Apple and Sidra Risotto recipe

Today we bring you a delicious risotto recipe, with a different and delicate taste. We mixed it up making a sort of Italian-Spanish fusion, with italian rice and apples with the typical Spanish Sidra de Asturias.

The Apple is an extraordinary fruit whose origins are to be find in Central Asia in the Neolithic era. There are more than 7,000 known varieties of apples, and the apples literally followed Mankind while conquering the World. One could say that the apple is the Men's best friend.

Unluckily, of this endless variety we can find in our grocery store only seven-eight kinds of apples, that covers more than 90% of the whole market. That's a pity for instance that one of our favourite kinds of apple, the Melannurca, known in Italy as the queen of apples, sweet and tasty, is impossible to find elsewhere.

Since ancient times, the apples were used to obtain delicious drinks, even alcoholic ones. The cider, nowadays, is a ligthly alcoholic drinks whose alcoholic volume range from 3% to 8%, until 12% in some case. The production of apple drinks is known for instance in the ancient Egypt, in ancient Greece and Rome. The cider is very popular in the European Atlantic coast, in countries like Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, England and Ireland. 

The english name cider and the spanish name "Sidra" derivates from the latin word Sicera, that comes from the Hebrew word "Shekar", or "drink that makes you feel dizzy". Already in the high middle ages, the sidra was very popular in all the Cantabrian Mountains, and we have some information about the cultivations of apples there already in the VIII century, during the Asturian Kingdoms. During the Carolingian empire, under Charlemagne, in the IX century, we can find the very first mention of the production of what we intend as cider in commercial documents.

Taking a huge leap forward, in the XIX century, spanish regions of Asturias and Guipuzcoa-Basque Country becomes the propulsory center of the spanish sidra. In the region of Asturias, the consumption of sidra reach the 54 liter per capita per year. An astonishing volume and probably a Guinness World record!

Today the Sidra de Asturias is the most important traditional drink of that spanish region, and it is widely used in the whole Spain to celebrate events like bithdays, Christmas and New Year's Eve.
The 12 of November 2002, the Sidra de Asturias has become a D.O.P. protected label (denominación de origen protegida). Today the production of the sidra is also a touristical appeal for Asturias, for instance there is a county called the "Mancomunidad de la sidra" (the county of the sidra) that offers to the visitor many activities related to this delicious sparkling drink.

With the apples you can literally do anything you want: desserts, drinks, purees, creams, ice creams and, even if we associate the apples with sweet dishes more than with savoury ones, there's a quite a list of main courses using apple too, like the dish that we'll show you today!

Ingredients:

- Carnaroli or Arborio rice 

- 1 liter of vegetables stock

- 1 onion 

- 1 or 2 apples (to taste)

- 1 spoon of butter 

- Parmigiano Reggiano cheese 

- 1 (abundant) glass of Sidra de Asturias 

- 2 spoonful of extra virgin olive oil

- a pinch of salt

Preparation: 

The preparation for our risotto is just like any other risotto, for instance you can see the steps to follow looking at our "Saffron risotto" recipe, but in this case remember to use the Sidra de Asturias instead of the white wine.

1- Put the pan on medium-high heat, drizzle a little bit of olive oil and put inside the pan the diced onions (à là brunoise), and let it cook for some seconds. Then add the rice and let it toast for a little bit. This step, as we said in other occasions, is very crucial to obtain a good risotto. And here goes the change with the traditional risotto recipe: at this point you would add the wine, but in this recipe you'll add the Sidra de Asturias. Stir it until the liquid has completely evaporated.

Note: We already explained how to calculate the quantity of rice to add into the pan in a traditional way, but we'll repeat here just in case you've missed it.

I've learned to cook risotto from the mothers and the grandmas, and they used to tell me to use "un pugnetto per ognuno e uno in più per la padella", that is a fistful of rice for each one and one extra for the pan. Clearly it depends also on the size of the hands, in my case it would be two fistful for each one, since I've got very small hands hehehe! This is a very efficent way to calculate the quantities needed, but we also love to cook a little bit more of rice in order to have an extra portion to prepare later our beloved supplìs, crocchès and so on...you can do great things with you risotto leftovers!

2- Now little by little we'll add our hot vegetable stock to the pan and we'll keep stirring the rice, in order to help the risotto to release the starch and so obtain the typical creamy texture. We'll add a little bit of stock at time and we'll keep on stirring until we see the liquid totally absorbed. We'll continue doing so for about 18 minutes, and we'll add the chopped apples halfway through the cooking.

3- When our risotto is realy (after about 18 minutes) we turn off the heat and we'll add a spoonful of butter and the grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and we stir energetically. This step is known as "mantecatura" in italian. And there you have it!

Serve it freshly cooked.

Buon appetito! 

The Pastiera Napoletana recipe

The Spring is coming! And a brand new project comes along with it, we'll be partecipating in the second issue of the Blogirls 2.0 Magazine!

You can read our article about the pastiera napoletana, it's in spanish, but kitchen it's an universal language isn't it? Just make sure you don't miss it! You will enjoy it a lot!

In Italy, Easter time is usually spent around a good table. From north to south, you'll find a breathtaking variety of dishes, typical of this season. Mainly, Easter dishes are usually desserts: Easter Colomba, Chocolate eggs, Casatiellos, Cassatas, and so on. Today we'll talk about the Pastiera, maybe the most ancient dessert of one of the World's most ancient cities: Naples.

Its origins are legendary, in one of them, the mermaid Parthenope, having failed in enchanting the hero of the Odissey, Ulysses, decided to quit her life jumping from a cliff. But the mermaid survived, and the sea brought her in the Gulf of Naples, where she was saved from fishermen that help her recovering. Parthenope was since then always welcomed there. They say that the mermaid used to emerge from the waters every springtime to celebrate the friendship with the neapolitan people.

In one of these occasion, the people wanted to give a tribute to the mermaid: they gave her flour, symbol of wealth, ricotta cheese, symbol of abundance, eggs, symbol of fertility, wheat cooked with the milk, symbol of the union between the animal and vegetal reigns, flowers typical of the Campania region and the honey, today changed with the sugar, symbol of the sweet chant of the syren. The following morning, the mermaid went back to the shore with a pie cooked by the Gods of the Olympus themselves with the gifts the people gave to Parthenope. This is how the Pastiera Napoletana was born, or at least this is what tells us the legend.

What is sure is that food historians believe this dessert was created in the Greek Neapolis, and was a dish cooked to celebrate Ceres, the goddess of the harvest (Ceres gave the name to the cereals). The recipe was then perfectioned in the XVI century in the Santa Patrizia convent, where you can find the most baroque church you've ever seen. The Santa Patrizia convent is also in front of the World famous "via dei presepi", where you can find lots of nativity scene statues all years round.

The first time that the Pastiera is mentioned is in the year 1634, in the book "Il gatto Cenerentola" (in english, "Cinderella the cat") by Giambattista Basile. It may result interesting to notice that this fairy tale was then modified by Charles Perrault for his "Cinderella". We can say that the pastiera starts out with the Odissey, continue with the Mermaid and ends with Cinderella!

We can tell you another fun fact: the queen of Naples, Maria Therese of Habsurg-Teschen, the wife of Ferdinand II of Bourbon, was famous to the people as the "queen that never smiles". That nickname was used until she tried a slice of the pastiera. The pie taste was just too good not to smile! The king, after that, declared: "we had to use the pastiera to see my wife smile in public. Now we'll have to wait until next Easter to see her smiling again!".
Yes, the pastiera is an authentic cure for bad mood, just like the spring days in Naples!

Recipe: (for two pastieras some 23 cms wide approx.)

- Ingredients of the filling:

 550 g. of grano cotto; 700 g. of ricotta (both a goat and cow ricotta); 400 g. of sugar; 500 ml. of milk; 50 g. of butter; 180 g. aprox. of candied fruit (candied citron, orange, etc.); 5 g. of cinnamon powder; 5 ml. of Millefiori; 6 eggs; lemon zest to taste.

- For the shortcrust pastry:

450 g. of flour; 120 g. of sugar; 60 g. of lard (cold); 180 g. of butter (cold and cut into dices); 3 egg yolks; 1 spoonful (5 g.) of Vanillina or vanilla extract; orange zest.

Preparation:

1- Let's start preparing the grano cotto. Pour the canned cooked wheat (ready to use) in a pan, along with the milk and the butter. Stir it for some 15 minutes with a wooden spoon at medium-low heat, until you obtain a creamy texture. You can easily find the grano cotto at every italian grocery store, or very easily online (it's easy to find it at Ebay too). If you can't find it, you can easily do it at home*.

2- Prepare the pasta frolla, the italian version of the shortcrust pastry. To do so, we can use our mixer. Add first the dry ingredients, then add the butter and the lard cut into dices (both must be cold!), mix it all and add the egg yolks. Mix it again and you'll see a sandy texture. To obtain an homogeneous dough and easy to work with, add slowly 3 or 4 spoonful of really cold water. Knead the dough into a ball and pop it into the fridge covered with plastic wrap for about half an hour.

3- For the filling, put the ricotta in a bowl, but be careful! We don't want a wet ricotta, make sure that yo've dried it before using. Add the sugar to the bowl and mix it all. Then add the cream of grano cotto you've previously prepared, and add the eggs and the cinnamon too. Mix it all until you'll obtain an homogeneous cream. At last, add the Millefiori essence and the candied fruit. The Millefiori in Southern Italy means pastiera, but since it is hard to find, you can use rosewater instead.

4- Grease the moulds that you choose to bake, cover the bottom and the sides with the pasta frolla shortcrust pastry, then add the filling. The moulds usually are high, but you can use whatever mould you want, but it is important that they're metallic ones. The surface of the filling will be covered with stripes of shortcrust pastry, shaping a sort of grating. This is useful not only to decorate the surface, but also to contain the filling that will inflate during the baking. Paint the surface with beaten eggs to give to our pie a golden colour and there you are! Ready to bake!

5- Bake the pastiera in a preheated oven at 180ºC, for anytime between 60 to 75 minutes. Once baked, leave the pastiera to cool completely. It is an Easter dessert, and the tradition say that it has to be prepared on Maundy Thurday and eaten on Easter Sunday, three days after...but come on! Who can resist?

* Homemade preparation of the grano cotto: this is the key ingredient of the pie, but even if today this is very easy to find ready to use, maybe you want to know how to prepare it at home. This how you can cook it to yourself!
This is a large process, let the wheat grains in water for three days (change the water often), and then boil it in water for some hours. Then boil it again in milk for at least three hours. It is not a difficult process, but it takes a long long time to prepare your homemade grano cotto! We usually use the bottled grano cotto, that is very cheap too and it tastes just as good as the homemade one!

Happy Easter and...Buon Appetito!

The history of Saffron

The saffron carpels and the flowers of saffron

The gold of the cuisine. This is how the saffron has always been called, a most precious spice with an history of many millennia on its shoulders. But this way of calling is not only due to the unmistakable colour that it gives to the dishes blessed with its magical touch: it is literally as precious as gold, or even more, since its economical value per gram is actually higher than the yellow metal! In the moment I'm writing this article, the gold is valued 31 euros per gram, while saffron is valued 35 euro per gram.

We can find the first traces of the Saffron some 3500 years ago, in the Palace of Knossos, in Crete. Here we can find a fresco representing a man harvesting saffron, and the fact that such a scene is depicted in a luxurious palace tell us much about how refined was to use the saffron at the time. We know that also Phoenicians knew and commercialized saffron, and they brought this spice to the western Mediterranean, in islands like for instance Sardinia or to Spain. Making a big historical leap, it is said that Cleopatra herself, when bathing, used to add a fourth of a cup of saffron infusion, as a sign of her richness and power.

When Nero entered in Rome, it is said that was welcomed by the exhulting crowd tossing him flowers of saffron all the way until his Imperial Palace. In the ancient Rome, the saffron was used a sort of pigment and also as a sort of natural and expensive make up. The empereor Marcus Aurelius, known for his refined culture and called the "Empereor philosopher", used to have baths only in water perfumed with saffron.

After the fall of the Roman empire, the cultivation of the saffron witnessed a decay, as the rest of areas and economical sectors. Only around year 1000 the Arabs, with both commerce and conquers in the Mediterranean, brought back to western Europe this spice.

One may ask why the saffron is so expensive, and the answer is because every step is literally hand made! Every saffron flower has three carpels, each one of them has to be extracted by hand and dried. For each gram of saffron are required up to 150 carpels. The saffron used in our kitchens is a kind of saffron typical of Crete, and it is cultivated in Italy (overall in Sardinia, in Abruzzo and also in Marche, Tuscany and Umbria), in Spain (saffron of La Mancha and saffron de la Tierra of Tenerife, somewhat less tasty but also much cheaper), in Greece (in the hot and dry regions).

The risotto giallo, oro e zafferano by the starred chef Gualtiero Marchesi.

Of course, the gold of the cuisine is known for one of the most famous and celebrated dish of Italian cuisine, the risotto allo zafferano, that in milanese dialect is known as "risott giald", or "yellow risotto". A very special kind of risotto allo zafferano is the one called "risotto giallo, oro e zafferano", by the starred chef Gualtiero Marchesi. In its restaurant, "Il Marchesino", beside the first Opera House ever built in the world, the very famous La Scala theater, he offers a risotto allo zafferano...containing an actual golden leaf in it! Curiously, the golden leaf it is not the most expensive ingredient of the dish. The gold leaf is a tribute to the historical goldsmith heritage of Milan, where in the past centuries a lot of "battiloro" (goldbeaters) operated to beat the gold until obtaining a very thin leaf.

So, if you do not know how to surprise your special one, why don't you give her/him a jewel case containing some saffron instead of a very banal and cheap golden ring? :)

Just joking huh?

Golden greetings,

Tom

Gorgonzola bechamel sauce

Today we bring you one of best known sauce in the world: the bechamel sauce. This white sauce, rather thick, has just so manyn uses in our kichens. It is made out of just a few of ingredients and it is the base for so many other sauces, like the one we prepared for you today, the Gorgonzola bechamel sauce.

The origin of this sauce is not so well known and, as often happens, when something is good everyone tries to get the credits for it. Since we cannot take a dna test about the bechamel sauce, we will tell you all the versions, letting you decide which one you believe it's true.

Given its actual name, many of you may think is rather french as a sauce, but nowadays is believed that this sauce comes from Italy, and we tend to second that too, and not just because half of us is italian hehe. Historians have discovered in fact that in Italy, specifically in Tuscany, it was used a sort of white sauce even before the Renaissance times. This sauce was called "salsa colla", or "glue sauce", and was then renamed as bechamel sauce from the french some century after its creation. Catherine of Medicis, florentine by birth and believed to be the inspirer of the birth of french cuisine, has had its chef perfectioning the sauce, and then, when Catherine moved to France to et married with Henry II of Orleans, introduced this sauce to the local cuisine. This may explain because it is as used in Italy as in France.

Others instead thinks that this sauce was created by the duke and politics Philippe of Mornay, father of many other sauce like the sauce Chasseur, the Oporto and the Mornay sauces, but no document demonstrate this. Shall we should trust a politics, huh?

As for the name, it is said it cames from marquise Louise de Bechamel. Again, no evidence shows that the nobleman created this sauce, but it is possible that a chef working for him named after his Lord. Luckily times seems to have changed a little bit since then. The marquise was a strong commercial partner of Louise XIV, and so his speciality was known to the chefs of the Court and gained international fame. Infact, one of the chefs of the royal Court was Francois Pierre de la Varenne, considered to be the creator of French classic cuisine,  and when he published his cuisine book he wrote about this "new" recipe, and his book is the first document where this delicious white sauce appears under the name of "bechamel sauce".

So, in resume: Bechamel sauce is an italian creation named after a french noblemen, used a lot in both countries. Something very old, very confused yet so much European! ;)

Bechamel sauce has three ingredients: flour, a fat ingredient (olive oil or butter) and milk. Someone adds onions too, for sure you should add zested nutmeg and salt. The quantity for milk depends on how liquid you want your sauce to be.

The mix in equal parts of flour and a fat ingredient is known as roux, and it is the base for a lot of sauce. Many restaurants keep aside the roux, and add hot milk whenever they need bechamel sauce. I advice you: a lot of stirring is required.

Today's variation is a bechamel sauce with an add of Gorgonzola cheese, to let the sauce be creamy and tasty, ideal to use with meat, veggies, pastas or whatever you want!

An idea for you: champignon mushrooms filled with Gorgonzola Bechamel sauce

Ingredientes: 

• 1/2 liter of milk
• 100 grams of flour
• 30 g.of butter or olive oil
• recently zested nutmeg
• salt and black pepper
• Gorgonzola cheese (30 grams approximately)

-You shouldn't exaggerate with the blue cheese, otherwise the taste will be too strong, but you can choose every cheese you want, of course!
-The roux is always made with the same amount of fat and flour, in this case I've lowered the amount of fat, but for an half liter of milk you should use 50 grams of flour and butter.
-I've used wheat flour, but you can mix half wheat, half corn flour, so to have a creamy and light bechamel sauce.
  
Preparation:

-Put a pot on the oven, preferably one with a huge base in rder to avoid the sauce to stick to the pan, and add the butter or the oil. When it is completely melted, add the flour and stir energically. We have to cook the flour, but we don't want the flour to toast!
-Once you have a well integrated roux, add the milk, previously heated almost at a boiling temperature. Now add the zest of the nutmeg, the black pepper and the cheese.
-Use a wooden spoon to stir and try to dissolve every bulk you see in the sauce. Continue this phase until the sauce starts boiling, so to have a well cooked flour.

-Remove from heat and add the sauce on our dishes whilst the sauce is still hot. We can keep the sauce warm by putting our bowl in ban-marie, or we can keep it in our fridge by covering our bowl with a plastic wrap.

Preparating the sauce with thermomix: ( mismas cantidades)

-Put all the ingredients at once in the Thermomix, program the robot for 7 minutes at 90° Celsius and Speed 1...ready? There you are your perfect Bechamel sauce!

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Bechamel sauce has just a lot of variations, and we can add every cheese we want, aromatic herbs, make it sweet, with lemon, chopped spinach, adding tomato (aurora sauce), using a meat stock instead of milk (velouté) and a large list of etceteras...

Try it! It's easy!

Greetings and...put some sauce in your life!

Angie