Gluten free tartlets with strawberries - Tortine senza glutine con le fragole - Bezglutenske tortice s jagodama

This is the story about a kettle full of wild strawberries and the forest near to my grandparent's house. I still remember the perfume of ripe wild strawberries fluttering in the air and the light green kettle hung on my grandpa's belt. We often went for a walk in the forest, we only needed to cross the road and the big and shadowy forest embraced us in all its beauty. And we walked and walked until the stream, we crossed the stream and continued till the large meadow in the heart of the forest. The grass was so green and the flowers so white and yellow. The air was hot and mild wind was moving rhythmically big oak's leafs . Beneath these big trees and all around in the meadow small, bright, red fruits were waiting for us...Ohhh what a joy, ohhh what a splendor, I will never forget these feelings. I craved all these tiny fruit and suddenly I found myself with the mouth full of sweet strawberry flavour! I couldn't go back home walking, I was too tired and too sated. My grandpa used to carry me on his strong and scrawny shoulders and I was almost touching first tree branches with my head. Grandma was waiting for us on on the doorstep and lukewarm smell of fresh baked bread was tempting me. The bread was ready to spread on it some fresh strawberry mash.
I stil adore strawberries and the sensations of lights and shadows I've met in that forest.  Forest is the place I'm searching for wherever I am.

Pumpkin dumplings with ricotta cheese - Polpette di zucca con ricotta - Okruglice od buče sa ricotta sirom

I've stored one green kabocha pumpkin in the pantry on my balcony for few months and I even forgot about it until last week when I decided that it was time to use it, because the season is definitively changing and I need more space for new and fresh vegetables! The fact is that I always have the pantry full of fruits and vegetables and not too much time to cook all these stuff so quickly! When I see nice vegetables I immediately start thinking about some new dishes and I hardly resist from buying them all...This happened with my pumpkin too, I wanted to bake something months ago and I finished to cook it only last weekend. Fortunately pumpkin can be stored for long time and it will remain fresh and tasty. I still have some more baked pumpkin in my deep-freezer and I think I will have to prepare a good and creamy risotto in next days...or maybe a cake...

Torta sa sjemenkama buče - Cake with pumpkin seeds - Torta con semi di zucca

I’m so proud I did this cake that tastes a bit special. I was little skeptical when I first saw it. Last winter my mum and me, we were watching a culinary program on Croatian television about a pastry chef visiting different regions and villages in Croatian countryside exchanging experiences and recipes with local women and I wrote down the recipe. I was courious to find out its taste and texture. It’s made with plenty of pumpkin seeds, some walnuts and the original recipe says to add some bred crumbles. I have replaced  bred crumbles with fine corn flour, so my cake is completely gluten free. I have reduced a bit the quantity of sugar and also replaced lemon juice with the water and didn’t added lemon zest at all. I’m note sure that our grandmothers in flat lands of Croatian’s countryside often purchased lemons, so I eliminated those two ingredients from my version of this recipe to get more rustic cake. I was not sure that the cake will raise, because the mixture of all those seeds is pretty  dense and I was surprised when I saw in the oven my cake was getting higher and higher. And the sweet smell fluctuated in my kitchen…

You can keep it for several days covered with transparent film. It will still remain soft and friable. If you like rustic flavours, you will love this cake. I’m convinced that the taste of this cake is pretty similar to the antique and traditional flavours our grandparents once ate and this is what I wanted to produce.