Pizzoccheri with Spinach, Potatoes and Gorgonzola

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Hello everyone,

Lucia made us some yummy Pizzoccheri with Spinach, Potatoes and Gorgonzola today. But before the recipe I have some news. 

I've created another blog : Bitkisel Cafe. If you are interested in plant-based nutrient dense meals you can check it out. 
I've published my first recipe, Mixed Berry Overnight Oats, at the end of October.  I've created also a Facebook page for those who would like to be updated instantly what's going on in the blog.

And now let's come back to our pizzoccheri recipe. 

What are pizzoccheri? They are short and flat type of pasta which look like short tagliatelle.
They are one of the traditional dishes of Valtellina cuisine, northern Italy. 

Pasta dough for pizzoccheri is made with 4/5 buckwheat flour, 1/5 white flour and water. In my opinion, buckwheat flour add some rustic taste to this special pasta dish. 

They are traditionally prepared with savoy cabbage (or chard), potatoes and Valtellina casera cheese although we didn't stick to the traditional recipe to the letter. 

Lucia prepared a slightly different yet very delicious sauce for our Pizzoccheri.

Ingredients:

Pasta dough:
400 g buckwheat flour
100 g all purpose flour
250 g water (more or less, add more if needed)
Tuz

Sauce:
50 g butter
250 g Gorgonzola dolce cheese (soft Gorgonzola)
6 sage leaves

400 g spinach
300 g potatoes

100 g grated Parmesan

Preparation:

Maltagliati with Chickpea Sauce

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

My husband and I have started to run since last year. I mentioned how we adopted a lifestyle change and lost weight, what we eat and how we started to do sports regularly in my other blog. If you are interested in the topic you can see those posts here and here.

In the recent weeks it has been quite an experience to run around here. The wheat fields by the roads we'd been running were embellished with poppies turning them to breathtaking poppy fields. I wanted to share a couple of pictures with you too.

I love spending time in the balcony in the nice weather. We have a very small balcony yet it is sufficient to enjoy outdoors and relax.
We often have our lunches and suppers there.

This year also I chose ivy geraniums for facade. I was very satisfied with last year's geraniums.

And here are some of the flowers in our balcony...

In today's recipe we prepare a chickpea sauce which I adore.
You can cook your freshly homemade maltagliati pasta with this sauce, they make a great couple.


Ingredients:
400 g cooked chickpeas
50 g extravirgin olive oil
40 g parsley
1 clove of garlic
20 g celery stick
400 g canned diced tomatoes
100 g full fat cream
Salt

For Maltagliati:
Fresh egg pasta (prepared with 500 g flour and 5 eggs)


Preparation:

Red Lasagna

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Right after beschamel recipe that I've just posted today, I would like to share also Lucia's yummy lasagna recipe. 

Lasagna is a dish where your imagination can go wild. You can fill it as you wish... different cheeses, vegetables, fish, pesto... or simlpy whatever you have in the fridge.

I had mentioned before that Stefano's brother has a pasta fresca (fresh pasta) shop and also his parents worked there. 
In the shop they have two main types of lasagna. Red and White lasagna.

We name this one as Red Lasagna because of the red ragu sauce which is basically made of tomatoes and mince whereas white lasagna is made with mozzarella, beschamel, mushrooms, prosciutto cotto and parmesan. 
Of course pasta dough in the shop is a little different as they use semolina and machines are calibrated to that kind of flour.

Here is how it is made at home..


Ingredients:

Lucia's Ragu Sauce (previously prepared)
Bechamel (previously prepared)
Fresh egg pasta (prepared with 2 eggs and 200 g flour)
200 g mozzarella (diced)
100 g grated parmesan


Preparation:

Lucia's Ragu Sauce

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Today I would like to share with you Lucia's Ragu Sauce.
We use this sauce very often not only as a pasta sauce but also when we prepare lasagna, eggplant parmigina and gnocco. I will soon be sharing all of these recipes.

Lucia prepares this sauce a little differently from classic ragù alla bolognese recipes. The main difference is that she cooks tomato sauce and minced meat separately, then she puts altogether.


Ingredients:

400 g canned diced tomatoes
40 g celery stick
40 g onion
60 g carrot
3 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
Salt
1/2 tsp sugar
Water

250 g minced beef*
1 tbsp extravirgin olive oil
Salt

* If you wish you can replace a part of the beef mince with salsiccia (fresh sausage).

Preparation:

Mushroom Sauce

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Two weeks ago I published Lucia's first award winning recipe "Abruzzo Style Spaghetti with Meatballs" which brought her the first price in a local competition. 
I will soon be publishing the second award winning recipe of Lucia which brought her the first prize  for the second time in the same competition: Gnocco

We made this sauce to serve with Gnocco.
You can use the sauce with another pasta as you wish
I sometimes use it as side dish with grilled meat or even on our bruschette when I have leftovers.

Ingredients:
500 g mixed mushrooms*
3 - 4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
30 g carrot
30 g celery stick
30 g onion
Salt
Handful of parsley leaves


*We used cremini mushrooms and oyster mushrooms.

Preparation:

Farfalle with Smoked Salmon and Cream

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

It is one of our favourite pasta sauces. It takes almost no time at all to prepare.

The dark color of pasta in the photos is because of the type of pasta I used, which is whole grain.
As an absolute pasta lover and also a wife to an Italian husband let me say that we have pasta almost every lunch. 

In recent years I started using whole grain pasta because of its better health benefits. We also enjoy the taste. I used to find very few products in the past but I see that their number has been increasing recently as I notice there is now more space dedicated in supermarket shelves. 

It is obviously not a must to use whole grain pasta for this recipe, it is up to your personal preference.

Ingredients (4 people):
320 g farfalle or fusilli pasta
200 g cream
100 g smoked salmon, cut into small pieces
20 g butter
Grated parmesan


Preparation:

Abruzzo Style Spaghetti with Meatballs

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Today I am finally publishing first recipe of Lucia's which brought her the first prize in a local competition: Abruzzo Style Spaghetti with Meatballs.

I told you already how to prepare fresh spaghetti and Lucia's tomato sauce with mixed meat in my previous posts from the series "Recipes of Italian Cuisine with Lucia". Today at last we are going to prepare the meatballs, cook pasta and serve. 

But before to proceed with the recipe let me share a few tips:

• To save time, you can prepare fresh egg pasta dough as first thing and let it rest.
• Secondly, you can start preparing Lucia's Tomato Sauce with Mixed Meat which requires some long cooking time.
• While having your tomato sauce cooked, you can prepare fresh pasta spaghetti and meatballs.

We prepared our spaghetti, sauce and meatballs the day before. 


Ingredients for Abruzzo Style Spaghetti with Meatballs:

Spaghetti alla chitarra or tagliatelle (cut as thin strips)
Lucia's Tomato Sauce with Mixed Meat
Meatballs in Sauce
Grated parmesan


Ingredients for Meatballs:

1 egg
200 g minced meat
Salt
10 g grated parmesan
Zest of 1/5 peel of a lemon
Black pepper (optional)
5 g bread crumbs (if needed)

Olive oil

Preparing Meatballs:

Lucia's Tomato Sauce with Mixed Meat

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

The third recipe from the series of "Recipes of Italian Cuisine with Lucia" is this yummy tomato sauce with mixed meat. 

We prepared it together last week so that I could share it in the blog. We will be making use of this sauce many ways in future.

The pieces of meat are used to add flavour to the sauce. They are removed from the sauce at the end. So when you prepare this sauce you will also have a good amount of meat ready for your supper.

Ingredients:

60 g extra virgin olive oil

300 g beef
150 g lamb
300 g hen (we used skin-on hen thighs )

1/2 glass white wine

20 g celery stick, diced
60 g carrot, diced
40 g onion, diced

A tip of tsp nutmeg
2 cloves
800 g canned diced tomatoes
1/2 glass of water

Preparation:

Preparing Spaghetti alla Chitarra and Tagliatelle

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

Yesterday I published fresh egg pasta dough recipe. Today we will be preparing some "pasta fresca" with that recipe.

Lucia, my mother in law, is not a chef but a marveolus cook. In past she participated into a local competition two years in a row and won three awards with her fabulous recipes. One of them that brought her first prize was "Spaghetti alla Chitarra Abruzzesi con Polpettine" (Abruzzo Style Spaghetti with Small Meatballs) recipe. I will be sharing the entire recipe next days.

We would like to show you today how to make spaghetti alla chitarra. If you don't live in Italy it may be difficult for you to find chitarra pasta cutter (although I saw on internet that they sell it on Amazon) This is why we will also show how to make tagliatelle which is very very easy.

Let me first explain what "chitarra" means.
Chitarra literally means guitar in English.
In Italian the word guitar does not only represents the well known musical instrument but also a kind of pasta cutter. 
This guitar-like device is basically a wooden frame strung with metal wires. Pasta sheets are pressed down onto chitarra with a rolling pin and this way they are cut into spaghetti. I will share videos and also photos to explain better.

Let's come to the ingredients now... 


Ingredients:

Fresh egg pasta dough
Flour

SPAGHETTI ALLA CHITARRA PREPARATION:

Fresh Egg Pasta

TÜRKÇE İÇİN TIKLAYIN
PER ITALIANO

The first recipe from the series is of course this fresh egg pasta dough.

As you well know the starting point to prepare tagliatelle, tortellini, ravioli and many more kinds of fresh pasta would be the same: the dough. This week, day by day, I will be publishing all the necessary steps to prepare Spaghetti alla chitarra Abruzzesi con polpettine (Abruzzo style spaghetti with meatballs) which brought first prize to Lucia in a local competition. So, if you are interested come back to visit me here ;)

My husband Stefano's family has an indisputable experience on fresh pasta. 
Lucia has always been very passionate about kitchen. More than 25 years ago she opened a pasta fresca shop together with my brother in law Domenico, who also had experience behind the stove, having graduated as cook from a hotel school. He is currently president of Italian pasta makers association. 
From 1993 also my father in law Ezio has started working together with them after he went into pension. In 2003 also Serenella, Domenico's wife joined them.
A pasta family to the core as you see :)

In the shop they use professional machinery while making and kneading pasta dough. Furthermore, they use semolina. Pasta machines are calibrated to that kind of flour.

When Lucia needs to prepare fresh pasta dough at home she uses this recipe. Sometimes I am asked, no, there isn't neither semolina nor durum wheat flour in the recipe.

We prepared today's fresh egg pasta dough with 4 eggs. If/when you need more dough, add 100 g of flour for each egg you add.



Ingredients:

4 eggs (each around 60 g)
400 g flour
A pinch of salt

Preparation: