Italian Summers

I would  just like to thank you  all for staying with me through the Summer. My regular readers have noticed my summer stories and I hope they will keep you company wherever you are. I just wanted to say some of the things that I love about Italian Summers. July and August are very special to me for some quite personal reason The first time I spent the summer in Italy I was amazed by the lush green of the countryside. I love the Green of the maize, smell of the pines, the brightly coloured flowers overflowing from their terracotta pots. I love waking up early and doing my chores( Yes, right!!). I love flopping about on the cool sheets of the unmade be in the afternoon and waiting for the cool of the evening to go out again. I love seeing children running around at ten o clock at night eating ice creams. I love the open air cinema, listening to live music as the moon comes up, cycling along the lanes in the cool of the evening. I love the cigales in the background, music playing constantly through the day and when they are tired the Grilli take over so there is dancing in the insect world right inro the early hours of the morning. I love all the summer dishes that can be prepared in the morning and give you the illusion of doing nothing much in the kitchen. I love the Italian seaside, the mountains, the lakes. I love all the get-togethers as people come and go on their holidays. Yesterday we had our con-suoceri round and I made them stuffed eggs, pasta fredda and torta salata.
Stuffed eggs and stuffed tomatoes are so easy. You just boil the eggs and then mix the yolk with tuna fish and mayonnaise until nice and creamy, put the mixture back in the hollow of the egg and decorate with anchovy or capers. Arrange nicely on a bed of lettuce, cover and keep in the fridge.
Pasta fredda and Torta salata  are old friends of my blog.
Stuffed tomatoes can be varied depending on what you have at hand. Today I made them by hollowing out the middle then mixing that with tuna fish and mayonnaise - just like the stuffed eggs and decorating with capers and olives.