First Course
Pumpkin Croquettes ( Crocchette di Zucca)
ingredients:
250 g pulp of pumpkin, 100 g. flour, 75 g grated parmesan cheese,
almond flour, red pepper powder, a shallot, 2 eggs, 2 soupspoons of vegetable broth,
oil to fry and salt
Cut the pumpkin in cubes and the shallot fine. Cook the pumpkin with the shallot in the broth till it becomes a dry purée. Taste it with some red pepper. Let the purée become cold and then mix it with the flour and 50 g of Parmesan cheese. Make 12 croquettes and pass them twice through the egg and a mixture of almond flour and the rest of the parmesan cheese. Fry the croquettes in hot oil and serve them immediately. Salt them according one's taste.
Filled Patatoes (patate ai formaggi)
Ingredients (4 pers.) :
4 big potatoes, 100 g butter, 4 spoons of Mascarpone, 30 g. Gorgonzola, 30 g grated young cheese, 4 eggs, salt and pepper
Boil the potatoes still with their skin. Peel the cooked potatoes and let them cool down. Hollow them out for 3/4 and make fine the potatoes mixture you just took out.
Pre-warm the oven on 180 °C
Melt the butter and join the Mascarpone, Gorgonzola and grated young cheese. Let the cheeses melt on a low fire. Stir well. Salt and pepper the cheese mixture according one's own taste and join the mash. Fill the hollowed potatoes with the mixture and break one egg above each one. Don't break the egg yolk . Grease an oven-proof dish and put the filled potatoes in it. Leave the dish in the oven until the egg is well done.
Vol-au-vent alla crema di formaggio
ingredients (4 pers.) :
12 little vol-au-vent, 25 g flour, 25 g butter, 100g Fontina (young cheese), a little white or black truffle, ¼ l milk, salt and pepper
Melt the butter and join the flour. Stir well till all the lumps are gone. Join bit by bit the lukewarm milk and continue stirring till you have a homogenous cream. Salt and pepper and take the béchamel from the fire. Join the grated Fontina, when the béchamel is still warm, and when the cheese is melted you join half of the grated truffle. Fill the vol-au-vent with the cheese cream and put some grated truffle on it. Warm the vol-au-vent in the oven and serve warm.
Wine tip: Nebbiolo d'Alba secco, Merlot del Veneto, Chianti dei colli Senesi or Cirò Rosato
Crêpes with champignons (crespelle ai funghi)
ingredients (6 pers)
Batter:
50 g flour, 1/4 lt milk, 2 eggs and 1 egg-yolk, 80 g butter, salt
Filling:
300 g champignons, 2 spoons olive oil, red pepper, glove of garlic, 50 g grated old cheese, 50 g butter, parsley
Béchamel:
50 g butter, 50 g flour, 1/2 lt hot milk, salt, pepper, snuff of nutmeg
Batter:
Stir the flour with two egg-yolks and one whole egg until you have a smooth batter; join some salt and bit by bit the milk. Beat up stiff the white of egg and stir it carefully through the batter. Melt 20 g of butter, mix it with the batter and let it rest for one hour on a cool place.
After this hour you melt some butter in a little frying-pan, pour as much batter in the pan until its bottom is covered with a thin layer. Fry the crêpe on both sides till its lightly colored. Repeat this until the batter is finished.
Béchamel:
Boil the milk. Melt the butter in a sauce-pan and stir the flour through it. Keep on stirring for some minutes. Watch out that the mixture doesn't color. Join bit by bit the hot milk; every time waiting until the sauce becomes hot again and smooth. Join in the end some salt, pepper and nutmeg. Let the sauce cook, always stirring, for some more minutes.
Filling:
Pre-warm the oven on 180°C
Clean the champignons and cut them in little pieces. Make some olive oil warm in a frying-pan, squeeze the garlic and join the champignons. When the fluid of the champignon mixture is dried up, salt and pepper according your own taste. Cut the parsley fine and join.
Fill every crêpe with the champignon mixture, pour two spoons of béchamel over it, strew some grated cheese and fold it double. Put the crêpes in a buttered oven dish. Pour the rest of the béchamel over it and strew the remained cheese.
Let the crêpes ca.10 min in the oven. Serve them very warm on the table.
Crostini Verdi
ingredients ( 4 pers.):
1/2 cup cooked spinach, 150 g. gorgonzola, 4 slices toasted whole wheat bread, 4 small radishes for garnishing
Clean, trim and boil the spinach in salted water. Mince it. Melt the gorgonzola over low heat in a heavy-bottomed pan and add the spinach. Blend the mixture well and spread it on toasted bread. Serve hot and garnish with radishes.
Crostoni alle Sardine ( Sardines Toast)
ingredients (4 pers.) :
80 g. butter, 20 g. flour, 1/4 warm milk, two spoons whipped cream, 4 slices of white bread, a can of sardines, salt, pepper, parsley.
Melt 20 g. of butter in a sauce-pan, join the flour, stir well and let it cook some, watch out that the sauce doesn't color. Pour slowly, keep on stirring all the time, the warm milk in the sauce-pan. Salt and pepper according to your own taste and let the sauce cook for some minutes without stopping to stir. Let the sardines leak out, make them fine and mix them with the sauce. Join in the end two spoons of cream, don't let it cook.
Toast the bread in a frying-pan with the remained butter and put the toasted slices in an oven dish. Cover every piece of bread with the sauce of sardines and pour some minced parsley over it. Cook au gratin in the oven. Serve the dish warm.