Two houses, lots of rain but with comfort food

There is nothing that a good plate of pasta with the ragu’ can’t fix and the past weekend my new flatmates and me we proved how much this is true.

More than Easter holidays for me these 4 days were real nightmare: I came and go from my old house to the new one with lots of stuff, fighting with the space and the cleaning to do. The weather was horrible and yesterday was raining a lot. All my muscles were hurting but my food and my friends were there for me to spend the Easter lunch together… or better a brunch!

I decided to use my new kitchen straight away preparing something absolutely new for me: a classic Easter English recipe and a classic Italian one: hot cross buns and Mafaldine with ragu' of lamb. Of course we had eggs, salami, cheese, wine, salad, the classic colomba too, but the main attractions of the day were my two dishes.

The ragu’ was so reach and the Mafaldine pasta so delicious and consistent that we could not finish 500 gr of pasta in five. It grew a  lot and the brunch was a real feast. I cooked the lamb with parsley, rosemary a bit of chilli, mint and a little sprinkle of lemon zest and I served it with pecorino cheese.

Here a little pic of my hot cross buns too and finally a sneak pic of my moving. Do you notice anything in this bag? Pastificio dei Campi boxes are great to keep in order your kitchen cupboard, and are great to move your kitchen stuff too.

What I did on Easter Monday? My flatmates and me were thinking to bake the pasta from the day before with some mozzarella and parmesan, but finally we simply hot them up in the microwave. All of us were really impressed: the pasta was still al dente even after the microwave! This is the real pasta test!

I hope you enjoyed the break too and if you didn’t eat any pasta in those days, here is the recipe for your next dish!

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My Easter pasta recipe

Lots of thing will happen in these days: first of all I'm moving home,  and this means that i will have 4 days of real mess. Second, I'm organizing a little Easter Brunch in my new place.

It will be a brunch because I would like to unify a bit of the classic Easter breakfast dishes with a simple lunch, to have a great traditional but at the same time relaxing and original Easter feast!

Of course after the moving I will be dead, so i'm looking for simple recipes but with all the taste of the classic Easter sunday lunch i could have in Italy.

So Mafaldine with Lamb Ragu' I decided will be the main dish of the brunch, and for the rest you will need to wait the pictures :)

Ingredients for 4 people:

- 400 gr Mafaldine Pastificio dei Campi

- 400 g. minced lamb

- 300 g. of tomato passata

- 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 rib of celery

- 1 lemon

- rosemary if you like or a bit of parsley and fresh mint

- 1/2 cup of red wine

- extra virgin olive oil

- salt & pepper

- grated pecorino cheese
Clean the vegetables, carrots, onion and celery, wash and chop them finely.
Fry the chopped vegetables with a little oil, then add the minced lamb, and let it cook until brown. Sprinkle with red wine and let evaporate. Add salt and pepper, add the tomato passata and cook covered for about 2.5 hours. Occasionally add a little bit of water or broth if the sauce dries too much.
Just before serving prepare a mixture of garlic, parsley, mint and lemon peel or if you don't like this mix, just add some rosemary when pouring the passata. You can also put in the sauce to cook a few pieces of lamb on the bone: in this way the sauce will be tastier.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water, drain and toss it with the sauce and the chopped aromatic prepared earlier. Take it to the table accompanied by grated Pecorino cheese.

Enjoy and Happy Easter to everyone!

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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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Pasta from Gragnano: still made in the old way and in your kitchen everyday

Today I want to give you some other learning about pasta and especially about the Pasta from Gragnano. I translated this article published on an italian newspaper and I hope this will give you a better idea of what we mean for high quality pasta when we speak about these product.

"It's easy to say pasta. In fact, is produced everywhere since long time. But if we are talking about the pasta from Gragnano, then we know that we are dealing with more than five hundred years of history and tradition.

It belongs to the category of dry pasta and is made in various shapes - now 340 - many of whom belong to the local tradition: the "candles", about two feet long, the "mafaldine" created in honor of Mafalda di Savoia, the " Tripolini "dedicated to the colonial conquest of the Libyan cities of Tripoli and the pasta Piedigrotta, inspired by the eponymous party in Naples. Anyway the most famous  shape remains the "Paccheri.

The historical texts and literature about the "Pasta from Gragnano PGI,"(deservedly received on the 28th August 2010) show that the production of "Pasta Gragnano" dates back to the XVI - XVII century and is closely linked to historical events that have occurred over the years in the territory of Gragnano. Here is the root of the typical product of our territory, the ancient town famous for the quality of the macaroni, located in the Valley of the Mills in the south of the Gulf of Naples. But what are the requirements before a product may dare the nominee?
In first place the Pasta from Gragnano PGI must be made solely from flour made from durum wheat. The mixture uses water from the springs of Mount Faito. The product must have the following characteristics: a homogeneous appearance with no white or black spots, air bubbles, cracks or cuts, mold, maggots or parasites. The section of fracture should be glassy, and the colour, a pale yellow.

And then a roughness which feature the use of bronze dies. At cooking, the "Pasta Gragnano" PGI has a firm texture and elasticity, homogeneity of cooking: uniform, holding a good and long cooking, a stickiness absent or imperceptible.
 

The production process is, after mixing and kneading, extruding through bronze dies, giving the desired shape. The procedure in bronze gives the pasta - even the smooth one - a rough surface that makes it particularly suitable to hold sauces and condiments.

The next stage of the production is the drying process, which varies depending on the shapes and in any case is at a temperature between 40 and 80 ° C for a period of between 6 and 60 hours in static cells to drain or tunnel where it circulates hot air. Completed the process of drying the paste is allowed to cool and within 24 hours should be wrapped, without being carried, to allow a perfect preservation."

Do you want to know more? Just write a question in the comments and I will involve the real people from Gragnano and from Pastificio dei Campi to answer.

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For the joy of the lovers of quality pork

Let's participate to the party for one of the most traditional english food: a classic in the english breakfast, very tasty for lunch accompanied by the most classic mash potatoes and what about bangers on the barbecue? Just delicious!
 
From the 1st to the 7th of November it was Bangers week and all their variants and ways to cook them were welcome to commemorate this clever and versatile food. Look at what they invented here:  a bangers and mash sculpture competition!

I couldn't miss to join the party also with an italian dish and I made one of my favorite recipe for the cold season: pasta with mushroom, sausage and cream. I used some spaghetti, but this sauce has to be amazing also with some more consistent pasta like the Mafaldine.

Here the ingredient for 4 people:

- 150-200 gr organic pork sausages

- 350 gr of spaghetti Pastificio dei Campi

- 250 gr of mushrooms 170ml single cream

- 2-3 garlic cloves

- a bit of butter

- fresh parsley and some rosemary

- a glass of white wine
 

Cook some garlic cloves in some butter and when they get goldish, add the mushrooms in slices, the rosemary, same salt and pepper, and parsley. Let it cook and when dry add the white wine.

Open the sausages long the side and take off the skin. Divide them in little pieces and add them to the pan. Let it cook with some more salt and pepper.
In the meantime cook the pasta and when everything is almost ready, add the cream to the pan and let it get thick.
Drain the pasta, keep some water in a side just in case the sauce is too thick for the quantity of pasta and toss the spaghetti with the sauce in the pan.  
When ready serve with Parmesan or Pecorino cheese if you like and a bit of fresh parsley!

I have to admit the taste of the english organic bangers here in England it's really good, so let's enjoy them!

PS. But do you know why the sausages are called also bangers? Because during WWII the sausages contained a lot of water and would explode in the pan (as seen here).

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