Italian Recipes and Food – Page 9

Bottarga and pasta: a perfect marriage

This recipe, my lovely friends, is super for seafood lovers and aficionados!

Bottarga and pasta merge in a great dish! But what is Bottarga?

One of the great delicatessen coming from Sardinia and Sicily, meaning tuna or mullet roe, in origin used to make the bottarga sauce to top pasta.

You can find the precious ingredient in any Italian deli shop in Britain. The pasta? You can use “linguine” or “spaghetti” and in general it is better a kind of “pasta lunga” like the one aforementioned.

The ingredients are 400 g (14 oz) linguine or spaghetti, 70 ml (2 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil, 1 garlic clove, 120 g (4 oz) tuna roe, and parsley.

How can you make it? Very, very easily.

The sauce rules! Grate the cod roe, put the olive oil into the pan and heat it with some garlic. Sweat the garlic off until it turns golden, then remove it from the pan.

Then, boil the linguine pasta and while it is boiling, you can proceed with the sauce preparation.

Next, move the pan away from the heat and leave the oil to cool down for a minute or so. Then, add 2/3 of the grated cod roe into the pan and give it a good stir.

Add a bit of the parsley into the pan and season with black pepper. Finally, add a couple of spoonfuls of the boiling water you are using to boil your pasta. Stir to make a creamy mix. When your sauce is ready, and when the pasta is cooked “al dente”, just before draining it, put the pan containing the sauce over the heat again. Drain the pasta, leaving it slightly wet.

Add the pasta into the sauce pan and sprinkle with the remaining grated cod roe and the remaining parsley and stir well for a minute.

You will serve the pasta “alla bottarga” with a nice glass of white wine. Don’t add Parmesan cheese!

Classical tiramisù: craving for the right one!

The most famous dessert in the world ? No wonder if the answer is “tiramisù”, absolutely great and pretty easy to make.

Its origins? It traces back to the 17th century, coming from the fantasy of an unknown artist and chef of Siena (Tuscany) for the occasion of a visit by Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici III.

The dessert’s name was at the time “zuppa del duca” (that is, the “Duke’s soup”). Instead today everybody calls it “tiramisù” (literally, “pick me up”).

Lift your hands if you have ever tasted it! Which version of tiramisù?

Maybe the most traditional one involved the use of “savoiardi” biscuits: the classic recipe!

But it is important to say that, in the last two decades, many fans and supporter of this incredible dish has experiment and found really tasty the use of “pavesini” biscuits. This ” dolce al cucchiaio” requires no cooking, but the coffee.

Take 350 g (12 oz) Italian mascarpone cheese, 100 g (3 ½ oz) icing sugar, 4 or 5 egg yolks (medium size eggs, without the whites), 1 pack of Pavesini biscuits or Savoiardi,
200 ml (7 fl oz) espresso coffee (cold) and cocoa powder just for dusting.

THE PREPARATION:

Put the egg yolks into a large bowl and start beating it with a whisk; gradually add all the sugar.
When the mixture is pale yellow and thick, add few drops of vanilla extract.
Beat firmly for few seconds, add the mascarpone to the egg-sugar-vanilla cream and blend everything together.
Dip the biscuits in the coffee (one at a time), for few seconds; lay the biscuits on the bottom of the dish.
Cover the biscuits with the tiramisù cream.

Start with the second layer of biscuits, same procedure, and then the third and fourth!

Dip the biscuits in the coffee and complete the second layer of biscuits. Remember to spread the final layer with the cream and dust it with cocoa powder.

Put the tiramisù in the fridge, leave it for 4-5 hours and serve it!!!

Sicily: sun, sea and…cannoli

Sicily is a very gnerous land not only for the historical important thetre and monuments, but also for the excellent recipe you can find over there: la cassata siciliana, la caponata (a stew made with olives, oil, aubergines) and the great and ancient Sicilian cannoli (cannoli siciliani)!

The cannoli is indeed one of the most classic desserts coming from this beautiful island: every Sicilian family retain jealously the recipe for his members and it is not important if they are not anymore in Italy, proudly adhering to this gorgeous and tasty Sicilian traditional dish.

Originally, the cannoli were a dessert during the carnival, but today the delicious cannolo has produced all year round.

Theay are different in size: some are really huge, others reach a medium size and some are very small!

it is written in the traditional cook book that the cannoli filling has to be made using fresh sheep milk ricotta cheese. Inside you will find a mixture of candies and sometimes chocolate drops.

To make the cannoli shells: the tradition mix it up flour with “mosto cotto” (that is, cooked grape must) or dry white wine. Marsala wine came in the common use only later, when this spirit was more convenient to buy.

To fry the cannoli shells: in Sicily, many people use just a piece of cane. The dough has been wrapped around and then put in the boiling oil. Normally, a metal cannoli tube is a well-known instrument to cook it.

The cannoli’s filling secret: the chef has to keep it in the fridge!!! The cannoli pastries have to be filled only before eating them, otherwise the risk is that every single shell will become too soft.

Some “experimental” recipe count also different kind of filling: ice cream or luxurious “creme patissiere”. Equally delicious, why don’t you have a go with this incredible dessert?

The magic of Tuscany inside Caciucco

What do you think of Tuscany?

Not only gorgeous nature, but delicious dishes like this one. Probably you have not yet taste it, but we warmly advice a round of this “leccornia”, that is the magnificent Caciucco (Caciuccio fish stew), a great mix of white fish and shellfish.

If you go there, together with Florence, Pisa and Siena, do not forget to go to on the coast and visit Livorno.

You can’t leave the Tuscany region without trying a bit of this fish stew, served with fresh slices of Italian roasted bread, brushed with garlic! Ready to put the bread inside caciucco and let it absorb properly the fish soup? Mmmmm, so tasty!

Although in Italy the fish stew’s recipes can vary from town to town, the most famous Cacciucco you will find in the town of Livorno (Tuscany).

You should find in it “pesce con lisca” (whole fish with bones) and “pesce da taglio” (boneless large round fish in cutlets or fillets).

The ingredients? Inside Caciucco there is all the mediterranean flavours coming fro the sea!

Red Gurnard (one whole fish), John Dory (one whole fish), Monkfish (one tail piece), huss (one fillet), turbot (one fillet), mussels, king scallops, prawns: all together to make a great fish stew!!! Originally this dish was part of the poorest family tradition: now it is one of the greatest dish of Italian culinary cucine!

The original recipe would require red mullet, baby octopus or small cuttlefish and “pannocchie” (that is, mantis shrimps).

Do not forget of course extra virgin olive oil, and the chopped onion, garlic, celery stalk, carrot.

Inside to give taste and flavour it will be of course a bit of dried chilli, chopped tomatoes, the ever present parsley, a full glass of white wine to stir the “soffritto” and give an extra taste, and of course fish stock cubes for 2 litres of boiled water.

Ready to order caciucco in some “trattoria” or restaurant? This specialities is always tasty, whenever you will find in Livorno!

Dreaming a panna cotta

Are you craving for something really sweet and yummi? Why don’t you try a gorgeous Italian “dolce al cucchiaio” for a special meal?

Here is for you the real Panna cotta’s recipe!

Interested? The following recipe is really easy and quick to prepare: ca. 10 minutes for the preparation and 5 minutes for the cooking time.

Panna cotta is probably one of the most famous and appreciate amongst the category of the wonderful Italian spoon desserts. You can find it in every bar or restaurant in Italy! And also it is well-known and spread in many other European countries.

This dessert exists in many forms and, according to its fame, you can find many versions on the Web. Here is a couple of recipe for our beloved panna cotta, flavoured in different ways.

Continue reading Dreaming a panna cotta

Gnocchi: a taste of Italy

Each Italian recipe is something amazing! Do you want to try it one? Let`s start with the delicious Gnocchi con sugo di pomodoro e basilico (Potato gnocchi with tomato sauce), one of my favourite!

Suitable for vegetarians, for the preparation it takes circa 45 mins, but the cooking is just 3 minutes!

Gnocchi usually is a great dish for Sunday meal, especially in autumn and winter time. They can be topped by many different sauces (“Gnocchi with Pesto sauce” are delicious as well).

For making gnocchi you will need 800 g (1 ¾ lb) old floury potatoes, 200 g (7 oz) white flour (Italian “00” flour) and some extra flour for the work surface, 1 egg and salt for the boiling water

For the tomato sauce, you need tomato sauce, few basil leaves and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

PREPARATION:

1. Put the potatoes into a pan of cold water – slightly salted.

2. Boil them for 20-25 minutes until they get soft.

3. Drain the potatoes and peel them. Furthermore, mash them.

4. Spread some flour onto your table or a wooden surface and put all the mashed potatoes there.

5. Open an egg into a small bowl and whisk it. Add half of the flour to the potatoes and mix everything. In the while, add just 2 spoons of the wisked egg.

6. Knead the mixture for 5-7 minutes and add the last spoon of the egg. The final result should be elastic and not sticky.

7. Cut the dough in 4-5 pieces and make a ball of each. Press and roll the ball onto the surface with some flour and make a long strip tick as a thumb.

8. Cut it into two pieces, and from each start to take smaller and regular bits. Again make a ball with each of them. The results? Delicious gnocchi, ready to be boiled.

Not to forget! Add a bit of oil to the boiling water: so your gnocchi won’t stick together while boiling.

After 3 minutes, drain them all and add to the tomato sauce you already prepared! Very gently toss the gnocchi in the saucepan for a few seconds, add the basil leaves and the Parmesan cheese.