italian cooking made easy

TIME : 45 MINUTES LEVEL : EASY For 2 persons you need: - 2 calamari  - 300 grms king prawns - 2 potatoes - 1 onion - 2 tomatoes  - 15 olives - 1 clove garlic - 1 glass white wine -  parsley - salt and pepper - olive oil Just put every thing together in a creative way and cook 30 /40 minutes at 180° C. in the oven until calamari are tender. Serve with green salad and a glass of Prosecco wine.  Buon appetito! Peter.

Time: 1 Hour Level: Easy Simmer zucchine, garlic, salt and pepper, until done. (5 minutes) Take 1 round piece of puff pastry (frozen or non) and cover a cake pan. Take care to create edges. Fill up with zucchine and cover with slices of smoked ham. Then add 4 beaten eggs to cover every thing. Cook 20/30 minutes in oven at 180° C. Buon appetito!

   time: 1 hour    level: easy   Ingredients for 2 persons: see picture! 1 guinea fowl 1 onion 1 carrot celery 1 or 2 clove garlic 4 or 5 bay leaf rosemary  sage some juniper berries salt pepper  olive oil  Chop all the vegetables and add with some olive oil in a frying pan. Add salt and pepper to guinea fowl in pieces and place the pieces on top of the vegetables. Let the whole thing simmer for at least 45 minutes on a very low flame, mixing the meat and the vegetables every once and a while. Add very little water, only if needed. The idea is that the meat and the vegetables should blend together nicely, without becoming to watery, neither should they roast. Of course see the picture above; this is how it should look!! Buon appetito, Peter.

Another version of stuffed savoy cabbage. We stuffed with a mix of leftover boiled potatoes, garlic, grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Close with a toothpick and cook 20 minutes in the oven at 180° C. Buon appetito!, Peter.

Last night i decided to do something different with savoy cabbage , so i bought some bacon (pancetta stufata in italian), some gorgonzola cheese, sesame seeds and some of those sweet, marmelade-like condimenti that are easy to make yourself, by mixing some marmelade, mustard and a little salt.  I boiled the cabbage leafs seperately for about 5 minutes. After this i let them cool and dried them with paper. Then i roasted the sesame seeds for about 3 minutes. I filled the leafs with some gorgonzola, 1 slice of bacon and 1/3 teaspoon of the sweet stuff. Rolled the leafs and closed with 2 tooth picks. Garnished with sesameseed and dried chives. Served cold. DELICIOUS!!! Peter

Time: 1 hour. Level: Easy. In Italy we call this recipe: "verza stufata" but in Venice it's called: "verze sofegae" For 4 persons take: - 2 small cabbages and slice as small as you can. - Add 1 sliced onion. - 1 clove garlic. - Olive oil. - Salt and pepper. The ingredients are rather simple, but the end result depends all on how you cook the cabbage!. Cook on a very low flame for 1 hour and try not to add any water, or at least very, very little. In this way the "verze sofegae" becomes very "creamy",and melt on your tongue, just the way we like it in Venice!. Buon appetito! Peter.

  An easy way to prepare zucchini.                     Time: 30  min                     Level: easy. -Slice the zucchini as thin as you can. -Slice an onion. -Crush garlic. -Grease oven pan with olive oil.  Lay out sliced zucchini and add on top:  -Onion. -Garlic. -Grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese. -Salt and pepper. -Sesame seeds (optional, but very good)  Cook 30 min. or until golden brown in the   oven at 180° C. Buon Appetito!