It smells delicious when BILD visits Vicky Leandros (69) and her children Sandra and Leo von Ruffin (34) at Gut Basthorst (41) on SONNTAG. Often people cook together here, today there are stuffed tomatoes (see recipe). Memories are also awakened, because they already existed at Vicky’s grandmother in Greece.
BILD am SONNTAG: What was the smell of your childhood?
Leo von Ruffin: “Tomato and Cinnamon! The combination sounds very oriental, but it is also often used in Greek cuisine. For sauces with pasta or moussaka. “
Sandra von Ruffin: “I remember the smell of bean soup.”
Vicky Leandros: “Oh yes, there was that once a week.”
“A cheer for life” (240 pages, 26 euros) will be published on TuesdayPhoto: Gräfe and Unzer
Sandra: “And the scent of carrot and apple juice. It was there every day. “
Vicky: “I insisted because it’s healthy!”
Sandra: “Yes, but let’s say: Not everyone liked it equally. Leo always secretly gave me his portion. “
Leo: “Or the dog. First come, first serve. “
What was your favorite dish in the past?
Leo: “I am not tied to one dish, Greek cuisine is too diverse for that. I like everything that has to do with pasta. Or soutzoukakia, which are meatballs with mince, preferably made from lamb. For you it was more like broccoli salad, wasn’t it? “
Sandra: “In fact, I’ve always loved broccoli. And fries! I rarely eat meat. “
Vicky: “You actually liked almost everything, didn’t you? Leo, you had a few things that you didn’t like. “
Leo: “Oh yes, a lot!”
Vicky: “I’m sorry, what?”
Now you’ve written a cookbook together. Where do the recipes come from?
Vicky: “I’ve been cooking them all my life, and my grandmother used to prepare dishes like this, or something like that. My grandma taught me everything I know about Greek cuisine today. “
Vicky Leandros and daughter Sandra 2016 at “A Heart for Children”Photo: picture alliance / BREUEL-BILD
Sandra: “We ate many dishes every day in our childhood. However, when I started to design the book and ask my mother about the recipes, she looked very confused and said: “Recipes? I have no prescriptions. “
Vicky: “I loved the idea that my grandchildren could try out our family recipes one day.”
Leo: “After all, a great menu is always a very good way of attracting the whole family.”
How was it before when your mother was on tour?
Vicky: “Sometimes I was on the road for a whole month and couldn’t prepare anything.”
Leo: “It was of course a nutritional disaster for us. Our father then had to take care of the food. He doesn’t actually cook because he neither can nor wants to. “
Sandra: “There was brown bread in the pan, ‘fried’ with banana and curry. Or spaghetti with ice-cold ketchup. That’s why we really enjoyed traveling with our mother. “
Leo: “You also pre-cooked a lot and frozen it for us. You do that now for the grandchildren too. “
Did you never eat unhealthy food as a child?
Leo: “Clear! We were very lucky to grow up with our grandparents, who lived right next door. There was always German, hearty cuisine. “
Sandra: “And cake. They ate cake every day! We thought that was great, of course. “
Vicky: “Oh yes, sometime in the afternoon the children would often suddenly disappear, including my ex-husband. At first I always thought to myself: where is everyone? Until I found out where to get cake. There was cake there every day. And a little room with a television. Because at home, the children were only allowed to watch for half an hour a day. With the grandparents, of course, more. “
Leo: “So at some point during the day we sat in front of the box with cake. Under the protection of grandma and grandpa, that was wonderful. “
Isn’t that also the role of the grandparents?
Vicky: “Yes totally. And I have now fully taken over. My grandchildren (daughter Milana has three sons, 8, 6, 4 / d. R.) also like to come to me if they want to play or watch something. I can hardly say no. “
Sandra: “They are really allowed to do everything and get all the delicacies that we were denied as children, or for which we at least had to negotiate hard. Our father was rather strict. “
Vicky: “Me too, but only while eating. Otherwise I was less consistent. “
Leo: “Oh yes, with the important things, definitely, very much. Nevertheless you were a Greek mother with a lot of love in you, which made it very difficult for you to always be strict. “
Speaking of love: which dish from your cookbook would be perfect for a date?
Vicky: “A date? Who are you asking the question to? “
To all.
Leo: “For me it would be the kritharotto with prawns. (Pasta dish, is prepared like risotto, only with pasta). I’ve already tried it in situations like this and it was always well received. If the date went wrong, it wasn’t because of the food, more because of other things. “
Vicky: “I never wanted to make myself messy with cooking and then mostly made small fillet steaks. Seared with mustard and wine sauce, served with rice. “
Sandra: “I love the spinach risotto from the book. It’s not quite the perfect dish for a date because you have to keep stirring. But sometimes it is not so bad if the full attention is not on the date partner all the time and you have a little something to do on the side. “
Stuffed Tomatoes: A Recipe from My Grandma
Vicky Leandros already presents a sample from her bookPhoto: Gräfe and Unzer / Frank von Wieding
► INGREDIENTS
8 beefsteak tomatoes,
3 onions, each 1⁄2 bunch of parsley, basil, dill, 350 ml olive oil, salt, sugar,
30 g pine nuts,
1 tbsp tomato paste,
320 g minced beef, 150 g tomatoes, 120 g feta, pepper, 130 g long grain rice, 80 g grated kefalotyri (Greek hard cheese; alternatively Parmesan),
8 small potatoes
► PREPARATION
1. Cut off the lid of the tomatoes, remove the pulp, coarsely puree. Finely chop the onions, parsley, basil and dill.
2. Heat the onions in the pan in 3 tablespoons of olive oil, sauté for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and sugar, add pine nuts, fry for another 2–3 minutes. Briefly toast the tomato paste.
3. Mix the mince in a bowl with the tomatoes, 2/3 of the steamed onions, pine nuts, parsley, basil, dill, 6 tablespoons of olive oil. Crumble the feta, pepper and season with plenty of salt. Add rice.
4. Fill the tomatoes with the mixture, not all the way to the brim. Drizzle each tomato with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, sprinkle with grated cheese, put the lids on.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 ° (convection). Put the tomatoes in a baking dish. Spread the pureed tomato insides and the rest of the steamed onions around the tomatoes, pour in the remaining olive oil and 1 cup of water. Halve the peeled potatoes, season with salt and place in the sauce between the tomatoes. Pepper thoroughly.
6th After 10-15 minutes in the oven, turn the temperature down to 180 °. After another 10 minutes, cover the pan with aluminum foil and finish baking for approx. 35 minutes.