Some recipes to enjoy this great ingredient and our pasta

I admit it: I love artichokes but has always been a bit difficult for me to clean and cook them properly. I want them but I'm always a bit too lazy to actually buy them often.

Today, with the official beginning of the spring season I decided that it's time to beat my enemy and shake a  bit my diet welcoming this great ingredient.

I then started to look here and there for interesting recipes and this is what inspired me. They really are pretty easy, so maybe is the time to go shopping soon.

Just few days ago in twitter @donalde asked me about the Pecorino cream. I didn't know what it was, because very local and typical of Sardinia, but it seems you can find it in London at Melograno Deli with the Provola cheese too. So here some recipes to enjoy them and the artichokes!

Fusilli with artichokes, goat cheese, pecorino and almonds or Mezzi Rigatoni with artichokes and provola cheese (smoked or not).

If you like goat cheese go for Fusilli, that are better with saucy cream, while if you prefer Provala Cheese (you can find it in Melograno deli) go for the Mezzi Rigatoni.

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3 days of food, music and fun for a unique festival.

As the majority of you, this year I could not attend this beautiful event, La festa della Pasta, the Pasta Festival that took place in the Campagnia region last weekend. In these days I was craving and just waiting for some pictures from the event. I was curious to see  what happened in Gragnano during the celebration.

If I was thinking that the last Festival could have been hard to overcome, these pictures from this year just told me the contrary: there was food, there was an enormous amount of people, there was music, special shows, magic in the air and of course the best pasta in the world with its never ending tradition.

With the help of the government of the region and with the participation of the Slow Food organization, the party was at its best! It's always nice to see people working in the production of this precious food, their family and friends, sharing all this with the people in love with the good food and who appreciate this fundamental element of our culture.

Here some pictures that from the italian blogger Giovanna Esposito and from Alessandro Savarese for E-comunica. Thanks to both of you for your beautiful images that catch the real vibe of this great party.

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A quiz and some tips to know a bit more about pasta.

Following the recent Oxfam survey that shows the pasta be the favorite food ever, we decided to play a bit with you.

Do you think to be a real pasta lover or an expert of italian pasta dishes? Here there is a little quiz (from the International Pasta Organization) for you and some interesting information: do you know the country that eat and produce more pasta? can you name all these shapes of pasta?

If you didn't guess all the name, don't worry. Here for you are some tips to help you a bit. As The National was reporting today: "The suffix often provides an indication of size: "oni" suggests large (as in conchiglioni - large shells or spaghettoni - thick spaghetti); "ette" or "etti" denote something small (as in spaghetti or cappelletti - small hats) and "ine"or "ini" suggest tiny (hence spaghettini )." Being italian I never thought about this, but now i can see this could bee a good start for you all.

This could be another easy tip to get the right pasta with the right sauce: "Slim, fine pasta (for example spaghetti, spaghettini, angel hair, linguine, linguettine) is best served with a smooth, quite thin sauce. This allows the sauce to coat the delicate strands, without overpowering the flavour of the pasta completely. Thicker ribbons of pasta (fettuccine, pappardelle, fettuce, perciatelli) can stand up to heavier, more substantial sauces, such as ragus or rich, creamy dressings. Shaped pasta (conchiglie, conchiglioni, orecchiette) or types with holes or ridges (fusilli, rigatoni, penne) work well when the sauce is chunky or if the there is a lot of it, as the pasta then holds the sauce"

And finally some other little curiosity: in Italian, fettuccine means ribbons; stelline means little stars; and capelli d’angelo means angel’s hair.

I think now you are ready to surprise your guests when you will cook pasta for them next time.

And if you want to have more news, stay tuned because you will see soon all the picture from the harvest.

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Pastificio Dei Campi and italian cheeses will do the trick.

 
If Charles de Gaulle used to say "How can you be expected to rule a country that has over 200 kinds of cheese?”,  what can happen in Italy where at the moment there are more than 400? We have in fact more than 20 region with more than 20 cheeses each? Maybe now I can understand why we have so many political problems especially in the latest times :).
 
However exactly thinking about this and about one of the most famous pasta recipe abroad, I decided to do my own italian version of Maccheroni and cheese.

This dish in fact doesn't really exist in our italian traditions and all our recipes refer to America and American movies. What we have instead is the pasta with 4 cheeses, that's a very common dish, quick to prepare and always good. So why don't do a baked version.
 
I then went to the italian delicatessen near my house to get some inspirations to choose cheeses and after lots of thinking about Fontina, Asiago, Smoked Scamorza, I finally decided to use Gorgonzola DOC, Provolone Valpadana e Raschera DOP, a new cheese that I wanted to taste. It has a fine and delicate flavour, slightly spicy and they said it’s good for baking and coocking in general. I thought it could be a perfect substitute for the Fontina.
 
Because I have previously made the other baked pasta with fusilli,  I decided to make this with the tubetti, a short but chunky pasta with strips and a good shape to keep the cheeses sauce.

These the ingredients i used for 3 people:
- 300gr pasta Tubetti Rigati Pastificio dei Campi
- 30gr butter
- 30gr Provolone cheese
- 30gr Raschera cheese
- 60gr Gorgonzola
- 50gr Grated Parmesan
- 50gr flour
- 250ml milk
- Salt, pepper, nutmeg and some breadcrumbs
 
Prepare some besciamella (my real italian secret instead of single cream or cream fresh) with the butter and the flour. Then add the milk cooking all on a very low fire. Add spices and mix until get creamy. Then add the grated cheeses and let them melt.
 
In the meantime cook the pasta until almost done (2 minutes before the time of the box) and when ready drain it and put it in the cheeses.
 

Turn on the oven at 180 degree and put some butter on the inside of a baking pan and cover it with breadcrumbs. Then add the pasta and cover it all with some more Parmesan and breadcrumbs. Let it cook for 20-25 minutes until goldish on the top. Serve it and enjoy all the pure italian flavours.

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A quick and easy recipe to start 2011 in the best way

This is the moment of the year when everyone it's fed up to  cook for a big number of people. After all the festivities and the good food served, it's hard to think about the menu' for New Year's Eve.

Everyone would like just to enjoy the party with their friends and family, have fun and cheers to the 2011. So this is what we normally cook in Italy for parties, when you have a good number of people to feed, adult and children too, but you don't want to spend time in the kitchen: Pasta al forno (in the oven).

I'm sure you have cooked it before, maybe with some pasta leftovers or just to prepare some quick and delicious meal for children. This time instead I will give you the classic recipe of the pasta al forno made with béchamel and tomato sauce. Do you know how to prepare "besciamella"? Have you ever try it? It's quick, easy and far better than the ready made!

For the pasta I have chosen this time the Fusilli corti con il buco (short fusilli with the hole) because they can catch the sauce in a fantastic way, creating this amazing full structure, that when biten it's just heaven.

It's instead traditional in Gragnano to use "pasta rigata" for the oven recipes , this more or less for the same reason: in the oven in fact the pasta cooks with the sauce and the starch coming out from the stripes help to bind everything. Anyway you are free to use any shape of pasta you like.

Here the recipe for 4 people:

350gr Fusilli corti con il buco Pastificio dei Campi

1  mozzarella (and for a special twist use some Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO)

50 gr Parmesan

500-600 gr  Passata (if you want to make it special just add Ragu' bolognese instead of Passata)

Onion, celery, 1 carrot, salt , pepper

For the béchamel:

50gr flour,

50gr butter,

500ml milk

Salt and a pinch of nutmeg

Clean and finely cut the celery, onion and the carrot. Put them in a sauce pan with some olive oil. Let it cook a bit and when the onion get transparent add the passata and some salt. Put the water for the pasta on the fire, add some salt  and wait for it to boil.

In the meantime put some butter in a pan on a low fire and while this is melting, add some flour little by little. As soon as the first clots will start to appear, add the milk and mix until creating a cream. Add the other flour and the other milk until the end of the ingredients, and let it cook always stirring to eliminate all the clots. Don't forget to add some salt and nutmeg because they will give an amazing taste to the béchamel.

When the water is boiling, it's time to put the pasta. For this dish i normally mix béchamel with the tomato sauce so all the pasta take some of the béchamel, but if you want you can leave them a part and create layers after. When the pasta is ready, some minute before the final time, when is still a little bit hard,  toss it in the tomato sauce. Then cover a baking pan with some butter and place in it a first layer of tomato pasta, then the béchamel, some pieces of mozzarella and Parmesan. Then  a second layer of pasta and all the rest until the end of the pasta. On the top layer put just the béchamel, lots of Parmesan and some little pieces of butter.

When your guests arrive place it in the oven for 1o-15 minutes just the time to finish to cook the pasta , to melt the mozzarella and to create a delicious crust on top.

From Pastificio dei Campi we wish a wonderful 2011 to everyone!

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