Lasagna alla Siciliana - Primo

Italian Food.

This recipe is prepared with traditional vegetables of Sicily, the eggplants, and with a tomato sauce of minced meat of veal and peas and the addition of ham and sweet Sicilian pecorino cheese. You can prepare it with lasagna bought or you can decide to make home-made lasgana, here I show the easy recipe to prepare the home-made lasagna with the help of a pasta machine but in the case you don’t have it you can also use a simply rolling pin, the result will be the same.




INGREDIENTS (for 8 people):
1 / 2 Onion
200 g of Minced meat of veal
200 g of Peas
1,5 L of Tomato sauce
4 Round Eggplants
200 g of Sweet Pecorino cheese
200 g of ham
150 g of Parmesan
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil for fry the eggplants

INGREDIENTS FOR LASAGNA PASTA
400 g of Flour
4 Eggs
Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Santa Margherita di Belice bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of the lasagna pasta: put in a bowl the flour, a pinch of salt and the eggs.

Lasagna alla Siciliana
Mix all the ingredients and knead the dough until it becomes homogeneous. Let the dough stand for about 20 – 30 minutes so it becomes more soft. After this time start to roll out the dough, you can do this with the help of a rolling pin or more easily with the help of a pasta machine. Here I use the pasta machine.

Lasagna alla Siciliana
Start roll out the dough from the biggest thickness of the machine then little by little reduce it until you obtain a pastry of about 2 – 3 mm of thickness.

Lasagna alla Siciliana

Lasagna alla Siciliana
Cut the pastry in rectangular pieces with about dimension of 15 cm x 10 cm.

Lasagna alla Siciliana
Now start with the preparation of the sauce for lasagna: preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, cut the onion in slices and let them cook for 3 – 5 minutes in the hot oil to make it tasteful.

Lasagna alla Siciliana
When the onion becomes golden remove it from the oil and add the minced meat of veal. Let it cook for 5 - 8 minutes until it becomes slightly golden,

Lasagna alla Siciliana
then add fresh peas and continue the cooking for other 5 – 8 minutes.

Lasagna alla Siciliana
Now add the tomato sauce and let the all sauce cook for about 30 – 40 minutes.

Lasagna alla Siciliana

Lasagna alla Siciliana
In the meantime prepare the other ingredients: eggplants, ham and cheese.
Cut the eggplants in slices

Lasagna alla Siciliana
and fry them in hot extra virgin olive oil until they become slightly golden.

Lasagna alla Siciliana
When they are cooked put them in a dish covered with kitchen paper in order to remove the excess of oil.
Cut the ham in slices and the cheese in small cubes.
Now you can prepare the lasagna: cover the bottom of a rectangular baking pan with the sauce of meat and peas, put over it lasagna,

Lasagna alla Siciliana
pour on it the sauce, make a layer with the fried eggplants, another with the slices of ham and the cubes of cheese

Lasagna alla Siciliana
and sprinkle with some parmesan, re-put another layer of lasagna pasta and continue in this way until the pan in full.

Lasagna alla Siciliana
Bake at 180°C and cook for about 30 minutes until the surface becomes golden.
Serve hot.
This is the result:
Lasagna alla Siciliana
BUON APPETTITO!

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish

Italian Food.

This is the recipe of an Italian first course prepared with cherry tomatoes, eggplant and swordfish. The preparation is easy and quite fast: first you have to prepare a simple chopped of garlic and parsley, then you can prepare the cherry tomatoes, the eggplant and the swordfish cutting them in small square pieces. When the chopped is ready, put it in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, add to it the cherry tomatoes then the swordfish and separately fry the pieces of eggplant. When fusilli are ready pour on them all the ingredients and the dish is ready. BUON APPETITO!
Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
1 Clove of garlic
30 g of Parsley
20 Cherry tomatoes
1 Eggplant
150 g of swordfish in 1 slice
320 g of pasta type fusilli
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Golfo del Tigullio Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for fusilli. Preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, prepare a chopped of garlic and parsley, add it to the pan and let it cook for 3 – 5 minutes.

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish
In the meantime prepare the cherry tomatoes, the eggplant and the swordfish.
Cut the cherry tomatoes in half or in quarter, add them to the pan with the chopped and let them cook for about 10 minutes.

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish
Peel the eggplant and cut it in small square pieces, let them fry in a pan with hot oil and when they are cooked place them in a dish covered with a kitchen paper in order to remove the excess of oil.

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish
Cut also the swordfish in square pieces and when the cherry tomatoes are ready add them to the pan and let them cook for other 5 – 10 minutes.

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish
In the meantime if the salted water boil add the pasta and cook it for the time indicated on the packaging. When pasta is cooked, before drain it, take some spoons of cooking water and add them to the sauce of cherry tomatoes and swordfish.

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish
Now drain the fusilli, add them to the mixture together with the fried pieces of eggplant,

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish
mix all together and serve hot.

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish
This is the result:

Fusilli with Sauce of Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant and Swordfish

BUON APPETITO!

Small Pies with Ricotta and Spinach - Appetizer

Italian Food.

This is an easy and good Italian recipe suitable as a delicious appetizer. You can prepare small pies filled with ricotta cheese and spinach personalized for each of your hosts. It is very simple to prepare them if you use a flaky pastry ready otherwise you will need much more time if you want to prepare a homemade flaky pastry. Also the personalization of the small pies is easy you only need a little bit of creative skill to make the decoration. At the end for the preparation of the filling you have only to boil the spinach, put the others ingredients all together, mix and fill the pastry with this mixture, only 15 minutes in the oven and the appetizer is ready to eat.

INGREDIENTS (for 7 - 9 people):
Flaky pastry
200g Ricotta cheese
200g of Spinach
1 Mozzarella cheese
1 Egg
Parmesan
Salt
Black pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Valpolcèvera Rosato Doc (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Roll out the flaky pastry with the help of rolling pin. Cut it with a cutter-shape or with a glass in order to obtain small piece of flaky pastry with a particular shape.

Small Pies with Ricotta and Spinach

Clean the spinach and let them cook in a pan with salted water for about 10 – 15 minutes. Then drain them and let them cool. Put in a bowl the ricotta cheese, add the spinach, the egg, the Parmesan and the mozzarella cut before in small cubes.

Small Pies with Ricotta and Spinach

Put the pieces of flaky pastry in a pan like this shown in the picture below,

Small Pies with Ricotta and Spinach,

make some small holes with a fork on the surface of the pastry and fill them with the mixture of spinach and ricotta cheese.
If you have some flaky pastry left over use it to make some decoration.

Small Pies with Ricotta and Spinach

Preheat the oven at 180°C, bake the small pie in the oven for 15 minutes until the surface becomes slightly golden.
This is the result:
Small Pies with Ricotta and Spinach

BUON APPETITO!

Chicken Breast with Carrots, Celery and Onion

Italian Food

This is the Italian recipe of a delicious hot salad. To prepare it you need only carrots, celery and onion and the main ingredient that is the chicken breast. The preparation is so easy that you’ll need only few minutes: first you prepare all the ingredients, you clean them and cut them, then you put all the ingredient in a pan with some extra virgin olive oil and let them cook. When they are ready you add some almond to let the recipe crunchier and you serve hot.
Chicken Breast with Carrots Celery and Onion
INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
2 Carrots
2 Celeries
1 Small Onion
40 g of Almond without peel
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
300 g of Chicken breast

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes

COOKIN TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Colline Novaresi Nebbiolo Doc (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of the all ingredients: clean and peel the carrots, the celery and the onion and cut them in long slices.

Chicken Breast with Carrots Celery and Onion
Cut the chicken breast in square pieces of medium dimension as shown in the picture below.

Chicken Breast with Carrots Celery and Onion
Preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, when the oil is hot, add the vegetables and let them cook for about 5 minutes.

Chicken Breast with Carrots Celery and Onion
Then add the chicken breast and let them golden.

Chicken Breast with Carrots Celery and Onion
Add the almond

Chicken Breast with Carrots Celery and Onion
and continue the cooking with a cover for about 10 – 15 minutes until the meat is good cooked.
Serve hot.
This is the result:
Chicken Breast with Carrots Celery and Onion

BUON APPETITO!

Risotto with Bluberry and Speck

Italian Food.

To prepare this risotto you just need the two main ingredients: speck and blueberry, and then you can prepare very easly and fast a delicious italian recipes. If you don't have a lot of time you can just prepare the broth with water and stock cube vegetables but if you want to prepare the real italian recipes you should prepare broth with water, salt, and fresh vegetables like onion, carrot, potatoes and celery. The blueberries give to risotto a sweet taste that in this Itlain recipes is joined with the salted and savoury taste of speck.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 peolpe):
350 g of Rice
150 g of Blueberry
150 g of Speck in thin slices
30 g of Butter
1 / 2 Onion
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Water for broth
1 Stock cube-vegetables

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 18-20 minutes

WINE: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Cerasuolo Doc (Red WIne)

PREPARATION

Start preparing the hot broth: you can easly and rapidly prepare it in a pan with water and the stock-cube vegetables, or you can boil water with carrots, celery, onion and potatoes but this take a bit more of time.

Then wash and cut in half the blueberry.


Chop the onion and put it in a pan with butter and let it cook until it comes golden.

Add the rice and let it roast for some minutes and then add spoon by spoon the hot broth.

Stir the rice time by time and let it cook for about 15 minutes, some minutes before the cooking ends, add the blueberry and stir.

BUON APPETITO!


Cover the bottom of a bwol with speck.

When the rice is ready pour it on the speck like show in the picture below.

In this way the speck will warm and let the rice more tasty. Serve hot.

Ravioli with Salmon - Primo

Italian Food

This is a very easy recipe to prepare. You don’t need many ingredients, just the dough for ravioli and the filling that is made of potatoes and smoked salmon, a very good combination of taste. The preparation of the dressing is also very simple and fast, you just need to melt some butter and add some black pepper. The only thing that is a bit long to do is the preparation of the dough for ravioli but it is also very easy and funny. You can safe some time using the machine for roll the dough instead of using the rolling pin. In both case you will obtain very delicious Italian ravioli with smoked salmon and potatoes.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
300g of Flour
3 Eggs
Salt
2 Potatoes
200g of Smoked Salmon
40 g of butter
Black pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour

COOKING TIME: 10 minutes

WINE: Cortona Sauvignon Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Mix flour with eggs and a bit of salt until you will obtain a homogeneous dough.

Then lei it stand for 30 minutes, in the meantime prepare the filling. Boil two potatoes and when they are cooked smash it. Cut the smoked salmon in little pieces and mix it with the smashed potatoes.

It’s time now to stand the dough so, roll out the dough, you can do this with the help of a rolling pin or more easily with the help of a pasta machine. Here I use the pasta machine. Start roll out the dough from the biggest thickness of the machine then little by little reduce it until you obtain a pastry of about 2 – 3 mm of thickness. Cut the pastry in long rectangular pieces like shown in the picture. Put in the middle of the pastry the filling and cover it with the rest of the pastry.

Now cut with the help of a star-shape ravioli, put them on a tray with a bit of flour (in order to not them attach each others).

Let the salted water boil for ravioli and cooked them in it for about 10 minutes. Prepare the dressing for ravioli with melted butter and black pepper.

When ravioli are cooked put on them the melted butter and serve hot.

BUON APPETITO!

Mixed Vegetable Pickle / Heftebecer Turshusu

AZERBAIJAN FOOD.

We are going to do some canning today. In Azerbaijan, canning is a sort of culinary tradition. Jars with homemade preserves, jams, pickles, relishes, sauces can be found in almost every household. They are usually prepared in summer when fruits and vegetables are in abundance and consumed in winter when they are in high demand:)

Pickles make a perfect accompaniment to meat dishes, to kebabs, and to what we call call “dough dishes”, or pasta. Pickled stuffed eggplant and bell pepper, pickled garlic, green tomato, pickled sour plums, are among the most popular. I remember as a kid I would make my own jar of pickles with purslane (perpetoyun in Azeri). I think I was about 9 0r 10. We used to live in a house with a small front yard, and wild purslane would grow there. I would pick it and pack it in a small jar, fill it up with vinegar and then a week later tell the world about how delicious my pickles were! It was quite an adventure. Now back to reality.

I like this mixed vegetable pickle, called Heftebejer in Azeri. The recipe is easy. The only “difficult” part is chopping the vegetables, but it doesn’t take that long. Store this pickle in an air-seal glass jar, known as fido jar (See picture at the end), for your convenience. Scoop out as much as you want with your food and snap the seal back tightly to keep the pickle fresh until next time. Now, roll up your sleeves, let’s can! And here’s my new abbreviation - YCC which stands for YOU CAN CAN!!:)

MIXED VEGETABLE PICKLE / HEFTEBECER TURSHUSU

Preparation time: 45 minutes
Curing Time: 1 week
Makes: 2-liter jar

INGREDIENTS

2 medium or 1 large eggplant (about 1 pounds / 450g), chopped in cubes
1 medium cabbage, quartered and thinly sliced (about 2 pounds / 900g)
2 bell peppers, chopped (1/2 pounds / 225 g)
1 chili pepper, chopped (optional, for spicier pickles)
4 medium green tomatoes (about 1pound / 450 g), chopped
4 medium carrots (about 1 pound / 450 g), shredded
1 stalk celery, trimmed and chopped
1 bulb garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup fresh chopped mint
1 cup fresh chopped parsley
4 tablespoons salt
1/3 quart (300 ml / 1/3 liter) or more white wine (grape) vinegar

TIP: To save time, prepare the eggplant first. While its bitterness is being removed, chop other vegetables. Eggplant should be ready when you finish chopping the other ingredients.

1. Place the chopped eggplant in a colander and sprinkle with plenty of salt. Put colander in a sink. Place a weight, such a plate or lid, on top, to keep the eggplant lightly pressed down. Leave for about 20 minute, to draw out the bitter dark juices. Rinse the eggplant under cold running water. Drain, and squeeze dry with your hands.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine vegetables and herbs together. Add salt and mix thoroughly with your hands. Set aside for 20 minutes to allow the juices to extract. You will notice the vegetables shrink in bulk.

3. Sterilize a canning jar in boiling water and dry thoroughly.

4. Squeeze the vegetable mixture with your hands to drain the juices and place it in the jar, pressing with your hands to pack tightly. Pour in the vinegar to cover the vegetables.

5. Seal the jar and store in a cool place for 1 week before serving to allow the flavors to develop.

NUSH OLSUN! ENJOY!