The philosophy of food and love

By Llamas' Valley | October 14, 2023 Comments

“Mela e Cannella” is all about family recipes, memories, flavors, smells and the everydayness behind the cooker waiting for the magic risings. It is the wonderful illustrated story of 20 year-old Italian ballet dancer Marcello Arena.

“I have to admit, I never thought about a food philosophy, but when I do consider it, I imagine warm colors and pastels, smiles and kisses. Maybe the true philosophy of food is love. If the food wasn’t called - “food”, I would call it “love”, says Marcello.

At the beginning, he was hoping to share his mother’s recipes online, and to photograph them. But as time went by, Marcello ended up also creating his own recipe book with recipes adapted from other blogs, books, etc.

A perfect breakfast recipe by Marcello Arena? Bread and marmalade, obviously with a good cup of caffè latte.

 Mocha whoopie pie with dulce de leche

 

Ingredients:

For a dozen whoopie pies

100 g butter, softened

150 g caster sugar

1 egg

230 g flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

75 g unsweetened cocoa powder

60 g buttermilk

120 g coffee

 

Dulce de leche filling:

395 g sweetened condensed milk

boiling water

 

Process:

For the dulche de leche: preheat the over to 220° C and fill a baking pan with boiling water. In another pan, pour the condensed milk and cover with aluminum foil. Place the pan with condensed milk into the water and put it into the oven. Cook for 90-105 min.

For the whoopie pies: preheat the oven to 180° C and line the trays with parchment paper.

In a bowl, mix butter with sugar, pour the buttermilk, coffee and vanilla, and continue mixing well.

Finally, add the flour with cocoa and baking powder.

With an ice cream dispenser form piles and place them well apart on the baking trays. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Once the whoopie pies cool completely, fill them with a generous spoonful of dulce de leche.

 

Visit Marcello’s blog “Mela e Cannella”.

Read the delightful interview with Marcello Arena in Llamas’ Valley | Spring issue. Download the magazine on your iPad. Available in the App Store.