...alle cime di rapa or "broccoli rabe"

Let's comeback to the healthy diet and let's cook something at home!
This is a great recipes even for children who maybe don't like vegetables, because I think no one can resist to this dish.

This is a typical south italian recipe but I love it so much because the consistency of Orecchiette with the bitter taste of the vegetable enriched by the chili, the garlic and the nice taste of the anchovies... it's unique!

It's one of this pasta dishes that base all its taste on the real ingredients and the olive oil... No cheeses to combine the ingredients or to give the last touch. So healthy and fulfilling you can be sure a portion of this can just do good to yourself. I hope you will trust me!
 
The ingredients for 4 people are:

400gr Orecchiette Pastificio dei Campi
6 fillets of anchovies
2 garlic cloves Broccoli rape?(already clean) 600 g
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
and some chili and salt

Take the broccoli rabe already clean, remove the largest leaves or the hardest parts of the stem, taking precisely the more tender parts. Cut all into pieces, and wash them and [place them to boil for some minutes in some salty water.
 
In the meantime in a pan place some olive oil, the 2 garlic cloves, the pepper cut in little rings and with the chopped anchovies.
When the broccoli leaves are ready, drain them but keep aside the cooking water, to boil the orecchiette.
 
When the garlic is browned and the anchovies almost melted, add the turnip greens and let them take all the flavors for a few minutes. When also the orecchiette will be al dente, drain them and  add them to the pan.
Toss everything for some minutes and add some more oil or cooking water and then enjoy!

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A new recipes book by Manuela Darling- Gansser

Today is Thanksgiving and being mainly an American celebration, every year I find myself a bit puzzled : I never know what to bring to parties and worst, what to cook in case they ask me to bring some food …exactly like this year.

On Monday I received an invitation for tonight. The email was saying that everyone was requested to bring something, but I can’t cook anything else than Italian food !!!

Luckily I have just received a new Stunning Recipe Book, that of course is about Italian food, but that gave me also a very nice idea for tonight.

The book is called Four Season: a year of italian food and has been written by Manuela Darling – Gansser,  a traveler and a linguist who, born in Lugano, has always been passionate about cooking and Italian food.

She put together this book after passing some times in different parts of Italy. Each season is described trough a region:  spring is Sicily with its amazing seafood, fruits, sweets and amazing smells and gastronomic tradition. Her childhood spent in Sardinia represents the summer with its cheeses, vegetables and great dishes from her memory.  In autumn Manuela reaches Piemonte in the north of Italy where there are very reach recipes,  a strong peasant food tradition and some unique ingredients like chestnuts and truffles. Finally in the Alps  in winter she passes to the reach and hot north Italian recipes, from stews to polenta, from Lamb pie and roast venison to some amazing chocolate cake.

So yesterday I started browsing through the beautiful recipes (the pictures are amazing and the book in itself it’s a beauty) with the sensation that the majority of them could be quite easy to follow. And there I found one thing that I never had the chance to try before: Bagna Cauda.

This is a very famous dish in the North of Italy and it’s a classic in autumn after the harvest, because the peasants used to eat it all together to remove the sweet smell of the grapes.

Considering that tonight the main dish will be the  turkey with all the trimmings, I wasn’t really keen to bring any other big main  but I thought this could be a really nice dish to have on the table and to eat all together. If you want to follow my idea, here is the recipe from the book in Manuela’s mum version:

BAGNA CAUDA DELLA MAMMA
(Mamma’s Raw Vegetables with Anchovy Cream)

This is the way my mother used to make Bagna Caoda. Boil the 500ml cream with the peeled garlic cloves (4-6) for 15 - 20 minutes so that the cream reduces and thickens. In a fondue dish, melt the butter. Cut the anchovies (8-10) very finely and add them to the 50 gr butter.

Cook them on very gentle heat, until they have melted. Now add the reduced cream. Crush the softened garlic cloves with a fork and stir well, taste and add a little ground pepper. Prepare the vegetables (cucumber, carrots, celery, peppers). Wash them well, slice, dry them, then put them on a large plate.

Put the sauce in a fondue dish over a flame in the centre of the table. Each person puts some vegetables on their plate, and then dips the vegetable sticks into the sauce. It’s also delicious to serve some grissini on the side, to dip in the sauce.

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End of the summer recipe with Pastificio dei Campi

Last week speaking with Niccolo from *food in the city, he told me about one of his favorite recipes during the summer: Spaghetti with anchovies fillets and fresh courgette flowers...and my mouth started watering!

I love courgette flowers and here in London they are so hard to find... but some days ago magically on twitter @Andreasveg  tweeted a pic about his beautiful courgette flowers and the dinner was decided.

I took the flowers, the anchovies from *food in the city, Nick recipe and just a little bit of ricotta! It was gorgeous...an explosion of taste that i was really missing. A bit like my so loved fried courgette flowers, filled with mozzarella and anchovies.

However here is the recipes for you to try. For 2 people you will need:

- 200gr Spaghetti o Linguine Pastificio dei Campi

-80 gr Fresh ricotta

- 60gr Anchovy  fillets in Olive Oil

- 6/8 Courgette flowers

- 1 onion

- olive oil and salt for the water

Put on the fire a big pan with the water for the pasta. In the meantime cut the onion and place some olive oil on a pan. Add the onion in little pieces and let it cook a bit.
Cut the flower from the courgette. Take of the pistils and slice them. Place them in the pan and let it cook.

While the pasta is cooking add to the pan the anchovies cut in little pieces and a bit of water from the pasta. When the pasta is "al dente", drain it and toss it in the pan with the rest.
Add the ricotta and mix it all. Serve on a plate with just a bit of grated fresh pepper. Enjoy!

Do you want to find all the ingredients at once... write down this date on your diary 10th of September. More news to come soon.

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A little interview to let you know a bit more about it

As you maybe know already, in England we sell our pasta in Harvey Nichols, since few weeks in Melograno Deli, but the first place and person who get involved with our products was Nick from *foodinthecity.

It's now a long time that he work with us supporting and promoting our products and we love his taste in food and his care for the esthetic side of anything he works on and for.

Here a little interview to know him and *foodinthecity better:

When did you have the idea to start a project like *foodinthecity? And why?

Having lived in London for many years and driven by my passion for quality ingredients I realised there was an opportunity to create a business and one stop shop to help like minded people who love to cook and entertain get the finest products without having to drive all over London, delivered direct to your door. 

When it became a shop?

 8 months after I launched *foodinthecity online

Who invented the name?

 I did.  It was a fun process.  I wanted something that would reflect the core mission of the company and also that people could remember easily.

How do you select your products for your shop and where they come from?

Working closely with the world’s best producers and chefs I have the chance to use their expertise to source and create amazing products where only the very finest ingredients are used without preservatives and additives. Our range is organic wherever possible, and its prime mantra above all driven by flavour.  I am also always looking out for new sources by spending a lot of my time travelling and meeting producers. 

Are you scared about more commercial competitors like Carluccio's?

The Carluccio's business is amazing and Antonio is a great friend of mine. *foodinthecity is different and it is focused on artisan production methods on traditional production, rather than mass production. We strive to find unique and interesting products of the highest quality for our clients, who love to visit our warehouse which has been described by many as a little gem. We also spend time with our customers educating them on the products, offering tastings and taking them through the journey of each product and characteristics.

Do you really think english people can appreciate a place like this? What would you like them to understand?

My philosophy is that if you put quality in front of people they will respond and it has been proven time and time again by our clients who order regularly from our online website or visit the warehouse with wonderful stories of diner parties they have created using our produce.

How do you see *foodinthecity in 3 years?

My business has been growing nicely in a tough market and this is driven by my energy to succeed, we have amazing clients who are spreading the word and as the business grows we will expand into other markets.

When did you discover your passion for food and when did you decide to work in this field?

My love of food comes from my very early days in Marostica my home town, where as a family the table was an important part of our daily lives. I loved helping my mother cook seasonal produce that we grew in the garden. It was a way of life working the land and enjoying the fruits of our labour.

Which is the most characteristic ingredient in your shop? something that could be your signature?

We don't have a single signature product.  It's all about the combined variety of signature products we carry and how unique they all are.

What is your favourite /dish/food or recipe?

I have many favourite recipes. My philosophy is keep it simple and let the wonderful produce be the hero using the finest ingredients so in season I love spaghetti with courgette flowers and anchovy.

Have you ever tried this dish? Do you know how to prepare it? Next week i will post this great recipe from Niccolo, but in the meantime get ready with the ingredients: come to *foodinthecity this weekend to buy the anchovies and the Spaghetti Pastificio dei Campi. You could be lucky and even find the courgette flowers from Andreasveg pop up shop.

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From Sicily a great recipe for the summer.

Yesterday I finally cooked the "Pasta con le Sarde" I was telling you last week to give my little contribution to the Project Ocean! This is a typical Sicilian dish that puts together, in a fantastic way, some of the best ingredients from the south!

Because here in London it's not so easy to find the wild fennel, I just went for the normal one, but the taste was great anyway.

 
So for this recipe (3-4 people) you will need:

- 500gr Bucatini Pastificio dei Campi, as the traditional recipe recommends, but also with some Penne a Candela it was great!

- 500gr of fennels

- 50gr of pine nuts

- 50gr of raisins (soaked in water for half hour)

- 500 gr of fresh and sustainable sardines

- saffron

- 3 anchovies

- olive oil, salt, pepper, 2 onions

 
As written on the"Grande enciclopedia Illustrata della gastronomia":

Cut the fennel in sticks and boil them in a big pot with water and salt for like 20 minutes while in a pan with some olive oil you will cook quickly the sardines (after removing the heads, the backbones and entrails). Take them off and cook there the onions, until goldish. Add then the drained fennels (remember to keep the water in a side to cook the pasta), the sardines, pine nuts, the raisins, some salt and peppers. Cook on a low fire to mix everything well.

Then cut the anchovies in little pieces and place them in another pan. Let them melt with some hot oil and add them to the big pan. After the saffron. Melted with the some fennel’s water and while waiting for all this to cook, boil the pasta the water you used before for the fennels.

When is “al dente” drain it and toss it with the sauce, but let it rest few seconds before to serve it. It will take all the flavors of these great ingredients and it will be fabulous.

I’m sure you will enjoy like I did!

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From the harvest to the table and in your pasta

The plan for this weekend was to go to the Food Harvest Festival organized in the Southbank center over the weekend. That's was a nice occasion to know what are the most common seasonal products in England or if there were some totally new and interesting to try... Maybe with some pasta! Unfortunately, cause the weather the market has been cancelled, at least on Sunday so I couldn't buy anything for my dinner.

I decided instead going to the market near my house and to look for products from the English farmers. I saw some beautiful broccoli sprouts that I thought could have been great with some nice strong ingredients like anchovies and garlic... and I thought about one old recipe from the south of Italy. With some short pasta like the Pennoni, it could have been perfect.

 

Ingredients:  

- 150gr broccoli sprouts
 
- 200gr Pennoni Pastificio dei Campi
 
- 4 anchovies in olive oil
 
- one spoon extra virgin olive oil
 
- some rosemary
 
- 2 garlic cloves
 
- a big chili
 
- a spoon of fresh bread crumbs

- shaved Parmesan cheese or Pecorino Romano
 
Boil the sprouts until almost ready but still a bit hard. Put the garlic in a pan with the olive oil, then add the anchovies, the rosemary and chili all cut in little pieces. Let everything cook and at the end add the points of the broccoli sprouts drained form the water.

Use the water of the broccoli to cook the pasta and when ready, just  place it in the pan to make it absorb the sauce and get mix with the rest of the ingredients. Then add the spoon of bread crumbs (better if before you can toast it a bit in a clean pan) and mix again. Serve with some Parmesan or Pecorino romano cheese and the dish is ready.
 
The next market will take place in mid October and will be all about cheese and wine! Let's hope the weather will help us this time, but in the meantime let me know what do you think of this recipe!

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