Category: recipes of Italian cuisine

How to make focaccia at home – Italian Cuisine

High, soft and not too greasy. How to prepare an excellent focaccia?

There flat bread white is one of the children's favorite snacks.
It is good simple with some grains of salt on the surface and fragrant with rosemary, but also stuffed with meats and cheeses.

Buying it in the oven is a convenience, but why not try to make it at home?
Eating it hot freshly baked is a pleasure that will repay you for the effort.
What then. of certain fatigue you can not speak because the recipe of focaccia is really simple. Few ingredients and little work. The focaccia requires only a little precision and a careful selection of the raw material.

The recipe of Tuscan focaccia

To prepare a soft and tasty focaccia, melt 12 g of fresh brewer's yeast (about half a loaf) in a glass of water (or milk).
Then mix 500 g of 00 flour with the yeast, a pinch of sugar, another glass of water, half a glass of extra virgin olive oil and just add a little salt at the end.
Work the dough with your hands or with a planetary.
Leave it to stand for two hours inside the oven, covering the container with the transparent film.
Then roll out the dough into a well-oiled baking pan and use your fingertips to create many small dimples.
Mix water and oil in a coffee cup and brush the surface of the focaccia with this mixture.
Complete with coarse salt and cook in a hot oven at 230 degrees for about 30 minutes.
If you prefer to use yeast instead of brewer's yeast, the exact quantity is 125 g and the dough will have to leaven for longer, about 5-6 hours.

Here are some useful tips for preparing a focaccia that has nothing to envy to that of the oven.

They return the best McDonald's burgers ever – Italian Cuisine

The perfect balance between everything that compose them is the secret of success McDonald's sandwiches. It is what most differentiates them from others "Hamburger"(Called the American) in circulation," often exaggerated ". Word of Joe Bastianich that for the second consecutive year has signed the line "My Selection"Of the well-known fast food chain, which he defined as the best ever.

For him, the son of Italian immigrants in New York and American by birth it was natural to combine the two culinary cultures in this project. From Queens where he grew up with the smell of Mc Donald's under his home Rome, where is the November 26th, in the first restaurant in the chain in Italy, opened in 1986, presented us with the new selection that bears his name.

From its origins Bastianich has taken the goodness, the genuineness and the simplicity of the Italian ingredients and made them marry with the typical taste ofamerican burger who knows well.

"I chose recipes in which we meet typically American tastes with the great quality of the Italian raw materials"He said Bastianich, a tribute to the "two most beautiful countries in the world".

The result can be tasted starting from January 1st with three sandwiches of the My Selection line which will be available in all 570 restaurants of McDonald's in Italy. It is the second stage of a success story. The first edition of My Selection indeed, it exceeded expectations with more than 10 million products sold. "Making the best of last year was a real challenge, but I'm sure we've hit the target once again," he said Bastianich.

And all this always through the promotion of the Made in Italy, the enhancement of the PDO products (of protected origin) e IGP (of protected geographical indication) and collaboration with local consortia. For My Selection McDonald's in fact, he bought over 100 tons of Smoked Scamorza produced with pure Italian milk, almost 80 tons of Fontina DOP and as many of Speck of the South Tyrolean Train, 27 tons of Tropea Red Onion PGI and almost 8 tons of Balsamic vinegar of Modena PGI.

The first sandwich is not new, but the best seller of last year, is called My Selection BBQ and consists of 180 grams of beef, seasoned with red Tropea onions, balsamic vinegar of Modena, crispy bacon and delicate mustard.

The second is My Selection Smocky, 180 grams of beef seasoned with crispy bacon, smoked scamorza cheese with 100% Italian milk, mustard sauce.

The third is the My Selection Chicken, based on chicken meat, bacon, fontina, porcini mushroom sauce.

Together with them the tasty ones will be launched nuggets, croquettes stuffed with Asiago cheese and Trentino speck.

How to cook beetroot: 10 recipes – Italian Cuisine

Cotta, raw, in salad or as cream: all the flavors of beetroot, a tuber rich in beneficial properties that should never be missing from our table.

Beets are a tuber rich in beneficial substances, with few calories and many fibers, which help to feel a sense of satiety and therefore are useful for those who have to follow a low-calorie diet. Little used in our kitchens, they are perfect for storing mineral salts such as potassium, magnesium, iron and calcium. They strengthen the immune system with the high content of B vitamins and fight free radicals with the antioxidants they are rich in. If you do not know how to cook them, follow our advice.

Risotto with beets

Prepare a risotto with a sautéed mixture of butter and shallots, brown the rice, blend with white wine, add the stock and cook for 15 minutes. Add to this point a boiled beetroot and shredded, stir to mix well with the rice and continue cooking for another five minutes. Whisk with a spoonful of mascarpone, add a few cubes of boiled beetroot and garnish with chopped hazelnuts.

Beetroot chips

Do you want to prepare an unusual aperitif? Leave the potato chips and prepare the beet chips, to serve with peanuts and olives. Cut the raw beetroot into very thin slices, toss them in hot oil and cook until they become crispy. Dry the chips with paper towels and serve hot.

Red and white appetizer

This appetizer is perfect for a vegetarian dinner: cook peeled and washed beets in the oven. When they are cooked, cut them into thin slices, add salt and place them in a dish on which you will have prepared some green salad dressed with an emulsion of oil and orange juice. Add some peeled slices of orange and cubes of Brie cheese. Garnish with chopped and chopped chives.

Sweet and sour side dish

Beets can also be served as a side dish for roasts or boiled meats. Take a beetroot, peel it and cut it into cubes. Meanwhile, sauté the shallot in a saucepan with a little oil, add the beets, a tablespoon of brown sugar, one of white wine vinegar, a bay leaf, a clove and cook until the beets do not they will be soft. Season with salt and serve with meat.

With pasta

This first one is also perfect for children, because the sweetish taste of the beets will succeed in conquering them. Fry the onion with chopped carrots and garlic. Add the already boiled beets and add flavor. At this point you can blend the mixture or leave it like this. Add the white scamorza cut into cubes and seasoned with the pen al dente: the heat of the pasta will spin the cheese. Season with salt and serve.

Soup with Jerusalem artichoke

With the beets you can also prepare a hot soup, which enriched with Jerusalem artichokes will give you a burst of vitamins. Prepare a sauté of shallots, add the beets previously cooked in the oven and cut into small pieces, and leave to flavor for a few minutes. Then add the vegetable stock and cook until the mixture is soft. Blend everything, add fresh cream and diced fried Jerusalem artichokes in a little extra virgin olive oil. Serve the cream with diced Jerusalem artichokes and a sprinkling of pepper.

Muffins of beets, gorgonzola and walnuts

In a bowl, beat 2 eggs with 100 g of whole yogurt, a cup of milk and salt. With a whisk, add 400 g of flour and a sachet of baking powder. In another container, mix the sweet gorgonzola, the chopped walnuts and the previously boiled and salted beets. Add the two doughs, fill the buttered muffin molds for 2/3 with the cream, bake at 180 for 30 minutes and when cooked will be served with fresh spinach seasoned with an emulsion of oil and lemon.

Crostini with beetroot and ricotta

For this appetizer, get some slices of black bread or rye. Grill it in the oven with a grated garlic. Separately cut the beets into thin slices, bake them in the oven for ten minutes, until they are crisp. Put the slices of beetroot on the croutons, garnish with a cream made from cow's milk ricotta mixed with a fillet of anchovies in oil and chopped chives. Serve with a glass of Valdobbiadene Prosecco.

Zucchini, beetroot and walnut sushi

Finger food fun and easy to prepare. Cut the zucchini for a long time, grill them, add salt and roll them on a plate. Spread them with a cream that you will have obtained by working in a bowl the taleggio with a drizzle of chestnut honey. Cut the cooked beets into cubes and spread them on the courgettes. Roll them on themselves, until they form rolls that will be placed on a serving dish. Garnish the zucchini sushi with chopped walnuts and serve.

Beetroot and coconut cake

The sweet taste of beetroot makes it an excellent ingredient for preparing a dessert. This cake mixes the sweet beet with that of coconut for a result that will intrigue you. First blend the peeled almonds with dates and the juice of half a lime. Compact the chopped almonds in a saucer with the help of a dough cup. Separately mix the beets cooked with coconut milk to form a soft but not liquid mixture. Spread the beetroot cream over the crushed almonds and garnish with flakes of lyophilized coconut and serve immediately.