Tag: TEN

Make ten wishes and who knows, everything can change – Italian Cuisine

Express ten wishes and who knows, everything can change. We close our eyes and think of something beautiful, something magical, who can leave all the difficulties of this year behind for a moment. We have experienced in our skin that everything can change from one day to the next but not the Christmas, which with its colored lights, the laid tables, even if lived in a different way, needs to experience its magical atmosphere. So let's dream, and let's do it like children, in a lighter way.

It is on this message that the initiative started "The Spirit of Christmas", launched by two renowned food blogger, Francesca Guatteri is Luisa Ambrosini. It is a very ancient Christmas ritual Venezuelan origin. At the center is desire, the secret dream. It is a game that gathers young and old, which allows everyone to fantasize with the mind, but above all it is a symbol that can relaunch hope and the opportunity to believe in something better in the future. The appointment is for next 21 December. What will happen this year? What do we want for ourselves and for our loved ones? Meanwhile, a tin box and ten dreams is all you need. Write down your thoughts, what comes from your heart and seal them with a padlock. Next year, in the frenzy of another Christmas, that abandoned box with your wishes will come to mind. Will they have come true? If so, all you need to do is burn them with a red candle, which will light up your face and make you even happier. If not, do not despair, you can try again. The important thing is not to stop believing in it.

This initiative is something that helps to dream of something good, train the mind to always be in search of a positive thought, and here it takes very little that something positive really happens. In this case, for the two food bloggers it was a real unexpected gift. Directly from the Backpacks chocolate factory, for them, a can with 1930s graphics, a historical symbol of this factory, of which its history has almost the taste of a fairy tale. At the center of it all is a woman, Olga Zaini, charismatic, determined that despite the premature death of her husband, founder of the factory in 1913, she was not afraid and reacting with determination and embracing destiny she became one of first Italian industrial women. She, a true champion, an icon of inspiration for all women, but above all for the alliance between them. On behalf of their heroine, Zaini decided to enthusiastically participate in the initiative of the two bloggers, raising the ritual of Christmas spirit.

Remember, we said you had to close your eyes and imagine something beautiful. Have you done it? Your wishes await you, like Francesca and Luisa tonight from 10pm stories Instagram to open the doors to the Spirit of Christmas all together.

Elena Strappa

Spinach in ten recipes – Italian Cuisine

Fresh in salads or cooked as a filling: the thousand ways to serve this vegetable loved by young and old

Known and appreciated from the first years of age thanks to a very famous cartoon, spinaches they are truly a food rich in healthy properties for the body. Sources of vitamins A and C, they contain many carotenoids which, with their antioxidant properties, contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. They also have a lot of fibers and mineral salts, useful for intestinal regularity.

To fully enjoy all of these benefits, spinach should be eaten raw, in salads, or steamed. Here are some suggestions to bring them to the table.

Spinach and potato roll

You can also prepare this dish the day before: just heat it up for a few minutes in the oven before serving. Start by preparing boiled potatoes, to which you will add a whole egg and grated Parmesan. Spread the potatoes on a baking sheet covered with a film greased with butter. Separately, boil the spinach in boiling salted water and when cooked, drain and brown them for a few minutes in a pan with oil and a few cloves of garlic. At this point, spread the spinach over the boiled potatoes, close in a roll and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes. After this time, cut the potato and spinach roll into slices that you will place on a greased baking sheet. Garnish the slices with sage leaves that you have browned in oil and garlic and bake until a crispy crust has formed over each slice. Serve hot.

Spinach pudding on fondue

An excellent appetizer that can be prepared in minutes. Remove the crust from six slices of bread loaf, chop them and put them in a bowl with two eggs and 200 g of fresh cream. Salt and pepper. Meanwhile, boil the spinach and then sauté the spinach in a little oil and garlic. Squeeze them and add them to the eggs and cream and mix the mixture well. Butter the pudding molds and fill them 3/4 of the way with the spinach cream. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes, until the mixture has swollen. Serve before it deflates on a fondue prepared by cutting the fontina cheese into cubes and cooking it in a saucepan with two egg yolks, a spoonful of flour and milk to cover everything. When the cheese has melted, blend with the blender to obtain a homogeneous mixture.

Rice with salmon and spinach

Brown the chopped shallot in a little butter, add the fresh spinach and cook for a few minutes. Blend the spinach and mix it, adding water if necessary, and then add the rice. Toast, add some broth and cook until the rice is al dente. Slice the smoked salmon into fillets, add it to the rice, stir in a spoonful of mascarpone and serve with chopped chives.

In soup with beans

A perfect dish for these winter evenings. Fry the chopped celery, carrot, onion and garlic in a tablespoon of oil. Add the previously soaked cannellini beans, sauté a few minutes and then add the broth. Cook for about an hour. Meanwhile, clean and cut the spinach into pieces, add them to the broth and cook for twenty minutes. In a separate saucepan, heat the sprigs of thyme and rosemary in a tablespoon of oil. Filter the oil and pour it over the spinach soup when ready. Serve with croutons of toasted homemade bread rubbed with garlic.

recipes-with-spinach (1)

Rolls with ham

This dish is perfect for a rustic family lunch. Prepare a cream by blending fresh spinach with soft cheese such as robiola. Spread the spinach cream over the slices of cooked ham, cut a little thick, and rolled up, forming rolls. Arrange them on a serving dish and garnish with a sauce made from basil and pine nuts blended with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Croissant with spinach and cashew nuts

A tantalizing idea, ideal for convincing even the little ones to eat vegetables. Sprinkle a disc of baking paper with sesame seeds, place a disc of puff pastry on top that you will divide into four parts. Fill each part with a tablespoon of washed and squeezed fresh spinach and brown in a drizzle of oil with a clove of garlic. Add some chopped unsalted cashews, close the slices of puff pastry by rolling them from the base to form croissants, place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake at 180 ° for about 20 minutes, until the puff pastry is golden. . Serve the croissants as an aperitif.

Stuffed shells

A first course, this, rich and very easy to prepare. Cook the pasta shells in salted water, drain when al dente and set aside. In a bowl, mix the ricotta with the sautéed spinach with a drizzle of oil and garlic. Fill the shells with the ricotta and spinach cream, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, arrange them on a greased pan covered with béchamel and bake at 180 ° for twenty minutes. Serve hot.

Parmigiana of spinach and taleggio

For this appetizer, get some small cocotte. Boil the spinach, squeeze them and toss them in a saucepan with a little oil. Grease the cocotte with butter, distribute the spinach alternating with slices of taleggio cheese until they are full, sprinkle everything with chopped walnuts and bake at 180 ° for 10 minutes. Serve very hot.

Spinach and gorgonzola pies

For this appetizing finger food, prepare a shortcrust pastry by mixing chopped hazelnuts with the flour. Line the dough with the molds on the bottom of which you will spread the fresh spinach browned in a knob of butter and small pieces of gorgonzola. Finish with two beaten eggs and bake at 180 degrees for twenty minutes. Serve immediately.

Crepes of spinach and porcini mushrooms

A very refined first course. Prepare crêpes by mixing a part of buckwheat flour with 00 flour. Meanwhile, boil the spinach in plenty of salted water, squeeze them and place them in the center of the crêpes. Add fresh or frozen porcini mushrooms to the spinach, browned in a knob of butter with pepper and salt. Close the crêpes, place them in a greased pan and bake at 180 degrees for fifteen minutes. Serve hot.

Other recipes with spinach

Ten restaurants in the hinterland to discover true Ligurian cuisine – Italian Cuisine

Unique products, age-old recipes, simple flavors: the essence of Ligurian cuisine is tasted away from the sea and from the dishes found everywhere. Here are the places to enjoy it to the top

One says Liguria and thinks of the sea, the Levant and the West, the fish. In fact, i red prawns of Santa Margherita and Sanremo are increasingly rare, but remain at the top in the Mediterranean, Monterosso anchovies – fried, with a drizzle of oil or in the famous one bagnun – are exceptional, i gianchetti (in season) pancake preparations make your head spin. And there are traditional recipes of great impact: the ciupin (the fish soup), the brandacujun del Ponente based on potatoes and stockfish, the rich lean capon with vegetables, the greedy frisceu of cod. Everything to enhance the fish products and the tradition linked to the Ligurian Sea.

Pasqualina, savory pie par excellence

But Liguria at the table is a different story: a land kitchen, basically poor, which makes the best use of vegetables with asparagus and artichoke on all, the herbs (marjoram, borage, basil and wild ones for the preboggion), i typical cheeses as the Brussu of the Arroscia Valley and the prescinseua destined for the focaccia di Recco, the rabbit and the game in season. There is no sumptuousness or abundance, if anything, simplicity and direct taste in preparations with more than one contamination with neighboring Provence. A kitchen where an important role is played from savory pies, to be consumed even days after preparation. There Pasqualina it is the summit for history (legend, perhaps) and fame, even outside Liguria. But the region is very rich: there are those stuffed with artichokes, chard, pumpkin, onions; those based on rice and vegetables of all kinds; those with potatoes, with very old specialties such as frandura imperiese or la baciocca Genoese. And yet the green cakes, with local peculiarities such as the turtun of the Alta Val Nervia that looks like a wheel.

Mistress focaccia

The street food par excellence is the focaccia: that of Recco with cheese, the Genoese fugassa, the one with potatoes or onion. The latter was born as a food in the most popular neighborhoods of Genoa where it is called a fugàssa co-e çiòule. It was the usual breakfast of the harbor unloaders, very cheap and able to satiate a lot, as the onion blocks the hunger stimulus receptors. With a glass of white wine – u gianchettu – gives the best. The farinata, made from chickpeas, is no less passionate, Food spread throughout Italy with various names. But legend has it that it was born by pure chance in 1284, when Genoa defeated Pisa in the battle of Meloria. With the same ingredients as the farinata, except for the Ligurian extra virgin olive oil, of course, the panissa not to be confused with the Piedmontese rice dish. The farinata can be enriched with rosemary, spring onion, pumpkin.

The poetry of pesto

The first courses have in the trofie with pesto (other Ligurian typicality, which cannot be more terricolous) e in the pansotti with walnut sauce the cult dishes. But there are other pastas to taste like the trenette – linguine with an ovoid section – or the Genoese corzetti, the testaieu of the Val Graveglia and the testaroli of the Lunigiana, the mescciua spezzina (soup of leguni and cereals) and the famous Genoese minestrone. There is ancient history in tuccu zeneize: the ragù prepared with only one piece of meat – a touch in fact – cooked for a long time in (little) tomato sauce. The ideal is to combine them with mandilli, handkerchiefs of egg pasta, imported from the Arabs with whom the Genoese had commercial relationships. If the rabbit is the king of meats, the most famous recipe in the region is the Genoese top which consists of a piece of veal belly, cut so as to form a pocket and stuffed with numerous and varied ingredients. Poor cuisine that becomes rich.

Ancient sweets

Beyond the thousand local specialties, two are the symbolic sweets of Ligurian cuisine. The first is the Sacripantina, the soft and fortified cake once served during the holidays and which was born in 1851 to the renowned Preti pastry shop. All Genoese delight, it is composed of ingredients from sponge cake soaked in rum, marsala and sugar and covered with different butter creams. The pandolce it was born around the 16th century under the Lanterna, following a competition between pastry chefs called by the doge Andrea Doria, interested in finding a dessert that was long-lasting and representative of the Republic of Genoa. Praise be to the anonymous winner and for having found a dessert you would never tire of: raisins, fennel, pine nuts and candied fruit embrace this brick of pasta, sweetening it and softening its consistency. It well represents the soul of Ligurian cuisine, rough only in appearance, but engaging. Like the "lasagne da fiddià ai quattru tucchi" sung in the marvelous Crêuza de mä by the unforgettable Fabrizio De André. You will surely find it in the premises of our very personal selection.

La Brinca – Ne

For many it is the best Ligurian trattoria – it is a historic Slow Food Snail – favored by a splendid view. The Circella family offers the whole repertoire of specialties, Genoese in the first place. The cellar is famous.

Da Fiorella – Ortonovo

The ravioli in various recipes are a strength of a 1950s-style tavern, which is located among the olive groves on the border between Liguria and Tuscany. But the typical appetizers and meat main courses are also worth tasting.

House and Shop – Dolceacqua

A pleasant place furnished with a curious mix of vintage and modern pieces. The cuisine is not exempt from fish, but offers unique specialties such as the gran pisteu – the wheat soup – and the Rossese zabaione ice cream.

Caccia C’a Bugge – Campo Ligure

Raw materials from the area and great respect for tradition in this restaurant in the Stura Valley. Among the best dishes there are the pesto mandilli, the Genoese top and the tripe served with beans.

Antica Locanda Luigina – Carrodano

A few kilometers from the Cinque Terre, an evocative inn where you can taste many local dishes, also offered in two tasting sessions. To taste local cold cuts and cheeses, first courses and lamb dishes.

The Friends – Varese Ligure

In Val di Vara – bio zone par excellence – there are many good places. The most famous is that of the Marcone family. Super seasonal cuisine, apart from some classics such as corzetti with chopped pine nuts.

Mse Entirely – Calizzano

The tavern on the first floor of the historic building in the center is also suggestive. The cuisine is good at revisiting Western dishes, from smoked polenta with cheese to sheep's ricotta mousse.

Da Pippi – Masone

Establishment of the area, with a century of activity, offers Ligurian cuisine with some Piedmontese contamination. The Ligurian rabbit is not to be missed as much as the homemade desserts. Level cellar. Tel. 010.9269126.

Cian de Bià – Badalucco

It can only be reached on foot, but it's worth it. Two rustic rooms where you can taste after a taste of brandaujun, the first home-made, stewed tripe and grandma's pudding. Encyclopedic wine list.

Il Castagneto – Castiglion Chiavarese

A farm in Val Petronio that offers quality cuisine, based on raw materials all found in the area. Direct dishes: ancient prebuggion, risotto with Prescinseua, veal tip with aromatic herbs.