The Italian traditional dishes for the festivities

This is the second Christmas on this blog and if last year I told you about the tradition of the Christmas eve, this year I will tell you a bit more about the traditional Christmas day menu.

As you probably know this day in Italy it’s really important, especially for the religious meaning of the celebration. So we respect the old tradition to don’t eat meat on the 24^th in the night and to have just dishes made with fish or vegetarian recipes. Last year I cooked Spaghetti with Smoked salmon and cream of courgettes but another classic, especially in the south are the vermicelli o linguine with clams.

On the 25^th instead everyone is free to cook anything you want, but the classic Italian tradition normally sees as a starter in the north some fresh pasta like the classic tortellini filled with meat, while in the south is really famous the timballo di maccheroni.

This recipe is so famous that has also been included in a really funny movie: BIG NIGHT, and here is the trailer where you can even have a little glimpse of it.

This is the recipe from the movie if you want to live a truly Italian Christmas Lunch.

Ingredients for around 8 people:

500g Millerighe di Gragnano, Pastificio dei Campi (for something a little smaller you can use the Mezzani Rigati), 50g butter 400g mozzarella 100g grated Parmesan 500g pork loin, 1  onion ,100g of pancetta in slices or bacon if you can’t find it, 1 glass of white wine, oil,salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, 3 bottle of tomatoes puree, bread crumbs, 1egg.

For the shortbread: 500g flour 250g sugar 6 egg yolks 250g butter.

Ok the recipe is a bit complex but it’s something you can actually do for a special occasion like the Christmas and you can even prepare it in two times. The first day you prepare the sauce, wrap the meat in the bacon, then brown it in a little olive oil with the chopped onion and herbs, pour the white wine, then add the tomatoes puree. When the sauce is thick, turn off the fire and pull out the meat, which you will use to prepare small meatballs (adding parmesan cheese, and egg and bread crumbs, soaked in milk and than squeezed). Then fry them in a little olive oil. 

The second day, prepare the dough, working all the ingredients and letting it rest for at least an hour. Meanwhile cook the pasta and add to the sauce, butter and Parmesan cheese. Grease a ring cake tin and cover with a disc of dough. Fill the dough alternating pasta, meatballs, mozzarella and more Parmesan cheese diced, and end with a layer of pasta (like in the picture from selfishcooking ). Close with a disc of puff pastry and seal well, brushing with a little 'egg yolk. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 ', let it cool and serve.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

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An online unique offer for pasta lovers

As you probably know today is Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving that since 2005 has been recognized as the most successful for sales online. In these days in fact is starting the real Christmas shopping and always more people are doing it online. Quick, easy and no-stress the online shopping  is definitely the best s solution.

And do you know that you can buy even our pasta online? Not just on foodinthecity as  lots already know, but even directly on our website where in fact you won’t just find the normal pasta packages, but some special Maxi pasta Cube available just from our online shop.

What are the Maxi Cube Pastificio dei Campi? For those who has never seen them before, just let me tell you that are the best and more original food present you can give to a real pasta lover:  it's a giant box, always in the shape of a cube, like all the boxes of Pastificio dei Campi, which contains various kinds of pasta.
There is the Maxi Cube tasting, with 5 pounds of pasta Gragnano PGI bronze drawn and slowly dried at low temperature, in 10 very different formats, which represent the most famous Pastificio dei Campi shapes: paccheri, broken candles, ziti, penne rigate, orecchiette, ribbed tubes, spaghetti, linguine. And there is the Custom Cube Maxi, for who knows what he loves and wants to choose in total freedom  the shapes to be included (for a total of 4 kg).
And it’s not finished yet. After the success of last year also the Maxi Cube Selection is on sale again: a gourmet kit, consisting of 4 kg of pasta Pastificio dei Campi, a bottle of extra virgin olive oil DOP from the Sorrentina Peninsula  L’Archangelo and the tomatoes Miracle of San Gennaro by Sabatino Abagnale.
For more information please see our online shop and good Cyber Monday to everyone!

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Between bloggers and pasta lessons to children… and not only

It was a really great festival the one in Olympia during the past weekend. If you have been there you have probably pass by our stand. If you didn’t you missed a nice bunch of people and a great opportunity to know a bit more about high quality products and our pasta.

I have spent my days with Niccolo from foodinthecity and the funny Andreasveg. We had a good time and the people who passed by (famous or not ;)) have been great! I had the pleasure to finally meet Sabrina, Steven, and Monique but especially I spoke with lots of people who have never known anything about Gragnano before, our tradition in making pasta and why our products are so special.

Do you know what was the most common question in these days?

"What are this?" Looking at some Paccheri.

I have to admit I was really surprised especially because this question was not just coming from children but even from some adults, but it was really great to explain and educate them to the real Italian pasta and show to the children the magic of the bronze extraction: 

"Look children how the pasta is made…look where the shape of this Eliche comes from!” They were really hypnotized by the pictures I was showing them and it was amazing. I’m also sure lots of them have never seen a field of grain… ! Anyway they all loved our Paccheri and i can't wait to repeat the experience soon!

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Old english sausages ragu'

It’s again the time of the year when it’s tradition to cook and eat sausages all around UK: from the 31^st of October to the 6^th of November it was “the sausage week”. If you have been out on the 5^th of November for the bonfire night, you probably know that the traditional dish of the day is bangers and mash, but lots are the recipe you can find with sausages… even in the italian cuisine.

So for my weekend I decide to treat me with a new pasta recipe: Penne a candela with sausages ragu’.

For the occasion I went in a specialized butcher near Marylebone: The Ginger Pig… no other name could be more right for the product I was looking top buy. The shop was full of costumers and the smell of the sausages I bought it was irresistible. I choose the Old English Sausage, just made with english pork and herbs.

Here is the recipe for 3-4 people:

- 350/400 gr of  pasta: we hardly recommend Penne a Candela Pastificio dei Campi

- 3 sausages

- A jar of peeled tomatoes

- Half onion

- olive oil

- A glass of red wine

- Salt and pepper

- Fresh rosemary

Place some oil on the bottom of a pot, and soon after the finely chopped onion. Let it cook a bit and then add the sausage. Take off the skin and mince it in the pot. Let it get brown and then add the wine slowly. Then add the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Let simmer, stirring occasionally for about half an hour.

Prepare the pasta al dente then drain it and toss it in the sauce for a few minutes before serving. Add some Parmesan if you like but I can tell you that without is divine anyway!

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The World Pasta Day conference in Rome and some thoughts

As you probably already know yesterday was the Word Pasta Day and it was celebrated all around the world. This year in particular the World Pasta Day returned to Rome, where IPO (International Pasta Organisation) and AIDEPI (Association of the Italian Pasta and Confectionery Industries) have hosted a special conference: "Pasta, global challenge. New markets and new consumers for food that is conquering the tables of the world" .

Have been invited to the occasion the most important pasta producers, economists, opinion leaders and media around the world and everyone  was there to celebrate this ancient food, rich in history, present on families' tables (and eating habits) in 5 continents and candidate to be the food of the future.

In a time of big pressure and bad news about our future alimentation, pasta seems to be one of the few ingredients that will probably be able to survive on our table. If the fish will disappear and the meat will be maybe not enough for all the planet, if not in danger as we have seen in the past, with viruses or weird genetic mutation, it seems we will be able to count at least on vegetable, fruit, rice and pasta.

Finally in time of poverty and war, this is what kept part of the world alive.

So if yesterday in Rome they tried to "understand how this food will help bring answers to one day dominated by uncertainty and food shortages.", I can also give you a little resume  of what came out from a nice event  organized last week in London by Latitudinal Cuisine “a geo-specific dining group, exploring the world a degree a day, meeting new people and cultures as we eat new cuisine”.

Last thursday in fact I went to their event about “Future of Food: dinner & conversation @ The Hub Westminster”. In this beautiful place in the New Zealand House in London, around 30 food lovers and people worried about environmental and social issues cooked what they think will be the food of the future and came together to enjoy it and exchange their ideas.

There were people that brought traditional food from their country, dishes made with sustainable fish, organic food, cake and tarts made by fruits and vegetable cultivated in their own gardens or even in the guerrilla gardens in London… and there was even someone who brought an amazing salad with fried ... locusts with big surprise of all the group. I brought pasta of course, because I believe in it for our future… and to shake and inspire a bit the audience I tried a sweet pasta recipe, with sugar, maple syrup, grated almonds and organic chocolate.

I used the pasta from Pastificio dei Campi not only because it's PGI and 100% Italian but also because is produced following the oldest artisanal traditions and only  with high quality Italian grain.

I bet pasta will be with us in the future! What do you think?

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A new place to try and buy Pastificio dei Campi

We are so excited about the opening of Fornata next week in Kingly Street, Soho. Created by the Chef Douglas Santi already proud owner of the plury-awarded Babbo on Mayfair, Fornata will be the new place open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, where to enjoy great Italian food and high quality products of our gastronomic tradition.

With an exposed kitchen where the oven, "forno" in Italian, will be the protagonist, the restaurant is divided in two floor: a ground floor where it will be recreated the atmosphere and the vibe of the classic Italian aperitif, while over ground it will be offered the most simple, honest and great Italian food.

It’s a long time since the last new opening of a restaurant, but this time it’s even more special because Pastificio dei Campi won’t be just used by the restaurant in their menu but it will be also sold there and in two new formats:  Egoista, the 125gr box and  Duetto, the 250gr.

Then freshly baked Italian breads and pastries served with authentic Italian coffee all the morning while the bar will be open until 1.00am for late night cocktails. I can’t wait to have my Negroni at the bar and try the chef Santi's cuisine, for a perfect Italian style night out.

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And what about Italy then?

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England, that being honest I never heard before, and probably I wouldn’t if I didn’t discover has been nominated recently the Uk’s foodies capital.

Especially famous for its sausages and pork dishes, it has also an old icecream production business, someone who smoke fish since 1930 and in general is the proud producer of lots of fresh ingredients that are getting better and better every year.

“Where there is good food, it encourages more good food and it encourages retailers like us to stock it." As Rachel Green, a chef and farmer originally from there, said to the Guardian recently: "We do food production quietly and in a very measured way. The people who produce don't take shortcuts."

At this point I have to go there soon to try it all, but in the same time I was thinking: “ what could be the Italian correspondent city?”

Maybe some little village in Tuscany with amazing beef, wine and lots of traditional dishes? Maybe Parma with its fresh great pasta,  sauces and its great amount of famous dishes? Neapols and Campania with is reach Buffalo Mozzarella, great tomatoes, fishes and pasta of course? Some country from the real north of Italy with the speck, the fantastic cheeses and the grappa? Or finally the islands like Sicily with is amazing fruits and vegetables, the " cannoli" and "pasta di mandorle" and olives and perfumes and flavours.

I can’t really say and I think anyone and never tried to vote for one or another. In Italy every region and sometimes even city has its own typical dishes, ingredients traditions and they are just great an unique for their differences. Form the north to south it’s a continuously explosion of flavors .

Try to visit as many regions as you can and you will agree with me.

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