When the time comes to get in the kitchen to baste the New Year's Eve dinner, time risks turning into a guillotine. But there is a way to optimize times, without neglecting tradition: to make the oven protagonist of the preparation of New Year's seconds. Thus, while the cotechino, lo shin or the sardines they cook, your hands are free to make, for example, cold appetizers or a first course with one of the many lucky foods.
In crust, the alternative version of cotechino
A great classic that cannot be missing from the New Year's menu is the cotechino with lentils. A alternative version of the traditional recipe, which can be prepared in the oven, is the one in a puff pastry crust. The ingredients for four people are a cotechino of about 500 grams, a roll of puff pastry, 450 grams of spinach already cleaned, two eggs, 20 grams of grated Parmesan cheese, a clove of garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper , nutmeg and sesame seeds.
First of all cook the cotechino in plenty of water, according to the times indicated on the package or by your butcher. Drain it and remove the casing. Meanwhile, in another pot of boiling salted water, boil the spinach. When they become tender, drain them, squeeze them and sauté them in a pan with a drizzle of oil and a clove of garlic. Allow them to cool, then transfer them to the mixer and blend them with the parmesan, egg, a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg. At this point, unroll the puff pastry and spread over the Spinach Cream, leaving an inch of border on all sides. Lay the cotechino on one end and roll up, tightening the sheet well. Close the side edges, brush the surface with egg yolk, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake at 200 ° for about 25 minutes.
New Year's courses in the oven, the inevitable shank
Another dish that is always very popular on New Year's Eve is it pork knuckle. Quick to prepare, it needs instead of more than an hour of cooking in the oven. Four small shins are needed for four people, 80 grams of butter, an onion, two cloves of garlic, a sprig of rosemary, a glass of dry white wine, a liter of broth, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
Quickly rinse the shanks under running water and place them in a pan covered with parchment paper with the butter, rosemary, onion cut in half, oil and peeled cloves of garlic. Bake at 200 degrees and as soon as they have taken a little color, pour in the white wine. When this has faded, repeat the operation with the broth from time to time, so that the meat never stays dry. At the end of cooking it should, in fact, be tender and moist. To accompany the shanks, the tasty baked potatoes are excellent.
Sarde a beccafico, for those who do not want to give up fish
The Sarde A Beccafico they are perfect for those who want to opt for a fish-based second New Year's Eve. Four people need 500 grams of fresh sardines, an orange, two teaspoons of honey and a few bay leaves. For the filling 100 grams of breadcrumbs, 40 grams of sultanas, 40 grams of pine nuts, two anchovies, a teaspoon of sugar, a sprig of parsley, a clove of garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
First of all turn on the oven at 200 ° and put soaking the raisins. Then proceed with the cleaning of sardines and once ready open them like a book. In a pan with a drizzle of oil, toast the breadcrumbs, then transfer it to a bowl and add the oil, anchovies, chopped parsley and garlic, pine nuts, pepper, salt and sugar. Mix everything until you get a homogeneous compound. Put a teaspoon of filling on each sardine and roll it up on itself. Then grease a baking dish with a drizzle of oil, arrange the stuffed sardines, separating them from each other with bay leaves, sprinkle with orange juice, a little more oil and honey. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about twenty minutes.
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