Un po' di cazzi miei (Some business of mine)

Few hours ago I was walking down Ibn Gavirol with 2 thoughts in my mind: 1) the interaction between my low blood pressure and TLV's burning whether is making me useless for research in particular and for society in general; 2) I feel happy. I know this latter feeling is going to expire soon, as in 20 minutes I'll have an appointment with Natasha the russian waxing lady around the corner, but let's not think this far in advance :)

I am happy about the life I am living lately, happy because of all the awesome experiences that are involved in living in a place so different from what I was used to. The connection with food is that this happiness sometimes clashes with the picture of all the crazy stuff I was cooking when I was in a relationship (see picture below) that at that moment I thought was forever. And now I am so happy it was not, because the abrupt change in perspective (from a mortgage in Cardiff to a shared flat in Tel Aviv), in the CV of my life, will look like something that made me more open, more experienced, more balanced and eventually happier :D

I do not envy people who did not have the possibility of such a variety in life, and also I think one should share the life with someone only if, before that, he/she was able to feel happy alone (potentially indefinitely). BTW when I see this same independence in a man, I feel more keen on undressing than in front of Javier Bardem with a 2-days moustache :D

Gnocchi (again!) with caramelised cherry tomatoes and aubergines (again!) pesto

I know I know, it looks like I am always making gnocchi, so please, all of you who live nearby my place and might consider coming over for dinner at some point, would you mind organising a collection for buying me a pasta machine, to increase my blog's entropy? 

And now that I think about it, I was meaning to post another recipe today (chicken stripes with red pepper and mint) but it was magically disappeared from the kitchen before I managed to take a picture, which perhaps means it was too good to last? Anyway, I had such a stuffed day I didn't even find time to eat what I cooked, but that made the taste of the rogalach(ot? im?) I had after the movie night even better ^__^

GNOCCHI WITH CARAMELISED CHERRY TOMATOES AND AUBERGINES PESTO

Caramelised cherry tomatoes: cut each tomato in half, place in a baking tray and sprinkle some caster sugar on top, then salt, some EVO oil and let the tomatoes dry in the oven @ 130 degrees for one hour or so.

Aubergines pesto: bake the aubergines in the oven for one our, peel them and remove some of the water. Blend with garlic, mint, basil, pine nuts, EVO oil and salt. 

And before going back to work, a snapshot from one of my fav mangas ever, that talks about two roommates that had met by chance but become absolutely necessary to each other in almost no time: sounds familiar? :D

Hachi actually is very loud, loves cooking and naively believes in the goodness of all the human beings. But as a consequence of a much stiffer attitude towards contraception, my Hachi is happily dating Nobu at the moment :D

Fish ravioli and baked salmon, AKA meet the family!

I am back to work after three weeks overseas during which I had many many occasions to prove my cooking skills, but  the one I was more worried about was the planned meet-the-family dinner that I hosted to introduce S1 and S2 's families. And it turned out an A-W-E-S-O-M-E night! 

Before life abruptly taught me so, I did not believe in the influence of the family in a relationship, but well, I learned the lesson I guess :) 

As it's been already 3 months since S1 and I moved in together, we thought it was about the time for us to introduce our families, in my case there was a chunk missing (my nephew and my sister-in-law were at the beach, lucky them) but not having constantly to check that my nephew was not trying to kill himself allowed a smoother conversation. Conversation that was as usual mastered by my brother, and the more I get to know him, the more I love him (funny that the process started only a few years ago even if our existence overlaps by 30 years)!

FISH RAVIOLONI WITH AUBERGINES AND FENNEL FLOWERS

Make circles out of the pasta dough and fill them with raw cubes of stone bass, an aubergines baked in the oven for 45 mins, salt and fennel flowers from the countryside around Roma. Make the ravioloni folding the circles in the middle and pressing the edges with a fork. Boil and season with a sauce made with cherry tomatoes and one spoon (one spoon only!) of cream fresh.

       

BAKED SALMON

Put the salmon fillets in oil, lemon and herbs for a few hours. Mix breadcrumbs, paprika and crushed almonds and add the filtered juice of the marinade. Cover the fillets and cook in the oven for 10 minutes. I served the salmon with zucchine a scapece (fried zucchini with vinegar) and baked potato slices.