Rosemary Bread

Hello my friend! Today we'll see how to prepare a wonderful, fragrant rosemary bread.
It's not difficult, but it takes a long time because we want to prepare an easy to digest bread, so we MUST use a little quantity of yeast and let it work for 8-10-12 hours!! What we have to do is mix and knead patiently.

Ingredients (metric and imperial)for 1 loaf of bread

• 500g (1.1Lb) of  MANITOBA Flour ( indispensable for long rising)
• 340g (12oz) of fresh water
• 5g (0.18oz) of brewer's yeast
• 15g (1 tablespoon) of salt
•  5g (1teaspoon) of sugar
• 15g (1 tablespoon) of chopped rosemary

Method:

• In a big bowl put the water, the sugar and the crumbled yeast
• Mix it for 1 minute with a spoon: this will "wake up" the yeast
• Add the manitoba flour and the rosemary and start mixing and then knead
• after 2 minutes put some flour on your table (or baking table) and empty your bowl onto it
• Knead your dough for other 2 minutes then add the salt and knead again for another 5-6 minutes 
• Put the dough back into the bowl, cover the bowl with a pot top, put it into your oven (swhitched off, of course) and close it.
• after 2 hours cover a baking tin with some baking paper and put the dough on it
• Give to the dough your favourite shape (I use to bake in FILONE shape, the one in the picture)
• Incise lightly the surface (I always do oblique incisions)
• Cover with a clean dish cloth and put again in the oven
• after 7-8 hourse (it depends on the temperature of your house and on the season) get it out from the oven
• pre-heat the oven at 430°F, put in your dough
• When its surface becomes golden, switch off and open the oven
• Get the bread out and DON'T SLICE now (Yes, you have to resist...) because it will continue cooking inside and it's a very important moment, because too wet parts will dry 

When it's just warm, slice it and eat it with some ITALIAN cheese or Mortadella or prosciutto, or simply with some drops of italian extra virgin olive oil and salt!

Octopus and Beans soup

This is a spicy and warm seafood dish, perfect for winter but, once cooled, you can use it as  appetizer in little fingerfood portions.  It's another example of begetable and seafood mixing, very typical of italian cuisine!
Ingredients (imperial and metric) - Party of 4

• 3 little octopus, sliced in pieces
• 2 cans of boiled white beans
• 1 bottle of tomato sauce
• 1 clove of Garlic, finely chopped
• 1 glass of white wine
• 2 pinches of pepper
• Chili (optional)
• 45g (3 tablespoons) of Extravirgin Olive Oil
• 2-3 pinches of salt

Method:

• Put in a large pot  the oil the garlic and the optional chili and turn on a low flame
• wait 2 minutes and put the octopus: let it fry for about 1 minute, mixing
• Add the red wine and when it's evaporated, add the tomato sauce
• Let the sauce boil, if it becomes a bit  dry, add some hot water
• While the sauce is boiling, open and drain one can of beans: reduce them in cream
• Open the other can and drain it.
• When the tomato sauce changes its color becoming dark add the beans cream and the drained beans into the pot
• Cook all together for another 2-3 minutes, then add the salt, mix it and serve

TIPS: when you serve it, you can add some roasted bread  or some Taralli from BARI and some RUCOLA, it will be very nice!!

Cabbage VELLUTATA

Today we'll talk about a typical Italian dish, called VELLUTATA. I can't translate this word, but I want to explain you the meaning: VELLUTO in Italian is like VELVET in english: So this dish is like Velvet in your mouth, delicate, soft and creamy just like Velvet! You can make it with every vegetable you like: Carrots, Cabbage, Potatoes and so on and you can change quantities of spices to have a more spicy or more delicate dish. Let's see how to prepare a cabbage (and potatoes) VELLUTATA.

Ingredients - Party of 4

• 1 big cabbage, finely sliced
• 1 big potato, chopped in little cubes
• 1 onion
• 2 pinches of salt
• 1 pinch of pepper
• 1 tablespoon of extravirgin olive oil
• Chili (optional)

Method:
 

• Put in a big pot the oil and the onion, turn on a low flame
• after 1 minute add the cubed potato and the sliced cabbage, half-cover with warm water and cook it for 30minutes
• Mix everything with your blender, add the salt, the pepper and the optional chili
• serve it into your little bowls, with some roasted bread or croutons