shows the polenta making after 30 minutes stirring. At this stage the polenta is a bit hard to stir so it would probably be better to hold the pan with one hand (here, using a kitchen glove would be a good idea) while stirring with the other.

There you go, this is the polenta after 35 minutes cooking. I will stop here because the polenta is ready, since it has reached the right consistency. Consistency is subjective; a purist would prefer the polenta more firm without showing any flowing once spooned onto the plate, but for what I have in mind I need the polenta still a bit flowing and a further 5-10 minutes cooking would make it too hard.

Now, I will show you few simple preparations starting from my favourite. Spoon some hot polenta onto the plate and top it with a knob of good quality butter.

Let the butter melt a bit and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and eat it. Another version is to cut a few small pieces of Gorgonzola cheese and insert the cheese inside the hot polenta so that it will melt easily. Both these preparations are delicious and very simple to make.

Another preparation is to cook some sausages. There are many different ways to cook sausages but if you want something quick and easy, just grill them. Before putting the sausages under the grill, pinch them with a fork so they will drop some of their tasty fat in the bottom of the grill pan; we will use some of this fat as well.

Start cooking the sausages about 15-20 minutes before the polenta is ready so you can top the hot polenta straightaway with them.

When the polenta is ready, spoon some of it onto a plate, spread a couple of dessert spoons of fat (collect it from the bottom of the grill pan) over the polenta and finally top the whole thing with your sausages.

Another way to use polenta is as follows. Put a knob of butter into a shallow oven tray.

Melt the butter.

Now, using a kitchen paper, spread the butter around, including the sides. Using the kitchen paper, you will also remove the excess butter.

For this to work perfectly, you need to use polenta that flows a bit so remember to use polenta at its 30-35 minutes cooking stage and no more. Add as many spoons as you need to cover the bottom of the tray, having a layer 1 cm thick or slightly more.

Spread the polenta with a spatula to create an even and uniform layer. Leave to cool for about 1 hour.

Now, turn the tray over a flat surface (I used a glass chopping board) and let the polenta layer drop down.

Cut the layer in whatever shape you like.

Put the polenta pieces onto a cast iron griddle pan and cook them until their surface shows the typical blackened stripes. You can top these hot pieces with Parmesan cheese or eat them as they come.

Finally, another way to have polenta is to spoon some flowing polenta onto a pizza tray. Put some baking paper in the bottom of the tray, add the polenta and then cover with a second layer of paper. Using a rolling pin, you can help spread the polenta so that you have a thin layer similar to pizza.

Next, remove the top paper.

Cut the paper around the tray to look a bit more tidy.

Top the polenta layer with few small knobs of butter.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Now, it is ready for the grill or the oven. You may wish to top the layer with something else, then do it! (e.g. cured meat, different types of cheese, bacon, anchovy fillets etc).

Cook until the top surface is lightly browned.

Cut some slices and serve as it is.

From what you can see, polenta is a very versatile thing and I would leave it to your imagination. Once you have mastered the basic technique, you will be able to create endless versions and amuse your family members and friends.

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Pesto Sauce (Pessto Sace) Recipe

THIS IS TO TOP 500 g OF PASTA (SERVES 5)

Ingredients:

• 30-40 Basil leaves (from a young plant)
• 1 Clove of garlic for every 30 basil leaves
• 30 g (just a bit more than 1 oz) Pine nuts
• 40 g (1 ½ oz) Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 30 g (just a bit more than 1 oz) Freshly grated Pecorino sardo cheese
• 150 ml (5 fl oz) Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt for seasoning

Note:

If you cannot stand the garlic, or you think that the garlic flavour would override the basil flavour, then do not use garlic, but you cannot call it “pesto” anymore!About the extra virgin olive oil, preferably use olive oil from the Liguria region of Italy. This is renowned for its sweet and fruity flavour, thus ideal for pesto.Last but not least, pick the basil leaves from a young plant (about 20 cm- 8 inches high). Using a mature plant with big and thick leaves, especially if in flower, will make the pesto taste quite herbaceous or even bitter.

Directions:

Gently wash the basil leaves, paying attention not to crunch them.

Lay the basil leaves onto kitchen paper and let them to dry. DO NOT press or pat the leaves with kitchen paper but leave them to dry naturally.

Cut the clove of garlic longways through its centre, remove and dispose the shoot. Then, roughly chop the clove into a few pieces.

Firstly, add the pine nuts. The reason we process them first is that they require more time and a high speed to break up properly. We do not want to add the basil at this stage otherwise it will be over blended and the heat generated by the friction may alter the colour and fragrance of the basil.

Once you have blended the pine nuts, add the basil leaves into the blender jug.

Also, add the garlic.

Start blending, at low speed (if you can adjust the speed of course), and at the same time gradually pour in the olive oil.

Add a small quantity of salt to season.

Add the Pecorino sardo cheese.

Add the Parmesan cheese.

Now, blend again for a few seconds and then you will have your pesto sauce.

Put the pesto into a large bowl, add a spoonful of the boiling water you are using to boil the pasta and then add your drained pasta into the bowl. Stir for few seconds until the pasta is evenly coated and serve.

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