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. 

Tuscan Pheasant

Our neighbor Silvia came with a pheasant, with feathers.
She asked  "Would you like you want to cook it?" I wanted to say "NO, no thanks" for no other reason that cleaning it is  a bit boring, but it was certainly fresh: a special gift!

 And then I cleaned and cooked it ! 

Very good, but if you want to try find this experience find  a place outside  not to have feathers all over.

Simple Tuscan Pheasant

Ingredients for 4 people:

• 1 pheasant  
•  200 g lean bacon 
• 1 branch of sage, 
• 1 sprig rosemary, 
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• black pepper and salt 
• a glass of white wine
• Olive oil 

Once you have properly cleaned the pheasant, stuff it  with chopped bacon, salt, pepper and fragrant herbs.

Coat the pheasant with the bacon and bind  it well .

Put now the pheasant in a roasting pan lightly greased with olive oil and let it bake for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees. During cooking, add a glass of wine.
When the bacon is pretty golden, remove the pheasant from the oven,  cut into four pieces and keep warm.

It ' s also nice to add potatoes   when the pheasant is half cooked   so they’ll that roast well in the pheasant flavour .

Neapolitan Timbale

The film Big Night of 1996 presents a timbale Neapolitan 

"The ear drum is a drum ... 

and inside there are good things in the world!": 

First prepare the recipe as Pelaggi, the cook chariot Night

It 'a recipe for a while' complex, which requires two days of preparation. 
It is commonly cooked as well as being complex is a rich dish, for many people

Timballo Napoletano

To prepare it for 6 / 8 people
8 dl wet sauce
500 g macaroni
50 g butter
400 g of diced mozzarella
100 g of grated parmesan cheese
500 g of meat patties

for wet sauce
1.5 kg of pork (walker)
500 g of chopped onions
900 g bacon, cut into slices
1 dl of olive oil
50 g of lard
1 / 2 dl dry and full bodied wine
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
1 bunch of basil abundant
500 g of tomato paste
1 l of tomato puree
Salt and pepper

for meatballs
1 / 2 kg of cooked meat sauce, stewed
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 egg
Salt q.b.
flour
Oil for frying

for the pastry
500 g of flour
250 g of sugar
250 g of lard
6 egg yolks

The day before

You begin to prepare the sauce by placing the wet rosemary and thyme over the meat. Then wrap with slices of bacon and tie tightly with kitchen string. Choose a saucepan that is neither too broad nor too narrow for the volume of meat. Put on the bottom of the oil and lard, then add the onions, lying over the meat and cook over medium heat until the meat acquires a dark amber crust. 

You must do this constantly checking the cooking, adding a little wine when necessary, and stirring constantly. When the meat is very colorful and onions dried completely, remove the meat from the sauce and keep warm without teasing. Lower the temperature for cooking at low heat, add the tomato paste to the gravy and stir with a wooden spoon slowly. When the sauce starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, pour a little wine and continue stirring. This work must be done until the sauce becomes thick and creamy, it will take about two hours of continuous presence. Now put back the meat, cover with tomato sauce, salt slightly, stir, cover the pan, leaving a small gap between the edge and the cover, and simmer slowly on fire sweet sauce. Will be ready when he bought a thick syrup, about 1 hour. Remove the meat from the sauce and add basil. The walker is left to cool and removed the wire from the kitchen, chop finely and then prepare the meatballs.While the sauce is cooking, prepare the dough by kneading with your hands quickly all the ingredients to make a thick dough and let rest for at least an hour in the refrigerator covered with a cloth. Then prepare the meatballs, the size of hazelnuts, with 500 g of minced meat mixed with 1 egg earlier, the chopped parsley and a pinch of salt. Fry in hot oil and keep aside. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

On the same day: the big day!

Cook the macaroni al dente, drain, toss with sauce moist, butter, parmesan and let cool. Grease a cake tin and pull the top ring of 30 cm in diameter and cover the bottom and edges with a third of the dough you've stretched thin, about 1 / 2 cm. It is important that the pasta po'dai a protruding edges so that you can easily close the pie with the other disk of dough. Disponeteci over half of the macaroni, distribuiteci over the meatballs, mozzarella into cubes, sprinkle with the Parmesan advanced, then cover with the remaining macaroni. Cover the pastry with tympani advanced pressing down the edges to hold onto the first. Brush surface with beaten egg her and cook for about 45 minutes in the oven to 180 degrees. Before removing

How to prepare Roasted Meat on the Stove

Searching for suggestions for an Italian Christmas meal , roasted meat cooked on the stove

Arrosto Farcito Alle Erbe  

900g best end of veal

6 slices  smoked pancetta

Sage , Rosemary,  Parsley 

1 onion

1 glass dry white wine

3 cloves of garlic

70g butter

Salt,pepper

    

Chop  sage,rosemary,parsley and garlic.

Place a slice of pancetta around the meat. Spread the slices with the very-finely chopped herbs and garlic. Brown the onion in the butter in a casserole. Bind the meat and place it in this. Brown the meat, season with salt and pepper and pour on the wine. Let the wine evaporate at a high temperature. Then cook the meat over a low flame for c. 1½ hours. As the meat is cooking, pour on a little warm water so that the sauce does not dry out. Once cooked, unbind the meat, slice it and serve.

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