Cooking with Lucas: January 2015

1.22.2015

Baked sausage with mushrooms and onions

1kg of Italian Sausages
4 cups of your favorite fresh mushrooms
1 sliced onion
3 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
Olive oil to coat the pan (can also use truffle oil)
Salt & Pepper

In a big roasting pan, add all the ingredients and mix together very well! Bake in a high temperature oven, about 200C/220C for about 30/40 minutes or until the sausages are all the way cooked.
Optionally you can add gorgonzola cheese after is baked, mix all de ingredients again with the cheese will create a delicious sauce!
Serve wil polenta.

1.13.2015

Colli Euganei Fior d'Arancio

Colli Euganei Fior d'Arancio is a Muscat wine made from Fior d'Arancio grapes grown in the Veneto wine region's Colli Euganei hills, in north-eastern Italy. These wines were sold asspumante and sweet, dried-grape passito forms.

Fior d'Arancio is a member of the Muscat family of grapes, and also goes by the name Orange Muscat and Muscat Fleur d'Oranger. Its name, more elegant in its French and Italian forms, means 'orange blossom'. This is appropriate: Fior d'Arancio wines have a fresh, delicate, slightly sweet, blossom-like aroma, very similar to that which blows around citrus groves on warm, breezy spring afternoons.

The ideal food matches for these wines are the locally made biscotti (biscuits) or sweet pastries, also goes very well with cheeses like Gorgonzola and Taleggio.

Taleggio

Taleggio is a smear-ripened Italian cheese named after the caves of Val Taleggio. It’s one of the oldest soft cheeses produced in every autumn and winter. During cheese making, the acidic milk is brought to the lab, and kept on the wood shelves in the chambers as well in caves according to tradition. In order to prevent it from mold infestation, the cheese is washed with seawater once a week. The maturation takes 6 - 10 weeks forming a thin crust.

This cheese has been granted a PDO designation and contains 48% fat. The cheese has a strong smell, but its taste is relatively mild with an unusual fruity tang. To make it brighter and moderate, factories add spices, raisins, nuts and some lemons to it. When grated on salads such as radicchio and rucola, it tastes like a wonder, as well melts well. Taleggio can be served with Italian Nebbiolo wines, and also a wide range of Reds, whites and dessert wines.

Made from pasteurized cow's milk
Country of origin: Italy
Region: Val Taleggio
Type: semi-soft, smear-ripened
Fat content: 48%
Texture: creamy
Rind: washed
Colour: pale yellow
Flavour: fruity, mild, tangy
Aroma: pungent, strong
Vegetarian: no

Asiago

Asiago, is a cow's milk cheese, produced only on the Asiago plateau in the Veneto foothills in Italy. The

cheese-making tradition in the provinces of Vicenza and Trento dates back to more than thousand years. Traditionally, it was made from sheep's milk but today it is produced from unpasteurised cow's milk.

Texture wise, Asiago goes through many changes, assuming different textures, according to its aging. There are two types of Asiago - fresh Asiago (Asiago Pressato) has a smooth texture while the aged Asiago (Asiago d'allevo) has a crumbly texture. Asiago d’allevo is matured for different time periods; Mezzano for 4-6 months, Vecchio for more than ten months and Stravecchio for two years. On the other hand, Asiago Pressato made with whole milk is matured for a month and sold fresh as a softer, milder cheese.

Depending on age, the rinds of Asiago can be straw coloured and elastic to brownish gray and hard. The paste can be white to dark yellow, with small to medium irregular holes. Based on the aging, Asiago can be used for grating, melting, slicing on a variety of salads, sandwiches, soups, pastas, and sauces.

Made from unpasteurized cow's milk
Country of origin: Italy
Region: Veneto, Trentino
Type: hard
Fat content: 34-48%
Texture: compact, crumbly, open and smooth
Rind: natural
Colour: yellow
Flavour: full-flavored, mild, milky, sharp
Aroma: pungent
Vegetarian: no