“Cuochi d’artificio”: Sweet Pesto Snails / “Cuochi d’artificio”: Lumachine al “pesto dolce”

And here we are, time flies doesn’t it? This is my last episode on this season of “Cuochi d’artificio” as the program is taking a well deserved summer break. A challenging adventure which made me grow so much and discover the fascinating world of tv production, one experience I hope to have the honour and privilege to repeat next year. This episode has for a theme snails. Well, nothing more suitable for bread, as dough is often shaped in this guise, and bread snail can be found in bakeries filled with all kind of ingredients, both sweet and savoury. In the past I have used this shaping to make my Crunchy Licorice Snails, Rye and fennel seeds snails with blood oranges and red onion chutney and Poppy seed snails. This time around I thought it could be fun to bake snails that at first glance might seem stuffed with basil pesto…while instead they are flavoured with a fresh mix of minced mint, pine nuts, white chocolate and a touch of grated lemon zest. The dough is 100% vegan. The use of cocoa butter makes it particularly soft, the best vegan bread I have developed so far…it’s really light as a feather and very similar to brioche dough. You can change the filling omitting white chocolate and put another 100% vegan ingredient. Unfortunately my knowledge in this area is limited and my attempt to produce a vegan vanilla custard failed miserably.

Here is a list of the required ingredients and step by step instructions to bake the bread and to make the filling. Here you can see the episode where I explain all the steps to bake these cute snails at home.

A Spring Menu / Un menù di primavera

Spring arrived, at last! After a cold and rainy winter pleasant warm days have finally set in and thinner sweaters have replaced wool jumpers which have been stored in boxes for next year’s cold. To welcome spring I decided to dust off the drawer a small collection of recipes I put together last year, for a project that never came to life. The entire collection has been available for a few hours on the blog, then an opportunity made me decide to take it off in a hurry to see whether it was possible to have the work published. In the end, unfortunately, there was no further development but the recipes and photos are so beautiful that I decided to publish them on the blog this year,. I will post two menus a month, for a total of four, until the end of May. Without further ado I start with the first menu, which is composed by four recipes.

Of favourite dishes and comfort food: Pasta ccu li brocculi / Piatto del cuore e comfort food: Pasta ccu li brocculi

Forgotten in a dusty folder in the darkest recesses of my “limbo” folder, yet another recipe part of the project that never came to light of which I wrote about in my previous post. A saviouor to me, being this one a tough moment where I am finding it very hard to have control on both blogs, switching from macro to bread and non-macro recipes, feeling a bit drained and uninspired. This dish became a staple at my parents place in the past few years, and my father cooks it divinely. I worked on the basic recipe from the book Le migliori ricette della cucina regionale Italiana which I used as an inspiration for my sweet rice cakes, too. Sicilian traditional food never disappoints. A light salty note is given by sardines, counterbalanced by a slightly sweet touch confered by raisins and fennel seeds. The texture of blanched cauliflower and pine nuts add an irresistible crunchy touch to a dish which I never get bored with. Savour it bite after bite, chew religiously. The aromas and textures will blend, caressing your taste buds and you will inevitably fall in love. Simple ingredients, minimum time of preparation, the ultimare comfort food…you couldn’t ask for more!

Cassava and Rice Flour Gnocchis with Wild Garlic Pesto/ Gnocchi alla Manioca e farina di riso con pesto di aglio orsino

Cassava, this – to me – quite unknown vegetable. A root that for several years I only watched from a distance, intimidated by its seemingly thick and hard rind. Let’s say that because of a purely aesthetic matter and my own ignorance about its use in cooking our paths have never really crossed if not for my rapid and puzzled looks to it, before reaching the shelf to get my beloved avocados. Well, I’m not ashamed to say that I was wrong, and how was I wrong!