Experience a truly enchanting holiday in one of my Tuscan Villas
Ingredients for 4 people:
8 slices of thinly sliced day old tuscan bread, 1 garlic clove, extra virgin oil, salt and pepper, 2 chopped ripe tomatoes (optional).
Lightly toast the bread under the grill (or on the BBQ), rub each slice with garlic and arrange on a service plate, sprinkle some salt and pepper on top and coat with extra virgin oil, oil add the tometoes.
Serve warm.
Ingredients (servers 4)
250 gr. Dry chickpeas (or canned ones, but not so good)
½ kg. Baccalà (you can by it already soave to save time)
2 eggs
2 tbspoonfuls of parmigiano
1 carrot
1 celery stick
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
fish broth
withe flour
rosemery
parsley
1 bay leaf
salta and pepper
Have you ever eaten baccalà with chickpeas?
This recipe is a reworking of the traditional dish wich is so very popular in the Lucchesia region.
If you are using dry chickpeas, soak them overnight. Then bring them to boil in a large pan with the celery stick, half onion, carrot, bay leaf and three black peppercorns, and coock until tender (i twill take about an hour but depends on the type of chickpeas. If they still hard after that time you can put a pinch of soda bicarbonate to tenderize them.)
Keep the baccalà in the water for five hours (the water must be changed often).
Mince the baccalà in a food processor, add the eggs, parmigiano, masse garlic, minced parsley, and season with salt and pepper to your taste.
Add flour until the consistency is such that that combined ingredients can be formed into cakes. Fry the cod cakes in oil.
Liquidize the chickpeas with some fish broth. In a sauce pan fry a clove of garlic with some Rosemary in extra virgin olive oil until the garlic is lightly browned.
Remove the garlic and herbs and add the oil to the chickpeas, season with salt and pepper and bring back to boil for few minutes.
Serve the veloutè in a large dish with the cod cakes and decorate with a spring of fresh rosemary.
Commonly knows as “chestnut flour”, originates in Garfagnana and it is used by the population as wheat flour is used in the plain areas.
The chestnut is therefore a “bread tree” and its fruits, the chestnuts, “tree bread”.
Although mainly used for polenta, there are various uses for chestnut flour. It was dissolved in a water and coke on the fire between two pieces of metal to form “necci”, eaten with ricotta or cured meats.
It could also be mixed with water, walnuts, orange peel and oil and coke in the oven to make the famous “castagnaccio”. Today the flour is no longer used daily but its scent and delicate taste can be experienced when you try “necci” or “castagnaccio”.
The fragrant flovours come alive in the “metato” where the freshly-picked chestnuts are dried. The chestnuts remain in the “metato”, traditionally beate with logs of chestnut wood, for 40 days until they assume the characteristics wich we will enjoy when they are cleaned and trasformed into Garfagnana “neccio flour” now provided of DOP label.
“Castagnaccio” recipe:
For 4 people:
400 g neccio flour
500 g water
30 g crusche walnut
peel of 1 orange (only the yellow part)
rosemary
oil
salt
Add the water to the flour a little at a time, with a pinch of salt: Mix and pour into a round baking pan to reach a height of 1,5 cm. Drizzle the surface with oil, sprinkle over the nuts, chopped Rosemary and orange peel and cook at 200° for 40 minutes.
Please visit also: Tuscan recipes
For the chick pea soup
350 gm chick peas
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
4 shallots ,thinly sliced
1 carrot, roughly chopped
4 dessertspoons olive oil
A sprig of fresh thyme
A sprig of fresh rosemary
3 fresh sage leaves
2 litres water
salt
For the vegetable tartare
1/2 sick celery
1/2 courgette
1/2 carrot
2 shallots
1/2 red pepper
15 fresh leaves basil
50 ml olive oil
salt and pepper
For decoration
4 basil leaves fried in the little olive oil
Soak the stick chick peas for 12 hours or overnight, rinse and put them in the saucepan with 2 liters of water .
Add the carrot and the celery and pinch of salt and simmer for 1 and half hours. While the chick peas are cooking, gently fry the shallot in the little olive oil with the thyme leaves, rosemary needles and sage leaves.
Drain the cooked chick peas over a bowl keeping the cooking water for later. Add the chick peas to the shallot and herbs, add 3 or 4 ladles of cooking water and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Blend into a smooth cream or “veloute” using a hand-held blender, adding a little more cooking water if necessary.
To make the vegetable tartare,wash and trim all the vegetables, then cut them into small, similar sized cubes. Place the remaining ingredients- the fresh basil leaves, olive oil and salt and pepper-in a tall jug and blend using a hand-held blender.
Dress the vegetable with the basil oil.
Put a small amount of the vegetable tartare in the middle of each of your serving bowls. Its best to use a small metal ring to help keep the vegetables together and create a neater shape. Pour the chick pea veloute around the vegetable tartare, decorate with the fried basil leaves and serve.
250 gm tagliatelle, 300 gm of peeled tiger prawns, 3 courgettes cut into small pieces, 100 ml cream, fresh flat leaf parseley, chopped, a squashed garlic clove in camicia – this means that the garlic clove hasn’t been peeled and still has its shirt on!
Olive oil, freshly ground salt and pepper, freshcourgette flowers for decoration.
Start bt heating a large saucepan of salted water for the tagliatelle. In the meantime, gently fry the garlic in a little olive oil ( keeping the skin on reduces the strength of the garlic ). Remove the garlic and discard it. Using the same pan and oil gently fry the courgettes for about 5 minutes then add the prawns and continue cooking.
When the prawns are cooked add the cream and simmer gently for a few minutes to reduce the amount of liquid and form a creamy sauce.
Add the chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cook the tagliatelle. This usually takes between 2 and 4 minutes but check the cooking instructions on the packet and taste from time to time to see if it’s ready.
While the pasta is cooking cut the courgette flowers into strips lengthways and fry in a little hot oil.
Drain the pasta and toss in the sauce.
Serve and decorate with the fried courgette flowers.
Buon Appetito!