Smaak van Italië 2015

Italian flavors, fragrances and emotions, among the avenues of the wonderful Kasteel De Haar. A terrific location for the Italian event of the year in The Netherlands, among the tree-lined avenues surrounded by a beautiful park. And a couple of Haarlem Foodies. Here my review and my best recipe for tuna mices.

It’s like to have a trip to Italy, walking trough the streets and browsing through the stands that offer many authentic Italian products: coffee, extra virgin olive oil, jams, biscuits, wine, liqueurs, pasta, furniture items and kitchen equipment, shoes, clothes, cars, and much more.

The happy and elegant atmosphere catch immediately the attention: the high quality of the products by the stands, the Italian music in every corner, the centurions who walk true the paths taking pictures with the visitors, the traveling musicians who entertain passing-by, the happy smile of stand personnel who meet eachother for an unmissable annual event, and the visitors who come from various regions of The Netherlands, Belgium and northern Germany, curious and happy, appreciating the beauty and flavors of my country.

As for the last 4 years I took a nice spot under the weeping willows that framed my stand, and invariably during the preparation of the stand I get a visit from an elegant white swan, who performs in a slow walk through the streets.

Once again this year I presented Rio Mare, Smeg and my recipe book in Dutch Cucina di mamma, with 12 workshops a day preparing delicious tastings bites for all the visitors with spaghetti with tuna, tuna salad and tuna meatballs.

A special dedicated to children with 3 daily appointments to create “mice” with a recipe drom my book, decorating a tuna meatball with rosemary, cloves, chives and pasta: “the tuna mice”.

It is always my great pleasure working with children of different ages, enthusiastic and focused in the realization of their masterpiece, and see them so pround to show their parents their well done job.

This year among the participants, there was also the Haarlem Foodie Barbara Summa, presenting the Galbani workshop. Among  the public Luca Coppola, a Haarlem Foodies photographer, came to visit me. He took so many nice pics in some moments of the fair, thank you Luca for the beautiful pictures!

And thanks to Aris Spada, the organizer of the best Italian event,  brings annually  with patience and professionalism a big slice of Italy to the Netherlands!

Arrivederci al prossimo anno!

RECIPE TUNA MICES

No! I can’t leave you without sharing my Recipe for Tuna Mices.

Ingredients

• 180 gr tuna in olive oil (netto weight drained from the oil)
• 100 gr ricotta
• 50 gr grated Parmigiano
• 40 gr white bread
• 1 egg
• A pinch of salt

Recipe

• Warm up the oven on 220 Celcius.
• Chup finely the bread and the tuna in a food processor.
• Get out the dough from the mixer and put into a bowl together with the ricotta, egg, salt and parmigiano,
• mixing them untill you get a smooty dough.
• Make small oval meatballs of 10 cm and place them on a baking tray, covered with oven paper.
• Cook in the warm oven for 15 – 20 minutes untill the bottom of the tuna mice gets golden.

You can serve them cold as finger food or warm as main course served with a light tomato sauce and a season salade with balsamic dressing.

Now I can say it: Arrivederci!