Sweet potatoes that will revolutionize your picnics! – Italian Cuisine

Sweet potatoes that will revolutionize your picnics!


Easy to cook, light and full of taste, a different idea to enrich the picnic flavor and trips out of town. We are talking about North Carolina sweet potatoes, which will add a gourmet touch to your happy outings. Be inspired by our recipes, for a basket full of healthy and tasty delicacies that will conquer all your loved ones

In the summer picnic basket there is one more ingredient for those who love healthy eating without giving up tasty recipes. These are the sweet potatoes, a tuber at least as old as Christopher Columbus. In fact, the great admiral found the natives who already cultivated and cooked them; and if in the distant 1492 this unknown ingredient caught his attention, today it has conquered millions of stars and stripes consumers.

Due to their intrinsic characteristics, North Carolina sweet potatoes are ideal for the warmer season, and this by virtue of their low calorie content (86 Kcal per 100 grams), but also because they are fat-free and rich instead of calcium, protein, vitamin C, B6, E, beta carotene (8 times more than broccoli), fiber and potassium. Thanks to their low glycemic index, they are also suitable for diabetics. A "light" and "veg" food, therefore, which is also extremely practical to cook, according to the most diverse variations, from appetizers to desserts, passing through first and second gourmet courses.

Sweet potatoes: use in the kitchen

The uses in the kitchen are manifold. North Carolina sweet potatoes can be eaten raw or cooked, as a side dish, soup or salad. Being available all year round, they are suitable for recipes of every season, so much so that in the United States they are an ingredient in daily cooking, being used for appetizers, first courses, second courses, snacks and desserts. There are therefore many recipes that can be proposed, from vegetarian lasagna to omelettes, from velvety to gnocchi. They are also perfect as a side dish for chicken, turkey and pork dishes, or particularly suitable for panna cotta, pudding and crème brûlée. North Carolina sweet potato bread is also very tasty, made with sweet potato puree and flour. There are also numerous ways to cook them: baked, steamed, grilled, sautéed in a pan, as a puree or cooked in the microwave. We offer you four amazing recipes.

"Tower" of North Carolina figs and sweet potatoes with brie

Ingredients for 8 pieces
2 North Carolina sweet potatoes – 8 sprigs of rosemary – 30 grams of walnuts – 150 grams of brie – 1 tablespoon of oil – lemon juice – salt flower – 4 figs – cayenne pepper – pepper – salt.

Preparation: about 25 minutes
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them diagonally into 8 rather thick pieces. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes, then drain them and put them on kitchen paper to dry.

Break the walnuts and toast them in a pan without adding fat, then put them in a bowl. Cut the brie into 8 pieces and press the slices into the bowl of walnuts. Wash the figs and dry them, in the meantime remove the lower needles from the sprigs of rosemary that you will need to create your turrets.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the sweet potatoes for about 4 minutes. Season with the fior di sale, pepper, cayenne pepper and lemon juice and then remove the potatoes from the pan.

On a slice of sweet potato, put a piece of brie, another piece of sweet potato and 1/4 of fig. Finally insert a sprig of rosemary in the middle to hold the tower together.

Ham and sweet potato toast

Ingredients for 4 people
2 large North Carolina sweet potatoes (about 400 grams) – 100 grams of ham cut into thin slices – 1 or 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard – 50 grams of common watercress – 1 baguette (about 300 grams) – 5 tablespoons of bread grated – 100 grams of mayonnaise – 2 tablespoons of flour – 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil – 1 egg – salt – pepper.

Preparation: about 40 minutes
Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into slices about 5 mm thick, cook them in boiling salted water for about 2 minutes. Drain the potatoes on kitchen paper and flavor them with salt and pepper. Whip the egg in a container, pass the sweet potato slices in the flour, egg and finally in the breadcrumbs. Fry the potatoes in hot oil for about 5-7 minutes and let them cool.

Mix the mayonnaise with Dijon mustard and wash the watercress. Cut the baguette into 4 equal pieces and distribute the Dijon cream on the baguette. Finally put the slices of sweet potato, ham and watercress in the lower half of the baguette and close with the upper half.

Sweet potato pie with tapenade sauce

Ingredients for about 12 pieces
600 grams of North Carolina sweet potatoes – 200 grams of flour – 100 grams of butter – 4 medium-sized eggs – 1 bunch of spring onions – 1 teaspoon of dried thyme – 200 grams of crème fraîche – dried legumes (for cooking in white) – 1 tablespoon of oil, nutmeg – transparent paper, parchment paper – salt and pepper.

For the Tapenade
100 grams of seedless black olives – 1 tablespoon of capers – 2 sardine fillets – 1 clove of garlic – 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Preparation: about an hour and a half
Prepare the dough with flour, butter, a pinch of salt and 1 egg. Roll the dough between 2 pieces of transparent paper wrap, flatten the dough and spread it on the cake mold. Repeatedly prick the dough with a fork and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Peel and slice the sweet potatoes in 2 mm thick slices. Wash the spring onions, cut them into rounds and keep some pieces aside. Steam the sweet potatoes and spring onions in a hot pan of oil for 5 minutes and season with salt, pepper and thyme.

Blend the crème fraiche and 3 eggs well and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Place the dough on the baking paper and pour over a layer of dried legumes (cooking in white). Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven at 200 ° C (180 ° C for the ventilated ones). Remove the baking paper and the dried legumes, add the sweet potatoes and the spring onions over the dough, finally cover with the crème fraiche.

For the tapenade, chop the olives, the sardines, the capers and the clove of garlic into fine pieces, mixed with olive oil and finish adding the spring onions, sweet potatoes and the tapenade.

Sweet potato madeleine

Ingredients for about 20 pieces
125 grams of North Carolina sweet potatoes – 2 large eggs – 50 grams of soft butter – 1 tablespoon of finely grated organic orange peel – 125 grams of sugar – 200 grams of flour – 1 or 2 tablespoon of baking powder – 1 spoonful of powdered sugar – butter and flour.

Preparation: about 1 hour (without waiting time)
Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into small pieces and cook them in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes. Drain the sweet potatoes and pass them in a potato masher. Let the mashed potatoes cool and in the meantime grease and bake the mold on the Madeleine baking tray. Then separate the eggs and whip only the egg whites.

Pour the butter, orange zest and sugar into the sweet potato puree, mix everything with a whisk until the mass becomes creamy. One after the other, mix the egg yolks well, finally add the flour and baking powder, gently add a third of the beaten egg whites and slowly pour in the rest.

Fill a pastry bag with the dough and make small Madeleines on the baking sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 ° C (ventilated at 180 ° C) for 10-12 minutes.

Place the Madeleine on the oven grill to let them cool, once cold sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

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