Pudding Recipes

I adapted these recipes from magazines, changing most of the doses and some of the ingredients. My mum and I had great fun experimenting and the whole family enjoyed the treats.

Almond flakes biscuits

 You need: 400 g of self raising flour, 3 eggs, 150 g of light brown sugar, 100 g of melted butter and some drops of vanilla extract.

For the topping: 50 g of butter, 50 g of light brown sugar, 2 tbsp of honey and 200 g of flaked almonds.

Mix the ingredients for the dough, knead it then roll it out. Place the pastry on a greased oven tray and cut it into squares. Bake for 10 minutes at 180° C. In the meantime prepare the topping by mixing all the ingredients in a pan and heating it for 5-10 minutes on the hob. Take the biscuits from the oven and spread the flaked almond mixture on top, keeping the squares separated. Bake for another 10-15 minutes till slightly brown.

Chocolate meringues

You need: 3 egg whites, 150 g of icing sugar and 50 g of dark chocolate chips.

Whip the egg whites until stiff, then mix in the icing sugar. Melt the chocolate chips in a pan and add most of them in the meringue folding it gently, not mixing it in completely. Spoon the meringue mixture on a greased oven tray and drip the remaining melted chocolate on top. Bake for 50-60 minutes, 150° C.

Biscuits and dark chocolate semifreddo

You need: 100 g of golden caster sugar, 150 ml of double cream, 150 ml of milk, 100 g of rich tea biscuits roughly chopped, 100 g of dark chocolate and 4 eggs.

Whisk the eggs with the sugar, melt the chocolate in a pan with 50 ml of milk and add it to the eggs together with the biscuits and 150 ml of milk. Whip the cream and add it to the mixture. Pour it into a loaf tin lined with cling film and freeze it overnight. Serve cut in slices with cream or raspberry coulis.

Walnut and cream Swiss roll

For the Swiss roll you need: 4 eggs, one tbsp of honey, 100 g of sugar and 100 g of self raising flour.

For the filling you need: 2 tbsp of milk, half a tsp of instant coffee, 150 g of whipping cream, one tbsp of sugar and 100 g of ground walnuts.

Prepare the sponge for the Swiss roll by beating the eggs with the sugar, add one tbsp of honey and all the flour. Pour the mixture on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or till slightly brown at 180° C. Spread a damp tea towel on a surface, sprinkle some sugar on it and turn the sponge out onto the tea towel. Roll it up while still hot and let it cool.

Prepare the filling by whisking the cream with the sugar. Warm the milk and add the coffee granules. Mix the coffee with the cream and add the ground walnuts. Unroll the sponge and spread the cream and walnut mixture on it, leaving some aside for decoration. Roll it up again and decorate with the left over cream and maybe some walnuts. Chill overnight before serving.

Filling for cannoli siciliani

We bought the cannoli shells in an Italian supermarket in Surrey, so we had only to fill them.

For the filling you need: 750 g of ricotta, 300 g of sugar, 75 g of chocolate chips, mixed peel and/or glacé cherries halves.

Mix the ricotta with the sugar and chill them for two hours. Add the chocolate chips and chill again for one hour. Fill the cannoli shells using a piping bag and decorate the ends with mixed peel and/or a glacé cherry half. Chill before serving.

I used this ricotta mixture to fill a sponge cake and a Swiss roll, instead of chocolate chips I had 100 g of ground dark chocolate. I mixed all the ingredient and chilled them for two hours. I cut the cake in half and dampened the two halves with milk, then spread the ricotta mixture on one, put the other half on top and chilled everything overnight before serving it. For the Swiss roll you follow the same procedure of the previous recipe. Decorate with icing sugar and ground dark chocolate.

Nutella and yogurt bread loaf

You need: 250 g of flour, one tsp of baking powder, half a tsp of bicarbonate of soda, two tbsp of sunflower oil, 150 g of golden caster sugar,  three tbsp of nutella, four tbsp of full fat plain yogurt and 2 eggs.

Beat the eggs then add oil and sugar. Mix all the other ingredients except the nutella and the yogurt. Divide the mixture into two bowls. Add the nutella to one of them and the yogurt to the other. Grease a tin loaf and alternate a layer of the yogurt mixture to a layer of nutella mixture. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180° C. Decorate with icing sugar and stripes of melted nutella.

October half-term 2016

I had a tremendously busy half term break. I flew to Rome, came back, travelled north to see my autistic daughter in Doncaster and my son in Leeds, and finally came back to Surrey and started work again. Tiring but on the whole a very happy break.

I went to Rome for the weekend, to take my mum back to her home. She had a hernia operation in England at the beginning of October, but then she decided to go back to Italy straight afterwards. She said she missed her home, the area where she had been living for more than fifty year and all her friends and family there.

She wasn’t completely recovered when we left as after the operation (which went very well), she had developed bronchitis and shingles but nothing could stop her. When we arrived at her home, I realized she was very happy to be back in her environment and routines. We went out to do some grocery shopping and she met three people she knew, had a good chat and updated them on her summer. Then we went to the doctor’s and to the pharmacist’s, just a few minutes’ walk from her house. Everything was familiar to her, instead in our house in England, she never remembered where the pots and pans were, she couldn’t reach the glasses and she didn’t like the food. The main problem was that she didn’t speak or understand English so she felt somewhat isolated, though we were with her all the time and translated for her. I also took her to see a group of Italian ladies once a week but it wasn’t enough. When I left she told me not to worry about her, as she had a lot of friends around her. My sister, who lives near Rome, will go and see her from time to time. A lady is also going to stay with her and help her with house chores twice a week. I’m sure she will be all right and after all, this is what she wants. I’ll go back for Christmas.

The day after I came back to England, I left for the north with my husband. We went to see my autistic daughter Valentina who was busy getting ready for Halloween. She showed us the school gym, decorated with fake spider webs and giant stickers of witches and pumpkins. Wherever she went she collected something she liked: a stuffed fake leg, a cushion, a lantern. She ended the tour with her hands (and our hands) full. She also had a brilliant activity, a treasure hunt where she needed to collect the different parts of a skeleton following some written instructions with symbols (PECS) and finally assemble the skeleton. She did it very well and won a pumpkin full of treats. On the whole, we found her happy and definitely improved in her way of communicating with signs.

Our final trip was to Leeds where my son and his fiancée live where we stayed for a day and a half. We visited the Royal Armouries museum together, it was engrossing. They have an incredible display of weapons and armouries mainly from Middle Ages to WW II, from Europe and Asia. Though interesting, it was terrifying to read the descriptions of the excruciating pain a spear or an arrow could provoke penetrating, through the slits of a helmet or between the plates of an armour. Some of the items on display looked fabulous, almost works of art, though mostly meant to protect during combat. What struck me the most were the helmets and some of the armouries, like the Lion Armour, embossed and engraved with beautiful interweaving designs. They are definitely pieces of high quality craftsmanship though disturbing as they were worn in battle and necessarily part of events full of violence and death.

There were a lot of children around and plenty of activities for them, like face painting, archery, a performance with a monologue of a soldier fighting in Vlad the Impaler’s army (known as the inspiration behind Dracula) and interactive games that showed them how to shoot an arrow or explained different kinds of swords.

I felt impressed and bewildered realizing how harmful weapons can be and how much they are an undeniable part of human history. As they say at the entrance of the exhibition: ‘conflict has shaped the world we live in over thousands of years’. It may change in the future, but this is how it was in the past and how it still is in the present day.

In the afternoon we had a long shopping session. I ticked off some of the items on my Christmas shopping list and had a nice walk in the city centre, including a look at the large John Lewis in the new sumptuous shopping centre, Victoria Gate. In the evening we had a gorgeous dinner at Italianissimo, a fabulous Italian restaurant where I enjoyed my first Blind Sailor, not a random bloke, but a cocktail consisting of rum, Ramazzoti, pineapple and lime juice. We had a great time with my son and his fiancée and a fantastic, well deserved holiday.

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.