Weekend in Italian
For the upcoming women’s holiday, we have prepared a special menu from the Edimdom team. Only for our favorite readers, three exclusive recipes from the new book by Yulia Healthy Food Near Me “In search of tiramisu”: the most delicate ricotta lasagnette with zucchini, fragrant lamb stewed in wine and delicious mocha cake. We hope that Julia’s recipes will add a special zest to your holiday menu and bring the warmth of sunny Italy to your home.
We wish you a great mood and fun feasts in the pleasant company of your family and friends.
Zucchini lasagna with ricotta and pesto sauce
The most delicious lasagna is prepared in the Parma, and lasagna not only in the classical sense — with dough and bechamel sauce, but, for example, such as when there is no dough, and the layers are created by slices of zucchini. Ricotta is very different from our cottage cheese, because it is not sour at all, but rather sweet. Ricotta is sometimes goat, sometimes sheep, sometimes mixed, and sometimes just cow. In Parma, of course, it is made from cow ricotta, because the milk from the cows that graze near Parma goes not only to the preparation of ricotta, but also to the production of Parmesan. A piece of this lasagna can be obtained in any cafe in the center of Parma — on the run, for lunch, for lunch!
Ingredients for 4 servings:
3 small zucchini
180 g of ricotta
100 g grated parmesan
bunch of basil
10-15 dried tomatoes in oil
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
140 ml olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
Cooking method:
Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
1. Cut two zucchini slices lengthwise into thin slices, place on a baking sheet, sprinkle a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Bake in a preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.
2. Remove the core and seeds from the remaining zucchini, and lower the pulp into boiling water.
3. After 2 minutes, drain the water, and sprinkle the zucchini with ice to preserve the bright green color, then dry with a paper towel and place in a blender.
4. Peel the garlic.
5. Prepare the pesto sauce: add a bunch of basil to the zucchini in a blender (leave some leaves), garlic, 1 tablespoon of grated parmesan, 100 ml of olive oil and pine nuts and beat everything until the consistency of a homogeneous sauce.
6. Mix the ricotta, 2 tablespoons of parmesan, parsley, egg yolk, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper into a homogeneous mass.
7. Put in a deep dish layers of baked zucchini strips, pesto sauce, ricotta, sprinkle with parmesan, spread the tomatoes on top, again layers of zucchini, ricotta, pesto, sprinkle with the remaining parmesan, lay out a layer of tomatoes and sprinkle with basil leaves.
Lamb stewed in wine
This recipe is my thing, I always cook this lamb when I receive guests at home for our birthdays, New Year, Easter, and other holidays, and it is always a success. And the first time I cooked lamb this way was when we were living in Rome. This recipe was taught to me by the owner of the cooking shop next door: I wanted to buy some lamb ribs, but instead he offered me some cheap shanks and told me how I should cook them.
Ingredients for 4 servings:
1-1/2 kg of lamb on the bone (2 small lamb shanks)
2 red onions
1 leek (white part only)
8 garlic cloves
3 sprigs of rosemary
500 ml dry red wine
100 ml balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons flour
2 peperoncinos (or 1 fresh chili pepper)
sea salt
Cooking method:
Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
1. Chop the lamb together with the bone in large chunks 3-4 cm thick.
2. Peel the garlic.
3. Peel the red onion and cut it into rings.
4. Cut the leeks into circles.
5. Crumble the peperoncino.
6. In a heavy saucepan that can be placed in the oven, heat the vegetable oil.
7. Roll the meat in flour and fry on all sides until golden brown to “seal” the juice, then remove from the pan.
8. Put the whole red onion, leek and garlic cloves in the pan in which the meat was fried, add salt, peperoncino and half of the rosemary leaves. Heat over low heat for about 10 minutes.
9. Pour in the vinegar, wine, bring to a boil and reduce the heat.
10. Return the lamb to the pan, cover and place in the preheated oven for 2 hours. Mutton should move away from the bones and literally melt.
11. Sprinkle the finished lamb with the remaining rosemary.
Mocha cake
Ingredients:
250 g powdered sugar
4 proteins
20 g butter
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon lemon juice
pinch of sea salt
For the cream:
100 g softened butter
100 g powdered sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee
For the glaze:
200 g dark chocolate
180 ml 33-35% cream
Preheat the oven to 150 °C.
Cooking method:
1. Combine the whites with a pinch of salt, lemon juice, 220 g of powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa, beat everything.
2. Grease two sheets of baking paper of the same size with butter.
3. Spread the protein mass evenly on each sheet. Bake the meringues in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, then cool and remove from the paper.
4. Prepare the cream: pour 2 tablespoons of instant coffee. add a spoonful of hot water and stir.
5. Beat 100 g of softened butter with 100 g of powdered sugar.
6. Pour in the coffee and mix everything.
7. Prepare the icing: melt the chocolate together
with cream, then cool slightly.
8. Lubricate the cooled meringue with coffee cream, then pour the chocolate glaze and cover with the second meringue.
9. Sprinkle the cake with the remaining cocoa and powdered sugar and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.
10. Cut the chilled cake into small squares and serve.