Lebanese Tabbouleh

Let's be honest, during summer, especially if you're on vacation, you don't really want to mess with the oven or the burners, even if the weather is cool like during these days here in Italy. In this situation I like to resort to recipes that can be prepared without little or no cooking, like the following one that can be served both as a starter or a sidedish.

Ingredients (serves 4)
6 cups of fresh parsley leaves (about 3 bunches)
1 cup fresh mint leaves
3 medium sized tomatoes
4 small green onions
4 lemons
1/2 cup bulgur (parboiled cracked wheat)
olive oil
salt

Preparation
Soak the bulgur in the juice of 3 lemons for about 20 minutes or since it will absorb almost all the liquid and become soft. In the meanwhile hand chop coarsely the parsley and mint leaves removing any stem (this is the most boring part of the recipe), paying attention not to over chop or bruising the vegetables. Dice the green onions and the tomatoes, drain the bulgur removing any excess liquid, and toss all together adding olive oil, the juice of the other lemon and salt to taste. You can serve it together some romaine lettuce leaves, to be used as a spoon, and some cold tea if the weather is pretty hot.

(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

Novafeltria -Trattoria

Here another of those time bubbles: it's in Romagna region, in Novafeltria, another little town where every step you take you could smell the flavor of passed times.

(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

Lucca

Visiting ancient cities such as Lucca you can enter scenes that seem to exist into a time bubble. There ages has stopped and you know that, no matter how much you will elaborate your shot, it won't ever completely recall the emotion that you lived through your eyes.


(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

Peppered Mussels (Impepata di Cozze)

In these summer days I really have little desire to cook and I am also, sadly, on diet, so this recipe has become my favorite for the evening dinner, it is ready in a few minutes and very light (especially if you not overdo with the oil).

Ingredients (serves 4)
4 1/2 pounds fresh mussels
2 tablespoons olive oil (less, if you're on diet like me)
8 cloves of garlic
parsley and pepper at will
lemon

Preparation
Carefully clean the mussels (this is the most boring part), removing sand, mud and their "beards". Pour the oil in a pan and, when hot, add the crushed garlic frying it for just a bit. Throw the mussels, still closed, into the pot, close it with its lid and cook several minutes over medium-high heat, shaking occasionally the pot from top to bottom.
When the mussels open, pour in the chopped parsley and a lot, and I mean a lot, of freshly grated pepper and shake the pan vigorously again in the same way as before. Serve them along with their liquid accompanied by lemon wedges and toasted bread.

(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

Mercato Saraceno

There are some places that remains in the heart and where you feel strangely at home, even if they're distant. It always happens to me when I walk in this pleasant small town located in the heart of Romagna: Mercato Saraceno.

It could be because I often was there as a child when I accompanied my father while he was working in those places, it could be because Romagna lies in central Italy that, thanks to the State of the Church, is the area that remained nearly always in the hands of "indigenous" people over the centuries and you can feel this "italianity", like it or not, as if it were in the air: in speech, gestures and attitudes of people, buildings and, of course, in the cuisine.

(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

Mussels

Do you remember when it happens when an idea i sbuzzing into your head and you follow it without even starting what you should do? That's exactly what happened with these mussels that should have been cooked.

So i get this idea of a picture with mussels ​​in a pan filled with crushed ice and place the set, move a light, wet the mussels, shoot, change the set, move again another light, wet again the mussels, at the end it was 11PM and there was no time to cook anything. It will happen tomorrow!


(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

Bologna - Collegio di Spagna

This "window" opens in the walls of the ancient Collegio di Spagna, which houses Spanish university students who study in my city since 1367, when ended its construction ordered by Cardinal Gil Alvarez De Albornoz.

I don't know why, but it has always fascinated me especially, because you can indulge in imagining its use (it opens on the back of a courtyard garden). I suspect that it wasn't a window but a back door for suppliers and servants, that could be accessed through a wooden walkway now disappeared, so that they could enter the courtyard (where probably there were the warehouses and stables of the college) without "dirty "with their presence the main "noble" entry gate.

(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

Granaglione Cemetery

For the tech lovers here are the shot data and the main post production passages.

Canon 5d mkII, Canon 24-105/4 L (a 24 mm), f10, three expositions at 1/8, 1/30 and 1/125 processed into Photoshop to bring out some details from shadows and tame some highlights, microcontrast added, converted in B&W making sky cyans and blues lighter to have some more contrast with the trees and with a very gentle overall indigo toning.

(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

Citrus Couscous

It's pretty hard to find a good side dish that could be served together with a meat or fish main meal, especially if it's summer and you want something on the light and fresh side. This recipe seems really to accomplish it all: it comes from Michele Cranston of Marie Claire Australia and it's full of flavor and very quick to prepare.

Ingredients (serves 4)
1 cup instant couscous
1 orange
1 lemon
1 medium sized cucumber
2 tablespoons olive oil
some basil leaves
salt
black pepper

Preparation
Pour 1 cup (or half the quantity indicated by the producer) of hot, but not boiling, water over the couscous and let rest for 5 minutes, crumple any lumps with a fork, add the rest of the water and wait other 5 minutes until all the liquid get absorbed, then break again all the newly formed lumps.
Peel the citruses, keeping away the zest, and squeeze their juice in a small bowl. Grind the zest, dice the cucumber, cut the basil leaves in small strips, mix all together with the citrus juice and pour it over he couscous. Flavor with some salt and black pepper, garnish with some whole basil leaves and serve together with grilled meat or fish.

(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

July 2011 Desktop Calendar

This month theme is completely food unrelated. I could explain this image in a thousand ways, suffice to say is that all the objects depicted come from one of those shops where everything is on sale for just 1 euro a piece. All that glitters is not gold.

Food~0~grafia monthly desktop calendar is a wallpaper for your PC screen with a food photo and the calendar of the current month.
To set the image as your desktop click on the link at the end of this post with the image dimensions that suit your PC screen and, after the image will load, right-click on it with your mouse (or press ctrl while clicking for some Mac users) and select "Set as Desktop Background..." (or something similar depending on the web browser you're using).

(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)

Did you enjoy this post? Click and get fresh Foodografia updates as soon as published by RSS feed or email

800x600
1024x768
1280x1024