Crêpes de noantri

Something else that was buried into my photo folder and that my mum remembers as a great success is this very simple recipe that I made in Roma during my transition period between Tel Aviv and Maastricht. It was inspired by the cicoria (chicory), a bitter vegetable that I used to hate as a kid and now I like it so much I would eat it daily, just to compensate all the times I said "no!" to my mum with that sharp bitchy voice that only annoying kids can have.

CHICKPEAS CREPES WITH CHICORY AND BACON

I prepared the crepes dough with chickpeas flour, one egg and milk (not sure about the exact amount, but it has to be quite fluid). I fried the crepes one by one in a small pan with some butter (just a tiny bit, and then the first crepes is generally trashed). I filled the crepes with chicory boiled in water and then fried for a few minutes with one garlic clove and chilli, and bacon roasted in a pan. Parmigiano on top and 3 minutes in the oven, et voila'.

Pasta, pasta, pasta

According to the title, I am supposed to talk about pasta, but to do so I need to remember first what these pictures are about, as I created the draft of the post one month ago and forgot by now :) 

So, well, what is sure is that many things have changes since I cooked that pasta, starting from my spatial coordinates: I am writing from my new desk in Maastricht, a cute town where I will be spending at least 10 months in the near future, cute town that offered me a brand new kitchen made of bright steel that I already love with all my hearth, amen. And I will be spending my weekends between here and Frankfurt, that is only a quick train ride and a ridiculously slow bus ride in-the-middle-of-dutch-nowhere from Maastricht, so slow I get bored already writing about it. But Love puts wings on your mind and on your suitcase, babe. Anyway, to quote the balkan beat box, let's skip further bullshit and go to the point of:

THE RAVIOLI

It's all about the filling, and I think I found my perfect balance with this mix: minced beef (~250 gr), minced pork (~250 gr), minced mortadella, minced gambuccio (prosciutto), 2 eggs, a lot of parmigiano. The meat is cooked in a pan with onion and oil EVO, and perhaps some wine at some point? No idea, but if I were to make it again, I would probably add a bit ;)

Then the pasta is, as usual, made with 100 gr of four per egg (less than one egg per person), and I generally mix regular flour with semola to have a more coarse sheet. Mmmhhh, now I want some, it would help in defeating the waffle dependency that I developed since I landed in this country :)

ORECCHIETTE CON CIME DI RAPA

And coming back to the original theme, in one of my numerous back and forth to Frankfurt I carried with me some cime di rapa (no idea how to translate, it is a kind of green vegetable that tastes like broccoli with a bitter twist) to cook a super quick pasta, just boiling them along with the orecchiette (that made the same journey Roma->Frankfurt) and, when cooked, frying everything in a pan with oil EVO, chilli and one anchovy. The Chianti was waiting for me in Frankfurt, but I have the feeling it was not exactly german :)