Tag: advance

Slowly, the snails advance – Italian Cuisine

Slowly but inexorably, le snails (or rather snails) are conquering more and more admirers. In the last decades, from Piedmont to Sicily, they have grown farms and therefore production increased (+ 452% in 10 years), but also i internal consumption. If in years Seventy in Italy they ate it 4,700 tons averages a year, today we arrived at 44,000 tons. In practice we buy just over 10% of all snails sold in the world. And Italian production is not behind the question, so much so that in 60% of the cases it is about snailsimport.

Mad Italians for snails
There are many behind the all-Italian snail boom factors: the passion of gourmets for these clams, their gastronomic enhancement (breeders also propose them in sauces, pates and other processed recipes, and there are even those who sell their eggs like snail caviar) and the great demand of theirs slime as an "ingredient" of anti-inflammatory drugs and cosmetics wrinkle more fashionable.

A fine food
Nothing new under the sun, since these clams they have been part of Italian cuisine since the time of ancient Romans. Considered for centuries one delight for connoisseurs, the snails have accompanied the history of Italy, because these molluscs gastropods they have always been one of the most animals available in nature, more nutritious and, obviously, more easy to be captured. This is why they represent a food nutritious and tasty, very consumed especially in the areas mountainous and poorer. Today the science validate the value nutritive intuited by our great-grandparents: the meat of snail, in fact, is rich in protein (13.6%), which are of great quality because they are rich in essential amino acids. It Contains few fats (1.7%), many minerals (like magnesium and phosphorus) and different vitamins, in particular the B12.

A made in Italy that pleases
Italian helicopters make school in world. Our model of breeding snails they are fed with products vegetable, without the feed used elsewhere, and this makes them a product "made in Italy" very appreciated everywhere. Helix aspersa Muller is Helix aspersa Maxima (larger): these are the two species of typical area snails Mediterranean, the most appreciated in table for tender and tasty meat and, therefore, the most bred. In Sicily, a company breeds it biological a new species, the Helix aspersa Muller Madonita, obtained from the intersection of indigenous snails Sicilian and snails French breeding, and whose eggs, small, white and spherical, are sold as "Snail caviar". Also for the slime of snail are opening new horizons in kitchen: after cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and homeopathy, even companies food they are discovering this by-product, which has not only properties inflammatory but it also acts like emulsifier and stabilizer. For example, the Carpigiani Gelato University he experimented with it in the preparation of a strawberry sorbet, obtaining a result amazing.

A discovery in the kitchen
Italian cuisine is rich in local dishes of snails, so much so that almost every region has its own recipe: to piedmontese (with butter and onion), to Lombard (with parsley), to Venetian (with garlic), to ligurian (with oregano and rosemary), to Roman (with anchovies), to bell (with garlic and hot pepper), to Calabrian (with peeled and hot pepper), to Sicilian (with lemon and bay leaf). This variety of preparation is explained by the flavor delicate of these meats to keep, which make them suitable for to get married cash ingredients different. Traditionally seasoned with butter, parsley and garlic, snail meat can also be cooked in wet or in Tempura. With snails you can also prepare exquisite soups, even better if enriched with mushrooms porcini, and a succulent stew with tomato sauce, to flavor with potatoes, bacon and spices spicy at will. Many recipes, inviting and unusual, they have developed them Laura is Claudia, the two young women who founded a kennel near Lodi and that they regularly submit them on their company's blog At the Chiar of Luma. If you're looking for a gem from masterchef try the snail eggs, to combine with crudités of fish and of vegetables, beef tartare, black rice and raw red prawns, with dark chocolate or as a decoration for dishes really theatrical.

Manuela Soressi
December 2018

DISCOVER SALE & PEPE COOKING COURSES

the Christmas cake that is prepared in advance – Italian Cuisine

A traditional Irish dessert that is easy to make, but requires many days of preparation before reaching perfection

There Christmas Cake it is not a traditional Italian dessert, but it comes from Ireland: why do you recommend it? Because it contains all the scents and colors of Christmas!

A poor but rich cake

Originally this dessert was considered by the Irish a real one Christmas gift because to prepare it needed many ingredients at the time not available or anyway very expensive.
Nowadays, however, the dried and dried fruit It's on the table every day, especially during the Christmas season, so this cake has become a dessert of the holidays for everyone.
As tradition dictates, however, you must have a little patience, start preparing it at least two weeks before Christmas, pamper it for a long time soaking it and, the day before serving it at the end of the 25th dinner, decorate it to make it beautiful and special .

Christmas cake and christmas pudding

Before proceeding with the recipe, it is necessary to make a clarification.
There are two versions of the Christmas cake: a higher and a lower one.
In the second case we talk about Christmas Pudding, but the ingredients and the procedure are the same.
To prepare the low version, simply use a large mold!

A dessert that requires time and patience

To prepare the Christmas Cake you can play in advance, indeed you have to do it!
As we said, this cake, in fact, must rest for a long time to let the flavors blend and reach the perfect consistency.
It is a sweet compact, soft and very sugary given the presence of many types of dried fruit and perfume spices and brandy because from time to time you have to wet it and let the alcohol get well absorbed. In this way the interior will remain moist at the right point.
The Christmas Cake can be compared to ours panforte, but it is only one of his distant relatives.
It's hard to explain, you just have to try it.
Here is the recipe.

The Christmas cake recipe

Let's start immediately from the list of ingredients. There are many, but do not worry, it's a very easy dessert to prepare.

Ingredients

225 g of flour
175 g of butter
175 g of muscovado sugar
4 eggs
a lemon
an orange
mixed spices: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg
6 tablespoons of brandy or whiskey
500 g of raisins and dried red fruits
100 g of candied orange and lemon peel
100 g of candied cherries
100 g of chopped almonds with a knife
100 g of almond flour

The procedure

Put the raisins and all the candies in a bowl and add 4 tablespoons of brandy.
Mix well, cover and let absorb for 12 hours.
Separately add the flour, the butter at room temperature, the sugar, the eggs, the rind of the lemon and the orange, the mixed spices and beat until you get a homogeneous mixture.
Add the raisins and candied fruit, the ground almonds and the almond flour and mix well.
Transfer the mixture into a round pan lined with two layers of parchment paper and level the surface.
Bake at 130 ° for about 5 hours.
Once ready let it cool and then wet it with whiskey or brandy and wrap it in the parchment paper.
It should be kept in an airtight container and kept wet every 3 days until Christmas.

How to decorate the Christmas cake

In Ireland, tradition has it that the Christmas Cake arrives at the table "well decorated".
The day before Christmas, then brush with hot honey and then cover with a layer of marzipan and another of sugar paste.
You can then add sugar puppets in Christmas or candied fruit.
Once garnished it must be consumed within two days.
But if you do not want to sweeten it too much with this kind of decorations, simply serve it with some whipped cream next to it. In this way it will be stored much longer than simply wrapped in transparent and wet film from time to time.

Just a little over two weeks at Christmas, the right time to rest the Christmas cake. Are you ready to prepare it?

Just some tips yet: browse the gallery!

5 baked first to prepare in advance – Italian Cuisine

So many guests to put on the table? Bring along with the work and prepare a first baked. When it's time to serve it, all you have to do is warm it up

If you have many guests for lunch or dinner you must necessarily organize you on time. To enjoy the company without spending all the time in the kitchen, you should prepare something the day before to be heated then at the moment.
With a first baked you're never wrong.

The right "rest"

In fact, baked pasta is practice to take to the table and always like everyone.
Preparing it first not only can help those who are in the kitchen to carry on with the work, but sometimes it also makes the final result is better. We know that things cooked in the oven should never be served immediately because they have to "rest" a little to take more flavor and reach the perfect consistency.

A thousand recipes of baked pasta

When it comes to baked pasta we talk about an infinite variety of recipes.
Cannelloni, lasagne, gnocchi, conchiglioni, but also stuffed pasta: you can prepare baked pasta in many ways and with different seasonings. Here are some.

With the sauce

The most classic is the condiment made from ragu, béchamel and parmesan.
The important thing, if you want an extraordinary first, is to prepare the béchamel sauce at home. It's easy, fast and the result is completely different. We guarantee it.
The sauce can then be made with the past, but also with i chunks if you want something more rustic, or you can use i Cherry tomatoes and caramelize them in the oven. In this case it is excellent pairing with ricotta salata or pesto.

How to make béchamel

Browse the gallery

With vegetables

A classic alternative to meat sauce is baked pasta with ricotta and spinach, a combination that always puts everyone in agreement and makes them happy too vegetarians.
Alternatively, try pairing this season pumpkin and mushrooms to be enriched by also wanting with sausage or speck.
If you want a first course full of vegetables, colorful and healthy, however, prepare a mixed vegetables in a pan or oven. Always choose what the season offers and match the flavors and textures at your pleasure. You can cook the vegetables leaving it crispy, or vegetables in leaves, or even all together for a super taste.

With fish

If the menu is based on fish you can prepare a vegetable baked pasta or just with crustaceans and fish.
It is excellent with smoked salmon and ricotta, perfumed with dill, but also with shrimps and courgettes or very simple with cod and tomatoes.
And for the most demanding palates, the baked pasta with the lobster maybe perfumed with a touch of saffron.

Mozzarella yes or no?

The choice is yours and it also depends on the type of recipe that you will go to prepare.
In lasagna, for example, mozzarella is not necessary and not even in cannelloni, but if you do one short pasta topped with many vegetables or even of the gnocchi, then the mozzarella makes the difference.
The important thing is to choose a good one squeeze it well before using it to avoid losing too much water.

When to freeze

You can cook your first baked a few hours before serving it or even the day before, but you can also prepare it in large quantities and then freeze what you do not need right away.
After cooking, let it cool for good and then cover it and store it in the freezer.
You can too freeze it from raw, but be careful because in cooking it will lose more water.
How to cook it once out of the freezer? Just put it in the oven without necessarily defrosting it before.
Obviously at this point it will not be able to be refrozen!

But after so much talking about baked goods, what is the best pasta format for these recipes?
We are spoiled for choice, but we we suggest 5.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes