Tag: challenge

How to shop to participate in our challenge – Italian Cuisine

The shopping list for making carbonara, tiramisu, pizza, mozzarella in a carriage and parmesan and alternatives and tips for easy shopping

5 weeks, 5 recipes and a great desire to share our favorite moments at the table. But how to shop? The password for this quarantine is organization. But also flexibility! Our challenge #LaRicettaCheUnisce invites our readers to share with us, friends, close, distant people and family, a home and personal version of our most famous recipes. Of the most loved, classic and traditional. We start today with carbonara and then it will be the turn of tiramisu, pizza, mozzarella in a carriage and parmesan.

cook them following our recipe, proposing yours or venturing imaginative and clever variations. Photograph yourself at the table in front of the plate alone or with the people and animals you love and share the photo on social networks using the hashtag #LaRicettaCheUnisce. The best shots will be rewarded and it will be a new and fun way to sit at the table virtually all together. In front of a dish that we like, it makes us happy and that tells something about us.

Shopping list

To facilitate participation in our challenge, we have prepared a shopping list for each recipe, to take with you to the supermarket to better organize your purchases! Here are the right ingredients, recipe by recipe with some clever variations.

The carbonara ingredients

350 g spaghetti (but also bucatini, rigatoni, penne, fusilli, mezzemaniche …)
120 g pillow (but also smoked bacon, sweet bacon, speck, sausage! For a vegetarian variant we recommend artichokes, courgettes, pumpkin, apples. To prepare a sea carbonara, mussels and clams will be perfect, but also prawns and bottarga.)
30 g grated pecorino (alternatively, grate your favorite savory cheese)
20 g Grated Parmesan or Parmesan (if you only have this at home, put 50 g to cover the dose of pecorino cheese)
2 yolks (if you have few eggs, use only a whole one, beating it well. In this way yolk and egg white will be uniform)
extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

The ingredients of tiramisu

500 g mascarpone (if you don't find it, you can try using a low-fat fresh cheese, chantilly cream, pastry or chocolate)
300 g ladyfinger biscuits (if you don't have them, use dry biscuits, leftovers from brioche or sponge cake)
150 g sugar
6 egg yolks (you will need these for mascarpone cream, but if you don't have them, you can also simply work mascarpone and sugar)
4 spoons of Marsala (Marsala is used to give an aromatic touch to the cream. If you can't find it, look for inspiration among the liqueurs you have at home!)
4 cups of coffee (barley is also fine! Alternatively, you can prepare a very simple syrup with water and sugar or use milk with bitter cocoa powder dissolved inside)
Unsweetened cocoa powder

The ingredients of the pizza

For the dough:
500 g flour (we used the type 1, but the manitoba, the 0 … are fine too)
4 g of yeast of fresh beer (if you don't find it, use the dry one, buy a flour that already contains it or rely on the leavening power of the baking soda. If you want to try making sourdough, here we explain how to proceed!)
10 g of salt

To stuff:

(this is the recipe of our margherita with buffalo mozzarella. But it will also be delicious with tomato sauce, garlic and oregano, anchovies, capers and olives, tomato and fiordilatte mozzarella, white with mozzarella and vegetables …)
400 g of peeled tomatoes
2 buffalo mozzarella
basil
extra virgin olive oil
salt

The ingredients of the mozzarella in a carriage

4 slices of sandwich bread (if you don't find it, a loaf of bread is also fine, to make toast or sandwiches)
2 mozzarella (if you don't have mozzarella, you can fry other stringy cheeses such as provola, caciotta …)
2 eggs
bread crumbs (if you don't have it, you can also bread it with the semolina used to prepare the polenta)
peanut oil
salt

We served it with a fresh salad. You can imitate our idea with seasonal vegetables or serve it with a sauce, a vegetable or cheese cream, other pancakes or alone. Yes, it is also very good on its own!

The ingredients of the eggplant parmesan

800 g fresh tomato sauce (you can also use peeled or ready-made pulp. If you don't like them, dare a blank version!)
500 g mozzarella (if you don't have mozzarella, replace it with other stringy cheeses)
4 long eggplants (Parmesan can also be prepared with zucchini, potatoes …)
an onion (if you have not prepared a simple sauce with a clove of garlic, but also without sauté)
basil (if you don't have it, use the fragrant herbs you have in the kitchen)
flour and peanut oil for frying the aubergines (if you don't have these ingredients, you can bake the aubergines)
extra virgin olive oil
salt

In the gallery above, our alternative recipes to find the right inspiration!

takes part in the challenge of La Cucina Italiana – Italian Cuisine

Today La Cucina Italiana – since 1929 the most authoritative and long-standing cooking monthly in our country – is launching #laricettacheunisce, a new project to bring Italy together at the table.

The editorial staff, under the direction of Maddalena Fossati, will involve all of you every week, inviting you to cook a specific dish to share with your family, lovers and friends. Even if far away, cooking the same dish will be like being at home together.

The nice thing will be not only posting the recipe but also your family and a collective photograph will be composed to make everyone feel more united. A great family album where you will be the protagonists, the desire to be together and to feel closer through the kitchen.
Sharing the same dish, it will be like sitting all together at a long table – virtual – from the Aosta Valley to Sicily, passing through all the regions. Looking forward to doing it for real.

«The domestic kitchen has returned to the protagonist in everyone's homes and videos calling each other, appearing on the balcony or talking to each other from the landing to share a recipe is a way to stay closer, to stay in touch. With this project, La Cucina Italiana wants to embrace and reunite Italy around the table as it has been doing for almost a century, "he says Maddalena Fossati, director of the brand.

To participate, just photograph yourself at the table, or with a plate in hand, or even sharing the screenshot of a live link with loved ones and challenge your distant friends to do the same, always using the hashtag #laricettacheunisce.

Italian and French chefs, famous people, architects, designers and influencers will also take part in the initiative.

Each week will be dedicated to a recipe and each week the best will be chosen which will be published on the website and on the official social channels of La Cucina Italiana.

«The month of March closed with an extraordinary result on the digital side: over 6.5 million users connected to the La Cucina Italiana website (+ 62% MoM and + 57% YoY), browsed over 20 million pages (+ 59% MoM and + 32% YoY) and viewed 8.5 million videos; the overall social fanbase of La Cucina Italiana and La Scuola reaches 1.7 million users with a YoY growth of + 11% and the direct instagram started on March 19 totaled 143 k video views. This tells us how cooking, even more at the moment, is a way to take care of oneself and loved ones and how our site and our social networks are accompanying readers in creating new routines – currently dictated out of necessity, but which promise to stay in the next daily life – like getting up early to refresh the mother yeast or improvising a video aperitif with distant friends so Sabina Montevergine, Web Editor of La Cucina Italiana.

The project #laricettacheunisce it adds to the many initiatives already put in place by La Cucina Italiana to entertain and involve the public in this difficult moment. Indeed, users can download the digital copy of the monthly for free is the digital video courses of La Scuola de La Cucina Italiana. In addition, they can follow the daily live broadcasts on the instagram profile of the brand at 11 with interviews with the cooks of La Scuola de La Cucina Italiana, and at 17.30 with the director Maddalena Fossati with the heading Dinner time in the company of starred chefs.

#LaRicettaCheUnisce: here are the recipes to cook together, let's start with carbonara!

The challenge: a week without added sugar – Italian Cuisine

We got in the game and tell you how it went. Try us too with our advice and our recipes: you won't come back!

You can survive one week without sugar?
Certainly yes and indeed, we can assure you that you will feel so well that you will want to continue forever.
How do we know it? We have accepted the challenge!

With no added sugar

We did a test to understand how and if you can easily exceed a week without ever consuming any food containing added sugar.
We specify "added" because sugars are practically everywhere, but not in all foods are sugars that hurt.
To be clear, the fruit contains sugar, but eliminating it from the diet is not right. A packaged product like a snack, a soup ready, a ready sauce, biscuits, pizzas and much more, instead, they contain added sugars useless for our organism, excessive and harmful. Eliminating them is very difficult, but not impossible. Reducing them would be essential.
For 7 days we have also eliminated all the sweeteners such as granulated or cane sugar, fructose, honey, malt, agave and coconut sugar because, although natural, they are always sugars. Stevia can replace them, but not everyone likes its licorice aftertaste.

7 days without sugar

As we have already said, we must not eliminate any type of sugar, but only the unnecessary one.
So fruit yes, cookies no.
Yogurt yes, but only Greek.
No alcohol, no fruit juices, no jams and spreads if not homemade.
Pasta yes, but wholemeal and the same is true for bread.
Sugar of any kind no.

The expense to do

During the sugarfree week we advise you to have at home everything you need to prepare lunches, dinners and breakfasts to avoid going to the supermarket and let yourself be tempted by "forbidden" products.
Make a good supply of vegetables, vegetables and fruit, avoiding that which is too sugary or too ripe.
Buy also of the dried fruit perfect to take with you as a mid-day snack.
Determine what you will eat more or less day by day and adjust accordingly. Meat, fish and eggs they cannot be missing, but neither can they legumes and cereals.
To get an idea of how to organize the week, read our recommendations for meal prep.

Watch out for seasonings

Simply use oil, lemon juice, spices and aromatic herbs.
You may not know that even in some famous sauces like soy sauce there may be added sugars, as well as in ketchup. Absolutely avoid the ready dressing, not so much because they contain added sugars – and contain them – but also because they are generally rich in fat.

Breakfast tips

It could always be more or less the same even if by choice we advise you to vary it a little and explain how.
A Whole grain bread slice is the base to which you can add a poached egg, hard or fried or smoked salmon or ricotta.
They must not be missing good fats like avocado or dried fruit and a fruit of your choice, not too ripe and not too sugary. A Orange juice in this period it is perfect.
If you don't like salty breakfast you can prepare a porridge with oat flakes and water and then enrich it with Greek yogurt, cinnamon, fresh and dried fruit.
If you are in a hurry, opt for one instead Greek yogurt with chopped dried fruit and 80% dark chocolate.

Lunch tips

If you can't do pasta by hand, choose the whole wheat pasta or legume flour pasta and season to taste, always with homemade sauces.
Try to give space also to Whole grains such as rice, spelled, barley, millet, oats and quinoa, although in this case it is a fake cereal, which, however, does not do badly!
Accompany both pasta and cereals ad a portion of vegetables and to one small protein part which can be based on cereals, fish or meat.
Some examples: spelled with steamed zucchini and smoked salmon, brown rice with cherry tomatoes and feta, salted porridge.

Dinner tips

If you gave more space to carbohydrates for lunch, eat more at dinner proteins always varying between meat, fish, eggs and legumes. A soup of legumes and barley could be an excellent idea as well as a cuddle, but prepare it at home because in those already prepared there are often added sugars. Always with legumes you can prepare velvety and cold creams like thechickpea humumus also perfect for filling a rye sandwich.
Chicken or turkey yes, but not sliced. Prepare a simple cut, season with spices and herbs and accompany with vegetables.
The eggs they are easy and quick to prepare and are very versatile: omelette, fried egg, small pie with vegetables. You can really indulge yourself.
As for the fish, avoid canned and frozen processed and seasoned. The fresh fish it is prepared in a short time and is good for you.

One week without added sugar

We have decided to offer you in gallery some ideas for breakfast to be alternated during the week, some snacks and 7 ideas for lunch and dinner.
These are very simple recipes that you can easily replicate at home, with light cooking and few seasonings.
Attention only to not use refined flours and not whole grains and pasta.
Obviously at the table only water or even tea, herbal teas and infusions, but not sweetened!
Play a lot with spices and herbs to give more taste to your dishes and if you fancy a dessert at the end of the meal, treat yourself to a extra-dark chocolate cube.