Do you ever get a craving for Italian food and that particular taste of sun, salt and tasty ripe tomatoes? I do, especially on warm summer days, but when the weather is nice, I like dinner meals to be easy and convenient so I get to spend time outside rather than hours chopping away in the kitchen. This easy chicken puttanesca almost takes care of itself in the oven, while you get to relax in a deckchair on the patio, yet, it still has lots of those wonderful Italian flavors I love. So it really is a win win dish. Literally, the name of the dish translates into ‘chicken, prostitute…
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Seared tuna starter
This seared tuna starter with pickled red onions, caper berries and honey mustard mayo is inspired by the most amazing appetizer I had in an Italian restaurant in Tivoli in Copenhagen about 15 years ago. Sadly, the restaurant is no more, but all these years I’ve never forgotten that appetizer! For many years I didn’t dare try and copy it for fear of being disappointed, but finally I decided to give it a go, and the result here is so good. I really should have done this years ago! When I was a kid we had lots of tuna, but back then in the ’80s and ’90s the tuna would…
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Seared trout with caper dill sauce
Really good, crispy skin, pan-seared fish is something everyone deserves to learn how to make. Pan-frying is simply the preparation method that does most justice to fish and also brings out all the nuances of how fish should taste. This recipe for pan-seared trout with caper dill sauce gives you an easy step-by-step instruction for how to sear a piece of fish fillet without messing it up. For years the thought of pan-searing a piece of fish left me with nervous tics and sweaty hands. I simply had not had much luck with it. Every time I attempted it, it ended up looking like something the cat had already had…
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Zesty smoked salmon
Are you ready for spring? I know it’s only February, but I can’t wait for the sun to start warming up my patio and defrost my bones! I’ve already got the patio furniture lined up, and the rosé is in the fridge, so I thought I might just give it another notch with this savory zesty smoked salmon appetizer, or lunch if you like. Maybe it’s because I’m Scandinavian, but I could easily eat smoked salmon every day. It’s no secret that Scandinavians have had a particular liking for raw and raw cured fish since the Vikings, and some even claim that it was the Norwegians who introduced raw…
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The no fuss showstopper
Vitello Tonnato is a delicious dish for the taste buds, but not always so for the eyes. It tends to have a greyish color and with the capers on top it sometimes ends up looking more like a bowl of oatmeal gone bad. That doesn’t sound at all like the showstopper advertised above, but with a little twist or two it can be. Instead of the classic Italian starter, this version of Vitello Tonnato serves as the main course of a dinner where you finally have time to entertain your guests while wooing them with your fabulous cooking skills. The garnishing sauces for the veal can be made a day ahead, and…
