Italian Recipes and Food – Page 7

Casatiello: Easter bread from Naples

Casatiello: a tasty Neapolitan Easter Bread! The bread takes a long time to be prepared but it is worth it. It is almost 3 hours long. Usually my granny loved to prepare for all the family up to 4 Casatiello bread rings on Easter time, because she knew how much we loved it! It is great after days still and you can reheat in the oven with a bit of pecorino cheese on it to make it ven more yummy and tasting!

Dough:

1 package active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
4 ounces lard or 1/3 olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Filling:

1/2 pound chunk provolone or scamorza cheese, cut into cubes
1/2 pound chunk mortadella, salami, or boiled ham cut into cubes
4 eggs
Salt to taste and Grinding black pepper

Preheat the oven at 375F, then make a basic bread dough, and it has to rise until double.

Roll out into a large square on which you will spread some lard (225g/half pound will be sufficient) and sprinkle the pepper. Add 1/4 lb each of chopped up salame and pancetta and a little bit of chopped up prosciutto. Put on the top of it the grated pecorino romano or parmigiano and create like a tubular form.

Grease a food cake pan with some lard and place the tubular cake inside shaping it as a ring.

You need to put in it 5 eggs, fresh and not boiled on top and put 2 strips of dough like an X on top to hold down the eggs. Let the casatiello bread rise for another hour or even more until doubled.

After, place it in oven at 375 – 400 F (185-200 C) for an hour and once it is out of the oven, let casatiello cool in a paper bag. Leave it for the following day and do not slice until the next morning. Be patient and it would taste great!

Rabbit Ligurian style: the taste of wilderness

If it is true that Liguria is famous for its pesto sauce, caciucco style fish stew (ciuppin) and its Focaccia, for its superb olive oil and olives like the “taggiasca” type. Alongside these recipes, we have also the territory as Cinque Terre, the elegant seaside towns of Portoﬁno, Rapallo and Santa Margherita Ligure. But also it deserve a visit the inland areas, with its medieval villages from the top of the hills full of tradition and of course of delicious food!
The Ligurian cuisine has also a fab star called coniglio alla ligure (rabbit ligurian style).
Ingredients are genuine and with a tiny spike of wilderness:
1 rabbit, weighing approx. 1.5 kg;
2 tbsp each, of finely chopped carrot, onion and celery;
1 tbsp each crushed walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, and hazelnuts;
1 clove garlic, minced;
1 bay leaf;
1 salted anchovy, rinsed and chopped;
1 tbsprinsed capers;
100 g black olives;
1 glass dry white wine;
50 ml extra virgin olive oil;
Meat or vegetable stock;
Handful fresh thyme, chopped.

How to make it?

First you should chop the rabbit into pieces. In the while heat the olive oil in a large pan and throw in it some chopped carrot, onion and celery. Cook all gently until the onion looks soft and transparent.
Add the rabbit and cook over a medium heat. The rabbit will become browned on all sides.

Put inside the pan the crushed nuts, the garlic, 1 bay leaf, the anchovy, the capers and the olives, while season with salt and pepper.
Pour in the white wine and stir until most of wine has gone.

Add enough stock sufficient to cover the rabbit, then cover up and cook over a lower heat for ca. 40-50 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and the rabbit is completely cooked.
Add the chopped thyme and serve with a bit of polenta.

Acquacotta: an old delicious recipe from Tuscany

When bad weather hits, In Italy something really traditionally is going to be on the table: let’s discover a fantastic Italian recipe coming from Tuscany: acquacotta.

Acquacotta is a vegetable stew, which was made by the farmers who had to go almost 12 hours in the fields during the harvest. This is why this recipe belongs to the farmer tradition and to the so called “cucina povera“, “poor” in means but great in the taste!

Of course, in a time where supermarket didn’t exist and hard work was the rule for the majority of people, the Italians invented from a very “poor” ingredients what now is recognised as the best of the world cousine!

Healthy, delicious and very filling because the acquacotta (“cooked water”) soup is enriched with bread and a cooked poached egg on top.

Use seasonal vegetables to make this recipe. The traditional soup would have been made with whatever the peasants picked that day.

This is why this soup is perfect for a winter’s day!

4 people will need 2 red onions, 6 ripe tomatoes, 1 cabbage, 2 carrot, 1 stick of celery, 4 eggs, 4 slices of crusty bread, Pecorino cheese and olive oil. What to do then? Simply: clean and slice the vegetables into bite size pieces. In the while, heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a casserole, add the vegetables and fry on medium-high heat for ten minutes.

Then add the tomatoes, almost a litre of water and salt. The soup has to boil for 20 minutes ca.

Now it is the time to make the eggs ready: to do so, fill another pan with a tiny layer of water, bring to the boil with a bit of salt, break eggs into a bowl and slide them into the pan: 3-4 mins are sufficient for the eggs to set.
Place a slice of toasted bread at the bottom of each dish, while putting the poached egg on top. After that, pour the vegetable stew over it! Do not forget to add pecorino cheese, a bit of oil and taste the soup!

Learn how to cook Italian recipes in Maremma

back from your holydays with in your mouth the taste of Italy and of Tuscany…but how to learn the secrets of the real Italian cooking ? The delicious dishes from the Maremma are now for you to learn from scratch in one of the numerous cooking classes you can find all over Tuscany.

Of course why not to learn cucina povera directly in the Maremma Toscana, full with cooking schools and workshop on Slow Food? You will find the real local chefs running it, but also lovely grannies or funny housewives very passionate about Tuscany’s traditional food.

These schools are really for tourists: the common language is English, and the Maremman food is delicious: we will go to talk of Acquacotta, a delicious vegetable soup, and we already showed you the recipe to make Caciucco, a fantastic fish stew, but there are a lot more to discover and of course learn how to cook properly!

Why don’t have a go with a delicious first course such as the “pappardelle alla lepre” (pappardelle pasta in hare sauce), or a second wild course like the “cinghiale alla cacciatora con polenta” (wild boar cacciatora-style with polenta)?

Next time why do not you choose a full weekend immersions in a cooking class in agriturismo, or in a professional kitchen?

Life is too short not to go and taste great food, great wine and great cooking lessons! enjoy going to the local market and learn to choose the best fresh ingredients to make from the simplest to the most complicated dishes coming from centuries of work and passion.

And in the while you are in Maremma, plkease don’t miss Pitigliano, also known as Piccola Gerusalemme, or Little Jerusalem and a truly stunning medieval town in the heart of Maremma Toscana! On the top a tufa ridge, you will find also Etruscan tombs close to the cliff!

The king is ciuppin, the fish soup in Liguria

Ciuppin is a local fish stew from Liguria, and like bouillabaisse, countless are the variations in all the region, as always happen with Italian traditional recipes!

It’s made throughout the Riviera Ligure, but is more common in the Levante, meaning the eastern part of the Ligurian coast, towards Tuscany.

You can find it especially Lavagna, Chiavari and Sestri. And If you go in the beautiful Liguria for fun, you can’t avoid tasting this gorgeous, rich and incredible seafood dish!

This recipe originated also an Italian-American dish in San Francisco Bay Area. This specialities is called “cioppino”, clearly based on the old Ligurian ciuppin, our lovely seafood zuppa.

How to make Ciuppin? As usual great dishes have poor origins in Italy.

Ciuppin’s roots lie in the fishes’ leftovers of the market stall, and this is why it has been made with a number of kinds of fish, all of low commercial value, cooked with greens, herbs, and olive oil.

You will need to use 2 1/4 pounds mixed fish like mullet, reef mullet, bream, scorpion fish, piper, tub fish, two cloves garlic, an onion, a carrot, 1 6-inch rib celery, parsley, four ripe tomatoes, one cupof dry white wine such as a Cinque Terre, 1/3 cup Extra virgin olive oil, 1 pint boiling water, salt and pepper

If you have stale Italian bread will be perfect to come along with ciuppin!

Mince the garlic, onion, parsley, celery and carrot. put in the pan and stir. Add the tomatoes you have previously peeled, seeded and chopped. While the tomatoes are cooking, add the chopped fish, after having removed scales and bones.

Cover the pan, add a bit of water, reduce the heat and simmer until the fish begins to fall apart. Remember that this fish soup should be liquid. Serve your ciuppin in soup bowls, over slices of toasted bread, and try also cacciucco from Livorno, Tuscany, a fish stew we already described in italyadvisor.

Tasty Agnolotti from Piemonte

Agnolotti are a kind of stuffed pasta coming from Piemonte: you can find them filled with cheese, or meat, vegetables. All the recipes‘ variations are delicious and worthy to taste and to prepare.

The shapes are always the same, though, in spite of the variety of fillings. They have to be square and small, made from a very thin sheets of pasta.

Which are the ingredients? It seems complicated to make, but it is not, believe me! As a kid, I used to help my granny with her pasta making every Sunday.

Here we go for the pasta: 500 g flour, 8 yolks and 2 whites.

Make the dough from the flour and the eggs , put it in a bowl, cover all with a tea-towel or a wrap, and let it sit.

The filling? 300 g cooked lightly seasoned pot roast, 150 g roast pork loin, 75 g fresh, mild sausage, 100 g brains, 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, a bunch of escarole, Parmigiano, 3 eggs, freshly grated nutmeg, salt.

Boil the sausage and the brains for a few minutes, then remove them and let them cool. Remove the sausage skin and crumble it, while removing the pig brain’s membranes. Mince it all with the cooked escarole. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with your fingers.

Take the pasta dough, cut and shape the sheet into two equal-sized pieces, and make the squared shapes for agnolotti. put the filling in one square and cover with the other pasta’s little square.

The sauce to dress our fab dish? The most common are butter and fresh sage, freshly grated Parmigiano or Grana Padano Boil the agnolotti in a meat stoke, take them out and season them with the butter and sage along a light red.

Limoncello: a taste of lemon to drink

Limoncello is an Italian lemon liqueur known for its refreshing sweet flavor. It is made from simple ingredients: lemon rinds, alcohol, sugar and…passion!

Served as a digestive, or after-dinner drink to help in digestion, limoncello is good also in a cocktail. Limoncello was born in Southern Italy, along Italy’s Amalfi Coast and Sorrentine Peninsula, where the lemon cultivation is spread and flourishes. “Limoncello di Capri” is one of the finest limoncellos in commerce.

For limoncello’s recipe, you should use brightly coloured, unblemished and aromatic organic lemons. And for the alcohol? Use grain alcohol such as Everclear (75.5 percent alcohol). Some like to add vodka but I didn’t so just follow your taste!

The process is quite simple but requires patience. Usually the mothers and the grannies used to gather in winter time before Christmas and peel lots of kilos of lemons to grant limoncello for all the families and along all year.

So what to do?Start just peeling the lemons carefully, in order to catch the rinds only and then we will need to soak them.

Most traditional recipes advice an 80-day soak, because the longer the rinds soak, the deeper the color will be. In fact, limoncello can be pale or canary yellow.

After the soak, the rinds will be discarded, and you will add water and sugar to the lemon-infused alcohol you have produced. It is possible to make also creamy limoncello, but the main ingredients to add is milk. Whatever you made you should put the spirit inside the freezer and keep it there

Serving limoncello: pour it straight from the freezer!

The cocktail: Combining with champagne or sparkling water limoncello is a refreshing summertime cocktail!

The cakes: Limoncello can also be added in cakes and icecream, over fresh fruit, gelato or cakes. You can whisk it into ricotta or mascarpone.

Outlet gianfranco ferre, outlet marche, Abbigliamento Outlet, abbigliamento firmato,

Italian Rice Pie: a delicious use of the rice

Of all the Easter pies, one of the Italian favourite dessert is rice pie (torta di riso). Many regional variations for it as usual in Italy for this delicious recipe, but most sweet rice pies are made from eggs, rice (Arborio), ricotta cheese, and citrus (orange or lemon).
The Italian rice pie is like having two pies in one! When it bakes, a bottom layer of dense rice forms while the top is a separate layer of lemon-laced custard.
Rice pie is served at room temperature at Easter Sunday, but it’s an irresistible pudding for every season. It’s not overly sweet, and it is also considered a lovely “brunch” dish. Here is a long list of the ingredients, divided into the part that is important to make: let’s start from the crust:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

And now you are ready for the filling and its own ingredients to mix:

1 cup water
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
1 quart milk
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
6 eggs

The directions? Here it is, simple as ever: stir the flour and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside.

In a second large bowl, cream the butter and half a cup of sugar. Afterwards, beat in 3 eggs, one at a time, and stir in the vanilla.

Then beat in the flour mixture to make the dough and divide it in half to have the final two balls.

Flour a surface, roll out each ball to fit two 10 inch pie plates.

Line the pie plates with the crust, and refrigerate until needed. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, and stir in the rice. Stir in the milk and stir until the mixture thickens.

When it is cooled down, preheat oven to 325 degrees F or 165 degrees C. eat Use the ricotta cheese, and add 1 1/2 cups of sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest.Finally add 6 eggs together in a mixing bowl. Stir in the cooled rice mixture and pour into the pie shells.

Put all in the preheated oven until the filling is set and tops are golden brown. it will take more or less 90 minutes. Remember to serve it at at room temperature!!!

Passatelli in brodo: fab for the Winter

Passatelli in brodo: it is a treasure coming from the traditional recipes! This dish shows perfectly how Italian people can invent new recipes, changing the method you work the same ingredients.

In the Romagna region of Italy, this wonderful dish called “passatelli” (“to pass them through”). In fact the act of making them involves a kind of potato press designed for passatelli. You will eat them “in brodo” (with stock), but also dry with a “ragù di carne” (meaning meat sauce) or “ragu’ di pesce” (meaning a sauce made with fish).

The ingredients are: 200 g (7 oz) Breadcrumbs , 200 g (7 oz) Grated Parmesan cheese, 4 Eggs, 1 tsp Nutmeg, Lemon zest from a ¼ of the lemon, Salt and pepper to season, 3-4 litres of chicken stock.

Breadcrumbs has to come from stale bread that has become hard enough to be grated. Use bread made without olive oil! Chefs in restaurants add some flour to keep the passatelli mixture together. First, smash the bread in fine breadcrumbs and grate on it the Parmesan cheese. Break the eggs into a large bowl and season with salt and with pepper. Whisk the eggs for few seconds and set the bowl apart. Add the breadcrumbs into a second bowl. Add the nutmeg and stir to distribute better the nutmeg. Then it comes Parmesan cheese and lemon zest. Stir and add the dry mix to the whisked eggs.

Once all the eggs have been absorbed into it, start working the mixture with your hands. Work the dough for few minutes in a bal. Wrap the ball with cling film but don’t put the ball in the fridge; just leave it in a cool place. Use a kind of potato press with wider holes (4 mm diameter) to press all the ball and cut the passatelli when they are about 4 cm. Let them dry and then throw them into the boiling stock! Or press the pressed dough directly into the boiling stock. Try both methods and decide what you like most!

Chocolate salami or Salame di cioccolato

Chocolate salami (Salame di cioccolato, salame turco or salame vichingo) is a dessert very popular in Italy. It is a lovely pudding you can also find in trattorias: you wil find it in those rural “trattorias” you can find along the Po river at the border between Lombardy and Emilia Romagna regions of Italy. It’s a really a rustic dessert, and it is a part of the “cucina Povera” made of “poor” ingredients but really yummy and very good and tasty! Here the ingredients:

300 g (11 oz) Rich tea biscuits or Digestive kind of biscuits
150 g (5 oz) Butter (unsalted)
100 g (4 oz) Dark chocolate
100 g (4 oz) Sugar
2 Eggs
30 ml (1 fl oz) Dark rum

How to make it? Cut the butter into pieces and let it warm to room temperature, while breaking the chocolate bar into pieces. Put them into a small bowl and melt the chocolate very slowly. When the chocolate is completely melted, set the bowl aside and let the chocolate cool a little. Put the biscuits into a large bowl and break the biscuits using the back of a spoon, making them into crumbs.

As the butter is soft, work it with a whisk and then start adding the ingredients: first the sugar, then the eggs, the melted chocolate, the rum and the biscuit crumbs.

The result? A lovely chocolate dough that will turn in the shape of a salami. Put the chocolate salami onto a layer of cling film and then wrap it with the film.

Put the chocolate salami in the fridge for a couple of hours, after the cooling time slice the chocolate salami and serve it with coffee or tea.