These days it’s so hot and humid that just the thought of eating something warm makes me dread lunch time. Every meal I prepare is cold so at least it gives me the impression I’m cooling off a little.  In all honesty I’m  not  usually a fan of cold pasta dishes, but I really enjoyed this simple one I made recently. As a plus it was easy and quick to prepare.

Initially I  made it only with tomato, mozzarella and few  leaves of basil but then I tried to add extra flavor to the dish with home-made pesto. Both versions are good, kids will likely prefer the first version adults the second. Don’t be intimidated by making pesto it’s much easier than you think and if you make extra you’ll have some on hand for another day.

Ingredients:

1.2 lbs./ g. 500 pipe rigate or shell pasta
2 medium tomatoes
9 0z./ g. 250 Italian mozzarella
2 Tbsp. e.v.o. oil

For the pesto:

3 cups basil leaves
2 Tbsp. pine nuts
1 small clove of garlic  thinly sliced
a good pinch of sea salt
6 Tbsp. e.v.o. oil

Instructions:

For the pesto:

1. With a mini or hand blender blend the garlic with 2 Tablespoons of oil and the pine nuts.
2. Add the basil and a pinch of salt and the oil then use the pulse function and blend until pureed. Don’t over do it otherwise you’ll cook the basil.

For the pasta:

1. Divide the tomatoes in two, discard the seeds and the liquid. Cut them in small cubes. Cut the mozzarella in small cubes as well.
2. In the mean time cook the pasta as directed, drain it rinse it under cold running water.
3. Add the pesto and mix until well combined.
4. Add the tomatoes and mozzarella and 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, mix and salt to taste. It looks to dry add more olive oil.
5. You can now eat your pasta or your can either let it cool in the refrigerator for your next meal.

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A few weeks ago I went to the Festa della Sparasina, “The Wild Asparagus Festival”. It’s an annual event in Pigozzo, a small Cimbrian village situated in the Squaranto valley a few kilometers from Verona. The area is uncontaminated by tourism and progress, surrounded by a rich vegetation, mostly vineyards and olive orchards on the lower elevations and forest on the top of the hills.

I already wrote a post about this annual event here but  I took new pictures this year so I thought I could share them with you. I started my lunch with the bruschetta. One half was spread with sparasina pâté and the other half with radichiella which has similar leaves  to chicory and dandelion. I then ate risotto with sparasina (asparagus acutifolius L.), “wild asparagus risotto”. I followed that up with a huge plate of wild herbs like radichiella gonfiata (crepis vesicaria L.), dandelion, chicory and wild asparagus served with boiled eggs. Finally I made it to the feverfew cake with its unmistakable aromatic flavor. Unfortunately I didn’t find the potato gnocchi with sparasina as they don’t make this dish every day but my friend, who did eat them, told me they were a real specialty and I believe her. I hope to find them next year.

This year I bought a very interesting book written by the Sparasina Association about the wild herbs found in their territory. The book lists each herb giving a detailed description of the plant correlated by pictures, its properties and usages. It also describes how to prepare decoctions or herb teas to cure, to detox etc. There are also 3-4 recipes for each herb. Among these recipes I finally found the famous feverfew cake recipe I love so much. The recipe is very similar to the one I tried to replicate  here few years ago so I’m pretty happy about that.

What I really like about this festival is the love and effort  these people put into it. It’s not just a culinary event they want you to discover nature’ s treasures and learn how to use them. After lunch in fact you can follow their two experts on a walk through the woods and learn how to recognize the herbs, tubers etc. The field trip is free.

Here are the pics of my lunch:

Bruschetta, first half with sparasina pate and second half with wild chicory

Risotto with sparasina

Boiled eggs with sparasina, candelina and wild chicory

Here’s the book I bought at the Festival “La migliori erbe spontanee nella cucina contadina di Pigozzo”

After lunch we went for a short walk and here’s some pics of Pigozzo. Here they are:

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I know that summer is getting closer when I start finding zucchini flowers at the farmers’ market. If it were up to me I would fry them all. Unfortunately, as we well know, eating fried foods isn’t the best health choice, thus I only fry the flowers when I have guests. Luckily zucchini flowers are good in many other recipes. I use them with pasta and in risotto too, however one of my favorites is on pizza. It’s really simple just pizza dough, zucchini flowers and oil. That sprinkle of oil though is fundamental because it gives the flowers the “fried” taste I love but these are baked so I can eat them without feeling guilty.
If  that sounds too plain for your tastes  you can also add some mozzarella after the pizza has been baking 10 minutes, but I prefer to fully enjoy the flavor of the flowers without cheese.

Ingredients:

basic pizza dough with this dough you can make 2 thin crust pizzas or a thick one
zucchini flowers
mozzarella about 7 oz./g. 200 Italian cow milk mozzarella or buffalo mozzarella (optional)
e.v.o. oil
sea salt to taste

Preparation:

Preparation:
1. Prepare the dough as directed and let it raise for 2 and a half hours.
2. Heat up the oven to 420°.  In the meantime wash the flowers, cut the bottoms and discard the pistils. Open the flowers  and lay them down on a dish towel and pat them dry.
3. When the dough is well raised, cover a rectangular, approximately 15 ” x 11″, baking sheet  or a round 13″ pizza pan with parchment paper.
4. Take half of the dough or all of it, place it on the baking and use your fingers to gently push it to the borders.
5. Drizzle the pizza with olive oil and then lay the flowers on in rows slightly overlapping them.
6. Bake the pizza for about 20 minutes.

My other recipes with zucchini flowers:

Fried zucchini flowers
Roman style fried zucchini flowers
Pasta with zucchini flowers
Risotto with zucchini flowers

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Le piazze dei sapori is an itinerant festival of typical Italian food products that each year, for 10 years now, visits the main Italian squares. Every year in Piazza Bra, the main square in my hometown of Verona, is “occupied” by exhibitors coming from all over Italy to sell their regional specialties. In a blink of an eye you have the chance to travel throughout Italy and discover its treasures. Every time I find something  new. This year for example I discovered this pecorino cheese aged  in walnut leaves. Sensational.

These are Sicilian specialties, pecorino cheese with black peppercorns, Sant’Angelo salami and bread baked in a wood burning oven.

Fresh scamorza cheese

Porchetta, well the end of it….

How could I resist to a panino with porchetta???? It’s impossible!

Wild boar salami from Umbria. It was hard not to buy any of it.

Salamelle

Calabrian sopressata is one of the first things I buy when I arrive in Calabria.

Anchovies with red hot pepper

Lemons from Sorrento, the best lemons to use to prepare lemoncino liquor.

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Going back to the risotto. When I tasted it I couldn’t imagine it would have been so good. The leeks give the risotto a delicate taste compared to the usual onions while the prosciutto enriches and completes the flavor. Not to mention how well the dish presents itself  to your guests. I’m really happy about adding this new risotto recipe to my already long list of favorites. As you might know my family has a particular passion or maybe closer to obsession for risotto, so we’re always thrilled when we discover new recipes.

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups/11 oz./ g. 320 rice Vialone nano, Carnaroli or Arborio
2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1. Tbsp. E.V.O. oil
6 cups/1.6 liter vegetable broth
1/3 cup freshly grated parmigiano cheese
8 thin slices of prosciutto for the wrapping

You also need a medium size bowl to prepare the rice bundles

Instructions:

1. Slice the leeks, only the white and light green parts. Melt 2 Tablespoons butter and 1 Tablespoon olive oil in a non-stick pan, add the leeks and saute until soft, about 15 minutes. If they get too dry add few spoons of water. Lightly salt the leeks while cooking.
2. Add the rice and mix until well combined, pour few ladles of vegetable broth and mix the rice with a wooden spoon. When the rice starts to get dry again, add a little bit more broth and mix to avoid sticking. Don’t add too much broth at the time.
3. When rice is cooked but still firm, turn the stove off, add 1 Tablespoon butter and the parmigiano cheese. Combine well and cover, let it sit for few minutes.
4. In the meantime take one bowl lay one slice of prosciutto vertically and an other one horizontally in a cross-like shape. With a small ladle, take a portion of the risotto, like a baseball size, and place it on the prosciutto. Gently fold the prosciutto hanging on the edge of the bowl over the risotto.
5. Carefully turn the bowl upside down over the plate holding the prosciutto bundle with your hand and sliding it onto the plate. Prepare the other bundles as well and serve the risotto immediately to your guests.

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Pizza with hot dogs is my son’s favorite. It’s actually a pizza loved by most kids around here. It’s really easy to make, it only has a few ingredients tomato, mozzarella and hot dogs. It’s the most common pizza at birthday parties.  As a matter of fact I just had my son’s birthday party the other day and among all the other treats I prepared the dough to make pizza Margherita and pizza with hot dogs. Needless to say that all the kids wanted the hot dog pizza so I quickly changed my plans and added hot dogs to the Margherita I still had to bake.

Ingredients:

Basic pizza dough

The following ingredients are for half of the dough if you’re making 2 thin crust pizzas or a thick one
1/2 cup plain tomato sauce without citric acid
about 7 oz./g. 200 Italian cow milk mozzarella or buffalo mozzarella
1 large hot dog or more if you like
dry oregano (optional)
sea salt to taste
extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

1. Prepare the dough as directed and let it raise for 2 and a half hours.
2. When ready, cover the baking sheet approximately 15 ” x 11″ with parchment paper. I use a regular rectangular baking sheet, but if you want you can use a round pan, the equivalent should be about a 13″ pizza pan. If you’re preparing this pizza for the kids I suggest you to bake it in a rectangular sheet so then you can cut in squares. It’ll be easier for them to eat.
3. When the dough is well raised it’s very playable take half and place it on the baking sheet and stretch it. Help yourself by using your fingers to push it to the borders.
4. Let the dough rise for 30 minute more and in the meantime preheat the oven to 450°.
5. Spread the tomato sauce, sprinkle it with sea salt, dry oregano if you like and a good drizzle of olive oil.
6. Bake in the middle part of the oven for about 10 minutes or until the bottom of the crust starts to turn golden brown.
7. Now add the mozzarella cut in thin slices or cubed and the hot dogs cut in rounds.
8. Cook for 10-15 more minutes. Let it rest for about 5 minutes so the cheese will settle and then cut it in squares or slices if you made a round pizza and serve it right away.

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Passatelli is a fresh pasta from Emilia Romagna made with eggs, parmigiano, bread crumbs, nutmeg and lemon zest, and served in broth. The typical first course for a Sunday lunch where dishes are more festive and richer than those during the week.

They look like bigoli so to speak, about 0.1 inch/4 mm. wide and 1-1/2 inches/4 cm. long.  There’s a special tool to prepare them, but if you don’t have it, like me, a potato ricer will do the trick.

It is such a comfort food and can stand by itself as a complete meal even if it’s not traditionally. It’s a dish to prepare together with your kids and I’m pretty sure they’ll have so much fun to make it as much as to eat it.

Ingredients
4.2 oz./g. 120 /1 cup + 3 Tbsp. freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
4.2 oz. g. 120 /1 ½ dry bread crumbs
3 extra large eggs
greated zest of half organic lemon
a sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg
6-7 cups/1.5 liters hen broth

1. In a bowl mix the parmigiano and bread crumbs until well combined.
2. Slightly beat the eggs and add them to the crumb mixture together with the nutmeg and lemon zest. Quickly combine the mixture with your hands until you have a firm dough.
3. In a large pot bring the broth to a simmer.
4. Place the dough in the potato ricer. Place the potato ricer over the broth and squeeze until your passatelli are 4 centimeters long then cut them. Repeat until you finish the dough. Cook for 2-3 minutes and then serve.

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Venerdì gnocolare is approching and I’m ready to celebrate as every year at my parent’s house. We are going to do it right with lots of potato gnocchi, carnival sweets and after we’ll enjoy the carnival parade. Here’s what we are going to prepare Friday:

Potato gnocchi

gnocchi with butter and sage
gnocchi with tomato sauce
gnocchi with ragù alla bolognese
gnocchi with pesto
gnocchi with butter and cinnamon

Carnival sweets

crostoli
favette
crema fritta
polenta and ricotta fritters

Take a peek and check my older post about carnival on Not only Pizza:
Verona: Venerdì Gnocolar [Carnival]2010
Carnival in Verona: Venerdì Gnocolar [March 2009]

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Valtellina is a beautiful Alpine valley that borders Switzerland in Northern Italy. Famous for Bresaola it’s also known for its cheeses, in particular Bitto and Valtellina Casera. These cheeses used to be difficult to find outside of the region, but now they are generally available everywhere in Italy. So I thought I’d try this typical Valtelline pizzoccheri recipe.

It’s an earthy dish made with Pizzocheri pasta which is made from a mixture of buckwheat and regular flour. They are similar in shape to the tagliatelle though shorter. The recipe calls for few simple ingredients that are cultivated and produced in the valley starting with the buckwheat flour for the pizzoccheri, savoy cabbage, butter and Valtellina Casera cheese from the Alps.

Ingredients:

For the pizzoccheri
7 oz./ g. 200 buckwheat flour
1.7/ g. 50 all purpose flour
3/4 cup lukewarm water
a pinch of salt

For the condiment
10.5 oz./ g. 300 savoy cabbage or chard
10.5 oz./ g. 300 potatoes
7 oz./g. 200 Valtellina Casera or  Bitto cheese*
3 oz./ g. 90 unsalted butter**
5 fresh sage leaves
1 clove of garlic peeled
salt and black pepper

Instructions:

1. In a bowl whisk together the two flours until well combined. Make a well in the center and slowly add the water and mix until you have a firm and playable dough. If your dough becomes too tough add small amounts of water until it gets softer.
2. Sprinkle some flour and roll the dough possibly in a rectangular  shape. Cut it with a sharp knife in vertical slices 2 inches/5 cm. wide then horizontally 1/2 inch/1 cm. long.
3. Peel and cut the potatoes in small cubes, slice the cabbage in thin stripes.
4. Bring the water to a boil in a large pan then add the cut vegetables cook them  for 10-15 minutes.
5. Add the pizzoccheri and cook them for 5 minutes or until soft but still firm. Strain the pizzoccheri and vegetables.
6. Flatten the clove of garlic. Then in a skillet melt the butter together with garlic and sage.
7. In a oven-proof dish spread a layer of pizzoccheri and vegetables  and then a layer of Valtellina Casera cheese thinly slices or grated and a drizzle of  butter. Continue with a layer of pizzoccheri then butter and cheese. Finish with the butter.
8.  This dish gets cold quickly so I like to leave it few minutes in the oven at 300°  until the cheese melts better and then I immediately serve it.

Notes:

* Valtellina Casera or Bitto cheeses are typical from Valtellina if you don’t find them you can substitute them with Fontina cheese.
** This dish calls for a lot of butter, I used less but feel free to add or subtract to your tastes.

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This year I’ve made only one simple resolution and that is to not waste food, which also means saving money that, in this period of economic crises, isn’t a bad idea at all. I don’t know about you but I waste way too much food. I tend to buy more than I need and then it goes bad in the fridge or expires in my kitchen cupboards. Most important of all though I will make better use of the leftovers and leftover ingredients using them to make other exquisite dishes. Italian cuisine is well known as the cucina povera for its simplicity and for not wasting but rather for utilizing everything in the kitchen as my grandparents used to do.

As you can see I’ve started my only new year’s resolution right away with this bread pudding recipe. Over the holidays I’ve accumulated this huge amount of old dry bread. I usually bring it to the ducks and geese living close to us, but seeing the quantity I have on hand I decided to use it in many tasty recipes and this bread pudding is one of them. My grandma used to prepare bread pudding and I have fond memories of it, but up until now I’ve never made it myself. I don’t have a precise recipe I just made it according to how I remembered my grandmother’s. I added the ingredients and spices my grandma used to use and figured out the quantities on my own. This recipe is very versatile and can be changed according to your own tastes, but this is how I remember bread pudding.

Ingredients:

8.5 oz./ g. 250 dry bread
2 cups + 2 Tbsp./ ml. 500 milk
2 large eggs
4 Tbsp. Muscovado sugar or a packed dark brown sugar of your choice
2 golden apples about 1.2 lbs/ g. 500
1/3 cup/ g. 50 raisins
a handful of walnuts, about 1.7 oz./ g. 50
1 tsp. cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg
2 tsp. natural vanilla extract
unsalted butter for the top
Muscovado sugar to sprinkle on top

Instructions:

1. Cut the bread in small cubes, pour lukewarm milk over it and combine well.
2. Add 4 Tablespoons of sugar.
3. Soak the raisins in lukewarm water for 10 minutes. Dry them before adding them to the cake.
4. Cut the apples in small cubes then add them to the bread mixture together with the raisins and walnuts.
5. Flavor the mixture with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and mix it with a wooden spoon until well combined.
6. Lastly add the 2 beaten eggs and mix until well incorporated.
6. In a baking pan lay oven paper and make sure it also covers the sides. Pour the bread mixture and spread it with a spatula until even. The pan I used for this recipe was 11 x 14 inches.
8. Dot the top with small pieces of butter and sprinkle it with the Muscovado sugar.
9. Bake it in a preheated oven at 350°/180° for 45 minutes. Let it cool completely then serve.

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