Italian Mushroom Risotto

Preparation time: 20 minutes to prepare dried mushrooms + 20 minutes preparation time.
Serves 4 people.

Autumn has hit the town and what's one of the things about autumn? Mushrooms! Well, Risotto with mushrooms: an Italian classic. As many "Italian classics" is often misinterpreted and screwed with any possible creamy sauce: creme fraiche, fresh cream, creamy cream, cream.

It's true, this risotto requires some patience, but oh so worth it! It's a quite light, simple and vegetarian recipe that will astonish any guest coming home for dinner or lunch without any notice. It should not be too dry, nor too watery: it should be as it should be, as the wise man would say.

Let's start with the recipe!

• 400 gr. Dried Mushrooms
• 400 gr. Risotto (Arborio)
• 1/2 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 40 gr. butter
• 2 tablespoon chopped parsley
• salt&pepper
• grated Parmigiano...a lot of Parmigiano
• 2 vegetable stocks melted in 1 lt. of hot water
• a glass of white wine

Soak the porcini mushrooms in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain well (remember to keep the water!). Prepare 1 lt. broth with the vegetable stocks and keep it warm.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy based saucepan and add the garlic. Fry over a gentle heat for 2-3 minutes, until softened. Remove the garlic, add the previously chopped mushrooms and fry for a further 2-3 minutes, until browned. Add salt and pepper, and a bunch of chopped parsley. Drain the mushrooms and keep the oil aside!

Put butter and chopped onion in another saucepan over low heat; once the butter is melted add the rice and toast it and stir it with a wooden spoon. Add the wine and let it evaporate. 

When the rice starts sticking to the pan, pour over a cup of mushrooms water and a cup of broth. Let the rice absorb the liquid and repeat the operation until the rice is cooked.

Remember: never stop to stir the rice, which you don't want to overcook: it has to crunch a little bit.

When ready, add the drained mushroom into the risotto and stir well. Remove from the heat and keep stirring, adding the previously stocked mushrooms oil and grated parmesan. Spread with remaining parsley.

Some people use to add butter in the end: mushrooms oil is healthier and tastier!

Serve immediately...

... and see heaven!

Pollo alla Romana: the recipe

Preparation time: 40 minutes.
Details: approx. €10 to serve 4 people.

Pollo alla Romana (chicken with peppers or pollo con i peperoni): one of the most classic recipes from Rome! And there's no better way to present this recipe but following the authentic hints by Sora Lella.

Yes, this mouth-watering recipe also allows us to pay a tribute to the glorious Sora Lella. Who was Sora Lella? Well an actress, show-woman, the sister of a old Italian actor and showman (Aldo Fabrizi) and the co-owner of the famous Rome restaurant, now named after her (Sora Lella, on the isola Tiberina).

She was known to the main public as the stereotype of the typical Roman citizen:  she embodied skepticism, wit, pragmatism, indolence, indifference, humor, self-irony and sarcasm.

Needless to say, she was extremely funny and a great cook: we could actually define her as a foodie. Her recipes represent the essence of Italian cuisine, sticking to the most orthodox tradition. For all Italian speakers, here is a small video describing this 100% authentic recipe. A real piece of History:

Argh, I love her! 

However, let's go back to our chicken recipe: this is an extremely cheap and easy recipe that will amaze anyone loving red peppers! Despite being a very simple mix of ingredients (like every  authentic Italian recipe), the taste is really incredible and red peppers are simply great for flavoring chicken meat.

Ingredients:

• Chicken pieces for 4 persons 
• 5 vine tomatoes
• 1 glass white wine
• 4 peppers
• salt, whole black pepper, rosemary
• 2 garlic cloves

First of all, as Sora Lella teaches us, be careful when selecting red peppers at the shop: they must be 4-cornered, which means they are sweet enough for the recipe. As you can see you really need few ingredients to deliver magic!

First of all, put the chicken pieces in a pan with some extra-virgin olive oil (not too much - we want to keep the recipe light!) and two garlic cloves (don't chop them otherwise the sauce will be too garlicky and we definitely don't want this) and heat the pan on a medium fire. Add some rosemary, some peppercorns and salt the chicken. 

Brown the chicken thoroughly from all sides. After 3 minutes add some a glass of white wine and make it evaporate properly for 1-2 minutes. What a nice smell!

Meanwhile, peel and chop the tomatoes and when ready put them in the pan together with the chicken.

Leave the tomatoes mix with the chicken and chop the red peppers as shown below. When ready put them in the pan and toss the chicken folding with peppers and the tomato sauce.

Leave the pan on a medium heat for about 30 minutes covering it with a lid. 

After 30 minutes have gone, try the sauce and add some salt if needed. Serve the chicken hot without adding anything. Pure simplicity. 

Pollo alla Romana is not only a recipe: it's History. This is the way Romans have been eating chicken for centuries. And this is simply....

... Incredible! Buon Appetito :-)

Quote: "Se Napoleone veniva a Roma se magnava er pollo che je facevo io" (Sora Lella)

Pasta alla gricia

Preparation time: 15 minutes.

Details: approx. €10 to serve 4/5 people.

Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe, Amatriciana and Gricia: the kings of Roman pastas! Those are the top 4 "seriously Roman" pasta dishes you cannot miss if you visit Rome! We will dedicate separate posts to each recipe, as each one has a different story and preparation. We are talking about very simple pasta recipes whose origins lay in central Italy shepherd's traditions: this means that any ingredient substitution is not minor and will screw up everything! 

Pasta alla Gricia is the least famous of the group, but surely many people's favorite....

Let's do some history first: Pasta alla Gricia is the old ancestor of the more famous Pasta all' Amatriciana, and is also known as "Amatriciana in bianco" (basically Amatriciana without tomato sauce). The name origins from a small town in central Lazio: Grisciano, which is very close to Amatrice. Amatrice is the world-famous capital of the incredible Pasta all'Amatriciana (we will soon talk about this in a new post): a small and beautiful town, located on the Lazio mountains in the very heart of Italy. 

Amatrice, Lazio, Italy

Back in the past local shepherds used to cook a very simple but super-satisfying dish at dinner that would help them facing the harshness and toughness of the next day. They used to cook this pasta when descending from the mountains with their sheeps. That's why the ingredients had to be very poor and represented the most popular local products: Pecorino romano (the hard, tangy grating cheese made from sheep's milk) and Guanciale (cured pork jowl, which has a unique, intensely piggy flavor). At the beginning of the nineteenth century many shepherds moved to Rome, due to a severe sheep-farming crisis. Gricia and Amatriciana started to become very popular dishes among Romans and since then these pasta recipes are associated to the Italian capital.

The good news for all those who live far from Amatrice or Grisciano is that it's very easy to reproduce Pasta alla Gricia, IF you stick to tradition. Before listing the very simple ingredients, please bear in mind what follows:

NO GARLIC!

NO ONION!

NO PARMESAN!

NO PARSLEY!

NO BUTTER!

NO CHILI!

NO BACON!

NO, NO, NO!

Ok, let's get calm again and list the ingredients for 4 persons:

• 500 grams Rigatoni or Bucatini or Spaghetti
• 125 grams guanciale (you can find it at Best of Italy or Fallon&Byrne in Dublin, or buy it online!)
• 150 grams Pecorino (easily found at Superquinn, Fresh, Best of Italy or Fallon&Byrne)
• a small glass of white wine
• 1 tbspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• pepper and salt

The preparation is idiot-proof: sticking to tradition is EASY. Seriuosly, hortodoxy is King in this case. Creative licence is allowed, however, when it comes to pasta - as you can see above (we tried with both Rigatoni and Spaghetti for the post).

Bring your well-salted pasta water to a boil. While the water is heating, slice the guanciale thinly into narrow strips and grate the Pecorino.

Place the guanciale in a cold pan with a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil and place over medium heat; the olive oil helps to render the fat evenly and acts as a conduit, transferring the flavor from the pan to the pasta. When the guanciale strips are starting to get translucent, add less than half glass of white wine. Leave the guanciale on the fire for few more minutes, waiting for the wine to evaporate and allowing it to release more precious fat that will become the pasta natural sauce! Don't burn the guanciale: it just needs to get brownish. The smell of the Guanciale moist will basically leave you speechless at this stage.

When the pasta reaches the Al Dente texture, quickly drain it and add it to the pan and turn on the heat. Toss the pasta vigorously coating with the guanciale and the fat, grinding some black pepper on it. Remove the pan from the heat and add the previously grated pecorino (it should not melt on the pasta, so remove the pan from the heat before this step!). This will add the perfect sheepy taste to the pasta. 

Fatto: Harmony, Sublimity, Simplicity, Art and Splendor all in one plate.

Ecche-to-dico affà? 

Sole alla Mugnaia

Preparation time: 10 minutes.
Details: approx. €10-15 to serve 4 people.

This is just a super easy and tasty recipe that can save you from the usual canned tuna salad or  grilled chicken fillet. The recipe is originally french (sole à la meunière), but it's always been a very popular dish in Italy and we will post the Italian lighter version. 

You don't need much: just go to any shop and buy some fresh soles or plaices (1 per person)! . Plaices are also very nice and you don't even need to skin them as it's very easy to remove the skin when you eat them after being cooked.

After buying the fish, just go back home: most probably you already have the remaining ingredients in your fridge! That's what you need:

• 4 soles/plaices
• 120 grams butter
• parsley
• flour
• salt
• lemon

The steps are super easy: flour the plaices/soles in the flour and shake off the excess.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter and the oil over medium heat. Saute the fish on both sides until nicely golden brown, about 5 minutes per side.

Remove the fish to a serving platter and keep warm, discarding the cooking fat. Mmmm.... what a great smell (ahah ok, I need to do some crap marketing sometimes)! Before starting eating, slice the lemon and chop the parsley, which you should then sprinkle all over the fish together with some lemon juice.

As a side, we decided to fry some coarsely cut cabbage with some extra-virgin olive oil, a whole garlic clove and a pinch of Italian chili.

A simply perfect & cheap dinner ready in just 10 minutes. 

Bye bye canned tuna!!

Roman walks: forno Campo De' Fiori

There's nothing better than a weekend in Rome in the middle of October: it's warm, it's beautiful, it's home, it's Rome. Plus, it was 25° and ridiculously sunny, and the reassuring brownish-yellow-light blue Roman colours were shining!

No, I could not spend my weekend back home without thinking at our beloved blog. So, today we'll start with a series of posts dedicated to Roman pilgrimages to holy food sites. And we can't start our pilgrimage without talking about the glorious Forno Campo De' Fiori, can we? 

Ok, we need to do some history first ...

In fact, the Forno is located in Campo De' Fiori (literally, "field of flowers" - the name was first given during the Middle Ages when the area was actually a meadow), a very famous square in which a food market is held every day (except Sundays). You can find a statue of the philosopher Giordano Bruno in the middle of the square: he was burnt alive here for heresy in 1600.

Campo De' Fiori square is located in the baroque area of the city, enclosed between River Tiber, Piazza Venezia, via del Corso and Piazza del Popolo. In this relatively small area you can find tens of extraordinary churches, world-famous paintings, old roman monuments and enjoy the tales that every street tells you while passing by.

Yes, this is getting boring. Let's talk about real things: our Forno!

Well, this is by far one of the best Forno in town: here you can find an absolutely mouth-watering Pizza Bianca and many other Pizza Al Taglio variations. We are not talking about round pizzas you can eat in pizzerias: this is Pizza al Taglio (see here the dedicated post), which you can buy in local Fornos (i.e. bakeries) or dedicated shops. Pizza bianca is their showpiece: a crunchy, chewy olive oil-based flat bread that lands on the chopping block still hot and straight from the oven every 10 minutes at peak times. And yes, you can see how they make it running through the "kitchen" just behind the counter!

Look at this: orgasmic! If only you could smell the pizza scent when it is taken out of the oven...

Of course, you simply cannot miss all the other pizzas (the Margherita is lip-smacking, but also all the other variations are one step above the rest!), including confectionery, biscuits and the large range of breads they produce every day in the shop. 

If you happen to travel to Rome, it's easy to find our beloved Forno: Giordano Bruno is looking exactly at the Forno, whose name is clearly indicated on the walls. I wonder if he had the chance to eat such a thing...

As you can see in the above picture, the same Forno guys own a twin shop which is located on the Forno's left side: you can find a gorgeous "pizza farcita" there (i.e. pizza bianca filled with fresh ingredients like ham, mozzarella, ham&figs, etc.).

If you can't go to Rome tomorrow morning and have lunch there, you can simply try our great homemade Pizza al Taglio recipe!

If you can't eat carbs or have some kind of allergy but will be in Rome tomorrow morning, you can also opt to spend a whole morning beside the entrance of the shop and smell heaven: it's worth it, surely not less than a Michelangelo painting.

Chocolate fondant...what else?

Preparation time: 10 minutes for the preparation, 8-10 minutes for cooking.

Details: approx. €10 to serve 15 fondants

A.k.a. "How to kick off a chilly-but-dry weekend in Dublin", the chocolate fondant is a simple but sensational dessert. 

This recipe has all the requirements to be declared as the perfect dessert recipe: simple, fast, no weird ingredients, you can prepare it in advance and above all, it's with CHOCOLATE.
The only important thing is that you have to know your oven very well, in order to get the right consistency: a little bit crunchy on the side, but exceptionally warm inside.




So, take out from the sideboard:

• 200 gr. of dark chocolate (70%)
• 180 gr. of butter
• 40 gr. of flour
• 4 eggs
• 160 gr. of sugar
• cupcake moulds

Directions: 

Melt the chocolate and the butter together in bain-marie. Whisk the eggs and the sugar together, adding the flour in the end.
Add the melted chocolate to the mixture and use a wooden spoon to blend it well, until you have a smooth cream.

Put the cream into the moulds, previously greased with butter and floured (if you are using silicone or paper moulds you don't need to use butter and flour). Fill the moulds for 3/4 and either:

• cook them immediately (180°, for 13 minutes - ventilated oven)

or

• freeze them and keep them for whenever you want to serve them. You can put them in the oven still frozen and the result will be exactly the same.

As I mentioned before, the only complicated part is when you cook them. In order to keep the centre soft and warm, you need to take out the fondants from the oven as soon as you see little cracks on the top:

Garnish them with red fruits, mint leaves and serve them!

Italian Apple tart - torta di Mele

Preparation time: 40 minutes for the preparation, 1 hour for the baking.

Details: approx. €20 to serve 6 people

There's only one remedy for the sudden end of the summer: welcome in the next season with open arms! Yes, we have to convince ourselves: Autumn is great and full of romance. 

Last Sunday the rain was falling slowly upon the fields, trees were losing their leaves, the sky was grey and gloomy.  And shops were closed. I could not think of a more depressing moment, so I started looking for a solution. And what's better than an Apple Tart to start the Fall/Winter Season 2012?

Looking at different Italian Apple Tart recipes, I found this one which is the right mix between tradition and innovation. Of course, the Italian Apple Tart is very different from the American Apple Pie (there is no pastry cover) and the British Apple Crumble (no butter crumbs).



Aprons on! Get ready with:

• 280 gr. plain flour (00)
• 160 gr. Butter
• 500 gr. Apples (Gray Pippin Apples, or "Mele Renette")
• 300 cl. Milk
• 100 gr. Sugar
• 80 gr. of Rich Tea Biscuits
• 40 gr. of Raisins
• 3 Egg Yolks
• 1 Vanilla Bean
• 3 Tablespoons of Apricot Jam
• 1 Lemon
• 3 Tablespoons of Marsala liquor (€ 12,99/bottle at Best of Italy Shop)

Short-crust Pastry:
Mix together 250 gr. of flour with the butter (still cold), cut into small pieces. Add 2-3 tablespoons of water and mix until the pastry became smooth. Cover it with cling film and put in the fridge for at least one hour. After that, roll it (3 mm height) over a spring-release tin (previously greased and covered with baking paper) and riddle it with holes. 
Keep in the fridge the extra dough.

Marsala Italian-style Custard:
Whisk 2 egg yolks with 50 gr. of sugar, then add 3 tablespoons of Marsala and the remaining flour. In the meantime, heat the milk up with the Vanilla Bean, carved along the side. Pour the hot milk into the mixture and put everything on the stove, mixing well, until it  thickens.

Apple Tart:
Crumbles the biscuits and spread them over the pastry in the tin. Cover it with the cream and make another layer of crumbled biscuits and raisins (previously softened up in the Marsala). Keep a spoon of raisins aside, for later.
Peel off and cut into slices the apples: position the apple slices on the top of the tart.
For the central decoration: take a regular shaped apple and peel it, removing the applecore. Put it into a saucepan and cover it with water, adding some lemon peel and 20 gr. of sugar. Let it cook for 10-15 minutes; drain it and cover it with shortcrust pastry strips. Fill the central hole with the remaining raisins and a tablespoon of apricot jam.
Brush the pastry over the central apple with the remaining yolk; heat up the remaining jam and spread it over the apple slices, sprinkling the sugar over the whole tart.

Cook in the pre-heated oven at 180° for 50 minutes or until the pastry gets dark.

Enjoy!