Iceberg lettuce with sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, salt, EVOO.
DO YOU KNOW? What’s called “Italian dressing” or “Italian seasoning” in America, it’s not actually an Italian recipe. Traditionally lettuce or what we call “insalata mista” (lettuce, sliced carrot, tomatoes) is served with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, white or red wine vinegar, salt and sometimes pepper. Balsamic Vinegar is a recent introduction to Italian tables, more common in the North of Italy. I noticed that if you are in north Italy, the ingredients used to dress lettuce or what we call INSALATA are less flavourful. I really don’t know why. My dressing’s ingredients for tomatoes are: EVOO, garlic, salt, parsley and basil mixed with sliced tomatoes in a bowl and let it sit 1 hour in the fridge. My lettuce dressing is salt, EVOO, white wine vinegar, sometimes mixed with plain regular yogurt and some nuts.
Home made #basil #pesto time! Pesto alla #Genovese is a sauce originating in Genoa, the capital city of #Liguria Region, #Italy. The main ingredient is BASIL from #Genoa which has small oval leaves and a very intense smell. It traditionally consists of crushed #garlic, European #pine nuts, coarse #salt, basil leaves, and hard cheese such as #parmigianoreggiano and/or #pecorinoromano or #pecorinosardo (cheese made from sheep’s milk), all blended with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Ingredients: 4 tbsps canned tunafish in EVO, 4 tbsps Ricotta Cheese, 2 tbsps Green Olive Pate, 1 egg, 2 or 3 tbsps breadcrumbs in the mix, more breadcrumbs to roll the tubafish balls, Extra Virgin Olive Oil to spray on the balls before baking. Mix very well all the ingredients with a spoon and then make balls as big as a wallnut. Preheat at 200°C the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Enjoy!
. It’s a soft cheese being produced for 1200 years.
. It is a DOP cheese, certified and guaranteed by European Community.
. In the past it was known as Stracchino di Gorgonzola – Stracchino, name of a soft cheese, from Gorgonzola – produced in Gorgonzola, a town on the outskirts of Milan, or also as Stracchino Verde – Green Stracchino – due to the greenish color of the cheese’s marbling.
. It is produced in between Piedmont and Lombardy Regions, in the North West of Italy. The Province – County – of Novara, in Piedmont Region, is the one with the highest number of cheese farms producing Gorgonzola cheese, with about 65% of the total cheese farms.
. It is produced with raw whole cow’s milk, selected molds and lactic ferments.
. Gorgonzola cheese is creamy and soft and there are two types: the Gorgonzola Dolce type has a particular and characteristic flavor, slightly spicy; the Gorgonzola Piccante type has a more decisive and strong flavor whose texture is more marbled, consistent and crumbly.
. As foreseen by the production disciplinary, Gorgonzola Dolce ages from a minimum of 50 days to a maximum of 150 days; Gorgonzola Piccante ages from a minimum of 80 days to a maximum of 270 days.
It is produced only with milk from stables located in the area of origin of the cheese itself.
. It is considered the king of Italian blue cheeses and about 30% of the production is exported, mostly to France and Germany, but also to North America and to some Asian countries.
. To fully enjoy the creaminess of sweet Gorgonzola, it is best to remove it from the refrigerator at least half an hour before eating.
. The guarantee of authenticity is the “g” brand printed on the background of the foil that wraps the cheese.
Have you ever thought about measurements and conversions? It’s one of the hardest thing for a Cooking Instructor like I am.
I teach Italian cooking and recipes in English aand most of my clients are Americans.
When I teach how to cook a meal, I like to be sure that they can remake,once they are back to the States, what they are learning in the cooking class session.
I tell them about flavors, taste, ingredients, what to substitute them with if they don’t find Italian specialities.
Most of all I make sure to convert all the measurements because they are different.
My question is: WHY do the USA don’t adopt the metrical system as most of the other countries in the world?
What about using a SCALE instead of multiple measurement tools I always forget here and there while in home teaching?
Conversion is absolutely hard, difficult, sometimes almost impossible.
For some recipes I learn it quickly: Pasta recipe is pretty easy with cups and teaspoons, same thing if you are making Tiramisu’.
Sometimes it happens that using different brand of cups, you get different measurements in grams. That messes your recipe but we can try to fix it.
But…… what about BUTTER?
It is usually measured in tablespoons, but it’s really impossible to actually take a tablespoon of butter from a piece of butter. I thought to liquefy it and to measure, but the amount is different from the solid one.
I asked a friend then to buy some american butter for me. I didn’t need it, but I had to have the BOX.
That piece of cardboard, that butter container had to be mine!
MINE!
As there’s a table conversion from TBSPs to GRAMs!
Butter
1 cup
230 g
1 Tablespoon
14,5 g
1 stick = 1/2 cup = 8 Tablespoons
115 g
Well, you could say: Teresa, wake up!! Just google it!!!
Who knows me , knows I’m one of the worst technological person and sometimes what it’s obvious for someone, like for my friends Dianna or my kids, it isn’t for me, at all
I bought this spatula, I bought a scale who automatically converts grams to ounces and fluid onces but, when some one asks me “How many cups?” , I feel like I’m back to school!
They are – this is a plural word in Italian – a traditional type of pasta, typical of Abruzzo Region, where I was born. These are home made by my mom, who still lives with my dad and the rest of the family in Lanciano, in the province of Chieti.
It’s one of her best recipes and I love this soup, even without pasta.
It’s a thick pasta in a sort of rectangular shape , made with Semolina Flour ( Semola di grano duro ) and Water.
Central Italy Pasta dough is different from Northern Italy one, where Eggs and refined flour are used to make pasta from scratch.
Central and South Italy have always been poorer than the North of the country and so the ingredients, typically used in the past century for cooking, are less rich in proteins and nutrients but much more filling.
Sagnette are usually cooked in Winter, with Central Italy Pasta dough is different from Northern Italy one, where Eggs and refined flour are used to make pasta from scratch.
Central and South Italy have always been poorer than the North of the country and so the ingredients, typically used in the past century for cooking, are less rich in proteins and nutrients but much more filling.
Sagnette are usually cooked in Winter, with a Chickpeas or Beans & Tomato Soup.a Chickpeas or Beans & Tomato Soup.
This soup is never served with grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano Cheese or any other kind of cheese and it’s a main course as it contains carbs, of course, and proteins too, coming from the legumes used.
SAGNETTE RECIPE
Ingredients, 4 servings
. 3 cups of Semolina Flour
. 1 and 1/2 cups of water
. 1 and 1/2 tsps of fine seasalt
Put everything in a bowl and mix quickly.
Your dough should be medium soft and not sticking. The amount of flour can lightly change according to the humidity in the flour and in the air. So, if you have a too soft pasta dough, add a teaspoon of flour at the time; if your pasta dough is too hard, dip your fingers in some water and add humidity at the dough, mixing it.
When your dough is ready, the easiest way to make SAGNETTE is to flat it with a pasta machine at number 3 of thickness, cut it in fettuccine shape and then cut again in shorter pieces. Your Sagne are ready to be cooked in salted-like-the-ocean boiling water for few minutes – 4 or 5 – and then added to the Soup.
My mom calls it “the fake sauce” ©
Cook in Italy with Teresa 