Last Friday, I wrote Dinner Stories: Eating Out at Home, which is about using ideas from restaurants to help you figure out "What's for dinner?". Here’s another yummy example of how to draw inspiration from restaurants and gain more confidence in the kitchen. Plus, a tip on how to get children and other family members involved in helping you.
The exercise is very simple: When you eat out, note flavor combinations you like or that seem interesting and try them at home. If you sometimes feel uneasy about trying a new combination of ingredients because you’re not sure they will go together, remember, if a good restaurant did it, you can move forward with confidence, too!
Even if the dish is very “fancy,” you can make a simple version at home. For example, this egg dish was elaborate, but all you need to discover is that eggs and truffles are a fabulous combination! You can use truffle oil on scrambled eggs and omelets or try your hand at a pecorino cream sauce with truffle oil (which I will!) to serve over eggs.
You can draw inspiration from this Paccheri with grandmother's ragù and make a bolognese sauce. It's simple to make, family-friendly and freezes well.
After trying this Florentine fried pasta served with a stracchino cream, my son begged me to try frying pasta or ravioli. I told him, enjoy it while you're here in Florence. It might be a bit more than I'm willing to do. If you have an air fryer, this could be fun to try! And you might be able to find stracchino cheese at your grocery store.
Cappellacci with Burrata Cheese and Pesto, purchased at a shop in Florence, inspired us to make a pasta sauce using burrata or cream and a simple basil pesto, which we are trying next week.
You don't have to go to Italy or even eat out to find inspiration. You can have your children look at menus online and see what sounds good. For example, my son's idea of adding peanut butter to an Asian slaw dressing. I didn't get a picture, but it was a hit at my house!
Reading menus is a great activity for children to help you find dinner ideas (that they will like). It also promotes reading and learning about food! Just be prepared. They might get hungry, so a good time for this fun activity would be right before dinner time. They can tell you all about their ideas over a little apéritif.
