Tag: preparation

Sandwiches and toasts, 3 tips on preparation – Italian Cuisine

Simple but tasty, here's how to prepare perfect sandwiches. And then, free your imagination!

Simple, tasty and quick: is there perhaps a lunch or snack better than sandwiches and toasts? You can prepare them in a thousand different ways, following yours creativity and your tastes! In the meantime, here are 3 small suggestions directly from the chefs of The Italian Cuisine School and then free your imagination.

One: Bread

To make an excellent sandwich or toast, as always, it is essential to start from a good raw material, in this case the bread. You can use special flours, such as kamut, wholemeal, rye or buckwheat, which will give the bread a special flavor; or you can also try to flavor it directly.

Two: The consistency

In the toast, the bread is obviously toasted and therefore crunchy. In the case of the sandwich, however, the bread must not be crisp at all, but rather soft. For this reason, it is important to consume it immediately after preparation, so that it does not get too soft, also because the bread in the box is very tender and quickly absorbs the humidity of the ingredients.

Three: Fillings and fillings

As for the toast and sandwich sandwiches, you can really choose at your convenience, but be careful not to include too many ingredients: it is important that your sandwiches are easy is comfortable to eat for both you and your guests!

Here is the favorite recipe of our Cesare Gasparri!

Wholemeal sandwich with prawns, mango sauce and scapece courgettes

Ingredients

4 slices of wholemeal bread

140 g steamed prawns
100 g ripe mango
1 g coriander
100 g courgettes
400 g oil for frying
40 g flour
30 g apple vinegar
Lemon peel
extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

Method

Blend the mango with a grated lemon zest, coriander, oil, salt and pepper in a mixer. Cut the prawns in half lengthwise and season with oil, salt and pepper.
Toast the bread in a casserole or in the oven.
Cut the courgettes into 3 mm thick slices and immerse them in water and ice. Drain them slightly and pour them on the flour so that the breading becomes thicker and fry immediately in hot oil. Drain them when they are crispy, salt and wet them with vinegar.
Assemble the sandwich with all its components.

Are you intrigued and want to learn other cooking techniques? Check here the calendar of our courses: we are waiting for you at La Scuola de La Cucina Italiana!

Texts by Giulia Ubaldi

an easy preparation with a thousand implications! – Italian Cuisine

Peas and bacon is a Piedmontese side dish perfect to accompany white meats or fish fillets, but it can also become a delicious sauce to season a pasta dish

Peas and bacon it's a quick and easy recipe to make that you can serve as side dish to accompany white meat dishes or fish fillets cooked in the steam or in the oven. To prepare it, you can use both fresh and canned peas, although the possibility of obtaining fresh ones at this time of year gives a very particular taste to this dish. By using fresh ones, you will have an even more pronounced sweetness than the flavor of the bacon. A variant that further enhances the sweet taste of peas is the use of smoked bacon instead of strained one: you will have a sweet smoked contrast pleasant!

A sauce for a first course

Not just a side dish: peas and bacon can also be a perfect sauce to season a plate of pasta. In this case, prepare the peas as prescribed in the recipe below, and then boil the pasta in plenty of salted water. Drain it a minute before the end of cooking and cook it in the pan with peas and bacon: a sprinkling of pepper in the end and you will have a first course that will give you great satisfaction. This recipe is also suitable for children, who will have the opportunity to fill up on legumes!

But not only….

Side dish, sauce for a pasta dish, but the possibilities to use this preparation do not end here! How about a savory pie with this aroma? In this case you will have to add 250 g of peas and bacon ricotta cheese, mix everything and fill a pastry with this filling, which you will cook at 180 ° for 30 minutes in a static oven. But not only: adding this side dish to some beaten eggs with a little parmesan and a few fresh basil leaves, you will have an omelette with all the flavor of spring!

Peas and bacon recipe

Ingredients

350 g fresh shelled peas, 100 g flat bacon, 1 small onion, extra virgin olive oil, salt, parsley, vegetable broth.

Method

Take the peas you have previously shelled, let them soak in fresh water for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, clean and slice the onion, fry it in a pan with a little oil and when it is golden brown, add the diced bacon. At this point add the rinsed peas, add a few ladles of broth and cook for about 20 minutes. When the peas are tender, turn off, season with salt and finish with a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Bring to the table immediately.

Extra virgin olive oil is not all the same. I Dedicati is Olitalia's answer to the extra virgin olive oil suitable for every preparation – Italian Cuisine

Extra virgin olive oil, food and an essential part of the Mediterranean diet, has been at the center of civilization and the history of the countries surrounding the Mediterranean sea for millennia.

Today we live in a scenario of great enhancement of food culture and culinary excellence. Therefore we cannot fail to mention the extra virgin olive oil, its qualitative and aromatic characteristics and its multiple combinations with different foods. And this is it oil-food union, very often taken little account of and underestimated, which is today an object of great interest in continuous evolution. Each extra virgin olive oil, if of quality, is good but this does not mean that it is suitable for any culinary use. Some oils, in fact, due to their specific properties, are quite versatile and suitable for any use, while others are more suitable with some particular raw materials or in some preparations.

How to get an extra virgin olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil is obtained from the processing of the olive fruit through a mechanical procedure without the use of solvents. A genuine product that falls into this product category when its free acidity is less than 0.8% oleic acid, it is flawless on tasting and has a median of fruitiness above zero (Reg. CE 2568/91) . The oil obtained from the processing of the olives is the only alimentary grease to which quality tests are accompanied by tests in the tasting panel to be able to market it.

Polyphenols and unsaturated fatty acids, the beneficial component of extra virgin olive oil

The extra virgin olive oil, noble fat of the Mediterranean diet, owes its peculiar properties to the presence of polyphenols, natural antioxidants that contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress and that are responsible for the bitter and spicy taste. Extra virgin olive oil is rich in Vitamin E, which carries out a protective action of cells against oxidative stress. Furthermore it is good to remember the predominance of monounsaturated fatty acids, such as oleic acid, which contribute to maintaining normal blood cholesterol levels.

An extra virgin olive oil for each dish

A baked fish, a roast with potatoes, or even an eggplant parmigiana: for each of these dishes we would need an ad hoc extra virgin olive oil, to bring out the best flavors and aromas of each preparation. For this reason Olitalia, a company from Forlì specialized in the production of oils and vinegars and leader in Italy in the Food Service channel, has launched the line "The Dedicated", five specific references for combinations with fish dishes, meat, pasta, vegetables and pizza. A project that has seen a long selection of extra virgin olive oils and their organoleptic and sensorial profile by the Olitalia team and followed by an important collaboration with JRE, the association of Jeunes Restaurateurs d'Europe and the Verace Association Pizza.

The characteristics of the Dedicated

The five oils that are part of the I Dedicati line are extra-virgin oils, each characterized by a well-defined sensory profile and belonging only to that mixture of extra virgin olive oil, a profile that makes it ideal for pairing with that dish because each dish requires its own extra virgin olive oil.

The dedicated pasta is characterized by strong aromatic notes special for sauces and condiments. The oil dedicated to meat, instead, it has one great personality, and is rich in scents and vegetable sensations that harmonize the flavor of the meat itself. For the proposals of fish, the chosen oil has a delicate profile, with hints of green apple and almond, which do not cover the notes of the fish, but which accompany them. The oil designed for the combination with the vegetables has important herbal notes, a characteristic that best enhances the flavors of the vegetables themselves. And then, to finish, the oil to combine with Pizza: with scents of tomato leaves, to bring out the most popular dish ever.

Here are some suggestions to better enjoy the Oils of the I Dedicated Line

Mixed salad with pomegranate pearls, fillets of crispy speck and walnuts

Ingredients for 4 people: 200 g mixed salad, 1 pomegranate, 100 g speck, 80 g walnuts

Method: place the salad on the plate after having washed and dried it. Cut the speck into strips and toast them in the oven at 180 ° for a few minutes, then add them to the mixture. Shell the pomegranate and add it to the salad along with a handful of chopped walnut kernels and a few grains of salt. Season everything with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil from the I Dedicati Speciale per Verdure line.

Toasted croutons with smoked salmon and apple puff

Ingredients for 4 people: 12 slices of toast, 200 g smoked salmon, 2 Granny Smith apples, lemon juice, salad to garnish

Method: toast the bread in the oven for a few minutes on both sides. Peel the apples and make them into very thin slices, leaving them immersed in water and lemon so that they do not become black. Arrange a little salad on each plate and then arrange, alternating, the slices of bread, the apple slices and the smoked salmon. Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil from the I Dedicati Speciale per Pesce line.

Piedmontese Fassona strips with wild rocket and hazelnuts

Ingredients for 4 people: 600 g fassona (rib eye, roast beef, fillet), 100 g rocket, 100 g toasted hazelnuts, aromatic herbs to taste.

Method: chop the aromatic herbs and sprinkle them over the meat. Let it sit for 30 minutes and then cook the meat on a plate according to your taste. Once cooked, cut it into strips. Place a bed of rocket on a plate, then the meat, the chopped hazelnuts, a few grains of coarse salt and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil from the I Dedicati Speciale per Carne line.

Spinach tortelli with extra virgin olive oil, poppy seeds and cold stracchino cream

Ingredients for 4 people: 450 g ricotta and spinach tortelli, 2 tablespoons poppy seeds, 250 g stracchino

Method: Cook the tortelli in boiling salted water and then sauté in a pan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil from the I Dedicati Speciale line for Pasta and poppy seeds. Put the stracchino in a bowl with a tablespoon of pasta cooking water and blend with an immersion mixer until a smooth cream has formed. Serve the tortelli with a sprinkling of pepper and finish with the cold stracchino cream.

As the Maestro Gualtiero Marchesi, on the plate, as on the pentagram, are the notes, which are recognizable one by one, giving rise to the song. Each oil is a specific note, it should be chosen well so as not to clash.