Friday evening pizza @ Teurastamo

 best pizza we've eaten in years @ Pizza Pala. Worth trying if you're around. 

When in Laajasalo...

If you pass by Jollaksentie (54b), you should make a stop @ Fornitaly. Real italian pizzas made by real italians. There's only 3 tables outside the building as Fornitaly is not a real restaurant, more like a click & collect place. And indeed, lots of people came to collect their orders while we were eating. They do Tiramisu as well (portion for 2 - 10€). Very good indeed.

Tagliatelle al salmone

Based on actual italian recipe, and made with what I could find in the fridge: mix well the ricotta and fresh goat cheeses (can be replaced with mascarpone) with lemon juice, chopped basil (not on the pic obviously - can be replaced with dill), black pepper, very little salt and a couple of organic extra virgin olive oil spoons. Cook the tagliatelles (organic as well) and reserve 2/3 spoons of cooking water to add to the cheese mix. When cooked, quickly put the pastas in a bowl, add the sauce, the chopped smoked salmon, stir and serve immediately in hot plates. The sauce shouldn't cook. The ingredients being a room temperature at least 1h. in advance, it takes less than 20min. to do this dish, and it's delish.

Serve with a good italian white wine.

 

Antipasto

Found these italian black truffle sausages in k-citymarket Sello, which gave us the occasion to do a great italian antipasto: "Salsiccia e mozarella al forno". Dead easy to do and super quick to cook.

The sausages have been gently roasted in a deep pan with a bit of sun flower oil, lid on for 10min. Once cooked, they've been butterflied (split open), and placed in small oven plates. The filtered juice has been poured on the sausages (you can eventually add some crushed tomatoes or a few spoons of Marsala in it) as well as generous pieces of fresh mozarella di buffalo on top. A bit of black pepper and cayenne and to the oven under the hot grill for a few min. until the cheese melted.

Best enjoyed on its own with a good country bread and a glass of italian red or white. Yummi.

Sunday morning cappuccino

 Can't beat the italians to this...

Charcuterie

If you go to Stockmann food market (city center), you can now buy this "Pâté en Croûte Richelieu" - or pâté in a pastry crust "Richelieu". This is the exact same pâté on sale in most french food markets at roughly the same price (30€/kg). As a french, I can eat kilos of this stuff, as it is one of my all-time favorite. If you haven't tried it yet buy some, and like me, you'll be soon addicted. As far as I know and unlike in France, it's only on sale at around the end of the year for Christmas.

We served the pâté at dinner with a bit of italian cold cuts...

... with some more french pâtés (chilli & mushrooms), olives and baby gherkins.

Bottles of Amore della Valpolicella Zenato Classico 2017 complete the dinner.

 

Classic italian

One can find in Stockmann - but surely elsewhere as well - Vongole shellfish. 30€ a bag of 1kg may seem expensive - and it is - but "Spagetti alle Vongole" is the one pasta dish we die to eat every once in a while. And it's super easy to do. Simply finely chop a bit of garlic and make it fry in olive oil. Then add the Vongole and a glass of dry white wine, and let them cook lid on for a min. or so. As soon as they open, remove the Vongole from the pan and let the juice reduce by one half. Then add a bit of lemon juice, fresh butter, chopped parsley, salt & pepper and let the sauce finnish to cook. Put back the Vongole in the warm sauce, add cooked spagettis, stir and serve.

And voila. 

Useless to say, this must hit your wallet hard in a restaurant. That is if you can find one in town doing this kind of pasta dish.

This "Roncà Monte Calvarina Runcata" from the Verona province is a very good match for shellfish. (Alko)

 

Riso italiano

We've developed along the years a real liking for risottos. There are infinite ways & variations to do them, with veggies, seafood, meat, etc... They're simple and yet complex, needing only a few good ingredients and a good dose of skill. Because it's now aspargus time in Finland - as restaurants adds everywhere can testify - we decided to do a "Risotto agli asparagi".

The one important thing for risottos is the stoke. The better the stoke, the tastier the rice. And in the same way, the thiner the green aspargus are, the better. (and the thicker the white aspargus the better) So, we cut roughly 1/3 of the green aspargus (the heads) that we pre-cooked in a steamer basket for a few min. just for them to be still crunchy, and reserved them on a plate. Then we made a stoke with the aspargus butts, a carrot, an onion, salt and pepper, and let it simmer for 15min.

In a cast iron casserole, we gently fried an onion and some chopped garlic in a mix of olive oil and butter. When soft, the rice was added, and stirred for a few min. then, a glass of dry white wine, and the hot aspargus stoke, little by little. The tricky part is to stir the rice with a wooden spoon to make it creamy, but not too much, otherwise it would become muddy. When the rice was almost done, the aspargus heads were added, and let finish to cook in it. A the end, a few pieces of cold butter were also added and quickly mixed, as well as salt and white pepper to balance the taste.

There you have it: Risotto agli asparagi. The rice is not too compact, neither too runny. Just the right creaminess. Once served in hot plates, it must be eaten quickly. Useless to say, the cost of doing it at home isn't the same as eating it in a restaurant. That is, if you can find in town an italian restaurant doing that kind of rice dish.

With the risotto, we steamed for 2/3 min. these pieces of cod with lemon peels on top. They give a nice lemony flavor to the fish.

The wine comes from Alko.

Tricky Italy

A good risotto only needs a few ingredients. Good rice, good oil, good broth and in this case good seafood: prawns, octopussy and mussels. The rest is down to your ability with a wooden spoon. Prior to start, you must make a broth. When doing seafood risotto, it's always handy to have a few fish carcasses in your freezer. In this case sea bass. So in there goes the carcasses, onions, carrots, parsley, bay leaves salt and black pepper in a pot with water and a glass of dry white wine. When the broth has cooked for some time, removes all the bits, then flash cook the prawns for 30sec. the mussels for 1min. and the octopussy pieces for 5min. approx in it. The thing with octopussy is, you cook it either for a short or a long time, but not in between, otherwise you'll end up with rubber in your plate. Reserve the seafood in a sealed tupperware to avoid any dryness. In a cast iron pot, put a few table spoons of olive oil and a piece of butter and let to sweat a finely chopped onion and a garlic clove. Then add some rice and stir for few min. Then the real sport begins. Little by little add the broth while stirring the rice. If you stir it too much, the risotto becomes muddy. Not enough and it'll be watery and not creamy. It's kinda tricky to find the right balance, and it takes some practice. Tbh, I've had my fair share of failures over the years but as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Anyway, when the risotto has almost the right consistency, add a few pieces of fridge cold butter, lemon juice, a bit of chopped parsley, the seafood, and stir gently everything together. Kill the heat, put a lid on, and just let the seafood sucks up the heat without further cooking. A good seafood risotto should be a little runny but not too much, and must be eaten with a spoon.

and so... "Risotto ai Frutti di Mare" with a few glasses of Fontanasanta Manzoni Bianco 2019

Looks like an italian pattern here...

Sometimes, out of the blue, you crave for something in particular. Could be anything, from Nutella to jamón de bellota. At the mo, Saila craves for italian food. So, here's something halfway between a stew and a pasta dish that is not stricto sensu an actual italian recipe, more like a mix of a few existing. So, in a cast iron pot, gently fry a finely chopped onion & 1 garlic clove in olive oil, add more or less dry red chili flakes according to your taste - but this dish should have some heat - and a tin of Mutti arrabbiata tomato sauce (outside homemade sauces, Mutti has the best tomato based products one can buy in finnish supemarkets - of course you can buy as well online, like Amazon Italy), and a glass of good red wine. As a general rule, do not use wines you wouldn't drink otherwise yourselves. After 10min. add about 400gr of fresh spinach and 400gr of fresh italian sausages (those found in Prisma market are particulary tasty), meat removed from the casing and mixed with garlic puree. Let the stew gently cook for 1/2 hour. During that time, cook 250gr of Tofette pasta in salted water. When cooked, add the pastas to the stew, add a few extra spoons of extra virgin olive oil, salt, black pepper, put the lid on and switch off the heat. After 5min. the dish is ready. And so you have...

"Tofette con Salsiccia e Spinaci" with a glass of Amarone della Valpoliccella 2017. Best enjoyed with slices of a good country bread. Parmigiano-Reggiano not recomended in this case.

Gusto dell'Italia

This piece of pan fried cod is served with oven caramelized onions on top, and roasted cherry tomatoes in lemon oil and dry herbs. The sauce is a mix of organic extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, chopped red chili, capers, basil, parsley, black pepper and sea salt. Perfect with a few glasses of "Ornellaia Poggio alle Gazze dell'Ornellaia 2017" (Alko).

And to round out the diner nicely, a few glasses of Amaretto with "Amaretti Biscotti con Mandorle" and "Sfogliatine". The mandatory "Espresso" has already been dealt with.

 

Bread and spread

 5 different Bruschettas: on top, artichoke & white truffle cream with Parma ham. Middle left: smoked pepper cream, spring onions (white & greens), sweet pepper slices, black olives and smoked garlic. Middle: Provolone & Gorgonzola cheeses with sun dried tomato in oil. Middle right: tomato pesto and tuna marinated in hot chili oil. Bottom: Olive pesto, salame milano and sun dried tomatoes in oil. A few few glasses of dry white are the preferred option because of the outside heat.

Chili delight

La "Nduja Calabrese di Spilinga" is a typical italian speciality from the Spilinga area in Calabria. It is said that the name Nduja comes from the french name "andouille" (a kind of tripe sausage), because of the french who first introduced it during the 13th century, albeit in a different form. The Nduja is a very spicy pork sausage (sold as sausage, or in our case in a jar) made of 1/3 pork, 1/3 pork fat and 1/3 Calabrian red chili pepper (peperoncino piccante calabrese - hence the red color). Because of its soft consistancy, it is mainly used spread on toasted bread, or as pasta sauce. Basically, you put some Nduja in a pan with a few spoons of the pastas cooking water, add a bit of olive oil, then stir the pastas in, and serve with freshly grated parmesan. Fab!

Tagliatelle Calabrese or Pasta con la Nduja

With this dish, you need a wine that gives the Nduja a run for its money. This Campo Alle More "Vino Biologico" 2015 has a strong body with smooth tanins. Perfect for a hot n spicy dish.

 

Italian balls

 

"Polpette al forno" or in english: oven baked meatballs. Again, this is not stricto sensu an actual italian recipe, more like a few mixed into one. So, in a cast iron heavy pan, you gently fry finely chopped onions, carrots, garlic and sage in a mix of olive oil & butter. Then add 1/3 of chopped tomatoes (fresh or tin - if the later, I do recommend Mutti), 1/3 of rich beef stock (or pork/beef/veal bones in you can put your hands on some), and 1/3 of red wine (Beaujolais in this case). Furthermore add cayenne pepper, chili flakes, black pepper, sea salt and a tea spoon of sugar. The total volume of liquid depends of the volume of the meat on use. Put the lid on and let the sauce slowly cook for an hour or so. If you're using bones, double that time. Now on to the meatballs: 1/2 minced beef + 1/2 minced pork (but you can use as well veal, or even meat from fresh pork sausages), 1 egg, a bit of freshly homemade bread crumbs, a good table spoon a garlic puree or more - depending how strong you like garlic taste, lots of chopped parsley, black pepper & sea salt.. Mix well and put on the side during the remaining time of the cooking of the sauce. When the sauce is ready, shape the balls and add them straight into the liquid, lid back on, and in the oven for 90min. at approx. 180° to start, then 150° for the remaining time. You know it's ready when the liquid has been reduced by 2/3 into a thick syrupy sauce. Best eaten on it's own with lightly toasted slices of country bread and a glass of good italian red wine. 

Interpretation or misinterpretation

and straight after the Mojito-ish...

"Linguine agli scampi" 

... or: prawns linguine in a lemony cream sauce - which is frankly less funky than in tialian. I'm not overly familiar with italian gastronomy. French yes, I know tons of recipes, the right ingredients to use, and what the end product taste like... or should. When I cook italian, well, it's more with intuition and interpretation, rather than real know how. Anyway, the linguine are finish to cook in a mixture of half crème fraiche, half liquid cream, with lemon juice, parsley, black pepper (because I ran out white pepper) and salt. When the sauce reach the right creamy consistency, I add a few cube of fridge cold organic butter. The prawns are flash fried in organic clarified butter, lemon juice and parsley. Served with a few glasses of Sancerre "La Chatellenie" 2018 from Alko, an ok-ish wine for casual occasions. Do not expect to reach wine nirvana though.

Italian leftovers

1er Runcata Soave Superiore 2017 from Alko (with a "C" not a "K")

Really good italian white at an affordable price. Now you can laugh...

The rest of the bean salad from last week-end (see message 25.7 below for recipe), upgraded with Pecorino Romano shavings, and served with a fresh fennel & dry tomato grilled pork sausage.

Garlic baguette with a twist: fresh basil instead of parsley, lot of garlic puree, black pepper, salt and a good olive oil. As a rule, we buy very little ready made food if we can make it ourselves (of course we buy from time to time pizzas or asian food when we cannot do otherwise, or when really in the mood). Sure it takes a bit more time, but it tastes better, and it's more than often less expensive. So, why don't you just buy ready to be cooked bread and do the stuffing yourself? Takes 10min. to do and you'll smell and taste the difference.

Antipasti as a lunch

All the italian cured meats & sausages @ K-Citymarket Sello

Difficult to begin an italian lunch without a glass of Prosecco or Martini Rosso.

top left: Spianata Calabra, and right: Mortadella al pistacchio.

bottom left: Culatello San Valentino, and right: Finocchiona.

Served with sun dried tomatoes, peppers, and olives from San Severino in spicy oil.

Organic white beans salad with chopped red onions & tomatoes, lots of fresh basil, italian virgin olive oil, salt, black pepper & chili flakes. I usually add Parmesan shavings in this salad when served with, for exemple, a grilled "salsiccia", but since we had cheeses afterward...

Provolone (top) and Taleggio.

The drink of choice for the meal is a bottle of Barbaresco Riserva 1999