Food in Florence

While Florence wasn't first on our trip, I think it was when we realized we hadn't been taking photos of all the delicious food we were eating! Hence, it comes first in the Italy posts. 

We had a great meal on our second night in Florence. Paul and I spent a lot of time on vacation wandering around, trying to find someplace to eat or grab a glass of wine. We had been strolling around Florence, and came across Cibreo. The restaurant was full, and they were only able to seat us if we shared a table with another group. We were hungry, and the food looked great -- so we went for it. 

We ended up both ordering first and second courses...and a dessert. The sides were "a surprise!" (i.e. picked by the kitchen staff to accompany our second course). Enjoy!

Paul's first: it was a thick, stew that tasted just like minestrone. Delish!

My first: polenta with olive oil and freshly grated Parmsean.

Paul's main: guanciale

Paul's side: a broccoli mousse

My main: a cuttlefish dish, with a sauce made from squid ink (I assumed so, because of the color)

My side: a beet salad! It's like they knew I was coming.

The remains of our dessert. I think it was panna cotta?

My Life for the Last Week

Yup. This has been my life (along with soups, stews and overcooked pasta) for the last week or so after having dental surgery. I feel bad that I was so energized after returning from Italy, only to fall flat on my face and not really cook anything since we've been back. I'm hoping that I'll be back to eating real food within the next couple days and can get back to cooking!


In the meantime, I'll try to update with Italy food photos amid my ice packs. 

Riobollita

I've been dying to make our own version of ribollita after having it while we were in Italy. This week ended up being perfect for it, as I'm on a temporary soft food diet while some dental work heals. 

Lots of people had comments on the ingredients, what should be included, excluded, etc. I made the recipe as listed, but instead of adding in bread crumbs, I added some Italian bread (about 2 - 3 thick slices), ripped into big pieces. I added them in at the end, and it helped thicken everything up into more of a stew. 

I topped it with a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Totally delicious...even if I was gumming down everything. I think you could mix up and add some other vegetables (I'm envisioning squash) if you wanted, maybe cutting down a little on the cannellini beans. 

Italy -- A Food Preview

A sneak peek...

New cheese fave: pecorino fresco

Penne all'arrabbiata

Pizza with mushrooms, cheese and prosciutto

There are no words to describe the deliciousness. But I'll certainly try my best in my next post.

Chicken Milanese with Sage-and-Lemon-Butter Sauce

There are vegetables off camera. I promise.

I came across this tasty-looking recipe in Food & Wine magazine. Looked easy enough to make and something different and delicious for during the week. I did make a couple modifications to the recipe. I bought chicken breasts instead of cutlets, so I spent about 10 minutes annoying the crap out of our neighbors by trying to flatten the chicken breasts with a rolling pin. 

Making friends everywhere I go.

I also used only panko bread crumbs, instead of a combo of regular breadcrumbs and panko. I think panko is crispier, and frankly -- it's better for you than prepackaged bread crumbs. I had to cook the chicken a little longer, since they were smaller pieces than the recipe intended, but I think they turned out pretty great. There was definitely enough sage-lemon-butter sauce to go around for all 8 pieces. You tasted some of the lemon zest added to the breading mixture, and it nicely echoed the sauce. 

I also think you can't go wrong with some roasted red potatoes and a fresh green salad alongside this meal. For the potatoes, I washed and sliced them, tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roasted them in the oven for about 30 minutes (at 350 degrees).

Grilled Salmon with Soba Noodles and Edamame Salad

I've been trying to avoid cooking Italian over the last few days, as we leave for Italy later this week(!). I'm sure I would still eat my face off there even if I had Italian meals every day this week, but somehow I think it will be all the more satisfying if I just hold off a bit. :) 

I pulled this recipe out of one of my binders -- looked delicious (and not Italian)! The sauce was easy to make -- and we let it sit in the fridge for maybe 20 minutes (and not 3 hours) before starting to cook the salmon. 

I couldn't find shelled edamame, so I just bought the frozen ones and cooked and shelled them myself. The soba noodles we had only needed about 3 minutes to cook, so that was easy (I did the edamame separately since I figured one would be either under or over-cooked if I did them together). I couldn't find any water chestnuts at the store so we went without, but used the whole bag of edamame (instead of a cup) instead.

I swear, I ask for normal pieces of salmon but always get the biggest ones! Maybe the fish guy thinks I need some more omega 3s.

It was pretty simple to make, and pretty tasty. I used quite a bit of sriracha sauce, so it had a nice kick to it. The salmon, flavored only with salt and pepper and then grilled, really complemented the spicy noodle and vegetable combo. I'm always looking for something new and fun to do with fish (particularly salmon) and I think this will stay in my repertoire!

Southwest Stuffed Peppers

I am a huge fan of stuffed peppers. I love bell peppers, and get to eat them with some cheese and salsa? SOLD. 

I came across this recipe in Real Simple -- and that it was. We took an extra step of grinding the meat ourselves (but I'm ridiculous and you don't need to do that). We opted for sirloin versus ground chuck, brown rice instead of white rice, and did straight Greek yogurt (and didn't thin it out with water). Delish.

Cooking the meat and rice

Fresh out of the oven!

So colorful!

We had lots of leftovers by making four peppers. Paul thought it could have been a little spicier, but I liked it as it was. We buy medium salsa, so that on top helped add a little heat to the dish. You could mix up the ingredients inside the peppers -- black beans instead of ground meat, Spanish rice instead of brown or white, jalepenos instead of green chiles, or chihuahua cheese on top -- the possibilities are endless!

Enjoy!