Beef Tenderloin Recipe by Igor Macchia

As promised, here the first recipe in a long time. As we are talking about Igor Macchia, I have taken the liberty to share his recipe with you. It is a bit labor intensive than many others, but then, you want to cook one Michelin Star cuisine...then you have to work for it....Stars don't come just for a simple steak on the BBQ, no there needs to be more to it than that

It was so much fun working with Igor, he is totally down to earth and happy to coach the team, something they loved as the guest chefs are really changing the everyday routine, mine included. Often these chefs need specialized ingredients like the cassis and spinach powder for this recipe. Of course you can do it without it, but for us here, we want to be as close as possible to the original. So I contacted Igor and he happily shared where I can get all the special ingredients from, it took of course still a lot of mails with suppliers to get it finally delivered to us,..... but that is the fun part, the part where we have to source the best ingredients and then bit by bit actually have a web of suppliers where we can fall back with all the fancy foods....I just love that part

So here is the recipe: Enjoy!

Ingredient for cherry marinated with ginger:

  400 gr. fresh cherry

  140 gr. brown sugar

    50 gr. fresh ginger

Method for cherry marinated with ginger:

season quartered cherry with sugar and ginger. Vacuum pack and cook in steamed oven at 80°C for 3 hours. Chilled and blend. Keep the sauce for presentation of the plate.

Ingredient for mashed potatoes:

1500 gr. potatoes

                Sea salt

  150 gr. diced butter

  150 gr. mascarpone cheese

               Salt

               Pepper

Method for mashed potatoes:

wash potatoes and pierce with a fork. Cook with sea  salt in oven at 200°C for 1 hour.

Mashed potato and add mascarpone cheese and butter. Season with salt and pepper and keep for presentation of the plate.

Ingredient for watercress sauce:

250 gr. fresh watercress

             Xantana

             Salt

             Pepper

Method for watercress sauce:

Cook watercress in salted water. Chilled and blend.

Add xantana and season with salt and pepper. Keep for presentation of the plate.

Ingredient for presentation of the plate:

480 gr. wagyu beef tenderloin

120 gr. foie gras

   30 gr. cherry pure’ from boiron or capfruit

   20 gr. beef juice

   10 gr. watercress sauce

     2 gr. cassis powder

     2 gr. spinach powder

   60 gr. mashed potatoes

   40 gr. cooked cherry

   40 gr. saute fresh spinach

               Extra virgin olive oil

               Maldon salt

               Sea salt

               Pepper

               Fresh sprout

Method for presentation of the plate:

Season beef with salt and pepper and cook in a hot pan with olive oil. Finish to cook in oven at 200°C for 5 minutes.

Garnish the top of cooked beef with all ingredient and plate in a hot plate garnished with cherry and watercress sauce.

Use cassis and spinach powder for garnish the plate.

Tagliolini with Green Asparagus and Black Truffle

We do have a daily special in our Italian Restaurant, Terrazzo and we do serve it as well in our second restaurant, Sea-Fire-Salt. It makes sense as both restaurants are actually served out of the same kitchen, so the special is easy to be prepared for 2 restaurants

 

We like to make some nice homemade pasta dishes, they are usually so tasty and one can immediately spot the difference between bought and homemade.

 

For me to make pasta is totally relaxing, it is fun and I love to see how the dish comes together. Yes it is a bit more work than just buying pasta, but at the same time it is much more rewarding to eat it as well. If you don't have the time or the patience to make your homemade pasta, then go and buy some high quality chilled pasta which is available in good supermarkets

 

This is id a bit on the rich side, with the creamy sauce, but it is really simple to make

 

The recipe is for 4 friends as a main course or for 6 friends as a starter

Pasta
500 g (1 lb) Flour
5 Eggs
25 ml (1 oz) EV Olive Oil
5 g Salt

Sauce
500 g (1 lb) Green Asparagus
200 ml (5 oz) cooking liquid of the Asparagus
50 g (2 oz) Onions
100 ml (3 oz) Cream
15 g (0.5 oz) Corn starch
30 g (1 oz)Black truffle
Salt
Pepper
70 g (3 oz) Parmesan shavings

For the pasta dough mix all the ingredients together to a firm dough
Knead well
Let it rest for at least 2 hours before rolling out

For the sauce

Clean the green asparagus
Cut the heads off and then cut the stems in small pieces, keep some asparagus to cut into slivers
Blanch the Asparagus in a small amount of water which can then be used for the base of the sauce
Fry the onions in the melted butter without color
Add the asparagus and then the cooking liquid and cream
Bring to the boil
Thicken with corn starch which has been mixed with some cold left over cooking liquid
Season to taste

Toss the pasta in the sauce

Drizzle the pasta with truffle oil and generously slice fresh black truffle and Parmesan shavings on it





 

Cured Wagyu Beef Salad

As promised I am busy again with new dishes and recipes and am happy to share some of the new dishes. I know it took a little longer than expected, but finally I have some time to share the recipes. I am trying to get back into the routine of writing 4 to 5 blogs a month, so that there is a steady flow of recipes and stories

Live here is amazing, the 7 restaurants and 2 bars are keeping me busy, but working with the 60 chefs here is an absolute pleasure. I like when the chefs are creative, I push them to be creative because to be quite honest, to put out daily specials and more for all the outlets, then menu changes, new buffets and more, that is something one single chef can't do, but with a team like I have here, it works really well.

Today we do a nice cured Wagyu beef. Something that sounds so expensive but if you take the right cut, it is actually not that expensive. For a marble grade 8/9 Fillet one can easily pay 120 to 220 $ per kg.....for proper Kobe it can be even more. But to be quite honest, you don't need the most expensive cut of meat. A nice Wagyu rump will do the same, just make sure it is nicely marbled. Then you will be able to get the meat for around 20 to 25$

 

To make cured beef is actually vey simple and similar to Gravad Lax, the main ingredients are salt and sugar and spices. I usually marinate it over night or just a little longer, like this it is nicely flavored but still not too strong in flavor

So here is the recipe for the dish. This is enough for 10 friends

Cured Wagyu
800 g Wagyu Topside
75 g Sugar
100 g Salt
25 g Pepper Black, coarse
10 g Juniper Berries, crushed
2 ea Lemon Rind

Salad
250 g Green Asparagus
250 g Artichokes (from a pack of Antipasti Artichokes, so they are already marinated)
100 g Parmesan shavings
100 g Grapes
150 ml Balsamic Vinegar
25 ml Honey
75 ml EVOO
Micro Greens

For the beef just mix all ingredients and rub evenly of the meat.
Wrap the meat in cling film and keep refrigerated for 12 to 18 hours.
From time to time turn the meat around to ensure it is evenly marinated

The cut it as fine as possible and plate like a Carpaccio

Cook  half the green asparagus al dente
Cut the artichokes in halves or quarters
Cut the Parmesan in fine slices with a truffle cutter
Do the same with the uncooked asparagus
Reduce the Balsamic with the hone to half

Plate and enjoy

Reef Fish on Zucchini, Red Capsicum Sauce

Just a quick light dish for lunch, I put the dish on the buffet but it goes perfectly well as a light lunch, it is filling, looking good on the plate and has no starch, so we can cut a bit on the carbs.

Reef fish for me is the obvious choice as I get it around 3 times a week fresh from the fishermen, often I get fresh Tuna as well, so fresh that we use it straight for Sashimi, what a dream. But we are not talking about Sashimi today, we are talking a nice Mediterranean dish.

By the way, did you know that all the fish in Maldives is caught by line? No nets are allowed for the fishing so the Eco Balance is still there, OK, not like 50 years ago, but at least it is not too over fished. Except the Lobster, unfortunately the consumption is too high and there is less and less lobster available, but it is really good to know that the fishermen are taking care of the environment with the way they are fishing

The Capsicum sauce is most probably the one part of the recipe that takes the longest to cook, but I usually make enough and then freeze it as it is so versatile and can be used in anything, I even make salad dressings with it. All you do is take the red peppers, cut the pips and the green out and simmer in water with a little salt till they are very soft.. By then the water has reduces to about half. Then I simply blend it, strain it through a fine mesh sieve and put it back in the pan. The I blend it up with some really good olive oil, season and finish

If I want to freeze the sauce, I just leave the olive oil away and freeze it pure, like that I can just take what I need and blend up with the oil.

The Zucchini are simply cut in slices, then I rub them in olive oil (really good olive oil), salt and coarse pepper. As for the salt, I like to use a coarse salt like the Maldon Sea Salt. The I make sure I have some fresh Thyme and a bit garlic, finely sliced.

I just quickly grill the Zucchini and keep them warm while I fry the fish in olive oil, or simply grill it.

The plating is great and honestly, it is not much work at all, but the dish will make your family happy or your guest say wow.......

Recipe for 10 friends

2 kg Reef Fish
800 g Zucchini
50 ml Olive oil
10 g Salt
5 g Pepper
5 Twigs Thyme

700 g Capsicum red
10 g Garlic
100 g Onions
6 g Salt
3 g Pepper
100 ml Olive oil

Method
Clean the capsicum, making sure no pips are left
Peel onion and garlic and cut in small pieces
Combine in a pot and add water till nearly covered
Season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil
Simmer till very soft, blend and strain

Cut the zucchini in 1 cm thick slices
Season with olive oil salt, pepper and thyme
Fry on both sides till golden brown

Season the fish and pan fry or grill with olive oil 
Just before serving mix up the capsicum sauce with olive oil to give it a smooth consistency

The dish on the buffet

Tuna Carpaccio by Igor Macchia

It is not long time ago when we talked about tuna, about the freshness and how it is delivered fresh here all the times. I think we have some of the best tuna there is, usually the tuna is caught less than 24 hours before it is delivered with us and there is just no better sashimi then from a really fresh tuna

I am sure that I have mentioned it many times before, but we do not serve blue fin tuna. The blue fin is a highly endangered species and should be avoided at all cost. If there is a restaurant serving blue fin, please boycot it, tell people about it that others can do the same, we really should not accept that there are still restaurants serving blue fin tuna.

The original recipe is made with lobster, but then again, as the lobster is getting very scarce here in Maldives, we at Soneva Fushi have decided not to serve lobster and so far we had actually no complaints as we always can make a plan with something else. The same for Igor, when we talked about the menu he was more than happy to change the carpaccio to a different fish to make sure we can continue our drive for sustainability

We got yellow fin tuna, there is still enough of it, at least for the time being and trust me, it is delicious too. Naoki, our Japanese chef is usually there immediately to get his share of fresh Toro, the tuna belly. The rest of us, we are happy with the Tuna fillet.

Having Igor here as our guest chef has been a lot of fun. We had three great events and I like to share his way of tuna carpaccio. There are hundreds of ways of presenting a carpaccio and I never get tired to see different variations.

So here it is

Recipe
2 Ea Lemon
250 Ml Water
250 G Sugar

500 G Tomato
20 Ml Olive oil
50 G Shallots, julienne
10 G Thyme
Pepper corn
1 Ea Lemon fresh

320 G Tuna
Lemon confit
Tomato confit
Mixed lettuce
Olive oil
Maldon Salt
Micro Greens
Pepper from the mill

Method
Cut the lemon skin in julienne, boil three times each time shock in cold water each time shock in cold water
Mix water, sugar and lemon zest, simmer and cool

Skin and quarter the tomatoes
Season with pepper, oil, shallot and thyme
Put on a tray and cook in the oven at 160 C for 35 minutes
Keep cool, drained and dry

Cut the tuna very thin
Put the mixed lettuce on the bottom of the plate
Put the carpaccio on top
Season with Maldon salt and pepper
Garnish with micro greens
Drizzle with Olive oil

Piedmont Cheese Risotto with black truffle and Coffee Powder

You might think now that the chef has gone completely crazy with serving a risotto with coffee powder. So I challenge you: try it out for yourself and find out how delicious it tastes.

The dish is quite complex, all the different cheeses make it extremely creamy. The beef carpaccio on top gives it a different dimension. Of course if you want to do the risotto vegetarian, you can leave the beef away and instead of the chicken stock you take a very good vegetable stock.

Then the fresh black truffle and the coffee powder, just normal coffee powder will do. It does sound strange, but it really goes so well together.

This recipe is actually made by Igor Macchia, he is the guest chef that is with us at Soneva Fushi for a bit more than one week. So far it has been great fun to work with him, I love the type of food he serves, simple, straight forward but with a lovely difference of unusual flavors. He has a one Michelin starred restaurant close to Torino in Italy, here is the website of his restaurant La Credenza. He is the co owner of it and all I can say is go into the gallery and see the amazing food pictures and if you are by any chance in the region, I think it is a must to book a table and try out the amazing food he cooks

But here is the recipe for the risotto

Recipe
25 G (1 oz) Onion
25 G (1 oz) Castel Magno Cheese
25 G (1 oz) Toma Cheese
15 G (0.5 oz) Parmesan Cheese
250 G (9 oz) Carnaroli Risotto rice
60 Ml (2 oz) White wine
25 G (1 oz) Butter
1.5 (1.5 qrt) Chicken stock

Method
25 G (1 oz) Beef Fillet
25 G (1 oz) Black Truffle
25 Ml (1 oz) Olive oil
Coffee Powder
Truffle jus

Heat olive oil, add chopped onions and rice
Cook for three minutes
Add wine and start cooking with chicken stock
Cook for around 16 minutes
Add all cheese and butter, season with salt and pepper

Cut the beef fillet thinly for the carpaccio
Freeze the carpaccio, then cut out with a round cutter

Powder the bottom of the plate with coffee powder
Top with the risotto
The top with carpaccio and finely sliced truffles
Garnish with a little truffle jus

Artichoke Soup with Scallops

We had a couple of soups lately, but there are so many great soups that it is difficult not to write about them. Especially when the plating has changed a little bit. It is not all about the soup anymore, the soup of course is part of the dish, but this time there are so many other elements, all different in taste, but at the same time they all go so well together.

I think one of the greatest arts in cooking is the combination of flavors. Everything depends on the flavors on a plate being perfect. Yes of course one has to t

ake quality products, one has to cook everything to perfections, but still, the last touch is that the flavor combination is just right.

Artichokes are an amazing vegetable because they can be paired with many other flavors, Mediterranean flavors. They go with meat, fish, seafood or on their own

So this time I did a combination with pan fried scallops, salmon roe, dried Iberian ham, garlic chips and some extra virgin olive oil. The just garnished with some micro herbs. All the flavors are going superbly together, they just fit to each other.

Recipe
1 Kg Artichokes
200 G Onions
6 Ea Garlic
180 ml Olive oil
80 G Iberian ham
20 G Pistachios
3 Ea Scallops
10 ml Milk

10 gr Salmon Caviar
Peel the artichokes
Cut the onions in Julienne
Cut the garlic in thin slices and blanch in the milk

Cut the ham in Julienne and deep-fry
Crush the pistachios
Grill the scallops

Saute the onions and artichokes, add water.
Simmer till soft
Season to taste
Blend and add the olive oil

Garnish with sustainable caviar

Capsicum Soup

This time I like to share an old recipe of mine, something we did when I was still Executive Chef on "The World" There in the fine dining restaurant we had every week a different menu, just for 3 to four days in the evening. It was a lot of fun creating these menus, all the time with local products, freshly bought on the market.

Over time you will get a lot more of these recipes, it is because I found my old photos from the nearly 2 and a half years on this wonderful ship and I like to share with you a bit about the travels, the exotic destinations we went and of course about the food

This soup we made because I found these most amazing little mini Capsicums, or mini Red Peppers on the market. There were so wonderfully sweet and tasty. We simply roasted them with a little salt, pepper and olive oil in the oven, then opened them in the bottom carefully to get the pips out, then we peeled them and used them as a garnish for the soup, together with a roasted Prawn Tail and some grilled Zucchini.

To prepare the soup is really, really easy. I don't even roast them in the oven, I simply take out the pips, cut the green stalk away and then cook them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper till very soft. Then the whole thing gets blended and strained to make sure there is no skin. Like this you will preserve the beautiful red color of the Capsicum

Recipe
1 kg (2 lbs) Capsicum, red
250 g (10 oz) Onions
50 ml (2 oz) Olive oil
10 g (0.3 oz) Salt
Pepper
100 g (3.3 oz) Butter

10 each Mini Red Capsicum (if you can find them on a farmers market)
50 ml (2 oz) Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

250 g (9 oz) Baby Zucchini or Baby Marrows
30 ml (1 oz) Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

10 each Prawn Tails, peeled
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Method
Clean and cut the Red Capsicum
Cut the onions in small dices
Saute both in a little Olive Oil, without color
Add water that it is just covered
Season with Pepper and Salt
Simmer gently for 30 to 45 minutes
Blend and strain
Season to taste
Just before serving add ice cold Butter and mix the soup up

Mix the Baby Capsicum with Olive Oil and Seasoning
Roast in the oven till soft
Carefully peel and de-pip them

Heat the olive oil, saute the Prawn Tails, season to taste

Cut the Baby Zucchini in fine slices with a truffle cutter or similar, they should look a bit like noodles
Heat the Olive Oils and briefly fry the Zucchini in the oil
Season to taste

For the plating, garnish everything in the soup plate, then serve the soup separate

This should be enough for 10 Friends

Minestrone

I think a minestrone is the perfect winter soup, it is actually a full meal, with a slice or two of organic farmers bread, it is like being in heaven.

There are many ways of doing a minestrone, when I do it for myself there is always a little bacon in it and I use a very light chicken stock to fill up the soup, but of course one can leave all meats away to make it a truly vegetarian soup, even good for a delicious vegan meal.

The making of the soup is really very easy, just cut all the vegetables together, saute in a little olive oil, add tomato paste, then puree and then some water, season, simmer, add spaghetti and potatoes towards the end of the cooking process as otherwise they would be overcooked and too soft, then at the end serve the soup with Parmesan and pesto....everybody will love it

Recipe
50 G Olive Oil
10 G Bacon Cubes
100 G Onion
150 G Leeks
100 G Carrots
100 G Celery
200 G Cabbage
200 G Potatoes
40 G Tomato Paste
100 G Tomato Concassé
50 G Rice
50 G Spaghetti
50 G Borlotti Beans

PESTATA
100 G Butter
10 G Garlic
1 Bunch Basil
50 G Parmesan

Method
Cut all the vegetables in small dices
Heat up olive oil and roast the bacon cubes in it
Add all the vegetables
Shallow-fry for a couple of minutes
Add tomato paste
Add about 3 l water (chicken stock) and boil for
15 min Add rice, cooked beans and broken spaghetti
Cook for another 15-20 min

Season and add pestata just before serving

Roast Vegetable Terrine

I love making terrines and will do more in the near future, but today I made one that was really fun to do. It is a roast vegetable terrine. It was a bit more work as I really wanted to get the right flavor out of each vegetable, so I did several different cooking methods. The pepers were roast int he oven with olive oil, salt, ppper and fresh thyme, the egg plant was dep fried,, as it makes it beautifully soft and the zucchini were grilled. I grill only one of the vegetables as I don't want the char grilled flavors to take over

Then after layering all the vegetables in the terrine form and pressing it gently, I cut the slices and see the different layers.....that moment is really one of the best, to see that a terrine came out exactly the way one wanted it.

I serve it with a balsamic emulsion and a little crisp salad. The balsamic gives it the acidity needed for a balanced dish

0.25 Kg Leeks
0.75 Kg Red peppers
0.75 Kg Yellow pepper
0.75 Kg Zucchini
0.75 Kg Eggplant
0.15 Kg Parmesan grated
4 Leaf Gelatine leaves
0.01 Kg Salt
0.005 Kg Pepper
0.01 Kg Thyme
0.05 Kg Balsamic Vinegar
0.1 Kg Olive oil
0.005 Kg Salt
0.002 Kg Pepper
0.05 Kg Frisee
0.05 Kg Rocket
0.05 Kg Lollo Rosso

Marinate the peppers with olive oil, salt and pepper roast in the oven at 190 C for 10 minutes
Put in a container and cover with plactic
Cool down a bit, then peel and de pip
Use the juice to do the gelatine mix
Blanch the leeks and put in ice water
Cut the eggplant and zucchini about 5 mm thick deep fry the eggplant, grill the zucchini

Cover a terrine form with plastic wrap put in a layer of leeks coverin all the sides
Then start putting in layers of the vegetables
Always put a bit parmesan and gelatine mix between the layers

Makes 1 terrine or 20 portions

Osso Buco Ticinese

Another lovely dish from my home country, this time from the Italian part of Switzerland. The cuisines in Switzerland have of course been influenced heavily by our neighboring countries like Italy, France, Germany and Austria. Yes of course we have our own identity, but in a place like the centre of Europe it is normal that the influences from the surrounding countries are visible.

Osso Buco means in English the hole in the bone, so basically a slice of the shank. Usually veal is taken, but to be perfectly honest, beef is as good if not better as it has more flavor. The only difference is that one has to cook it for longer.

Typically Osso Buco is served with a coarse polenta, a polenta that has to be cooked for hours as well....no worry even I usually do the polenta the new way, buying "instant) and it is cooked within 5 minutes

 

It is a dish that you have to be a bit patient, it takes several hours to cook, but the wait is worth while

 

Recipe

500 G Osso Bucco 5 cm thick
15 G Salt, pepper
100 Ml Oil
200 G Onion
10 G Garlic
200 G Carrots
150 G Celeriac
150 G Leeks
50 G Tomato paste
20 G Sage, Origano
200 Ml White wine
1000 Ml Brown veal stock
500 Ml Demi glace
300 G Tomatoes

Garlic
Lemon
Parsley

Method
Cut the skin of the osso bucco to prevent shrinking
Cut the vegetables in matignon
Cut tomatoes in concasse
Chop garlic, lemon peel and parsley finely for cremolata
Season osso bucco
Roast in rotissoire till brown on both sides, take out
Pour away oil, then add matignon
Add tomato paste, roast some more, then deglacer with white wine, repeat twice
Add meat, herbs, stock and demi glace
Braise covered in the oven till tender.
Take the meat out carefully
Reduce sauce till nice and thick, add meat and tomatoes
Plate and garnish with cremolata

Serves 10 people

Penne with Lobster

Now, after I showed you all the fun time we had with the fishing, I thought I will share the recipe for the Penne with Lobster. This is really a typical Italian dish, totally simple, but the flavors are just exploding on your palate.

The base is a really good tomato sauce, chunky, not a fine one, a sauce where you are generous with everything, garlic, onions, basil and the ripest plum tomatoes you can find on the market

Then the lobster, it has to be fresh, really fresh. We just boiled it quickly to kill it, then took the tail out, cut it in pieces and added it at the end to the tomato sauce. Like this you got all the lovely lobster flavor, but it won't be overpowering

Then you cook the Penne, OK, again, don't go for your cheap brand on the shelve of the super market, but spend this extra couple of cents and buy a really good brands like De Cecco, you will see it is worth it.

Make sure you cook the pasta really al dente, you want to finish the cooking process in the sauce, that the pasta soaks up all the flavours of the lobster and the sauce, again, you top quality pasta will do that

There are many top restaurants that actually cook the pasta in the sauce, like this you will have the ultimate flavor, I tried it and yes, it really works

OK, now here is the recipe

100 g (3 oz) Onions
50 G (1.5 oz) Garlic
100 ml (3 oz) Olive oil
500 G (1 lb) Tomatoes
50 g (1.5 oz) Basil

2 kg (4 lb) Lobster

1 kg Penne Pasta

Cook the penne pasta al dente and keep on the side

Cut the onions and garlic in fine cubes
Saute in the olive oil without color
Add the quartered tomatoes
Add salt, pepper and basil
Simmer for about half an hour

In the mean time blanch lobster, get the tail meat out and cut in cubes
Add to the tomato soup and simmer for another 5 minuts, season to taste

Add the penne and heat them up in the sauce, serve immediately

The dish tastes best with a generous helping of freshly grated Parmesan

Balsamic Vinegar marinated Strawberries

There is another favorite of mine, the Balsamic marinated Strawberries. It is such a simple dessert, especially if you just serve it with a scoop of ice cream or some whipped cream. All you do is add some sugar to the strawberries and some balsamic vinegar, let it marinate for a couple of hours and Voila, the dessert is ready

I like to do a littl variation of the dessert, a cold Sabayon or Zabaglione in Italian. The proper English translation would be a Wine Foam Cream. But as it doesn't sound so sexy, I think we stick to Sabayon. It is basically egg yolks, sugar, white wine and often a bit Madeira wine that is combined and then beaten over heat till it thickens.....voila, again. It sounds easy, but I have to admit, it is a little tricky to do, to get the right moment to stop as otherwise the cream will be scrambled eggs or it will liquify again

So here is the recipe, you will see it is just so simple and delicious

500 G Strawberries

50 G Sugar

50 Ml Balsamic Vinegar

Clean the strawberries and marinate them with the sugar and balsamic vinegar for a couple of hours

Sabayon

50 Ml Eggyolk

50 Ml White wine

20 G Sugar

100 Ml Whipped cream

500 G Vanilla Ice cream

Whisk the eggyolk, liquid and sugar over a bain marie till light and fluffy

Cool down with an electric beater

Mix with the whipped cream

Make 10 small scoops

Plate the marinated strawberries in a long shaped plate

Drizzle the Sabayon over them

Garnish with one scoop of ice cream and some mint leaves

Reduce the left over Balsamic from the marinade till syrup

Drizzle over the berries just before serving

Gnocchi Piemontese

Let's do something vegetarian, something Italian, something with Potatoes.....Gnocchi. I will not say that I love Gnocchi because I say that with every food but.....yes I do love Gnocchi, hehehe!

They are pretty easy to make, one just needs a little patience and good products. The potatoes of course are paramount as if the potatoes are not good, then the Gnocchi won't turn out right. I always use potatoes that cook "floury" so they are usually grown towards the end of the season and are rather big. So the starch in them is perfect. If they are too young then the starch turns out like glue after mashing the potatoes

Then of course there is the big discussion of the mixing the other ingredients with the potatoes. Some chefs swear by the hot method, everything is mixed as hot as possible and some others cool the potatoes down. In this recipe we cool the potatoes down before pressing them through the masher, it is a safer method but usually uses a bit more flour, so taste a little more "industrial" If one does the hot method one can use less flour, but needs to be more experienced in cooking as the mix easily turns soft (this is a disaster for me, hehehe)

So, let's have a look at the recipe, I am sure you will love it as the outcome is great

Recipe

1500 g Potatoes

550 g Flour

4 ea Eggs Salt and pepper

Method

Boil the potatoes a day ahead in the skin

Peel the potatoes and make sure you have 1 kg left

Press the potatoes through a sieve

Rub the potatoes together with the flour

Season and add the eggs at the end

Mix quickly together to have a dry dough
Form the Gnocchi with rolling a long sausage, then cut it with the knife in small pieces.
Roll the pieces over a fork or a Gnocchi board into boiling salt water
As soon as they swim on top they have to be taken out and put in ice water

Sauce

500 g Tomatoes

100 g Onions

25 g Garlic

Basil

Salt, Pepper

Blanch the tomatoes and put in ice water, peel the skin then chop in cubes

Saute the chopped onion in a little olive oil without color till glossy, then add the garlic, fry some more

Add the tomatoes, season and add the basil

Simmer for 25 minutes, season to taste

Toss the Gnocchi in the tomato and basil sauce, then serve immediately

Generously add Parmesan on top

Caprese Salad

Mmmmmm Caprese, this must be Italian and somehow it is, it is very Italian but it is by now one of the most favorite salads in any corner of the world. The fancy name of Caprese is actually just a simple Tomato and Mozzarella salad, but not just any Mozzarella, it has to be Buffalo Mozzarella.

Buffalo Mozzarella is a fresh cheese that is usually sold in bags swimming in its own water. The taste is absolutely delicious and cannot be compared with these "Mozzarella" Blocks one buys to grate and put on the Pizza. There are as well normal Mozarella balls made from cows milk, they are made exactly the same way like Buffalo Mozzarella, just instead of Buffalo milk one takes Cow's milk.

I see even here this salad is so popular, served not just with Arugla (Rocket) but as well some Endive and Radiccio Lettuce for the color. Of course there is basil and then we make a reduction of Balsamic vinegar and a bit honey that is then mixed up with some really nice Olive Oil

So enough talking, I am getting

already get hungry just thinking about it

10 Each Tomatoes

5 Balls Buffalo Mozzarella

1 Bunch Basil

1 Bunch Rocket lettuce

1 Head Endive lettuce

1 Head Radiccio lettuce

100 Ml Olive Oil

100 Ml Balsamic Vinegar

30 G Honey

Salt Pepper black

Slice the tomatoes Slice the buffalo Mozzarella

Clean the lettuce leaves

Place the lettuce prettily on a large plate

Layer one slice of tomato and then one slice of mozzarella always with a little basil between each slice

Reduce Balsamic vinegar with honey to half

Cool down completely

Drizzle salad with Olive Oil and Balsamic Add some ground pepper

Panzotti Pasta

There are so many different shapes and colors of pasta, it is absolutely incredible, and I know that one could write a big book about it, the recipes, the flavors, the shapes and the origins.

I love pasta, always have and always will. I like to make my own homemade pasta and often I just cook it plain and then serve it with a little fresh butter and grated Parmesan, a dream for me. I like good quality pasta, if I don't make it myself, then I only buy the best available.

Today, we made another pasta that is not that well known, it is called Panzotti. Panzotti are actually nothing else than big, triangular Ravioli. We fill them with spinach and ricotta and serve them on a mirror of tomato sauce, then a little more spinach on top (just to make sure they look pretty and then of course Parmesan.

Filled pasta can be made in advance and then frozen. It makes sense as it is a lot of labor going into homemade pasta and it is worth to just make a bit more and freeze them, so next time you can just take them out the freezer and cook. If you freeze pasta, make sure that you put them in lots of boiling water while still frozen, do not defrost your pasta as otherwise the condensation makes the dough all soft and sticky.

But now to the recipe

PASTA

1kg plain flour

10 eggs

10gm salt

80ml olive oil

METHOD

Combine flour and salt. On a bench make well with flour. In a bowl add eggs and oil. Slowly incorporate the egg mixture with your hands until you form a dough. Knead the dough for about 10mins till a homogenous consistency. Wrap and place in fridge.

FILLING

500 g Ricotta

500 g Spinach

100 g Onions

30 g Garlic

Salt, Pepper

METHOD

Cut the onions and garlic in very fine cubes, saute in butter till glassy.

Add spinach and ricotta. Season to taste. Cool down completely

Roll the pasta dough into thin sheets. Cut squares if the size 10 x 10 cm (3 x 3 Inches). Put a spoonful of the filling in the middle.

Put egg wash around the edges of the dough and fold it triangular like a ravioli. Press the edges gently together.

Cook till al dente.


SMOOTH TOMATO SAUCE

½ box ripe roma tomatoes

¼ head of celery finely chopped

2 large onions finely chopped

5 cloves garlic finely chopped

½ large leek finely chopped

1 bouquet garni

250ml vermouth

500ml nage

METHOD

Peel the roasted tomatoes, sweat the mirepoix, Add tomatoes and deglaze with vermouth. Add nage simmer the sauce until mirepoix is cooked then puree the sauce pass through fine chinois return to the stove heat till right consistency season

and cool.

Risotto

Ahhhh, I just have to make a post about Risotto, I love Risotto and I love cooking Risotto, it is just such a wonderful dish, either on its own or served with meat or fish. Yes it is a rich dish whn made properly but at the same time so versatile and it is even gluten free as the creamyness of the risotto comes from the rice starch

I found some wonderful Chanterel Mushrooms on the market and thought of making a wild mushroom risotto, one of my many favorites as every risotto is a favorite for me.

It is important that a risotto is creamy, but that doesn't mean that there is cream in it. Most chefs in Italy would not speak to you anymore if you ask if they use cream in a risotto, no way! But butter at the end, yes that must go in, plenty of it!

I have added the recipe for you, enjoy it and have a glass of wine while cooking it, I usually cook risotto with friends, it is entertaining, fun and one has a lot to talk while watching the risotto cook.

50 Ml (2 oz) Olive Oil
100 G (4 oz) Butter
600 G (1.25 lb) Risotto Rice
500 G (1 lb) Chanterel Mushrooms
250 G (0.5 lb) Brown Button Mushrooms
150 (5 oz) G Parmesan
200 G (7 oz) Onions
1600 (1.6 quart) Ml Water or a light chicken or beef stock
200 (7 floz) Ml White Wine
Salt

Cut the onions in a fine brunoise
Shallow-fry the onions in olive oil without color
Add the rice and shallow-fry some more
Add the white wine and water
Add Mushrooms
Season and simmer for about 15 min
Just before serving add the parmesan and ice
cold butter

The risotto must be slightly al dente and creamy

Serves 10 pax