Tuesday, 4 December 2012
Foraging wild vegetables with Signora Wanda
Foraging wild vegetables in Italy is an ancient art which has been passed down from generation to generations, although less people nowadays have time to look for these flavour-packed wild vegetables. So, together with friends, yesterday we asked Signora Wanda to take us for a walk through the fields and reveal all the secrets on wild shoots and leafy green vegetables. It was a beautiful, sunny, crisp morning and after a few steps out of Toffia's medieval gate we where shown 5 types of cicoria (from the dandelion family), some mild in flavour to eat in salads and others to be boiled and stir-fried; wild artichokes called "cardi"; peppery hot wild mustard; wild garlic; chives; wild broccoletti, and even wild carrot, and radicchio. Pretty much every vegetable that we grow today has its corresponding wild "relative" out in the fields. It's out there and it only takes a bag to collect our wild 'goodies' and a little knife, making sure we don't damage the root of the plant, so it will produce more leaves. Fresh, wild vegetables that are full of flavour, essential nutrients, vitamins and anti-oxidants: it's all out there and it's for free! Grazie, Signora Wanda!
Friday, 14 September 2012
Zuppa Inglese
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| Zuppa Inglese being made in our cooking class |
Zuppa Inglese - Serves 6: half a litre of milk, 2 egg yolks, 50g of flour, 80 g of sugar, lemon, vanilla flavor, 'savoiardi' biscuits (sponge fingers), 'alchermes' liqueur or 'vin santo'.
To prepare the creme patissiere: mix the egg yolks in a mixing bowl with sugar and vanilla flavoring. Slowly add flour. Add warm milk and mix carefully. Add some lemon zest. Put mixture in a pan on low heat. Continuously stir the creme patissiere for 3 minutes after it starts boiling. Place a layer of savoiardi biscuits in a bowl. Sprinkle 'alchermes' liqueur or 'vin santo' over biscuits, spread over some creme patissiere, place another layer of savoiardi and so on.
Tried and tested variations: mocha (chocolate creme patissiere layered with coffee-soaked biscuits), tiramisu (creme patissiere layered with coffee-soaked biscuits), zabaione (Marsala wine-flavored creme patissiere layered with coffee-soaked biscuits).
Monday, 20 February 2012
Castagnole (mardi-gras traditional sweet fritters)
Castagnole (mardi-gras traditional sweet fritters)
It's Carnevale (carnival time) in Italy. This is the time of the year when children dress up and rules (especially dietary ones) are meant to be broken. Everyone prepares sweet fritters and give them to each other as a gift. Their name is "castagnole", o little chestnuts, and they are deep fried in extra virgin olive oil at medium temperature (well below 150 C). Olive oil will give these little mini doughnuts crunchiness and lightness at the same time. The traditional recipe for these delicious little fritters calls for lemon zest and only a little sugar in the dough.
Castagnole for 6
3 eggs, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt, lemon zest, 240 g of flour. vanilla flavour (optional), icing sugar.
Mix eggs, sugar, olive oil, salt, finely chopped lemon zest and vanilla together. Add flour and keep mixing with a wooden spoon until mixture is sticky but firm. Deep fry in olive oil, putting only half a teaspoon of mixture in the frying pan at a time. They are ready when they get golden brown in colour. Serve with icing sugar to decorate.
Photo courtesy of Style.it
It's Carnevale (carnival time) in Italy. This is the time of the year when children dress up and rules (especially dietary ones) are meant to be broken. Everyone prepares sweet fritters and give them to each other as a gift. Their name is "castagnole", o little chestnuts, and they are deep fried in extra virgin olive oil at medium temperature (well below 150 C). Olive oil will give these little mini doughnuts crunchiness and lightness at the same time. The traditional recipe for these delicious little fritters calls for lemon zest and only a little sugar in the dough.
Castagnole for 6
3 eggs, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt, lemon zest, 240 g of flour. vanilla flavour (optional), icing sugar.
Mix eggs, sugar, olive oil, salt, finely chopped lemon zest and vanilla together. Add flour and keep mixing with a wooden spoon until mixture is sticky but firm. Deep fry in olive oil, putting only half a teaspoon of mixture in the frying pan at a time. They are ready when they get golden brown in colour. Serve with icing sugar to decorate.
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Mulled Wine - Vin Brulé at Toffia Festival
Image courtesy of giallozafferano.it
Mulled wine for 150 people? No problem at all! I (Sally) was in charge of making the vin brulé for the 2 day 'Festa di Natale' recently held in Toffia. This Family Christmas Festival was held to raise funds for the local primary and infants schools here in Toffia and I am pleased to say it was a huge success. The mulled wine was my idea.... so I got to make it too! After selling over 15 litres or about 150 glasses of vin brulé (the Italians use the French word for mulled wine), I think I can say it was a great success! To help you celebrate the forthcoming Festive Season and New Year with good cheer.... here's the recipe so you can try it for yourselves.
Vin Brulé
Serves approx. 50 glasses
Ingredients:
5 litres of dry red wine ( we used the local red grape called 'Sangiovese')
1/2 litre of orange juice
1 expresso coffee cup or 125 g sugar (according to taste)
8 cloves
15g cinnamon sticks (about 5)
1 teaspoon nutmeg powder
2 or 3 large oranges, peeled and sliced
Method:
1. Pour wine and orange juice into a large saucepan. Add the sugar and mix well.
2. Add the cloves, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg powder and thinly sliced oranges to the wine. Stir.
3. Heat gently for about 15 to 20 minutes without allowing the mixture to boil. Stir occasionally and taste for sweetness. Add more sugar if desired.
4. Serve the vin brulé hot red wine in heat-resistant glasses.
Enjoy!
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Torta di Ricotta alla Romana - Roman Style Ricotta cheese cake
Photo taken by Todd Gallop
This is the most traditional dessert of Rome and we often prepare it during our cooking classes. Ricotta is mostly whey, which separates from milk during the cheese making process. Being neutral and creamy, it's suitable for both sweet or savoury dishes. In Rome, as we discuss during our cooking classes, ricotta mainly comes from sheep's milk. For this recipe I prefer cow's milk ricotta as it's sweeter. This cake is eaten hot out of the oven, during our Rome cooking classes, however I would try it cold as well. It keeps in the refrigerator for a few days.Torta di Ricotta alla Romana (serves 6 )
For the pastry: 150g of butter, 300g of flour, 150g of sugar, 3 egg yolks, vanilla flavour, 8g of baking powder, salt. For the filling: 400g of ricotta, 2 egg yolks, 100 g of sugar, lemon or orange zest, a drop of single cream or milk, dark chocolate (to your taste).
For the short pastry, mix flour with softened butter, add sugar, citrus zest, 3 egg yolks, vanilla flavour, 8g of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Make the dough in to a ball, wrap it in film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Mix ricotta until smooth, add sugar, flour, two egg yolks, cream and fold in the whipped egg whites. Then add chocolate chips. Roll the pastry and line a cake tin with it. Pour in the ricotta mix and bake at 150C° for 30 minutes, until golden. Sprinkle some icing sugar.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Preparing fresh tagliatelle with 130 eggs!
I have been preparing fresh home made tagliatelle pasta with a team of local villagers to use for the forthcoming Family Christmas Fair 'Festa di Natale' to be held in Toffia on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th December. Over 130 eggs where used in the process! With all that mixing, kneading, rolling and cutting we have enough fresh pasta, to be served with a local Sabina pasta sauce, for over 200 people! Of course we had to 'sample' the fresh pasta yesterday over lunch with the other cooks and their children - and believe me it tastes great! According to a local tradition, the pasta wasn't served in a plate, but directly on a number of large wooden cutting boards and each one of us had just a fork to help ourselves. This was such a great experience and what a great idea: eat as much as you can!
Saturday, 24 September 2011
What's really important in life?
The beautiful and inspiring images of 'Terra Madre', a video from award-winning Italian director Ermanno Olmi. It's about food, love, nature and slow living.
See the trailer to this great movie:
https://youtu.be/Iv0kO2tKXys
photo courtesy of cultomedia.org
See the trailer to this great movie:
https://youtu.be/Iv0kO2tKXys
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