A fast and very easy appetiser – but its simplicity gives it a rather vintage appeal.
5 prawns per person
A few spoonfuls of Organic Pesto alla genovese (traditional recipe)
Boil the whole king prawns for a few minutes.
Shell and remove the heads (give the rest to the cat or use them to make fish stock for risotto).
Arrange on a plate and dress with a few spoonfuls of pesto.
If you can, use really fresh broccoli (still crunchy), separate the flowers and eat them raw, dressed with San Lorenzo anchovy fillets in olive oil, sautéed in a little oil, garlic and chilli pepper.
The perfect accompaniment to mozzarella (the burrata variety if possible) or grilled meat.
If you’re not keen on raw broccoli, blanch them for 4-5 minutes in plenty of boiling salted water, and dress them as above. You can also use them as a condiment for pasta.
Inspired by an old edition of Sale e Pepe, an Italian food magazine, this recipe can be made with either leeks or spring onions.
2 leeks, trimmed and cut into thirds
6 slices of Speck
2 spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar of Modena
1 spoonful of extra-virgin olive oil
Roll a slice of Speck around each piece of leek. Place the rolls in a non-stick pan with a spoonful of oil, and allow to brown for a few minutes. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and allow the sauce to reduce slightly. Cover and leave to cook over a low flame for 10 minutes. Remove the lid, add a glass of water and reduce again.
Serve while still warm, on a bed of salad dressed with the balsamic vinegar glaze left in the pan.
These little glasses are really easy to prepare and look great! Take two courgettes and cut them into long strips. Blanch them in salted water for 3 minutes, drain and leave to cool. Take a few fresh cherry tomatoes, cut into 4 and dress with a little olive oil and a few drops of balsamic vinegar.
In a glass, create a bed of tomatoes covered with the courgette strips and a few strips of sun-dried tomatoes.
This veggy calzone is very simple, as the only complicated part is the pizza dough, which, honestly, can be bought anywhere! (but if you still want to do it, here’s he recipe)
Divide 500g of pizza dough in 2. Lay flat one part in an oven pan.
Clean and cut 1 kilos of fresh, uncooked turnips tops, leaving a 2 centimetre border. Add over it some Anchovy Fillets in Olive Oil, and some Caciocavallo podolico or Pecorino Toscano delle “Crete Senesi” roughly flaked. close with the other part of dough, flattened. Close very tight, almost hermetically sealed and brush all the surface with olive oil.
Cook in a very hot (220° C) preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden.
It’s the last days of the “puntarelle” season. Puntarelle are a variety of chicory and you eat raw the steams, while you can cook the leaves.
The steams are slightly bitter, but if you finely slice them, they can be a real treat!
For this salad, adding a sliced orange, soy sauce and extra virgin olive oil, mild the bitter steams.
And in top of all, our great preserved octopus! A treat, really!
The dictionary translates the Italian word “sformatino” in pie… But this is no pie… So it’s a thing-ish near to a soufflè consistence… But it’s no soufflè…
Anyway, it’s easy peasy and very versatile! So, do it! Now! ;)
All you have to do is to take 250 g of fresh ricotta, 3 tablespoons of grated Parmigiano Reggiano, 2 eggs and blend everything in a mixer. Then you take a nice jar (use only half!) of Roasted peppers or Grilled artichokes or Mushrooms or Sun-dried tomatoes, you open it, you take a deep breath over the jar, you go to heaven and when you are back, you drain them and you add them to your mixed cheeses. Mix well with a spoon and spoon it into an oven proof dish.
Cook in a preheated oven, at 180° C for 25 minutes, or until golden and set.
Inspired by the evergreen Donna Hay, this super simple baked onions are a wonderful natural, light and organic (if you watch your ingredients) side dish!
The only way to make it organic is to start with the right products: organic onions, Organic Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, Organic 100% Italian Extra-virgin Olive Oil and Melata (Italian Forest Honey).
As simple as that: halve the onions, open them up with your hands and lay them on a baking tray, cut side up. drizzle with Organic Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and Organic 100% Italian Extra-virgin Olive Oil, then with a thread of Melata (Italian Forest Honey). Cover the tray and bake in hot oven for 40 minutes. Uncover and keep baking for 20 more minutes.
Enjoy!
A tomato sauce for every occasion, from pasta to fish, from boiled rice to potatoes!
It really is very simple and fulfilling, and to make you’ll only need San Lorenzo products!
2 tablespoons Extra virgin Olive oil
1 jar of Organic peeled tomatoes, blended
1 tablespoon Selected miniature Capers, rinsed
3 tablespoons Organic de-stoned black Ligurian olives
Heat the oil, add the blended tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes. Add the rinsed capers and olives, a bit of basil or parsley if you like, and use it for pasta, to cook fish or potatoes.
I was born in Lombardy, a northern Italian region, where one of the specialities is polenta. My father is a polenta specialist: his polenta is really to die for!
So, when he’ll read that I used a quick cooking polenta, that I haven’t used the right flour (from the right mill), that I haven’t cooked it for one hour stirring constantly, well, he’ll probably take me out of his will (if he has one…) and tell the world he doesn’t have a daughter any more…
Anyway, the kind of polenta that my father cooks is not right for this king of stuff, as you need a polenta that makes a nice and compact block once cooled…
250 g quick cooking polenta
50 g Organic de-stoned Black Ligurian Olives
Delicate Garlic Mayonnaise (Organic) to serve
Cook the polenta as it is stated on package. As soon as it is cooked, add the olives. Then, without further ado, lay it in a greaseproof paper covered cake mould, and push it down to 2 cm thickness. Even the surface with another sheet of greaseproof paper and let it cool completely.
Heat the oven at 180° C. Cut the cooled polenta in finger sticks and let it golden in the oven.
Serve them with Garlic Mayonnaise.
