White Peach and Prosecco Risotto

It may be September but the white peaches are still succulent and delicious. This risotto is perfect when you want to pamper your guests with a novel delicately flavoured and refined dish.

White Peach and Prosecco Risotto

 - serves 4

Ingredients:

300 g Carnaroli rice

1 small onion – peeled and finely chopped

2 white peaches – peeled and diced

400 ml Prosecco

7 – 8 basil leaves

75 ml EVO oil

Salt

15 g butter

25 g grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

1.2 litres vegetable broth made with onion, celery, carrot and parsley

  

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion. Sauté until the onion softens but doesn’t brown. Turn up the heat. Add the rice and, stirring constantly, toast it until it becomes translucent.

Add 300 ml of Prosecco and continue stirring until the wine evaporates. Turn the heat to medium-low again and cook the rice for 15 minutes adding a ladle of hot, strained broth at a time and stirring after each addition until the liquid is entirely absorbed. Add the peaches and 100 ml of Prosecco and continue cooking the rice another 5 minutes repeating the addition of broth and stirring process. Salt to taste. At this stage the risotto should be al dente and creamy, not dry.

Remove from heat, add the butter, cheese and shredded basil and stir vigorously. Cover the saucepan and let rest for a minute or two. Serve immediately.

Baked Black Beans and Coffee

The taste of coffee is not overwhelming. Rather, it blends beautifully with the other ingredients conveying just a hint of smoky flavour. Served slightly warm this dish will demonstrate that it’s possible to enjoy tasty “comfort food” in the heart of summer.

Baked Black Beans and Coffee
-          4 – 6 servings

Ingredients:
400 g black beans
40 ml EVO oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Celery – 10 cm of stalk plus leaves, chopped
3 onions, peeled and halved
½ onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 – 1 ½ tbsp. brown sugar
300 ml light coffee
Salt and pepper

Soak beans 8 to 10 hours. Drain off water, rinse and put beans in a pot with plenty of fresh water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and cook gently for 20 – 25 minutes. Drain beans saving the cooking water.

Preheat oven to 160°C. Using an earthenware pot, heat oil over moderate heat. Add celery, garlic and chopped onion. Cook until onion becomes translucent. Add tomatoes and cook for 2 – 3 minutes more. Mix in brown sugar and vinegar. Add beans, coffee and enough cooking water to just cover. Add salt and pepper to taste. Combine gently with a wooden spoon.  Place the onion halves into the mixture with the cut side up. Cover pot and put in oven. Cook for 1 ½  hours or until beans and onions are tender. Serve with crusty bread.

My Signature Pasta with Potatoes

Versione Italiana


Pasta with Potatoes is a simple dish of humble origins invented in Naples. The original recipe dates back to the XVII century and owing to its tastiness has become a very much appreciated classic of Neapolitan cuisine. After the New World was discovered many plants were imported to Europe and among these was the potato. The aristocracy and high society were averse to this new aliment; instead the poor social classes, in need of filling food, would cook it with tomatoes and pasta creating a delicious and hearty dish.

Pasta mista has been used from the very beginning – a tradition that has been handed down from one generation to another – but seeing the creaminess of the soup, tubetti or ditalini pasta are excellent choices also.
(Pasta mista is a mixture of leftover pastas of different types and shapes that by themselves are not sufficient for cooking a whole pot of soup.)

In other Regions of Italy it’s customary to boil the pasta separately adding it already cooked to the prepared condiment resulting in a watery soup. On the contrary, in Campania the pasta is cooked directly in the broth. The frequent stirring that mashes the potatoes and the starch released from the pasta tends to thicken the cooking liquid creating a thick velvety dish. To put it briefly, in Naples Pasta with Potatoes is not a “brothy” soup but an almost pasta asciutta, i.e. a “dry” pasta dish.

 

My Signature Pasta with Potatoes

Ingredients:
3 medium yellow potatoes (or 2 large)
1 onion
4 – 5 cherry tomatoes
Celery – about 15 cm of stalk plus leaves
EVO oil
Salt and pepper
200 g tubetti or ditalini pasta
100 g Provola cheese (not Provolone)
30 – 35 g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
Extra grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese for plating
A handful of basil leaves, shredded

Peel the onion. Accurately clean the celery under running water, remove the fibrous strings and roughly chop it with the onion. Wash the tomatoes and cut in halves. Wash and peel the potatoes and cut into small cubes. In a saucepan, heat 30 ml of oil, add the celery, onion and tomatoes and stir-fry a few minutes over medium heat. Add the potatoes and continue to stir-fry a few more minutes before adding 1 liter of water. Bring to a boil, cover the saucepan, lower the heat and let simmer until the potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Bring broth to a boil, add the pasta and cook over medium heat stirring frequently. If necessary, add extra water but in small quantities at a time. When the pasta is “al dente”, turn off the heat, add the diced Provola, basil, Parmigiano Reggiano and a drizzle of EVO oil. Mix well, cover and let rest a few minutes before serving. Once plated, sprinkle with extra Parmigiano Reggiano.