Pici with Asparagus ...

Something old, and something new....

It's nearly May, thinking of touring in Tuscany..?  Maybe I can tempt you...
What's interesting about what's happening with the indie food scene here in Tuscany is that it is beginning to get a little adventurous.
We have great ingredients: they're seasonal. from local farms. we have the possibility to hunt & forage in our woodlands.  we've got great bodied red wines...  And now we've got wonderful fresh biodynamic whites. The best organic goats' cheeses and a forest of wild herbs. Tuscany is on the move. We're keeping what's good. And embracing what's new & good.
So, here's the pici we all know and love.  just not with ragù....because this is the time of year to be eating snappy tasty asparagus, not meat sauce!!
and i'm not going to even write the recipe because it's too easy. pici. good evo oil, fresh asparagus. grated cheese of choice. black pepper.
#italianfoodietour #tuscany #foodtour #wildfood #foodietour
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Borage Parmigiana - this is my dish of the week!

Featuring wild Borage (Borragine)

I've just spent 4 days in Puglia, and all the food was simple and sublime, but this dish beat the rest.  If when you think Puglia, you think fish, well you could also think wild herbs ... in fact you could think Borage! 

I had gone to track down the chef Beppe Zullo at his restaurant/cookery school inland of Foggia in Orsara di Puglia; "simple food for intelligent people" is his thing, and this recipe checks all my boxes.

So, instead of trying to make Parmigiana di melanzane when the aubergines are out of season and tasteless (which for most of us is all year round, with the exception of August); let's make it using wild, seasonal, unbelievably good borage!!

Ingredients for 4 people: 

g 500 tomato passata
g 250 borage leaves
g 200 caciocavallo cheese
2 eggs
g 100 grated cheese (parmesan, pecorino or canestrato which is a mixed sheep/goat's cheese)
1 garlic clove
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Borage flowers

Heat the olive oil with the whole garlic clove, remove the garlic and add the passata, salt to taste, bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes until reduced.
Collect wild (or your local farmers' market may have it); wash the borage leaves, pat dry.
Whisk the eggs with a fork and dash of salt.
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Dip each borage leaf into the egg mix and quickly fry.
In an oven dish start by covering the bottom with passata, then layer the borage leaves and thinly sliced caciocavallo-type cheese; then borage, cheese, passata. You need at least 4 layers and should finish with passata on top and a sprinkling of grated cheese.
Put in the oven at 180 °C for 20 minutes.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh borage flowers.

Suzie's Yard is committed to supporting small local producers (we are one of them) and if you take part in one of our tours you will get to try their products for yourselves. Read about our Suzie's Yard Insider food & wine tours

Seasonal Italian food - maximum taste, no waste, our very green Asparagus Soup

I love FRESH asparagus.  

I had my first this year about 10 days ago from local farmers Luciana & Martino.  I just couldn't wait to get home & snap their heads off ... so to speak.
So, how do you enjoy them..? Apart from steamed with eggs?
I do a kind of "no waste" asparagus soup (makes enough for 4):-
Take 1 bunch, wash & then snap the asparagus stalks, where it gives easily (about half way along).
In a saucepan boil 1 litre of water with a carrot, a courgette, an onion, a celery stalk, salt & pepper to make veg stock (you can eat the boiled veg with a swig of olive oil and some lemon juice), remove the veg and put to one side.
In another saucepan (a steamer if you have one) heat a sliced potato and an onion in a glug of olive oil.
Take the bottoms of the snapped asparagus stalks, peel them, chop up the white stems and add to the potato & onion once soft.
Add the sieved veg stock, season, bring to the boil. Place the asparagus stalk tops over the soup pan in the steamer, cook until tender.
Remove the asparagus tops & put to one side.
Blend the soup and push through a sieve to remove any obstinate bits before adding a swirl of natural yoghurt.... goat's if you're lucky enough to know where to get it!

Suzie's Yard is committed to our small local producers (we are one of them) and if you take part in one of our tours you will get to experience the freshness for yourselves. Read about our Suzie's Yard Insider food and wine tours ...