An English ingredient used in an Italian way.

The celeriac in Italy is not very famous so I started to know this ingredient here, first from a chef friend of mine, who made it mash in a dinner we had some time ago, and then I tried a celeriac soup again in a restaurant in Ireland and it was delicious!

So it’s all the winter that I was waiting to have a little experiment with it, but I realized it’s not very common in shops. If the sweet potatoes, the swede and the other type of vegetables were there in January, my celeriac wasn’t and when I was asking for it everyone was giving me celery! ARGH! :(

Finally on the 29^th of February, leap day,  going some shopping I found it in front of my eyes and that was it: the dinner was sorted! 

Here the recipe I used for my Celeriac Pasta Soup. If the soup alone was great, this soup with the pasta it's amazing! I hope you will enjoyed it and ... don't wait another Leap day to try it :)

Ingredients for 4 people

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, finely sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 big celeriac, peeled, chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 vegetable stock

1 chilli

Lots of nutmeg and ½ large potato, peeled, chopped if you like

300 gr of pasta Mista Corta Pastificio dei Campi

Peal the celeriac and cut it in pieces. Then heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the onion and fry over a gentle heat until softened. Add the garlic and cook for one minute.

Add the celeriac (and the potato if you want) to the pan, some hot water and season, to taste, with salt, freshly ground black pepper, nutmeg and the sliced chili.

Add the stock and cook until the celeriac have softened. At this point add the 250-300gr of pasta and let it cook all together.

I don’t normally blend the celeriac or potatoes because I like the chunky beat in the pasta soup, but you can if you want, before to put the pasta in it. When the pasta is cooked and the soup is thick, you can serve it!

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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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No meat, not fish, but still amazing dishes

Everyone knows how much in Italy we can be attached to the traditions and to our religion (not everyone of course but a good majority) so in this time of the year, the Lent, lots of people try to be a bit more careful about their diet, if not fasting, or just about their behaviors.

It’s not of course to follow the religion in a really strict way, but more because it's a time to stop and think about the real meaning of some festivities.

Since I’m in London I have always been shocked by the Ramadan and the strength these people have to don’t eat and even drink for almost a full day. I have never tried something like this and not even the minimum limitation suggested by my religion to be sincere, but I decided to behave a bit better at least this last days before Easter.

Speaking about food I decide to indulge less in sweets and be a bit more careful about meat and fish and i was surprised by the amount of good recipes are cooked in Italy in this period. So tonight I will cook something light, perfect for the spring and finally totally vegetarian and traditional at the same time.

I will cook Pasta Mista di Gragnano with peas and potatoes. The ingredients for 2-3 people are:

- 150 g Pasta mista corta del Pastificio dei Campi

- 1 kg peas (in their pods)

- 500 g potatoes

- 1 clove garlic

- 1 l water

- Extra-virgin olive oil

- Salt and pepper

Chop the potatoes into small pieces and lightly brown them in a large casserole with the garlic and some oil, then add the peas (which have previously been soaked and then drained). Add some freshly ground pepper and salt and taste. Add a generous amount of hot water. Cover the casserole and cook for about half an hour over medium heat, making sure that the soup does not become too dense.

After half an hour add the pasta mista corta from Gragnano and let cook, mixing from time to time. Turn off the heat before the indicated cooking time is completed (8 minutes instead of 9) and let sit for 4-5 minutes before serving with some fresh olive oil and ground pepper.

Edit: Here is the picture i promised you.  I hope you will enjoy this and lots of other recipes you can find here and that can help you in this week.

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Pasta e Patate: one of the cheapest and tastiest recipes ever

Considering the really rainy Saturday just passed and some cold days we still have ahead, I decided to cook what it could probably be the last pasta soup recipe of this season.
 
For the occasion, and in the Oscar's mood,  I decided to follow the recipe of one of the most famous Neapolitan actors of the past: Eduardo De Filippo. He was a very funny and intelligent man who acted in lots of famous play in Italy. He was an actor, playwright, screenwriter, author and poet  and he was so famous that in 1981, De Filippo was appointed life senator of the Italian Republic.

He also loved to cook and in the south traditional way of course, so when he died the wife wrote a book with all his recipes and tips: “Si cucine cumme vogli'i' (Cooked in the way I want).  
Curious to know a little bit more? Here is the delicious potatoes pasta soup I prepared yesterday. The ingredients for 5-6 people are:

- 500gr potatoes

- an onion

7-8 cherry tomatoes

-olive oil, salt, chili

- fresh parsley

- 300gr Pasta Mista, in this case Pastificio dei Campi
 

Put some oil in a pan with the onions and the cherry tomatoes in pieces. Let them cook a bit and then add salt, chili and the potatoes cut in little cubes.
 
Let it absorb the nice sauce and then add the water until cover all. Put down the fire a bit, cover with the tap and let it cook.
 
When the potatoes will soft (but not too much) add a bit more water and the pasta. The mix shape of the pasta will make a perfect mix with the potatoes in pieces and cooking it with the rest will create a nice and dense soup.
 
When ready,if you want it a bit less dense add some water, or just serve it in a plate with some Parmesan, fresh olive oil and some fresh chopped parsley! I’m sure you will love it.

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Another classic hot dish for another cold day

 
It's February and it's still very cold out there... Maybe even less than other years, but for me always too cold. So this seemed to be the perfect weekend to prepare some traditional “pasta e lenticchie” or lentils pasta soup.
As you probably already know, the process it's quite similar to the previous ones I posted, but here is again the recipe step by step.

In Italy we use to buy lentils from Castelluccio, a quality that is very tasty, little and with a soft skin. Unfortunately I couldn't find them here and I went for the lentils verdes, but also Puy, the French ones, have to be very good.

These are so little that you don't need to sock them the night before, so you can directly wash and put them in the pan with the rest. So this recipe it's a bit shorter and easier than the others.

The ingredients for 3 people are:

- 200-250gr spaghetti or spaghettini (less thick) from Pastificio dei Campi;

- 150gr lentils;

- 1 carrot,

- 1 onion,

- 1 celery stick,

- some rosemary, salt, pepper

- and a bit of passata
 

Cut finely the onion, celery and carrot, put them in a sauce pan with some olive oil and let them cook.
Wash the lentils and add them to the mix with enough boiling water to cover them up. Keep them boiling for 10 minutes at high temperatures.
 
Then put the fire down and mix every now and then, add rosemary and pepper. Leave it to cook for around 45 minute and add the salt and the passata almost at the end.
 
Then pour some more water to cook the pasta, cut in little pieces and place everything in. Wait for the spaghettini to cook: they will releasing the starch, that will make your soup dense and tasty. However you can decide the density just adding other water.
 
When the pasta is cooked, serve it but I wouldn’t put any parmesan; I prefer just some good extra virgin olive oil.
Enjoy the different textures, the simple flavor of the lentils and rosemary and relax with this hot sunday dish.

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The oldest pasta recipe ever: from the romans to the present! 

As seen in the twitter tail i published here last week, the pasta and chickpeas soup is one of the most traditional and oldest recipe of our territory. Thanks to this simple pulse, so common in the southern countries and base of any of our cuisine, you can have an healthy and balanced meal, tasty and fulfilling.

After all this speaking about “ pasta & ceci “, from the tradition, until Identita' Golose, the Festival where Pastificio dei Campi was invited last week and where they served lots of soups, I couldn't resist anymore... I needed to cook it.

So yesterday I follow all the original steps, to let you know the real dish with all its full taste. Here are the ingredients for 4 people:

-       - 250gr of dried chickpeas

-       - 2-3 garlic cloves

-       - 2-3 spoon of chopped tomato sauce

-       - One carrot and celery if you like

-       - Extra virgin Olive oil

-       - Rosemary, salt, pepper, chili.

- and of course 350gr of pasta Mista Corta from Pastificio dei Campi (that’s the shape for the best combination with chickpeas)

In first place you will need to soak the chickpeas for 12 hours (leave it covered by water all night and then you will be able to cook them). Cut finely the carrot and the celery and place them in a pan with some olive oil. Let them cook a bit and add the garlic cloves and the rosemary. Drain the chickpeas and add them too to the pan.

Now cover everything with water and let it cook for about 2-3 hours, adding salt, some pepper and chili if you like it. Steer the soup and add more water when need it. To understand if the chickpeas are ready, try a bit of the soup and add salt or pepper if missing.

When they are almost done, add the tomato sauce, steer and let them cook for some more time. Then take half of the chickpeas and mash them and then mix them again to the soup. When everything is almost ready, add a bit more water and the pasta. You will let the pasta cook in the same soup, so that the starch released will give the dense and right consistency to the dish. If you want it a bit more liquid, just add some water and steer.

When the pasta is cooked, serve the dish with some extra virgin olive oil on top and a sparkle of fresh rosemary. The traditional recipe doesn’t say to add Parmesan to it to appreciate more all the different flavors already maximized by the oil.

I hope you will enjoy!

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Great chefs, amazing products and pasta soup for everyone

After three days of luxurious but simple good food, fantastic recipes realized by the best italian chefs, and lots of talk about italian product and cuisine, also this edition of "Identita' Golose" came to an end.

Lots the chef, food lovers and producers of quality food invited to the event and lots the interesting arguments that came up from this new meet up between the best expert in the field. The desire and the commitment of everyone was clear as Italia Squisita has underlined: the italian cusine is and will stay healthy and tasty now like in 50 years, always counting on the quality of the products and ingredients and protecting the  biodiversity.

The best news that came out form this edition were Gennaro Esposito awarded italian chef of the year and the international prize given to Massimo Bottura that as usual conquired the audience with a futuristic video and a fantastic rabbit Civet.

Here some pictures from the event and lots of pasta from Pastificio dei Campi, as offered during the lunch break. January it's a perfect month for soups, so pasta & beans soup, pasta and lentils, until the famous and very old recipe of the pasta with chickpease. All made in the most traditional way as perfect expression of the luxurious simplicity of the italian cuisine, natural ingredients and the real good pasta.

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