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

RADAR
There are moments during our life when we wish to be alone in a desert island: Christmas time is one of them.

A phone call puts us into discouragement: someone invites us to the party for Christmas dinner.

Never mind problems like: we have to meet all those people who we wouldn't meet for all the gold of the world, or what we have to wear -- this is often restrict to the ladies -- our first thought will be: what the Hell I can give as a gift?

For the first we check how much we can afford and often we will work out that our income for that month will be absorbed by bills. So we, with sad heart, start to hunt for a bargain going round shops looking for something useful, nice, well-made and above all cheap.

If we are nor kissed by the fairy of Luck, we will not find anything like that. At the end we will have to solve an easy dilemma: buy something expensive and postpone the payment of one bill or buy something cheap, and it is sure that who will receive it, will propose us for being titled as "Scrooge of the year". We will buy the expensive one.

So after to being plucked like a chicken, with the purse plenty of receipts, completely exhausted, but still not able to go home yet because we still have plenty to buy, you can guess we will meet a friend. This person, cheerfully, shows us the latest purchase, the bargain of the year: a real big gorgeous porcelain dish of Limonge for only 40 quid, the price on the label was 130 pounds... And we give ourselves up to despair: we bought a "fake" Limonge for 135 pounds….

There is always someone who will show you skirts, T-shirts, shoes, books, furnitures and so on, and this person will underline that all those items are real bargains. The worst part of the story it's that they are right!

Why these kind all people are so lucky? I suspect they have a little radar-fairy who drives them through the shops, and she points to them, with a magic wand, the bargain.

There is only one thing we can do: be friendly with this people and with their radar fairies. So we can ask them to buy gifts for us.

Merry Christmas!

For these recipes you don't need any radar fairy. All you need it's a little bit of time.

Tortellini in brodo (Tortellini in broth)
Warning: "Tortellini are fresh or dried stuffed pasta, there are different size of this kind of pasta. Do not use anything labelled "Tortelloni, it's too big. For the broth you have to use the little one. You can prepare the broth the day before.

Serve 6
Broth:
1 kg of joint of beef
half a chicken
1 big onion
1 medium carrot,
4 leaves of fresh celery
1 fresh tomato
2 cloves
1 bay leaf
A pinch of salt
Whole grain pepper, unground

In a large saucepan put the beef and the chicken and cover with cold water. Add salt. Leave to cook gently. When the water starts to boil add the vegetables (stick into the onion the cloves). Leave to simmer gently for 1 hour and half. Take off from the surface the grease that will have formed.

When all will be cooked take off the beef and the chicken and the vegetables. Leave to cool off and take off all the grease from the surface, using a wooden spoon. When you want to eat it, put again the broth on to the cooker and bring to the boil. Leave the broth to boil. Put the tortellini into the broth. For the cooking time check on the packet.

Serve with fresh grated parmisan on.

How use the boiled meat -
Take all the meat from the bones of the chicken and from the joint of beef. Cut the meat in little pieces. Put the ingredients in a bowl, you can dress them in different way:

Easy way: dress the meat with oil salt and pepper.

Alternatively you can season the meat and add the mayonnaise. Mix all.

Fettuccine in mushroom sauce
For 4
250 gr fresh fettuccine
200 gr of champignon mushrooms
200 gr of oyster mushrooms
30 gr of dry porcini mushrooms
50 gr of cottage cheese
25 gr of butter
1 little chilli pepper (if you wish)
cooking oil (I prefer sunflower)
1 clove of garlic
3 tbs of water
salt
pepper

Clean the champignon and oyster mushrooms. Chop them in big pieces. Put the dry porcini in a little bowl with warm water and leave them for 15 minutes.

In a big frying pan put the oil and the garlic, add the chopped mushrooms and the porcini with the water. Season and put in the chili pepper. Leave to cook gently. Don't reduce the sauce. When the mushrooms are ready put in the cottage cheese and melt it.

Boil the water and put in the fresh pasta. As soon as it starts to boil check the pasta, usually it needs no more than 5 minutes to cook.

When the pasta is ready put it into the frying pan and add the butter. Gently stir the pasta into the sauce. Serve.

Rolle' (stuffed beef roll)
Serve 6
1kg beef for roasting (roast beef meat)
5 slices of bacon
3 chopped boiled eggs
2 cloves of garlic
1 glass of white wine
rosemary
salt
pepper
string for cooking
oil

Cut the piece of beef in way you must have a sheet. Or ask to the butcher to prepare the meat in this way. Wash under a cold tap, then season with salt, pepper, oil, and rosemary. On the beef put the slices of bacon, and the chopped boiled eggs.

Roll the sheet of meat. Tie it up with the string, you must have a big "sausage". Cut a little bit here and there the meat and introduce into the cuts little pieces of garlic. Spread on the meat salt, pepper. Put the meat onto a tray and oil it. Cook at oven mark 5. The time is linked with the size of the roll. While the roll is cooking you have to turn it from time to time and pour on it the sauce in which it is cooking. When it is half cooked pour the wine. Warning! Check that the meat is cooked inside! Check it by cutting the meat and check if there is still blood.

When it is ready, take the string off and slice it. Serve with its own sauce.

Salmon in the oven
Serve 6
6 pieces of fresh salmon
3 little branches of rosemary
1 lemon cut in slices
salt
pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Oil the tray with a little bit of olive oil.

Put the salmon in the tray and onto it put the rosemary. Cover with kitchen foil. Put in the oven 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

At this time take the foil off, and take the rosemary out, leave to cook for other 10 minutes.

When the salmon is ready, put the pieces on a plate (the plate must be warmed up), pour the olive oil and the slices of lemon around. Each person must squeeze the lemon on the own salmon, as they like.

Struffoli (this is a typical Christmas sweet from Naples)
To make the dough:
500 gm of flour
5 eggs
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
3 tbs of sugar
half a teaspoon of baking powder
1 liqueur glass of Pernod (or aniseed liqueur)
oil for frying

To make the dressing:
2 tbs of sugar
200 gm of honey
2 tbsp of water
Grated zest of lemon, orange, and 2 tangerines

Dough.
Pour the flour on a table. Shape it as a volcano, in the hole put the eggs, sugar, oil, baking powder and the Pernod. Mix altogether, using a fork then the hand. You must have an elastic dough.

Leave to rest for one hour covered with a clean towel.

Pinch a little bit of dough and roll between the hand until you have a "stick". Cut each stick into a little pieces. Put all these pieces onto a clean towel. When you have cut all the dough, warm the oil up and fry all the little pieces of dough until they become goldenish.

Put the fried pieces onto a paper towel for take the oil out. When they will be cooled off, put the "struffoli" in a bowl

In a saucepan melt the honey with the sugar and the water and the zest of the fruits. As soon as there will be a scum on the surface pour the sauce on the struffoli and mix. You must be quick, before the sauce becomes cold give to the mix the shape of a mountain. For decorating you can put on little candies.

Serve sliced.