Vellutata di zucca e pistacchi

Yes, I believe in simplicity. Cooking is for me a way to enjoy good food, keeping it more natural I can. Even if I don’t like orange -I could never wear something orange- I do love having it in my plate, especially if it is made with pumpkin. 

350 gr Kabocha pumpkin (serving 2 as main dish or 4 as appetizer) 
120 gr Fresh ricotta or feta cheese 
Salted pistachios 
Fresh ginger 
Red chili 
Evo oil 

Grind some salted pistachios and set aside. 

Steam or boil the pumpkin with the rind. Once cooled down, peel it and put into a food processor with some fresh ginger and a bit of red chili.Pour some water to have the desired texture. 

Warm it up and serve in a bowl with some fresh ricotta quenelle or feta cheese and garnish with the ground pistachios and evo oil. 

Orecchiette improvvisate

Flight booked the day before the departure, luggage prepared few hours before landing…here we are, off to Villasimus. 

This is a magic place in which nature rocks: white beaches, light blue sea, blue sky, flamingos, fluo spider and good food in good company. 

Even in Paradise I can’t not cooking so I prepared this fragrant and quick recipe. 

100 gr broccoli (serving 4)
 70 gr Anchovies fillets preserved in evo oil 

150 gr goat ricotta

A clove of garlic

Fresh red chili

Wash the broccoli and cut them into big pieces. Put a saucepan over high heat with water. When It starts to boil, add the broccoli for 10 min then drain the broccoli and save the water to cook the pasta. 

In the meanwhile in a pan, heat up the oil with a clove of garlic, add the broccoli smashed into small pieces and the anchovies and some raisins you had rinsed before in warm water.

Pour 2,3 spoons of the pasta and broccoli water into ricotta to get a cream.

Once the pasta is cooked, mix with the ricotta cream and then toss with the broccoli sauce into the pan. 

Serve with some fresh red chili flakes.

Egg-free ravioli

I hate fresh egg pasta but I did not want to give up on ravioli so enjoy this egg free ravioli recipe.

For the dough

150 gr flour

150 gr hot water

2 sp. oil

Salt

Use a wooden spoon to combine the flour, oil, salt and the water. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 min.

For the stuffing

80gr ricotta

80 gr spicy caciotta or other soft cheese

Put into a blender the ricotta and the caciotta cheese and 1, 2 sp. of hot water to get a smooth cream (add other water if needed) ad set aside.

To form the ravioli, cut te dough into 4 pieces and each into 2. Lightly dust the surface and the rolling pin. Working one piece at time (even f the dough is sticky, try to add just a bit of flour otherwise a big quantity of it could make your ravioli very tough), rolling it into squares. Personally, I prefer a thick dough when the stuffing and the sauce are light and fresh.

Place a teaspoon of stuffing and fold the dough over the filling, press down around  the  edge of each of the ravioli withyour  fingertips to seal. Cut them with a mould, a wheel or a knife. Place the ravioli on a baking tray with some flour.

Cook the ravioli on a large pot of salted water and drain when they float.

Pastiera

This recipe is more than a dessert to me! It's family! I prepared pastiera with my grandma not only for Easter as the tradition says in Naples! She was almost a professional. She prepared lots of pastiera each time. The recipe is a bit hard because the preparation is as long as the cooking time but believe me It's worth it.

FILLING

350 canned presoaked grain + ½ spoon of not milled grain (for a 20 cm round pan)

90 gr milk

25 gr butter

550 gr ricotta

300 gr sugar

4 eggs

2 yolks

Vanilla

Orange blossom water

Cinnamon

Lemon zest

 

PASTRY

400 gr flour

3 eggs

100 sugar

110 butter

FILLING

Begin the day ahead by milling the grain to get a smooth texture than cook the grain, adding just 1 or 2 spoon of not milled grain, with the milk, zest and butter over low heat for 10 min, so that the mixture is dense and creamy.

The day after  strain ricotta and stir in sugar, eggs plus yolks, vanilla, orange blossom water, cinnamon and lemon zest. When the cream is very thin, add the grain cream.

SHORTBREAD PASTRY

Make a mound of flour, scoop a well in the middle, and fill it with butter, sugar and eggs. Use a fork or pastry cutter to combine the ingredients, handling the dough as little as possible (don't knead it). Once you have obtained a uniform dough press it into a ball and preserve covered in the fridge. 

Roll out 2/3 of the pastry dough and line the pan. Fill it with the filling. Next, roll out the remaining dough and cut it into strips, which you will want to lay across the filling in a diagonal pattern.

Preheat the oven to 150 °C and cook for an hour or slightly more. The pastry should be slightly brown and the filling firmed up but still soft and moist.

Serve without removing from the pan with some icing sugar.

Zuppetta di zucca

At the supermarket I saw a big pumpkin and I decided to change it into a wonderful chariot for the palate.

500gr Pumpkin
100gr Ricotta
1 Garlic clove
Ginger
Thyme
Sage leaves
Almonds
White wine
Evo oil
Salt

Put a casserole on the stove with 3 spoon of oil, a big garlic clove, sage leaves and a  sprig of thyme for 4-5 minutes then discard the garlic and the herbs. Toast the almonds in the oven.

Add the pumpkin in pieces when a bit browned, pour a glass of white wine and when reduced,  add 3/4 glasses of water, salt and cook for 1 hour until you'll get a rough cream. 

Serve into a bowl with fresh ricotta and the toasted almonds.

Le mie casarecce

Sometimes you do not have time but in need of good food, sometimes you do not have time but some friends are coming to dinner,  here's the recipe you are looking for.

I tried the combination of these ingredients and I love the fresh, crunchy, sweet, bitter and creamy taste of this recipe that is also very express and easy to prepare. You can serve warm or cold.

180 gr casarecce (serving 2)

6 sundried tomatoes

80 gr ricotta

1 bunch of rocket

chopped almonds

lemon zest

black pepper (possibly the seichuan pepper)

oil
salt

Put the rocket with water and ice in a bowl for 15 min and dry. Let the sundried tomatoes soak in warm water for 15 min until soft and drain. Brown the chopped almonds in a skillet. Mix in a bowl the ricotta with 2,3 tbs of pasta water.

When the pasta is ready, set a skillet over medium-high heat with the sundried tomato in pieces and a tbs of oil (a pinch of salt, If needed), add the pasta and the rocket and fold the ricotta in.

Garnish with the black pepper, the almonds and the lemon zest.



Bucatini profumati

I know that you can be tired when you come back home after work and especially after this long cloudy week but this is a very easy, express and fragrant recipe to start cooking with me so no EXCUSE!

Go to a wonderful farmers' market or to the closest supermarket and be sure to put into your basket (recipe for 2):

 

200 gr bucatini (spaghetti or spaghettoni)

120 gr ricotta

black pepper to grind coarsely (Sichuan pepper would be the best and finest choice)

chives (fresh or dried)

lemon zest

While pasta is cooking, put in a bowl little pieces of chives or the dried ones, ricotta, salt and 8/10 spoon of the pasta cooking water. Mix to have a soft and plain cream.

Drain pasta, turn the stove off and add the cream. Mix, moving your pot from one side to another and from the bottom to the top.

Serve with lemon zest, the black pepper, coarse ground and a drizziling of evo (extra virgin olive oil).