Friends & Food

Dear all,

I just have to apologize for not having posted anything for so long. Lets say I've been busy.

A while ago I met some great new people in Amsterdam, good friends of my love. He told me we had to meet and I would totally fall in love with them...and I did!
One of the main reasons for this is the passion we share for good food and cooking...
I think he is the best risotto-maker I know! We had a risotto with fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. Super creamy and fresh! Then he made a raspberry bavarois which didn't set completely but that just made it much more creamy and delicious. YUM!
Last week, when we visited Holland, they invited us over again. Again, a stunningly delicious risotto with saffron and orange and a scallop on top. for dessert we had a rosemary cake with olive oil! I just made it myself and it's just as wonderful as it was there! Super moist and full of flavor.
I'll give you the recipe next time.

A few weeks ago they came to visit us in Como and it was our turn to invite them for dinner. It was a rainy sunday and there wasn't much in the fridge. I made my famous bruscette with tomato and apple , then a pumpkin soup with home made bread and lovely pecorino and gorgonzola with a Williams pear for sweetness.
As you might know I'm a bit of a dessert person so almost all the effort went into that. I made mini pavlova's with strawberries and mint.

Here's how:

you'll need for 4 pavlova's:
3 egg whites
180 gr of white sugar
250 ml of cream
500 gr of strawberries (ripe and red)
juice of half a lemon
2 tbls of cane sugar
a hand ful of fresh mint

For the meringues: preheat the oven on 100 degrees Celcius. beat the egg whites almost stiff, then add the sugar in three times and beat until stiff.
Put baking paper on a baking tin and shape 4 'baskets' of the egg white with a diameter of ca. 15cm. about 3 to 4 cm high. bake them for 1-2 hours until very lightly colored and crisp on the outside. They still have to be a bit gewy on the inside. Leave to cool.

Cit the strawberries in small cubes and mix with the sugar and the lemon juice and the finely chopped mint, leave to marinate.

Beat the cream until almost stiff.

Now build them up! Put a meringue on a dessert plate, put a good amount of cream on top. Then top it off with the strawberries, Don't take too much of the fluid on your spoon while doing this.

E voila! Don't they look pretty?!