Creamy onions bucatini.

This recipe is easy, tasty and suitable for vegetarians or vegans (just avoid bacon, use extra-virgin olive oil instead of butter).
It's also really quick and you can prepare the sauce while the water is boiling and bucatini cook.
For 6 serves:

21 oz. bucatini

3 big blonde/ white onions

1/2 cup butter or extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups (more or less) water

a small pinch of baking soda

2 cups grated Parmesan (or Pecorino cheese if you prefer)

1 cup diced bacon if you like

Put the water pot on fire, meanwhile slice onions very thin, put them in a pan with the grease of your choice on low fire.
Add the pinch of baking soda, stir well and add water enough to let the onions simmer.
Keep the fire low, onions must melt, not get brown.
You must end up with a sort of onion cream.
In another skillet you can crisp bacon cubes then you can add them to onions and mix: taste and if necessary add salt (and pepper if you like).
Drain your bucatini, save half a cup of cooking water, add it to onions after you poured in bucatini.
Add grated Parmesan and mix well and quickly on fire for a couple of minutes.
Serve this dish hot.
Have a nice meal!! :)

Sicilian cupcakes.

I'm up to something on my Italian site: a "cupcakes project".

It's sort of challenge (with myself and contribution from friends and fans) to create twenty different cupcakes, each one to match one of the Regions of Italy for ingredients and traditions.

Probably you can't name many of these Regions, I can recall some of them to your memory: Tuscany, Lombardy, Liguria and Sicily are the most famous among foreigners I think.

I don't want to post all the cupcakes I'm going to make because it will be difficult for you to find all the ingredients but I made Sicilian ones thinking of Sicilian cannoli which are quite famous worldwide then I thought you would like to try them.

With this recipe you'll have 8 cupcakes.

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1 tbs Marsala wine (if you like)

1 egg

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 ts baking powder

1/3 cup melted butter

1 pinch of salt

3 tbs candied orange

milk as needed to make the dough creamy

Frosting:

1+1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese

1/3 cup icing sugar

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

8 candied cherries

Finely chop the candied orange, mix all the dry ingredients then add egg, butter, Marsala and milk enough to make the dough creamy.

Fill the muffin pan and bake for 10-15 minutes at 350 F°.

Beat ricotta cheese with sugar with an elettric mixer untill fluffy then add chocolate chips and mix with a spoon.

If you want to use a sac-a-poche to spread the icing be sure to use a tip large enough to let the chocolate pass.

Yes I did the mistake if you're asking...

I had to cut the sac-a-poche and I had to use it without tip (you can see it from the photo...)

Add a candied cherry on top to decorate.

Condensed milk cake.

I found this recipe HERE, it's easy and really quick, I've just added a step beating whites untill firm.
It's good for breakfast or tea time, you can try it with different kind of flours like chestnut flour or buckwheat to find new tastes and consistences.

1 can condensed and  sweetened milk (400 gm)

4 Eggs

1 cup Flour 

1/2 Teaspoon Baking powder

1/2 cup melted Butter + some to grease the pan

Brush the cake pan with butter, mix all the ingredients in a bowl except egg whites: you have to whip them untill firm then mix them with the rest of the dough.
Pour in the cake pan then bake in preheated oven ( 175 F°) for about 30-40 minutes.
You can fill it with marmelade, jam or chocolate cream.

Artusi's stew.

This is a revisited  recipe from Pellegrino Artusi's main opera " La Scienza in cucina e l'Arte di mangiar bene", 1891 ( " Kitchen science and the art of good eating"). Artusi has been the first to try to write down and classify the Italian cooking tradition, he was born and raised in Forlimpopoli, not far from Rimini and Bologna, where I live and his contribution is still very cherished.

If you want to know more about Artusi you can click HERE to learn more (in English or French) about him, about the Artusi foundation, Artusi's feast and prizes.

This recipe comes from the recipe number 300 of the book quoted, I did it for the New Year's eve and we enjoyed a lot with oven-baked potatoes.

Serves 4.

21 oz. beef (Shoulder clod or any stew cut)

1 onion

1 branch of celery

1 carrot

1/2 cup white vinegar 

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 gal. vegetable broth (made with 1/2 onion, 1 carrot, 1 courgette, 1 celery branch, 1 bayleaf)

10.5 oz. fresh milk cream

salt and pepper

Dice the vegetables and put them in a pot with oil, let them golden and blend with vinegar then add the meat salted and sprinkled with pepper.

Let the meat colour on each side then add some broth and milk cream, cover with a lid then let it simmer for a couple of hours.

If needed add some broth.

When the meat is ready take it off the pan and whisk the sauce untill smooth.

Slice the beef and serve hot with the sauce on.

Spiced white hot chocolate.



Yes I've decided to indulge in one more seasonal treat...Hot chocolate.

It's delicious in every shape and flavour but the version I created to appraise a wonderful saffron from Sardinia called San Gavino have that special flair that make you say "let's do this again".

My hubby doesn't like saffron very much, he usually can just stand it into a risotto alla milanese but I swear he drank two cups of this chocolate and asked for more.

 

For 2 plenty servings:

 

1 cup white chocolate chips

 

1  cup heavy cream

 

4 cups half-and-half

 

1 bag saffron powder

 

a big pinch of ground ginger

 

few saffron pistils to decorate if you have

 

In saucepan over low heat, combine white chocolate chips and heavy cream.

Stir continuously until white chocolate chips have completely melted.

Stir in the half-and-half and stir until thick then add the saffron powder and mix very well.

Pour into cups, sprinkle a pinch of ground ginger on top (as much as you like) and few saffron pistils to decorate.

Serve with dark chocolate cookies and enjoy you holidays!

Salted caramel toffee.

A nice, quick and easy treat for the incoming holidays.
You just have to wrap each candy into clingfilm or tin foil.
If you leave them free they stick to each other.
You can pur them into chocolate molds or into a baking pan (if so cut them into squares when they're cold).
With this recipe you'll have about 30 toffees the size of a chocolate.

2/3 cup granulated or raw sugar (I used raw, Muscovado)

4.5 oz. fresh milk cream

0.7 oz. honey or corn syrup ( I used honey)

1.4 oz. butter

vanilla flavour

2 teaspoon fleur de sel

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan but a teaspoon of salt (sprinkle this one on the bottom of the pan/moulds).
Let it simmer on low fire untill you have a sticky mixture then try to pour a drop of caramel into a glass of cold water: if it melts you have to cook it more, if it forms a gummy drop it's ready.
Pour the liquid caramel into moulds then let it cold, you can store the moulds into the fridge, the candies will be hard and easy to be wrapped into film.
Then store in an airtight box.

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.