Small Balls of Aubergines - Appetizer

Italian Food.

Small balls of aubergines can be served as an Italian appetizer, they are simple and fast to prepare and do you need only few Italian ingredients to prepare it: the main ingredient of this delicious Italian recipe is round aubergines that they are more sweet than the long ones, parsley and Parmesan. The preparation is simple because you should only make a puree of aubergines and mix it with the other ingredients, make small ball and fry them and so the appetizer is ready!

INGREDIENTS (for 4 – 6 people):
3 Round Aubergines
1 Egg
40 g of Parmesan
30 g of Parsley
1 Clove of garlic
Breadcrumbs
Oil for fry
Salt
Black pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Sambuca di Sicilia bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Small Balls of Aubergines
Clean and peel the aubergines, cut them in squared pieces, place them in a pan with water and let them boil for about 15 minutes.

Small Balls of Aubergines
When they are ready drain them, place them in a bowl and with a fork squash them in order to obtain a puree of aubergines.

Small Balls of Aubergines
Let them cool and in them mean time prepare a chopped of parsley and garlic, add it to the puree of aubergines together with the Parmesan and the egg.

Small Balls of Aubergines
Mix all together and add if the mixture is to soft add some breadcrumbs, sprinkle with salt and black pepper
Small Balls of Aubergines
and with the hand make small balls with the mixture like these in the picture below.

Small Balls of Aubergines
Preheat enough oil in a pan, when it is hot fry in it the small balls of aubergines, cook them until the surface become slightly golden.

Small Balls of Aubergines
When they are ready leave them dry from the oil and serve. This is the result:

Small Balls of Aubergines

BUON APPETITO!

Tortiglioni with 4 Cheeses - Primo

Italian Food.

This is a simple and fast Italian first course to prepare: you should have in your fridge only some delicious Italian cheese and some milk. To make the cheese sauce you can use any kind of Italian cheese except mozzarella because it is a thready cheese and for this reason it is not ideal to make a sauce, in order to obtain the best result you should melt the pieces of the 4 cheeses that you have choose in some milk and simply sprinkle with some black pepper! The Italian cheeses that I choose for this recipe are: Gorgonzola, a typical Italian blue cheese from Piedmont and Lombardy, Toma, an Italian semi-hard cheese typical of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, Casera, a typical cheese of Valtellina and Parmesan.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
320 g of Pasta type “Tortiglioni”
1 Glass of milk
30 g of Gorgonzola cut in pieces
30 g of Toma cut in pieces
30 g Casera cut in pieces
30 g of grated Parmesan
Black pepper
Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Dolcetto d'Ovada Doc (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for pasta. In the meantime prepare the sauce of cheese: place in a pan the milk and the cheeses, let them melt

Tortiglioni with 4 Cheeses
and then sprinkle with some black pepper.

Tortiglioni with 4 Cheeses
When the water boils add the pasta and let it cook as indicated on the packaging, then drain them and pour on it the cheeses sauce.

Tortiglioni with 4 Cheeses
Serve hot and if you want sprinkled on some other Parmesan.
This is the result:
Tortiglioni with 4 Cheeses

BUON APPETITO!

Orecchiette with Asparagus - Primo

Italian Food.

Asparagus are vegetable typical of the spring and summer period in particular from April to June, they are vegetables ideal for the preparation of any kind of Italian recipes. Typically they are used to prepare risotto but very good are also first courses with pasta like the Italian recipes presented below or also second courses and appetizers. Here I prepare a first course made with fresh orecchiette, that is a typical type of pasta from Puglia, seasoned with a sauce of asparagus, cream and walnuts. The preparation of this recipe is simple and fast because the asparagus are an Italian food that need a short time of cooking, indeed only 10 minutes are sufficient in order to make a puree of asparagus, then to obtain the delicious sauce of this recipe it’s sufficient to add some cream and walnuts and so the seasoning is ready. The presence of walnuts give to the sauce a crunch consistency that is well matches with the soft consistency of the puree of asparagus.


INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
400 of Orecchiette
400 g of Asparagus
30 g of Walnuts crumbled
250 ml of Cream
1 Clove of garlic
Salt
Black Pepper
Marjoram
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Friuli Annia Pinot bianco (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for orecchiette. Wash the asparagus and remove the hardest and woody part of the asparagus’s stem. Now preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan with the clove of garlic and let it brown, in the meantime cut the stems of the asparagus in small discs maintaining the tender head entire
Orecchiette with Asparagus
and add them to the pan, add 1 glass of water and let them cook for about 10 minutes.
Orecchiette with Asparagus
Orecchiette with Asparagus
When the asparagus are cooked, remove from them the best head, that you'll use for the decoration of the dish and place the others in a mixer in order to obtain a sort of puree of asparagus. Re-place the mousse of asparagus in the same pan, add the walnuts, the cream
Orecchiette with Asparagus
and sprinkle with salt, black pepper and marjoram,
Orecchiette with Asparagus
mix all together and the sauce is ready. When water boils add the orecchiette and cooked them for the time indicated on the packaging, when they are cooked, drain them and add them to the sauce, mix, garnish each dish with the the entire head of the asparagus and serve hot.
This is the result:
Orecchiette with Asparagus

BUON APPETITO!

Penne with Eggplants, Mozzarella and Tomato Sauce - Primo

Italian Food.

Eggplants, tomato puree, mozzarella, basil, minced meat and Parmesan: these are the main Italian ingredients that I use to prepare this delicious Italian pasta-based first course. Its preparation is easy: first you should prepare the ingredients separately in this way, you should cut the mozzarella, cook the tomato puree with minced meat and basil, cook the pasta type penne and fry the eggplants then you should simply mix all the ingredients together. This Italian recipe seems to suggest another traditional Italian recipe typical of Sicily that is the famous “Pasta alla Norma” but these two recipes are different. In the next recipes I show you the typical preparation also of this.
INGREDIETNS (for 4 people):
350 g of Pasta type penne
800 ml of Tomato puree
2 Eggplants
Oil to fry the eggplants
50 g of Minced meat of veal
1 / 2 of Onion
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 – 4 leafs of basil
150 g of Mozzarella
Salt
Parmesan

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 1 hour

WINE: Sambuca di Sicilia bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let the salted water boil for pasta. Preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, cut the onion in slices add them to the oil and let it brown on a low flame in order to not burn them.
Penne eggplant, mozzarella and tomato sauce
Then remove it, add the minced meat and let it brown,

Penne eggplant, mozzarella and tomato sauce
add the tomato puree and the basil, mix all together and let it cook for about 30 minutes.

Penne eggplant, mozzarella and tomato sauce
In the meantime prepare the eggplants, clean them, cut them as matches and fry them in a pan with hot oil.

Penne eggplant, mozzarella and tomato sauce
When eggplants are cooked, place them over a sheet of kitchen paper in order to remove the oil in excess

Penne eggplant, mozzarella and tomato sauce
and prepare the mozzarella cutting it in cubes.

Penne eggplant, mozzarella and tomato sauce
When water boils, place in it the pasta and cook it for the time indicating on the packaging, then drain them. Re-place in the same pan a part of pasta, pour on it some sauce, a part of eggplant and a part of mozzarella, sprinkle with some Parmesan and mix all together;

Penne eggplant, mozzarella and tomato sauce
continue in this way until pasta finish and at the end mix all together.
Serve hot. This is the result:
Penne eggplant, mozzarella and tomato sauce

BUON APPETITO!

Lasagna with Asparagus - Primo

Italian Food.

This Italian recipe is prepared with typical vegetables of the summer period: the asparagus. With them and crescenza, that is a kind of soft cheese typical of Lombardo, you can prepare delicious summer lasagna. The preparation of this Italian recipe is quite simple: you should to prepare a mixture of crumbled bread and walnuts, a mixture of milk, crescenza, Parmesan and béchamel, lasagna and the asparagus cut in thin slices lengthwise. When all these things are ready you should to make layers of them in a baking pan, bake for about 30 minutes and the lasagna is ready. In this recipe the soft consistency of the mixture of crescenza and béchamel is well accompanied with the crunchy consistency of the mixture of bread and walnuts. BUON APPETITO!


INGREDIENTS (for 4 - 6 people):
400 g of Asparagus
1 Roll
30 g of Walnuts
50 ml of Milk
400 g of Crescenza (kind of soft cheese typical of Lombardo)
40 g of Parmesan
350 g of Lasagne
500 ml of Béchamel

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Friuli Annia Pinot bianco (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water, with a drizzle of oil, boil for lasagne; the presence of oil in the water is necessary so the lasagne don’t stick between them.

Lasagna with Asparagus
When water boils add in it 10 lasagne at a time and cook them for 3 – 4 minutes, drain them with the help of a skimmer paying attention to not break them, and place them on a table in order to let them cool.

Lasagna with Asparagus
Then clean the asparagus and remove the hardest part of the stem, place them in high pan with water and after water boils cooked them for about 10 minutes. It is important that the asparagus remain in vertical position in the pan so that their head is out of water and cook with vapour.

Lasagna with Asparagus
When the asparagus are cooked drain them paying attention to not break their head, let them cool and cut them in thin slice lengthwise. In the meantime prepare the bread and the walnuts, crumble them and put them together in a bowl.
Lasagna with Asparagus
Lasagna with Asparagus
In another bowl mix together the milk, the crescenza and the Parmesan.
Lasagna with Asparagus
Now prepare the béchamel looking the instructions presented here, when the béchamel is ready, mix them with mixture of crescenza, and now begin to prepare the lasagna.
Lasagna with Asparagus
Pre heat the oven to 200°C. Cover with a sheet of baking paper a squared baking pan, place on it some mixture of béchamel and crescenza, a first layer of pasta, a layer of asparagus
Lasagna with Asparagus
and a little of the mixture of bread and walnuts, continue in this way until the pan is full.

Lasagna with Asparagus
Bake the pan for about 30 minutes and cook lasagna until the surface become golden. Serve hot.
This is the result:
Lasagna with Asparagus

BUON APPETITO!

Broad Beans with Eggs and Cream - Second Course

Italian Food.

This is an Italian recipes prepare with another typical vegetables of the summer period: the broad beans. Broad beans are an Italian ingredient ideal to prepare many different type of Italian recipes, they can be served simply raw with a drizzle of oil, some black pepper, and the Italian cheese called Caciocavallo that has a spicy taste ideal with the sweet taste of broad beans, or they can be used for delicious side dish or first course. Here I prepare a delicious side dish simply with broad beans, eggs and cream. The preparation time of this recipe is a bit long because, if you use fresh broad beans, you have to clean them one by one, but the cooking time is very short. To reduce the time you can use broad beans already clean, the most important thing in order to obtain an excellent result is to use fresh broad beans.


INGREDIENTS (for 4 – 6 people):
500 g of Broad beans
60 g of Butter
2 Eggs
125 ml of Cream
PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Castel del Monte bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Prepare the broad beans in this way: remove them from the pod and then remove also the thin skin that covers each broad bean.
Broad Beans with Eggs and Cream
Preheat a pan with 30 g of butter, add in it the broad beans and let them cook for about 10 – 15 minutes.
Broad Beans with Eggs and Cream
The broad beans are tender legumes that for this reason they don’t need to be cooked for long time, indeed you can eat them also raw. In the meantime mix in a dish the eggs with the cream,
Broad Beans with Eggs and Cream
in another pan melt the rest off the butter,
Broad Beans with Eggs and Cream
add the mixture of eggs and cream, sprinkle with salt and pepper and let it cook for some minutes.
Broad Beans with Eggs and Cream
When the broad beans are ready place them in a platter, pour on them the mixture of eggs and cream and mix all together. You can serve this Italian recipe hot or slightly cold.
This is the result:
Broad Beans with Eggs and Cream

BUON APPETITO!

Farinata of Chickpea - Secondo

Italian Food.

chickpea is a thin pie simply prepared with flour of chickpea, water, extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, salt and black pepper, its preparation and cooking is simple and fast. This is an Italian recipe traditional of Liguria, in particular of Genova, Savona and La Spezia. It can be used instead of bread but also as a second course indeed there are different types of Farinata: farinata with Stracchino that is a soft fresh cheese produced in Lombardy, farinata with sausage or farinata with artichokes. I eat farinata for the first time in La Spezia during my summer holyday last year and now that is summer I decide to try to prepare it at home. The preparation is simple and fast and the result is delicious.

INGREDIENTS (for 6 – 8 people):
500 g of chickpea flour
1,5 L of water
5 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 branch of rosemary
Salt
Black pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour and 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Golfo del Tigullio Bianco DOC (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Place the chickpea in a bowl, add little by little the water and stir in order to not make lumps.
Farinata
Add the rosemary, some salt and the extra virgin olive oil,
Farinata
Farinata
mix all together and let the mixture stand for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Then cover the bottom of a large baking pan with a sheet of baking paper. Pour on it the mixture of chickpea making a thin layer of 1 cm of thickness
Farinata
and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the surface of Farinata becomes slightly golden.
Farinata
Serve it hot accompanied with some slices of ham and some salad.
This is the result:
Farinata

BUON APPETITO!