Arista alla Fiorentina

Today’s cooking is a perfect dish to prepare ahead. Arista alla Fiorentina is actually as good served cold as warn.

Arista derives from the Greek word aristos, meaning “best”. According to tradition, some Greek clergymen which visited Florence in 1430 for a Ecumenical Council were served the Tuscan-style roast pork and found it “aristos” or very good. The dish has been called this ever since then.

Ingredients, serving 4:

*1 kg boneless center-cut pork loin roast
*3 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
*3 large cloves of garlic, minced
* salt and black pepper
* olive oil
* cooking string

Preparation

Mix rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. Make deep cuts into the pork roast, the cuts with the mixture, leave some to cover the surface of the meat.
Tie the roast with the cooking string in order to maintain its compact shape and ensure even cooking. Pour the oil in a large pan and put it on medium heat. Add the pork roast and roll it slowly until the entire meat is browned on on all sides. Now place the roast in a deep pan and put it into the oven to cook at 180°C for about an hour and a half. Check the roast periodically and baste with the pan juices, turn the roast over every once in a while.
The roast is done once the thickest part of the roast has reached 80°C. If you don’t have one, stick a thin knife in the thickest part of the roast; the roast is done when no pink liquid comes out of the hole.
Place the roast to a cutting board, cover with alumnimum foil and let it rest for about 15 minutes. Slice the meat and serve with the pan juices.

Serve with patate al forno – Buon Apetito!

Ajo, ojo e peperoncino

Ajo, ojo e peperoncino

Ingredients serving 4

500 g Spaghetti

2 cloves of  garlic

1 table spoon of chili pepper

3 table spoons of olive oil

While cooking the spaghetti, heat the oil to moderate temperature and peel the garlic cloves. Let garlic and chili cook in the oil for until the pasta is done. Take away the cloves and mix oil and chili with spaghetti. Serve immediately.

Cacio e pepe

Cacio and pepe

Ingredients serving 4

500 g of spaghetti

200 g of goat cheese

black pepper

This one is even easier. While cooking the pasta, grate the cheese. Mix spaghetti and cheese and grind the black pepper on top. Serve immediately.

Pizza Margherita

What is round, around 35cm in diameter, has an elevated rim of  about 2centimetres and contains tomato, basil and genuine mozzarella? Answer: A proper Pizza  Napoletana.

On December 9, 2009 the pizza napoletana was awarded the prestigious STG Specialità Tradizionale Garantita or TSG (Traditional Speciality Guaranteed) in English accolade by the European Union.

Commonly known as Pizza Margherita in and outside Italy, was rewarded the status of a traditional speciality guaranteed.

It has been a long battle for the Italian governemt. In 2004, a bill was tabled by the parliament setting out in precise detail the types of flour, yeast, salt and tomatoes to be used in a “”Vera (correct) Pizza Margherita. It also stipulated that the dough had to be kneaded by hand, cooked in a wood oven, and that the mozzarella used had to come from the southern Apennine mountains.

STG

This STG status will unfortunately not stop big, multinational companies and chains from selling fake pizza Napoletana. But it means that when you walk in to a restaurant in Naples, Italy or somewhere else in Europe, who make their pizzas the traditional way – and has been approved after stringent testing- will have the logo (see right) in their window.

The Tsg label allows for only three variants of Neopolitan pizza:

* Pizza Marinara – tomatoes and garlic

* Pizza Margherita – tomatoes, mozzarella and basil

* Pizza Margherita Extra tomatoes, basil and mozzarella in fillets.

Pizza-like plates are found around the Mediterranean Sea and goes back at least a couple of thousands of years. The Etruscans, who resided in Rome before the Romans, are thought to have mad a a dish looking much like the pizza dough around 1200 A.D.

The pizza as we know took shape in Naples in the mid-19th century. The basic one, Pizza Margherita was first made by the pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito for Queen Margherita of Savoy, the wife of King Umberto I, in 1899. For her he made three different pizzas, one containing only tomatoes, mozzarella and basil leaves – to symbolize the flag of the newly born Italian state.

Outside Italy, this dish is usually served with spagghetti, but it should really be Tagliatelle, or Fettucine could do as well.

Tagliatelle alla Bolognese, the bolognese sauce is mainly used to season the spaghetti (so-called spaghetti Bolognese), but in here this dish did not have big spread and it is not attributable to the Bolognese cuisine that has always preferred over egg noodles dry pasta.

We are going to do the traditionally recipe, which in 1982 was officially booked at the Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture in Bologna, to ensure the continuity and compliance with the culinary traditions of the city. Unfortunately, this recipe is now almost abandoned as too fat, it is really hard to find it in restaurants, as well as in the homes of Bologna.

Bolognese meat sauce is a recipe that can easily be made lighter by varying the ingredients, seasoning to the success of the important is to use flavorful cuts of meat, such as loin of pork, uniting it to lean beef or beef. But this is the official recipe.
Bolognese sauce: traditional recipe

Ingredients, serving 4:

* 300 g minced beef
* 150 g bacon
* 50 g carrot
* 50 g celery stalk
* 50 g onion
* 5 tablespoons of tomato sauce or gr. 20 of triple concentrated tomato
* ½ glass of red or white wine
* 1 glass of full fat milk

Preparation:

Fry the bacon in a big pan, cut carrot, celery and onion into cubes and add tehm when the bacon fat has startet to melt, then fry it all gentlyl. Add the ground beef and let it cook, stir gently until it “sizzles.”
Add the wine and tomato let it cook for about 2 hours on low heat, while adding, from time to time, milk and salt and black pepper.
Optional, but recommended the addition to cooking, the cooking of the cream of a liter of whole milk.
This should be served with with pasta egg tagliatelle and lots of Parmiggiano Reggiano.

Suppli'

Got some rice left over? Planning to do our recipe on Risotto Milanese? Good, make some extra rice. Here is a recipe on a delicious starter from Rome, the Suppli’ – a fried rice ball. One of the most tasty ones. Quite easy to make, part from the rolling at the end.

Ingredients, serving 4.

* 500g Avorio rice, or Arborio or Vialone
* 1 mozzarella
* 1 can peeled tomatoes
* 2 cups beef stock
* 1 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 4 tablespoons of butter
* 2 eggs
* 100g freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
* 1 onion
* 1 carrot
* 1 celery
* 1 glas of red wine
* 100g minced meat
* olive oil
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
* bread crumps
Start with cooking the rice. This can be done the day before, or you can use left over rice if you have. Prepare the sauce by fry onion, ground beef, celery and carrot in olive oil, add a little wine and let evaporate. Add the tomato pulp, salt, pepper, and cook.

Extend the gravy with stock cube, and when it boils, add rice and cook for 15 minutes, turning constantly, until the rice has absorbed the broth. Remove the risotto from the heat and let cool. Mix the rice with the eggs, and prepare the oval, balls, make sure sure to add some pieces of mozzarella rice ball and then roll them in the breadcrumbs. Fry in hot oil and let them dry on paper towels.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Does January equals a tight budget? Then it’s perfect with some Roman dishes on the table. Since the collapse of the Roman Empire, L’Urbe (Latin for “The City”, i.e. Rome) has been a quite poor city, and the dishes coming from Rome are basic, but not less well tasting. One good example is this Sunday’s lunch – Spagetti alla Carbonara (Spaghetti from the coal woker’s wife). Cheap, basic, quick to make and loved by most people.

The origin of spaghetti alla carbonara is quite torn: some attributes to Umbrian coal workers (Carbonari) that they introduced this dish to the Romans in the nineteenth century, others argue that the inventor was Ippolito Cavalcanti, a noble Neapolitan who published this recipe in a his book.

It also says that this dish was born during the Second World War when the Americans brought in large numbers as bacon and egg powder, which were part of military rations, the inspiration was born Roman cooks this dish simple and yet very tasty. This is most likely the same people that claims pizza as an American dish. And as Artusi had the recipe in his book in the late 19th century, we can ignore that theory and start cooking.
Ingredients, serving 4

* 400 g spaghetti
* 150 g Guanciale (can be replaced with bacon)
* 4 egg jolks and 1 whole egg
* 3 tablespoons of olive oil
* 150 g Pecorino
* Black pepper

Put a large pan containing plenty of water to boil, salt moderately, as this dish is very savory sauce made of guanciale and cheese. About 1 litre of water for each serving plus one. Cok the spaghetti al dente.

Meanwhile, cut the meat into small cubes or strips. Put them in a hot pan with the oil and fry until it slightly crisp, then remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Beat eggs in a bowl then add the cheese, ground pepper (as desired) spaghetti and meat and mix. Taste, and, if necessary, add more salt.

Serve immediately and if necessary add more cheese and ground black pepper.

]]> http://www.alfabookings.com/blog/2010/01/spaghetti-alla-carbonara/feed/ 0 http://www.alfabookings.com/blog/2009/12/cenone-new-years-dinner/ http://www.alfabookings.com/blog/2009/12/cenone-new-years-dinner/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:08:48 +0000 http://www.alfabookings.com/blog/?p=502

Happy New Year

Eating in Italy is always important. And the New Years Cenone – big dinner – is really big. The most important part is the lentils. We have made a traditional Cenone, with some modern twists. And of course, the traditional Christmas cake – Panettone – is eaten for New Years too. Do enjoy – And A Really Happy New Year!

Starter – Crab Salad

First course – Tagliolini with chrimps

Cenone

Fish – Sea bass

Meat – Lentils with zampone

Desert – Panettone