Tag: italian recipes

The authentic Minestrone della Nonna (Gran’Ma Minestrone)

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Are you ready to rock this winter in spite of the cold breeze? You need to eat well as your Grannie recommended you one million time. To face with winter, a corroborating dish from the Italian tradition: Minestrone. This particular recipe comes from Abruzzo, even though here the climate is not that bad in winter time as in UK or in some part of USA. But the mountains are full of snow in this region, so the peasants have elaborated this tasty dish for the long, coldish days.

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The authentic Minestrone della Nonna (Gran'Ma Minestrone)
 
Author:
Cuisine: Italian; Traditional Italian
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 75 g shortcut macaroni
  • 25 g butter
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 50 g streaky bacon, rinds removed and finely chopped
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 3 celery stalks, washed and finely chopped
  • 180 g carrots, washed and finely chopped
  • 2 fresh or tinned tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1.5 litres Stock (vegetables- or chicken bone stock)
  • 2 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
  • 230 g leeks, washed and finely chopped
  • 180 g potatoes, washed
  • salt and freshly milled black pepper
  • lots of grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. First heat up the butter and oil in a large saucepan, then add the bacon to make the taste superbe.
  2. Cook this for a minute or two before adding the onions, the celery and the carrots. Cover up all with the tomatoes and the crushed garlic.
  3. Adjust with some salt and pepper, cover and cook very gently for 20 minutes to allow all the vegetables to release their inner juice. Occasionally stir to prevent the vegetables sticking.
  4. Then pour in the lovely stock you have chosen along with the parsley.
  5. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 1 hour.
  6. Then add the leeks, the potatoes and the macaroni.
  7. Cook for about 20 minutes more.
  8. Just before serving, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

 

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.

Biscotti bliss: few steps in simplicity

Why in Italy does everyone love biscuits? It is very interesting understanding how such an easy recipe can be so different even from house to house in Italy! Not to mention the differencies among the regions, and the towns! Because there is an element of childhood in it! Biscotti are like bread and pizza an homemade recipe for dessert which every family and every town jelously hide! These crunchy Italian biscotti are baked twice: first as a log, and then as individual slices.

We are going to discover how! And if you have an Italian friend ask him/her his/her secrets.  Or his/her grandmother’s recipe. If you are really gentle and you are really generous, meaning you will give the cookies as a gift to your friend then maybe he/she will reveal the hidden secrets of the family recipes.

How are we going to make it? Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix dough, adding common flavours like anise, orange, almond, chocolate or hazelnut. Even dried cranberries and pistachios, or lemon or nuts and also lavander are the best adding!

fBiscotti can big or small, as you like, for a big breakfast or for a little espresso coffee. The dough has to be sticky!

After the first baking, the biscotti form are firm and very lightly browned! After having sliced neatly, just baked another time to dry out the biscotti without browning them! A low oven temperature and a slow baking time are the key.

Once the biscotti have cooled, you can decorate them if you wish, dunking them in chocolate or rolling them in  nuts.

Well-dried biscotti  can be stored in a tightly closed container for months and you can even taste it with a lovely wine like vinsanto, perfect for the almond cookies coming from Tuscany and called amaretti!

Panna cotta with strawberries: when you reach perfection in Italian dessert

Lovely couple, the panna cotta and the strawberries! The ingredients has to be fresh and there are fit for all the tastes and desire. Of course in summetime this is a delicious nibble, pudding or dessert! What do you need? Simply, the best! Here we go with the list! for the panna cotta you will need:

  • 1 1/2 cups milk;
  • 1 (.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin;
  • 1 1/2 cups whipping cream;
  • 1/4 cup white sugar;
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.

For the dressing those are the ingredients:

  • 1 quart fresh strawberries, quartered,
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract,
  • 1/4 cup sugar,
  • 1/4 cup water.

Now, put the milk into a bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the milk. The mixture has to sit until the gelatin softens. I takes about 5 minutes.
Mix the cream and 1/4 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.

Stir in the gelatin mixture; cook and stir until the gelatin will dissolve completely. It takes about 3 minutes. Add then the vanilla extract and pour the mixture in abowl, cover and let chill for 4 hours.

Instead, in order to make the strawberry sauce, put together the strawberries with two teaspoons vanilla extract, 1/4 cup sugar and water. Heat the mixture in a saucepan, and in the while you can crush the strawberries, Simmer the sauce until the sugar has absorbed and the sauce has thickened. It takes about 10 minutes; then let it cool.
Remove chilled panna cotta from the refrigerator  before serving, dipping the bottoms of the cups in which you have put it in warm water. This will help loosen the custard. The dessert is almost ready to be put  onto a dessert plate, in order to unmold. With a spoon sprinkle lovely and juicy strawberry sauce over your panna cotta and serve.

 

Cotoletta alla Milanese: tasty and energetic dish from Italy

The Cotoletta alla Milanese: meaning a delicious breaded veal cutlets which will be fried in  butter. It is a difficult Italian dish to prepare? Not at all if you follow our cooking recipe!

Milan is proud of this recipe! The similarity of this dish to the WeinerSchnitzler coming from the Austrian tradition is not a case: Vienna and Milano are less than 200 miles apart, Milan was a part of the Austrian Empire. So don’t get surprised to aknowledge that cotoletta alla milanese resembles the delicious dish from Imperial Vienna! In time of Queen Jubilee in UK why do not you serve this to your guest? A royal meat for her Majesty the Queen of your house!
Ingredients:

  • 4 veal cutlets with bone
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup finely ground breadcrumbs
  • 3/4 cup butter

How to make it:
For this recipe we will use only the veal: some will use also thinly sliced beef: the result will still be gorgeous, but you should use just good, high quality meat!

Trim away the fat from the choosen piece. Divided in 4 cutlets and flatten the meat out between the palms of your hands, or with a stone, salt them, dip them in the beaten eggs, sprinkle them with the bread crumbs, pressing very hard to make sure that the crumbs stick on the cotoletta, and shake them to remove the excess.

You want to melt the butter in a pan large enough for all your 4 cutlets, so you can cook it at once, and add them. Cook quickly, turning once, until both sides turn brown.

Then serve hot, garnished with a slice of lemon on the side, some mashed potatoes or steamed green beans. also a good salad made of green leaves will be gorgeous! The wine? A Barbera will be perfect for our cotoletta!

 

Zuppa di Pancotto and the old bread has a new life

Do you want to eat a very basic  and frugal dish coming from Italian tradition, but at the same time very, very tasty? Pleased to introduce you to Pancotto!

Water and old bread are the core elements of this great recipe: you could use chicken or meat broth  instead of water, and add one or two cloves of crushed garlic inside, or adjusting the soup with grated Pecorino Romano.

You could  stir a beaten egg into the broth but the idea is always the same all over Italy! We are going to show you two simple variations of this great peasant dish coming from the South of Italy, one from Basilicata and one from Campania.

Here we go with Pane Cotto lucano: set the water to heat, crumble the old bread slices into 4 bowls, beat the eggs, and chop the basil. Heat the oil in a pot with the water. Saute the garlic and hot pepper for a minute or two. Add the water, bring the mixture to a boil. Stir in two eggs and the basil; put  the mixture over the bread.

Of course, you could use broth or stock to make it tastier or you could add some freshl Pecorino Romano to top it all!

The Campanian recipe was as well a way to eat leftover bread that was much too precious to be thrown away.

Bring the water to a boil, salt it, and put a bit of pepper, add some bay leaves (4-8). Let it boil for a few minutes, in the while crumble the pieces of bread and put them into the soup bowls. Spoon the quickly made broth over the bread, let it absorb it for a few minutes, and serve. Easy, and tasty!

The various worlds of alternative Pesto’s recipes

The Italian people as every foreigner know well, are really traditional when it comes to food. Pizza and lasagne have to be made so and so, the same for other delicious dishes coming from our great background. But the truth is that recipes are various and also the most sacred ones can be changed and still be tasty! In this kind of open-mind attitude, let’s talk about Pesto then!

A fresh pesto is not only the world-famous Pesto alla genovese! You can make it with a different choice of ingredients, starting for example with the herbs right from your garden! To make a delicious pesto and tossing with pasta or spreading it on bread, here is some of “alternative” recipes to the Genova’s “big brother” Pesto.

Let’s start with an herbs’ pesto! You will need:

  • 1 cup fresh basil leaves
  • 1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • 1 cup fresh spinach leaves
  • 12 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 pinch salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh oregano

The directions is similar to the ones you follow for the “normal” pesto recipe: you need to blend the garlic, the basil, the parsley, the spinach and the oregano with the pine nuts, the Parmesan cheese, then season with salt, pepper and olive oil in a blender until the mixture will be smooth and similar to a pastry, a really thick one or a really waterly one.

It depends on the amount of olive oil you drop in the mixture and of course on your taste!

Try also to substitute the pine nuts with almond or with pecans! It will be worthy to try all the choices!

And also try to add lemon juice to make it smoother! Alternative pesto are all over the world: just go beyond the tradition and start to challenge yourself with these original and fantastic alternative ingredients.

Italian Risotto with mushroom: unforgetable!

The authentic Italian-style risotto is a very slow way of cooking rice!  It should be slightly al dente, and it takes a lot to melt all the ingredients together but it is really worthy for your mouth to wait for such a masterpiece.

Let’s start to gather the ingredients on your kitchen table. You will need:

  • 1 – 1/2 cups Arborio rice
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • Chicken broth (a pan)
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 pound mushrooms
  • 1 pound white mushrooms
  • 2 shallots
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper

Is it everything on the table? Well we can now start! Here is your detailed directions:

  1. In a saucepan, warm the broth you have already made over low heat.
  2. You shoud warm up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the chopped mushrooms, and cook until soft (ca. 3 minutes). Remove the mushrooms and their liquid, and put aside.
  3. Add one tablespoon olive oil and stir in the shallots and after one minute add the rice, stirring with oil, ca. 2 minutes. When the rice has turned to a golden color, quickly pour in the wine.
  4. Remeber to  stirring constantly until the wine is fully absorbed by the rice!
  5.  Add slowly half a cup of broth to the rice; then stir until the broth is absorbed. You wll repeat this operation until the rice is al dente, ca. 15 -20 minutes max.
  6. Now you can removeyour risotto from the heat, andyou will stir in the mushrooms together with their liquid. Add the butter, the chives, and to top it all a lovely spread of Parmesan cheese. Season abit with salt and pepper, and taste it!

Your tips to enjoy a real Lasagne

“W le lasagne!” Do you know how to make a real fantastic plate full of gourmet lasagne! Here is the recipe we collected from many sites and directly form the voice of lovely Italian grannies. What do you need to create this masterpiece and make everybody happy in your family? Here we go with the ingredients:

  • 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
  • 3/4 pound lean ground beef
  • 1/2 cup minced onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
  • 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 12 lasagna noodles
  • 16 ounces ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
  • 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

I know, it is a lot but still you need all of this to make a great lasagna! How do we work all together? No panic, it is easy!

  1. In a  pan, let’s cook the sausage, the ground beef, the onion, and the garlic over medium heat until well browned.
  2. Stir in the right amount of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Do not forget to season the sauce with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons parsley. Cover for about 1 hour.
  3. Boil the water and cook the dried lasagna slices in the boiling water for 8- 10 minutes. Drain it, and rinse it with cold water. In a mixing bowl, put togheter ricotta cheese with egg, the remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
  4. Take a baking dish or pan and put first a cup of sacue, then put  4-6 lasagna slices lengthwise over the meat sauce. Spread on it one half of the ricotta cheese mixture and top with a third of mozzarella cheese. Again you will need to put a cup of meat sauce over the mozzarella with ca. 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Put on the lasagna layers (again 4 to 6, depending on the lenght of your baking dish), and top it all with the remaining mozzarella and some Parmesan cheese. Do another layer if possible; otherwise cover with some foil.
  5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (ca. 190 degrees C).
  6. Bake your fantastic lasagna for 25 minutes. Remove the foil, and bake it for 25 minutes more.
  7. Cool about 20 minutes before serving and then…enjoy with a fantastic red wine from Umbria, Tuscany or Abruzzo (we love Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and we feel we can advice you this wine!).

Torta di cipolle from Liguria

Torta di Cipolle is a tasty  Onion Pie, really spread in Liguria and used also as a variation on Easter time for the Torta Pasqualina.
The ingredients for the dough are basically the same and here is the list:

eight  1/3 cups (1 k) flour
four tablespoons extravirgin olive oil
Salt and Warm water

The filling will be the following:

2 1/4 pounds (1 k) sweet red onions
3/8 cup (75 g) unsalted butter
An ounce (30 g) dried porcini
1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
Salt & Pepper to season

Preheat your oven to 400 F (200 C).

Make a mound of the flour, pour in the oil and add 2 pinches of salt. Put in it warm water and work it until you create a soft smooth dough. Separate it into 33 small balls and let them rest, covered by a damp cloth. Take for the base 13 small ball, and make some lovely pastry foils. Put a little oil on them but the last one.

For the filling:

Melt the butter, and sauté the red onions and the porcini you have soaked in hot water for about a half hour. Remove the mixture from theheat, put in the cheese, and once the filling has cooled put it onto the base. Then add the other pastry foils you have made and fold it on. The result has to be like in the image you see above! Put inside the oven for ca. 50-60 minutes, let it cool down and enjoy!