Potato Casserole

2 lbs / 1kg potatoes
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white wine or prosecco
Sliced bacon, smoked
1/2 lbs 250g smoked pancetta
2 shallots
11oz / 300g Brie, Camembert or Taleggio 
1/2 cup heavy cream
Salt & black pepper

1. Peel and slice the potatoes. Thinner you slice quicker will cook.
2. In a frying pan, saute the pancetta with the shallots.  Add white wine after start to stick on the skillet and let cook until wine evaporates.
3. You can make the tarte in a big or individual baking dishes.
4. You will make two or three layers, on the bottom you add cream, then potatoes, salt, pepper, cream, cheese and the shallots with the pancetta. Then repeat one or two times. On the top add as well the sliced bacon and bake for about 50 minutes in a 180C/350F.

Caldeirada (Sea food stew)

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 8 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 large green peppers, sliced
• 75ml/2½fl oz olive oil
• 60g/2¼oz chopped flatleaf parsley
• a good pinch of saffron
• 2 or 3 bay leaves
• 12 peppercorns
• 4 large juicy ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 75ml/2½fl oz tomato paste
• 500ml/17½fl oz dry white wine
• 450g/1lb squid, cleaned
• 25 clams or cockles
• 900g/2lb oily fish like mackerel, swordfish or tuna
• 900g/2lb white fish like sea bass, monkfish, hake or haddock
• 225g/8oz good large raw shrimps 
• 24 mussels
  2 cups of cassava cut in cubes
• freshly ground black pepper
• 30g chopped fresh cilantro
  
  

  Method

  1. Slowly sweat off the onion, garlic and green peppers in the olive oil for about 10 minutes. After sweating, cover to stew very gently for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. This breaks down the green pepper to a more palatable form.
  2. Add the parsley, saffron, bay leaves, peppercorns, tomatoes, cassava, tomato paste, wine and water. Cover and simmer for ten minutes.
  3. Add the squid and clams or cockles and simmer for another ten minutes.
  4. Add the fish, prawns and mussels in layers. Don't stir too much as you'll want the fish to cook in the broth.
  5. Sprinkle with a heavy dose of the black pepper, cover and cook for about ten minutes or until the fish is cooked through and the mussels and clams or cockles are open. Discard any that don't open.
  6. Ladle the stew gently into vat-sized bowls and sprinkle with the chopped coriander.
  7. Serve with bread or rice. 

Lime and chocolate trifle

1 package of Marie biscuitMilk to soak cookies
2 cup heavy cream
1 cup condensed milk
4 squeezed limes
250g bitter chocolate

1 - Melt the chocolate and mix with one cup of cream;
2 - Mix the lime juice with the condensed milk and cream;
3 - Reserve both;
4 - For making the trifle, deep the cookies in the milk and make layers with chocolate and lime cream;
5 - For decoration, you can use lime zest or chocolate on the top.

Beer and butternut squash focaccia

2 cups of bread flour - 0 flour in Italy1 cup of semolina flour

1 fresh yeast or one sachet of powder (yeast for bread)

Honey

1 cup good quality beer (can be any beer, even dark)

1 tbsp salt

1/4 cup olive oil + oil to drizzle

Rock salt

Fresh sage

1 cup butter nut squash in pieces

Half red onion in jullien (optional)

In a big bow dissolve the yeast with one tbsp of honey. If the yeast is
 active, the yeast will become liquid. Add the beer and dissolve again.
 Add the semolina and the flour and mix with a spoon until is hard.
Add then the salt and 1/4 cup olive oil in your hands. Kneed for
about 3 minutes at the most. Flatten the dough in a big retangle
in a non stick pan or in a pan covered with baking paper. Make
little holes with your finger and add the sage, squash and red
onions, drizzle honey, olive oil and few pinches of rock salt.

Sage and honey focaccia

2 cups of bread flour - 0 flour in Italy
1 cup of semolina flour
25g fresh yeast (1 cube) or 2 tbsp/ or 1 tbsp dried bread yeast
Honey to drizzle
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil + oil to drizzle
Rock salt
Fresh sage

1. In a big bow dissolve the yeast with one tbsp of honey. If the yeast is active, the yeast will become liquid. Add the water and dissolve again.

2. Add the semolina and the flour and mix with a spoon until is well incorporated. Add then the salt and 1/4 cup olive oil in your hands. Mix for about 3 minutes at the most.

3. Flatten the dough in a big rectangle in a non stick pan or in a pan covered with baking paper. Make little holes with your finger and add the sage, drizzle honey, olive oil and few pinches of rock salt.

4. Bake in a convection oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown in 190C.

Farofa with meat recipe

Farofa package

Ingredients:
1 onion, sliced
5 garlic cloves, sliced
1 red pepper, cut in stripes
1 yellow pepper, cut in stripes
250g Italian sausages
1 chicken breast
500g pork filet
300g pork belly
2 cups farofa
Fresh cilantro or fresh parsley
4 Limes
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tbsp chilli peppers
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt & Pepper

1. Marinade the pork filet, Italian sausages, chicken and pork belly with the lime, cilantro, cumin, chilli pepper flakes and olive oil. Let it rest for at least three hours. You can make holes with a knife on the pork and put the garlic inside the meat.

2. Bake all the meats together until is all tender and cooked. About 40 minutes in a 200C.

3. In a frying pan, stir fry all the vegetables together. Cut the meat in bite pieces and mix together with the vegetables.

4. Stir in together the farofa, then serve it with limes on the top.

White meat sauce with almonds (ragù bianco)

1kg minced veal or pork

1/2 cup almonds, chopped 

100g black forest ham


1/2 onion or one shallot, chopped

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stick, chopped

Parsley

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 cup of white wine

4 tbsp cream or mascarpone

In a sauce pan combine the carrots, onion and garlic with the olive oil. Then add the ham with the almonds and let cook until brown. Add the veal and let cook in a slow temperature for about 20 minutes.  When the meat is brown, turn the heating on high and add the wine.  Let to reduce until there will be no wine left. Cook for another 3 minutes and it is ready to serve with the parsley and the mascarpone.

Chocolate fudge flan

1 cup/can condensed milk1 cup heavy cream
8 tbsp chocolate powder
3 eggs
1 tbsp butter
Chocolate granulate

Mix all the ingredients in a blender.
You can make it individual or in a big tray. Grease the pan with butter and sugar.
Add the mixture and bake in bain-Marie for about 40 minutes.
Take out of oven and let cool down. Serve cold with granulate chocotale on the top.

Linguini alle vongole

Vongole sauce

-1kg fresh and alive vongole (clams)-1/4 cup olive oil
-4 garlic cloves
-Onion, half chopped
-1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
-1 cup white wine
-Italian parsley
-Crushed red pepper flakes
-Salt & Black pepper

In a big pan, fry the garlic and onions until golden brown.  Add the cherry tomatoes and let cook for another 3 minutes. Add the vongole, wine, pepper flakes, parsley and the salt & pepper. Close the pan and let cook until all the vongole is open. When is all open, take the lid out of the pan and let cook a little more to evaporate a little bit the wine! Toss the pasta in and serve it!

Nonna's Summer Pork Roast

• 2 Tb sage leafs, chopped
  
• 2 Tb rosemary, chopped
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• zest of one lemon
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 piece pork tenderloin or pork filet mignon 
• 5 slices bacon, thick cut

1. To begin, preheat your oven to 220C/425 degrees.
2. In a small dish, combine the sage and rosemary, minced garlic, the salt and pepper, the orange zest and the extra virgin olive oil. Stir this together into a soft paste.
3. Place your pork in a baking dish. Slather the herb paste all over the top and drizzle some wine.
4. Lay the bacon slices across, tucking the ends underneath.
5. Bake for 40-45 minutes with a water dish inside the oven.
6. Remove the roast to a platter and let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting.
7. Enjoy!

Risotto allo zafferano con seppie (Risotto with saffron and squid)

Ingredients for five servings:

1kg/2lbs Squid
2 1/2 cup of carnaroli rice
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
A pinch of Saffron
Parsley (Fresh of course, if you have dry parsley trow in the trash!)
Olive Oil
Lemon
Salt & Pepper
Fish stock (To make the stock, boil some fish heads, shrimp with skin, onion and carrots).
White wine

You will need three pans for this preparation. One for the rice, one for the quid and another for the stock.

Use half of the onion and saute the onions with the squid for 10 minutes in high heat and another 10 with low heat. On the first five minutes add as well the cherry tomatoes cut in half.

In another pan, saute the onion and garlic. Add the rice and stock, cook for about 15 minutes. Add the Saffron and mix well until is al yellow. Add the squid, and mix well.

When the rice is cooked, take out of heat and add the lemon and parsley.

Serve with a good glass of prosecco or white wine.

Limoncello sorbet

Very simple and refreshing. Perfect for serving in hot summer days.

Ingredients:
Juice of two lemons
1 shot of limoncello
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups of ice
Lemon zest

Mix the lemon juice, sugar, limoncello and lemon zest. In a blender add the ice and the juices mixture. Blend until homogenic. Serve immediately or keep in the freezer for four hours before serving.

Moqueca de Camarão (Coconut shrimp stew)

1 tbsp palm oil (Dendê oil can be changed for coconut oil)4 tbsp peanut oil
4 cloves of garlic (sliced)
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 onion (julienne)
1 red pepper (julienne)
1 yellow pepper (Julienne)
2 tomatoes (Julienne)
1 can coconut milk
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 kg/ 2.2lbs Shrimp
Fresh Cilantro leaves
Spice chilli peppers (Add as much as you like all different spices you like)
Two limes

In a big pot, fry the ginger, garlic and onions with the mix of peanut oil and palm oil. After they are getting brown add the peppers and tomatoes. Stir a little bit and let cook with the pot closed in medium/low heat for 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk and tomato paste and let cook for another 10 minutes with the pot closed. Don't stir too much. After the 10 minutes add the chopped cilantro leaves, the spices and the shrimp. Close the pan again and let cook for not more that 10 minutes in medium heat. Open the pot and squeeze the lime. Serve with rice and fried cassava or fried potatoes.