Pasta amatriciana recipe italian pasta matriciana recipe http://bte.tc/DMC #OPP

I really love this recipe. More than the recipe itself it is important to understand the method for the cooking. The dish is very delicate and light, very appropriate also for diet and upset stomachs. I like for this recipe to use the oven, but very often in Italy the stove is used instead. The reason i use the oven is that on the stove it is easier that the fish will brake into peaces. When cooking it on the stove you must cook it at low heat.

Very popular is also the use of real sea water, which for me now is not possible.

Image Fish recipe

The simplicity of the recipe enhances the taste of very fresh fish, and it is good for a lot of different kinds of fishes. i used red snapper, but please don’t hesitate to try it with your favorite kind.

Ingredients for two

half a pound red snapper, a small onion, one clove of garlic, fresh parsley and basil and or any aromatic herb you like with fish ( I use the same procedure to cook salmon with fresh dill) half a tomato or better some cherry tomatoes,  one teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, but more often i use a table spoon of wine, a scarce spoon of olive oil salt and pepper half a cup of water.

Possible add-on a sprinkle of lemon juice

Recipe

Look at the photo to make yourself a better idea. I cooked the fish for 40 minutes at 350 degrees covering the tray with aluminum foil.

A wine to pare with

Image Recipe

I love biancolella which is a fresh simple honest wine made from the varietal that has the same name. Produced mainly in Ischia and around Naples it is also mentioned in the movie Avanti of Billy Wilder. About this wine it is said that the more you drink it the more you enjoy it. I think it is because it feels very refreshing to the taste, as it hides its alcoholic content very well. So be careful!

Linguine with duck sauce venitian recipe http://bte.tc/DMB #OPP

DUCK LINGUINE

This recipe not only has an incredible taste, but it is a traditional dish of the region Veneto in the north eastern part of Italy. More the recipe is one of the dishes eaten during the feast of Redentore that takes place every year in Venice. The feast is celebrated every third weekend of July. It is a tradition that goes back to the 16th century to celebrate the end of a Black Death epidemic. This is also why the architect Palladio the one that designed the famous Venetian villas was charged to design the church of Redentore, to which every year for the occasion of the feast a bridge of barges is built, making the walk from Saint Mark square to the church possible.

On Saturday night the venetians party on their boats in front of Saint Mark square. During the party there is a big fireworks show. It is tradition to eat bigoli, a special kind of pasta, with duck on the boat with other typical dishes. Unfortunately you will not find the pasta with duck in many Venetian restaurants. You will find excellent one in trattorias on the way to Conegliano one hour car away from Venice, the area where they produce the special sparkling wine prosecco.

In the U.S.A. you can’t find the special pasta called bigoli which is fresh pasta without egg. So i used fresh linguine.

Ingredients

4 oz of duck, 6 oz of fresh pasta, one spoon of butter, a piece of bouillon, a table spoon red wine , a small onion, a half clove garlic, a half bay leaf, salt pepper

Recipe

Practically you have to make a duck ragout sauce, and this is why you have to cook it very long. Start by melting the butter; add the onion and the garlic plus the bay leaf, than the very thinly cut duck meat and the wine. Correct with salt and pepper to your taste.

Cook for at least one hour at very low heat, covering the pan with a lid.

When the meat gets tender, than it is time to prepare the pasta.

In the traditional recipe you should boil the pasta in the duck broth, but as this is not that easy, i just put some bouillon cube about one third in the water.

When the pasta is ready pass it in the pan. The secret for a good sauce is that it should stay attached to the pasta, so not that liquid, but also not that dry. If you notice that the pasta is getting to dry add more butter.

Serve warm and if you like with parmesan on the side. I like the sweet taste of the duck, which you can enhance by using a red dessert wine for the cooking.

Peposo dell’Impruneta tuscan meat stew http://bte.tc/fcW #OPP

For Italian cooking olive oil is considered a very important ingredient. So if you want to cook authentic Italian try always to use a good extra virgin oil. On this page of the main site i wrote something about it, that hopefully you will enjoy.

Today to many Italian restaurants reply on cheaper oils. This is a too big compromise in the taste and quality of the food. hopefully in the future we will see more transparency in the ingredients used by all kind of restaurants.

I am trying to list all wine museums in the world at http://www.italianrecipesblog.com/World_Wine%20_Museums.htm

Rice stuffed Tomatoes

This is a recipe that has been very popular in Italy, especially when Italians where not as wealthy as today. Unfortunately it is not very proposed at restaurants, but if you try it you will notice its pleasant taste. More than this it is a light dish and easy to digest, making it

a very popular home prepared dish during the worm roman summer. A lot of apartments don’t have air conditioning and so we have our dinners on the balconies during the summer, to enjoy the cool afternoon breeze. So when i was living in Rome this was the way I was enjoying my tomatoes stuffed with rice. Of course accompanied with a nice glass of cold white wine.  After dinner we than usually enjoy a glass of limoncello. I have seen that the recipe of the tomatoes has been proposed by Giada De Laurentis but without potatoes. Well the true roman cook the tomatoes with the potatoes. The potatoes absorb the juices from the tomatoes, getting a wonderful taste. And again please no cheese. This recipe has been born without cheese. Of course you can prepare it as you like but the authentic has no cheese at all.

INGREDIENTS

for each tomato one spoon of Italian short grain rice like arborio, one spoon of oil, one medium potato, garlic, salt, pepper, dry basil.

Add-ons: there is also a more spiced version that i like with anchovy paste and capers.

Recipe

Half an hour before the cooking wash the rice and keep it in water. Cut the top of the tomato and hollow it. Take the rice out of the water mix it with the chopped inside  

of the tomato, the garlic, salt and pepper and basil with some oil. Put the stuffed tomatoes

in an oven dish surrounded by potatoes. Cook for around 45 minutes one hour at 400 degrees. Check for the rice and the potatoes to be entirely cooked.

Wine

One of my favorite wines to pare with this dish is a white sauvignon from Collio placed in the Friuli region in Italy. The north east of Italy is reputed to produce some of the best white wines. Some of this have wonderful   herbal scents including the tomato leaf. Unfortunately prices can be high over 20 dollars per bottle

Italian Strawberry risotto recipe

This recipe makes a delicious risotto with strawberries. I have seen on the web that there are a lot of different strawberry risotto recipes. The secret for me is to keep it very simple and not to use any cheese or cream. Why? The taste of the strawberries is very delicate and cheese or cream shade it. I have seen that in Italian American  cuisine there is a large use of cheese and it is put almost everywhere. Not in Italy and this reminds me the funny face of waiters in Italy when they see Americans put cheese on spaghetti with clams. There are so many dishes where cheese is considered a no no.   Mainly for everything that is considered having a delicate taste cheese is not used. I have tried both recipes with cream and cheese and without and the fragrance of the strawberries is more intact with the second one. For the rice you should use the short round Italian varietals like  riso Arborio, riso superfino Carnaroli and riso Vialone Nano, just to mention some.

 Recipe:

Ingredients:5oz rice, strawberries  one and a half cup, butter one table spoon, a small onion, a cup of white wine, a meat bouillon diluted in two cups of warm water or better chicken or meat broth

For me it is good use to wash the rice and keeping it in water at least half an hour before the cooking. The rice that way absorbs water and cooks better. It is for me bringing the rice back to its origins. For the strawberries wash them than cut them into pieces and keep them in the wine for at least half an hour before cooking. The wine has to be a delicate wine with good acidity. I used a Washington Riesling. The wine has a good price it is good for the cooking and what is left goes very well to be served with the risotto.

Fry the onion in the butter than add the rice. The main thing of a risotto is the continuous stirring with a wooden spoon adding the warm broth or the in warm water diluted bouillon little by little.

Depending on the rice usually the cooking of a risotto takes twenty minutes. After ten minutes add the strawberries with the wine and continue stirring until rice is ready.

Tommaso

About bellini rossini mimosa and other Italian drinks

Finally with my wife we bought a juicer, for having healthy food, but also to prepare refreshing drinks during the summer.

The base for this drinks is prosecco a wine produced in the Veneto region in an area close to the city of Treviso about one hour car away from Venice. Prosecco is also the name of the varietal and is recognized by the Italian wine laws, with the doc and recently the docg for the area around Valdobbiadene.  With the new laws there will be a bigger reduction in the allowed production per hectare, both for the doc and the docg. Here is an article if you want to learn more.

The sparkling of the wine is obtained by using the Charmat method, in which the secondary fermentation takes place in sealed stainless steel tanks.

I like prosecco by it, but as the summer is starting today, i also like the famous Italian drinks that are prepared with.

First the bellini, the name was given in honor of the Venetian renaissance painter not to be confused with the Sicilian opera composer.

Bellini Ingredients for two

One peach and one third of a prosecco bottle

Recipe

Pass the peach in the juicer and divide the juice in two flutes glasses. Put the glasses in the freezer and after fifteen minutes take the glasses with the juice out of the freezer.  You should add two thirds prosecco to one third juice to have a perfect balance. Stir with a long cocktail spoon.

Rossini

For the rossini one bowl of fresh strawberries and follow the same procedure. This time the drink is named in honor of the Italian opera composer.

Mimosa: squeeze one orange for two and follow same procedure

Something special and not so known is the Tintoretto prepared with the same proportions using pomegranate juice. The name comes from a famous venetian painter.

But if you go to Italy, although the origins of this drinks except mimosa are from Veneto, you will see people drinking splitz as an aperitif drink.

I like it prepare with one third of bitter campari and two third prosecco. The usual drink is one third aperol, cynar or bitter campari or any other drink, one third of white wine and one third of seltzer.

It is good to serve it with a big green olive inside on a long tooth pick.

Don’t confuse this drinks with kir or kir royal, which are prepared with French wines.