From the time I arrived at Gianni House I was spoiled with fresh home cooked Italian meals. In fact, one of my first new Italian words is “viziare” (spoiled). Gianni is a fantastic chef and he made a few dishes that I would love to replicate someday, even if my chances at that are minimal, considering my talent for cooking. I normally offer to wash the dishes and buy food supplies but he normally goes on the hunt for food on the streets, as you never know where the local farmers park their fresh fruit and vegetable trucks.
Please do not laugh at me! I wash the dishes well! And I will offer to attempt cooking some days. Although there have been some failed food experiments, like the salad I made a few days ago, where the taste and smell of onion followed us for a long day or two and made the salad’s memory unforgettable. Yet, at least if I cook it, I eat it. Burnt or tasteless I will eat it to the last drop, as my sweet grandmother taught me not to throw food in the trash.
But how about I write here a few tips and tricks for making this delicious food you see in the pictures?
The eggplant and yellow squash seems simple enough. He just cuts them in slices an bakes them on the grill (or oven if grill is not available). No oil, just salt, turning them on both sides until they are baked. Then he mixes a lot of small chopped garlic, parsley and pepper with olive oil and dips the baked eggplant in it, pouring the rest on top. Presto! Food is done and it tastes delicious!
The pasta with clams is another mouth watering story! The chopped garlic with pepper is fried in oil until the aroma is all around the kitchen. 🙂 Maybe two minutes. Then he added the clams and whatever the other shell food is and fried them a bit, maybe three minutes. In the meantime he boiled the pasta in water with salt and a bit of oil (just so they do not stick to each other but they get slick). He took some of the clams out of the shells, while waiting for the pasta to get half ready (al dente). When the pasta was half boiled he added it to the frying pan mix and cooked it there more, adding two full glasses of good white wine. Mixing the pasta with the wine and lots of garlic, these foods are delicious. He also added the small tomatoes and some parsley just at the end, so they are still fresh and tasty. This is the taste of Heaven!
