Italian garlic bread

Garlic bread is perfect as an appetizer, but also in the middle of the meal or at the end of a meal: in short, if you love these flavors a bit strong, it is always perfect! Easy to make, in America it is often prepared with ready-made bread, simply seasoning it and passing it in the oven ... but do you want to put the satisfaction of doing it from scratch at home?? There are various versions, but all involve the use of garlic (of course!), butter and some aromatic herbs. I was particularly intrigued by this one that also adds cheese and mayonnaise and I decided to try it on the fly. Well, I would say it was quite a success! Just preparing the flavored butter the smell is very good, but then in cooking a fantastic scent is released, of those that literally make your mouth water! 

Here I am today to tell you a simple recipe that will amaze and conquer you immediately: the garlic bread. To prepare it we do not have to prepare, knead and bake our bread, but just get some baguettes and then everything will be very simple. In short, one of those recipes also suitable for those who are clumsier in the kitchen. If you like the taste of garlic this is just the recipe for you, although I assure you that it does not feel as exaggerated as you might think and then do not forget that it is good and also keeps vampires away, in case there were any nearby! In short, we just have to run to the kitchen and prepare together a delicious garlic bread ...

Ingredients:

a large baguette or two small baguettes

50 grams of butter

7-8 cloves of garlic

a sprig of parsley

Preparation: 

Put the whole garlic cloves without cleaning them in the oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. In this way they soften, also partially losing their strong and unpleasant smell. Cut the baguette into slices without reaching the bottom, so that they still remain attached to each other. Leave the butter at room temperature to make it soften. Squeeze the garlic cloves into a small bowl, in this way also remove the shirt that covers them. Add the soft butter and mix well. Preheat the oven to 180°. With a spatula, spread the slices of bread between both sides, gently separating them from each other, leave a little bit to spread on the surface of the baguette. Sprinkle the bread with washed and chopped parsley. Wrap the baguette in a sheet of aluminum foil and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes. Then open the aluminum foil and brown the garlic bread for 3-4 minutes on the surface.

 

POTATO GNOCCHI

Potato gnocchi a classic of Italian cuisine and especially of the grandmothers' cuisine that we have all eaten but that perhaps we have never prepared at home thinking it is a difficult recipe. Even I had never tried to prepare homemade potato gnocchi then one day walking around the supermarket my eye fell on the ingredients contained in packaged potato gnocchi and I got goose bumps reading. 

Let's say that in the ingredients there was everything except potatoes then returning home I stopped at the grocer, I bought a kilo of potatoes (I would have preferred red potatoes which are the most suitable for preparing gnocchi, but I did not find them) and I decided to try to make potato gnocchi at home. The result was really good so now when I prepare them, I prepare a double dose I freeze them and when we want to eat them in just a moment, I don't even have to make them thaw first, then I will explain how to do it during the recipe. When making the dough for gnocchi, the potatoes must be hot and must be handled a little, as soon as the flour is absorbed homogeneously you must proceed with the packaging. Once all this is done, I would say that the gnocchi can be packaged in the size and shape you prefer. 

I love the gnocchi of flour. But in the end my favorites are always potato gnocchi and with my recipe they will be really perfect!

And now...

Well, fasten your apron...!

Ingredients

1 kg Potatoes (possibly red)

310 g flour 

30 g butter (secret ingredient)

12 g Salt

Re-milled semolina

Preparation

Everyone cooks the potatoes in boiling water, but a good alternative is to cook them in the oven or steam, obviously always with the skin otherwise the potatoes will absorb too much water and the gnocchi will be soft. I prefer to prepare potato gnocchi without eggs, but I put a secret ingredient that a chef friend of mine revealed to me, that is a small piece of butter that you will see that will make the gnocchi really delicious. Put the potatoes with the skin well washed in a pot covered with cold water and bring to a boil. 

Boil the potatoes until they are cooked and soft then drain. Put the boiled potatoes in the potato masher and pass them then put them in a bowl. Add the butter and let it melt with the heat of the potatoes then add salt and flour and knead with your hands until you get a firm and compact dough. Let the potato dumpling dough rest for about 10 minutes. Take the dough and, on a floured surface with re-milled semolina flour, take small pieces and create loaves. 

Cut with the knife many pieces about 2 centimeters long and, if you want, pass them on a fork to create the classic rows of potato gnocchi otherwise do like me and leave them in small pieces. Pass all the potato gnocchi in the re-milled semolina to make sure that they do not stick together.

VARIANTS AND TIPS

You can make potato gnocchi with egg using a medium one and not putting butter. 

If you use red potatoes or old potatoes, you will not have to add more flour. 

Do not cook the potatoes without peel otherwise they will absorb too much water and the potato dumplings will be soft.

 

Calabrian pork sausage

The period is right. The climate is cold, and salami is the ideal companion for gloomy days. That's why, today, I decided to explain how to make one of the main Calabrian sausages. First, however, a premise: for pork to buy, let yourself be advised by your trusted butcher, who will surely give you the right mix – quantitatively and qualitatively correct – so that the salami is not too "red". Yes, because – especially if your intention is to let the sausage mature (or "cure" as they say in Calabria) – it is better to also provide a little fat to be kneaded in the meat mixture, let's say with an approximate proportion of 20/80, between fat and lean meat. Or at least, according to your tastes.  

The spicy sausage is typical of the Calabrian gastronomic tradition, appreciated by many for its irresistible taste and spicy aroma.

Ingredients for 20 kilos of sausage:

 

18 kilos of lean pork, 

2 kilos of fatty pork, 

550 grams of salt, 

red chili powder to taste, 

pork guts (preferably natural)

The first operation to do is to wash the pig's guts thoroughly. Maybe leaving them to soak in a basin with vinegar or lemon for hours and rinsing them well immediately after. Once this is done, carefully grind the pork, both fat and lean, so that a unique compound with a harmonious consistency is reached. In the past this work was done without resorting to the use of the meat grinder, but by working the pork meat by hand, that is, cutting everything into small cubes. 

Today, either we use the prementioned meat grinder or we ask the butcher directly to grind it for us. Mix the mixture with salt, more or less 28 grams per kilo of meat and ground red pepper (as a quantity, for the latter, adjust according to your taste). Let the mixture rest for a while. Half an hour or at most an hour can be enough. Better if in the fridge. So that the meat is flavored well. 

Helping you, if you have them at home with the meat grinder and the accessory for sausages, stuff the meat into the gut, making sausages of various sizes. To do this, you have to tie the two ends of the sausages with coarse twine. 

Prick the sausages with a toothpick or, to do first, with a fork to which you will spread the prongs. At this point, you can decide whether to cook the sausage directly or store it in a cool and dry place for at least a month.

 Enjoy your meal!

 

 Pizza with birra Peroni

I admit that the appearance of the pizza was really inviting to the point that when she arrived at the table, I had the doubt if it was really gluten-free! And tasting it, I fortunately discovered that it was not only beautiful but also very good. Good thickness, with a fairly swollen cornice, well leavened so as to be light and well cooked. Excellent and fresh ingredients were used. A couple of days ago I have returned from a weekend break in Italy, which is also home to today’s beer. Although I had this beer on several occasions before, I still give it a try whenever I’m in Rome. 

Peroni was available a simple, effective and quality beer, with a soft and balanced taste in a perfect harmony between sweet and bitter. Peroni is in fact still produced today, as from its birth, only with selected ingredients such as 100% Italian malt obtained from a special quality of barley and followed step by step throughout its growth, or a selection of three different qualities of hops, to give it an aroma and taste characteristic of the company, or even the purest and filtered water, A fundamental element for the success of the product and finally the yeasts, last but not least, which will create the magic that happens during fermentation. Because quality is an all-Italian passion and Peroni beer too.

Calabrian spicy salami

Salami is one of the best known and most widespread products of the Italian tradition. This product, created through a harmonious mixture of pork meat and fat, cut and masterfully mixed with Mediterranean spices and aromas, has a strong and decisive taste. The external appearance is characterized by the typical hand tying and when cut the texture of meat and fat is consistent and compact. Salumi is available in sweet or spicy varieties 

Ingredients: Pork, salt, sugars, chili, aromas and spices.

Curing time: 60 days

The queen of cured meats: La 'Nduja'. The numerous specialties of Calabrian sausages include:  capocolli, sopressate, but the salami par excellence based on chili is the nduja. 

It was introduced by the Spaniards at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The meat of each kilo of Calabrian pork, requires at least two hundred grams of chili. It looks like a spicy and colorful pork pate that can be consumed in different ways. Spread on fragrant toasted breads, bruschetta, or as a condiment for spaghetti. 

Fantastic is also on pizza together with onion.

 

Fettuccine with clams and leeks

Pasta with clams is the first dish par excellence of Italian seafood cuisine. A dish that obviously is found throughout Italy but in the south of the Bel Paese, especially in Campania and Sicily. In Naples they call this dish poetically “Spaghetti with clams” and this is a recipe that always divides into factions. Some people prefer the pasta with clams strictly in black (only garlic and parsley), those in red but not too much, fillet with some fresh tomato sauce. 

I still cannot decide which is my favorite version and continue to alternate the pasta with clams in white and red, waiting to finally decide. Let us come to the pasta format to be used with clams: my favorite format is fettuccine. We all know and appreciate the famous spaghetti with clams, but have you ever tried to replace them with egg pasta? The porosity and thickness of fettuccine are perfect for the ''capture'' all the sauce flavored by clams. 

Ingredients

6 servings

half a teaspoon of salt, plus salt to cook pasta

clean clams 6

tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil 6

garlic cloves, peeled and crushed 6

Two leeks cut in half and then julienne

450 g zucchini cut into slices

500 g fettuccine

a pinch of red chili flakes

500 g tomatoes, peeled and crushed by hand

basil chopped to taste

Procedure

For the recipe of fettuccine with clams and leeks, bring a pot of salted water to a boil for pasta. Shell the clams, set aside the shelling juices and filter them from impurities. Cut the clams coarsely. In a large pot, heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. When the oil becomes hot, add the garlic. As soon as it becomes golden, add the leeks and zucchini to the pan. 

Cook until the vegetables become soft, for about 4 minutes. When the vegetables are put in the pan, start cooking the pasta. Add salt to the vegetables and sprinkle with red chili. Add the tomatoes, clam juices and half a cup of water. Blanch everything over high heat and reduce for about 4 minutes. 

Remove the garlic cloves. When the pasta is al dente, drain it and add it to the sauce together with the clams, cook for 2 minutes. Add the basil and mix well. 

Remove the pan from the heat, add the two remaining tablespoons of oil, stir and serve.

 

Meatballs with sauce

Meatballs with sauce are one of the most classic recipes, so loved by everyone, but especially by children. The ways to prepare meat balls are so many ... Every grandmother keeps her recipe secret, but today I want to show you how we prepare them! Minced meat and sausage mixed together will give a unique flavor, while bread and cheese as well as accentuating the taste, will give the right softness. 

Round, tasty and succulent my meatballs are browned and then cooked in the sauce, in this way they will not fall apart and will keep their shape

intact. The meatballs with sauce a recipe of the heart, which refers us to a particular moment. 

Maybe my meatballs will not be up to that of your grandmothers, but I hope that their flavor, even if only partially, brings you back to one of the Sunday family lunches. I recommend that you do not forget to serve the meatballs with good homemade bread for the final "Scarpetta", an essential custom for this dish!

INGREDIENTS

Beef (minced meat) 220 g

Sausage165 g

Stale breadcrumbs 30 g

Grated Parmigiano Reggiano 25 g

Eggs 1

Chopped parsley 1 spoon

Dried oregano 1 pinch

Grated nutmeg 1 pinch

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

Extra virgin olive oil to taste

FOR THE SAUCE

Tomato puree 350 g

Water 50 g

Salt 5 g

Dried oregano to taste

Black pepper to taste

PREPARATION

HOW TO PREPARE MEATBALLS WITH SAUCE

To prepare the meatballs with sauce start with the dough: cut the crumb into pieces and pour it into a mixer equipped with blades. Chop everything until the crumb is reduced to crumbs. Take the sausages, cut them gently lengthwise and finally remove the gut. With the blade of a knife or fork crush the meat. Pour the sausage and minced meat into a large bowl. Add oregano, a pinch of grated nutmeg and chopped parsley. Finally add the grated Parmesan cheese and the crumb that you chopped earlier. 

Also pour the egg and start kneading with your hands. Season with salt and pepper, then continue to knead until you get a homogeneous mixture. With the meat obtained go to form spheres weighing 20 grams each, taking a piece of meat and mixing it with both hands: with our doses you will have to get 24 meatballs. 

As soon as all the meatballs are ready, heat the oil in a non-stick pan and, when the oil is hot, place the meatballs, letting them cook on both sides for a couple of minutes. Pour the tomato pulp in. Add water, season with salt, flavor with pepper and continue cooking, lowering the heat for 15-20 minutes. 

Once ready, flavored with dried oregano and you can enjoy your meatballs with sauce still steaming!

PRESERVATION

You can keep the meatballs with sauce in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap for 2-3 days. You can also freeze them both cooked and raw: in this case, however, it is very important that the ingredients are very fresh and not thawed.

ADVICE

Another tasty variant? Try to fry the meatballs in a pan and then dip them in the tomato sauce cooked separately: a real lust! If you prefer tastier meatballs, add a little seasoned Pecorino cheese to the meat.

 

Bread for a classic sandwich

Who doesn't like the classic sandwich? 

Too bad that unfortunately it does not fully reflect the canons of the right diet. I then tried to revisit it using this bread, grilled vegetables therefore fat-free and a turkey and chicken healthier and less caloric than pork. Only mayonnaise is missing it would be better to avoid it but an exception every now and then does not hurt so much.

Enjoy your meal!

Ingredients for 4 people

8 pieces of chicken and turkey 

4 sandwiches (whole meal sandwiches are fine)

2 medium-sized peppers

2 large onions

Procedure

Clean the onion and cut it into fairly thin rings. Wash the pepper well, cut it into quarters, remove the seeds and white parts and cut it into thin strips. On the hot grill the vegetables: put the peppers first and after about 10 minutes add the onions. In all, cooking will be about 15-20 minutes. When the vegetables are ready, put them on a plate. Then grill the chicken and turkey well (about 7-8 min. per side) turning it quite often. When it's time for dinner, turn on the grill, toast the bread and heat both the sausage and vegetables nearby.

Stuff the sandwich to your liking!

 

SCIALATIELLI ALLO SCOGLIO

Although I live in the hills, I have always had a passion for cooking fish dishes. The scialatielli allo scoglio are a classic of the typical cuisine of the tasty south that recalls the summer and the days at sea. Recipe that is made with seafood such as mussels and clams and crustaces or shrimp, scampi and cuttlefish. Let's say that you also do a little according to your tastes and ingredients that you find. And if you do not have scialatielli you can also replace with spaghetti. I propose an exquisite version to prepare in a few simple steps.

Ingredients

Scialatielli 300 g

Mussels 250 g

Clams 250 g

Squid (cleaned -gutted-) 300 g

Shrimp 10

Peeled tomatoes 400 g

Parsley (chopped) 1 bunch

Dry white wine to taste

Extra virgin olive oil to taste

Salt to taste

Preparation

First put the clams for two hours to purge in cold water. Change the water 2 or three times. Then rinse under cold running water.

Meanwhile, wash and brush the mussels always under a stream of cold water and remove the byssus. Clean the squid by removing the inside, bone and outer skin. Rinse under cold water and cut into rings or as I do chop into cubes. In a pan heat the olive oil with 1 clove of peeled garlic, put the clams and blend with the wine. Cover and let open over high heat and set aside in a large bowl. Strain the cooking liquid and set aside. Do the same with mussels and shell some shells.

Sauté the shallot and a chili pepper in 5 tablespoons of olive oil, add the chopped squid and brown for 4-5 minutes and blend with half a glass of white wine and let evaporate. Add the peeled tomatoes chopped with scissors and cook everything for 40 minutes, as it cooks or dries add the cooking liquid of the mollusks. Adjust the salt in the sauce. Clean the shrimp from its shell and black filament.

The Prawns remove the head and remove the black intestinal filament from these. Cook for another two minutes. Cook the scialatielli in plenty of boiling salted water following the times indicated by the package. When it is al dente, drain and put in the seafood sauce.

Add mussels and clams and a few tablespoons of hot shellfish cooking liquid and leave to flavor for a few minutes.

Serve immediately hot with a sprinkling of parsley!

Notes

You can keep the scialatielli for the next day in the fridge covered, just sauté them a little in the pan and they will be as good as freshly made.

 

SEASONED ROASTED PEPPERS

I LOVE SEASONED ROASTED PEPPERS, they are one of the recipes for side dishes that at least once a week I have to do, I enjoy them on bread, focaccia, pizza, in cold pasta, in short, where you put them, they are fine! Cooking seasoned roasted peppers is very easy, first they are roasted, and I make them in the oven, then they must be cleaned from the skin and seeds, cut into fillets and seasoned with oil, salt, parsley, basil and garlic. The peppers can also be roasted on the hob, as my grandmother did, or on the grill, cooked so sure they are fabulous! To remove the skin to the peppers in a simple and fast way once roasted in the oven I let them cool directly there, or once cooked I put them in a plastic bag that is used to freeze or in paper bags for bread, it will take a few minutes and the peppers are peeled in a moment. Now see with me the recipe for these delicious roasted peppers seasoned.

Ingredients

3 peppers (red or yellow)

1 garlic clove

parsley to taste

basil to taste

extra virgin olive oil to taste

salt to taste

Preparation

Wash the peppers and dry them. 

Put them on a baking sheet with baking paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 200° for about 30 minutes.

Once roasted, put them in the paper or plastic bag, close and let stand for at least 5 minutes. Now the peppers are ready to peel and also eliminate the seeds. Cut the peppers into strips and place them in a bowl. Put the salt and season, pour the oil and mix everything. Add the parsley and basil and small pieces and finally a slice of garlic cut into small pieces. Let the seasoned peppers rest for an hour and then bring them to the table, too good!

My advice

You can season the peppers by adding olives and chilli pepper to taste. The peppers cooked in this way can be kept for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.

 

Typical of Salento are the orecchiette 

Delighting the palate, relaxing the spirit and taking care of your health: how many precious advantages can homemade pasta, typical of Salento cuisine, reserve for you? Genuine and exquisite, hand-crafted pasta is one of the most beloved dishes of the Salento tradition! Salento loves pasta, the one prepared by the women of the house, with master hands, delicate yet vigorous, expert and eager, those hands that work water and flour, knead and form.

The homemade pasta of Salento is one of the precious treasures that the tradition of the land of the sun and the sea preserves and enhances from generation to generation, from grandmother to mother to daughter. Kneading pasta is an art, as is the precision of the shapes, its cooking and the preparation of its seasoning. Kneaded with water and flourand strictly with energetic and decisive circular movements, the Salento artisan pasta is a genuine and healthy dish, made with simple and natural ingredients. It can be prepared with wheat flour or barley flour or with a mix between the two: the difference lies in the consistency of the dough (barley flour makes the dough more consistent) and in its color (darker if with barley flour).

Genuineness, economy and delicacy: these are the three watch words that have always inspired the typical dishes of the Salento tradition, healthy for the body, a feather for the pockets, an absolute delight for the palate!

Typical of Salento are the orecchiette and maccheroncini, the so-called pasta maritata, because in this dish the woman (the orecchietta) is accompanied by the man (the maccherone). The orecchiette are small discs of dough with a circle in the center, usually dug with the thumb, while the minchiareddi are a long dough dug with wire. The typical condiment of the Salento tradition for homemade pasta is the one with fresh tomato and basil sauce to which is added, for those who like it, grated cheese, cacioricotta or pecorino cheese (known in Salento asricotta schianta). A delicacy that you will hardly be able to satisfy yourself with once you have tasted the first forkful!

Exquisite in the same way also the ciciri and tria, or chickpeas served with tria, a pasta prepared by hand and similar to tagliatelle but kneaded only with water and flour, without eggs. The touch of class typical of the cuisine of Salento? A part of this dough is fried in oil, and it is from this custom that the name of tria derives from the Arabic

itrya, or fried dough.

Ingredients

Extra virgin olive oil to taste

500 g San Marzano Tomatoes

Onion to taste

Salt

Basil to taste

350 g Cacioricotta

Preparation

In a pan put the oil and chopped onion, sauté and then add the tomatoes cut into pieces and cook them until they are wilted, then pass them with the vegetable puree to obtain the pulp, put back on the heat, add salt and cook a little more until it shrinks then add the basil if you like. Cook the orecchiette in salted water, drain and pour them into the pan with the sauce, mix and serve adding on each plate a handful of cacioricotta or salted ricotta

Notes

I have fresh tomatoes all year round because in summer I freeze them or keep them in jars.