I just had a great weekend! When I opened my eyes Saturday morning, the first thing I saw was sunshine and I really could not stay in bed (even when it is 7o’clock in the morning)… On top of that I also had the urge to go to the Open-air market in the centre of Antwerp (Vogeltjes markt)  aka ‘Vogeltjesmarkt’.   I like to go there because I have my usual market stalls where I buy my ingredients. This week I decided to buy the promotion of the week at the vegetable stall.  For 5 euro I got: 1kg Red paprika, 1kg Brussels sprouts, 1kg of tomatoes, 1 cabbage, 1 kg of Belgian chicory  and 1kg of spinach. Not bad for only 5 EUR? So I had to build my week menu around these vegetables… and got my inspiration in some great cookbooks.

I also would like to mention Véronique and Tom, dear friends of my girlfriend an me. They invited us for a dinner party on Saturday night. Véronique made us a pasta with pine nuts, fresh tomatoes, rucola, basil, Italian ham and some gooooood olive oil!

But the ‘moment supreme’ was definitely the dessert!! This was based on a Princess Misia Recipe (one of my favorite food/recipe bloggers, check her website and you’ll know why!!). Veronique made the  Speculoos Cheesecake In A Jar and they were really really good if you ask me. See pic below for the result:

And as if that was not enough, they introduced me to the wonderful world of Fattoria La Vialla. But I’ll be coming back on this Factoria in another blogpost. One thing is for sure, the things they sell are mighty good!! (word going to Italy and visiting them).

Now it is time to get back to my original topic, cooking with cookbooks. Yesterday night I cooked the “Terrine of red pepper and spinach” from the book “My Italian diet” of Gino D’Acampo. This recipe was surprisingly easy 🙂 .

The only difference between what I made and the original recipe, is that I added some basil and used fresh spinach. If this recipe is too vegetarian for you, just add some ham. (that would work to my opinion.

You just simmer some spinach in olive oil for about 10 minutes and let it leak until almost all water is gone. Peel (best in the oven or over the stove, because this also ‘cooks’ the paprika a little bit)  and cut the paprika, add some chili flakes. Once the spinach has almost no more water in it, you put it in a bowl, with  fresh cheese, 3 eggs, fresh grated parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper. Mix it all. Take a  terrine form or if you don’t have this, you can just take the form you use to make a cake (rectangular). Put half of the spinach mix on the bottom of the form, on top of this you put the paprika and finish with the remaining spinach mix. Put for 30 minutes in a pre-heated hot air oven on 160°C (320°F) and voila 🙂

I was pretty happy with my result, hopefully Mr. D’Acampo would agree? 🙂

The Gino d’Acampo cookbook is nice  if you want to be on a ‘diet’ but still want to enjoy the Italian taste (and feel less on a diet).  I also cooked the Frittata di spaghetti con rucola (a few months ago). Although choosing a recipe out of this book is not easy as they all look good.

Tomorrow it is Piet Huysentruyt time!