Are you more for the Smooth or the Ridged pasta?

Inspired by a post written in the italian blog by Mafaldina dei Campi, about the smooth pasta or the one with ridges, I decided to write this post, because i just realized that here this division is actually not so noticed .

Here I have the impression that the majority of people divide the pasta in long pasta (spaghetti and linguine mainly), fresh pasta filled or not (ravioli and tagliatelle) and then all the short pasta (penne, maccheroni, etc).

I don’t really think anyone really cares about the difference between smooth and ridged pasta or  why we have these two different types of pasta and when to use them.

Anyway if asked the general answer is always: "Ridged pasta maintains better the sauce".

This is basically what we also say when we explain the bronze dying process that make the pasta (smooth or not) rough and so, better to keep the sauce anyway.

What in reality the ridges bring to pasta is just consistency and it’s an easier way to maintain the pasta al dente: if ridged the pasta will be of course thicker and the cooking time between ridges will be different so easier to don’t overcook it.

It will be a surprise for all the people from abroad to discover that the original pasta in Italy is smooth and that the ridged one was created for the norther market, where was missing the good quality of grain and they needed a shape that could help maintaining the form and the cooking time.

So at the present,  in the south, are mainly used the smooth types of pasta, generally long. The short pasta initially was in fact created from the long one, cutting it by hands. The short and ridged pasta instead is mainly used in the oven, for some baked dishes. This in fact will help the sauce to get thick if too liquid and to help the union with the pasta.

But of course I love both of the types and you can see in my recipes  I use both… but of course I will remember this  when cooking in the oven or when I have a sauce not particulary thick.

And what do you prefer?

Rigatoni, millerighe, conchiglioni or ziti tagliati, calle, and paccheri ?

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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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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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Pastificio Dei Campi and italian cheeses will do the trick.

 
If Charles de Gaulle used to say "How can you be expected to rule a country that has over 200 kinds of cheese?”,  what can happen in Italy where at the moment there are more than 400? We have in fact more than 20 region with more than 20 cheeses each? Maybe now I can understand why we have so many political problems especially in the latest times :).
 
However exactly thinking about this and about one of the most famous pasta recipe abroad, I decided to do my own italian version of Maccheroni and cheese.

This dish in fact doesn't really exist in our italian traditions and all our recipes refer to America and American movies. What we have instead is the pasta with 4 cheeses, that's a very common dish, quick to prepare and always good. So why don't do a baked version.
 
I then went to the italian delicatessen near my house to get some inspirations to choose cheeses and after lots of thinking about Fontina, Asiago, Smoked Scamorza, I finally decided to use Gorgonzola DOC, Provolone Valpadana e Raschera DOP, a new cheese that I wanted to taste. It has a fine and delicate flavour, slightly spicy and they said it’s good for baking and coocking in general. I thought it could be a perfect substitute for the Fontina.
 
Because I have previously made the other baked pasta with fusilli,  I decided to make this with the tubetti, a short but chunky pasta with strips and a good shape to keep the cheeses sauce.

These the ingredients i used for 3 people:
- 300gr pasta Tubetti Rigati Pastificio dei Campi
- 30gr butter
- 30gr Provolone cheese
- 30gr Raschera cheese
- 60gr Gorgonzola
- 50gr Grated Parmesan
- 50gr flour
- 250ml milk
- Salt, pepper, nutmeg and some breadcrumbs
 
Prepare some besciamella (my real italian secret instead of single cream or cream fresh) with the butter and the flour. Then add the milk cooking all on a very low fire. Add spices and mix until get creamy. Then add the grated cheeses and let them melt.
 
In the meantime cook the pasta until almost done (2 minutes before the time of the box) and when ready drain it and put it in the cheeses.
 

Turn on the oven at 180 degree and put some butter on the inside of a baking pan and cover it with breadcrumbs. Then add the pasta and cover it all with some more Parmesan and breadcrumbs. Let it cook for 20-25 minutes until goldish on the top. Serve it and enjoy all the pure italian flavours.

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And don't get confused by the name!

Do you know "SPUNTINO" is an italian word for "quick bite"? So when first I heard this name I was thinking in a new italian snack-restaurant, something quick, easy, traditional and nice.

I have to say this is exactly the right description for this place, but instead to have an italian menu, they serve easy but gourmet american dishes: from mini and delicious beef hamburgers to eggs and soldiers, from truffle eggs on toast to house pickles etc.

All little portions, also in the main course version, but quite cheap and interesting if you are someone curious and ready to try lots of different dishes and combinations of ingredients.  
I was really intrigued by this place, with an absolutely mysterious website and even difficult to find considering it’s in the middle of Soho and with a really little sign: like a place just for few elected people. The atmosphere inside is great, the place is little, has few bar sits, and the light is cosy and relaxing. The owner, Russell Norman, as you probably know already, is the same who developed another “quick bite” restaurant Polpetto, but with an italian menu. If great italian wines are also in Spuntino, what I loved the most was the amazing beer served there in little and cute cups/glasses with some chili popcorn on the side. 

Everything is nice not pretentious but great and special. What I liked the most? Maybe their Mac&Cheese. Yes I need to admit it... I almost never tried that before (like lots of italians ,by the way)but what I like wasn't the dish in itself, that for me is just baked pasta with cheese, but precisely the cheese they used: eating them I tried again a taste I forgot long time ago... The Fontina taste, a very simple cheese, earthy and mushroomy, quite common in Italy like it could be the Ceddar here, but perfect to use in the oven or in fondue and difficult to find around! I loved it!

Since that day I can't stop to think in this dish so I finally decided my next challenge: a Pastificio dei Campi Mac&Cheese with other italian cheeses and all the good taste of our pasta!
 
What do you think? Are you curious? See you soon for the recipe and the pictures!

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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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