Focaccia

In Italy, when we want to tell somebody that they are nice , we tell them that they are "as good as piece of  bread", "buono come un pezzo di pane.
When I met my canadian husband in Italy, he didn't speak lots of italian, and I didn't speak any english, so we tried  our best to communicate. It would take hours to understand a concept, we did lots of drawing on napkins and invented a variaty of words but at the end we always understood each other and had fun doing so.
My husband learned to speak italian very fast, and one day he told me :" tu sei buona come la focaccia", "you are as good as focaccia", I told him that we say "as good as bread" but he replied that he liked focaccia better.
How could I resist to a sweet canadian telling me that with such a cute accent?
Well I didn't, ahahaha!
Anyway  here it is , a focaccia recipe that you will love too.
Usually focaccia is made with white flour but I change that and in this recipe I used unbleached and whole wheat flour, just to feel a little less gilty but you can use all white if you like.
Enjoy.

Focaccia

3 cups warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1TBLSP honey
4 cups unbleached flour
2 cups whole wheat flour

Topping ( you can use anything you want, onions, garlic or different erbs)

2 TBLSP chopped fresh rosemary
2 TBLSP sea salt
olive oil

Mix all the ingredient in a bowl.....

....mix until you get a nice dough.....

...spread the dough in a well oiled  9x13 cookie sheet....

....until nice and smooth ...

.... cover with a cloth and let it rest for 2 hours...

...with your finger poke the dough to make little holes...

... brush some olive oil, sprinkle the salt and the rosemary on top, be generous....

... bake at 400 for 30/35 minutes, until golden...

....eat it by itself......

...Or as your favotite sandwich!

focaccia

Bellavitafoods: Peperonata, veggies on the side.

Bellavitafoods: Peperonata, veggies on the side.: It is true that we don't appreciate what we have until we don't have it anymore! I grew up in a little village in the mountains in Italy. ...

Peperonata, veggies on the side.

It is true that we don't appreciate what we have until we don't have it anymore!
I grew up in a little village in the mountains in Italy. My dad always had a big garden where he grew all types of veggies: tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, carrots,celery you name it!
We had our  own olive trees  and our own grapes to make wine, apples, pears, plums and strawberries.
Of course when I was little I didn't understand how lucky I was to have access to fresh fruits and veggies.
I just thought it was a lot of work to grow something when you could easily buy it at the store.
Now one of my happiest childhood memories is the one of me and my dad in the garden, he would put a big blanket under one of the trees and I would sit there eating fruit while he would work.
There is nothing that compares to the taste of a tomato freshly picked from the garden.
There where those days when my mom had so many veggies she didn't know what to do.
One of her favorite things to make was this veggie dish that she called "Peperonata", I think that it was  my mother's version of  "Rattatouille".
Anyway, this dish is really really easy, it takes 20 min to prepare and it is a healty yummy side dish for a meat meal or great idea for lunch served with a nice home made whole wheat baguette.
Enjoy.

Peperonata

1 eggplant
1 zucchini
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
2 red peppers
3 tomatoes
2 cups sugar snap peas
6 TBLSP olive oil
1 tsp dry thyme
salt
pepper

Get your veggies ready.

In a pot heat the olive oil and add garlic, onions and eggplant.

Cook for 5 minutes then add the other veggies but not the tomatoes.

Cook for another 5 minutes and then add the tomatoes, thyme salt and pepper .

Cook for 10 minutes, but don't over cook the veggies, they should be cooked but not mushy.

Peperonata

Bellavitafoods: Cannelloni

Bellavitafoods: Cannelloni: Today i'm going to show you a very traditional italian dish! No, it is not lasagna or pizza. It's "Cannelloni". Cannelloni are tubes of pa...

Cannelloni

Today i'm going to show you a very traditional italian dish!
No, it is not lasagna or pizza. It's "Cannelloni".
Cannelloni are tubes of pasta stuffed and baked and it is one of my favorite things to make because they are very versatile.
I don't think that there is an exact recipe for cannelloni, some use veggies, some use meats, some make them in a cream sauce, some in a tomato sauce and some use bechamel.... So really it is just a matter of what you like.
No matter what you use they are going to be great and they are very easy to prepare.
I use dry cannelloni tubes, they are much faster to stuff and easier to handle, but you can use fresh pasta sheets if you like the challenge.
I'm very creative when I cook, I like to change it up and I like to use what I already have in the fridge if  possible. So feel free to do the same, in the meantime try this recipe!

Cannelloni

4 cups of your favorite pasta sauce, I made a simple, simple tomato sauce for this.
5 turkey sausages ( you can use mushrooms if you don't want meat)
1 onion chopped
500g ricotta cheese
2 cups fresh spinach
1 pakage of dry cannelloni
1 cup mozzarella shredded
4 TBLSP olive oil
parmiggiano cheese for sprinkle
salt and pepper to taste

Make a pasta sauce, I just cooked some garlic in oil and add crushed tomato, salt and pepper and let boil for 30 minutes. Easy easy.

 Crumble up the sausages and cook them with the chopped onion in olive oil for 10 minutes until no longer pink.

In the meantime, in a bowl mix the ricotta cheese and the fresh chopped spinach, add salt and pepper if you like.

Add the cooked sausages to the ricotta mix.

Mix very well. Then take a cannellone....

...And stuff it with the mix using a spoon or clean fingers, keep going with the rest of the tubes....

Cover the bottom of a baking dish with some tomato sauce and sprinkle with parmiggiano cheese....

.... Put your stuffed cannelloni on top ....

....cover with the rest of the tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.....

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes....

 yummy yummy....

Serve them with a nice green salad.

cannelloni

Bellavitafoods: Muffin cookies and chocolate chunk cookies

Bellavitafoods: Muffin cookies and chocolate chunk cookies: My husband used to tell me that I'm a terrible baker when it comes to cookies!!!! I know, crazy right? Well he was a little bit right... A...

Muffin cookies and chocolate chunk cookies

My husband used to tell me that I'm a terrible baker when it comes to cookies!!!!
I know, crazy right?
Well he was a little bit right... As I've said before, growing up we didn't eat many sweet things, and to be honest I have never had a sweet tooth anyways: I'm a "savory" kind of girl...
So I have never learned how to bake cookies.
But then I moved here, in Canada, and it all changed.
Everybody would come over and bring cookies or we would go somewhere and they would offer us cookies... My husband, loooves cookies, so, at the time, I felt like I really had to master the art of making cookies!
So I started looking for some recipes and started my "cookie journey", but what was so easy to make  for some, was definally not so easy for me.
With "years" I got better, but still to this day I don't think that I yet make those kind of cookies that make my husband drool!
I'm still a little bit jealous of my husband's reaction to my friends cookies.... But at least he doesn't tell me that I'm a terrible baker anymore and my cookie jar gets empty pretty fast!
This recipes is one of my favorites.
Now that I have kids I'm always looking for recipes that have some healthy ingredients in them without taking away the fun and plesure of having a sweet treat.
My husband gave them the name "Muffin cookies".

Muffin cookies.

1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking poweder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 1/2 cups dry cranberries
1 apple peeled and diced in little cubes

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix all ingredients in a mixer or with a spoon in a bowl.

Mix until you have a nice soft mixture.

Drop batter by tablespoonful in to a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

Bake  for about 12 minutes or until golden, cool on a rack.

And for those who like something more chocolaty here is a recipe for you...

Chocolate chunk cookies

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup butter melted
1  1/2 cups brown sugar
1 TBLSP vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups dark chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 325

Mix dry ingredient.

Add wet ingredients.

Take a dark chocolate bar and chop it ....

....Until you have 2 cups of chunks.

Add to the mixture .

Make little balls and put them on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. 

Cookies should be abour 3 inches apart.

Bake for 15, 17 minutes, cool on a rack.

Chocolate chunk cookies