FRISCIÖ (Fritters)

Hi guys. Today another typical recipe from Genoa and Liguria. This is a very fast recipe that you can use as an appetizer. We call it FRISCIÖ, which means more or less fritters.
You can eat them alone, with abundant salt, or you can use them instead of bread to eat cheese and ham, salami and so on.
Very quick, very easy, but very very good!!!

Difficulty: Very easy

Time needed: 10/15 minutes

Price: Very low

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Flour: 500gr. 2 egg yolks Salt, water, yeast and olive oil as needed

Directions:

Put the flour in a bowl and little by little add water while mixing, until you obtain a fluid batter.
Let it rest for 1 to 3 hours.
Add the egg yolks, salt to taste, a little bit of baking powder (2 teaspoons should be enough) and mix it very well.
Put abundant olive oil in a frying pan, and when the oil is ready use a tablespoon to put the batter into the pain. Every tablespoon of batter will be a single fritter (they are not very big in fact)
When the fritters are golden brown drain them and dry them very well with paper, they don't have to be oily!!!

Put another pinch of salt on the fritter and serve them hot!!!!

Enjoy!!!

Tips & suggestions:

- These fritters are very good but they have to be hot and just made so don't prepare them too early.

- Don't make them too big. The smaller the better.

Latte dolce fritto (Sweet fried milk)

Good morning blog!!! Today we’re preparing a dessert. This is again typical of my region. I decided to dedicate these first recipes to my region because we have a lot of beautiful and probably unknown recipes. This is an easy recipe, but the final result is very very tasty! Let’s have a look at it.

Difficulty: Easy

Time needed: 20/25 minutes

Price: low

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Milk: 1 litre

Flour: 150gr.

Sugar: 150gr.

Eggs: 4, beaten

Egg yolks: 2

1 lemon rind

Grated bread: 100gr.

Olive oil: Depends on the pan

Directions:

Mix the milk with the flour very well, until there are no lumps. Bring the mixture to the boil. Add sugar, the lemon rind, and the 4 beaten eggs.

Keep cooking on a low flame until you obtain a thick cream.

Remove the lemon rind, oil a plate and put the cream on the plate in a way that it covers the whole plate surface.

When your mixture is cold and solid cut it with a knife (choose the shape you prefer).

Now beat the egg yolks and pass the bits of cream you cut into the beaten yolks.

Then pass them into the grated bread and fry them in abundant olive oil until the surface becomes golden brown.

When ready put a little bit of icing sugar and taste it hot!!! Enjoy!!!

Tips & suggestions:

- Be sure that the oil is very hot before frying

- Use Olive oil, better if extra virgin. I know it costs a lot, but DON’T use other oils to fry. Ingredients make a difference.

Focaccia alla genovese (A fugassa de Zena)

Good morning! Today I’m gonna show you the Queen of the recipes from Genoa: the Focaccia (We call it Fugassa). I don’t know how to define it, because we eat ita t every time of the day. We eat it for breakfast, for lunch or for a quick snack and we even dip it in the Cappuccino (it may sound strange but try it! It’s incredible). The most important thing is that you can only find it in Genoa. In many other parts of italy they don’t even know it. Let’s see how to prepare it:

Difficulty: Medium

Time needed: 15 minutes to bake it and at least 3 hours to prepare it.

Serves 6

Price: Low

Ingredients:

Water (warm): 400ml

Manitoba flour: 600gr.

Brewer’s yeast: 25gr.

Extra virgin olive oil: 140ml.

Salt: 15gr

Sugar: 2 teaspoons (or 1teaspoon of malt)

Directions:

Dissolve the salt into the warm water and pour the mixture into a bowl, together with the sugar (or malt), 40ml of the olive oil and half the flour. Mix the ingredients until you have a very liquid batter, without lumps.

Add the brewer’s yeast and mix for 2/3 minutes, then add the remaining flour and mix again until have an homogeneous sticky dough.

Put 50ml of the olive oil on a rectangular baking pan, then put the dough on the baking pan.

Let it leaven for one/ one and a half hour (until it doubles) at a temperature of 30 degrees (you can just put it in the oven and turn on the oven’s light).

Now stretch the dough out until it covers all the surface of the pan. Check that under the dough there’s still abundant oil, if not add it before streching out.

Brush the surface of the dough with oil and put abundant coarse salt on it.

Let it leave for another 30 minutes at 30 degrees, then squeeze it with your fingers and make the typical holes that you can see in the picture.

Pour the remaining 50ml of oil on the surface of the Focaccia and let it leave once again for 30 minutes at 30 degrees.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees, squirt cold water on the surface and put the pan in the oven for 15 minutes.

When ready (the surface should be golden brown), take it outside the oven. Leti t cool down and when it’s warm cut it and serve it.

You can eat it warm or cold, as you prefer.

You’ll see, it’s fantastic!!!

Tips & suggestions:

- The perfect Focaccia should be 2 centimetres high, so be careful when you choose the baking pan

- Try dipping it in the Cappuccino!!! Again, sounds terrible but it’s awesome!!!

- Drink with it a good glass of white wine!

Chickpea flat bread (Farinata)

This is another typical recipe from my home town, Genoa! It dates back to almost 2,000 years ago and it a very simple recipe, with only 3 ingredients but it’s not easy if you want to make it perfect! It’s a main course. I don’t know what it could be compared to so the only way to undesrtand how farinata is, is try making it!!! Personally, I love farinata so let’s see how to prepare it!

Difficulty: Medium

Time needed: 5 minutes to prepare it, 50 minutes to cook it. Add 4 to 5 hours to let it rest

Serves 6

Price: Extremely low

Ingredients:

Water: 900ml

Chickpea flour: 300 gr.

Extra virgin olive oil: 1glass

Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Put the chickpea flour in a bowl and add the water. Add it little by little, while mixing in order to avoid lumps.

Let it rest AT LEAST 4 / 5 hours, mixing every now and then. If you have time, let it rest up to 10 hours, outside your fridge and covered.

After these hours there could be a sort of foam on your mixture. If so, remove it with a holed dipper. Then, add salt to taste and half a glass of oil. Put the remaining oil in a non stick round baking pan. The diameter has to be 40cm.

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees.

Now put your mixture into the baking pan and put the pan into the oven for 35 minutes (until its colour is golden brown).

Now turn off the oven and turn on the grill function for 15 minutes (until the colour of the top of the Farinata is hazelnut).

When ready, put on it salt and ground pepper to taste, cut it and serve hot!!! Enjoy it!!!

Tips and suggestion:

- This is the basic version of farinata but you can make it with thousands of other ingredients. You just have to add the ingredients when you turn off the oven and turn on the grill. You can add ham, salami, sausage, vegetables, cheese… just try!!!

- If you don’t have a non stick round pan, a copper or aluminium one is even better!

That’s all for today!!! Let me know if you like our fantastic Farinata!!!

Trenette with pesto sauce (Trenette al pesto)

Hi!!! This is the very first recipe I'm publishing on my blog, so I'm very excited. I chose a typical recipe of my city, Genoa which is in the north west of Italy.
I don't know if you already know our pesto sauce, probably you can find it in your supermarket but I can tell you that if you make it by yourself with the correct ingredients it's completely different (and much much better. Probably you don't know what "trenette" means. It's a kind of pasta, typical of Genoa, perfect for our pesto sauce. I don't think you can find trenette outside italy, but don't worry, have a look at the "tips & suggestions" paragraph of the reciped and you'll see that you can even use other kinds of pasta.

Difficulty: Low to medium

Time needed: 20 minutes

Serves 4

Price: Medium

Ingredients:

Trenette 400gr.

2 cloves of garlic

ground pecorino cheese 30gr.

basil leaves 50gr.

pine kernels 15gr.

extra virgin olive oil 100ml.

grated parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano) cheese 70gr.

1 pinch of salt

Directions:

Put a large pot half full of water on.

Don't wash the basil leaves, just clean them with a soft cloth.

Peel the garlic and put it in a bowl or a mortar, together with a little pinch of salt.

Squash the garlic. Here in Genoa we use a pestle and mortar, if you don't have them you can use a bowl and a meat mallet as well, or anything that can contain the sauce and squash the ingredients.

When the garlic appears like a sort of cream add the basil leaves and another little pinch of salt.
Squash the basil leaves against the walls of the bowl (or of the mortar). While doing that, turn the mortar or the bowl clockwise and your pestle or meat mallet anti-clockwise.

When the basil appears like a cream, add the pine kernels and keep squashing. Now add the two different kind of cheese and squash again. Finally you can add the olive oil, little by little. Keep squashing and mixing until the sauce is homogeneous.

Now the pesto sauce is ready, if the water in your pot is boiling put the pasta in it and mix it.

After 8 to 10 minutes taste the pasta, drain it and mix it with the pesto sauce.

Serve the pasta hot and enjoy!!!!


Tips and suggestions:

- If you don't find Trenette you can use any kind of pasta, better if long (Spaghetti, bucatini and so on)

- When you prepare the sauce be quick, in order to prevent oxidation

- Don't use a mixer, or your pesto will be bitter!!!

First recipe now online! Trenette with pesto sauce

Hi everyone!!! The first recipe is now online!!! You can find it in the Pasta & rice page!!! I chose Trenette al pesto, a typical pasta and a typical sauce from my home town, Genoa.

The direct link to the recipe is.the following: Trenette al pesto

Enjoy and comment!!!!

Welcome to Pasta pizza & fantasia

Welcome to my new blog! If you want to learn more about me and what this blog is, click on "About us" on the top bar of this page. As you can see recipes are divided into categories. Click on "Appetizers", "Pasta & rice", "Main courses" or "Desserts" to see the recipes.

This main page will be used to show you the updates and the new recipes on the blog. You can also find a chat to write anything you want.

Well, that's all for now! I can't wait to publish the first recipes!!!