Baked Pizzoccheri

• 300 g pizzoccheri
• 150 g. grated Parmesan cheese
• 150 g. soft cheese like fontina or bitto
• 200 g savoy cabbage or chard
• 200 g potatoes
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 spring of sage
• 100 g butter
• extra-vergin olive oil 
• salt

Wash and cut the savoy and potatoes into pieces and boil both in plenty of salt water. In the same time pot cook the pizzoccheri. Timing should be accurate so that the pasta and vegetables can be drained together when they are al dente. Meanwhile cut the soft cheese into thin strips. Melt the butter with a few dessertspoons of oil, flavour with the sage and the crushed cloves of garlic (remove this as it starts to turn brown). In a Pyrex dish place the first layer of pasta mixed with vegetables, sprinkle a mixture of Parmesan and fontina cheese on the surface and flavour with the sage butter. Continue with another layer of pasta and the other ingredients one by one. Top off with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan and a few flakes of butter and leave to cook in a hot oven for about 10 minutes.

Some versions of this recipe skip the oven stage. The pasta and vegetables are drained and mixed together with the cheese and melted butter and served immediately.

RISOTTO WITH SAFFRAN

• 400 g. rice
• 1 small packet of saffron
• stock as required
• 50 g. beef marrow
• 50 g butter
• grated Parmesan
• salt

In a pot cook the finely sliced onion with half the butter and the bone marrow. As soon as the onion is transparent, add the rice and stir so that it absorbs the flavour. Add salt and cook by adding the hot stock a ladle at a time and stirring continuously. Three or four minutes from the end add the saffron dissolved in a little hot stock. Remove fron heat when the rice is cooked but firm and stir in a generous helping of grated Parmesan and the remaining butter. Cover and allow to rest for few minutes before serving. According to Milanese tradition this risotto can be served on its own or with “ossobuco Milanese”, another typical dish of the area.

UCCELLI SCAPPATI

• 8 slices pork loin
• 8 slices bacon
• 8 sage leaves
• 80 g butter
• salt
• pepper

Make sure the loin is sliced very fine, then beat the slices and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Spread a slice of bacon and a sage leave on each, then roll them up and secure with a toothpick. Melt the butter in a frying-pan, and cook the pork rolls on a high heat, turning them, for at least half an hour. Do not overcook, as pork loin tends to become hard. Serve the rolls piping hot, with a soft polenta.

WHITEFISH WITH TOMATOES AND POTATOES

• 2 whitefish of 500 g each
• 4 ripe tomatoes
• 3 mediaum-sized potatoes
• 4 dessertspoons extra-vergin olive oil
• 6 basil leaves
• salt
• pepper.

For the fish fumet:

• leftovers of the cleaned fiah
• 1 carrots
• 1 onion
• 1 celery stalk
• a few bay leaves
• 1 bunch parsley
• 1 glass white wine
• salt.

First, wash the fish carefully, take out the insides, remove the bones and the skin, cut eight fillets and put them aside.

Prepare the fumet by boiling the fish leftovers in water for an hour with the vegetables. Then pass through a sieve and collect the fumet in a frying-pan. Season with salt and add the wine. When the wine is hot, add the white-fish fillets for a few minutes, until the wine is completely evaporated. Then boil the potatoes, peel and dice them, and also dice the peeled tomatoes small. Place the fish on a serving dish with its sauce and cover with the tomatoes, potaoes and chopped basil leaves. Season with salt, pepper and extra vergin olive oil.

LAKE WHITEFISH  IN FOIL

• 4 medium-sized whitefish
• 1 onion
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 carrot
• 3 cloves garlic
• a few basil leaves
• extra-vergin olive oil
• salt
• pepper

Clean the fish, wash and dry them, and sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper. Chop the vegetables finely. Prepare a piece of foil for each fish by oiling it and spreading on it a little of the chopped vegetables mixture. Stuff the fish with the rst of the mixture, place each on the prepared foil, and wrap up in a roasting-tin in a pre-heated oven for 45 minutes.

PANNA COTTA

• 500 g cream
• 200 g icing sugar
• 100 g sugar
• 50 g milk
• 2,5 sheets icinglass (or gelatine)
• ½ vanilla pod

In a saucepan, heat the cream with th vanilla pod and the icing sugar (you can pulverise granulated sugar in an electric mixer) and stir until the sugar has dissolved, making sure that the solve it in the milk, which should be at room temperature, then fold it gradually into the egg and sugar mixture. Continue stirring slowly, and incorporate the flour one spoonful at a time, blending it in well to produce a soft batter. Heat the electric iron and grease both sides (traditionally pork fat was used). Place a spoonful of the batter on the iron, close, and cook the pizzelle until golden.

LIMONCELLO

• 400 g sugar
• 5 dl 90° alcohol
• juice of 1 lemon
• the peel of 6 lemons
• 16 lemon leaves.

Set the lemon leaves and peel to macerate in the alcohol in a hermetically-sealed jar in a dark place for 15 days, shaking the jar from time to time. When the time is up, add 5 dl of water mixed with the lemon juice and sugar, and leave aside for 24 hours. Filter carefully, bottle, and leave to rest for a month.