Category Archives: Italian

Ver post de Italian

Panettone with sweet sourdough starter

Posted on Saturday December 17th, 2011 by Monica
Expert
Difficulty Level
40h
Preparation Time
1h
Cooking Time

The traditional Panettone is a sweet bread from Milan, made with a sweet sourdough starter. It has flour (of course), egg yolks, butter, sugar, orange zest, vanilla, honey and dried fruits/raisins. I changed the last two for chocolate. In Perú, eeevery Christmas we have panettone for breakfast on the 25th, toasted wth some butter and hot chocolate on the side. I think it’s a world-wide tradition to have this bread on our table during Christmas season right? And since Monitouille this year is dressed for Christmas, I decided to bake 9 kgs how about that!

What a challenge! After making son many breads and being obsessed with my sourdough, this 2011 I decided to finish the year making il Panettone. Of course, with natural sweet sourdough starter, the traditional way. Not only that, but I decided to sell them (If they worked out well of course) as now I am also selling my bread each week with pâtés, cheese, marmalades and home-made things. Anyway, lots of nerves. I started Wednesday to convert a portion of my liquid 100% hydration sourdough starter into a stiff one (50% hydration). Y finished baking on Sunday, 9 kgs of panettone, which ended up being 16 panettone. They were soft, spongy, and really tasty. Of course I have some critiques of my own and would like to improve some things for next time -> January, that way, next year I’m an expert ;) Are you ready for a fully detailed recipe???

Ok. But first, I’d like to tell you my favorite story about where this delicious sweet bread came from. There are many, this one is my favorite: It’s Christmas eve, and the 1500′s. Duke Ludovico, known also for the “Lord of Milán” is hosting a huge party. Time for dessert is coming, but turns out the cake is ruined. However, Antonio one of the dishwashers took some leftover fruits from the party and was baking a sweet bread for him and his family. The kitchen smelled so nice, the cook decided to serve his bread as dessert. The Duke liked it so much, he entered the kitchen asking for the cook that had made the dessert. …’Antonio’, ‘il pane di Toni’, and so today we know it for ‘Panettone‘.

It is very important that you manage well your time. You will be needing a 2-day early start to get your sourdough ready and ‘sweet’ (no acid).

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Ver post de Creative

A three-course menu (Part II). Spinach and home-made ricotta ravioli with curry carrot sauce

Posted on Sunday June 19th, 2011 by Monica
8 people
Number of Diners
Normal
Difficulty Level
40m
Preparation Time
1h
Cooking Time

I know it’s taken a while to write the second dish… and dessert is still about to come!!! The thing is, I just came two weeks ago from a few months in Berlin, so the time I’ve spend in searching for a place to live in and a nice restaurant job (hopefully soon) doesn’t leave me with many internet hours to post. But this is about to change soon… so expect some new german recipes with sausages, beer, Kartoffeln Salat (potato salad), my usual peruvian food from any part of the world (I brought a suitcase with all my ingredients of course), breads, and my guess would be new spicy food. Berlin has many Turkish markets and restaurants so new spices and plates I will be trying for sure. And I loveee Turkish food, and Indian, and well, yes, all kinds.

Anyway… back to the Menu and that special lunch with friends that started with the traditional peruvian Causa Limeña. So, now that I’ve told you how to make home-made ricotta cheese it’s time for a recipe with it right? This is what I prepared: spinach and ricotta ravioli with pine nuts and raisins with a curry-carrot sauce. Absolutely delicious. Let’s get to it, goes dedicated to all the Dad’s today on Father’s Day. Specially to mine, that is the best Dad in the whole world.

Let’s start with the Carrot Sauce:

Ingredients. For 8.

  • 2 white onions
  • 1 tablespoon of roasted garlic paste
  • 1/2 kg of carrots
  • 3 green peppers
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tablespoon of powdered curry
  • olive oil
  • salt, cumin and freshly ground pepper

Preparation.

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  1. Cut all the ingredients into medium pieces.
  2. Sweat the onions with the roasted garlic paste in olive oil.
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Ver post de Salads

Delicious mediterranean gnocchi salad

Posted on Thursday May 5th, 2011 by Monica
4 people
Number of Diners
Normal
Difficulty Level
1h
Preparation Time

A few weeks ago I was going for dinner and wine at my friend’s Malena beautiful terrace. Having such good weather those days, I could only think about eating a nice salad. I ran into Pão e Queij’s Blog and I found this beautiful and different gnocchi salad that I adapted and cooked for dinner. If you already have baked potatoes from the day before, it only takes 30 minutes. While the red bell pepper is roasting in the oven you start preparing the gnocchis and get together all the salad ingredients.

Ensalada de gnocchis
Ingredients. Serves 4.

  • 500 grs de baked potatoes
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1 red bell-pepper
  • 1 can artichokes
  • 1/2 cup dried tomatoes
  • 2 salad tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup of basil
  • 2 white sweet onions
  • 2 tablespoons of green onions
  • salt, freshly ground pepper, nutmeg and oregano

For the vinaigrette:

  • 1 ripe tomato for grating
  • red wine vinegar
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 lime
  • oregano
  • 1 finely chopped garlic clove
  • salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation.

Lets start with the roasted red peppers:

  1. Preheat the oven to 210ºC.
  2. Roast the pepper cut in half facing downwards with some olive oil for 25 minutes aproximately.

While the peppers are roasting we will prepare the Gnocchis:

Gnocchi preparationgnocchisñoquisñoquis

  1. Boil water with some salt and olive oil.
  2. Place the flour over a working surface.
  3. Peel the potatoes and purée them over the flour.
  4. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg.
  5. Make a hole in the middle and break the egg.
  6. Knead until the dough is not so humid but remains soft. You can add some more flour if you think it’s necessary. Do not overwork or the gnocchi will be heavy.
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Posted in Salads, Starters, Italian, Pasta | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments