i Primi
Speltsoep with Saffron
Ingredients (4 pers):
16/20 saffron stigmas, celery, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 3 tomatoes, chili pepper to taste, 2 potatoes, 200 g. of Spelt, 1l meat- or vegetable broth, salt
For a shorter cooking time, soak the spelt in water for one hour before use.
Leave the saffron stigmas to infuse in 2 tablespoons of boiling water for a couple of hours. Gently fry the shopped onion, carrot and celery cut in pieces, then add the tomatoes witout skin and cut fine, the potatoes cut into cubes, the spelt and the broth.Cook for 20 minutes. The saffron is added in the last few minutes of cooking. Taste with salt and pepper.
Risotto with shrimps and Pumpkin
Ingredients:
250 g. rice, 400 g. pumpkin, 200 g. shrimps, 1/2 onion, olive oil, parsley, 3 spoons Parmesan cheese, 1/2 liter of vegetable or fish bouillon, 1/2 glass white wine, red pepper and cream
Shell the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Cut the pumpkin in little cubs. Make the bouillon warm and slice the onion fine.
Warm some olive oil in a large frying-pan. Bake the onion at a moderate flame. Join the pumpkin cubes and the rice to the onion mixture. Let it bake for another while. Pour the white wine in the frying-pan and let it evaporate. After the wine is evaporated you pour some of the the bouillon over the rice. The bouillon should just cover the rice and when its absorbed by it, you pour again bouillon over the rice. Repeat this till the rice is boiled.
In the mean time you fry the shrimps in some olive oil. Join the clean and cut parsley. Salt and pepper according one's own taste. Join the shrimps with the rice about 5 min. before the rice is boiled.
Take the pan from the flame and stir the Parmesan cheese and the cream through the risotto. Serve the risotto warm !
Tagliolini with an asparagus cream
ingredients (4 pers.):
300 g. of Tagliolini, 600 g. green asparagus, 1 shallot, 50g butter, 1 dl fresh cream, 2 spoons grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.
Clean the asparagus and cook them 2 min. in some salted water. Cut the top of the asparagus and slice the rest. Wash and mince the shallot and brown it in the 30g of butter; join the slices of asparagus and let the mixture bake for another 2-3 min. Salt it and join a glass of water. Cover the pan and let the asparagus cook slowly for another 20 min. Then blend the mixture, join the cream and let it cook some more till you got a dense cream: stir always.
Boil in the mean time the tagliolini in abundant salted water, strain the pasta and flavour the pasta with the asparagus sauce. Decorate the pasta with the asparagus points, which you warmed in some butter. Serve with the grated cheese.
Wine tip: Erbaluce di Caluso
Pasta with a creamy pepper sauce
ingredients (4 pers):
350 g. pasta ricatoni or fusilli, a red pepper, 200 g. tomato sauce,2 onions, 100 g. raw ham, 1 apple, cream, salt and pepper, white wine, grated parmesan cheese, 30 g. butter, extra vergine olive oil
Clean and chop the pepper. Rind the apple and cut into pieces. Likewise the onions. Blend the pepper, onion and apple. Melt the butter with 3 spoons of olive oil in a skillet. Add to it the pepper mixture, some white wine, the tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Let the mixture simmer for about 10 min. Boil in the mean time the pasta "al dente" in salty water and slice the raw ham.
Drain the pasta, add it with 4 spoons of cream and the ham to the pepper mixture. Mix well for some minutes. Serve hot with some parmesan cheese.
Rigatoni alle Carote
ingredients (4 pers.) :
350 g. pasta (ricatoni), 4 little carrots, 80 g. stracchino or robiola (sort of soft cheese),
40 g. butter, 2 spoons of extra-vergine olive oil, 4 spoons cream, brandy,
1/3 of vegetable soup cube, 50 g. pine seeds, salt and fresh grinded pepper.
Clean the carrots and cut them in long thin stripes (a julienne). Fry the carrot stripes short in 20 g. of butter and the olive oil. Join 2 spoons of brandy and let it partially evaporate. Crumble the vegetable soup cube and join it together with the spoons of cream to the carrots. Let everything fry another 5 min.
Boil in the meantime salted water and cook the rigatoni al dente.
Melt au bain-marie the stracchino or robiola with 20 g. of butter, salt and pepper according one's own taste.
Cut up crossly the pine-seeds. Strain the pasta and mix it with the cheese, carrot sauce and pine-seeds.
Penne Fantasia
ingredients (4 pers.) :
400 g. pasta (penne), 1 ounce deep frozen peas, slice of 3 ounce of cooked ham, half onion, 1 glove of garlic, 1/4 l. cream, butter, 1 dl. white wine, sale, pepper, 4 spoons tomato sauce, grated parmesan
Cut the onion fine and the slice of cooked ham in little cubes. Melt a lump of butter in the pan and join the onion and ham. Let fry a little bit. Squeeze the glove of garlic above the pan. Let fry a little. Join the white wine and peas. Salt and pepper according to one's taste. When the sauce starts to dry, join the cream and the spoons of tomato sauce.
Cook in the meantime the 'penne' 'al dente' in boiling salted water. Pour off and serve with the warm sauce. Serve the grated parmesan separately.
Tagliatelle al Salmone (pasta: Tagliatelle salmon-sauce)
Ingredients:
Tagliatelle, little onion, clove of garlic, 4 mature tomatoes, a can or a fresh piece of salmon, a dash of white wine, 4 spoons of whipped cream, salt, some red pepper, a dash of olive oil, parsley.
If you use fresh salmon, boil it first short in some water, so that it will be more easy to clean the fish. Clean also the salmon you use a can.
Boil water in a little pan, cut with a sharp knife a shallow cross in the tomatoes and put them for an instant in the boiling water, so that the skin get lose and you can take it easily away. Cut the tomatoes in little pieces. Bake in the mean time the fine-cut onion and the squeezed garlic in the olive oil, join the pieces of cut tomatoes and fry some. Salt and pepper according to your own taste, pour a dash of white wine in the pan and let everything, with a cover on the pan, cook on a low fire for 15 min. Join the cleaned salmon and the minced parsley and let it on the fire for another 5 - 10 min. Mix in the end the whipped cream through the sauce (don't let is cook).
Boil the pasta 'al dente' (slightly underdone) in a lot of salty water, put the pasta in a dish and pour the warm salmon-sauce over it.
Risotto with Courgette
ingredients (4 p.):
1 onion, 2 courgettes, ca.1 lt. vegetable bouillon, 4 cups of rice, 4 spoons of olive oil, 50 g. Parmesan or other seasoned cheese
Cut the onion fine and bake it short in two spoons of olive oil. Rasp the courgettes with a coarse rasp. Mix the courgette with the onion and let the mixture bake another 3 min. on a moderate fire. Join the rice and mix it with the courgette/onion. Pour as much bouillon in the pan that the rice is just covered by it and cook it on a low fire. Pour every time a little bit of new bouillon in the pan, so that the rice will not become dry.
When the risotto is well-done pour a little dash of olive oil over it. Join the Parmesan and salt and pepper according your own taste.
Tagliatelle with mushrooms (ai funghi)
Ingredients (4 pers.) :
250 mushrooms (cultivated mushrooms, cheps, chanterelle etc.), 1 onion, a piece of celery, 250 g. cherry tomatoes, dash of white wine, 400 g. tagliatelle, olive oil, salt and black or red pepper, grated Parmesan or another aged cheese.
Cut the onion in little pieces, clean the mushrooms and cut them as well. Fry the onion lightly in some olive oil, join the mushrooms and let everything fry some more. Halve the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Join the tomatoes together with a dash of white wine and the celery to the mushrooms. Salt and pepper according ones taste. Leave the sauce with the cover on the pan for ca.20 min. on a low fire. In the mean-time boil the tagliatelle in salted water (timing well with cooking time of the sauce). Put the pasta, leaked out well, in a dish. After taking out the celery, ladle the sauce on the tagliatelle. Serve the parmesan separated .