Green Salad with Sun dried Tomatoes and Zucchini

O, I wish it were summer. 

Wish I were at the sea and there were sand between my toes. 

Wish I was taking one of my long walks along the sea collecting seashells and listening to the tidal waves and to the laughter of my children. 

Every year is divided into two - the cold season which last nearly five months when all my hopes circle around the forthcomming summer, and the warm season when we do our best to be as much as possible at the Mediterranean sea. 

Ordering this salad is part of the ritual for welcoming summer. Every summer we go to our favorite restaurant and we know, this salad will be still at the menu. 

And this is such a comforting thought - everithing is there just waiting for us.

And every summer we inevitably go back there because this is our favorite spot in the world. 

Eggplant Parmesan (Melanzane alla Parmigiana)

Melanzane alla Parmigiana is a rich dish from Northern Italy, composed of alternating layers of fried eggplant, tomato sauce, Parmesan and mozzarella.  

Zuppa Toscana

I don't have much time to prepare all the winter dishes I like- spring has nearly come, so I have to hurry. Nearly twenty days until the end of March, nearly twenty dishes to savour. 

One of them deffinitely Zuppa Toscana. Zuppa Toscana is a winter soup. Based on rich and nutritious ingredients like bacon, sausage, potatoes and heavy cream it is best enjoyed when the weather outside is cold. 

Sausage meatballs with tomato sauce

As I told you, this weekend was a soup weekend. Soups were created fast and disappeared fast and everybody was busy with eating and/or cooking.
This dish is my son's absolute favourite and I always know, he will devour it minutes after I make it. I watched a chef preparing it on a German TV show some months before and it was described as an Italian specialty fast and easy to make. But as far as I saw on the net, Jamie Oliver has something very close to it. So do many other prominent or not so promiment housewifes around the world. Some people serve it as a pasta sauce, other with a thick slice of bread. My son Peter didn't want to wait the cooking time of the spaghetti (which is 10 minutes according to the instructions), so decision was taken.
I added some dried chilies to my plate. Do we like this "soup"? Well, yes, and as you can see, there was not much to put in the plate for my blog's needs. Peter was fast enough to win the competition. And not only he.

Italian Wedding Soup

It was a soup weekend.
I felt slightly under the weather on Saturday and the best medicine for the flu is a bowl of hot, steaming soup. Its smell is really appealing (imagine the little meatballs with the melting parmesan browning slowly in the oven, who can continue sleeping with such a tasty alarm). Children came to the kitchen still wearing their pijamas, asking: Mmmm, what are you cooking today, Mum? So I knew, I would have to share it with them. D. also didn't need an invitation to take his spoon, so the below mentioned amounts of ingredients were enough only for one meal for four hungry "Italians". We all liked it very much and I do not know whether the Italians really eat it on their weddings, but it is tasty and nourishing, herby from the spices and fresh from the spinach. 
Why exactly this soup? While watching Desperate housewives some weeks ago I heard for a first time about it (of course, Bree Van De Kamp prepared it and did I tell you, that I deeply admire her cooking success?). The net is full of recipes for this dish and the main ingredients according to them are meatballs (most often from ground chicken or turkey or from chicken sausage), small pasta and spinach. We prefer pork meat, so I used minced pork. 
I suppose, you can use whatever meat you like most of all.
This will not make somebody run from the wedding, you must be sure.