Italian Family Tomato Sauce

Tomatoe sauce is probably the most  used of our  sauces and for this reason we give a lot of attention in choosing the right tomatoes or the right  canned tomatoes to make it.

Salsa di Pomodoro

500 gr. ripe tomatoes

(or 400 gr. peeled  canned tomatoes)

50 gr. onion

50 gr. carrots

50 gr. celery

parsley

basil

2 spoonfuls oil

salt ,pepper, sugar

Cut all the vegetables in small pieces .Pour the oil in a casserole and cook the chopped vegetables for 10 minutes  on moderate heat .Add the tomatoes possibly cut in half by hand and let them cook for 30 /40 minutes. Put them through a vegetable mill and then  cook them with oil, a small  glass warm water, salt, pepper, basil, parsley and 2 pinches sugar and cook for approximately 20 minutes.

You can add:

* A little sugar will take out some of the Tomatoes' acidity..

* A little peperoncino (Italian hot Chili pepper)will give  a hot taste

* A little cream will create  a more delicate taste.

Turkey Breast with milk

During our Italian Cooking Classes this year we’ve many times surprised our students with a turkey recipe :

Tacchino al latte

800 gr.turkey breast

30 gr. butter

3 spoons olive oil

3 spoons red wine vinegar

 1 l. milk

½ onion

1 carrot,

2 stalks of celery 

salt,pepper

Chop onion, carrot and celery.Melt the butter in a pan with some oil. Saute the vegetables. Put the turkey in the pan adding salt and pepper.

Brown it slightly on each side. Add the vinegar and let it evaporate.

Add the milk ,let it cook for 40 minutes at a moderate flame , turning the meat sometimes. 

Serve  the meat sliced , pouring the sauce on top.

Suggestion: use pork.

Summer Pasta Salad

In summer we start getting in the mood for fresh and cool food.  We love cold pasta dishes!  One of our favorite go-to recipes is something our mom made often growing up, Italian Pasta Salad.  It's really simple, and can easily be customized.  Here's our version of it with fresh red tomatoes, celery, garlic , basil and a lots of Parmigiano Reggiano:

 Spaghetti in Insalata

300g spaghetti

2 fresh tomatoes              

80g celery

Basil, parsley

1 clove of garlic

Grated Parmigiano

100g olive oil                   

Salt, black pepper

Chop celery, parsley and basil and place them in a bowl. Add the oil, mixing well. Cut the garlic in half and add it to the sauce. Cut the tomatoes into small cubes and add them to the sauce, along with salt and pepper. Cover the recipient and leave in a cool place for at least 1½ hours. Meanwhile cook the spaghetti, pour it into the recipient and mix well, adding the Parmigiano.

Italian Chicken Soup

 
1 hen or chicken

1 carrot. 

1 red onion

1 stock of celery

2 potatoes

water

Chicken soup is made by bringing to a boil and then simmering hen or chicken  in water, with various vegetables and flavorings. The classic Italian chicken soup consists of a clear broth, often served with small pasta,small ravioli or tortellini. 

Chicken soup has also a reputation  for  colds and flus, and  is considered a classic comfort food. Traditionally, chicken soup is prepared using old hens too tough and stringy to be roasted or cooked for a short time.  Old hens are to be preferred ,when available, for soups even if this will take more time to cook
Cook the hen/chicken in abundant( at least 3 liters) water with a pinch of rock salt. Bring to a boil with high flame and then let it simmer. Let it cook for at least a couple of hours if it is a hen , otherwise an hour is usually enough, skimming it  regularly.

Wash and  slice the vegetables. Cook them in  another pot with 2 liters water and a pinch of salt for 40 minutes. When the hen/chicken is cooked ,take it out from the broth and cut in pieces to be served with  pickled, mayonnese ,or with the cooked vegetable or  sauté in a pan with  oil, sage, rosemary  and wine.

Filter the broth through a  canvas to get rid of all the possible fat. Mix the broth with the vegetable broth and let it cook for half an hour.

Now your broth is ready to be  served  with any kind of small soup pastas cooked in it for 10 minutes.

How to prepare Lasagne

Lasagne are both a form of pasta in sheets and also a dish, sometimes named lasagne al forno (meaning "oven-cooked lasagne") made with alternate layers of pasta, cheese, and often ragù (a meat sauce) or tomato sauce.

It’s not commonly known that lasagne is an ancient dish ,back to Ancient Roman time, called lagana .In Apulia lagana is the word used for the dough prepared with the rolling pin.

Till recently ,it was common to have lasagne as a family Sunday dish. They represented family warmth and family feeling. Grandma started on Saturday preparing the ragù and its perfume slowly invaded the home and then ,on early Sunday morning, she went on preparing the dough and dish .Nowadays preparation is sometimes much faster using already prepared lasagne pasta and sauces. It can be much faster to use ready-prepared lasha sheets, we would not suggest yiu the ready prepared ragù!

Each Regional cooking has diversified and developed its own type of lasagna , with variations in comparison to the original recipe. Some recipes call for more than one cheese, most often ricotta and mozzarella. Mozzarella is made in the south of Italy, so the use of these two cheeses is typical of lasagne made in Naples or further south. Lasagne al Ragù uses only Parmigiano Reggiano, ragù sauce and nutmeg flavoured béchamel sauce (besciamella). In Liguria pesto is typically used , and probably this gave the main idea for the modern creation of vegetarian lasagne.

Lasagne

for Bolognese sauce

200 g lean ground beef

50 g onion50 gr. Celery

3 spoonfuls of tomato

concentrate sauce

15 gr. butter

1 spoonful of oil

salt,pepper

15 gr. dried mushrooms(optional)

white or red wine

For the béchamel

40 g Butter

40 g Flour

1 l. milk

nutmeg

salt and pepper

for pasta

500 gr Fresh or dry lasagne

Parmigiano reggiano

Chop the onion and the celery ,saute with butter and oil. Add the beef, salt and pepper.

Stir often, until cooked. Add the wine and allow to evaporate. Add the tomato sauce (which has been diluted with two glass of hot water and the mushrooms. Cook for one hour on low heat, slowly adding a little water. taste for correct amount of salt and pepper.

Prepare the béchamel: in a pot melt the butter, add the flour and then pour the milk stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Season with salt and a little nutmeg then bring to boil. Let cook for 10 minutes.

Prepere the fresh homemade lasagna .

Grease a baking pan with a little butter and pour on the bottom a first layer of Bolognese sauce and béchamel, after that put a layer of lasagne and then again Bolognese and béchamel.

Continue to alternate layer after layer until the lasagne are finished on top a layer of sauce. Sprinkle with parmigiano cheese and cook in the oven 200 °C for about 20 minutes .Let it rest for another ten minutes before serving.

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Sunday Lunch in Italy

Ribollita _Tuscan Soup

Ribollita means 're-cooked' in Italian. Tuscan peasants prepared a soup with various green vegetables, served with a slice of bread just to give more consistency to the food.Peasants were poor and had not very much to eat .It is still common nowadays to serve soups with a slice of bread in each bowl .

They left the soup with bread on a side ,the day after they served it reheated .That’s what ‘s done nowadays ,not even waiting one day if not possible. The longer it lingers, the better it gets.
There are many different recipes, but most Tuscan recipes call for cavolo nero - black leaf kale - the closest substitute being savoy (green, crinkled, loose-leafed) cabbage - and cannelini - tuscan white beans .

Ribollita Toscana

200 g “cannellini” beans

20 leaves “cavolo nero”

2 swiss chards

200 gr green beans

1 savoy cabbage

4 Potato

Tomato sauce

Pancetta

Onion

Garlic

Parsley

2 stock cubes

Salt

Stale Bread

Oil

In a large casserole or cast iron or cast aluminum pot, with a cover and a thick bottom heat the olive on a bit more than medium heat - you want to sautee the ingredients slowly until the onion is transparent or lightly golden NOT browned - add the chopped onion, carrot, celery, leek, optional garlic stirring often until the onion has turned color (about ten minutes, depending on the heat)

Add a little water and a glass of tomato sauce. When this mixture boils add to it the vegetables (4 potatoes , 1 savoy cabbage , 200g green beans, 2 swiss chards and 20 leaves of black cabbage) which you have previously cut into big pieces.

First add the the harder vegetables and then the softer ones. Add, pureeing half of them, 200g of cannellini beans which you have cooked separately.When the vegetables are half-cooked add two stock cubes and season with salt. Leave to cook for at least one hour.

When all of the vegetables are soft prepare some slices of stale bread in a large bowl. Add olive oil and then cover with a layer of the cooked vegetables. Continue making layers of bread and vegetables. Now you have a “zuppa di pane” (bread soup).

Put some olive oil in a frying pan,add the “zuppa di pane” and cook it until a slight crust forms, if possible. Now you have your ribollita.