Milk Toffees

Today we all return children, even though in reality I have never ceased to be one because when I find some of these milky sweets of good quality I pillage them without restraints and concerns about diet. I cannot resist!
At this point I thought "but why not try to cook them?" and I tried to find the recipe from my various cookbooks and over the network.
I found many, with a lot of differences between them, the following is what gave me the best results and that has the taste that I remember from my childhood.

Ingredients for approximately 12 toffees: 1 and 1/3 cups of cane sugar, 4/5 cup of single cream, 2 tbsp of butter, 1 and 1/2 tbsp of honey, some drops of vanilla extract, salt.

Preparation: put in a pan with a thick bottom the cream and butter with a few drops of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Cook it until the liquid has begun to warm and then add sugar and continue to cook on low heat for about 20 minutes while stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon, until it reaches a soft and creamy texture and does not slide down from the spoon. If you want harder toffees just increase the cooking time. Pour the mixture into a baking tin greased with butter, or in a container for ice cubes made of metal, and let it cool for two hours in the refrigerator. When it will be soft but substantial cut the toffess to a squared shape with a knife greased with some butter.

Borlengo: the King of the Mountain

Few foods are so traditional and linked to their own territory as the borlenghi. This simple mixture of water and flour, the "colla" (glue), seasoned with a little of lard and Parmesan cheese, the "cunza" (untranslatable), is typical of only a few towns in the Appenini mountains between Bologna and Modena, despite its origins are lose in the Middle Ages: the first document attesting the existence of this dish dates back to 1266.

Ingredients for approximately 20 servings: 3 and 3/5 cups of all purpose flour, 8 and 1/2 cups of water, 1 egg, half tablespoon of salt, 5 and 3/10 ozs. of lard, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 rosemary sprig, 9 ozs. of gounded Parmesan cheese, one piece of raw pork rind.

Preparation: mince together the lard, garlic and rosemary, warming it up a little in order to mix things up properly. Prepare then the dough for the "colla" by breaking the egg in half the water, slowly adding the flour with a sieve, stirring so to not form lumps. Then add the remaining water and salt while continuing to stir. Take a low, wide pan (the traditional "sole" on which "borlenghi" are cooked are about 40-50 cm wide, choose accordingly), grease its surfece with pork rind and put it over the heat. When it is hot pour a ladle of dough enough to cover it all, but shaking the pan so to make it very thin. Cook both sides until they will detach without efforts from the pan. Then take the "borlengo", season it in the middle with the "cunza" made with lard and sprinkle it generously with Parmesan cheese. Fold it in four as it were a handkerchief and serve hot.

Sweet and Sour Turkey with Cherries

I'm continuing the cherries week but this time with a meat recipe that take advantages of the ability of these fruits to go magnificently well with sweet and sour recipes.

Ingredients for approximately 4 persons: 4 turkey steaks (rump or breast), 7 oz. unpitted cherries, 2 tablespoons of butter, 4 tablespoons of cherry jam, 3 tablespoons of aromatic vinegar, one teaspoon of thyme, 3 shallots, salt, pepper.

Preparation: sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper and brown it with the butter in a pan for about two minutes for side. Take it away and keep it at warm. In a saucepan put the juice produced by the meat and the vinegar and then brown into the shallots, finely chopped, and the thyme, adding some water enough so not to burn them. When the sauce will be a bit reduced add the jam and the cherries and cook until it will be enough curdled. Add salt and pepper and put into the meat and let season it for a few minutes on a very low heat.

Small Cherry Clafoutis

Although yesterday I did not post any recipe I didn't forgot my promise. Sundays, instead of cooking and taking pictures, I went to the Appenino Mountains near Modena, Zocca and surroundings, to recover some raw material: magnificent mountain cherries. For those who already know the ones from Vignola, these others are better still and then also the places there are beautiful, the food marvelous and there are also recipes made only in those zones, so I have some surprises in store for a future post.
But back to today's recipe: it is based on a cake from the French region of Limousin called clafoutis (it should derive from the dialect "clafir" ie to dress, to fill). It's a cake prepared with different types of fresh fruit, depending on the season, but its origin appears to be related to the wild cherries and then ...

Ingredients for about 4 servings: 9/10 oz. of cherries, 2/5 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 eggs, 2/5 cup of sugar, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of cherry brandy, half vanilla pod, ground cinnamon, salt.

Preparation: butter four molds of about 4/5 cup of capacity and place at their bottom the cherries without stems but with the pits. Whisk in a bowl the eggs together with 5 and 1/2 tbsp. of sugar until they'll double in volume, add the flour and, continuing to whisk, the warm milk, in whose you have previously cooked half vanilla pod, cherry brandy and a pinch of salt. Pour the mixture over the cherries and bake for 15 minutes at 350 F. When on top of the cakes a small crust will be formed, remove the molds from the oven, sprinkle them with the remaining sugar and the cinnamon and put them back in the oven for another half hour until the clafoutis will look soft and golden and sugar will be caramelized. Serve them still warm.

Cherry Martini Cocktail

As Sunday post here it is another "traditional" recipe, always based on cherries as I promised for this week, but I'm not talking about food but about drinks: the Cherry Martini. This cocktail is one of the infinite variations on the classic Martini theme and I found more than ten different recipes to prepare it. The following one is the more balanced in my opinion because it keeps the taste of Martini adding just the flavor of cherries.

Ingredients for 1 serving: 2 1/2 oz. Gin, 3/5 oz. Dry Vermouth, 3/10 oz. Cherry Brandy, 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters, 1 maraschino cherry.

Preparation: pour all the ingredients together with an ice cube in the shaker. Shake energetically and strain over a Martini glass garnished, but it's essential to the taste, with a red stemmed maraschino cherry.

Cherries Cooked in Wine with Crème Fraîche Pudding

To force you to forgive me for the partial absence of the last few days (why work always concentrates all at the same time?) I propose today another recipe for a dessert using seasonal fruit: cherries. These bright red fruits are a real treat for the eyes as well as for the palate, not to mention that I have just to move from Bologna to Modena and every 100 meters there is a shack where farmers sell them. It's impossible to resist, and in fact I can not resist!
Get ready then for a cherries week... but here's to you the first taste!

Ingredients for about 4 servings: 1.1 lb. cherries, 2 and 1/10 cups of crème fraîche, 1 vanilla pod, 3 envelopes of gelatine, 9/10 cup of sugar, 1 glass of red wine, 1 cinnamon quill, a small stripe of orange zest.

Preparation: we start preparing the pudding. Soften the gelatine in cold water for about ten minutes, while you put the crème fraîche together with the vanilla pod and 1/2 cup of sugar to cook at moderate heat until sugar will completely melt. Remove from heat, add the gelatine, after squeezing it well, and pour it all inside some molds that you'll put to rest in refrigerator for several hours.
Now the cherries. Pour in a pan a glass of water, a glass of red wine, 2/5 cup of sugar, the cinnamon stick and the orange peel. Put the pan on fire at moderate heat until sugar will melt. Pour into the cherries then and let them cook at very low heat for about an hour. Drain the cherries and, if necessary, stir the liquid on the fire until it becomes syrup.
Pour the cherries and their syrup still warm over the puddings, which have to be still cold from the fridge.

Plum Crumble Cakes

Amidst the summery fruits there is one that really attracts me with its beautiful deep purple color: the plum. Could I resist then to this recipe that I found on Gourmet Traveller?
After a short fight with my new oven, at the second try I managed to successfully cook these delicious cakes, made into molds of about 3/4 cup capacity (it's better to abound with the capacity because they grow a lot in the oven), good to be tasted at breakfast or as an afternoon snack. And they are also dietetic, there is fruit inside, isn't it? ;)

Ingredients for about 12 cakes: 1 and 2/5 cup of goat ricotta, 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2/3 cup of plain flour, 3 and 1/5 oz. of butter, 3 and 1/2 oz. hazelnut, 3 and 1/3 tablespoons of milk, 3 eggs, 6 plums, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, finely grated rind of half orange.

Preparation: Beat 4/5 cup of sugar, 2.8 oz. of butter and the milk until you have a homogeneous cream. Add then 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Stir into the flour, sieving it in the while, then 2.8 oz. of hazelnut finely minced and the baking powder. Spoon the dough into the molds filling them till about half their size. At this point mix ricotta, 1/5 cup of sugar and 1 egg yolk and spoon the mixture on top of the molds, sprinkle them with the remaining hazelnuts, coarsely chopped, and sugar and upon each mold half a plum thinly sliced.
Let them cook in an oven, preheated at 350F, for about 20-30 minutes and then let them cool in their molds for about 5 minutes before removing them.

P.S.: I wish to be as good as Tartelette in cooking cakes... mines are awful to see :(

Angel's Face Cocktail

It is told that this cocktail has been invented in Paris during the First World War, but I think that it could be almost as successful in less tragic moments because it is really tasty as well as beautiful with its golden color.
Adding to it that it is renowned as one of the best after-dinner cocktail, I think you really have to learn how to prepare it, so you can easily digest the forthcoming recipes of this blog.
And then people says that I don't care of my readers... tsk ;)

Ingredients for 1 serving: 3/4 oz. Gin, 3/4 oz. Apricot Brandy, 3/4 oz. Calvados.

Preparation: pour all the ingredients together with an ice cube in the shaker. Shake energetically and strain over a Martini glass. Optionally you can garnish the cocktail with a red stemmed maraschino cherry.

Friggione - Bologna Onion Soup

Although most of the visit to my blog happen during the working week, I think that many people like me love to read in the Sunday morning, and sometimes they also try to find some new idea for the forthcoming lunch.
I'll try then, starting this week, to present "Sunday recipes", simple but full of tradition and taste, and as the first one a recipe that is what more "bolognese" you can find, even more than tortellini, that were copied by the cuisines of both Modena and Romagna (with its cappelletti), the "friggione".
It's a poor and rural dish, a recipe apparently simple that needs care and some little tricks to be successful and that could be used both as a side dish or a starter, served with toasted bread.

Ingredients for approximately 4 persons: 4 2/5 oz. golden onions, 5 tablespoons of Passata (tomato puree), 8 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, water, aromatic vinegar.

Preparation: slice the onions along their longest side and put them in a large pan together with the oil and a little water. Sear the onions at very very very (did I say very?) low heat for at least two hours, adding some water every now and then because they shouldn't overcook. This is a trick that is usually missing from most recipes but in my experience I never found onions watery enough that didn't need some water added, unless you cook them on a cigarette lighter of course!
When onions will become of an uniform pinkish color add salt as you like and the tomato puree, raise then the heat so to condense the food.
Serve friggione as a side dish or with toasted croutones adding in this case some dashes of aromatic vinegar.

Bologna: il Quadrilatero

"Il Quadrilatero" in Bologna is the zone of the old medieval market that spreads in the little streets beside the central Piazza Maggiore, and whose present names mirror the arts and crafts that were practised here once: via Drapperie (clothes), vie Pescherie Vecchie (old fishmongers' shops), via degli Orefici (jewellers), etc.



Some of the shops date back to those times and their images could be found in illuminations that illustrate the statutes of the ancient Bologna municipality.
It's my preferred shopping place, here you can find anything edible, fresh, of good quality and at all the prices and, just like all the places that have a thousand years long tradition, it's still today the crossroad of anyone who is in Bologna: old ladies and young immigrate girls, visiting tourists and clerks enjoying their lunchbreak. Anyone who wants to understand what is this city today should go there.

South Pacific Breeze Long Drink

Is there anybody who sometimes doesn't dream to be on a beach of a south pacific island? It happens pretty often to me, in the midweek working days, like Wednesday... ah, it's Wednesday? Then I have to comfort myself with this tropical long drink and close my eyes while imagining to feel the sea breeze.

Ingredients for 1 serving: 1 1/2 oz. Gin, 3/4 oz. Blue Curaçao, 3/4 oz. Galliano, lemon juice, soda.

Preparation: pour Gin, Galliano, Blue Curaçao and an ice cube together in the shaker. Shake energetically and strain over an ice filled long drink glass. Top with lemon juice and soda and garnish with a pineapple segment.

Semolina Pastries

It was pretty some time that I wanted to try this recipe, that could be found in the Artusi cookbook, because I love the taste and texture of semolina but I had some really hard problems in its making. These cakes should remain moist and soft inside, but not wet, instead every time they came out from the oven completely soaked. You can't imagine how much Paoletta laughed when I was explaining to her my failures. At the end, pretty frustrated by the latest debacle and noticing that also other cakes had cooking problems I decided to buy a new oven. Then the new oven arrived, shiny and brand new and... insert your preferred swearing here... still these cakes were too much wet! At that point Paoletta, still sneering for revenge on me and my critiques to her photos, confessed her "Artusian" secret: "You fool! At the time Artusi wrote eggs were half the size of the giant one we're accustomed to use today. Just halve the eggs in the recipe and it'll be fine." Done and success at least!
If you don't understand why I tried so hard to make these pastries is because you never tasted any of them, try it and you'll figure it out.

Ingredients for about 20 pastries: 1 cup of semolina, 1/2 cup of of sugar, 1/3 cup of pine nuts, 3/4 oz. of butter, 3 1/3 cups of milk, 2 eggs, salt, lemon zest, breadcrumbs, icing sugar.

Preparation: warm the milk in a pan on a very low heat. When the milk will start to boil pour into semolina being careful to not create lumps. When semolina will start to thicken add pine nuts, previously minced, sugar, butter and some lemon zest (that you'll take way after a while). When the mixture will become pretty thick, take it out from the fire, cool it and then add the eggs: yolks first and the whipped whites next. Then butter the molds, sprinkle them with breadcrumbs and fill them with the mixture. Put them to cook in the oven at 350 F for about half an hour and at the end sprinkle the cooked pastries with icing sugar.

Osteria Nuova del Pilastrino

La zona di Monte San Pietro, nelle colline limitrofe a Bologna, è un luogo adorabile dove fare la classica passeggiata domenicale. Ci sono distese di vigneti, che producono ottimi vini (il cabernet sauvignon secondo me è veramente a livelli eccelsi), verdi colline che scendono dolcemente e un torrente come il Lavino che rinfresca l'aria rendendola respirabile anche in piena estate.



Qui, in località Pilastrino, c'è una trattoria su cui avevo letto qualche giorno fa questo post scritto dal mio amico Paolo Trevisani sul forum Bolognesità. Paolo difficilmente sbaglia e quindi, trovandomi già lì vicino ed essendo giunta, anzi quasi sorpassata, l'ora del desinare ho provato a vedere se riuscivo a trovare posto.

Dopo qualche minuto di attesa, del resto non avevo prenotato, sono riusciti a mettermi a tavola sotto al gazebo, al fresco e con la possibilità di fumare (lo so, sono uno sporco vizioso). Cosa potevo chiedere di più?



L'edificio stesso è molto bello, in pietra a vista, carina l'insegna che riprende lo stile Liberty di inizio secolo e poi i fiori, i campi e le colline tutt'attorno, persino una lepre che a un certo punto ha fatto capolino nel prato lì vicino.

Il menu è quanto di più tradizionale bolognese si potrebbe chiedere, ma a quello si aggiungono anche i piatti del giorno mentre altri possono essere richiesti in precedenza se si è in numero sufficiente.



Io ho iniziato con crescentine, tigelle e affettato, alla faccia della dieta (domani digiuno!), ma del resto il prosciutto e il salame erano davvero ottimi e le crescentine leggere e croccanti, assolutamente non unte, fatte proprio a regola d'arte insomma.



Come primo ho optato per tagliatelle all'ortica con pancetta e piselli, un piatto che sembrerebbe quasi banale finché uno non assaggia la pancetta che è quanto di più lontano da quelle "industriali" che vengono usate in tanti posti. Una delizia di dolcezza e di sapore che ha veramente nobilitato questo semplice piatto della nostra tradizione contadina.




La cotoletta alla petroniana che ho sbafato subito dopo era allo stesso livello e perfettamente nella tradizione col parmigiano grattugiato sopra e fuso al forno.

Il friggione che l'accompagnava, anche se ottimo come sapore e freschezza grazie all'eccellente pomodoro usato, a mio parere era troppo poco "cipolloso" ma del resto devo trovare qualcosa da criticare un poco, sennò questo post sembra davvero una marchetta. Come mi ha poi detto il gestore è proprio il loro modo di fare il friggione e sicuramente è più "affrontabile" da chi ha palati più delicati del mio.

Per finire un bel mascarpone fatto in casa con dentro affogate delle ciliege cotte, un dolce semplice ma gustoso per stagionalità e ingredienti.



Il costo, inclusa l'acqua e un quarto di vino (dovevo guidare, maledizione, ma hanno anche ottimi vini del luogo con ricarichi onestissimi) è stato sui 30 euro.

Da sottolineare positivamente la velocità del servizio e la simpatia del titolare: quando gli ho chiesto di poter fotografare la cucina era terrorizzato che fosse troppo incasinata. Invece, appena pochi minuti dopo che era stata chiusa, luccicava dalla pulizia, a riprova che una buona organizzazione in cucina poi si riflette, eccome!, nel cibo.

Indirizzo:
Osteria Nuova del Pilastrino
via Lavino 449/A - Località Pilastrino
Monte San Pietro (BO)
Tel. 051-6768275
Chiusa il lunedì e il martedì.

P.S.: le foto di questo post le ho fatte usando un'altra lente di "antiquariato", un Carl Zeiss Tessar 50/2.8, anch'essa prodotta durante la guerra nel 42-43.

P.S. II: sorry, I didn't post also the english version, I really didn't have enough time to do it, but if you're interested to know more about this restaurant near Bologna I could do it in the forthcoming days.

Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 135/4

Old lenses from great makers are like those aged Barolo wines that become better and better as the years passing by.
Let's look at this old Triotar 135/4 made by Carl Zeiss Jena during the WWII, considering the serial number about the 1942-43.

It's a lens in Exakta mount for the model Kine while optically is a "simple" triplet, alas a lens composed by three elements, one of the cheapest version compared to the models Tessar or Sonnar already produced by Zeiss in those years.

Like in many other fields, cheap stuff from a great brand still means excellent quality, and after more than 60 years this lens responds smoothly and promptly when used with precise focusing and an aperture that works without a hitch.



Owning another Triotar, made post war in East Germany, and already deeply appreciating it, I expected great results from this one also and I wasn't disappointed at all. I don't know exactly why but these Triotar are some of the best lenses able to render in the photos a really impressive tridimensional effect that some of the most famous and expensive modern telephoto lenses can only dream of.

Another "gram-pa" that still has a lot of work to do without thinking at retirement.

Tartellettes with Strawberries in Mascarpone Cream

The idea for this recipe comes from one of the Donna Hay's cookbooks where she prepared some tartellettes made with French crust (pate brisée), mascarpone and quince paste. It stimulated my curiosity so I tried to render it in a slightly different way, substituting quince paste with something fresher and seasonal: strawberries. The result is fabolous, I beg your pardon but in this very moment I have my keyboard a bit sticky because I'm eating one of them while I'm writing...

Ingredients for 12 tartellettes: 10 1/2 oz. of strawberries, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of mascarpone, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of almonds, 3 1/5 cups of superfine flour, 9/10 cup of butter, salt, milk.

Preparation: first prepare the strawberries like it was a jam. Cut them in pieces (apart 12 of them whose you'll use to garnish the tartelettes later), mix them with sugar and some dashes of water in a pan and put it to cook at medium heat for about 20 minutes until the density of the mixture will reach the right density.
Then you have to prepare the French crust for the tartellettes: mix flour and butter, cut in pieces cold from the refrigerator, together with a pinch of salt. Add 3-4 tablespoons of cold water to make the dough compact, wrap it with plastic and put into the refrigerator for half an hour.
Spread it out with a rolling pin and use it to cover the tartellette molds that, once completed, must be put again in the refrigerator for another half an hour and then cooked in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350 F.
In the meanwhile whip the mascarpone with very little milk to make it softer then add the minced almonds and the powdered sugar.
Fill then the tartelletes with the mascarpone cream, add on top the strawberry mixture and garnish with a fresh fruit.

Flounder in Asparagus Sauce

These are the last days to find fresh asparagus therefore I couldn't avoid to buy them as for another year I could just find frozen ones that aren't even remotely comparable to the fresh ones. I still had the problem how to cook them: it's summertime, béchamel and ham rolls are too filling, and I already tried that recipe. Why don't use them upon some seafood? I asked to myself. The taste of asparagus should work well together with the delicate flavor of seafood like sole or flounder.

Ingredients for approximately 4 persons: 1 1/3 oz. of flounder, 2 and 1/5 oz. of fresh asparagus, 2/3 cup butter, breadcrumbs, half onion, white wine, salt, pepper.

Preparation: clean both the asparagus, cutting away their wooden part, than the fishes. Boil the asparagus in copious salted water (or using a steamer) being careful not to mush their heads that you need to take apart. Crush the remnant part of the asparagus and put it to cook for half an hour in a pan with the butter, salt and pepper as you like, wetting it with some white wine and water so to keep the sauce in a creamy state. In the meanwhile bread the seafood and put it to fry with a knob of butter for a couple of minutes, until both the side will get a golden color. At the point take out the seafood, spred the hot sauce upon it and garnish with the asparagus heads that you previously warmed so they will have the same temperature than the sauce.

Zephyr Cocktail

Some days ago a reader of this blog asked me to post a cocktail recipe with the Bols Parfait Amour amidst its ingredients. And since I'm also celebrating the permanence in Premier Division of the Bologna FC (even if there would be very little to celebrate, one of the worst soccer team I've ever seen playing), here is a colorful red and blue cocktail.

Ingredients for 1 serving: 4/5 oz. Vodka, 2/3 oz. Blu Curaçao, 1/2 oz. Parfait Amour, one dash of lemon juice.

Preparation: pour all the ingredients together in the shaker. Shake energetically and serve it in a chilled Martini glass garnished with a red stemmed maraschino cherry.

Pastine per il Tè - Tea Pastries

Since today it was a bit cold outside I felt like preparing me a good cup of hot tea, but also something simple and not too much sweat to eat with it. What is better than the "pastine pel thè" whose recipe was taught to Artusi by Mistress Wood in person? Yes, those men from Romagna have always been very successful with the fair sex, so I took out his cooking book, whose I own in an edition from the '30 inherited from my father, and I went to collect all the ingredients from the pantry.

Ingredients for approximately 4 persons: 3 1/2 cups of superfine flour, 1 cup potato flour, 4/5 cup of sugar, 2/3 cup of butter, 2 egg whites, milk.

Preparation: mix the two flours and the sugar and pour in the middle the whisked egg whites and the butter, adding lukewarm milk until the dough becomes tender and well amalgamated. Spread it upon the table and level it with the rolling pin till a height of about 1/5 inch. Cut the biscuits with a mould or a glass and prick them with a fork. Lay them upon a buttered baking tin and cook them into a preheated oven at 350°F for about half an hour.