It’s been a busy week! Sophie and I began a series of IGTV videos and our cooking schedule has entered a new dimension. While we always think a lot about what we cook and eat, these days – with each of us filming the other – life in the kitchen has become even funner. (you can find my videos here and Sophie’s here)
As we go into the 8th week of lockdown we have realized that our weekly meal plans have changed over the last 2 months. While at the beginning they were much more detailed and we never veered off course, these days we are a bit more schematic and end up improvising more. While we try to plan out the main course, we usually leave sides to inspiration based on the vegetables we managed to buy that week. We also make a lot more last minute changes if we just don’t feel like cooking or eating something. That said, we still really love having the meal plan as a base to start from.
I see this as signs that maybe, just maybe, we are heading back towards normal? You know, the days when having such tight control over our meals and grocery shopping wasn’t quite so essential to our mental health? Or, on the other hand, maybe we’re just getting used to the whole thing? Who knows??!! in the meantime our ‘wall of menus’ is filling up fast. Will it just keep going for months, and fill up the whole kitchen?
More news from our kitchen is that Sophie now has 2 separate sour dough starters going. One is named Faustina, and seems to be going well. We’re not quite sure when Faustina will be up to making bread, but we’re ready for her. Sophie was able to get some locally milled flour during last week’s shopping expedition.
The other big piece of news is that we were able to order take out pizza. I know this doesn’t seem huge, but since we are in the middle of the countryside, about a 15 minute drive from town, it was an extremely big deal. Also? They delivered Gelato too, since the same people own one of the best gelaterias in town. We’ll definitely be doing this again!!
And finally, our vegetable garden is really going well. We have tons of salad, which we have been loving.
Sophie also finally figured out how to forage for wild chicory, so yay to that!
We’ve also developed a love affair with our leftovers and our freezer. Rather than save leftovers to eat the next day or later in the week, we immediately freeze them, no matter how small the amount. For instance, we had half about half a pizza leftover from take out pizza night. So we froze it! It was perfect heated up and served with salad one day for lunch. And three small pieces of leftover grilled steak got unfrozen, marinated and added to our stir fry on Sunday. And we were all thrilled to have that Easter Lamb again after 2 weeks.
Lockdown Menu 6
April 20-26, 2020
MONDAY
Lunch: Farro Soup (sort of like this one) ; Homemade Black Bread; Salami
Dinner: Pizza Delivery! Plus salad from our garden and foraged chicory. And gelato too!
TUESDAY
Lunch: Pressed Potato Terrine, Eggs, Anchovies, Steamed Vegetables; Salsa Verde
Sophie used the recipe for the Terrine from Rachel Roddy’s book on Roman cooking, but you can also find it here. As it turn out it’s not very Roman but it is very good. We ate it as she suggested with anchovies, boiled eggs and salsa verde. I also steamed a couple of carrots and zucchini, which paired perfectly.
Dinner: Octopus Carpaccio and Marinated Anchovies (bought prepared from the fish vendor); Baked Orata; Green Salad, potatoes
We always have fish the day that Sophie does the shopping because it’s so fresh. Again she managed to pick up a beautiful Orata (sea bream) which I roasted whole. She also bought prepared seafood antipasti from the fish vendor: Octopus Carpaccio and Marinated Anchovies. A real treat!!
WEDNESDAY
Lunch: Penne alla Vodka, Green Salad
When we have pasta we always have it for lunch. This is pretty much an old fashioned Italian tradition when the big meal of the day was lunch. Penne alla Vodka is one of those old fashioned recipes that I love. It’s super easy and everyone loves it. You can see just how easy it is here in the video I made.
Dinner: Fried Sage Leaves: Grilled Steak , Funghi Trifolati (Mushrooms)
I’m not one to usually just fry up something for antipasto, but sage leaves are just so easy. Also, they are looking especially beautiful these days in our garden. We have 3 or 4 different kinds of sage growing, and I chose one variety since the leaves are huge. They are perfect for frying.
One thing we buy every week are mushrooms. They are always available at the supermarket and usually make a great addition to soups, stews or pasta. This week I decided to cook them on their own, as a side to the grilled steak, and made a video of the recipe, which will be posted later this week here.
THURSDAY
Lunch: Focaccia Barese , Cheese, Salad
Focaccia day has now become an official weekly tradition. Sophie will be posting a video of how to make it here this week.
Dinner: Lentils, Sausage
While lentils usually end up in our soups, for dinner last week we had them as the main dish, topped with a sausage. Sophie will be posting her recipe for lentils here.
FRIDAY
Lunch: White Focaccia, Prosciutto, Cheese, and Salad from the Garden
When ever Sophie makes Focaccia Barese (which is topped with tomatoes and olives) she also makes a second one, topped just with rosemary. We can then eat it the next day, or freeze it to eat later on. We had it with prosciutto, cheeses and a huge green salad from the garden.
Dinner: Leftover lamb, Roasted Peppers, Strawberry Ricotta Cake, Creme Fraiche
What a treat to have the leftover lamb from Easter that we had frozen! As a side I just roasted some padron peppers. I also made this amazing Strawberry Ricotta cake with creme fraiche I learned how to make from Domenica Marchetti.
SATURDAY
Lunch: Artichoke Salad; Celery and Cheese Salad
These are two of my favorite salads and while I’ve linked to the recipes above, I’ll also be adding videos to my IGTV channel
Dinner: Pasta with Peas and Pancetta, Salad
During our walk on Saturday Sophie dreamed up this pasta. She cooked fresh peas with onions and then pureed them into this bright green sauce. The crispy pancetta on the top was perfect!
SUNDAY:
Lunch: Zucchini Fritters, Tomato Cucumber Salad; Green Salad with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds; Tahini Sauce; Sour Cream Herb Sauce; Roti
Our original Sunday lunch plan was supposed to be very Italian: Involtini with sauce that I would use on pasta. But I just wasn’t feeling it. I was craving something Ottolenghi-ish. And so made Zucchini Fritters. It was kind of based on this recipe, but I used ricotta instead of feta. Here is my recipe I also made the Roti that have become an easy staple for this kind of meze meal, as well as two kinds of sauces. One was sour cream based (with chives and lime) and the other was more lemony tahini. Both salads were full of fresh herbs from our garden. The green salad was loaded with marjoram, and the tomato salad with oregano.
Dinner: Asian Eggplant: Bokchoy with Steak ; Rice
Our version of Chinese has also become a Sunday tradition. The only change was that instead of pork or other ground meat I used the left over grilled steak from the other night. I based both on this recipe and this one.
Here are the previous menus from our time in Lockdown:
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