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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To recover from the festivities

Are you  trying to comeback to a normal eating regime, after all you had during this month?
It's known that after all these days of food and drinks you will fell hungry often: doctors says it's useless to do a severe post Christmas detox diet. You will still be hungry and you won't loose so much weight, because the body will feel the need to keep energy and the fat accumulated.

The solution is to have regular and light meals that can keep you fulfilled for longer. Some days ago was even published an article about a Swedish study: Mediterranean diet gives longer life… and we are speaking about 2-3 years more! A diet that sees prevailing vegetables and carbohydrates ensures a long and healthy life, as it helps maintain a healthy weight and reduces the chances of developing cardiovascular disease.

So have a look at this vegetarian pasta: replacing cream with a light cheese like ricotta it’s my secret to have a lighter but tasty dish.

Ingredients for 2 persons:
- 200 gr Spaghetti Pastificio dei Campi
- 100 gr. raw spinach
- a handful of pine nuts
- 100 gr. of ricotta
- 50 gr of smoked cheese (the bavarian one is quite good on this pasta )
- olive oil - salt and pepper
- 1 clove of garlic

Toast the pine nuts in a frying pan. In another pan heat some oil and brown the clove of a garlic, add the spinach, some pepper and let cook a couple of minutes. In a bowl mix the ricotta with a spoon of hot water from the pasta, mix well.

Cook the pasta, drain and pour into the pan, add the pine nuts and ricotta with salt and toss it all. Grate some smoked cheese on top, mix a minute and serve it on a plate.

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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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A comfy pasta recipe using cauliflower

 
I have to admit I normally don't use so much cauliflowers in my cuisine. Don't ask me why: I always buy broccoli but never cauliflowers.
 
So the past sunday I really needed a treat and a comfy food especially considering the cold that finally arrived in London town.
 
I wanted a cheesy pasta dish, but still quite balanced, healthy and quick to prepare... but I was also looking for some new taste or combination and I went to the market hoping in some inspiration: I love the pancetta and cheese combo but it was missing a third basic ingredient, and at one point...it was there... a nice cauliflower was waiting for me. 

With its peculiar taste I supposed the salty pancetta and the gorgonzola could have made a great dish. And to make the perfect combination I went for Millerighe Pastificio dei Campi. I was really proud of myself because the recipe is just great!
 
Here are the ingredients I used for 2 people:

- 100 gr pancetta

- 150 gr gorgonzola or a sweet and creamy blue cheese

- 200 gr Pasta Millerighe Pastificio dei Campi

- A little cauliflower

- Some salt and paper

Cut the cauliflower leaves and wash them, than cut the whole plant in little groups of flowers and boil them for some minutes.
In the meantime put some water to boil with some salt and add in a pan a bit of olive oil on a low fire.
Place in the pan the pancetta and after a bit the cauliflower leaves too.

Put the pasta in the boiling water and wait for around 10 minutes mixing with a fork.
When the pasta is almost ready add the gorgonzola to the pan and some of the cauliflower previously cooked and drained. Add some water from the pasta in the pan and let the cheese melt.
When the pasta is “al dente”, toss it in the pan with all the other ingredients and  serve it just with some fresh black pepper. Enjoy!

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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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