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

FREUD

I don't know if Freud should have an answer to the question: why the teenagers are so interested in horror? Really I don't understand the beauty to be dressed in black, with skulls, bones and other amusing accessories hanged here and there: earring, necklaces, bracelets, piercing and so on.

Have you ever seen the face of the children in front of that ugly, disgusting, horrible, awful toys from which, when they have been squeezed, comes out that strange glueish substance? COOL! I have seen parents be sick holding those toys, while the child was on the nine clouds doing the same!

They want to be scared, so monsters, mummies, werewolves, vampires peep out everywhere in their rooms, their books, their dresses.

It's pointless to discuss with them about this interest. They will understand there is something scarier than a werewolf when they will receive a tax form. Or when the company of the electricity will send an invoice asking for the payment of the bill, that you have paid in time. It's an awful nightmare to look for the receipt of that pair of shoes you want to take back and don't find it.

Mummies? You can reply: plumbers! I don't nurse a grievance against any plumber, but…have you never called one of them when the water springs out of your W.C?

Vampires? Ok, it's much better to give up at this point, each of us has a long list of "vampires".

Freud could say that the border line from to be a teen and to be an adult is what it is that makes you afraid.

For all those parents who want give a little "thrill" to their children, I give them 2 old Italian recipes. These recipes come from Roman time when the cult of the death was important. We use cook them the second of November, the day in which we remember our dead.

Happy Hallowe'en !

BREAD OF THE DEAD (Milanese version)
Ingredients
Plain flour 100 gm
Sugar 120 gm
Crumbs of biscuits (you can use the digestive one) 200 gm
Sultana 100 gm
Almond 50 gm
Toasted hazelnuts 50 gm
Pine nuts 50 gm
Powder of yeast 20gm
White wine 1 glass
A pinch of powder of nutmeg
A pinch of ginger
A pinch of powder of clove
A pinch of cinnamon
A pinch of salt
Icing sugar how much you need

Grind the almond and the nuts together. The pieces must be not so little.

Mix in a bowl using a fork the almonds with nuts, pine nuts, flour, sugar, the crumbs of biscuit and salt. Add the wine, the sultanas and the spice. Mix. Add the yeast.

The dough will be ready when all the ingredients are well mixed. The dough must be soft.

Shape the dough as a "baguette", Cut the dough in slices (2/3cm thick). Give to each slice an oval shape.

Put the slices on an oven tray, dust them with icing sugar.

Put the tray in the oven 170 degrees for 10 minutes. When the crust starts to crack, turn down the heat to 160 degrees ~ open a little bit the door of the oven ~ and bake for other 35/40 minutes.
Before to serve dust the slices with icing sugar

DEAD MAN'S BONES
(this is only one of several different recipes, every county has its own way to make it)

Ingredients
almonds (grounded) 200 gm
sugar 200 gm
butter 30 gm
plain four 200 gm
powder of clove half tea spoon
a pinch of cinnamon
1 egg white
the zest of half lemon

Let the butter to be soft (room temperature). Turn the oven on at 170 degree.

Mix in a bowl all the ingredients. Make a dough. Shape the dough as a bread (4cm high). Cut the bread in slices (1cm thick) give to each slice the shape of bones (like the biscuit for the dog!).

Butter the oven tray put the bones on it. Put in the oven for 20 minutes. Let cool off before to serve.