3...2...1... and it's Christmas day: all the steps to arrive prepared.

Have you finally bought all the presents you needed? Have you wrapped them all. Fantastic! You are half the way to your perfect Christmas. Now you just need to be sure that everything will be ready for your Christmas lunch or dinner!

Here some quick suggestions to don't miss anything and to enjoy the day in the best way!

The first step is of course to chose the menu': are you going to cook the classic turkey or are you looking for something different? Maybe a bit more... italian?

We have the tradition to cook a big dinner on the 24th and also a big lunch on 25th, meals that we normally share with our family and close people. On the 24th the Christian tradition is to don't eat meat, so all the dinner will be based on fish and each region has is own tradition. In the south are very famous the "Spaghetti o Linguine 'a Vongole" (Spaghetti or Linguine with clams) while in Rome the "Capitone"(large eel) is the typical fish cooked in the Christmas dinner...or at least this was happening in the past.

Recently we just care to cook fish but any kind of recipe is accepted. The only thing sure is that we will serve and enjoy a little aperitif, a pasta dish, a fish with some vegetables and of course all the classic italian Christmas desserts: pandoro, panettone, torrone depending buy the regional traditions.

So whatever will be your menu', first of all decide all your courses and then make a list of all the ingredients you will need. Then check you have all the cooking equipments necessary for your dishes and if you are a bit unfamiliar with certain recipes and way to prepare them, search online any suggestion or video explanation you can find and follow them carefully.

Then don't forget to think about the way you will present them: do you need any decoration or some more ingredients to put them on each plate? Put them too in the list with also any missing cooking equipment and then go out for the last shopping!

In case you have guests and they will bring some dishes to help you out in the preparation of the dinner, it's always better to discuss this with them directly to avoid any duplicate.

If you can't find all you need at once, make sure you create a second list with the missing ingredients and go in other specific shops to buy them.

After that make the cooking easier sipping a glass of good wine or Prosecco and then be ready to relax and enjoy the dinner!

What i'm going to cook for Christmas? You will know it in the next post...but you can be sure will be a pasta dish with fish.

Meanwhile I wish you all to have an amazing time with family and friends. Merry Christmas!

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A classic italian sunday lunch.

Often on Sunday here in London the weather is not very good: gray, rainy, maybe not too cold but quite sad anyways.

This is a traditional Sunday dish in Italy, mainly because the ragu’ o bolognese sauce as you call it here, takes several hours to prepare, i.e. not something you prepare after a long day at work. It's normally made on Saturday and served together with pasta on Sundays. But there are also those who starts preparing it on Saturdays and finish it off on Sundays right before it’s served! In fact the truth is that the more the sauce will simmer on a low fire the better it will taste.  

The origin of this recipe seems to be in Bologna, but of course there are 2000 different recipes and variations also in each region. The only sure things about this dish are the main ingredients which will always be onion carrot, celery, tomatoes (fresh, passata or concentrate) olive oil and minced meat!

It's often served with fresh pasta, or long pasta types, but this time I wanted to try it with a short and wider type of pasta: I Paccheri! Being short and consistent all the sauce was incorporated by the pasta and each bite was a true explosion of Italian taste.



The result was exceptional, so here I will give you an easy recipe I use often, not too elaborated but truly italian. The ingredients for a good quantity are:

-        250gr beef minced meat,

-        250gr pork minced meat,

-        1 carrot,

-        1 onion,

-        1 celery

-        some extravirgin olive oil,

-        salt,

-        pepper,

-        a bit of nutmeg and  fresh parsley if you like

-        tomato sauce 800gr (I used 2 cans of passata)

-        2 glasses of red wine

Then of course Paccheri Pastificio dei Campi.

First cut the carrot, the celery and the onion in the smallest pieces you can, then put them in a sauce pan with some oil and let everything fry for a couple of minutes. When they are ready and more or less cooked, put the 2 types of meat in the saucepan and fry until the meat gets a bit of color. Add 2 glasses of red wine, mix and wait until the wine is evaporated.

Let the meat cook for a while and then add the tomato sauce. For this specific recipe I use the tomato passata with chopped tomatoes. Add some salt and pepper and then put the pan on low heat, the lowest there is. Stir the sauce every once in a while and add water when it becomes too dense. The sauce needs to simmer for at least one hour but remember the longer you leave it to simmer the better the result.

After an hour or so, taste and add salt, pepper or nutmeg if needed. Wait for the sauce to get dark and thick and after some hours on extremely low heat, the ragu’ will be ready and the taste will be absolutely different from any bolognese or ragu’ you have ever tried before.  
I hope you will enjoy this recipe and a truly Italian Sunday lunch.

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