Warm atmospheres, refined decorations and traditional dishes for Christmas by Nicoletta Spagnoli, great granddaughter of Luisa, founder of the homonymous fashion house, still today a symbol of elegance and sobriety.
Imagine yourself the most classic and intimate atmosphere of Christmas, large decorations, a majestic tree, a lit and crackling fireplace and a perfect table, in terms of aesthetics and contents. We are in the beautiful house of Nicoletta Spagnoli, great-granddaughter of Luisa Spagnoli, a woman who in the early 1900s, with a great entrepreneurial spirit, gave life to a company that is still the flagship in the production of sweets today: Perugina. It does not pay, a few decades later, he dedicated himself to the breeding of angora rabbits to make soft and trendy clothes: it will be the shop that over the years will become the great fashion brand Luisa Spagnoli, a modern company, attentive to the well-being of employees , which still today represents Italian good taste and tailoring.
Christmas 2020
Nicoletta is CEO and president of Luisa Spagnoli and how the great-grandmother has the genes of beauty and elegance in her DNA. For Christmas she opened her home to a small group of close friends and organized a sumptuous holiday lunch for them, accompanied by the chef Roberto Valbuzzi, known, among other things, for conducting television broadcasts, including Courtesies for guests. Together they created a traditional menu, starting with Tortelli in capon and saffron broth, Roasted turkey stuffed with dried fruit accompanied by baked pumpkin and to finish the classic of classics, Panettone with olives and chocolate by the glass, with puffed mascarpone cream. Extraordinary dishes, but also repeatable at home, as the chef assured us: «It is an extremely versatile menu, enriched with small details, I am thinking of the saffron of tortelli, but absolutely repeatable by anyone with a passion in cooking. Typical holiday proposals, which help to forget for a moment the difficult situation of the pandemic, giving us the allure that only Christmas is capable of recreating. "I still remember the scents of broth simmering in the kitchen when I was a child, where the tortellini would be cooked. The whole house was flooded with aromas that only traditional dishes can transmit, and which together with the waiting for gifts, the 24th afternoon for us children, meant only one thing: Christmas was coming and we would all be overwhelmed by an atmosphere of sincere joy and warmth. Over the years I have tried to recreate that set of intimate serenity for my family and now that my son is grown up, I like to be able to give these sensations to my closest friends as well. Hence the plan for this lunch, made even more special by the help of a chef like Roberto ".
So on the table the best of Italian tradition, accompanied by the inevitable mandarins, the undisputed symbol of the holidays for chef Roberto, who this year, for the pleasure of celebrating with his family, will give up any work commitment. "Since my daughter was born last year, I have promised myself to take time for her, for the family. I would like not to repeat the mistakes of my parents, who are always too busy with the restaurant to enjoy these moments .
Here are the recipes for the three dishes designed by Roberto Valbuzzi for Christmas at Luisa's house Spaniards
Tortelli in capon and saffron broth
Ingredients
400 g of “00” flour, 5 eggs, 100 g of mixed ground (pork / beef), 80 g of mortadella, 100 g of parmesan, 20 g of butter, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
For the broth
1.5 kg of capon, 1 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 yellow onion, 1 bag of saffron, water, spices and mixed aromas (juniper, carnation, bay leaf)
Method
Prepare the fresh pasta: combine the flour in a bowl, make a hole in the center and add 4 eggs. Start working with a fork, then pass on the pastry board and continue working by hand until you get a soft dough (if necessary, you can add a few drops of water to the dough). Let it rest in the fridge for a couple of hours. Prepare the classic capon broth. Clean the capon and cut it into coarse pieces. Combine the chopped vegetables, herbs, capon, a pinch of salt in a saucepan and cover with water. Put the pot on the stove and bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat and simmer for a couple of hours, skimming while cooking. Meanwhile, prepare the tortellini. Start with the filling, brown the minced meat in a knob of butter. Put the grated Parmesan cheese, the browned meat, the chopped mortadella, the egg and a grated nutmeg in a blender. Blend everything to obtain a soft cream. Now prepare the dough, cutting a piece of dough at a time (and keeping the rest closed in the film to keep it from drying) and roll it out with a rolling pin or pass it to the rollers of a pasta machine. After obtaining a sheet of about 0.5 mm thick, cut out squares of 4 cm per side. Put a ball of filling in the center of each square of dough, then close the single square giving it the shape of a tortellino. When the broth is ready, drain the meat and vegetables, bring it back to the boil, add the saffron and cook the tortellini. Serve hot with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese.
Roast turkey stuffed with dried fruit accompanied by baked pumpkin
Ingredients
1 small turkey, 350 g of mixed dried fruit, 500 g of pumpkin, extra virgin olive oil, 1 glass of white wine, salt, pepper, mixed aromatic herbs, 2 sticks of celery, 3 carrots, 1 yellow onion.
Method
Coarsely chop the dried fruit with the aromatic herbs, then stuff the turkey inside with the chopped mixture. Also season with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper and arrange it in a pan. Add the celery, carrots and onion (cut into large pieces) inside the pan and bake in a preheated oven at 180 ° C for about 3-4 hours. Halfway through cooking add the white wine. Prepare the baked pumpkin. Peel the pumpkin and cut it into cubes of about 2 cm per side. Season it with oil, salt, pepper and rosemary and bake at 180 ° C for about 20 minutes. Once the turkey is ready, remove it from the pan, arrange it on a serving plate and arrange the pumpkin around the turkey.
Panettone with olives and chocolate by the glass with puffed mascarpone cream
Ingredients
2 egg yolks, 30 g of sugar, 200 g of mascarpone, 150 ml of fresh cream, 1 sheet of isinglass, 2 thick slices of olive and chocolate panettone.
Method
Start by beating the eggs with the sugar until you get a light and fluffy mixture. Add the mascarpone and work for a couple of minutes. Soak the gelatin sheet in cold water, then dissolve it in a saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of cream. Incorporate the cream and melted gelatin into the mascarpone cream. Mix everything and filter it through a colander. Pour the mixture into a kitchen siphon and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least fifteen minutes. With the help of a round pastry cutter, form discs from the panettone slices. Plate the panettone discs in a hot pan and place them on the bottom of the glass. Take the siphon with the mascarpone cream from the fridge and add a charge of nitrogen. At this point, fill the glasses with the mascarpone cream and garnish with panettone crumbs. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
This recipe has already been read 235 times!