The joys of cake

I've been eating some wonderful food in Italy.

Wild asparagus, artichokes with pasta, zucchini pizza, cheese, home pressed olive oil, the BEST eggplant parmigiana I've ever tasted, gelato, biscotti and some delicious home made baking.


I got the recipes for two of the home cooked sweet treats I've been feasting on which I thought I'd share. We usually stop work around 10.30 for a caffe and cake break. (I could really get used to this lifestyle - I don't even need to feel so guilty about eating cake when I've been out doing physical work for two hours that morning!)


CIAMBELLONE
This is a delicious moist cake recipe.

3 eggs
3 glasses sugar (the glass used is a little less than a cup)
4 glasses flour
1 dessert spoon baking powder
1 glass milk or yoghurt
1 glass oil
1/2 glass amaretto (if you have it)

Simply mix all the ingredients together (no beating of sugar etc required). You can also add other flavours before baking - chocolate or raw chopped apple - 2 or so apples - work well.

Bake in a large ring tin at 180 degrees for an hour (cook for a little longer if it isn't cooked at the end of an hour). (Adding a tray with some water in the oven while cooking will help keep the cake moist.)


CROSTATA
This recipe is for a delicious tart.

Pastry:
2 eggs
120 grams butter
70 grams sugar
300 grams flour

Mixed the pastry ingredients altogether but don't knead too hard.

Roll pastry out flat and using approximately two thirds of the pastry line a greased round tart tin (approx 30cm size). Keep the remainder of the pastry and roll into 1cm thick 'snakes' for decorated the top of the tart.

Filling:
Cover the pastry with a good quality jam. Any flavour will do, but ideally it should be homemade! You can also add ground walnuts (hazelnuts would work well too) to the jam filling. The filling should be about half to a centimetre thick.

Cover the filling with a criss/cross pattern from the remaining pastry. (See photo below).

Bake at 180 degrees for 40 minutes.

Buon appetito!

The month of April

Now that May has arrived I can't help but reflect on what an amazingly diverse month April was.

My activities have included: attending a wedding of friend in New Zealand and saying goodbye to family and friends again; exploring Singapore and celebrating the big 2-9; going mud-crabbing in Darwin with my sister (croc sighting included - more on that another day); reacquainting myself with London (drinks in Shoreditch, Borough Markets, Camden Markets, Tate Modern, dinner in Soho, Kings Cross Caravan for dinner, pints at pubs in Tufnell Park and Clapham, among other activities); and now 10 days staying with a family in rural Umbria, Italy, soaking up the sights and smells of this beautiful region.

Three continents in one month ain't too bad!

On the agenda for May is Rome and Milan, Turkey for 12 days, London for 2 nights and France with my mum from 24 May. Yep, I'm pretty much just bragging!

Finally, the real Italy

My first foray into Italy was an accidental stop off in Pisa. It's a long story, but in short, a few hour stop off on the way from Budapest to Albania coming up two years ago, turned into a two day stopover for a friend and I after our plane was cancelled for no apparent reason.

I didn't warm to Pisa and it certainly didn't live up to my expectations for Italy. It was teaming with tourists (mainly Americans on tour buses - not that I have anything against them), the food served in restaurants was frozen pasta meals and breakfast involved packet croissants (you know the ones that physically can't go off because they are packed with preservatives).

My second trip was a much more successful trip to Sardinia with 9 friends for Easter last year. While we stayed at a lovely villa and revealed in the relative warmth compared to London, we didn't really get out and about in the villages of Sardinia. I came away from the trip feeling like I was yet to experience the real Italy.
This, my third trip to Italy, has finally allowed me to get a sense of the Italy that I was so sure was lurking here somewhere. The farm I am staying on is 4 kms from a town called Orte. I spent my morning wandering around the town and soaking up the 'italianess' of it all.

Cappacinos for one euro; locals having their morning shot of grappa; enticing bakeries with fresh ciabatta and pizza by the slice; crumbling buildings; roads so narrow the cars could barely squeeze through; flower boxes; delis selling fresh pasta and olives; vegetable stores brimming with artichoke, radicchio and tomatoes; little old ladies wearing headscarves and wheeling their morning purchases in those funny little shopping trollies; old men smoking on the street; clothing stores selling leisure suits (and frighteningly people wearing leisure suits); vespas; washing hanging from balconies high above; gelato shops; window shutters - my morning stroll lived up to every Italian stereotype I had in my head.

The other bonus which I must harp on about, not a single tourist in sight. Orte won't be in your guidebook, it's only claim to fame according to wikipedia appears to be its prominence as a road and rail hub and some battles during roman times - but for me it was the Italian experience I have been waiting for.

Italian ways

I have made it to beautiful Italy. I am staying on a small olive farm about 10 minutes from a town called Orte which is 40 minutes by train from Rome.

The countryside is stunning. Rolling hills peppered with pockets of bush, olive groves and meadows filled with spring grass. In exchange for food and board I am expected to work in the mornings: looking after 4 beautiful show jumpers; gardening and working in the olive grove. We stop during the morning for stovetop Italian espresso and lunch is an outdoor, sit-down affair: pasta; salads; bread; and cheese (today I counted the number, eight different types of cheese, heaven).

It is a fantastic way to gain an insight into the traditional Italian way of life. I'm here until 3 May when I hit the tourist trail again in Rome.

Lovely London

I have now made it back to lovely London. Despite the weather being a little chillier than I'm accustomed to, it is nice to be back to the English spring (with the long daylight hours) and the bustling city.

I really struggle with London in the winter, it's so dark and grey and long, that it's easy to get bogged down by it all, but spring is a different story as people start to come out of hibernation. The faces on the tube are a little less glum, European summer trip planning begins in earnest, and summer festival/event posters pop up.

While I am lucky enough to have avoided one of the coldest winters on record here, I can't help but get caught up in the changing vibe of the city.

As is always the case in London there is lots on, yesterday I wandered around a Roy Liechtenstein exhibition at the Tate Modern, sampled some goodies at my all time favourite, the Borough Market and walked aimlessly around Selfridges.  After my time in Africa, I actually find places like Selfridges even crazier than I used to - materialism and consumerism at its very best (or worst, depending on ones view).  I also partook in having a few wines with friends in Shoreditch.  Today I'm going to take a walk on Hampstead Heath and perhaps go to the British Museum.

London is an utterly charming place when one doesn't face the usual constraints of day to day life.  I love being here when I am free to spend my days at will and don't have to face the daily commute or hectic pace of working life here.

And, just because I can, a few photos.

Just a saying

Not really a post today, but a cool little saying that I saw on a shop in Cape Town in January. Too true.

Smells of Singapore

After a fabulous six weeks at home I'm officially a 'traveller' again (rather than just unemployed).

I arrived in Singapore on Friday. I haven't travelled in Asia at all. The only place I've been is a trip to Bali with my family when I was 12.

I'm here for 5 days before I head down to Darwin to visit my sister. Since I've decided to delay getting a job again I'm on a pretty small budget. Yep, I'm even staying in a dorm room, gap student style.

Arriving here reminded me yet again what an amazing sense smell is. I was almost immediately transported back in my memory to that first overseas trip as a twelve year old. I think Asia has very distinctive smells: the food and all the amazing spices, the woody yet plasticky smell of the clothes, the flowers in the humid air.

To my nose Latin America also has a very distinctive smell, I think primarily from the cleaning products. I remember landing in Mexico City having first travelled to South America some 18 months earlier and not been able to stop commenting on the similarity of the smell.

In Europe the smell is more familiar but still memorable. One of my favourite aspects of a trip cycling around Provence last June was experiencing the beautiful smells of the countryside (including the infamous lavender) all day long.

Finally, there is the smell of home - one of my favourite things about NZ which I mentioned in my last post.

Of course I'm not just enjoying Singapore's smells, the food has been incredible and the architecture outstanding. Due to budget constraints I've mainly been sticking to hawker stalls for food and wandering the streets to fill my time. I've even satisfied my inner planning lawyer geek by finding a gallery (with no admission fee) solely dedicated to the town planning history of Singapore. (The Singapore City Gallery).

All in all, a great foray into the world of Asia.