culinaryart

Springtime Foraging

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Foraging is a tradition in the Venetian countryside, and as such, it’s deeply rooted in my culture. I can get lost for hours wandering around my secret places and gathering all kind of different vegetables that Mother Nature so kindly offers to us in generous amounts. The best season is springtime; after the dark and cold winter days everything comes back to life with an explosion of colours and flavours. I remember when I went with my mother in the deserted fields, before farmers started ploughing the soil to pick up dandelions and poppies’ greens that she cooked together; being the poppies rather sweet they were used to balance the bitterness of the others, though as an adult today I really appreciate bitter taste. I am living in Provence now and from March till the end of May we can gather quite a variety of wild food as leeks, asparagus, silene, hops, dandelions, chicory, wild rocket, wild broccoli and many others. I come home and use them to cook different recipes from traditional ones to others I developed myself, but the challenge for me was to find something to make a dessert with. One day I tried making a very simple Panna Cotta flavoured with wild fennel, that I discovered being so delicious cooked in syrup. I chose raspberries but you can serve it also with strawberries: the acidity and freshness of fruits balances the velvety sweetness of panna cotta and matches wonderfully with the aniseed flavour of fennel. It is a light dessert to serve after an elegant dinner.

Rice with foraged greens

Wild Fennel Panna Cotta with Raspberries

Ingredients for 4 servings

400 ml of fresh liquid cream (30% of fat)

10 gr of jelly in sheets

200 gr of sugar

400 ml of water

A pinch of salt

250 gr of raspberries

Two branches of wild fennel washed and finely chopped

First of all prepare the syrup: put the water and sugar to boil, let cook slowly for about 15 minutes or till the syrup begins to thicken and makes bubbles, add the fennel and turn off the fire. Let cool, in the meantime prepare the panna cotta: pour the cream in a saucepan, add the pinch of salt and warm it gently, doesn’t need to boil but it should be warm enough to dissolve the jelly. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water till they get soft, then drain and add to the warm cream, mix very well and add 200 ml of the syrup you’ve prepared before. Stir to combine and pour in silicone moulds, refrigerate for at least 4 hours but you can keep it 1 or two days well covered with a film. Wash quickly the raspberries, put them in a bowl, add the remaining syrup and  mix very gently. To serve: unmould the panna cotta, place in the middle of a dessert dish, garnish with the raspberries and syrup and serve.

Everything about nettles & 2 recipes

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Springtime is my favourite season for foraging food. This year Spring brought us also isolation life, because of COVID 19, and so I find myself living alone in the countryside, with some neighbours that I can’t approach, though we talk keeping the distance. I’m new in this place; I relocated last December so I am curious to see what I can find in the surroundings. In the Luberon, I had my spots, which took me years to discover. There were delicious wild asparagus, leeks, dandelions, silene, hops, mushrooms in fall, borage, wild broccoli. I didn’t see all these here, but I found some beautiful nettles, and chives instead of leeks. I recommend you to wash your vegetables thoroughly when foraging. I prefer to cook them as well because there are foxes here and their faeces can bring the Echinococcus, which is a very dangerous parasite.

Nettles are one of the more versatile and tasty wild herbs I know, and they have a variety of properties, the most interesting of which is that they help our body to get rid of toxins in the blood. If you find some, cut just the tops, I choose the ones that look more vigorous and thick as they taste better.  You can use them in all recipes that are asking for spinach, so in this one, if you don’t have nettles use spinach instead!

Portobello Mushrooms and Nettles

Ingredients for four servings

Eight  Portobello Mushrooms

300 gr of nettles, or  400 gr of spinach

Two shallots

Two tbs. of extra-virgin olive oil

30 gr of butter

30 gr of all-purpose flour

300 ml of milk

Three eggs

a pinch of nutmeg grounded

50 gr of grated Parmigiano

salt and pepper

Directions

I wash the nettles thoroughly, then blanch  them in salted boiling water for 2 minutes. I drain them with a slotted spoon and throw in cold water to stop the cooking, and then I squeeze with my hands to take off all the water. I kept the water from pressing for making pasta as it had a beautiful green colour and a great taste. I chop the nettles very thinly on a cutting board.

I slice the shallots and put in a pan with the oil and a pinch of salt on low heat, let cook for 5 minutes or till they are soft then add the nettles, I mix well and cook for 2 minutes, put in a bow and let them cool. In the same pot where I boiled the nettles, I cook the Portobello mushrooms, that I previously cleaned, for 3 minutes, just to make them soften a little. When it’s done I let them cool on a cutting board.  How do I prepare the bechamel: I melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and stir till it starts to bubble, then add the cold milk all in a once, don’t be shy with it, it seems scary but this way you will have the best béchamel.  Keep on stirring till it thickens, and then I add a pinch of salt, the nutmeg and the pepper, I taste and eventually add some salt. I mix the béchamel with the nettles, l add the eggs and the Parmigiano while stirring, then I stuff the mushroom with it. I put the stuffed mushrooms in an oiled baking dish, and cook at 180° /375°F for about 30/35 mn or until golden.

This recipe can make a complete vegetarian meal accompanied with a green salad or a side dish for a roasted beef.

Pasta with nettle’s juice

You can keep the water you squeezed from the nettles, or any other greens you cooked, for a couple of days in the fridge.

My idea was about having green pasta, but it didn’t work for the colour, for that you need to add the vegetables. But the flavour of the water was delicious, and I found that it gave a deepness to the taste of the pasta. I made Pici; it’s the easiest way to make it; you just need a big cutting board, a knife and your hands. Children have a natural talent for it, so if you want to do something fun with them on a rainy Sunday morning, that’s the thing.

It’s a recipe with just flour and water; I use 100 grams of durum wheat flour per person, for the water it’s about half the weight of the meal, but I had it little by little as it can change depending on weather conditions and the quality of the flour. If you don’t have Durum wheat, you can combine a third of thin semolina and two-thirds of all-purpose. While all the recipes I found call for salt and olive oil I prefer not to use them, salt tens to oxidate the pasta and if you have some that you’re not going to use immediately you can let it dry and keep in a container for some days.

I pour the flour in a bowl, make a well in the middle and add some nettle water while I whisk with a fork, I keep on adding water till the dough comes together, it hasn’t to be too thick nor too soft. Once it’s ready, I knead it vigorously for 5 minutes or more if I am in the right mood, then I let it rest on the board, covered with the bowl, for one hour. That is important because the gluten will have time to transform, and you will be able to work it efficiently. Have you any memories about rolling your dough and seeing it retire? It happens when you don’t wait for enough.

In the meantime, you can prepare your sauce. Pici are lovely with many different condiments, this time I made mine with wild broccoli, just because in this period there’s so much to forage. You can substitute them with kale or broccoli leaves if it happens you have some, the kind of thing that we normally throw in the garbage.

How to shape the Pici

You can find that many people use a rolling pin, cut in strips and then roll the stripes. I think it makes the work longer. What I do is cut a small piece of dough and go with both hands till I get something that looks like thick spaghetti. And if the first ones don’t come out nicely, you can always redo! I sprinkle another cutting board with semolina, and when I have my Pici done, I lay them on the floured board, that’s important because otherwise, they tend to stick. Remember to keep the dough that you are not working covered with the bowl, as it dries quickly.

Wild broccoli sauce

I found the inspiration for this recipe thinking about some ways of serving pasta they have in the south of Italy, using vegetables like cime di rapa and now that I think about it I believe that wild broccoli has some resemblance with it.

I use the flowers and the leaves, the stems being hard even after cooking. Wash the broccoli thoroughly and get rid of the stems, keeping flowers and leaves. Wild herbs are powerful in taste and properties, so you don’t need a large quantity. For my portion of pasta, I used just four. I put some olive oil in a saucepan, one clove of garlic per person, just cut in two, let it cook on medium heat til the garlic starts to release its flavour. I add the vegetables, stir with a wooden spoon, salt with some good quality salt, sprinkle with chilli and black pepper.

Put the water to boil. The rule is 1 litre of water every 100 grams of pasta and 1 teaspoon of salt for a litre of water. Seems a lot but if you want to cook pasta properly do like this. Fresh pasta cooks in a few minutes, so it’s better to have everything ready.

The saucepan near the pot where you are cooking the pasta, some parmigiana or better, pecorino cheese grated, a bowl where you’ll save some water from the cooking pasta. Cook the Pici in boiling water, as they come to the surface, they are ready, keep some of the water. Strain them in a colander and pour into the saucepan, stir on high heat, adding some of the water you kept, add the cheese and more water if needed, that makes your sauce creamy. As a final touch drizzle some olive oil on top. Serve immediately! With pasta, I drink red wine, as it seems it helps to digest it.

The easiest and most delicious semifreddo

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When I made this new website, I wanted a page that I can write on. Still, last year as gone so fast and I had to face up to many changes in my life, the most important of which is that I relocated from the Luberon Valley to a no touristic village near Saint Remy de Provence. I found a beautiful, old farmhouse, nestled in orchards of pears, almonds and apples that are just starting to blossom now. All winter, I have been working hard to prepare everything to welcome people from all over the world at my cooking classes. But then the virus came, and all reservations stopped. So, here I am, sitting at my table in front of the window and time to write.

Before the quarantine started, I had a last meal with some dear friends, and the dessert was a semifreddo. Or to better say, my semifreddo, as technically it’s not. The classic recipe contains eggs that bring up the level of difficulty. In the years I’ve been working as a private chef, I was creating so many desserts, trying to make them lighter and more accessible as sometimes I didn’t have much time. I always like to use just a few ingredients in my recipes, because this leaves space for more creativity. You have the basics, like the cream and coconut cream, and from that, you can completely change the taste. On Springtime, one of my favourite addiction is strawberries. I chop some and some I mix with a little sugar and also put some crushed meringues for crunchiness if I have. In this time cooking at home is coming back, so I hope you’ll enjoy!

Semifreddo with dark chocolate and orange

Ingredients for 8/10 servings

500 ml of whipping cream 30%of fat

400 ml of coconut cream, I prefer the one in Tetra Pack rather than tins as it has a better flavour.

One tablespoon of marmalade

100 gr of chocolate chips, or grated dark chocolate.

One teaspoon of grounded ginger, a pinch of grounded allspice

50 gr of chopped candied orange peels

The chocolate sauce

100 gr of dark chocolate 70% of cocoa finely chopped

100 ml of water, one tablespoon of sugar

Pinch of salt, Fleur de sel or Maldon salt are delicious, and I always have at home as they enhance the flavour of any food. Grounded ginger as much as you like.

For decorations: candied orange peels, pistachio powder or anything that inspire you.

Directions

As the quantity of cream is high, I use an electric mixer, but you can also make half of the amount if you don’t have one or prefer a hand-whisk. I start putting the bowl and the whisk attachment in the fridge, as they have to be very cold, then I prepare all the ingredients so that I won’t need to stop during the preparation. This step is crucial because once I have started, I can finish it without interruptions.

Now that I have everything ready, I pour the coconut cream, the marmalade and the spices in the bowl. I mix to combine and smooth the coconut cream if needed, then I add the whipping cream and start whisking till soft peaks forms. Now I fold in the chocolate and the candied peels with a spatula, making a bottom-up movement.

At this point, all I need to do is filling the mould. I can use a rectangular cake mould, in which case I line it with a piece of parchment paper, so it’s easy to take it off, or I use individual silicone moulds when I want my dessert to be outstanding. I also pay attention that there are no air bubbles by making a light pressure onto the cream, then I put my semifreddo in the freezer for at least 5 hours. It’s a great dessert to make when you have a party or guests, as you can prepare it even days before, make sure though to protect it with a film before freezing.

When it’s time to serve I prepare the chocolate sauce: I bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, I switch off the heat and pour in the chocolate, the ginger, the sugar and the pinch of salt. I wait that it melts before stirring. In the meanwhile, I sort out the semifreddo and take it off the moulds, then onto a dish. I mix the sauce till it’s velvety, then I pour on the dessert when it’s lukewarm if you’d like it perfect as in a restaurant do the pouring on a grid instead of the plate. I decorate with orange peels and pistachio powder, or pistachio chunks, what I have in the pantry, you can take your time as the semifreddo needs to defrost a bit. For the photo, I had some kumquats marmalade which makes a beautiful decoration as well.

 

 

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Utterly delicious snow balls