Sicily, yet again. The way they make vegetables in Sicily is beyond imagination. Here a very quick recipe, perfect as a side or even bette ras an appetizer with a nice glass of white wine – better if Inzolia or a Sardinian Vermentino.

Serves 4

Ready in 1H

3 aubergins/eggplants medium size

200 grams breadcrumbs

80 grams pecorino cheese, grated

1 tbs minced parsley

1 minced garlic clove

salt and peper

Extra-virgin Olive oil (as needed)

White wine vinegar (as needed)

Slice the eggplants vertically into 2 mm thick slices.

Heat a pan and grill each slice 3 minutes on both sides (make sure you add some salt to the empty pan before you add the eggplants).

Meanwhile in a conatiner mix all the remaining ingredients, add 5 tbs of olive oil, mix well adding water until the mixture is compact but crumbly.

In a small container mix tigether 5 tbs olive oil and 2 tbs white vinegar. Coat every slices with the olive oil-vinegar mixture, put each slice on a board, with your hands make small balls with the breadcrumb mixture and roll the slices around it.

Put each roll into a baking pan and bake for 15 minutes at 200°.

Serve warm or cold.

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A quick and super-simple Italian recipe. Spaghetti with clams is always making everyone happy. Don’t take out the garlic, the taste is all there. A pinch of crushed chill pepper would be perfect, but only to those who like hot things.

Serves 4

Ready in 30 minutes

1 kg clams

400 grams spaghetti (size n. 5)

1 garlic clove minced

2 tbs parsley, minced

half glass of white wine

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

To prepare clams, you need to wash them under running water.

Heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the minced gralic.

Add the clams, cover with a lid and let them open up (it should take 5/6 minutes).

Once they are opened, uncover, and add the wine.

Let simmer at medium heat for further 7/8 minutes or until the smeel of wine is not alcoholic anymore (you will need the juices so dont let them evaporate too much).

Retain from fire and add the fresh chopped parsley.

Cook the pasta according to directions in salted boiling water, drain and add the pasta to the clams pan.

On medium heat sauté them for a couple of minutes and serve.

Ok, not really a diet solution but hey, this is incredibily awesome. Easy to make and so tasteful that you can organize an entire dinner with rivers of beers and fried sfincitelli. You can also substitute the cooked ham with anchovies, or salame or any other filling yo might like (cheese too).

500 grams ready pizza dough (Recipe here)

150 grams cooked ham (or 10 anchovies fillets)

500 ml frying oil

After the first proofing, punch the dough and divide it into 10 balls 50 grams each. Divide the ham into 10 portions of 15 grams each. Take each dough ball in your hand palm and press at the center one portion of ham (or one anchovie fillet). Close the dough and seal well.

Let it proof again for further 20 minutes before cooking.

Meanwhile heat the frying oil to 180° C, plunge gently the balls onto the hot oil. Deep-fry them for 3 minutes all in all (always keep the ball in movement by turning the oil into the pan with a spoon).

60 pcs circa

ready in 1H30 mins

350 gr mostarda

1,5 kilo pumpkin

180 gr parmesan cheese, grated

salt and pepper

a pinch of nutmeg powder

10 crunchy amaretti biscuits

1 or 2 eggs (dpeending on final consistency)

Fresh Pasta

600 grams all purpose flour

6 eggs + 1 egg yolk

half tbs of salt

In a container mix all ingredients for the fresh pasta and knead for 10 minute. Set aside well covered for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile peel the pumpkin and cook it until the meati s tender in one of these 2 ways:

• microwave oven: 25 minutes circa max power
• normal oven at 160° C for 40 minutes circa

Let it cool then mash it in a mixer. Set aside.

In a mixer, mix mostarda (well drained), crushed amarettis, one egg (you might add the 2nd one at a later stage depending on the consistency of the filling), salt and pepper, parmesan cheese, nutmeg.

Add the pumpkin and mix well. Consistency should be like a little softer than a potato pure. If too firm, add the remaining egg.

Using a pasta machine, roll the pasta to 1 mm thick.

Put it on a floured surface, on the below half put a tbs of pumpkin filling every 15 cm, flip the other half of the pasta above it and seal well (as shown in pictures).

Cut with a knife or a rolled cutter at the desired shape (it can be square or half-circled), final tortelli should be 7×5 cm circa.

Cook in hot and salted boiling water for 6 minutes.

Season with fried butter (fry it with a few fresh sage leaves), and grated parmesan.

If you have been in Venice and you haven’t experienced a dinner at Restaurant ‘La Marisa’ on Cannaregio, you missed one of the biggest higlights and you have to go back as soon as possible. Dalla Marisa, they serve a serie of home-made delicacies, and amongst them, this wonder of a plate. A plate that might look and feel like a mountain dish, as most of the Venetian cuisine has to offer.

The Marisa version, as it is secret, remains unreachable. But in all modesty, I can state I found a balanced way to reproduce this same emotions you might have or will experience there.

Even though butter usually doesn’t match with fish (or at least this is what most Italians would say), don’t be tempted to take it out. The mouth watering taste is mostly – yet not only – due to it!

2 medium-sized carrots

1 big onion

2 celery stalks

half tsp ground cinnamon

1 cinnamon stick

400 grams small OCTOPUS

half glass white wine

400 gram tomato puree

half tsp ground red hot chilli peppers

the tip of a tsp of ground chives

3 tpb extra virgin olive oil

150 grams unsalted butter

salt and pepper

Chop the vegetables finely and separately.

Heat the oil and butter together, add the onion and fry for 5 minutes.
Add the cinnamon stick, the chopped carrots and the chopped celery stalks. Fry for further 7 minutes.

Add the baby octopus and fry for 10 minutes – medium high heat stirring continuously – unitl the juices have evaporate.

Add the white wine and let evaporate completely.

Add then the tomato puree, the ground cinnamon, the ground chives, the red hot chilli peppers powder, 1 tsp of salt and one glass of water, mix well and bring to a boil – simmer at low heat for 45 minutes.

Until the meat of the octopus is soft and tender. On medium heat let the sauce thicken, season with salt and pepper and serve with polenta.

The best Ossobuco of my life is Luisa’s (my mom). I don’t know how but she just makes perfect Milanese food. And she never fails.

Below her personal recipe (a perfect balanced recipe with no use of vegetables and tomato sauce). I translated that onto monkfish (the fish that behaves like meat! lol). The gremolata is the ingredient that reminds me the most of my childhood and I personally think is one of the simplest yet amazing food creations.

Fish:

4 slices of monkfish (200 grams each)

2 shallots

1 garlic clove

60 grams of butter + 20 grams

3 tbs olive oil

half glass of white wine (dry)

500 ml vegetable or meat stock

1 tbs tomato paste

salt and pepper

Gremolada:

30 gr parsley

lemon zest of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove

Melt the butter with the oil in a pan. Add the shallots (halved). Fry for a couple of minutes.

Dust with flour the monkfish and place them into the pan.

Cook 2 minutes per side and high heat. Retain from the pan and place them on a rack and place in oven at 180° C for further 10 minutes.

Meanwhile place the pan (with the shallots, etc), on the fire back again. Add the wine and let simmer until it is reduced of 2/3. Add the stock and the tomato paste. Let simmer until it is half reduced.

Meanwhile chop and mix all the ingredients for the gremolada.

With your fingers, knead 20 grams of butter with 1 tsp of flour (until a soft dough is formed), place this dough into the sauce and mix well, bring to a boil and let it boil for a couple of minutes (this will thicken the sauce).

Retain from fire, sieve the sauce.

Place the monkfish onto a plate, top it with the sauce and with the gremolada.

Dishes from Sardinia in Italy are always a surprise. A couple of very humble and simple ingredients on the list and an explosion of flavours when tasted. I often found in restaurants this dish baked in oven, but i personally never saw this baked back in Sardinia. The fish was always easily cooked on a pan. And frankly speaking this is also a much quicker option.

If you can’t find Vernaccia wine, go for any white wine (of course excluding sparkling, sweets and too aromatic ones).

4 seabreams 400 gr each (gutted and cleaned)

3 garlic cloves

400 ml vernaccia (or other white wine)

juice of half lemon

350 grams of pitted olives (possibly small ones)

2 tbs salted capers

4 bay leaves

4 tbs olive oil

Put one bayleaf into each seabreams. Season with salt the seabreams (inside and outside).

Heat the olive oil in a large pan (or two separate pans – in this case divide ingredients).

Fry the garlic for 3 minutes.

Add the seabreams and fry them on high heat for 1 minute per side.

Add the olives, the capers (washed under running water to discard the salt), the lemon juice and the wine. Bring to a boil and let simmer 8 minutes. Turn the fishes upside down and cook for further 8 minutes.

Do not let the juices to evaporate, you will need them for service.

Retain the fishes and fillet them, put them into the plates and serve with the sauce, olives and capers.

600 grams bell pepers (red and yellow)

1 tbs salt capers

3 anchovies in oil fillets

1 big onion

150 ml tomato puree

1 garlic clove finely minced (if you like)

6/7 fresh basil leaves

4 tbs olive oil

350 grams mezzemaniche wholegrain pasta

Extra olive oil for serving
Slice the onion into thin slices. Fry them with the garlic, chopped capers and anchovies into the pre-heated oil in a large pan.

Meanwhile slice the bell pepper into half centimeter sticks.

Add them to the fried onion and let simmer for 5 minutes at high heat.

Reduce heat and continue cooking for further 10 minutes.

Add the tomato puree, half glass of water and simmer medium hear for further 10/15 minutes until the bell peppers are cooked through and the sauce thickens. Add the basil and retain from fire.

Cook the pasta as per direction (usually I always do 1 minute less then directions). Drain the pasta and add it to the pan, mix it well and high heat. Retain from fire, add 2 or 3 tbs of olive oil. Serve.

1 kilo pumpkin flesh (the weight refers to clean pumpkin)

300 grams all purpose flour

50 grams semolina

1 egg

1 tbs salt

60 grams unsalted butter

5/6 sage leaves

40 grams smoked scamorza cheese grated

Cook the pumpkin into the oven (static 180° C), for 30 minutes circa or until soft – careful it doesn’t get brown in case lower the heat (alternatively you can cook it in a microwave oven with no water, as it is, for circa 20 minuti ad the highest power).

Still warm, mash them with a potato masher. Set aside and allow to cool. Add the flours, salt and knead well. Proceed as indicated in the Potato Dumplings (Gnocchi di Patate) recipe.

Melt the butter at medium heat with the sage leaves and let the fry until crispy.

Cook the gnocchi in hot boiling salted water and drain them with a colander as soon as they get on the surface.

Season them with the butter. Pour onto plates and top with the garted smoked scamorza cheese.

A recipe from Tuscany: it is a very humble plate and the pepper is in grains because it was used again and again. Tradition says it should be stewed in a terracotta casserolefor a few hours. It is said it originated from Impruneta, a small town in Tuscany famous for the terracotta production (the Florence Duomo shingles were produced here!). It seems the placed the terracotta casserole filled with the ingredients on the entry of industrial ovens and let it stand there close to the heat. I tried it and I felt I was eating an historic plate, the taste, the way it is cooked has its roots in the most ancient popular cooking traditions.

I found a few variations and in a few they add tomato paste. I have the strong feeling that tomato must be a later addition (in fact the Duomo has opened its gates in 1436 and tomatoes, coming from Americas, came after 1492 and was officially introduced in the Italian diet in mid XIV century), so I decided to take it out from the recipe to make sure I was sharing the most original verision.

You will need time: the Peposo is self-cooking and does not need any particular care: only make sure you get the best ingredients.

1 kilo clean meat beef chunks

5 garlic cloves unpeeled

1 tbs black pepper grains

750 ml Chianti wine

1 tbs salt

2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil + extra for serving

4 slices of bread (ciabatta or Tuscan unsalted)

Put the meat, the garlic, the pepper, the salt, the olive oil in a casserole and cover completely with the wine. Bring to a boil and then simmer at low heat for 3 hours (or until the meat gets soft and tender).

Toast the bread, and top it with the meat and its juices, season with a few drop of fresh olive oil and serve.