There is very little left and you cannot waste even a minute to organize the Christmas lunch, made up of many delicacies, refined dishes and delicacies, from start to finish. We offer you ten appetizers Christmas, rich in taste and ingredients, some designed by great chefs, perfect for the most special day of all! And we also offer you the most suitable combinations with wine, for a truly impeccable service!
Capunet on a Raschera fondue by Andrea Ribaldone
Ingredients
300 g raw pork cup, 1 cabbage, Gavi docg white wine 2 glasses, 100 g grated parmesan. For the fondue: 200 g raschera, 100 ml milk, 100 ml cream, 1 egg yolk, salt, oil.
Method
Browse the cabbage and cut out 4 beautiful leaves, cook the pork and the remaining cabbage in a pan with a little oil, all cut into large pieces. Add the Gavi and cook everything on a very low flame until it is soft. Season with salt. Beat the mixture with a whisk and add the grated Parmesan. Blanch the cabbage leaves in boiling water for a few minutes, then dry them and fill them with the stuffing. Close in a round shape. Reheat in a hot oven (180 °) for about 10 minutes. Separately, bring the cream and milk to the boil, add the diced raschera and cook over low heat for a few minutes. Remove from heat and blend by immersion adding the egg yolk. Serve the capunets hot on the fondue cream.
Pairings
Gavi Classico, a dry wine with an intense straw yellow color and delicate hints of white flowers and white fruit. 100% Cortese grapes, in the mouth it is fresh, elegant and refined, extremely pleasant, with a medium-low alcohol content, as well as its structure, designed voluntarily to bring out the finesse of its flavors and aromas.
Potato, buffalo and black truffle pie
Ingredients
600 g potatoes, 2 whole eggs, 8 egg yolks, 1 medium sized hooked black truffle, 30 g of diced bacon, 6/8 slices of finely chopped bacon, 150 ml of fresh cream, breadcrumbs, salt, a knob of butter, pepper. For the buffalo fondue: 50 g buffalo mozzarella, 100 ml of fresh cream, 100 g of Parmesan cheese, fresh sprouts.
Method
Wash the potatoes, holding one aside, peel and boil them. Put them immediately in the potato masher. In a robot, combine the mashed potatoes, the diced bacon browned in a little butter, the eggs, cream, salt, pepper and some truffle flakes. Work the mixture well and pour it into a pastry bag.
Finely slice the kept aside potato, blanch it for a minute in boiling salted water and, with the slices obtained, cover the bottom with round silicone molds. Fill the molds up to the edge with the potato and egg mixture, then bake in the oven at 70 ° by placing a bowl full of water in the oven. Once cooked, let them cool, remove the pies from the molds and wrap them individually with the slices of bacon. Bake again for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.
Prepare toasted breadcrumbs as the basis of the dishes and lay the freshly baked patties on top. Garnish with a spoonful of buffalo fondue, prepared by melting parmesan, cream and buffalo mozzarella in a pan. Ultimate with abundant grated hooked black truffle and a handful of mixed sprouts.
Pairings
Carapace Montefalco Sagrantino Docg by Tenute Lunelli, a soft wine, aged in large wooden barrels. On the nose there are blackberry and blueberry jam, with notes of cherries in alcohol. In the mouth it is elegant, refined and persistent. Perfect for balancing the intense flavor of truffles and guanciale.
Rolls of tuna and salmon
Ingredients
400 g 00 flour, 120 g fresh salmon, 150 g tuna in oil, marjoram, dill, extra virgin olive oil, 4 tablespoons of ketchup sauce, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 4 tablespoons of fresh cream, 1 clove of garlic, salt .
Method
Sift the flour into a bowl, then add the chopped marjoram, salt, 3 tablespoons of oil and mix. Knead until you get an elastic dough that you will wrap in a film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, put the drained tuna, ketchup sauce, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper in a mixer and blend until you have a smooth cream that you will leave aside. Take the salmon and chop it with a mixer along with salt, pepper, dill and cream. At this point, roll out the dough into two rectangles and stuff one with the tuna filling, the other with the salmon filling. Roll the dough into two long and narrow rolls, then seal them at the ends. Arrange the rolls in a baking tray covered with parchment paper, brush them with the remaining oil and bake them in a hot oven for 20 minutes, until the surface is golden. Wait until they have cooled down before slicing them and bringing them to the table.
Pairings
Chardonnay Kellerei Bozen, a dry wine with a straw yellow color with golden reflections, fresh, with exotic hints of pineapple and mango, typical of Chardonnay. An elegant, linear wine, perfect to accompany this fish appetizer.
Liquid escarole salad, buffalo stracciatella, raw scampi, bread shavings and anchovies by Antonino Cannavacciuolo
Ingredients
1 head of escarole, extra virgin olive oil, salt, ice, 1 buffalo burrata, 5 dl of its milk cream, bread crumbs, 15 g desalted anchovies cleaned and preserved in oil, a sprig of thyme, marjoram and savory, 8 very fresh scampi.
Method
Cut and wash the salad, blanch it for a few minutes in salted water, cool it in water and ice, drain it, keeping the cooling water and squeeze it. Blend it with the cooling water, emulsifying with plenty of extra virgin olive oil and adjusting with salt. Deprive the burrata from the stretched curd wrapping, obtaining only the heart. Blend it with the milk cream. Slice the bread, keeping the crumbs that form. Leaf through the aromatic herbs and keep the smaller leaves. Wash and clean the prawns, cutting them in two lengthwise. With a spoon, spread the stracciatella in a bowl. Cover it with the liquid salad, add the bread shavings, anchovies and aromatic herbs. Place a prawn cut in two on top of the liquid salad cream and serve.
Pairings
Derthona Timorasso Zerba Antica by Cantine Volpi, a Limited Edition of 600 bottles, vintage 2016, with ad hoc label and numbered by hand. The wine has structure, flavor, minerality and a lot of persistence. This limited edition was also born with a charitable intent: to support the “Piccolo Cottolengo” of Tortona which in 2020 celebrated 80 years of activity.
Grilled scallops
Ingredients
16 scallops, 200 g taralli, 2 cloves of garlic, 200 g shelled and chopped pistachios, 2 shallots, extra virgin olive oil, salt.
Method
First remove the coral from the scallops. Wash and dry them. In a mixer, coarsely chop the taralli. In a pan put a drizzle of oil, the finely chopped shallots, the peeled cloves of garlic and brown well. Once the shallots are golden brown, add the chopped taralli and cook for 5-6 minutes. Off the heat, add the chopped pistachios and mix well. Season with salt and cover all the scallops with this panure. Brown them in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes, or until the surface is crisp. Serve them with a green salad.
Pairings
This simple but very tasty appetizer goes well with Cavit's Altemasi Brut Millesimato Trento Doc, a straw yellow sparkling wine with greenish reflections, with a persistent foam and a fine perlage. A wine with a complex aroma, with notes of citrus and peach. In the mouth it is fresh and pleasant, perfect for balancing the fatness of the scallop.
Tartlets with goat cheese
Ingredients
6 decane pears, 50 g sugar, 3 cloves, 2 bay leaves, 1 piece of cinnamon, a little ginger, 2 eggs, 40 ml of fresh cream, 120 g soft goat's cheese, peanut oil, butter, salt and pepper. For the shortcrust pastry: 300 g flour, 150 g butter, 50 ml milk, 1 pinch of sugar, 1 pinch of salt. To accompany: 150 g spinach, 30 g toasted pine nuts, 30 g raisins, 1 small unripe pear, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper.
Method
Prepare the dough by making a fountain with the flour, add the butter, milk, sugar and salt. Start kneading and when you have a homogeneous mixture, wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Peel the pears leaving the stalk, put them in a pot and cover them halfway with water. Add the spices, sugar, sliced ginger and bay leaf. Cover the pot, bring to a boil and cook gently for 30 minutes. Then drain the pears from the syrup and let them cool. Grease 6 molds of 10 cm in diameter each with butter. Roll out the dough and line the molds. Cover with a disc of baking paper, fill each with dry beans and cook at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, shell the eggs in a bowl, add the cream and the chopped cheese. Remove the molds from the oven, remove the baking paper and the beans and cut the base of the pears by about 1 cm. Place one in each mold, along with the egg and cheese mixture. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Prepare the side dish: rinse the raisins, peel the pear and cut it into slices. Mix the spinach with the pear, raisins and pine nuts and season with salt, pepper, oil and balsamic vinegar. Serve the tarts with the salad next to them.
Pairings
Tinata di Monteverro, an intense red, made from Syrah and Grenache grapes. Decisive, rich in aromatic notes, but at the same time soft and elegant. The grapes come from one of the most suitable soils of the Maremma winery, around a centuries-old cork oak close to the scrub, of which the typical aromas of lavender, rosemary and thyme are found in the wine. The blend obtained from the two varieties Grenache and Syrah makes this wine complex and of great aromatic depth.
Salmon blinis and pecorino cream
Ingredients
180 g flour, 20 g sugar, 320 ml milk, 8 g brewer's yeast, 2 eggs, 60 g butter, a pinch of salt, 150 g sliced smoked salmon, 200 goat's cheese spread, 10 g fresh dill, salt.
Method
Put the flour in a bowl with the crumbled yeast, the sugar, a pinch of salt. Then add the milk warmed with the butter and start mixing. Now add the eggs one at a time and mix well to mix everything until you get a homogeneous batter. Let the mixture rise for 30 minutes in a warm place. Prepare the dill cream: put the spreadable fresh cheese in a bowl and add the finely chopped fresh dill. Mix until a homogeneous cream is obtained. Grease a pan with a little butter, pour a tablespoon of the mixture and cook on both sides, turning it gently. Cut the salmon slices in half, then roll them up on themselves. Spread a little cream cheese on each blinis and then lay the salmon slice on top and finish with a sprig of dill.
Pairings
For this refined appetizer choose Merlettaie Offida Pecorino di Ciù Ciù, an intense wine, from Pecorino grapes, straw yellow in color, with an intense and persistent aroma of wild herbs and hawthorn flowers, with an intriguing vanilla impact given by the aging in cask .
Chicken dumplings and curry sauce
Ingredients
350 g of chicken breast, 1 clove of garlic, chives, mint, thyme, extra virgin olive oil, 6 filo pastry rectangles, sesame seeds, salt, pepper. For the curry sauce: 250 ml milk, 1 tablespoon potato starch, 1 spring onion, 1 red pepper, curry powder.
Method
First, chop the chicken breast with a kitchen knife, collect it in a bowl together with the peeled garlic, the chopped chives, a few mint leaves and a few thyme leaves. Season with salt and a sprinkle of pepper. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Prepare the sauce: finely slice the onion and fry it together with the chilli in a saucepan with a little oil. Add the spoonful of starch followed by the milk slowly, stirring with a whisk. Put on the heat and reduce, stirring with a wooden spoon. Meanwhile, add a generous splash of curry and salt. When the sauce leaves a veil on the spoon, turn off and let it cool. Take the filling, remove the large mint leaves and sauté the chicken in a pan over high heat for a couple of minutes. Switch off. Open the sheets of phyllo dough and brush them with oil. Overlap two at a time and cut them into strips 8-10 cm wide. Arrange a spoonful of filling in the lower left corner of the base of a strip and fold the phyllo over itself several times, forming repeated triangles, until the pastry is finished. Gradually arrange the triangles on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Brush them with oil and sprinkle them with sesame seeds. Bake in a preheated convection oven at 180 ° C for about ten minutes or until golden brown. Serve the triangles with chicken with herbs and curry sauce piping hot with the sauce.
Pairings
Vittorio Puiatti Riserva del Fondatore Metodo Classico, a sparkling wine made with 100% Pinot Nero grapes, with a delicate color, with elegant aromas of dried fruit and small pastries. Fine perlage, also excellent throughout the meal.
Russian salad with tuna sauce
Ingredients
3 potatoes, 3 carrots, 15 pickled gherkins, mayonnaise, 5 anchovy fillets, 125 g tuna in oil.
Method
First, cook the potatoes and carrots. Once cooked, slice them into small pieces. Also cut the gherkins and put all the vegetables in a large bowl. Combine the mayonnaise, tuna and anchovies in the mixer. Once mixed with the mayonnaise, taste the cream obtained, if it is not sufficiently tasty, according to your taste, add some chopped anchovies. Add the mayonnaise to the vegetables and mix well until all the diced vegetables are completely blended with the sauce. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving. The longer the mayonnaise remains in the fridge, the more the vegetables are flavored and the result will be tasty. Serve the Russian salad on croutons or straight.
Pairings
Prosecco Treviso Doc Brut Cantine Pasqua, a sparkling wine produced with 100% Glera grapes, coming from the province of Treviso. In the mouth it is lively, with hints of white fruit. Its freshness is perfect for balancing the fatness of the Russian salad.
Swordfish with exotic fruit and vegetables
Ingredients
300 g chopped sliced swordfish, 1 small red onion, 1 sachet of saffron, 2 sprigs of parsley, 2 sprigs of mint, 1 lemon, 1 orange, 1 mango, 1 red pepper, 1 sheet of carasau bread, extra virgin olive oil, chilli, salt.
Method
Wash the orange, dry it and remove half of the zest with a thin rigalimoni. Cut the swordfish into cubes and put it in a bowl with the lemon and orange juice, the leaves of a sprig of mint, a few leaves of parsley, a pinch of chilli, 2 tablespoons of oil and the saffron and let the fish flavor. in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Peel the onion, cut it into slices and transfer it to a bowl with cold water. Peel the mango and cut the pulp into cubes. Wash the pepper, peel it, remove seeds and filaments and cut it into very thin slices.
Mix the fish drained from the marinade with the pepper, the orange peel, a pinch of salt, 3 tablespoons of oil and the drained and dried onion and distribute it on the plates over the slices of chopped carasau bread. Add the diced mango and the remaining mint leaves and serve immediately.
Pairing
Gianni Masciarelli Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Doc, from pure Trebbiano d’Abruzzo grapes, fermented in steel for a young and fresh wine, which tells the vine in the most genuine way possible. The nose releases aromas of crunchy apples and pears and a nice consistency of honey, while on the palate it is full, layered and savory.
