A new socially-oriented platform for creating, sharing and comparing lists of things.

Today are exactly five years since the first tweet was posted on Twitter. How many of us could have think in this massive success? From breaking news to celebrity tweets, to the bloggers, sportive and simple people interested in saying their own thoughts, Twitter grew up so much that, for a good number of people, is now totally part of their day by day life.

What about instead Listgeeks, a funny platform I just discovered today? Basically if you are one of this people that loves to do lists or just someone curious about the fab five of other people, you can’t miss this website www.Listgeeks.com

Listgeeks Introduction from listgeeks on Vimeo.

Still in beta, this platform could be a new interactive tool we won’t be able to avoid in the next years, but for the moment is interesting to see the charts created by other people, comparing those with yours and maybe looking also for some idea or suggestion. You can search by terms, like cities, beers, restaurant, hobbies and discover what the people have in their favorites. You can even find places to go, things to do, restaurants never tried before and … recipes of course.

This morning in fact I had a little tour and what do you think I search there in first instance? "Pasta" of course! The only lists coming up were about people’s favorite food: pizza, pasta, dumplings etc... Then looking for recipes I didn’t see anything , so I decided to create my own list with my favorite five recipes until now! I was thinking it could be good to keep them handy for when needed. So here they are. 

I hope you will enjoy the charts and my chart.

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From the basic vegetables in your market to an healthy recipe for the winter.

We are almost at the end of January and the good resolutions need a bit of a push to stay with us: eating less, healthier, eating more vegetable and fruit or simply cooking everything at home. Whatever was your resolution or whatever is your need, just check out this recipe of the classic italian minestrone because is something you can cook anywhere and at any time, giving you the energy and all the vitamins you need.

It's good for kids, especially if you can blend it and serve it with Parmesan, like italian mums use to do. It's great alone as any other fresh homemade soup, and finally it's a complete and delicious meal with the addition of  pasta and some grated Parmesan. 

I have to admit i have tried once the minestrone soup they sell in boxes, but i can tell you the taste of this it's totally different. I don't even know which ingredients they choose to made that.

However here is the recipe for 4 people:

1 celery stick

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 carrots

2 courgettes

1 big potatoes

1 little cabbage or half if too big

some parsley salt, pepper

150gr of chopped tomatoes sauce

200gr Borlotti beans (soaked the night before)

and 300-350gr of  Tubetti Rigati from Pastificio dei Campi

Place some olive oil in a pan and hot it up. Then add the finely chopped onion, garlic cloves and parsley. When the onion starts to become goldish, add the peeled tomatoes sauce and the beans already drained by the water.

Mix it all and let it cook. In the meantime cut the cabbage in thin slices and then in half again. Add it to the pan and pour a good quantity of water. Mix all the ingredients every now and then to avoid them to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Wash and cut in cubes the courgettes, the carrots and the potato, and then add them too to the pan. let it cook for around 20-30 minutes and then have a try to know if it's missing some salt, pepper or anything else.

When the Borlotti are cooked, add the pasta, Tubetti rigati, the right pasta shape for this dish. These are little tubs but quite thick and with the little stripes they are perfect to enjoy all the different textures of the ingredients.

Let the pasta cook in the same pan with the soup so the starch released will give taste and thickness to the minestrone. When ready, serve it hot with some grated Parmesan, parsley or simply olive oil if you like it.

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The classic Borlotti beans soup with Mista Corta

You can call it detox food, hot meal or even comfort food, but there is nothing better than pasta soups in winter and for me Pasta & Fagioli is just the most traditional italian soup you can cook: easy, with just few simple genuine ingredients and really delicious.

This is part of our reach gastronomic history, and it's one of these dishes made in all the regions, from North to South. There are slightly different versions everywhere, but Pasta e Fagioli it's really a national dish, thanks also to the cheap nature of the ingredients and the high energy provided.

This is the way I made it following the advices and secrets of the master Giuseppe Di Martino and few other voices, (my mum included). I discovered for example that you can have a light version, a middle reach and a very reach one, of course my favorite and for me the most traditional.

Here the ingredients for 4 people:

400 gr dry Borlotti beans

250 gr Pasta Mista Corta from Gragnano, Pastificio dei Campi.

a bit of celery, chili, some garlic cloves finely chopped

olive oil, salt, pepper,

140 gr of pancetta

a sprinkle of parsley

The first thing to do it's to soak the beans overnight or for 12 hours at least. Then change the water and hot up in a pan some olive oil. Cut finely the celery, the chili and some garlic cloves (this is called "trito" in Italy), place them in the pan and let them fry (we call this "soffritto" instead). Once this is ready, add the pancetta cut in cubes or little pieces and then the Borlotti beans.

Add enough water to make them boil and stir from time to time. They will need around one hour, one hour and half. Add water when you see they need more to cook and at the end adjust the taste with some other salt if needed. When they will be almost ready, take the beans out and mash half of them.

In the meantime, in the same water, cook the pasta Mista Corta, that translated means "short mix". This pasta is in fact a combination of different little shapes and the tradition said this comes from the families' need to use the left-overs of the other pasta shapes. By the way the Mista Corta is just perfect for this recipe.

Here is the most important step of all the recipe:  when the pasta cooks in the same water where the beans have been cooked, the starch will be released and it will mix with the rest of the ingredients creating the characteristic thick and tasty soup.

When the pasta is almost ready, bring back the beans, stir and let everything cook for some minutes more. If the soup is too thick, add some more water and stir. Serve it hot with the sparkle of parsley and just a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. This will amplify the beans and pancetta taste in the soup, much more than some flakes of Parmesan. Trust me!

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