1.26.2017

Bigoli alla Montanara

Bigoli alla Montanara


500g / 1lb Italian sausages (in Italy, Salsiccia sfusa that means 'Regular Sausage')
1 chopped onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 cup  Kale/Swiss chard chopped on big pieces
1/2 cup walnuts
1 cup red wine
1 cup tomato pure
1 tbsp oregano
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
500 grams Bigoli
Smoked ricotta

Start with a good pouring of olive oil on the pan, fry the onions and garlic. Add the sausages, when the sausages are
brown add the wine and let reduce in half. Add the tomato sauce and oregano and let cook for 10 minutes. Add Salt and Pepper.
Turn off the fire and add the Swiss chard or Kale.
Sauté the pasta with the sauce and add walnuts and smoked ricotta to serve.

Bigoli in Squid Ink Sauce


Bigoli in Squid Ink Sauce
4 squids 
2 bags of squid ink 
4 ripe tomatoes or 1 can chopped tomatoes1 cup white wine
1 medium onion (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
500gr Bigoli
1 Lemon
A bunch of parsley 
Quality flaked red peppers
Squids are members of the baggy animal kingdom. Their whole body is organised in bags, which the cook needs to extract one by one by putting his fingers into the beast and remove them. Then you have to find the transparent 'bone' that keeps the bag straight and remove it too. You can then cut 0.5''/1cm rings and set them aside. 

In a big frying pan, fry the onions and garlic until brown. Add the squid and fry for not more than 2 minutes than add wine and let evaporate, then add tomato sauce. Cook for about 10 minutes in medium heat. After the 10 minutes passed add the squid ink and the peppers and cook for more 5 minutes in medium high. Just before mixing the bigoli, squeeze the lemons and add the parsley.











Bigoli recipes

Bigoli dough

 Duck Sauce
Duck Sauce
                                   

Squid Ink Sauce

Bigoli alla Montanara

Walnuts and Gorgonzola sauce


Bigoli served with lemony meatballs

Bigoli alla Carbonara



1.11.2017

Spiced ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and pepper tea



 Here are the tea benefits:
*Anti-inflamatory
*Anti-depressant
*Helps Arthritis
*Pain Killer
*Anti-coagulant *High anti-oxidant
*Helps your hearth
*Helps with stop craving for sweets
*Helps your brain
*Reduces chances of cancer
*Fight infections and virus
*Fresh your breath
*Can help to prevent Candida infection
*Helps your skin
*Improves your metabolism
*Higher immunity system
*Prevent diabetes
*Fresh your breath and kill bad bacteria in your mouth

Recipe for the Turmeric tea


Spiced ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and pepper tea

1/2 cup powder ginger1/2 cup cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup turmeric
1/3 cup black pepper
30 caffeine pills

 Using a mixer or pesto mortar, just add caffeine pills, cinnamon and the black pepper and transform them into a powder. Mix very well all the ingredients with the ginger and the turmeric.
 For making the tea, just add half tea spoon of this tea with hot water and if you like to drink tea with a little bit of milk like me add a little bit of milk with it.


The text below comes from the website: http://www.turmericforhealth.com



Health Benefits Of Black Pepper And Turmeric

Health benefits of any food or herb is based on its key active ingredients.
Piperine is the key chemical in black pepper. It is similar to capsaicin a chemical in chili and offers many health benefits. Curcumin which is a polyphenol plays the same role in turmeric.
Both these compounds have been studied to examine the potential health benefits they can offer individually or together.   Here are some of their benefits:

1. Black pepper enhances bioavailability of Turmeric

One important question which must be popping in your mind right now would be why among so many spices are we talking about black pepper?
The answer is really interesting too. One problem with curcumin is its low levels of bioavailability.
Most of the curcumin that is ingested gets metabolized before it can get absorbed. Piperine is said to help make curcumin more bioavailable.
This could be because it could inhibit certain intestinal digestive enzymes. This increases the amount of any drug or supplement that can be absorbed by the body. They also do not get degraded quickly.
Hence, there are studies to test if co-administering curcumin with piperine could improve the bioavailability of the former.
These studies have been conducted on humans and laboratory animals.
One study found that when even 2g of curcumin was ingested, its serum levels were very low. However, when 20mg piperine was added to curcumin the bioavailability increased by 2000%.
The bioavailability, serum levels and levels of absorption of curcumin all improved dramatically.
What it means: Thus, if one takes turmeric, most of it is unutilized unless supplemented by addons such as black pepper.

2. Help in reducing pain

Piperine in black pepper can trigger TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid type-1) in the body. This triggering can reduce pain.
Piperine is also used as an analgesic cream that can be applied topically on the skin to relieve pain.
Some studies have focused on using piperine as a new way to kill chronic pain – especially neuropathic pain which is untreatable.

3. Is Anti-inflammatory

Curcumin has been studied for its anti-inflammatory capabilities especially in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and other inflammatory conditions.
Laboratory studies were conducted on the way curcumin can be used as an anti-arthritic agent. An animal model of rheumatoid arthritis was used and 3 curcuminoids were studied.
The curcuminoids were administered before and not after inflammation set in. It was found that oil-depleted turmeric fraction was not as effective as a commercial composition that contained 94% combination of the 3 curcuminoids in combating inflammatory conditions.
Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are usually used to treat all inflammatory conditions.
However, long term use can cause serious side effects. Hence, safer alternatives like curcumin are being studied for their potential anti-inflammatory benefits that can be used long term without any side effects.

4. Cancer benefits

Dietary polyphenols like piperine and curcumin have been studied for their effect on prevention of breast cancer. Mammosphere formation, which is a marker of breast stem cells were studied.
Early progenitor cells, normal stem cells and healthy breast epithelial cells were examined after control, piperine and curcumin treatment was administered.
Turmeric and black pepper compounds both inhibited mammosphere formation. They also did not cause any toxicity, therefore showing that they could be possible cancer preventive agents.
Current breast cancer treatments are often ineffective and very often even after chemotherapy and other treatment, the cancer cells reappear. According to new studies, this could be because cancer stem cells still remain and could cause tumors to recur after a period.
Hence, new research is trying to find possible ways to target stem cells. Studies have found that turmeric and black pepper combined could target breast stem cells.
In a University of Michigan study, cancer cells were injected with a potent solution of piperine and curcumin that was at least 20 times stronger that what is normally consumed through food.
Breast stem cell markers were studied. The self-renewal process of breast stem cells that is the hallmark of initiating cancer was interrupted.
This is considered a significant development. Further both compounds did not affect normal breast tissue. Sometimes women who are susceptible to breast cancer maybe advised to take medications like tamoxifen. However, these can be toxic.
Natural compounds, which offer similar benefits and are non-toxic, could be a safe alternative therapy. Another benefit is that piperine and curcumin target self-renewal of all stem cells and not just those that are estrogen sensitive like tamoxifen.
This theory offers hope to all women who develop breast cancer not just the estrogen driven kind.

5. Controlling Obesity

Turmeric and black pepper could be combined to fight high cholesterol levels, obesity and diabetes. Diet induced bodily changes to blood glucose, body weight, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol and triglyceride could be affected by CPQ. CPQ is an acronym for the combination of curcumin, piperine and quercetin (got from onion skin).
Presence of flavonoids in CPQ is possibly responsible for many of the reactions like decrease in glucose transport. These studies were conducted on laboratory rats.

6. Other benefits:

When combined together, turmeric and black pepper could help relieve gastric mucosal damage caused by peptic ulcers.
This is due to the capacity of curcumin to prevent growth of Helicobacter pylori bacteria which causes peptic ulcers and the protective capability of piperine.
Both also have antioxidant benefits.
Hence, they can benefit in improving memory loss and protect people from cognitive impairment from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Curcumin has anti-amyloid ability that can reduce amyloid pathway in Alzheimer’s. Both low and high doses of curcumin fed to laboratory mice seemed to reduce age-related memory loss.

Dosage

The dosage of turmeric varies depending on the medical condition. As with most herbal supplements turmeric has no specific dosage guidelines.
The usually dosage dried  turmeric powder is 1-3 gms per day. For supplements – 400 – 600 mg, thrice daily .
As I keep saying again and again, I am not in favor of turmeric supplements and support using turmeric in your diet. Use supplements only in cases when you cannot do so.
My detailed article on turmeric dosage can be read here.
Black pepper too can be easily added in your diet in curries, salads and dressing.
A great way to have turmeric and black pepper together is Golden paste. Get its recipe here.

Precautions

Black pepper must not be consumed in excess of 1 tsp a day when certain medications like digoxin or phenytoin are being taken.
The rate at which these medications are cleared by the liver could slow down when black pepper is consumed in excess.
Turmeric as spice is considered to be very safe. Turmeric supplements must not be consumed in excess and for long periods. This could cause indigestion, dizziness, nausea or diarrhea.
Those who are pregnant and breastfeeding are advised to avoid all types of herbal supplements. Diabetic patients, those due for surgery and those with gallbladder problems must also stop using turmeric supplements.
While both turmeric and black pepper are considered very safe and have been used since thousands of years, if you suffer from some specific medical problems and are not sure about using them, please consult your doctor.

Bigoli


Bigoli - The Bigoli is a long, fat pasta (solid in the middle), like a big spaghetti of Venetian origin.  It is spread throughout the region and is also found in East Lombardy.
The recipe for bigoli is traditionally prepared with wheat flour, water, and salt.
Bigoli Al'anatra
Italian's describe the main feature of this pasta as, "Pasta Forte" which refers to it's "roughness" that allows it to hold sauces.  Bigoli has a peculiar and time consuming method of preparation.  The traditional pasta press is a hand operated die press, with two handles that screw down, compressing the dough through the holes at the bottom (this is attached to a small bench).  The cylinder is loaded with dough and screwed down, the pasta comes out the bottom giving you roughly one portion per cylinder.
There are different recipe variations of bigoli that are obtained by varying the type of flour used.  Saracen flour is black and is used to make darker (brown) bigoli.  Some recipes also call for duck eggs to be used instead of water.
There are so many traditional sauces with bigoli, however, the most common is from the mountainous areas of Veneto, "Bigoli All'Anatra" - bigoli with duck sauce.  Other common recipes are: Bigoli al Baccala - from Vicenza; or Bigoli con Sardele - from Venice.

Every year, on the last week of April, the so-called "party of the bigoi Torcio" is held in Limena (Padova province).  Every Saturday and Sunday in May is "The Feast of Bigoli in Rovolon" (also in Padova) in the vicinity of Carbonara.  There is another festival held in May on the third weekend, also held in Abano Terme in Monterosso.

Bigoli dough recipe

Bigoli dough

Bigoli for four people:
400g (3cups) of flour ("00" or cake flour)
3 eggs (you can also use duck eggs, however their eggs a slightly bigger and modifies the recipe)
Water (small amount, appx 2-Tbsp)
Salt - 1 Tsp


In a bowl mix the flour and eggs with a fork until it has formed clumps in the flour.  Switch to using your hand(s) and mix rigorously.  When the dough has become one large ball, move to tabletop (preferably a wood surface) and continue to work and mix the dough with your hands just like any other pasta dough.  Bigoli is traditionally made using a torchio, make sure you load your pasta with it floured into the cylinder.  Begin to twist and cut twice for one cylinder load of dough.  flour liberally and ensure the pasta is not sticking while coming out. 









Duck Sauce 


Servings 4

500g Bigoli 
400 duck meat minced
1 tbsp butter
2tbsp Olive oil
1 cup  broth
onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
1 cup oz red wine
4 tbs of heavy cream 
thyme to taste
marjoram to taste
1 bay leaf
Grana Padano to taste
parsley to taste

    In a pan containing some butter, brown the onions, garlic and carrot, add the duck meat. Mix thoroughly.
    Pour the red wine over the mixture, allow to evaporate, and then salt to taste.
    Add the herbs, the bay leaves and finally the cream. In the meantime, cook the pasta in abundant boiling and salted water.
    When the pasta is cooked, when it is still “al dente”, drain it, put it in the pan with the sauce and toss it. Remove from the heat and sprinkle with grated Parmesan, finely chopped parsley and arrange on the serving dish.

    Bigoli alla Montanara

    1lb Italian sausages (in Italy, Salsiccia sfusa that means 'Regular Sausage')
    1 chopped onion
    4 cloves of garlic
    1 cup  Swiss chard chopped on big pieces or Radicchio di Treviso.
    1/2 cup walnuts
    1 cup red wine
    1 cup tomato pure
    1 tbsp oregano
    Olive oil
    Salt & Pepper
    500 grams Bigoli, Tagliatelli, Pappardelle or any long pasta that is not Spaghetti! 
    Smoked ricotta

    Start with a good pouring of olive oil on the pan, fry the onions and garlic. Add the sausages, when the sausages are brown add the wine and let reduce in half. Add the tomato sauce and oregano and let cook for 10 minutes. Turn of the fire and add the greens. 
    Sauté the pasta with the sauce and add walnuts and smoked ricotta to serve.

    Baked Zuchinni flowers

    10 zuchini flowers
    1 eggplant
    1/4 cup Parmiggiano Raggiano
    1 cup ricotta
    10 leaves of fresh basil
    10 Kalamata olives
    Olive Oil
    Salt & Pepper

    Cut the blossom lengthwise then gently open it up and remove the pistil. The flower is very delicate, so take care not to break it.
    Cut the eggplant in small cubes and sauté with olive oil and a little bit of balsamic vinegar.
    Mix all the ingredients together to create the flower stuffing. Stuff the flowers and drizzle some olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes in 350F or 180C.

    11.02.2016

    Sugestion for Fall classes

    Menu Suggestion for fall classes
    All the classes includes wine as coffee

    Classic meal
    -Focaccia with rosemary
    -Fresh pasta with sauce (Bolognese, Carbonara, Amatriciana, Putanesca, Pesto Genovese)
    -Baked chicken with vegetables, olives and sausages
    -Tiramisu

    Menu del Castello
    -Pesto bread filled with asiago cheese and walnuts
    -The best bruschetta will you ever had!
    -Bigoli with duck sauce
    -Apple strudel served with gelato or poached pears with red wine served with gelato

    Lasagna class
    -Salad with pears, walnuts, truffle oil and cheese
    -Traditional lasagna with homemade spinach pasta
    -Pannacotta with berries
    -Homemade limoncello (you will bring home what we prepare)

    The tower menu
    -Sage bread
    -Lentil soup with chestnuts
    -Ravioli filled with pears, served in cheese and walnuts sauce
    -Amaretti and chocolate mousse

    Menu Zucca
    -Zucca Focaccia
    -Zucca Ravioli with butter and sage
    -Zucca Cappellacci with Sausage ragu
    -Zucca Tiramisu

    Sicilian menu
    -Deep fried calzone with ham, cheese, oregano, olives and tomato sauce
    -Arancini (risotto balls made with saffron, filled with meat and cheese deep fried)
    -Cannoli

    Menu del Sud
    -Garlic, cheese and oregano grissini
    -Deep fried Pizza
    -Pizza
    -Homemade Amaretti and chocolate Semifreddo (the grandma of gelato)

    Fall in Europe
    -Homemade grissini with Parmiggiano cheese and walnuts
    -Zucca ravioli with butter and sage or sausage ragu
    -Pork fillet mignon served with mushroom sauce and healthy veggi mash
    -Tarte Tatin (French Apple pie)

    Brazilian fall
    -Empanadas with cheese, meat and sqash
    -Coconut shrimp served inside a pumpkin (Cooked with cilantro, ginger, lime, tomato, peppers, coconut milk)
    -Rice
    -Fried Cassava
    -Brazilian carrot cake with chocolate served with vanilla ice cream or Lime dessert

    East European
    -Poppy seeds bread
    -Slovakian soup (Kapustnica)
    -Homemade pierogi (Polish Style)
    -Cheese Blintz 


    Greek Party
    -Spanakopita
    -Skordalia with shrimps
    -Stifado with potatoes
    -Loukomades

    10.03.2016

    Touring Italy with Lucas

     Touring Italy with Lucas

    10 days of traveling in beautiful cities, drinking good wine and eating good food.

    1st day:
    We will meet in Vicenza, a beautiful medium size city out of the tourist track. We will arrange for you a nice hotel with a accomodation so you can rest of your long trip from United States.

    In order to help you to get adjusted on the Italian time zone we will go for a bar hopping. We will visit one of the best coffee shops of Italy and three different bars around downtown and in each bar we will drink a local wine and talk about it like on a wine tasting.

    After the bar hopping we go for a dinner where we will get to know eachother.

    2nd day:
    The second day you are maybe still jet lagged, but don't worry. We will take it easy. We will go to a Small family owned Frantoio (Olive oil Farm)- On the Frantoio you will learn how Olive oil is made and ba able to taste different kinds of Olive oil and products made with Olive oil. After the olive oil tour we will go to have lunch on a small family run Osteria and then for 'dessert' we will move towards Valpolicella where we will go to two wineries and taste one of the best wines prodeced in the world, Valpolicella, Valpolicella Ripasso and Amarone.
    For this night we will go all for a goumet pizza on a beautiful restaurant downtown Vicenza.

    3rd day:
    After our breakfast we will take a train to the city that is on my opinion the most beautifull city in this world, Venice.
    Arriving in Venice I will take you to a workers class bar where you can have the real feel of Venitians and taste the working class wine.
    After the wine we will visit the Jewish Ghetto and move towards the Saint Mark Square.
    We will walk around downtown and have luch on a very good restaurant. On the afternoon we will go for a cicchetti on a very cool little bar where just locals know about it.
    On this day we will walk a lot. In Venice pretty much everything is by foot or boat, so prepare yourself with comfortable shoes.

    4th day:
    After an intensive day of walking around Venice this day will Sparkle your trip. We will do the prosecco road and visit the beautiful hills of Valdobiadene. 

    5th day:
    Very early we will say bye to Vicenza and board on a nice comfortable bus to the food heaven. On this day we will visit the Parmigiano cheese factory, Parma ham factory, a small producer of Balsamic vinegar and we will finish our trip in Bologna where we will stay on a nice hotel downtown.

    6th day:
    We will be waking up on the food capital of Italy. On this day Lucas will bring you to a food tour around Bologna. We will walk around downtown, visit a historical stock market, the oldest college of the world and visit the oldest bar of Italy and taste a delicious Lambrusco with local ham cuts and cheeses then we will go to Lucas favorite restaurant and have a real lasagne Bolognese with a very good of San Giovese wine. On the afternoon we will taste one of the best gelatos of Italy as well, another historical place. Bologna is a very interesting city and is completely out of the tourist beaten path. At the night for the people that are still hungry we will go to a rustic and traditional osteria where they just have three things on the menu and one is the Tagliatelle alla Bolognese.

    7th day:
    After breakfast we will move towards the train station to catch the most modern and fastest train in Europe, Italo. Our ride to Florence will be just 37 minutes and we will be on the first class drinking prosecco. The trip is so short that we might have just enough time for one glass.
    Arriving in Florence we will check in on a nice hotel right in front of Duomo. Your windows will likely have a view to one of the most prettiest churches in Italy. After checking in we will go again for a tour around the city and have lunch on a whole in the wall where they make simple but delicious food. We will walk around the city and taste a typical wine from Tuscany with cantucci. Vin santo.

    8th day:


    9.09.2016

    Nutella Cookies

    180g Nutella
    150g 00 flour (cake flour)
    1 egg
    2 tbsp bitter chocolate powder
    150g Nutella for the filling

    1. Mix the egg, flour, chocolate and Nutella in a bowl. Start mixing with a spoon.

    2. Then mix with your hands until is soft. Put inside the fridge for about 30 minutes.

    3. Make little balls and make a little hole in the middle using a wood spoon for example.

    4. Bake in the convection oven in 180C for about 8-10 minutes.

    5. Take out of the oven and let it cool down. Add as well the nutella on the hole. And that's it! Very simple!

    Grissini al Parmigiano

    1 cup warm water
    1 yeast cube
    1 tbsp sugar
    1 tbsp salt
    1 1/2 cup semolina
    1 1/2 cup 00 flour
    1/4 cup melted butter
    1 cup parmigiano
    1 tbsp chopped rosemary

    In a bowl mix the yeast and sugar. The yeast and sugar will become liquid. Add water and mix. Add the flour, semolina, salt and rosemary. Mix with spoon. Add the butter in your hands and mix with your hands this time, add cheese. If is too stick add a little more semolina or flour. Let raise for about 45 minutes in a bowl. Make little snakes, and add cheese and olive oil around them. Bake for about 20 min in 180C or 450F. Spinkle more cheese on the top if you would like.

    6.01.2016

    Strawberry Limoncello Tiramisu


    3 eggs
    1/2 cup of sugar
    1/2 pound of Mascarpone or Philadelphia cream cheese
    1/2 cup heavy cream
    1/4 cup of Limoncello
    1 package Lady fingers cookies
    500g Strawberries



    1. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale, about 5 minutes.

    2. Add mascarpone cheese and fold until smooth into the eggs cream.
    In a separate bowl, whisk the white eggs until peaks and in another bowl whisk the heavy cream until peaks.

    3. Mix the eggwhites, whipping cream and the mascarpone cream creating the Tiramisu mix.
    In a small shallow dish, add Limoncello with water. Half limoncello and half water.

    4. Dip each ladyfinger into limoncello for only 3 seconds. Letting the ladyfingers soak too long will cause them to fall apart. 

    5. Arrange half of soaked ladyfingers in bottom of a 7x11 inch dish.

    6. Spread half of tiramisu cream mixture over ladyfingers, then half of the tiramisu cream Repeat layers and add chopped strawberries. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, until set. Serve with strawberries on top! 



    Paella











    Patatas Bravas with Chorizo

    INGREDIENTS:

    • 500g baby/new potatoes
    • Olive oil
    • 400g of chopped tomatoes from the can or without skin and seeds
    • 4 tbsps balsamic vinegar
    • 1-2 tsps smoked paprika
    • 1-2 tsps brown sugar
    • 150g chorizo ring
    • A Hand of Parsley
    For the aïoli:
    • 3 garlic cloves
    • 2 egg yolks
    • 1 tsps dijon mustard
    • 275ml olive oil
    • ¼ lemon (optional)

      METHOD

      Step 1: Preheat oven to 220˚C/fan 200˚C/425˚F/gas mark 7. Season potatoes with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Roast for 20 minutes.
      Step 2: Pour the chopped tomatoes into a pan over a medium heat. Add the vinegar, paprika and sugar to taste, a drizzle of oil, and salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes.
      Step 3: Peel garlic cloves for the aïoli, blitz in a food processor with egg yolks and mustard. Keeping the processor running, slowly add half the oil then add the rest in a steady drizzle. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, if using.
      Step 4: Peel and chop chorizo into chunky pieces and stir into the tomato sauce. Cook for five minutes then pour over the hot potatoes and top with aïoli, tear over parsley leaves and serve.