Recipes

“As he walked, he began to perceive the scent of flowers and the further he walked the stronger the scent” Italo Calvino

This corner is dedicated to the food and the wine, the most important ingredients for living in Tuscany.
I love food and I love to cook.
Here are some of my favourite recipes, they are very simple but also very good…try them to believe it…
Buon Appetito!!

Treviso Radicchio risotto with Balsamic vinegar of Modena

Ingredients: 400 g Arborio rice, two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, one onion, two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 300 g Of Treviso radicchio, 1 litre meat stock.

Brown half the onion in a pan with the olive oil, then add the rice and sear slightly. Next add the stock a little at a time, mixing every now and again. In a separate pan, brown the other half of the onion with the finely chopped Treviso radicchio, then add this to the rice halfway through the latter’s cooking time. When the rice is cooked, add the Balsamic vinegar and stir with olive oil. Serve immediately while piping hot.

Accompanying wine: Chianti Classico 2000

Chicken breast with saffron

Ingredients: 0,10 g of saffron, 500 g chicken breast, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, milk, flour.

Leave saffron in infusion in half cup of milk (a couple of hours). Cut chicken in slices and flour it. Fry the chicken in oil and add the milk with saffron. Serve hot with mashed potatoes or radicchio trevigiano salad.

Accompanying wine: Rosso di Montalcino 2002

Pumpkin Flowers with cherry tomatoes

Ingredients: 4 pumpkin flowers, 100 g ricotta cheese, 1 teaspoon chopped parsley, 1 egg, 15 cherry tomatoes, 20 g butter, 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

Mix the ricotta together with the eggs, parsley, salt and pepper. Delicately wash the pumpkin flowers, remove the pistil, then stuff with the ricotta mixture. Melt the butter in a pan, add the cherry tomatoes and cook for 5/8 minutes. Add the stuffed pumpkin flowers. Once cooked (after about 5 minutes), add the extra virgin olive oil.

Accompanying wine: Chianti Classico 2003

The dessert: Cantucci with Vin Santo

Ingredients: 300 g flour, 300 g sugar, 3 spoonfuls of olive oil, 3 big eggs, 200 g toasted almonds

Mix all the ingredients well until you get a fluid batter. Butter and flour a baking tin and put the batter spreading it with a spoon which has been previously been dipped in oil. Cook in oven at 180°C for about 40 minutes. When the batter is cooked take it out of the oven, let it cool down for a few minutes, then cut it into small pieces which are to be put in the hot oven again for a short time.

Accompanying wine: Vin Santo (Tuscan sweet wine)