A Calabrian antipasto peppers and potatoes

What I present today is a typical Calabrian side dish based on peppers and potatoes, in dialect "pìpi e patati". It's very easy to prepare, here is my recipe. The secret of the goodness of this dish is therefore all in the choice of raw material, which in Calabria in this period is certainly of the highest quality, but which also at other latitudes can be equally valid as long as seasonality is respected. If necessary, other ingredients can be added to this side dish of peppers and potatoes: red onions for example, or tomato cubes. The side dish of peppers and potatoes is not exactly light, but it will surely conquer you with its genuine and typically Mediterranean flavor.

For 4 people:

500 gr potatoes

1 kg of peppers

200 gr of ripe tomatoes

100 gr of frying oil

salt

Peel and wash the potatoes, cut into chunks (I make quite large pieces because I like to feel the taste), wash to remove some starch. Dry well and set aside. Wash the peppers (I mixed green and red, for this recipe it is recommended to use small and fleshy round ones), cut into 4 and deprive of seeds. They are washed, dried and set aside. Now put a large pan on the fire, pour a finger of oil and when it is hot fry the potatoes first and then the peppers. Once the vegetables are cooked, drain the excess oil, put them back in the pan and add some fresh tomatoes cut into small pieces, salt everything and cook a few more minutes until the vegetables are well mixed together.

Serve the side dish warm or at room temperature.

Traditional variant: when everything is ready, take a round bread and cut away horizontally the upper part, then remove the crumb. Fill the inside with peppers and potatoes and close again. 

The farmer prepared take away food that he then consumed during the day in the countryside.

Spaghetti with garlic, oil and chili pepper 

How many times have you come back from a concert or a night at the game and you get super hungry? 

Let's face it: always! 

The most popular recipe of the night or quick improvisation, the one that saves lunch or dinner is Spaghetti Aglio, Olio e Pepperoncino. Very simple dish to make with only five ingredients: pasta, oil, garlic parsley and chili ... The secret to a perfect success of the recipe lies primarily in the choice of ingredients, among which the most important is undoubtedly the extra virgin olive oil, we advise you to use a 100% Italian and organic, coming from a small mill rather than from large retailers. Each of us has different preferences in terms of chili and garlic, who prefers dried chili, who removes the seeds, who inserts the whole garlic who chops it all. I strictly use fresh chili and slice the garlic very thinly.

A classic of our gastronomic tradition. This first course of pasta made with oil, garlic and chili, has always accompanied us. 

Who among us has never had a midnight spaghetti? 

And what better solution than this. A recipe with very few ingredients, simple, cheap and with a quick and easy procedure, but that gives a truly excellent result. If you are looking for a recipe for a spaghetti you can try my version of spaghetti garlic, oil and chili.

Turn on the stove and run to the kitchen.

It is possible to replace the dried chili with fresh chili. In addition, when the dish is cooked, you can stir the pasta with breadcrumbs toasted in a pan and scented with various aromas.

Ingredients

2 persons

For the spaghetti:

200 g spaghetti

2 cloves of garlic

1 fresh chili pepper

extra virgin olive oil to taste

parsley to taste

Preparation

Cook the spaghetti in boiling, salted water. Pour plenty of oil into a pan and add the finely chopped garlic cloves, deprived of the core, along with two stalks of parsley. Add the dried chili and cook over very low heat. Drain the pasta al dente and dip it in a pan with the sauce, after removing the parsley stalks. Add a little cooking water if necessary and the pasta for a few minutes. 

Stir out of heat with finely chopped parsley and extra virgin olive oil.

Italian Clam chowder easy and tasty recipe

A second course of tasty fish to be enjoyed with croutons. Clam chowder is a very versatile recipe, in fact, it lends itself well as a condiment for a first course of fish with an unsurpassed flavor. The lightly browned anchovies give the clam chowder a stronger flavor, much appreciated by our diners. A sauce of peeled tomatoes with lots of clams ideal for summer lunches and dinners. 

The addictive scent conquers everyone!

Ingredients for 4 people

500 g clams already purged

Half a clove of garlic

Extra virgin olive oil to taste

Salt and pepper

Chopped parsley

4 anchovies in oil

400 g peeled tomatoes

Procedure:

Wash the clams well and place them in a colander. In a pot add the clams with half a glass of water, cook over medium heat with lid until all the clams are open (remove those remained closed). In a pan pour a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, heat slightly and add chopped garlic, parsley, anchovies and brown for a few seconds. At this point add the peeled tomatoes, crush them with a fork and add the clams without liquid. Strain the clam liquid with a narrow mesh strainer and pour it into the sauce. Cook over medium heat for about 15/20 minutes and season with salt if necessary. Serve the clam chowder hot with croutons, freshly chopped parsley and ground pepper if desired.

Excellent seasoning also for pasta! 

 

 

Barley and vegetable

The Barley and vegetable soup is a rustic dish of the peasant tradition that can become a "jolly single dish" for a rich and substantial but healthy meal, suitable for the whole family. This soup will warm you up and refresh you and, thanks to its invigorating and genuine properties, will give you an extra dose of energy, fiber, vitamins and precious nutrients. Barley and vegetable soup is a nutritious and tasty dish that will also be appreciated when you include it in the usual children's menu. An extra dose of Parmesan cheese, a generous drizzle of oil and lots of bruschettine di pancarré (to which you can give original shapes, such as hearts, stars) will be enough to make this barley and vegetable soup even more delicious and palatable even to the little ones, normally quite refractory to "healthy" ingredients. The Barley and vegetable soup is a must of the good table of the past: you will make it special if the vegetables will be of the highest choice and strictly in season. If you want to give your barley and vegetable soup an extra gear, add parmesan crusts, a way to rediscover the flavor of the food of the past, when in grandma's recipes the leftovers of the pantry and refrigerator were added, and everything was recycled. Enjoy your meal!

INGREDIENTS

200 g pearl barley

200 g green beans

200 g shelled fresh peas

100 g fresh spinach

2 Shallots

2 celery hearts

1 clove of garlic

1 sprig of fresh marjoram

1.2 l vegetable broth

Croutons

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (to wither)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (seasoning)

Salt

Preparation

Put the pearl barley in a tightly meshed strainer and rinse it under running water. Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot and cook the barley for about 20 minutes. Wash and trim the green beans, cut them into 2 or 3 parts according to their length. Cut the shallots into small pieces and put them in a pan, then add the whole and crushed garlic and let them dry with a little oil and as much water, over very low heat for 7-8 minutes. Add the celery and green beans prepared and let it flavor for 2-3 minutes, at the end remove the garlic. After the time indicated for cooking the barley, pour into the pot all the vegetables that you have started to cook, add the peas, marjoram leaves and continue cooking for about 10 minutes. If the broth dries out too much, add boiling water and then season with salt. Meanwhile, peel the spinach and wash very well, then drain and chop coarsely. Add them to the other ingredients and cook for another 5-6 minutes.

Season the soup with a drizzle of oil and serve with croutons.

 

Coppa di Parma PGI 

Is a traditional Italian cured meat, whose origins seem to date back to the 17th century where it was referred to in some documents of the time as “invested salami” or “biondole”. The Coppa di Parma PGI is produced following the specifications of the Consortium for the Protection of the Coppa di Parma PGI of Parma which identifies the entire production process of this particular product, from the production area to the type of meat to be used up to the procedure for arriving at the final product.

The production areas of the Coppa di Parma PGI are located in hilly and flat areas in Emilia Romagna and Lombardy, in the provinces of Mantua, Modena, Parma, Pavia, Reggio Emilia and in the municipalities on the Po ‘strip of the provinces of Cremona, Lodi and Milan. These areas are perfect for the production of this traditional cured meat as, thanks to the generally humid climate, cold in winter and hot in summer, they facilitate slow and constant curing of the Coppa di Parma PGI.

The choice of meats is accurate, using only heavy Italian pork of some breeds, pure or derived from these, such as Duroc, Landrace and Large White.

The pork cut used for the production of the Coppa di Parma PGI is the muscular portion of the neck, which is peeled, trimmed and, through dry salting, the meat is massaged with salt, spices and natural flavors to slowly flavor them from 6 to 10 days. They are then placed in cold storage to rest for about 5 days and stuffed exclusively into natural casings, tied by hand with hemp twine to then move on to the drying phase, a delicate moment where excess water is released.

Follows the curing phase, which will allow the product to take on its unique aroma and flavor. This period can last a minimum of 60 days for the smaller cold cuts up to a minimum of 90 days for the larger ones.

The cut of the coppa is a part of pork whose use is widespread throughout Italy and each region interprets this cut with its own version typical of the territory. From these different processes derive cured meats with different names among which we can find the capocollo, the loin or the lonzino, each with different characteristics due to different production methods.

Coppa di Parma PGI has a typical cylinder shape and a relatively short seasoning. It is characterized by a compact slice when cut, white in the fat part and red in the lean part. On the palate it has a delicate and slightly savory taste, perfect to accompany other cold cuts for a mixed platter accompanied by bread or fried cake. It is also versatile in the kitchen, lightly seared, it can accompany vegetable soups or flavor roasts or other meat dishes.

INGREDIENTS

Pork meat, salt, dextrose, spices, natural flavors; antioxidant: sodium ascorbate; preservatives: sodium nitrite, potassium nitrate.

CONSERVATION TIPS

Store in the refrigerator and, once opened, store in cling film or in a kitchen towel and consume within 30 days. Keep refrigerated!

It is a cured meat with multiple uses, which goes well with different dishes thanks to its particular spicy flavor, decisive but never too intrusive. So, let's see what can be some uses that can be made of the coppa in the immense inventory of Italian culinary tradition. In its dried version, therefore intended as a salami, the coppa can be an excellent substitute for the usual pasta with bacon or amatriciane. For example, you can fry three slices for diner in a pan with butter, just long enough for it to become transparent (no more than two minutes). Separately, cook linguine – or alternatively any other long pasta and stir everything with good pesto. Just before serving the dish, you can add other decorative coppa slices and an extra sprinkling of pecorino cheese. The result will be a dish as unusual as it is delicious.

A good way to cook it, to prevent it from drying out, is on the griddle. Be sure to chop the outer flaps if they have excess fat, heat a little oil and when it starts to smoke add the coppa. Cook over moderate heat 4 minutes per side, being careful not to pierce it when you turn it. Once cooked, place the meat on a plate, add salt and pepper and cover with a sheet of aluminum foil for two minutes before serving.

 

Sausages and fennel stewed with saffron.

It is the ideal lunch or dinner for these cold winter days, perhaps served with generous slices of soft polenta that collects the sauce or toasted in the oven ... a real goodness! 

The fennel, cooked in wedges in the sauce release all their aromatic aroma and flavor and, in this recipe, so simple even the sausage contributes very well to flavor the sauce. Sometimes just a few ingredients are enough to serve an excellent dish on the table; the need to spend as little as possible and a pinch of imagination often and willingly we can bring to the table a good second course. Let's see together the process of the recipe ... sausage and fennel stewed with saffron.

for 4 persons

8 medium sausages

3 fennels

2 sliced tomatoes

400 ml vegetable broth

1 sachet of saffron

1 small white onion

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Procedure

Peel the fennel removing the green parts and the base; Without removing the hardest outer leaves, cut them into thin wedges and wash them in running water then let them drain in a colander. Prepare the vegetable broth, dilute the saffron and keep it warm. Peel and slice the onion, heat the oil in a large pan and stew the onion over medium heat; Add the fennel and stir and brown lightly. Turn up the heat and add the sausage, as soon as it has taken a little color add the sliced tomato, salt and pepper and finally the hot broth. Partially close the pan with the lid, boil lower the heat to a minimum and cook all the ingredients until they are well cooked but not undone; If the sauce is still abundant, raise the heat and let it shrink to taste.

Serve the sausage and fennel stew with hot saffron. and enjoy your meal!

 

What is it about leftovers that makes them so damn tasty the next day?

Together with chicken meat, its close relative, turkey meat represents one of the main sources of noble proteins. Lean, protein, low in calories and with very little cholesterol, turkey meat is highly appreciated by consumers, also thanks to the increase in trust in modern poultry farms.

In the case of Thanksgiving - the Thanksgiving dinner that brings together American and Canadian (but now also Italian) families around a table in memory of the first harvest of the pilgrim fathers who arrived in the new world in the seventeenth century - the creative use of leftovers often gives even tastier results than the original dishes. The most common leftover the day after Thanksgiving is the Turkey Monte Cristo sandwich, a toast stuffed with turkey breast, lettuce, cranberry sauce (cranberry jam) and mustard. The combination of sweet and savory is a perfect summary of the flavors of Thanksgiving enjoyed the night before.

Side dishes

A special feature of the Thanksgiving dinner is the traditional amount of side dishes, in memory of the famous harvest. When Native Americans introduced corn, pumpkin, potatoes and other previously unknown foods into the settlers' diet, the life expectancy of newcomers changed dramatically. Today, with the mountains of potato mash and even stewed peas left in the soup bowls in the aftermath of the party - to recover from the food coma, complete with unfastened belts and football games on TV - excellent breaded croquettes are made.

If further proof is needed that everything is better if breaded and fried, with the leftovers of the yams less canonical croquettes are obtained. The yams, or batatas – sweet potatoes with orange flesh – for Thanksgiving constitute the sweet potato casserole, a dish that to many Italians is often too unusual. Boiled, peeled and pureed with butter and salt, the tubers are then put in a pan and sprinkled with marshmallows before baking for a few minutes. The crust that forms is addictive.

If, on the other hand, onions in béchamel sauce and other side dishes, such as steamed green beans or roasted Brussels sprouts, are advanced, they can be used in a respectable rustic cake, or in a quiche. Still with regard to the many side dishes on the table of the pilgrim fathers, with the leftover butter carrots are excellent and velvety.

Turkey Tetrazzini recipe

400 g. of spaghettini

50 g. butter

3 tablespoons flour 

500 ml. of meat broth

250 ml. of liquid cream

3 tablespoons dry sherry

1 sprig of parsley

A pinch of salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Pepper

600 g. chopped turkey meat

200 g. grated Parmesan cheese

Almond flakes,

Break and cook the noodles in salted water, drain halfway through cooking and set aside. Melt the butter over low heat, incorporate the flour, and add the broth, stirring until the roux boils. Remove from heat and stir in cream, sherry, parsley, salt, nutmeg and pepper. Stir in the half-cooked spaghetti and turkey meat and mix gently. Pour the mixture into an ungreased lasagna pan and level with a spatula. Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate for 1 hour. Heat the oven to 180°C. Remove aluminum foil; Sprinkle the surface with grated Parmesan cheese and almond flakes. Cover again and bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove the foil in the last 10 minutes to brown the surface. 

Devour immediately, leaving room for a leftover slice of pecan pie.

 

 

THE TRUFFLE OF PIZZO

A SWEET EXCELLENCE WITH A CREAMY HEART

Ice cream has existed since the nineteenth century, when it was still prepared with ice sticks brought down from the mountain. Over time, in Italy it was Sicily that emerged and distinguished itself in the production of ice cream in steel molds, until it was soon reached by Calabria, in particular by the pastry chefs of Pizzo Calabro, such as the Belvedere family. Pizzo Calabro, in the province of Vibo Valentia, has always been a country with a strongly commercial character, partly by nature, partly by geographical position; certainly, its strong point is the square, where historically pastry chefs from the rest of Calabria met, as well as from Naples or Sicily. 

(Vibo Valentia is a city and commune in the Calabria region of southern Italy, near the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital of the province of Vibo Valentia, and is an agricultural, commercial and tourist center. 

There are also several large manufacturing industries, including the tuna district of Maierato.)

In short, it was a place of sweet exchanges and sharing of knowledge, and even today no other Calabrian square equals it in terms of shape, beauty and liveliness. Therefore, Pizzo was already known for the production of sweets and ice creams (the Truffle has only crowned this tradition), which was done only a couple of times a year, because in those days when there were no refrigerators it was a really a long and laborious process; it was prepared, for example, for the patronal feast of April 23 or on the occasion of some noble wedding. Until one day things changed...

In 1952, on the occasion of the important visit of a prince, a greater request for sweets and ice creams was made to the skilled pastry chefs of Pizzo; everyone did their utmost in view of such a meeting, but some more than others. The ice cream maker Giuseppe De Maria, who suddenly had been left without granita or molds, invented a new product (perhaps inspired by the homonymous Piedmontes' chocolate?): with his hands he modeled balls of homemade ice cream, half hazelnut and half chocolate, with liquid dark chocolate, caramel and Strega liqueur inside, then closing them with a method similar to that used for arancino (the master in fact had Sicilian origins); Finally, he covered these balls with a sprinkling of bitter cocoa powder (and sugar), put them on parchment paper inside an ice stick to ensure that they consolidated (refrigerators did not yet exist). Thus, was born the Truffle of Pizzo, different from the Sicilian one that instead also contains almonds. Its name derives from the shape that reminds a bit of that of the mushroom, and in the past even more, since they were much more irregular than they are today. The artisanal method has not changed, and the truffle is still made in the same way: two balls of ice cream, hazelnut and chocolate, are shaped in the palm of the hand in the shape of a hemisphere; then it is necessary to exert a slight pressure inside to create a "hole" in which to add a flow of melted dark chocolate, without preservatives, additives or thickeners. At this point the truffle should be put immediately in the chiller for about three hours. But the secret is all in a very quick gesture to close it, an art that only the most skilled can do perfectly, often without even knowing how to explain it. And then, to make the Truffle of Pizzo unique and inimitable, are the quality of the ingredients and the use of machinery still very ancient, especially in a pastry.

Among the various companies (about thirty) producing truffles and the many pastry shops in the square, the Belvedere stands out, which for years has dominated the pastry scene of Pizzo, with a family tradition that really starts from afar. The Belvederes, in fact, have been pastry chefs practically forever; in the fifties they were the first to bring to Pizzo the industrial machine to make ice cream: many still remember the day when Domenico Belvedere offered ice cream to everyone in the square, sensing the potential to make this product in larger quantities, at lower costs. Today about 2000 truffles come out of the Pasticceria Belvedere a day, which reach as far as Lazio, Emilia-Romagna and Sicily, also in other versions, such as the pistachio; just as their creativity in history has not stopped and the Belvedere have taken up an old dessert, even older than the truffle: the Belvedere Cake, with Avola almonds and hazelnuts, drowned in coffee. Because let's not forget that in Pizzo they were pastry chefs before ice cream makers. 

Have you ever tasted this delicacy? 

If you have not done so, the advice is to remedy it as soon as possible. 

Beware: the truffle of Pizzo has more than1000 calories!

 

Soft raspberry and ricotta cake

The soft raspberry and ricotta cake is tasty, soft, very easy to prepare and also beautiful to look at, an element not to be overlooked in the kitchen. I love berries very much. I like them all, but raspberries are the ones I prefer, very particular berries, which are often used to embellish salads, cocktails and fruit salads. In fact, looking carefully at the raspberry you will realize that it is not a single fruit but an aggregate fruit, composed of many drupes (the balls!), each with its own seed. Strong, isn't it? I am used to red ones but there are many species and many different colors, from red to black passing through the gold variety. This cake is fine for all, even the wild ones, a little smaller but very tasty.

In Christian art, raspberry was considered a symbol of kindness because of its heart-like shape and blood-red juice. 

Accept this recipe as my gesture of friendship and kindness towards you!

Ingredients

400 g Fresh ricotta

250 g Raspberries

200 g Sugar

190 g Flour

3 Eggs

100 g Butter

1 sachet baking powder for cakes

Organic lemon zest

Salt

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180°C. In a small bowl, melt the butter in the microwave (or in a saucepan on the stove). In the first bowl, mix the sugar, flour and baking powder. In the second bowl, whisk the eggs and then add the ricotta after beating it a little to make it creamy. Grate the lemon zest in it. Add the mixture to the flour and sugar and mix until smooth. Don't work it too long, though! Also incorporate the melted butter and transfer half of the dough to the cake pan lined with parchment paper. Distribute 90 g of raspberries, washed and dried and then cover with the remaining dough. Finally add another 90 g of raspberries to the surface. Distribute 90 g of raspberries, washed and dried and then cover with the remaining dough. Finally add another 90 g of raspberries to the surface. Bake for 45 minutes. 

Allow to cool and serve in slices with the remaining fresh raspberries.

 

Is it true that peaches make you fat? 

Can a spring and summer fruit so rich in water be responsible for weight gain?

Some of our reader friends have written to us because their trusted dietician has advised them against them for a while. 

However, at lunch they could continue to eat pasta and bread... 

Do peaches make you fat?

My point of view is that a competent nutritionist does not advise against the consumption of fresh seasonal fruit. Whether they are nectarine, peaches, yellow or white flesh, it does not matter. If our dietician tells us that peaches make you fat, there is definitely something wrong. In this guide we will see, in a scientific way, why a peach does not make you fat by analyzing nutritional values, calories and glycemic index. Finally, we will see how and when to consume peaches during the day. As you can see peaches have a very low-calorie density: only 44 calories for every 100 grams of the product. Considering that each fruit weighs on average between 100 and 150 grams, we can safely say that eating a peach does not make you fat because it provides between 40 and 60 calories. 

It is true that peaches, like all fruit, contain mainly carbohydrates (about 90%), but it is equally true that not all carbohydrates are the same. Those of fruit, for example, contain not only glucose, but also fructose, a type of sugar that follows different metabolic pathways and is not responsible for increasing blood sugar. The carbohydrates of peaches do not make you fat because they do not directly affect blood sugar. In addition, peaches are some fruits with a rather low glycemic index (35/100) and therefore do not cause glycemic peaks. 

So why is fruit consumption not recommended in some cases? Because fructose is a sugar that does not end up directly in the bloodstream but goes to fill the glycogen stores of the liver. This means that the liver uses fructose to replenish its energy reserves to keep blood sugar stable over time.

 

What happens if the reserves are already full? 

Is that all sugars cannot be stored in the form of glycogen and are therefore transformed into fats. At this point, it is true, peaches also make you fat. Imagine you had the classic Italian lunch. A nice plate of pasta, a second course, a side dish (maybe potatoes), fruit and at the end also the dessert. Fats and carbohydrates accumulate in large quantities in your body that quickly saturate glycogen stores. Both muscle and liver cells no longer accept macronutrients. The only ones to take them will be adipocytes, adipose tissue cells.

So, peaches make you fat like all other foods if the context is wrong. If you already have a diet rich in carbohydrates, evidently fruit sugars will also have their weight. However, itis not the fruit that is the problem, but everything you have eaten before! 

 My advice is to avoid eating peaches after a large meal for two reasons. They provide sugars after a meal in which there are too many sugars; digestion times are long due to the presence of other foods for which there is a risk that the fruit ferments in the stomach causing accumulation of intestinal air.

If you have paid attention to what has been said so far, you have realized that it is not the peaches that make you fat but the whole context: bad eating habits, lack of physical activity, ... So, wondering how many peaches a day you can eat in order not to gain weight makes little sense. The secret to proper nutrition for weight loss is moderation. Let's avoid excesses and our body will only benefit. The situation is analogous with peaches. 

We can eat them every day and one is enough to live peacefully and without the fear of gaining weight.

 

CREPES MOUSSE OF RICOTTA AND STRAWBERRIES

EXCELLENT SIMPLE DESSERT AND EASY TO PERFORM. 

Crepes with a filling of ricotta and strawberries .... and dark chocolate, everyone agrees young and old. Strawberries are rich in vitamin C, fiber, antioxidants .... they are good for you when they are in season.

Ingredients for crepes

250 g flour

3 eggs

500 g milk

50 g sugar

salt

Ingredients for the mousse

200 g ricotta cheese

100 g cream

50 g icing sugar

strawberries to taste

dark chocolate

Preparation

Let's start by preparing the mousse, in a bowl work the ricotta with the liquid cream and sugar. Add the strawberries cut into small cubes with the ricotta. Now put to rest for an hour. Now we prepare the crepes, beat the eggs, with sugar pour the milk. Add the flour always working the mixture with a whisk. Add the last the pinch of salt. Heat a non-stick pan well, pour a ladle of batter in the center. Cook on both sides, when it is ready put it on a tray. Now stuffed with ricotta mousse, close roll, garnish the crepes with strawberries and the chocolate.