Un poco de mis comienzos en Londres y mi Navidad en Italia con una sopa de cebolla / Something about my first days in London and my Italian Christmas, with a warm onion soup.

Navidad en Italia se vive diferente que en Argentina, obviamente que es invierno... pero me refiero a que es mas tranquilo, familiar y tradicional. Lo tipico de la navidad en lo de A.... los ¨fritelli¨ (verduras y frutas fritas, ya vendre con alguna de esas recetas) y el pesebre viviente. Pero lo mejor de todo la ¨zampogna¨ del papa de A. Tiene un sonido tan lindo, que pone la piel de gallina. Y no nos olvidemos de la misa de medianoche! 

Already settled in London. With the clouds on my roof, and my energies completely reloaded, I come back to my blog. London welcomes me with an extremely cold weather and a nice quite borough. There is something about London that makes me think of Buenos Aires... it is maybe a matter of big cities because if I compare it to Lausanne then, it is quite a change. London is impersonal and ¨the client is always right¨, even if they damn you on the back, they will always smile back at you.

I always try to go back home for Christmas, to the summer... but this year we went to A. hometown (Magliano Sabina) in Italy, to celebrate with his family. As every time I go to MS, I find family, friends and loads of good food. 

X-mas in Italy is very different from the argentinian version, it is obviously on winter (as many of you have certainly noticed...) but the way people live it is also different. In Italy, and I guess that in Europe in general, it is much more traditional than in Argentina, more familiar and with different food. At A's home the typical x-mas things are the ¨fritelli¨ (fried vegetables and fruits) and the living creche. But the most peculiar thing is the ¨zampogna¨ played by A.'s dad. It has a beautiful melody, the one that gives you goosebumps. And of course, not to forget the mass at midnight!

And this is more or less it, x-mas and new years with family, friends and my love. Not bad at all, although I missed my family a lot!

Now it's over, we are back home, and back to work, trying to live the winter the warmest possible. This Sunday I wanted prepare something warm and simple, I prepared an onion soup, excellent and different from the soups I usually have. As a sider, I cooked some tomatoes au gratin, inspired by A.'s mom that usually makes them and are one of my favourites (although she makes them quite different and usually with aubergine instead of tomatoes). Of course the parmesan cheese was, is and will be in most of my receipes these days, I put it everywhere!!! and I also eat it alone, it is so good! 

Enjoy the snow and cook soups! :)

Receta / Recipe 

English below

Sopa de cebolla

Cortar las cebollas en juliana y reahogarlas en la manteca y el aceite a fuego bajo por 30-40 minutos o hasta que las cebollas esten blandas y marrones, como si estuvieran caramelizadas. Mucha atencion los ultimos 10 miutos o cuando ya empiezan a dorarse porque se quema facilemente el fondo y le da un gusto amargo. Hay que removerlas cada 5 minutos.

Disolver dos cubitos de caldo de pollo en un litro de agua (si el caldo es casero mejor, en esta receta use cubitos) y agregarlo a las cebollas cuando éstas estan bien doradas y blanditas. Agregar tambien el vino blanco y la hoja de laurel. Llevar a ebullicion por 5 minutos y luego cocinar a fuego lento por 20 minutos.

Cortar el pan en rodajitas y tostarlo de un lado. Poner queso parmesano (pueden usar gruyere o emmetal) sobre el lado no tostado y terminar de tostar.

Servir la sopa con una tostada en la superficie.     

Tomates gratinados

Cortar los tomates a la mitad y vaciarlos con una cuchara. Salar el interior y diponerlos con el interior hacia abajo en una fuente para sacarles el agua. Dejar reposar 8-10 minutos.

En un bowl mezclar la albahaca, el perejil y el ajo picados bien bien finitos. Agregar el pan rallado y el parmesano rallado y mezclar bien.

Rellenar los tomates con la mezcla de hierbas y disponerlos en la fuente con la cara abierta (y el relleno) hacia arriba, verter un hilo de aceite de oliva en cada tomate y hornear por 20 minutos a 180°C (fuego bajo). Si desean pueden poner algunos tomates enteros (pequeños) en la misma fuente de horno para asarlos y comerlos junto a la sopa.

Y a disfrutar de un almuerzo facil, rico y calentito.

Onion soup

Slice the onion into julienne strips. Melt the butter and olive oil in a high sided casserole and cook the onions in it for 30-40 minutes at medium-low heat or until they are golden-brown, like caramelized. Put extra care the last 10 minutes (or when they are tunring brown) since they easily stick (and get burned) to the bottom of the casserole. Stir every 5 minutes.

Dissolve the stock cubes (if you have a home made chicken stock is much better…) into 1 liter of boiling water and pour into the cooked onions. Add the wine and the bay leaf. Boil for 5 minutes at high heat and then simmer (low-heat) for 20 minutes. Correct for salt and pepper but do not add a lot of salt since the stock is already salty.

On the meantime, slice some bread and tost it on one side, add parmesan cheese (it can be emmental or gruyere as well) on the other side and keep tosting.

Serve the soup with a toast on top

Tomatoes ¨au gratin¨

Cut the tomatoes in halves and empty them with a spoon. Salt the interior and arrange them on a roasting pan interior facing down, to let them release water for 10 minutes.

In a bowl mix the thinly chopped basil, parsley and garlic clove. Add the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese and mix the whole very well.

Fill the tomato halves and arrange them filling facing up in the roasting pan. Pour a thread of olive oil on top of each tomato and cook in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20 minutes. If you want add some entire tomatoes to roast them and eat with the soup.

Enjoy an easy and warm meal !