Tag: Quick

Artichokes: 10 easy and quick recipes – Italian Cuisine

Very loved and with a gentle taste, rough artichoke from the tender and tasty heart lends itself to inspiring many succulent recipes. Go in a hurry? No problem: Sale & Pepe selects 10 recipes for you easy and fast based on artichokes, to bring to the table appetizing dishes and simple to prepare, full of diuretic and digestive properties of the delicious vegetable.

Between October and April is the right time to find fresh artichokes on the fruit and vegetable stand. The rules to buy them? Choose hard and heavy artichokes. If the top of the leaves is black, it means they have been collected for a long time. Even the leaves should be taut and not wilted, because the artichoke is the bud of a flower: the open bracts indicate that it is too ripe, therefore hard and with a lot of hay inside. Equally the stem must be firm and intact.

Among the recipes that we propose below, you can not miss a great classic that we suggest in an even more fanciful version: Stuffed artichoke hearts, stuffed with parmesan, nutmeg and pine nuts. Very good, they represent a simple outline to make and beautiful effect, to take to the table even on special occasions. Or try i Fried artichokes: to know that the artichokes are low in calories, will make you fry lighter than guilt.

Another outline for tease the palates are the Baked artichokes: roll them under the grill to brown the crust and create a crispy surface.
Very few required ingredients and little time to use, especially useful for preparing artichokes before cooking: once cleaned, remove the outer leaves harder and leaves about 3 cm of stem, then cut the artichokes in half lengthwise, eliminating the hay.

Another side dish to try is a marriage of perfumes with fruity notes: the pan of Orange artichokes with spices and honey. The unexpected combination of flavors will surprise you, conquering you.

But not just contours. Artichokes can be the extra ingredient for first originals, refined second courses, tasty savory pies.
The artichokes marry well with fish and seafood: you can experiment with the recipe of the Fettucce with artichokes and orange clams or with that of Sea bass with artichokes and crispy leeks. Potatoes and artichokes? A perfect match! Try it Artichoke quiches and new potatoes or lo Potato and artichoke flan.

Do you want a treat? The artichoke can also be eaten raw, perhaps by way of spezzafame before meals. In this case, put on a little lemon to reduce the bitter taste of the vegetable.

And now … scroll the ten recipes of our top ten, choose the one you like best and put yourself in the kitchen. Enjoy your meal!

Quick and easy recipes for the New Year's menu – Italian Cuisine

The December 31st for many it is a working day. If you do not have much time to cook, but you do not want to give up preparing the last year's dinner at home, choose for your New Year's menu simple and quick recipes to realize.

A food that can not miss on the New Year's table is it trotter or the cotechino. The difference between the two sausages is simple, lies in the wrapping that covers them. The zampone, as the name suggests, is contained in the front paw of the pig. To obtain a container, the paw is carefully cleaned and gutted, leaving rinds, nails and fingers. The cotechino instead is inserted in a casing, natural or artificial, and therefore aesthetically resembles more to a normal salami or a ciauscolo. The internal pulp does not differ between cotechino and zampone and is a tasty meat mix of lean pork fat, coarsely chopped, finely minced pork rind, various spices (pepper, nutmeg, cloves and what the butcher prefers).

The zampone is more caloric than cotechino because during cooking, the rind of the leg releases the fat. The cotechino is therefore a bit 'more delicate, although you always speak of a substantial food to make a full of energy in winter. Going for simplifications, the zampone is a strong food for men, the cotechino is more for female palates.
Do not confuse the zampone with the paw, which is always the paw of the pig, but fresh and without "stuffing", a simple part of the body of the animal to cook as it is.

With zampone and cotechino can not miss the lentils! You can accompany them to the two typical sausages of Christmas, for example for a tasty first course like i garganelli with sausage ragù or le millefeuille with cotechino and lentils, but you can also use them to cook easy and original recipes for the appetizer. Here they are to form some polenta and cotechino tartine simple and choreographic or of the small boats.

In the Italian tradition the most used lentils are the green ones, which have the characteristic of remaining compact even after cooking. The most valuable? There "Gigante" of Altamura, Pugliese, larger in size than the common green lentils, and the lentils from Castelluccio di Norcia, Umbrian village hit by the earthquake that proudly continues its excellent production: the lentils of Castelluccio have such a thin and soft skin that they can be cooked directly without soaking, reducing the preparation time. So you can have more time for yourself to get ready for the New Year's party.

If you want to give a refined and elegant touch to your dinner, opt for opening the evening with del fish. Serve the scallops au gratin, very quick to prepare and always impressive.

For dessert, nothing easier: re-uses the advanced Christmas pandoro to create desserts such as pandoro tiramisu with strawberries or apple, pandoro and cinnamon crumble.

Scroll through the recipes we offer you, choose the dishes that most intrigue you and organize an unforgettable New Year's Eve dinner!

20 quick 20 minute recipes – Italian Cuisine

Good omelette! But … how many times have you already prepared it this week?
Time runs merciless between one commitment and the other and often remain there the minutes counted to improvise quick recipes and simple. So here we are to take refuge in the usual preparations experimented over and over again that make us feel safe. But let's face it: they bore us even a little.
And to avoid that lunches and dinners turn into something obvious, we are ready to show you that there are at least 20 recipes ready in 20 minutes that will whet your appetite.
But before choosing the ones that do for you, give an eye to our advice so as not to be frightened by the lack of time (and organize yourself a little).

The routine

The daily life of each house is the result of the sum of the commitments of its inhabitants. Like sports appointments twice a week, aperitifs with friends on Thursdays, Saturday night pizza and so on. First of all, mind local and identify all the consequences of your main meal commitments. How many do you use at home? And how many times will you be back in time to dedicate yourself to longer preparations?

Once you have a pattern of your routine, you are ready to go.

Shopping

Now that you have defined the meals you will make at home and how many you will be sitting around the table, it is time to draw up the menu for the week and shopping. Choose recipes based on the time you will have to prepare them, but also making sure to take balanced amounts of vegetables, fruit, fiber, protein and carbohydrates.
If planning is not in your ropes, help yourself with a notebook, it will help you keep the situation under control.

At the stove

To optimize preparation time is essential understand which are the steps to start from. Usually it is good to concentrate on the recipe with longer cooking times, so as to put it on the fire as you go along with everything else. In the case, on the other hand, when the preparation time of the ingredients exceed the cooking time, let us dedicate ourselves to this preliminary phase, so everything will be ready to be put in the pot without making us lose more minutes to be dedicated to washing and cutting.

Quick recipes

And now, you are ready to leave. In the gallery below you will find our collection of perfect preparations for the days when you only have 20 minutes to cook. And maybe you do not want to give up the sweet!