Boar Stew Ingredients

• 500 grams of wild boar meat, cut into cubes
• Tomato sauce
• ½ carrot
• ½ liter red wine
• ½ onion
• ¾ bay leaves
• 1 clove garlic
• 2/3 costoline celery
• Juniper berries
• Some rosemary leaves
• 2 sage leaves
• Some leaves of parsley
• Fat bacon or sausage
• Cooking oil

Equipment:

• Large saucepan enough for the wild boar meat to fit in
• Large bowl for seasoning

Wild Boar Stew Directions

You will have to start preparation a night before the day you wish to serve the dish. The wild boar meat needs to be marinated with herbs and red wine overnight. Take a large bowl and submerge all the wild boar pieces in red wine, rosemary, carrot, onion, celery and parsley.

Next morning, take out the wild boar meat, separate any herbs attached to it and cut the meat in to large pieces. Cut carrot, onion, celery, parsley and rosemary in to small pieces. Take a saucepan with a thin layer of olive oil and water on medium heat. Put the vegetables and herbs on the saucepan for a while until they are tender. Finally add boar meat pieces on to the saucepan on high heat.

If the flesh of the wild boar is very thin, then add fat bacon or sausage to fill the saucepan. Give it some time while heating to absorb the juices from the vegetables and seasoning. Add tomato sauce while the meat is cooking, with occasional stirring.

Let it cook for about 3 hours and observe it time to time. If you notice that the broth is drying up then adds some hot water to continue cooking. As the tomato sauce will dissipate and get absorbed by the meat, it will be ready with a constant brownish color.

Tips

• You can use olives and polenta as a side dish
• You can also use lemon to marinate to give it a new bend of taste
• Do not rush the dish because the meat takes time to cook
• If you want to add pasta, then add another 500 grams of tomato sauce
• To make the sauce thicker, add boiled and sliced potatoes

The history of pizza began with a flatbread seasoned with various Mediterranean flavors and seasonings which were earlier called as Plankuntos. These were traditionally cooked on a hot stone by the Greeks which highly resemble the focaccia bread that we enjoy today. Pizza is a Latin word that translates to “flat bread”. Later on, the Mediterranean ancestors brought this dish to Italy, where cheese, vegetables, and other toppings were used to enhance its flavor. Since then, many pizza flavors were created and discovered making Italy a haven for pizza lovers.

This might make you hungry for a slice of pizza. But nothing will come close to a homemade pizza meal that you can do on your own. Making your own pizza crust from scratch is just as easy as calling for delivery. With your personalized pizza creation, you can try out different flavors and combinations to come up with your new favorite dish. Searching online for a pizza crust recipe might be quite confusing but as a beginner, this easy recipe would be the perfect one for you.

Here are the ingredients you will need:

Ingredients

4 cups sifted flour

1 ¼ cup of warm water

2 packages of dry yeast

2 teaspoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

Directions

Basically, it’s as easy as this. so let’s get started:

Stir in the yeast in warm water until it dissolves. Add the flour, one cup at a time, to the mixture until it becomes stiff. You will start to notice that it becomes difficult to stir with a spoon. This will tell you that you are now ready for kneading.

On a flat surface, sprinkle a small amount of flour and knead the dough mixture for at least 10 minutes or until the dough becomes elastic and free of lumps. Shape the dough into a ball and set aside.

Grease a bowl slightly with olive oil. Place the rounded dough into the bowl and lightly grease the top. Cover the bowl, preferably with a plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for an hour. After an hour, you will now observe how the dough was able to rise and double in size.

Preheat your over to 500 degrees F
Knead the dough on a floured surface once more. Make sure that you are able to get rid of bubbles by punching into the dough. You can divide this into two to make two batches of 10 inch thick crust or 12 inch thin crust pizza dough.

Transfer these into an oiled pizza pan and let it rest for ten minutes more.

Add the sauce, cheese, and toppings that you like. Brush the edges of the pizza crust with olive oil. Bake this on a preheated oven at 500 degrees F for 15 minutes or as soon as the cheese melts evenly.

Tips

You can make variations with the pizza dough, you may prefer to make it without yeast or add herbs such as basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, rosemary, and sage. Your pizza need not be round at all times. You may also want to try square pans which kids would surely enjoy. This dough recipe may also be used to make calzone or deep dish pizza. For those who prefer a healthier pizza crust, replace the flour with 2 cups of whole wheat flour for this recipe to add more texture and an earthy flavor to your dish. An inspiration is also pie crust. If you know the one, you know how to make the other.

Pasta becomes al forno once it is cooked twice. The first method is by boiling so that the pasta will become alive. The next part requires baking the dish in the oven. Often, the problem arises because it will not become al dente. This is why there are only some pasta dishes which are being recommended to be cooked al forno style. One popular pasta is the lasagna.

The term al forno can be used in various ways. The stricter usage of this term refers to the use of traditional wood fired brick ovens. On the other hand, al forno can loosely refer to the use of conventional ovens that are being used in modern recipes such as ziti al forno and a casserole.

Ingredients

1 Cheese Tortellini

2 heads Radicchio, cut in 1” pieces

1 medium red Onion, sliced paper thin

2 cups Salsa Balsamella

½ cup Parmesan, Reggiano, Parmesan Cheese, grated

3 tablespoons extra virgin Olive Oil

2 tablespoons Salt

Directions

Preheat your oven to 425°F.

In a large saucepot, bring water to a boil. Add salt.

In a separate pan, heat oil. Once it starts smoking, add in the onions.

Cook the onions until they soften but don’t let them brown, around 1-2 minutes.

Add the radicchio. Cook until they soften and turn a lightly gray color, around 5-6 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let cool.

Drop tortellini into the boiling water. Let cook until they become tender.

Drain gently and place cooked tortellini in large mixing bowl. Add the balsamella, cooled radicchio mixture, and half of the grated cheese.

Gently stir and mix well.

Divide onto 4 buttered gratin dishes. Top each dish with remaining cheese. Bake until they become bubbly and have a crust on top, approximately 20 minutes.

Serve tortellini al forno immediately.

Tips

Serve with a dry, red wine.

Ingredients

1 lb. fresh Asparagus

1½ cup uncooked Arborio rice

2 cups Vegetable or Chicken Broth

2 cups Water

½ cup Heavy Cream

½ cup Onion, chopped

¼ cup Parmigiano cheese, grated

2 tablespoons Butter

½ teaspoon Salt

¼ teaspoon White Pepper, ground

Dry White Wine

Directions

In a saucepan, heat broth and water over medium heat until it simmers. Reduce heat to low and let it stay warm.

In a large saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Cook asparagus until they become tender and crisp. Remove the asparagus and set it aside. On the same pan, cook onion with the remaining tablespoon of butter until it becomes soft.

Add Arborio rice, stir for 2-3 minutes. Add the wine, stir until it has been absorbed. Increase the heat to medium high. Add 1 cup of the water-broth mixture. Let cook uncovered, frequently stirring until the liquid has been absorbed.

Add 1 cup of water-broth mixture at a time while continually stirring the rice. Allow each cup to be absorbed by the rice before you add another cup. Cook the rice until it becomes tender and gets a creamy consistency, around 25-30 minutes.

Add in cream, cheese, asparagus, salt, and pepper. Keep stirring until the mixture becomes creamy, around 2-3 minutes. Serve risotto agli asparagi immediately.

Tips

If you want a healthier version of this dish, omit the heavy cream and continue with the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients

1 lb. minced Beef

50 ml Milk

30 ml Red Wine

1 can Chopped Tomatoes

2 cloves Garlic, peeled

1 large Carrot, peeled

½ large Onion, peeled

2 pinches Dried Oregano

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 tablespoon Tomato Puree

1 Bay Leaf

6 sheets Non-cook Lasagna sheets

Salt and Pepper

Pinch of ground Nutmeg

For the Sauce:

• 1/8 lb Butter
• 1/8 lb Flour
• 300 ml Milk
• ¼ lb Cheddar Cheese, grated
• 1/8 lb Parmesan Cheese, grated

Directions

Preheat oven to 437°F.

In a hot pan, heat olive oil. Grate carrot and onion. Crush garlic before frying the three together. Season with pinch of oregano, bay leaf, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Let onion soften before creating a well in the middle of pan. Place the mince in the center of pan, stir to break it up.

Add tomato puree and let cook for 30 seconds. Continue until the meat has evenly browned. Add wine and let the alcohol cook off before adding tomatoes. Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add milk. Turn off heat and set the mixture aside.

For the cheese sauce: melt butter in saucepan. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour to form a paste.

Over moderate heat, add 1/3 of milk. Whisk to prevent lumps from forming. Add remaining milk one at a time, while whisking. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Let the sauce cook for an additional minute before adding Cheddar cheese. Stir and remove from heat.

Spoon half of meat sauce onto the bottom of a baking dish. Place lasagna sheets on top. Pour in half of cheese sauce. Using a spatula, spread evenly before spooning remaining meat on top of it. Add final layer of lasagna sheets and use the spatula again to pour the remaining cheese sauce.

Finish the dish with grated Parmesan. Sprinkle with a pinch of oregano. Also add a light seasoning of salt and pepper. Place inside oven and let bake for 20-25 minutes, or until it has turned golden brown.

Remove from oven and serve this lasagne al Forno.

Tips

Serve alongside salad to get a healthy and complete meal.

In Italian, this dish is called Penne al Salmone in Bianco.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Penne, Tagliarini or Farfalle
• 5 oz. smoked Salmon, chopped coarsely
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• ½ small Onion, chopped finely
• Parsley
• Salt and Pepper

Directions

Cook pasta according to instructions.

In a heavy pan, melt butter. Saute with chopped onion until onion becomes soft and translucent.

Add half of the chopped smoked salmon and cream.

Gently let the mixture warm through, blending thoroughly with the use of a wooden spoon.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain well.

Toss pasta in a serving bowl. Add cream and the salmon sauce. Thoroughly stir and sprinkle freshly ground black pepper.

Serve pasta with smoked salmon sauce with a garnish of parsley.

Tips

The dish is ideal once the sauce is ready and the pasta has just finished cooking (6-10 minutes).

Ingredients

• 10 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• 1 lb. Pasta
• 1½ cups Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese, grated
• Salt and Pepper

Directions

Cook pasta according to instructions.

In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add ½ cup of the pasta cooking water and let heat through.

Toss in al dente pasta to the pan. Add cheese and let heat through. Season the dish with salt and pepper before serving butter and cheese sauce pasta.

Tips

When it comes to cooking cheese, there are some things that can help in order to get the required consistency:

Heating Time

When it comes to heating cheese, the lesser time is better. This is particularly true when you are making sauce, soup or even fondue. The cheese should be added to the pan last. It is only good to heat it long enough until it starts to melt. This is because if you let cheese boil, it will turn tough and curdled.

Another option is to remove the pan from the stove so that the residual heat can melt the cheese naturally.

Before Heating

A good tip to make sure you get a quick and smooth melting process for the cheese is to crumble, shred or finely dice it. The easiest time to do this is when it is cold. In addition, shredded cheese should come to room temperature before it is added onto a hot mixture.

Prevent Curdling

If you want an additional tip to prevent curdling, you can make use of starch such as cornstarch, potato flour or all purpose flour. When you are using all purpose flour, you can add it to the mixture before you toss in the cheese. This is so you can remove its starchy taste by cooking for a few minutes.

Stringy Cheeses

To prevent cheese from getting stringy, you can add an acidic ingredient like lemon juice or wine. This is the reason why most fondues use white wine as a base.

Alfredo is a sauce recipe which has the two basic ingredients of cheese and cream. Although the dish can be dated back to Italy, it was the US tourists in Rome that popularized the sauce. These tourists got to taste the dish in Rome by a restaurateur named Alfredo di Lelio that served the sauce with his own name attached to it. For this reason, the Fettuccine al burro is often associated with every tourist in Rome. This can also be because the original Alfredo sauce was successful when it was served in a reminiscent of the grand opera.

The story of the restaurant behind this dish is that di Lelio invented the Alfredo sauce at his restaurant called Alfredo alla Scrofa back in 1914. It was said that di Lelio created the sauce in an attempt to produce a variation of the Fettuccine al burro. The restaurant then became famous when Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford stopped in and found the dish memorable during their honeymoon back in 1927. In lieu of the dish, they presented a golden fork and spoon as well as a photo of them dining in his restaurant. The newlyweds then served the dish to their friends when they went back to Hollywood. For this, the new meal’s popularity spread like wildfire. And the rest is history.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 1½ cups Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated
• ¼ cup Butter
• ¼ cup fresh Parsley, chopped
• 1 clove Garlic, crushed

Directions

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat.

Add the cream and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Add cheese and garlic, whisk quickly so that it heats through.

Stir in the parsley, mix Alfredo sauce with pasta before serving.

Tips

Other names for this sauce include Pasta al burro (pasta with butter) in south Italy and Pasta in bianco (pasta with white) in the north. You might be interested in a larger collection of Alfredo recipes.

If you are interested in knowing the history of this sauce, it will differ depending on who you got the information from. But the origins of this sauce recipe are usually traced back to Abruzzo, an Italian region which is an isolated vicinity around 50 miles east of Rome. This region was once distinguished by its poverty and underdevelopment. However, the region has experienced significant growth in the past few decades. And along with this growth, they have been considered as one of the most flourishing areas throughout the country.

Aglio e Olio is a basic sauce which only needs minced or pressed garlic sautéed gently in Olive oil until it turns barely crisp. Most cooks are wary about this recipe since there is a fine line between browning and burning the garlic. Once the garlic has burned though, the dish will become bitter and is inedible.

Traditionally, the garlic-oil combination is tossed with grated hard cheeses like Parmesan or Romano and is served covered with long pastas. Historically, the reason why long pastas were chosen for this dish is because they could easily be made at home kitchens as compared to the fancier short varieties of pasta.

Ingredients

• 8 cloves Garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 cup Italian Olive Oil
• 1 cup Water
• 1 ½ teaspoon Parsley, finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon Black Pepper, freshly grated
• ½ teaspoon Oregano
• 1 teaspoon Salt

Directions

Saute garlic in oil in a saucepan over medium heat until garlic has turned golden brown.

Add water and let simmer for 5 minutes, occasionally stirring.

Add the parsley and the seasonings, let simmer uncovered for an additional 10 minutes.

Combine Aglio e Olio sauce with pasta before serving.

Tips

Aglio e Olio can have various variations simply by adding a few ingredients to this basic sauce recipe. Some variations include adding hot pepper flakes, finely chopped Italian parsley leaves, or chopped fresh tomatoes.

To make this sauce alla Milanese (Milan), breadcrumbs are added on the last minutes of cooking garlic so that they become crisp and have added texture.

Ingredients

1 lb. Chicken Livers, trim and pat dry

2 ounces Bacon, thickly sliced and cut into 1x¼” pieces

1 medium Onion, finely diced

1 Apple, peeled, cored and cut to ¼” dice

6 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, chilled

2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

¼ cup Brandy

24 slices Baguette, toasted

Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper

As garnish: Small Sage Leaves

Directions

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter with olive oil until they foam in a large skillet. Add in chicken livers, cook over high heat. Turn once or twice or until they have browned (3 minutes) Transfer liver to small bowl.

Add bacon to skillet, cook over medium heat. Stir until it has turned brown and crisp (5 minutes). Use a slotted spoon to transfer bacon to paper towel lined plate so that the excess oil can be drained out.

Add onion to skillet, cook over medium heat. Stir frequently or until it has softened and browned lightly (10 minutes). Add in apple, reducing heat to low. Cook, stirring until it turns very soft and about to break down (additional 10 minutes). Add in brandy to skillet. Carefully ignite using a long match. Allow alcohol to burn off on its own.

Add ¼ cup of apple mixture to bacon. Put remaining apple mixture in blender along with chicken liver, blend until smooth. Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter, puree until mixture turns creamy.

Let chicken liver mousse pass through fine strainer and into a bowl. If you prefer a chunkier mousse, omit this step.

Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate mousse until firm (30 minutes).

Spread chicken liver mousse on toasted baguette slices. Garnish chicken liver crostini with bacon-apple mixture and with sage leaves before serving.

Tips

If you’re pressed for time, you can make the apple-bacon garnish and the mousse ahead. Just make sure they are refrigerated separately up to 2 days. Before serving, allow them to return to room temperature.