Author: Valentina

Non ridere, non lugere, neque detestari, sed intelligere.

Easy Parmesan Tagliatelle Recipe

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

W.S.C.

Ingredients:
– 250 g tagliatelle;
– 50-60 g butter;
– 70 g grated Parmesan;
– coffee cup of pasta broth.

Method:
1 Cook tagliatelle Al dente, spare one coffee cup of broth.
2 Melt butter in the skillet, slowly mix in grated Parmesan. Add pasta broth and cook for another minute while slowly mixing until smooth.
3 Add tagliatelle to the sauce and mix well.
4 Sprinkle with black pepper or some more grated Parmesan and serve!

Easy Deviled Eggs with Garlic and Dill

“A box without hinges, key, or lid,
Yet golden treasure inside is hid.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

Ingredients:
– 4 eggs
– 3 large garlic clothes
– 1/2 bunch dill
– 3 tsp mayonnaise
– 1/3 tsp salt

Method:
1 Boil eggs, peel them, cut in halves and carefully remove yolks
2 Combine eggs yolk, mayonnaise, finely chopped dill and salt and put the mixture in the eggs halves
3 Serve cold

Bell Peppers Stuffed with Chicken and Rice

“Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins.”
― Gustave Flaubert, November

Ingredients (3-4 servings):
– 3-4 red bell peppers;
– 500g minced chicken;
– 80g rice;
– 200g tomato passata;
– 1/3 bunch dill;
– 1 tsp salt;
– 1/2 tsp black pepper.

Directions:
1 Mix minced chicken with rice, salt and black pepper.
2 De-seed red bell peppers.
3 Stuff well red bell peppers with the meat mixture.
4 Transfer the stuffed peppers to the large pot with the tops from bell peppers. Add tomato passata and water to cover the bell peppers.
5 Cook at medium heat for 40 minutes.
6 Serve with a half a soup ladle of broth

Quick Homemade Basil Pesto Pasta Recipe

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

Ingredients (2-3 servings):
-250g pasta
– 1 bunch basil
– 100g cashew nuts
– 2 garlic cloves
– 90ml olive oil
– 1 tbsp lemon juice
– 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper

Method:
1 Cook pasta al dente in salted water; drain water
2 Pesto: combine basil leaves, cashew nuts, garlic cloves, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mash with a blender until smooth
3 Combine pesto sauce with pasta, carefully mix and serve

Aubergines baked with Gorgonzola

When you see a good move, look for a better one.

– Emanuel Lasker

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 aubergines;
– 150 g Gorgonzola;
– 4-6 cherry tomatoes;
– 4-6 garlic clothes;
– olive oil;
– parsley;
– salt/pepper
– baguette for serving.

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180 C.
2 Cut aubergines into stripes 0.5 cm length and transfer on the baking paper.
3 Sprinkle aubergines with olive oil and salt. Transfer the baking tray in the oven for 20-30 minutes until slightly golden.
4 Grate garlic, cut Gorgonzola into cubes, cut cherry tomatoes into rounds.
5 Transfer garlic, then tomatoes’ rounds, then Gorgonzola cubes on the aubergines’ stripes.
6 Bake for another 10 minutes, sprinkle with black pepper and parsley. Serve with fresh baguette.

Delicious Carrot Walnut Muffins Recipe

“You would not enjoy Nietzsche, sir. He is fundamentally unsound.”P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves

Ingredients (for 12 delicious muffins):
– 1 and 1/4 cup flour (1 cup=200ml);
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar;
– dash of salt;
– 1 egg;
– 2/3 cup cane sugar;
– 8 g vanilla sugar;
– 1/4 cup sunflower oil;
– 1/2 cup milk;
– 1/3 cup chopped walnuts;
– 1 cup grated carrot.

Topping ingredients:
– 1/2 tbsp butter;
-2-3 tbsp cane sugar;
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C.
2 Butter muffin form.
3 Bowl 1: mix flour+salt+baking soda+vinegar.
4 Bowl 2: whisk egg with sugar and vanilla sugar, then add oil and milk and whisk until smooth.
5 Combine dry ingredients from Bowl 1 with ingredients from Bowl 2 and mix well until smooth.
6 Add chopped walnuts and grated carrot: mix well.
7 Pour the batter into 12 muffin forms.
8 Bowl 3: mix melted butter with sugar and cinnamon and spread this mixture on the top of each muffin-to-be.
9 Bake the muffins for 25 minutes at 180 C. Let them cool down and enjoy with a cup of milk, kefir or black tea!

Delicious Chocolate Banana Layer Cake

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

Batter ingredients:
– 4 eggs;
– 110 g sugar;
– 8g vanilla sugar;
– 120 g flour;
– 1tsp baking soda + 0.5 tsp vinegar;
– 1.5 tbsp cocoa powder.

Filling ingredients:
– 120 g sugar;
– 400 g sour cream 30%;
– 3 bananas.

Method
1 Preheat the oven to 180 C.
2 Whisk sugar with eggs for 10-15 min.
3 Add baking soda + vinegar and carefully mix in.
4 Add flour and cocoa powder and carefully mix in.
5 Transfer the batter to the round baking form (28cm diameter), on the baking paper and bake for 20-25 min (check if a cake is ready with a toothpick) at 180C.
6 Prepare cream: whisk sour cream with sugar.
7 Slice the bananas.
8 Cool down the cake and separate with a knife into 2 layers.
9 Add half of a cream on the first cake layer and all banana slices, cover with the second layer, spread the remaining cream.
10 Put the cake in the fridge for 2 hours.
11 Serve with fresh blueberries and enjoy!

Bake with Kids: Fun Dog Cookies Recipe

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one?
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Ingredients

  • 100g grated butter
  • 150g sour cream
  • 150g sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 560g all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • optional ingredients: poppy seeds, sugar powder, raisins

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
  2. Whisk eggs with sugar, add grated butter, sour cream and baking soda: mix until smooth.
  3. Gradually add flour and knead the dough.
  4. Roll out dough to 0.6-0.8cm height and cut the cookies with your favorite cookies cutter. My preschooler adores dogs.
  5. Optionally dip the cookie-to-be in poppy seeds or sugar powder
  6. Transfer the cut cookies-to-be on the baking paper and bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes until slightly golden.
  7. Enjoy soft and crumbly cookies. My preschooler loved them.

Creamy Salmon with Knedlíky Recipe

“There is no perfection only life”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Salmon ingredients (2 servings):
– 200g salmon
– 1 red bell pepper
– 100ml cream 33%
– salt to taste
– 0.5 tbsp sunflower oil

Knedlíky ingredients:
– 500g boiled potatoes
– 150g flour
– 50g wholemeal floor
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1 Salmon
1.1 Preheat 0.5 tbsp sunflower oil in the skillet
1.2 Fry salmon (fully defrosted) one side until golden
1.3 Turn the salmon over, add salt, add chopped red bell pepper – fry salmon until golden
1.4 Add cream and cook for another 3-4minutes
2 Knedlíky
2.1 Mix boiled potatoes, flour and salt: mix until smooth.
2.2 Form two sausages 5cm diameter.
2.3 Put the sausages in the boiling water, covering the sausages. Boil for 20 minutes at medium heat.
3 Serve salmon with Knedlíky and dill

Flammkuchen Recipe with Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream | Easy Homemade Delight

I’m not much but I’m all I have.

― Philip K Dick, Martian Time-Slip

Tarte Flambee

Dough ingredients:
– 220g wheat flour
– 1 egg yolk
– 2 tbsp olive oil
– 100ml water
– 1/3 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 150g sour cream
– 2 small onions
– 100g smoked salmon
– 1 red bell pepper
– chopped parsley for serving

Directions:
1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2 Mix dough ingredients and knead the dough for 3-4 minutes
3 Roll out the dough into an oval, 3-4mm height
4 Put the dough on the baking paper and bake at 200C for 8 min
5 Chop onion, paprika and salmon
6 Spread the sour cream over the baked dough base, then add chopped onion, paprika and salmon slices
7 Bake Flammkuchen for 10 minutes at 200C
8 Serve with chopped parsley

Quick Soup with Chicken Meatballs. Approved by toddler.

Green was the silence, wet was the light,
the month of June trembled like a butterfly.
– Pablo Neruda

Meatballs ingredients:
– 500g minced chicken meat
– 3 eggs
– 5-6 tbsp wheat flour
– 2/3 tsp salt

Other soup ingredients (for the large pot of soup):
– 7 medium potatoes
– 6 medium carrots
– 100g soup noodles
– 1 tsp salt

Method:
1 Boil water in a large pot, add 1 tsp salt
2 While water is boiling, mix minced chicken meat, eggs, flour and salt: form meatballs – 1 tbsp for a meatball, dip the meatball in flour and put in the boiling water
3 Cut potatoes and carrots and add to the pot
4 Cook the soup for 25 minutes, then add soup noodles and cook until soup noodles are ready.

Bell Peppers baked with Chicken: quick and healthy lunch

Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Ingredients:
– 3 bell peppers
– 400g chicken breast
– 2 tsp sour cream
– 50g cheese
– salt/pepper

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Deseed the bell peppers, cut in half and put into the baking form
3 Chop chicken breast, mix with sour cream, salt and pepper; transfer into the bell pepper halves
4 Grate the cheese on the bell pepper halves
5 Bake for 25-30 minutes
6 Serve with rice

Lazy Khachapuri for a quick yet delicious breakfast or lunch

We had our breakfasts – whatever happens in a house, robbery or murder, it doesn’t matter, you must have your breakfast.

Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone.

Khachapuri batter ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 eggs
– 100g grated Ciacotta (or Suluguni or butter cheese)
– 100ml Kefir
– 100g wheat flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 bunch of chopped parsley
– 20g butter for frying

Directions:
1 Combine all Khachapuri batter ingredients in a bowl and mix well
2 Preheat a non-sticking skillet at the medium heat: melt 20 g butter
3 Pour the batter uniformly on the skillet, cook for about 4 min one side (until golden), then flip (I flipped with two spatulas), cook for another 2 min
4 Serve lazy Khachapuri with fresh tomatoes

Homemade Swedish Meatballs !

Then he caught sight of the meatballs. Presto, he turned the button, the engine started buzzing, and Karlsson glided from the bed straight past the plate. He snatched a meatball on his way, rose rapidly up to the ceiling, and circled round the light, contentedly munching the meatball.

Karlsson on the Roof, Astrid Lindgren

Meatballs ingredients:
– 600g minced beef
– 1 small onion, chopped
– 1 clove garlic, chopped
– 100g breadcrumbs
– 1 egg
– 5 tbsp milk
– salt, pepper to taste
– sunflower oil for frying

Method:
1 Combine all meatballs ingredients and form meatballs, put them in the fridge for 2 hours (so that they keep the form when being cooked 😉 ).
2 Preheat the oven to 180 C.
3 Preheat some sunflower oil on the skillet and fry meatballs until golden all sides, medium heat.
4 Transfer the meatballs into the baking form and bake them 30 min at 180 C.
5 Serve the meatballs with mashed potatoes, creamy white sauce, cranberry jam and chopped parsley !

Eggs and Sprats Sandwich !

It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.

V.N.

Ingredients:
– 110g canned sprats
– 3 eggs
– 2tsp mayonnaise
– black pepper powder
– chopped parsley
– fresh bread rolls

Method:
1 Boil eggs
2 Combine cut boiled eggs, sprats, mayonnaise, black pepper powder and chopped parsley: mash with a fork
3 Transfer the sprats-salad on the fresh bread rolls and enjoy immediately ! Black coffee goes along perfectly 🙂

Baked Garlic Potatoes with Tuna sauce !

Ah, it’s my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Potatoes ingredients:
– 1 kg potatoes
– 3 clothes grated garlic
– 1 tsp paprika
– 2/3 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 2 tbsp olive oil

Tuna sauce ingredients:
– 1 can tuna
– 1 chopped red onion
– 2 tsp mayonnaise
– 1 tbsp lemon 🍋 juice
– 2 tbsp cream cheese

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Boil potatoes for 3 minutes, drain water and left them cool down for 5 minutes
3 Mix semi-boiled potatoes with grated garlic, paprika, salt, black pepper and olive oil
4 Transfer the potatoes pieces on the baking paper and bake 30min at 180C
5 Tuna sauce: mix tuna, cut onion, mayonnaise, lemon juice, cream cheese and mash with a blender
6 Serve with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers ! Enjoy !

Healthy Banana Pancakes

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Anton Chekhov


Ingredients:
– 350-370g flour
– 400ml buttermilk
– 2 eggs
– 3 ripe bananas
– 50g butter
– 1/3 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar

Method:
1 Mix eggs, milk and salt until smooth
2 Add grated butter, grated bananas, floor, baking soda
3 Add vinegar in the same tsp and mix everything until smooth with a blender
4 Preheat the skillet
5 Put 1 tbsp of butter for each pancake (no oil!) on the skillet and fry until golden both sides, middle heat
6 Serve with honey and fresh fruits!

Red kuri squash baked with Camembert !

When you see a good move, look for a better one.

Emanuel Lasker


Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 1 small Red kuri squash
– 120g Camembert
– the crema di balsamico and olive oil for serving
– salt, pepper

Method:
1 Divide squash into 4 parts and bake for 40min at 180C
2 Sprinkle with salt, pepper, cover each squash piece with camembert slices
and bake for another 10 min
3 Sprinkle with crema di balsamico & olive oil and serve!

Simple and Healthy Banana Oatmeal Cookies !

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
Healthy Banana Oatmeal Cookies


Ingredients:
– 150g ripe banana
– 100g oat flakes
– 50g all-purpose flour
– 30g butter
– optional: 1 tbsp cane sugar
– 30g almond flour

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Combine oat flakes, flour, sugar, almond flour with grated butter and bananas: mix everything until smooth
3 Form dough with a cookie cutter (1 tbsp dough for 1 cookie)
4 Bake the cookies at 180C for 20 minutes, serve with black tea or milk 🙂

Paccheri con Salmone !

Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.

Umberto Eco

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 180g salmon
– 150ml 33% cream
– 250g Paccheri
– 3 garlic clothes
– 80g Parmesan
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 1/2 tbsp olive oil for frying
– chopped parsley/dill for serving

Method:
1 Grate Parmesan into a bowl and put in the fridge
2 Cut salmon into 1.5cm cubes
3 Chop garlic into slices
4 Simultaneously start boiling water for pasta and cooking salmon
5 Boil pasta in the salty water until ready, drain the water
6 Cook salmon for 5 min in olive oil, medium heat; add 33% cream and cook for another 5 min; add garlic slice and cook for another minute
7 Put the pasta in the frying pan with salmon for 1 min, carefully mix and transfer to the serving plates
8 Serve Paccheri with black pepper, grated Parmesan and chopped greens !