A Sunny Spanish Fairytale

Once upon a time there was an Australian girl who travelled around continental Europe with a backpack, some sturdy shoes, a beaten up copy of Let's Go and a Walkman packed with up to the minute musical compositions by The The, Black Box, Nirvana and New Order. 

By and by she found herself sitting on a bench in Parco Sempione in central Milan, on a cold crisp blue day.   She spent some time wondering whether to visit the Dead Christ by Mantegna in the Brera, her favourite painting in the whole wide world, or perhaps some shopping in the Via Montenapoleone.

In spite of her father's admonition to never speak to strange men, she soon found herself chatting to a young man from Florence, in Milan on a weekend holiday.  They had much in common.  Soon they were travelling a little together, to Livorno,  Pisa and in Florence and walking everywhere in the cool crisp sunshine.  They spoke of books, and the strangeness of language, and philology, the study of historical linguistics and of corruption in Italian politics and the wonderful taste of salty cured meats.

(warm salad of roasted capsicum, onion, garlic and tomatoes)

Like all adventures, it had to end sometime. 

Melbourne seemed very boring and pedestrian on her return. A bit sad and lonely, the girl simply had to go back to Europe, this time to Madrid in winter, where the boy was now living, to stay in a little apartment near Calle de Toledo. The days were spent in the crisp blue coldness wandering around the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and shopping in Calle Serrano and the nights were spent dining at 11 pm, drinking gin and tonics and dancing till the sun came up.

(chicken in onion and sherry sauce, saffron rice)

There is a certain time of year in Melbourne, in August, when the sun shines, and the air is sweet, cold and clean.  It reminds the girl of that time in Madrid.   In memory of that time, the girl sometimes cooks a Spanish feast for lunch.

(sweet lemon doughnuts)

All dishes thanks to this cookbook, which is really growing on me:

The end.


(image (1) via La Femme Blog) 

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Breakfast with Italians in Melbourne - Eat Ate by Guy Mirabella

I love the fact that I can have what would reasonably be described as a surfeit of cookbooks and yet there are still new wonderful cooks and chefs to discover. In this instance, it is a cook called Guy Mirabella, who runs a cafe just an hour to the southeast of Melbourne in Mornington.

Eat Ate is his second cookbook. For most of his life, Guy Mirabella has been a teacher and graphic designer.

This book is beautifully photographed by Earl Carter, which would therefore in theory make it fall under the coffee table cookbooks category (and therefore be one which I wouldn't usually like), however his recipes are wonderful and he writes so evocatively about his family and their history that one can't help but be seduced. And how could you not like someone who loves his mother so.

Italians in Melbourne have contributed an enormous amount to all parts of our society, not just food and coffee wise, but in the arts, politics, literature, business and manufacturing. One of the largest construction companies in Australia, Grocon, is still run by the Grollo family. Guy Grossi is a celebrated chef who has restaurants in Melbourne (Florentino) and also now in Thailand. Ron Barassi, footballer, coach and 'sporting great' has Italian ancestry. And the list just goes on and on.

Italian is now the fifth largest ancestry identified by Australians, after Irish, English, Scottish and 'Australian'. Italians have migrated to Australia since the Gold Rush in the 1840s but the level increased markedly after 1921 when the US imposed restrictions on Italian migration. (This was also impacted by the rise of fascism in Italy in the 1920s). After 1946 migration rates increased markedly resulting in 100,000s of Italians migrating to Australia, mostly to New South Wales and Victoria.

Guy Mirabella evokes these times in his sections on the food he ate growing up.

This is how he describes the two different ways of partaking of breakfast by his father (Sicilian born, came to Australia in the middle of last century) and his wife's father, also Italian but from the North. Every day at 6 am, his father-in-law, Vincenzo, would down a whole raw egg with a glass of his home-made red wine.

In contrast, in Guy Mirabella's house, breakfast was warm milk and bread soup. The bread was always day-old ciabatta style, and the milk came from theirJersey cow Mary. Because there were in Australia, their mother sprinkled Teddy Bear biscuits over the top.

Many immigrants to Australia speak of Lunchbox Differentiation. Whilst I was sent to school with Vegemite or cheese sandwiches, the MIrabella children were sent to school with brocolli fritti in their sandwiches.

This is a wonderful book with some unusual and rustic Italian dishes. He loves broccoli (brocolli fritti, brocolli lasagne) and fresh salads ( chilli calamari and radicchio salad, egg, white anchovies and pancetta salad and ocean trout, citrus, mango and peach salad) , chicken dishes (chicken and muscatel, pictured below) and my very favourie, asparagus, gorgonzola and lemon risotto. If you can, buy this book.

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Diary of my Day - in Tomato Time

Yesterday my day began with tomatoes, and ended with tomatoes. It also had a tomatoey middle.

Let me explain.

Breakfast is a bit of a challenge in my house. My son is always absolutely starving, and my daughter is what you might call picky. I barely eat myself between negotiating what everyone will eat and serves of toast, milk, juice, different spreads, picking bits of jammy toast from the floor etc.

Having run the gamut of cinnamon on toast, Nutella on toast, Vegemite on toast and just dry toast, I have managed to introduce my daughter to tomato on toast, one of my favourite snacks ever. I slice tomatoes, place them neatly on a piece of grainy toast which has been lightly buttered and drizzle with olive oil and Maldon salt and pepper. I love the contrast between the warm toast and the salty cold tomato. And guess what? She likes it too (minus the butter of course because she doesn't like butter).

Unfortunately tomatoes are not really in season at the moment. The choice yesterday was tiny cherry tomatoes. And have you ever tried to slice a slippery cherry tomato as opposed to just chopping it willy nilly? You need a really sharp knife and concentration which I do not have at that early hour. After I bandaided my cut finger, I discovered that the slices were so tiny that nine of them fitted on the slice of toast. And then, because my daughter also likes it this way, I cut the toast into nine (yes, nine - 3 x 3) tiny little toasty squares so that there was one piece of tomato on each section. Then I carefully drizzled with olive oil and a tiny sprinkle of salt. And it was all scoffed down in 30 seconds flat, confirming my view that persuading a child to eat often comes down to presentation.

And if that doesn't convince you that I am crazy, nothing will.

The middle of my day was a lunchtime meeting at work. We rotate the catering, and it is rarely inspired. Yesterday was tomato and lentil soup with a heavy hand in pepper, and a so called pumpkin soup which tasted like a thick tomato soup. We all complain about the food. It gives us a sense of team solidarity, which I think you need to get through the tough times. (Side note - on good days we get the lunchboxes from our local which happens to be one of the best restaurants in Australia - Vue de Monde - fantastic and really good value).

My day ended with tomatoes because last night I made pasta with my favourite tomato sauce which, and I know this is a big call, is the best tomato sauce for pasta ever (in the history of the world).

I know it's wrong and in breach of anti-dumping laws but one of the only things I like about supermarkets in Australia is the profusion of very cheap tinned Italian tomatoes. They bring a taste of summer to the darkest day, and I am very sorry to the local producers - your fresh tomatoes are bliss but your tinned are not a patch on those produced by Italia.

I have been engaged on a search for the best tomato sauce for pasta for many years. This is because:

1. Monday night is always pasta night. Except when the routine seems unbearable and I change my mind about this. Then it becomes noodle night.

2. I really need a quick brainless pasta recipe I can cook which will be amazing and foolproof for those emergencies.

3. I feel that many tinned tomatoes (and indeed, regular real round tomatoes) do not often have the best flavour. The challenge therefore is to maximise the tomatoeyness and minimise the tinny or watery flavour you can get.

About 3 years ago I struck gold. I have to thank Marcella Hazan for this. I have previously mentioned how her books are falling apart at the seams through use. Her Classic Italian Cookbook actually has 4 different tomato sauce recipes. The one below is the one I love. It produces a rich deep dense flavour and I highly recommend it.

Ingredients

One tin of Italian tomatoes (450g)
One onion peeled and sliced in half crossways.
About 50-75 g of good quality unsalted butter depending on how naughty you feel.
a pinch of sugar
salt and pepper

Method

Put all ingredients into a heavy based saucepan. Once the butter has melted stir to incorporate. Cook at gentle simmer for about 45 minutes. Check and stir occassionally. The sauce should be reduced but not too gluggy. Remove onion bits before serving.

Serve with boxed dry pasta (cooked!) - I usually use spaghettini. How easy is that? Make it now!

Images (1) Real Simple (2) Delia Smith (3) Martha Stewart

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