Giardiniera Veloce - Quick Pickles

Ingredients (makes a few jars): 

1000 gr of your favorite vegetables (carrots, cauliflowers, courgettes, peppers and so on) 

500 ml white wine 

500 ml white vinegar
100 ml olive oil
110 gr sugar
60 gr salt

Bay leaves

Rosemary

Black pepper grains

Process 

Choose 1 kg of your favorite veggies and chop them up in small pieces (like half fingers sized)

Pour wine, vinegar, sugar, salt and olive oil in the boiling pan.

Put on a fire and wait until boiling.

Chuck into to boiling liquid the hardest veggies (like carrots and cauliflowers) for 7-8 minutes and drain them. Scatter the veggies on a big plate so they cool down quicker.

Proceed with the other veggies in order of hardness, like red or yellow pepper for example

and finish with something soft like courgettes.

Boil them in order of hardness: 5-6 minutes for medium hardness and 3-4 for soft veggies.

This choice really depends on your taste. If you love the veggies softer than this recipe suggests,

leave them in the boiling water for a couple of minutes more.

When they are done, drain them so they cool down or they will keep on cooking and wait until the liquid has got colder.

Distribute them in jars alternating veggies, bay leaves, rosemary and black pepper.
Close the lids and put them upside down.

They will last a month in an excellent condition, but I guess they won't last so long....

Buon appetito!!

class of 6th July 2014

excellent class very responsive. proud of you. its been a smashing year! thanks everyone

Sbrisolona (or Sbriciolona) on the way

it means crumble, easy. the recipe comes from the city of Mantova, North of Italy and it was first noticed in the 16th Century.
It was called initially "of the three cups" because it contains fairly the same amount of maize (fine), flour and sugar. 

Recipe
.... in due time, as HM the Queen says

Crostata di Ricotta

this lovely recipe comes directly from my father's hands. he makes this Crostata every time a get back to my roots in Monte Argentario. the liqueur is a little secret that my father's been using since he worked as chef on ships


Ingredients (makes one 24cm round crostata plus some extras for biscuits)

350 gr plain flour
150 gr white sugar
80 gr unsalted butter
3 level tsp baking powder
250 gr Italian Ricotta
choc chips
Alchermes liqueur
2 eggs

Process

Turn on the oven on 180C.
In a bowl mix sugar, flour, baking powder, crack the eggs and chop up  the cold butter in little cubes.
For a wonderful pastry the sugar needs to be cold.
With all the ingredients try to make a ball shaped dough, not sticky. If it is sticky, add some flour.

When ready, lay the pastry onto the surface of the tin, 1cm deep.
Lay the dough on the sides.

Then, in a little bowl pour the ricotta and a some choc chips, as many as you wish and a spoonful of sugar.
Mix up everything and spread up around the base of the pastry.
The pink color in the picture is given by a famous Italian liqueur called Alchermes.
Use the left over pastry to do the crossings on the ricotta.
Roll up some pastry and build up bread-stick shaped (half the size of an average bread stick) stripes and lay them up on the Crostata.

The oven should be well hot by now.
Put the Crostata in the oven and wait for 20 minutes at least.
If you like it more brown, leave it in for 10 extra minutes. The Crostata will be more crunchy.
Sprinkle some icing sugar for a professional touch

Tips
As an alternative, you may use jam. Be careful. It should not be too liquid or the base of the Crostata will soak up. And you could also use Nutella
Another alternative is given by using brown sugar instead of white. This is a tremendous version. Very yummy and healthier, as the brown sugar has been processed less in the factories.
Talking about the Alchermes, which is pretty impossible to find in the UK, I suggest to find some colorant in the groceries like Dr Oetker's.

Cantucci

Ingredients

300gr plain flour
250gr almonds with the skin
3 eggs
4gr baking powder
250gr sugar
pinch of salt

Process

Turn on the oven at 175C.
Mix the flour with the raising agent and form a well. Add the sugar, the salt, then crack the eggs and add finally the almonds (you can mix them up with other nuts, like hazelnuts, if you love them).
Mix gently with a spatula, then flour your hands and make the dough into small loaves.
Place the loaves in two baking trays lined with baking paper, give at least 5cm distance between the loaves.
Bake them  for 15 minutes, then let them cool down and cut them diagonally in 1,5cm slices.
Put them back in the oven for 5 minutes, or until golden brown. They will be crunchy when cooled down, but the day after will be perfect.

Focaccia Genovese

Ingredients

500 gr strong white flour
325 gr room temperature water
15 gr fresh yeast
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
rosemary
coarse sea salt

Melt the fresh yeast in the water in a bowl, then chuck the flour into the bowl
Place the water in a large bowl and dissolve the yeast in. Add the flour gradually while mixing it up the water with your hands. Then add the olive oil and the salt to the dough.
When the dough has begun to be workable, place it on a dusted surface and work it out for ten minutes following the these instructions: stretch the dough, fold it and turn it.
Again, stretch the dough, fold it and turn it for 10 minutes then.

Pour some olive oil in the bowl lay the dough in.
Leave it to rest until it doubles (around 90 minutes) in a warm and dry place.

Prepare a 30cm x 20cm tray 2cm deep and brush some olive oil thoroughly the base.
Get back to the dough and put it on the tray. Stretch the dough to the sides of the tray.
Make some holes on the dough with your fingers, like playing the piano.
Generously pour olive oil, water and preferably dry rosemary.

Leave it to rise for 1 hour.
Gently use the fingers to massage the dough making holes and pour some more olive oil

Leave it to rise for 1 hour.
Pre-heat the oven on 220C.
Gently use the fingers to massage the dough making holes and pour some more olive oil
Add at this stage coarse sea salt thoroughly the surface.

Leave in the oven for 20 minutes or until it is the shade of brown color you love.
Turn the focaccia over around the middle of the cooking time.

When ready, turn off the oven and put the focaccia on the middle rack of the oven so the base will be crunchy for 5 minutes.
The focaccia is ready!!

Note
Across the cookery course we tried the focaccia with a brown color.
For the soft version, reduce the cooking time by 5 minutes.
The focaccia will result soft but crunchy.

Note for chef machine or mixer
Melt the yeast in the water in a bowl and pour it into the mixing bowl.
Add the flour and olive oil.
You can switch on the mixer now at a slow speed and keep mixing for 5-8 minutes
After a few minutes add salt.
When finished, as above, put the dough in a oiled bowl and wait until doubled

Gnocchi di Patate

Ingredients for 6 people:
1 kg (2lbs) floury/starchy potatoes like Desiree or King Edward
300 gr of plain flour plus some for dusting
Pinch of salt

Process
Steam the potatoes with their skins until they are very soft. As soon as you can hold them, peel them
and puree’ them through a potato ricer straight on to your work surface, dusted with flour. Don’t
use a food processor because they will be too gluey and unusable.
Wait until they cool down a bit, then add three quarters of the flour and a pinch of salt. Try a little
chunk of dough and add salt if necessary. Knead to a soft, smooth and not very sticky dough. Add
more flour, if necessary, but the less flour you add, the tastier the gnocchi will be.
Roll pieces of dough into thin cylindrical shaped dough and cut them into slices about 3 cm long
(cushion-shaped).
Lightly press each gnocco against the tines of a fork and then place them on a clean tea towel,
dusted with flour.
Get a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Drop the gnocchi, few at a time, in the water and
wait for them to rise to the surface. Now they are ready. Collect them with a slotted spoon and put
them in a dish. No other work on them is needed.
In a frying pan, put abundant butter, ideally clarified so it can hold higher temperature, and fresh
sage.
Pour the sauce over the gnocchi and sprinkle Parmesan or salty ricotta generously on the gnocchi.
Buon appetito!

Note
The proportion between flour and potato might change depending on the quantity of starch in the
potatoes. Even if they are starchy, every harvest is different. So the proportion 1000/300 of the
recipe is only for reference. The dough needs to be soft but not sticky. It only takes practice to grasp
the right softness. Most importantly, have the gnocchi straight away or freeze them.

Giorgio Locatelli

Giorgio Locatelli
most talented Italian Chef in London


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Adelaide Street,Norwich,United Kingdom

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Ingredients for 6 people:
200gr Pancetta or Cured Bacon
1 medium onion
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Coarsed black pepper
600gr Durum Wheat Spaghetti
3 eggs

Process
Chop the onion in small pieces and chuck it into a large pan, add the olive oil.
Put the pan on a medium fire until the onion is a golden brown colour.
In the meantime prepare a large saucepan with water and wait until it’s boiling then add 2
teaspoons of salt.
Allow 100gr or Spaghetti per person and chuck them into the boiling water. Stir them up for the first
two minutes so the Pasta does not stick together. You can also use other long shaped pasta like
Linguine.
Crack up the eggs and beat them.
Following the cooking time of your favourite Pasta, drain them two minutes before the cooking time
required and chuck them into the pan with the sauce that had been warmed up a minute or so
earlier.
Mix the Spaghetti with the Sauce, add some olive oil if too dry.
Move the pan from the fire and now add the beaten eggs. Now Spaghetti and Sauce are warm
enough to slowly and gently cook the eggs. Sprinkle with Parmesan or Salty ricotta or Pecorino
cheese.
Share with the others and sprinkle up with some black pepper.

Class of the 18th May 2014

Lovely class, full of Jills, if you know what I mean....
here the guys and the lady dealing with the Crostata with Ricotta

by the way, lovely shorts Tony!!