Changing...

Buongiorno a tutti!

I'm writing after a long time...I'm writing just to let you know that I'm not disappeared but I'm experiencing an intense time of my life in which everything is changing around me, and maybe in me too...

All my energies right now are focused on this, but it doesn't mean that this blog is "dead"! No! I will write on it again very soon with new recipes and some reflection on this life in a foreign country that I'm going to start...

In the meanwhile, take care and enjoy every meal!

Noemi

CROSTONI CON FORMAGGIO DI FOSSA E COMPOSTA DI CILIEGIE

I'M SO SORRY!

I literally disappeared lately. I started a new amazing job and there are friends visiting and always news and...I confess I have to get more organize to go on with my blog!

Today I can write a new recipe because I'm forced to stay home because of a little accident...and so, here I am! With a new recipe. This one is a ANTIPASTO, made with an amazing italian cheese: Pecorino di Fossa. It is produced in Emilia Romagna. "Fossa" in Italian means "pit" and it refers to the fact that this cheese is aged in ancient pits excavated in the sand-stone.

Pairing it with cherries is an amazing idea I found several years ago in an italian cooking magazine. The add of lavander gives this dish a floral and unexpected note...

CROSTONI CON FORMAGGIO DI FOSSA E COMPOSTA DI CILIEGIE

TOOLS:

• 1 pot (una pentola)
• 1 baking pan (una teglia da forno)

TIMING:

• 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 slices of rustic bread (country style) (due fette di pane casereccio)
• 5,2 oz sliced Pecorino di Fossa (150 gr fette di Pecorino di Fossa)
• 8 oz cherries (2 etti di ciliegie)
• 1 tablespoon honey (1 cucchiaio di miele)
• black pepper (pepe nero)
• a pinch of lavander fowers (un pizzico di fiori di lavanda)

FIRST STEP:

• Wash the cherries, stone them and put them in a pot with ½ a glass of water, Honey, Lavender, pepper and cook for about 20 minutes at low heat, mixing from time to time

• Toast the bread slices. When they are golden arrange over the top the slices of cheese and grill everything for 2, 3 minutes till the cheese starts to melt

• Arrange the bread on a dish, cover with the stewed cherries and enjoy!

Cestini di Pecorino con Fave al Timo

Hi everybody!

Today is an amazingly hot day in Manhattan, wow!

Saturady I went at the green market and I found a legume I really love: fava beans! Here in Manhattan it is so difficult to find them, while in Italy they are especially grown in Toscana where they are traditionally eaten raw (the tender ones) with Pecorino, another excellence of that region.

Remembering that amazing "marriage" I have thought at this different version. I used a young Pecorino Toscano DOP (in English POD, Protected Designation of Origin).

This recipe is fresh, nice to see and sooo gooood!

Let's start!

Cestini di Pecorino con Fave al Timo

TOOLS:

• 1 pot
• 1 frying pan
• 1 glass
• a grater

INGREDIENTS:

• 7 ounces fava beans - weigh of the seeds (200 gr fave sgranate)
• 3.5 ounces Pecorino Toscano grated (100 gr Pecorino grattugiato)
• 1 ounce butter (25 gr burro)
• thyme (timo)
• olive oil (olio d'oliva)
• salt

FIRST STEP:

• Cook the cleaned fava beans in boiling water for 10 minutes, than dry them and pour them in a bowl with cold water for some minutes. After this operation you will easily be able to shell them.

Cuocere le fave in acqua bollente per 10 minuti quindi scolarle e versarle in una ciotola di acqua fredda. Dopo questa operazione sarà facile sgusciarle.

• Dress the fava beans with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and fresh thyme

Condire le fave con 3 cucchiai di fave, sale e timo fresco.

SECOND STEP:

• Heat a frying pan. Add a little piece of butter and, when it is melted, pour 2 tablespoons of grated Pecorino in the pan. You have to create a sort of "crepe" round shaped.

Scaldate una padella. Aggiungete un pò di burro e, quando è sciolto, aggiungete 2 cucchiai di Pecorino grattuggiato. Dovrete creare una sorta di cialda sottile e rotonda.

• Cook on low heat until it become light brown on the bottom. At that point turn off the fire and wait few seconds.

Cuocete finchè non vedete che sul fondo diventa leggermente dorato. Spegnete il fuoco e aspettate qualche secondo

THIRD STEP:

• With the aid of a large paddle take the cheese and overturn it on an overturned glass (!) so that it can take the shape of a basket. Be careful to help it stick to the glass.

Con l'aiuto di una spatola larga prendete il formaggio e capovolgetelo su un bicchiere capovolto così che possa prendere la forma di un cestino. Fate attenzione che la cialda aderisca al bicchiere.

FOURTH STEP:

• When the basket gets cool, take it and fill it with the fava beans. Dish and Enjoy!

Quando il cestino si è raffreddato prendetelo e riempitelo con le fave. Servite e Buon Appetito!

Salame di Cioccolato

Grey day, sad day, need something to cheer me up...

What better than a super Chocolate dessert?

So, here I am with my Salame di Cioccolato recipe!

For it I used pure and organic cocoa powder, Piedmont hazelnuts and Gallette a simple biscuits made of flour, milk and sugar.

The recipe is simple, so simple that it is essential to use a good butter, not salted, fresh and without any weird no-cholesterol, low-fat descriptions on the package. Butter must be butter! It's not evil, the important thing is to eat it right and do not exceed! It would be amazing to use the farmer's butter you can buy at the green-market, for example in Union Square.

So, let's start!

Salame di Cioccolato

TOOLS:

• a mixer
• 2 bowl
• wax paper (carta forno)

INGREDIENTS:

• 7 oz fresh butter (200 gr burro)
• 4,5 oz sugar (130 gr zucchero)
• 7 oz biscuits (200 gr biscotti tipo Oro Saiwa)
• 2 eggs
• 1,7 oz cocoa powder (50 gr polvere di cacao)
• 1,7 oz almonds (50 gr mandorle)
• 1,7 oz hazelnuts (50 gr nocciole)
• 1,7 oz pine nuts (50 gr pinoli)

FIRST STEP:

• Whip up the albumens with a little pinch of salt until firm and set apart in the fridge

montare a neve gli albumi con un pizzico di sale finchè non sono sodi e metterli in frigo

SECOND STEP:

• Grossly crumble the biscuits

sbriciolare grossolanamente i biscotti

• Grossly mince (with the mixer) almonds and hazelnuts being careful to keep them in quite big pieces

tritare grossolanamente mandorle e nocciole facendo attenzione a mantenerle in pezzi abbastanza grandi

THIRD STEP:

• Whip sugar and butter, than add the egg yolks, the cocoa powder and mix

Montare il burro con lo zucchero, quindi aggiungere i tuorli delle uova, il cacao e mescolare

• Add the crumbled biscuits and continue to mix, than add the albumens and gently combine with the other ingredients

aggiungere i biscotti sbriciolati, mescolare quindi aggiungere gli albumi e incorporare gentilmente agli altri ingredienti

• Now add the hazelnuts, the almonds and the pine nuts and go on kneading all the ingredients toghether: so funny!

aggiungere nocciole, mandorle e pinoli e continuare a impastare: è così divertente!

FOURTH STEP:

• create a "salame" and wrap it in the wax paper. Keep in the freezer for one night before eating. When you want to eat it just put it into the fridge for about half an hour before serving it and ... enjoy!

creare un "salame" con l'impasto e avvolgerlo in carta forno. Conservare in freezer per una notte prima di consumarlo. Quando lo si vuole mangiare metterlo nel frigo per mezz'ora circa prima di consumarlo e...buon appetito!