Category: Italian Recipes and Food

Bonèt piemontese: a traditional rich cocoa-amaretti custard from Piedmont

Bonèt is the classical and famous pudding you can find in Piedmont. This is a delicious dessert, very rich in calories, to be eaten between meals during the feasts. This Piedmont special was created  with two of the region’s best products: chocolate and amaretti cookies. Bonet is truly a fantastic Italian pudding (dolce al cucchiaio like pannacotta) worthy to try among the other Italian speciality!! Every single village has his own way of preparing it and it exists a lot of variantions. But basically the ingredients are the ones we are going to propose. Here is the yummy recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

  • 150g sugar
  • 200g amaretti
  • 2-3 spoonfuls Cocoa (ca. 30g)
  • 5 eggs + 1 egg yolk
  • 750 ml hot milk
  • Rum  4 spoonfuls
  • F0r the caramel: 200g sugar and 2 spoonfuls water

Preparation

  1. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs;  put the whites aside. Add the yolks to the sugar and whisk them firmly.
  2. Whisk also the egg whites separately, then add them to the yolks always stirring.
  3. Bring the rum and the milk to the boil together . Whisk 1 cup milk and cocoa in large bowl until cocoa dissolves. Crush the almonds amaretti, reducing them to a fine flour, then let the milk mixture cool down and add them all to the eggs-based mixture.

For the caramel:
Put the sugar in a pudding mould with a hole in the middle. Add the water and stirr the mould around over a low heat for a few seconds. Let the sugar caramelise until it reaches a nice brown colour.

Then the grand finale:

Put the caramellised sugar mixture in a pan, put over the brown liquid cream you have obtained into it and cook all in a bain-marie for 45 minutes at 180C in a pre-heated oven. Let it cool afterwards before serving. Decorated with amaretti and serve with a slightly sparkling, fruity Moscato d’Asti.

 

Capon in Chilly Sauce: Piedmont strikes back with a meat dish

  Always from Piedmont it comes a delicious dish made with poultry: Cappone in Salsa Ghiotta (Capon in Tasty Sauce). What is a Capon? It is simply a rooster that has been castrated. Why? To improve the quality of its flesh. The Romans  invented the capon, which resulted in a doubling of size.  The regional capital of the capon is Morozzo, a little village between Cuneo and Mondovi’ in Piedmont region where there is the traditional Fair of Capon (Fiera del Cappone) traditionally held in the middle of December. This is a traditional recipe and today we want to share with you.

Ingredients

  1. Capon (1)
  2. 100 gr. Raw ham
  3. Eggs  (2 yolks)
  4. Half a squeezed lemon
  5. Cream  (a glass)
  6. 30 gr.Butter
  7. 3 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
How to make it:
  • Widely salt and pepper the capon and tie the legs together with a tiny string. Let it become brown slowly in butter and oil, with the addition of a little onion and some rosemary. After this operation, you can add the ham, previously cut into thin strips.
  • Keep on cooking the capon while adding a glass of wine, but not altogether. When the capon is becoming tender, slice it thourougly and arrange it on a serving dish to be kept in a warm place.
  • Put on the capon gravy and again put back on the heat, adding a glass of cream and the juice of half a lemon. Let it boil for just a minute and then add the two egg yolks. Pour the sauce that you obtained over the capon.

Pane Frattau, a tasty bread tradition from Sardinia

Sardinia has a hostile coastlands with difficult landing places. So fish is spread but the most famous dish is lamb and suckling pig, goat and sheep cheeses and the famous “carta da musica” with pane frattau. The wonderful beaches and the villages between the rocks fascinates the tourists who have a taste also for the local cuisine based on a healthy local production. Let’s merge in the typical dish called carta da musica with pane frattau, a very fine and bread. It has been made by each family in the island in an oven burning wood . The family members get up at 4am to make this bread, which lasts long, for many days. It can be used for making many different recipes as the following easy one.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 Eggs
  • 3 spoons Vinegar
  • 8 spoons Grated Pecorino cheese
  • 1 kg.Ripe tomatoes
  • Sugar
  • 1/2 Onion
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • Saffron
  • 5 leaves Basil
  • Salt
  • Pepper
 HOW TO MAKE IT
  1. Sauté the onions in 2 litres of water together with the vinegar. When ready, put it aside and keep it warm.
  2. Break the bread Pane Frattau into different and small pieces and put it into a large bowl together with warm salted water.
  3. Put a spoon of the tomato sauce and half a spoon of grated cheese on each plate. Then, as soon as the bread has been softened, put it on the plates with sauce and cheese on top, making also many layers.
  4. Serve with the eggs aside.

Cannonau come along to this dish. It is a famous dry Sardinian  red wine.

 

Biscotti and the ancient art to make it

Biscotti are the beloved cookies of every Italian family. The term means twice-cooked, and comes from the habit of baking cookie dough in long bars. Then the dough would have been cutting into half-inch thick cookies, which will be having heated again in order to dry them out and keep better and longer. Many variations in the way biscotti were made reflects the regional differences.

Home-made biscotti are in most Italian families beloved and they prefer to bake cookies, also following the traditional recipes of grannies and mothers but also coming from excellent chef like Pellegrino Artusi and his classical crunchy Biscotti, as he shows in his famous book  La Scienza in Cucina: simple ingredients and great impact!

Ingredients:

  1. 3 1/3 cups (400 g) flour
  2. 1 cup (200 g) sugar
  3. 2/5 cup (50 g) unsalted butter
  4. 1/2 cup less two tablespoons almonds
  5. 1/4 cup raisins
  6. 1/4 cup pine nuts
  7. 2 teaspoons candied citron or melon
  8. A pinch of powdered anise
  9. 2 tablespoons aquavit
  10. 1 scant teaspoon bicarbonate
  11. 1 whole egg + 3 yolks

How to make it

  • You need to peel the almonds, leaving them whole.
  • Then mince the candied fruit and scoop out a hole in the mound of flour.
  •  Put together the eggs, the sugar, the butter, the aquavit, and the bicarbonate.
  • Knead a dough without working the ingredients too much, then make an opening in it, add the almond and the candied fruit, knead again the dough to distribute them, and roll it out.
  • Cut the roll into five pieces, grease and put flour in a pan, brush them with egg yolk, and bake all at 350 F (180 C) for about fifteen minutes, or until lightly browned.
  • Once they are cooked, you need to slice them into round cookies, and put them again into the oven for 10-15 min. more.

The Fall food season in Italy and its festivals

Fall in Italy means olive and grape harvesting and mushrooms and truffles picking. Many fairs are held in late October and November from the North down the central Italy: in the Piemonte,  Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche regions.

Are you a bunch of Foodies visiting Italy? Follow the smell of truffle then, and, besides Alba in Piemonte, check Boccaccesca fair: the first two weekends of October let’s meet in Certaldo Alto, Tuscany. The last weekend of October instead go and visit Montalcino, if you are still in Tuscany, for the Sagra del Tordo (Feast of the Thrush), a medieval reenactment of an archery tournament.

During Umbria Fall Food Festivals thera are plenty of truffles, chestnuts, and chocolate to taste, while  Eurochocolate is a biggest and bubbling chocolate festival which takes place in Perugia in mid October. Staz with us and with your lust for sweeties!

the fourth weekend in October comes the Torrone Festival in Cremona, the right place to celebrate the Italian nougat. Cremona boasts a document from October 25, 1441, which states that torrone was made for a wedding in the town!!! During the festival, the historic banquet is re-enacted.

The white truffle is one of the best product you can buy in November. Where? Starting from Piemonte go to Alba and Moncalvo, in the Monferrato area, with their white truffle fair the last two weekends of October.

In Tuscany celebrate the fresh scent of the “white gold” going to Volterra and its white truffle fair in late October and early November. San Miniato Truffle Fair (La Sagra del Tartufo Bianco) is on the second, third and fourth weekends in November,  and also San Giovanni d’Asso, close to Siena, has a good truffle festival the second and third weekends of November and a truffle museum opening on weekends.

Le Marche can boasts Acqualagna, the “truffle capital” with very good white truffle fairs on weekends starting at the end of October through mid-November. In the same region Sant’Angelo in Vado, close to Urbania, holds a truffle fair on weekends for several weeks in October.

In Umbria region we can find  Pietralunga and its Mostra Mercato del Tartufo (Trade fair of Truffles) in mid-October, while Citta di Castello has the Truffle and Forest Products Fair in November.

Brasato al Barolo: when wine and meat are in love

Again in this October we need to create a great meal for dinner time! It is starting to be cold so meat can be much of a confort to everyone who comes back home after commuting from a long day at work. What to propose then? Brasato al Barolo is one of the classic Piemontese dishes, made with the fruits of its countryside: a lot of  Barolo (or also Chianti, Brunello, Taurasi). A slow dish to cook, almost two hours, but it is worthy to wait for the grande finale!

INGREDIENTS:

3 pounds beef, either rump roast or a similar cut
A bottle of Barolo
A large onion
A large carrot
A stalk of celery
A bay leaf
Peppercorns
Butcher’s twine
2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons prosciutto fat
1/4 cup cognac
Salt to taste.

 

  1. The day before you plan actually to cook the meat, slice the onion, celery, and carrot.
  2. Put them in a bowl with the meat, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Pour the wine and marinate it until the next day.
  3. Now remove the meat, preserving the marinade, and dry the meat.
  4. Strain the marinade in a pot, boil it , and cook it until it’s reduced by half. Tie the meat and brown it in a pot with the butter and prosciutto fat.
  5. Pour some cognac over the meat and light it.
  6. Season the meat with salt, put the reduced marinade over it, and then add the vegetables, cover everything and simmer over a low heat about two hours. When the meat is ready, put it onto a platter and free it from the string which you have used to tie it up.
  7. Remove  the bay leaf. Remove the vegetables and blend them.
  8. Degrease the sauce, stir the vegetables into it, and in the end pour all over the meat.
  9. Serve the dish with mashed potatoes or polenta, coming along with a bottle of…Barolo.

Piemonte festivals in Fall: take a walk on the truffle-wild side

This is the time of the year to discover the wonderful and expensive world of truffles!!! White or black, this gourmet addition to your meals is luxurious: thousands of pounds to spend on it beacuse it grow only in the wild, while only  expert foragers and highly trained dogs can find it! So you can understand why it is called oro bianco and oro nero, meaning white and black gold.

In the Langhe area, there is the truffle’s hearts, exactly in the hills of the Monferrato region. A “trifulau” is the one you are looking for: he/she can guide you in exploring the traditions related to the local truffle varieties.

October is  “the” month for Italian food festivals, not only truffle but also  mushrooms, chestnuts, chocolate. On Fall Italy is ripe of  food festivals and wine harvest celebrations! Not to miss is the Slow Food’s big International Food Event in October!

Asti is waiting for you too. Its beautiful Gothic cathedral is the heart of a lively medieval city, and of the most famous Barbera producer. A taste of heaven along with Barolo and Barbaresco wine you can find in Piemonte region.

Alba White Truffle Festival is in October in the Piedmont town of Alba and it is one of the biggest truffle festivals in Italy, peculiar also for its donkey race. Instead if you lok for an historical walk, check the Maschera di Ferro, a festival and a historic reenactment of the Man in the Iron mask which takes place in the Piedmont region the first weekend of October exactly  in Pinerolo.

According to the legend, the man in the iron mask was held in captivity for 11 years in the French fortress of “Pignerol” (ancient word for “Pinerolo”), in Piedmont. Each year Sunday afternoon after the performance, the mask is finally removed and the face of the man wearing it revealed.

 

Vitello alla pizzaiola: from Campania with veal

This is a typical Italian recipe coming from the rich region of Campania and a very tasty  second course. Vitello alla pizzaiola has been made from patient and expert mothers and grannies in this region and in all the rest of Southern Italy with veal and a sauce of garlic, extra virgin olive oil and tomatoes sauce. You can found the recipe every where in the restaurant in this region if you are visiting Napoli. Or ou can prepare a gorgeous and delicious Italian dish simply following the recipe below.

INGREDIENTS for 4/5 people:
4 big steaks of veal
30 g of Parmesan
4 – 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
6 tablespoons of tomatoes sauce
3 Cloves of Garlic
3 Glass of Water

Parsley
Oregano
Salt
Pepper

 

  1. Place in a large pan the steaks of veal. After the cooking time which lasts for almost 40-45 minutes you can also cut the veal in smaller pieces, but for the start it is important that the meat are placed in the pan conserving its own integrity!
  2. Then proceed, cleaning the garlic and cutting it in small pieces.Not too small indeed but average small in size!
  3. Put over the meat the little pieces of garlic, add the chopped parsley and a small quantity of extra virgin olive oil.
  4. You ca now add directly the Parmesan and the tomatoes sauce.
  5. An important step is to heat the pan and add the water. Cook the whole meal at low flame for about 40 minutes. Allow the water to reduce a bit but not too much.
  6. Adds some other water in order to make it fluid and let the tomato melt with the oil and the meat juice to create a smooth and liquid sauce. Now your fantastic meal is ready! You can also brown the garlic in the extra virgin olive oil, then add the oregano and the tomatoes and then the meat. But we prefer the first version of the recipe.

You can also cook a bit of pasta (tubettini pasta will be the best choice) and add the pizzaiola sauce to create a complete dinner with a first and a second course, as my grandmather used to do: “Non si butta via niente” (You don’t have to waste anything) of a good meal.

Bottarga in Sardinia: tasty eggs from the mullet

An authentic gourmet treasures from ancient Sardinia?  Yes! It is an highly valued and delicate delikatessen known as “bottarga”. One of the most beautiful and secret part of the island hold this secret: it is on the western coast of Sardinia the area of Sinis, in the province of Oristano.

From Oristano go  towards Cabras to the area of the lake of the same name: a village in which the time seems stopping with little house is the capital of Sardinian “botargo”. Here the population live almost in symbiotic relationship with  the sea and with the traditional “fassonis” that is boats of interwoven canes they go out to catch the mullet in autumn where they deposit their eggs, aka the famous bottarga. They wait for the mullet at the opening  with their barriers of  marsh canes (the cannicciati), the sailors throw the nets and after getting them the sailors remove very gently the sacks, full of coloured eggs.

The egg row are salted, then pressed to dry in the air and finally  dabbed with Vernaccia, the great wine of the area.

The botargo has a peculiar taste, firm and as the same time delicate, salty but fully aromatic. How to eat? You should slice it very thin or you can grated on stir-fry vegetables (tomatoes) with spaghetti or sprinkled on artichokes in form of risotto.

Then after having had a great meal, you can visit the nearby  archaeological area of Tharros, the city built by the Phoenicians around  700 B. C.

Later taken by the Carthaginians, and finally by Romans the area is at the southern end of the  peninsula of Sinis. The ruins are impressive: the stones are scattered over the rocks surrounded by myrtle and oleander bushes. The white columns dominates over the sea, the same sea which gives us bottarga!

 

Where to eat and enjoy your meals in Florence

Florence: the pulsing heart of the Renaissance,   period when art and culture flourished after the “Dark Age”. In the XV century  Dante, Petrarch and  Macchiavelli lived in Florence, while artists like Botticelli, Michelangelo and Donatello created their masterpieces!

The city has Roman origins: 59 B. C. is the foundation date. In the VI century  the Lombards conquered it and Florence became an independent city-state. One of the most powerful cities in Italy and one of the biggest trade centres  in the XIII century thanks to the associations of artisans and merchants which ruled the city and then to the Florentine Republic.

When the Medici, a wealthy family of bankers, raised in power, for over three centuries the noble governed the whole of Tuscany making Florence the cultural and intellectual heart of Europe.

And now to the modern turist who ventures in the medieval alleys besides the staendhal syndrome what to advice? But also to enjoy some of the finest restaurant in the world! Enoteca Pinchiorri (Via Ghibellina 87, tel, 055-242777) is often described as the best of Italy and certainly it has the best supplied cellar in Europe! Situated on the ground floor of a fifteenth century building, it has a type of cooking that is a mix of Tuscan and French tradition. Jacket and tie are part of the dress code you have to observe!

La Taverna del Bronzino (Via delle Ruote, 27r. Tel.055-495220) takes its name from the Florentine painter, with an excellent wine list.

Alle murate (Via Ghibellina, 52r. Tel. 055-240618) animated by a female “chef “and a touch of the exotic. Try one of the house desserts!

Buca dell’orafo (Volta  de’ Girolami, 28r. Tel. 055-213619). The buca dell’orafo is a beloved tavern for real Florentines. Home made cooking, fresh pasta with a menu that varies from day to day. Try  the “ribollita”, a soup made with red cabbage, on Saturday!

Palle d’Oro (Via Sant’Antonino, 43r. Tel. 055-288383). This  trattoria is simple but the beefsteak “alla fiorentina” is rare!