Leek soup

Ingredients for 4 people

6 leeks

1 l stock

50 gr butter

flour

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Cut leeks in thin slices (just the light part) and let them brown with butter, then add two spoons of flour and few spoons of stock, cook for a few minutes then add the rest of the stock and let it boil for 40 minutes. Serve the soup with parmigiano cheese and grilled bread.

In modern recipes we have many kinds of vegetable soups but this really comes from the Tuscan tradition. In Florence during the Renaissance period, in fact they used to serve the “Porrea” (means something made with leeks) in special celebrations , but it is not clear if it was this one or a leek tart. What we know that from here comes the word “purea” (smooth soup) and also the French version “purè”

                                                    

Crostini

Today “crostini” are considered as appetizers, but they have an old tradition. Looking at Renaissance paintings, feasts included lots of different kinds of food served without plates, so they used to pick food with hands or put it on a slice of bread. Bread used to soak all the sauce, becoming really tasty. Then they started to toast the bread and put some hot stock on it. We are not putting stock on bread anymore because the bread would become too soft.

In Tuscany we have different kinds of “Crostini”: the classic ones are prepared using chicken entrails including crests, other ones with chicken liver, or spleen. They all have in common the use of capers and anchovy and the way to prepare them.

Here is my recipe I got from an old aunt who lived in Valdarno area, between Arezzo and Florence.

                                              

ISOLINA’S CROSTINI

Ingredients for 6 people:

350 gr chicken liver

1 small onion

1 carrot

1 celery

1 spoon of capers

3 anchovys

White wine

Bit stock

2 spoons of meat ragù

bread

olive oil

salt and pepper

Mince the onion, carrot, celery and put them in a saucepan with 4 spoons of olive oil and let them brown. Add liver, when it dries pour the wine. Cook for half an hour then chop everything, put them back in the pan, add capers and anchovys and let it cook. If it dries add stock. 5 minutes before serving add meat ragù and mix. Spread on toasted bread.

In Siena area instead of meat ragù they use liver with spleen. It is up to you deciding which is the best, keep in mind that the result will be completely different.

Pork ribs with black cabbage

I started writing about winter vegetables so I can not avoid speaking about a couple of recipes that are used in winter time: leek soup and pork rib with black cabbage (cavolo nero)

PORK RIBS WITH BLACK CABBAGE

Ingredients for 4 people

12 cut pork ribs (but you can also use 4 pork steaks instead)

600gr black cabbage

2 cloves of garlic

Fennel seeds

Red wine

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

In a saucepan pour 8 spoons of olive oil, mashed garlic, a spoon of fennel seeds and pan fry. Add meat and after few minutes pour the wine, salt and pepper. When the wine is evaporated add boiled cabbage and let it cook for 5 minutes. If you like you can add more pepper.

                                                   

....and here is a nice picture of our black cabbage enjoying the sun in a winter day.

Gobbi

As I already mentioned, I love cooking season's vegetables. 
During the winter in Tuscany we have a large range of vegetables: “cavolo nero” (it  doesn't have a translation in English because it can be found only in our region, it is actually a kind of local cabbage) is the essential ingredient for example of ribollita, turnip tops which we serve with pork ribs, but the one I prefer is actually what we call “gobbi”. This vegetable looks like cardoon but the taste is very different! The color is lighter and it has a curved shape. Some months before picking farmers usually cover them to protect from the light. They can be served as a pie or pan-fried with tomato and parmigiano cheese.

I prefer the second one, it is simple, light and the cheese doesn’t cloak the vegetable’s taste.

PAN- FRIED GOBBI

4 people ingredients

800 gr “gobbi”
flour
some small tomatoes
olive oil, salt and pepper
garlic
parmigiano cheese

Wash “gobbi”, remove the core and hard parts: cut them in 7 cm long stripes and put it in water with lemon so that they don’t become dark. Pour water in a saucepan and let it boiled then put “gobbi” anche let them cook until soft. Drain them and let them cool. Take a large pan, put 5 spoons of olive oil and 5 gloves of garlic, cook for a few minutes then add “gobbi” covered in flour. Pan fry, add salt, pepper and half cut tomatoes.

Sprinkle with parmigiano cheese before serving.



                                             

                                  
                                        
                                                                                   

Meat Stock

Talking about organic food, we often need to cook involving something concentrated with the flavour of meat or of vegetable, in Italian we called it “dado” (stock cube). I have tried not to use it in my recipes until I managed to prepared it by myself at home using natural ingredients: the result is good and healthy!

Ingredients:

300 g. veal
300 g. salt
300 g. of different vegetables: celery, carrot, onion and garlic
sage and laurel

1 tomato
30 g. red wine
2 cloves

Veal has to be pass twice through the mincer.

Whip the vegetables, pour them in a saucepan adding the meat, wine, salt, tomato, laurel, sage and cloves. Let it cook covered for 30 minutes. Stir regularly until all the wine will be evaporated. Remove sage and laurel and mix everything.

Below you can see the result!

Your natural “Dado” is ready and can be preserved in the fridge for 3 months!

"Don Pancaldi's" Apples

With the growing of the global market we are used to having every kind of fruits and vegetables during the whole year: watermelons or strawberries in February, tomatoes in every season. Red and juicy apples are available from January to December. In the past it was all different… I remember the first holiday on my own, almost 50 years ago...It was July and I spent my holiday in a catholic “colonia” (something like a summer camp but not so comfortable as the ones our children are now used to!). It was a really cheap solution for my parents but the food was nevertheless very homely. Every day we received an apple at the end of the meal, and we used to call it “Don Pancaldi’s apple” . Don Pancaldi was a priest, the bursar of the campus who received as a donation a stock of apples he kept in a shady part of the garden. The apples weren’t so attractive: a bit withered with a brownie russet color. This was the reason why we used to be so ironic about those apples. I often think about that joyful period but I also remember those apples which would have nothing to envy to the  big, shiny, modern apples.

I believe today apples are reaped too early with respect to the right ripening time and too many preservatives are used to let them appear always attractive. Personally I try to use just fresh and in season ingredients and my recipes always follow the seasonality of fruit and vegetables.

                                                        

More crostini?

CROSTINI WITH CHEESE AND WALNUTS

Ingredients:

100g walnuts

150g Emmental cheese

50 g. ricotta cheese

Salt and pepper

Put walnuts and cheese in the mixer and chop them. Put them in a bowl and add ricotta cheese, salt and pepper (cream can be used instead ricotta cheese to have a smoother mixture).  Spread on toasted bread and serve them hot.

CROSTINI WITH RED “RADICCHIO”

Ingredients:

1 red “radicchio”

40 gr grated parmigiano cheese

garlic

vinegar

olive oil

salt and pepper

Slice the bread. Chop the radicchio, garlic and parmigiano cheese in the mixer. Whip 4 spoons of olive oil, 2 spoons of vinegar, salt and pepper. Flavor radicchio with this sauce and place on toasted bread.

Risotto with Seppia

Ingredients for 4 people:

300 gr rice

1 big onion

1 pack of sepia

300 gr. Peeled shrimps

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

stock

Pour 5 spoons of olive oil and the chopped onion in a saucepan. Let them brown then add the rice and cook for a few minutes, pour half glass of white wine and when it is evaporated add stock or hot water slowly and cook. The rice should be “al dente” (not overcooked). In the meantime in a pan pour 2 spoons of olive oil and 2 pieces of garlic, when the oil is hot add the shrimps and a little of wine then cook for a few minutes. Mix with the shrimps and stir-fry before serving. Decorate with parsley. Buon appetito!

                                                        

Christmas’ Eve dinner? Crostini with Cod!

For the Christmas Eve dinner we are used to have no meat, just fish (as by Christian tradition). I would like to talk about the menu I prepared for my family, my most demanding and critical audience.

CROSTINI WITH COD:

Ingredients for 4 people:

600 gr dried soaked cod

2 pieces of garlic

parsley

bread

olive oil

salt and pepper

Divide the cod in two parts and wrap them in aluminum foil 

Put it in cold water and let it boil for half an hour. 

Cool and drip the cod then chop, salt and add few drops of lemon and pepper. 

In the past my grandparents used to press it in a “mortaio” with 6 spoons of olive oil until creamy then served it on baked bread. Today we can have the same result using electric mixers. 

This recipe comes from Grosseto area, in the rest of Italy, specifically in Veneto, we have a different version called baccala mantecato. To prepare this recipe boil and cold the cod, whip with 250 gr seed oil, serve on toasted bread. Enjoy!

Ribollita

It is one of the most popular Tuscan recipes but in the last years, because of a growing interest in our traditional recipes, many people pretended to be expert, simplified it and sometimes deeply changed the original version. I remember my grandmother washing and cutting vegetables patiently and the taste and the smell of the real Ribollita. I really like the traditional version and I wouldn't want its memory to get lost.

Ingredients:

300 gr stale bread

400 gr dried cannellini beans

10 cavolo nero leaves

Half savoy cabbage

3 bunches of chard

2 potatoes

3 carrots

3 celeries

3 onions

2 tomatoes

Olive oil

Soak the beans for 12 hours then boil in 2 litres of water adding salt, sage and garlic.

In 2 different pans pour plenty of olive oil, then in the larger one put 2 chopped onions, 2 celeries and 2 carrots, in the other one put 1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 celery. Let it cook well.

After having cooked them add in the smaller pan: boiled beans with their own water and 1 tomato, in the other one: chopped cabbages, chard, potatoes and 1 tomato. Cover it and let them cook slowly.

All the vegetables should start the cooking process in their own water, but if they dry too much add water. After half an hour add water to cover them and continue cooking for an hour.

Divide the beans, pass half of them through the mixer.

Add all the beans with their own water to the vegetables and boil while stiring the mixture.

Cut in o slices and toast the bread flavoring with the garlic. Fill an oven tin alternating bread, vegetable and olive oil. Enjoy!

Fiorentina steak (the real one!)

I think there is a sort of misunderstanding when talking about “Fiorentina”. In fact all around Italy the term “Fiorentina” means a big steak about 3 cm thick with a T bone in the middle, while in Tuscany this is just the name of every steak!

There are also lots of common places about how to cook it, we call them “sacrilegi” (sacrilege) because they betray the traditional recipe and its original taste. Some people pickle it in olive oil or pour salt on it before cooking, some people puncture it with the fork before turning it. In this case the blood will come out and the meat will become hard.

Today it is common to use very big and thick steaks served “in tagliata” (sliced with rosemary and black pepper) just because is easier, but the real traditional Fiorentina steak has to weight no more than 800 gr. and it has to come from 2 years old Chianina beef.

For the right way of cooking (it must be cooked on the fireplace):

Light the fire in advance so to have embers without flames, put on the grill (the steak must be 10 cm away from the embers). When the grill is really hot put on the steak and let it cook from 5 minutes, then turn it and sprinkle with coarse salt. Let it cook for other 5 minutes then salt it and serve on a pre-heated plate with black pepper. Bon Appetite!

Here I am: my name is Gabry

For 12 years I have been hosting guests in this place that everybody calls “Agriturismo” where I feel home.

I moved here 5 years ago and I will never go back to the city!

Lots of my guests have suggested me to improve my interest for cooking because I had much passion but not so much experience. In fact I was used cooking for the family and friends following our traditional recipes while taking a glance to international ones.

Then living in this large and ancient stone house, with many fireplaces it reminded me about my childhood in the countryside with my grandmother. The smell and taste of something past but which was still inside of me. So I wanted to share these memories and live these experiences again with other people and my own family.

It has taken 3 years to decide to write something about what has become for me a nice job. All my cooking secrets, traditional or creative recipes that are tested and approved by all the guests have been visiting me in all these years. They have encouraged me by asking “when are you going to write your own cook book?”, I used to  say I had no time but the real reason was I thought there were too many cook books in Italy….then during winter I realized writing a blog could be a good opportunity to feel less alone in this wild and quiet part of Tuscany.

During he Christmas I prepared for my son and his friends a cake made of chocolate, pears and orange peel, the recipes comes from the classic apple cake but chocolate and orange let it become a perfect Christmas cake. Try it!

INGREDIENTS:

300 gr sugar

200 gr. flour 100 gr. butter 3 eggs 60 gr. milk 3 big pears 100 gr dark chopped chocolate the peel of a big orange 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Beat sugar, eggs and melted butter until foamy, then add milk, flour and baking powder.

Lightly grease and flour a 26 cm cake tin, pour half of the mixture, half of the peeled and chopped pears, then chocolate and orange peel (just the yellow part), finish with the rest of the pears.

Bake in pre-heated oven 170°C for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

If you want to try the traditional tuscan Apple cake  use the same mixture using 4 big apples, 30gr pine nuts, lemon peel, 50gr raisin (instead of pears, chocolate and orange). Enjoy!