Tag: TEN

Ten recipes with lentils – Italian Cuisine

At Christmas but not only: lentils are an ingredient that should never be lacking in our diet, due to the innumerable nutritional properties of which are rich

Red, brown, green: there are many varieties of lentils on the market, all rich in proteins and vitamins essential to our health. Among the most widespread and valuable are those of Castelluccio, Altamaura and Fucino. Also the French ones by Puy are excellent.

For sale they are already boiled, packaged in jars, or red hulled to cook faster. The dried ones have a higher content of active ingredients and are free of preservatives, unlike those in cans. When the product is packaged, it is advisable to check the origin and date of harvesting, because if the lentils are too old they will require overcooking and longer cooking, to the detriment of the flavor. Always considered lucky, they are a versatile ingredient with which you can prepare an entire menu, from appetizers to desserts. Here are our tips to bring them to the table.

Lentil caviar with ricotta and speck

Prepare these small glasses that you will serve as entreé by cooking the lentils with a sauté of celery, onion and carrot. When they are soft, salt them, blend them until they are creamy and add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Place the cream on the bottom of a glass, add the cow's milk ricotta and garnish with slices of speck collected in the center.

Red lentils, foie gras and raw ham

Another delicious finger food that is prepared in a very short time because the red peeled lentils bake very quickly compared to the classic ones. Place them in a pot with chopped herbs and onion, cover with cold water and cook for 15 minutes, then drain and allow to cool. Prepare a vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, season the lentils to which you will have added strips of raw ham and cubes of foie gras and served in small cocotte.

Cavatelli with lentils and monkfish

This dish is a soup for special occasions. Cook the lentils for a long time with a bay leaf, chopped celery and carrot and when they are almost ready add the monkfish cubes and cook for a few minutes. Separately boil some salted water in which you will cook the cavatelli. Drain a little al dente and add them to the lentil and monkfish soup. Flavor, then serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and ground pepper.

Cream of lentils, chestnuts and sausage

Excellent served as an appetizer, or, in larger quantities, as a first course, this dish contains all the flavors of autumn. To prepare it, cook the lentils and then chop them coarsely and place them in a bowl. Apart from crumbled boiled chestnuts and add them to the lentil puree.

Whip the fresh cream with a whisk and add it to the mixture of lentils and chestnuts with a wooden spoon. Cut the sausage into small pieces, brown it and, once cooked, mix it with the cream of lentils and chestnuts and serve.

Tartlets with lettuce

A second of vegetables that will appeal to children too. To start, cook the red lentils for about 10 minutes, with a bay leaf and a little water. When they are soft, let them cool. Meanwhile, cook the lettuce in a pot with chopped onion and a tablespoon of oil. Then add the lentils and brown for 10 minutes. Add to the mixture an egg, ricotta, two tablespoons of grated Parmesan and salted. Grease the molds, pour the cream and bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Serve warm.

Lentil croquettes and potatoes

This recipe is also perfect for a vegetarian menu. To prepare the croquettes, boil the lentils and potatoes and then pass them to the mill. To this puree add some cubes of sweet bacon browned in a pot with a clove of garlic and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Mix, season with salt and form the croquettes that you will pass in the chopped pancarré with marjoram, rosemary, thyme and parsley. Fry the croquettes in a pan with hot oil and serve them on a plate of salad seasoned with oil, salt and balsamic vinegar.

Couscous with lentils and vegetables

This recipe can be a rich single dish or served in small doses, a tasty appetizer. Boil the lentils and in another pot sauté carrot, onion and zucchini cut into chunks. When the vegetables are still crispy add the lentils and a tablespoon of curry. Separately prepare the cous cous as indicated on the package. Add the cous cous to the vegetables and serve in cocotte with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and chopped walnuts.

Salmon and lentil glasses

Still an idea for an informal dinner with friends. Boil the lentils of Castelluccio and in another pot browned slices of salmon with a drizzle of oil and chopped herbs. Place the lentils on the bottom of a glass, place the chopped salmon on top and garnish with toasted almonds.

Rolls with speck

A fast but very scenic appetizer. To prepare it, boil green lentils, add to these the minced pork, cream, salt and pepper. Form small cannoli that you wrap in slices of bacon. Arrange them on a lined plate and bake at 180 degrees for ten minutes. Serve them on croutons made to brown with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Bavarian with almonds

This cream will surprise you for the sweet taste of legumes. Boil the green lentils and pass them through a sieve. Separately, in a saucepan, boil two tablespoons of sugar with a little water. Off the heat add the gelatine, previously soaked. Add the lentils and then the whipped cream to which you have added two tablespoons of sugar. Spread the mixture into small bowls that you will put to cool in the refrigerator for at least three hours. When serving, sprinkle the surface of the cream with chopped peeled almonds.

Ten side dishes for Christmas lunch – Italian Cuisine

Forget the faded salads and devote yourself to a perfectly prepared side dish that does not disfigure the main course.

All the attention spent to decide which first and second to bring to the table for Christmas lunch, and then run out of ideas for the side dish. And at the end the choice falls on the usual salad, a bit 'sad and uninviting. If it is true that the first and second courses are the masters on this occasion, why not think also of the contours for Christmas lunch a bit 'more elaborate? Below are our suggestions for an impeccable menu from start to finish.

Camembert potato cups

For this dish you can use any flowery crust cheese. Cook the potatoes cut into thin slices in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Separately put the cream, chopped garlic, a pinch of nutmeg and the cheese cut into small pieces in a bowl. Put a layer of potatoes in an oven dish, add a layer of cream and cheese and then more potatoes. Finish with a slice of Camembert, bake in a bain-marie and cook for 40 minutes. Turn out and serve hot.

Fried pumpkin slices with fresh mint

To prepare this side dish cut a Mantovana pumpkin into thin slices, fry them in plenty of extra virgin olive oil and dry them well with absorbent paper. Remove the frying oil and cook for a few minutes in the same pot of white wine vinegar with a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of oil, a small bunch of fresh mint, a clove of minced garlic and a pinch of salt. Season the pumpkin slices with this sauce and serve.

Caponata of artichokes

A winter version of the iconic dish of Sicily. Clean and boil the sliced artichokes for 5 minutes. In a saucepan, brown a clove of garlic with the diced artichokes and celery for a few minutes. In another pan, cook the tomatoes with garlic and extra virgin olive oil. When cooked, add the artichokes, the green olives cut into small pieces, the pine nuts, the celery and the raisins previously soaked in vinegar and sugar. Cook for a few minutes until it is well blended.

Baskets of potatoes and chestnuts

A rich and tasty side dish. Brown the slices of peeled pumpkin in a pot with a little oil. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes and broccoli that reduce to purée once cooked. In another pan fry the shallots, add the crumbled chestnuts and after a few minutes add some toma, a spoon of Parmigiano Reggiano, salt and pepper. Crush the potatoes and season with salt and pepper oil. Grease with the butter of the single-dose molds, cover them with pumpkin slices, make layers with the crushed potatoes, the pureed broccoli and the browned chestnuts. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes and serve hot.

Leeks with cheese

A delicious and quick to prepare dish. Boil the leeks in salted water, drain and dry well. Arrange two crosswise and put in the center a piece of soft cheese such as taleggio. Fold up the leek sheaths by closing the cheese to a bundle, flour the chunks, pass them in the beaten egg and then in the bread crumbs. Fry the bundles of leek in plenty of olive oil, dry them with absorbent paper and serve hot.

Bundles of cabbage and cauliflower

To prepare this side dish, boil the cauliflower florets in boiling salted water and then, when cooked, blend them. Meanwhile cook the leaves of a cabbage steamed, then spread them on a towel and dry them. Cut off the central rib of the leaves, overlap and fill them with cauliflower cream. Rewind them and cook them for ten minutes along with shallots. At the end of cooking, shake the shallots, add some cream on the stove. Cut the slices of cabbage and toss with the cream of cream and shallot. Sprinkle with some black pepper and serve.

Skewers of Jerusalem artichokes and pumpkin with lettuce sauce

The sweet taste of this skewer will be diluted with a lettuce sauce. Boil the diced Jerusalem artichokes and the pumpkin slices. Then brown them in a pan with a knob of butter. Let cool and then make the skewers alternating a piece of pumpkin and one of Jerusalem artichokes. Separately steam lettuce leaves and when they are cooked, whisk them with a little oil, a sprinkling of paprika and salt. Serve the hot skewers seasoned with the lettuce sauce.

Caramelized endive wedges

Ideal to serve with a roast or stuffed turkey. Boil the endive cut into wedges in acidulated water and a pinch of salt. Let it simmer for about 40 minutes then drain it, dry it and put it to caramelise in a pot with some butter and some brown sugar. When it is golden add the juice of an orange juice, reduce and serve with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Courgette dadini seasoned with onions in sour.

Brown the zucchini cut into small pieces and when they are cooked but still crisp, roll them out in a well oiled baking pan. In a bowl, soften the sultana raisin. Meanwhile, combined with the zucchini of garlic and thinly sliced red onions, some marjoram leaves, squeezed raisins and toasted pine nuts. Separately, cook for three minutes three tablespoons of white wine vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar. When it has thickened, pour it over the zucchini, add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and cook in the oven for 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Escarole rolls

A quick to prepare and very tasty side dish. Boil a bunch of salad and when it is cooked, drain and dry. Spread the escarole leaves and fill them with chopped black olives, capers, pine nuts, raisins and anchovies in oil. Close the leaves, place them in a pan with a clove of garlic, cook for a few minutes and serve.

Cheat’s mayonnaise

So it happened: the very worst thing. I got norovirus. And just to make sure everyone else had a miserable time, too, I Tweeted about it step by step, reminding those on shift work at 5am that I had now been vomiting for EIGHT HOURS, reminding those getting up with their kids at 7am that I had now been going for TEN HOURS – like some terrible telathon.

But in the end, you know, it wasn’t so bad. I mean, it was the most physically traumatising thing to happen to me apart from giving birth – but once you’ve had it once, you know the drill. Puke so hard it feels like you’re going to turn inside out all night and then sit back for the next day sipping Ribena, graciously accepting an avalanche of sympathy. People are so nice about it that it almost makes it worth having.

And anyway you have to shrug these things off. Like you do when, say, when the Mail rings you and offers you enough money to pay for Christmas, an iPhone and a small non-extradition island in the Caribbean to write a slightly controversial piece for them, and then you get a bit carried away and then get over-excited strangers jumping on your head for days and days because they haven’t worked out yet that no-one writing in the Mail actually means a word they say, (apart from Melanie Phillips). Like that. You have to shrug that off, too – while crossing your fingers that Samantha Brick pops up again to re-direct some heat.

And Christmas. I think I might shrug Christmas off this year. We haven’t got a tree yet. I didn’t get an advent calendar until December 4th. I haven’t done any festive baking. I’m not even that excited about this year’s wrapping paper colour combination (purple with lilac ribbon printed with white snowflakes). It’s the last year I’ll be able to shrug it off, though. I think Kitty will be aware of Christmas next year and we won’t be able to get away with anything less than a 10ft tree and an actual herd of reindeer in the garden. I’m not saying I’m anti-Christmas, before you all get your flipping pitchforks out, I’m just saying that I am shrugging off the pressure.

I’m relaxing, too, about doing things like making my own pastry. I used to insist on making my own pastry before I realised that only people very devoted to the idea of from-scratch baking or who don’t happen to have a packet of Jus-Roll in their freezer or who don’t have children make their own. It’s not that time-consuming, it’s just so much easier getting it out of a packet. Go ahead! Judge me! I don’t care! Not after the week I’ve had.

I’m also henceforth never making my own mayonnaise again, having discovered a way of tarting up Hellman’s that is so satisfying that I actually feel more smug about doing it than making my own. My mother always makes her own mayonnaise, even when we were small, but she has the patience of a saint and was always able to deftly tune out the murderous squabblings of children, humming as she drizzled the oil into the yolks: dum de dum “FUCKING BI…. HATE Y” dum de dum de dum “I’M GOIN TO FUCKING KIL” tum te tum te tum “FAT C” dee dee dum “UCK OFF!!!” dee dee deeeee.

Anyway so this is my cheat’s mayonnaise, which is just super. We have been buying small cooked shrimp from the fishmonger recently and we have it with that, but I recommend you deploy it as an accompaniment to all cold cuts and elaborate sandwiches this festive season.

Some Hellman’s mayonnaise (or whatever you’ve got)
an unpeeled garlic clove
salt
pepper
lemon juice
some olive oil
hot smoked paprika

So what you do is start with the mayo in a bowl get some olive oil, dribble a bit in, then some salt and pepper and lemon juice. Taste. Do it all again until you think it tastes nice. You might like a grassier mayonnaise than me.

Now take a clove of garlic and without bothering to peel it, stick it in a crusher and then crush until just a little scraping comes out and flick that into the mayo and stir. You just want a hint of garlic, because too much is just terrible for the digestion and extremely antisocial. If you had some garlic oil I think that would do the job of the olive oil and the garlic in one.

If you are planning to have this with seafood, a dollop of tomato ketchup – 1/2 a teaspoon I’d say, turns this into a Marie Rose sort of thing.

Finish with a rakish dash of paprika.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes