Sea bream baked in package

First fish recipe… fish is my favourite food, If I could I didn’t eat anything else… this is a very light way to cook fish, very healthy and, of course, delightful so everyone will love it.

Ingredients – for each person

One sea bream, gutted and cleaned
1 small carrot
1 rib of celery
1/2 small onion
Some basil leaves
Ground pepper
Salt
Extravirgin olive oil

How to cook

Take a piece of aluminium foil, wide enough to fit seabream. Put one tablespoon of oil and add the fish.

Slice the onion and add it inside the fish (you’ll remove them when fish is cooked).

In the meantime, slice the celery and grate the carrot. Place them over the fish. Salt and pepper. Add one tablespoon of oil.

Close the foil, carefully wrapping the fish. Be sure that the foil is not open, or the fish will dry too much in oven.

Bake the fish, 180°C for 30/40 min. Take off from the oven, let it settle for 5 minutes then open the package and serve the seabream.

Have a nice dinner.

Ragù alla bolognese (Bolognese Sauce)

This is my favourite recipe.
I think this is the dish I cook better than others, and lot of people can confirm that. Ragù (in italian), ragout (in French?) or simple minced meat sauce, Bolognese sauce… whatever you might call it, tha taste won’t change. It will be always superb.
There are so many different Ragù recipes in Italy, any family has its own secret one, but I choose to share my family’s version of ragu. Try it with pasta such as spaghetti, use it to cook a wonderful plate of lasagne, try it with fresh pasta, such as tortellini, ravioli, gnocchi and last but not least, tagliatelle. Ragù will assure you lot of success, anyone will love it!
My advice is to cook 1 lb of ragu at least, then cool it down and freeze it in single portions (2 or 3 tablespoons each). Whenever you need, let it defrost at room temperature and zap it before use it.

Info
Preparation time: 40 min
Cooking time: 4 hours

Ingredients – for about 500 g (1 lb) of ragù – serves 6/8 as pasta sauce

600 g of minced veal (or tender beef) meat
2 carrots
2 branchs of celery
4 little shallots
2 tbsp of tomato purèe
500 g of passata (plain tomato sauce)
Extravirgin olive oil (about 30 ml)
1 glass of red dry wine
1 beef stock cube
Rosemary
Chili Pepper

How to cook

Prepare all the vegetables you need: slice thinly carrots, celery and shallots. You can also use a food processor.

I prefer to add some more carrots, it depends on your taste, but it is advisable to have the same amount of all vegetables. In a large pan pre-heat the oil and then add all the vegetables. In this step keep an high heat.

Cook for 10 min then add all the meat, stiring and pressing it down to avoid meat lumps (use a wooden fork). Cook the meat, stirring.

Keep on stirring until the meat has browned.

Now add the stock cube and the wine and let it evaporated. When the wine is evaporated, turn down the heat.

Add the tomato purèe.

Stir the meat and add the tomato sauce and the rosemary. Add a small piece of chili pepper, if you like it.

Stir for couple of minutes and let it cook on very low heat, for long, long time.

My advice is to cook ragu for about 4 hours long, stirring it every 15/20 minutes at least.

Delightful.

Cotoletta alla Milanese (Milanese Veal Cutlet)

Cutlet is a typical dish from Milan, my beloved hometown. It is very simple to cook and everybody loves it. According to the original recipe, the meat should be fried in clarified butter and then served topped with it but, in order to have a lighter dish, fry it in extravirgin olive oil.

Ingredients – serves 2

300 g (10 1/2 oz) of thin veal slices
4 eggs
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup of breadcumbs (any kind, also gluten free)
Extra virgin olive oil (or clarified butter)

Preparation

Prepare the eggs and breadcumbs in large plates.
Add salt to eggs. 

Add the salt to eggs and lightly beat them.

Dip the meat in the eggs.

Dredge the meat in the breadcumbs, pressing to let the crumbs stick. Make sure the meat is completely covered. Shake it a little to remove excess.

Repeat the last two steps to get a very thick coat. The meat will be softer after cooking.

Pre-heat the oil in a large frying pan (the oil should be very hot, so do not use other but extravirgin olive oil.

Fry the cutlet until they are golden. Serve with boiled vegetables and and thin slices of lemon.

Enjoy your meal!