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San Gimignano Risotto

San Gimignano Risotto

In Recipes

San Gimignano RisottoThis super light risotto combines 3 of my favorite things, artichokes, Mascapone Cheese and aromatic Vernaccia di San Gimignano, a dry white wine native to our base in Tuscany on our 3-night food and wine tour of Central Italy.

This pale straw yellow wine has a characteristic bitter aftertaste that complements the Mascapone Cheese beautifully, providing an edge to its light sweetness.It’s a wine that since Renaissance times has been considered an excellent aperitif, and served with risotto, shellfish and white meat dishes.

Instead of garnishing it with parsley, consider snipping some feathery fennel fonds to give it an authentic taste of central Italy!  In autumn in Tuscany, Umbria and Abruzzo, you will see that everyone has planted their rows of fennel ready for the winter and visible by their delicious wispy fronds, you can spot it growing wild too along the roadside by it’s cheery bright yellow flowers.

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San Gimignano Risotto

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Serves: 6

A super light vegetarian risotto that if any is leftover, snip in some Speck and make arancini with!
Ingredients
  • 1 White Onion,
  • 100 g of Butter,
  • 200 ml Vernaccia of San Gimignano
  • 1 l of Vegetable Stock,
  • 10 Artichoke Hearts
  • 2 Garlic Cloves
  • A small bunch of Fennel Fronds
  • 150 g of Mascarpone Cheese
  • 1dl of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 4 Pistils of Saffron
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Chop the white onion finely and pan-fry with 50g of butter.
  2. Slice your artichoke hearts.
  3. Chop garlic and pan-fry with oil until golden-brown.
  4. Remove the onion from the pan, add the remaining butter and cook on a high flame. Add the rice, pour the Vernaccia wine in and let it evaporate. Add your hot stock covering the rice and proceed to cook,.
  5. Once the rice is almost ready, add saffron (diluted in some stock), artichokes and onion, add salt & pepper according to taste if needed, then gently fold in the Mascarpone Cheese.
  6. Serve with a light salad.

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Panzanella

Panzanella – A Salad To See in Autumn

In Recipes

How I have missed Italy over the summer, my pots of basil on the terrace, local ‘pera’ and cherry tomatoes whose cousins in Rhode Island never quite seem to meet those high soprano notes of the ones back in Abruzzo. In an effort to rekindle those flavours, as the heat subsides I’ve started making a chunky Panzanella for lunch, central Italy’s famous cucina povera tomato, red onion, bread and basil salad  that seems fitting as we begin to look ‘Autumn’ in the eye.

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Panzanella - A Salad To See in Autumn

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Serves: 2

Ingredients
  • ½ Red Onion, thinly sliced
  • 8 Tomatoes (Ripe)
  • 200 g Crusty Rustic Bread (day old preferably)
  • 4 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
  • 1 tbsp Capers
  • 1 small clove of Garlic, crushed
  • 6 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Small bunch of fresh Basil
  • Salt & Pepper
Instructions
  1. Put the onion slices in a bowl of cold water with a pinch of salt, and leave to soak for an hour.
  2. Cut the tomatoes into large dice and place in a colander set over a bowl. Salt and leave to drain while you prepare the other ingredients.
  3. Tear the bread into chunks about the same size as the tomatoes, put into a salad bowl and moisten with vinegar. Drain the onion and add to the bowl, along with the capers.Gently press the tomatoes to squeeze out the last juice, then put the flesh in the bowl.
  4. Stir the crushed garlic into the tomato juice and then whisk in the olive oil. Season to taste.
  5. Pour on to the salad and toss thoroughly. Roughly tear the basil leaves and sprinkle on top. Allow to sit for between 15 minutes and an hour, then serve.

 

Sulmona apple cake

Alice’s Sulmonese Apple & Cinnamon Cake

In Recipes

Alice’s moist apple cinnamon cake pays homage to Sulmona’s love affair with this delectable spice.  It has a long history with the town so famously known for its confetti, the Romans added cinnamon oil to their wines and baths and the monks of the city added it to their digestifs and preserving syrups.  Today it is more commonly known through the delicate cannellini, the long and skinny confetti filled with cinnamon that the poet Giacaomo Leopardi adored to his downfall.

Alice uses dessert apples rather than cooking apples to cut down on the amount of cane sugar added to the cake which gives it a sweet but gentle spiced flavour instead, and recommend Russet apples just like they would see in the Autumn market at Sulmona. To see you you throughthe winter have a slice or two each week or you can hold out and enjoy it as part of the breakfast Alice prepares on our food, wine and cooking adventures.

Russet Apples

 

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Alice's Sulmona Apple & Cinnamon Cake

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Serves: 8

Alice’s moist apple cinnamon cake pays homage to Sulmona’s love affair with this delectable spice
Ingredients
  • 4 Dessert Apples
  • 200 ml Milk
  • 300 g 00 Flour
  • 200 g Sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • 100 g Butter
  • Grated zest from 1 Lemon
  • 2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1.5 tsp Ground Cinnamon
  • Pinch of Salt
Instructions
  1. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 180C/ 350ºF. Meanwhile, coat an 8-inch round cake pan with butter, then line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.
  2. Peel,core and dice 3 apples. Arrange half on the paper.
  3. Melt butter and sugar together in a saucepan.
  4. Sieve flour, baking powder, fine salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl.
  5. Whisk 2 eggs and milk in a large bowl. Add the melted butter and sugar and whisk to combine. Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture slowly and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until just combined. Add the remaining apples and fold in till combined.
  6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes before carefully removing from pan (loosen the sides by running a thin knife around the edge if needed first). Dust with icing sugar and serve.

 

Spaghetti aglio e olio

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

In Recipes

Simple, healthy and incredibly tasty, Chef Ezio’s favourite vegetarian pasta dish

1 lb. (454 gr) Spaghetti
Salt and Pepper To Taste
1/2 Cup A Casa Di Ezio Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 Garlic Cloves  Thinly Sliced
A Casa Di Ezio Peperoncino Piccante Marinated in Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup Flat Leaf Parsley Chopped
Preparation:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and season generously with salt.  Cook the pasta for one minute less that the package instructions.
Meanwhile, in a large saute pan over medium-low heat, add about 1/3 cup of olive oil.  Add the garlic and some A Casa Di  Ezio Peperoncino Piccante .  Add a tablespoon o pasta water to ensure the garlic doesn’t brown. Cook gently until the garlic softens, about 8 minutes.
Remove the pasta from the water and transfer to the pan.  Toss to coat and add a ladle full of reserved pasta water.
Drizzle with a healthy amount of olive oil and toss in the chopped parsley.  Toss to coat and emulsify the sauce.

Mimina the Butcher’s Wife Porchetta

In Recipes

There are few things as irresistible as the aromatic succulence and crackling of porchetta; temptation is never harder than when walking past a porchetta van during a morning market…and succumbing never so sweet…!

Slow Roasted Decadence

Each Friday my cousin Mimina and her husband who own the town’s butcher shop freshly grind their home-grown peperoncini (chili), rosemary and garlic together ready for the town’s weekend porchetta.  They tightly tie the string around the stuffed scored meat to keep the flavours where they should be before cooking it slowly overnight in their gigantic oven. Early in the morning, they pick up the soft potato bread that is traditionally served with porchetta in Prezza, before carrying both into their butcher’s shop, ready to tempt townsfolk to the world’s finest pulled pork.

Outside of a grand family occasion, there aren’t many in Prezza who regularly make their own make their own porchetta.  Although the Abruzzesi are famous for their social and generous eating, they are also keenly frugal too.  They recognise there is little point in keeping an oven lit overnight when porky perfection can be purchased from the local butcher that uses Abruzzo’s acclaimed pork.

Social Eating without Leftovers

Historically Abruzzo’s mountainside communities would invest and work together in raising a pig on the collective scraps from their table; as families became richer there would be a pig raised per each extended family.  This was a true ‘tail to nose’ venture with almost nothing thrown away as the meat was divided into creating the very best sausages, salami and prosciutto that would be air-cured or kept sotto olio (under oil) to sustain entire families throughout the winter.  Abruzzo’s pork remains a highly-prized product; in the province of Chieti there is a whole museum devoted to the pig and the culinary riches it has provided the region, and we in Prezza are forever grateful to Mimina’s family and their legendary Abruzzo porchetta recipe.

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Mimina the Butcher's Wife Porchetta

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Serves: 6

There are few things as irresistible than the aromatic succulence and crackling of porchetta; temptation is never harder... and succumbing is never so sweet...!
Ingredients
  • 2.25 kg boneless Pork Shoulder with the Rind
  • 44 g Salt
  • 6 g Black Peppercorns
  • 4 g Peperoncini (Chili)
  • 4 g Fresh Rosemary
  • 1 tbsp. Bay Leaves
  • 10 cloves Sulmona Garlic or 16 cloves standard garlic
Instructions
  1. Ask your butcher to butterfly your joint of meat so that you have a flat piece of meat.
  2. Wash the meat (not the skin) and dry carefully with paper towels and sprinkle freshly ground salt onto its skin.
  3. Whizz the remaining salt and stuffing ingredients together in an electric spice grinder or in a pestle and mortar.
  4. Stand the meat skin side down on a table and spread your paste evenly across your piece of meat.
  5. Roll it up and tie tightly with string.
  6. Roast in the oven at 180 C (350 F) about 2 hours and a half til crisp
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

  • Baked Squash Risotto
    Baked Squash Risotto

    Ezio's baked squash risotto is a flood of sweet flavours from autumnal herbs and vegetables, the healthy alternative to creamy nothern Italian style risotto...

  • Nonna's Baccala
    Nonna’s Chunky Prezza Baccalà

    This rustic baccalà (salt cod) dish has remained one of my favourite dishes since I first ate it as a child in Prezza Abruzzo...

  • Mimina the Butcher’s Wife Porchetta

    There are few things as irresistible than the aromatic succulence and crackling of porchetta; temptation is never harder... and succumbing is never so sweet...!...

Nonna's Baccala

Nonna’s Chunky Prezza Baccalà

In Recipes

This rustic baccalà (salt cod) dish has remained one of my favourite dishes since I first ate it as a child in Prezza Abruzzo.  Like all chefs I love ingredients which are natural soulmates which potato and baccalà (salt cod) certainly are, whilst the recipe’s other pair, olives and tomatoes add a subtle agro-dolce tang to this 1-pan dish.

In Abruzzo baccalà still, retains its crown as being the most popular  fish eaten across each of the 4 provinces, which is unusual in Italian cooking as it is not a ‘local’ ingredient.  Like most of Italy,  its popularity was established through its salty durability that allowed those living in the mountains a taste of the sea.  Don’t be surprised by some restaurants in Abruzzo who once a week will create a whole menu around their beloved baccalà.   If you join us for an Italian cooking holiday  you can experience how it is served on Abruzzo’s UNESCO protected coastline, when we eat ‘local’ and enjoy a 10-course fish extravaganza aboard a trabocco.

 

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Nonna’s Chunky Prezza Baccalà

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Serves: 4

Ingredients
  • 10 oz Baccala fillets (280 g)
  • 1½ White Onions cut into chunks
  • 2 medium Yellow Potatoes cubed
  • 10 Black or Kalamata Olives sliced
  • 10 Cherry Tomatoes cut in half
  • 1 tsp. chopped fresh Oregano
  • 3 tsp. chopped fresh Parsley
  • 1 pinch of fresh Rosemary
  • 2 chopped Garlic Cloves
  • 4 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • ¾ cup White Wine (180 ml )
  • ¾ cup Water (180 ml)
Instructions
  1. Rinse and soak the baccalà fillet in cold water for between 24-48 hours before you are due to cook it, changing the water 3 times.
  2. Rinse the baccalà and dry it on paper towels.
  3. Mix together the onion, parsley, rosemary and garlic and saute in the olive oil in a large frying pan or skillet.
  4. Cut the fish into small pieces and saute in the herbs and onion. Continue cooking and add the white wine.
  5. Add cherry tomatoes, sliced olives and oregano and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
  6. Add the potato pieces and water, cover and continue cooking until potatoes are almost tender.
  7. Add salt and pepper to taste and finish cooking uncovered to reduce liquid for about 4 minutes.
Baked Squash Risotto

Baked Squash Risotto

In Recipes

Autumn in my Mother’s house meant squash risotto. She had a preference for the thin-skinned blue zucca (squash) whose vibrant orange flesh mirrored the colours from the first fires of the cool season.  It was the smoky warmth from those fires that eased all our aching muscles on a Sunday night after a hard day spent foraging for mushrooms or helping to harvest olives for friends.

Risotto in Abruzzo is a little different from the better known ones from northern Italy.  Like so much of southern Italian cooking it is without cream instead relying on a flood of sweet flavours from herbs and vegetables.  If your parents had been lucky or were feeling extravagant it may mean your risotto’s top note being one of local Navelli saffron which is regarded as Italy’s best by its most celebrated chefs.

Long ago when my own children were young and we lived in the US, I’d substitute the squash in this baked risotto recipe for pumpkin flesh, pleased that instead of spending time stirring a risotto over a hot stove, I could slip it into the oven and go out with them trick and treating.

Although the more commercial Halloween has arrived in Italy, in Abruzzo there are many people who still prefer to keep local traditions and customs for the more important 1st and 2nd November, All Saints and Day of the Dead.  Instead of concentrating on the wicked it is a time of reflection and remembrance of departed family and friends.  All good Abruzzesi know that way to a spirit’s heart is through their stomach and on November 1st they cook the favourite dishes of their lost loved ones which are left out on ‘la tavola dei morte’ (table of the dead).  As the spirits come back to check on their family they in turn can depart back to their world comforted by the aromas of what was once home and knowing they aren’t forgotten.

Baked Squash Risotto

 

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Baked Squash Risotto

Prep time: 

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Total time: 

Serves: 4

Ingredients
  • 2 cups Butternut Squash (280 g)
  • 2 cups uncooked Arborio Rice (400 g)
  • 1 cup diced Onion (150 g)
  • 2 cloves of chopped Garlic
  • 2 cups Chicken Stock – (500 ml)
  • 1 cup (240 ml) dry White Wine (250 ml)
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Sage
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh Thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon Saffron
  • Pinch of Salt
  • Black Pepper to taste
  • ¼ cup grated fresh Parmesan Cheese (28 g)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 500 F (220 degrees C).
  2. Peal and clean the squash. Chop into ½ inch (1.5 cm) cubes and toss with a little olive oil. Place on parchment paper on a baking tray. Bake until squash is just tender, about 15 minutes.
  3. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat.
  4. Add onion and garlic, saute for about 5 minutes then add white wine and saute for another 2 minutes.
  5. Add rice and stir for 1 ½ minutes.
  6. Add squash and chicken stock, saffron, sage, chopped thyme, salt and pepper, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a baking dish.
  7. Cook uncovered for 25 minutes until rice is fully cooked.
  8. Serve with grated Parmesan Cheese.

 

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