UNA FOOD BLOGGER A CASA DI GINGER

Here’s Ilaria, the young food blogger from “assaggiare la vita a piccoli morsi”.

This promising young blogger full of enthusiasm, came to visit me during a cooking class, making it even more exciting thanks to her skilful shots and her voracious eye. And here’s what gave me Ilaria: a large fine article on her blog and many pictures that tell one of the things I love most about my work: cooking with you.

Thanks to Ilaria and what added to our cooking class!

And … don’t miss her blog!

GLI ANOLINI, GLI ANOLINI!

A must for any self-respecting Christmas in Parma: anolini.

Anolini are an ode to traditional cuisine, an art who has been handed down from generations. They are the culinary symbol of patience which is necessary to see flourish an absolute wonder, are the reward (or the perfect combination) to our hated fog that envelops everything, and that I love.

Here a small photographic history of Ginger’s anolini.

And if you want, you can order yours writing as always at info@gingerforbreakfast.it

Here we go!

We add broth to cook

After one day of cooking

After two days of cooking

Here the meat sauce we will use

Add bread and Parmesan cheese

Et voilà!

LA SPONGATA DI GINGER!

Here the first typical Parma “spongata cake”, traditionally prepared for Christmas.

A simple dessert prepared with love, top quality ingredients and so much patience: infact, spongata cake has to rest at least two months to express itself in all its taste.

You can write at info@gingerforbreakfast.it to order your spongata cake.

In the meantime…a small preview!

SUNDAY AT GINGER’S

Sunday lunch at Ginger has been started!

The one we made with my garden’s pumpkin was simply amazing…here some pics for you!

Click here to choose your next favourite Sunday at Ginger’s.

Ginger’s table

Cheese tasting with pumpkin jam

My garden’s stuffed peppers

Pumpkin cream flavored with paprika and ginger

Veal rolls with bacon and pumpkin

Diced roastpumpkin and potatoes

Pumpkin flan with black chocolate

GINGER’S NEWS!

Here a nice interview with Ginger for Breakfast published on the local Parma daily newspaper “La Gazzetta di Parma” on 26th of March 2015.

Don’t forget that now Ginger is in Parma and the new cooking classes calendar will be starting in September. But autumn will bring many other surprises…stay tuned!

See you soon my friends!

CHRISTMAS! or rather GREEN SAUCE FOR MEAT

In many Italian regions, ther’s no Christmas without boiled meats and no boiled meats without green sauce.

Anyway, the green sauce is a MUST, perfect to combine with many other meat dishes. Here for you two versions to combine with two different dishes: my grandmother green sauce and the famous Gambero Rosso cooking school one. Choose your favourite!

And Merry Christmas, of course.

1) MY GRANDMOTHER GREEN SAUCE (for BOILED MEAT)

INGREDIENTS
1 sprig of parsley

1 clove of garlic

white wine vinegar to taste

evo oil to taste

salt to taste

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METHOD

Wash and dry parsley very well, then chop it very thinly together with garlic.

Pour the minced in a little pan, cover with excellent evo oil and add a bit of white wine vinegar, according to taste. Warm the sauce up just until tepid (it has not to cook!) and serve it with boiled meat.

It’s delicious!

2) GAMBERO ROSSO COOKING SCHOOL GREEN SAUCE (for MEATBALLS MADE WITH BOILED MEAT)
INGREDIENTS

1 sprig of parsley

40 g of bread crumb

1 anchovy in oil

1 hard-boiled egg yok

1 tbsp of white wine vinegar

1 clove of garlic

evo oil

METHOD

Wash and dry parsley very well. Pour vinegar onto bread crumb and drain it after few minutes. Put all the ingredients in a blender: parsley, rinsed anchovy, bread crumb, hard-boiled egg yok and garlic. Add evo oil and mix until creamy. Add salt and serve with boiled meats meatballs. (Click here for Ginger for Breakfast recipe).

VENETIAN STYLE “BACCALA’ MANTECATO”

Here one of my favourite dish, all the year round cooked, but expecially is a tip for Christmas Eve dinner.

Baccalà mantecato* is a typical dish from Venice and it needs very few ingredients but the most important is…elbow grease! Come on guys, the big effort will be rewarded by the absolute pleasure of this dish!

* “MANTECARE” means in italian “to mix until create a creamy texture”.

INGREDIENTS FOR A RICH ENTRY

500 g of desalted codfish

olive oil to taste (or canola oil) at leaste half a litre

1 clove of garlic (OPTIONAL)

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METHOD

First of all, two words about the oil. Olive oil or canola oil? Normally it is used canola oil because the taste is softer, but a healthy compromise is olive oil (not extra vergin one, it would be to strong as a taste).

And now here we go. Desalt codfish very well (if you buy the salted one) for at least 3 days in cold water changing it 3-4 times per day.

Wrap it very well in aluminium foil and put it a pan without adding anything else. Cook over a slow flame with a lid for 30 minutes.

Once ready let it cool down in the pan, then remove the skin. Don’t throw the cooking water away, could be useful just in case codfish needs some salt.

Pour codfish in a high sides container, crumble it with the hands and start adding flush olive oil, contemporary beating with a whisk. Be strong! Keep going until the compound is soft, it will take 20-30 minutes. Codfish will become very creamy in the end. Add the oil slowly because at a certain point codfish will stop to incorporate.

If you like garlic but don’t want it to cover the taste of the codfish, just cut it in half and rub onto the sides of your container before starting.

Serve baccalà mantecato onto toasted bread or onto typical white or yellow toasted corn mush.

And…Happy Christmas dinner!

NOTE

Baccalà mantecato can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days, covered with a plastic foil.

CHICKEN ROLLS STUFFED WITH SMELL OF ORANGE SPINACH AND POTATOES AND ONIONS PURÉE

Here a nice tip to cook chicken not as we usually do.

I learned this recipe when I was a cooking student. There’s just some work to do, but don’t worry!, the recipe is simple, cheap and everybody will like it a lot.

Ready? GO!

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INGREDIENTS for 4 PEOPLE

600 g of farm-yard sliced chicken breast

500 g of spinach

1 orange without pesticides

2 cloves of garlic

2 potatoes

1 onion

salt and pepper to taste

evo oil

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METHOD

Cut potatoes and onions in small cubes, season with evo oil, salt, pepper, cover with aluminium foil and bake at 350° for about 1 hour. After 30 minutes cooking start to mash the compound. Cook uncovered for the last 10 minutes. Once the compound is ready, mash it very well with a vegetable mill to compact it.

In the meantime use a stick hammer to make sliced chicken thiner. Boil spinach for few minutes and drain them very well. In a pan put some evo oil, garlic until brown and some pieces of the orange skin. Sauté boiled spinach for few minutes. Stuff and roll the meat with sauted spinach and close it very well like a candy, using plastic film specific for microwaves oven.

Boil the rolls in water for 8 minutes, then put the film away and brown them in a pan wih some evo oil to make them crisp.

Put in the plate the rolls obliquely cut, together with two quenelles of potatoes and onion purée.

PASTA WITH POTATOES

A delicious soup, very easy to prepare and happily poor: it comes again from Roman and Neapolitan tradition. Pasta with potatoes: a very ancient union coming from hanger and necessity to eat spending few money.

But the taste is great, as in every poor dish, and we adore it since the first spoon!

Try it in cold and grey days to warm you up and to discover the intense flavour of simplicity. Everybody will love it!

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INGREDIENTS for 4 PEOPLE

1 carrot

1 stick of celery

½ onion

1 clove of garlic

150 g of high sliced pancetta (not smoked)

3 big potatoes

some spoon of tomato sauce

200 g of short-shaped pasta

evo oil

chili pepper

salt

rosemary

laurel

matured roman pecorino cheese (grated)

METHOD

Put in a pan few drops of evo oil and add chopped carrot, onion, celery and pancetta. Let everything cook slow together with garlic, chili pepper, one laurel leave and rosemary. After 10-15 minutes add potaotes cut in small cubes. Mix well, remove the aromatic herbs and garlic and add some spoon of tomato sause, just to colour a bit the soupe.

Cover potatoes with hot water and cook them on a slow flame for about 30 minutes or anyway until they are very soft. Add salt and pasta, which has to cook together with potatoes. If necessary, add hot water, but the final texture of the soup has to be quite thick.

Finish the dish with a very good evo oil and abundant grated Roman pecorino cheese.

POTATOES AND LEEKS PIE

This pie is a souvenir from my childhood summers. My great-aunt used to prepare this pie when all the family was together. It came to my mind after many years, I cooked it exactly as my great-aunt used to do and..there it is again, perfectly good!

Here for you the recipe: easy to prepare, vegetarian, very good and smart idea for a picnic or a good lunch at work.

You can cook it with or without dough, both versions are delicious!

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INGREDIENTS FOR DOUGH (for a 20-22 cm of diameter baking pan)

150 g of flour

1 egg

1 tbsp of cold water

50 g of butter

salt

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INGREDIENTS FOR THE STUFFING

1 kg of potatoes

5 or 6 leeks

1 or 2 eggs

5 tbsp of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Salt

Pepper

Nutmeg

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METHOD

Boil and mash potatoes.

Cut the leeks very thin and let them sweat in a pan with some evo oil for 20 minutes on a very slow flame and covered. At the very end remove the lid and put the flame higher to let water inside the pan evaporate. Add mashed potatoes to the leeks and mix together in the pan.

When the compound is tepid add Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, salt, pepper and 1 eggs (add the second one only if necessary).

Put the compound in a baking pan covered with parchment paper or onto the spread out dough. Level the compound and then streak it with a fork.

Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.

TORTA DI PATATE E PORRI

SIMPLY AMAZING or rather CHOCOLATE AND HAZELNUT SPREAD

Nothing greedier and apparently impossible to make at home. Absolutely wrong! And here’s the proof.

And if you want to enjoy fats, which sometimes is almost healthy, it’s much better to prepare this delicacy at home instead of going to the supermarket to buy the well-known one. Please, don’t be scared by seeing butter and cream necessary for the spread result…if you have any doubts, just read the label on top of your commercial spread: this one is nothing!

And it’s ok even for children (not too young of course!). As usual, you just need top quality ingredients.

But now stop talking and let’s go to the stove, you will prepare this delicacy in less then 10 minutes.

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INGREDIENTS (for a 500 g capacity jar)

200 g of dark chocolate (50% or more)

80 g of whole toasted hazelnuts

50-70 g of sugar

50 g of butter

100 g of fresh cream

10 tbsp of milk

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METHOD

Prepare a pot for the bain-marie cooking. Into the bowl put on top of the pot, pour chocolate, butter, cream and milk. Now switch the flame on, it has to be slow.

Chop in a blender the nuts together with the sugar until they create a sort of cream. Add them to chocolate and let the sugar melt. Once everything is well mixed – you won’t need more then 10 minutes – pour the spread into an airtight jar (which you have sterilized before).

Let the spread rest for 30 minutes and…all the rest is joy!

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NOTE

Ça vais sans dire…chocolate lovers will already know the secret of putting a bit of salt on your slice of bread and homemade chocolate spread…

CREMA SPALMABILE AL CIOCCOLATO E NOCCIOLE

PASTA AND BROCCOLO IN RAY FISH BROTH

Ode to the ancient poor Roman cooking, always delicious.

Simple and first quality ingredients to obtain an amazing dish that will be loved even by children and fish skeptics. Ray fish is very simple to work because it has no bones and you will find already skined and ready for this preparation: infact we use just the wings.

I propose you this soup in its white version, but you can find it even with tomatoes, it’s up to you. No more excuses then, you must try this delicacy…you will love it just smelling it!

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INGREDIENTS X 4 PEOLPE

1 roman broccolo

2 ray fish wings (about 1 kg)

1 celery rib

1 carrot

1 onion

some parsley stem

2 or 3 anchovies in oil

1 clove of garlic

½ a glass of white wine

some tbsp of tomato sauce (OPTIONAL)

200 g of broken spaghetti (or maltagliati)

evo oil

chili pepper

salt

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METHOD

Start preparing the broth pouring in cold water celery, carrot, onion, parsley stems, few salt and rinsed ray fish. Turn the flame on and slowly boil for 20 minutes. After that, drain the fish and scrape off the meat with a spoon. It will be very easy. Keep the fish apart. Remove skin and cartilage and put the fish carcass in the broth again.

Divide broccolo in same size pieces and wash it well. In a pan put some evo oil and garlic, cook slowly until golden brown and remove it. Put the flame slow and let the anchovies melt into the oil. Add chili pepper, tomato sauce (if you decide for the red version) and broccolo. After few minutes add the white wine, let it evapourate and slowly add the broth to cook broccolo, which has to stay crisp.

After 5-7 minutes about, add pasta directly inside the broccolo and cook it. Add broth if necessary.

Once pasta is ready, put in the plate and add the ray fish. Finish with some evo oil and serve it very hot.

PASTA E BROCCOLO
razza