by Danica | Aug 21, 2020 | Featured, GloKitchen
Hors d’oeuvres are the epitome of fancy party food. A little dish typically served before a meal or between courses at a dinner party, they involve no fuss with cutlery as they are usually designed to eat by hand. First and foremost, appetizers are supposed to be pleasing for the eyes. This recipe for Italian-style hors d’oeuvres combines fresh goat’s cheese with tangy Parmigiano-Reggiano, sweet sundried tomatoes and buttery walnuts that will also satisfy your taste buds. What a perfect mouthful!
Ingredients:
For 5 pieces
100g Parmigiano-Reggiano, shredded
50g soft goat’s cheese
3-4 pieces of sundried tomato (dry, not preserved in oil)
Handful walnuts, finely chopped
5-6 fresh basil leaves
A pinch of black pepper
Balsamic glaze
Rocket garnish
What you’ll need:
Chopping board
Large kitchen knife
Small mixing bowl
Kitchen scales
Tablespoon
Teaspoon
Grater (for producing long, thin cheese shreds)
Silicon mould for mini muffins or cake pops (ø3.5-4cm)
Alternatively: 5 shot glasses (ø3.5-4cm, measured at the bottom) and a flat baking tray with non-stick paper
Method:
- For the Parmigiano nests, take a cheese grater that produces long, thin cheese shreds and grate the parmesan into a mini muffin or cake pop baking mould. Alternatively, prepare a flat baking tray with non-stick baking paper, and grate the parmesan on the surface. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 2-3 minutes at 160°C (fan) or gas mark 4 until the cheese is melted and bubbles but is not crisp yet. Cut the cheese apart into five pieces and quickly drape them over the upturned shot glasses and bake for several more minutes until crisp golden brown. If you have a mini muffin tray at hand, keep the cheese in the tray until crispy and most of the moisture from the cheese has evaporated. After the baking process, take them aside to cool.
- In a bowl, mix soft goat’s cheese, chopped sundried tomatoes and finely chopped fresh basil. Add a pinch of black pepper and stir well. Take a teaspoonful of cheese mix and roll into a ball. The mixture should make five balls altogether. Finely chop a handful of walnuts, and then roll each ball over the walnut crumbs until fully covered.
- Prepare a serving plate and place the Parmigiano nests on a few rocket leaves. Place a cheese and walnut bite in each nest. Drip some balsamic glaze on the plate for decoration. Serve immediately.
(Credit to: Castelli/Parmigiano for these beautiful recipes)
http://www.castelli-uk.com
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by Danica | Aug 7, 2020 | Featured, GloKitchen
Salad to a picnic? That’s too elaborate, some might say. However, salads are super easy to prepare and nutritious! Sure – a fork and a plate will need to be carried around with you on your day out – but how much better would your lunch be out in the sun with some crisp and fresh leafy goodness? Gone are the days of having a picnic with ready-made supermarket sandwiches and run-of-the-mill plastic tray salads trapped in artificial air!
For this flavourful dish, mixing leaves with roasted vegetables, such as peppers, tomatoes and courgettes, transform a mere side salad into a main course. Best done with a vegetable peeler, Parmigiano-Reggiano shavings make an elegant garnish for this salad and add unique umami flavour coupled with saltiness to the subtlety of lamb’s lettuce and the slight bitterness of rocket. Tuck in – and don’t forget your fork!
Ingredients:
For 4 portions
1 mid-sized courgette
150g mini vine tomatoes
1 large red pepper
70-100g rocket
70-100g lamb’s lettuce
75g Parmigiano-Reggiano shavings
Olive oil, approx. 1 tbsp. for the salad, and extra for the roasted veg
Juice from ½ lemon
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Balsamic vinegar (optional)
What you’ll need:
Chopping board
Large kitchen knife
Baking tray with non-stick baking foil
Tablespoon
Vegetable peeler (to use for the Parmigiano-Reggiano)
Large salad bowl for serving
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180°C (fan or fan with grill, middle-rack)
- Wash the vegetables. Cut the courgette in half and then each half lengthways. Cut the pepper into large strips and remove all seeds. Put all vegetables, including the mini vine tomatoes, on a flat baking tray covered with non-stick baking paper. Drizzle olive oil over the veg and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake until soft with some browning (if you prefer the veg to develop blackened edges, use the fan and grill option on your oven, but make sure to not burn the food too much).
- In the meantime, wash the lettuce and rocket thoroughly. Take the block of Parmigiano-Reggiano and a regular vegetable peeler and carefully shave off bits to add to the finished salad later.
- After 30-40 minutes in the oven (grill option reduces the baking time), let the vegetables cool off. Then slice them into smaller strips.
- Arrange the salad by carefully adding the baked veg strips to the salad leaves. Add juice from half a lemon, drizzle some olive oil on top (the veg will already be oily, so don’t overdo it), use sea salt and black pepper to taste. Finally, add the Parmigiano-Reggiano shavings. Feel free to round off this salad with a balsamic vinegar drizzle.
- If you plan to take this salad along to a picnic or barbecue, don’t add oil, vinegar and juice yet. Instead, combine them in a small airtight container, glass jar or bottle and add the sauce just before serving, otherwise the salad leaves will wilt too rapidly.
(Credit to: Castelli/Parmigiano for these beautiful recipes)
http://www.castelli-uk.com
by Danica | Jul 24, 2020 | Featured, GloKitchen
Cooking pasta is for most people an everyday occurrence and usually entails using a packet of dry pasta and a jar of ready-made sauce. Whatever delicious dish you may be able to whip up with these labour-saving foods, how satisfying would it be though to do it from scratch, starting with the pasta dough. Quite honestly, making your own pasta is an ambitious and time-consuming project. Nevertheless, making fresh pasta with simple but good ingredients can be both an incredibly satisfying experience, albeit frustrating at times.
In this recipe, the pasta dough is not simply rolled out and cut, but filled to make ravioli. This type of pasta leaves creative freedom to an abundance of flavour combinations, both meat based and vegetarian. Here, soft and milky ricotta cheese and nutty Parmigiano Reggiano are paired with fragrant and tasty wild garlic, a popular herb to use in dips, sauces and salads. Available in spring and summer at farmer’s markets or in whole food stores, wild garlic can also be foraged for in woodlands where it grows in abundance during the springtime. However, as it can be very easily mistaken for the poisonous lily of the valley, I would recommend safety first and to opt for purchasing it from an experienced grocer.
Ravioli can be combined with a variety of pasta sauces, whether it be cream or tomato based. The proposed sauce for this pasta dish features Parmigiano Reggiano in combination with cream, white wine, sharp gorgonzola and buttery walnuts. Buon appetito!
Ingredients:
For 3-4 portions (approx. 30 pieces à 4.5x5cm)
For the dough:
400g strong white flour
2 eggs
4 additional egg yolks (1 for gluing the dough sheets together)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
Water
Extra flour for dusting the work surface
For the filling:
50g Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
50g pine nuts, lightly roasted
350g ricotta
7 large wild garlic leaves (remove the stalks)
½ tsp. lemon peel
Salt, pepper and olive oil to taste
For the sauce:
350ml single cream
150ml white wine
75g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
50g gorgonzola dolce
60g walnuts, chopped
2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped
Salt, pepper to taste
What you’ll need:
Mixing bowl
Fork
Tablespoon
Teaspoon
Measuring cup
Kitchen scales
Large rolling pin
Chopping board
Large Kitchen knife
Grater
Long ruler (30cm length)
Large pot
Frying pan or casserole
Flat surface for working the dough or very large, flat chopping board and non-stick baking paper
Clean cotton kitchen towel (for covering the dough)
Small pastry brush
Slotted spoon
Pastry cutter (optional)
Method:
- In a mixing bowl, combine flour, eggs, extra egg yolks (spare one for gluing the dough sheets together later), olive oil, salt and water. Knead the dough well and let it rest for one hour covered with a clean and moistened cotton towel.
- For the filling, first roast the pine nuts in a frying pan until golden brown. Then, finely chop them as well as the wild garlic leaves. In a mixing bowl, combine grated Parmigiano Reggiano, ricotta, wild garlic, pine nuts and lemon peel. Stir well and add salt, pepper and olive oil to taste.
- Roll out the dough on a flat, floured surface. Use a ruler to cut out two rectangles of 30x24cm each to produce 30 top and bottom pieces of 4.5x5cm in size.
- Place half to three quarters of a teaspoonful of filling in the middle of each of 15 small rectangles. Take a small pastry brush, dip it in the egg yolk and brush the edges of the dough sheets with it. Then cover the filling with another dough sheet. Use your fingers to press out the air around the filling. Then take a fork and press the dough sheets together to seal them and create a nice pattern. Alternatively, use a pastry cutter to trim the edges and shape them. Place the prepared ravioli on a floured surface, again cover them with a cotton towel and let them dry slightly.
- Prepare a large pot with water and bring to the boil. Then add about three teaspoons of salt to it. Place several uncooked ravioli on a slotted spoon and gently place in the bubbling water. Repeat the process until all ravioli are in the pot. Let them cook for 8-10 minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare the sauce. In a large frying pan or casserole, combine single cream and white wine and gently heat the mixture. Add grated Parmigiano Reggiano, gorgonzola dolce and chopped garlic. Cook for a few minutes for the sauce to reduce and get thicker. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then stir in the chopped walnuts and turn off the heat.
- Once the ravioli are swimming on the surface, remove them from the pot by using the slotted spoon and then place them in the sauce. Carefully stir until all the pasta is covered in sauce. Serve immediately.
(Credit to: Castelli/Parmigiano for these beautiful recipes)
http://www.castelli-uk.com
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