An Italian Menù...e vai!

An Italian Menù is a one day course, generally on Saturday from 9 to 12. I decide the recipes normally just one day before... because I need to look what the food market offers. So for the two/three weeks before I "analyse" my Italian cooking magazines, then I stroll through the vegetables and fruits stalls at the local farmers' markets to understand what the season is offering... I admit it: it is still difficult for me to understand which is the "real" season here... but I am working hard on it! Anyway it is spring almost summer... so Asparagus...some tomatoes...eggplants... So this is the inspiration I had...
I am sure the class liked it a lot :-)... and, as always, I took this new challenge and I enjoyed it so much!

Antipasto - Appetizer

Bruschetta aglio e olio o con pomodoro fresco
Toasted “Country” Bread
Olive oil
Garlic
or
Fresh big tomatoes
Herbs
salt

Primo - First course

Spaghetti alla Norma di casa mia
350gr (about) Spaghetti (4 serves)
200gr/300gr Egg plants
4 tablespoon Olive oil
garlic
2 tins of tomatoes
salt
pepper

Secondo - Second course

Involtini di pollo con asparagi
200gr Chicken Breast (one serve)
2 or 3 tablespoons Olive oil
Fresh Herbs
A little bunch of asparagus
Vegetable or meat stock
2/3 Tablespoons of olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Dessert

Strudel di mele
2 sheets of Flaky Puff Pastry
4/5 apples
100gr Sugar
100gr raisins or sultanas
30gr pinenuts

I enjoyed it so much! They enjoyed it as well... Cooking, eating and having fun... what am I expecting more?

Moreover ... this is our 100th Post!!! I cannot believe it!!! Alex what a great result!

Italian Vegetarian cooking...che meraviglia! (Term3 - Lesson3)

This time an experiment! I keep on thinking about the vegan cooking course ... and so... I thought about an experiment for my vegetarian cooking class! This time we used two different kind of flours... Wholewheat for the pizza and wholemeal spelt flour for the focaccia...

Incredible! Everybody was enthusiastic! Some didn't know the splet flour at all and were absolutly happy to try something new! Spelt is such a pure ingredient! Very strong and difficult to modify! It has really a character... and used already in anchient times!

We started with the pizza ... this time no tuna, no anchovies, no salami... only vegetables... but the choice is really great!

PIZZA DOUGH

500gr Wholewheat flour
15gr yeast
300ml (about) warm water
6 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons salt
1 ½ tablespoon dried Oregano

Mix all the ingredients together and start kneading... and knead, knead, knead till the dough has the right consistency: not too dry... and not to sticky! I would at this stage suggest to put the the dough in a good warm place to rise or, as I recently learned, you could put it in the oven over a sheet of baking paper at 40°/50° and let it rise there for about a hour: till the dough has approx. doubled. Then take it out form the oven and turn temperature up to 250° and start shaping you risen dough and then ... at this point you can start to create your own pizza... Afterwards put it into the oven for about 15 minutes.

I couldn't believe it was so tasty! The dough was really wonderful... I am so classic sometimes, but such a good dough was not forseenable!

Our second recipe was the Focaccia... We used wholemeal spelt flour mixed with a bit of wholewheat flour... we weren't really sure about the rising process... if it could be successful or not! But it was a success... look at that after just 45 min!

FOCACCIA WITH ONIONS

Pizza Dough using 400gr of Spelt flour and 100gr of wholewheat flour
Olive oil (a lot...)
Cooked Onions (as much as you like)
Rosemary
Salt

Prepare the dough like the pizza dough and heat the oven at 250°. Cut the onions and fry them slowly in a pan till they are smooth and soft!

Prepare your focaccia by spreading the olive oil, the salt and the onions... and if you want also a bit of rosemary, put it in the oven and let it cook for about 15 min.

It was really good... everybody said it was really lovely! The spelt has such a great flavour... it reminded me to something... I cannot say what... Anyway we had the feeling to eat like the Etruscians!

There is something I left at last but not at least!
This apron is gorgious! All these cheeses you cannot find here...that in Italy we take for granted everywhere we go! I had to take a picture! Wonderful!

Italian Vegetarian Cooking....che meraviglia! (Lesson 1-Term 3)

New class and new challenge! This time with a vegetarian cooking course... When I was asked if in the italian cooking tradition there are vegetarian dishes, I was really amazed... thinking of how many there are!!!! All pasta sauces, ravioli, gnocchi, the beloved pizza... risottos... and so so many! I can't really imagine my cooking without vegetables, pulses, dried fruits and different kind of flours... and a sea of good extra virgin olive oil... :-) At home we do cook meat and fish, but most of the times I invent with the seasonal ingredients I find here. When possible organic or direct from the garden! (I am working at it...)

A new class is a new challenge and for the first lesson we prepared three pasta sauces recipes... one very typical of southern Italy with broccoli, raisins and pine nuts and two classics: pasta with tomatoes and pasta with oil, garlic and hot chilli!

Pasta with broccoli, raisins and pine nuts

Ingredients for 4 serves:
400gr of dried pasta
approximately 6lt of salted boiling water
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 whole broccoli or more if you like
2/3 cloves of garlic
2 handful of soft raisins
2 handful of pine nuts
salt
pepper
grated parmesan cheese

Prepare a pasta pot with enough salted water to boil the broccoli till they are very soft easily "squashable"!. Dice the garlic and fry it with the olive oil till it is soft. Add the broccoli, the raisins and the pine nuts. At this stage cook all ingredients till the broccoli is so smooth like a sauce.

Put the pasta in the salted boiling water and wait till they are "al dente". Add the cooked pasta to the sauce. Adjust the salt and the pepper and add some grated parmesan...

Pasta with simple tomato sauce

Ingredients for 4 serves:
400gr of dried pasta
approx 6lt of salted boiling water
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 cans of crushed tomatoes
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 celery stalk
oregano
salt
pepper
parmesan cheese

Slice the onion, the celery stalk and the garlic. Put the olive oil in a pan and add the vegetables. Let them soften for about five minutes stirring a bit. Then add the crushed tomatoes. Cook for other five/ten minutes, then add salt and pepper. Add the sauce to the cooked pasta and serve with grated parmesan cheese.

Last but not least....

Pasta with oil, garlic and hot chilli


Ingredients for 4 serves:
about 400gr of dried pasta
approx 6lt salted boiled water
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2/3 cloves of garlic
hot chilli…as much as you like
fresh parsley

Put the oil in a pan, add the diced garlic. Let it soften, but be careful not to burn it! Add the cooked pasta and then spread the chilli powder on it. Adjust the salt. And then add a little bit of fresh parsley and serve. NO PARMESAN CHEESE ON IT! :-)

Sooo... three easy but very tasteful sauces... sometimes it is so easy to cook something tasteful!

Italian cooking... amore mio (Term3 - Lesson 2)

Finally I could get a bit of time to write this post! I have to apologise for the delay in editing, but at the moment we are moving house so... we are sleeping on the floor and there are everywhere boxes... The laundry room is exploding and every morning each of us ... or better to say I have to do a tresure hunt for a pair of trousers, of socks... underwears... and so on... but my class is in my heart and during this weekend I kept on thinking that I had to edit these recipes so that they can enjoy them with their guests... thinking of me :-) .

Eggs fascinate me a lot... even if I am not really a fan of eggs... but their shape is a work of art and each time I look at them I see their perfection!

Ravioli with pumpkin (4 serves)

For the egg pasta dough. This mixture can also be used for the tagliatelle.
400g high grade flour
4 eggs
1 tbls salt

For the filling
About 300gr pumpkin
3 eggs
150gr grated cheese
1 tbls salt
pinch of pepper

Make a hole in the middle of the flour and break the eggs. Add the salt and start kneating.... and keep on kneating till you have a good consistency... flexible and soft.

At this time I screwed at the table my wonderful pasta machine ... brought from Italy... and we could realize the right thickness for our pasta sheets....

Then everybody could create his own ravioli...

Then we prepared a very simple sauce... butter and sage: fresh sage with about 25gr of butter per person. Don't let the butter burn! It must just melt and ...add a bit of black grounded pepper and... that's it! Savoury and simple as only the italian cousine can be!

Then we had the time to do another recipe!!!

Potatoes gnocchi (4 serves)

1kg Potatoes
300g High grade flour
1 or 2 eggs
1 tbls salt

Cook the potatoes in boiling water. Mash them and add salt, the eggs and the flour. Knead all the ingredients toghether till you reach the wished consistency... add some flour if they are too sticky and then cut them as big as you like... and then don't forget to use the fork to shape them so that the sauce can really stick on them...wow!

We served them with a fantastic tomatoes sauce... the simplest!

Use a can of crushed tomatoes, one onion, a celery stalk and a carrot and 3/4 spoons of olive oil. Let them soften all toghether and add the tomatoes... add a bit of oregano or basil (not parsley!) and adjust the salt. Let all the ingredients cook togheter for about 10 minutes...

Italian cooking...amore mio (Term 3)

The first night of the course you can feel the air is full of emotions: expectations, curiosity... also a kind of tension. Then I start speaking about Italy about the cooking, the ingredients and a little also about the course... and I can feel the tensions releasing with the flowing of my words... in my terrible italian accent! Then they start working with the flou. Through their hands the tensions seem to disappear... and as soon as they understand the tecnic they create their works of art!!!

PIZZA AND FOCACCIA DOUGH

500gr High grade flour
20gr yeast
200ml warm water
3 teaspoons salt

CLASSIC PIZZA MARGHERITA

extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ tablespoon dried Oregano
Mozzarella cheese (or a kind of...)

We started with the pizza and the focaccia... a "must" in the italian cousine!

First we prepared the dough for the focaccia by kneading the flour, the warm water, the yeast and the salt. We did a little ball and let it risen...

While they were risen we started with our pizza (with a dough a brought from home) and then we let our creativity going... each of them could choose among anchovies, olives, ham, tuna... and soooo they could just invent and realize their own pizza!

LOOK AT THIS ONE!

Afterwards we took our risen dough and we started our focaccia! More oil in the focaccia!

Look at those pieces of art! They were not just good looking they were really tasteful and great!!!!

Italian Cooking amore mio (II)... cantuccini and pere al vino rosso

It was the last lesson. I thought they could enjoy a dessert. Like in a menu. First course, second course and... then... at the end ... the dessert. I kept on thinking... and thinking that Tiramisù is actually the most popular dessert all over the world. Is that really so? Is really tiramisù the most popular dessert outside Italy? Who knows.... well I wanted to do something different and nit disappoint their expectations. So I thought to show them how to make cantuccini from Tuscany and as I love pears and as it is almost winter here ... wee the pears in red wine sauce. They liked the challenge as always! Really great from them!
The recipe we used is actually my own revised version (...) of the original recipe...
(This is something ... when you live outside Italy... "The original recipe"... )

Cantuccini Toscani (from Prato actually... to be precise)

Ingredients for four serves

• 400gr flour
• 180 g. Sugar
• 125g Butter at room temperature
• 3 Eggs
• 100 g. Almonds
• 1 Teaspoon orange flavour or the peel of a whole orange
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg yolk to spread on top of cantuccini

Preheat the oven at 180°.
Mix well, with a fork, all the ingredients beside the almonds in a large bowl.
When the ingredients are well blended add the almonds a bit crushed.
The dough should be like a ball.
Put the dough onto a lightly buttered oven tray.
Press down gently with the palm of your hand to flatten it.
Using a brush spread some egg yolk on top of it.

Cook at 180°/200°C for 20-25 minutes until it is became golden brown.

Let them cool down a bit then, on a cutting board, cut them diagonally into slices 1-1,5 cm thick. Now they look like the cantuccini you have in your mind, but they need to be toasted, as they need to be crispy.Put back your cantuccini in the baking tray with one of the cutted side up. Bake the cantuccini until they are well toasted.

Let them cool down completely and serve them with some Vin Santo, with some tea, dipped in hot chocolate, is up to you taste. You can preserve them, well closed in a tin... like a biscuits tin.


They were really very good... they smelled of crispy ... tuscanian sunflowers...

After those we dived into ... the red wine. The spices gave a touch of "Christmas"... of winter actually...

Pere al vino rosso con mascarpone
Pears in red wine with mascarpone Ingredients for four serves

• 8 pears
• 5 dl of red wine
• 80gr of demera sugar (brown a sugar)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 whole cloves
• skin of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons of mascarpone

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Simmer, covered, until the pears are al dente (tender-crisp). Remove the fruit & separate into serving dishes; pour syrup over. Add the mascarpone.

Italian Cooking amore mio...gnocchi and ravioli

Moving hands. Kneading hands. Unsure but brave hands. They get dirty with flour and eggs. They take their time. They perceive the rythm and the strenght of the dough. Those hands feel it. Flour, eggs, salt and hands. A dance. Pleasure for everybody. The material grants itself supported by those hands... incredible!

We lough, we make jokes, we drink wine, but the effort in the work is touchable. There is a great desire of discovery. The air knows it. Tables know it. You can really see in their eyes, that they want to understand. Understand our way of cooking. Understand our differences... and learn from them!

I like this class. Really a lot. Very different from the others before. I like their efforts and their wish to try...

They were really good and open to any suggestion...

Thet were good and every time I learn something new!

Ravioli di zucca
Ravioli with pumpkin filling

Ingredients for four serves:

For the fresh egg pasta dough.

This dough can also be used for the tagliatelle.
400g high grade flour
4 eggs
1 tbls salt

For the filling
About 300gr pumpkin
3 eggs
150gr grated cheese
1 tbls salt
pinch of pepper

The first step is to make the dough.

For this you need to put the dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and put the eggs, a bit of oil or water in it. Mix it gently with a fork, gradually mixing in the flour until it is to tough to mix with a fork. In this step you must pace yourself and mix the ingredients bit by bit because it makes it easier to mix. Gradually you incorporate all the wet ingredients into the flour mixture.

This is the point where you need to make sure it is not too wet or not too dry. You should knead it for about ten minutes. As you knead it will become elastic, shiny and easier to knead. Remember? Always with the heel of your hand!!! If the dough is too dry you might have to sprinkle water gradually until it is no longer dry.

At this stage I can tell you that some people let the dough set for about a hour… can you imagine? During a class I cannot wait so long and sometimes at home I don’t wait for so long either… so…Anyway in this time you can start to make the filling.

Do you remember?

I just took the Butternut squash, I cut them in half a should boil till you can handle it with a spoon or a fork. Mix then the grated cheese, salt and the eggs together and put everything in the fridge.

After this you take a chunk of dough and flatten it out with a rolling pin. If the dough is dry this step will be really hard. That is why making the dough and judging how thin the dough should be are the hardest steps. I know we used the pasta machine. But I am sure with a bit of patient and of love (…) you will be able to find the right thinnes!!! Then we took a simple glass and shaped them like a full moon or like a half moon.
We served them with a sauce of butter and fresh sage... very very simple, but really tastefull!

Gnocchi

Potatoes gnocchi (4 serves)
1kg Potatoes
300g High grade flour
1 or 2 eggs
1 tbls salt

You could also try those variations on the basic recipe:

Spinach gnocchi (4 serves)
1kg ½ Spinach
1 or 2 eggs
Flour (difficult to say: look at the consistency)
1 tbls salt

Tomatoes gnocchi (4 serves)
1kg Potatoes
300g High grade flour
1 or 2 eggs
2 tablespoons of concentrated tomato sauce
1 tbls salt

Boil the potatoes in a large pot. Steam until tender all the way through but not falling apart (a kitchen knife passes all the way through with some resistance). It's important that the potatoes are not overcooked. (Overdone, they will absorb too much water and take up so much flour that the gnocchi will sink like heavy little stones to the bottom of the stomach).

As soon as the potatoes are tender enough to push through a vegetable mill or use a potatoes masher. Remove them from the rack and when they can be handled, but while they're still hot, peel them and pass them through the vegetable mill into a large bowl.

Add a pinch of salt, all the flour and the eggs to the potatoes, working in the flour with a wooden spoon; then knead the dough gently for about 5 minutes on a lightly floured board or wooden work surface.Taste and knead in more salt if you wish, but be careful not to overwork the dough - it should be soft.

Add also some more flour if you think the consistency is not the right one and the dough is too sticky! Make a "snake" and remember cut them the size you wish... but not too big. Otherwise they would take longer to cook and they would be too heavy.

Bring to boil a pot of lightly salted water and drop in the gnocchi. Boil the gnocchi until they rise to the top, they ... must ... float. This will happen in one minute. Then remove them with a slotted skimmer or a colander.

We served those as well with butter and sage, but you could have them with a thousands of variations of the most famous italian sauces!!!