Recipes!

As winter is now officially here (a bit of snow yesterday here in Le Marche), the Real Italy blog is a bit quiet – in fact, it has been for a month or two, I’m ashamed to say. But apart from taking bookings and progressing with the usual updates of the house over the winter, there’s not too much to talk about. We’ve already done olive picking, and the pictures are still available on our Facebook page.

But then I had an idea. Almost everybody who comes to La Chiesa di Santo Stefano asks for the cook service for at least part of the time, and almost without fail I am asked for some recipes at the end of the holiday. I have been putting these online in a Recipes section of the website, but I thought that over the winter I could write about some of the food we love, and that our guests have loved too.

Obviously the emphasis will be more on winter food than summer dishes – but hopefully you will enjoy them. I thought I’d start with some good old soups – just what you need for a winter lunch. I regret to say that I don’t have photos of everything, but I am going to try to do a few more pictures as the months progress.

So … soup recipes! Nothing better at this time of the year, and I’ve chosen three of my favourites. Undoubtedly top of the list is Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup. This takes a little time to make, but really is worth the trouble. Peeling peppers is a bit of a faff, so I’ve suggested another method for those who just want to be as quick as possible – and although the recipe suggests peeling the tomatoes, if you decide NOT to peel the peppers, you don’t need to bother with the tomatoes either – the sieve will see to everything for you! This soup has a lovely deep flavour, and I haven’t suggested any accompaniments, because I don’t think it needs anything! But if you were doing anything, I’d add some garlic croutons. The easiest way to make them is to cut small cubes of bread (any bread you like, really), and then put about a tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl with a sprinkling of garlic salt – depends how strong you like it. Toss the bread in the oil until coated, and stick on a baking tray in the oven at 180° for 10 minutes or so – until they are toasted all over.

The second soup is based on French Onion Soup – but with an Italian twist. One other twist that I haven’t written into the recipe, but tried recently, is to swap the dry sherry for a medium dry Marsala. That’s really good too – but the use of Fontina cheese and ciabatta does give more of a taste of Italy (although you can use the more conventional French ingredients too – both are included in the recipe).

And the final one that I have added is a Leek and Potato Soup which is significantly enhanced by some delicious gorgonzola croutons. It’s important to try to get gorgonzola dolcelatte because this is quite soft and easy to blend in with the olive oil that you need to coat the croutons with. The soup is delicious on its own, with some snipped fresh chives on the top – but do try the croutons.

Having said that I’m just doing three, I am in the process of making some roast squash soup which is smelling quite good – so I might just add this to the website.

The links above go straight to the relevant PDFs, but you can access the RECIPES PAGE from here too – where you will find other tried and tested dishes. It’s a bit difficult to find on the site at the moment, so I’m going to be working on that in the next week or two to make it easier.

And the next blog is going to be on risotto, I think … or maybe some lovely winter main courses like Tuscan Beef Stew. I need to think about that. All comments gratefully received!

Of course, if you fancy trying any of these dishes without going to the trouble of making them yourselves, we would love to see you at La Chiesa di Santo Stefano. Just follow the link to the Real Italy website.

Enjoy!