Crostini ai funghi selvatici con pancetta croccante Wild mushroom crostini with crunchy pancetta

This morning, with the weather locally shifting from damp autumnal to Indian summer, I went foraging. Driving into town, I’d spotted a pasture two minutes from home dotted with field mushrooms, so I stopped and quickly gathered half a kilo of very fresh fungus.

Mushrooms sauted with pancetta or bacon, onion and garlic is a universal classic. What makes this version Bolognese is the finishing touches – balsamic vinegar and grated parmesan. I would serve it on crostini – griddled bread – smeared with olive oil.

Or you could use streaky bacon

One tip: fry the mushrooms hard so that they begin to caramelise. You don’t want mushy soft funghi for this dish. All the ingredients should remain distinct – this is cooking alla italiana. If you like, you could finish off the dish with a couple of tablespoons of thick cream.

Ingredients for 4

150g pancetta or bacon

4tbl olive oil

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic

4 slices sour dough bread

350g wild mushrooms

2tbl balsamic vinegar

2tbl double or thick cream (optional)

4tbl finely chopped parsley

4tbl finely grated parmesan

salt and pepper



Method

1. Cut the pancetta or bacon into slivers or tiny cubes and fry rapidly in half the olive oil so they become crunchy. Remove and set aside.

2. Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry it in the pancetta or bacon fat. Remove and set aside.

3. Heat a griddle or heavy frying pan, brush both sides of the bread with the remaining olive oil, and toast on both sides until crisp.

4. Clean with a damp cloth the mushrooms and coarsely slice, discarding damaged and muddy parts.

5. Quickly sauté the mushrooms until they begin to brown, then add back the onion and garlic and stir in the balsamic vinegar. Add freshly ground black pepper and salt if necessary. If you are using cream, this is the moment to stir it in.

6. Put a generous spoonful of the mushrooms onto each slice of toast, sprinkle with the crunchy bacon, the parsley and the parmesan.

Gnocchi alle fave con pesto di mandorle – Broad bean gnocchi with almond pesto

From a Bolognese point of view, this recipe could be a step too far, a step towards the risky  zone of mongrel fusion food. Well, I’ve eaten broad beans, gnocchi and almond pesto in Bologna – separately - and I don’t think this threatens the integrity of cucina bolognese. But you may think different. You could serve these gnocchi with the standard potato gnocchi, as I did last night, or alone.

Ingredients (serves 4)

for the gnocchi

480g       broad bean paste

80g         cream cheese

2              egg yolks

2 tbl       plain flour

salt and pepper

for the sauce

3 tb        l olive oil

8              shallots

50g         podded and skinned broad beans

50g         grated parmesan

for the pesto

50g         parsley

50g         grated parmesan

50g         sliced almonds

1              garlic clove

4tbl        olive oil

                salt and pepper

Method

1.       Cook the broad beans in plenty of salted water until they are soft.

2.       Process the beans with the other gnocchi ingredients. Chill

3.       Roll out the gnocchi mixture on a lightly floured board creating a number of long sausages the thickness of your thumb.

4.       Flatten the sausages with the back of a fork, and then chop into segments about 2 cms long.

5.       Meanwhile make the pesto by processing all the ingredients.

6.       Put a pan of water on to boil. Reduce to a simmer. Drop the gnocchi into the water, and leave for three minutes. Strain and lay on a clean tea towel to dry.

7.       Heat the olive oil and slowly sauté the shallots until beginning to brown, then add the broad beans and the gnocchi to re-heat.

8.       Serve each portion of gnocchi accompanied by the shallots and broad beans and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan. Lay alongside a quenelle-shaped spoonful of pesto.

Marcello's Spaghetti alla chitarra with courgettes and prawns

Fresh juicy prawns and a saffron stock - the keys to this dish

The best dish of a weekend in Bologna in October 2009:

‘This is tough’, I wrote then. ‘The gnocchi at Melloncello, the tortellini at Godot Wine Bar, the guinea fowl at Valsellucro, the mortadella lasagne at Caffe Concerto: these all rate highly. But ultimately, the prize for best dish of the weekend goes to the Locanda del Castello at Palazzo Rosso, Sasso Marconi for spaghetti alla chitarra with courgettes and prawns. Marcello dall’Aglio says that the key to the dish is the prawn stock and the saffron which holds everything together. Everything was just right and perfectly balanced: the tiny cubes of grilled courgette and the plump juicy prawns. Is it Bolognese – yes, of course, fresh water fish have long been a part of the tradition. And to complete the pleasure, the spaghetti came with a glass of Tenuta Bonzara’s reserve merlot, a revelation if you are underwhelmed by merlot like the two guys in Sideways’.

That was nearly two years ago. Since then, I’ve had the same dish on every visit to the Locanda. It’s an understated Italian classic, depending on a few choice ingredients artfully combined. It seems to work by sleight of hand but every element makes its contribution: fresh, quickly cooked prawns, garden fresh courgette, the best olive oil and above all the stock. This must be deeply flavoured and it should be combined with a small amount of fresh breadcrumbs to give it body. Spaghetti alla chitarra is right for this dish but linguine is almost as good and easier to get hold of.

Ingredients

1 onion

1 ½ cloves of garlic

6tbl good olive oil

100g fresh tomatoes

pinch saffron

25g chopped parsley

4 bay leaves

2 courgettes

250g uncooked, peeled tiger prawns – fresh or frozen

50g white breadcrumbs



Method

1. Begin by making the stock. Remove the heads and carcases from the prawns.  Fry the onion and one clove of garlic in 3 tablespoons of olive oil until they soften and begin to colour then add the prawn carcases and contain to fry. After a few minutes add the tomato, saffron, half the parsley and bay leaves, and half a litre of water and bring to the boil. Cook hard for 20 minutes and then strain the mixture into a bowl, using a spoon to push the liquor through a sieve. You should have about 300ml of stock.

2. Chop the courgettes into small matchsticks or cubes  and fry them fast in the remaining olive oil until they begin to brown. Set aside.

3. Remove from the pan and add the prawns and half a garlic clove finely chopped. Fry until the prawns are pink all over. Set aside.

4. Put the linguine on to boil in salted water. It will take about 12 minutes to reach al dente. As the pasta is coming up to being cooked, re-heat the pan used to fry the prawns, add a spot more olive oil and add the breadcrumbs. Fry them, gathering up all the pan juices as you do so. Then add the stock and cook until you have a smooth sauce.

5. Drain the pasta, add in the sauce and use it to coat the linguine. Then add back the prawns and courgettes and briefly re-heat, finally adding the finely chopped parsley.

6. Serve.

Risotto agl' aparagi – Risotto asparagus

Resist the temptation to add mascarpone

Close by where we live  is England’s best asparagus from Worcestershire and above all Goodman’s at Great Witley where a fat bunch sells for £3 and a large bag of all sorts costs hardly any more. As well as a risotto, I was able to make a dish of asparagus and chard stuffed pancakes al forno for £4.

It’s hard not to go a bit stupid about asparagus – during the season I could eat it every day. The mania is widespread in this part of the world. Out walking last weekend I noticed a restaurant in Evesham on the banks of the River Avon offering a three course asparagus banquet including asparagus ice cream. They understand this in Altedo, a village in Bologna province, where the annual asparagus festival in honour of the asparago verde di Altedo starts this weekend. Local restaurants  there compete to display the vegetable’s infinite culinary flexibility.

Anyway, back to the risotto: the key thing as always is to ensure that the star of the dish isn’t overwhelmed by an overdose of butter, cheese and cream as in many restaurants outside Italy. In its homeland, risotto is a simple dish. So, the flavour depends on the rice, the stock, the parmesan, some butter and of course the asparagus.

Enough for 4.

Ingredients

3tbl olive oil

30g butter

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves

250g Arborio rice

125ml dry white wine

500ml chicken stock (or a stock cube dissolved in water)

300g asparagus

75g prosciutto

75g parmesan

salt and pepper



Method

1. Begin by preparing the asparagus. Cut off and reserve the spears, that is, the top few centimetres. Snap off and dispose of the bottom woody part of the stem. Chop the remaining stem into 1 cm. lengths.

2. Gently fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil with half of the prosciutto cut into ribbons.

3. Add the rice and half the butter and fry until the rice is coated in the butter.

4. Add the wine and turn up the heat to drive off the alcohol.

5. Now add the stems of the aparagus and then begin to add the stock, just enough for the rice to cook rapidly without sticking on the bottom of the pan.

6. When the rice has just reached the al dente stage, add the remaining butter, prosciutto, the parmesan and the asparagus spears. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

7. Serve.

Ragù di coniglio con pappardelle - Rabbit ragù with pappardelle

Tastes better with pasta you made yourself

For richly flavoured stews and pasta sauces, it’s hard to beat game. Since they are becoming more widely available, I wanted to add rabbit and boar to the growing collection of Bolognese classic recipes here. Specialist butchers, rather than supermarkets, are your best bet and even if they don’t have game on display, they can usually obtain it for you. I know wild sounds better than domesticated or farmed but the latter is what you will get and in this case that is not a bad thing; the meat will be healthy and may even taste better than the more athletic wild version.

Let’s start with the rabbit. The secret is to begin by browning the meat and then adding it to the classic ingredients of the ragù: onion, garlic, carrot, celery plus lots of bay and rosemary and some bacon or pancetta. You don’t need to cook the rabbit for very long – an hour at the most – otherwise you will end up with stringy meat. Remove the meat from the bone and add it back to the ragù and you are ready to serve it with the pasta. I had a lot of help in the kitchen on Saturday so I got two of my assistants to make some pappardelle, the wide pasta that traditionally accompanies game sauces. You will need a pasta machine or a rolling pin and strong arms.

Serves 4

Ingredients

300g pasta flour

3 large eggs

1tsp salt

1 whole farmed rabbit

3tbl olive oil

100g streaky bacon or pancetta

1 large onion

2 carrots

2 sticks of celery

2 cloves of garlic

1 glass of dry white wine

1tbl rosemary

6 bay leaves

500ml chicken or ham stock

4tbl tomato paste

salt and pepper

Method

1. To make the pasta mix the flour, salt and eggs and knead for about 10 minutes until you have an elastic mass. Cover in cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

2. Roll out the pasta until it is half a centimetre thick then cut into eight pieces and put each through a pasta machine until they are as thin as the narrowest setting. Cut into ribbons 2.5cm wide.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large casserole over a medium-high heat. Add the rabbit cut into three or four pieces and brown all over. Remove.

4. Add the bacon, carrot, celery, garlic and onion – all finely chopped - and fry until they are soft and begin to colour. Add the wine and raise the temperature to drive off the alcohol.

5. Add back the rabbit plus the bay leaves, the rosemary finely chopped, the tomato paste and the stock. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, for an hour until the rabbit meat is easy to slide off the bone.

6. Remove the meat, take it off the bone and chop into small dice. Combine the meat with the sauce, and add some more water if the sauce is too dry. If the sauce is too wet, drive off some of the liquid before adding the rabbit meat back. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

7. Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling, salted water until al dente, and then drain. Combine with the ragù and serve.

Macaroni con patate al forno – Marcaroni and potato gratin

March brings the uplifting prospect of longer days, daffodils and cherry blossom. And sometimes the shift to more spring-like weather. But not this year, so far. We woke to a deep frost on Saturday morning and a biting wind so I took refuge in this winter-warmer dish raise my spirits, and maybe yours as well if you are in the northern hemisphere north of Rome. As a variant you could add crisp pancetta or bacon to the final mix, but it’s not essential. Preparation time is about 25 minutes and cooking time 35 minutes which gives you time to set the table and pour a glass of wine.

Ingredients (serves 4 generously)

500g potatoes

200g macaroni

50g butter

50g flour

500ml milk

100g parmesan

2 egg yolks

½ tsp nutmeg

1 large onion

20g butter

1tbl olive oil

parsley

salt and pepper

Method

1. Peel and dice the potatoes, and boil until al dente in salted water. Strain

2. While the potatoes are cooking, make a béchamel sauce by melting the butter, stirring in the flour and gradually adding the milk already warmed until you have a smooth sauce. Then stir in the egg yolks, half the parmesan, the nutmeg and finely chopped parsley. Season to taste.

3. Put the macaroni on to cook.

4. Fry the onion finely sliced in the remaining butter and the olive oil until it begins to caramelise (for maximum flavour).

5. Now assemble the ingredients, placing them in a well greased baking dish. Strain the macaroni and add to the potatoes, then amalgamate with the sauce and the onion. If you are using pancetta, add it at this stage.

6. Scatter the remaining parmesan on top and place in a moderate oven – 170 degrees C. with a piece of foil to protect the top of the dish. Remove the foil after 20 minutes and allow the dish to brown which should take a further 10-15 minutes.

Gnocchi di patate – Potato gnocchi

An Estonian reader requests a gnocchi lesson so here goes.

Light and airy pillows of potato and parmesan – that is what I wanted to achieve when I experimented on Friday night with different ratios of flour, parmesan, eggs and potato. The tasting team were torn between two variants. Finally, decisively, I’ve plumped for the variant given below: the 5:1:1 recipe.

As you can see from the photo, I’ve served the gnocchi with pesto but you may prefer butter and grated parmesan, or tomato sauce with prosciutto or even gorgonzola melted in cream. Whatever you do, don’t drown the gnocchi. They’re simple souls that cannot swim. The point is the gnocchi, not the sauce.

Big tip: don’t skin and boil the potatoes – they become waterlogged and then need more flour to cohere. Bake them in the oven or cook them in a microwave.

Potato gnocchi with pesto

Ingredients (easily enough for 4)

500g potatoes, cooked and peeled

100g plain flour

100g grated parmesan

salt and pepper

½ tsp grated nutmeg

2 large eggs

100g pesto

40g butter

3tbl olive oil

Method

1. Bake the potatoes in their skins, in the oven or a microwave until they yield to finger pressure.

2. Once they are cool enough to handle, skin them and chop them into blobs. Put them through a ricer or a mouli or failing that mash them thoroughly. Do not process them unless you want to use the results for wallpapering.

3. Combine thoroughly with the flour, parmesan, salt and pepper and nutmeg.

4. Gradually mix in the two beaten eggs. Once the mixture coheres you may not need all the egg. The mixture should be sticky but not gloopy. (I’m not sure what the Estonian for gloopy is but we want something like the texture of a moist bread dough.)

5. Roll the mixture into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate to firm it up.

6. Flour a rolling board and cut the gnocchi mixture into four lumps.

7. Roll these out into a sausage shape about two cms. in diameter, then cut off pieces about 1 cm. in width. Smaller is good – they cook quicker.

8. Roll each piece into a little ball, and, if you prefer, into a flatter longer more traditional gnocchi shape.

9. Have ready a wide pan several inches deep with simmering water. Poach a gnocchi for three minutes to test the cooking time. Adjust if necessary. Then poach the remaining gnocchi, and as they are cooked lay them on a tea towel to drain.

10. Melt the butter in a frying pan with the olive oil and gently sauté the gnocchi, adding the sauce. Serve.

Pasta con cavolo verza e prosciutto - Pasta with savoy cabbage and prosciutto

There may be a simpler and more effective recipe for macaroni. In the meantime, this one will have to do. It uses one of those excellent Italian winter vegetables, savoy cabbage. The main thing is not to stew the cabbage. If you shred it finely, it will get all the cooking it needs while retaining flavour and texture. You can use pancetta or bacon if you prefer but grill it until it is crisp. Equally, you can use penne or broken up spaghetti instead of macaroni.

Ingredients

120g prosciutto or pancetta or bacon

300g macaroni or penne

salt and pepper to taste

200g savoy cabbage

1 onion

1 clove garlic

30g butter

20g flour

100ml milk

50g parmesan

30g parsley



Method

1. Grill the prosciutto, and shred it when it’s cooled down.

2. Put the macaroni on to boil in salted water.

3. Add the savoy cabbage finely shredded as you drain the pasta – it will get all the cooking it needs.

4. In the pasta pan melt the butter, add finely chopped garlic and onion and fry for a couple of minutes until it begins to colour.

5. Add the flour to make a roux, then add the milk to make a loose béchamel, then the parmesan and the pepper.

6. Return the macaroni and savoy cabbage to the pan and combine with the sauce, adding the chopped parsley, then the grilled prosciutto.

7. Serve before the cabbage loses its crispness.

Tortelloni di zucca e mascarpone - Butternut squash and mascarpone tortelloni

For an experiment we decided to try the River Cafe recipe for butternut squash tortelloni. In particular, we wanted to see how the fresh pasta turned out. In Emilia-Romagna all the sfogline we have consulted or seen in action have told us that the recipe is one egg per 100g of flour and nothing else apart from salt. Whereas the River Cafe recipe is for a mixture of whole eggs and egg yolks plus olive oil. Giorgio Locatelli claims to have made pasta with 52 yolks to a kilo of flour when he worked in Rebuchon in Paris.

Anyway, the pasta part of the River Cafe recipe works well but to intensify the flavour of the filling, we had to radically reduce the amount of parmesan and mascarpone in the filling and to roast the butternut squash.

Ingredients

for the pasta

350g type 00 flour

2 medium eggs

5 medium egg yolks

½ tbl sea salt

½ tbl olive oil

for the filling

0.75k butternut squash or pumpkin

50g butter

2 large garlic cloves, finely sliced

salt and pepper

200g mascarpone

200g parmesan

½ nutmeg

for the sage butter

1 bunch fresh sage

100g clarified unsalted butter

Method

1. Using a mixer or processor, combine the flour, salt, olive oil and eggs. Using a dough hook, knead slowly for 10 minutes until you have a smooth ball of dough. If necessary add another egg yolk.

2. Dust the work surface with flour, then knead the dough for 4 minutes until it is completely smooth. Wrap it in cling film and put in the fridge.

3. Roast the butternut squash in a medium hot oven for 30 minutes. Then scoop out the pips, scoop out and mash the flesh.

4. Fry the garlic in the butter and add to the squash. When cool stir in the mascarpone, parmesan and nutmeg. Season to taste.

5. If rolling by hand, roll the dough out on a floured surface until you can see a patterned tea towel through it.

6. If using a machine, flatten the dough and cut it into four, then put each quarter through at each setting, gradually reducing the setting until you have the thinnest.

7. Cover the pasta with a tea towel to prevent it drying out.

8. Take a strip of pasta and distribute a teaspoonful of the filling every 4cms using a teaspoon or piping bag (much easier).

9. Take another strip of pasta and lay it over, squeezing the two strips together, working from one end to the other, and using your fingers to exclude the air as you do.

10. Use a small cutting circle to cut out the tortelloni. Or, if you prefer, a square.

11. For the sage butter, heat the clarified butter in a large frying pan and when hot add the sage leaves for a second or two. Remove from the heat. Remove the sage.

12. Boil the tortelloni in plenty of salted water for three or four minutes.

13. Briefly sauté the tortelloni in the butter.

14. Divide the pasta between four warm bowls and place a sage leaf or two on each.

Risotto with bacon, peas and spring onions

Cormac dishes up his first ever risotto on his recent Bolognese cookery course.

This is a delicious and easy dish to prepare but as always with simple recipes the details are crucial. So

• do use a well flavoured chicken or ham stock, whether home made or bought (liquid or stock cude)

• soften and lightly brown the onion and garlic before adding the rice

• if you want to prepare risotto in advance, cook it for no more than 13 minutes, then transfer to a covered, buttered container and place in the fridge

• when the recipe contains slightly delicate ingredients like peas or prawns, it’s better to cook them separately and add them just before the end

• the rice should retain a slight bite when the cooking is finished – overdue it and you’ll end up with a mush.

Ingredients

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 sticks of celery

150g bacon or pancetta

50g flat leaved parsley

40ml olive oil

50g butter

salt and pepper

250g risotto rice

750ml chicken or ham stock

150g frozen peas

1 bunch of spring onions

100ml white wine

50g parmesan grated

Method

1. Chop the onion, spring onion, parsley, garlic and celery finely.

2. Soften and lightly brown the onion, garlic and celery in half the olive oil.

3. Place the bacon in a hot oven to cook for 10 minutes until crisp and beginning to brown. Take it out and allow to cool. Chop into coarse fragments.

4. Make a parsley oil by liquidising the parsley and half the olive oil. Carefully pour into a squeezy bottle if you have one or into a jug.

5. Add the butter and rice to the vegetables and continue to fry for a few minutes stirring to amalgamate the rice.

6. Add the wine and cook off the alcohol.

7. Cook the peas in boiling water until almost tender.

8. Fry the spring onion in a small amount of butter.

9. Heat the stock and begin to add it to the rice, allowing it to be absorbed before adding more. Continue this process until the rice is almost cooked.

10. Now add the peas, spring onion, parmesan and bacon to the rice.

11. Place a neat mound of risotto on each plate and, using the squeezy bottle, surround it with parsley oil.

Sformato di porri, salsa di peperoni - Leek and red pepper custards

This is an antipasto dish in the Bolognese tradition, invented in England. The sfomato, essentially a baked custard, is a very versatile way of preparing almost anything. Accompanied by a red pepper sauce, it looks and tastes delicious. When I cooked this at Locanda dell’ Castello, Sasso Marconi, Marcello dall’Aglio suggested that a few grilled prawns would make a fine accompaniment. But I’ve left them out of this version of the recipe.

To make it easier to unmould the custards, try placing a small piece of waxed paper in the bottom of the moulds before you pour in the mixture. Jam making kits have just the object.

Ingredients

3 large red peppers

2 large leeks thinly sliced

50g butter

2 egg yolks medium

1 egg medium

300g double cream

50g grated parmesan

salt and pepper

1 clove garlic finely chopped

1 piece

1cm long ginger, finely chopped

4 shallots finely chopped

15ml olive oil

Method

1. Put the pepper to roast in a medium oven for 45 minutes

2. Sauté the leeks gently in butter until soft.

3. Place leeks, eggs, cheese and cream in a bowl or jug and use a hand held processor to create a smooth puree. Season to taste.

 

4. Spoon the mixture into four buttered moulds or ramekins, place in a bain marie, cover with foil and bake in a medium oven until just set.

5. Leave to cool then chill in the fridge.

6. Remove the peppers from the oven and place in a plastic bag to make it easier to remove the skin.

7. Fry the shallots until soft in the olive oil.

8. Make the sauce by removing the skin from the peppers when they are cool enough to handle and processing them with the garlic, ginger and shallots.

9. Run a warm knife around the moulds and unmould the custards, spoon some sauce alongside.

Pappardelle with broad bean and pea cream

Summer is coming to an end but there are still broad beans in the shops. Broad beans make an irresistible sauce to accompany pasta. They need careful handling so that they don’t become a claggy mess. This recipe combines them with peas, butter and mint to make a cream. And by not draining the pasta completely, a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water is used to dilute the cream so that it sticks evenly to the pasta, rather than sitting in clumps around the bowl.


Ideally, the pasta should be broad like pappardelle but you could use tagliatelle instead. A good brand of shop bought like Cecco is fine – Buitoni is not – or you could make your own if you want therapy and exercise and the sheer pride of serving home made pasta. But be careful: If it is too thick it will take so long to cook that it will pass the al dente stage and become pappy (perfect food for chickens or dogs).

Enough for 4 as a first course.


350g without pods or skins (about 700g in pods) broad beans
125 g – fresh or frozen peas
60g butter
60g parmesan
4 tablespoons double cream
To taste salt and pepper
A few leaves mint
400g pasta – bought

or

300g OO pasta flour
3 large eggs
½ teaspoon salt


1. Cook and skin the broad beans. Reserve a third of the beans. Cook the peas.

2. Add butter to the vegetables and briefly cook to melt the butter and combine the beans and peas.

3. Using a hand held liquidiser, coarsely chop the beans, peas and butter, then add half the parmesan, the cream and season to taste.

4. Put a large pan of salted water on to boil. Shop bought pasta will take about 10 minutes, home made half that time.

5. Just before you empty the pasta into a colander, scoop out a cupful of the water.

6. Drain the pasta and return to the cooking pan.

7. Now stir in the bean and pea cream, the reserved beans and the mint. Add as much of the reserved cooking water as you need to thin the sauce so that it lightly coats the pasta. Serve into bowls. Pass grated parmesan.

If you decide to make your own pasta, amalgamate the flour, salt and eggs in a bowl, knead until the pasta is springy and no longer sticky. Wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest in a cool place for an hour, then roll out using a pasta machine or rolling pin until the pasta is almost see-through. Roll up the pasta and cut it with a sharp knife to produce 2 cm wide noodles.

Garganelli con gorgonzola, pancetta, pere e noci - Pasta tubes with gorgonzola, bacon, pears and walnuts

This is a very easily and speedily concocted dish and is common in Bologna even if not totally native. While the pasta is cooking you can prepare the sauce. The cheese will melt into the pasta but all the sauce ingredients should remain distinct. The combination is sublime, a combination of salty, creamy, crunchy and sweet. If you or your guests are allergic to walnuts, substitute slivered almonds lightly fried in butter. There is no substitute for the gorgonzola.

Cooking hints: This is one of those occasions when you should buy the fresh pasta if it is available. Dry garganelli isn’t always made with egg, as it should be.

Preparation time: 25 minutes

150g streaky bacon
350g garganelli
2 pears
200g walnuts
200g gorgonzola


1. Grill the bacon until crisp and then snip into thin pieces with scissors, or serve as a slice.
2. Put the pasta on to boil.
3. Peel and dice the pears. Shell the walnuts. Cut the gorgonzola into dice.
Drain the cooked pasta and briefly combine with the rest of the ingredients in the pan.
Serve each portion as a mound with the bacon on top, as a slice or in pieces.
That’s it.



Wine match: how about Rosato Letizia, made by Letizia Gaggioli at Zola Predosa? Or, failing that, a full bodied rose like Villa Maria, made from the syrah grape?

Ricotta and parmesan terrine

Terrines, moulds, sformati make simple and delicious starters. All you need is a set of well greased small dariole moulds. Choose a small size – about 6cm high and 7.5cm rim diameter - of these useful aluminium containers, or failing that use a ceramic ramekin. (Nigella Lawson recommends putting a small circle of greaseproof paper in the bottom to make it easier to slide out the terrine.) This one teams up ricotta with grated parmesan to make a very Bolognese dish. We’ve added a very un-Bolognese spice – green peppercorns – because they add contrast and piquancy, and because that’s how it was when we first tasted the terrine in the lovely café of the Danish Museum of Art and Design in Copenhagen. Best served chilled, when it is easier to un-mould, or even as a semi-freddo after a brief stay in the freezer. Goes well with a tomato and rocket salad as in the photo.

Makes 4.

250g Ricotta

100g Grated parmesan

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Green peppercorns

1 tablespoon Olive oil (for greasing the mould)

Salt and pepper



1. Begin by greasing the moulds with the olive oil.

2. Mix together the remaining ingredients, adding salt and pepper to taste.

3. Carefully spoon into the moulds.

4. Place the moulds in a roasting tray and fill it with hot water to within 3 cms of the top of the moulds.

5. Place in the centre of a hot oven, 180 degrees centigrade, for 30 minutes. Cover the moulds with a piece of greaseproof paper to protect them from the heat.

6. After 25 minutes check the moulds with a skewer. If it comes out clean they are ready.

7. Remove and cool, or place in the freezer for 20 minutes for semi-freddo.

8. Run a hot knife around each mould and unmould carefully onto separate serving plates.

9. Add the salad.

Wild garlic tortelloni with asparagus

The season for wild garlic is now upon us but do not delay because it is all too short. Finely chopped and combined with ricotta and parmesan, it makes a gorgeous filling for tortelloni but its pungency needs to be offset by spinach.

You can often find it by roadsides and alongside streams in the country. Drive with the windows down so that you can sniff it out. Last Sunday I found young wild garlic growing in clumps under the trees just down the lane from where I live. In another week or two, the white flowers begin to appear that signal late middle age and then decline, so do not delay in your search.

Makes enough for 4.

80g Ricotta

40g Parmesan finely grated

80g Wild garlic finely chopped

80g Spinach

Salt and pepper

Nutmeg to grate

8 spears Asparagus

60g Butter

300g Egg pasta ready made

1. Blanch the spinach for 1 minute in plenty of boiling water. Strain, drain thoroughly and chop finely. Place on a kitchen towel to absorb any remaining moisture.

2. Combine in a bowl the wild garlic, spinach, ricotta and parmesan, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Finally grate in half a teaspoon of nutmeg.

3. Take the ready made egg pasta and roll out into sheets about 8cms wide and 30cms long.

4. Use a 6cm pastry cutter to make 48 discs.

5. Place a teaspoon of filling on 24 of the discs and cover each one with another disc. Pinch the two discs firmly together. Don’t delay in doing this or you might find that the pasta has become too dry to fix together.

6. Put on a large pan of water to boil. When it boils turn down the heat to a brisk simmer and cook the tortelloni in four batches, draining each one thoroughly.

7. Now melt 40g of butter in a wide frying pan and slip in the tortelloni, sautéing them in the butter for a minute. If necessary, if the pan won’t hold the pasta in a single layer, do this in two batches.

8. Cut the asparagus into 3cm lengths, discarding the woody stems of the asparagus spears. Melt the remaining butter and fry the asparagus gently until it is cooked al dente.

9. Serve 5-6 tortelloni onto each plate and add the asparagus on top.

Aubergine and prosciutto tartlets

These easily made tartlets could be the centrepiece of a light summer lunch with a tossed green salad with herbs. Makes 6.

For the Pastry

250g Plain flour

1 Medium egg, beaten

160g Chilled butter

Salt -a pinch

1 Egg yolk, beaten

For the Filling

1 Medium sized aubergine

2 tbl Olive oil

80g Prosciutto

4 Spring onions, finely chopped

150g Single cream

1 Medium egg

40g Parmesan, finely grated

Salt and pepper

You will need six tartlet cases, preferably with removable bases. Or if you only have four you will need to repeat the process of making the tartlet shells.

1. Sift the flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Rub in all but 10g of the butter cut into pieces the size of a finger nail. Add half the beaten whole egg. Amalgamate to form a dough. If it is too dry add the remaining whole egg. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead lightly into a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill.

2. Cut the aubergine into 2cms cubes. Combine with the olive oil and roast in an oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes, making sure that it doesn’t burn.

3. Cut the prosciutto into slivers and, once it has cooled, combine with the aubergine, the cream, the egg, the parmesan and the spring onions, adding salt and pepper to taste.

4. Roll out the pastry. Form it into six tartlet cases, greased with the remainder of the butter, with the pastry hanging over the sides. Line the cases with silver foil into which you tip some baking beans. Blind bake on a baking tray for 10-15 minutes in a moderate (150 degrees C.) oven.

5. Leave to cook, and then remove the beans and the foil. Trim any excess pastry from around the top of the pastry cases. Paint the interiors with the beaten egg yolk to seal any cracks. Spoon in the filling, being careful not to let it run over the top of the pastry cases. Put the baking tray back in the oven for another 10-12 minutes or until the filling is just set. Leave to cool, then push up the base to remove the tartlets, take away the base, perhaps using a palette knife, and place each tartlet on a plate alongside the salad if that is how you decide to serve it.

Pancakes stuffed with jerusalem artichokes - Crespelle ai topinambour

When Jerusalem artichokes arrived in Italy from the New World, they were thought to resemble sunflowers – they are members of the same family - so they were called girasole which the Anglo-Saxons corrupted to Jerusalem. Artichoke refers to their similarity in flavour to the globe artichoke. Just to confuse things, these days in Italy they are called topinambour, the French name for the plant which is derived by an obscure route from the name of a Brazilian tribe who arrived on a visit to Paris about the same time as the vegetable. Anyway, this prolific tuber makes a terrific basis for a filling for pasta or, in this case, pancakes. We got the idea from Quercia, an agriturismo near Bologna, where they use them to make a kind of lasagne but they do equally well in pancakes.

Ingredients

1 Red pepper large

2 Red onions

4 Garlic cloves

250g Tomatoes

2tbl Red wine vinegar

7 tbl Olive oil

To taste Salt and pepper

70g Plain flour

200ml Milk

2 Eggs medium

1 Spanish onion

350g Jerusalem artichokes

50g Parsley flat leafed

160g Ricotta

60g Parmesan grated

¼ teaspoon Nutmeg grated

Method

Here’s what you do.

Begin by putting the tomatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, the red onions and the red pepper into a hot oven to roast.

Make the pancake batter by processing or mixing the flour, milk, eggs and seasoning it to taste.

Peel and slice the Jerusalem artichokes into chunks. Slice the onion thinly and chop up a clove of garlic. Fry them gently in 3 tablespoons of olive oil until they are soft and begin to colour. Add the ricotta, finely chopped parsley, nutmeg and half the grated parmesan and combine well.

Take the vegetables out when the skins begin to blacken, after about 30-40 minutes. Slip the onions out of their skin and with a knife peel away most of the skin of the tomatoes and the pepper, making sure that you catch the juices of all the vegetables. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin. Food process the roasted vegetables adding salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the red wine vinegar. Add water if necessary to make a pourable sauce, the consistency of double cream.

Make 9 pancakes (an extra one in case of accidents). Heat a frying pan with a teaspoon of olive oil and when it is hot but not smoking add a ladle full of batter and swirl it around to cover the base of the pan. Leave it until it begins to separate from the sides of the pan and flip it over. Do the same with the remaining seven, keeping them warm between two plates. Use more olive oil if the pancakes begin to stick. Reduce the heat if they start to burn or become rigid.

Place an eighth of the filling in a line down the centre of each pancake, roll them up and place them in a row join side down in a well oiled lasagne dish. Pour over the sauce so that it evenly covers the pancakes, then sprinkle with the remaining grated parmesan.

Place the dish in a medium oven and bake until the sauce begins to bubble and the cheese begins to brown, about 35-40 minutes. Remove, and serve two pancakes per plate.

Chicken risotto with butternut squash puree and crunchy bacon

Vegetarian variation: with roasted red pepper and aubergine

This is a delicious easy to make meal but as always with simple dishes the details are crucial. So, do use a well flavoured chicken stock (I add some star anise to the carcass when I’m making it), and take care to lightly brown the onion and garlic before adding the rice.

You can make a vegetarian version by replacing the chicken and bacon with roasted red pepper and cubes of fried aubergine. Roast the pepper with the squash, then skin it and cut it into 3cm by 1 cm pieces. Cut the aubergine into 1cm cubes and fry in olive oil over a high heat. Add the aubergine to the risotto at the end of the cooking, then the red pepper. When you serve up ensure that the pepper and the aubergine are visible.

Ingredients for 4

600-700g butternut squash
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
4 sage leaves
1 stick celery
2 skinned boneless chicken breasts or 4 thighs if you prefer
100g bacon or pancetta
50g parsley
40cl olive oil
Salt and ground pepper
50g butter
250g risotto rice (Arborio or similar)
600ml chicken stock
100ml white wine
50g parmesan grated

Method

1. Put the butternut squash into a medium hot oven to roast for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients: chop the onion and celery finely; chop the sage finely; cut the chicken into small pieces about 3cms by 1 cm; chop the bacon into small shards; chop the parsley finely.
3. Make a parsley oil by liquidising the puree with oil and seasoning it. Pour it into a squeezy bottle.
4. Remove the squash from the oven, allow to cool and then cut it open to remove the seeds and hairy innards. Then remove the skin. You will need 300 grams of puree.
5. Chop the squash flesh roughly, place in a saucepan with the butter, sage, and mash with a fork until it becomes a puree. Season to taste with salt and ground pepper.
6. Saute the chicken in the butter until it begins to brown.
7. Soften and lightly brown the onion, celery and garlic in the oil.
8. Place the bacon in a small oven proof container and then in a moderately hot oven for 15 minutes until it has become crunchy.
9. Add the butter and the rice to the onion and continue to fry for two minutes, stirring the rice so that it is amalgamated with the onion, celery and garlic.
10. Add the wine and cook off the alcohol.
11. Begin to add the heated stock to the rice, allowing it to absorb the liquid before adding more.
12. Put the squash puree on a moderate heat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally so that it doesn’t burn.
13. Now add the chicken to the rice, and continue to add the stock until the rice is cooked but retains a bite. Then add the half the cheese and stir it in.
14. Put a spoon of squash puree on each plate and shape it into a flat orange circle. Put a heaped spoon of the risotto on top and then a few shards of the bacon. Finally, using the squeezy bottle, create a neat parsley ring around the butternut squash and risotto.
15. Call ‘service’ or if you are short staffed put the plates on the table yourself. Pass the remaining cheese for guests to help themselves to.