Hello, I'm an Italian person.

In this column I will be writing easy, quick recipes, using what you can find in every supermarket.

I won't bother you with strange and "exotic" food like "mortadella", "zucchini's flowers" or "soppressata".

I'll leave to talk about them to all those people who want to sell you a "lifestyle"!


And by the way, I apologise for my "chewed English"!


Antonella Caputo

The Date

I don't know how many of you have had the "thrill" of going out on a date, when your bird/bloke says yes at your suggestion to invite her/him for a tea.

After to run home with the butterflies in stomach walking on the nine clouds, as soon as the door shuts behind your shoulder, the panic starts to peep out: what I am going to cook?

Even if you have the skill for cooking, it seems no special enough for this situation; perhaps she/he will not be your soul-mate, but who knows? So you sit on the settee with pen and paper - for taking notes - remote control under hand, you start your adventure through the TV food-channels looking for something interesting to cook.

After a couple of transmissions, you realise that:
1) you need a new set of kitchen tools
2) you need to spend almost a couple of years following lesson about how you have to cut fish in fillet.
3)you must be the sultan of Brunei for buying the ingredients for the recipes
4) why you didn't invite her/him to the restaurant?

In every kitchen there are cook-books somewhere, so you start to turn over the pages of the last best sellers of cook-book given to you as a birthday gift by your mum.

At the end you will sort out that you will be a failure. The only solution to avoid this incredible mess in which you have put yourself it's to pretend to move to Mars for the next couple of decades.

Well, why don't you try these easy and not expensive recipes?

If you have time (roughly one hour and half)

Tomatoes stuffed with rice and potatoes
To serve 2

4 fresh red tomatoes (must be big enough to be stuffed)
100 gm of rice
4 medium potatoes 50 g of cheddar (mild white or other cheese, but it must be able to be melted)
cooking oil
salt
pepper
basil (dried, or a couple of fresh leaves cut in little bits)

Wash the tomatoes, dry and cut off the top, don't throw it out; empty the tomatoes out carefully with a knife and put the stuff into a bowl. Put the empty tomatoes into a oven tray with the hole upwards.

In the bowl, in which you have put the tomatoes contents, add the rice (don't wash it), the cheese cut in little bits, salt, pepper and basil. Stuff the tomatoes with the mix. Put the "top" back on the tomatoes.

Peel the potatoes, wash and dry them with a cloth, cut them in bits, not to big not to small; put them into a bowl, seasoning and oiling. Toss carefully.

Put the potatoes around the tomatoes, and oil with generosity. Put all in the oven for 35/40 min. (it depends for the size of tomatoes) at gas mark 3

After 25 minutes turn the potatoes with a spoon, checking if they stuck on the bottom of your tray. They will be ready when you can stick the fork through them.

If you have less time try instead this recipe

Chicken breasts in lemon sauce with mushrooms salad

250 gm of mushrooms (they must be fresh)
2 chicken breasts
the juice of 2 lemons
lemon zest
olive oil
cooking oil
salt
pepper
parsley
1 clove of garlic
1 tea spoon of sugar

For the first prepare the salad:

Clean the mushroom, take off the hard bits. Cut them in thin slices. Put in a bowl, seasoning , pepper, olive oil, add the clove of garlic cut in little bits. Add parsley. Add the juice of one lemon to the mix. Toss. Leave it until ready to serve.

Now the chicken:
In a frying pan put the cooking oil, warm it up and put the chicken breasts. Season with salt and pepper. Cook the both sides and add the lemon juice and a pinch of lemon zest.

Cover the pan with a lid and cook gently. When the breasts are cooked through, take them off from the frying pan and put them in a plate.

Reduce the sauce adding the teaspoon of sugar. Mix the sauce until it will be brownish, then pour it on the chicken breasts. Add the rest of the zest on the breasts.

Serve with fresh white wine.