Buckwheat pancakes (gluten free).

This is an healthy recipe really easy and quick, averything depend on the seasoning you choose.

The rough taste of buckwheat is, according to me, great with honey or maple syrup but if you want you can indulge in chocolate too of course!

Buckwheat is gluten free and it's used a lot in the north of Italy, especially in a mountain zone of Lombardia called Valtellina.

I've not tried yet but I think a savoury version (no sugar and a pinch of salt added) could be great with sour cream and bacon would be great.

And I was talking of healthy things uh!?

Here the recipe for 10 small pancakes or 5 big.

1 cup buckwheat flour

2 eggs

1 cup milk (any kind: cow, rice, soy...)

1/4 cup raw sugar or white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

oil or butter to grease the pan

Mix eggs with sugar untill smooth then add, little by little, flour and baking powder then milk untill you have a perfect mix with no lumps.

Let it rest for about 20 minutes, grease and heat a pan then start making pancakes.

Serve them hot with the seasoning of your choice.

Potado cutlets ( Patacotolette)

I'm back!

Tired and sick of this hot wheather (hot douring the week then raining on the week ends I plan to spend to the seaside...Lucky me) but relaxed enough to translate and post a new recipe.

This is quite unusual but funny, nice for children and quite healthy if you use a good frying oil and don't let it burn.

For 4 serves you need:

4 chicken breast's slices

1 potado, grated raw

2 eggs

7 oz. breadcrumb

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

salt

frying oil

Prepare the crumble mixing grated potado, breadcrumb, cheese and salt.

Beat the 2 eggs apart then dip the slices in.

Once they're egg-covered pass them in the crumble, then once again in the beaten eggs then a last time in the crumble pressing a little with hands to stick the crumble at best.

Fry in a lot hot frying oil, serve with a green salad and a lemon slice.

So easy and quick!

You can of course change the kind of meat: turkey, veal or pork are suitable; you can also use grated Pecorino cheese instead of Parmesan.

Granny cake ( Torta della nonna)

I've seen that "granny cake" in english means a pineapple cake: this is something else but I wanted to translate the Italian name literally.

This cake is one of my favourite, it's so easy, plain but rich in flavour and so "country" to see.

You need:

For the shortcrust pastry:

12 oz. all purpose flour

1 bag baking pownder

4 oz. butter

6 oz. sugar

1 egg

1 yolk

a sprinkle of salt

For the cream:

3 1/2 cups milk

peel of half a lemon

7 oz. sugar

8 yolks

1 1/2 oz. all purpose flour

1 vanilla pod (or vanilla aroma)

For the decoration:

pine kernel

icing sugar

Put milk, vanilla and lemon peel in a pan, put on medium heat.

In a bowl beat the yolks with sugar untill you have a foaming cream, then add flour and mix well.

Add hot milk to the yolk cream little by little, mixing then put the liquid again in the cooking pan and put on light heat mixing untill the cream become dense: at this point cook other 5 minutes then turn off fire.

Keep off vanilla pod and lemon peel.

Let it get cold.

Now knead shortcrust pastry: mix flour with baking powder, add soften butter and knead.

Add also egg, yolk, a salt sprinkle and sugar, knead again untill you have a a smooth dough loaf, close it in a clin film and let rest in fridge for at least one hour.

Stretch the shortcrust pastry on the bottom and sides (let some dough more out of the tin) of a round baking tin, prick the bottom with a fork, pour the cream, spread it well, cover with pine kernel, refold the plus of dough on the cake.

Put in hot oven at 345 F° for about 40 minutes, let it cold and cover with icing sugar.

Tenerina cake (Torta tenerina)

It's Valentine's day period, everyone is looking for presents, flowers, chocolate.

I read everywhere of women and girls in search of chocolate treats for their men so I decidet to post the recipe of a very particoular cake, Tenerina cake.

It's a typical dessert from Ferrara city (not far from Bologna, I've got there my uncles and cousins, it's a little and quiet city, perfect for a slow kind of life, for bicycles, famous for the ferrarese bread).

This cake remains very short, humid: it's normal, it's quite a sort of brownie to tell the truth.

You need:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup all purpose flour

8 oz. dark chocolate

1 1/2 oz. milk

3 eggs

salt (a sprinkle)

Chop chocolate then melt it with milk "bagnomaria" (in a double saucepan).

In a bowl mix butter and sugar untill you obtain a cream then add 3 egg yolks and flour.

Let the chocolate getting warm then add to the cream mixing.

In a bowl apart whip the egg whites up with a sprinkle of salt (the egg whites should be at room temperature) then add them to the chocolate mixture mixing carefully and slowly.

Pour it in a buttered cake tin and cook for about 25 minutes at 300 F°.

When the cake is cold sprinkle with icing sugar, you can also make or buy a heart-shaped stencil and use it to decor the cake with sugar; you can serve it with whipped cream aside.

Fried custard (Crema fritta)

In Italy, douring Carnival period, there's the tradition of fried sweets: there are many, fried custard is a typical delight of Bologna and surroundings.

Often is served as side dish in a speciality called "fritto misto alla bolognese" (deep fried mix Bolognese style) with fried apples, courgettes, cauliflowers, carrots, onion rings and sometimes other ingredients.

It's a mix of sweet and salty flavours, anyway fried custard could be served alone as dessert.

You need:

4 1/2 oz. all purpose flour+ some to dust

2 1/4 cups of milk

5 eggs

3 1/2 oz. sugar

1 vanilla stick

breadcrumbs

frying oil

lemon peel

icing sugar

Open 3 eggs in a bowl, add sugar and beat untill the cream is foamy then add sieved flour and mix.

Put milk in a pan with cutted vanilla stick and lemon peel taking it near to boiling point.

Take off vanilla stick and lemon peel and pour milk in the egg cream slowly, little by little, mixing.

Cook the cream on light heat for 5 minutes mixing.

Soak a oven paper sheet then drain and cover a a baking thin.

Pour the cream in it and spread with a spatula untill you have a uniform layer of cream, about 1 inches thick.

Put the baking thin in the fridge for about 4 hours, it must be well solidified.

When it's ready, using a knife, cut the custard in diamond-shaped pieces about 2 x 2 inches, rinsing everytime the blade under cold water.

Open remaining eggs in another bowl and beat them lightly and in two different dishes put flour and breadcrumbs: flour costard pieces, pass them in the beated eggs then in breadcrumbs.

Heat a copius quantity of frying oil in a pan, when it's hot fry the custard turning the pieces untill the're gold and crispy.

Drip the pieces on blotting-paper and keep them warm, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

Caramel milk pudding (Creme Caramel)

This is a tasty, sweet and nourishing dessert, quite common in Italian homes and family restaurants.

It's seemingly a recipes that comes even from ancient Rome where it wasn't sweet, then in Middle Age it was prepared with honey.

Cristoforo Colombo took this recipes douring his journeys: probably it's because of this that creme caramel, with different names and variations is common and prepared in Latin America.

For 8 persons you need:

3 cups whole fresh milk

1 3/4 cups fresh cream

1 lemon

10 ounces sugar

10 yolks

2 eggs

1 sprinkle salt

Put in a capacious pan the yellow part of the lemon peel, milk and 4 1/2 ounces sugar.

Let it gently boil then continue cooking with very light heat, untill milk will be reducted to the half of the initial quantity more or less.

Put eggs in a bowl, add yolks, the salt sprinkles and 3 1/2 ounces of sugar, mix well without whipping.

Add cream little by little, then milk without lemon peel (filter it) then mixing.

Put a little less than 2 ounces of sugar in a little pan, add a couple of drops of lemon juice and a spoon of water.

Cook the sugar untill you have an amber caramel.

Pour the caramel into a pudding mould, spread it well on the bottom and on the walls.

Pour the mixture in the mould then transfer it into a baking tin with tall edges filled with hot water.

Put everything in the owen, cook for 1 hour and halfat low heat (275 F°), let it get cold, cover with kitchen foil, put the pudding in fridge for about 12 hours then pull out of shape (really easier if you use that new silikon moulds!)

Italian style onions omelette ( Frittata alle cipolle)

It's an old old dish, often prepared in the past in the countries of Italy from North to South, it's made with simply and cheap ingredients that every family could afford.

Nowadays it could be a complete meal served with fresh salad and tomatoes or an informal appetizer if cutted in tiny blocks sticked on a toothpick.

you need:

6-8 egg for 6-8 for 4-5 persons

a nut of butter

salt and pepper

3 little red onions

2 tablespoons of water

2 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil

3 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan

Put in a pan the butter, turno on medium heat, cut in very thin slices the onions then put them in the pan.

Let them stir-fry, add a little water if needed, when they are soft and golden let them warm.

In a bowl beat eggs with salt, pepper and parmesan.

Put another pan on the fire with extravirgin olive oil, add onions to the bowl with eggs, mix then pour in the hot pan: shake a little to let the mixture spread, cover with a lid, turn the fire to light then wait.

When the omelette is solidified you have to turn it on the other side: how it's up to your ability...

If you're a good at you can rotate it in the pan with a good wrist movement, if you're like me (not so skilled in acrobatic cooking) put a dish on the omelette, keep it firmly then turn the pan.

Now the omelette is on the dish upside down, let it slip in the pan once again, add a little more oil if needed, finish the cooking.

If you want to cut the frittata let it get cold, if not you can serve it hot or warm, as you like.

Frittata, like omelette, is a versatile food: the one with onions is typical here but not the only one.

You can add mozzarella cheese cubes, chopped stirfried bacon or ham, stuffed broccoli, stirfried courgettes or leeks, sausage and everything you want.

If sometimes any pasta left from a lunch or a dinner, the next meal often present a "frittata di pasta " (pasta omelette): with the same procedure just add the pasta left (spaghetti are the best) mix well with the egg mixture then pour in the pan.

It's yummy!!

Egg liquor (Bombardino all'uovo)

The perfect treat for cold days and nights, delicious if warmed a little, great if drunk with Christmas sweets.

Ingredients:

3 cups of non skimmed milk

29 ounces sugar

6 egg yolks

1 cup alchool

1 cup sweet rum

1 vanillin sachet

Boil the milk with half of the sugar gently mixing now and then.

Let it cook a couple of minutes after boiling, then turn off the heat and let it warm.

In a big bowl mix egg yolks with the other half of sugar untill they're creamy and frothy: now add little by little the warm milk, mixing very well to avoid lumps: to be sure you can filter the liquid at this point.

I didn't do it anyway.

Add vanillin, alcohol and rum liquor, mix again then pour in bottles and close them.

Wait about a week before using, shaking the bottles sometimes.

Egg custard (Zabaglione or Zabaione)

Zabaione is a sweet egg custard very tasty, flavoured with Marsala wine.

It's often made douring Christmas holidays, when you spend time with friends and family.

You need:

4 egg yolks1/2 cup

sugar1/2 cup

Marsala wine (or Port or Madeira if you can't find Marsala)

Beat egg yolks until fluffy in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (this kind of cooking is called Bagnomaria).

Add sugar and beat again, then Marsala and beat.

Whisk over simmering water, until the cream thickens but don't let it boil, turn off the fire a little before.

Let the cream cool (room temperature) then serve in glass or glass bowls, decorate with biscuits, fresh fruit or/and whipped cream.

You can also use this cream to fill tarts, cakes or as a sauce for other sweets like Christmas cakes.

Tiramisu' dessert (Tiramisu')

Tiramisu' is a very famous Italian dessert but it's quite new even on our tables.

It hasn't got a long history but, because of it's own great taste, everyone loves it.

Tiramisu’ can be prepared in advance and kept in the freezer.

Remember to remove it from the freezer enough time in advance to serve it cold but soft, not frozen.

Ingredients:

1 cup and half of espresso coffee

about 40 savoiardi biscuits (ladyfinger cookies)

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites, whipped

1 lb. mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup of sugar

cocoa powder or chocolate chips/ drops

1/2 cup of marsala wine (if you like, it's an optional, I never use it)

Prepare espresso and let it be cold (you can sugar it when it's hot and mix but I don't love very much too sweet desserts so I don't usually do it).

With a rubber spatula mash mascarpone cheese untill it's creamy, mix yolks and sugar untill sugar is melted and pour the mixture in the bowl with mascarpone.

Beat very well, untill everything is well mixed, if you want add marsala wine now.

Whip the whites and add them to mascarpone: fold the whipped whites in the cream mixing up and down (not round) gently.

Now take a glass container of about 12 X 8 inches, soak ladyfinger one at time and places them in a layer on the bottom of container.

Pour and spread half of the mascarpone cream over the cookies, repeat the step with a second layer of biscuits and top with the rest of the cream.

Sprinkle with cocoa powder or cover with chocolate chips (my favourite!).

Refrigerate for about 3-4 hours.

You can also choose individual servings in glass cups, here just put one layer of ladyfingers and then a generous quantity of cream, in this case 2 hours in the freezer are enough.

Carbonara spaghetti (Spaghetti alla carbonara)

Today I have time enough to post the second recipe.
It's another celebrity of Italian kitchen: the Carbonara.
It's quite simple to prepare, just remember that spaghetti is the only right pasta format to serve with and try not to evercook them ;)
Carbonara is a very antique dish, tipycal of Rome zone.
There are many stories about how it was invented, the most interesting sees Carbonara as a result of the fantasy of Roman cooks at the end of the Second World War, when Americans comes to Italy with many food stocks as bacon and lyophilisate eggs but probably in those years Carbonara was old yet^^.
To reach the real Italian taste you should use GUANCIALE (pig cheek very similar to bacon) but I suppose it's not easy to find everywhere so bacon is ok anyway:)
Here is the preparation:
Count about 100 gr of spaghetti/person (it's quite a big plate, if you're not a great eater use less pasta)
1 egg/person
20 gr. bacon cubes/person
10 gr. grated pecorino cheese/person
black pepper as you want

While the pasta is cooking put the bacon cubes in a pan and fry them (with a little oil if you want, of course witout is lighter) until the grease is trasparent and the meat a little crunchy then mix in a bowl eggs with pecorino and pepper (you can add a sprinkle of salt but ingredients shouldn't need it).
when spaghetti are ready put the bacon in the bowl with eggs then pasta, mix quickly and serve immediatly (Carbonara is great but if you wait just a couple of minutes it becames a sort of glue:P).
You can add pecorino and or pepper if you like.
Enjoy your dish!!