The peas and ham soup is a real comfort food. It’s not so traditional here in Italy: we learnt this recipe from our Anglosaxon friends. 
It’s really easy and quite quick to make: in only 50 minutes you will get a nutritious soup. If you have a slow cooker you can put everything inside it in the morning and comfortably eat the soup for dinner. 
Thanks to the dehydratation process we can have peas on every season of the year: but you can also make this soup changing peas with fava beans, if you prefer. 

Serves 4

• 300 g dehydrated and peeled peas
• 150 g smoked ham (one slice)
• 1 carrot
• 1 small onion
• 1 celery stalk
• 700 g water
• 150 g ricotta or other creamy cheese 
• e.v.olive oil, salt, black pepper to taste

Rinse the dehydrated peas.  

Place the ham in a non sticking pot and let it brown on both side.

 Add the peas and all the vegetables (clean them before).
Cover with water (enough to submerge everything).
Bring to a boil and boil for 30 minutes.
Add about a teaspoon of salt (more or less is up to your taste).
Go on cooking for other 10 minutes.

Remove the ham from the pan: place onto a board and cube it. Set aside. 

 Use a hand-blender to puree all the vegetables and the peas. 

Place the soup into the plates. Add the fourth part of the ham into each dish and a ricotta quenelle. Season with oil and pepper. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Here’s a traditional recipe of our country. All of Italian regions have a version like this. 
It is a very basic dish, made out by old farmers a long time ago, when in the countryside there really were not many things to eat. 
Eggs were easy to have, because the majority of our ancestors had a hen-house in his backyard; in the ancient rural society, onions and tomatoes were fruits of the land and bread were made at home, from those skillful, strong women, who were able to get the maximum result with the minimum ingredients.
So, what do you think about that: it was better at that time or nowadays? Who knows? Today we use to waste so much food, on the contrary our great grandfathers suffered so many privations, especially during war times. 
Anyway, we remember of this dish since we were children and we are glad to introduce you this simple, appetizing eggs and tomatoes.

Serves 2: 

• 2 eggs 
• 1 onion medium size
• 400 g canned peeled tomatoes 
• tomillo
• extravirgin olive oil, salt, pepper to taste 

Difficulty: easy – Time: 30 minutes

Finely chop the onion and let it brown in a pan in which you placed 4 tablespoons of oil. When it will be well done, add tomatoes (sifted or simply smashed with a fork), some sprig of thyme, salt and black pepper. Cook until the sauce will reduce a bit: twenty minutes will be fair enough.

After that time, add the two eggs, placing them delicately on the top. Put a lid on the pan and let the egg white get thicken (you can also “help” with the fork, gently whisking a bit). Cook the yolk to your taste, more or less hard: as you can see in the picture above, our egg were well done, but if you like creamy, more liquid, turn off the stove just as the eggs look ok. Et voilà, the dish is ready. God, how yummy it is!

• 1 carrot (about 50 g)
• 1 slice of red capsicum (60 g)
• 50 g sweet corn, canned
• 50 g frozen peas
• 1 small onion or spring onions (60 g)
• 500 g black kale
• 600 g cauliflower
• 200 g boiled potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 50 g parmigiano cheese, grated
• 2 teaspoons powdered curry, cumin or other spices
• sea salt, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil

Place a big pot full of water on the stove and bring the water to a boil. 
Peel the potatoes. Set aside
Cube the carrot (5 mm per side) and boil for 3 minutes. Take them off with a skimmer and set aside.
Do the same with the red capsicum. Set aside.
Peel and chop the onion, make it brown in a pan with a couple of tablespoon of oil or in microwave (see here). Set aside.
In the same pan, add two more tablespoons of oil and stir-fry frozen peas for about 3 or 4 minutes.
Drain the canned sweet corn kernels and wash. Set aside.
Clean and wash the cauliflower: cook the florets for five minutes or until the stems are tender. Set aside to cool down.

Clean and wash the black kale leaves. Boil for five minutes.
Take the leaves off of the boiling water with a skimmer and pour them into cold water, to stop the cooking. 

Place the kale leaves onto a clean kitchen towel and dry them well.
Take the scissors or a sharp knife and cut away the hard part of the kale leaves.

Take a loaf mold and completely cover it with the black kale leaves. Provide that the leaves overtake the mold. If it is necessary, use two or more leaves, crossing them: they have to be very close one to another, leave no room.

Mash the potatoes and the cauliflower using a vegetable mill. Place the purée into a large bowl, add the spices, the sea salt (to your taste), the powdered black pepper (a pinch), the grated cheese and combine well. Finally add all the vegetables you set aside before. Gently combine. 

Pour the mixture into the loaf mold. Fold the exceeding leaves on the top of the cauliflower and vegetable mix. Cover all of the mixture: if needed, add some kale leaves lengthwise.

Cover the mold with an aluminium sheet. Pour a couple of cup of water into a baking tray and bake the loaf at bain-marie for one hour to 180°C.

After that time, take the loaf out of the oven and wait half an hour before flipping it. Slice and serve lukewarm. Enjoy!

We ate oranges all winter long. We had them as juice, with salads, we used the peel to give an extra flavour to our dishes and desserts. As they are still in season, we want to propose you a delicious dessert.
This is a real fusion recipe: we got inspired both from the sicilian Cassata (a typical dessert of Sicily made of ricotta, chocolate, pistachios and marzipan) and the English orange curd. Two different creams, two different consistencies, the same authentic pleasure.
Do you need anything else? Well, we can tell you that in this dessert there is also the italian meringue.

This is an easy dish to make: you’ll need to cook only a bit. The stuffed oranges are a delicious dessert. The filling is made of two layers: the first one is a cream made with ricotta, chocolate and pistachios, orange peel and a bit of sugar. The upper layer is a custard made with orange juice, sugar and egg yolks. Really easy.
You can make them in advance, wrap in cling film and keep them in the fridge. You can guarnish them with the italian meringue or not: it’s up to you. They are delicious anyway. Do you want to know our recipe? Read more…

Serves 4 

• 2 big oranges 
• 1 teaspoon of grated orange peel 
• 250 g orange juice 
• 2 egg yolks
• 60 g caster sugar 
• 20 g corn starch
• 250 g ricotta cheese
• 40 g icing sugar 
• 20 g dark chocolate 
• 20 g pistachios 
• a pinch of cinnamon powder

Difficulty: medium – Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Choose two oranges with a regular base, so that they can stand up alone. Cut them through the middle and gently squeeze. Pay attention to save the external peel. You need 250 g juice: two big oranges may give you the right amount, it depends on how much juicy are they. Gently scoop out the meat, to get 4 shells. Take care not to make holes while cleaning the rinds.

 Make the orange curd with the juice. Place in a sauce pan two egg yolks, beat them slightly with 60 grams of caster sugar until frothy. Add orange juice a bit at a time to combine. Dilute the corn starch in a couple of tablespoon of orange juice and add it to the liquid base. Place the sauce pan on the heat on low temperature and go on stirring until sticky. Pour into a plate, cover with cling film and set a side to cool down.

Coarsely chop chocolate and pistachious.

When the orange curd is cold, make the second layer cream.
Sift the ricotta cheese in a large bowl, then combine with icing sugar and cinnamon powder. Add chopped chocolate and pistachios, a teaspoon of grated orange peel, combine well.

Fill 3/4 each orange cup with the ricotta cream. Flatten. Fill up the rinds with the orange curd. Flatten the surface, cover with cling film and set in the fridge to cool down for one hour at least.

Your stuffed orange are ready now: you can garnish with some chopped pistachios and chocolate, some orange zest and a pinch of cinnamon powder before serving. But what about the egg whites? Well, if you want you can make a kind of “hat” for the filled oranges…

There are two possibilities. First: to make baked meringues. Second: to make an italian meringue to flame with the blowtorch as we did (see above picture). If you choose to make the italian meringue you can find the method here. For the other meringue you have to whip up the egg whites with 100 grams of caster sugar. When done, line a baking tray with parchment paper, then use a sac-a-poche to make some little pyramids, as large as your orange top. Bake for two hours to 90°C. And this is the result!

Pallotte cacio e uova

According to the tradition, the “pallotte” are big size balls, but today people use to make also smaller balls to serve as appetizer or finger food. 
Someone use to serve them without sauce, with a glass of fresh wine, as an “aperitivo”. 
The typical cheeses to make the “pallotte” is the Pecorino abruzzese and the Rigatino, that respectively are a sheep hard cheese and a cow semi-hard cheese, but we know that it is not so simple to find these cheeses anywhere. 
You can arrange the recipe by replacing the a.m. ingredients with other kind of cheeses: two of them have to be aged cheese (one more salted, the other less)  and the third one semi-hard cow cheese. 
The final consistency of the cheesy balls will be quite spongy. So, let’s make them!

Ingredients for 8 cheesy-balls 

• 100 g of Pecorino or other hard sheep cheese 
• 100 g of semi-hard cow cheese   
• 50 g of grated Parmigiano cheese
• 3 eggs 
• 125 g of bread, only the soft inner part of the loaf
• 2 tabsp of chopped parsley
• 400 g of peeled tomatoes 
• 1 small onion 
• 1 clove of garlic 
• 1 litre frying oil 
• extra virgin olive oil
• freshly ground black pepper and sea salt to taste  

Difficulty: medium – Time: 40 minutes

First of all, make the tomato sauce. Finely slice the onion. Place in a sauce pan or a skillet 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and let the onion get brown, slowly, on low heat. Meanwhile, puree the tomatoes (even in the food processor) and then pour them into the pan with the onions. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about twenty minutes on low heat. If  the sauce gets too thick, add some water: actually, you will need a quite liquid sauce to cook the pallotte. 

While the sauce goes on cooking, make the cheese balls. Finely grate the cheeses, and dice the bread. Take a large bowl and place into it: grated cheeses, bread, chopped parsley and chopped or squeezed clove of garlic. Do not add salt: cheese will give the right saltiness to the pallotte. 

Combine everything and place in the fridge to rest for 10/15 minutes. If the eggs you are using are big, it may be that the dough would result too soft. In that case, make a test: if you can roll a ball, it’s ok, otherwise add some bread. Viceversa, if the dough is too firm to be manipulated, add an egg or a bit of milk. After the rest, shape the balls with the hands: we did 8 mid-size balls, but you can make 4 big balls or 16 small ones. 

Warm up the oil for frying: quickly fry the pallotte (they will get brown very soon). Turn them on each side: this step is only to make the external crust, not to cook the cheesy balls. How to know if the oil is hot enough? Pour into it a small bread crust: if it bubbles, it’s time to fry, if not wait a bit. 

Drain the fried pallotte on some kitchen paper towels, then place them into the tomato sauce and cook for 15 minutes on low heat, turning them upside down once. Eat them as soon as they are out of the stove. And make sure to have some bread to make the “scarpetta”! (do you know what’s a “scarpetta is”? literally is a little shoe, but actually in Italy we say “to make the scarpetta” – fare la scarpetta – when we mop up the sauce left in the plate with a piece of bread. So, have a nice scarpetta friends!)

The cheese and pear tart is a nutritious and mouthwatering recipe.

The combination between pears and cheese is a gourmet must, worldwide. In this tart you can taste the sweet flavour of the pears with the spicy one of the pecorino cheese and that of the parmigiano cheese, smoother.

The result? A flaky and appetizing baked tart. The only problem with this tart is that you would never stop to have it!

The cheese and pear tart gives its best accompained with cold cuts, but we use to have it even alone, with a good glass of beer or wine. We suggest to have it lukewarm.
When you get any leftovers, put them in the lunchbox: the tart can be stored at room temperature for a couple of days or three.
For an easy and yummy appetizer or aperitivo, cut the tart in cubes and serve to your friends with a dry vermouth or other drink.

Serves 9 

• 130 g melted unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 150 g wholewheat flour
• 50 g all purpose flour
• 2 big pears
• 100 g grated pecorino cheese
• 50 g parmigiano cheese
• 1 tabsp. baking powder (16 g)
• 1 teasp. sea salt
• 1 tabsp. freshly ground black pepper
• a generous handful of rosemary

Difficoltà: very easy – Tempo: 1 hour

Chop the rosemary as fine as you can, till you get enough to fill a tablespoon.
Keep apart some leaves. 
Peel the pears and remove the core. Cut one pear in half and slice lenghtwise.
Cut the other into cubes (about 1 cm per side). 

In a large bowl beat the eggs with the grated cheeses. 
Add flours, baking, pepper, salt and chopped rosemary. Combine.
Add melted butter. Combine.
Finally, add cubed pears and combine.

Grease (with a piece of butter) and flour a tart tin (ours was 25 cm wide). 
Pour the batter into the tart tin. Place the pear slices onto the top of the tart.
Sprinkle the rosemary leaves you set apart before.

Bake into preheated fan oven to 180°C for about 25 minutes or till when you look that the surface is completely golden. To check if the tart is done, insert a toothpick into the middle of it: if it comes out clean or with just a few moist crumble attached, it is ok. Enjoy!

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Serves 4

• 8 artichokes
• 250 g pie crust (pate brisée)
• 2 tabsp. extra virgin olive oil 
• 200 g fresh ricotta cheese (or other fresh cheese)
• 100 g semi-hard cow cheese   
• 50 g grated Parmigiano 
• 20 g grated Pecorino cheese
• 50 g speck (or other cold cuts)
• 2 egg yolks
• a bit of milk
• the juice of half a lemon 
• handful of parsley 
• 1 clove of garlic
• sea salt, back pepper powder, extra vergin olive oil, to taste

 Difficulty: medium – Time: 1 hour

Take a large pot. Bring to a boil about two litres of water adding a tablespoon of sea salt, the parsley, the garlic and a drizzle of oil. 
Meanwhile, clean and rinse the artichokes, remove the external and tougher leaves, cutting off the sharp leaf tips. 
Boil for five minutes. Drain upside-down for a while (see image above).

Slightly beat the eggs. 
Chop the semi-hard cheese and the cold cuts.
Take a bowl: put inside the cheeses (ricotta, semi-hard cow cheese, grated cheeses), the beaten egg yolks, the cold cuts. Add a pinch of salt and a generous pinch of powdered black pepper. 

Gently open the artichokes leaves with your hands and fill the vegetables with the stuffing.
Unfold the pie crust and using a pasta cutter cut 8 rings to top the artichokes. 
Make some small cuts onto the pastry surface, then brush with the milk.
Place the stuffed artichokes into a capable baking tin: they need to stand up. 
Add half a glass of water into the tin. Bake in preheated oven to 180°C for half an hour. 
Enjoy!

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The milk and pomegranate pudding is very easy to make and requires only a few ingredients. It is also quick if we do not consider the time for the rest. 
Its peculiarity is the rose water essence: if you do not get it, substitute with another aroma like orange, vanilla, almonds… 
The rose water essence is a typical Middle Eastern flavour, but do not mind if you do not have any: the pudding will be delicious the same.

Serves 7 

• 450 g whole milk
• 300 g pomegranate juice
• 75 g corn starch
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon rose water essence 
• pistachios and arils to decorate

Pour a small quantity of milk into a small bowl, add 45 grams of corn starch and use a teaspoon to stir until melted. 
Pour the remaining milk into a sauce-pan, add 70 g of sugar, put onto the stove and let it warm up (not boil). 
When the milk is hot but not boiling, add the melted corn starch and a tablespoon of rose water essence. Whisk until the cream get sticky.
Pour the white sauce into the molds (2/3 of the height): we chose 7 aluminium muffin molds (volume: 100 g each approx.). Set aside to cool down for one hour.

Meanwhile you can make the pomegranate juice by yourself (see the related post). To get 300 g of juice we needed two big fruits. Alternatively you can buy the pomegranate juice to the store: it works the same. 

When the milk pudding is cool repeat the method for making the pomegranate pudding. Put 30 g of corn starch into a small quantity of pomegranate juice and mix to melt. Warm up the remaining juice with 30 g of sugar but no essence. When the liquid is warm but not boiling, add the melted corn starch. Whisk until it gets sticky.  

Pour the pomegranate on the white layer to fill the molds till the edge. Set aside to cool down for an hour. 
When you are ready to serve, help yourself with a knife to detach the pudding from the mold. Flip the pudding onto a serving plate, lightly push the base – to help the full detach. Guarnish with coarsely chopped pistachios and some arils (pomegranate seeds). 
You can fine the full recipe in the book “Pop Palestine” print in Italy by “Stampa Alternativa”. 
Enjoy! 

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The pomegranate juice is delicious and nutritious both for elder and children. 

If the fruits are ripe it is not necessary to add any sugar. 

If you want to drink a full vitaminic juice you can add some citrus juice (tangerines, oranges or lemons, for example).

To turn your pomegranate juice to a good aperitivo you can add some soda water or, for those who appreciate alcohol, some Prosecco or Champagne (or other sparkling wine). Remember to serve it chilled.

Ingredients:

• Pomegranates

If you do not have an expensive electric juicer, you need to deseed your pomegranate: sometimes this could be a hard operation. In fact, the seeds (whose name is arils) use to stain very much any surfaces, clothes and hands… You have two options. The first: cut the pomegranate in half, put one of the two parts on the palm of your hand, place the arils side down; take a large bowl and a large spoon; vigorously hit the pomegranate with the spoon: the arils will easily fall down. 
Second way: cut the pomegranate in four parts and patiently remove all the seeds one by one, separating them from the white piths. 

We bought on line this funny “pomegranate deseeder” (see image above and below): it consists of a bowl, a plastic grid and a flexible dome. When you hit the dome with the spoon, the arils directly fall into the bowl beneath and the juice does not get everywhere. Easy and low cost. 

The amount of the seeds depends on the size of the fruits: on Italian market we can buy big size pomegranates, coming worldwide. Italian pomegranates are usually smaller. You can store pomegranates out of the fridge for long time. There is always a pomegranate in our pantry!

Remove all of the white piths, then put the arils into the liquidizer or into the hand-blender glass.
Mix to crumble the seed for some minutes.

Strain the arils-mix onto a bowl. Press down with a spoon or a spatula to extract all the juice.
Et voilà, your pomegranate juice is ready.
Use a funnel to pour the juice into small bottles and store into the fridge or freeze it.
Enjoy!

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When it comes to fall-winter vegetables all of us use to think about something depressing, isn’t it? Yes, they are actually a bit sad but you can turn them charming! 
This roll is a kind of savory strudel, simple to make and quite light. It contents a bechamel base, seared vegetables, crunchy nuts and stringy cheese. You can have a piece of it just as it comes out from the oven or you can wait till it’s cold. 
You can choose all kind of vegetables you like the most: we got broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and pumpkin out of our fridge. Serve this vegetable roll as an appetizer or with an aperitivo or on a buffet dinner: it will be great. And if you will get any leftover, put it into your lunch box, et voilà. 

For this recipe we referred to the original strudel: maybe you do not know it, but the real strudel is not made with puff pastry. The wrapping is made only with flour and water. We added just a bit of oil, to make the dough much tender. 
You have to knead, wait for half an hour, then roll down the dough and stretch it with your hands till it goes wider and wider, like it was a phyllo-dough. It is not so difficult. However, you can use the store-bought puff pastry if you think it’s better for you. The winter vegetables roll will be delicious the same. 

Servings: 8/10

Filling: 

• 60 g squash 
• 100 g mushrooms 
• 60 g cauliflower 
• 60 g broccoli 
• 40 g walnut 
• 100 g smoked scamorza or other stringy cheese ) 
• 1 clove of garlic 
• 4 handfuls bread crumble 
• extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, parsley, thyme: to taste 

White sauce

• 500 g milk 
• 40 g butter 
• 40 g all purpose flour 
• ground nutmeg, half a teaspoon 

Pastry

You can choose to use store-bought puff pastry

• 250 g high gluten flour 
• 120 g water 
• 25 g e.v.o. oil 
• 2,5 g sea salt 
• 1 egg 
• 2 tabsp. milk

Difficulty: medium – Time: 1 hour + 30 minutes

First of all we have to make the dough. In a large bowl place the high gluten flour, the salt, the oil and knead. Add water a bit at a time: we needed 120 g of water, but the amount could vary because of the quality of the flour. Do not (never!) use low gluten flour because you could not get the right consistency of the dough. Knead till you get a smooth, non sticky ball. Wrap with cling film and let rest for at least 30 minutes. The more it rests, the better it is. 

Meanwhile clean the mushrooms and stir-fry in a skillet together with a bit of oil and the garlic. When they are done, sprinkle with chopped parsley and thyme leaves. Set aside.

Dice the squash, clean the broccoli and the cauliflower florets, then steam the vegetables or stir-fry for a few minutes. Pay attention: they must not overcook, they need to remain crunchy (in fact they will be baked later!). Set aside. 

And now it is time to make the bechamel (white sauce). In a little saucepan melt the butter on low heat. Stir in the flour, all at once. You will get a lumpy, sticky batter: dilute stirring in the milk a bit at a time and stir well with a tablespoon until the mixture thicken. Boil for a couple of minutes. Turn the heat off, season with sea salt and powdered nutmeg, to taste. Set aside to cool down. 

For the step-by-step recipe click here. 

When the vegetables and the bechamel sauce are well cold, take the pastry. Work it with a rolling-pin at first. When the dough is very thin, take it with your hands and gently stretch out, slowly, handling it with the back of the hands (look at the picture above). Go on until the dough sheet will become transparent like a phyllo dough. Thanks to the high-gluten flour the dough will be very soft and elastic so you can stretch it a lot. Do not worry if you will make any holes in the dough: while rolling it, the holes will disappear. 

Place the dough onto a tablecloth or a piece of parchment paper: it will help you in rolling the long strudel. Sprinkle the dough with some breadcrumbs (it will absorb the moisture). 

Roll out the bechamel sauce with a spoon onto the surface of the pastry sheet. Over the sauce, place the little pieces of vegetables, the nuts (coarsley chopped), then season with sea salt, ground black pepper. Finally grate the cheese all over the vegetables. 

Help yourself with the tablecloth or the parchment paper to roll the dough until you run out of it. You can do this way: take the tablecloth/parchment paper, slightly push up then forward the dough. In that way you can easily roll all of the dough.

Place the roll onto a baking tray or an oven wire-rack lined with parchment paper. Beat the egg with two tablespoon of milk and brush the top of the vegetable roll with the egg wash. Bake into fan preheated oven to 180°C for 30 minutes. Enjoy! 

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“Torrone” is a kind of hard nougat: in Italy we use to have Torrone or Torroncini (when small size) especially during Christmas time. We usually have some torrone leftover after Christmas, so this is an easy way to make a dessert with it. 
It does not matter if you have a pistachios or almond or hazelnut torrone: the most important thing is that is has to be hard torrone. 
When it comes to a semifreddo, the most traditional recipes call for an Italian meringue, but for some of us this is objectively a strong challenge. So we are going to propose you an easy version of the semifreddo. 
You will appreciate very much this recipe: the only negative thing is that you will have to wait a couple of hours before having it… Being patient will pay you back! 

It’s ok if you have any torroncini with chocolate wrapping: in that case do not add any extra chocolate to the recipe.
Use the food processor to crumble the hard nougat, but if you like to have large nougat chunks use a knife: it is up to your preferences.
We advise to line the molders with clingfilm in order to easily pull out the semifreddo after freezing.
Serve the semifreddo with a chocolate or a caramel sauce or just with a crumble made with some dark chocolate and hazelnut/almonds or even some hard nougat pieces coarsely chopped.

Serves 6

• 120 g hard nougat (almond or hazelnuts or other)
• 200 g ricotta cheese
• 250 g whipping cream 
• 40 g dark or milk chocolate, to your taste
• 80 g confectioners sugar
• 1 orange
• 6 muffin single tins 

Line the cake tins with clingfilm.

Coarsely chop the hard nougat and the chocolate.
We advise to use a food processor for the nougat to get a fine texture.

In a large bowl whip up the cream. In another bowl combine the sugar and the ricotta cheese.

Add the zest of an orange to the ricotta and sugar mix.

Add chopped nougat and chocolate. Combine.
Finally stir in the whipped cream, gently, until well combined.

Fill the little tins with the mixture and put into the fridge to set for a couple of hours.
If you have the semifreddo later or the day after, let it defrost for a while before serving.
Enjoy! 

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