Mozzarella and tomatoes

It's been incredibly hot in Rome recently. Humid, muggy, sun blazing down, no clothes (but of course you have to wear clothes) weather.
And it, sadly, makes me lose my appetite.
I never fare well in the heat.  I never had.  I don't love summer.  I like it when I'm on the beach under an umbrella, or playing in the water... Which really doesn't happen often enough.
I know, I know, everyone hates summer in the middle of a heatwave, they go from complaining about the cold to complaining about the heat in a heartbeat. But I don't complain about the cold, even when there's a polar vortex (with the exception of one evening where I was just dressed inappropriately because I never listen to my mother).
If I could go to the beach everyday I probably wouldn't complain all that much about the heat, but sadly I'm at work everyday so I can't throw myself into the sea and cool down when I'd like.
And the heat just saps my energy so when I get home from work I don't want to do anything. I don't

My gorgeous caprese with dried basil

want to kick or turn on the stove. I don't want to eat. It's just to hot and I'm lackluster.
So my solution has been an insalata Caprese, which is the Italian for a mozzarella and tomato salad. I think the salad must have origins in Capri (an island near Naples in Southern Italy) but I'm not sure.  But with ingredients fresh out of the fridge, the salad is delicious and refreshing.
And it requires amazingly little effort. It's so easy.

With balsamic vinegar

All you need are fresh tomatoes, mozzarella (preferably bufala because it's divine), basil (fresh or dried), olive oil, and balsamic vinegar (although if you don't like balsamic that can be skipped). A traditional caprese doesn't use balsamic vinegar, but I love the added tang.
Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella, layer them onto a plate and drizzle with oil and vinegar.  Garnish with basil and maybe a little salt and pepper. It's simple but really wonderful in the heat.  And if you're not a fan of tomatoes, you can also serve your mozzarella on a bed of arugula. It's equally delicious and equally refreshing for summer
I've been eating it pretty consistently for days now.

mozzarella on a beautiful bed of fresh rucola

Recipe: Almost "Italian" Grilled Cheese

My roommates periodically think I'm crazy. They see me making mac & cheese or grilled cheese or any of my various strange mixings of sweet and savory and think I'm insane.
It makes me laugh, because I may be strange, but I make really good food.  Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I know I can cook and cook well. The constant request for meals from friends leads me to believe that for as strange as my recipes can be, everything must be quite good.

In any case last night I made myself a different grilled cheese with this lovely creamy cheese called stracchino. It's another spreadable cheese that has a richer texture and taste than something like cream cheese.
It's very typically Italian so I decided to go with one of it's traditional pairings for my grilled cheese.  Often in restaurants you'll see crostini (toasted bread) with stracchino and sausage, so I decided to do a grilled cheese utilizing the combination.
And then of course I added my own twist by adding an egg cooked over easy to add to the texture and flavor of the whole sandwich and served it with a rich balsamic vinegar as a dipping sauce.

Ingredients:
2 sausages
1/4 small onion
1 tbs olive oil
1 egg
Stracchino cheese
2 slices of whole grain bread (I used white bread because it's what I had)
2 pats of butter
salt and pepper to taste
red pepper flakes to taste

Dice a quarter of an onion finely and put to the side for the moment. Remove the casing from your sausage and cut (or tear) it into small pieces.  Pour a little olive oil into a saucepan, not a lot because the sausage should render out its own fat. Let the oil get hot slowly over a low flame and then add the

onions. As the onions begin to sweat add in the sausage and red pepper flakes to taste.  Leave on the heat stirring often until the sausage is cooked all the way through.
Put the sausage and onion into a plate but do not drain the oil from the pan.  You can use the renderings to cook your egg quickly.  Put the pan back over a low heat and crack the egg into the pan carefully. Spice with a little salt and pepper (I would suggest more pepper than salt).  If you prefer, you can keep your egg sunny side up and cook it on just the one side.  I like cooking both sides briefly, so after a few minutes I very carefully flip my egg and let it cook a little more.  I like to keep the yolk still runny, so I don't leave it in the pan for very long.
Unfortunately, I wasn't using a nonstick pan last night so I had a bit of a problem flipping my egg.  It looked a little wonky but still tasted delicious.  I put the egg on the plate with the sausage and put it to the side.
Next spread the cheese thickly on both sides of bread.

At this point you have two options, you can either grill the bread in the remaining oil in your first pan or you can get a second clean pan and use butter.  I chose to use butter because I liked the idea of the additional flavor and also because my egg had stuck in the first pan so I don't imagine the bread would've cooked evenly.  Using the first pan however would give your bread a lovely smoky, sausage taste that would work on the whole.

If you choose to use butter, place it into a new saucepan and melt slowly on a low flame. When the butter has melted, add your bread into the pan.  Let it brown for a few minutes until golden and then remove from the heat.
Add your sausage and then egg onto one piece of bread. For additional flavor, you can drizzle the egg with balsamic vinegar or a balsamic reduction or you can do what I did and use the balsamic vinegar as a dipping sauce.
The richness and bite of the vinegar should really complement the creaminess of the cheese.

Grilled Cheese Recipe: Balsamic Spinach and Strawberry, Sliced chicken, Walnut Grilled Cheese

Wow. The name and ingredient list is pretty long, but this grilled cheese was an amazing experimert that made my amazing roommates think I'm crazy.  The Italians would never put strawberries into a sandwich or a salad, let alone a grilled sandwich. Almost a week later, I'm still getting teased.  I don't really mind.  I know I'm not crazy. This combination was wonderful! So I made it twice.

This grilled cheese is absolutely beautiful with gorgeous colors.

I used a Walnut cheese that I randomly found in the supermarket.  It is a spreadable cheese with whole
chunks of walnut throughout. I decided to see how it is and I've decided it's really delicious. It is a mild tasting cheese, not overly pungent, with the lovely warm flavor of walnuts.  And the walnuts added a bonus crunch.
My grilled cheese also involved some strawberries for sweetness, some spinach dressed in a thick balsamic vinegar, and slices of chicken breast for protein. Again, AMAZING

Ingredients:
2 pieces of white bread (I would actually prefer whole grain, but I didn't find any at the store that day)
butter
Walnut cheese
2 or 3 strawberries sliced finely
Spinach
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
3 or 4 pieces of thinly sliced chicken or turkey breast

Spread your walnut cheese onto one side of each slice of bread.  If you can't find walnut cheese, I would use

Walnut cheese and Strawberry amazingness

a spreadable cheese like Laughing Cow or even Cream cheese because they are both mild in flavor. If you use one of these alternatives just add some fresh walnuts to your sandwich. Four or five broken into chunks should add just enough crunch and flavor to your sandwich.
Then on one slice of bread add a layer of strawberries.  You can add strawberries to both sides but I think it would make the grilled cheese a little difficult to eat because of the additional moisture.
In a separate bowl, mix your spinach, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  I use an Italian balsamic that is thick and creamy, but that can be hard to find in the states. You can use a regular vinegar (just don't overdo it or the sandwich will get soggy) or you can make your own balsamic reduction by cooking balsamic vinegar, and a touch of sugar in a pan over low heat, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken.  The flavor of the balsamic will intensify and sweeten and really add a nice kick to your sandwich (if you want to go to the extra effort). Place to the side.
Put a couple of pats of butter into a pan and heat over a low flame.  When the butter has heated and begins to sizzle, place your bread dry side down into the pan.  Shake your pan every now and then so it doesn't burn. The bread should grill for a couple of minutes or until it becomes golden and crisp. It will not take very long, so do not leave it unattended! You definitely don't want the bread to burn.
Remove from the heat.
At this point, you can close your sandwich and enjoy your strawberry walnut grilled cheese or you can go all out like I did.
I added a handful of the balsamic spinach, which is a nice complement to the strawberries.

Spinach and Strawberries: This was a different day, but the colors were
too pretty not to post. I should have added even more strawberries.

Then I added the slices of chicken breast and closed my beautiful crispy grilled cheese.  The cheese was warm and melted quite nicely while the spinach added a beautiful crunch and the chicken was mild enough in
flavor that it melded nicely with everything else.  The bread got to the perfect golden color, so it was crisp and butter on the outside as a wonderful contrast to the creamy cheese and juicy strawberries.
The sandwich can get a little messy so be careful!  The walnut spread does not get sticky like some other cheeses so it won't hold the strawberries perfectly.  You may wind up with some runaways!

Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar Findings

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Long Branch and I found this wonderful little shop on the boardwalk called Carter & Cavero Old World Olive Oil Company. I cannot tell you how excited I was! It's not often that I see shops that reminds me of Italy quite so strongly. It specializes in different kinds of olive oil and vinegar, as well as food imports and ceramic and wooden dishware for the kitchen. It was beautifully set up and easy to find different items.  There were even sections dedicated to gift samplers and several places with recipe cards and suggestions that I truly appreciated.

Such a quaint and adorable find!

Quite honestly, I fell in love with the entire quaint atmosphere of the little shop. The manager was very helpful and pleasant. She was happy to provide information about the store, and about all of the different products. I've forgotten her name, but I really enjoyed chatting with her about the different types of olive oil and balsamic. She was very knowledgeable.

About 2 years ago while I was living in Florence, I was given a wonderful opportunity. One of my friends from Middlebury College asked me to go to VinItaly, a Wine and Food festival in Verona, Italy. It is one of the largest Slow Food festivals in Italy and has wine vendors from all 20 regions of Italy plus other regions of Europe. It also had olive oil and other artisan products from all over Italy and Europe. My friend asked me to go in her stead so I could get her samples of olive oil and I happily agreed.  It was an absolutely fantastic experience where I got to talk to a ton of people about food and wine. In the course of three days I was able to try countless types of wine, olive oil and honey. I learned so much about how the products are made and the differences in taste and quality.
Here in the United States, we don't really have too many different types of olive oil. Here we have olive oil and extra virgin olive oil but in Italy, in Europe in general, there are countless types of olive oil. Fresh olive oil is a light green color and has a deeper flavor and slightly thicker consistency than the olive oils we know and love here. It is perfect on Florentine bread (no salt involved). The virgin olive oils are lighter and great for salads but there are medium and heavier olive oils as well that are great for other dishes.  I think I should just write another posting about olive oil. For now back to Carter & Cavero.

The right corner and back of the shop are lined with cannisters of olive oil and vinegar to taste test. 

It was refreshing to see a shop set up so nicely with informative staff.  The olive oil and balsamic vinegar were set up in tasting stations on the right hand side and back wall. There were tasting cups and pieces of bread to dip. It was quite impressive to see the variety available here in New Jersey. There were simple olive oils and balsamic vinegars and there were also more interesting fruity flavors available as well.
Of the olive oils my favorite was probably the white truffle olive oil. It was smoky and strong but somehow still delicate. If you like truffles, I highly recommend this one. I would love to have this with a porcini and
truffle risotto or a mushroom crostini (essentially toasted bread). The persian lime olive oil was also quite delicious and so were a lot of the other varieties. Honestly, there were so many to try. I have to go again and try even more of them.
I was also able to try a lot of the balsamic vinegars. I hadn't even realized how many types of balsamic vinegar there could be. There are traditional dark balsamics but there are also white
balsamics. My absolute favorite was the peach white balsamic vinegar, produced in Modena which is in Northern Italy. It had kick and a delicious sweet peach flavor. I loved it so much that I bought myself a small bottle and I've already used it to make a delicous Nectarine Risotto (recipe coming sooning) and  a scumptious Nectarine Chicken (recipe also coming soon).
Sometime this week I'm going to make a fresh salad using arugula, spinach, peaches, toasted walnuts and feta using this balsamic and a light EVOO. Next time I get back down the shore I have a list of balsamics that I need to try again and buy.  Some of my other favorites were the pomegranate balsamic and the blueberry balsamic. Both are dark balsamics with beautiful fruity kicks. The pomegranate was more tart with a deep rich flavor and acidity which I think would make for great grilling and/or dipping sauces. The blueberry balsamic was a little sweeter and absolutely delicious. In Florence, at a restaurant called Acqua al 2 I had a fantastic blueberry steak that I would love to try to replicate by making a reduction with this blueberry balsamic vinegar and fresh blueberries.

Carter & Cavero also had some other fantastic artisan products. I was particularly fascinated by the Ordigno, a super spicy Calabrese vegetable spread that can be used with crackers and cheese, or pasta. The "bomb" packaging is not a joke, it is really that spicy and I could not resist buying it.  I use it on EVERYTHING. No I'm not kidding, EVERYTHING. Spicy is amazing and this is particularly fantastic. I put it on sandwiches, crackers with cheese, wraps and pasta.  Next time I go back, I'll probably even get some of the pink marbled salt to try!

Recipe: Gorgonzola Polenta with balsamic caramelized onions

Polenta:
5 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
1 3/4 cups polenta
3/4 cup crumbled sweet gorgonzola, crumbled
1/3 cup whipping cream

1. Bring the water to a boil. Slowly add the polenta while constantly stirring.
2. Reduce heat to low and simmer until tender. Add more water slowly if the polenta appears too thick.
3. Remove from the heat. Add the gorgonzola and cream, stir until melted. Salt and pepper to taste.


Onions:
2 tbs olive oil
2 large white or golden onions, sliced into rings
1-2 tbs balsamic vinegar
salt

1. Heat oil in a large pan over low heat. Add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook slowly for 10-15 minutes stirring periodically.
2. When onions are softened and tinged gold add the balsamic. Continue cooking over low heat for another 5-10 minutes.
3. Serve over the polenta.

-- Raspberrry Truffle