Mussels au Gratin

The weather is still hot out here so better to return to seafood for a simple and light starter.

Ingredients for approximately 6 persons: 4,5 lbs of mussels, 5 oz. of breadcrumbs, 2 cloves of garlic, parsley, olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper.


Preparation: clean up carefully the shell of the mussles scraping them under running water. Put them in a pan keeping it on intense fire until the mussels will open. Throw away the ones which remain closed and put aside the liquid that they produced at the bottom of the pan. Mix in a bowl the breadcrumbs together with grinded parsley and garlic, a little of oil, salt and pepper. Bath the mixture with some of the liquid you did put aside, strained to eliminate eventual residuals. Take away the half shell of the mussles where the clam is not attacked while covering the other with the mixture you prepared. Place the mussels on a baking tin, bathed with some oil and some drops of vinegar, and put the tin in the oven (in grilling mode) until the top of the mussles will be browned. Serve them together with lemon and garnished with fresh parsley.

Apricot Sherbet

In these hot summer days, especially after the lunch, something sweet and refreshing is always welcomed. Why not using some seasonal fruits to prepare a sherbet made with ripe apricots, to be kept in the refrigerator ready for every need?



Ingredients for approximately 6 persons: 1.3 lbs. of apricots, 6 spoons of honey, 1 lemon, 3 glasses of water.

Preparation: peel and pit the apricots, blend them together with the water in which has been melted the honey and squeezed the lemon. Put the mixture in the freezer and stir it at every hour. After some hours the sherbet should become partially solid, you can serve it in tall glasses then, garnished with some leaves of fresh peppermint.

Un Sabato fra Bologna e Modena

Una leggera brezza soffia fra gli alberi, ma lascia immobili le regolari linee dei vigneti che coprono quasi completamente le colline che mi circondano.
Sulla loro sommità si intravedono numerosi castelli e borghi fortificati che testimoniano un passato fatto di guerre continue: fra i Longobardi e i Bizantini, fra i Canossa e i loro molti avversari, e, infine, fra le due città comunali che qui confinavano.
Sono infatti nella zona fra Bologna e Modena, il vero confine linguistico e di tradizioni fra la Romagna e l'Emilia, alla ricerca di luoghi e sapori della tradizione che qui si coniugano in un modo unico e originale.
In questi luoghi è come avvenuto un pacifico sposalizio fra le due grandi secolari avversarie e, come spesso accade negli incroci, la loro progenie, in questo caso la cucina e il vino, è più avvenente dei genitori.

Seguendo il tracciato della Strada dei Vini e dei Sapori "Città Castelli Ciliegi Colline" mi trovo immerso sia nella natura più incontaminata, con boschi e campi di fiori, che in borghi dalla storia millenaria coi loro mercati e trattorie per non parlare delle innumerevoli aziende agricole che vendono direttamente i loro prodotti.

Il Mercato di Bazzano

Passo da Bazzano e, fatto un giro per il mercato che lì si tiene il sabato, proseguo verso Monteveglio e da lì per la piccola frazione di Montebudello, dove si trovano diversi produttori di ottimo Cabernet Sauvignon.

Montebudello

Affianco a Montebudello scorre una piccola strada che attraversa proprio le colline e i vigneti per giungere alla frazione di Mercatella dove lo stomaco mi avverte che ho superato mezzogiorno ed è ora di mettere i piedi sotto al tavolo.
Entrando senza troppe pretese in una osteria del posto mi faccio convincere senza troppa difficoltà dall'oste ad ordinare la loro specialità: fritto misto bolognese!
E' un piatto con carne, verdura, frutta e crema impanate e fritte. Praticamente un attentato al fegato, ma però era tempo che non ne mangiavo di così buono.
Prendo buona nota del posto, dove ritornerò appena il colesterolo tornerà a livelli accettabili, e continuo sulla strada fino ad arrivare al borgo medievale fortificato di Castello di Serravalle.

Castello di Serravalle

Questo luogo è un vero gioiello, che non ha nulla da invidiare a tanti luoghi simili nella Toscana e nell'Umbria, ma col vantaggio che la sua minore fama lo rende immune dalle torme di turisti e venditori di souvenir. Un vero viaggio indietro nel tempo con case in pietra e alti fiori per le strade, mentre intorno lo sguardo può spaziare verso una campagna verde e coltivata.

Castello di Serravalle

Dopo un riposo all'ombra di alcuni alti cipressi risalgo in auto e scendo verso la provincia di Modena dove mi accoglie da lontano la mole del castello di Vignola.
A parte le ciliegie, della cui zona di produzione è il capoluogo, questo grande paese ha alcune ottime trattorie e osterie, ma purtroppo visto l'orario pomeridiano dovrò accontentarmi di gustare un pezzo di crostata alla ciliegie in una delle pasticcerie che si trovano nel centro del paese e fare incetta di pane casalingo in un ben fornito forno lì accanto.

Il Castello di Vignola

Adesso è ora di tornare verso casa. Mi dirigo verso sud, in direzione della cara vecchia Via Emilia, ma c'è ancora il tempo per un caffè a Spilamberto, altro delizioso paesino che sembra uscito da una cartolina degli anni 50' (guardate l'ìnsegna del bar dove mi sono fermato).

Spilamberto

Eccomi al fine sulla statale Emilia che torno verso casa, contento di aver passato un sabato lontano dalla città, dai centri turistici troppo affollati e con una buona provvista nel baule di prodotti gustosi e genuini.

Pork Chops with Cherries

June is the month of ripe cherries and when traveling along the country roads of around Bologna and Modena one can meet countless shacks where the farmers sell their tasteful fruits.
Other than a fresh dessert or an ingredient for cakes and jams, cherries can be used also in other "unusual" ways.
In this recipe they flavour an otherway simple second course made from pork chops.


Ingredients for approximately 6 persons: 2,7 lbs. of pork chops, 5 oz. of pitted cherries, 0,9 pt. of Créme de Cassìs, olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme.

Preparation: flour the pork chops, add salt and pepper and put them to fry in a pan with olive oil. As soon as they will be browned add the Créme de Cassìs and the cherries. Continue to cook the food on low fire until the meat is well done. Serve in table garnishing the food with thyme leaves.

Small Clams in "Marinara"

Poveracce are small clams of the less valuable quality, from which their name " puvràz" in dialect, they were once very common in the Adriatic Sea. The progressive pollution and exploitation of this sea have rendered them today rarer than the " veraci" clams, which are instead "cultivate" industrially. This recipe is therefore typical of the popular tradition of the coast of Romagna and was the most common food of the fishermen that, after having sold the more valuable fish, kept these poor molluscs for themselves.



Ingredients for approximately 6 persons: 5,5 lbs. of small clams, 1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic, olive oil, white wine, parsley.

Preparation: put to bathe the clams in cold water with few salt into so they can throw outside the sand. Eliminate those which come in surface because they are died. Rinse and put them to cook into a pot where you have browned the onion and the garlic. Add a glass of white wine, cover the pot and left it on the fire for some minutes until all the clams will open. Serve them in table covered with grinded parsley.

Stewed Ossobuco in the tradition of Romagna

Ossobuco once was one of the typical recipe for the "poor people" who had to be content with this clumsy cut of beef for being able to eat sometimes a little meat. If the most famous recipe to prepare is the one from Milan, also in Romagna ossobuco is part of the traditional kitchen, but with a remarkably different preparation.



Ingredients for approximately 6 persons: 6 beef shanks, 1 carrot, 1 rib of celery, 1 small bunch of parsley, 1 onion, white wine, butter, sage leaves, broth, salt, pepper.

Preparation: brown the grinded vegetables in a pot with the butter. Meanwhile flour the shanks and put them in the pot, add some leaves of sage, a glass of white wine, one pinch of salt and one of pepper. Continue to cook until the meat is not tender, adding broth if the gravy in the bottom of the pot becomes too much dry.

Candied Figs Wrapped with Ham

When the hard summery sultriness lasts till long in the evening, deciding what to prepare to eat for supper is often problematic. This idea came to me finding at the "Mercato delle Erbe" of Bologna some fresh green figs, the so-called " fioroni" , that are the first ones coming up at maturation. Figs and ham is a enough famous plate, but lacking these fruits the strong sweetness of theirs "brothers" of September, they needed some help to contrast the strong taste of the ham, therefore why not candy them? The recipe so devised is pretty well balanced and can also be used as appetizer, as an afternoon snack or, precisely, as a second course in a light supper.




Ingredients for approximately 4 persons: 2 lbs. of fresh figs, 1 lb. of cane sugar, half glass of water, 1/2 lb. of ham, some leaves of fresh peppermint. If the figs are very ripe and sweet, use proportionally less sugar.
Preparation: put the figs in a short pot together with the sugar and the water. Cook them at very low fire until the sugar has been transformed in a dense syrup. Therefore remove the figs and put them on a plate, cover them with their syrup and wrap them with ham. Serve them garnished with leaves of peppermint.

Small Cuttlefishes with Peas

Summertime is coming in this part of the World and therefore what could be better than welcoming it with a typical plate of fish in the tradition of Romagna cuisine, easy to prepare and that can also be conserved for some days in the refrigerator?
Ingredients for approximately 6 persons: 2 lbs. of small cuttlefishes, 1 lb. of small peas, 2 tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, white wine, parsley, chili pepper, salt.
Preparation: clean the cuttlefishes and put them in a pan where some garlic and parsely are browining in the oil. After a pair of minutes add a glass of white wine and a pinch of chili pepper. When the water coming out from the cuttlefishes has been dried a bit add the tomatoes and left to cook for approximately half an hour. Therefore add the peas, lengthening the sauce with some water if needed, salt the food as you please and left to cook for another half an hour. Serve this food together with toasted bread slices.