Pasta with Speck and Leek

This Italian recipes is basically made with ingredient more suitable for autumn period, indeed in order to prepare it we need flour of chestnut, leek and speck but it’s one of the autumnal recipes that I also like to prepare for a summer fresh dinner because its taste is fresh and it is note an heavy meal. To obtain a delicious result you can use a typical Italian speck in particular that one coming from Trentino or Alto Adige in the northern part of Italy. It’s a delicious recipe that takes you only half an hour to prepare even if you have to make the pasta, that I called quadretti because it has the shape of small squares, by your hands. To prepare “quadretti” you have just to mix the flour, the chestnut’s flour, eggs and salt until you obtain an homogeneous dough, roll out the dough and cut in small squares: this take only 10 minutes. After this let the salted water boil and prepare the dressing: this will take other 10-15 minutes. The “quadretti” pasta need only few minutes to be cooked and recipe is ready.


INGREDIENTS (for 2 people):
2 Eggs
150g or 1 cup of Flour
150g or 1 cup of Chestnut Flour
1 Leek
50 g of half cup Speck in cubes
Extravirgin olive oil
Black Pepper
Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Trentino Sauvignon (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Mix in a bowl the flour, the chestnut flour, the eggs and a little bit of salt.



Mix all the ingredients in order to obtain homogeneous dough. Let the dough stand for 10 minutes. Let the salted water boil for pasta. In the meantime start preparing the dressing: place the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, clean and wash the leek, cut it in thin slices, add it to the pan and let it brown



then add the cubes of speck and let it cook for about 5-8 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.



Put a lot of flour on a table in order to not let the pastry attached to the surface. With the help of a rolling pin roll out the dough to obtain a thin square pastry like this shown in the picture below



and cut it in irregular square pieces.



When the water boils, add the pasta and after some minutes when it rise on the surface it is ready.



Drain the pasta, add it to the pan where is the dressing,



mix all together and serve hot.



BUON APPETITO!

Tocchetti Dumplings with Asiago Cheese

If you want to eat Italian dumplings (gnocchi) but not the classical one, just made with potatoes, but something a little bit different with the taste of chestnut this is the perfect recipe.

I called this type of Italian dumplings Tocchetti because they don't have the classical shape of traditional Italin dumplings that are made with a fork but they are simply pieces of dough with square shape. These types of dumplings are made with chestnut’s flour, potatoes and pumpkin and the seasoning is made with the Italian cheese Asiago. The Italian cheese Asiago is produced in the town of Asiago and there are two types according to its aging: the fresh one that is smooth and the crumbly one for the aged cheese of which the flavour is reminiscent of Parmesan. In this recipe I used the fresh one for its sweet taste and its smooth consistency.

INGREDIENTS:
1 kg of Potatoes
300 g of Flour
200 g of Chestnut’s Flour
200 of Pumpkin in pieces
1 Egg
Breadcrumbs
150 g of Asiago Cheese cut in pieces
40g of Butter
Leaf of Sage

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15-18 minutes

WINE: Novello (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Boiled the potatoes with peel



and cook the pieces of pumpkin in a pan with two spoons of extra virgin olive oil.



When the potatoes are cooked, peel and mash them in a bowl together with the pieces of pumpkin.



Put on the table the mixture of potatoes and pumpkin together with the flour, the chestnut’s flour and the egg



and begin to knead until you obtain homogeneous and soft dough, this take about 8 – 10 minutes, if the dough is too soft you can add a little bit of breadcrumbs.





Divide the dough in parts and roll each one in order to obtain a sort of longs sausages thick as a finger. Pay attention to have always enough flour on the worktable in order to not attach the dough to it.



Cut each long sausage in small pieces of 1 cm length that we can call “tocchetti”. Sprinkle tocchetti with flour and place them on a tray.




Let salted water boiled, put on it tocchetti and cooked them until they come on the surface. In the meantime prepare the seasoning, put in a pan the butter with the leaf of sage,




when tocchetti are cooked drain them and put them in the pan with butter and sage, add the Asiago cheese and let it melted.



Serve hot.



BUON APPETITO!

Castagnaccio

Castagnaccio is a traditional Italian dessert particularly in Tuscany where it is also called baldino or pattona, it is a strange Italian dish but it is simple and fast to prepare. The main ingredients that you need to prepare it are: flour of chestnuts, water, pine kernels, sugar and extra virgin olive oil. In some case you can find also recipes enrich with walnuts, raisins and rosemary. Castagnaccio traditionally should be cooked in a baking pan of copper tinned and might be prepared with sweet flour of chestnuts that is produced as from November, if you want you can also change the water with milk in order to obtain a sweeter tart. According to the tradition the use of rosemary is linked to a love legend: the rosemary use to flavour castagnaccio was a sort of love elixir so that who eats castagnaccio falls in love with the girl that offers him castagnaccio.

INGREDIENTS (for 8 people):
400 g of Flour of Chestnuts
50 g of Sugar
400 ml of Water
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
50 g of Pine kernel
20 g of Butter

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Aleatico dell’Alba

PREPARATION
Place the flour of chestnuts and the sugar in a bowl add the extra virgin olive oil

and mix, then add the water little by little and in the same time stir the mixture in order to not make lumps.

Now add the pine kernel, butter and flour a baking pan of 22 cm of diameter, pour in it the mixture

and bake at 180°C for 30 minutes or until the surface present crack and the pine kernels become golden.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

Chestnuts Tagliatelle

The chestnuts are typical fruit of the autumnal and winter period in Italy. You can eat them boiled or roasted but you can also use them to prepare delicious appetizer, first course, second course or dessert. In particular the chestnuts flour is ideal for dessert and first course. In the following recipe chestnut flour is used to prepare tagliatelle (noodles). In this recipe chestnuts tagliatelle are seasoned with a sauce of walnuts, chestnuts, pine kernels and cream. It’s very good!








INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
150 g or Flour
200 g of Chestnuts flour
2 Eggs
10 Walnuts
8-10 Chestnuts
20 g of Pine kernels
200 ml of Cream
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Marjoram


PREPARATION TIME: 45 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Brachetto d'Acqui Docg

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for tagliatelle (noodles). Place the flour and the chestnuts flour on a floured worktop, mix them and arrange them as a fountain, add in the middle the eggs

and the salt and mix in order to obtain a solid and elastic dough.Let the dough stand for about 20 minutes.

After this time with the help of the pasta machine cut the dough into noodles. Pay attention that the dough must be always floured in order to not sticks it to the pasta machine.

Then start to prepare the sauce. Crack the walnuts and peel the chestnuts. Preheat in a pan 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, add the walnuts, the chestnuts, the pine kernels, salt, pepper and some marjoram and let them brown.

Then add the cream and let it reduce for about 5 – 8 minutes.

When water boil, add the tagliatelle, cook for about 4 – 5. Drain them and pour over them the sauce. Serve hot.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO

Christmas Biscuits

This is the typical dessert that my grandmother prepares for the Christmas Eve and the Christmas Day. They are biscuits similar to ravioli and their filling is made with chestnuts, chocolate, coffee, milk, biscuits, raisins and candied fruits. This is the original recipe but if you want you can prepare a filling made only of chocolate, milk and biscuits.The preparation is a bit long but the result is delicious.
Merry Christmas








INGREDIENTS FOR THE FILLING (for 10 people)
1 Kg of Chestnuts
250 ml of Milk
125 ml of Coffee
100 g of Chocolate
25 g of Raisins
30 g of candied citron
1 Orange
2 Tablespoons of Sugar
6 - 8 Biscuit

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DOUGH (for 10 people)
500 g of Flour
4 Eggs
80 g Butter
150 g of Sugar
1 Glass of milk
1 Pinch of salt
Extra virgin olive oil to fry

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hours and 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 45 minutes

WINE: Moscato d’Asti (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Preparation of the filling: place the raisin in a bowl with water for about 15 minutes.

Peel the chestnuts, place them in a pan with some water and let them boil for about 30 minutes. In the meantime make the coffee. When the coffee is ready place it in a pan, add the milk and the chocolate and let it melt.

Crumble the biscuits and add them to the coffee.

Then mince the raisin, the candied citron and add them to the coffee together with the grated peel of the orange.

When the chestnuts are cooked, let them cool, peel, blend them and add them to the coffee.

Mix all together and blend all in a mixer until you obtain a homogeneous mixture as shown in the picture below.

Preparation of the dough: place the flour and the sugar as a fountain over a worktop.


Add in the middle the eggs, the butter, the milk and the salt.


Knead for about 10 minutes until you obtain homogenous dough.


Then with the help of a rolling pin, roll the dough out on a worktop sprinkled with flour to a sheet of thin thick and with the help of a glass cut the pastry in discs.


Each biscuit is made of two discs of pastry one below and one over. Place the discs of the pastry on a worktop sprinkled with flour and put in the middle of them one teaspoons of the stuffing.


Then cover the stuffing with another disc and cut the border in triangles and raise one every two as shown in the following picture.


Place in a pan the extra virgin olive, lei it hot and fry in it he biscuits one at a time.

This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!