Tag: Christmas

The anchovies in three dishes from the sea that inspire Christmas – Italian Cuisine

Mini salted cheese cake, cream of zucchini and parmesan cheese and bavette garlic, oil and chilli and toasted hazelnuts. Here's how to make these three dishes special with the anchovies of the Cantabrian Sea Zarotti

Just a few days before Christmas and it is time to define the menu in every detail. The difficulty of this operation lies in the choose spectacular courses that amaze and please everyone, but at the same time they are simple to manage both in the preparation phase and in the time of service. Being in many, in fact, complicates things and often leads us to rely on the usual consolidated dishes, which end up boring a bit '.
Enough to avoid it insert a different plate in the Christmas menu from those we have already proposed each year, perhaps relying on an ingredient that gives character and taste, but at the same time arouses the positive emotions of a comfort food. Just like anchovies, which we have presented up to this moment among the starters, accompanied by a crispy crouton veiled with butter. And here they are get out of the box and characterize three very different dishes, united by the ability to bring to the table the taste of the sea with simplicity.

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The recipes

The first appetizer we are going to make are the small boats with cream of zucchini and mint, anchovies and parmesan. This fast dish (it takes 20 minutes) lends itself to being prepared in advance and will wait for guests at the table when it is time to sit down. To avoid problems at the time of service, we will arrange the cream in single portions, as shown in the image following the recipe.

Ingredients for 4 people: 2 courgettes, 200 g of frozen peas, mint, dill, 4 fillets of rolled anchovies from the Cantabrian Sea Zarotti, 3 tablespoons of natural yogurt, 4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan, extra-virgin olive oil

Method: Wash and cut the courgettes into slices and boil them later with the frozen peas in salted water for 8-10 min.
Drain well and blend with mint and extra virgin olive oil until a smooth and homogeneous cream is expected. Extend the cream with the cooking water if necessary. Season with salt and keep warm. Separate the yogurt with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and finely chopped dill (and keep aside). Prepare the waffles by spreading the grated Parmesan on a plate lined with parchment paper. Bake at 200 ° C for about 10 min until it is golden. When they are cold, gently break them with your hands.
Serve the cream with a teaspoon of dill yogurt, a rolled fillet of the Cantabrian Sea Zarotti and a cheese waffle.

We continue with a savory variant of cheesecake, one of the most loved pastries of recent times. At Christmas, it turns into small cakes with a great flavor that we can prepare comfortably in advance and store in the refrigerator for up to 40 minutes before serving them. The mini salted cheesecake with anchovies they are prepared in just 20 minutes, but require a little attention in the final decoration phase. Follow the topping indications and the result will be perfect.

Ingredients for 4 people:
For the base – 12 taralli or 2 large slices of Altamura type bread, extra virgin olive oil, salt
For the cream – philadelphia or goat g 250, 4 fillets of anchovy anchovies of the Cantabrian Sea Zarotti, chive
For the topping – 4 fillets of rolled anchovies of the Cantabrian Sea Zarotti, chopped pistachios 30 g, a few strands of chives

Method: whisk the taralli (or bread) with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and two tablespoons of water (and keep aside). Work the spreadable cheese with the finely chopped chives and the chopped anchovies until a soft cream is obtained. If necessary add 2 tablespoons of water. With the help of a small coppapasta with a diameter of about 5 cm, create the mini cheesecake: crush the crumbled taralli with a teaspoon so as to make a compact base, fill with the spreadable cheese, gently unmold with the help of a teaspoon.
Decorate with the other anchovies, the chopped pistachios and the chives and serve.

We now think of a simple dish to prepare, but at the same time particular and intriguing. The bavette garlic, oil, red pepper, anchovies and toasted hazelnuts they are prepared using the basic technique of one of the most famous pastas of our tradition, adding some details capable of transforming it into a party dish. In this case too, the serving is essential: before serving the bavette, roll it up with the help of a ladle. Once in the dish, do not forget to add a fillet of rolled anchovies from the Canottibrico Marzotto to each portion.

Ingredients for 4 people: 400 g whole bavette, a clove of garlic, 6 fillets of anchovy anchovies of the Cantabrian Sea Zarotti, 4 fillets of rolled anchovies from the Cantabrian Sea Zarotti, toasted hazelnuts 50 g, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

Method: heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a large frying pan with the crushed garlic, the red pepper and the Zarotti anchovy fillets spread until the latter have melted. Chop the hazelnuts with the knife (and keep aside). Cook the bavette in plenty of salted water, drain when al dente. Quickly sauté in the pan with the other ingredients, adding a few tablespoons of pasta cooking water to bind the sauce.
Serve adding the chopped hazelnuts and the rolled anchovies of the Cantabrian Sea Zarotti.

Anchovies

The anchovies that inspired these recipes dedicated to Christmas, come from deep waters of the Cantabrian Sea. And it is right here, in the north of Spain, that Zarotti selects the best fillets because they are processed by hand and stored in a delicate olive oil. We choose the packaging of the flat threads to insert anchovies in creams, sauces and condiments. THE fillets rolled instead, they lend themselves to decorating each dish, just as we did in the preparations above. And if you are looking for further inspiration, you can find it in the section of the site dedicated to the kitchen: #incucinaconZarotti.

The top 10 of Christmas foods that are most popular on social media – Italian Cuisine

They receive shares and appreciation: we discover together which Christmas foods are more successful on social networks. Are they also your favorites?

You are preparing, the menu It is decided, the expenditure is almost done, the divisions between family and invited also. The Christmas it is always closer and is inevitably synonymous with great binges. Each region, but also every family, has its own Christmas traditions, yet there are some dishes and ingredients that are more appreciated than others just about anywhere. He proves it a monitoring conducted by Espresso Communication for Vitavigor, the historic brand of Milan breadsticks, which has classified the hashtag of the most popular Christmas delicacies on Instagram. Let's find out then the top 10 of the most loved Christmas foods on social media.

The 10 most loved Christmas foods on Instagram

If the customs change, this ranking shows us how Italians continue to love tradition. In fact, on the podium of the top 10 we find the lasagna, which triumph in the menu 2.0 with 570,903 dedicated posts on Instagram. There are those who love those at the meat sauce, who instead prefers different versions, like the lasagna with vegetables or al fish. In second place there can only be the panettone, a dessert that is the true symbol of Christmas and that is often accompanied by mascarpone creams is icing of various kinds. The top 3 i closes tortellini, a great classic, to eat with the broth or dry.

Leave the first three positions, continue in the standings: follow, in fourth place, the Pandoro, a typical Veronese dessert that has always been a great panettone antagonist, while on the fifth it is placed lentils, the dish of New Year. At the sixth and seventh we have respectively dried fruit is Nougat, ideal to complete the meals of the Holidays. The eighth is occupied by breadsticks, who win an exclusive place in the trash bin bread of the period of the Holidays, as pointed out by Federica Bigiogera, marketing manager of Vitavigor: «I'm a delicious starter or a perfect aperitif, in line with the tastes of the whole family. Breadsticks continue to be one of the most popular foods by Italians and, just for Christmas, they record an increase in requests. Our in particular embellish the Christmas table thanks to their fashion sachets! .

In the queue, but still in the top ten, there are the struffoli, emblem of the Christmas of the South. To finally close we find the cod, which is gluttonous fried, creamed, stewed, with polenta, in cream … in short, it is a versatile fish that arrives on Italian tables for the holidays.

The big ones excluded

Surprisingly, you will not find second courses of meat, such as boiled and roasted, but also lamb is capon. The same applies to the cotechino, which couples exclusive with the lentils to celebrate the last of the year. It seems they are less appreciated this year too eel, dates and cold cuts, which are falling, at least according to a monitoring of the hashtag on Instagram.

But what will your Christmas menu be like this year?

The first of Christmas that conquers all of Italy: tortellini – Italian Cuisine

From Emilia Romagna to the rest of Italy, tortellini conquer everyone. Attention, however, must be done exclusively in broth!

tortellini, What a delight! There stuffed egg pasta it is typical ofEmilia Romagna, but over time it has become a recipe capable of stimulating everyone's gluttony. To buy or prepare at home, here is some secret on the tortellino.

Tortellini are one of the best known faces of Bologna, where it is easy to find them also in a sweet version … with chocolate! In reality, the homeland of the tortellino is located in the territory between Bologna and Modena. According to a legend that draws inspiration from the poem THEin bucket kidnapped by Alessandro Tassoni, written in 1614, after a long day of fighting because of the war that opposed Bologna and Modena, Bacchus, Mars and Venus stopped to sleep in an inn called Corona, in Castelfranco Emilia. In the morning the host discovered the goddess Venus still asleep and, fascinated by the disturbing forms, took refuge in the kitchen where she created a stuffed pasta whose shape recalled a navel. The navel, in fact, is the protagonist of another version of the legend that, always in Castelfranco Emilia, wants the birth of the tortellino. In this case the innkeeper was inspired by the beauty of a guest noblewoman, spied on in secret.

What do you need to do tortellini at home?

00 flour, eggs and a pinch of salt for the pasta: remember that according to tradition thedough should be worked by hand with a rolling pin. For the filling it is possible to use pork loin, mortadella is Ham along with the leftovers of sausages you find in the fridge. Add egg, parmesan and … a pinch of nutmeg! Once spread the dough places a small amount of filling on a square of about 4 centimeters. Fold the square in two so as to obtain a triangle, then intertwine the two tips by rolling the dough on the finger and finally close. Remember that expert housewives are able to create tiny tortellini, here is the real skill.

Attention, the tortellino with tomato sauce … does not exist!

For the Christmas lunch prepare your tortellini according to the traditional recipe: cooked in meat broth, or in the delicious dry variant, seasoned with cream and Parmesan cheese. Those who do not like meat broth can opt for a veg variant with vegetable broth. The first references of tortellini in gastronomic history are from 1300, but it seems that since 1100 it was customary to consume hot capon broth, rich and substantial, for the night of the winter solstice, December 21, along with scraps of pasta and small pieces of meat.