Ricotta Cheesecake Gluten Free

Today during the Hands on Italian Cooking class , Sonia , a guest from Arizona, asked for a cake with Ricotta cheese. I  remembered two days ago  Krista’s request for our Ricotta Cheese cake .And so here it is  for you our simple recipe,  without flour so perfect also for  Gluten Free friends .

Dolce di Ricotta

1 Kg ricotta 

300gr sugar

7 eggs

50 gr dark chocolate

Salt

Breadcrumbs

Oil

Decoration Icing /confectioner’ssugar sugar

Drain the ricotta cheese and mix it with sugar and salt.Place in the refrigerator for all the night.

The day after  add eggs and grated chocolate. Grease and sprinkle with breadcrumbs a cake tin. Pour the mixture in the cake tin. Bake it in the oven at 160°c for 1 hour.

To decorate,sprinkle the top with the icing/confectioer’s sugar.

Another excellent cake recipe is Crosta di Ricotta

Tuscan Fresh Fennel with Olives

When out it’s hot this dish is so refreshing.Fennels are not so well known  even if they are very  fresh taste a and no calories

Insalata di Finocchi

4 fennels

1  handful green olives

1 clove garlic

parsley

origano

oil, 

vinegar, 

salt 

peperoncino 

Slice the fennels as finely as possible,mix them with the olives, then add a small chopped garlic clove ,a spoonful of parsley and some fresh origano.  Prepare  a  dressing  with oil , vinegar, salt a and a pinch of peperoncino. Season the fennels, stir and serve cold.

Mother's Day : Chocolate with Cherries

Today  the girls wanted to cook for Mother’s Day something special but …not too difficult:

They arranged the still empty cups on a tray and filled with  drained  Fabbri cherries .

They poured  Kroccant Fabbri on them , placed the tray in the freezer for 10 minutes, removed the tray from the freezer ... Chocolates were ready to be served! 

Alternatively, you can prepare chocolate Fabbri cherries  melting the  chocolate in a double boiler or add some  chopped almonds or nuts to the cherries.

Thank you girls !

Tuscan Summer Vegetables Recipe

This is a summer Tuscan  traditional recipe, which have different names all over Italy and  You can prepare and eat the same day, but it’s perfect also the day after It’s good also cold . Perfect recipe in the hot summer days  and when you have vegetarian or vegan friends.

GURGUGLIONE

300g  Aubergines (Egg-plants)
300g  Courgettes (Zucchini)
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
200g  Potatoes
150g  Peppers
300g  Peeled tomatoes
Oil
Salt and Pepper
Basil

Cut all the vegetables into small pieces Soften the chopped onion and garlic in the oil in a saucepan. Add the peppers, leave to cook for 5 minutes, then add the other vegetables, salt and pepper and leave to stew. Cook for 20 minutes in the last 5 minutes add  the basil and finish cooking.

A Gluten Free Menu

GLUTEN FREE MENU

To prepare a menu for coeliac friends has become much easier than before .Most important is to substitute the usual crackers, bread sticks and pasta we use with those with the 'Crossed Grain Symbol',  nowadays easily available in supermarkets.

Attention not to use tools, dishes, boards or pans where there can still be some flour traces.

A pasta dish such as Penne in Salsa agli Aromi

An incredibly Tuscan dish : Fagioli al Fiasco

One of the most difficult choices is the dessert, and so we choose something fresh and pleasant for everybody:

PERE ALLO ZABAIONE

4 pears 

100g sugar

2 spoonfuls honey

3 cloves

½ glass white wine

½ l. water

For the zabaione:

4 spoonfuls sugar

4 egg yolks

4 spoonfulsMarsala

Peel the pears ,cut them in twelve and remove the cores. Place them in a heatproof dish with ½ litre of water,the wine,the sugar,the honey and the cloves. Cook for approximately 10 minutes over a low flame. Leave the pears to cool . Prepare the zabaione: beat the egg yolks with the sugar until you have a frothy mixture. Add the marsala and cook in a double boiler,beating all the time,until the volume doubles,without bringing the mixture to the boil. . Pour the zabaione into a dish .Drain the pears and place the pears on top in a fan shape (or vice versa).

Aromatic Herbs in Italian Cooking 1 :Rosemary

Use of herbs and spices is basic in Italian cooking. Let’s start talk about the most important ones we cannot miss in our herb garden or in the kitchen. We’ll forget how to cultivate them or how to use them for medical uses as it would be too long ,only the cooking use.

"An herb is the friend of physicians and the praise of cooks."
- Charlemagne

Besides helping flavor foods when cutting back on salt, fat and sugar, herbs may offer additional benefits of their own. Researchers are finding many culinary herbs (both fresh and dried) have antioxidants that may help protect against diseases .
Pick herbs close to the time you use them to get the best flavor .To extend their freshness, place them in a vase with water, like cut flowers.
For most recipes mince herbs into tiny pieces ,chop with a mezzaluna
A blender would reduce herbs to a paste.

At first we talk about :
ROSEMARY better to be used fresh as desiccated leaves loose flavor. To strip the leaves from a woody sprig, simply hold the stem in one hand and remove the leaves using the finger and thumb of the other hand, pushing against the direction of the growth.
Rosemary's pungent flavor complements fatty meats particularly well, When grilling, toss a sprig or two of fresh rosemary onto the coals to add a wonderfully intense smokiness to your meats.You can use a woodier branch from the plant as to brush oil on grilling meat.
On grilling a lamb it’s compulsory as its aromatic smells eliminates the characteristic sheep smell.
Rosemary in marinades, or as an accent for Mediterranean vegetables.
Great in some tomato sauces. Pay attention not to use too much especially in summer when it can be too pungent .Half a branch is usually enough. In Tuscany it is used even in certain breads and dessert just slightly cooking it in oil and the n using the oil. With oil we mean :Extra Vergin Olive Oil !!!!

And now a Pasta sauce with rosemary:

Penne agli Aromi

Penne with Aromatic Herbs

2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 sprig of rosemary
1 sprig of sage
1 bunch of parsley
½ teaspoonful of oregano
½ glass of olive oil
500g peeled plum tomatoes
30g grated Parmigiano
Salt,Pepper

Finely chop the garlic,the onion and all the herbs.In a wide frying pan lightly brown the garlic and the onion in the oil for a few minutes. Then add the chopped herbs and the oregano. Stir the ingredients for a few seconds over a low flame, then add the tomatoes. Mix everything together well, add salt and pepper and cook the sauce for approx. 15 minutes. Add the cream, continuing to mix and let the sauce thicken slightly: then add the pasta and sprinkle with grated parmigiano Stir everything for a few minutes in the frying pan over a medium flame. Serve immediately hot.
Suggestion: do not add the cream and add a peperoncino

Tuscan Recipes

Cooking, cookery, typical Tuscan cooking : Beans in the flask ( Fagioli al Fiasco).

Tuscan people are very well known as “beans eater” and a few recipes are so truly Tuscan but also left aside for “technical reason”.
Peasants used a green flask ,Chianti bottle- the kind with the bulbous base. They took off the straw all round, then they poured beans in the flask, with olive oil, and spices and let it cook in the fireplace overnight. The bottle was closed by a piece of material and some straw. In the morning beans were ready and savory.
With the disappearing of old Chianti bottles and even more of the use of fireplaces, this recipe was almost forgotten. Then somebody, maybe a chemist had the great idea of using glass bottles very similar, if not the same, to chemical laboratory flask .

So here we are with the incredibly simple recipe:
Soak 200 gr. beans overnight in water with a pinch of salt. The most typical beans are the white cannellini but any other kind of beans will result tasty.
Place the beans in a glass ’fiasco’ and add 2 spoons olive oil, 5 sage leaves , 2 cloves of garlic . a quarter of onion and 1 small rosemary branch.Season with salt, fill the recipient three-quarters full with water. Place them on the stove. When the water starts boiling, low the temperature down. Let them cook for an hour.
Serve the beans, adding a little salt (if necessary) and some freshly-ground pepper and oil.

Or on top of Crostini con Cavolo Nero
Wash the cavolo nero (black cabbage)carefully and remove the large stems. Cut the leaves in strips. Finely chop onion and sauté it with oil in a casserole. Add the cavolo nero with some tablespoons of hot broth . Simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper
Toast the slices of bread and then put on cavolo nero.
Serve immediatly.