Italian Food Recipes

This is the traditional Italian recipe for spatzle, a delicious first course diffuses in the northern part of Italy in particular in Val D’Aosta and Trentino Alto Adige. Spatzle are similar to gnocchetti with small dimension and irregular shape, they are easy to prepare and the recipe presented below is simple made with flour and milk in order to obtain a soften dough. To prepare this type of spatzle you should be use a sort of grater with big holes on the surface and a mobile container where the dough is poured; this container moves back and forth so when you pour on in the dough you can cut it.The type of seasoning that I use here its one of the most traditional used for spatzle, it is a white seasoning made with speck and cream but you can serve them also with tomato sauce or any type of seasoning that you like. Spatzle can be made also with flour, eggs and water or instead of water you can use beer. The dough of spatzle can be soften, like this shown here, or can also be firmer, in this case you might knead the dough with the hand and cut it in small pieces. Spatzle can be white like this but if you want with the addition of spinach in the dough you obtain green delicious spatzle.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
380 g of Flour
2 Glasses of milk
200 ml of Cream
2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
50 g of Speck cut in small cubes

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 10 minutes

WINE: Alto Adige Lagrein Dunkel (Red Wine)

INSTRUMENTS: grater for spatzle

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for spatzle. Place the flour and the milk in a bowl


and mix all together in order to obtain a soften dough without lumps, like this shown in the picture below.


Then prepare the seasoning: place in a pan the extra virgin olive oil and the cubes of speck and let them brown;

add the cream and let the sauce cook for about 5 – 10 minutes in order to reduce it.

When the water boils place the grater on the surface of the pan,



pour slowly in its container the dough of spatzle and move the container back and forth in order to cut the dough in small irregular gnocchi with drops shape.



The spatzle are ready when they rise to the surface and this takes about 3 – 4 minutes.


Drain them and pour on them the sauce of speck and cream.

Serve hot!
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

Potatoes gnocchi are a famous Italian dish that you can prepare with different type of season. There are many variety of gnocchi made with different type of flour such as gnocchi with semolina flour, also called Roman Gnocchi; gnocchi with maize flour; gnocchi with chestnuts flour; but the most know are potatoes gnocchi. You can prepare them simple with flour and potatoes or also with the addition of some vegetables like spinach, swiss chard or pumpkin, and so you obtain green and orange gnocchi. The best ingredients to prepare potatoes gnocchi are: the yellow potatoes that are slightly floury and so do not attach; and the right quantity of flour, if you use too much flour the gnocchi might be hard instead if you use few flour the gnocchi might be too soften. The element that best characterize potatoes gnocchi is the stripes on their surface. They are important because allow gnocchi to best absorb the seasoning and so give them a delicious taste. In this recipes potatoes gnocchi are prepared with sauce of spares rib try them and let me know if you like it!


INGREDIENTS (for 6 –8 people):
2 Kg of Potatoes
1 Kg of Flour

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour and 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: 20 minutes

WINE: Dolcetto D’Alba DOC (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Bring salted water boil for gnocchi. Wash the potatoes, place them in a large pan with water and bring to boil for about 10 – 15 minutes or until they become tender.

You can control the cooking point with a fork if it enters easily in the potatoes they are ready. When potatoes are ready let them cool, peel them and with the potato masher mush them as shown in the picture.


Now add around the mashed potatoes the flour


and begin to knead until you obtain homogeneous and soft dough, this take about 8 – 10 minutes.


Divide the dough in parts and roll each one in order to obtain a sort of longs sausages thick as a finger. Pay attention to have always enough flour on the worktable in order to not attach the dough to it. Cut each long sausage in small pieces of 1 cm length.


When you have all the pieces, you have to give them the shape of gnocchi: to do this take a fork. Hold the fork with one hand and lean it to the work board, with the other hand take a piece of dough and with the index finger press rolling it on the fork: in this way you obtain gnocchi.


Sprinkle the gnocchi with flour and place them on a tray.

When water boils put in it the gnocchi and let them cook until they rise on the surface.

Drain them and pour on them the sauce of spares rib.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

Canederli is a traditional Italian recipe of Trentino in the northern part of Italy. They are similar to gnocchi made with stale bread, they are usually prepared in the autumnal and winter period and their traditional recipe is of farmer origin. Exist many kinds of canederli: all they are made with stale bread with the addition of other ingredients like canederli with speck, canederli with cheese, canederli with spinach, canederli with mushrooms and many others. There are also sweet canederli that you can serve as dessert and these are usually made with stuffed of fruit. Here I show the recipes of canederli with speck: the best type of bread to use for make canederli is the michetta but if you don’t have it you can use also other type of stale bread; the best type of speck is the speck of Trentino, and for make broth of meat I use the rump of beef. This type of canederli can be served with broth as shown in the recipe below or also with butter and sage. In both way you can obtain a delicious Italian dish. Try it and let me know if you like it!


INGREDIENTS (for 6 – 8 people):
600 g of bread (michetta or stale bread)
2 Eggs
80 g of Flour
200 g of Speck
500 ml of Milk
1 Small Onion
3 Tablespoons of Extra virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons of parsley chopped
Nutmeg
Salt
Black pepper
FOR THE BROTH:
500 g of Rump of beef
1 Potato
1 Carrot
1 Celery
1 onion
1 L and 500 ml of Water

PREPARATION TIME: 2 hours

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Alto Adige Santa Maddalena Doc (Red Wine)

PREPARATION
Start with the preparation of broth of meat: peel and clean the carrot, the potato, the onion and the celery, place them in a pan with the meat and 1 liter and 500 ml of water and let them boil for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Then prepare the canederli: cut the bread in small squared pieces.



Place them in a large bowl, add the egg, the milk, salt, and black pepper, mix all together and let the mixture stand for about 1 hour so the bread soak itself of milk.

In the meantime you can start to prepare the speck. Cut it in small pieces,


chop the onion and place it in a pan with the extra virgin olive oil, let the onion brown

and then add the speck and cook for about 5 minutes.

Let the mixture of speck cool. When the mixture of speck is cool add it to the bread with the parsley, the flour and nutmeg. Mix all together and let the mixture stand for other 30 minutes.



Bring salted water boil for canederli. After 30 minutes make canederli: you have to do ball of mixture of medium size.


When canederli are ready, start add 1 of them in the water and pay attention that it remain entire; if the canederlo breaks add some flour. Add all the canederli to the water and cook them for about 15 minutes.

Drain them one by one with the help of the skimmer. Place 4 canederli in a platter and add 2 ladles of broth. Serve hot.
This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

This Italian recipe is ideal for all vegetarians that love Italian cooking. The recipe presented below is made of zucchini, pepper and aubergine and if you use seasonally vegetables this recipe is ideal for each season. One important thing is that the broth must be prepared with fresh vegetables in order to obtain the best result and taste. Try it and let me know if you like it!


INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
320 g of Rice
1 Aubergine
1 Zucchini
1 / 2 Red pepper
1 / 2 Yellow pepper
1 / 2 Onion
1 / 2 Glass of Wine
3 Tablespoons of Extra virgin olive oil
30 g of Butter
Parmesan
FOR VEGETABLE STOCK:
1 Potato
1 Carrot
1 Celery
1 / 2 Onion chopped
1 L of water

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 20 minutes


WINE: Custoza (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Start preparing a good vegetables stock with fresh vegetables. Clean and peel the carrot, the potato, the celery and the onion. Place them in a pan with water and bring to boil for about 10 – 15 minutes.

In the meantime prepare the vegetables for the rice. Clean and peel the zucchini, the aubergine and the peppers, then cut them in small pieces with shape as a match.


When all is ready preheat the extra virgin olive oil and the butter in pan, add the chopped onion and let them brown;

then add the vegetables and cook them until they wilt.

Now add the rice and make it roast, add the wine and let it evaporated.

Start to add 1 ladle of hot broth stirring until it is absorbed; continue in this way, adding ladles of hot broth, for about 15 - 18 minutes. At the end of the cooking the rice must be slightly firm to the teeth.

Serve hot and if you like you can sprinkle the risotto with some Parmesan.
This is the result:
BUON APPETITO!

In this post I describe how to prepare a simple and delicious Italian tomato sauce. The principal ingredient, that I use, is Italian tomatoes type San Marzano. They have a medium dimension, a stretched shape and a bright red colour. There are ideal for the preparation of sauce because they are tasty. These types of tomatoes are grown in Campania in particular in the province of Salerno and the period of picking is from august to september. They are ideal if you use them fresh to prepare a tomato sauce as dressing of a first course, as shown in this recipe; but with them you can also prepare conserve of tomato sauce. Indeed when I was a child my mother usually bought a big quantity of tomatoes San Marzano and at the end of summer period we prepared this delicious tomato sauce.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
1,5 Kg of Tomatoes sammarzano
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 / 2 Onion cut in slices
Salt
Some leafs of basil

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Cilento Bianco DOC (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Wash and peel the tomatoes San Marzano.