Tag: fruits

Ratatouille recipe with caper fruits and pumpkin flowers – Italian Cuisine

Ratatouille recipe with caper fruits and pumpkin flowers


  • 200 g of celery sticks
  • 200 g carrot
  • 200 g onion
  • 200 g courgette
  • 100 g red pepper
  • 100 g yellow pepper
  • 50 g pitted taggiasche olives
  • 50 g tomato paste
  • 12 pcs of pickled caper fruits
  • 3 pcs pumpkin flowers
  • dry white wine
  • garlic
  • thyme
  • Origan
  • basil
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt

For the ratatouille recipe with caper fruits and pumpkin flowers, peel the carrot, celery stalks, peppers, onion and courgette; cut everything, separately, into coarse pieces. Fry the onion in a pan with a little oil for 2-3 minutes, then transfer it to a dish and in the same pan, brown the carrots and peppers, adding another little oil, for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in another large frying pan, brown the celery with a little oil for 4 minutes, then add a clove of garlic, whole or chopped, the courgettes and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Finally, put all the vegetables in the same pan, add the tomato paste, a few leaves of thyme and oregano, a pinch of salt, 1/2 glass of white wine and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the ratatouille from the heat, mix the taggiasche olives, the drained caper fruits and complete with the petals of the zucchini flowers and basil leaves chopped by hand.

Because it is important to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables – Italian Cuisine

171811


tomatoes on any date of the calendar, orange juices in August – beautiful iced, please! – and, now that it's spring, God forbid there were already aubergines in the oven. Nowadays almost everything is available throughout the year: why therefore deprive oneself of winter tomatoes, summer oranges or peppers in spring?

We all know the importance of daily consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables: le famous "5 portions" – 7 to prolong life – But do not pay more attention to the speech of the seasonality – which actually applies to many foods, for example for fish. For fruit and vegetables it becomes a priority, and let's not get confused by the fact that now even organic farming propose seasonal vegetables and fruits: it is not so in fact for biodynamic agriculture, which is really linked to the cycles of the Earth and takes care of the concept of "Vitality" of food.

171811And yet it is not only biodynamic agriculture that sustains it, but the whole science (and underlines it the Veronesi Foundation, which supports research and scientific dissemination, primarily in the field of oncology): the fruits and vegetables grown and matured in their own soil have a greater richness of nutrients compared to those not grown up in their own environment. And so it is for all the non-seasonal vegetables and fruit that the market offers us: it has grown in the greenhouse. The alternative is to arrive from distant places where the seasons are different from ours, with an expensive journey and all that it entails in terms of damage environmental and damage to health: the more time passes from the moment of collection to that of consumption, the more some nutrients disappear, vitamins primarily.

171802Not only: to be able to deal with transport and distant sales, vegetables – let's think of tomatoes – and even more fruits, come collected very prematurely, with the result of not fully developing neither the nutritional potential nor those of taste: you have noticed that fruits and vegetables they don't know anything anymore, right?!? It happens too often. Of course, this is also due to other factors, primarily the use of synthetic chemicals in cultivation, like nitrogen fertilizer, which means that increases enormously the liquid part of the vegetable: leaves larger, but with little flavor. But the loss of the latter is certainly part of the cause: if we catch a fruit of the earth in the season in which it predicted it will grow, and the we collect at its right point of maturation – ie at the point where the Earth has provided for it to be eaten, the nutritional and organoleptic properties are naturally at the top. Several scientific studies prove it.

171808And indeed nature also provides the right fruit and vegetables in the right season: for example in spring, time for our body to shake off the heaviness and toxins accumulated in winter and prepare for the good weather, vegetables and herbs arrive naturally detox and remineralizing such as radishes, agretti or monk's beard and of course asparagus, or dandelion (or dandelion). Even in terms of calories nature provides lighter and more consistent foods when it is the right season so that we receive more or less reserves and energy.

There are other elements to consider: when one plant is forced to grow and bear fruit in a season that is not his, it is always basically weaker, less vital and resistant and this translates into a datum: more treatments to protect it from attacks and parasites, or more Pesticides & c that come to her and then to us. And again: fruit and vegetables in season it costs less! If it is not so – that is if the tomato costs us little even in winter – we really have to worry …

171805Finally, let's not underestimate the variety factor: does the concept of tomato and tasteless courgette + string bean and frozen pea 365 days a year mean something to you? It is important to vary the foods we consume and if we follow the seasons, we do it by force more. It can help us subscribe to a convenience weekly delivery service of fruit and vegetables at home local producers: now there are so many possibilities around the country, it is worthwhile to inquire (and check that they provide only seasonal fruits and vegetables)! Why the conclusion is simple: to be aligned with the rhythms of nature of which we are a part can only feed ourselves better and more. And trust your papillae: if a fruit or vegetable has no taste, what is the taste?!?

Carola Traverso Saibante
April 2018

DISCOVER THE SALT AND PEPPER COOKING COURSES

Recipe Tartlets with American potatoes and first fruits – Italian Cuisine

Recipe Tartlets with American potatoes and first fruits


  • 350 g shelled beans
  • 250 g flour
  • 150 g butter
  • 12 pcs "baby" carrots
  • 3 pcs ripe avocados
  • 1 pc egg
  • 1 pc broccoli
  • 1 pc American potato
  • 1 pc lemon
  • milk
  • mustard
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt
  • sugar

For the tartellette recipe with American potatoes and first fruits, work the soft butter into small pieces with the flour, then mix the egg, a pinch of salt, one of sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. Cover the dough and place it to rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, obtaining a sheet of 2-3 mm thick; with it, cover 6 round molds, tightening them well. Trim it along the edge and prick it with the tines of a fork; lined with baking paper and filled with dried beans or chickpeas or with the special ceramic spheres for cooking in white. Bake the tarts at 180 ° C for 15 minutes; then remove paper and vegetables and leave to cool.
For the vegetables and the cream: Blanch the beans in boiling salted water for a couple of minutes, cool them and peel them. Peel the American potato and with a digger cut out many small balls (alternatively, cut it into cubes and smooth the edges with a small knife). Cook in salted boiling water for 5-6 minutes. Divide the broccoli into small florets and cook them in boiling salted water for 1 minute. Wash the carrots, cook them in boiling salted water for 1 minute, cool them and peel them. Peel the avocados and blend the pulp with the lemon juice, a nice pinch of salt, 3 tablespoons of oil and 1 teaspoon of mustard. Distribute the cream in the tartlets, complete with the vegetables and serve.

Proudly powered by WordPress

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. Click here to read more information about data collection for ads personalisation

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Read more about data collection for ads personalisation our in our Cookies Policy page

Close