Balsamic Vinegar

Balsamic vinegar is not found in the same condition as the balsamic vinegar in the states. The traditional balsamic vinegar is a syrupy consistency with so much intense flavor, the necessary amount to use is only drops. The price of the vinegar increases with the amount of years aged, beginning with 12 years and continuing until 50+ years.

Although the traditional balsamic vinegar is the true vinegar, these next few recipes just call for the basic balsamic vinegar dound in the every local grocery store.

Filetto Di Maiale Con Aceto Basalmico E Salsa Ai Porri
Pork Fillet with Balsamic Vinegar and Leek Sauce

Ingredients:
pork fillet 800 grams
leeks 400 grams
vegetable stock 100 grams
sugar 30 grams
balsamic vinegar 100 grams
béchamel sauce 200 grams
carrots 120 grams
lard 120 grams
raisins 20 grams
butter

Clean the fillet (cut off the white skin and remove big chunks of fat). Cut the fillet into two inch thick circles. Wrap the clean and cut fillet with lard (sliced) and tie up. Brown the pork over a high flame, add salt and pepper and drench with balsamic vinegar. Remove the cooked pork pieces and put the sauce left in the pan aside.
Finely slice the leeks and saute them with some butter, sprinkle with the sugar and cook 5 minutes over medium/low heat. Make a béchamel sauce and pass through a food mill together with the cooked leeks, keep warm. Cook the carrots (3 inch long pieces, cut in eighths with now peel) in butter and add the raisins, salt and pepper halfway through the cooking time. Cook until soft but still consisting a CRUNCH.
Pour some leek sauce on a plate and place the fillet in the center with some of the balsamic vinegar sauce on top and then place the carrots in a semicircle around the fillet. Serve warm.






Gelato Fiodilatte
Vanilla Gelato

Ingredients:
milk 450 grams
sugar 180 grams
fresh cream 200 grams
vanilla bean

In a bowl, melt the sugar with a little milk, add the remaining milk after the sugar has melted, then add the fresh cream, and vanilla (slice the bean in half and scrape out the seeds, put the seeds and skin in the milk). Mix well. Run the milk mixture through a strain to not have the beans and skin in the ice cream. Put the strained mixture into an ice cream machine and let run until it has became the desired ice cream texture you would like.


Salsa All'Aceto Balsamico
Balsamic Vinegar Sauce

Put on-top of the vanilla gelato.

Ingredients:
sugar 100 grams
water 50 grams
lemon juice 1 drop
heavy cream 200 grams
balsamic vinegar 400 ml

Place the sugar and the water in a small pan and boil, DO NOT STIR, until a lightly colored carmel forms. On low heat add the balsamic vinegar and lemon juice and take off the heat. Cover the pan and wait a few minutes (until the carmel begins to melt again, about 10 minutes, and it is not necessary to stir). After, add the heavy cream and bring to a low boil until the volume as reduced by half.

TRUFFLE

Truffles and Truffle Oil in Italy are gold. They are very rare and expensive. The white truffle, which is the most expensive and rare of the two, is found in Alma. This truffle is to NEVER be cooked. The black truffle, found in Nocia, is also preferred not the be cooked, but we cook this truffle in a few dishes because it is acceptable to not cook. Truffles have the texture of a mushroom, although they are NOT mushrooms, nothing like them actually. The truffle is used as a garnish or the last added flavor to a dish.

Canestrello Del Vignaiolo
Bread Basket with vegetables and meat on Polenta

Ingredients:
mixed meat 40 grams (chicken, rabbit, turkey, veal)
1/2 onion
4 garlic cloves
1/2 tbsp minced herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme)
porcini mushrooms 100 grams
extra virgin olive oil
salt and peper

Bread basket:
flour 200 grams
1 egg
1 bunch of spinach, cooked, drained (squeeze out all extra liquid), and chopped
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp bread crumbs
polenta 400 grams, cooked
salt
truffle slices

To make the bread basket: Knead the flour with the egg, spinach, and pinch of salt, to obtain a smooth dough (add some water if needed). Roll out the dough in a thin sheet and line 4 molds, previously greased and sprinkled with bread crumbs (remove the excess bread crumbs by simply tipping over the molds). Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees C for about 10 minutes.

Chop the 1/2 onion and saute in a saucepan with a little oil and garlic. Italians use garlic sparingly, they do not want the flavor of the garlic, which is a strong flavor, to counteract the natural flavor of the other ingredients. Add the diced meat, brown and then add the mushrooms, cook for a few more minutes. Sprinkle with the minced herbs and season with salt and pepper. Fill the bread baskets with the mixture.
Pour some of the cooked polenta on a plate, and place a bread basket on top. Decorate with truffle slices.






Involtini Di Vitello Al Tartufo
Veal Rolls with Truffle

Ingredients:
veal slices 450 grams
2 eggs
parmesan cheese
bread crumbs
butter 40 grams
truffle (black or oil)
salt

Pound the veal slices until very thin, almost see-through. Season with salt and cover with a thin slices of black truffle and grated parmesan cheese. If you choose to use truffle oil instead of a truffle, only use a few drops, 3-5 depending on how much truffle flavor you are wanting. Roll the veal slices with the truffle and parmesan cheese inside. Press the edge. Pass them in the eggs, beaten with some salt, and then roll them in the bread crumbs. Heat the butter in the pan and brown the veal rolls, should take about 10 minutes. Serve hot.






Risotto Al Tartufo
Risotto with Truffles

Risotto is a delicacy. The rice must be cooked perfectly so it is not mushy, but it is not hard. This cooking technique is called "al dente," this is when you can have a sort of resistance to the bite, but the pasta or rice is NOT hard/crunchy but not a mush.

Ingredients:
Carnaroli (risotto) rice 360 grams
onion, finely chopped, 10 grams
extra virgin olive oil 60 grams
chicken broth
butter 30 grams
truffle oil
optional:
grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
white truffle flakes

In a deep pan, warm the extra virgin olive oil. Sweat the onions in the olive oil. Add the rice and toast until golden brown or transparent. Add enough hot chicken broth to cover the rice. Be sure the chicken broth is hot because if you add cold liquid, the cooking process will stop. Let the rice cook while stirring occasionally, adding more broth after the existing broth is absorbed. Make sure to be trying the risotto as it is cooking for that perfect texture.
When the rice is done (about 18 minutes, but do not judge based on the time, judge based on taste), take the pot away from the heat and add the butter, truffle oil (8-12 drops, depending on desired flavor), and mix it into the rice. Serve warm with parmigiano reggiano cheese.

Ciao.

One of the most amazing things about Italy is how busy it can be, yet you can learn about the history, the architecture, and the passion and feel so relaxed and at ease. Cooking in the kitchen is exactly the same way, the chef could be yelling and screaming at you because you aren't stirring fast enough or the pine nuts are a little bit too brown, yet when you taste the food, you know it was worth all the commotion.

Duck Breast with Apple, Celeriac Pure, and Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients:
2 apples
sugar 40 grams

dark chocolate 40 grams and few flakes to garnish
1 breast of duck
dried apricots (4)
walnuts, pine nuts, almonds 40 grams
butter
extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper

Slice the apples into half moon pieces, color in a frying pan with a little butter and sugar, then cook them on parchment at 200 degrees C for about 8-10 minutes. You can skip the cooking in the oven if you fry the apples until they have a little softness to them, but still have a crunch.
Dice the celery into pieces and boil in milk (put the celery in the pot and then barely cover with milk, bring to a boil), after the milk has boiled, drain the celery and put the celery in a blender. Once the celery is a pure, put the pure back on the heat with a little butter and salt and pepper until the pure is warm, set aside until the final dish is ready.
Clean up the duck breast, leaving the skin on one side. In the skin (JUST THE SKIN, do not cut the meat), make a few cross cuts, season the duck with some salt and pepper, then sear the duck on both sides with some olive oil. Sear until there is a crunch to the skin. Finish cooking the duck in the oven at 200 degrees C for about 8-10 minutes.
With the pan the duck was cooked in, remove the fat then add some water and deglaze the pan. then put the chocolate and the butter into the pan to create the chocolate sauce.
Place a little pure in a ring mold, add the apple and a few chocolate flakes. Place the duck (now fully cooked and sliced) next to the pure and sprinkle with chocolate sauce and black pepper. Garnish with the sliced apricots and chopped nuts.

Bon Appetit

Bounjorno Italy - the best place to get lost

GOOD MORNING to all you wonderful people over in the states. I know I have been saying I would post a blog and still have been having the hardest time finding decent internet to update all of you on my life. Italy is absolutely amazing. The tourist attractions are breathtaking, but the narrow streets and greeting from the people of Italy are the moments when i have to take a deep breathe and realize that this experience is not just a dream. I have been cooking in our cooking lab and making the most interesting foods and eating ingredients I never dreamed of trying.

Our first experimental food: Crepes with Spinach filling and Bechamel Sauce.

The ingredients for the crepe:
150 gr flour
375 ml milk
3 eggs
salt
butter for frying pan

Beat the eggs in a bowl, whisk in the flour and salt. Slowly pour milk into the batter. The batter needs to be whisked continuously until the batter is thin enough to be able to stick a spoon in the batter and pull it out leaving very little batter on the surface of the spoon. Let this batter sit for about 30 minutes.
Melt a little butter in a non-stick pan after the thirty minutes, and spreadin a ladle of batter, making sure the whole bottom of the pan is covered and spread out. cook until lightly golden on both sides.

Filling:
400 gr spinach
200 gr ricotta cheese
salt, peper, and nutmeg
45 gr parmigian reggiano cheese
1/2 garlic clove
45 gr extra virgin olive oil

Rinse the spinach well. In a large pan, brown the garlic in the extra virgin oil. Toss in the raw spinach, salt and cook with a lid for a few minutes (until soft). Then drain, cool, and SQUEEZE out the excess water. Chop the spinach into very fine pieces and mix with ricotta cheese, pramigian reggiano cheese, pepper and nutmeg.

Bechamel Sauce:
50 gr flour
50 gr extra virgin olive oil or butter
1/2 liter milk
45 gr grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
salt peper, and nutmeg

Heat the extra virgin olive oil and add flour, mixing. Add the milk (PREVIOUSLY HEATED, not boiling) to the mixture and simmer for about 2 minutes. Add salt, peper, nutmeg, and parmigiano reggiano cheese.


Put the filling in each crepe. Grease a fireresistant glass pan with butter. Place filled crepes in pan. Cover witht he sauce and parmigiano reggiano cheese (if you want you can add some mozzarella cheese as well), cook in the oven at 220 degrees C until the surface is golden brown.



These crepes were absolutely amazing. The thin layer around the spinach filling and the Bechamel sauce on top was amazing. The Bechamel sauce is supposed to be a creamy, kind of thick substance. The crepes can also be folded into triangles or into thirds.

Hope you all enjoy.

CIAO.