Thursday, July 24, 2008

A day in my life

After amazing myself once again with one of my "quick" meals today I've decided that I must begin sharing my daily experiences with food and living in Milan with others.

So...this morning I woke up for my 820am lesson at 8 and with my eyes still closed I made some espresso and popped it into the freezer. I quickly washed, got dressed, put a headband on (which I never do), a quick makeup fix and waited for my student. 825 am...not here yet so I step out onto my balcony (can't yell out my window because I now have "zanzariere" (screens) to keep the huge mosquitos out) and see he is smoking a cigarette...I yell out that he can come up, say hello to Giuseppe the doorman and the little boy William who hasnt quite warmed up to me yet and go back in.

Today my student doesn't want to do any Grammar...so we talk about the law profession, how we all need a vacation....and the type of work he does. In the meantime my espresso has frozen so I take it out and pour some milk on it....Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Lesson ends and we've gone a bit over....I put some cereal in a cup with some milk, i read my email, send some other out and realize it is Thursday- MERCATO day!!! I quickly grab my wallet, get my bike and go over to the market.

Today I'm looking for the man that sold me delicious cherry tomatoes at € 1a kilo (2.2 pounds) two weeks ago...during my search i find chiquita bananas at €1 a kilo and some baby zucchini with flowers that are huge! pick up 10 of those. I finally find my man and buy a kilo of tomatoes, some peaches because i remembered that they had been delicious and watermelon.

I realize that it is 11am and my second student must be waiting for me! She was!! I put my things down, explain that I wouldnt have been able to go to the store later in the day and we sit down for our lesson. For the first part of the lesson we listen to a NPR.org broadcast about wine..really interesting. After we move on to Sicilian food....then once again my student suggests we speak instead of doing grammar and asks me how I met my boyfriend. I explain...ask the same question of her and our hour is up.

1205pm....i have exactly 30 min to cook and eat...am feeling a bit like Rachael Ray. I put the pot of water on....and cut up some parma prosciutto (which i had bought yesterday from the supermarket near my apt; The supermarket sells the end part of the prosciutto a third of the price and so i use it to cook), add a tablespoon of olive oil and a garlic clove in its skin and turn on the heat. While that's sautèeing, I slice the baby zucchini attached to the blossoms and add it to the pan. Next I quater some cherry tomatoes and add those...after about 1 min the water is boiling and I add the trofie. I then take about a small ladle of the salted pasta water and add it to my dish and let that cook for another 4 min...trofie are done, i drain it and add to the pan. I also add at this point the blossoms (sliced) and a tablespoon of pesto made without garlic. Grate some parmeggiano.......................and the rest I will leave to your imagination. Absolutely excellent.

Trofie with Blossoms, Zucchini and Prosciutto

1 slice of prosciutto di Parma cut thick (with fat) use only half
6 baby zucchini with blossoms (sliced)
6 cherry tomatoes
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs pesto
1/2 pound of trofie* (250 grams)
Black pepper and grated parmeggiano

Trofie is a twisted short pasta from Liguria...great with pesto. I find it in my fridgerated section at my supermarket...i am pretty sure you can find it in NYC...not sure about anywhere else-

Hope you try it!!! Let me know.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love your recipe, it reminds me of mommys but she adds the heavy cream instead of the pesto...yum, also giancarlo says your a geek, haha which makes me hysterically laugh because i told him that you ride your bike! love you!! and add that chicken recipe!! ASAP!