My neighbour's courgettes...

My neighbour Maria is from Sicily and she often rings the bell with some delicious Sicilian Food to try.
These are grilled courgette (directly from her little veggie garden) with olive oil, white vinegar, garlic, salt and wild mint leaves.... the more you leave them marinating the better it is.

Happy summer to all of you, I'm leaving for the seaside right now, then I'm coming back in Septemper ready to give birth at home!!! :) The baby's due on sept. 3rd... wish me good luck ...

Zucca alla menta - Pumpkin with mint

I used to hate pumpkin and I used to hate mint with savoury foods, now I absolutely adore it.
It was my friend Francesca Davoli that once cooked it for me and I've always made it ever since especially at this time of the year. Oh by the way Francesca is a home stylist, you can see her work here


This is what it looks like before going into the oven


And this is what it's like just out of the oven, quite crispy this time, notice how much the pieces have shrunk!
This is a simple but rather nice recipe, trust me!

Verdure Ripiene

These are Stuffed Zucchini and Onions.. I think this is the exact translation. It's a typical italian dish and the vegetable are usually filled with a mixture of Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmisan Cheese), breadcrumbs, garlic and parsley.
But we don't like cheese (read why I hate cheese) so I used Tofu, yeast flakes and a drop of soy sauce. What I do is cut a big zucchini in half legthwise and scoop the inside with a small knife so that it looks more or less like a boat. Onions are good too for this: use big onions, cut in half and try to scoop the inside of the onion, make it look like a cup.
Put tofu, breadcrumbs, yeast flakes, chopped parsley, a finely chopped clove of garlic, pinch of salt in a food processor and blend to form a thick cream. Add some olive oil if necessary. Spread this on top and inside the vegetables and cook in the oven until quite cooked. You could eat it like this or you could continue cooking in a pan with some chopped onions and tomatoes, olive oil and water. This makes a nice sauce to put on top of the vegetables. To make it even easier you could cook them in a pan altogether covered with a lid. Enjoy
Ps: Red, yellow and green peppers are great for this aswell, but try to find small ones otherwise you'll get bigger portions.