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!

Hi people!

So, I should be studying for exams right now. Studying always makes me incredibly hungry. So I try to cook simple food, that doesn't take a long time to prepare, and tastes delicious anyway. Like the pasta that I made yesterday. Whole wheat penne with spicy onions and pangrattato. Put the pasta into boiling water, cut one onion and a chilli, put them in a frying pan with enough olive oil, add some sugar and wait until it browns just a little bit. in another pan roast the pangrattato with a little oil. Add some white wine to the onions (I also put in a few drops of fish sauce because I like it). Drain the pasta when still very al dente and put into the pan with the onions for about a minute. Put it on a plate, sprinkle some parsley, hard goat cheese and the pangrattato on top and enjoy. And still have a lot of time to study, since preparing this dish takes you about 10 minutes!

Hello world!

I have news. News that will change my future in Italy. The structures of our university have changed. People are shaken to their cores. The student body split in two groups that fight each other heavily. You want to know what happened? They took away our Ferrero products. And replaced them with fair traded chocolate and nuts. Yes that's right. Shocking isn't it.

This is as far as our problems go. Fighting over chocolate, that the school (rightfully, in my opinion) neglects to keep selling, because they aren't produced accordingly to our philosophy. People are missing their cereal bars (which, if they weren't too lazy, they could buy in a bar across the street - for less money) when, after what we learn here everyday, they should know to be glad to even have the possibility to eat any kind chocolate (or really, anything at all). And seriously, you're going to critisise fair traded chocolate after all you have seen at this school, in practice on stage and in theory in many and many lessons and speeches of different people? Don't buy it if you don't want to eat it (people are saying they're to fat all the time anyway). And get some real problems to solve!

Ugh, i needed to get rid of some bad energies here. So. Lasagna still hasn't happened. Too busy. But it will, i promise! Sooner or later...