Just in time for my first semester of university my boyfriend Eike and I have thought of a project to celebrate our food affinity with. Because we'll now be spending a lot of time in libraries, actual travelling has become a little more complicated. That's why we came up with the idea of a culinary journey around the world as we were travelling around Australia.
Each month we will pick a nation and one of its typical meals (including starter, main and dessert). Together we'll try our best to prepare the meals as traditionally as possible and I will post updates on my blog about each nation/meal.
First stop: Bella Italia
This is what we chose for our Italian dinner:
The courses
Starter - Insalata Caprese
Main - Homemade Pizza
Dessert - Panna cotta with stewed berries
Unfortunately we forgot to buy basil, which would have taken the meal to another level..
For our pizza dough we used a recipe of Jamie Oliver (flour, water, baking powder), which worked out very nicely. According to Mr. Oliver the pizza should be slightly roasted in a pan for a few minutes so it becomes crispier, however we just put it in the oven straightaway, since we don't have an oven-proof pan.. Oh well, it still tasted amazing!
We prepared the panna cotta the night before, so it had enough time in the fridge to solidify. It came out of the moulds nicely, i hadn't thought, it would be that easy. Why would someone buy the finished product with a heap of conservatives, if it is this easy to make it yourself?!
We made some berry sauce to go with it and added a bit of honey for sweetening everything up!
So far so good, the tour has already proven to be a great decision.