October!

It's October and I am BACK! In the past two weeks, I spent a full 10 days visiting my parents which included a long weekend in Illinois for a friend's wedding, lots of cheddar cheese (of course) ...and kale, and overuse of the internet to compensate for our lack of in Cortina (which has now been fixed!). I flew back to Italy last Saturday night, Ryan picked me up in Venice on Sunday afternoon and we spent the rest of the day and night looking for George Clooney and eating delicious risotto at one of our favorite restaurants (Osteria il Milion).

Speaking of risotto, last year we did the risotto of the month and made seven different risottos....well, this year, we're switching it up to pasta. We LOVE pasta (who doesn't?) and we're in Italy - it's a match made in heaven.

Our first pasta dish this season includes pesto, shrimp, roasted cherry tomatoes and homemade linguine. I made the linguine and the pesto myself because I was feeling adventurous and because it was made on a night when Ryan had practice until 9 pm - but obviously store-bought everything works fine too!

Linguine with Pesto, Shrimp and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Serves 2


For the pasta - we made pasta in great detail here but for two people I roughly use 1 cup of flour and one egg with a little water mixed in, if needed. Or you can use enough dried pasta for two people.

For the pesto - 2 cups fresh basil, one garlic clove, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, a little salt and pepper, mixed in a food processor until smooth. Add more olive oil if needed to make smooth. Spoon into a dish and mix in 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Can be stored in the fridge for later or used right away - we make our pesto on the chunkier side.

For the shrimp and tomatoes - About 8-10 shrimp per person, washed and dried, cooked in a little olive oil. Meanwhile, coat the cherry tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, or until they begin to burst open.

Split pasta between two bowls and top with pesto, shrimp and roasted tomatoes. Add extra Parmesan, salt and pepper as needed.

Let the Games Begin

Ryan's hockey season officially begins tomorrow (Saturday), which is great for one thing: lunch.

Pre-game meals are an event to look forward to in the Dingle household - last year I wrote about Ryan's famous red sauce, but it doesn't stop there. No pre-game meal is complete without what we like to call "The Sophie Salad". This salad was invented as a way to distract myself from the delicious scent of Ryan's sauce being prepared in the kitchen, because unlike Ryan, I don't exercise enough to eat pre-game meal twice a week (although it usually happens anyway). Recipe below!

This season, as always, you can follow Cortina on Pointstreak (here) and through their website (here). Games are every Thursday and Saturday at 8:30 pm Italian time. To watch the live ticker on Pointstreak, click on the link above - all the games will be listed on game days - and click on Cortina's game.

Forza Cortina!


The Sophie Salad
Serves 2

Combine in a large bowl: enough lettuce for two people, one small tomato chopped, half a chopped cucumber, a bit of chopped red onion if you like it, four chopped artichoke hearts (from a jar),1 small can of tuna, about half a can of white cannellini beans, two hard boiled eggs and some crumbled feta. For dressing we use olive oil and red wine vinegar or balsamic.

Homeward Bound

Now that we've arrived and gotten settled in I'm packing up and leaving again, to head back to the US tomorrow for a wedding and a visit with my parents. But I'll be back on the 28th and I have a few posts lined up in the meantime.

Here are a few pictures from our first two weeks, if you'd like to see...Ryan had three pre-season games last week and we've been working on getting hooked up to the internet (still), but in between all that....

Last Monday we went up to Monte Piana where there was a slackline competition that was CRAZY to watch! The lines were tied on the mountains between cliffs and the people were SO high up.

In this picture, you can see all the different lines:

 And in this picture, you can see a tiny person in the middle of the line!

Everyone was camping out on top of the mountain...

 

And they were paragliding too! You can see the little shapes in the clouds:

 

The whole thing was pretty wild. Then, this past weekend we did our annual Cinque Torri hike...

We stopped halfway up for lunch with a view and then continued on to the top. This is a hike that we do every September before the trail and rifugios close at the end of the month.

Check back later in the week for info on how to follow Ryan's team this year - his first game is on Saturday!

Here We ARE Again

Here we are again! 

We arrived successfully on the morning of August 31, having completed all items on our “leaving check-list” which was three pages long, front and back. You know, you can’t just LEAVE the country for eight months like Diane Lane does in Under the Tuscan Sun – you have to pack, for one. And cancel your health insurance and stock up on soba noodles and canned pumpkin. And call Wells Fargo to alert them that you will be out of the country for eight months.

Apparently,Wells Fargo now does this through an automated woman who is very friendly, but hard of hearing. 

“What is the first country you will be traveling to?” she asked me.

“Italy,” I said.

“Did you say Italy?” she replied.

“Yes.”

“What is the next country you will be visiting? If Italy is your only destination, say done.”

“Austria,” I said (for groceries).

“Did you say Austria?”

“Yes.”

“What is the next country you will be visiting? If Austria is your last destination, say done.”

“Germany.”

“Did you say Germany?”

“YES.”

“What is the next country you will be visiting? If Germany is your last destination, say done.”

“Switzerland.”

“Did you say North Korea?”

Why no, I did not say North Korea.

Anyway, we got everything straightened out and we’re here! I took our first week off blogging (not by choice) because we don't have internet yet (this is Italy!)   and instead focused on unpacking and eating cheese. But! I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and I’m excited for what’s to come this year: we’re going to take lots of trips (none to North Korea though), make lots of homemade pasta, and hopefully have lots of visitors. Thanks for reading!

 

Here We GO Again!

On Saturday we'll be leaving for Cortina and we are so excited to get back! We're excited for the hockey season (some of us more than others - no, just kidding), for homemade pasta (some of us can't stop thinking about it), for those jagged mountain views, for readily available bottles of Lagrein and mostly, for all those new experiences and adventures that this next season will bring.

Which brings me to my point, which is the history behind the name "Here We Go Again."
What's in the name? First of all, I want to be clear that when you read the phrase "here we go again", you should be reading it "Here We GO Again!!!!"

NOT: "HERE we go again" or "here we go AGAIN"

While in some situations this phrase signals monotony - or as my husband likes to call it, the "Groundhog Day Effect" - in this case, that's not at all what it means.

Here We Go Again means here comes another adventure. Here's another lesson learned, another recipe tried, another country visited, another trip taken. Here's one more ravioli recipe, one more picture of a canal in Venice, one more funny Italy story (although now that we know how to recycle, our stories just aren't as funny...).

Here We Go Again embodies having exciting adventures each and every day, no matter how big or small. Whether it's a trip to Austria or a simple bowl of pasta, Here We Go Again revels in it all.

So with that in mind, here we GO again!!


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Kale Chips

One of the first things people always say when they find out that we live in Italy is: "it must be amaaaaazing to get to eat all that delicious food!"

And it is.

There are the Italian classics: Caprese salads dripping with olive oil from Tuscany; plump ravioli filled with dark green spinach and the whitest, creamiest ricotta cheese; bubbling hot pizzas and golden fried artichokes...

So we almost always forget about all the things that Italy actually doesn't have: first of all, Italian salad dressing (ha), and actually any kind of salad dressing, for that matter, other than olive oil and vinegar. Cumin. Cilantro. Cheddar cheese. Chocolate chips. (I don't know why they don't like C foods). And my personal favorite, kale.

Okay, not exactly true. Of course Italy has kale and it's called cavolo nero. Apparently it grows abundantly in Tuscany and never gets shipped to Cortina. Last October I spotted it in a grocery store an hour away from Cortina, in Brunico, but unfortunately I do not normally make hour trips just to buy kale.

I tend to just wait until we get back to Colorado in April and then I eat it every day. This summer baking it in the oven was my favorite preparation, so much so that one week, I did it five days in a row. The result is a crispy kale leaf, almost like a potato chip, which is perfect for a snack, cocktail hour, dinner time, and basically any time.

I will be making these almost every day until we leave for Cortina. Lucky for my husband (who oddly seems to be less enchanted with kale chips), that's only 16 days away.

Crispy Kale Chips

1 small bunch of kale
Olive oil for drizzling
Sea salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash the kale. Remove the kale leaves from the stem and cut into bite size pieces (not too small because it shrinks while it cooks). Place the kale on a baking sheet and drizzle with 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil (it doesn't need to be drenched). Sprinkle on the sea salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes (if spice is desired) and toss together to mix and coat. Bake for no more than 10 minutes. **It's so important to keep an eye on them after the 7 minute mark because the leaves can burn so easily! You'll know they're done when they are dark green, not brown, with a crisp to them.** Serve immediately.

Summer Pasta

I don't usually post during the summer while we're in Colorado (or anywhere and everywhere), but since we're dying to get things up and running again, I thought this summer-y pasta recipe would be a good start.

This is a pasta dish that is very unlike the spaghetti and meatballs, carbonara and cacio e pepe that I love to make in the freezing cold winters. It's perfect for hot summer nights because the only thing that cooks is the pasta. I used store-bought Barilla this time, but if you have a pasta maker and time (neither of which I had), obviously fresh pasta is the best.

 

 

Spaghetti with Uncooked Tomato Sauce
(Serves four as a light meal or first course)

Sauce
4 Roma tomatoes, chopped - I use one tomato per person, so if you are feeding more or less than four, take that into consideration
1/2 cup of basil, coarsely chopped
Roughly 25 fresh bite-sized mozzarella balls (called "Ciliegine"), halved
1/2 cup good extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and pepper to taste


Pasta
1/2 box of thin spaghetti - this time I used Barilla Whole Grain - cooked according to package instructions

Make the sauce - Combine the chopped tomatoes, basil, halved mozzarella balls, and olive oil in a bowl. Stir together and add salt and pepper to taste. It's best to make the sauce at least four hours before you want to serve dinner so that the flavors can meld together. I usually make it in the morning and put it in the refrigerator for the day - just make sure to remove it at least an hour before serving so that it can come to room temperature. 

Twenty minutes or so before you're ready to eat dinner, cook the pasta, drain well and transfer to a large serving bowl. Mix in the sauce and sprinkle with more salt and pepper and fresh Parmesan, if desired.