Always as a part of the kilo of herrings I’ve bought, those are inspired by the much more famous Sarde a beccafico, a typical Sicilian dish.
The problem with this recipe is that I haven’t measured the ingredients, but just followed the moment…

4 herring fillets
Breadcrumbs
Fine grain couscous
Raisins
Pinenuts
Cappers
Dill
Extra virgin olive oil
Garlic

Heat the oil and stir fry the minced garlic. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for about 10 minutes, adding some spoonful of hot water.
Lay each fillet and spread some of the breadcrumb mixture on it. Roll it and close it with a toothpick. Cook it in a pan with some oil for 10-15 minutes.

Have I already told you my childhood story about my eternal hate for minestra???
In Italy we call minestra any souplikestuff with vegetables, diced and cooked in some kind of stock or just water… In classical culinary Italian there are two different type of minestra: in brodo (in stock or water, anyway something soupy) and asciutta (dry, and we classify in this section any pasta or rice dish). What I always hated was minestra in brodo, and especially minestrone. Just thinking about it I wince… And along with my hate for minestra goes my hate for cooked celery… In fact the only thought of the smell of boiled celery make my face change in a grimace…
Anyway, all this nice useless information, just to tell you that I’m now over my hate for minestra (although I’m not over the one for boiled celery) and now I can eat soupy stuff, but do not make me see a single dice or piece: I want them smooth, velvety thick, creamy…
And as much as I like to play with what I have in the fridge, I do even like to transform cheap ingredients in something “chic” (I’m so hilarious thinking that something chic can come out of my kitchen!!! Especially on purpose!!!) or maybe “shabby chic” (my real aim in this life…)!

4 carrots
1 fennel
1 potato
Salt
Pepper
Orange zest

Clean and dice carrots, fennel and potato. Place them in a saucepan, cover with water, add salt and bring to the boil. Let it cook for 20 minutes.
Blend everything. Serve with freshly grind pepper and the orange zest.

P.S. This picture is part of the set “Piperita bought bargain linen napkins”…

Last time I went to my fishmonger I found fresh herring fillets at 2.50 € per kilo! Of course I’ve bought a kilo: they are good, healthy and surprisingly cheap!

3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 herring fillets, skinned and diced
6-8 cherry tomatoes, diced
few branches of dill
10 black olives
200 g of linguine

Bring to the boil a lot of water for the pasta.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a big pan and fry the garlic. Add the diced herrings, let the m cook for 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes, dill and the olives. Let it cook. In the meanwhile, salt the water and cook the pasta al dente. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan, add the last tablespoon of olive oil and turn everything together.

My ode to catalogna wasn’t a joke: I really love this greenery! Last time I went to the market I bought a huge tuft, cooked the outer leaves and ate raw the inside (puntarelle) following a great recipe.
As I can’t always eat catalogna with pasta (for the good of this blog), I made this little pies (albeit I’m not sure you can call them pie, as they are something between pie and soufflé).

300 g of cooked catalogna
250 g of ricotta
100 of stracchino
3 tablespoons of parmesan
2 eggs
1 clove of garlic
Salt and pepper

Mix everything in a food processor until smooth. Butter few little moulds or a big one, cover with breadcrumbs and fill them with you mixed mixture. Cook in a preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden.

P.S. This picture is the first of a huge set that goes under the title: Piperita bought bargain linen napkins. Be ready for more!!!