Courgettes, Roasted and Preserved

Last week was busy.
Last week was an unbelievable week. We are back to normal now, the new Au Pair has arrived and seems to be really nice. Her name is Chiara and this cohabiting is going to be extremely interesting.
Chiara can't, at present, eat most foods. When I asked her if there was anything she did not eat, she said: It'll be faster to tell you what I can eat".
She is, for the moment, intolerant to many, many, maaaany things.
The first night we had dinner together, I kept asking her what I could or could not put in the risotto I was making.

So, get ready for some new, extremely healthy and cheap recipes here...

In the meantime, while we were busy looking for the new Au Pair and fixing the cars for the NCTs, some courgettes just languished on my kitchen counter for a few days... Finally, on Sunday, I was so tired of seeing them I had the idea of using them all, otherwise they would just rot. And throwing food away is NOT an option.

But, what to do with 6 courgettes all at once???

I decided I would roast them and keep them in sunflower oil, so here we go:

Remove the top and bottom of each courgette, wash well in lukewarm water and cut them in half.

Now, place each piece on the chopping board and slice gently:

The slices should be not too thick, so that they cook quite fast.

Now, place a few on a grill pan:

Turn them every now and then and, once nicely roasted, add to a jar:

On the side, have some chopped garlic ready and, if you like, some mint leaves.

I also added some rock salt every now and then, adding the oil bit by bit, you will see no air remains in the jar.

Make sure the oil covers all the courgettes before placing your precious jar in the fridge.

Mint gives preserved vegetables a very fresh taste.

Enjoy! 

Zucchine Sott'Olio - Canning Courgettes the easy way

My son is on holidays, lucky him. He's at my parent's in the countryside, in central Italy, in a beautiful valley that is my birthplace. He's having fun eating cherries straight on the tree, jumping on bales of hay and following my father wherever he goes.
He's having a great time, of course he's delighted to be outside the whole day and he seems to be sneezing his way out of asthma over there :)


This means that, at the weekend, our home is incredibly quiet and plain boring. Yesterday, though, I had the wonderful idea of canning. Aldi is offering courgettes at a very good price this fortnight, so I have to take advantage of it and do my best to refill my sottoli stock.


For a medium sized glass jar, I used 3 courgettes. I cut them in thin, round slices and placed them in a roasting dish:

On the top, I placed wooden sticks and a stainless steel utensil, so they would stay in place.
On the stove, in a small pot, I placed 600 ml of water and 600 ml of vinegar, with 1 teaspoon of salt. Once it started boiling, I poured it over the courgettes and set everything aside to cool.

Once cool, I drained the courgettes and lined them in 3 layers on clean tea towels.

Tap gently with your hands and forearms so the liquid will drain and then place the courgettes in a jar with small garlic pieces and some fresh basil leaves here and there.

Fill with olive oil, and using a knife, make sure all air bubbles are gone:

At the top, I placed two pieces of skewers to make sure the courgettes would stay covered in oil. They are yummy straight away or within the next month. I'm sure they are not going to last that long anyway:)

Roasted Peppers Sottolio

I went a few days ago to the local Aldi. I found out they had peppers on special offer. Needless to say, I bought 20 peppers.

Once home, I needed a project, an idea... I searched around, even tried to ask my dog... They I was hit by a flashback: the smell of freshly roasted peppers in the summer, after a long day working to bottle the tomatoes with my parents...

I was delighted! I turned to my mum for advice, as I usually do when it comes to cooking. She told me I could roast peppers on the barbeque... "Well, Ma'," I said "It's raining over here!"

"Then roast them in the pan!"

She's brilliant, I always say that. So I did. While cooking our regular dinner, I put on a non stick pan, turned the hob to the maximum and put in 7 peppers. Just washed them and dried them with a towel. Not cut, not seeded, just as they are when you buy them.  

I was turning them every now and then, while cooking our pasta for the evening. I turn them 5 times tops. Their skin must turn black, the skin has to basically burn, only then I turn them, and offer another of the pepper's side to the heat.

I kept turning peppers and adding more, as soon as one of them was ready to go in the bowl. So I roasted 20 peppers, put them in a bowl and covered them with a glass lid.

The next day, again after the day's work and while cooking dinner, I opened the peppers, removed all the seeds and the skin and sliced them longwise, in stripes.

I put the sliced peppers again in the bowls, added some salt and olive oil, just to dress, and some garlic cloves. All of these is to the taste, so I am not giving any measurements.

I left the peppers in the fridge for another night and another day, always covered with the glass lid.

The next day, they were ready to be transferred in the jar. I covered them with olive oil and put the jar in the fridge. It looks like the Jamaican flag. Every time I open my fridge I see this colorful jar, full of love, and smile.

20 peppers became a jar of 1.5 litres full of goodness!

These peppers will now last for a while. Every time we have meat in in our plates, I'll put the jar on the table, and I have a side dish ready! I love canning and preserving for this reason... because I work all day outside the house, when I come home I wanna spend time with my son and my husband, I don't wanna be cooking for hours on end, but neither I want to feed my family stuff that comes from a box...

So the perfect solution for me is to do these kind of "operations": cooking once, involve my son in the whole process and then enjoy the fruit of our work for the next few months.