Potato gnocchi with leeks and blue cheese fondue.

Yesterday I spent the day visiting a big fair in Santarcangelo di Romagna: many many sellers, clothes, home clothing, underwear and...Food.

Food, food, food with producer from the whole country, from Trentino Alto Adige (North of Italy) to Sicily (the deep South) with great cheeses, breads, sweets, meats...

As usual I bought some fresh black truffles then I found a producer from Vallecamonica ( near Brescia, Lombardia) with some cheeses...

They were so smelly and tasted sooo good I had to bought them!

I had a Fatuli' (smoked goat cheese) and a Blu di capra ( blue cheese half goat milk half cow).

I used the last one to make this recipe, I don't think you can find it easily outside Italy but you can use Gorgonzola cheese or a blue cheese.

 

2 servings:

 

1 medium leek

 

14 oz. potato gnocchi

 

1 tablespoon butter

 

2.5 oz. blue cheese your choice

 

Put on stove a big pot full of water, bring it to boil then add a pinch of salt.

In a large pan put butter and finely sliced leek, let it golden, add a little water if needed.

When the leek is soft turn off fire and add the blue cheese in little dices, cover with a lid.

Cook the gnocchi into the boiling water then drain them and pour in the pan.

Pan-fry for a minute, be careful not to broke gnocchi then serve hot.

With my blu di capra I didn't add any salt to the sauce, it depends on taste so try it before seasoning your gnocchi!

Serve hot.

Vegetable burgers ( Hamburger di verdure)

This is a great recipe for vegetarian and for children who don't love vegetable.

It's easy, quite quick and tasty, you can prepare mixture in advance.

For 4-6 serves you need:

about 2 lb mixed vegetables ( carrots, leeks, spinach, courgettes, green beans...)

7 oz. potadoes

2 eggs

1 egg white

4 tablespoons grated cheese

breadcrumb

basil

salt and pepper

frying oil

Boil potadoes in salted water.

Clean vegetables, chops them in pieces and boil "al dente".

Drain them then mince and let the remaining water drain.

Pass potadoes in the potadomasher.

Mix vegetables with potadoes, add eggs , cheese and minced basil plus salt and pepper.

Create little burgers, pass them into the egg white then in breadcrumb.

Heat oil in a pan then cook burgers untill they're gold on both sides.

Serve hot with a plain salad or into a sandwich like a meat hamburger.

Noodles with Parma ham and Parmesan (Tagliatelle al crudo e Grana)

A different way to serve noodles, the proof that here in Bologna we don't only know Bolognese sauce ;)

According to me it's a very refined dish, perfect for a special dinner.

Remember to add salt to boiling water but not in the sauce: this is beacause sauteed ham and Parmesan are salted enought!

You need for 4:

18 ounces egg noodles

1 ounces butter

1 leek

4 spoons freshly grated Parmesan

3 1/2 ounces Parma ham in 2-3 thick slices

pepper if you like

Cut the ham in sticks of about 1/2 inches then clean the leek and cut it in very thin slices.

Put the ham in a pan with butter, brown it for 2-3 minutes then low fire, add leek and cook for other 4-5 minutes.

Boil noodles just slightly firm, drain them and take aside 3-4 spoons of cooking water: put noodles in the pan with sauce,light fire, add 2 spoons of Parmesan, pepper, cooking water and saute' for one minute.

Put in dishes , add the rest of Parmesan and serve.

You can garnish the plate with a wisp of parsley.

Teryaki chicken with leeks (pollo teriyaki con porri)

Ok maybe it's not an Italian recipe, you can called it "fusion" but I use to cook with ingredients I discover during my travels.

I've been in Japan during my honeymoon and I loved it so much.

I've tried this recipe in a small food stand in the old part of the Kyoto's station, I loved it, my husband loved it and once at home we would like to eat it once again: it's not the very same of the japanese one but it's ok, tasty and quick to prepare.

It' really really easy: chop chicken breast in small pieces, put it in a bowl with teriyaki sauce, mix well and let it rest in fridge for about 2 hours.

Then prepare a pan, add extravirgin olive oil, leeks cutted round ( don't add the green part of course), salt and chicken with the sauce.

Stirfry untill leeks are tender and chicken is well cooked, if it dries add a little more teriyaki sauce and a sprinkle of sesame seeds on top.

You can serve it with white rice, it's perfect!