In many parts of Italy, lentils are served for the New Year’s eve dinner. The idea behind this is that the lentils represent small coins (lots of them!) and eating them will bring financial fortune in the New Year. I don’t know if this really works, but you can allways try. Anyway, they taste delicious in this thick stew.
Good quality lentils should not be soaked beforehand, and require only a short cooking time. If you can get hold of lenticchie di Castelluccio, try them.
Cotechino or zampone are traditionally served with the lentils, but you can also serve them with good quality Italian sausages.
Ingredients
- 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 large carrots, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 celery sticks, trimmed and finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 150 g pancetta, cubed
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 5 thyme sprigs
- 3 rosemary sprigs
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 350g lentils, rinsed several times in cold water
- 2 dl red wine
- 1 litre chicken stock
Preparation
Heat the olive oil in a casserole. Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is soft. Add the pancetta and continue to sauté together until it is lightly golden.
Add the herbs and stir in the tomato purée and lentils. Pour in the wine and allow to bubble until almost completely reduced. Add the stock, pepper and salt and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered with a lid, for 50 minutes.
Remove the lid for the final 15 minutes of cooking to give the liquid time to reduce. so that you obtain a dark and rich sauce. Discard the bay leaves, the rosemary and thyme stalks before serving.
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Posted in vegetables.
Tagged with lentils.
By cucinone
– October 16, 2009
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Posted in general.
Tagged with rice.
By cucinone
– October 6, 2009
I’ve been fine-tuning this recipe for a long time now, and I consider it as definitive. The dish is quite straightforward, and you only need a few ingredients, but these should be of top quality. So, buy the best chicken you can find/afford, look for taggiasche olives, and a decent bottle of dry, white wine, that you will also drink with the finished dish.
In umido refers to the cooking technique, meaning something like moist. You have to moisten the chicken continuously during the cooking process with the wine. This will add several layers of taste. If you added all the wine at once, you would not achieve the same result (the same idea is behind risotto preparation, where not all of the stock is added in one go, but ladle by ladle).
Ingredients
- chicken cut up in 8 pieces
- finely chopped odori, consisting of onion, celery, carrot and flat leaf parsley (approximately 1 tablespoon each) and a clove of garlic
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 dl white wine
- 100 grams taggiasca olives, drained
Fry the chicken in the olive oil until browned all over. Season with salt and pepper. Lower the flame, and add the odori. Sweat for another 5 minutes, and then add a little wine. Let the wine evaporate, and then add again some wine. Continue doing this for the complete cooking time (approximately 40 minutes). 10 minutes before the end of the cooking, add the olives. Add the end, you should have some liquid left in the pan, which will be very concentrated and almost of a syrupy consistency.
Serve with a simple green salad and bread to mop up the juices.
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Posted in main dishes.
Tagged with chicken, olives.
By cucinone
– October 4, 2009
This is one of those wonderful quick pasta recipes, where the sauce is made while the pasta is cooking.
You can use whatever radicchio is available, but try to get the radicchio rosso di Treviso if you can. The radicchio rosso di Chiogia is also a good choice.
The balsamic vinegar gives a sweet touch that contrasts the bitterness of the radicchio, but only real aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modena will give this effect. Very expensive and difficult to come by, it is worthwile to get a bottle into your pantry. The taste has nothing to do with commercial balsamic vinegar.
Ingredients
- 300 gram penne
- 2 shallots, finely minced
- 100 gram pancetta, cubed
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 200 gram radicchio, finely shredded
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
- 2 tablespoons aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modena
Bring a large pot with salted water to the boil, and cook the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, prepare the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a pan, and add the shallots and the pancetta. Cook for 5 minutes, and then add the radicchio. Cook on a medium heat, till the radicchio has wilted. Drain the pasta, and add to the sauce. Add the butter and the grated cheese, and stir untill combined. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over it, and serve at once.
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Posted in pasta.
Tagged with balsamico, radicchio.
By cucinone
– September 21, 2009
Dried lentils should always be thoroughly rinsed and washed in several changes of cold water. Good quality lentils do not need to be soaked. Read the instructions on the package to make sure.
Try to get lentils from Castelluccio di Norcia. They taste fantastic, do not need to be soaked and are ready in half an hour.
Ingredients
- 250 gr lentils, washed in several changes of cold water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 100 gr pancetta, diced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, slivered
- 2 branches celery, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- leaves of a branch of rosemary, finely chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 (canned) tomatoes, chopped up
- 1,5 l vegetable stock
- salt and freshly milled black pepper
Heat the olive oil in a large pot and fry the pancetta, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, bay leaves and rosemary for 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper, tomatoes, the lentils and the stock. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 40 minutes or untill the lentils are done. Remove the bay leaves and taste for salt and pepper.
Serve with a slice of roasted bread per person, rubbed with a garlic clove while still warm.
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Posted in soup.
Tagged with lentils, soup.
By cucinone
– September 17, 2009
