Recipes
Mamma Lucinda’s Pizzoccheri
This recipe, the subject of my Match of the Week, was so delicious I've persuaded Christine Smallwood, whose lovely book An Appetite for Lombardy it comes from, to share it on the site.
The recipe comes from Anna Bertola of Trattoria Altavilla in Bianzone. As Christine says "Anna uses delicious local mountain potatoes and serves very generous portions. You may well only require half of the quantity given here, unless you’ve had a particularly energetic day."
If you don't have the time or inclination to make the pasta from scratch you can buy a dried version from Italian delis such as Lina in Soho.
Serves 6
Pizzoccheri:
600g buckwheat flour
300g white 00 flour
1 tsp salt
400-500ml water, as needed
300g potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
150g Savoy cabbage, cut into wide strips
300g young Valtellina Casera DOP cheese or Fontina, thinly sliced
150g Parmesan, grated
1/2 white onion
150g butter (this may well be authentic but seems an awful lot of butter. Think I'd probably use a third as much! FB)
Salt and pepper, to taste
To make the pizzoccheri, mix the two flours and the salt together. Add the water and knead for about 10 minutes. Roll out to about 3mm thick with a rolling pin. Cut out lengths of about 8cm wide and then cut these widthwise so that you have tagliatelle of about 7mm wide
Cook the potatoes in salted water and after about 5 minutes add the cabbage. When the water returns to the boil, add the pizzoccheri and bring the water back to a gentle boil.
After about 10 minutes drain some of the pizzoccheri, potatoes and cabbage with a perforated spoon, placing them into a baking dish. Place some slices of cheese on top, along with some Parmesan and then continue alternating layers of pizzoccheri and cheese.
Fry the onion in the butter and when browned, scatter over the top of the pizzoccheri. Serve on a pre-heated plate, with freshly ground pepper to taste.
What to drink: A Valtellina red such as the one we tried at Wild Artichokes or a Carterìa Valtellina Superiore Valgella D.O.C.G which is made from Chiavennasca, the local name for Nebbiolo.
This recipe comes from An Appetite for Lombardy by Christine Smallwood which is available to buy off her website for £18.
Lamb and porcini kebabs with sage and parmesan
Maybe I've got a bit overexcited with all the sun this week but the barbecue season doesn't seem that far away so it was good to find Dan Vaux-Nobes' 101 BBQ and Grill recipes arriving through my letterbox.
Dan (who's a friend so maybe I'm just a teeny bit biased) has selected some great recipes and given each a practical and quite often hilarious introduction, typical of his blog Essex Eating. The intro below is comparatively restrained but he picked the recipe because it was one of his favourites from the book and could also be cooked on a ridged grill which is useful since it could well be snowing next week. You never know at this time of year.
This is what he says: (good tip about the porcini!)
"Beautiful Italian flavours of sage, porchini mushroom and parmesan are used here to compliment chunks of chargrilled lamb. The recipe calls for fresh porcini which unless you live in rural Italy isn't the easiest (or cheapest) thing to obtain so use the dried and reconstituted in water variety - just make sure you get a pack with dried pieces and not a bag of dried dust. Good luck with threading that on a skewer! Otherwise use chestnut mushrooms. Lovely stuff!"
serves 4
1 lb. (500g) tender lamb, from the leg or shoulder, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
freshly squeezed juice of 1–2 lemons
leaves from a bunch of fresh sage, finely chopped (reserve a few whole leaves)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4–8 fresh medium-sized porcini/ceps cut into quarters or thickly sliced
To serve
truffle oil, to drizzle
Parmesan cheese shavings
grilled or toasted sourdough bread
* Put the lamb pieces in a bowl and toss in the oil and lemon juice. Add the sage and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cover, refrigerate, and leave to marinate for about 2 hours.
* Thread the lamb onto skewers adding a quarter, or slice, of porcini every so often with a sage leaf. Brush with any of the marinade left in the bowl. Prepare a charcoal grill. Cook the kebabs for 3–4 minutes on each side.
* Serve immediately with a drizzle of truffle oil, Parmesan shavings, and toasted sourdough bread, if liked.
What to drink: Frankly any medium-bodied red would be pretty good with this but given the influence is Italian I'd probably go for a Chianti or other Tuscan red. That said, a pinot noir would be great too, especially with the truffle oil.
101 BBQ and Grill Recipes compiled by Dan Vaux-Nobes (CICO Books, £12.99)
Photos © Richard Jung
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