A typical recipe to bring you back to the seaside!

This week was weird, maybe because the temperature are getting cooler here in London or maybe just because we are scared of the approaching autumn.
Anyway it’s such a long time I was dreaming about this recipe, that a very good Italian friend of mine decided to cook it for me.

I have never prepared this special seafood pasta at home and from scratch I can tell you is not exactly a quick thing.
Anyway my fantastic friend and massive food/cook lover Maria, decided to let me try her own recipe…and I have to say it was amazing. We had a massive plate of Paccheri allo Scoglio on Saturday night, so big and so good that I totally forgot about the horrible gray weather…I could even hear the sea instead :)

Do you want to have the same great sensation? Do you want to fell again in holiday on the seaside? Happy to push far away the autumn for a bit more? Follow this recipe then.

Ingredients
 for 4 people:

-    400 of Paccheri Pastificio dei Campi. This time I really recommend you to use this brand because this dish really deserve the consistency and the absolute beuty of this pasta

-    1 kg of mussels

-    1 kg of clams

-    12 shrimp

-    500 grams of squid

-    400 g peeled prawns

-    200 grams of shrimp in their shells

-    Other mixed rockfish found according to the season: crabs, spider crabs, shrimp, etc..

-    2 cloves of garlic

-    2 small onions

-    400 grams of cherry tomatoes or 1 can of tomatoes

-    Pepper to taste

-    2 glass of white wine

-    Olive oil

-    Parsley Finely chop an onion and divide it in two putting the first bit in a big pan with olive oil, chopped parsley and pepper. Put in different pans washed mussels and clams and let them open: to do this, keep them on fire without anything and covered for a bit.

Let them cool down and then remove them from the shell, except for some that you will use as a garnish. Strain the liquid and keep it aside.
 In a large frying pan put a little bit of olive oil, garlic, peeled but whole, get heat, being careful not to burn the garlic and add the prawns. Sauté for a few minutes (2-3 should be fine) over high heat, then pour the wine. Let it evaporate and turn off the heat.

In another pan (you can use one of the mussels or clams), place the remaining onion with a little bit of oil and pepper to taste, let it cook and then add the cuttlefish into strips. Pour wine over it. Let cook for 5 minutes, then add tomatoes and cook for another 25 minutes. Add the shrimp and let the flames further 5 minutes.

Combine all ingredients in the pan with the prawns, including the cooking liquid form the mussels and clams and simmer a few more minutes. Cook the pasta al dente in boiling salted water, drain it, pour it into the pan and let it season for a few minutes on high heat (1-2 approx).Serve it on plates, and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley .

Enjoy! Can you listen the sea weaves...? :)

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3 days of food, music and fun for a unique festival.

As the majority of you, this year I could not attend this beautiful event, La festa della Pasta, the Pasta Festival that took place in the Campagnia region last weekend. In these days I was craving and just waiting for some pictures from the event. I was curious to see  what happened in Gragnano during the celebration.

If I was thinking that the last Festival could have been hard to overcome, these pictures from this year just told me the contrary: there was food, there was an enormous amount of people, there was music, special shows, magic in the air and of course the best pasta in the world with its never ending tradition.

With the help of the government of the region and with the participation of the Slow Food organization, the party was at its best! It's always nice to see people working in the production of this precious food, sharing and enjoing all this with their family, friends and  with all the people in love with the good food and that  appreciate this fundamental element of our culture.

Here some pictures made by the italian blogger Giovanna Esposito and by Alessandro Savarese for E-comunica. Thanks to both of you for these beautiful images that are able to catch the real vibe of this great party.

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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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Pasta from Gragnano: still made in the old way and in your kitchen everyday

Today I want to give you some other learning about pasta and especially about the Pasta from Gragnano. I translated this article published on an italian newspaper and I hope this will give you a better idea of what we mean for high quality pasta when we speak about these product.

"It's easy to say pasta. In fact, is produced everywhere since long time. But if we are talking about the pasta from Gragnano, then we know that we are dealing with more than five hundred years of history and tradition.

It belongs to the category of dry pasta and is made in various shapes - now 340 - many of whom belong to the local tradition: the "candles", about two feet long, the "mafaldine" created in honor of Mafalda di Savoia, the " Tripolini "dedicated to the colonial conquest of the Libyan cities of Tripoli and the pasta Piedigrotta, inspired by the eponymous party in Naples. Anyway the most famous  shape remains the "Paccheri.

The historical texts and literature about the "Pasta from Gragnano PGI,"(deservedly received on the 28th August 2010) show that the production of "Pasta Gragnano" dates back to the XVI - XVII century and is closely linked to historical events that have occurred over the years in the territory of Gragnano. Here is the root of the typical product of our territory, the ancient town famous for the quality of the macaroni, located in the Valley of the Mills in the south of the Gulf of Naples. But what are the requirements before a product may dare the nominee?
In first place the Pasta from Gragnano PGI must be made solely from flour made from durum wheat. The mixture uses water from the springs of Mount Faito. The product must have the following characteristics: a homogeneous appearance with no white or black spots, air bubbles, cracks or cuts, mold, maggots or parasites. The section of fracture should be glassy, and the colour, a pale yellow.

And then a roughness which feature the use of bronze dies. At cooking, the "Pasta Gragnano" PGI has a firm texture and elasticity, homogeneity of cooking: uniform, holding a good and long cooking, a stickiness absent or imperceptible.
 

The production process is, after mixing and kneading, extruding through bronze dies, giving the desired shape. The procedure in bronze gives the pasta - even the smooth one - a rough surface that makes it particularly suitable to hold sauces and condiments.

The next stage of the production is the drying process, which varies depending on the shapes and in any case is at a temperature between 40 and 80 ° C for a period of between 6 and 60 hours in static cells to drain or tunnel where it circulates hot air. Completed the process of drying the paste is allowed to cool and within 24 hours should be wrapped, without being carried, to allow a perfect preservation."

Do you want to know more? Just write a question in the comments and I will involve the real people from Gragnano and from Pastificio dei Campi to answer.

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Aphrodisiac and made with love

I was thinking last day at what could be a perfect recipe for S.Valentine's day. Also considering that I’m not a big fan of this day, because a bit too fake for my taste, it's true that at the end I always try to organize something a bit special.

What are you going to do this year? I have some last minute suggestions for you! In fact S.Valentine doesn't absolutely means expensive restaurants, but what about a nice and quick dish prepared at home with love and care? Just surprise your half and yourself too with a different dinner.

So what can be good for S.Valentine? "Aphrodisiac food "everyone would answer, and what is more aphrodisiac than a bit of chili. Lot's of italian dishes use this ingredients, so you have a big choice. From the easiest recipe of spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and chili (just hot up some oil, add chili and crushed garlic cloves, then toss the spaghetti in there and serve it without parmesan) to some paccheri with seafood or fresh fish for example.

I went to the market last day and I found some great squid, king prawns and scallops and I was already drooling. I personally prefer the pasta with fish in white sauce, just with chili, garlic, olive oil and white wine, but it's also very common to add some fresh cherry tomatoes or a bit of tomato sauce. The result is anyway great!

Here the ingredients for my S. Valentine dish:

- 200gr of Paccheri Pastificio dei Campi (better if you can take the "duetto" box... What can be more romantic than a packet made for just 2 people?)

- 4 big king prawns

- 2 calamari

- some scallops if you find them

- parsley, salt, chili

- a glass of white wine

- extra virgin olive oil

- 2-3 garlic cloves

Put some olive oil in a pan and crush there the garlic cloves and some chili. Put some water to boil and then start to clean and wash the fish. Cut the calamari in slices and the scallops if you want, while put the prawns to boil for one minute.

Add all the fish to the pan and let it cook for a bit. Then pour a bit of white wine and let evaporate. Add some salt, chopped parsley and a slice of butter (this is my secret touch to make everything even more tastier). Finally drain the pasta and finish the cooking in the pan with the rest of the fish and sauce.

When ready just serve it with a sparkle of fresh pepper if you want or parsley but not Parmesan please! 

I wish a great S.Valentine's day to everyone.

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... tradition doesn't mean immobility!

But they also said: "and yet, to define ‘traditional’ in Italy is not simple. Within Italy too, there are so many regional influences to the cuisine. In southern Italy, for instance, there is an abundance of olive oil near the coast. Naturally, it forms an important ingredient in the cuisine. However, as you travel north and it becomes colder, olive oil is replaced by butter."

What about the recipes instead? To be able to experiment with a recipe, you have to know and understand what the traditional recipe is, he says. “Once you learn what each ingredient brings to a recipe, you can try innovating."

Strangely this discussion is the same going on in the italian blog too this week. "Tradition is not immobility but the contrary: the local traditions comes from the combination and influences and everything in the time is influences by the contest, the people and the historical moment. Everything is in evolution."

So for instance, I was surprised when yesterday, having a dinner at Roscioli, a very nice restaurant in the centre of Rome, I found very innovative dishes, near very traditional recipes, but all with a common point: the best italian ingredients, PGI or PDO, sometimes revisited in new combinations or just proposed following the most classic recipes.

The most classic white pizza or focaccia VS suppli with pork ragu'

Amatriciana or Carbonara VS Paccheri with peppers sauce, ricotta and bits of dried cod

Tiramisu' VS Cold chocolate cream with anise ice cream and croccante biscuits

And even the place is a mix between tradition and innovation: it's a classic old grocery, transformed in an little but very peculiar restaurant, with wine, homemade products and specialities everywhere and a great service.

As chef Macchia says : “I’ve learned that diners don’t always want foie gras or black truffle to get a good dining experience. Even a simple dish prepared differently will give them that feeling.” After my experience in Roscioli I can definitely agree ... the Paccheri were amazing!

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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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