Note: recipes are for 4 to 5 people • TBSP=tablespoon • tsp=teaspoon • oil=EVOO unless otherwise indicated

Thank you to Fervere bread company and Castello Monterinaldi winery for partnering with us to make each dinner extra special.

Goat cheese and asparagus bruschetta

4-5 large slices of toasted whole-grain bread

350 g asparagus

200 g soft goat cheese

few sprigs of parsley

lemony thyme, lemon verbena, marjoram, mint or other fresh herbs of your choice

freshly milled black pepper

zest of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove or a piece of fresh garlic (if available)

1/2 tsp caraway seeds

1 large handful rucola

extra-virgin olive oil

salt

Work the goat cheese with a fork into a cream with black pepper and ½ -1 Tbsp of oil; add finely minced herbs of your choice and grated lemon zest. Trim asparagus and slice them in thin long pieces. Heat a skillet with 2 TBSP of oil and sauté asparagus over medium-high heat, for a couple of minutes, with crushed caraway seeds; season with salt and pepper and add sliced garlic (fresh, if available). Cook for one minute longer, or just until the spears are deep green. Remove from heat and assembly the bruschetta. Spread goat cheese generously on toasted bread, top with a bit of finely chopped rucola and asparagus spears. Finish with a swirl of your best extra-virgin olive oil and serve at once.

Stuffed figs in Porto wine

3 cups Porto wine

1 cup fresh orange juice

3/4 cup light honey

1 cinnamon stick

zest of 1 large orange

500 g dried figs

walnuts

Remove the hard stalk from the figs, cut a slit in each of them, loose them open and insert one or two walnut kernels into each fig; close up the edges after stuffing and layer the figs into a saucepan fitting them tightly in one layer. Mix wine, juice and honey and pour over figs; add zest and cinnamon, bring to a boil and simmer very gently for about 45 minutes, letting the cooking syrup concentrate. You can then store the figs in a glass jar with some of their delicious syrup and eat them as they are or use in dessert.

Crostoni (roasted bread) with grilled radicchio and mozzarella

Ingredients:

rustic whole-meal bread

1-2 radicchio

oil

salt and pepper

balsamic vinegar

1 large, fresh mozzarella

Directions:

Cut radicchio lengthwise in 4 pieces (or more if large) and baste it with oil; grill it for a few minutes and season with salt and pepper and few drops of balsamic vinegar. Slice mozzarella, squeeze it and drain it in a colander (if using scamorza you can avoid this step). Slice bread and roast it into the oven or onto the grill; cover with the grilled radicchio and top with mozzarella. Bake bread slices for a few minutes to melt mozzarella, sprinkle with freshly milled black pepper and serve at once.

Note: be careful not to burn the oil! you can also grill radicchio and baste it with oil afterwards. Smoked scamorza is a delicious option.

Pappardelle Pasta

Ingredients:

200 g all-purpose flour (flour 0)

100 g semolina flour

3 eggs

1 pinch salt

Directions:

Sift flours on your working surface into a mound and make a well in the center. Crack the eggs into the center, add a pinch of salt, and beat them lightly with a fork; gently draw in the flour without allowing eggs to escape. Once eggs are rather mixed with flour into a paste and no more running out, draw it all together with a pastry scraper and start to knead the dough, until it gets soft and elastic, and doesn’t stick to your fingers anymore. Work with clean hands (brush off any dry bits of flour) and eventually dust them with more flour to avoid sticking; use the heel of your hand to knead. After about ten minutes, once you have a smooth and no-sticky ball of dough, wrap it in cling film or in a cloth and let it rest at room temperature for 20-30 minutes. Then you can roll the dough with a rolling pin or with the pasta machine. Divide the ball in 3-4 pieces; keep the pieces you are not working on covered. If you are using a rolling pin, roll the dough on a floured board at 2 mm thickness working from the center out, until you have an even surface. If using the machine, you need to lightly flatten each piece of dough before passing it through the machine cylinders, at first through the thickest setting, for 2-3 times, folding the dough over itself; then keep moving on to next settings, rolling the dough through each of them until the third or second thinnest setting, in order to have thin sheets.

Then either cut them out with the pasta machine or you can do it by hands. Fold each sheet several times over itself (dusting each fold with semolina so it doesn’t stick) and cut it with a sharp knife into strips about 1 cm wide (about 0,5 cm wide would be instead tagliatelle). Unroll each strip into pappardelle. Layer them on a tray sprinkled with more semolina (or rice flour) to avoid sticking. 

Cook pasta in boiling salted water for about 4 minutes (depending on the thickness); drain and dress with the meat sauce.

Pear and pecorino ravioli with sage and butter sauce

For the fresh pasta:

200 g all-purpose flour (00)

100 g semolina flour

3 eggs

a pinch of salt

For the filling:

1 large pear

250 g pecorino (sheep cheese)

1 onion

1 bay leaf

1 Tbsp oil

salta and black pepper

150 g butter

1 handful fresh sage leaves

lightly roasted walnuts

Directions:

Mince onion and dice pears very small. Lightly sauté onions in a pan with oil, bay leaf and a pinch of salt; when softened, add pears and let them cook for few minutes until golden; remove bay leaf, season with salt and pepper and let them cool completely before mixing with diced pecorino (same size as diced pears). Adjust seasonings.

Sift flours on your working surface into a mound and make a well in the center. Crack the eggs into the center, add a pinch of salt, and beat them lightly with a fork; gently draw in the flour without allowing eggs to escape. Once eggs are rather mixed with flour into a paste and no more running out, draw it all together with a pastry scraper and start to knead the dough, until it gets soft and elastic and doesn’t stick to your fingers anymore. Work with clean hands (brush off any dry bits of flour) and eventually dust them with more flour to avoid sticking; use the heel of your hand to knead. After about ten minutes, once you have a smooth and no-sticky ball of dough, wrap it in cling film or in a cloth and let it rest at room temperature for 20-30 minutes. Then you can roll the dough with a rolling pin or with the pasta machine.

Divide the ball in 3-4 pieces; keep the pieces you are not working on covered. If you are using a rolling pin, roll the dough on a floured board at 2 mm thickness working from the center out, until you have an even surface. If using the machine, you need to lightly flatten each piece of dough before passing it through the machine cylinders, at first through the thickest setting, for 2-3 times, folding the dough over itself; then keep moving on to next settings, rolling the dough through each of them until the third or second thinnest setting, in order to have thin sheets. It’s possible to make long stripes, about 4 inches (10 cm) large, then lay them on floured board and place small mounds of filling evenly spaced apart (about 1 inch - 2,5 cm) all along the stripe; then cover with another pasta stripe and press gently with your fingers all around the filling, to let air out and seal the pasta (if too much air is trapped in, ravioli may burst open while cooking). It helps to work from one side to the other. Sealing must be done quickly, otherwise the pasta dries and it’s hard to close ravioli (eventually you can brush the sides of the stripe with a little water of egg whites). Cut ravioli out with a fluted pastry wheel cutter, leaving about 1-2 cm of dough around the filling. Alternatively, you can make larger stripes, place the filling on the longer side closer to you and fold the dough in half lengthwise over the filling. Then proceed as above to shape and trim ravioli (trim only the open side, not the folded one).

Or you can use a round cookie cutter (8-9 cm) to cut pasta circles, then spoon a heaping teaspoon of the filling onto the bottom part of each circle of dough (slightly off the center) and fold each circle over in half; then pinch the edges together with a fork to seal ravioli. Arrange ravioli on a tray as you do them, sprinkled with some semolina, without overlapping them, until you have used all of your dough.

Melt the butter to a golden color into a pan with the sage leaves, until they get crisp. Cook ravioli in a large pot of salted boiling water, for about 4-5 minutes. Remove them gently with a slotted spoon and immediately add them to the pan to coat them well with the scented butter. Serve with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts on top.

Gorgonzola and radicchio ravioli with walnuts

Ingredients:

200 g all-purpose white flour (00)

100 g semolina

3 eggs

a pinch of salt

270 g radicchio

200 g gorgonzola dolce

2 TBSP oil

2 slices of stale bread

salt and black pepper

50 g butter

80 g lightly roasted walnuts

Prepare the filling: sauté shredded radicchio in a pan with the oil and a good pinch of salt, for about ten minutes, until soft and dry. Season with pepper and add crumbled bread to absorb any moisture; let cool it off, then mix it thoroughly with gorgonzola into a homogeneous mixture. Sift flours on your working surface into a mound and make a well in the center. Crack the eggs into the center, add a pinch of salt, and beat them lightly with a fork; gently draw in the flour without allowing eggs to escape. Once eggs are rather mixed with flour into a paste and no more running out, draw it all together with a pastry scraper and start to knead the dough, until it gets soft and elastic, and doesn’t stick to your fingers anymore. Work with clean hands (brush off any dry bits of flour) and eventually dust them with more flour to avoid sticking; use the heel of your hand to knead. After about ten minutes, once you have a smooth and no-sticky ball of dough, wrap it in cling film or in a cloth and let it rest at room temperature for 20-30 minutes. Then you can roll the dough with a rolling pin or with the pasta machine. Divide the ball in 3-4 pieces; keep covered the pieces you are not working on. If you are using a rolling pin, roll the dough on a floured board at 2 mm thickness working from the center out, until you have an even surface. If using the machine, you need to lightly flatten each piece of dough before passing it through the machine cylinders, at first through the thickest setting, for 2-3 times, folding the dough over itself; then keep moving on to next settings, rolling the dough through each of them until the third or second thinnest setting, in order to have thin sheets. It’s possible to make long stripes, about 4 inches (10 cm) large, then lay them on floured board and place small mounds of filling evenly spaced apart (about 1 inch - 2,5 cm) all along the stripe; then cover with another pasta stripe and press gently with your fingers all around the filling, to let air out and seal the pasta (if too much air is trapped in, ravioli may burst open while cooking). It helps to work from one side to the other. 

Sealing must be done quickly, otherwise the pasta dries and it’s hard to close ravioli (eventually you can brush the sides of the stripe with a little water of egg whites). Cut ravioli out with a fluted pastry wheel cutter, leaving about 1-2 cm of dough around the filling. Alternatively, you can make larger stripes, place the filling on the longer side closer to you and fold the dough in half lengthwise over the filling. Then proceed as above to shape and trim ravioli (trim only the open side, not the folded one).

Or you can use a round cookie cutter (8-9 cm) to cut pasta circles, then spoon a heaping teaspoon of the filling onto the bottom part of each circle of dough (slightly off the center) and fold each circle over in half; then pinch the edges together with a fork to seal ravioli. 

Arrange ravioli on a tray as you do them, sprinkled with some semolina, without overlapping them, until you have used all of your dough.

Melt the butter in pan, add chopped walnuts. Cook your ravioli in salted boiling water for about 4-5 minutes. Remove them gently with a slotted spoon and immediately add them to the pan with butter. Mix gently to coat them with the walnut sauce and serve immediately.

Ragù (meat sauce)

Ingredients:

1 onion

1 carrot

2-3 celery stalks

700 g ground chuck beef

300 g ground pork

fresh thyme

1-2 glasses red wine

1.5 liter tomato sauce

oil

butter

salt and pepper

Directions:

Cover with oil the bottom of a heavy saucepan, add a knob of butter and sauté very finely minced vegetables for about 5-10 minutes, starting with the onions and a good pinch of salt; when they soften a bit, add carrots and celery stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. Add the leaves of a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme as well. When the veggies are golden, add the meat and stir to let it cook evenly and to mix it with the vegetables (if cooking a large amount, I prefer to remove veggies from the pan, wipe clean it, add some oil and sauté meat well until it looses the raw edge, before adding veggies back to the pan and proceed cooking as follows). Cook for about 10 minutes until moisture evaporates; season with salt and pepper and pour the wine. Let the alcohol evaporates and the wine be absorbed; add then tomato sauce and stir to mix it thoroughly with the meat. 

Let it simmer gently and partially covered for at least one and half hour (more if possible, definitely more if cooking a larger quantity), stirring frequently to avoid sticking (you can add a ladle of hot water or broth if necessary and adjust salt and pepper). 

It’s ready when the fat rises to the surface. 

Note: it’s certainly better to cook a larger amount, it will cook better; you can always invite friends or at the worst freeze it! 

Roasted Pork Florentine Style

Ingredients:

1 piece of boneless pork loin with some fat (about 800 g)

2 tsp fennel seeds

2 Tbsp chopped rosemary

2-3 garlic cloves

Zest of 1 lemon

freshly ground pepper

salt

white wine

oil

Chop rosemary, garlic and lemon zest very finely; add lightly crushed fennel, 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of pepper. Poke some holes in the roast and insert the herb mixture in; rub the meat with some extra salt and pepper. Put a few tablespoons of oil in a cast iron skillet with one crushed garlic clove and eventually a sprig of fresh rosemary; when oil is hot, place the pork loin into the skillet and sear it on all sides, turning it with two wooden spoons to avoid pricking it. When the loin is thoroughly golden, pour the wine over it and let the alcohol evaporate. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and cook on medium-low for about 40 minutes, checking and turning it occasionally.

Let the roast sit for 10 minutes before carving it and then serve it with its cooking juices.

Pork filet cooked in Chianti wine with caramelized onions

Ingredients:

800 g pork fillet

1-2 glasses of Chianti wine

2 rosemary sprigs

oil

salt and pepper

2 large sweet pinkish onions

2 Tbsp dark brown sugar

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

fresh thyme

1 butter knob

1 Tbsp flour

In a pan, sauté very thinly sliced onions in 1-2 Tbsp of oil with a pinch of salt, until soft and translucent, then season with pepper (depending on the onions variety, it might take 30-40 minutes to soften them, 20 minutes if fresh). When onions are really melting, add sugar and let them caramelize a bit, turning them often; then sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and thyme. Let onions cook for a few minutes more.

Tie the tenderloin with a twine, season with salt and pepper and cut it into 1 inch (2,5 cm) thick rounds; sear them in a hot pan with oil, a touch of butter and rosemary, until golden on both sides.

Pour the wine in and let the alcohol evaporate and bubble away. Cook the meat for about 10 minutes or so according to its thickness, then remove it from the pan and cut away the twine.

Thicken the wine sauce with a little butter and flour (roll a small piece of butter into flour and add it into the wine stirring it until sauce thickens). Serve meat rounds topped with the onions and drizzled with the sauce.

Chocolate roll (sweet salami)

Ingredients:

150 g dry simple cookies (Petit Beurre)

125 g sugar

3 eggs

60 g bitter cocoa powder

60 g butter

1 Tbsp rum or other liquor of your choice (optional)

In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar until foamy; add softened butter and beat until thoroughly mixed. Add sifted cocoa powder and roughly crumbled cookies: mix well with a spoon pouring a touch of liquor. When the mixture holds together put it on a piece of greaseproof paper and with your hands roll it inside the paper in a salami shape. Pack tightly into paper and refrigerate for a few hours. Slice as you would a salami and serve.

Note: Note: You can also add chopped dried figs or other dried fruits or nuts to the mixture while you add the cookies.

Biscotti di Prato (generally called Cantucci)    

The traditional Tuscan “biscotti”, to be dipped in delicious “Vin Santo” (so called “Holy Wine”)

Ingredients:

500 g white flour

390 g sugar

250-300 g roasted almonds

3 eggs and 2 yolks +1 egg to brush cookies

50 g butter

cream of tartar or baking powder

1 p salt

Lightly roast almonds in the oven and let them cool. Beat eggs with sugar until foamy then add softened butter, flour, cream of tartar and a pinch of salt. Mix well and add almonds to the sticky dough (dust your hands with flour to ease the process).

Make long and flat loafs about 1,5 inch (4 cm) wide and 0,40 inch (1 cm) thick and spread them on a buttered and floured baking tray (or lined with greaseproof paper), leaving some space in between each other. Brush with a beaten egg and bake at 375F for about 30 minutes. Cut them slantwise into 0,60 inch (1,5 cm) slices and put them back in the oven for 5 more minutes.  They store well at room temperature in a biscuit tin.

250 g white flour, 250 g sugar, 125 g almonds, 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 pinch of saffron, 1 pinch of salt; 1 extra egg for brushing.

Lightly roast almonds in the oven and cut them in half. Put flour and sugar on a board. Put baking powder, salt and saffron in; add eggs and yolk in the center. Work the mixture with your hands, add almonds and keep mixing, dusting your hands with flour to avoid sticking. Make long and flat shape about 3 fingers wide and 1 finger thick. Put them in a baking tray leaving some space in between each other. Brush a beaten egg on and bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. Cut them slantwise and put them back in the warm oven.

Serve with Vin Santo.