Savoury Recipes

Here are some savoury recipes my mum and I experimented with during summer. Most of them are simple, traditional Italian dishes.

Rice with lentils

You need: 100 g of lentils (soaked overnight if needed), one carrot, half an onion, 300 g of rice, salt and extra virgin olive oil.

Cook the lentils in one litre of water with one peeled carrot, half an onion and salt. When they are ready, take the carrot and onion and add the rice together with some extra virgin olive oil (about 1 tbsp). Stir the risotto and let it simmer till ready.

Pasta with gorgonzola

You need: 100 g of gorgonzola, 500 g of pasta (penne) and extra virgin olive oil.

Cook the pasta in boiling water with salt, in the meantime melt the gorgonzola in a small bowl using the water of the pasta. Drain the pasta when ready and add some extra virgin olive oil. Finally pour in the melted gorgonzola and mix.

Zucchini trifolati

You need: extra virgin olive oil, three courgettes, half an onion and salt.

Pour some extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan, cut half an onion into thin pieces and let it fry slowly. Add the courgettes cut into cubes and let them cook covered with a lid. Add salt and turn them over from time to time. They are an ideal side dish, or can be mixed with five or six beaten eggs and fried to make a fantastic frittata.

Zucchini rolls

This is a recipe I found on Youtube but I changed it according to my taste.

For the dough you need: 500 g of self raising flour, 50 ml of extra virgin olive oil, 200 ml of warm water, one tsp of salt and 2 eggs.

For the filling you need: zucchini trifolati (see above) and 200 g of grated mozzarella.

Prepare the zucchini trifolati and let them cool. Mix all the ingredients for the dough and knead it for ten minutes. Roll out the dough and spread the courgettes on it, then the grated mozzarella. Roll the dough up forming a sort of roulade. Cut slices of half an inch with a sharp knife and set them flat on a greased tray. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180° C.

If you are not fond of courgettes, a good alternative is having spinach instead. You can boil 250 g of spinach till ready, drain it, season with extra virgin olive oil and parmigiano before spreading it on the dough.

Stuzzichini (nibbles)

You need: 500 g of self raising flour, 50 ml of extra virgin olive oil, 200 ml of warm water, one tsp of salt, 2 eggs, finally some rosemary, oregano, pepper, fennel seeds or chilli.

This is the same dough we prepared for the zucchini rolls. Once you roll it out, cut it in squares using a pastry wheel cutter. Spread some olive oil on an oven tray and turn the squares of pastry in turn to grease both sides. Sprinkle some salt and oregano or rosemary (or one of the other spices mentioned above) as well. Finally bake for 30 minutes at 180° C.

Taralli (little doughnuts from Puglia)

This is a recipe I found on Giallo Zafferano and it is just right.

You need: 500 g of flour, 200 ml of dry white wine, 125 g of extra virgin olive oil, 2 tsp of salt, rosemary, fennel seeds, chilli or oregano.

Prepare the dough by mixing the flour, wine, olive oil and salt (also add one of the other ingredients, e.g. rosemary). Knead unit till smooth. Form pastry sticks of about three inches and cross the ends in the shape of little doughnuts. Cook the doughnuts in boiling water and drain them using a strainer when they float up. Set the doughnuts on an oven tray lined with baking paper and bake them for 30-40 minutes (or till slightly brown) at 180° C.

Beware: they’re quite hard so you need good teeth to chew them.

What I made in summer

I spent my summer at home with my mum and part of the family so I could indulge in what I usually haven’t time to do during my busy school year, like cooking extensively and creating new stuff: poems, clothes and drawings.

My mum and I experimented with new recipes and renewed old ones. Traditional dishes like caponata, lentil risotto, courgettes omelette, or desserts like Sicilian cannoli, meringues and sorbetto were reinvented and improved to the whole family’s delight. We also tried new recipes, like pasta with gorgonzola, water melon cheese cake, dark chocolate semifreddo, almond biscuits and courgette rolls. We didn’t always agree on everything (she tends to stick to the way she has always done things, which is sometimes the right way) but always ended with delicious results.

Some of the recipes are originally from youtube or magazines but I change them considerably as I find that experts are not always right, at least in cooking, especially regarding doses and the choice of some ingredients. I’ll post the recipes shortly on this blog in two issues: savoury and pudding. I hope you enjoy them.

The other thing I did with my mum was making clothes. I had some fabrics I bought at the market in Doha, Qatar, and really wished to make some garments out of them. I had some paper patterns for blouses and dresses but the pieces of fabric I had did not seem enough for what I had in mind initially. We finally made up our minds for a long skirt using a brightly coloured brocade piece, a long blouse (or short dress) for a green kind of light cotton fabric and a dress with a flower patterned cotton piece. It was my mum who mainly worked on them, which kept her busy. My daughter helped as well from time to time as she is studying Fashion Design at University. In the end three beautiful outfits came out and I proudly modelled them.

During my summer holidays I also went back to writing poetry. I never actually stopped but I’d slowed it down in the past two years. This time I took my time in writing, re-writing and editing new and old poems. I submitted some of them to competitions but I haven’t had any good news so far. I also contacted the Poetry School and enrolled in a course, which gives me hope for improvement in my writing and achieving better results in the future.

Last but not least, I am working on a PhD proposal about a project on Comparative Literature centred on the works of Margaret Atwood. The project should include fiction, music, visual arts, and study some masterpieces of western literature. I hope it will be accepted, fingers crossed.

It was a thriving summer on the whole.

What I did in summer

Our best summer trip was in the middle of July, when we headed north to attend the graduation of my son’s fiancée in Manchester. We had a wonderful celebratory dinner together with her family at an Italian restaurant in Didsbury. We had such a good time and I was so happy to meet her grandparents as well.

The following day we went to visit Samlesbury Hall, an ancient manor near Chorley where my son and his fiancée are going to get married next year. It’s a beautiful place dating back to 15^th century. The Great hall where the wedding will happen has a large fireplace, timbered ceiling and stained glass windows. The outside of the building is in a typical half-timbering Tudor style with floral patterns. We had our lunch in the restaurant: great risotto, hot pot ‘made how it should be’ and delicious Eton Mess. An ideal place for a wedding. Needless to say, we are already planning who we’ll invite from Italy and where to stay. The Hall has a lodge and shepherd’s huts (sort of gipsy caravans), and there is a hotel nearby as well. I’m also thinking about what I’m going to wear, being the bridegroom’s mother I need a special outfit, hat and all. It will be wonderful and rather emotional experience.

Coming back south we stopped at Wolverhampton for the John Dryden Translation Competition prize ceremony, as I won the first prize together with Keith Lander for our translations of some poems by Eugenio Montale, the famous Italian poet who won the Nobel Prize in 1975. It was so rewarding for me and Keith after countless rejections.

Translating Montale’s poems was long and hard work. Sometimes we spent days on one word trying to find the best possible meaning but also a word that had the right sound, because in poetry it is not only the meaning that counts, sounds and rhythm are paramount as well. It had to make sense and sound beautiful as well. We always wondered if our translations conveyed the real meaning and were understandable in English. In this way we were sure we were not misleading our future readers.

Ideally, a perfect translation should adhere to the original meaning and be a piece of art in itself, but one that can’t replace the original. Like a good cast of a famous statue, it gives you the idea but will never be the masterpiece.

I had some other interesting moments when I read my poems at the Phoenix Rising event at Woking park, a music festival with a touch of poetry, and at the New Inn in Send where there is an open mic on the third Monday of each month organized by the leaders of Woking Stanza group. I also decided to join the well established Woking Writers Circle whose members meet on the third Thursday of

each month at Strollers Centre, Goldsworth Park. Last but not least, I enrolled in a course with the Poetry School starting in autumn, which is a way to cherish my creative side in spite of my full time job commitment. Creativity is part of my work, a big part as I transferred all the skills I learned in the creative writing and art workshops I’d attended in the past fifteen years, into the lessons I prepare for school. Teaching comes from learning and one thing can’t be without the other.

My mum was with me everywhere I went, we had fun together and I could see she managed to have a good time now and then. My father’s death was a big blow for the whole family, no wonder she’s having an unsettling period of time. We often went shopping as she wished to buy presents for all her friends and relatives in Rome. We often popped in antique and charity shops, walked around shopping centres in Woking and Camberley, strolled in Guildford centre and, why not, Chobham High street. I added a new piece of furniture to my already crowded house, a roughly painted sideboard I found in a vintage shop in Camberley. I placed it in the only free space left near the entrance door and I must say it fits perfectly.

Other things I did regularly during summer were exercising every day at least ten minutes with my mum, who needed some specific stretching exercises to tone her leg muscles and spine, and I went cycling. I also played Pokémon GO with the help of my eldest son who is an expert. I'm only on level 12 and can’t have a go at Chobham Cannon Gym yet as my most powerful Pokémon is only 594 CP, which is not enough to beat a Magmar with 961 CP. My son says I should reach at least level 20 to make my Pokémon fight in a Gym but I haven’t much time to play now that the holidays are over. Besides learning countless Pokémon names, like Drowzee, Poliwag, Weedle, Pidgey and Pidgeotto, Venomat and Kakuna, I became skilful in using the Razz Berry to distract them, and throwing the Poké ball to catch them.

Some Pokémon are pretty tough and break out or run away after you have thrown a Poké ball at them, others are easy and evolve quickly, gaining points and combat power. One of the lovely things of the game was discovering the Pokéstops where you can shop, that is gain items you need to catch or feed your Pokémon, like Razz Berries, Poké balls, incense and eggs you can incubate and hatch your own Pokémon. There are a lot of Pokéstops in Chobham: the Sun Inn, St Lawrence church, the War Memorial Gates, Edmund Moore Chest Tomb, Frogpool house, Chobham museum and the Pear Tree house. It’s a way to have a nice walk and discover the world around you. I’m definitely proud of myself.

My summer 2016

It has been a relaxing, sunny summer and I spent it entirely at home, in Surrey. I must say I enjoyed it, my mum was with us as well. She moved to England after my father’s death at the end of May and she’s still with us. At first she missed Rome and her home very much, but then she got used to the English summer (which was pretty good this year) and our routines. She’s still grumpy from time to time but much happier and relaxed that when she was in Italy. Sometimes she grumbles that the fruit and veg is not as tasty as the Italian ones, my way of making tomato sauce is weird and there is always something too hard for her false teeth. But on the whole we got on well.

We couldn’t visit all the places we would have liked to as my mum got tired easily, so we stayed at home most of the time, except for a few visits to London and to the north to see my autistic daughter Valentina, who lives in a residential school near Doncaster. She is doing very well, enjoys the new school, the staff and friends around her. We went to see her every fortnight taking turns not to leave my mum alone at home. Valentina was happy to see us each time we went; once she took us to see her friends’ houses and she always wore all the new clothes we brought her, one on top of the other. She also chose some more clothes from fashion magazines we brought, pointing at her favourite colours, one day all blue and green, another time orange and black, or only purple. If we dared to give her the wrong colours she chucked the clothes. We found her lively as usual and determined to get what she wanted. The residential school where she lives now is very well organized and the members of the staff know how to cope with her complex needs. We spent a few weekends there as well in the comfortable accommodation they provide for family and enjoyed a delicious full-English breakfast in the morning.

My other daughter was in Japan (she attends evening Japanese classes and is fond of Japanese culture, art and fashion). In spite of my typical-Italian-mum behaviour, worrying about food, bad encounters and unpredictable dangers, she had a wonderful time. Everything went well and she brought back gorgeous clothes, postcards, photos and presents for everybody. We Skyped every few days, which was a great relief.

My husband had a very busy, sporty summer. He watched all EURO 2016 and most of Rio Olympic Games switching from the BBC to Italian radio programs and the Swiss Italian channel, sometimes watching and listening to all of them at the same time. But his greatest achievement was definitely the new lawn. He dug and removed all the mossy stuff that covered the front garden and laid proper turf on its place. For a few weeks we were busy watering our precious new green lawn, which cost us so much sweat and toil, as the weather was gorgeously sunny and dry. It settled, and we happily declared our task accomplished. We also added pink and blue hydrangea bushes to complete the idyllic picture.

What more can I say about the weather? Well, I didn’t miss Italy this summer, and neither did my mum. It was warm, sunny and dry, with a reasonable amount of blue sky and rarely too hot or too humid. It was just right.

My summer plans, 2016

I had a wonderfully busy school year, difficult towards the end because of my father’s illness and death, but still full of important events.

My role of subject leader in language and literature was engrossing and rewarding. I could explore new links between different kinds of texts, find interesting resources and share them with my colleagues, as well as planning activities to engage students in a deeper awareness of the importance of literature in their daily life and for their future.

I don’t have any major plans for the summer, I am going to use this precious free time to think about what happened with my father and to take care of my mother, who is living with us at the moment. She moved to England at the end of May, as she was feeling lonely in Rome. She had a stressful time before and after the bereavement, a sort of breakdown. Unfortunately she didn’t have a good relationship with my father, though they had been married for fifty-five years, and tends to remember only the abuses she feels she had gone through. We are trying to distract her: we have planned trips, visits to museums and family gatherings. We hope she will relax with us in Surrey and overcome the loss.

This summer two great things are happening as well. I won the first prize of the John Dryden translation competition for a selections of poems by Eugenio Montale I translated with Keith Lander, and my eldest son is planning his wedding, which will happen next summer at Samlesbury Hall near Preston.

All about my summer holidays and my readings will be in my blog pieces from September on.

Have a good summer.

To my father

My father died on 30^th April after a short painful illness. He was 83. In early March he had started feeling sick and he thought it was only an upset stomach. After two weeks he got worse and decided to have some checks. Being an old doctor he had his own ideas about what was going on in his body. He believed he only needed to take care of his genetically inherited illnesses, that is the ones that his parents had suffered from, but he hadn’t taken into account the fact that they had died before being 83.

In the past he had suffered from gastritis so he thought it was the cause of his vomiting, he had a gastroscopy , which gave negative results, nevertheless he started a cure for gastritis. In spite of this he kept bringing up everything he ate or drank. He got worse, vomited day and night, could barely stand up and was visibly losing weight.

In the next two weeks we managed to convince him to see a gastroenterologist and have an abdomen ultrasound scan, which revealed advanced cancer. At first the doctors thought it affected mainly the intestines but after further checks they discovered there were metastasis on pancreas and liver as well. They excluded an operation as well as radiotherapy and chemotherapy as it was too advanced and he was too weakened.

My sister and I finally convinced him to go to hospital where they put him on an IV drip as he was quite dehydrated. After a few days he felt much better, the doctors decided to try a stomach bypass to let him start eating again. He regained his hopes and tried hard to eat again; getting better, he started to make plans about possible cures. But as soon as he was improving, he got worse again and this time it was a relentless fall.

While he was in hospital, we could visit him only once a day, brought him something he especially liked or asked for, like iced tea, ice-cream, some kind of crackers or biscuits he loved. The hospital staff was very kind and helpful, they fed him, cleaned him and came whenever he called for help. I spent my Easter holidays there and travelled to and from Rome every two weeks spending long weekends with my mum, who was alone most of the time, and visiting him in hospital. When I was in England I phoned my mum and my dad every day, it was excruciating to hear his voice fading day after day. Even on the phone I could feel he was dying.

He was dismissed from the hospital on a Thursday with prescriptions of morphine, the doctors said he wouldn’t last more than two weeks. I arrived the following day, he was out because of the morphine. On the Saturday he died. My mum and I were at home near him, eventually I was relieved he had stopped suffering.

His illness was sudden and ruthless, a typical pancreas cancer. We knew it was hopeless but still believed he could last maybe a few months, he craved to live but when he realized it was pointless he only wished for a quick, painless death.

According to his wished he was cremated and his ashes were dispersed in the sea near Ostia. He was a clever, complex person, with multiple contradictory sides, capable of great generosity and ruthlessness, fondness and brutality. He taught me strong family values and helped me at times. He was my father, may he rest in peace.

CPD courses

I have had an extremely busy and stimulating school year, not only due to having to prepare and deliver lessons, organizing the curriculum and my role as subject leader for language and literature, but also because of some very interesting teacher training courses I attended throughout the year. I was in Cardiff at the IBO centre (I spoke briefly about it in my October half-term 2015 piece), in Qatar and in Oxford.

In January I went to Doha for three days at the International sister school of the school where I currently work in Surrey. It was a fantastic experience. The course was engrossing, I learned more about curriculum planning and shared ideas with the language colleagues who taught there.

Doha is a very nice city. Kausar, the Maths teacher who hosted me, took me sightseeing and told me everything she knew about the country. It is rich thanks to oil and gas resources which allowed incredible growth and development in only fifty years. Doha looks tidy, well organized, with a good balance of old and new. There were clear skies and sunny weather even in winter and I enjoyed beautiful light displays at night. In the centre the roads are wide and new buildings are rising everywhere.

We went on a boat cruise on the first night on a typical dhow and could admire the amazing skyline with shining skyscrapers and a mesmerizing plays of lights. The most important city landmarks are the Islamic cultural centre, with its spiraled tower, and the museum of Islamic arts, whose central tower windows are shaped like the eyes of an Arab woman wearing a Niqab.

The most characteristic place to visit in Doha is the Souq, or market. I was there twice with Kausar who kindly helped me buy fabrics and pearls for me and my daughters. It is a covered market with small shops packed with local products: spices, food, animals and fabrics.

Everything is colourful, special, easy-going and surprisingly safe. The majority of the people there were families shopping, men in long white tunics and elegant Arab headgears and women usually wearing black chador, their features nicely enhanced with makeup. The children looked like any other children around the world, lively and curious, wearing the same kind of clothes and playing with the same toys of western children.

We also visited the Islamic centre where I could attend a prayer in the women’s upper section and collect some booklets that explained what Islam is and its connections with Christianity and the Bible. It’s always interesting to read about other religions and though I am not an expert, it made me understand Arab culture better. My superficial first impression about Islam is of a very traditional religion with a belief in a powerful God, so mighty that people can’t represent or name him. He is very similar to the God of the Old Testament and different from the Christian God who is incarnated in Jesus Christ.

The museum of Islamic art was superb. The edifice in itself is a masterpiece, designed by I.M. Pei and completed in 2008. There was an exhibition on The Hunt with rich displays of pictures, textiles, tools, pottery, weapons and rings linked to deer and falcon hunting. It was a princely activity, as in Europe, a sport for the aristocrats. There was also a digital book and a cartoon, telling the story of two princes who happen to kill the same deer and end declaring war with each other.

The museum collection is outstanding, there are beautiful examples of Islamic art from all over the Islamic world, which stretched from Sicily and Spain in the west to Iran, central Asia and India in the East. Decorations are mostly made with geometric patterns inspired by plants and flowers repeated in clever intricate designs that remind of abstract shapes. Calligraphy is another important artistic form present at the museum, writing and praying are joined to a high spiritual and artistic level. The astrolabes were among my favourite pieces, they testify the great achievements of Arab science and collaboration among scientists in Eastern and Western worlds, be they Christian, Muslims, Jews, or Buddhists. Links and exchanges between East and West have been happening since the Middle Ages not only for trades but also for shared cultural interests in sciences, like astronomy, medicine, chemistry, mathematics, botanic and people’s lifestyles in general.

At the museum there was also an exhibition on women during the Qajar dynasty of Iran, with artworks showing their daily life, an interesting glimpse of a different ideal of female beauty where women were depicted with one eyebrow, sort of Frida Kahlo style.

Flying back home I couldn’t help watching the Christmas Special Bake Off and took notes of appetizing saffron buns and a special cheesecake with white chocolate and stem ginger, which I tried to recreate as soon as I arrived home in celebration of my eldest son’s engagement.

My last course for this school year was at Queen’s College in Oxford. I was lucky to meet so many interesting people from all over Europe and share with them my experience and understanding of the Diploma Program for literature. Being at Queen’s was such a pleasure, it’s a unique beautiful place that embodies all the charm of Oxford. We had a wonderful time during the course and after it, as we dined  in an truly original restaurant called The Handle Bar surrounded by all kinds of bicycles.

Unfortunately it was also a sad time as my father started to get sick during that same week, so I had to rush home first and then to Italy to be with him.