Sedanini con tonno, pomodoro e capperi

Per tutti coloro che amano i piatti veloci e pratici...ecco un primo ricco di gusto e pronto in meno di mezz'ora! Sedanini con tonno, pomodoro e capperi

Mettiamo sul fornello un tegame antiaderente con 3 cucchiai di olio e vi affettiamo il cipollotto

Lo facciamo soffriggere fino a che prenda un bel colore biondo, poi, aggiungiamo il tonno leggermente sgocciolato e sminuzzato

Bagniamo con il vino bianco e lo lasciamo evaporare

Quando il liquido si sarà asciugato, amalgamiamo i pomodori pelati...non molti, poiché il risultato della pietanza non dovrà essere di colore rosso, bensì rosato

Insaporiamo con i capperi, sciacquati sotto acqua corrente per eliminare il sale in eccesso

Mentre prepariamo il condimento, portiamo a cottura anche la pasta, la scoliamo al dente e la mantechiamo in padella

Facciamo saltare per 2 minuti e profumiamo il piatto con un trito di prezzemolo fresco

Ecco subito pronto la nostra squisitezza al tonno! Buon appetito!

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Filetto di maiale al vino rosso

Saliamo e pepeiamo bene il filetto.

In una teglia larga facciamo riscaldare dell'olio

Rosoliamo la carne solo da una parte e poi inforniamola a 280 gradi per 25-30 minuti (il tempo di cottura varia a secondo del peso della carne, queste tempistiche sono sufficienti per un filetto da circa 500 gr).

Tagliamo in maniera sottile gli scalogni e facciamoli soffriggere nella stessa teglia dove abbiamo rosolato la carne, aggiungendo acqua se necessario.

Sfumiamo con del vino rosso e addensiamo la salsa con un composto di vino miscelato ad un cucchiaino di amido di mais.

Quando la carne sarà cotta tagliamola a fette, versiamo sopra la salsa e serviamo ancora caldo.

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Aida Molle Kamp 21 st century holiday dishes

TV presenter Aida Molle Kamp created food with universal appeal - for omnivores, vegan and gluten-free eaters. Here cook their tips as for any amount. Aida Molle Kamp in the kitchen.

Food Network Star Aida Molle Kamp masterminded once a Thanksgiving Dinner for eight with only a hot plate and a de'Longhi toaster oven. "It was a disaster waiting to come, but it turned out great," says Molle Kamp, who from a menu of dates filled with foie gras, Turkey Breast Roast, celery root soup and a pumpkin Panna cotta pulled. In contrast, their current holiday challenge seems like a no-brainer: you create a Thanksgiving dinner for a group of friends with different dietary restrictions of vegetarian, gluten-free.

Molle Kamp made himself a name as a problem-solving first on their hit, Aida, ask Cook, to show where viewers in their cooking dilemmas to send; and now with her new cookbook, key to the kitchen (now), a kind of joy of cooking, for the Facebook. "I've tried to teach the sort of thing that would have known our parents generation, to keep, such as the Warehouse make or rice, cooking from the hip and like a knife," she says. Their Outlook food is very modern, inspired by their global travel (a root vegetable and cauliflower Tagine), and it beats surprising possibilities use seasonal products, such as adding that pomegranate seeds for a sweet-tart to make gremolata. The smart pantry, cooking and style tips continue reading for more of Molle Osterkamp.

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Spaghetti Lilli e il vagabondo

Chi non ha mai desiderato di assaggiare  quei deliziosi spaghetti che in una notte stellata Lilli e il Vagabondo condividono?

Ecco la ricetta!

Prepariamo intanto il sugo:

facciamo un soffritto con olio, scalogno e carota tritati. Versiamo poi la salsa di pomodoro e lasciamo cuocere per 20 minuti.

Prepariamo le polpette amalgamado la carne tritata con l'uovo e il parmiginao.

Mettiamo a cuocere le polpettine nel sugo per altri 20 minuti.

Facciamo cuocere la pasta in acqua salata, scoliamola e saltiamola nel sugo.

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New Orleans Restaurants

F&W names essential New Orleans restaurants to visit now, from John Besh’s regional flagship to the porky Cajun spot Cochon. Plus: exceptionally varied doughnuts from a trio of police officers and the bar that put New Orleans cocktail culture back on track.

Until recently most of the Italian restaurants in New Orleans served red sauce by the truckload. With the 2009 opening of the terrific A Mano, the city’s Italian-food scene has become a lot more interesting. Chefs Adolfo Garcia and Joshua Smith shop at the Crescent City farmers’ market and cure their own meats for a decidedly local, artisanal approach to dishes like the Buccatini all’ Amatriciana prepared with house guanciale, tomatoes, Pecorino and chile. amanonola.com

At this excellent Cajun spot in the Warehouse District, chef Donald Link creates modern, extremely porky versions of the rustic country food he grew up with. There’s homemade bacon in the fried oyster sandwich (served with a chile mayo), pan-fried pork cheeks with roasted corn grits and the restaurant’s eponymous dish, cochon du lait (suckling pig), a crisped disc of braised pork served with turnips and cracklings. The casual next door “swine bar,” Cochon Butcher, serves sandwiches and sells homemade charcuterie to go. cochonrestaurant.com

Former August sous chef Mike Stoltzfus and fiancée Lillian Hubbard opened Coquette in 2008 in an intimate Garden District space (there’s only one row of tables in the narrow first floor dining room). In a city of excess, Stoltzfus keeps his daily-changing menu elegant and simple with dishes like the tempura-fried Gulf shrimp with grapefruit and olives. coquette-nola.com

Photo © Tom Verisco/Besh Restaurant Group.

Alon Shaya, formerly of Besh Steak, partnered with John Besh on this homey Italian restaurant in the Roosevelt Hotel. Shaya worked in Italy for a year to develop the menu, which includes house-made salumi, pasta, and pizzas—like the Cotechino topped with oven-dried tomato, scallion and pork sausage—which are baked in a Pavesi wood-fired oven with a rotating stone deck. “Ours is the only one of its kind in America,” Shaya says. The restaurant also makes an excellent version of the lemony Italian after-dinner drink Limoncello. domenicarestaurant.com

In a funky little French Quarter spot with copper-pressed wallpaper ceilings and fuschia-colored chairs, chef Paul Artigues cooks local takes on global dishes; for instance, “Louisiana Bangers & Mash,” is a spin on the hearty British dish, featuring Louisiana duck sausage served on mashed sweet potatoes with cane syrup. Drinks include tweaked versions of the classics, including the Pear 75, a Champagne cocktail mixed with Oregon pear brandy, Austrian apricot liqueur and ginger syrup. greengoddessnola.com

Susan Spicer has been cooking her refined mashup of Louisiana and European food—sautéed salmon with choucroute; smooth, slow-cooked cream of garlic soup—out of this color-blocked French Quarter cottage for over two decades. The patio out back, gently lit with candles and accented with fruit trees, is among the most serene spots to dine in the city. In 2010, Spicer opened the more casual Mondo in Lakeview, serving global comfort foods such as Chinese braised duck. bayona.com

Before he was a household name, Emeril Lagasse was the chef-owner at this Warehouse District restaurant, serving a supercharged take on Louisiana cuisine. The kitchen is currently run by chef de cuisine David Slater, who still serves some of his boss’s signature items, like the fiery, creamy barbeque shrimp and grilled homemade Andouille sausage. emerils.com

Slade Rushing and Allison Vines-Rushing are Southern chefs who met in New Orleans, made their names in Manhattan, then returned to Louisiana to create food that combines a Southern sensibility with New York sophistication. MiLa is best known for its “deconstructed” oyster Rockefeller, but the bar menu features small plates that are every bit as ingenious, like coconut shrimp beignets, a combination of two classic fried foods. milaneworleans.com

New Orleans–born Aaron Burgau got his start working with some of the city’s most progressive chefs, such as Susan Spicer of Bayona, before he opened this intimate corner restaurant in Uptown in 2007. His personal interpretation of Creole food, such as a fennel-crusted pan-fried rabbit with purple hull peas and corn-and-roasted-poblano succotash, feels simultaneously novel and familiar. patoisnola.com

John Besh’s eponymous restaurant group owns and operates several restaurants in the city, including the Franco-German brasserie Lüke and this, Besh’s flagship. The setting is formal and plush, and the cooking is technically complex, matching regional dishes with European technique, as in a potato gnocchi with local blue crab and truffles. The lunch prix fixe, three courses for $20, is an excellent value. restaurantaugust.com

Photo courtesy of Stella! Restaurant.

At this decade-old French Quarter restaurant, chef-owner Scott Boswell draws from his Louisiana roots as well as global influences for exquisite dishes like a deviled egg with caviar and champagne gelée. Boswell also runs the casual comfort food spot Stanley on Jackson Square in the French Quarter, where long lines form for the delicious, hearty breakfasts. restaurantstella.com

Brigtsen’s has been a New Orleans favorite since it opened in 1986, thanks to the passion that Frank Brigtsen and his wife, Marna, have for traditional Creole and Acadian cooking. Most of the menu is filled with true only-in-Louisiana dishes, like panéed (breaded and pan-fried) rabbit with a Creole mustard sauce, and oysters Bienville, an ultrarich oysters Rockefeller variation topped with a béchamel and shrimp sauce. brigtsens.com

Photo courtesy of Casamento’s.

Locals adore this little oyster-centric restaurant on Magazine Street not just for its lived-in feel and historic cred—it’s been around for more than 90 years—but for its Louisiana oysters, which are served raw, fried, stewed and more. The famous Oyster Loaf is a tottering pile of fried oysters tucked between thick slices of buttery pan bread. casamentosrestaurant.com

Emeril Lagasse and Paul Prudhomme are just two of the legendary chefs who have run the kitchen at this stately Garden District classic. The current chef is Tory McPhail, who creates Creole dishes like a dome-shaped pastry filled with oysters poached in absinthe, artichokes, bacon and cream. Among the longtime menu standbys: the sherry-spiked turtle soup and the extraordinarily popular bread-pudding soufflé, flavored with raisins and topped with a silky bourbon sauce. commanderspalace.com

Not much has changed at this Bourbon Street institution since Frenchman Jean Galatoire opened it over a century ago. The tile-lined downstairs dining room is filled with New Orleanians in seersucker suits, while the kitchen still turns out well-made French-Creole classics like shrimp remoulade and crawfish etouffée in season during spring. galatoires.com

This restaurant in a quiet Uptown neighborhood has long been a proving ground for talented chefs—with more F&W Best New Chefs (including John Harris, Mat Wolf and Larkin Selman) than any other restaurant in the country. Sue Zemanick, a Best New Chef 2008, serves modern American dishes like pierogies stuffed with wild mushrooms and potato, topped with caramelized Vidalia onion–spiked crème fra&icric;che. But one of the most popular, and long-standing, menu items is the most simple—the perfectly done roast chicken, served with natural jus, green beans and garlic mashed potatoes, which owner Patrick Singley insists remains exactly the same no matter who the chef is. gautreausrestaurant.com

When Mother’s opened its doors in the 1930s, owners Simon and Mary “Mother” Landry cooked up po’boy sandwiches for longshoremen. Now locals and tourists alike order at the counter from the dizzyingly large menu, which includes the original po’boys, like the Debris (bits of roast beef soaked in gravy), along with dishes like Mae’s Filé Gumbo, prepared with chicken and andouille sausage and named after Oda Mae Peters, who ran the kitchen for over 22 years. mothersrestaurant.net

It’s no longer rare for highly trained chefs to open sandwich places, so it was only mildly surprising when Ben Wicks left his chef de cuisine job at the well-regarded RioMar to open this Uptown po’boy shop in 2008. Wicks’s sandwiches combine family recipes and fresh local ingredients, like never-frozen Gulf shrimp. On a road trip around the country in search of regional American dishes, New York City star chef Andrew Carmellini tried almost every po’boy on the menu here. His favorite: the fried-oyster remoulade. mahonyspoboys.com

The basic ingredients for the muffuletta sandwich are ham, salami, provolone or Swiss cheese and olive relish, served up on a massive semolina roll. At this small Italian grocery in Old Metairie, an outstanding version of the classic can be made with delicious extras like prosciutto and mortadella, and are even bigger than most served in the city. norjoe.com

It sounds like the beginning of a joke—but three New Orleans police officers launched this Mid-City doughnut shop. Dennis Gibliant, Ronald Laporte and Brandon Singleton offer more than 50 varieties, as well as other desserts, like glazed-doughnut bread pudding and doughnut ice cream sandwiches. bluedotdonuts.com

Photo courtesy of Café du Monde.

Ever since it opened in 1862 in a landmark building in the French Quarter, this sprawling 24-hour café has served the same dark-roast coffee with chicory (which softens the bitterness) and beignets, square, French-style doughnuts served warm with a generous coating of powdered sugar. cafedumonde.com

Photo courtesy of La Divina Gelateria.

There are now three outposts of this gelato shop, which sources local dairy, fruit and honey for flavors like Honey Sesame Goat’s Milk and Crème Brûlée. The small list of panini include a Muffalino, a pressed take on the New Orleans classic sandwich, the muffuletta. ladivinagelateria.com

When Neal Bodenheimer opened Cure in 2009, he officially ushered New Orleans, a historic cocktail town where the quality of the drinks had slid, into the modern cocktail era. In a renovated firehouse 15 minutes from the French Quarter, bartenders turn out perfect Sazeracs and an always-changing list of more complex and creative drinks, many using housemade bitters. curenola.com

Star chef John Besh counts this Bourbon Street spot as one of his favorites for a classic cocktail in the French Quarter: “It’s a lot of fun to have an aperitif there before a meal, and it’s a staple place on big days, like Mardi Gras,” he says. Generations before Besh have also loved the corner bar, which still retains its original decorative marble fountains. Its signature Absinthe House Frappe (Herbsaint, anisette and soda water, served over a flurry of crushed ice) was a favorite of Franklin D. Roosevelt. oldabsinthehouse.com

The Sazerac Bar at the historic Roosevelt hotel originally opened in 1923 and soon after became a regular haunt of Louisiana’s colorful governor Huey P. Long—he even dodged a bullet there (or so the legend goes). The bar was remodeled in 2009 keeping its vintage look, with Art Deco etched glass and Paul Ninas murals of New Orleans. The drink to get, of course, is the namesake Sazerac (rye whiskey, bitters and an absinthe rinse) and other New Orleans classics, like the Ramos Gin Fizz. therooseveltneworleans.com

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Washington, DC Restaurants

F&W names the best restaurants, bakeries and bars, from a 12-table modern Greek spot to chef Cathal Armstrong’s sprawling, two-story rec-room serving expert Irish pub food. Plus: where to sample the benefits of the cupcake craze and find over 500 beers in one place. Inside the restaurant District Commons. Photo courtesy of District Commons.

Vintage World Cup games play on the television screens at Mark Kuller and Haidar Karoum’s tapas spot, the follow-up to their wine-centric Proof. Karoum’s menu includes an excellent blood-sausage bocadillo (sandwich) with Cabrales blue cheese; the mostly Spanish wine list is complemented by frozen “slushitos” in flavors like grapefruit with bourbon and chamomile. estadio-dc.com

Chef Fabio Trabocchi served elegant, decadent Italian food at Maestro in McLean, Virginia, and then at New York City’s Fiamma, where he shaved truffles atop pasta with abandon. At the Italian villa–inspired Fiola, Trabocchi focuses on more casual Italian dishes, like eggplant parmigiana and tomato-braised oxtail. But he can’t seem to go totally rustic: That parmigiana comes in a delicate lemon froth. fioladc.com

Photo courtesy of District Commons.

DC chef-restaurateur Jeff Tunks’s upscale, 185-seat District Commons serves American comfort food (brick-pressed chicken, shrimp and grits), excellent charcuterie from the country’s best producers (Allan Benton, Col.) and 99 types of beer. Every night at 10 p.m., a loud bell rings, signaling the availability of the night’s special late-night entrée—a $12 dish featuring items from the kitchen staff’s meal, like fried chicken, meat loaf or pupusas. In an homage to DC’s past, the restaurant’s walls are lined with sepia-toned photographs of the city from the 1930s and ’40s. districtcommonsdc.com

Top Chef contestant Mike Isabella launched this industrial-chic two-story Italian spot in 2011 with Bravo alum Bryan Voltaggio as a business partner. The modern Italian menu changes seasonally but is anchored by wood-oven-roasted dishes and pizzas, such as a fried calamari–topped offering called the Jersey Shore. graffiatodc.com

Photo courtesy of Pearl Dive Oyster Palace.

The newest spot from DC empire builders Jeff and Barbara Black (BlackSalt, Black’s Bar and Kitchen) is an urban fish shack inspired by the Gulf of Mexico, with two oyster bars and a menu of seafood gumbos and po’ boys. Upstairs is a different restaurant, Black Jack, with a wide-ranging pub menu, craft cocktails, a spiked-slushie machine and an indoor bocce court. pearldivedc.com

Restaurant PS 7’s is named after the initials of chef-owner Peter Smith (formerly of Vidalia). The American bistro menu covers all the current food obsessions, from small plates and sliders to house-made hot dogs and gluten-free dishes. Cocktails are stellar, including Pete’s pickled Martini with house-pickled Cuban hat peppers and two kinds of sangria. ps7restaurant.com

At this modern Indian restaurant decorated with oil paintings and sculptures by contemporary Indian artists, Bombay-born chef Vikram Sunderam creates phenomenal dishes, such as star anise–scented black cod and mango shrimp marinated twice (first in garlic and ginger, then in a more complex marinade of yogurt, cashews, green chile and mango pulp). The menu features plenty of vegan and vegetarian options, including a vegetarian prix fixe. rasikarestaurant.com

At this sprawling, two-story rec-room, Dubliner Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve combines expert Irish pub food with dart boards, a pool table and retractable video screens for playing Nintendo Wii. Executive chef Ryan Wheeler prepares spicy deviled eggs and mushroom dumplings alongside mixologist Todd Thrasher’s beer-based “hoptails.” virtuefeedandgrain.com

Chef Nicholas Stefanelli has cooked in a number of stellar Italian kitchens, including Maestro in McLean, Virginia, and Fiamma in New York City. At Bibiana, his own elegant Italian menu is full of clever flourishes: He makes tagliatelle with onion ragù and lardo, and hay smoked veal sweetbreads arrive with charred eggplant puree, candied black olives and fennel puree. bibianadc.com

Photo courtesy of Komi Restaurant.

At the tiny, 12-table modern Greek restaurant Komi, young chef Johnny Monis treats pristine ingredients with reverence. The result: a transcendent $135 prix fixe dining experience composed of deceptively simple dishes including a series of mezzethakia (light bites), one of Monis’s always excellent pastas (like spaghetti with crab and sea urchin) and roasted meat, often baby goat or suckling pig. komirestaurant.com

Photo courtesy of Restaurant Eve.

At his flagship in Alexandria, Virginia, chef Cathal Armstrong (Eamonn’s, Virtue Feed & Grain) uses produce from his own organic garden to create refined New American food, like whole roasted branzino with fennel confit and saffron cream. There are two options for guests: a formal 34-seat tasting room where the tablecloths are actually ironed on the tables and prix-fixe menus come with five, seven or nine courses; and the a la carte bistro and lounge. restauranteve.com

Former Vidalia chef R.J. Cooper doesn’t just cook out of an open kitchen, he stars in a kitchen-as-performance space (complete with $12,000 rotary evaporator) located in the middle of a 52-seat dining room. Diners choose the 16-course Progression or 24-course Journey for modernist dishes like the Sea Floor, silky sea urchin served with pickled seaweed and crispy squid ink “lava rock.” rogue24.com

Scott Drewno, an alum of Los Angeles’s Spago and Chinois, heads up Wolfgang Puck’s first DC fine-dining restaurant, which takes over three floors of the Newseum museum just off the Mall. The first-floor lounge serves Asian snacks like pork belly buns with house-made hoisin and crispy chicken wings with chili sauce. In the upstairs dining room, politicians and lobbyists eat modern Asian dishes like squares of suckling pig with ginger-peach puree. wolfgangpuck.com

Superstar chef José Andrés has restaurants all over the country, but he made his name at Jaleo. There are now four outposts of the brightly colored Spanish restaurant, each serving dozens of authentic tapas—from the supersimple, classic pan con tomate (toasted bread rubbed with tomato) to more intricate ones like Basque-style squid ink stew—along with hearty paellas and Spanish wines. The bar serves excellent versions of José’s favorite cocktail, the gin and tonic, like one with Hendrick’s gin, juniper, lemon and artisanal Fever Tree tonic water. jaleo.com

This 90-year-old hotel, five blocks from the White House, has seen its share of talented chefs. Currently, Paul Pelt combines influences from New Orleans, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa for a menu that might include seafood gumbo with house-made sausage or Berbere-crusted Berkshire pork ribs. tabardinn.com

Photo courtesy of Bayou Bakery.

The author of one of F&W’s favorite cookbooks, DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth New Orleans Style, chef Davis Guas turns his attention to sandwiches and savory comfort food at this Arlington, Virginia café. For dinner, Guas updates NOLA dishes he grew up with, like spiced Gulf shrimp with green onion remoulade and blackened turkey meatballs with roasted tomato sauce, but hasn’t entirely forgotten his pastry chef roots. There are expert biscuits on the menu and super fluffy beignets with a generous coating of powdered sugar. bayoubakeryva.com

Next door to Jeff Tunks’s upscale District Commons is his counter service Burger, Tap & Shake, which features elevated burgers prepared with a blend of house-ground, three-day-aged, naturally raised–beef brisket and chuck on house-made buns. Also on the menu: liquor-spiked “shaketails” like the Apocalypto, which combines cinnamon whisky, homemade marshmallows, and chocolate ice cream, and 20 American craft brews on tap. burgertapshake.com

Superstar chef Michel Richard is known for ingenious French presentations at Citronelle and his newest restaurant, Michel by Michel Richard at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner. At the more casual Central, overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue, the focus is on hearty portions of French and American comfort food classics, like the “faux gras” terrine and fried chicken with mashed potatoes. centralmichelrichard.com

Photo courtesy of The Majestic.

In 2007, Cathal Armstrong (Restaurant Eve, Eamonn’s) took over this Alexandria, Virginia, landmark after hearing it was about to close. He installed chef Shannon Overmiller, who prepares homey American dishes, like meat loaf with mashed potatoes. The Majestic’s Sunday night supper is worth trying: the $22 family-style meal includes mains that change each month like barbecued pork ribs, sides and homey dessert such as peach pie or Irish rice pudding. majesticcafe.com

The suburb of Falls Church, Virginia, is a hub for the DC-area’s large Vietnamese community and a great place to go for papaya salad and shrimp rolls. Present, a strip-mall spot owned by Gene Nguyen, offers truly exemplary versions: The papaya salad comes topped with strips of beef liver jerky, and the shrimp rolls are assembled with house-made rice wrappers. presentcuisine.com

As Birch & Barley pastry chef, Tiffany MacIsaac was famous for her delicious bread basket and elevated dessert classics. Now her two outposts of Buzz Bakery—in Alexandria and Ballston—serve cupcakes, pies and tarts, plus divine breakfast pastries, like buttery brioche rolls stuffed with scrambled Amish eggs, cheddar cheese and applewood-smoked bacon. buzzbakery.com

DC is still deep in its cupcake craze, with Georgetown Cupcake’s two area locations feeding much of the frenzy. Dozens of rotating flavors include an ode to springtime in the city: the Cherry Blossom, a Madagascar bourbon vanilla cupcake baked with fresh cherries and topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and a fondant cherry blossom. georgetowncupcake.com

Photo courtesy of Birch & Barley.

A bistro with the heart of a beer bar, Birch & Barley has the city’s largest selection of brews (500 in bottles, 50 on tap, five in casks) and a beer sommelier to guide diners. Chef Kyle Bailey’s food naturally pairs well with beer, from the Brät Burger (a veal, pork and beef patty topped with sauerkraut) to the honey-glazed duck breast with nutty wild rice. birchandbarley.com

This pseudo-speakeasy from local DJ/restaurateur Eric Hilton doesn’t allow standing at the bar and takes reservations in two-hour blocks. It’s a sign that the focus here is on the mellow mood and well-made cocktails, not the party scene. The smart cocktail menu is divided into categories: Dry, Sweet, Sour and Bitter. thegibsondc.com

At this unmarked bar above Cathal Armstrong’s fish-and-chip shop Eamonn’s in Alexandria, Virginia, mixologist Todd Thrasher makes his own bitters, tonics, sodas and vermouth for both vintage drinks and his own wildly creative concoctions that use ingredients like whipped pickle foam and crushed Altoids. Among Thrasher’s more out-there cocktails: the Norfolk Dumpling, homemade duck sauce mixed with tequila, pisco and bitters, then garnished with a shrimp cracker. eamonnsdublinchipper.com

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Risotto di zucca e speck

La stagione autunnale alle porte e l'avvicinarsi della festa di Halloween hanno un denomnatore comune...un ortaggio dalle preziose proprietà...la zucca! Numerose risultano le pietanze che la vedono protagonista...fra le tante, il piatto più classico è il risotto che noi oggi abbiamo arricchito con l'aggiunta di speck e di scamorza filante.

Facciamo fondere il burro in una padella abbastanza capace

Vi tritiamo finemente sia la cipolla, sia l'aglio sbucciati e privati dell'anima e li facciamo soffriggere

Sbucciamo la zucca, la priviamo dai semi e dai filamenti e la tagliamo a dadini, poi, faremo rosolare anch'essa nel burro aromatizzato

Aggiungiamoo un solo pizzico di sale, poichè lo speck è già di per sè salato e anche il brodo con cui cuoceremo il riso

Dopodiché, aggiungiamo il riso e lo facciamo tostare

Rigiriamo per bene e, non appena i chicchi risultano tutti tostati, bagniamo a poco a poco col brodo vegetale caldo

Quando il liquido si sarà assorbito e il riso quasi cotto, insaporiamo con l'aggiunta di speck, tagliato a dadini

e con la scamorza, anch'essa tagliata a cubetti, che lasceremo fondere e filare

Mantechiamo per 1 minuto, impiattiamo e serviamo!

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Girelle alla cannella

Le GIRELLE ALLA CANNELLA sono dei dolci tipici del nor europa, hanno un profumo e un gusto unico!

Dobbiamo innanzi tutto preparare la pasta, attivando il lievito di birra disidratato. Facciamolo scioglere in acqua calda e un cucchiaiano di zucchero e lasciamolo riposare per 5 minuti.

In un'impastatrice o anche a mano impastiamo tutti gli ingredienti. Solo la farina dovrà essere aggiunta in 2 o 3 volte.

Lasciamo riposare il panetto per 2 o 3 ore in un luogo caldo e lontano da correnti d'aria.ù

Dopo la lievitazione, stendiamo la pasta su un piano e cospargiamola con 60 gr di burro morbido.

Cospargiamo sopra il burro lo zucchero e la cannella e giriamolo su se stesso per formare le girelle.

Tagliamo il cilindro ottenuto in fette di 2 cm di larghezza e sistemiamole in una teglia ricoperta da carta forno e lasciamole lievitare per un'altra mezz'ora.

Inforniamole a 180 gradi per 20 minuti.

Una volta raffreddate versiamo sopra la glassa.

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David Tanis's Thanksgiving on the Ranch

Farmer-to-the-stars Lee Hudson invites former Chez Panisse chef David Tanis to his Napa Valley home to create a California-style Thanksgiving dinner, using ingredients grown on Hudson’s 2,000-acre ranch. David Tanis and Lee Hudson’s Thanksgiving dinner.

When an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner arrives from Lee Hudson, longtime grape-grower and winemaker in Napa’s Carneros region, I accept. Even though, every year, I go to my brother Tony’s house for the holiday, I accept—not only because Lee is an extraordinary host, but because he is the genius loci of his land. His Hudson Ranch and Vineyards, some 50 minutes northeast of San Francisco, sits on an expanse of oak woodland, with the San Pablo Bay glimmering beyond. Dinner will be served outside, on a terrace overlooking all of this. Undoubtedly, some awfully good wine will be poured, and the meal will be unforgettable, because David Tanis—cookbook author, columnist for the New York Times and chef emeritus at Chez Panisse—is preparing it, using ingredients grown mainly on the ranch itself. Also, I know Lee well enough to predict that his cast of characters will not be dull. So I put aside my guilt about my brother and say yes to Lee.

I rumble through the ranch and up the world’s longest driveway to the villa, perched on top. It’s surrounded by lush English and Italian gardens. I pass monstrous pumpkins—the size of Mini Coopers—anchoring the vegetable garden. Last year, Lee’s landscaper Leonardo Ureña won a prestigious contest in nearby Half Moon Bay for a record-breaking pumpkin of 1,704 pounds, and the ones growing now aren’t far off. Other enormous vegetables come into view, like a shady trellis of dangling, elongated green gourds, some so hefty they hang supported in hammocks.

When I arrive at the house, the first person I spot is Lee, whom I know because his wife, Cristina Salas-Porras, has been a great friend of mine for years. Lee is standing in his wine cellar, amid prosciutti and sausages hanging from the rafters, dressed ruggedly in a cowboy hat, a pressed white shirt and jeans. Most of the wines tonight, he says, will be from his own vineyards, but he’s also choosing wines from Kongsgaard, Kistler, Ramey and Arietta—other Napa stars for whom Lee has long grown grapes. He went to graduate school with many of these guys at the University of California at Davis in the 1970s, and they’re old friends.

Many of the bottles he’s selecting bear the Hudson Vineyards designation. Lee bought and developed the property 31 years ago. The scion of an old Texas oil family, he was not “inspired in the classroom,” as he puts it, nor was he drawn to engineering or raising Brahman cattle, as his father had near Houston. Rather, he was drawn to agriculture: As a 16-year-old exchange student in France in the ’60s, he planted his first garden. He went to the University of Arizona, earned a BS in horticulture and returned to France—to Burgundy this time—to work for Domaine Dujac as one of three employees. There, he was smitten with the culture of wine: “I loved the sense of terroir, the fact that wine could taste so different from field to field.” He enrolled in graduate school at Davis in viticulture and enology. “Lee was so fired up about his experience in Burgundy,” says John Kongsgaard to me later, “that all the young turks in our group were convinced that Lee would go on to make deluxe wines.”

After a stint in Oregon working with Pinot Noir for Shafer Vineyard Cellars, Lee explored California to find an ideal spot for grapes—not to vinify, but to grow. “I knew in 1981 that I wanted to grow grapes for others,” he recalls. “The least appealing thing to me about the wine business was having to go out and sell it. I wanted to be close to my family. And I was drawn to the hands-on growing process.” While visiting Sterling Vineyards, high on a hill above the Napa Valley, Lee knew he’d found the place: “It reminded me of the grandeur of Yosemite.”

The property he chose in Carneros has cool bay breezes and stony volcanic soil, ideal for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. At a time when most vineyards focused on maximum quantity, Lee was clear: He wanted to grow for quality. And so he worked with a number of winemakers in the area to grow grapes according to their specifications, on plots they’d chosen on his ranch.

Eventually, Lee started making his own Hudson Vineyards wines. He collaborated with Kongsgaard and Christopher Vandendriessche, owner and winemaker of Napa’s White Rock Vineyards. “I’ve become a better grower since I’ve made my own wine,” he admits. He feels they have hedonistic appeal: “I wanted bold, extroverted wines.”

He also started to diversify. Now, olive trees provide a soft border around the vineyards. Along with 700 trees in orchards, they produce enough for small quantities of Italian-style olive oil. (The name on the label, Titi’s Carneros Olive Oil, belonged to his flamboyant, jet-setting mother, Titi.) Lee and his crew also tend a vegetable garden that supplies his family and those who work on the ranch. By 2007, he had a larger, two-acre garden and a livestock program with poultry, eggs and Berkshire pigs. Part of the enterprise turned into a CSA, and now that produce also goes to top Bay Area restaurants like Chez Panisse, Bix, A16, Quince, Angel and Ad Hoc.

Today the kitchen, filled with vegetables and fruit still warm from harvest, provides a welcome back to California for former Chez Panisse chef David Tanis, who now lives in New York and Paris. He was invited to cook Thanksgiving by Cristina, who befriended him as Alice Waters’s assistant. The only things on his menu that don’t come from the gardens are two plump, local BN Ranch turkeys.

“In keeping with Lee and Cristina’s lifestyle, we’ve come up with a meal that is not ultra-traditional,” says David. “With a nod to Cristina’s heritage, we have a Mexican twist to the crudité platter.” It’s an arrangement of carrots, cucumbers and radishes sprinkled with salt, lime and chile. “And as guests arrive, to satisfy the first hungry urge, we’ll serve smoked salmon on little toasts.” They taste great with the 2009 Hudson Vineyards Chardonnay—full-bodied but not oaky.

David and Cristina discuss the rest of the meal as he rubs the turkey with butter and stuffs herbs into the cavity. They agree upon a semi-traditional stuffing of bacon, kale and corn bread. Another dish riffs on a Richard Olney recipe for squash gratin. In his classic book Simple French Food, Olney describes the squash cubes as “retaining perfectly their form, but ready to collapse at the touch of a fork or a tongue.”

The turkeys come out of the oven now, and go into a wood-fired pizza oven outside to crisp to a gorgeous brown. David makes a salad of white beans and barely steamed haricots verts in a vinaigrette. And he can’t resist another giant vegetable pulled from the gardens—cannonball-size beets, which he juliennes and keeps raw, seasoned with salt, cumin and citrus. Both salads go on the table, family-style, along with a spicy, ruby-red tomato-and-ginger chutney instead of cranberry sauce. Twenty or so of the couple’s friends find seats as the last few dishes are laid down among glowing candles and tiny flowers. Into the glasses go Lee’s 2009 Syrah and 2006 Favia Rompecabezas, a Southern Rhône–style blend from winemaker Andy Erickson and viticulturist Annie Favia, his wife, who is here.

Dinner lasts until well after dusk. At the end, out comes a platter of autumn fruits, Cowgirl Creamery cheeses and breads from Della Fattoria, followed by a cranberry custard tart, glistening with cranberries candied in a sugary syrup. And there’s a big, puffy, fragrant apple pie, too, made with ranch apples—“for those gluttons who are still hungry,” David jokes. I wonder, what would my brother Tony have to say about them apples? If he were here, he’d understand.

Peggy Knickerbocker is a writer and cookbook author based in San Francisco. She is currently working on a memoir called It Can Happen to You: Love Later in Life.

Lee Hudson chooses wines to pair with David Tanis’s menu.

In addition to making his own wines, Lee Hudson sells grapes to several top California wineries. Here, five Hudson Vineyards bottlings.

Star winemaker David Ramey has been making his vibrant, citrusy Hudson Vineyards Chardonnay for more than a decade.

This Chardonnay, though substantial, stays light on its feet—largely thanks to the cool breezes that roll into Hudson Vineyards off San Pablo Bay. 2010 Failla Hudson Vineyards Chardonnay ($39) Failla’s Ehren Jordan started using Hudson’s fruit years ago, when he was making wine for Neyers Vineyard. He’s never stopped, no doubt because it allows him to make layered, complex Chardonnays like this one.

In the cool 2010 vintage, Hudson’s most affordable red has distinctive white pepper and red berry notes.

Ray Coursen of Elyse modeled this silky Grenache-based red after wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

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