Category: Italian cuisine

Strawberry Panna Cotta !

“Honey or condensed milk with your bread” he was so excited that he said, “Both,” and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, “but don’t bother about the bread, please.”

A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
Strawberry Panna Cotta

Panna Cotta Ingredients:
– 300ml 33% cream
– 150ml milk
– 90g sugar
– 1g vanilla
– 1/3 tsp agar agar powder
– 100g strawberry

Serving ingredients:
– 100g strawberry

Method:
1 Slice washed strawberries and put them in the glasses
2 Combine in a pan milk+33% cream+sugar+vanilla+agar agar powder
3 Warm up the mixture until boiling constantly stirring
4 Set the pan aside for 3 minutes
5 Pour the creamy mixture from the pan into the glasses over the strawberries
6 Put the glasses in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight and enjoy Panna Cotta with fresh strawberries and … wonderful mood !

Hints:
1 Some agar agar powders are different from others. One might need to make a first try to adjust agar agar amount 🙂
2 Before serving let Panna Cotta stay a little bit outside the fridge, it is tastier when it is not completely cold !

Paccheri con Salmone !

Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.

Umberto Eco
Paccheri con Salmone

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 180g salmon
– 100ml 33% cream
– 300g durum wheat semolina pasta (ideally, Italian Pasta Superior Semola)
– 3 garlic clothes
– 80g Parmesan
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon pepper
– 1/2 tablespoon olive oil for frying

Method:
1 Grate Parmesan into a bowl and put in the fridge for now
2 Cut salmon into 1.5cm cubes
3 Chop garlic into 0.5cm cubes
4 Simultaneously start boiling pasta (5) and cooking salmon (6)
5 Boil pasta in the salty water until ready and drain the water
6 Cook salmon for 5 minutes in olive oil with garlic, then add 33% cream and stew for another 5 minutes
7 Put the pasta in the frying pan with salmon for 1 minute, carefully mix and transfer to the serving plates
8 Sprinkle pasta with grated Parmesan, add black pepper and serve immediately !

Homemade potato gnocchi with spinach-gorgonzola sauce !

It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words, like ‘What about lunch?’.

A.A. Milne
Potato Gnocchi with Spinach-Gorgonzola sauce Recipe

Gnocchi ingredients:
– 400g baked or boiled potatoes
– 1 egg
– 80g wheat flour
– 1g salt
– 1g pepper

Sauce ingredients:
– 100g Gorgonzola
– 100ml 33% cream
– 125g baby spinach
– 30g pine nuts
– 4 sprigs green onions

Method:
1 Peel and wash potatoes, cut them into 1cm cubes
2 Boil potatoes cubes for 10 minutes, drain the water and let them cool down
3 Knead a dough from the dough ingredients and divide it into 4 equal parts
4 Make a 1.5cm diameter sausage out of each piece of dough
5 Cut each sausage into 0.7cm-width gnocchi and put them on a floured plate
6 Gorgonzola sauce:
6.1 Toast the pine nuts without oil until golden, put them in a bowl aside
6.2 Wash baby spinach and let it dry
6.3 Melt Gorgonzola in 33% cream on a frying pan
6.4 When Gorgonzola is melted, add spinach to the frying pan: simmer for 4 minutes
7 Put gnocchi in a boiling salted water, cook for 4 minutes
8 Drain the water and carefully mix the gnocchi in the Gorgonzola sauce: gnocchi are ready !
9 Decorate gnocchi with toasted pine nuts and green onions !

Homemade Tiramisu !

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
In secret, between the shadow and the soul.

Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonets
Homemade Tiramisu

Ingredients (2-4 servings):
– 250g Mascarpone
– 100ml 33% cream
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 10-14 Savoiardi biscuits
– 150ml strong black coffee
– 1 tablespoon cocoa for serving

Method:
1 Make Mascarpone cream: mix Mascarpone with sugar & 33% cream: don’t make it too liquid ! 🙂
2 Brew a really strong black coffee !
3 Pour brewed coffee in a plate and let it cool down
4 Now put in the glasses layer by layer (you might use less or more Savoiardi biscuits depending on how high Mascarpone layers you would like to have):
4.1 Savoiardi biscuits dipped each side for 1 second in a coffee-plate
4.2 Mascarpone cream, return to 4.1 if the glass is not full yet 😉
5 Decorate with cocoa on top
6 Put Tiramisu in a fridge overnight
7 Enjoy Tiramisu with a nice old-style black&white movie !