Truffle Oil Recipes

It was pretty hard for me to find exciting recipes on the web using truffle oil. I am not sure why. Is it the fact that my google search skills are not that great? Or maybe the food websites and bloggers that I usually follow are not very interested in using truffle oil?
I tend to blame it more on my search skills
I did find these three recipes though, that sounded interesting. I am not sure I will give any of them a try in the week to come, as it is back to school for my kids, and I don’t know if any of my readers have kids, but this time of the year is pretty busy. Let me put it this way, cooking just doesn’t happen that naturally. But I bookmarked them, and I will try them at the first occasion. I will share my experience with you.

So, voilà:

1. Seared Scallops on Vitelotte Purée by  THE PASSIONATE COOK
2. Jerusalem Artichoke Soup by LA TARTINE GOURMANDE
3. Pumpkin Soup with Parmesan by DELICIOUS MAGAZINE
   

Enjoy!

Cafe Via Dante's Truffled Gnocchi Recipe

Italian cooking has for many apparent reasons always been very mainstream because of its simplicity, meaning that the ingredient are very common ones and known by most of us.

It has been argued and still is by many, that when traditionally prepared in a restaurant kitchen it can not reach the highest ranking of four stars. And then when it is made non-traditional it is by some not considered as Italian cooking. I would have to disagree!

Personally I would leave it up to the creator of the dish to choose what to introduce its creations. I believe that doing so, it will continue the story, that was begun by the actual “author” or “artist”, to the happy ending that we all are looking forward to, which is how we perceive the dish in the end.

That’s why it is so important to listen to the waitor/waitress that is introducing the dish, most of the time they are passing the message of what the Chef’s intentions are with its creation.

Now as we all know, not every book is for every one, nor every painting and that also goes for food.

There for I guess it all boils down to asking the right questions prior to ordering and to have staff that are not only there to make some extra pocket money, but are aware that when going out to dine, is not just to still ones hunger but more about a good and pleasant dining experience.

Since we here at Macchi Inc. put a lot of emphasis on the quality and authenticity of the products we supply, we realize that we are also obligated to do so since our clients put just as much weight in that.

We know how hard they all work to make sure that every plate that gets presented is at its best. Just like any other artists creation, it is made with emotions and precision and lets not forget that they are humans and not machines so when the final product is made it can differ from how it was made the time before, having that said, that doesn’t mean that it should not be criticized constructively, by all means, we all know that to reach perfection we only do so by always being kept on our toes.

The above mentioned thought does not entirely relate to todays dish it was more of a thought that I felt I would like to share with all of you =).

And now that i have, let me present todays dish, that was prepared by the kitchen staff at Cafe via Dante, located in the heart of little Italy.

GNOCCHI RIPENI CON SALSA TARTUFATA

Cafe Via Dante's Truffled Gnocchi Recipe

Ingredients:

• Stuffed gnocchi with porcini mushrooms
• Leeks
• French shallots
• Truffle paste,
• White wine
• Chicken stock
• Butter
• Parmesan
• and of course, the Truffle Oil

If you like gnocchi, you will love this, if you don’t like gnocchi you might reconsider after trying this and if you never had gnocchi I would definitely suggest that you have it this way for your first time.

Summer is by far my favorite time of the year!

I love the heat and when I say that I really mean it, it can never get to hot and if it does you will never hear me complaining.

Even though I am born and raised in Sweden, Stockholm to be more precise, and have lived in Montreal for the past 13 years, I am not a person that has enjoyed the cold weather. The winter activities are fun though but as we all know with work and our daily working and household schedules we don’t get to enjoy them as often as we all would wish we could.

Having that said; I do enjoy the cooking more in summer, we are able to use more of our local products and produce and I also love shopping at the Jean Talon market.

All the beautiful colors and fragrances from the different fruits and vegetables and now as we are in the beginning of the harvest and thanks giving being just around the corner it has become a must to visit the market every saturday and sometime sunday morning.

Since we are in the topic of of seasonal fruits and vegetables I have a very easy and nice recipe for you this week that can be prepared with this weeks product; the Truffle oil.

ARTICHOKE WITH TRUFFLED VINAIGRETTE

Another quick and easy summer recipe.

1. Trim the tips of the leaves of your artichokes and put in boiling salted water. I like to add a half lemon so the artichokes stay as green as possible.
2. While artichokes are boiling, whisk together evoo, lemon juice, salt ,pepper and some truffle oil . Add a half teaspoon of Dijon mustard to the mix so that the oil and lemon juice are able to bind together.
3. Drain your artichokes, peel the leaves and dip into the vinaigrette.

Total cook time is about 15 min depending on the size of the artichoke. You can tell when there ready because the leaves can be pulled off with only a little bit of resistance.

Hope you will enjoy this as much as I do!

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!

While I was doing my research to spot for you three interesting recipes using Buffalo Mozzarella on websites and blogs I particularly love, I fell on these. The first one is mixing chocolate and buffalo mozzarella! I found it intriguing, and rushed to the grocery store to buy a nice dark chocolate, and tried it at home in order to give you real feedback. It is perfect! The crunch of the chocolate, with the soft texture of the buffalo mozzarella made an amazing marriage. Try it for yourselves!

So here are my three recipes from around the web using buffalo mozzarella:

1. Dark Chocolate, Nicoise Olive, Prosciutto & Buffalo Mozzarella Paninis
   By PEACE LOVE & CHOCOLATE
   
2. Marinated Buffalo Mozzarella with Preserved Lemon & Crispy Basil Leaves
   By DONNA HAY
   
3. Buffalo Mozzarella with Broad Bean and Young Leaf Salad Recipe
   By DELICIOUS MAGAZINE

Enjoy!

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 !

Hope you all had a great weekend, I had a really good but hectic one so please bear with me! Having managed to somehow delete today’s post we will have to start with what was initially supposed to be Thursdays post, today.

Let me introduce to all of you: BUFFALO MOZZARELLA! I have below two magical ways of serving the Buffalo Mozzarella, watch and indulge.

Buffalo Mozzarella Recipe by Chef Stefano Leone

WATER BUFFALO MOZZARELLA ENTRÉE

This will be the second time that Stefano Leone has generously donated a picture that I can share with you all here on my blog.
He is not only one of my favorite Chefs but also a dear friend of Paolo’s and mine, that I have not seen for 5 years, but thanks to Facebook I am still able to at least see how from “best” he still manages to continue getting better, go figure!

• Water buffalo mozzarella
• Cashew nuts
• Pesto
• Oven roasted tomato crostino

Thank You, Stefano!

Caprese di Buffala Recipe by Restaurant Lucca's Team

CAPRESE DI BUFALA

The most traditional way of having Buffalo Mozzarella is a Caprese di Bufala.
I have it over and over again and I can never stop enjoying having it that way!
But I must say that even though it seems so simple to make, this “simple” dish can taste very differently depending on where and how you have it.
Personally I prefer when the tomatoes are sweet but yet slightly tart and just the “right” amount of balsamic vinegar.

That is exactly how they serve this “plate” at Restaurant Lucca in “Little Italy”, so I asked Paolo if he could do me the huge favor and go over there to get me a picture of that plate so that I could share it with all of you.

• Buffalo Mozzarella
• Vigne ripened Tomatoes
• Fresh basil
• Reduced balsamic vinegar
• Evoo ( extra virgin olive oil )

A warm thank you to the kitchen staff at Restaurant Lucca!

I am so excited to share these three recipes with you this week! I found them on other blogs and what got me to choose these recipes and amazes me the most is that it just goes to show how food travels around the world and really brings people together.

We have” Labneh” that originates from the arab speaking areas in the middle east that is traditionally prepared without the saffron, instead it is usually served with olive oil and crushed dried mint leaves on top. Here it is prepared by an Italian with the chefs own twist, adding the saffron and some balsamic vinegar, how could you not want to give that a try!

We also have a classical Italian dish like, Risotto Milanese, that is explained in detail of how it’s made traditionally, by an American! It looks so delicious and just by reading the recipe and looking at the picture I am getting overwhelmed by the feeling of “authenticity”.

Last but not least, close to my heart and also a request by one of my readers, Domenico, the delicious and comforting “Saffrans Bullar” (Saffron buns) or “Lusse Bullar/katter” (Lucia buns). This recipe is on a blog by Anne, who is Swedish and besides from the great recipe I loved her picture!

If you have any questions with regards to how to bake these buns, don’t hesitate to ask.
I usually don’t burn them .

Have a great week end!

1. LABNE ZAFFERANO BY ESSENZALIMENTARE
2. CLASSIC SAFFRON RISOTTO MILANESE BY LIFE 123
3. LUCIA BUNS (SAFFRANS BULLAR) BY ANNE’S FOOD

Fregola Sarda Seafood Risotto

FREGOLA SARDA SEAFOOD RISOTTO

1. Fregola sarda, tomato, onions, garlic, chili, Dry white vermouth, clam juice, terragon, saffron
2. Cuttle fish, clams, rock shrimp, lobster
3. Seared tuna, lobster bisque sauce, saffron
4. Roasted banana pepper, sicilian green olive, brown butter

A Blend of Colors and Flavors

This is art and it can be admired but in difference to a picture you can actually taste it and receive double the pleasure!

I love my job =).

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!