ZZAFF!: Risotto con la Luganega

This month recipe for ZZAFF! is a classic of Ticino cuisine. Luganega or luganighetta is a sausage made with pork, pepper and spices, which is usually grilled in summer and country festivals. I remember when I was a child at the Sassello Fair in Obino, the village where I grew up, they served luganighette rolled on wooden sticks which looked like a snail. This sausage is usually associated with carnival and is appreciated with the classic risotto, a dish formerly reserved for holidays.

Here you can listen the program, every first Sunday of the month:
At 20 pm Rendez-vous on http://www.radiogwen.ch to hear Vostok’s podcasts in Italian!
At 21 Rendez-vous on http://www.radiovostok.ch to hear Gwen’s podcasts in French!

MTChallenge nr 60: Marchesa Casati’s tapas / MTChallenge nr 60: Infiniti auguri alla nomade! O anche le tapas della Marchesa

Another month, another MTChallenge! Mai‘s challenge is a tough one. Tapas! This month our MTC judges were really tough on us and we were asked to develop three recipes.

MTChallenge: Licorice Lasagna with Chicken Liver and Leeks / MTChallenge: Lasagna alla liquirizia, fegatini di pollo e porri

Another month and yet another MTChallenge. A tough one. Yes, because this month Sabrina, from Les Madeleines Proust blog, challenged us with a traditional Italian recipe. One of those one might think would be fairly easy to make, after all what’s so difficult about rolling some dough? I bet you already guessed what I am talking about: Lasagna! And we’re talking about the real deal. The sheet of pasta, as instructed by Sabrina, had to be rolled by hand. Yeah, rrrright! May it be my proverbial insecurity, my total inexperience, my well known impatience, or the fact that after 30′ resting the dough was slightly sticky but my lasagna certainly will make history. For its thickness.

Whole Rye Flour and White Wine Taralli / Taralli alla segale rotta e vino bianco

It has been quite a while since I last posted a recipe to use up sourdough leftovers, but once more my leftover jar lay in the fridge almost filled to the brim. What to do? Yes, we all do love bread thins, breadsticks and fritters but I wanted to bake something new. In the end inspiration came to me in guise of a tarallo. I still remember discovering taralli during the first year of Art School in Varese.

Garganelli and Ragù alla Mamma / Garganelli del riciclo pasquale e ragù alla mamma

I still remember the day when I virtually met Michela, aka Menta e Rosmarino, on Facebook’s group Panissimo. She had just published a recipe for a very nice bread. As absurd as it sounds I vaguely remember the loaf but remember very well the main colors of the photo, white and red, which I later discovered to be her “signature colors”. A sort of White Stripe of baking my friend, the third missing element who I imagine playing the pans using woden spoons. No time for digression, let’s get on with my story.