Ciambelline Pasquali alla Ricotta (Ricotta Ring Cakes for Easter)

It was a hot Summer's night and she sat outside with her sister... the sky was so deep and dark ... so many stars, so many sounds... familiar sounds of a past life filled the Italian night.


A sudden breeze brought the scent of waves and seaweed. As she closed her eyes, she smelt freesias... sweet scented freesias... that scent was there, again...
"Did you smell that?"- she asked her sister "Yes, I did... it's her scent!" Was she there with us? I don't know, but I felt love all around.


My mother smelt of freesias, her lips were as red as tulips and her eyes as silver as a deep lake. I liked to think that she had come to "visit."

She loved Spring. In Spring, our house was filled with the scent of almond blossom, tulips and freesias. When she opened the windows, every morning, a sea of multicoloured anemoni ran through the house, whilst the swallows sang a beautiful love song and I imagined ancient olive trees running towards the sea, as the wind bent and chased them. I knew it had done that for hundreds of years...


Our mother brought scent, beauty and colour in our lives... she brought sun, she brought life and love. She had a wonderful smile...


She loved Spring and blue skies, most of all. I believed my mother "was" Spring. We lived in the city, but our mother always brought us gifts which told stories about the sea and the countryside.


Spring didn't last very long, in Italy, as the weather suddenly got so hot, you went straight into Summer.
I knew it was Spring, as our house was filled not just with flowers, but also with lots of culinary "joys": silvery green artichokes, zucchine flowers, bright green peas still in the pod and... ricotta! When I say ricotta, I don't mean a tiny, little ricotta, but something which could weigh up to 1 kg! Beautiful, creamy, white, soft ricotta...


At Easter, we made "Pizza di Ricotta" a lattice pie, filled with a sweet filling of ricotta, egg, sugar, vanilla and lemon peel. We also had "ricotta fritta" slices of ricotta, dipped in flour, then beaten egg, just simply fried and dipped in lots of sugar (Spring delight, believe me!)


My mum made the loveliest soft biscuits, or were they cakes (?) using ricotta as one of the main ingredients.  I found the recipe and decided to make the little cakes. This is how I made them: 

Ciambelline Pasquali alla Ricotta

(Ricotta Ring Cakes for Easter)

Ingredients:

(makes 18-20 ciambelline)

300 g (10 oz) ricotta

400 g (14 oz)plain flour

100 g (5 oz) caster sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

the rind of 1 lemon
a few drops of vanilla essence

some extra caster sugar

icing sugar 

Preheat your oven (180 C , 350F, Gas 4 )

Place your ricotta in a bowl and, with help of a fork, mix it, till it reaches a creamy consistency. Set aside.

Put the flour on a surface or a large pastry board, and make a well in the middle.  Add your caster sugar, eggs lemon peel, vanilla, baking powder and carefully incorporate. If the mixture is too liquid, add more flour.


Your dough should be solid, but soft, at the same time. Cover the dough and leave to rest for half an hour. Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee, and wait... 


Half an hour later...
Make your dough into a big cylinder shape, then start making your ciambelle. Cut the dough into slices, about 2 cm wide, roll each one into a thin "sausage" shape, join the two ends, to form a round "ciambella" (a circle) and... that's it... your first one is done! To make the cake look prettier, as it cooks, you can, like I did, make a few incisions into the dough, with a knife. 

I managed to make eighteen ciambelline. In fact, I made ciambelline and a few knot shaped little cakes, by simply using the "sausage" to make a knot.
Each of my ciambelline and knots were dipped in some caster sugar I had set aside on a plate, and then placed on greaseproof paper, on a baking tray.

The cakes only took about twenty minutes to cook.

 Once out of the oven, I let them cool down, then decided they would look prettier if I sifted some icing sugar all over them. And they did!

From Italy With Love: Tortelloni pasta filled with cheese and green vegetables ( I Miei Tortelloni verdi alle Erbette e Gorgonzola)

She sat next to her mother. She had to have a small chair, as she was tiny. Watching her mother make pasta (she occasionally made orecchiette or cavatelli) was a special treat. The little girl often played with plasticine... (she had made hundreds of crocodiles and roses) but... watching her mother produce those perfect little ears out of dough was quite something! She was clever and so fast!

She never mastered the art of making "orecchiette"... very ,very hard... but, for as long as she lives, she will never forget her mum's clever hands.

That little girl was me! And yes... I remember sitting next to her and eating little bits of pasta dough, but I never learnt how to make "orecchiette." Deep down, my mum knew that I belonged to a new generation of Italian women, the kind who can walk into a food store and by orecchiette made by a machine which could almost replicate the real thing. Shame the main ingredient is missing: LOVE!

I made ravioli, today... green ravioli, using rocket, fresh spinach and basil to obtain the colour I wanted. The dough turned out a delicate shade of green I loved. My ravioli was big... so big, you would need just  three, or four, if you are a bit greedy, to fill you up (lovely starter-primo piatto!)

It was very exciting, as I created this recipe all by myself. If I could have shaken my own hand, I would have done, as my creation was full of flavour and truly delicious!

Please don't be put off by the list of ingredients! The dish is really easy and well worth trying! If I can make it, so can anyone!

  Tortelloni Verdi

Ripieni di Verdure e

Gorgonzola

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the pasta:

250 g (8 oz) plain flour

1/2 cup warm water

1 egg

salt

1 handful rocket

3 sprigs basil

1 handful fresh spinach

or some frozen spinach, thawed

Filling:

1 eggs

100g (about 4 oz) Gorgonzola cheese

1 clove garlic

some chilli pepper

(optional)

1 handful grated Parmesan

2 handfuls uncooked rocket

a few basil leaves

pepper

For the sauce:

8 tbs olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1/2 sliced chilli pepper

1/2 kg ( 1lb, 1oz) baby cherry or plum tomatoes

black pepper

salt

2 tbs Balsamic vinegar

3 handfuls rocket

some basil

To serve:

Grated parmesan

100 g (about 4 oz) crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

To make your pasta, cook the vegetables first, in some boiling water. Drain, then blend, till you get a soft, smooth "cream."

Place the flour on the table, make a well in the middle, then add one egg, the blended vegetables and some salt. Knead till you get a smooth dough. Cover and let the dough rest for twenty minutes.

You are now ready to make your filling. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk until fluffy, then add your Gorgonzola, crumbled, pepper, a handful of rocket, a sprig of fresh basil, and a generous handful of grated Parmesan. I also added a very small clove of garlic, very finely chopped. As you can see... some chopped chilli was also added!

Mix all the ingredients together and... it's made!

You are now ready to roll out your pastry. Cut the dough into several pieces, the size of a small bread roll. Roll each out, into a long shape, trying to obtain, from each piece, four squares (about 15 cm long and wide)

Place a very  generous teaspoon of the filling in the middle of each square, then fold the square into a triangle "paint water on two of the sides, to make sure the triangle is sealed so the filling stays inside.

Place the triangle down, on a surface. With some water, join the two corners at the base of the triangle and... ABRACADABRA! You've made a tortellone!

If you follow this recipe, you should get between 14 and 16 tortelloni. It depends on how big or small you make them.

Cook in salted boiling water, for about 5 minutes, then drain.

While your pasta is cooking, make the sauce: put the oil in a pan, heat, then add your chilli pepper and the tomatoes (cut into halves if you are using baby ones-do not squash.)

 Five or six minutes later, you can pour your Balsamic in.

 Let evaporate, stir and finally add two very generous handfuls of rocket and some basil. After adding salt and pepper, take off the heat, add your cooked ravioloni (be gentle with them!) and serve, with a sprinkling of Parmesan and some crumbled Gorgonzola. 

Don't ask me how it tastes, because the flavour is unique and words could not describe how good this dish is. I find it really exciting!

 I am loving Balsamic vinegar. Added to a light sauce, it certainly makes it taste truly special!

Look inside my tortelloni!

WOW!

Magnifico! 

Carbonara in Due Modi (My two "FANTASTICHE" Spaghetti alla Carbonara Recipes!)

This is my big brother Mimmo... Not just a pretty face! He's quite the CHEF!

When we were little, I never saw him in the kitchen cooking, like I was, always helping our mother, confidently having fun, under her watchful eye! But... as soon as my mother was out of the way, Mimmo turned into a "masterchef!" He always made little pizzas which were totally hideous and inedible! It was so much fun, I ate them, pretending they were truly special. His zabaione, I would never taste, believing that he had made it with eggs and salt, rather than sugar.

As we grew up, he carried on being a secret chef, when our mamma was out of sight. Now, he really, really cooks like a chef!

One Summer afternoon, my brother even caught an "ingredient": a very naive pigeon (the city kind!) by making a trail of melon seeds. When the pigeon walked into the living room, Mimmo shut the window. You can imagine the panic! We were terrified of the bird and didn't know how to set it free! The screams could be heard all the way to Albania and Greece, across the Adriatic sea. We had never eaten pigeon and were not really intending to eat that one, but, you know... men are hunters, aren't they? So they say...

One very hot Summer day, a few years later, our parents went out for the day... The kitchen was ours! I made a salad using my favourite ingredients: frankfurters and boiled eggs, very "cleverly" arranged on a plate, the sausages  sliced and, into millions of little rounds, looking very" pretty!" That's what I though, anyway!

Mimmo, my brother, made an authentic Carbonara, using, as you do, very few ingredients. As he used butter, I didn't eat any of it, but I am sure it tasted really delicious!

Carbonara isn't really a sauce, as such. Certainly not something which can be preserved in a jar, and sold in a supermarket, as they do abroad.  Good knows what it must taste like! Please, never, ever buy "Italian" sauces in jars: they are hideous and full of artificial flavourings.

I love buying and cooking with fresh  ingredients! In Italy, vegetables are locally produced, GM is illegal and I can't tell you how exciting, walking round an Italian food  market can be! 

Today, I made two kinds of Carbonara: The first follows the traditional recipe, made by my brotheras you would eat in an Italian home (in Italy) or in a restaurant, in Italy. The second recipe I discovered in one of my Italian monthly food magazines. I used smoked salmon, instead of fresh, as I don't really like eating pasta with fresh salmon or fish (though I love it with shellfish, prawns and even cuttlefish!) I also added an extra ingredient, for colour and texture: asparagus. It was delicious!

Here are my recipes. Do try them!

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Serves 2:

Ingredients:

300 g (11 oz) spaghetti

50g ( 2 oz) butter

1tbsp olive oil

100 g (3 1I2 oz) pancetta or Parma Ham, diced

3 eggs

2 generous handfuls grated Parmesan cheese

salt

a generous sprinkling of black pepper

This is a very quick dish to prepare.

In a large pan, boil some water. When it comes to the boil, add your spaghetti and some salt and cook "al dente."

While your spaghetti is cooking, put the butter in a largish frying pan with the oil (the oil will prevent the butter from going brown too quickly) and let it melt. Add your pancetta or Parma Ham (Prosciutto Crudo) and cook until golden. Take off the heat.

In a bowl, beat the eggs tom a creamy texture, then add all your cheese with some pepper. Some chefs only use the yolks and whisk them over a bain marie. I made it as one would in an ordinary Italian home, "mamma style!"

When your pasta is ready, drain (, reserve some of the cooking liquid, in case your finished dish is too dry for you) then pour it into the pan, with the pancetta and butter. Turn the heat on, mix and add the egg and Parmesan mixtures. Mix all the ingredients together, until well blended. Serve with an extra sprinkling of cheese a lots of black pepper (I use black and pink!) As you can see, I garnished my dish with a 

few leaves of radicchio

Enjoy your authentic Spaghetti alla Carbonara: very good, genuine, simple everyday Italian food at its best!

Eat immediately! 

This is my second recipe. Not a traditional Carbonara, but good all the same, for the fish lovers!

Spaghetti alla Carbonara con Salmone Affumicato e Asparagi

(Spaghetti Carbonara with Smoked Salmon and Asparagus)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

300 g ( 11 oz)spaghetti

50g (2 oz)  butter

1 tbsp olive oil

100g (3 1I2oz) smoked salmon (cut into strips)

3 eggs

2 handfuls Parmesan Cheese

5 tbsp single cream

10  asparagus spears, poached for a couple of minutes (keep four whole and dice the rest)

Cook your spaghetti, as explained in the previous recipe. Cook the asparagus in boiling water for a couple of minutes, just before serving.

In a large frying pan, place the butter and oil, followed by the  salmon. Cook for a minute or so, then remove from the heat.

Whisk the eggs in a bowl, add the cream, whisk together, then add Parmesan and Black pepper. Cut the cooked asparagus into smallish pieces and add to the egg mixture.

Drain your spaghetti, add to the salmon in the frying pan, mix, then add your cream,asparagus  egg and cheese mixture and blend together. Feel free to add more cheese, if you like and lots of lovely black pepper. Garnish each serving with a couple of asparagus spears. I love asparagus so much, I eat it Raw!

Try this unusual recipe: it's delicious, If, like me, you don't eat butter, you can use olive oil, instead!

Che buono!

Pappardelle alla Barbabietola con Formaggio di Capra e Verdurine (Pink Beetroot Pappardelle Pasta with Goat's Cheese and Baby Leaves)

It's cold outside, My house and garden are covered in snow... so much white, I felt like cooking something summery and full of colour.

Outside, today...

Beetroot is everywhere...all over the shops a fashionable ingredient, you would say! But, with its distinct "earthy" flavour it's not an easy one to cook with!

But Anna remembers her mamma boiling enormous beetroot for what seemed hours, in water and vinegar. How she disliked the smell of earth which filled the house as the roots cooked in the big pot of Fuchsia pink water and how she disliked peeling the "things" and getting her fingers a very bright shade of shocking pink!

But she loved being in the kitchen with Mamma Rosa and she would happily stand on a stool, carefully placed under the table, and get her hands "dirty" if it meant spending "cooking time" in the kitchen with her beautiful mother.

Once cooked and peeled (by me!) the beetroot was preserved in vinegar, and mamma would use it in salad, sliced, and simply dressed with olive oil, salt, chopped garlic and parsley.

I created the recipe below for a competition (even the fresh beetroot pasta recipe is mine) and I must say, it works. This dish is, to me, the equivalent of a box full of flavours, colours and textures totally Mediterranean)

Pappardelle alla Barbabietola con Formaggio di Capra e Verdurine 

( Pink Beetroot Pappardelle Pasta with Soft Goat's Cheese and Baby Leaves. Very pink and beautiful!)

Pappardelle alla Barbabietola

con Formaggio di Capra e Verdurine

(Pink Beetroot Pappardelle Pasta

with Goat's Cheese and Baby Leaves)

 For the pasta:

200 g Plain Flour

 One medium sized Beetroot boiled, peeled

and mashed

pinch of salt

For the Sauce:

 Six tablespoons of Olive Oil

 Balsamic Vinegar

 Two cloves of Garlic

 Half a red Chilli Pepper

 Mixed baby leaves

 65 g of soft Goat's cheese

 A few cubes of diced Beetroot for garnish

Pinch of salt

Before you start, puree your boiled and peeled beetroot. Make sure you get a really creamy, blended texture-no bits! Next, place the flour on a clean surface make a well in the centre and place your pureed beetroot in the middle, with a large pinch of salt. Gradually incorporate the two ingredients. If the mixture seems too dry, add a small amount of warm water. You should get a firm, but soft dough.

 Divide the dough in two pieces, roll each one out until it is 3 mm thick. With the help of a knife, cut your pasta into long strips 3 cm wide. Then, starting at the top, cut diagonally, to obtain diamond shaped pasta (Pappardelle.)

Heat some water in a pan and add some salt. When the water comes to the boil add your pasta. While your pasta is cooking, make the sauce. Place the oil in the frying pan and when the oil is really hot add your finely chopped cloves of garlic. Once the garlic is golden, add some sliced chilli pepper and a handful of baby leaves. Stir to mix the ingredients and take off the heat, as the vegetables should be warm, and firm.

Next, drain your pasta and add to the frying pan with the other ingredients. Blend everything together very gently.

Serve on a plate with another handful of uncooked baby leaves, some diced beetroot (boiled and peeled) and the diced Goat's cheese. Finally, drizzle with a few drops of Balsamic vinegar and olive oil over the dish, to add extra flavour. 

If you scroll down, you will also notice the beautiful salad I made by cooking a couple of beetroot in half water and half vinegar. This process took about one hour. I peeled the cooked beetroot and diced, to make a wonderful salad, by adding olive oil, salt, mixed baby salad leaves and pink peppercorns. Just beautiful and fresh!

My Delicious Meatballs in Tomato Sauce with Pasta ( Pasta alla Salsa di Pomodoro con Deliziose polpette)

 

She had a beautiful Christmas tree, red and white, with millions of fairy lights, which flickered happily in the dark evenings. In the morning, throughout the holidays, she would wake up early, and play beautiful Christmas songs, all the way from America, and Carols, from England, of course. The Viennese Waltz made her dream of dancing in a beautiful palace wearing the pink dress she dreamt of, as a child.

 

Every time, her mind would go back to her childhood years, in Italy. Being the youngest in the family, on Christmas Eve, she had to walk round the house, holding a statuette of Baby Jesus, for everyone to kiss, before she carefully placed it in the crib, between his Mum and Dad, Maria e Giuseppe, and in front of an ox and a donkey.

 

The sounds of Christmas were different, then. Everybody sang "Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle" and she felt so important, carrying the Holy Baby in her little hands, carefully cupped, to make sure " HE" didn't get dropped.

 

When you were born in the Country where every day, though you live in a city, you can smell oranges, resin and seaweed, there is no Bing Crosby or Holly or Ivy, that can take away those scents. It's a kind of addiction and it's what my mind and my heart miss so much: the scent of a happy past!

 

How I wish, every Christmas, that I could go back in time and help my Babbo make a little duck pond for our Nativity. How I wish I could peel those pungent mandarin oranges, and pick resin off the trunk of one of those Mediterranean pines I loved so much.

 

 I believe our mind is like a computer: you push a button and millions of windows open up and carry you back to the past, just when you are happily making mince pies and listening to "White Christmas!"

 

I never had a white Christmas, as a child, but, what I do remember are the smiles, the scents, shopping with my dad, music and laughter.

 

"Smells like Italy, Mummy!" My daughter Gabriella said to me one day, in the holidays! Just like Mamma's house!" (Mamma is my mother, her grandmother.)

 

As much as I try to cook Italian food with a contemporary twist, the kind of food my mamma used to cook, did smell "Like Italy!"

 

It's the kind of food which makes you homesick for the past... that special kind of eternal, universal past, which is hidden right there, inside you. I think you could call it love and, if I have not managed to do really special things in life, I know that I have succeeded in one thing: bringing  my children up to be bilingual, proud of their Italian heritage and... very good cooks!

 

So, here is a recipe from Mamma Rosa's kitchen. It was her birthday on the 17th of last month. I feel joyful when I remember her.

 

My Mum's recipe for Pasta alla  Salsa al Pomodoro con Deliziose Polpette ( Delicious Meatballs in Tomato Sauce With Pasta) is here, ready to be shared with you.

 

 

 

Pasta alla Salsa al Pomodoro con Deliziose  Polpette

 

Ingredients

 

Serves 4

 

For the sauce:

 

5-6 tbs olive oil

1 onion

1 carton passata

salt

black pepper

a handful grated Parmesan

a sprig of fresh basil

 

For the meatballs:

 

 

6tbs olive oil

(if you are frying, rather than baking)

400g minced beef

1 egg

2-3 slices white bread

some fresh parsley

some grated Parmesan cheese

salt

black pepper

 

 

 

Before you start, chop the onion quite finely. Next, heat some olive oil in a medium size saucepan. When the oil is piping hot, add the onion, stir and fry until golden.

 

Carefully add your passata and stir. If you wish your sauce to have more flavour, you can add some cheese and black pepper to it, and some fresh basil.

 

This sauce needs to cook for at least twenty minutes.

 

While your sauce is cooking, make your meatballs. Place your beef in a bowl, make a well in the centre, then add, in the middle, two slices of bread (no crust) broken into small pieces, one egg, some fresh parsley, a generous grating of Parmesan cheese, salt pepper and even a tiny bit of very finely chopped garlic (optional.) Using your hands to mix and combine the ingredients.

 

Using your hands, again, take small pieces of the mixture, to make balls the size of a golf ball, or bigger, if you prefer. This amount should make about 12 medium size meatballs.

 

Your meatballs now need to be fried, or baked, in a fairly hot oven, until golden. When you have done this, you are ready to add them to the tomato sauce and cook for a further 10 minutes.

 

This sauce is delicious with spaghetti or any pasta shape. As you can see from the photos below, I cooked my pasta with some broccoli and cauliflower, as I love vegetables with everything!

In Italy, we would serve pasta with sauce and a generous sprinkling of cheese, first, followed by a "secondo": meatballs with a side dish... I had mine with salad... very nice!

I love the smell of this dish: so Italian, warm, wintery and homely! Very true, it really smells "Like Italy!"

FELICE ANNO NUOVO!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!