The second day of Christmas - ravioli stuffing and more

On day 1 I am going to prepare the ravioli, but as I have planned a mushroom broth on day 2, we´ll be very efficient and prepare two things at a time. NB I won´t give you a recipe for pasta dough for there are millions to be found.

Base:

25 gr. of dried porcini

500 gr. of fresh, mixed mushrooms

Fresh thyme and sage

Soak the porcini in tepid water for half an hour and then squeeze them gently and dry them.

Don´t throw away the water, it will be used for the broth.

Clean the mushrooms with kitchen paper, remove the stems but don´t throw them away. Cut them into slices and pieces.

Divide the porcini and the mushrooms in two parts and put one part aside.

Ravioli-filling, day 1:

1 shallot, chopped into very small pieces

The first part of the mushrooms and porcini, chopped a little smaller

1 spoonfull of olive oil

salt, pepper

1 small glass of white wine

grated parmesan, ca. 2 spoons

Chop the thyme and sage really small.

Fry the shallot in the olive oil at moderate fire until it´s soft. Add the mushrooms and the herbs and fry them until they´re slightly brown. Add the wine, make it boil and then lower the fire. Let evaporate all liquids completely. Remove the pan from the fire. Then add salt and pepper and the grated parmesan, mix well and let it cool down.

Prepare the pasta dough (you can find recipes everywhere) and make the ravioli by putting a small spoon of the filling on it, cover it and cut it into regular pieces.

Mushroom broth, day 2:

1 carrot, chopped

1 onion or shallot, chopped

The second part of the mushrooms

2 shallots, chopped

1 garlic glove, pressed

Fresh twigs of rosemary, parsley, celery and the thyme and sage from the base

salt and pepper

olive oil

Use the stems you have put aside before. Make a bouquet garni from the other half of the thyme, sage, parsley, celery and rosemary. Put the stems, carrot, onion, the porcini water and the bouquet garni in a pan, add water (about 1 liter), salt and pepper. Make it boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for at least half an hour. Pour the broth through a sieve.

Fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil at a moderate heat, until they´re light brown. Add the broth and make it boil again, the add the mushrooms. Lower the fire and let it cook for 10 more minutes.

You can add a broth cube, e.g. Porcini, but it´s not necessary.  

Lentils with - or without - sausages

Who wants to blog about Umbrian food cannot forget lentils. I can completely understand why Esau gave up his birthright for a plate of them, though it´s such a simple dish that I would have prepared my own if I had been him.

But maybe at that time there were no lentils from Castelluccio, Umbria. Castelluccio is a small village on the Piano Grande, a plateau at 1450m height. If you want to read more about its amazing surroundings, clik here. 

Castelluccio is famous for its lentils that are grown organically, free of pesticides and of an extreme quality. And the best thing: you don´t have to soak them overnight.

Ingredients (2 p.) for the vegetarian version

250 gr. of lentils

1 carrot, chopped into small pieces

1 onion, chopped

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 glove of garlic, pressed

a twig of fresh rosemary

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

ca. ½ l. of broth ( I use freshly made, vegetal broth, but to keep it fast and simple, you can use a cube as well) .

Additional for the non vegetarian version:

Two sausages

Fry the onion, the celery, the garlic and carrot in the olive oil at moderate heat for a few minutes.

Add the tomato and mix well. Lower the heat.

Add the lentils, mix well and leave them for about a minute.

Add half of the broth and the rosemary, turn up the heat and make it boil. Then lower the heat, add the salt and pepper and let it simmer for about half an hour. Stir now and then.

Then add the other half of the broth. When you want to prepare the sausages, add them now.

Let it simmer for another half an hour and stir now and then.

I serve them with a bruschetta or with some grissini.

Limoncello

Before telling you how I made my limoncello, I want to express special thanks to Alessandra Malozzi´s mother. On a nice fall afternoon in Umbria we enjoyed a glass of limoncello in the tastefully decorated sitting room of her beautiful country house. I told her that I almost got poisened by my homemade limoncello and then this lovely lade told me how to prepare it the right way and showed me how to peel the lemons. I am very grateful.

The first time I tasted limoncello was in the previous age in a small Italian village. My neighbor – later one of my best friends – said I had to try it and respectfully spelled its name as if it was liquid gold....l.i.m.o.n.c.e.l.l.o..

We had a cheerful evening with a lot of Italians but agreed we would only drink limoncello in the weekends or on special occasions. Somehow, there was a special occasion nearly every night.

The best limoncello you get when you use lemons from Sorrento. But I think all biological lemons will do the job. Make sure they´re biological, for the skin may not contain any pesticide what so ever. And even then, scrub them until they´re absolutely clean.

Needed:

8 lemons

1 liter of alcohol 95° (I bring it from Italy)

700 grams of sugar

800 ml. water

Peel the lemons and be careful only to use the yellow parts. Put them in a sterilized yar and add the alcohol. Carefully close the yar and leave it in a dark, dry spot for 15 days.

On day 16, mix the water with the sugar and let it boil for a few minutes, so that the sugar has melted away completely. Let it cool down.

Mix the sugarwater with the lemonmixture, stir well.

Then filter it two times until you have a clear, yellow liquid. 

Poor it into sterilized bottles and put them in a dark, cool dry spot.

Serve it from the freezer.

Bonusrecipe:

Lemon-orange marmalade

And then, I had four peeled lemons that I did not want to throw away. I pressed them, added the skin of an orange (and this time too, don´t use the white parts). I pressed the orange too and let the lemon juice, the orange juice and the skin simmer at low heat for about 15 minutes.

Then filter it, poor it back into the pan. Add the right amount of jelly sugar (indications on the package) make it boil and poor it into sterilized jars.

Cappuccino cake

This is a great recipe, it fits in practically every menu, though I especially like it when days get shorter and temperatures get lower. You can serve it as a part of a grand dessert, but it will also impress at a high tea, or when you´re gifted with Italian genes, for breakfast.

It is not hard to fix this. But very important: use only the best ingredients you can get. That means fresh eggs, strong coffee and creamy butter. And love.

Ingredients:

150 gr. flour

150 gr. sugar

150 gr. butter

3 eggs

1 espresso

1 sachet of instant cappuccino powder (take nescafe)

2 spoons of milk

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease a cake pan and sprinkle it with a little flour. Beat the butter and the sugar, mix well. Add the eggs one by one. Add the espresso and the milk and keep on beating until it´s a creamy, equal substance. Mix the flour and the instant cappuccino powder and add it, little by little, to the batter. Continue beating until you have a fluffy dough.

Put it carefully into the cakepan and bake it for ca. 45 minutes in the middle of the oven.

Don´t open the oven in the meantime and make sure nobody runs around hitting the oven, for the cake will collapse immediately.  

Suggestions:

• This cake can replace the chocolate cake I posted before, click here for a few more recipes.
• If you like, mix two spoons of vanilla sugar with a teaspoon of cinnamon and dust the cake with it.

Polpettone - Italian meatloaf

A recipe from my nonna (grandmother) that is simple and cheap, but yet, it will leave you with a completely happy and satisfied feeling.

You can serve this dish hot, after a pasta with tomatosauce, but it is also very tasty when served cold with bread and / or a salad.

I confess that I adjusted the form after a great suggestion from my virtual friend Silvestro Silvestori. He owns a cooking school in Lecce in the south of Italy and is not only a gifted cook, but also a skilled photographer. If you want to learn more: The Awaiting Table.

Ingredients:

350 gr. of beef and 150 gr. pork OR:

500 gr. of mince meat, half beef, half pork

50 ml. milk

1 egg

bread-crumbs (the amount depends on the substance of the meat)

salt, pepper

fresh sage, chopped

1 tomato, sliced

slices of slightly spicy cheese, e.g. Provolone, smoked mozzarella but parmiggiano will do too

A rectangular baking tin, carefully greased with olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Use the food processor tho prepare mince meat from the beef and the pork. Mix well. Or, just use the ready mince meat.

Mix the mince meat with the egg, the milk, salt and pepper and then add the bread-crumbs until the meat feels firm but not dry.

Normally, I used to cut the tomato into small pieces and grate the cheese and add that too, but this is the point where my friend Silvestro´s influence starts.

Gently press the meat until it is equally flat, and will fit into the tin you will use.

Put the tomato slices and the cheese on top of the meat and season it with the sage.

Carefully fold it together and put it in the baking form. Bake it for about 45 minutes. Check it from time to time so that it won´t get too dark. Turn the tin and be careful, for it contains hot juices. Leave it for some five minutes, covered with baking paper, before serving.

Vegetarian variations:

You can very wel use veggie mince meat. If you do, use less bread-crumbs. Cut the tomato in very small pieces, grate the cheese and mix everything together at once. Knead very well, it´s allright if it feels a little damp. Bake a little shorter.

Another possibility is using mushrooms, chopped in little pieces and a bit pre-fried. In that case, also add the tomato and grated cheese at once and knead well. Add bread-crumbs until it feels firm and does not fall apart immediately. In this case also bake a little shorter.