Tag: spring

when you can't resist spring – Italian Cuisine

Let's twist the potato dumplings by adding peas to the dough, an ingredient that this season cannot miss on our tables!

The gnocchi par excellence are those of potatoes, but we know that they can also be made alternative dumplings with many other ingredients, replacing 00 flour with different flours or adding other ingredients to the dough to give a twist of color or flavor. This is the case of the potato and pea dumplings, perfect for spring. These gnocchi can also be prepared with frozen peas, but in this season you can find fresh peas and sweet, don't miss them!

The best potatoes for making gnocchi

The potatoes they are not all the same: for the preparation of gnocchi the most suitable are those white-fleshed, floury, even better if aged, because they are free of water and rich in starch. Once you have chosen the potatoes, you just have to cook them. you can boil them whole and with the peel in salted water, or cook them baked in the oven at 150 ° or again, steam, always whole and with the skin, so that they do not absorb water.

The gluten-free version of potato and pea dumplings

If you want to prepare these potato and pea dumplings in a completely version gluten free you will have to replace wheat flour with one legume flour or a rice flour. Among the legume flours, you can choose one of lentils, chickpeas or even peas: in this case you can decide to decrease the dose of fresh peas to add to the dough.

The recipe for potato and pea dumplings

Ingredients

450 g fresh peas (already peeled), 250 g white potatoes, flour, 1 egg, grated Parmesan cheese, salt, 50 g butter, a sprig of sage herb.

Method

Wash and boil the potatoes again with the peel for about 30 minutes. To check that they are ready, prick them with a fork: if they are soft, then drain them. Boil the peas in salted water for 10 minutes and then drain them. Mash the potatoes immediately with the appropriate tool and blend the cooked peas until they become a puree. Mix the two ingredients and put them in a bowl. Add the egg, salt, 150 g of flour and start kneading, until you form a fairly large ball. Obtain 5-6 cylinders a finger thick from this mixture and cut them into pieces of about one and a half centimeters. Rigateli with the back of a fork and arrange them on a floured tray. Once you have to cook them, you will only have to boil them a few at a time in salted water and drain them as soon as they rise to the surface with a slotted spoon. Season them with melted butter, parmesan and sage leaves and bring them immediately to the table.

In the tutorial some useful tips for the preparation of the dumplings

The spring flower of Felice Lo Basso – Italian Cuisine

An ingredient dear to the Apulian chef, four times Michelin star in his career, who interprets it in a thousand ways. This is the most recent: colorful, tasty, light. Like his kitchen.

A Southern chef who loves the North but without forgetting his roots: Felice Lo Basso, born in 1973, an Apulian from Molfetta made his bones in Romagna, where he lived for over 20 years, and became famous in Val Gardena at the Grand Hotel Alpenroyal: in just eight months after the opening of the gourmet restaurant, the first Michelin star arrives. It is 2011, three years after landing in Milan in the Portello skyscraper, to manage Unique confirming the star. From the outskirts, the jump into the center is almost obvious: a four-year period – closed in February – inside the prestigious TownHouse Duomo, overlooking the cathedral and a terrific terrace. But even in a location like this, at Felix Lo Basso Restaurant, it did not come out of the concept of "a journey from North to South that allows me to tell my story and express the best of our kitchens, made more of products than of technique". The trip includes a return to his homeland: in 2018 he opened Memorie in Trani, where he is supported by the sous-chef Giuseppe Boccassini. Local cuisine, expertly revisited in a modern key: immediately Michelin star.

To be combined (also) with a cocktail

To the readers of La Cucina Italiana, the Apulian chef offers a dish that has the fundamental ingredient in pumpkin flowers. A Lo Basso, the theme has always been liked with the aim of making it a sunny and delicious dish. In Unico's menu they were proposed stuffed with a shrimp tartare and combined with courgettes with mascarpone, while in the restaurant in the Duomo they were stuffed with mashed potatoes and anchovies with a side dish of oven-baked tomatoes, sauteed eggplant mignon, anchovy fillets and sweet olives. Our recipe is really spring, almost bucolic if you want, with the (original) touch of a broth in natural mineral water which makes it lighter than usual. A dish to be enjoyed with a glass of Trebbiano or a fresh Rosé or – as recommended Carlo Simbula, young head bartender of The Spirit in Milan – with an American made with 30 ml of red vermouth, 30 ml of bitters, 50 ml of sparkling Valverde water, ice at will and 10 ml of spiced beer reduction. The latter is obtained by pouring a can of golden beer into a saucepan, along with a few grains of black pepper and a bay leaf broken in two. It is cooked over a low flame, until the preparation is reduced by about 40% so if you start from 500 ml it will reach 300 ml: once cooled slightly, add the sugar equivalent. It will surprise you in combination with the riceta studied for us by Lo Basso.

Ingredients for 4 people

4 courgette flowers
120 gr of sheep's ricotta
4 courgettes
600 gr of Valverde Naturale water
2 shallots
10 gr of gelatine
Salt and Pepper To Taste.
2 celery stalk
4 gr of ginger
Edible flowers to taste

Method

Wash the courgettes and use only the green part, which will be cut into cubes and set aside; the remainder will be used to prepare a Valverde broth in natural water, to which celery stalk, shallot and ginger will also be added. Boil everything for about 10 minutes, then leave to infuse for about 20 minutes. Then strain the broth and add the gelatin. Take savarin molds and place the diced courgettes and edible flowers inside. Then pour the broth into the molds and leave to cool in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Finally, after filling the courgette flowers with the sheep's ricotta using a piping bag, steam cook also using the apex of the zucchini.

Spring Soup Recipe – Italian Cuisine – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients

300 g vegetable broth
80 g chicken breast
50 g asparagus tips
40 g shelled peas
40 g shelled beans
35 g short egg pasta (quadrucci)
25 g carrot
25 g peeled leek
2 slices of sandwich bread
aromatic mince (sage, parsley, thyme, marjoram)
olive oil
salt

Duration: 1 h

Level: Easy

Dose: 1 people

For the spring soup recipe, cut the leek into strips (julienne) and the diced carrot. Sauté both in a spoonful of oil, then add the peas, broad beans, asparagus tips and all the broth. Salt, cover and cook the soup, over moderate heat, for about 30 ', then add the squares and finish cooking in about 3' more.

While the soup is boiling, pass the chicken breast to the electric chopper, obtaining a very fine mince that you will collect in a bowl. Salt, then take small portions of meat between two spoons and, by rotating them one on top of the other, shape them so as to give them the shape of elongated meatballs (quenelle). Steam for about 10 minutes, then keep them warm. Divide the slices of sandwich bread into four parts each; toast these pieces of bread, then sprinkle them with a pinch of aromatic mince and drizzle them with a spoonful of oil, possibly the one of "extra virgin" quality.

Pour the soup into a portion holster and top it with the hot quenelles. Serve with the flavored toasters presented separately. Serve immediately.