Category: Italia

Another Fat Tuesday in Tulipland

And the big day has finally arrived. After surviving one year of COVID-19 pandemic, we have got to enjoy another Fat Tuesday.

For those of you following me over the years, Fat Tuesday (which is today) is a special day in the history of Aroma di Cannella and, well before that, in my family traditions. Since I was a kid, I used to do some baking on Fat Tuesday, which is the last day of the Carnival period. Then, when I went to Sweden 7 years ago to do an exchange programme during my Master studies, it happened that I was there on Fat Tuesday. I learnt how to bake the Swedish Carnival semlor (small buns filled with cream) and that’s how Aroma di Cannella was born. Since then, (almost) every year I try to live up to this tradition and bake something on Fat Tuesday.
Well, I have to say that in the past two years I have not been the best example of respecting this tradition because I didn’t do anything for two years in a row. In my defense, I have to say that in both occasions it was a case of force majeure. One year, I was busy getting my PhD, and the other year I was without an oven and in the middle of moving out from my old apartment.

This year, I have no excuses. In addition, we are still working from home and not going anywhere because we are in our third (? lost the count..) partial lockdown due to the COVID-pandemic. Hence, what a better occasion to do some baking on Fat Tuesday?
As I am still in TulipLand and we know that here they have no Carnival culinary tradition whatsoever (for a more recent blog post in English about this, you can read here), this time I opted for another typical, Italian recipe. Actually, I think that this is THE most traditional Venetian Carnival pastry: la frittella, which is a small ball of fried dough with either raisins or other filling.
Now, the purists will have no mercy on me because I am proposing here a recipe of frittelle baked in the oven, instead of fried ones. Well, some of you know that I am not a big fan of frying stuff, so here I do my way (as usual) and post a nice and healthier version of delicious baked frittelle in two variants that are, in my opinion, the best ones: frittelle all’uvetta (with raisins) and frittelle alle mele e cannella (with apples and, ofc, cinnamon).

Frittelle alle mele e cannella (frittelle with apples and cinnamon).

FRITTELLE (baked in the oven)

Ingredients 

For the frittelle (about 80 pieces – trust me, if you are 3-4 people, they won’t last long)

•400 gr baking flour (00)
•80 gr brown sugar
•8 gr vanilla sugar (or 1 tbsp vanilla extract)
•4 eggs
•200 gr almond milk (or regular milk)
•1 lemon zest
•16 gr baking powder

For the frittelle with raisins: 80 gr raisins (previously soaked in water for about 1 hour) + powdered sugar to taste

For the frittelle with apples & cinnamon: 1 apple + cinnamon to taste + powdered sugar to taste

Prepare the frittelle dough

In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugars, then add the lemon zest and milk, and stir well. It’s easier if you use a mixer. Add the flour and baking powder (previously mixed together) one spoon at a time and mix well. Divide the batter in half (should be about 435 gr each) using two bowls. In one bowl, add the raisins, while in the other one add a tsp of cinnamon and the apple chopped into small pieces.

Bake the frittelle

Pour half tbsp of batter per frittella on a silicon baking tin for small, round pastries (diameter 3.5 or 3.7 cm). Bake in preheated static oven 180°C for 9-10 minutes (note that the baking time could vary depending on the oven, so check it out using a wooden toothstick – it has to come out clean). Let the frittelle cool down and then immediately store them into an hermetic food box so to preserve their freshness and texture.

Serve and enjoy!

Spinkle your frittelle with powdered sugar. If you don’t eat them all on the same day (not sure whether it will be the case..), you might want to warm them up a bit before eating.

Frittelle all’uvetta (frittelle with raisins)

Down the memory line:

Looking back at the past 7 years of Fat Tuesday Food Stories

PANETTONE IN A JAR

Don’t know what to do with Panettone leftovers? If you haven’t had enough of Xmas sweetness or you want a different dessert for your NYE dinner, try this super easy recipe: the PANETTONE IN A JAR. This is a nice alternative of the classic tiramisu: you just need what’s left of some Panettone and prepare your favorite cream. Here, I made a delicious PISTACHIO PASTRY CREAM as I had some pistachio cream left from the Panettone baked for Xmas. Alternatively, you can use mascarpone cream or the simple pastry cream, and add your favorite flavors (e.g., vanilla, chocolate or fruits).

Instarecipe (6 servings)

You need:
•Panettone leftovers
•Chipped hazelnuts and pistachios
•For the pistachio pastry cream: 500 ml milk, 4 yolks, 50 gr sugar, 30 gr corn starch, 100 gr pistachio cream
•sugar syrup for cakes or coffee (optional)
•food jars or drinking glasses

Start with preparing the cream. Heat 400 ml of milk. In a bowl, whip the yolks, sugar, corn starch and remaining milk. Then, add the mixture to the warm milk, low the heat and stir until it thickens. Last, put the cream into another bowl, add the pistachio cream and stir until well combined. Cover the bowl with a transparent film and let it cool down.
Now it’s assembling time! Take the drinking glasses and start with a layer of panettone pieces. Here, you have the option to brush the panettone layer with some flavored sugar syrup for cakes or some coffee so to wet the panettone before adding the cream. Next, add 2 tbsp cream, some hazelnuts, another layer of panettone, optional syrup/coffee, 2 tbsp cream and finish with pistachios.

Xmas Time in lockdown

This 2020 will be an year to remember. It’s the same story as my latest posts back in the spring, when I celebrated my 30th bday during the first lockdown or I challenged myself to try one recipe per day. Now, it’s the second COVID-19 wave, so we are again into lockdown for the Xmas break, but at least this time I am back in the Bel Paese so can enjoy Xmas with my family.

I’ve been off work since a week so what else could I do when you can’t go out nor meet with friends? Baking of course!
This time, the baking challenge I put myself in was to learn how to bake a handmade Panettone, the typical Italian fluffy sweetbread we have as dessert during Xmas. Besides baking, some proper workout sessions are helping to keep a bit in shape since Natale in Italia means mangiare tanto (=eating a lot). And in between baking cookies and trying out Panettone recipes, I also had time to work a bit on my music, another big passion of mine. 
In this quite relaxed-and-chill cocktail of things I love doing, well, I eventually figured out how to bake Panettone without spending the typical 3 days of preparation, as the original recipe wants. Taking inspiration from a recipe on the Internet and doing my try-outs, I came up with an easy way to bake panettone that takes you a little less than a day to prepare. Still, quite some prep time but it is totally worth!

Panettone 3

If you want to try other (faster) Xmas sweet recipes, have a look at the latest posts of the Yule Log, the Xmas cookies with raisins and cinnamon (for the recipe in Italian, click here) or the Swedish Lussekatter (for the recipe in Italian, click here).

Panettone (fast recipe)

Ingredients

For the dough
550 gr Manitoba flour
100 gr sugar
150 ml water
100 gr butter
5 gr salt
15 gr fresh yeast ( or 5 gr instant dried yeast)
2 eggs
1 yolk
1 orange zest
1 lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extra (o vanilla powder)
180 gr raisins

For the icing
1/2 egg white
20 gr almond flour
5 gr corn starch
25 gr sugar
Almonds
Pearl sugar
Powdered sugar

Additionally, you need:
kitchen machine (alternatively you can prepare the dough by hand)
1 Paper panettone mold 750gr
2 knitting needles or the specific panettone skewers

01

Prepare the dough

In the bowl of a kitchen machine, put the flour, crumbled yeast, sugar, butter (chopped in pieces), vanilla, the eggs, the yolk, orange zest, lemon zest and half of the water. Stir for a few minutes using the k-beater. Then, add the remaining water and salt. Knead with the dough hook for about 15-20 minutes. Make sure to remove the dough from the hook every 7-10 minutes.

Next, add the raisins, which you had previously let soak in hot water and then dry with some kitchen paper. Stir the dough using slow speed, making sure the raisins are well incorporate in the dough. 

02

Rising

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead the dough for a few minutes using your hands. You might do this on a floured workspace. The dough should be very soft and still sticky. Cup your hands around the dough to round the ball, place it into a big bowl and wrap it with kitchen film. Let it rise for 3 hours in a warm place (it should triple its size). Usually, I pre-heat the oven at 50°, then I switch the oven, leave the light on and place the bowl on the bottom.

Then, knead the panettone again with your hands and place it into the paper panettone mold. Let it rise in the oven until the panettone dough is above the mold of about 1-2 cm.

03

Prepare the icing

In the meantime, prepare the icing. Stir the egg white with the almond flour, the corn starch and the sugar. Then, brush gently the icing on top of the panettone, add some almonds, pearl sugar and powder sugar.

04

Bake & cool down

Bake the panettone in the bottom part of (pre-heated 185°/static mode) oven for about 45 minutes. If after 30 minutes it’s already brown-colored, you can cover it with aluminum foil. 

Let cool the panettone completely suspended by the knitting needles in a large pot.

RISOTTO WITH RED GURNARD

RISOTTO WITH RED GURNARD 🐟
Red gurnard is one of the most common “poor” fishes used to make fish soup. Not very famous for having a very tasty flavor. Yet, have you ever tried to make a risotto with it? The result is pretty nice 😋
In a pan, add 6 tbs of olive oil, 1 chopped onion and cook until golden colored.
Then, add 200gr of red gurnard fish (cleaned and washed well) and cook for 5-7 minutes.
Next, add 150gr rice for risotto (I used the Vialone Nano type) and toast it for a few minutes.
Now, it’s time to cook the risotto with the vegetable stock (made of 1 water + 1 cube of vegetable bouillon). Add 1 cup of stock at time and stir gently while the risotto absorbs the stock. Keep adding the vegetable stock and stirring, while cooking the risotto (about 15-20 minutes). When ready, add parsley to taste.
Pronto!
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PAPPARDELLE AI FUNGHI PORCINI

Every time I go back to Italy to visit my family, it’s like a special holiday. Family time, seeing friends, lovely places, eating amazing, delicious food.
I always ask my father to make some of my favorites meals: PAPPARDELLE AI FUNGHI PORCINI. He loves going mushrooms hunting so this time I joint him and we went to the Dolomites for a couple of days.
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And when we were back, we rewarded ourselves and the family with a nice plate of pappardelle for dinner.
Recipe (for 4 servings): Chop 200 gr fresh porcini mushrooms and cook them in a pot with 1 chopped garlic clove, olive oil and salt to taste for about 10/15 minutes. Blend 3/4 of the porcini until creamy. Leave the rest aside for final decoration. In the meantime, cook 320gr of fresh pappardelle in hot, salty water. When ready, put the pasta in a pan, pour the creamy sauce, add some fresh parsley and stir well for a couple of minutes. Serve these delicious pappardelle with a spoon of the porcini leftovers.
Buon appetito!
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SEMIFREDDO AL PISTACCHIO

Back to Italy to visit my family, I could finally go visiting some relatives and friends after the long lockdown 🇮🇹 So nice to see them all again!
And as good Italians do, when we meet we always have some nice food and drinks 😋
My aunt Nuncia offered me this delicious #homemade SEMIFREDDO AL PISTACCHIO: so yummy! And super easy to make! So I asked her the #recipe and decided to give a try myself. The family loved it!
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Recipe (about 10 servings): Beat 4 egg yolks with 100 gr of sugar. Then, add 300 gr of pistachio cream and mix well. Last, whip 500 gr of heavy cream (I used a plant-based one) and incorporate it well to the mix of eggs, sugar and pistachio cream. Use some some aluminum cups to prepare the semifreddo servings. Start with 1 tsp of pistachio grains and then add 2-3 tbsp of pistachio cream. Wrap the cups with food wrapping film and put the cups in the freezer for at least 3 hours before serving. Remove the semifreddo up-side down from the cup and enjoy 😊
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