Roman Artichokes - Carciofi alla Romana

Artichokes are a favourite ingredient in Roman cuisine. They are now in season and available at farmer's markets around our region. There is a specific variety of artichokes that is grown in the Roman countryside. These artichokes are so tender they can be eaten raw with salt, olive oil and lemon juice, if picked when they small.

A very traditional way to cook artichokes is 'alla Romana'. Roman style. You need a type of wild mint called mentuccia, which only grows in central Italy. It has small, light green leaves with lighter spots on them and a very strong smell and flavour. It is collected from the fields, although the best one grows out of old walls. If you can't find any mentuccia (that is if you don't live in Italy!) regular mint will do. Here is the recipe.

Carciofi alla romana (Roman style artichokes)
Serves 4: 4 artichokes, extra virgin olive oil, fresh mint, fresh lemon, garlic, salt & pepper.

Chef Guido's Tip: Rub your hands with fresh lemon juice before you start to prepare your artichokes. This will prevent your hands being 'blackened' by the artichoke 'juice'.

Method: Prepare the artichokes by disposing of all the tough leaves and by peeling the bottom part and quickly rub half a lemon on them, which will prevent them from darkening. Stuff the artichokes with mint leaves, a little chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Put them upside down (stalk up) into a pot just large enough to contain them, pour a quarter of a glass of olive oil and half a glass of water on them. Cover the pot and let cook until tender (the amount of time really depends on the type of artichokes). Buon Appetito!

When artichokes are in season, and prepared the way Guido recommends, you can eat the whole artichoke, choke and all!

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Asparagus Risotto Recipe - Risotto Asparagi e Guanciale

Wild asparagus, thin and full of flavour

We have numerous very spiky asparagus plants growing around our garden, close to walls or near the roots of our olive trees. After a rain shower in late March and April, while we are searching around our own plants, many locals are found probing the roadsides with a long stick in search of the new shoots. They are difficult to find and a real prize when you walk home with a small handful to add to your next meal. Wild asparagus are much thinner and stronger in flavour than the cultivated asparagus you find at the local markets. Visit us in March or April and you will get to taste them for yourself.

Risotto Asparagi e Guanciale Recipe

Risotto Asparagi e Guanciale (serves 6)

Ingredients: For the vegetable stock: 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, 1 small onion a large pinch of salt. For the risotto: 500 (17,6 oz) g of 'Arborio' or 'Carnaroli' rice, 1 medium bunch of asparagus, 50g (1.7 oz) of butter, 50g (1.7 oz) of guanciale or pancetta, 1 cup of grated Parmigiano cheese, 1 small onion, half a glass of white wine, salt to taste.

Method:Prepare the vegetable stock by placing a whole peeled onion, a carrot and a stalk of celery together in a large pot of water with a large pinch of salt. Once the stock is boiling, lower the heat and keep it simmering while making risotto.
Finely chop an onion and gently fry it in most of the butter (leave a curl for later). Add diced guanciale or pancetta and finely chopped asparagus. Add dry rice and let it fry with all other ingredients for a minute or two, stirring. Pour in white wine and let it evaporate. Pour enough boiling vegetable stock to cover rice. Stir rice from time to time but not continuously. Add more boiling liquid vegetable stock when needed. Check salt and add a pinch if necessary. When rice is 'aldente' (cooked but firm), turn off heat, add Parmigiano cheese, a curl of butter and stir vigourously. Serve immediately and hot.

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Late Winter Salad with Fennel, Orange and Olives : 'Insalatina di finocchi, arancia e olive'

Welcome to the last days of Winter. The sunlight are getting longer and the temperature is slowly warming up. Fresh fennel and blood red oranges (in fact any variety of oranges) are at their best, and last season's cured olives are now ready to eat. Here is one of my favourite seasonal salads. This salad is easy to make, full of fresh flavours, and will only take you 5 minutes to prepare.

In Italian it is called 'Insalatina di finocchi, arancia e olive' meaning 'Italian Fennel, Orange and Olive Salad'. It combines some wonderful flavours: fresh and crispy fennel, juicy sweetness of the orange, and the salty full flavour of local olives (black olives are best to use).

Home made  'Insalatina di finocchi, arancia e olive'
using blood and local oranges, our own cured olives, plus locally grown fennel

Ingredients:
½ - 1 fennel
2 oranges peeled (blood orange and / or navel oranges)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (Sabina D.O.P.)
1 large handful of black olives, (gaeta, leccino, carboncella, suggested varieties)
Pinch of fine sea salt, to taste

Instructions:
Chop your fennel in long thin strips, along the grain of the fennel. Cut your juicy ripe peeled oranges into cubes. Add both the fennel and the orange pieces along with a handful of black olives into a bowl.  Drizzle over a healthy amount of olive oil ( please only use extra virgin olive oil, as it is the best!) and sprinkle over some salt, to taste. Mix all the ingredients together and serve chilled.

Tip: If you make this salad a few hours before you need it, just mix it and leave it in the fridge. The flavours will blend together.

Please tell me what you think.

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Risotto ai funghi - Mushroom Risotto

Risotto ai funghi - Seasonal Italian Recipe

Mushroom Risotto, Risotto ai funghi, is a typical Winter risotto recipe that I enjoy cooking for my family. This risotto combines the earthy fresh taste of mushrooms with the creaminess of rice and parmigiano cheese. Topped with fresh parsley.  It's absolutely delicious and we hope you enjoy making it too.

Risotto ai funghi Recipe

Ingredients (serves 6): For the vegetable stock: 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, 1 small onion, a large pinch of salt. For the risotto: 500 (17,6 oz) g of 'Arborio' or 'Carnaroli' rice, 300g (10.5 oz) of fresh champignon or porcini mushrooms, 50g (1.7 oz) of butter, 1 cup of grated parmigiano cheese, 1 small onion, half a glass of white wine, salt, pepper and fresh chopped parsley to taste.

Method: Prepare the vegetable stock by placing a whole peeled onion, a carrot and a stalk of celery together in a large pot of water with a large pinch of salt. Once the stock is boiling, lower the heat and keep it simmering while making risotto.

Finely chop an onion and gently fry it in most of the butter (leave a curl for later). Add sliced mushrooms. Add dry rice and let it fry with all other ingredients for a minute or two, stirring. Pour in white wine and let it evaporate. Pour enough boiling vegetable stock to cover rice. Stir rice from time to time but not continuously. Add more boiling liquid if necessary. Check salt and add a pinch if necessary. When rice is 'aldente' (cooked but firm) add Parmigiano cheese, a curl of butter and stir vigourously. Garnish with fresh finely chopped parsley. Serve immediately and hot.

Buon appetito!

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Ribollita: The perfect Italian Winter soup

Some of you may have already made Guido's Ribollita Soup recipe, however we know that it is sooooo good, that we just wanted to share this Winter Recipe with you again.

It's finally winter here and this is the perfect time for comforting soups, such as Ribollita ('boiled again'), so called because it's even nicer you have it heated up the day after. It's a very traditional dish in Central Italy and it's sometimes called Acqua Cotta ('cooked water'). I made Ribollita yesterday and had it today for lunch with a bunch of friends. Delicious! Here is the recipe. You'll need a big pot.

Ribollita (serves 6 or more)
800g of fresh borlotti or cannellini beans (or 300g of dried borlotti or cannellini beans), 400g of fresh, ripe tomatoes or tinned tomatoes, 1 black cauliflower (almost impossible to find!) or 1 quarter of a regular one, 1 quarter of a cabbage, 500g of beet (similar to spinach but milder flavoured), 1 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 red onion, parsley, basil, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, parmigiano reggiano (parmesan) cheese.

If you are using dried beans, they need to be soaked for 24 hours, then boiled in 2 litres of water, a pinch of salt and a little olive oil. Finely chop the onion and fry in oil until translucent, then add tomatoes, beans (if fresh with 1 litre of water, if dried add with its own cooking water). Chop all the remaining vegetables roughly and add the to the soup. Add salt and boil for at least two hours. Add more water if necessary. Serve in a bowl on top of a slice of toasted country bread. Finish off with parmigiano, a little olive oil, pepper and chopped parsley and basil (if available). E' Pronto!

Chef Guido's Ribollita soup topped with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper,
 and lots of parmigiano reggiano (parmesan) cheese! 

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Guido and Sally's Olive Harvest- Picked by hand, the traditional way

Panic: The olive harvest came early this year, in fact it was about 3 weeks to a month earlier than what we expected. We usually pick in early to mid November, but our olives were ready and beginning to drop off the trees by the 1st October! Far too early.... and it made us panic as we were not ready to harvest.

our olives captured in nets

Everyone who had olives, and it was/is a good year for most, needed to harvest immediately. The friend that helped us last year was overwhelmed with picking his own olives first and requests for help from others. So this year, Guido and I decided to pick our own, all by hand, the traditional way. We bought 2 nets to lay on the ground under the olive trees, 2 rastrelli (hand held rakes) and enough containers to hold the olives once picked and collected. 

Olives, crates and nets

Picking a day with good weather really helps, so in between giving cooking classes, culinary holidays, olive tours and winery tours, we picked the date and set about getting everything ready. The weather was perfect, sunny, some cloud, no rain and mild. Starting early we began by spreading the nets under one of our olive trees, and then got to work. Guido with a hand rake on a longer pole raking the olives higher up on the olive trees, and Sally with the hand held rake on the lower branches.

Sally with the hand held rake

Guido with longer rake, nets on the ground

We had a tough supervisor, Rocky our dog, that made sure everything was in order!

Rocky our 9 year old dog, supervising. He as exhausted at the end of the day!

After moving from tree to tree, raking all the olives down onto the nets, we just needed to take out as many leaves as possible....before placing them into the crates. 

Guido sorting the leaves and twigs from the olives

After gathering up the olives and placing them in the crates.......we loaded them into our van.

Our olive crates! Look at those beautiful colours from green to black.

It was getting onto sunset and we needed to get our olives to the mill to be processed within 24 hours, to ensure the highest quality for our own organic extra virgin olive oil......

Our olives being loaded into a larger crate to be weighed at the mill

We are very proud of what we achieved. In 8 hours we harvested our olives from the olive trees on our land and got them to the olive mill to be pressed the same evening.

Look at all our olives!

Sally, proud to get their olives to the mill after a full day's work harvesting

Leaving our crate of olives at the mill at sunset, knowing it will be pressed the same evening

The next day we collected our own organic extra virgin olive oil from the mill. It was a good yield this year and we are enjoying every drop of our EVVO (extra virgin olive oil). We hope to be able to share some with you, too!

Sally and Guido

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Broccoli Ripassati - Stir fried Broccoli

Broccoli - Broccoletti - Sauteed Broccolini

broccoli, broccoletti fresh and cooked 

This is a great way to cook any green vegetables as it keeps their flavour. Cook it as a side dish (as the Italians do) or add it to your plate. 

Compliment this dish with a plate of pecorino cheese and a glass of wine. 

This recipe is also very versatile and can be used for most green vegetables. Enjoy!

Ingredients: 1 broccoli head or 1 bunch of broccolini, 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a clove of garlic (whole), salt

Method: Parboil the vegetables and drain them well. Put the extra virgin olive oil and the clove of garlic in a large fry pan. Roast the garlic until golden, then take it out. Immediately put the vegetables in the pan and cook them for 5 minutes on high heat. Stirring occasionally. Add salt toward the end and serve hot. 

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Castagnaccio - Chestnut flour cake

 Castagnaccio - Chestnut flour cake

Chestnuts have just come into season, so Guido wanted to share his preferred recipe for Castagnaccio, a Chestnut Cake.

This delicious dessert is also gluten free, so if you know anyone who is celiac or gluten sensitive, this is the perfect cake for them.

The castagnaccio or chestnut cake is a traditional dessert made with chestnut flour and raisins, pine nuts, walnuts, and rosemary. This recipe is made in Tuscany, Veneto, Piedmont, and Lombardy, all regions in which the chestnut is often used as an ingredient. There are many variations however all share the simple ingredients of chestnut cake itself: water, chestnut flour, and rosemary. 
The chestnut cake was first written about in Venice in 1553. However, it was in the 19th century that the Tuscans exported the chestnut cake to the rest of Italy, and it was in this period that it was enhanced with raisins, pine nuts, and rosemary. Each family has its own chestnut cake recipe, but here we will share Guido's family version with you!

Ingredients: 

INGREDIENTS FOR A 12-INCH (32 CM) CAKE MOLD

Chestnut flour 4 cups (500 g), Water 2 ¾ cups (650 g), Pine nuts ½ cup (100 g), Rosemary 1 sprig, Raisins 3 oz (80 g), Walnut kernels ½ cup (100 g), Extra virgin olive oil 5 tbsp (40 g), Fine salt 1 tsp (5 g)

Method: To prepare the  Castagnaccio chestnut cake, first wash the raisins in fresh water and soak them in a bowl of cold water for 10 minutes to rehydrate them. Coarsely chop the walnut kernels with a knife. Then peel off the fresh rosemary needles. Sift the chestnut flour into a large bowl.  Add the 2 3/4 cups (650,g) of water a little at a time, stirring with a hand whisk; when the mixture is smooth and homogeneous, add the chopped walnuts and whole pine nuts, making sure to set a small amount aside that will later be used on top of the cake before baking.

After 10 minutes, squeeze and dry the raisins, then add them to the mixture: adding a small amount at a time; mix well, and add salt.

Oil, with extra virgin olive oil, a 12 inch (32 cm) low round cake tin. Then pour the mixture, levelling it with a spatula. Sprinkle the surface of the cake with the pine nuts, walnuts and raisins set aside, distributing them evenly. 

Lastly, add the rosemary needles and then a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Cook in a static oven preheated to 380° F (195° C) for approximately 35 minutes. When a crust forms cracks on the surface and the nuts have a nice golden colour, take the cake out. When cool, serve and enjoy Castagnaccio: Guido's preferred chestnut cake.

Storage Tip: You can keep the chestnut cake covered with a cloth outside the refrigerator for 3-4 days at most. Freezing is not recommended.

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Melanzane Ripiene - Baked Eggplants with meat

Melanzane Ripiene

Chef Guido chose this simple dish full of mediterranean flavours from his family recipes. These baked ‘melanzane’ (eggplants) are common in the Italian Riviera, or Liguria.  They can be served as antipasto or light main course. 

Here Guido is giving you his family's favourite version, filled with meat. It's delicious! Enjoy!

Version 2: Melanzane Ripiene with Meat:

Melanzane Ripiene - Serves 6

Ingredients: 3 eggplants (or aubergines), 350g (12.5 oz) of ground beef, marjoram, 1 small onion, salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, 

Simple sauce:  700ml (24 oz) / 1 bottle tomato passata (or peeled tomatoes); 2 garlic pieces crushed, small handful of basil leaves, pinch of salt to taste, olive oil.

Method: Cut the eggplants in half, carve out the flesh with a knife and chop it fine. Put this in a pan where a finely chopped onion has been shallow frying in extra virgin olive oil for a few minutes. Fry the eggplant flesh until soft, then add marjoram and minced beef. Mix well and keep frying until the meat is light brown. Add salt and pepper. Put extra virgin olive oil and salt on the eggplants' skins and fill them with the mixtures. Bake for 30 minutes at moderate heat 175 C (350 F) in a convection oven, until eggplant base is soft . 

Simple sauce: brown crushed garlic in olive oil in a pan, add, tomato passata and leave to simmer to blend flavours for 5 minutes. Add basil leaves and salt to taste, stir, and then turn off. Leave the lid on to keep flavours together.  

Serve with a simple tomato sauce of top of baked eggplants.

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Panzanella - straight from Guido's garden

This dish is quick to prepare, refreshing, and perfect for summer, when the vegetables used are in season; it is even advisable to let it rest for a few hours in the refrigerator before serving.

Ingredients (serves 6): 300g (10.5 oz) of Italian-style, stale bread, 2 medium-size ripe tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 1 small onion, 3 tbsp of apple or wine vinegar, fresh basil to taste, salt to taste, 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.

Method: Cut the stale bread(usually 2 or 3 days old and hard) into cubes and soak with vinegar and cold water (to cover) in a large bowl. Leave for 5 minutes. Squeeze and drain the bread, then put it into another bowl. Dice cucumbers and tomatoes (half an inch dices). Thinly slice onion. Put vegetables in the bowl where you’ve previously put bread. Add extra virgin olive oil, salt and fresh basil to taste. Enjoy cold.

Guido's Tips: 

• Try using red onions: they will add a little sweetness to this traditional tuscan summer dish.
• Panzanella makes for a good ‘piatto unico,’ as you may also add some protein to this dish, like tuna or cheese or borlotti beans. 

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Guido's Nonna's recipe: Linguine with Pesto alla Genovese

 

Guido's Nonna's Recipe: 

Linguine with Pesto alla Genovese - Serves  6

Ingredients: 500 g (1 packet) of linguine pasta (La Molisana brand is recommended).

For the sauce: 1 large bunch of fresh basil leaves, 1/3 of a clove of garlic, handful of pine-nuts, 60 g of Grana Padano cheese, extra virgin olive oil, pinch of salt.

Method: (using a blender): To prepare pesto, put basil leaves, pine-nuts, Grana Padano and Pecorino cheese, 1/3 of a clove of garlic and a  pinch of salt into the blender with a little extra virgin olive oil. Blend until smooth (or chunky, if preferred), then add more olive oil.

Cook Linguine aldente, put it back in the pot after draining and mix in with sauce and a little butter. Stir all together. Serve immediately.

Buon appetito!

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Pesto Tips by Chef Guido

Basilico (the herb, basil) is in season and as Guido's grandmother and mother come from Genova, the birthplace of pesto, he loves to include making this delicious sauce in our cooking class menu. Here are just some of the tips for making a great pesto sauce:

1/ To clean: Never fully wash basil leaves, only wipe them with a clean cloth (this helps the basil stay fresh, green and dry)

2/ When using a mortar and pestle to grind the ingredients, always use a stone or marble mortar and a wooden pestle. as this brings out the best flavour! (Never stone with stone or wood with wood)

3/When you have placed the ingredients, including the basil leaves in the mortar, add a pinch of sale grosso (rock sea salt) before you start to grind (and also another pinch as you continue). This will help you grind the leaves more easily and keep the colour of the basil leaves light (because of the natural sodium in the salt)

4/If you use a blender instead of a mortar and pestle to grind the basil leaves, put the metal blade in the freezer before you use it. This will help stop the leaves browning in the process.

Pesto is very versatile as it is not only tasty with gnocchi or pasta, it is also often eaten in Italy with fish dishes or as a dip!

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