Riсe, potatoes and mussels

Today I'll write how to cook one of the best dish of Salento cuisine. Salento is a region in the south of Italy. It’s famous for his beaches and cuisine. The meal is named “Riso patate e cozze” – rice potatoes and mussels.

So you'll need:
2 kg (4.4 lb) of potatoes
1 kg (2.2 lb) of fresh opened mussels (if they are not opened you’ll need 2 kg – 4.4 lb)
0.3 kg (0.66 lb) of rice
One onion
1 kg (2.2 lb) of tomatoes
Couple cloves of garlic
250 gr (0.55 lb) of grated Parmigiano - Parmesan cheese
Parsley
Breadcrumbs
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Ground black pepper
Salt


In a small container slosh the rice with the water and leave it.

Peel potatoes. Cut potatoes into thin slices.
Cut tomatoes to small pieces. Clean garlic cloves. Cut the onion vertically into thin slices.

Cut some parsley.

Put all ingredients in the big pot. Dredge grated Parmesan.

Then pour the oil. Put salt and pepper. Top up little water and mix it well. Leave it for half an hour.
Get a frying pan enough deep. We got the frying earthen pan, because we will cook in the stone oven. Remove the garlic from the pot. Pour a little oil in the pan. Put a layer of potatoes on the bottom of the pan.

Then put the layer of mussels.


Dredge the rice.

Put a little of cutted parsley.

Put salt and pepper.


Dredge grated Parmesan.

Put remaining potatoes. Carefully pour in the pan all the liquid from the pot with potatoes. If the water does not reach the level of potatoes, add the water. If you don’t do this, the rice quickly absorbs all the water and the dish will be dry. If you pour too much water, the rice absorbs not all the water.
Dredge Parmesan.

Pepper it and dredge breadcrumbs.

Pour some oil on the top.

If you cook at home, heat the oven to 250 degrees. Put the pan in the bottom of the oven. When the potatoes seem cooked - the dish is ready. Put the pan in the top of the oven. Turn in the oven grill for some minutes for delicious golden crust. When you take out the pan from the oven, leave it for 10-15 minutes. It will be more flavourful.

Enjoy the cuisine of Salento!

How to cook italian pizza

In my last post, I promised to share how to cook pizza. Here we go!

First of all, you'll need pizza dough. Well... Usually we buy it ready to cook in “pizzeria”, but this time it was closed. So we went to our friends, and asked them to help us with the dough since they know how to make it, and actually they do this pretty well.

So you'll need:
2 kg (around 4 lb.) of flour
50 gr (1.76 oz ) of yeast
0.5 litr (16.9 fl.oz ) of water
2 teaspoon of salt

Thes ingredients are for 27 pizzas! So if you don’t need so many, just take less ingredients.

Pour water in a pot, and put there salt. Warm it just a little, until salt is dissolved. Put flour on a table, and make hole in the middle. Melt the yeast in the warm water. Pour some water in the hole, and mix the flour with water. Add more water and continue to kneed. If the dough is sticky, it needs more flour. Add it! When the dough will become needed condition, knead it other 5-10 min. It should become smooth. When the dough is ready, divide it to small pieces. This photo shows you the size:Place all pieces on a tray powdered with flour. Cower it with a kitchen towel, and leave it to rest for 2-3 hours. After 3 hours:
While the dough is rising you need to prepare toppings.

If you have shredded mozzarella, you skip next step.
Cut mozzarella to the small pieces like on the photo:Leave it in the colander to drain. If you don’t do, this mozzarella will contain too much liquid and pizza will be not good.

Pour 3-4 bottles (1-1.5 l - 30-50 fl. oz.) of “passata di pomodori” – tomato souse - in a bowl. Cut one onion and some basil.Put it into the pot and also some olio and salt. Switch on slow fire. When it begins to boil, let it boil for 5 min and switch off the fire. Remove the onion from the pot.

This video explain the process how to roll the piece of dough for pizza. It must be very thin:

We had a lot of ingredients for stuffing. Now you have to decide which stuffing you want.

* Grilled vegetables
* Raw ham - Prosciutto
* Boiled ham * Salami piccante – piquant salame
* Scamorza affumicata – cheese scamorza smocked * Olives
* Capers* Anchovy * Tunny* Cream (non liquid)
* Cutted tomatoes
* Cutted garlic
* Cutted onion
* Gorgonzola * Ruccola
* Origano dried
* basil
* Olio
* Salt

Traditional Italian pizza is Margherita. It’s only with tomato souse, mozzarella, olio and salt. When it cooked you can put oregano or basil. Margherita is the base for most of other pizza. Thes photos explain how to prepare Margherita:For cook pizza we used stone oven, but you can cook it also at home oven.

1. Diavola
Put tomato souse, mozzarella, salame piccante, sale and olio.
2. Crudo e panna
Put tomato souse, mozzarella, cream, sale and olio. Cook pizza. Put raw ham.
3. Ortolana
Put tomato souse, mozzarella, grilled vegetables, sale and olio. Also you can put olives and capers.
4. Prosciutto cotto
Put tomato souse, mozzarella, boiled ham, sale and olio.
5. Napoli
Put tomato souse, mozzarella, anchovy, capers, sale and olio.
6. Tonno e cipolla
Put tomato souse, mozzarella, tunny, cutted onion, sale and olio.
7. Crudo
Put tomato souse, mozzarella, sale and olio. Cook pizza. Put raw ham.
8. Gorgonzola
Put tomato souse, mozzarella, gorgonzola, sale and olio.
9. Crudaiola
Put sale and olio. Cook pizza. Put cutted fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, ruccola, oregano.
10. Rustica
Put tomato souse, mozzarella, scamorza smocked, garlic, capers, sale and olio. You can find your own tipe of pizza! Only experiment!