Risotto with Zucchini and Speck

This Italian recipe of risotto combines the sweet taste of zucchini with the spicy taste of speck. The preparation of this risotto is very easy as you already learned from the recipes of the other Italian risotto that I already published. The secret in the preparation of risotto is to have a good vegetables broth and to stir continuously while you are adding the broth to not let the rice attach to the casserole and to better check the cooking of rice.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
320g or 11,3 oz of Rice (type Arborio)
3 / 4 Onion
3 Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
2 Zucchini
100g of Speck cut in small cubes
Half Glass of White wine
Vegetable broth (1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 potato, celery, coarse salt)

PREPARARATION TIME: 30 minutes (15 minutes with the pressure cooker)

COOKING TIME: 20 minutes

WINE: Alto Adige Pinot Bianco (WhiteWine)

PREPARATION
Start preparing the vegetable broth, clean and peel the carrot, the potato, the onion, and the celery, cut them in big pieces and place them in a potful, add half a liter of water and a bit of coarse salt and let it boil for about 30-40 minutes. If you don't have a lot of time the best thing to do in order to have the same result is to use the pressure cooker, with which you will need only 10-15 minutes.



When the broth is almost ready you can start with the preparation of risotto, preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a casserole, mince the onion and cut the zucchini in small cubes, add the onion to the hot oil and let it brown.



Add the small cubes of speck, let them cook for a few minutes,



add the zucchini and let them cook for few minutes.



At this point add the rice and let it roast.



Add half glass of white wine, let it evaporate and start adding the broth,



little by little stirring continuously.



Let the rice cook for about 15-18 minutes, pay attention not to over cook it. Serve risotto warm.



BUON APPETITO!

Spatzle with Spinach Speck and Cream

Sometimes ago I show you the Italian recipes for the preparation of traditional Italian spatzle, a delicious first course diffuses in the northern part of Italy in particular in Val D’Aosta and Trentino Alto Adige. Here I’m going to show you another delicious Italian recipes for Spatzle and in particular green spaetzle made with spinach. This spaetzle are similar to gnocchi with small dimension and irregular shape, easy to prepare and the recipe presented below is simple made with flour, milk and the addition of spinach. Also in this case you will need to use the grater for spaetzle and the seasoning that I used is also made with speck and cream.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
380 g or 4 cups of Flour
2 Glasses or 1 cup of milk
200g or 7 oz of Spinach
200 ml or 1 cup of Cream
2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
50 g of Speck cut in small cubes
Raw salt

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 10 minutes

WINE: Alto Adige Pinot Bianco (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Clean, wash the spinach and let them boil for 5-8 minutes.



When they are cooked drain them, let them cool down and squeeze them in order to remove the excess of water. Blend the spinach. Let salted water boil for spaetzle. Place the flour and the milk in a bowl and mix all together in order to obtain a soften dough without lumps, like this shown in the picture below.





When the mixture is well creamy, add the spinach and mix all together.





Then prepare the seasoning: preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add the cubes of speck and let them brown;





add the cream and let the sauce cook for about 5 – 10 minutes in order to reduce it.




Remember not to reduce the cream too much, in case this happens you can add a little bit of milk. When the water boils place the grater on the surface of the pan, pour slowly in its container the dough of spatzle and move the container back and forth in order to cut the dough in small irregular gnocchi with drops shape.





The spatzle are ready when they rise to the surface and this takes about 3 – 4 minutes.



Drain them and pour on them the sauce of speck and cream



Serve hot!



BUON APPETITO

Pasta Paccheri with Eggplants

This Italian first course is prepared with a tomatoes sauce that is traditional of Sicily indeed it is prepared with black olive and eggplant, and a type of pasta called Paccheri that is typical from Campania. Other than eggplant and black olive for the tomatoes sauce you need to add also mozzarella cheese, a lot of parmesan and basil to obtain a more delicious italian first course. This Italian recipe could be also prepared for Christmas lunch and you can easy found it on the table of Italian family from the South of Italy.

INGREDIENTS (for 6 people):
400 g or 3 cups of Pasta type paccheri
1 Eggplant
50 ml or 1/4 cup of extravirgin olive oil
50 g or 2 oz of black olive
700 ml or 3 cups of tomatoes sauce
400 g or 14 oz of Mozzarella cheese
5-6 leaves of basil
150 g 1 cup +2/3 cup of Parmesan

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Vesuvio rosato DOC ( Red Wime)

PREPARATION
Let the salted water boil for pasta, type paccheri. Clean the eggplant and cut it in small cubes. Preheat the extravirgin olive oil and when it's hot fry the cubes of eggplant.



When the eggplant got a golden color remove them from the extravirgin olive oil and put them on a blotting paper to remove the excess of oil. In the meantime prepare the tomatoes sauce, preheat 2-3 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil, cut the black olive in slices and add them to the oil. Let them saute a little bit




and then add the tomatoes sauce.



Stir and let them cook for about 15 minutes, stir the tomatoes sauce time by time. If the water for pasta, type paccheri, boils, cook the paccheri for the time indicated on the packaging.



Cut mozzarella cheese in cubes.



When all the ingredients are ready you can start to put them together. First mix the paccheri pasta with a little bit of tomatoes sauce



then take a large baking pan, place a little bit of tomatoes sauce on them bottom. Add a layer of paccheri pasta,



the fried eggplant, the tomatoes sauce, mozzarella cheese, parmesan and some leaves of basil.



Then start again with paccheri pasta, tomatoes sauce, eggplant, mozzarella cheese, parmesan and basil.



Bake at 180 C or 356 F for 20 minutes.



Serve warm. BUON APPETITO!

Risotto with Ink Black and Cuttlefishes

Risotto with ink black is an Italian first course easy to prepare and very tasteful. The main ingredients are obviously the rice, the cuttlefishes and ink black. I cooked this risotto using a vegetable broth and not the cooking water of the cuttlefishes because I prefer a more delicate taste instead of the more strong taste of fish. During the Christmas Eve traditionally in Italy we cook fish and to meat so from the appetizer, to the first course and also the main course are fish based dishes. For this reason Risotto with ink black and cuttlefishes could be a delicious suitable first course for the dinner of Christmas Eve.


INGREDIENTS (for 6 people):
480 g of rice
600 g of Cuttlefishes
1 Onion
1 Glass of white wine
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
8 g of ink black
Parsley
FOR BROTH:
1 Carrot
1 Onion
Celery
1 Potato
Raw Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 20 minutes

WINE: Pinot Bianco Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
First prepare the broth, clean and peel the carrot, potato, onion and celery. Place them in a pan with water and raw salt and let them boil until the vegetables are cooked.





Remember that you can prepare the broth also with the use of the pressure cooker if you don't have a lot of time. Clean the cuttlefishes, place them in a pan with water and let the water boil for 1-2 minutes. Drain the cuttlefishes and cut them in pieces.



When the cuttlefishes and the broth are ready you can start with the preparation of risotto.
Chop the onion, preheat the extra virgin olive oil, add the onion and let them sauté for few minutes.



Then add the cuttlefishes and the white wine. Let it evaporate and sprinkle with parsley.





Add the rice, let it roast for few minutes



and start to add time by time the broth stirring continuously.



Cook the rice for about 15-18 minutes or the time indicated in the packaging. When the rice is almost cooked let the broth reduce. 1-2 minutes before the end of the cooking add the ink black and stir.



Serve warm risotto.



BUON APPETITO!

Ravioli with Lentils

Christmas is coming so it’s time to think about some delicious Italian Christmas recipes. I decided to start with an Italian first course. Here I show how to prepare delicious Italian ravioli that you can prepare for the Christmas lunch. The main ingredients that I used to prepare this Italian ravioli are the lentils and cotechino that is a large boiled pork sausage. Lentils and cotechino are used in all Italy. I used lentils and cotechino for the filling of ravioli and lentils and fresh cream for their dressing. The preparation of this ravioli is easy but a little bit long: the result is delicious. I the next days a will show the recipes of a delicious main course that you can serve as second course after the ravioli.


INGREDIENTS (for 6 -8 people):
500 g or 4 cups of Flour
150 g of or 1 cup Durum wheat
5 Eggs
1 Teaspoon of salt
1 Cotechino (large boiled pork sausage) of 500 g
1 Carrot
1 Celery
½ Onion
Rosemary
50 g or ½ cup of Lard
1 Glass of white wine
200 ml or 1 cup of fresh cream
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
300 g or 1 ½ cup of Lentils

PREPARATION TIME: 2 hours

COOKING TIME: 1 hour

WINE: Oltrepo Pavese (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
The day before you decide to prepare this delicious Italian recipe, place the lentils in a bowl and cover with water. Start with the preparation of the dough for ravioli. Place in a bowl the two kinds of flour, the salt and eggs.



Mix all together and work the dough for ravioli until it becomes homogeneous.



Cover the dough for ravioli with a film and let it stand for half an hour. In this way the dough it will be softer to roll out.
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. 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. Work the dough until you obtain long stripes.





Now prepare the filling and the dressing for ravioli. If you put the lentils in water the day before you don’t need to boiled them. In this case clean and peel the carrot, celery and onion. Chop them and put them together with minced lard and rosemary. Preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a large pan, when the oil is hot add the mixture of vegetables, lard and rosemary and let them brown for a few minutes.



Then add the lentils and add the wine.



Let it evaporate, add some salt and pepper according to your taste and cover with water.



Let the lentils cook for about 40 – 50 minutes or until the water is completly reduced.



In the mean time let the cotechino cook according to the instructions on the package.



When cotechino is ready, crumble it in a bowl and mix it together with 1/3 of the lentils.



This is the filling for ravioli. You will use the rest of the lentils for the dressing. In particular you have to had fresh cream to the lentils, mix them together, let them cook for a few minutes and blend them.







Now you can fill the ravioli. Put a teaspoon of the mixture of cotechino and lentils on the long stripes of pastry as shown in the picture below.



Cover with another stripes and cut the ravioli of the shape you prefer in this case I used a round shape.



Place the ravioli on a tray sprinkled with a lot of flour otherwise they attach each other.



Let salted water boil for ravioli. Cook ravioli for some minutes until they rise on the surface. Drain them with the help of a skimmer in order not to break them. Place ravioli on a plate, pour the dressing of lentils and cream of them and serve them.



BUON APPETITO!