Hello hello,
happy spring y’all! ❀𖤣𖥧𖡼⊱✿⊰𖡼𖥧𖤣❀
I always say that I love winter, but when spring knocks at my door my mood gets lifted incomparably. The sun, longer days and bright colours help me reappropriate my liveliness and I’m here for it.
Anyway, let’s stop all the chit-chat because we need to tackle important stuff today. On this note, today’s newsletter edition is quite special, since it’s in collaboration with Residenza 725, a multi-brand concept store defined as "the “shopping universe, land of culture”.
Indeed, I lent them my elevator spotlight to have a deeper introspection of who I am and what they do.
Said so, here below you will find the interview and our fun shooting.
Enjoy, have fun and go take that Vitamin D.
Yours truly
♡
Best Gazpacho from NYT (4 pax):
Ingredients
☆ About 500 gr ripe red tomatoes, cored and roughly cut into chunks
☆ 1 green pepper, like friggitelli or cubanelle, cored, seeded and roughly cut into chunks
☆ ½ of a cucumber, peeled and roughly cut into chunks – a good replacement could be watermelon!!
☆ ½ of a red onion (Tropea would be fire), peeled and roughly cut into chunks
☆ Garlic (as much as you want, I’m ok with 1 clove), minced
☆ 2 tsp vinegar like Sherry or apple cider, more to taste
☆ 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, more to taste + more for drizzling
☆ 2 tsp Salt
☆ Topping options: crumbled feta, croutons, basil, cubes of avocado, balsamic glaze
Instructions
★ Blend the vegetables, onions and garlic at high speed until very smooth – minimum 2 minutes – pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides of the container.
★ While blending on low speed, add the vinegar and salt. Drizzle in the olive oil slowly. The mixture will turn orange/pinkish and become smoothly emulsified. If it looks watery, drizzle in more olive oil until the texture becomes creamy.
★ Strain the mixture and discard the solid parts. Transfer to a glass container and chill until cold, like 6 hours or overnight.
★ Once it’s super cold, before serving, adjust the seasonings with salt and vinegar. If the soup thickened too much overnight, stir in a couple of tbsp ice water. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil on top and the toppings you prefer.
Kulajda (Czech mushroom, potatoes and dill soup):
Ingredients
☆ 3 tbsp flour
☆ 1 l vegetable stock
☆ 1,5 tbsp butter
☆ 5 potatoes
☆ A generous handful of mushrooms (porcini would be great)
☆ 1 cup heavy cream (even better if smetana)
☆ 2/3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
☆ 2/3 tbsp white sugar
☆ Dill, how much you like
☆ 1 bay leaf
☆ ½ tsp allspice (Jamaican pepper)
☆ 1 tsp cumin
☆ 4 eggs
☆ Salt & pepper
Instructions
★ Clean, cut and sautée the mushrooms in a pan with some butter and salt. In the meantime, peel the potatoes and cut them in a medium dice (macédoine).
★ In a pot melt the butter with the oil, then add the flour to make a roux. Keep on whisking the roux until it turns golden. Add the stock to the roux and stir.
★ In an additional pot boil the eggs at your preference. I like them gooey so I cook them for circa 8 minutes.
★ Add the potatoes, mushrooms and the spices to the stock. Cook the soup for 10/15 minutes, until the potatoes are soft.
★ Remove the spices from the soup and add the heavy cream, some salt, pepper and, lastly, the dill previously washed and minced.
★ Before serving, adjust with the sugar and vinegar. My advice is to start with 2 spoons of sugar and 2 of vinegar and taste. However, my personal preference is 3 spoons in total.
★ Plate the soup and top with the egg cut in half.
Caldo verde (Portuguese kale and chorizo soup):
Ingredients
☆ 400 gr. kale
☆ 800 gr. potatoes
☆ 1 chorizo sausage
☆ 1 onion, diced
☆ Garlic (as much as you want, I’m ok with 1 clove), minced
☆ Salt & Pepper
☆ Evo oil
Instructions
★ Peel and cut potatoes into big rough cubes. Fill a pot with 1,5 litres of water, salt it and add the potatoes, garlic, and onions. Cook for 10 minutes and add the sausage. Simmer for 10 more minutes, until the chorizo is cooked and the potatoes are soft.
★ In the meantime, wash the kale and cut it julienne-like, then pat dry it.
★ When the chorizo and potatoes are ready, remove the sausage and set it aside. Mash the potatoes or blend them and cook for 10 more minutes.
★ Once the soup is boiling, add the kale and let it cook briefly. Adjust salt if needed. Once the soup is ready, slice the sausage and serve it with a drizzle of oil, some pieces of chorizo and a sprinkle of black pepper.
1) Ciao Martina, thank you for letting us in the elevator with you. What floors are we going to?
My pleasure, be my guest! We’re going to an imaginary attic, where to enjoy the view. Maybe with a good glass of wine and some peanuts like real Italians.
2) Tell us a bit about yourself, how did you start your modelling career?
Angelo, my (future) booker, scouted me at a rave party. My boyfriend – also a model – introduced us and Angelo handed me his business card. At first, I didn’t even want to model. But the more I kept on bumping into my booker, the more my boyfriend tried to convince me to give it a chance. So, I resigned… and then signed with Fabbrica.
3) What’s inside Martina’s Wunderkammer?
A lot. I tend to collect little souvenirs from wherever I go. I traveled quite a bit so it’s pretty packed in here. Surely, I can’t deny my maximalist nature, or my hoarding problem lol. I’d say that my Wunderkammer is filled with curiosities of any kind. Let it be trinkets, grocery lists or postcards. Actually, my living room looks a lot like it, so if you want to have a peek at what’s on my mind, you should come over for dinner.
4) If you should pick one meal you’d be eating for the rest of your life, what would that be?
This is such a hard question because I obsess over food on rotation. However, my most consistent one would definitely be soup. Soup of any kind. By the way, scroll to the top to find out some of my favourites.
5) What’s your current favourite TikTok trend? What does your TikTok feed look like?
TikTok is a black hole for me, hence I try to open it the least possible. Otherwise, I’d waste hours on it. So, I don’t really know about its trends. My favourite probably is the #sadhamster because it’s very me. Regarding my feed, I revolve mainly around food content and hilarious videos, with some fun facts too. I end in loopholes a lot, like Kate Middleton’s disappearance theories and spooky Ouija board story times.
6) Instead of asking you what trends are expected to fall or rise in the next seasons, I will ask you: can you imagine a fashion world without trends?
I cannot, since we all want to belong somehow and trends mainly feed on this necessity. However, I reckon this amount of emerging trends, unsustainable (from every perspective) and overwhelming. For this reason, I wouldn’t exclude the idea of people being tired. We are all drained by this bombing of life hacks and “this-and-that”-core. I low-key wish we all embraced having few clothes and repeating outfits. The “uniform” is a trend I would stick to for sure.
7) The fashion industry has become very multifaceted, expanding its business in many different lifestyle areas. Why do you think that’s the case?
To create a realm of which people want to be part. That’s why brands open coffee corners and Michelin-starred restaurants for example. Through different mediums, you can communicate the core of the brand on 360. And these become part of the luxurious experience. Not everybody can afford a high-end bag, but they can most probably afford dinner at Armani. Or a “Tom Ford” scented candle.
8) Because of your job, you’re often abroad. But at the end of the day, where do you feel at home the most?
In my own bed. I swear, there’s nothing that makes me feel more shielded than fresh linen in my bed. It’s like a cocoon.