Trout and blue cheese spaghetti

I had some trouts on hand recently. Well, I don't really like trout, in my opinion it hasn't own taste and it needs something with stronger aroma. So I started searching for the perfect ingredient which would meet trout in such a perfect way that it will change my whole opinion to this fish. Blue cheese as an idea found here seemed to be a good candidate. Its crumbly texture and stronger flavor meets perfectly the plain taste and soft texture of the trout. What else? Spaghetti, fresh lemon juice, some canned tomatoes and, of course, hot peppers. I had whole fishes with the skin on, next time I will try it with skin fillets and I suppose, it would be even better. But even so it had unique unbeatable taste. Fresh, flavorful and surprising blend. 

Pulled pork with pasta

Long simmering of dishes is part of my winter cooking entertainments.
House full of nice smells, warm and cosy - this is something which mitigates my winter feelings. It is a good idea to have a pot full of pasta sauce on the stove.
This is a simple recipe, but it requires rather a long preparation time, so it is good for a weekend dinner. The long simmering of the meat makes it tender and juicy and easy to shred and the preliminary roasting gives the caramel flavour. The ingredients are quite similar to those ones used in Bolognese sauce, but it tastes different, more home-made and tasty. We enjoyed it much.

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. 

Linguine with shrimps and cherry tomatoes

I have a memory of sitting at a table of a fancy Italian restaurant at the centre of Luxemboug. It is lunchtime in summer and for me it is vacation, but for most of the people around me it is just the lunch-break from work. So, they are wearing elegant suits and women wear pearl necklaces and even teenagers are with Louis Vuitton bags. I spent an hour over a glass of wine and a bowl of linguine with prawns in front of me, watching the people around. And although the sauce for this pasta is rather Mediterranean style, it will always remind me on the lux-life in Luxembourg.

Linguine with peas and mint

This dish will always remind me on TriBeCa, New York. We tried it in a small cosy restaurant there back in 2010 and we immediately fell in love with it. I still remember the table outside, the cool breeze and the stars - it was romantic and we felt a part of the artistic atmosphere of the city. We were enjoying our dinner with a bottle of white wine and long talks. I made it couple of times after that, only for special occasions and even if not just a perfect copy of the original, it is a precious page in my recipe box.