8th March : Women's Day ! Let's celebrate with "Torta Mimosa"

Torta Mimosa

Ingredients :
200g Flour
4 Eggs and 8 Yolks
40g Potato Starch
220g Sugar
For the "Crema Pasticcera" :
55g Flour
300ml Milk
300ml Cream
8 Yolks
Hallf a stick of vanilla
200g Sugar
For the Whipped Cream :
200ml of fresh cream
20g Icing Sugar

Lets start preparing "Pan di Spagna" with the first set of Ingredients :
Mix together the the whole eggs and the sugar,whisk them for at least 10-15 mins (i suggest using a robot if avaliable). Add the yolks and keep mixing for another 5-6 minutes then add to the mixture the flour and the starch previously sieved.
Butter two baking pan (22-24 cm of diameter)  and flour them,put the mixture inside and cook at 180°-190° for 30 minutes; once ready turn them upside down on a sheet of baking paper and let them cool.
In the meanwhile let's prepare "Crema Pasticcera" :
Put the milk and the cream together in a pan and just before they boil stop the fire.
In another pan mix the sugar and the yolks with a wooden spoon then add the flour and the seeds of the vanilla stick that you have already cut.
Add to the mixture the hot milk & cream then whisk all together on the fire,let it thicken up,and when it starts boiling gently take it away from the fire and pour it in a large basin and cover with film,then put in the fridge to cool down.
Let's prepare a liqueour : put 50g of sugar with 50g of Cointreau and 100ml of water to boil then put aside to chill.
Whisk the cream (must be very cold) with a mixer,when it thickens up add the icing sugar and stop whisking,putting the cream in the fridge.
When both the "Crema Pasticcera" and the Whipped Cream are cold,mix them together gently,but save a couple of spoons of whipped cream that we will need later.
Now let's get back to the "Pan di Spagna" : remove the dark cover from both of them,cut horizontaly and split in three parts while with the other one use one half for the same thing and the other  half to make little cubes of about 1cm.
It's now time to put all together :
Let's start putting the first disk and wet it with the liqueour prepared,then add first one of the saved spoon of whipped cream and after the crema pasticcera mixed with the cream. repeat the same procedure over and over until you've used all the disks,then cover with the remaining crema pasticcera and use the little cubes you've prepared first to cover it all using the crema as "glue".

Extra Virgin Olive oil guide presentation by Fausto Borrella

 Just a few more days,then,the 25th of February 2012 in Lucca @ Villa Bottini will be presented the 2012 Extra Virgin Olive oil guide.
The event wil be presented in the suggestive "Salone degli Affreschi" by Fausto Borrella,president of the "Accademia Maestro dell'olio".

Befanini

Among the traditional Tuscan dishes that we prepare, Befanini is one that stands out from the rest due to the story it represents. In Italy, the Epiphany, also known as the Feast of the Three Kings, is celebrated on January 6th. Italian legend says that during the journey of the Three Kings to find Baby Jesus, they encountered an old woman named Befana. Although Befana did not join the Three Kings, she departed later with baked goods and her broom in search of the Baby Jesus. In her quest to find the Baby Jesus, Befana visits the homes of all children on the eve of January 6th to leave treats and gifts. Many families here still prepares Befanini to celebrate the Epiphany.

Merry Christmas....and a gift of Persimmon Panforte !

Hello everyone,
Sorry for the long absence,i have a newborn baby to take care of now :) he's just 2 months old now and he's so cute ! I'll be keep posting from the new year....!

I wish all of you a Merry Merry Christmas and a Beatiful 2012 !

Aurelio

Persimmon Panforte


Ingredients :

1 Cup of mashed persimmon
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Cup of Flour
2 Cups full of these mixed : walnuts,candied fruits,raisins,pinenuts,almonds,dried figs,orange skin.
2 Eggs
a pinch of salt,pepper,parmesan and nutmeg.


Mix all the ingredients together,then put the mixture in a round cake pan and cook for about 40 minutes at about 180°.


Once it's ready take it out the oven and sprinkle with icing sugar once it's chilled.

The traditional way of chestnut drying process (Metato)

The chestnut tree is a plant known and apppreciated since ancient times. Indeed, it is mentioned in the Bible and in Homer's poems, while the Greeks called its fruits "Jupiter's acorns". In Italy it has been widespread since ancient times, above all in the Appennines between 300 and 1000 metres of height. Since the Middle Ages until almost our days the chestnut has been the feeding base for mountain peoples, as it is shown by many legislative acts related to chestnut woods promulgated during the centuries. The Gavinana Statutes in 1540, for example, expected landowners to pick their chestnuts within the month of November. After that, poor people could go without restriction and pick the fruits which had been left. On this subject, ther is a popular belief that the husk holds three chestnuts: one for the landowner, one for the peasant and one for the Poor. In order to be milled, chestnuts must be previously dried.n Tuscany the drying took place in the "metato", a rural building set up in the harvest place. Somewhere, in the Appennines north of Pistoia and in the Garfagnana area for instance, this building was an integral part of the dwelling house: it substituted the kitchen and it was a meeting place where people stayed up late. 

Chestnuts were set to dry on a reed-bed, that is on a structure built up with close boards or reeds whose nearness to the kitchen-fireplace granted an even heating. Pascoli recollects it in one of his poems: "lonely metato in which the sweet wooden bread dried up on a sweet fire: over the reed-bed the chestnuts crack, and the red fire burns in the darkness." (The log, in Castelvecchio Poems) Once dried up, the chestnuts were husked by a strong beating which ground the shells in strong sacks or in a proper container called vat. Today this way of proceeding has been substituted by proper husking machines. Also the metati have almost entirely disappeared. The places once used for that purpose have been changed into dwelling rooms or tool storerooms.

                                                                   Thanks to Margherita Azzari