Tag: recipes

Tagliatelle: 12 special recipes for family Sundays – Italian Cuisine

How much satisfaction can a dish of noodles? There are so many recipes for seasoning them with delicious sauces that you can let your imagination run wild. But let’s start by preparing the egg pasta: an operation that can give you great satisfaction and instill a healthy dose of good mood.

Fresh tagliatelle: the basic recipe

To do the fresh egg pasta one must be observed rule ironclad: 1 egg for every 100 grams of flour. For 4 people consider approximately 5 eggs and 500 g of flour. You must not add water, salt or even oil if not necessary.

Knead the flour with the eggs and work the mixture until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let it rest covered with cling film for at least 30 minutes. Spread out use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a very thin sheet, fold it, bringing the two lower and upper edges towards an imaginary central line, then cut it with a knife into 1 cm wide tagliatelle.

If you are not very familiar with dough and rolling pins you can always use the newest ones pasta machineswho will help you in the entire preparation process, or resurrect the classic “grandmother duck” and operate the crank by hand, setting the desired thickness.

How to cook turnips in 10 good and economical recipes – Italian Cuisine

How to cook turnips it’s the secret to a varied, tasty and… economical table!
With the turnips the recipes there are so many that can be invented. And all tasty. For centuries they have been protagonists of peasant nutrition. As time went by, however, we mistreated them more and more, first replacing them with potatoes, then sacrificing them to the more trendy daikon. Yet the roots of the Brassica rapa plant, with a generally round shape – a little squat – and a white color which can also have shades from pink to purple depending on the variety, are a very precious ingredient in the kitchen. L’fall it is the best time to rediscover them and bring them to the table in many ways because the first cold ones make the turnips sweeter.

Turnips: properties and how to cook them

Turnip is very rich in water, contains sodium, potassium, calcium and phosphorus and is a good source of C vitamin. It is low in calories and has diuretic and antioxidant properties. But how to cook turnip? To prepare it, you need to remove the ends, the base and the part that attaches to the leaves, then it must be peeled. At this point it can be consumed raw in salad or it can be cooked, simply by boiling it in water. Turnip can also be baked in the oven, for example au gratin or stuffed, and can become the protagonist of soups and risottos. A typical dish with turnips? There brovada Friulian, a traditional recipe that has been protected by the PDO brand for some years in which the turnips are macerated in the pomace and then cooked. Turnips can also be used to prepare gardener.

Caprauna turnip

The turnip grown in CapraunaAlta Val Tanaro, between Liguria and Piedmont, is one of Slow Food presidia: they are large turnips with a particularly sweet flavour, especially the yellow-fleshed ones. A typical pairing is with the sausage and with a special type of fresh pasta, the let’s go, the seasoning also includes walnuts, mushrooms and potatoes.

Turnip…Halloween!

Here’s a curiosity about Halloween and turnips. Just like they do in the United States with pumpkin, in Scotland it was an ancient tradition carving turnips to transform them into lanterns with the function of warding off evil spirits.

How to cook turnips: 10 tasty and economical recipes

If you prefer eating turnips rather than carving them, here are 10 ideas for cooking them.

Lidia Bastianich: «The most beautiful recipes and memories of my life in Italy – Italian Cuisine

Lidia Bastianich is an Italian naturalized American chef, television personality and writer. She is not least a mother and grandmother, caring, sometimes severe, but always respectful of her Italian roots. Yes, because Lidia Bastianich’s origins are Istrian, when Istria still belonged to Italy, at least until 1975, when our country – with the controversial Treaty of Osimo – definitively and without compensation, renounced its right to those territories . We asked her for some anecdotes about her when she lived in Istria, with her parents and all her relatives, many of whom are no longer here today. But also what she brought with her, to bring those memories back to life with thought and deeds.

This important theme of mixing memories and cuisine is the fulcrum of the project The Tales of the Roots, created in collaboration with the MAECIwhich was recently presented at the Farnesina in the presence of the Ministers Tajani and Lollobrigida during the launch of the eighth edition of SCIM – Week of Italian Cuisine in the World 2023. Naturally, Lidia Bastianich could not fail to be part of this magnificent story of Italian immigration in the world, and here we are already telling you about a first taste.

Grandma Rosa and the farmyard animals

«I grew up with my grandmother Rosa in the countryside, in Pula, in Istria, among animals, among the products of the earth. I still remember the courtyard of the house and this scene: the grandparents, their brothers, the various aunts, all with aprons and handkerchiefs tied on their heads. It was them, the aunts, who at the table reminded us to never waste food, “there are children who don’t eat too much”, they said. Today Italian cuisine for me is a memory, a nostalgia, a passion, a way to receive and give love. It was, to all intents and purposes, not only a stimulus for what I have done and am doing in the United States but also a confirmation of who I am. As a child I grew up in a comfort zone, in the countryside, among the chickens, goats and rabbits that I fed. I was the “runner”, the “helper”, Grandma Rosa’s helper in the kitchen, especially on Sundays. I still remember those intoxicating smells of the sauce that boiled for hours, where the stove was, in the “black” house, next to the chicken coop. But also the scent of laurel, rosemary, tomato preserves, which I liked to “touch”, a little furtively, with a piece of bread.”

Farewell to Italy, without warning

«When I emigrated to the United States, in 1958, I was 12 years old, it was food that reminded me of my childhood: cooking made me feel good because it took me back to that bygone period. Once I arrived in New York I asked myself: “Why do I love cooking so much?”. I think it was instinct that made me go back to my origins: I was a child and at the time I never imagined that I would never see home againthen over time I understood it and, with regret, I thought that I hadn’t been able to say goodbye to my grandmother Rosa, my goats, my aunts… Well, with cooking I brought my land, my family, to America .

That small kitchen, but small… like that

«A tradition kept alive with passion, enthusiasm and love for four generations, even when, as soon as we arrived overseas, Caritas assigned us a small apartment with a kitchen as small as a closet. There, however, we had meals with family and friends, not without difficulty: we passed the food from hand to hand, since there wasn’t enough space. Then, as soon as I could, in reaction, I treated myself to a large Kitchen! Among the dishes we prepared most often were rice and potatoes, polenta with cheese, pan-fried cabbage and, above all, gnocchi, which even today, when I eat them, are an internal caress, they give me a “sensation” unique. A tradition that continues in New York and that I have also passed on to my grandchildren.

Around the table kneading the gnocchi

As children, my grandchildren all sat around the table kneading dough, just like my grandmother did with me; Now they are adults, they go to university, but they call me to ask for advice: “How to make the sauce, how long the broth should boil, etc.” I am very happy that they too, in addition to my children, can carry their origins with them, despite being born in America. The culture of food transcends birth, but belongs to the origins of the family. Also because there is a substantial difference between Italians and Americans, we always bring food with us. For this reason, Italian cuisine in the United States is the most appreciated, also thanks to the first Italian Americans who came here in 1800 to seek their fortune, bringing with them regional traditions. Very different from my Istrian ones, because theirs were from southern Italy. So, as an adult, I began to travel far and wide across the Bel Paese, so I discovered regional dishes and brought them to the States. This was my luck, this was my choice, this was my life.”