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Appetizer Recipes Italian Recipes

Bruschetta Fusion: A classic recipe with a new twist

Central Italy: Le Marche, Lazio, Umbria, and Tuscany, 4 regions of delicious Italian food history. Here the summers are hot and long, and home to Italian delights such as the grain farro, the spice saffron, chestnuts, white beans, and truffles, and the world’s finest olive oils.

And here we find the origins, and fables, of Bruschetta.

The most common bruschetta legend is that olives harvested in November and December were taken to the local central Italian mill for pressing, the mill having a burning fireplace. The presenters to the mill brought local Italian bread, grilled it on the fireplace and rubbed it with garlic. The toasty bread served as a canvas to test, and to show off their prized oils.

Or a less romantic story is from “The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink” by writer John Mariani, stating “”Bruschetta. Toasted bread, often rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. Also schiena d’asino, soma d’aj in the south, and fettunta in Tuscany. Bruschetta has always been a way to salvage bread that was going stale by adding oil and seasonings. Sometimes the bread is entirely immersed in oil, but usually the oil is poured on the top after the bread is rubbed with a garlic clove. In recent years adding toppings, particularly chopped onions and tomatoes, has become popular in restaurants.”

Rumors and legends aside, Bruschetta wins our heart. Tuscan Chef Gabriele Corcos with his beautiful wife Debi Mazar have won our heart as well, with their delicious video version of Bruschetta with a surprising twist!

Check out all of their delicious recipes and fall in love with them here, at Under The Tuscan Gun.

BRUSCHETTA WITH SAUSAGE, BRIE CHEESE AND FRESH HERBS
Gabriele Corcos – Under The Tuscan Gun

Serves: 6
Prep Time: 5
Cooking Time: 15 min. for the sausage sauce + 5 min. in the broiler

Ingredients
6 slices of bread
2 pork sausages (mild or hot according to taste)
¼ Lb of Brie Cheese (or other semi-soft cheese)
¼ Red Onion
1 Handful of Rosemary
1 Handful of Sage
½ Glass of White Wine
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper

How to:
-getting ready-
Chop the Onion finely and rinse the herbs thoroughly. Chop the sage finely.
Slice the bread.
Pop the wine open and start sipping!
Cooking your dish
Open the Sausages and sauté the meat with the onion in a tablespoon of olive oil for about 5 minutes in a medium sized non stick pan, until the meat starts browning.
Add the half glass of wine, the rosemary and the sage.
Cook for about 5-7 minutes, until the wine has been completely absorbed, take off the fire and set aside.
Toast your bread on a fire grill, in a toaster or on the barbecue; do not use a sandwich press, otherwise you will make crackers.

Note: the correct pronunciation of bruschetta is “broo-sketta”. If the video was not clear enough, here is a sample sound clip from an Italian female that should help you say it the right way:

Ingredient Spotlights

Savory Ingredient Spotlight – All About Asiago Cheese

Welcome to our second edition of the Savory Ingredient spotlight, featuring…drumroll please…Asiago cheese!

If Asiago had human personality traits, I would call it vibrant, outgoing, multifaceted, and cheerful, strong, and sincere. If you don’t know Asiago personally, consider befriending it, you may just fall in love.

Asiago is officially known and certified as Asiago D.O.P, which stands for Denominazione di Origine Protetta, in english, Protected Designation of Origin. By European law, the certified cheese is only produced in specific areas of Italy, which are the provinces of Trento and Vicenza, and the town of Asiago. Asiago is made with cow’s milk, and raw unpasteurized milk is typically preferred among cheese enthusiasts, as it tends to have a deeper, more complex flavor. Asiago is know as a mountain cheese, (as are Emmentaler and Gruyere), and the high alpine meadows upon which the milk cows graze contain specific grasses, plants, and flowers, all which contribute to the distinct flavor of certified Asiago cheese.

Asiago has two main varieties, fresh and ripened. The Asiago “Pressato” is the fresh variety, is made with whole milk, and aged for 20-40 days. Pressato has a softer, sweeter, nuttier taste than its older relative, “d’Allevo”. The more mature, ripened Asiago d’Allevo is produced with skim milk, and aged for up to two years. Asiago d’Allevo is firmer and slightly granular in texture, and has a stronger, more acidic, savory flavor.

When purchasing Asiago, look for the D.O.P designation, and choose cheese that is amber rather than brown in color. The presence of small holes is an indicator of a top quality Asiago.

In the following film clip, Lou DiPalo of DiPalo Selects, an online supplier of Italian specialty foods, visits master cheesemakers in the town of Asiago Italy, and they discuss the qualities of the superior DOP cheeses, and observe the making of Asiago Pressato. Give it a view!

Soup Recipes

Creamy red pepper soup with Chef Giada De Laurentiis

Born and raised in Rome, Food Network star Giada’s unpretentious family style italian cooking is as genuine as her smile.

In this video, Giada prepares a simple creamy roasted red pepper soup with made with potatoes, mascapone cheese, and fresh croutons.

Visit Giada on the Food Network here for the written recipe.

A bit of red pepper trivia: The green peppers you buy are actually the red variety, simply picked before they have ripened to red. This explains why they are sweeter and more expensive than the green bells, as the farmers need to tend the crops for a longer period of time. The harvest time is typically late summer and autumn. The ripened red peppers are more nutrient rich, having 9 times the antioxidant carotene and twice the vitamin C of green peppers.

When choosing red peppers, look for those that feel heavy, have a wrinkle and blemish free skin, and a strong healthy stem. Select organic peppers if possible, as bell peppers are one of the most heavily fertilized vegetables.

Italian Recipes Side Dish Recipes Vegetarian Recipes

Italian Chef Gino D’Acampo makes stuffed roasted tomatoes

Chef Gino D’Acampo is from Napoli, Italy, and began his education at Luigi de Medici Catering College at the age of thirteen! From there he continued his culinary skills in many restaurants in Europe, including Perignon in Nice and as Head Chef at Sylvester Stallone’s Mambo King in Marbella. Currently, Gino is Gino the owner of a leading supplier of Italian ingredients to the UK food industry, Bontà Italia Ltd, and now manufacturing his own pasta sauces and olive oils. Gino is also a celebrity chef who stars regularly on BBC’s Ready, Steady Cook, ITV1’s Daily and Saturday Cooks as well as celebrity food contest Soapstar and Superchef. As if this were not enough, Gino has also published an Italian recipe book titled Fantastico, which won the respectable award of “Gourmet Italian book of the year”.

In this video Gino prepares a tasty treat of goat cheese, mozzarella, and basil stuffed roasted tomatoes.


Find more videos like this on FoodTube.net

Cheese Stuffed Roasted Tomatoes
Chef Gino D’Acampo
Serves 6

Ingredients

6 beef tomatoes
2 tablespoons of crushed walnuts
180g goat’s cheese, without the rind and crumbled
150g Galbani Mini Mozzarella
6 thick slices of white bread
2 tablespoons freshly chopped basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Using a sharp knife, cut a thin slice from the bottom of each tomato and discard then cut the top of each tomato and reserve. Using a teaspoon, carefully scoop out the seeds and most of the pulp and discard, keeping the tomato shells whole.

In a bowl, mix together the mozzarella, walnuts, goat’s cheese and basil. Season with salt and pepper and spoon into the tomato shells. (3 mini mozzarella balls per tomato).

With the help of an 8cm round pastry cutter, stamp out 6 rounds from the bread slices and toast on both sides. When ready, place the bread in a single layer in a lightly oiled ovenproof dish. Place the tomatoes on top of each toasted piece of bread and cook in the middle of a preheated oven at 190º (375°F, gas mark 5) for approximately 15-20 minutes until the cheese mixture looks melted and golden. (Make sure that the tomatoes are not too soft).

Serve immediately and drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on top.

For more Gino D’Acampo recipes, visit www.galbani.co.uk

Italian Recipes

Viva Italy! Spinach and ricotta ravioli with mozzarella cheese and tomatoes

Our friends at ItalianFoodNet sent us this mouth watering recipe and video link via email. Oh my.

You must watch this video! It’s in Italian with English subtitles and it’s so fun, and Chef Allesandro is quite handsome we must say :). He makes a mouth watering spinach and ricotta cheese ravioli with buffalo mozzarella cheese, pachino tomatoes, onion, garlic, Parmesan and sage. A simple authentic Italian meal for dinner, what could be better?

Ravioli with Mozzarella Cheese and Tomatoes (Ravioli ricotta e spinaci con mozzarella e pachino)
Courtesy of ItalianFoodNet
Serves 4

Ingredients
500 gr (17.64 oz) Ricotta and Spinach Ravioli (pre prepared ravioli, either packaged or homemade)
200 gr (7.05 oz) Buffalo’s Milk Mozzarella
15 – 20 Pachino Tomatoes or Cherry Tomatoes
½ Onion
Garlic
Grated Parmesan cheese
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Fresh sage

Slice the onion, quarter the tomatoes and dice the Buffalo mozzarella
Pour the olive oil into a frying pan, add onion, 1 garlic clove then add some fresh sage leaves and let it brown
Add the tomatoes, season with salt and after 2 – 3 minutes add ½ ladle of cooking water.

Cook ravioli into boiling salted water. Once cooked, using a slotted spoon, drain and transfer them to the pan, add a handful of mozzarella, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and sauté. Transfer ravioli to a serving dish, top with mozzarella, sprinkle with grated Parmesan, drizzle with olive oil and serve.

Photo © ItalianFoodNet

Sandwich Recipes

The perfect simple Italian sandwich

Chef Keith Snow from Harvest Eating creates the perfect Italian sandwich. This would be a delicious treat for hungry football guests on a weekend!

Ingredients:

2 slices ciabatta style rustic bread,
2 slices provolone cheese
1/2 cup romaine lettuce, shredded
2 tbs vinaigrette dressing (you could use any grocery store vinaigrette, or make your own with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, basil, salt and pepper)
2 slices natural ham
2 slices genoa salami
2 slices capicola ham

Italian Recipes Seafood Recipes

Sicilian Caponata with Seared Tuna Steak with Chef Matteo Carboni

Chef Matteo Carboni from the Academia Barilla Culinary School shows us in this video recipe how to make a Sicilian dish, Caponata, which he pairs with a seared tuna steak.

Caponata is a Southern Italian traditional recipe, a typical side dish in Sicilian cuisine. The main ingredients are eggplants, bell peppers, onions, and zucchini, cooked with mint, garlic, capers, pine nuts, white vinegar, pistachios, dried sultanas, sugar and vinegar.

In a frying pan Chef Carboni pours a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, and sautes the red onion first, then red pepper, and at last, the zucchini.

After a 3 or 4 minutes minutes we can add the other ingredients: capers, sultanas, pine nuts, sugar, white vinegar, pistachios, and the deep fried eggplant. Once the Caponata is ready, Chef Carboni puts it at rest in a warm place, and moves on to the Tuna steak.

The tuna steak should be at least 1 inch thick to be correctly seared, advices Chef Carboni.
In a frying pan Chef Carboni puts some Italian extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic (to be removed later) and sears the tuna steak with 1 minute cooking time per side approx. When the tuna steak is seared, it can be served as a whole steak, or cut into slices, as in Chef Carboni’s serving suggestion.
Chef Matteo Carboni suggests to use a tin stamp to serve the caponata on the side of the dish, while serving the sliced seared tuna steak on the other side, not before giving a final touch with extra virgin olive oil, natural sea salt, and freshly ground pepper. As a final presentation touch, Chef Matteo adds deep fried basil leaves. Yum.

For more Italian food recipes visit Academia Barilla’s Italian Food Lovers blog.

Sicilian Caponata with Seared Tuna Steak
Servings 4
Chef Matteo Carboni

Ingredients

1 lb tuna
3 ½ oz onion
3 ½ oz eggplant
3 ½ oz zucchini
3 ½ oz red pepper
1 oz raisins
1 oz pine nuts
1 oz pistachios
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
1 oz sugar
1 clove of garlic
1 pinch salt
black pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil to taste

Prepare as above.