Copy

The Month in Food (December 2018)

With my early pregnancy nausea issues now behind me, I'm very happy to report that I'm cooking and eating with my previous enthusiasm. And I've spent the past month or so since I sent my last newsletter planning our family Christmas Day lunch menu. This year we'll celebrate in our country kitchen in Castelnuovo Don Bosco. My mother-in-law has offered to take care of the appetisers or antipasti. I will concentrate instead on making our starter (agnolotti al plin with butter and sage), main course (my husband has requested a Piedmontese favourite, salt cod and onions), side dishes (most likely twice-cooked greens like baby chard or spinach) and dessert (I really like the look of Paola Bacchia's fig and nut roll from her lovely new book Adriatico). If I have time, I may just make an edible wreath out of biscuits to decorate the table too. Yesterday evening, I finally finished the Christmas gift shopping.

For those you still looking for Christmas gift and menu ideas, this December edition of The Month in Food includes a link to my most recent recipe on the blog, an edible, do-it-yourself Italian gift idea that young kids can get involved in making, as well as my latest recipe contribution for Italy Magazine, a traditional pasta dish often served on Christmas Eve in Venice. And, as an exclusive feature for you, I've included another comforting, cold weather recipe as part of my What I'm Reading series, as well. 

I’m not planning on posting until January 2019 due to family Christmas and cooking lesson commitments so I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all Buon Natale or a very Merry Christmas from my kitchen in Turin. I wish you all the very best during the festive season! A big thank you for following along with my culinary adventures on the blog and here on my newsletter. I’m now looking forward to being back here in the New Year with some reflections on a cookbook I love as well as thoughts on making, cooking and eating my favourite food ever, pasta. A presto!
Sometimes your skills and your passions come together and sometimes in the most unexpected ways. In September 2017, I began offering cooking lessons (such as my Market-to-Table and Pasta-Making experiences with Bonappetour) to visitors to Turin. At the time, it didn’t occur to me to offer an experience suitable for children, despite having many years of young learners teaching experience up my belt. Of course, there’s also Miss C, who helps me in the kitchen while recipe-testing and making meals at home. Instead, it took a local preschool who approached me to design a series of cooking classes a few months later to remind me of just how much children can learn from cooking and how much I’d like to be a part of such worthwhile, hands-on experiences like these.

In today's post, I reflect on my cooking class collaboration with local preschool Project Cucciolo, what I'm learning from teaching children about food, and the edible gift I came up for the children to make and take to their families for Christmas - tartufi di cioccolato e nocciole or chocolate and hazelnut truffles. The tables required a lot of cleaning afterwards but other than that, I'd say it's a very easy edible gift to whip up, even at the last minute before Christmas. 
My apologies, I know it's not about Italian food but I love this book, having long had a soft spot for British food. Interestingly enough though, there are several Italian connections mentioned in Regula Ysewjin's magnificent work (see the note in italics below about one of them).

Anyway, ever since it was published in 2016, I've enjoyed reading and learning from it; admiring its beautiful, moody photographs; and, most importantly, cooking from it.  The recipe I cook from it the most - especially in the colder months of the year - is definitely toad-in-a-hole, a pudding prepared with a batter and sausages. It's become a family favourite (who doesn't like sausage?) and we make it exactly according to Regula's clear and precise instructions, which I have included below:

Ingredients
  • 110 g plain flour
  • a pinch of salt
  • 280 mL milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 or 4 good quality pork sausages
  • sunflower oil, clarified butter, lard or tallow for frying
  • a few sprigs of rosemary
Method
Prepare the batter as you would for a pancake batter, adding the flour and a pinch of salt to the milk and the eggs, making sure there are no lumps. Leave to rest for at least half an hour for best results.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 250 º C and fry the sausages in your cooking fat of choice in a frying pan until nearly cooked through.

Pour 1 cm of sunflower oil, clarified batter, lard or tallow into a baking tray or cake tin and set it in the middle of a hot oven. Place a larger tray underneath in case the oil drips; you don't want extra cleaning and a smoky kitchen afterwards. 

When the oil is hot (you will see it spitting), arrange the sausages in the tray along with any of the cooking fat remaining in the frying pan. Carefully but swiftly pour the batter into the hot oil or fat, stick in the rosemary sprigs, if using, and close the oven door. Bake for 20-25 minutes without opening the oven until the pudding is puffed up and nicely coloured.

Serve with mustard, braised red cabbage, jacket potatoes or mashed potato and caramellised onions, if you like.

N.B. I sometimes make this pudding in the smaller, individual terracotta pots pictured and when using those, they're generally ready in about 15-20 minutes. 

Interesting fact: Pellegrino Artusi, author of seminal Italian cookbook,
Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, perhaps due to the sizeable English expat population that lived in his adopted Florence at the time, included several English recipes in his magnus opus, including toad-in-a-hole. He called it lesso rifatto all'inglese or twice-cooked meat English-style. In his introduction to the recipe, he mentions its odd English name. Since it is such a delicious dish, he declares it an insult to call it a toad!

Read my latest recipes on the blog and at Italy Magazine:

Travelling to Turin? Keen to learn more about seasonal home cooking? Then book one of my hands-on, Market-To-Table Cooking Classes  or Pasta-Making Classes with Bonappetour!
My website's Privacy Policy has been updated in light of the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws that came into effect on 25th May 2018. If you'd like to keep hearing from me, there's no need to do anything. I'll continue to send you this monthly newsletter with blog updates and subscriber exclusive recipes, just as you signed up for. I will never spam you! In addition, I value your privacy as much as my own and your data will never be traded or disclosed to anyone for any reason. You are also free to opt out and unsubscribe from my mailing list at any time by clicking the links below at the end of this email.
Share
Tweet
Forward
+1
Read Later
Pin
Copyright © 2018 turin mamma, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp