Pasta alla bolognese (finnish recipe a la Stezz)

[This post is sponsored by Misha]

This is the way it's called all over the world even though we call it in Italy "Pasta al ragù" (the ragù is "alla bolognese").

It's mainly made of tomato and minced meat BUT not only of that (and this is basically the difference between the one you find in "JukkaPekka's restaurant" and a proper italian one).

INGREDIENTS for 4 persons

• 1/2 onion
• 1 carrot
• a bit of persil
• 1 glass of red wine
• salt
• extravirgin olive oil
• 1.6Kg of sleeved tomatoes
• 0.4 Kg of minced meat (naudanjauheliha)

PREPARATION
Slice carrot, onion and celery in thin slices. Put 1 dl of oil into a casserole just to cover the bottom and put the carrot onion persil and celery in. Start frying at low temperature until the onion gets yellowish.

Then throw the minced meat in and cook until it gets brown. At that point put the red wine and let evaporate.

Now it's time to raise the temperature and to put the tomatoes that you previously slightly pressed.

Add 1-2 dl more of oil if needed and cook for 30/40 minutes (this would pretty much depend on the temperature you are cooking at) stirring regularly. You will understand that it's done when the sauce reduced its quantity to half of the original one. At that point the meat will be 50% of the tomatoes (you started at 25%).

Add salt as you like.

Cook the pasta now and take it out one minute before you usually would and finish cooking it in the sauce.

Add parmigiano in big quantity.

Enjoy.

Image by avlxyz via Flickr

To give you an idea this is the desired result. You can see how all the pasta is red and cooked together with the sauce.

Image by 1JLS via Flickr

This is how it shouldn't look like, you can see the sauce on top of the pasta (and probably the pasta is like glue now...)

Seeking for the perfect pizza recipe (in Finland)

Image by Aaron Landry via Flickr

(this is for Sotiris and Francesco)

In a struggle to find the perfect mix of flours here in Finland I managed to get close to something good with this recipe.

Ingredients

* 50% of Erikoisvehnäjauho
* 30% of Durum Vehnäjauho
* 20% of Hiivaleipäjauho

I usually make 1 Kg of dough I also put:
* 3/4 (0.75) of a glass of olive oil (extra virgin it's maybe better, don't use sunflower oil or similar in that case it's better without oil)
* 1 cube of fresh yeast (the standard hiiva from K-market or S-market), 2 cubes if you want to prepare the "high dough" (we call it Naples' pizza)
* 1 teaspoon of salt
* Some lukewarm water (I really never measured how much, the dough doesn't have to be sticky nor too dry, maybe 400/500 ml it's ok)

Preparation

Dissolve the yeast in a cup of water. (*** see update below)
Mix the three types of flour together with salt and olive oil.
Mix the yeasted water with the flour... and mix... and mix... and add other water until you get a compact, non sticky dough.
Roll it to obtain a ball.
Make it rise for 2 hours under a rag inside a big plastic bag (so that the moist stays inside and the dough doesn't dry).
Now you can split the dough in how many parts you want (I suggest 10 parts for the thin pizza and 5 parts if you want a thick pizza), make as many balls of dough and stretch the pizza with a rolling pin (or if you really want to try your luck with your hands making the dough fly in the air, but this is kind of Pro also for me :D ).

Topping
For the topping I use the tomato sauce that I find in Lidl and the ground mozzarella that is always there. Then some basilica and you have your "margherita" (not "margerita" or "margarita" as you often find in many restaurants around).

If you have more time and fantasy you can add Parma Ham or mushrooms or eggplants or zucchini or radicchio (here is called "punainen salaatti") or whatever you want.


UPDATE:
There is a small mod to the recipe that proved to be slightly better:

Change
* Dissolve the yeast in a cup of water
with:
* Dissolve the yeast in 3 spoons of lukewarm water and one teaspoon of sugar and wait until you see some foam (2/3 minutes usually) - The sugar helps a lot the rising process.

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Pan di stelle

There is one thing that I miss from Italy that I still wasn't able to get here in Finland. The pan di stelle biscuits. Well bored of waiting somebody to import them from Italy I found the recipe and baked them.

Below is the result. The taste is much better :D

Crossover cousine

For the series "Today in the canteen..."
I also found the recipe!!!

(another) recipe for risotto with radicchio

Ingredients for 2 persons:

180-200 gr. of rice for risotto (we eat a lot :D )
2 heads radicchio (in Finland is called punainen salaatti )
1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
1 glass extra virgin olive oil
30 gr. butter
1 lt. vegetable broth
1 full glass red wine
Grated Italian Parmesan



Instructions:

1. In a large non stick pan cook the onions in butter and olive oil until they're translucent being careful not to brown too much them.
2. Meanwhile, wash and slice the radicchio thinly.
3. When the onions are ready add the radicchio and cook them for about 10 minutes or until they are reduced to less than half their original volume. Mixing often.
4. Add the rice and mix well for 3-4 minutes so that the rice changes color and the moisture from the radicchio is absorbed into the rice.
5. Add the wine and continue mixing until it is absorbed.
6. Add about a glass of <> broth and reduce the heat to medium. Mix it frequently.
7. Wait until the rice absorb the broth and then you can...
8. Continue adding broth in the same quantity mixing frequently. Continue doing so until the rice is nearly cooked. This will take practice since every rice cooks differently.
9. When the rice is almost cooked, it should be a bit more that according to package direction, put the Parmesan and mix. Remove from the stove, cover the pan with the lid and let it stand for 5 minutes.
10. Serve the rice and accompany it with extra Parmesan for the topping.