Nutella Cornetti for World Nutella Day 2010

It's that time of the year again.
Which one you might ask?

 World Nutella Day 

(of course, silly)

Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso 

solemnly declared Friday, February 5th “World Nutella Day 2010″ 

 A day to celebrate and get creative with, and most importantly, to EAT Nutella.

Heck, why not?

We live in the region of Piedmont, where Nutella was born, (over in Alba), so we take our nutella consumption very seriously. We also love to sample all the other home grown varieties that you'll find through out our area, made by local chocolatiers. Ferrero aren't the only ones making a tasty chocolate hazelnut confection. They may have been first and it may be good, but it's worth trying a few for comparison. We know a few places to try do some serious tasting and research....

If stay with us at Bella Baita for a few days, you are more than likely to come across these little crescents on the breakfast table. This nutella filled pastry strikes a delicious balance of not too flaky and a slight chewy texture after the initial crispy bite. They are a perrenial favorite around our house and make an appearance regularly along with our home made apricot preserves tucked inside some too, just in case, gasp, someone might not like nutella.

Nutella filled Cornetti
based on a recipe by Anna Moroni
of "La Prova del Cuoco" fame, an Italian cooking show
(for 12 small cornetti)

Ingredients for the dough:

• 125 g butter (8.7 TB/ 4.4 oz)*
• 125 g yogurt (1/2c)*
• 1 T sugar 
• 250-300 g flour (2 1/2-3 c)*
• 2 tsp baking powder
•  pinch salt

*I haven't actually made these with the American measurements and have only looked up the conversions on line to convert the amounts, so proced with caution. I find that conversions for the weight of flour is wildly variable, so if you  have a metric scale, I would reccomend weighing everything at least the first time. I will try and update this in the future to secure American measurements. so stay tuned.

The filling:
Nutella 
or anything that strikes your fancy
marmalade/ fruit preserves
or ricotta or cream(sweetened with 1 Tbsp sugar)
with mini chocolate chips or
nuts with cinnamon and other spices


Pre-heat the oven at 200C (400F)
Melt the butter
Add the yogurt  and butter along with the sugar and  blend well
Add  the flour, pinch of salt, and baking powder and gingerly make the dough.
Try not to handle to much, but do combine all thoroughly. I find that at 250g it is quite sticky, so I add the other 50g more or less around the edges of the bowl to make the dough more manageable without losing any tenderness.
Split the dough into 2 pieces and cover with a towel or plastic shower cap
Let rest for 20 minutes or in the refrigerator if it is really warm
Roll one ball out into a circle about 12cm or so (6-7" across)
Cut into 6 slices with three cuts across the circle(triangle shape).
Put a generous dollop of Nutella on each slice  at the wide end of the dough
Roll it to make a little "cornetto" (which in Italian means "small horn" for the shape) or crescent
Repeat with the other dough ball.
(I have also refrigerated the second dough ball over night and had good results the next day as well)
Place on baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or till golden brown
Let them cool down and then sprinkle with icing/powdered sugar or cocao powder
Watch them disappear.

Nutella Cornetti for World Nutella Day 2010

Tomino di Talucco

 

Recently, we went to visit some local cheese makers in Val Lemina, the small valley directly up and over the hill behind Grandubbione, the hamlet at the end of our road.  Valeria and Mauro Gaido very kindly let us join them during their daily ritual of making a soft, ricotta style cheese, called Tomino, a local speciality and favorite.  Tomino can be all cows milk or a combination of cows and goat. 

This day they had about liters of milk from 15 cows and 45 goats. After bringing the milk t a boil the added their coagulating ingredient, allowed to set for the curds and whey to separate. Then they drain off as much whey as they can, which gets fed to the pigs, before dipping up the curds and dispersing then in to their containers to drain in. At one time they used terra cotta pots, but now, by law, those are no longer used. Pity, as I imagine there was something lost with that change.

Tomino is a mild, fresh cheese eaten simply as is, or as an accompainment to polenta, drizzled with hot pepper oil or a few grinds of black pepper on top.  After a few days as the water drains out and the cheese becomes more compact they will then be rolled in black or red pepper and left to dry out, getting a stronger flavor as it ages and in some cases, a wayyyyyy strong flavor. 

I use it as I would ricotta and it becomes a filler for pasta as well as one of my favorite dishes which is as an addition to a rustic torta, often made with spinach. I made the torta with some of this batch of Tomino with a seeded spelt crust and cima di rapa greens along with the tomini to make an outstanding, flavorful torte. Unfortunately, we were too greedily hungry to wait in order to get a photo. Guess I'll just have to make it again, so I can post a recipe for it. In the mean time, you can use my recipe for a spinach ricotta tart to tide you over, as it really is a wonderfully sastifying meal this time of year.

I tried to learn how to use my imovie function on my computer and so this post is much later in coming than expected as learning a new program always takes more time than I think it will. Hope you enjoy this journey into a cheese makers profession.

Tomino di Talucco

Guest Blogger Cherrye Moore on Winter time ex pat life in Calabria

Today for your reading pleasure I have the lovely Cherrye Moore, as a guest blogger here at Bella Baita View. My compatriot Cherrye hails from the opposite end of the bel paese, and is a fellow B&B owner, "Il Cedro", travel consultant and blogger at "La Bella Vita". 
We've bumped into each other on the blog-o-sphere with our common interest of Bed and Breakfast life and she even featured me last summer in her Expat in Italy-owned Business Series. You can read that interview here.
Do have a wander round her site as she has a charming tale about how she and her husband met and she offers up a variety of useful information on her "Travel Tips Tuesday" series.
If you want to win some Perugian chocolate straight from the source, do have a look at the contest that Cherrye and Tina Ferrari of Tina Tangos  along with AffordableCallingCards.net.
having going on. You still have time to enter. Check out all the details here for
Blogging from the Boot: The Best of 2009


Without further ado...

Ahh … the Christmas rush is over, New Year’s Eve celebrations have come and gone and sleepy Calabria has quietly slipped into-and in fact, almost through-the first month of 2010.

As has been the case since we opened our B&B Il Cedro a few years ago, the first few months are often plagued with cold, wintery days and rainy nights. It is dangerous ground for a normally busy B&B.

As opposed to other, more tourist-friendly regions in Italy, January and February tend to be lazy months for us in Catanzaro, so much in fact that some B&Bs (ok, yea that would be us) close for half of January and take a winter break.

We are lucky, though, in regards to the location of our bed and breakfast.

Catanzaro sits smack dab in the middle of Calabria and since we are the capital of the region, our B&B business doesn’t rely solely on the sand and sole.

Many of our regular guests are professors at the university, pharmaceutical representatives and salespeople who travel to the city.

We fill our rooms with Calabrian-Americans, Calabrian-Canadians, Calabrian-Australians who venture to the south of the boot-regardless of the season-to trace their heritage and walk in their grandfathers’ footsteps.

But it is only the summer months-June, July and August-that my Calabria, and in fact, my Catanzaro, see tourists. They come to explore the coasts, swim in the Ionian Sea and trek through the nearby Sila mountains. They want to explore Old Italy, enjoy an afternoon nap and take a passeggiata  through a medieval village on a moonlight night.

I often wonder how different my Italian experience-and my job!-would be if we lived in northern Italy, if we lived in a place that welcomed year-round tourism and catered to the needs of foreign visitors.

And some day, I might know.

I have a feeling Calabria is on the brink-just moments away from the big tourism boom that will propel her into international stardom. But until then, I’ll just sit here, in my hidden corner of the Mediterranean, sipping my espresso and gazing at the stars … and waiting to share this piece of Italia with the rest of the world.

Cherrye Moore is a southern Italy travel consultant, My Bella Vita  and B&B owner living in Calabria, Italy. She is currently hosting Blogging from the Boots: The Best of 2009 - the first annual expats in Italy Affordable Calling Cards's blogging awards. Submit or nominate your favorite expat-written blog posts today!

Guest Blogger Cherrye Moore on Winter time ex pat life in Calabria

"Museo del Gusto" Sunday afternoon with Chef Walter Eynard

Antique Piemontese kitchen display,

Museo del Gusto, Frossaco

Sunday brought a welcome outing for us, along with my in-laws, over to the nearby Roman village of Frossaco.  It was off to a demonstration of Torre Pellice's favorite Chef, Walter Eynard, owner and chef of the 2 star Michelin restaurant, Flipot. As times change here as in other parts of the world, the restaurant has shifted from actively being open to now being open for private dining upon reservation. Times are changing everywhere. Chef Eynard has lost any of his touch and  produced  several stunning plates that lucky for us we all got a taste of in spite of the fact that the room was filled beyond capacity, spilling out into the wine tasting room.  The Museo del Gusto is a wonderful small  museum celebrating the many different origins and aspects of food and drink, down through the ages.  They have some wonderful antiques and  educational displays of the origins of local foods, but to me the best part of this museum, is that they are always offering a variety of interesting lectures, films, speakers and sampling. What's a food museum without some real food? To that end they opened a small shop inside featuring our wines of the Strada Reale dei Vini Torinese and locally produced food products, like honey, fruit preserves, fruit in moscato wine, polenta, digestivi and many other tempting treats. A great place to pick up a few items for yourself or for that special food basket for all occasions.

Back to Sunday's demo...

Chef Walter Eynard

 demonstrated 3 delicious plates

Delicious and eye appealing

Rollata di cavolo e trota salmonata in a saffron fumet

Savoy cabbage and trout rolls in a saffron fish sauce

This antipasto  plate was paired with 2 selections of white wine

Barge's Azienda  Le Marie's Blanc di Lissart

Erbaluce di Caluso Azienda Orsolani

Piatto Unico

Filetto di Cinghiale, con

riduzione salsa di vino

  Gnocchi e barbabietola, acciughe

e fonduta con pepe nero

Single plate of

Wild boar tenderloin in a red wine and juniper  sauce

with potato gnocchi in a beet root and anchovy sauce

and a side of cheese sauce with black pepper

paired with

Barge's Azienda Le Marie's "Debarges",

 a blend of Barbera and Nebbiolo grapes

Bavarese all'Arancia

Chocolate flecked genoise trunk

filled with a light orange mousse

candied orange peel sauce

and pomegrante seeds and chocolate decoration finish the plate

There was a wonderful pairing with the very more-ish

Malvasia dell'azienda Balbiano

The museum's director Ezio Gaij

presenting Le Marie's "Debarges" Barbera wine

Chef Walter Eynard ans Ezio Gaij

It was a truly a delicious experience and made for a interesting Sunday during the coldest of winter days.

What more could you ask for, fresh local food,  lessons on how to prepare it, tasty local varietals of wine,  great turn out of people and samples of all, for all, compliments of Museo del Gusto. A hearty thank you for all that you do.

"Museo del Gusto" Sunday afternoon with Chef Walter Eynard

Rustle up some Brussels, sprouts that is

Back to my regularly scheduled post about a wonderful if not somewhat maligned vegetable, Brussels sprouts. I read on one of my friends posts that she had stuck to her new years resolution to try Brussels sprouts and was surprised to find she liked them. I actually did like them as a kid. Can't say they were as favored as, say asparagus, but I certainly liked them more than regular cooked cabbage. That was of course before I discovered Savoy cabbage, but that is a different story for a different day.
This combination of sprouts, mini onions and whole chestnuts is done in the classic and very popular tradition of what is called agrodolce, a sweet and vinegary way of adding a touch of pizzaz to a wide range of foods. There are a variety of types of Agrodolce and that take into consideration personal tastes and is so second nature to Italians, that the recipe from "Sale & Pepe" magazine, didn't bother to give any kind of amounts or proportions. If you don't have chestnuts available or prefer some other combination, I think mini carrots or parsnips would be a nice addition or substitution. The strong flavor of the sprouts and onions pairs well with the vinegar and  brown sugar. If this combination doesn't appeal, you can fall back on my most favorite way with Brussels, which is to toss the hot and freshly cooked sprouts into some coarse ground prepared mustard, just to coat and you're good to go. 

Brussels Sprouts and Chestnuts in Agrodolce (Vedure e Castagne in Agrodolce)

300g peeled, pearl onions (10-12oz)
300g brussels sprouts, outer leaves removed, left whole and scored at the base with an x to cook faster, or if they are large, cut them in half (10-12oz)
200g chestnuts, whole cooked (7-8 oz)
40g Olive oil, or a combination of butter and oil or just butter (3Tb- 1.5oz)
1-2 T Brown sugar, I used a demerara, with fine sugar you might use 1 T
1/2 -1 c or glass as they say here in Italy hot water
4 T Vinegar, more or less to taste., white wine, apple or balsamic, young not an aged one I used a combination of apple and balsamic

• Bring a post of lightly salted water to a boil and drop your peeled onions in, boil for 5 minutes. You want them to turn slightly translucent but to still maintain some firmness. Remove and allow to drain on the side.

• Drop your brussels sprouts into the same water and again boil approximately 5 minutes. I like them to be al dente. They both will cook longer a little later. Again remove sprouts and allow to drain.

• Heat your oil or butter, in a saute pan that will fit all of your vegetables and and chestnuts.
• Add the brown sugar and heat to disolve the sugar. Keep your heat low.
  
• Add the onions and shake to coat and cook till they start to carmelize slightly.
• Add your cooked peeled chestnuts. Mix to coat
• Add your brussels sprouts and stir to coat.
• Add hot water as you need it to make a sauce to simmer it all in, but not water log 
• Cover and let simmer 15-20 minutes however done ou like your veggies.
• Add your vinegar till you reach the right note of sweet and vinegary.
• Adjust amounts of oil and vinegar if you need more liquid to cover all or to get the correct balance
• Serve
  

Rustle up some Brussels, sprouts that is