Tag: Eat

Easter holidays: where to go (also) to eat very well – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Easter holidays: where to go (also) to eat very well


We have at least four days available for the Easter holidays: from Good Friday to Easter Monday. A long bridge perfect for picking up and leaving, for those who can do it, taking advantage of the mild spring air, the real one. At least, these are the forecasts given that Easter this year is – as they say – “high”: it arrives on March 31st. The best time of year to be outdoors: taking long walks among the cities of art, among the woods on the hills and in the mountains and maybe even at the seaside enjoying the first sun.

Easter holidays 2024: where to go

From here we started to do a selection of addresses throughout Italy where, in addition to all this, you have the certainty of eat very well: tenacious cuisine with typical regional products and recipes, such as that of the farmhouses, a great Easter classic, but also gourmet and starred cuisine. Because holidays are special, and it’s worth treating yourself to some luxury at the table if there’s an opportunity. Here are our proposals:

Easter holidays: where to go in Italy

What do you eat during Lent? – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

La Cucina Italiana


What do you eat during Lent? The Catholic religion gives precise prescriptions: for those who practice and believe, it should be a period of restrictions. Forty days of “penance” to be observed to “purify” oneself before Easter, the resurrection of Christ.

What do you eat during Lent

In the common imagination, Lent is a period of total abstention from meat, but also from alcohol, sweets and all fatty and opulent foods. Until the beginning of the 20th century, in fact, it was more or less like this: ecclesiastical rules, among other things, expressly required one to also deprive oneself of eggs and dairy products. Now they are less restrictive. The fourth of the five general precepts of the Church on the subject is clear. Read: «On days established by the Church, abstain from eating meat and observe fasting.

What are the days of Lent when you don’t eat meat

Therefore, first of all, meat is prohibited only on established days: this is the Ash Wednesdaywhich is the day immediately after Carnival, and of Good Friday, in which Christians commemorate the passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As for the Holy Saturday, abstention and fasting are only “recommended”. Among the observant, there are those who interpret the rule in a broader sense: during Lent he avoids meat every Friday and deprives himself of particularly expensive foods and alcohol.

What is Lenten fasting

The fasting rule should not be understood in a literal sense either. The church prescribes having only one meal during the day, the midday meal, but does not prevent you from eating something to fill your stomach in the morning and in the evening. Everyone should do it: from the age of 14 you start with abstinence from meat, from 18 to 60 you also continue with fasting. Barring exceptions, for example for health reasons. It’s all written down, on the Code of Canon Law and on the apostolic constitution “Paenitemini” of Pope Paul VI of 1966 (which also marked a small revolution by widening the range of “allowed” foods): rules and precepts for spending the most important period of the year in the most spiritual way possible, symbolically reliving the days that Jesus spent in the desert in abstinence from temptation. Days which, however, as Pope Francis has repeatedly recalled, cannot ignore prayer, almsgiving and good works.

Why you don’t eat meat during Lent (but you do eat fish)

On lean days the rule is therefore that of “carnem-levare”, eliminate the meatan expression from which the term derives not by chance carnival, the period of excesses. Hence the common custom of eat fish. Why not meat and yes fish? The explanations may be different: the assonance between meat and Jesus on the cross, but also the fact that meat – especially red meat – has always been considered an opulent food, therefore not very suitable for a moment of reflection such as Lenten. In its Summa Theologiae Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote that red meat gives more pleasure, therefore eliminating it would be a demonstration of greater sacrifice. Pleasure that would also derive from white meat, such as chicken, which is excluded from the permitted foods because it is a warm-blooded animal, unlike fish. Not convincing you? Faith is also this: you believe it or not.

Lent recipes

The Catholic precept has guided the culinary tradition as always: starting from the rule of lean fish, each Italian town, city and region has developed its own recipes in which it is the protagonist. Recipes which, however, in reality, are not always so punitive, but on the contrary. There polenta and herring from the Treviso area was created to be eaten during Lent. It is also Lenten Ligurian lean capon, which in truth is not that lean given that it is made with toasted bread, vegetables, fish interspersed with sauces also made with eggs. It deserves a separate chapter salted cod: poor and very tasty fish, which for Lent is made in many different ways: Vicenza style, cappuccina style (in Friuli), in sauce or fried in Naples.

The list of first courses is also long, although not always with fish: always in Naples they make the scammaro omelette, with a tomato and olive sauce for spaghetti. Spaghetti that Pellegrino Artusi recommended seasoning for Lent with simple ingredients following the rule of the Lenten period, that is nuts, sugar, spices and breadcrumbs. Perhaps an ancestor of Umbrian sweet macaroni, or perhaps not, but still an inviting variation. After all, desserts were also created specifically for Lent: Lenten desserts, for starters, which – like the previous dishes – are not exactly that privative. In short, apparently even in Lent we have allowed ourselves some sins. At least in the throat.

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The desserts of Sanremo 2024? Two flowers to eat. The recipes – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

La Cucina Italiana


The confectionery masterpiece of master pastry chef Riccardo Bellaera is a combination of elegance and flavour. The chocolate mousse, embellished with the vibrant raspberry flavour, delicately envelops the palate, offering an exquisite fusion of sweetness and intensity. At the heart of this culinary creation, a layer of raspberry and lime gelée. Inside, the almond financier adds a crunchy and aromatic element, giving texture.

Ingredients for raspberry gelée

  • 250g raspberry puree
  • 50g sugar
  • 36g gelatin mass
  • 2g lemon juice
  • 1g lime zest

Method

Heat a part of the puree with the sugar and gelatine, add the remaining puree, the lemon juice and the grated lime peel. Pour into the pomponette mold and blast chill.

Almond sablé ingredients

  • 400g butter
  • 150g ground almonds
  • 500g flour
  • 175g icing sugar
  • 50g egg whites
  • 2g salt
  • 1 vanilla pod

Method

Sand the butter with the flour, ground almonds and vanilla. In another container mix the egg whites, sugar and salt. Combine the two compounds and knead until a homogeneous dough forms. Place in the fridge for a couple of hours before using. Roll out between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 2mm. Freeze and cut with a daisy-shaped pastry cutter. Cook at 180 for 15 min.

Soft vanilla heart ingredients

  • 130g almond flour
  • 20g corn starch
  • 150g sugar
  • 2g baking
  • 3 vanilla pods
  • 130g cream 35
  • 95g eggs
  • 40g egg yolks

Method

Sift the powders, add cream, eggs and egg yolks, pour into the pomponette mold and cook at 180 for 10 minutes with the valve open.

Raspberry inspired light mousse ingredients

  • 250g raspberry puree
  • 28g gelatin mass
  • 320g UHT 35% cream
  • 205g raspberry chocolate

Method

Heat the raspberry puree to 55 degrees and add the gelatine mass.
Gradually pour the hot puree over the melted raspberry topping.
Mix as soon as possible to make the emulsion homogeneous. Bring the mixture to 35-40°C, pour on the semi cream
mounted.

Raspberry gel ingredients

  • 200g raspberry puree
  • 20g sugar
  • 20g lemon juice
  • 12g crystal corn

Method

Mix sugar and crystal corn, add to the raspberry puree and emulsify.

Composition

After pouring the raspberry mousse, insert the raspberry gelee and then the heart
soft vanilla, chill, spray with red velvet spray and star dust ruby. Using a spoon, decorate the dish with the raspberry gel.

Who is Riccardo Bellaera

Riccardo Bellaera was born in Modica and at the age of 14 he began his journey in the confectionery world, working at one of the oldest and most famous pastry shops in his town, “Pasticceria Bonomo”, where he acquired the knowledge of almond processing and numerous sweets typical Sicilian.

In the various years spent in his homeland he collaborated with various laboratories to improve his knowledge of the art of confectionery, receiving valuable help and advice from the Master of Italian Pastry Making Iginio Massari.

Continuing to cultivate this passion, he also specialized in the processing of pulled and blown sugar in Switzerland, with Maestro Otmar Fassbind. Driven by the curiosity to learn about new cultures and new places, in 2001 he began working as Head Pastry Chef on board Princess Cruises cruise ships.

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