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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A recipe from Melograno Deli

As I promised you, here is the recipe that I requested to Dino from Melograno, the italian "alimentari" in London.

With his blog "The Epicurean", his passion for food, his mixed cultural and gastronomic background and finally with the great products he sells in the shop, i couldn't resist from asking him a secret and successful recipe.

Do you want to know what it is? It's the easiest and richest pasta dish ever:

"I think something simple like Spaghetti al Pomodoro e Basilico - takes 10 minutes or so . (I normally have it as a second course in a 4 or 5 course Italian meal after the antipasti but also a great  quick one plate meal)  This is a dish I have at least once a week. The important thing is to try and get the best possible dried pasta, tomatoes and basil. 

Ingredienti

- Good quality Italian Extra-virgin olive oil 

- Fresh cloves of garlic (1-2 per person)

- Pastificio dei Campi spaghetti or spaghettini (about one 80-90 grams per person )

- 400 grams can or jar of top class tomatoes like Sapporo di Corbara or  fresh Italian San Marzano tomatoes peeled and seeded. (if you are using fresh tomatoes, boil them first and remove the seeds)

- Fresh, chopped Italian basil (approximately one small handful per person).

- Salt

- Freshly ground black pepper

- Freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano (optional)

Preparing the sauce

Heat oil in large frying pan and add garlic chopped

Before garlic turns brown add peeled and de seeded tomatoes

Add pinch of sugar if not using fresh tomatoes , a little concentrate + salt and pepper

Keep heat on full and help tomato flesh break up

Cook on full for 2-3 minutes then on low for 5 minutes then push on the tomatoes a bit more with a woden spoon to bing the sauce so it looks like a lumpy sauce

Cooking the pasta

Bring water in a large pan to the boil add two or 3 tea spoons of sea salt

Add pasta and cook very al dente

Drain the pasta and throw into the frying pan adding a bit of the pasta water shake to and fro for about 30 - 45 seconds , tear half the basil by hand and mix in

Serve the pasta in deep dishes and decorate each plate with the remaing Basil and a sprinkle of high quality extra virgin oil.

Serve with or without (mimimum) a top 24 month old King of the Cheeses - Parmigiano Reggiano !

This is one of the many simple dishes you can prepare quickly for a few pounds - why people buy ready made meals and sauces is beyond me :-)"

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The easiest recipe is always the most successful

In Italy we don't use to call this dish pasta salad (insalata di pasta) also if we have rice salad (insalata di riso). We normally call this cold pasta (pasta fredda) and it's a must in the summer and in any kind of party, bbq, pic nic and event with lots of people and a good weather.

Recently i have been invited in a house warming party here in London, and i though to help out the guest bringing some easy Cold Pasta that she could simply serve in a big pot.

The dish was a real success and it finished in no time. I was sorry for the other pasta cooked by another italian, but my recipe with PGI Gragnano pasta from Pastificio Dei Campi doesn't have any rival.

So here is my recipe to make your party a success too. It serve 4-5 people if you have also other food:

- 350gr short pasta (any kind you like but I love Tortiglioni, but i can suggest also the Elicoidali o the Tofette shape. I think they can be great too!),

- 1 tuna can,

- 1 mozzarella or 2 little bags of mozzarella in balls,

- some cherry tomatoes,

- some pitted black olives,

- oregano,

- fresh basil,

- some capers if you have

- salt, pepper and olive oil of course.

Boil the pasta in some salty water until "al dente", but be careful because this is really important. Drain the pasta and pass it under cold running water to stop the cooking process. Then place it in a big container and add some olive oil.

Mix until all the pasta is divided and start to add the ingredients: cut the mozzarella, the cherry tomatoes and the black olives in half.  Then add the tuna, the fresh basil (but cut it with hand, in this way it won't become black), the oregano, salt and pepper.

Mix it all with some more oil if needed and add some capers as final touch. Now be ready to enjoy! As you will se from the pictures at the party has been used plastic glasses instead of plates and it was great! It’s a good solution for lunches in the park too. I hope you will like it!

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Pastificio dei Campi at Haute Cuisine Paris

We were delighted to be invited to  the event Haute Cuisine Paris, an amazing festival dedicated to the art of gastronomy, launched in Paris this year for the first time. Everything there was "fantastique" from the venue to the organization and our pasta Pastificio dei Campi was absolutely in its perfect place: confident, beautiful in its black and red cubes, and golden shining when out of the box, happy to be seen and to be part of a special dish created for the occasion.

Here we want to share with you just some pictures from the event, in case you didn't see them in real time on Twitter. I think these really speak by themselves.

This is the Rigatoni Vesuvio on a light tomatoes ragu' made by the chef  Alfonso Iaccarino from the restaurant Don Alfonso 1890 (Sant’Agata sui Due Golfi -NA).

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For foodlovers or just for the best dad ever

The days are passing and are you still thinking about the perfect present for your dad? Or have you just started to think about this now? Or you just don’t have any idea?

Here we are to help you out and give you the possibility to buy a very original present that you can even personalize: Pastificio dei Campi Cube.

These are literally big cubes of great 100% Italian pasta selected between the different shapes and types available from our brand and all sent together directly to your door. 

Is your father a real foodlover or just interested in new and original presents? This Pastificio dei Campi Taste won’t let him down.

If instead your father is in love with Italy, or his big dream is to go and live there, or he just can’t stop to speak about Italian food, why don’t give him the limitated collection of Pastificio dei Campi Selection with all the best from the Italian product: a bottle of extra virgin Olive oil DOP l’arcangelo and  the tomatoes sauce Miracolo di San Gennaro. He won’t resist from cooking stright away.

Finally if you want to give him a very personalized present with just his favourite types of pasta or the ones you think he will enjoy the most, order the Pastificio dei Campi personalized cube.

Buy all these directly online and for any difficulties don’t hesitate to write me here and I will help you out.

And if you really are in rush and you need something quick, go to the amazing Food in the City warehouse and you will able to find our pasta there in all his little cubes.

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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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For you the Maxi Cube Tasting or the Maxi Cube Custom!

Finally it's the 8th of December. Today in Italy is holiday and the majority of the people will spend their  time decorating the Christmas tree or shopping for the latest presents still in the list.

Have you already bought all your presents or you are just starting to think about them? But especially, are you the one who loves doing and receiving surprises or you prefer to buy or receive something requested?

We could stay here discussing hours about that and I personally prefer people who try to guess your taste and give you something, also little, but with an effort, than who is asking you 'what do you want for Christmas?". This sounds to me a bit lazy and simple. And there is no comparison with the surprise to open a packet and find something you didn't expect!

However for all of you, Pastificio dei Campi has a great solution: you can finally shop for your favorite shape of pasta on the same website, clicking on the e-commerce section.

Here you will find 3 options:

The Maxi Cube Tasting: a perfect pack for those who want to know (and be surprised by) the production of the pasta factory and loves to try many different formats. It consists of five kilograms of pasta Gragnano IGP, bronze drawn and slowly dried at low temperature, given in 10 different sizes selected from among those that best represent our company: paccheri, calamarata, pennoni, candele spezzate, penne ziti lisce, penne mezzani rigate, orecchiette, tubetti, spaghetti, linguine.  A nice gift idea for all lovers of pasta.

The Maxi Cube Custom:  a customizable package, designed for people who already know our Pasta Gragnano IGP or for those that have very decided tastes. Choose the contents of your package: this is left entirely to you. 8 packages of pasta, 500 grams Gragnano IGP in most popular formats.

Then of course, it's almost Christmas and you can also buy the fantastic gourmet gift box,  made in limited edition for Christmas 2010. Here the pasta di Gragnano IGP is accompanied by two other symbols of the south gastronomic tradition, an high quality extra virgin olive oil and tomatoes as explained here. (And the first five to leave a comment on the post will receive a 15% discount to buy this Cube).

So undecided or  ready to choose your  pasta shapes and Maxi Cubes?

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