Squid Ink Risotto

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 cups arborio or carnaroli rice

1 cup dry white wine

6 cups shrimp stock, clam stock or vegetable stock

2 tablespoons squid ink

1/2 pound squid, cut into 1/4-inch rings

1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1 lemon, for juice and zesting 

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Heat olive oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until soft.

2. Add the rice and mix to coat with the oil and cook for 2 minutes. Raise the heat to high, add the wine and cook until all the liquid has evaporated.

3. Place the stock and the squid ink in a large saucepan over high heat and stir to combine. Begin adding the hot squid stock 1 1/2 cups at a time and cook until the liquid is absorbed. Continue until the stock is gone and the rice is al dente.

4. Add the squid, and juice from one lemon and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Zest lemon on the top before serving.

Grilled trout with tarragon sauce

Grilled trout with tarragon sauce

Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

            1/2 bottle (1 1/2 cups) white wine

            1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

            1/4 teaspoon black pepper

            2 sprigs fresh tarragon, plus 1/2 tablespoon chopped leaves

            1 cup heavy cream

            1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, over medium-high heat, bring the wine, onion, pepper, and whole tarragon sprigs to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until the mixture is reduced by two-thirds, 20 to 25 minutes, depending on size of pan.

2. Remove and discard the tarragon sprigs. Add the cream, reduce heat, and simmer gently until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the salt and chopped tarragon. Serve over chicken, fish, or vegetables.

Trout Recipe:

Grill the trout in a simple way, just a grill salt, pepper and olive oil!

Easy frittelle

1 cup milk

2 eggs
6 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 cup of cake flour (sifted)
1 Tbsp baking powder
Zest of 2 oranges
Oil to fry (vegetable, sunflower or canola)
Sugar and cinnamon


In a bowl mix all the ingredients until creamy consistency.  With a help of a spoon drop the dough into hot oil (350F). Fry until golden brown.  Remove promptly onto a plate with some paper towels to absorb the oil.  Roll the frittelle in desired amounts of sugar and cinnamon.

Castagnole For Carnivale (Frittelle)

Castagnole For Carnivale  

Frittelle recipe

Yield: Makes 30

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 15 mins

Some of the fried sweets most popular across Italy during Carnivale are frittelle, cenci, chiacchiere and these little fried balls of dough called Castagnole.

Ingredients:

8 Ounces All-purpose Flour
2 Ounces Melted Butter
2 Whole Eggs
4 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Amaretto
Oil For Frying
For Serving:
Powdered Sugar

Directions:

Mix together the flour, butter, eggs, sugar and liqueur until blended.
Heat up the oil in a heavy saucepan to 350 degrees F.
Take a small spoonful of the dough (size of a large olive or 1 1/2 inches) and gently roll into a ball and drop into the hot oil.
Fry until golden brown on all sides and then remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined tray to remove any excess oil.
Dust liberly with powdered sugar and serve warm.

Chestnut ravioli filled with Guinea fowl

For the pasta dough: 

120gr (½cup - 4oz) chestnut flour  

180gr (0.8cup - 6.4oz) Semolina

3 eggs

Mix together chestnut and hard wheat flour and eggs and leave the dough to rest about half an hour. Roll out the dough with the pasta machine or the rolling pin, then cut it with the fettuccine accessory if you use the pasta machine, otherwise do like this: roll the sheet of dough up into a tube, then slice the tube into rounds of 1cm wide and shake the skeet out with your hands to free the strands; set them to dry on a rack for few hours.

For the Guinea Fowl filling:

1 Guinea Fowl
1 onion
1 carrot
4 cloves of Garlic
1 Smal potato
1 tea spoon of smoked paprika

In a big pan, cook all the ingredients expect the paprika.  Once the meat is cooked, pull out of the bones and add to the food processor the meat, potatoes, garlic and the carrot.

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of pine nuts
8 leafs of sage
Salt & Pepper

Serve with Parmiggiano cheese on the top. 

Black ravioli with Smoked salmon and lemon sauce

Black dough

4 oz (1/2 cup) of Semolina flour

1 egg

1 sachet of squid ink 

Using a fork begging mixing in the egg and the squid ink with the flour.  Once egg has been mixed in enough, begin using your hands to work the dough.  Continues until reaches a smooth consistency, adding a light dust of flour if necessary.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap to protect from drying.  For best results, let the dough rest for at least 10 minutes.

Smoked salmon fill

Smoked salmon
1/2 cup of mashed potatoes
1 tea spoon of nutmeg
Salt & Pepper

Mix all the ingredients and meme into a paste with a help or a mortar or food processor.

Dill and Lemon sauce 

1/2 box of cream (panna)

1 chopped onion

3 Tbls of olive oil

1 juicy lemon

1 tbls of dill

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large sauce pan, sauté the onions until lightly browned.  Add the cream (Panna), the lemon juice, the dill and add salt and pepper to taste.  If the sauce is too thick, add small spoons of the water from the pasta that is cooking.  Add the al dente pasta to the sauce and sauté for a minute.  The pasta is ready to be served.

Broccoli with almonds and garlic

1 head of Broccoli 

1 hand full of almonds (Crushed or sliced)
3 cloves of garlic (Sliced)
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Wash and clean the broccoli, steam for not more than 5 minutes.
2. In a frying pan, add the olive oil, garlic and almond until brown (be careful to don't burn the garlic!).
3. Sauté the broccoli with the olive oil, garlic and almond. Add salt & pepper if necessary.

Benefits of Broccoli:

Broccoli is high in vitamin C and dietary fiber; it also contains multiple nutrients with potent anti-cancer properties, such asdiindolylmethane and small amounts of selenium. A single serving provides more than 30 mg of vitamin C and a half-cup provides 52 mg of vitamin C. The 3,3'-Diindolylmethane found in broccoli is a potent modulator of the innate immune response system with anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-cancer activity. Broccoli also contains the compound glucoraphanin, which can be processed into an anti-cancer compound sulforaphane, though the anti-cancer benefits of broccoli are greatly reduced if the vegetable is boiled. Broccoli is also an excellent source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells.

Boiling broccoli reduces the levels of suspected anti-carcinogenic compounds, such as sulforaphane, with losses of 20–30% after five minutes, 40–50% after ten minutes, and 77% after thirty minutes. However, other preparation methods such as steaming, microwaving, and stir frying had no significant effect on the compounds.

Broccoli has the highest levels of carotenoids in the brassica family. It is particularly rich in lutein and also provides a modest amount of beta-carotene.

(Wikipedia)

Ratatoille

• 

  When I was in France I made sure to buy the best vegetables I could find!

  Ratatoille is a classic French recipe. Is easy, inexpensive to make and very healthy. You can eat as an antipasto, only dish or as a side dish for any kind of meat. I enjoy eating the Ratatoille in summer days with a good piece of pugliese bread and a nice glass of wine. Ratatoille is very well paired with red wines, but is also great with a rose or a light red such as Bardolino. The only hard thing about this dish, is doing the dishes. French recipes tend to use a lot of pans. That's one difference between Italian and French cooking. Italian cook for ten people and use one pan, the French cook for one person and use ten pans!
  

  • 2 eggplants, cut into cubes
    4 tomatoes, diced
    5 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
    ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
    1/3 cup loosely packed, chopped fresh basil
    ¾ cup loosely packed, chopped flat-leaf parsley
    2 white onions, thinly sliced
    3 red or yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded, and chopped
    3 zucchini, cut in cubes
    1/3 cup dry white wine
    Salt & Pepper
    
    
    
    
    In a large saucepan, cook the tomatoes, garlic, black pepper, basil, and parsley, uncovered, over medium heat.
    In a large skillet, sauté the onions and bell peppers in a small amount of olive oil over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are very lightly browned. Remove the skillet from the heat and transfer the browned vegetables to the tomato mixture.
    
    

    In another frying pan, sautè the eggplants.

    In another one the Zucchini. 

    

    When all the vegetables are brown (better if is crispy), transfer all to the tomato mixture, put the fire on high and add the wine and cook for 5 minutes. After that add the herbs, salt & pepper.

    
    

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  
  

Cantucci - Biscotti

· 4 cups of Flour (Extra if needed)

· 1 teaspoon of Orange zest

· 1 teaspoon of Honey

· 2 cups of Almonds 

· 2 ¼ cup of  Sugar

· 1/2 cup of butter, melted

· 6 eggs (4 eggs and one yolk for the 
dough and an egg to brush the cookies)

· 1 tea spoon baking soda or 2 tea spoon baking power

· 1 pinch of fine salt

1. Preheat the oven to 190˚C/375˚F;

2. Place the almonds on a baking sheet and toast them for a few minutes;

3. Sift the flour and baking powder or baking soda 
ogether and set aside;

4. In a large bowl mix the four whole eggs, egg yolk, salt, orange zest, honey and sugar (whisk until mixture is puffed and fluffy);

5. Add melted butter, mix well, then pour the flour sifted with baking powder and mix everything well. Add almonds.

6. Transfer the dough onto a floured surface and knead it with your hands until you have ball. Divide it into two or three parts of equal size, depending on the desired size of the corners. Get two or three long loaves about 30 centimeters and transfer to a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.

7. Brush the dough with slightly beaten egg and bake 20 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and cool.

9. Slice to get cookies of about 1-1.5 cm. Place them back on the cookie sheet and bake at 170˚C/350˚F 10-15 minutes.

10. Let them cool before serving. They can be stored several months in a tin box.

Arancini Siciliani

                                          Arancini Siciliani

Ingredients for the rice:

1 finely chopped onion
 1 finely chopped garlic clove

Olive oil
Saffron (about one gram depending of the quality)
500g Arborio rice
100g of Pecorino, Grana or Parmiggiano greated
3 egg yolk
1.2 litter of vegetable/chicken or meat stock
30g of butter
Two bay leaves
Salt & Pepper to taste

Ingredients for the filling:

200g of minced meat (can be beef, pork or veal)

½ chopped onion
80g of peas
40g of tomato paste
25g of butter
1 cup of red wine
1 Scamorza cutted in cubes
Chopper parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste

Extra ingredients:

Eggs
Breadcrumbs
Sunflower oil or you can use ½ olive oil ½ sunflower oil to fry 

Method

Rice:

Fry the onions and garlic; add the rice and hot stock (about 1.2 liters).

Add the saffron, bay leaves and more water if necessary.  When the rice is cooked, turn the heat off and add the cheese, butter and the egg yolks.  Mix very well to

make sure the rice is a sticky consistency.                                     

Meat:

Fry the onion with olive oil and butter, then add the meat, when the meat is brown add the wine.  After the wine reduces add the tomato paste diluted in one cup of water.  Add salt, pepper and parsley and let cook until the water evaporates for at least 20 minutes.

While you cook the meat, in another pan, fry the peas with olive oil.  Add the peas with the meat when the meat is cooked.

With the rice not to hot, make the Arancini like the picture bellow, then breaded the arancini with eggs and breadcrumbs two times.

Fry the Arancini in sunflower oil until is golden and crispy.