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2017-10-11
Something really delicate!
Butcher Augusto Pelletti produces something what is nearly a pig carpaccio. Not really a carpaccio it has been just dried in salt for a short time - primo sale - as we in Italy say.

It is very delicate and can never miss in my kitchen, because it has so many ways to be used (Beside to be eaten directly after shopping out of the hands)

Green Asparagus I get in spring. I precooked them, but they need to be crunchy, every Asparagus wrapped with Lonzino.

Olive Oil in a pan. Two eggs upon the wrapped Asparagus. The egg should be just cooked.
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2017-10-08
At the beginning of October the first new olive oils come to market. The Olive from early harvested fruit is more elegant. I got a bottle from "Poderei il Sasso" on a event called "Terre di Orvieto". "Terre di Orvieto" is a new initiative to collectively promote food and wine from the Orvieto area. I also got goat cheese from the "2ndo Altopiano" and pasta from "Casa Vespina". Ab absolute highlight was the Goat Salami from Mafalda farm. They produce wonderful salamis from goat meet and pig belly,
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2017-10-05
My plan was to produce traditional "Piccione Orvietano"

But all ingredients were missing. No ham at hand (and it was Wednesday afternoon), no sage, no lemon zest. I gave up.

But: I had a produced the day before a mix from dried tomatoes, ginger, garlic and dried zest from oranges (a bag from a China shop, which I thought were mushrooms.....)

So I cut my pigeon into two halves and fried it until nicely coloured in Olive Oil. Then I added charlottes and fried them with the pigeon. When it seemed good to me, I added the tomato/ginder/orange zest mixture.

Got it to simmer together for some minutes. Then I took out the bird and treated the veggie mix with a food processor, which resulted in a delicious fresh cream to serve with the bird.
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2017-09-19
I always buy rice and grains like farro. But I seldom use them. My main carb has become bread, despite of liking pasta a lot. I never had a passion for "risotto", only some Basmati preparations are for my taste.

Now I was looking for weeks to my jars with whole grain rice and and organic "farro" (Spelt says Google Translator)

I had the cooking water from my "Cicerchie" and a jar of broth from the freezer. So I dared. Risotto from the two grains.
Cooks quite a while, but then I liked the product, well the broth must have been quite good and the cooking water from the cicerchie was nearly creamy.

But really good it became after frying in olive oil a handful of Spring Onions for two seconds and then mixing the Risotto in.
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2017-09-16
Fried eggs with cured meat is a classical dish of the North European cooking. The Germans uses there smoked ham ("Schinkenbrot mit Spiegelei"), what the Italians call speck. The Anglo Saxons do it with bacon. ("Bacon and eggs")

Well this stuff is more elegant. But why you should waste a wonderful "prosciutto crudo" of Norcia in a pan? You may do, if the ham is already 3 days old after being cut. As better ham is as quicker it looses freshness and fragrancy after being cut.

But the fragrancy comes out again powerful in the pan. Sliced, just heated and immediately added the eggs to avoid that the ham is fried too long.

I added a bit of black pepper. Could be good with black truffles too. Or some chopped spring onion when it is season. No other seasoning please. You do not want to kill savouring from the prosciutto,

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2017-09-11
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2017-09-08
A pasta and meat rolls from chicken and turkey breast. The pasta had a Sicilian flair with a sauce made from dried tomatoes, Olive Oil, Capers, anchovies and a bit of hot peppers. A flat pasta, which could take the sauce on it's surface.

The rolls were partly from organic meat, Organic chicken breast costs double as conventional one. It is much better, but not as better as the price is higher..but there are other reasons for organic meat :-). The chicken slices were simply treated with a green Olive paste with mandarine peels, delicious! The turkey slices were wrapped together with Norica ham or with an Anchovi filet, both give nice taste to the turkey, which was conventional and had not a much taste on its own.
Served with a bit of fresh tomato sauce and rucola salad
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2017-08-27
300g Spaghetti, 3 Uova, 200g Guanciale, 100g Pecorino
seems very easy and is complicated. Do not add other ingredients. Cultureless Americans and Germans add cream!!!!

Also good with Pacheri and Martavello
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2017-08-27
This is Vincent's (my nephew) favorite, but also Matilde likes it a lot.
Get quails from the supermarket, They are not wild, but from intensive breedings, but they are still much more tasty than the rubber chicken you get as an alternative.
They are nearly fatless, so you have to do something for not drying them out while cooking. Standard method. Get good "pancetta" (My Leo Dictionary interestingly told me just that it does not know an English word for "Bauchspeck" Ha!). Some of the pancetta you need in fairly big and thin slices. The other part you can simply mince. Mix the minced pancetta with a good amount of sage and garlic and stuff it into the quails.
Wrap the pancetta ( or Lardo) slices around the quails and fix them with a toothpick. 30 - 45 minutes into the oven, ready!
If you want experiment, Rosmary instead of Sage. Spring onions around the sage, very thinly sliced potatoes... what you want :-) amount of sage and stuff it into the quails,

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2017-08-27
Lemon Duck is a Nanning specialty. For the real thing go to Nanning. But you can try at home!
I substituted Chily Peppers with Red Pepper. Good, much less hot and more agreeable for most tastes
Half a lime is not enough acidity!
Pomodori Datteri was an absolute winning idea!
I thought too much ginger and garlic! There is never too much Ginger and Garlic, but be aware of high quality garlic!
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2017-08-27
Lamb or goat cutlets is the finest stuff you can find to eat.  Don't dare to overcook them!  They are good, just cooked still rosè, then they give you all their juicyness.  If you can get them directly from the "pecoraro" you are happy.    But also Italian Supermarket stuff is decent.

This version has been made with tomatoes and capers, just fried with the Cutlets, not too long. Capers are salty, no other salt needed. Instead of stupid salt, tasty capers. A piece of Mediterranean with your dish.

...and Olive Oil!!!!

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2017-08-27
Get a good piece of Boar and cut it into pieces. Make a stew. Use ingredients you like. I like a good amount of onions. I love olive oil and I use it also for frying. But first fry the meat, get it out of the pan, fry the onion, add the meet again. A gracious amount of strong red wine. If you can afford, use the Sagrantino, you will drink with it.
Mushrooms are heavenly with this. Go into forest to collect some. These are the best, but you know the risks. Otherwise, market. Normal Champignons are tasteless, but you can mix them with dried poricini. Or try Shitake (I like more the fresh ones). Anyway, nothing easier to prepare.
Mashed potatoes are good with it. You can even dare to add a punto of Wasabi paste to the mashed potatoes....but it is not nice to the Sagrantino

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