Life sometimes throws at you the unexpected; when it comes to the kitchen, you’d better be ready. This is our Depression Tip: start saving your bread.
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Like most recipes, the origins of the dish are obscure, and there are many legends about it. As the name is derived from the Italian word for charcoal, some believe that the dish was first made as a hearty meal for Italian charcoal workers….
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Welcome back to Under The Tuscan Gun. As promised, and long overdue, please enjoy: PAPPA AL POMODORO. Florentine farmers used to cook this soup using stale bread that was saved during the week, garlic, tomatoes and basil from their gardens: this is the most humble dish I know, well, after boiled white rice… Now, if you go to a restaurant, the tradition is slowly disappearing, and it is becoming very hard to find a good old recipe that works; that’s why Deb and I decided to feature in this first episode two very dear friends of ours, Rosanna and Matteo. The good recipes are still secretly hidden into very old Tuscan homes, like The Farm Pacina, in Castelnuovo Berardenga, a little town that rests on the hills between the Chianti Area and Siena. Pacina was originally an Etruscan site, then it became a convent in the nine hundreds and after eight centuries the property was sold by the church and became private. Today Pacina is an Agriturismo and a Yoga retreat, Olive Oil and Wine are produced and distributed in Tuscany…a place worth a long weekend! Pappa al Pomodoro (Tomatoes and Stale Bread Soup) Serves 6 (plus leftovers) Finding the right kind of bread to make Pappa is harder then actually preparing the dish. Bread should be unflavored, unsalted, not too doughy, with a crust that is actually a crust. Because you need to use stale bread, you have to give yourself some time to dry it. The best way, once you’ve found the right loaf, is to slice it, and lay the slices on a …
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Gnocchi di Ricotta e Spinaci
Serves: 6
Prep Time: 20
Cooking Time: 15-20
Ingredients
2 ½ Lb of Spinach
1 ½ Lb of Ricotta Cheese
6 Tbsp Parmesan, freshly Grated
2 Egg Yolks, lightly beaten
All purpose Flour, for dusting
¼ Cup of Butter, melted
Salt and Pepper
Cut the stems off the spinach, and soak them in the sink. Wash them thoroughly, using the juice of a lemon or a vegetable wash.
Rinse them well, and in a very large non-stick pan, cook them for five minutes, in just the water clinging to the leaves after washing.
Drain them and chop them very fine. The spinach will cool off while you chop them, when you can handle them well, squeeze them into your hands, extracting some extra water.
This is very important, because drying the spinach it will help you mold better gnocchi later.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Put the spinach in a bowl, add the ricotta, half of the Parmesan, the egg yolks, and season with a couple of pinches of salt and some freshly grated black pepper.
Mix well, and make sure that the ricotta crumbles into fine pieces, and mixes properly with the spinach and the rest of the ingredients.
Shape the mixture into balls.
Butter a Pyrex pan, lay all the gnocchi in it, dress it with a few very thin slices and some grated Parmesan and put it in the oven. Keep the temperature at 350 F and then use the broiler for the last five minutes to crisp the dish.
In a non stick pan melt about 1 ½ tablespoon of butter, and sauté the sage until it starts browning.
Serve on a warm plate, dress with the melted butter and sage sauce, then garnish with some freshly grated Parmesan.
Buon Appetito
Debi and Gabriele
Duration : 0:8:55
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Debi and Gabriele will guide you through all the different kind of coffees you need to know…
Duration : 0:9:44
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