TRUFFLE & EGG CROSTINI

We have a family country house on lake Massawippi, in the Eastern Townships and it is now the second generation of Macchi boys ( our children, Paolo’s and Mine) making noise in the area.

Growing up, Paolo spent every weekend and holiday in the country with his family, therefor it’s very important for him to do the same with our children since he has such great memories from there.

This past weekend, was the Annual Village Fair , we all went there just like we’ve done every year and Paolo has done at least for the past 25 years!

Every year is the same thing; you have the rides, the games, the petting zoo, the barns with cows and horses, competition of who has grown the largest vegetable and not to forget the horse race, my favorite part!

After we got home we gave the kids a bath, fed them and put them to bed.

And then it was our turn to eat =), we had some close friends of ours coming over, opened a bottle of wine and then Paolo was in charge!

Eggs and truffles have always been a match made in heaven!

Here is how Paolo spoiled us with this absolutely delicious snack.

EGG & TRUFFLE CROSTINI

• Simply slice some bread,
• Spread some truffle paste
• Add sliced hard boiled eggs
• Garnish with some truffle carpaccio
• Sprinkle some chives for color and taste.

Buon Appetitio!

Since Mozzarella di Buffala / Buffalo Mozzarella is a perfect “summer cheese” we like to use it often in the summer.

We had some guests over on Sunday and Paolo prepared a Panzanella salad as a side dish to our BBQed chicken wings, it tasted just as good as it looks and even better.

I urge you try this simple recipe, all of the ingredients can be found in almost any store and it is so quick and easy to prepare!

PAOLO’s SERVING SUGGESTION

Panzanella Salad with Buffalo Mozzarella

This is my twist on the classic bread and tomato salad. It is at its best when you use ‘day old bread’. If you don’t have any old bread, cut some fresh bread and heat it a little in the oven to dry it out. If you skip this process, your croutons will get soft instead of chewy.

Since this is a salad, only assembly work is required.

1. Cubed bread
2. Fresh ripe tomatoes in quarters
3. Buffalo mozzarella
4. Fresh basil
5. Salt, pepper, evoo ( extra virgin olive oil ), white wine vinegar

If you wish, you can flavor your croutons by placing them on a baking sheet, add a little olive oil on top, salt, pepper and dried oregano, put them in the oven for a few minutes.

Preparation time: 5-7 minutes ( just make sure you start the preparations with turning the oven on, right away)

See you, tomorrow !

I made a doe, one that I have never managed to make as good before, and it had the perfect texture. It made it so easy to work with! None the less, between dealing with the window cleaner that we had contracted for yesterday, the guy that was treating our wood doors and my four year-old making sure I was catering to his EVERY need, my “bullar” turned into charcoal =/!
I can’t even believe my fire alarm didn’t go off, my gas alarm goes of every time I use hairspray! I was so upset that I quickly sent them into the garbage, thinking back now I wish i had taken a picture of them. So, having that said, there is no recipe from MrsMacchi this week but thank good for Paolo (MrMacchi), he knew about my unsuccessful baking attempt and came home and cooked one of my all time favorite dishes of his and that is what I will be sharing with you today!

LINGUINI WITH SHRIMP IN A SAFFRON & CREAM SAUCE

1. Cook your linguini and set it aside
2. In a deep sauce pan, melt some butter with olive oil and add chopped garlic & dried chilli flakes.cook for 2 minutes,or until the garlic becomes soft.
3. Add 250 ml of 15 % cream with 2 small packs of saffran. Cook on medium-high until the cream reduces a little bit.
4. Add 1 lbs of “matane “ shrimps, be careful not to overheat the shrimp. They will shrink and become chevy. Remember, the shrimp are all ready cooked, you just need to heat them up.
5. Add the cooked pasta to the pan and leave on the heat for 30 seconds so that the pasta soaks in all the sauce.*
6. Add some freshly chopped parsley and voila……….

* I like to let the pasta out for about 5 min to let it dry out and so that it gets a little sticky. This will help it absorb the saffron cream sauce a lot better

As a garnish, I like to use the remainder of the parsley, (leaves and stalks). Cut them coarsely and put them in the food processor with some olive oil and blend until smooth. I like to add a good amount of salt to this mixture because the cream tends to make the sauce a little bland.
If you do not make the parsley sauce, make sure to taste you cream sauce and add the necessary amount of salt.
Buon Appetito!

Since this week started of with such warm and humid weather (which I just love by the way!), cooking in front of my gas stove is not something that I wanted to do. I resorted in planning meals that needed the least time possible in front of the stove.

One of our all time favorite dishes is “Vitello Tonnato” (cold veal with tuna sauce). For the ones that have never tasted it before, this dish might not sound too appealing. Trust me though, the tuna sauce is so mild in taste and silky in texture, that it feels like applying whipped cream on top of strawberries!

This dish “Vitello Tonnato” is traditionally garnished with caper berries, Paolo changed the recipe around a bit and used Truffled Dwarf Peaches as a garnish instead and it was right up my alley =)

VITELLO TONNATO:

Ingredients for the Veal Preparation:

• 1 kg of boneless veal ( I prefer eye of round of milk feed veal)
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 onion
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 cloves
• 10 whole peppercorn
• 3 sprigs of parsley
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 500 ml of chicken stock
• 500 ml of white wine

Preparation of the Veal:

1. Add all these ingredients in a stock pot ( make sure the liquid just barely covers the veal, if not, add the necessary water to do so
2. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a slow boil and let cook for 1 hour
3. Remove from heat and put the pot in the fridge to let the veal cool in its stock (this will enhance the flavor of the otherwise bland milk feed veal).
4. If there is no room in the fridge for the pot, transfer everything in an airtight container an pour the stock on top of it.
5. Leave cool for a few hours or even better, you can prepare the meat the day before, that way all the aroma of the stock will flavor the meat. (recommended)

Ingredients for the Tuna Sauce:

• 5 large cans of tuna in olive oil ( 5×180 gr.)
• 1 can of anchovies in oil
• 4 teaspoons of capers
• the juice of one lemon

Preparation of the Tuna Sauce:

1. Make sure to drain the tuna from most of its oil
2. Add all the ingredients in the blender until you have a smooth paste. If too thick, you can add a little of the veal stock.
3. Once the tuna base is ready, fold in about one cup of mayonnaise to create a thin sauce.

Presentation:

1. Slice the veal as thin as possible and arrange it on a plate in a single layer pattern (the veal should overlap about by half of its slice).
2. Spread your tuna sauce on top of veal .
3. For garnish, take about 12 truffled dwarf peaches and mince them and spread them over your vitello tonnato dish.

You can add a few sliced truffled dwarf peaches for garnish.

Buon Appetito

Paolo

This dish is really very simple to prepare, I would definitly suggest you give it a try, and if you do, don’t forget to let me know how it went!

This evening I was in the mood to have an earthy meal for dinner. Knowing that the fresh summer truffles just arrived this morning at Macchi Inc., I decided to ask Paolo if he could do his magic tonight, and prepare something for us specifically to satisfy my cravings, and to use one of these beautiful fresh summer truffles.

Since the summer truffle initially has an earthy taste, I felt like enhancing the flavors with truffle paste an a bit of black truffle oil. I also felt like bringing all these flavors together with the nice texture of some beautiful and “meaty” button mushrooms. And, last but not least, finalizing the dish by topping it with an exhauggerated amount of shaved truffles.

I’ve been blogging about summer truffles since the beginning of the week, both here and here. And to tell you the truth, my mouth was watering just thinking about it every time I blogged. I was waiting impatiently for Wednesday to arrive, as I knew I would finally get to savour some.

So Paolo ( that rarely refuses an occasion to cook ) made this nice pasta plate, as he always does, the way I had hoped for it to taste, and a little bit better, if you don’t mind me saying so

Well, now that my craving for truffle is satisfied, I can go on blogging with more serenity!

Do we always eat like this? The answer is: “NO…….but, very often!”

If you’re salivating here is the recipe:

• Cook your pasta in heavily salted water and put aside.
• In a deep saucepan, melt some butter with olive oil
• Add shallots, garlic, fresh thyme and sliced button mushrooms.
• Add a little salt and pepper to help sweat out the moisture from the mushrooms
• Sauté the mushrooms until soft.
• Remove the mushrooms mixture and chop them finely.
• Using the same saucepan, warm up some heavy cream, truffle paste and truffle oil
• Stir in your mushrooms in the mixture.
• Introduce your pasta to your sauce, mix everything together and finish off with as much freshly shaved summer truffle as your heart desires.

Buon Appetito!

PAOLO’S BOTTARGA RECIPE:

One of Paolo’s absolute favourite pastas is the “aglio et oglio” ( oil and garlic ) . After discovering the very particular taste of Bottarga and experimenting with it, Paolo found that by adding grated Bottarga di Muggine in his favorite recipe, and grating some on top of the finished pasta, the dish took a whole new dimension. The bottarga gave it a nice kick.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• parsley
• desired amount of grated Bottarga di Muggine or Bottarga di tonno

Preparation:

• slice the garlic and add it with the olive oil in a saucepan
• grate the bottarga into the pan and heat the oil over medium-low heat for 2 to 3 min, so that it flavors the oil (it is important to add the garlic and bottarga to cold oil to avoid burning the garlic and cooking the bottarga)
• add the strained pasta and toss it so the oil coats every strand of the spaghetti.
• add the parsley at the very end to keep its flavor and texture
• once the pasta is plated you can grate some extra bottarga for presentation.

MY BOTTARGA RECIPES:

I like to keep things simple and being a mother of two very young children, I like things done quick. I absolutely love bottarga! The Bottarga di Muggine is my favourite but I have found a recipe that made me enjoy the Bottarga di Tonno just as much.

Here are my three ways of preparing Bottarga in 30 seconds:

The first one:

• Drizzle some olive oil on top of toasted whole wheat toast and grate bottarga di muggine on top. Serve!

The second one:

• slice bottarga di muggine and place in a plate with some depth to it.
• poor olive oil on top and leave in olive oil for at least half an hour before eating.
• accompany with bread.

The third one:

• slice some bottarga di tonno, place in a flat plate.
• poor some olive oil on top, press one clove of garlic on top.
• accompany with bread

Bottarga is traditionally accompanied with garlic, red peppers, and olive oil. Even though it has a distinct flavor it can really be used with anything that requires a touch of saltiness.
I would recommend full bodied wines to pair with a recipe that contains bottarga, a lighter wine might be overpowered by the strong flavor of this ingredient.

Buon Appetito!

At home, Paolo is the one that enjoys cooking the most. I am usually the designated assistant and assembler, and of course the eater!

This evening, Paolo and I made this very homey pasta dish with prosciutto di parma. Nothing too fancy, a nice feel good meal, but soooo tasty!

Since it is prosciutto week on the blog, I decided to snap some pics, and share the recipe with you.

Appetizer:

Prosciutto wrapped around hand rolled grissini’s on a bed of mixed greens and Dwarf Truffled Peaches.

Pasta: Fusilli with peas, cubed prosciutto “crudo” (raw) and Burrata.

1. Fusilli were tossed in onions sauted in butter
2. We added steamed peas, cubed Prosciutto and Burrata
3. and served immediately!

As for wine, we like them with a lot of  “body” and depth. Most of the times we find one that we like and we drink it with all of our meals until we find something that we like again so we move on to the next one. Presently the Barbaresco is what we have been enjoying accompanied with our meals, and that is what we had tonight.

Since prosciutto is so salty, salt is not something or rarely something that needs to be added. the beauty of prosciutto is that it is so versatile and very easy to cook with, it works practically with any vegetable, with cream sauce, wine sauce and even in tomatoe sauce.

A Macchi tradition is also to stuff the Christmas turkey with prosciutto, we always fight over the prosciutto as soon as we sit down on the table. Unfortunately, Paolo and my brothers-in-law usually get the most of it. I am not good at fighting, but I do have other qualities

Traditionally cantaloupe and figs are served with prosciutto but since we are such huge fans of the truffled dwarf peaches we tend to use them every chance we get. When there is match of course! Fresh peaches too are a very nice companion to prosciutto. If you wanna be fancy, marinate the quartered peaches in cognac, top with some ricotta cheese and wrap the proscuitto around it. It makes a perfect hors d’oeuvre.

Buon Appetito!

Spinach salad with parmigiano Grana Padano – Picture taken by Montreal photographer Vadim Daniel

Previously today I showed you how you can really enjoy having parmigiano on it’s own without hardly any preparation! I will now show you one of my favorite recipes, with my favorite parmigiano cheese, The Grana Padano. I really love this cheese, it is similar to the reggiano but creamier. This cheese is off course a cheese that we supply our clients with here at Macchi Inc. It is important for me to let you all know that we do not import our cheeses ourselves since we  do not have any cheese quotas. What we import here at Macchi Inc. is the Citterio brand, bottarga and truffles and in the future hopefully we will import more.

Baby spinach salad with strawberries and Grana Padano

This is a perfect light salad with lots of flavour, assemble in a bowl: Baby spinach leaves, sliced strawberry’s and some Grana padano shavings. For this, all you need to add is a little  cracked black pepper, evoo and some balsamic vinegar. There  is no need to add any salt because the parmiggiano brings all the salt you need to the dish. Buon Appetitio! As usual, let me know how you liked it or if you made your own recipe, don’t hesitate to share it with me.

I wanted to give this week a soft start and begin with showing you how we enjoy having this cheese at the Macchi residence!

Paolo’s Parmigiano reggiano plate

This is so simple but yet so good, a perfect snack on a evening when you just want a reason to open up a good bottle of wine.

All you need is to break up a few pieces of parmigiano reggiano and drizzle some balsamic vinegar on top, in this case we used an aged one which I personally would suggest, the sweet vinegar is a nice contrast to the saltiness of the cheese.

Buon Appetito!