Gnocco Fritto
Gnocco means simply, “lump”; and like the pasta dumplings gnocchi (plural—meaning lumps), a gnocco fritto refers to a lump of dough, in this case fried into an irresistible puffy bread, delicious eaten with cured meats and/or cheeses.
Panettone
Recipe Of The Month - December
And its the time for holidays and merrymaking to usher in a fresh new year! No better way of doing it than celebrating with this fresh sweet bread: Panettone. Originally from Milan, it has now become very popular across Europe, America, Australia and Canada. With its dome-like shape characteristics, with a cylindrical base and a deliciously distinctive fluffy flavourful interior, Panettone is a unique holiday treat.
You can add so many surprises like candied orange, lemon zest, raisin, almond, chocolates and more. Served in the shape of a triangular wedge, comforting hot drinks like cocoa or coffee or even liquor and wine can make a great accompaniment with panettones. Or savour it as a breakfast dish or post-dinner.
The word “Panettone” itself means a large cake is pronounced as "pah-net-taw-nee," and its history dates back to the Roman Empire!
So, serve it with mascarpone cream or melted chocolate sauce, caramel or maple syrup, or toast it and butter generously, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or drizzle with honey: Panettone is one of the Italian Christmas delights.
Oven-Baked Zeppole Di San Giuseppe
Recipe Of The Month - March
Every special event and holiday in Italy has its traditional dish; for Italian Father's Day, 19th March, it is the zeppole di San Giuseppe, named after the protector of fathers, patron saint of the church. They originated in Naples and in the city are sold either fried or oven-baked – just irresistible!
Zeppole di San Giuseppe are fat cream puffs, filled to bursting with vanilla pastry cream, garnished with oh so tasty Amarena cherries. They are also the perfect treat to celebrate the festival of colours, Holi, with their rich, enticing sweetness. Try making them at home to celebrate with your family!
Chiacchere Napoletane – Crisp Fried Dough Biscuits
These fried biscuits, crisp and thin, bubbled and blistered from the heat, and then cloaked generously with shakes of icing sugar, are irresistible to grownups and children alike. Traditionally eaten around the time of Carnival just before the Christian Lenten period. These days they are enjoyed with a chocolate dipping sauce.
Romana Style Pizza In Teglia
Recipe Of The Month - June
Roman-style pizza is baked in a tray (the word teglia refers to the baking dish or tray) instead of individually on the floor of the oven as Neapolitan pizza is. Because of the olive oil added to the dough (Neapolitan pizza has none in the dough), Roman pizza may be either very thin, or, as in this recipe, pizza in teglia, which is thick. It is baked in a rectangular tray and eaten cut into squares.
Popular throughout central Italy and makes a sustaining snack, especially for after school. Potato and rosemary is a classic topping; the potato slices roasting to crisp, frilly and browned, a perfect foil to the tender pizza dough. Another popular topping is tomatoes, onions and capers and there are so many, many toppings, the list is endless. But the combination of crisp-edged potatoes and herby rosemary, all baked into a tender crust, is delectable.
Romana Style Pizza In Teglia
Invented in Rome, pizza in teglia, or pizza by the slice, has always been one of the most popular street foods in Italy, and is now popular all the world over, thanks to its versatility. It can have so many different toppings, is easily reheated without affecting its taste and can be eaten without a knife and fork, thanks to the shape and consistency of its slices. The real Roman-style pizza in teglia must have the following characteristics: thin, crunchy dough, crunchy lower surface and upper surface, slightly moist crumb, with the presence of large, honeycomb-like air pockets, a hydration greater than 70%, first bulk fermentation in the refrigerator and subsequent proofing in loaves, and baking at a temperature of around 300 ° C. Making Roman-style pizza in teglia involves 6 phases: kneading, first rise, cutting and shaping, proofing, spreading and topping and finally baking.
ROMAN STYLE PIZZA IN PALA (PIZZA ON A PADDLE)
Romana Style Pizza In Pala (Pizza On A Paddle)
Pizza in pala makes you think of Europe but most of all of Rome, of “do it as Italians do”. Pizza in pala is served on the namesake paddle and is rectangular, usually 80 cm up to 120 cm long and 30 cm wide. It is ideal for dinner with family or friends. It can cater to all tastes and personal choices, and sometimes it is called the “pizza of friendship” because of this. It is garnished directly on the paddle used for cooking the pizza; traditionally the paddle was made of wood but today aluminium paddles are also used. The pizza in pala is crispy and light with a high-hydration dough with 75%-80% water ratio to flour. The dough is left to rise in the refrigerator for at least 18/24 hours, or up to 48 hours or more depending on personal choice. It is baked in a wood-fired or electric oven at a temperature of 280°C- 300°C for about 7-10 minutes.
Gluten-Free Pizza
This dough is quite different in term of the flour used and the rising time. 700 ml of water and 1 kg of gluten free flour are kneaded for about 5 minutes with about 10 g of yeast and 25 g of salt. 50 ml of extra virgin olive oil is added to the mixture, which is kneaded for another 2 minutes and left to rest for 60 minutes in the refrigerator at +4°C. The dough is then removed from the refrigerator and divided into 6 loaves of 250 / 280 g each and the pizza based stretched uniformly. This pizza is cooked in the oven at 350°C for 2-3 minutes.
Neapolitan Pizza: tradition and modernity
Neapolitan Pizza is not about the tomatoes, nor the cheese, though those are utterly delicious and taste uniquely like Naples, but at its heart: Neapolitan pizza is all about the crust! Airy and puffy at the outside rim, flat and almost soupy in the centre. There is nothing quite like it! The Neapolitan Pizza that we know today has nearly 500 years of history behind it. It was originally a hugely-popular street food, but at first it was eaten only inside the Naples city walls. Even if it was never mentioned in recipe books of the time, travellers’ accounts and journals from the mid-1800s mention it. One of most famous was from Alexander Dumas who, after a journey to Naples in 1835, describes it: “The pizza is a sort of bun like those made at Saint Denise: it is round, and made of the same dough as bread. It is of different sizes according to the price. The pizza is prepared: with oil, with bacon, with lard, with cheese, with tomatoes, with small fish.”
Fresh Pasta Dough Without Eggs
Fresh pasta made with type 00 flour and water (and a touch of extra virgin olive oil) is a lean pasta, one of the “cucina povera” foods, that is: food of the poor (but in fact, so delicious). Without eggs, this pasta is vegan, too; and perfect for many of the pasta shapes made by hand, where a more tender egg pasta would fall apart.
Pasta Fresca All’uovo – Golden Tender Pasta Made From Egg Yolks
Recipe Of The Month - April
It’s springtime - the weather is warming up, flowers blooming, new life is springing forth, and eggs are once again plentiful. What better way to indulge than to serve a lovely silken pasta, made from spring’s gift of eggs, and the pure quality of Pure Flour from Europe.
This is a simple egg pasta - made with whole eggs, Italian 00 flour and semolina. It is both luxurious and down to earth at the same time. The proportions are perfect: you can make more, or less, and as long as you keep to these proportions, the dough will be lovely. You may cut the rolled out dough into nearly any shape, from fat pappardelle to thin tagliolini.
This pasta, blissful and rich, needs only a gilding of butter and a sprinkling of beautiful grated parmesan cheese, though as it’s springtime the season’s first baby peas are lovely tossed into the pasta, or the first asparagus - each forkful will be a joy.
