Recently my roommate G had some friends over, one of whom is Spanish and cooked dinner for the lot of them. Unfortunately I was on my way out the door to a milonga when they arrived, so I didn’t get to sample what he was preparing (though I did see that he brought sea scallops which was almost enough to make me skip tango. Gotta find scallops, and soon).
There was plenty of gazpacho leftover and my kind roommate let me have some. At the first taste, I started feeling inspired. Then my roommate shared his pasta with me, which had been tossed with green olives. All of this beautiful tanginess, all of this color! I immediately got out my Mediterranean (mostly Italian and French) cookbooks, started re-reading this book, which is full of inspiration and nice recipes, and went online to my favorite recipe sites, preparing myself culinarily for the coming seasons of sun. I’ve always eaten Mediterranean, but was not so inspired the first few months here, and now with the change in seasons, comes a change in the ingredients available and a change in what I crave, which means a change in recipes.
One of my favorite sites from which to get recipes is Divina Cucina, an inspiring site by a woman based in Florence, Italy, who gives cooking classes. Her recipe page is great, full of things that make me think of my relatives in Lucca and the wonderful dinners we’ve had together.
The other day for lunch I decided to make my own spin on her recipe for tonno e fagioli. Never one to follow a recipe exactly, I used chickpeas (garbanzos) instead, and added some sliced green olives to add a little extra tangy flavor. Absolutely wonderful! Then yesterday I had Miss Tango over and I tried the recipe for spaghetti di vino, which was very simple and delicious, only I used bucatini instead of spaghetti, and added sage. It was wonderful and we decided it would be very nice to add some black olives next time.
See? It doesn’t have to be all about meat and papas fritas down here (though I love both). If you have a kitchen and some inspiration (and a verduleria nearby), you can get creative and eat very well. 
Related Articles
12 users responded in this post
yum…now you have me wanting to search through some new recipes
YUM! Always lovely to find your eating and cooking groove, isn’t it?
Funny, I was thinking about tonno e fagioli the other day, suddenly remembering how much I like it and wondering why it’s been so long since I had it.
i can attest the vino e spaghetti was delish! sadly we never have left over vino ourselves to make this dish
Oh, Tina, every time you talk about food, I think I need to fly to BAs just to get a taste of some of the stuff you prepare, or of a dish that you just tasted at a local cafe!!! Mmmmmmm.
Hmmm — I’m salivating over the food. I need to check out Divina Cucina. In the meantime, since cooking is inherently part of staying balanced for me, I did post many food posts on my blog — some may interest you.
I’ll try this again - you’re right Wordpress is rubbish too. I tried commenting last night but it vanished. It was funny that I posted about vegetables too and you are right there are great vegetables in the stores - what would be considered ‘Organic’ back in England but no one seems bothered to eat or cook them (or knows what they are. I love woking up some spinach and broccoli with ginger - I should have you and MS Tango over next time
Ooh, where do you get your ginger? I do love a good stir-fry with plenty of ginger.
Well my answer to where can you buy anything is Barrio Chino.
Often if you ask your verdulero to bring it for you I am sure he will, if you ask nicely and wear your push up bra.
Yay! Suzy Vegas is going to cook for us!
Oh what a small world. I actually surprised my wife when I scheduled a day with Divina Cuccina during our trip to Florence. It was one of the highlights of our trip.
They have huge hunks of the stuff at my little supermarket on Borges at Costa Rica. AND now I have fish sauce and thai curry paste from Chinatown - We have spice! Anyone want a curry?
Meeee!
Leave A Reply