homemade Lasagna with Zucchini

Here's the recipe for the Lasagna I made earlier this evening.

As usual my lasagna was based on homemade ragù and bechamel, this time in combination with zucchini.


I never care so much about quantities and portions, if there's something left I usually find use for it in tomorrow's lunch so forgive me for being a bit vague.

click Read more below to go to the recipe!

an e-commerce story with an Italian flavour

this story is from a recent personal experience!

I wanted to try the Lavazza coffee pads at home (and home-office) and therefore last week Sunday evening (June 3rd) I went onto the Lavazza Modo Mio website, registered, picked a nice coffee machine and selected some pads. Then the "problems" began:

1. despite ordering a €100,- coffee machine you still need to order at least 8 boxes of their coffee pads. Being a good boy I choose all eight various tastes and went on with the ordering; 
2. the payment step: my credit card was rejected for the payment (strangely enough I used it 15 minutes later to order Nespresso cups without any problems). So I choose Payment at Delivery which is a common payment method in Italy. One I personally do not like (now even less) but I was left no other option; 
3. For a week I did not hear anything, a mail I send them via the Facebook page was NEVER answered -so far for Social Care- and also no one delivered this nice new shiny Apple-white with Galaxy-silver touched Italian coffee machine to my doorstep, not even an email, nothing. On their website my order status said is was "in progress"; 
4. On Friday (so 5 days after ordering) I called Lavazza Customer Service in Turin where someone told me they should have contacted me to ask if I really ordered the machine, etc. I asked them why and she explained it was standard procedure to call every client after an order. To me it seems a waste of time and money... Why I did not receive that call, nor email, nor sms she could not really explain me. I told the operator I still would like to have the machine and that she could proceed with delivery; 
5. Today, 9 days after ordering (that's a lot of cups of coffee later), the TNT delivery guy phoned to know if he would find me at home (bonus points) and he promised me he would be here within a couple of minutes. As he did; 
6. BUT... he could only accept CASH or cheque *LMAO*, and since I rarely have more then €100,- in my wallet I had to send him off... 

#TasteandMatch

Last Friday I was browsing my Facebook event calendar and saw an  invitation for an interesting event that caught my eye: Taste & Match Milano, something about 8 wines and 8 foodbloggers that "invented" a matching dish for one of the wines. Interesting concept, interesting price (€30,- each), not too far away from home (a 40min drive into Milano) and above all... interesting people! Interesting people I already "knew" virtually via Twitter and/or Facebook, foodbloggers whose blogs I read regularly that I could finally meet & greet in real life (IRL so to say). And since I prefer meeting IRL and food & wine seem to be more then a hobby (Klout even thinks I am highly influential about these items, especially in combination with Italy) I decided (together with my lovely wife Maddy) to go and discover this for ourselves.

So despite me feeling destructed after travelling all week, Maddy who just recovered from a muscular inflammation and the snow falling down over Morazzone we hit the road and drove (carefully) to Milan(o). It turned out to be a great evening! Where do you get the chance to have an 8 course dinner with 8 matching excellent wines for € 30,-? Even better: the 8 'enogastronimic' addicts (aka foodbloggers) had given it weeks of thoughts to combine the wine they had been given with a meal . They were serving the dishes and wines themselves so you could ask for explanation, recipes and reasoning!

Here in a short overview the 8 foodbloggers, the 8 wines with the 8 matching recipes!

unfortunately all recipes are only available in Italian but with a little help from Google Translate and by asking the foodblogger you might be able to get there as well

why #UglyUGGs are bad for economy

It's a known fact to my Twitter-followers I am not fond hate UGGs and that I keep on calling them #UglyUGGs (the #, called hashtag, is something typical Twitter-like to make searching for some topics easier). I think #UglyUGGs are the worst things in fashion over the last years. Well... together with skinny models. They look horrible (both the models and #UglyUGGs), they are bad for your feet (so are high heels, but at least these look good on a woman) and if they get wet they will not keep you warm at all, no worse they'll cause influenza because of wet cold feet!

So WTF is the advantage, why are women wearing these horrible things? Because they are so comfortable and  warm is the most heard answer. Warm? But once they get wet? Which could happen in winter (especially in the Netherlands). Then you end up having soaking wet and cold feet all day! Comfortable? Ow so you girls walk on heels and other fancy shoes because they are comfortable? I don't think so, most women just buy shoes because they look nice, or make them look nice. Which is absolutely okay! I like to look at women (what an eye-opener this must be for some people), I like to see women with nice shoes or boots. Especially with heels, it makes their legs look even better. But hey, if you want to feel comfortable, no problem at all! But why does comfortable needs to be horrible and ugly? There are many many comfortable, warm and still great looking (and CHEAPER) alternatives!

The point I wanted to make is: #UglyUGGs are bad for economy! Today in a short twitter discussion between me and two (until last week completely unknown to me) women concluded that #UglyUGGs are probably the best contraception there is! And likely to be allowed by the Church as well: they cause absolute sexual abstention! And that is what makes them bad for economy! In today's crisis we need people to spend and we need as much people as possible working to pay our future pensions, so children are a must!

So if you want to get your economy going: STOP buying #UglyUGGs!

Pizzoccheri della Valtellina

Via Twitter, Facebook and Google+ I received some requests for the recipe of Pizzoccheri. I have taken the recipe of the box of the pizzoccheri I usually buy in our local supermarket.

Ingredients (for 6p):
500g pizzoccheri
300g potatoes (in 2x2cm cubes)
150-250g butter (I think 150g is more then enough)
300g Savoy cabbage, chard leaves (the white stamps) or spinach (I prefer Savoy cabbage) sliced
500g half fat cheese from Valtellina (Casera, Bito) - these can be hard to find outside Italy, maybe Fontina, Toma or (worst case) Brie can be used as an alternative (sliced)
150g grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves of garlic
some leaves of sage

Preparation (15-20mins):
Cook the potatoes and vegetables in boiling water, add the pizzoccheri after a couple of minutes and boil it for another 12-15mins until the pasta is nicely cooked "al dente".
When the pasta (and potatoes and veggies) are cooked drain the water and mix the slices of cheese and grated Parmesan under the pasta and veggies.
Meanwhile melt the butter on low fire with the garlic and sage (don't fry the garlic) and serve it over the pasta.

Buon Appetito!

La spada Varesina ed il furto 2.0

 --- I will try to translate this blog one of these days ---



C'era una volta una spada. Una spada, chiamiamolo Excalibur, molta preziosa per i cavalieri della Round Table 64 Varese perché è una dei due simboli presente ai giorni della fondazione di questa bellissima Table. Al Decennale della Round Table 64 Varese il 22 maggio 2010 Excalibur fu dato in prestito ai Tabler di Mantova per farli spadellare i loro nuovi soci all'AGM di 2010. A Mantova la spada sparisse e per qualche mesi i Tabler di Varese sono rimasti disperati; dov'era finita la spada?

Cosi "the Quest" (la ricerca) per ricuperare questa spada iniziasse! Dopo ore e ore di telefonate, sacchi di mail, interventi dai comitati di zona e quello nazionale e forze ancora più maggiore venisse fuori che la spada era finito nei mani di due ladrocini Bresciani. Grazie alla buona ricerca del nostro carissimo ex-President Paolo 007 Duco ed i suoi contatti ladrici abbiamo saputo che la spada potrebbe essere presente alla apertura dell'anno dei Tabler Bresciani nel loro covo. Fu cosi che il giorno giovedì 22 settembre 2011 io, Dagmar Sporck - presidente della Round Table 64 Varese, sono andato a Brescia e mi nascosi nella tana dei leoni, aspettando il branco dei Bresciani. Già in quel momento ebbi la possibilità di fare un contro-furto, la loro bandiera fu esposto senza protezione e senza guardie, ma ovviamente avrei già spifferato i miei intenzioni.

Tonight: my worst culinary experience in Italy

My friends/followers know we like to go out for dinner/lumch and enjoy a good meal with a good glass of wine. And it doesn't need to be fancy, we appreciate honest food prepared with joy and love whether it costs 10euros or 100euros.

After this afternoon's pastalunch I fancied a good piece of fish so we went to Rosetto's boulevard where we expected to find some restaurant. Well we found some lido's and this particular place (no names, one could check my Foursquare postings if you really want to know) seemed pretty popular and had an inviting look.

The girls insisted on having pizza (it was a ristorante pizzeria) and Maddy and I choose some simple antipasti (affettato and bruschette) and a "sogliola (sole) mugnaia" for her and "spiedini di pesce griliati" for me. After OVER ONE HOUR waiting we finally got a plate of sliced ham and salami and 5 bruschette with that same ham and tomato slices. It would have taken me less then 5 minutes to prepare, so why did we had to wait over an hour for this?! The ham and salami were badly cut (too thick), the bruschette were not prepared (with oil and garlic) but just roasted and had a (too) thick slice of ham and tomato on them, impossible to eat with you hands as you should. But okay, maybe this is normal in Abruzzo, everything a bit more "rustico". 

In the meantime the girls received their pizzas, which were maybe okay to Dutch/German standards but any Italian pizzeria should be ashamed of itself serving these pizze.

And still I was hoping the fish would save the evening. That hope vaporised once the main courses arrived (30secs after we finished the ham) the sole was not even close to the one I had 3 evenings before.It was tough (maybe kept warm for over an hour) and I wondered if it was a reanimated frozen one. My fish skewers were prepared without any fantasy, just pieces of squid (tough, lousy quality) and shrimps (even mealy), no other fish, nor vegetables.

This was by far our worst culinary experience in Italy ever!