Future Plans

Now that my UNISG time is almost over, it is time for me to develop some future plans. The next months I have pretty much figured out. I will write my thesis in Brazil, about Brazilian cuisine and local food. I will live with my parents in Vinhedo, and some relatives in São Paulo, and analyze the local food scenes. I hope to find some interesting ideas on what to do in my future, as now i don't really know what to do yet. But that makes life a little more exciting, doesn't it?

Lampedusa

After three years at this university, it was now time for our last stage. It was under the title "fishing stage", so we went to Lampedusa to learn as much about fishing as you can in 3 full days. We went out on a boat with the fishermen, for a full day of serious fishing, from 6 am to 8 pm, ate fish cooked by our professor, Silvio Greco, drank beers and had a lot of beach time, swimming in the crystal clear water of the southern mediterranean. It was a great last UNISG experience, and i cannot say just how much I will miss the study trips and all of my friends. It has been wonderful, UNISG, thank you for all!

Lasagne Heaven

Oh and I finally managed to make my delicious all home made lasagne while i was at home. A hooray to procrastination cooking of time intense things!

Sometimes It Pays Out To Wait

So I went to this festival in Switzerland last weekend, and it was amazing. 3 days of sun, friends and great music. The festival has existed since 1970, so by now they really know how to give people a good time! The best thing was, when at the end of the last concert (half of the people had already left because it was Sunday evening and raining) the wonderful Mumford and Sons gave us the most amazing surprise: a little medley with the three other great bands. The Kooks, Wolfmother, Mumford and Sons and Paolo Nutini and band played "the weight" by the Band together. Glad I stayed and endured wetness!

Rained in

So for once the weather is doing what it's supposed to. Rain in April. Here is a gorgeous video that I found. Beautiful music too. Perfect for these rainy April days.

Barba di frate (also called "agretti")

So, I still am "studying" so I just thought I'd post another one of these pasta recipes that make me a much happier studier! I just love pasta because you can literally put anything on them that you like (at least I can  since I'm not Italian).
So we are now in the last weeks of the season of this wonderful spring vegetable that you can pretty much only find in Italy, called "barba di frate", or monks beard in English. The veggie grows on the sandy and salty grounds of the coasts of the centre of Italy, mainly Tuscany (the one I just ate came from Emilia Romagna, though). It's perfect for salads, to accompany fish and meat or to mix with spaghetti, since they are long, chive-like grassy things, with a mild, earthy and slightly salty flavour.
My pasta is a bit of most of these things, made with onions, garlic, semi-dried tomatoes, (dried, since they're really not in season now!), chillies (also dried) and sardines (canned ones). I used wholewheat spaghetti, since I started to feel bad about eating pasta due to recent easter weight gain. But feel free to take whatever sort or thickness of spaghetti/linguini you enjoy most. The recipe is for 2 normal eaters, or one good one (I could have eaten it all, but yeay, I didn't!).
Bring a large pot of water to cook, salt and put in the spaghetti (i took about 180 grams. I am not sure, though, since I cook according to my eye measure). When there are three minutes of cooking time left, put in the washed barba di frate (cut off all the roots and tougher parts!). Drain pasta and beard.
Meanwhile cut a medium sized onion (red onion looks pretty!), a clove of garlic and one or two chillies. Heat a large frying pan, put olive oil in it, add the onions and fry until they become slightly seethrough and shiny. Then add the garlic and the chili. After a few seconds add some white whine and let simmer for a bit. cut two filets of sardines and a handful of capers and add them to the onions. Then add the pasta and beard mixture (keep a bit of the cooking water and add that too!) and stir until well mixed. Done and delicious!