An Italian Food Fair

Dish of the Week: Three Courses of Italian Food

As you have probably noticed from my food blogs so far- I am a massive fan of the Italian cuisine!!! This weekend I had some girlfriends over for lunch, and being my usual self I spent quite a lot of time deciding on the menu. I did my usual trick of looking through my favourite magazine 'Gourmet Traveller" and searched the internet for inspiration and new recipes to try out. Since I love cooking and I love my friends I wanted the lunch to be a real treat! Hence I decided to go for an Italian Food Theme paired with matching wines. 

I think the combination of the three courses I cooked went really well together, and it was pretty easy to make. My preference is to do as much of the preparations needed before the guests arrive, so that I can spend valuable time sitting around the dining table enjoying the food and chatting about the latest tricks, and these three courses allowed me to do just that!

Starter: Ciabatta bread with Prociutto and Bon Taleggio Cheese

Serves 4 people

Ingredients: 

4 slices of Italian rustic bread (I used Ciabatta)

1 clove of garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 slices of prosciutto

Fontina Cheese (I couldn’t get this from local deli and used Mauri- Bon Taleggio Cheese instead)

10 cherry tomatoes

Handful of rocket leaves

Cut the bread into reasonably big slices, rub each slice with garlic and olive oil and grill both sides in the stove. Add a slice of prosciutto, a slice of the cheese and serve with halved cherry tomatoes and some rocket leaves on top. Since I couldn't get hold of Fontina cheese from my local deli, I had to opt for something else. The lovely man serving me at Norton Street grocer in Bondi Junction dared me to try a Mauri- Bon Taleggio Cheese with it, and I don't regret that at all 

If you are interested in cheese here is some information about Taleggio Cheeses:

They were first made in the area of Val Taleggio in the Northern areas of Italy known as Lombardy which borders the Swiss Alps. Due to the alpine climate the area produces great quality silage for dairy cows, and with little fertilizers and chemicals in the pasture land it can be seen to be a cheese maker’s paradise. It is creamy in texture with a sharp aroma, and is quite savoury due to its 48% fat content!

In the "Gourmet Wine Traveller" magazine they recommended serving the starter with a 2008 Chrismont Rosato Mezzanotte- King Valley Rose Wine- whereas we enjoyed it with a Sparkling Rose from Yarra Burn (Yarra Valley) 2006 Pinot Noir Chardonnay Rose.    

Main: Home made Fettuccine with Gorgonzola Cheese Sauce

Serves 4 people

Ingredients: 

Pasta: 

3 eggs

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Pinch of salt

300 grams of 00 flour

Gorgonzola Cheese Sauce:

250g of sweet (dolce) Gorgonzola cheese

3 tablespoons of cream

4 slices of Pancetta

100 g of walnuts

1 bunt of fresh chives

I have a pasta maker at home, and for those of you who don't have one yourself, you will probably assume that it is hard to make your own pasta. I promise you it's not!!! My flatmate in Canberra had one and she taught me how to use it, and after getting used to fresh pasta there is no way back to the supermarket option. It doesn't take as long as you would think, and since it only needs to cook for 3 minutes it can get ready in 45 minutes. 

Mix eggs, salt and olive oil in a bowl and add the flour little by little. I use a whisk or a spatula to combine the pasta dough. When it is getting quite firm I put it on a lightly floured bench top and kneed it until it is not sticky. Be careful to not add too much flour as it can get a bit dry. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes. I won’t get in to details of how you put it through the pasta maker machine as it is self explanatory if you have one. All I will say is that if you don't have one- it is the best 140 Australian dollars I have ever spent on a kitchen utensil. Needless to say that this meal can be served with fettuccine bought from the shop as well!  

The Gorgonzola Cheese Sauce was made on Poh's Kitchen to be served with homemade gnocchi and the pancetta was not a part of it. I decided to borrow some of the ingredients from the recipe and add a few touches to it for the fettuccine. To make the sauce place broken -up sweet (dolce) Gorgonzola cheese in a frying pan on low heat and add three table spoons of cream. Cooking it on low heat will allow the cheese to melt slowly. In a small cooking pan add some oil and fry Pancetta that has been cut roughly and set aside. Add the cooked pasta to the melted Gorgonzola cheese sauce and stir it though. Garnish the dish with chopped walnuts, drizzle with Pancetta and finely chopped chives. 

Sweet (dolce) Gorgonzola Cheese is best paired up with a sweet dessert wine, and this works well if you are serving it with a cheese board. However, I didn't want to serve the main course with a dessert wine, and since I had both red and white wine drinkers over for lunch I decided to cater for both. My friend Emily (who is a fellow foodie) was so kind that she gave me a great wine to try out with the dish, which was an Italian style wine produced by Brokenwood in the Hunter Valley called Nebbiolo, and it tasted great! (http://www.brokenwood.com.au/) Nebbiolo style red wines go really well with pasta as it is a little bit acidic in flavour (a common characteristic of Nebbiolo wines is ‘tar and roses’) hence it won’t overpower the palate and you will taste the flavours of the food better. If you are a white wine drinker a white wine with a sweet touch to it would go best with this dish- I served it with Hungerford Hill’s Fishcage- Sweetlip wine, but I know that it’s now out of production so would be hard for you to get a hold of.   

Dessert- Baked pears with Marsala

Serves 4 people


This is a great dessert that I found in an Italian Issue of the “Gourmet Traveller” magazine, and it introduced me to the great wonders of the Sicilian fortified wines called Marsala.

Ingredients:

Serves 4 people

4 ripe pears, halved

160 ml of water

250 ml of Marsala or Italian dessert wine

120 gram of caster sugar

180g of mascarpone

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds removed.

I started with mixing the Mascarpone cheese and the vanilla seeds together (Mascarpone cheese bought in the shops is approximately 250g, and I used the whole lot). I put the mix in the fridge and kept it there until I was ready to serve the dessert. I also put the remainder of the bottle of Marsala wine in the fridge so that I could serve it cold.

I cut the pears in two but think next time I will cut the pears in four pieces instead. Place the pears in a large sauce pan with the skin down and add water, Marsala and caster sugar. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 20 minuted with a lid on (this depends on how long it takes for the pears to get tender). Put the pears on a plate and let them cool, and keep the sauce in the pan and let it continue to simmer on low heat until it thickens. Serve the pears with a dollop of the vanilla mascarpone and drizzle it with sauce, and a glass of chilled Marsala wine.

I apologies that I don’t have photos available on my blog for the dessert, but here is a link to the recipe and picture online:http://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/baked-pears-with-marsala.htm

Like the Italians say: Buon Appetito!

Linnemoren