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Posts Tagged ‘risotto’

  1. Back to cooking – zucchini flowers and saffron risotto

    June 12, 2012 by Giulietta

    I talk and talk, I promise and promise, and then I don't fulfil .. I'm just a lot of talking and a badge (do you remember this quote from "The Untouchables"?). Every single time, in fact, I come here, I tell you that my presence on this blog reduced a lot, that I'll make up for it, that you'll see me more often, and then I cook less and, therefore, I further reduce my presence on this poor blog. Does saying that I'll patch things up bring me bad luck? Does life beyond the blog really absorb me so much?

    Whatever it is, I really hope I'll be able to cook a bit more in the next weeks, 'cause maybe I'll have a bit more time available (but I added the "maybe" just in case). But don't worry, in the past weekend I relaxed a bit and I cooked (hallelujah, hallelujah), so you'll have the pleasure (or displeasure) of seeing these 2 or 3 new recipes soon. Of course, if only I'd remember to take pictures every time I cook something new, maybe my blog will definitely improve, but I can't ask myself too much.

    Coming back to topics much more interesting than my (lack of) mental health, let's talk about today's recipe. Some time ago I saw this recipe over at Manu's menu and I fell in love; so, thanks to a visit to the farmers' market on Saturday morning, I bought a nice bag of zucchini flowers and I made this delicate and springy risotto. A memorandum for me: next time remembering to make Parmigiano baskets before the risotto would be good: I remembered too late, and so I didn't make them. "More attention" will be my mantra from now on (and I know that mantra is going to fail). But, with Parmigiano I planned to use for the baskets, I made a hell of a creaming … ergo every cloud has a silver lining.

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    Category Earth first course, First course, Risotto, Spices, Vegetables | Tags: ,,,,,,, | 17 Comments

  2. Spring smell and asparagus risotto

    April 27, 2012 by Giulietta

     

    Say what you want, but some things smell like spring: that special light that makes green brighter, rainstorms, the smell of fresh cut grass (I could also say allergy to grass, but I would have ruined the poetry. Ooops, I just did, didn't I?), the desire to go out for a ride on a moped, although you don't really have a place to go. Then the craving for a picnic, an on the road trip, ice cream, a beer outdoor, putting aside boots to rediscover sandals. And then strawberries, fresh peas (don't throw anything away .. did you ever eat the peas' skins, just stewed in butter? Wonderful!) and, of course, asparagus.

    About the subject of this post, asparagus, it's an elegant vegetable (I know this is not a key feature, but I find it elegant), delicate and yet intense in taste, very particular. I love asparagus, just hard boiled and served with a simple mayonnaise, topped with melted butter and baked with some Parmigiano, wrapped in prosciutto cotto or prosciutto crudo, or used to make one of the most classic risotto.

    Of course, if they wouldn't have that side effect that we all know, they would be even more adorable!

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    Category Earth first course, First course, Risotto, Vegetables | Tags: ,,,, | 16 Comments

  3. (Three) risotto for a goodbye, a pavlova and five pigs

    February 29, 2012 by Giulietta

    This post tells an evening, a dinner to say goodbye to a dear friend, who left Turin today and will come back in a few months. This is the story of a simple request that magically turned itself into an evening of food, wine, beer, reasonable and foolish words and laughter.

    When a friend says he wants to eat something before he leaves, you have to please him. And if this friend asks you a risotto, you'll make him three, this is the law of the jungle .. well, actually this is Totta's (the friend who gave the party) law. This time I didn't think of anything, I didn't organize anything, but I merely prepared the food with her, so she has all the merit.

    And before those risotto there will be at least 3 or 4 starters (including raw meat, a Piedmontese classic) and a generous amount of pickles (we can't live without them), and after them a salad (which, as we know, de-grease, so it will be skipped) and a dessert (a really fattening one) … well, you'll also need at least 5 hearty eaters.

    When a friend leaves, you can't let him leave starving, and you can't really say goodbye on an empty stomach.

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    Category Cheese, Cold cuts, First course, Risotto | Tags: ,,,,,, | 7 Comments

  4. (Super) beer and speck risotto… in the teeth of summer!

    June 23, 2011 by Giulietta

    If you expected to celebrate the beginning of summer with, I don't know, an ice cream, a no-bake cheesecake, a fresh rice salad, you are mistaken, gentlemen!

    Since Turin today welcomed me with 21° C (69° F) and a grey sky (it seems late September), I'll show you how I adjust in a nanosecond! And so, shouldering a bottle of super beer, I am going to give you a recipe not summery, but with a great appeal.

    In fact, back from C'è fermento (a Piedmontese event dedicated to craft breweries): in one evening I was able to taste an unknown number of beers (about 16 different beers, thanks to the collaboration with other friends/tasters), to eat a plate of cheeses that will give me the amount of calcium for the next 10 months (thanks to Fiandino Farms, present to the event with their cheeses and butter -the famous butter 1889, salted and unsalted) and to enjoy good music (thanks to the Treves Blues Band)… but let's get back to beer.

    Of the 15 breweries present (many of which from Piedmont, but there were also representatives of other Italian regions), two were "well-known faces" (Baladin and SorA'LaMa'), I knew a couple of them by their reputation (Beba and Pause Café ), some others are easily reachable from Turin (Birrificio la Piazza), but there were lot of surprises: some original, good and "real" beer… in short, an evening with a great alcoholic content (I didn't have to drive, oh yeah! I had a "Bob" for the evening) and a great taste!
     

     

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    Category Beer, Cheese, Cold cuts, Earth first course, First course, Risotto | Tags: ,,,,,,, | 19 Comments

  5. It looks like tomato sauce but it’s not tomato sauce… risotto with roasted peppers

    June 8, 2011 by Giulietta

    I don't go too often to restaurants, and certainly I seldom (understatement) go to go to classy restaurants, let alone excellent ones. But sometimes it happens, and if this happens in the right restaurant, I come out of it reconciled with the world, and I bring home with me a good experience and tasty memories.

    Some time ago I was invited along with some friends at a restaurant called La Credenza (aka The Cupboard) in San Maurizio Canavese (Turin province) to celebrate an important occasion and, to be honest, I think it's the perfect place for an occasion like that . Not only the location was perfect, but I think that more than once the jaws of the guests has risked the dislocation in amazement of food and wine.

    In the long series of dishes, one in particular touched all of us (I'm not authoritative, 'cause I was very courteous in presence of the chef, the restaurant staff and the sommelier, and then I burst into thunderous Oooooooh and photographed everything as soon as they turned their backs), risotto with roasted peppers. Usually I don't abandon myself to the great love I feel for peppers due to digestive problems, but that night I couldn't evade … and fate gave me an amazing dish! In fact, the strong and smoked taste of roasted peppers was made ​​more delicate by risotto, while its taste went perfectly with chopped anchovy and parsley chlorophyll used to garnish the dish. Sublime!

    And so, in loving memory of that ecstatic experience, I tried to make it home version, and without having a recipe, so experimenting and going to the taste. The result is a risotto that gathers the same contrasts and the same taste exaltation, but of course different from the one made at the restaurant (which you could also notice from the pictures below: in the top you can see their risotto, at the bottom you can see mine).

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    Category Earth first course, First course, Risotto, Vegetables | Tags: ,,,,,, | 19 Comments

  6. Blue cheese and pears risotto… and a shower of awards

    May 11, 2011 by Giulietta

    On Sunday, after a popular vote on Facebook (so if you're not fans of my Facebook fan page yet, what are you waiting for?), but also publicized on Twitter (again… aren't you following my sweet tweets, yet?! You're doing that on purpose, then!!), my Italian and foreign readers surprised me, choosing from four options that I give them the "slow horse", aka the recipe that I thought was less likely … and instead, the 30 voters (ok, this democracy exercise is still a bit lame, but the goal is to increase the pool of voters, and to use this method more often, if you like it) took me aback by choosing blue (cow) cheese and pears risotto: aren't they gourmet?!

    As you may already guessed just casually reading my posts, love between me and cheeses is not just a fleeting one, but we have a stable, happy and long-term -very long, indeed- relationship! And, again, as you may have noticed by the varied presence of dairy products, I just love all cheeses, even the most stinking and difficult to love! Blue cheese (toma is a typical Piedmontese cheese) fits perfectly in this group of cheeses: this cheese, in fact, has a strong smell (euphemism), is very sharp and tasty, and it goes perfectly with the sweet and delicate taste of pears: folk wisdom in Italy says that the combination between cheese and pears is divine (and, let me say it, the combination between blue cheese and pears is beyond divine).

    The blue cheese I used for this recipe is not the typical blue sheep cheese, more solid and compact (you can see it in its bright beauty in the picture above, on the right), but it's a blue cow cheese, very similar in consistency (but more intense in taste) to a shape natural gorgonzola cheese (you can see it in the same picture, on the left), both souvenir from a brief stay in Piedmontese Langhe.

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    Category Cheese, Earth first course, First course, Fresh fruit, Risotto | Tags: ,,,,,, | 36 Comments

  7. Black charm: cuttlefish ink risotto

    April 21, 2011 by Giulietta

    Lately I allowed myself too much fun, too many colors, too much spring on this blog! So today I say "that's enough", and I purify myself with a total-black post, where black rules the roost .

    This as for the eyesight, but for the taste?!

    The taste is vernal, fresh and strong, that anticipate the summer with his sea notes, but its roots are still in this middle earth which is spring, because of the risotto (which I don't consider a summer dish, except for rice salad, a summer evergreen)

    I won't dwell on the smell (rhyme), since it's fish, and fish or you love it or you hate it, smell included … certainly I won't buy a cuttlefish eau de toilette, but to cook and then eat fish (and I know that cuttlefish is not a fish, but a cephalopod mollusk, but you understood the concept) I am ready for everything, even its fragrant smell (although cuttlefish doesn't have such a stench).

    What can I say about tact?! If you really want to know, cuttlefish is quite slippery and tough, not a particularly pleasant texture, but so like the smell, there's worse! However, if you have strange desires related to abnormal hair colors, cuttlefish ink would be fine!

    We lack only the hearing … but since -even in my short life- I never heard a cuttlefish speak or sing, you have to wait for the development of appropriate supernatural powers.

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    Category First course, Risotto, Sea first course, Shellfishes | Tags: ,,,,, | 14 Comments

  8. Southern Italy in my (Northern) dish: ‘nduja and smoked scamorza risotto

    March 22, 2011 by Giulietta

    Yesterday I ended winter seasonal cooking with a Northern recipe for origin (Trieste) and influences (goulasch is a typical Hungarian dish, spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe), so today I officially start the good weather season with a recipe -almost- entirely from Southern Italy. In fact, I took some southerner products that I always have at home (not because they come from my home region, but simply because i love them: 'nduja from Spilinga and smoked scamorza), and I grafted them onto a northener dish, risotto.

    The result is, IMHO, a full meal, with rich and balanced flavors, with a fascinating blend of hot and smoky, two flavors that blend perfectly … But it's up to you to judge!

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    Category Earth first course, First course, Risotto | Tags: ,,,,,,, | 1 Comment