FIDANZATI CAPRESI ALLA RICOTTA, POMODORO SECCO E FRUTTA SECCA

The sun is shining and I'm about to go out for some shopping, but before that I'd like to tell you about the gorgeous recipe I made up last Saturday.

Serving 6 starving people

600 g of Fidanzati Capresi (it's a lovely pasta shape made by Gragnano)

300 g of sheep ricotta

2 dried tomatoes, chopped

1 good handful of roasted, peeled and chopped pine nuts, walnuts and hazelnuts

1 garlic clove

about 10 fresh basil leaves, washed, drained and roughly chopped

5 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil

salt

black pepper

half a glass of fresh milk

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Pour the extravirgin olive oil in a large frying-pan, add the garlic clove, the chopped dried tomatoes, the chopped nuts and let cook on a high flame for about 3 minutes, then get rid of the garlic clove, add the ricotta, the milk, some salt and stir until creamy. Turn off the fire and allow to rest for few minutes. Drain your pasta but not completely: leave some water in order to avoid drying off. 

Transfer into the pan, add the basil and stir well for half a minute. Serve with some ground black pepper and parmesan cheese.

CAVIAR, PRAWNS AND COURGETTES CREAM FUSILLI

This is the creamiest pasta I've ever made, warm and reassuring in winter time with a hint of fresh cream, or light and zesty with the addition of grated lemon peel on a lovely summer day.

for 4 people

400 g of fusilli
2 medium light green courgettes
3 or 4 spring onions
300 g of prawns
40 g of caviar
100 ml of fresh cream
30 ml of brandy
1 teaspoon of dried thyme and marjoram
5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
salt and white pepper

Carefully wash  the courgettes, drain them, chop them and put them into a large pan with 3 tablespoons of  olive oil. Do the same with the spring onions then cook until the vegetables will soften. This will take about 15 minutes. Add salt, ground white pepper, thyme and marjoram and the fresh cream, then transfer into the beaker of your blender. Blend until smooth and creamy, add the caviar and stir gently, then pour into a large pretty serving dish.
Meanwhile bring the water to the boil in a large pan. Add salt and fusilli when water's boiling.
Apart, in a small pan quickly fry the prawns. I've been lazy and I used the freezed ones...they are not as good as the fresh ones but they will do the trick, plus you won't have to shell them, which is one thing I hate!
Pour the brandy into the frying prawns and let boil off, add a little salt and take off the heat. Add the prawns to your courgettes cream, drain the fusilli and pour them into the cream, stir gently then serve with extra freshly ground white pepper. Your guests will simply adore it!

ROMAN-STYLE GNOCCHI

I simply love gnocchi di semolino: they are the quintessence of confort food, the food I'd dream to plunge my fork in when I'm feeling cosy, on a freezing, rainy evening. It's something I'd definitely cook for my children on a feast day
Here's the super-easy recipe.

for 4-6 people

750 ml of milk
200 ml of semolina
3 egg yolks
120 g of butter
5 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
salt

Heat the milk in a non-stick saucepan and, when it starts to boil, add salt and sprinkle in the semolina, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the semolina is very stiff and hard to stir. Take the pan off the heat and add 80 g of butter, 3 yolks and 3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese. Mix well until the mixture becomes smooth and not sticky.
Now, this is how I cut the semolina rounds.
Place a sheet of baking paper on the table and on top of that lay your semolina mixture. Leave it there until it's cold. Switch on the oven at 200 degrees and grease a nice baking dish with a little butter.
When the semolina's cold you can start rolling it with the rolling pin to the thickness of 1 cm. Now cut the rounds with a glass or with a biscuits cutter.
Start to fill the baking dish with the scraps, and between a layer and the other sprinkle some parmesan cheese and few butter flakes. Last of all arrange the rounds of semolina overlapping them partially. Dust with more parmesan cheese, add the chunks of the remaining butter and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes.
People sitting at your table today will adore you!

PUMPKIN ORECCHIETTE

 Chestnuts, mushrooms and pumkin.
Together with the warm shades of the leaves that cover our town's sidewalks and  wood's paths, these are for me fall's real tresure.
Yesterday night I prepared for a couple of friends a nice pasta with soft pumpkin, a delicate and easy-to-make primo piatto.
Here's the recipe.

for 4 people

400 g of pumpkin, peeled and diced
1 leek peeled and cut in thin rounds
1 teaspoon of fresh roughly chopped parsley
2 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil
2 tablespoons of white wine
about 40 g of butter
salt
black and white ground pepper

Put the diced pumpkin in a glass bowl with 80 ml of water, cover with a lid (suitable for microwave) and cook in the microwave for about 15 minutes at the maximum power.
Meanwhile bring the water to the boil in a large saucepan. When water's boiling add salt and the orecchiette.
Apart put the leek in a pan with butter and olive oil and cook on a high flame in order to soften the leek. Add the wine and let boil off.
Drain the pumpkin and add it to the leek in the pan, add salt, pepper and parsley and cook for about ten minutes or so.
Drain the orecchiette al dente and transfer into the pan with the pumpkin sauce, let cook for another minute, then serve topping with  parmesan cheese.

TRENETTE RATATOUILLE WITH ANCHOVIES AND HAZELNUTS

Last night I really wanted to pamper my husband, who's feeling down because of chicken pox, so I created a very special pasta dish with the three ingredients he loves the best: veggies, hazelnuts and anchovies.
The result was amazing to look at because of the bright, shiny colours and mouthwatering for the crunchiness of  hazelnuts.

for 2 people

250 g of trenette or spaghetti
half a red pepper
half a green pepper
half a yellow pepper
1 small aubergine
1 courgette
1 garlic clove
8 anchovies fillets
1 handful of chopped hazelnuts
1 handful of fresh basil leaves
4-5 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil
salt
half a teaspoon of crushed dry chilli pepper

Wash and drain the vegetables.
Dice the aubergine, sprinkle sea salt all over the cubes then put them in a bowl with a weigh on (the salt and the weigh - it could be a smaller bowl filled with water - will allow the bitter fluid to come out the diced aubergine).
Apart bring water to boil in a large saucepan.
Cut the peppers in halves and remove all the seeds, rinse again and dice them. Cut the courgette in cubes too.
Drain the bitter fluid off the aubergine cubes, rinse and drain them and put them in a very large non-stick pan with the olive oil, the whole garlic clove and the other diced vegetables.
Fry over a high flame and remember to remove the garlic clove before it gets brown. Stir often to avoid burning.
The vegetables are ready when they become kind of crispy on the surfaces and quite soft on the inside. Add a little water if needed. Don't be rushy because it takes a while!
Meanwhile the water into the saucepan should be bubbling. Add about a tablespoon of salt then put the trenette into the boiling water.
Generally you wont' need to add salt in this dish because anchovies are quite salty and you've put salt in the aubergine before cooking them, but this is the moment to check if more salt is needed in your veggies sauce.
Before taking the pan off the heat add the chilli pepper, the chopped anchovies, chopped hazelnut and chopped basil leaves. Drain the trenette and transfer them into the pan together with the vegetables. Stir for about one minute then serve and...buon appetito!

FABIA CREAMY RICOTTA TAGLIATELLE

I simply love ricotta cheese, as it is, or in sweet preparations such as baked cheese cakes or filling creams for cupcakes and pastries but, moreover, in savoury dishes.
My father makes a gorgeous pasta with ricotta and safran, recipe which is quite reknown in Sardinia, where both ricotta and safran are widely used.
But Tagliatelle alla Fabia, my very own creation, were born from an idea I came up with few months ago when I had friends coming over for dinner and I really wanted to impress them with something unique and simple at the same time. Something that would have make them go "WOW!".

for 4 people

400 g of fresh tagliatelle
150 g of good quality fresh ricotta cheese
a handful of pine nuts
a handful of a mix of the following fresh herbs:
marjoram
rosemary
parsley
basil
thyme
sage
2 tablespoons of fresh cream
4 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil
salt ground black pepper

Bring the water to the boil, add salt and cook tagliatelle for as long as the time indicated on the package.
Lightly roast the pine nuts in a non-stick pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil for no longer than 2 minutes, the tale off the heat.
Put in a mixer the ricotta together with the herbs and 1 tablespoon of olive oil and blend until the cream is nice and smooth.
Add the obtained cream to the roasted pine nuts, add salt, pepper and the fresh cream then turn the heat up again for about 3 minutes.
When your tagliatelle are AL DENTE (remember to save a cup of the cooking water) drain them and transfer them in the pan together with the pine nuts and ricotta cream.
You may need to add the saved cooking water to your tagliatelle so that they look and taste nice and moist.
Season in the pan on moderate heat for about one minute then serve and...enjoy your meal!

MATRICIANA CASERECCE

This is one of the most popular pasta dishes, born in Amatrice, a town near the italian capital.
People from Rome, who love it very much, knocked the "A" off the name, so it became matriciana.
This is my own way of making it, hot and easy!

for 4 people

500 g of  caserecce
200 g of guanciale - sliced and chopped - or diced bacon
350 g of datterini tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 shallot, peeled and chopped
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
100 ml of white wine
very little salt if needed
freshly grated parmesan cheese


Put the tomatoes in a bowl with 100 mls of water, cover the bowl with a lid suitable for microwave oven and cook at the maximum power for 4 minutes.
Let cool off and when they're cool you'll be able to peel their skin off fairly easily, then chop them.
Bring a large pot of water to the boil, when boiling add salt and caserecce.
Fry the shallot and bacon or the guanciale in a pan with olive oil and the crushed chillies. When the shallots are softened and the bacon has picked that gorgeous golden shade on all its sides it means you can add the wine. Keep the heat up and let the wine boil off.
Pour in the chopped tomatoes and let simmer until the sauce has reduced. Taste the sauce and add a little salt only if needed. Generally you won't need to add it because bacon is quite salty...unless you want to spend the entire night going back and forth looking for some water!
When caserecce are cooked al dente drain them and transfer them into the simmering sauce, stir for a while then serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese and...buon appetito!