Small buns with Chocolate

Small buns with little pieces of sweet chocolate easy and fast to prepare. Their preparation is very simple just the time to let the bread rise and the buns will be ready. You need flour, sugar, a little bit of sugar and dark chocolate. You can modify the quantity of chocolate according to you taste :-). They are ideal as small sweet with a cup of tea or also for breakfast with a large cup of cappuccino.

INGREDIENTS:

25 g of fresh yeast

200ml of milk

80-90 g of butter

50g of Sugar

500g of Flour

300 g of Dark chocolate in small pieces

1 Egg

PREPARATION TIME: 30 minutes + the time of rising almost 3-4 hours

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

PREPARATION

Dissolve the yeast in the milk.

Add 100 g of flour and mix.

On a table place the flour, the sugar, the butter in pieces and add the mixture of yeast, milk and flour just prepared.

Mix all together until you obtain homogeneous dough.

Stand the dough like in the picture and add the pieces of chocolate and mix again.

Let the dough rise for about 3 hours. Then stand the dough and with the help of a glass cut small round buns.

Preheat the oven at 180 degree. Place the small buns with chocolate on a baking pan. Let the small buns with chocolate rise for another half an hour. Take only the white of an egg, beat them and use it to cover the surface of the small buns with chocolate.

Bake them for about 30-40 minutes until the surface will become golden.

BUON APPETITO!

Cake with Almonds

 

Here a variation of the cake “all 100 grams” that I prepared once with hazelnuts. Instead of hazelnuts I used here the almonds, for the rest is everything the same. The preparation of this Italian dessert is so easy and fast that you will need only 10 minutes if you use almonds already without peel but if you have at home almonds with the nutshell, you have to remove it and then you should remove also the peel. To easily remove the peel of almonds you just have to put them for 15-20 second in boiling water and the peel will be removed easily. I prepared a cake using a baking pan of 24cm of diameter and for this reason I used 200 grams of each ingredients. This cake is perfect to be served with a cup of tea or a cup of hot chocolate.

INGREDIENTS:

200g of Flour

200g of Sugar

200g of Butter

200ml of Milk

200g of Almonds

2 Eggs

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes

COOKING TIME: 1 hour

WINE: Moscato (White Wine)

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven at 180 degree. Cut the butter in cubes and grind the almonds to obtain a sort of flour of almonds. Place in a bowl the flour, the sugar, the grinded almonds, the pieces of butter and the eggs.

Mix them together and then add the milk. Stir until you obtain a homogeneous mixture. Butter a baking pan of 24cm of diameter. Pour in the baking pan the mixture, bake at 180 degree for about 1 hour.

Check the cooking of the cake with a spaghetto. Put spaghetto in the center of the cake and when you remove it if it is dry the cake is ready.

Let the cake cool down and sprinkle with icing sugar. Place on the top some almond.

BUON APPETITO!

Peppers and Potatoes Hot Salad

Here the preparation of a hot Italian salad with potatoes and peppers, yellow and red, to give a sunny color to your second course or appetizer. The preparation of this Italian side dish is easy and fast. You should use potatoes that are suitable to be roasted, generally the yellow potatoes are the good one, and red and yellow peppers. I love to present this side dish with a second course of meat like a good steak or also with cheese like a fresh mozzarella or a more tasty cheese like the Roman pecorino cheese.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):

2 Red peppers

1 Yellow pepper

3 Potatoes

3-4 Tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil

Salt

Black pepper

Rosemary

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Cabernet (Red wine)

PREPARATION

Clean and peel the potatoes, wash the red and yellow peppers and cut all of them in pieces.

Preheat the extravirgin olive oil in a large pan. Add the potatoes and the peppers and let them saute’ for few minutes.

Sprinkle with salt, black pepper and a little bit of rosemary.

Continue to cook on a low flame for about 20-25 minutes stirring time by time and paying attention to not let them attach to the pan. If necessary, add half a glass of water.

The potatoes and the yellow and red peppers they will be ready when they become golden. BUON APPETITO!

Bread with Speck

An Italian bread particulary tasty and appetizing is bread with cubes of speck. Speck is an italian specility of Bolzano, in Alto Adige. It is a kind of italian ham obtained from pork smoked and seasoned. This morning I opened my fridge and I saw speck so I decide to prepare bread with speck and this is the recipe that I follow.

INGREDIENTS (for 1 Kg of Bread)

1Kg of Flour

1 Teaspooon of Sugar

3 Teaspoons of Salt

3-4 Spoons of Extra virgin olive oil

400 ml of Water

40 g of Yeast

100 g of Speck

PREPARATION TIME: 4 hours

COOKING TIME: 30-40 minutes

PREPARATION

Cut the speck into cubes.

In a bowl combine the flour, the sugar, the salt and the extra virgin olive oil.

Then add the water and the yeast and knead vigorously until you obtain a solid dough.

Open the dough and whip in the speck.

When the dough is ready, make a cross over the surface, and prove it for about 3-4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. When the leaving is finished put the dough in the oven and cook fo about 30-40 minutes. This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!

Asparagus

Two days ago was the birthday of my Grandmother and she prepared for my family a delicious lunch using seasonal vegetables like the asparagus and green beans.  She prepared a wonderful first course of pappardelle with pesto, asparagus and prawn and a delicious second course of tender veal meat with spinach and green beans. This wonderful lunch remember me that asparagus are the vegetables of this season: spring!!!! Asparagus are vegetables typical of spring time, from March to May. They are one of my favorite vegetables that I like to use to prepare delicious Italian recipes.

The easiest recipe to prepare with asparagus is Milanese asparagus:

that is an Italian second course delicious and very fast to prepare, you will need only 20 minutes, some asparagus and eggs, and the result will be great. Asparagus are also tasty to eat simply boiled with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan flakes on the top.

But asparagus are ideal ingredients also for the preparation of first course like lasagna with asparagus,

risotto with white asparagus or Fusilliwith asparagus and squaquerone cheese

and delicious appetizer like asparagus covered with speck or bacon. Asparagus grow in open field or in greenhouse especially in Lombardia, Piedmont, Liguria, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Lazio and Campania. There are different types of asparagus, like the white asparagus of Bassano del Grappa in Veneto; the green asparagus of Altedo and the violet asparagus of Alberga. Asparagus are easy breakable vegetables, but I think they are easy to prepare. Usually they are sold in brunch and when you are buying them the most important thing to consider is to check the buds and the stalks: the buds should be hard, entire and straight, and the stalks should be soft and less woody. Asparagus need very short time of cooking: they should be cooked in brunch in a high pot; you should place the brunch of asparagus in vertical position in the high pot and add water without covering the buds of the asparagus that will cook with steam.

Otherwise if you use them in pieces you don’t need to boil them but you will cook them directly in the sauce you are going to prepare.   

Piattoni Beans with Tomatoes Puree

Piattoni beans are particular type of green beans with a flat shape. Piattoni beans are typically prepared with fresh tomatoes or tomatoes puree and onion. Here I show you an easy and fast delicious recipe to prepare piattoni beans as a side dish or as an appetizer. You can use this recipe also for the preparation of a first course with pasta.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):

500 g of Piattoni beans (Flat green beans)

1 Onion

100g of Tomatoes puree

4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 20-30 minutes

WINE: Pinot Grigio (White Wine)

PREPARATION

Wash and clean the piattoni beans,

cut them in pieces. Preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a large pan, cut the onion in slices and add them to the pan. 

Let the onion sauté for few minutes.  Add the piattoni beans and the tomatoes puree, sprinkle with salt and let them cook for few minutes. 

Add 2 glass of water and let the piattoni beans cook for about 20 -30 minutes. 

Serve hot.

BUON APPETITO!

Pasta and Cannellini Beans Soup

Pasta and beans soup is a traditional Italian recipe, popular in almost all the Italian region. It is prepared in different way in Tuscany, Lombardy, Veneto, Campania and Sicily. Here the recipe that I learned from my mother prepared with spaghetti cut in small pieces and Cannellini beans. It is easy to prepare but at the end you will have a delicious recipe. I prepared it with Cannellini beans in can, the garlic and the chilli pepper. If you have dried Cannellini beans just remember to soak them in water the day before. If you don’t have spaghetti you can use small soup pasta like ditalini or maccheroncini.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):

300 g of Cannellini Beans

1 Clove of Garlic

4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

50 g of Tomatoes puree

200 g of short Pasta like spaghetti cut in small pieces

400 ml of water

Raw salt

Chilli pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes

COOKING TIME: 1 hour

WINE: Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Doc (Red Wine)

PREPARATION

Preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a large casserole. Add a clove of garlic and let it sauté’. Add the Cannellini beans and let them sauté for few minutes;

add the tomatoes puree, the salt and the chilli pepper. 

Add the water and let the Cannellini beans cook for about 10-15 minutes. 

During the cooking pay attention if the water reduces too much in case add a little bit more. When the Cannellini beans are ready add the pasta and let it cook for about 8- 10 minutes. Serve hot.

BUON APPETITO!