Tuscan Sausages an Potatoes

Dedicated to a young Knight !!!The first historical evidence on the use of   pork meat  bagged in its gut with spices and salt goes  back to  ancient Rome time.

The sausages  are the potatoeseasiest  cold meat to produce and the types are virtually endless, ranging from  spicy sausage typical of southern Italy to the  north east smoked ones. They can  be heavily seasoned with chili pepper or fennel.

Tuscan Sausages and Potatoes

1 kg of sausages 

1 kg of potatoes 

half a glass of dry white wine

rosemary 

olive oil

salt

pepper 

6 cloves of garlic

Peel potatoes, wash and cut into chunks .Punch the   sausages with a fork on both sides.

 In a baking dish pour on a little oil , lay the potatoes and sausages.
Add salt and pepper, sprinkle with rosemary, garlic cloves with the skin and more oil .

Bake  in preheated oven at 200° C for 20 minutes ,add a glass of white wine, cook for other 20 minutes.

If you like you can also add in the pan fennel seeds
Serve hot. 

Pizze Fritte

Something fragrant when you smell it
Something catchy when you see it
Something tasty when you bite it


Pizze Fritte


500 g  flour
300 g  potato

1 tablespoon oil      
water
yeast
1 egg
salt
seed oil
tomato sauce
Parmigiano

Boil the potatoes for 40 minutes. Peel them, mash them and leave to cool. 

Then mix the potatoes, flour, yeast, salt and some water. 

Knead the dough for 10 minutes.

 And leave to rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

 Then knead again for a few minutes.

Roll the dough  out and,using a glass,cut out some small “pizzette” from the disc of dough. 

Using a glass, cut out some small "pizzette" from the discs of dough.

Fry in boiling oil until golden.

 While still hot add tomato sauce, salt and grated Parmigiano on top. 

Serve hot.

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.

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.

Potato Gnocchi

Potato Gnocchi are small dumpling made from potatoes, flour and eggs. Gnocchi were born in Northern Italy but nowadays they are common in other regions of Italy as well. The secret behind a perfectly textured gnocchi is not to over work the dough.

Since the beginning of the Modern Age, the “baccanal del gnocco,” a festival celebrating the dish, has taken place every year during Carnival celebrations in Verona. This festival stems from a historical event on 1531, when Verona was in a terrible famine.

 On the last day of Carnival Tommaso Da Vico paid for bread, wine, flour and cheese to be distributed to exhausted and hungry people Since then ,each year, an old man with a long white beard and a red trumpet sticks a golden fork into a gnocco and rides around on a mule, together with other helpers, giving out candies and packages of gnocchi.

When we went to school, Carnivale was always such an enjoyable time as we did nothing but talk about parties and costumes which only the most courageous dared to wear .But the last friday of Carnivale (‘venerdi grasso ’ as we say in Italian or ‘fat Friday!) was a very special day: our kitchen was invaded by trays covered with traditional Carnivale fare of dark bread paper, sprinkled with flour and hundreds of gnocchi.

Like a true Veronese, our mother never forgot gnocchi on that Friday, which is called “Gnocco Friday” in Verona

Gnocchi di Patate

(Potato Gnocchi)

1Kg potatoes

1 egg

Pinch of salt

250g flour

16gr packet of baking powder

Boil the potatoes, mash them and leave them to cool. Add the flour, salt, egg and baking powder. Knead together very quickly and shape the mixture into a ball.

 Take small portions of pasta from the dough and place them on the rolling board. Make them into finger-sized cylinders.

Cut the cylinders into 2cm pieces.

Then form them into gnocchi with the appropriate utensil such as with a fork. Place them in salted, boiling water and wait for them to come up to the surface. Now drain them and serve with the sauce you prefer.

Sauce: melted butter, gorgonzola, pesto, quattro formaggi, rocket (rucola), tomato sauce ,Taleggio cheese andchives, butter and sage