Category Archives: italiano

Kindergarten bento – No rice!! (7/Nov/16)

08/11/2016

Menu: Penne Amatriciana, Spinach omelet, Cucumber sticks

Banana & Mandarin mikan for dessert


On Sunday evening I realised we had run out of rice. In a Japanese household this almost never happens and is unheard of. I failed to stock up our daily staple… To make matters worse, I even didn’t have time… agh… actually forgot to buy fresh meat or fish… Yes, I had a busy weekend.

This means I had to improvise something out of whatever we had in our fridge and pantry on Monday morning for our daughter’s bento. Luckily, there were some tomatoes and bacon in the fridge, which I magically turned into so-called Amatriciana sauce (tomato, bacon & onion). Served with penne pasta & parmiggiano, it is a perfect pasta dish to kickstart a good week. With the help of egg and spinach, it rather became a nice Italian bento box for our ever so hungry princess.

Kindergarten bento – macaroni bolognese (31/May/16)

01/06/2016

Menu: macaroni bolognese, grated parmiggiano leggiano, boiled egg,  broccoli & green beans

Melon for dessert

It’s not common to put pasta in our packed lunches here in Japan, but I did it anyway upon our daughter’s request. 

I thought the grated cheese on the side was a great idea: our little girl can sprinkle it over the pasta at the time she eats so that the cheese remains fresh – but according to her teacher she spilled all the cheese on the table and her t-shirt, leaving a huge mess…😱

bento for the little one (penne con melanzane, pollo e pomodirini 2/mar/16)

15/03/2016

menu: penne con melanzane, pollo e pomodirini (penne with aubergine, chicken and cherry tomatoes), mashed potato and spinach salad, tofu and cucumber salad

kiwi fruits and yogurt for dessert


  
the dinner leftover from the evening before for LO’s bento today. when she came home from daycare she said to me, “mama, i didn’t like the zucchini in the pasta. please don’t put it in anymore” but she did eat it all under the peer pressure i believe. she has a tendency for not liking this squishy texture of aubergines and zucchini. i love these vegetables and want to come up with a recipe that would help our LO get over her dislike.

bento for the little one (macaroni with tomato sauce 5/feb/16)

06/02/2016

menu: macaroni with tomato sauce, mashed sweet potato with chicken mince, boiled egg, broccoli

fresh strawberries for dessert




LO loves any kind of pasta, but her absolute favorite is the one with tomato sauce. i make tomato sauce with only 3 ingredients – cherry tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt. just toss the 3 ingredients into a pan, simmer it until tomatoes get watery, for 8 minutes or so.  with any pasta of your choice, you’ll be surprised how tasty it can be with such simple recipe.

depending on the side dishes, i make sure to add chopped spinach or some other veg, as well as either tuna, chicken or bacon in the sauce, so that LO gets enough nutrients from a meal. but today i kept it simple, as there were already enough protain and vitamins in the side dishes.

LO loves sprinkling parmiggiano on her pasta, so i put a tiny container of grated parmiggiano in her bento box, which i thought was very cute. she seemed to have enjoyed it, too 🙂

berry tiramisu

21/02/2012

the other friday evening, we had a dinner for 7 people at home. since it was a fairly large group (i’m used to cooking for 2 people normally), i decided to prepare 2 desserts: regular tiramisu and berry tiramisu.

as i was whisking the mascarpone mix, i was thinking maybe it was too much for 7 people after the big meal. but to my surprise, it was all gone at the end of the dinner party so they must’ve been damn good 🙂 and the good thing is that the preparation was absolutely effortless – i made the mascarpone mix jointly for the both tiramisu’s (just doubled the usual portion), and separately prepared their fillings.

and today, i would like to share the recipe for the berry tiramisu, which is more unique and definitely hard to find in tokyo.

berry tiramisu

ingredients:

250g mascarpone cheese (usually 1 pack)
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
40g granulated sugar

280g frozen rasberries
200g fresh strawberries
50g granulated sugar
1 tbsp of kirschwasser (cherry liquor)

12 – 15 finger biscuits

directions:

1. in a large bowl, mix the egg yolks and mascarpone together until the texture becomes smooth
2. in another large bowl, beat egg whites to make merengue, while adding the sugar in 2 – 3 parts
3. gently and quickly add the merengue into the mascarpone mix in 2 – 3 parts
4. in a medium sized pan, add frozen rasberries and fresh strawberries
5. sprinkle sugar over the berries and leave it for 10 minutes or so
6. turn on the heat (low), and let it simmer until the berries are cooked. let it cool down.
7. separate the berries and liquid
8. add kirschwasser to the berry liquid
9. dip the finger biscuits one by one into the liquid and nicely lay them in a medium sized glass container
10. pour a half of the mascarpone mix over the finger biscuits
11. nicely spread the berries on top of the mascarpone mix
12. cover the berries with the rest of the mascarpone mix
13. let it sit in the fridge for at least 5 hours before serving
14. when serving, you can sprinkle powder sugar and/or some more fresh berries if you have

i’m so glad to have come up with this recipe. you get more praises from your guests than ever!

oh and just to give you more details about the dinner that evening, for the main course i cooked chicken marbella again, as it can be prepared the night before and as a result reduces the time for cooking in the evening of the dinner. i have to find more recipes which can be prepared the day/night before, which should be very handy for big dinner parties like this.

the entire menu was as follows:

appetizer: smoked salmon salad with grapefruits vinaigrette
main course: chicken marbella with jasmine rice
side dishes: tomato salad and cucumber salad
dessert: tiramisu, berry tiramisu


smoked salmon salad with grapefruits vinaigrette

the evening was filled with smiles and laughter, and everyone seemed to be satisfied with full stomach and empty wine bottles. i love having dinner parties like this. i think it is an ultimate luxury to end a busy week this way, with great friends, delicious food and interesting conversation.