Tag: traditional recipes

Neapolitan pan-fried peppers recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Tasty, greedy: i Neapolitan style peppers cooked in a pan they are the symbol of summer. Eaten as a side dish but also served as an appetizer together with a bruschetta, they are capable of satisfying with a lot of taste and the simplicity that distinguishes them. The secret? Anchovies, tasty and adding all the taste of the sea.

How to choose peppers

Choosing peppers is not difficult. Just take a few precautions: don’t buy peppers wrinkled or with dark spots because it means that they have long passed the point of maturation. Depending on which you choose peppers red, yellow, green, make sure in any case that the color is lively and bright. Finally, the pulp must be firm and not yielding.

Bolognese ragù and Neapolitan ragù: the differences – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Introduction: birthplace, I lived in Bologna for ten years, and not only for this reason am I bipartisan. I’ve never had a preference between Bolognese ragù and Neapolitan ragù. I eat everything, good food is my home, my happy place, and then how do you choose between these two monuments of Italian cuisine? Also because it’s a bit like asking if you prefer lasagna or tortellini: they are completely different.

Difference between Bolognese ragù and Neapolitan ragù

The difference between Bolognese and Neapolitan ragù is substantial: first of all the first is made with minced meat, the second with pieces of meat. Furthermore, one cut of meat is not as good as another. And then, as always in the kitchen, recipes like these contain many beautiful stories.

Who invented the Neapolitan ragù (and the Bolognese one)

The first is in the name, “ragù”nothing other than the Italianization of French ragout: because ragù was born in France. It was a stew made with meat, but also fish, which began to spread in Italy in the 12th century, together with many other recipes, when the Angevins arrived in Naples with the monsù. Thus the first variations appeared, initially considered a simple condiment (also because they did not include tomato, which arrived after the discovery of America) and shortly after a real sauce. The first to codify the recipe was Pellegrino Artusi who in 1891 described Bolognese ragù with sautéed meat, veal and pork.

The real recipe for Bolognese ragù

In fact, the people of Bologna deserve credit for having preserved this great culinary invention right from the start, and to have made it «the perfect condiment for contemporary tagliatella. In 2021, in fact, at the Chamber of Commerce of Bologna, after in-depth studies by the Italian Academy of Cuisine, the new ragù recipe or, rather, a revisitation of the one previously filed, in 1982. The new recipe provides coarsely minced beef pulp, fresh sliced pork belly, half an onion, carrots, celery, red or white wine, tomato puree and concentrate, milk, broth, oil, salt and pepper. The difference compared to the previous one is that it does not predict folder, the diaphragm of the beef, a piece that is now too difficult to find. In the same document, the Bolognese Chamber of Commerce also specified which meat variants are permitted (among many, a mixture of beef and pork), which are not permitted (for example veal meat), and possible ways of enriching the ragù alla Bolognese while remaining faithful to its history, that is pork sausage, peas, mushrooms, livers, hearts and chicken breasts.

The recipe for Neapolitan ragù

In comparison, Neapolitan ragù is a legend, in the sense that there is no official text relating to the recipe, but many popular and artistic tales. The most famous remains that of Edoardo De Filippo who even dedicated a poem entitled to him ‘O rraùwhich begins like this: «’Oh, I like it, I used to do it to my mother (that is: only my mother made the ragù that I like), telling many, many things about ragù in just two verses. First of all, it doesn’t have a codified recipe: basically beef is used, cut into pieces and not chopped and sometimes rolled and stuffed with parsley and garlic to form “braciole”. Then, at your discretion, pork rind and ribs are added (but never sausages), which are cooked in San Marzano tomato sauce for hours. This is why there are those – like me – who start early on Sunday morning, simmering the ragù until lunch time. Some say it needs to cook for at least six hours, as much as it is needed for the pork fat to melt and give an unmistakable flavor to the sauce, and at the same time for the meat to become very soft. But if you have one or two more, leave it alone: To be good, ragù must “peep”.

Deep omelette: the infallible recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

You don’t know how to do one deep omelette, the kind that are beautiful to look at, and that you can eat with your eyes? Read here: in this article we will reveal many tricks to avoid making mistakes. But let’s start from the basics.

How to make an omelette

To make a deep omelette you need to use a lot of eggs. It seems like obvious advice, but it isn’t.
Alternatively, make an omelette in a very small pan.
Once the quantity of eggs has been established, considering that the portion per person for an omelette is 2 eggsdecide whether you want a normally soft omelette, but not too thick, or a compact and thick omelette.

Before we talk about the thickness of the omelette, you know how to make one perfect omelette?
The perfect omelette doesn’t need to be beaten a lot, the eggs simply need to be mixed with a pinch of salt and pepperlittle parmesan, if you want, and milk, optional. Simply use the fork, never the whisk. The result should not be a whipped egg, but simply mixed roughly.
Pour the mixture after adding a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil into a hot pan.

For a classic omelette wait for the base to solidify and after a few minutes turn to the other side using the lid.

To make one deep omeletteinstead, proceed as for the scrambled eggs. At the beginning, mix everything a little on the heat and gradually as the eggs take on consistency, let them compact again and then, once the right thickness has been created at the base, let them cook for a couple of minutes and then always turn with the help of a lid.
This procedure will give you a deep and well-cooked omelette, although you may have some problems flipping it, especially if the pan is large, because the eggs have been mixed. But we invite you to try because the result is excellent.

How to make a tall and compact omelette

Another solution to obtain a high omelette is the cooking in the oven, always with lots of eggs, or with a pan that is not too large. Cooking in the oven will make the omelette drier and taller and you won’t risk breaking it because it will not be necessary to turn it.
It cooks in approx 10 minutes at 180° and the thickness can be about 4-5cm.
You can also enrich it with ricotta for a result similar to a rich, very tasty pie that can be cut into cubes.

Omelette with vegetables

Another solution, if you love a deep omelette, is to enrich it with lots other ingredients, like vegetables for example. Cook a good amount of vegetables in a pan or in the oven and then mix them with the beaten eggs and sauté everything in the pan or in the oven.
You can try the omelette with onions, which has an intense and sweet taste at the same time and can also be enriched with cubes of bacon. Or an omelette with sautéed courgettes, flavored with aromatic herbs such as mint and basil.
If you love omelettes with potatoes, you can’t help but try the classic Spanish tortilla, which is nothing other than a deep omelette with potatoessliced and previously fried.

Omelette with cheese and cold cuts

Another way to make the omelette nice and tasty is to enrich it with cheeses and cold cuts. We have already suggested the ricotta which makes the omelettes compact and tasty, but you can also use the semi-mature cheese which will partly melt during cooking and partly not, making the final result truly delicious.
As for cold cuts, you can include them in any omelette, because they go well with everything and add depth.
And how do you see an omelette with fish? Pairing tuna and onion absolutely worth trying in our opinion, as is the omelette with smoked salmon and the ricotta.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes