Last minute bruschetta

Yesterday Matteo decided to do some bruschetta for us for dinner time and I wouldn't complain about it, love all variations of this Italian food. As usual he doesn't have a recipe for what he cooks, but I'll share how he made it with you. It was delicious!

Recipe

Ingredients:

2 ciabatta bread

7 or 8 sliced mushrooms

2 medium shopped tomatoes

1 shopped onion

2 garlic gloves (1 sliced and save the other one)

2 tablespoon shoyu or any similar soy sauce

1 tablespoon vegetable margarine

2 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)

herbs

salt

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Slice the ciabatta bread in two and put them in the oven until they get golden on top and a little bit crispy on the edges (about 5 to 6 minutes).



Fry onion and garlic until golden (use a teaspoon of vegetable oil if you want or just fry them with water). Add the mushrooms and let them fry for 3 or 4 minutes. Add salt, herbs and soy sauce and let it cook for another 2 or 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes (if you want you can let them out of the filling and add them raw on the top just before eating) and let the mix cook for another minute. Add the margarine and nutritional yeast and cook until the margarine melts and create a creamy sauce.


Rub some garlic in the bread slices and place the mushroom sauce on top of each slice.

Italian memories veganized

Yesterday Matteo decided to "veganize" a recipe that takes him back to childhood: cotechino servito con polenta e lenticchie (sausage served with polenta and lentils). We've bought this vegan sausage from Fry's Vegetarian a few days ago and he was excited to try it in the Italian dish (that's usually served for Christmas but he wanted to make sure it would be good first).


It's really an easy dish, fast to prepare and the result was amazing (don't let the pic fool you, it's delish!). All you need is to cook some polenta (instant polenta works fine), make your favourite lentil sauce (we used canned lentils - 2 cans would be better than one if you're cooking for two people) and cook and fry the sausage. Put all together and you're done!


I really enjoy cooking (or in this case just eating) meals that take us back home, to all these memories and reconstructing them in a vegan way is an wonderful way to keep memories alive and to build new memories, suitable to the choice we've made, the choice for life.


(Here's a picture of the original dish)

Gotta love... polenta (really?!)

Have to start this post saying I'm having a great week. Good news coming, first one being that my Master results came today and I'm approved with honours and this makes me feel very happy cause it wasn't that easy to do a Master in different country, about this country that I don't know that well and in another language. My dissertation name was "Food and Media: How the Irish Press Covers the Subject of Food". I'll write more about it someday here.


The second news are the BIG news that I was waiting a appropriate moment to share here. Me and Matteo are expecting a baby boy! I have no words to describe how happy we are and I have some information prepared to share with you about my experience being a vegan pregnant. I'm with 22 weeks now and I'm feeling great! And this big news brings me to the topic of this post: polenta. I'm not craving nothing strange but I'm eating a lot of food that I didn't like that much before and this would include polenta.

For those who don't know, polenta is a popular Italian dish (made with ground yellow or white cornmeal) and it comes from Lombardia, the region where my husband is from. And polenta is one of his favourite dishes ever. And I never loved it and I know how frustrated he always was about it but I couldn't do anything about it. Until last month. When we're deciding what to cook, from time to time he suggests polenta (and my answer was always no!) but one day he asked me and I say myself saying a shy "yes". And for my (and his) surprise I ate it and I really enjoyed. And I had it again and again and I'm enjoying it even more. I'm sure this half milanese boy I'm carrying has something to do with this!


I'm not the one who's cooking the polenta but I'm glad to share two recipes that Matteo is making to us: polenta concia and polenta with beans. As some other Italian dishes, the secret of polenta is in the sauce. The polenta itself is easy to prepare, even more considering that today you can find instant polenta to buy and it tastes as good as the traditional one (which take at least one hour to cook).

Polenta concia: originally this polenta is cut on half while very hot and filled with butter and gorgonzola and on top there is an egg and parmesan. The vegan version has margarine and your favorite cheese in the middle (if you live in Europe and can get Vegusto cheese to use on it, please do it!). Usually Matteo eats it just with nutritional yeast on top but you can make some scrambled tofu too. I'm still not a big fan of polenta concia but this is Matteo's favourite for sure!

Polenta con intingolo di fagioli: this fancy Italian name means polenta with beans sauce! This is the one I'm eating and all you have to do is to cook some white beans (or even red beans) with tomato sauce, garlic and onions and serve on top of the polenta. Pretty easy, no?

Do you like polenta? Have you ever had any of these Italian ways of eating it? How do you prepare it usually?

On the road: vegan in Sardinia

Marinara pizza with artichokes and black olives

A couple of weeks ago me and Matteo went to Sardinia, Italy. We had a lovely time there and the island is really beautiful. We rented a car, so we could go to as many places as possible. The weather wasn't amazing, but it was still warmer than Ireland and it was sunny most of the time.
How was the food, you might be asking? Well, have to tell you that Sardinia was a good surprise for me. We didn't find much information on line before the travel and decided to go with the spirit that in Italy there's always pasta and pizza, "so will be fine". When we left the airport we stopped in a regular supermarket and found some vegan stuff to have in the hotel. It was a very good start.

In the first two days we kept eating breakfast in the hotel, eating some snacks in the car while driving around the island, having sandwiches, juice and fruits in the afternoon and pizza at night. But our vegan supply was ending and we were in a very small city and had no idea about what to find around to eat. But when we were coming back from La Maddalena, a small island part of Sardinia, I spotted an advertising on the road about a organic store and guess where was it?! Oh yeah, at "our" city (Olbia)! We went straight there and I was very surprised with the size of the store - it is huge! It's not a vegetarian or vegan place - so they had some fish (I didn't see meat) - but it had many vegan products and we could supply ourselves again. Talking to the owner, she said there are many vegans around!

Emporio Alcatraz
12, V. Roma, Olbia, OT 07026
07026, Italy

So, if you decide to go to Sardinia, don't be afraid, you will always find the Italian classics - pasta and pizza (marinara pizza with the vegetables you want) - and also vegan products in regular supermarkets and organic shops.

I couldn't help myself and had a marinara with french fries
It's not Italian at all but it was good (and funny!)

And don't forget, if there is any important Italian words to know when you're traveling and doesn't speak Italian at all, the word is "strutto" (it means "lard" and it's still used in some doughs in Italy, mainly in focaccia bread).

Lime granite in our last day, in Alguero

Enjoying your (vegan) food

Spaghetti with "meat" balls in Italy:
Italians don't eat spaghetti with meat balls,
but my sister-in-law made it for us

A couple of weeks ago I came across this quote from chef Jamie Oliver: “Stop being a vegan and start enjoying what you eat.” Until that day I thought he was an "OK" chef who sometimes cook vegetarian (and even vegan) meals at his show 30 Minutes Meals. I don't know from when or where this quote came from and I won't spend this post talking about him (I already read some posts about the topic in the internet). What I really want to say here is that most of the people I know that truly enjoy their food are vegan.

I'm reading a lot about food to write my thesis and also its relation with culture. It's clear that the post-modern days pushed away people from the kitchen and from dinner tables too. Most of the people I know who aren't vegan don't know how to cook or just know a few basic dishes and a lot of them eat out or take away or ask for some fast food/pizza delivery. Yeah, I know, there are vegan people like that too! But I'm just talking about my experience and the people I know (and believe me, I know a lot of them).

vegan gorgonzola
also made by my sister-in-law

Becoming vegan still means that you should learn cooking and eating more at home. Even with more and more vegan options in restaurants and coffee shops it's still better (and more trustful) to eat at home. I know that my interest on cooking is not the usual one, I really enjoy spending time in the kitchen, but as everybody there are some days that I don't want to cook too. But there is no situation - even when I'm tired as I'm being these days - when I do not enjoy the food I'm preparing or just eating. For me, eating is one of the biggest pleasures in life and I do enjoy what I eat and I take time to do it every single day.

How many people do you know who spend more than 30 minutes in their kitchen preparing (and enjoying) their food and another 30 minutes eating (and enjoying even more) their meals in this crazy world where everything is fast and furious? Between these people, how many are vegan?

perfect vegan dessert plate

GO VEGAN. I'm sure you will enjoy your food.