Foodie Gifts

Tags

Christmas baskets, Christmas food gifts, edible gifts, food baskets, food gifts, foodie gifts, Holiday Gift Baskets

I want to show you a glimpse of the madness that has been going on in my kitchen of late. Not including the mess. Do you know what I want for Christmas? A little elf, following me around all day, picking up after me. So every time I turn around, poof! All clean! Wouldn’t that be something?

And if I can’t have an elf, how about one of these Holiday Baskets? Filled with oh so yummy treats. I know I would love it!

Like this small basket which has: white chocolate bark with pistachios, cranberries and dried roses.

A huge gingerbread Smores. Yes, huge homemade smores filled with dark Belgian chocolate and gingerbread marshmallows! Oh baby!

Oh so yum Salted Caramel Sauce. You know, for drizzling on your ice cream. Or pound cake. Or anything really.

And Hot Chocolate on a Stick. Made with dark Belgian chocolate. Some with cinnamon. Some with hot chill pepper. Perfect for melting into a hot cup of milk.

Or would you prefer the medium basket? With all of the above plus the addition of two of my specialty jams. Bacon jams, that is! Bourbon Bacon Jam (which almost took me to Recipe to Riches), and Apple Bacon Jam with Cider.

Personally, I would choose the large basket. With everything in it plus Chorizo & Port Jam, spicy Bourbon BBQ Sauce, and some superlicious Momofuku Cookies.

No-Bake Ginger Pumpkin Pie

Tags

no-bake pumpkin pie, pumpkin, pumpkin desserts, pumpkin pie, roasted pumpkin, Thanksgiving desserts

For the first time ever, the girls grew their very own pumpkins this year. Emma was quite successful with her bounty: 2 large pumpkins and a medium one.  Charlotte, just 3 wee little ones.  No matter, they were quite excited and decorated them for Halloween.  I asked to keep one for roasting.

We love roasted pumpkin seeds.  I usually just toss them with olive oil and salt, then pop them in the oven.  This time, I thought I’d try something different.  My friend Marina had come over for scones a few days earlier and brought me a gift.  A foodie gift.  Pimentón.

Pimentón is a Spanish version of paprika with a wonderful smoky flavour to it. An essential ingredient in Spanish cuisine, it’s what gives chorizo its distinct flavour.  I use it to flavour my chicken when making fajitas, or beef when making tacos.  I even blend into my mayo and dip my fries into it.  Its use is limitless.  I love it!  And that gorgeous colour, oh!  My daughter Charlotte took these to school for snack one day and her friends devoured them.  They even asked if I would share the recipe.  So here you go girls, this one is for you, The Pumpkin Seeds Girls at Villa Maria High School.  Place the seeds in an oven pan, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle some sea salt and pimentón, and give them a toss.  Roast in the oven at 350 F, until lightly browned, about 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Now for roasting the pumpkin.  I cut it into pieces and peeled them.  I threw them into a roasting pan and then into a 350 F oven, until fork tender. Once cooled, I stored it in the fridge until I was ready to use it.

Not having made my pumpkin pie for our Canadian Thanksgiving, much to Emma and my nephew’s disappointment, I thought I’d make it with the roasted pumpkin.  I’ve only ever used canned pumpkin, so this was a first.  I love this pumpkin pie.  Instead of using the typical graham cracker crust, I make it with ginger snap cookies.  It gives the pie a wonderfully warm flavour.  And it’s ready in a snap, no baking involved!

Ginger Pumpkin Pie

2 cups of ginger snap cookie crumbs, about 250 gr. of ginger snaps

1/4 cup of melted butter

3/4 cups of brown sugar

1 package of unflavoured gelatin

1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of powdered ginger

1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

2 cups/400 gr. of roasted pumpkin, pureed, or a 14 oz. can of pumpkin

3/4 cups of milk

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup of 35% whipping cream

Place the ginger snap cookies in a food processor and blitz until they turn into fine crumbs.  Add the melted butter and mix with your fingers. Press the crumbs onto the bottom and sides of a 9-inch/1.5 L deep pie plate. Refrigerate until ready to use.

In a saucepan, stir together brown sugar, gelatin, salt and all of the spices. Blend in the pumpkin, milk and egg yolks.  If you’ve forgotten to puree the pumpkin into a smooth texture, as I did, you can use a hand blender in the saucepan to do so now.  Over medium heat, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Set the pan in an ice water bath in the kitchen sink.  Allow to cool.

In a small bowl, whip the cream until thick.  Whisk 1/4 of the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture.  Fold in the remaining whipped cream.  Pour into the pie crust and refrigerate for 4 hours, or overnight.  I like to decorate my pie with additional whipped cream and ginger snaps.  Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

Crostata di Mirtilli

Tags

blueberries, blueberry crostata, blueberry desserts, blueberry galette, bluets du Lac Saint-Jean, crostata, galette, gelette aux bluets, mirtillo, Quebec wild blueberries, tart, wild blueberries

Perhaps you might be more familiar with Blueberry Galette? A crostata is exactly that. A galette. A rustic, free form, open-faced tart filled with luscious fruit. Or veggies. And that’s what I love most about crostata. That it is rustic and free-form. No perfection required here! Just loads of butter for a deliciously rich and buttery crust. And beautiful fruit which you can sweeten to your heart’s desire.

We’ve got these wild blueberries here from the Saguenay/Lac Saint-Jean region of Quebec. Walk through a farmers’ market in August and September, and you will be dazzled by these tiny blue-purple gems. And I do mean tiny! Smaller in stature than cultivated blueberries, wild blueberries contain the most powerful antioxidants of all, including powerful anti-inflammatory compounds. But that’s not why I eat them. I eat them because they are perfectly delicious! And they’re also Charlotte’s favourite fruit!

The recipe below is for two bellissime crostate di mirtilli. Go ahead and cut the recipe in half if you only want one. But trust me on this. You will want a second one after the first is gone! After looking at various recipes, I noticed that all of them added either cornstarch or flour, or both, to the fruit. I decided that I would rather not, preferring to have the pure taste of blueberries. With perhaps a little lemon because after all, blueberries and lemon do marry wonderfully together, no? As for the sugar, I added little. Again, I really just wanted the blueberry flavour bursting in my mouth. You go ahead and add more sugar if you prefer your crostata on the sweet side. As for myself, I’m already quite sweet as it is!

For the pastry:

 2 cups of flour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of sugar

12 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

8 to 10 tablespoons of ice water

1 egg, for the egg wash

Sugar for sprinkling

Add the flour into a bowl with the salt and sugar, and stir. I cut the cold butter into cubes and then put them back in the refrigerator until it’s time to throw them in. The colder the better!

Cut the butter in with a pastry cutter. Here’s where my luck ran out. My cutter broke on me! So instead I used two knives to cut in the butter, which I’ve done before. My advice? If you bake lots, I urge you to indulge in such a simple tool as the pastry cutter. So much easier!

Add the ice water, one tablespoon at a time, stirring with a fork. Do not overwork the dough. I used 9 tablespoons of ice water. You might require 1 more or less. It should just come together nicely and not be too wet or sticky. Wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour.

For the filling:

6 cups of blueberries

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons of sugar

Gently mix the blueberries with lemon juice, zest, and sugar.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Remove the dough from the fridge and cut it in half. Place one half back in the fridge while you prepare the first crostata dough. Roll the dough out on a lightly-floured surface to about ¼ inch thickness and transfer to a baking sheet. Place this dough in the fridge while you roll-out the second one. Repeat as with the first.

When you’re ready, work with one dough at a time, keeping the other in the fridge. Add half of the blueberries on top of the dough, creating a small mound in the centre, leaving enough of a border to fold the pastry edges over the blueberries. Repeat with the second crostata dough. Lightly beat the egg and brush the outer crust with it. Sprinkle the crust with sugar.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and the blueberries begin to break apart in the middle. Allow to cool to room temperature and serve. Buon Appetito!

Upside Down Plum Cake & a Winner

Tags

desserts, Ontario plums, plum cake, plums, seasonal desserts, summer desserts

I just love going to the market with my girls. Emma in particular. She hops from one farmer’s stand to the next, tasting everything she possibly can along the way. And always presenting me with pieces of sweet and luscious fruit. She knows that if I have a taste of these juicy offerings, I shall be sold. “Oh mama! Taste this. It’s so sweet and juicy… you’re gonna love it!”. And love it I do!

I went to the market with an idea in my mind, an upside down apple cake. But one look upon the various Ontario plums which were on display, and I was hooked. Vibrant colours of red, purple and yellow. Magnificent! A treat just had to be made with these sweet beauties. After Emma duly fed me a taste of each plum, I decided that we just had to have one more taste of summer! There would be plenty of time to bake with apples. Now, which one would grace the top of my upside down cake? The brilliant yellow or the lustrous red? Or perhaps the deep-purple, almost-black, plum? They all tasted perfect. Oh, who says I could only have one? Why not all three?

Upside Down Plum Cake

cake batter adapted from Cooking Light

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1 tablespoon of melted unsalted butter

1 cup of sugar, divided into 1/2 cups

3 tablespoons of orange juice

6 to 9 plums, depending on their size, enough to fill the bottom of your pan

3/4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of milk

1 teaspoon of grated orange zest

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

4 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut the plums in half and remove the pit. If they’re rather big, quarter them as I did.

In a 9 or 10 inch cast-iron skillet or oven pan, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-heat on the stovetop. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and the orange juice. Cook until sugar dissolves and remove from heat. Arrange the plums, cut sides up, on the bottom of your pan or skillet.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add milk, melted butter, orange zest, vanilla and egg yolks. Stir with a whisk until smooth.

Beat the egg whites at high speed of a mixer, until foamy. Gradually add remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form.

Gently stir in 1/4 of the egg whites into the batter. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour the batter over the plums, spreading evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan or skillet for 10 minutes. Place a plate upside down on top of skillet/pan and invert the cake onto the plate. Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!

And now for the winner of the Maple Bundle Giveaway (see Pouding Chômeur & an Anniversary).  

I had my daughter Emma write down all the names of those who had left comments on the above-mentioned post. She then proceeded to cut them out and placed them in a little box. I then wanted Charlotte to pick a name from the box, but Oh No! Emma would not have it! She had done all the work, why should Charlotte have the enjoyment of picking the winner? This happens every time I try to engage the two of them to do something, and I always end up asking myself why, oh why? So I had them do it together, after much reluctance on behalf of Emma. And the winner is:

Karen, over at Back Road Journal. Congratulations Karen!

Zucchini-Mascarpone Bread

Tags

baked goods, mascarpone, zucchini, zucchini bread, zucchini-cheese bread

I’m thinking of re-naming this The Disappearing Zucchini Bread. I cannot seem to bake them quick enough before my family polishes them off. Me included. Two large loaves will last exactly 3 days in my home. The secret? It’s all in the filling!

My sister Franca has been making an amazing Zucchini-Cream Cheese Bread for over 15 years. I thought I’d change the recipe up a little by giving it an Italian twist. Where the original recipe calls for the tanginess of cream cheese, I thought I’d give it a rich and creamy texture with mascarpone. Don’t you just love mascarpone? I’ve also replaced much of the vegetable oil with unsweetened applesauce. Sounds crazy but I have this thing about adding oil to a cake batter, especially a whole cup of it. And I’ve added lemon zest, for a fresh zesty twist as well. Besides, zucchini and lemon are  a perfect match. This recipe makes two big loaves and to one of them, I added some blackberries. Seeing as the cottage is surrounded by blackberry bushes, why not? My girls LOVE this zucchini bread and it makes the perfect snack. Or breakfast. So when life gives you zucchini, make zucchini bread!

Ingredients

for the bread:

3 eggs

2 cups of sugar

1/3 of a cup of vegetable/canola oil

2/3 of a cup of unsweetened applesauce

2 teaspoons of vanilla

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 medium zucchini, shredded and unpeeled, about 2 cups

Zest of 1 lemon

for the cheese:

250 g (8 oz) of mascarpone cheese, or cream cheese

1 egg

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter or oil 2 loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat together the 3 eggs, 2 cups of of sugar, oil, applesauce and vanilla. Add the next 5 ingredients, flour to cinnamon, and mix well. Fold in the zucchini, lemon zest and juice.

In a separate bowl, beat the mascarpone, or cream cheese, with the egg, sugar and flour until light and fluffy.

Pour a layer of the zucchini batter in the bottom of each loaf pan, about 1/4 of the mixture in each. Spread the cheese mixture over the batter in each pan. If using blackberries, drop those on top of the cheese mixture. Add the remainder of the zucchini batter over the cheese mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 1hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely in the pans on a wire rack. Remove from pans when cool and dig in!

Lasagne di Zucchine

Tags

Italian, lasagne, seasonal Italian, Vegetarian, vegetarian lasagna, vegetarian main, zucchini, zucchini lasagna, zucchini recipes

This isn’t your traditional lasagne. First off, there’s no pasta. Instead, I’ve used thinly sliced zucchini to replace it. It has been so hot here in Montreal, every visit to the cottage brings an abundance of zucchini. They just love the heat, don’t they? Funny how only the yellow ones have come up. Not a single green one. No worries though. I think the yellow ones are so vibrant, bringing to mind summer and sunshine. I need to find creative ways to use up this yellow bounty so that my family doesn’t tire of it. Warning: yummy zucchini recipes coming your way!

The beauty of this dish is that all the ingredients are fresh! No pre-cooking of anything. Straight from the garden and into the oven! Served warm, at room temperature, or even cold for an al fresco meal. You decide. Whichever way you choose, I promise that you’ll have the taste of summer in every bite! Buon appetito!

Ingredients

2 medium sized zucchini, about 2 lb.

2 large tomatoes

2 balls of fresh mozzarella, or mozzarina, about 1 lb.

1 cup of bread crumbs

1 cup of grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Fresh basil, chopped

Fresh Parsley, chopped

4 eggs

Salt & pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I was out of bread crumbs, so I made my own. One thing you can always be sure to find in my pantry is old bread! To the bread crumbs, add some freshly chopped basil and parsley, the Parmigiano Reggiano, salt and pepper to taste. If you’d like to make this dish entirely gluten free, you could replace the bread crumbs with parmesan, upping the amount to 2 cups. I only thought of this after the dish was made but I will definitely give it a try next time.

Slice the zucchini as thinly as you can, paper thin if possible. I used a mandolin to make things quick and easy. Do the same with the tomatoes and the fresh mozzarella.

You can now begin layering the lasagne. Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of an oven dish measuring more or less 11 inches by 14 inches. Cover the bottom with the zucchini slices. Add the mozzarella on top, followed by the tomato slices. Sprinkle with the bread crumb mixture and finish by drizzling a little olive oil over the top. Repeat the layers so you have 3 filled layers. The fourth and final layer of zucchini slices will be topped only with mozzarella and the bread crumb mixture, drizzled with olive oil.

Finally, beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the top. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for about 45 to 50 minutes. Allow to cool on the counter at least 30 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Julia della Croce, “Vegetarian Table: Italy”.

Zucchini and Buffalo Mozzarella Bundles

Tags

appetizers, buffalo mozzarella, seasonal, Vegetarian, zucchini, zucchini sides

If you grow your own zucchini, you’re probably starting to have an abundance of them right about now.  I know we are.  Green ones.  Yellow ones.  I’ve been enjoying our zucchini in many different ways this past week.  And if you do grow them, check out my Awesome Blossoms post and make use of those delectable zucchini flowers.  Fiori di zucchini.  They are a favourite summertime treat in our household.

Another favourite in the summertime is putting out an array of various nibbles on the table and making a meal of it.  With good friends.  Crusty bread, cheese, olives, roasted peppers, eggplant, tomato and cucumber salad, prosciutto, and these little zucchini bundles.  Stuffed with blissful buffalo mozzarella, a cheese made in Italy with milk from the water buffalo, and fresh basil leaves.  Perfect summertime treat!

Ingredients

Green and yellow zucchini

Mozzarella di Bufala, or fresh mozzarella

Fresh basil leaves

salt

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Bring some water to a boil in a medium pan and plunge the entire zucchini, whole, into the water for 3 minutes, 4 minutes for larger zucchini.  The reason for this is because the zucchini, once thinly sliced, needs to be pliable enough to roll. I tried without boiling first and I wasn’t able to roll them into little bundles.  Remove zucchini from the water and place in a colander, running cold water over them for a few minutes.

When cool enough to handle, slice as thinly as possible.  I used a mandolin at the smallest setting.  Lay out the slices on a tea towel and cover with another towel, allowing for the water from the zucchini to be absorbed.  Let sit until ready to roll.

Pat the buffalo mozzarella dry with paper towels.  Chop into small bites, no wider than the zucchini slices.  Chop or tear the fresh basil in similar sizes. 30 minutes before serving, roll into little bundles.  Sprinkle the slices lightly with salt, place a basil leaf on one end of a zucchini slice and add the mozzarella on top.  Roll into a bundle and place on a dish.  Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and serve immediately.  Buon appetito!

No-Bake Cheesecake Even Kids Can Make

Tags

Baking with kids, berries and cheesecake, cheesecake, dessert, Kids in the kitchen, no-bake cheesecake, seasonal

Both my daughters were in the mood for baking. The only problem was that it was 35 degrees C. 43 C with the humidity index. Way too hot for baking! What we needed was a dessert to beat the heat. One which didn’t require baking. A cool dessert, creamy and sumptuous, but no hot oven. We found just the thing here, thanks to Martha Stewart. A no-bake cheesecake, topped with luscious berries fresh from the farmers’ market. Simple enough that it required no help from me… other than to break-up the occasional bickering! Oh, what was I thinking?

No-Bake Cheesecake

2 cups of Graham Cracker Crumbs

1 stick (1/4 cup) of unsalted butter, melted

3 tablespoons of sugar

Salt

2 x 8 oz. (1 lb.) packages of cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar

1 cup of full-fat Greek yogurt

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1 cup of heavy (35%) cream, whipped

Fresh berries

In a large bowl, add the Graham Cracker crumbs, the butter, 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Use your fingers to combine. Press the crumb mixture evenly onto the bottom, and 1 inch up the sides, of a 9-inch springform pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer on high, until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, yogurt, vanilla, and a pinch of salt, and beat until smooth. With a rubber spatula, fold in the whipped cream. Pour cream cheese mixture into the crust and smooth the top. Cover and refrigerate until firm, at least 8 hours (or overnight).

Decorate with your favourite berries. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Ice Cream

Tags

cinnamon, cinnamon ice cream, ice cream, ice cream flavour personality, national ice cream month, seasonal desserts

I unknowingly made ice cream on National Ice Cream Day! Not only is the third Sunday in July National Ice Cream Day in the U.S., the entire month of July is National Ice Cream Month. Who knew such a day and month even existed? Apparently, it was designated as such in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan.

I only learned of this event through an interesting magazine article I came across last week. Baskin-Robbins partnered with Dr. Alan Hirsch, a nationally recognized smell and taste expert and founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, to identify what some of the most popular ice cream flavours suggest about someone’s personality. Have a look at your favourite flavour and see if there’s any truth to it. As for myself, I am a Chocolate!

• If your favourite flavour is Vanilla, you’re more likely to be impulsive, easily suggestible and an idealist.
• If your favourite flavour is Chocolate, you’re more likely to be dramatic, lively, charming, flirtatious, seductive and gullible.
• If your favourite flavour is, Very Berry Strawberry, you’re more likely to be a tolerant, devoted and an introvert.
• If your favourite flavour is Mint Chocolate Chip, you’re more likely to be argumentative, frugal and cautious.
• If your favourite flavour is Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, you’re more likely to be ambitious, competitive and a visionary.
• If your favourite flavour is Pralines ‘n Cream, you’re more likely to be loving, supportive and prefer to avoid the spotlight.
• If your favourite flavour is Jamoca (i.e. coffee), you’re more likely to be scrupulous, conscientious and a moral perfectionist.
• If your favourite flavour is Chocolate Chip, you’re more likely to be generous, competent and a go getter.
• If your favourite flavour is Rainbow Sherbet, you’re more likely to be analytic, decisive and a pessimistic.
• If your favourite flavour is Rocky Road, you’re more likely to be aggressive, engaging and a good listener.

Regardless of what day or month it was, I was in the mood for homemade ice cream. Cinnamon ice cream, from Chez Panisse Desserts cookbook. Amazing how 5 simple ingredients could make such a luscious treat!

Cinnamon Ice Cream   Yields a generous quart

1 1/4 cups of half-and-half, 10% coffee cream

2 1/2 cups of whipping cream, 35% or double cream

1 cup less 1 tablespoon of sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

6 egg yolks

Warm the half-and-half, cream, sugar and both kinds of cinnamon in a saucepan. Steep for 15 minutes, always keeping the temperature below boiling.

Whisk the egg yolks just enough to break them up and pour in some of the hot mixture, stirring constantly. Return to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the spoon, about 15 minutes. Pour into a bowl, removing cinnamon stick. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 24 hours.

When thoroughly chilled, freeze according to the instructions of your ice cream maker. Transfer to a container with a lid or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly set.

Once set, serve and enjoy! Or you could make an ice cream sandwich. My daughter Charlotte had baked some shortbread cookies and what better way to enjoy this buttery crumbling cookie with the warming flavour of cinnamon ice cream!

Vino e Fragole

Tags

desserts, Italian wine, strawberries, strawberries and wine, strawberry desserts

One of the fondest memories I have of my dad is of his winemaking . As with most Italians who arrived in Montreal straight off the boat, one of the treasures my dad and uncles took with them from the Old World was the art of making wine. Vino. I’m not sure if all Italians made their wine heavy and strong, but it seemed to be de rigueur in our circle of family and friends. So much so that the women needed to add 7-Up or mineral water to their wine, whereas us youngsters would add a few drops to our 7-Up, just enough to flavour our drink and give it a purplish hue. Oh, how pretty it looked! Yes indeed, we were introduced to wine at a young age. It wasn’t a daily event mind you, mostly during holiday celebrations or festive occasions.

Every autumn, come September and October, trainloads of grapes would come rolling into Montreal from California. Red grapes. White grapes. Yummy grapes! My dad made both red and white wine. The men would take turns going to each other’s homes and lend a hand with this arduous task. One night in my dad’s garage. The next night in my Uncle Tony’s. The night after that, my Uncle Silvester’s. And I can proudly say that I played a pivotal role in helping my dad make his wine. Not just with the extraction of the deep-red droplets through the wine press. Oak barrels were used to ferment the grapes in for about one week to 10 days. They were just over 3 feet/95 cm tall, making it difficult to reach the bottom of the barrel. My dad would lay the barrel on the floor and I would crawl into it and scrape the bottom of the barrel. The fumes were remarkably intoxicating, and after scraping the bottom of 5 barrels, off I went to bed where I would be out like a light!

My fondest memory of my dad’s wine was during strawberry season. He made the loveliest strawberries in wine. I just LOVED it! It was an elixir for me and I still LOVE it to this day! Although my daughters did not have the opportunity of meeting my dad nor of tasting his wine infused with 7-Up, I wanted them to have a taste of his favourite strawberry treat. Vino e fragole.

Strawberries in Wine

Strawberries

Sugar

Red wine

Cut the strawberries in half, or quarter them if they’re big. In a bowl, add the strawberries and sugar to your liking, perhaps a tablespoon per cup of strawberries. Add your favourite red wine, enough to just cover the strawberries. It’s essential that you use a good quality wine as you do end up drinking it in the end.

Taste it and adjust the amount of sugar. It does get slightly sweeter as they macerate. Cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours. The longer, the better! For adults, I like to serve them in wine glasses so that any left-over wine can be easily slurped. Buonissimo!