Lamb chops with pistachio crust and mint olive oil

Spring makes me think of lamb. Which makes me think of mint. Which makes me think of mint choc chip ice cream. Which makes me think of the gelato shop we lived above in Rome. Which makes me think about my favourite gelato which is pistachio. Which makes me think why not create a dish which combines lamb with mint and pistachio? But not in a gelato. Do you think I should give my brain to medical science?

Ingredients for 4

Mint – 4 sprigs

Garlic – 2 cloves

Capers – 100g/4oz

Pistachio – 50g/2oz

Lamb chops – 2 per person

Lemon – one unwaxed

Extra virgin olive oil with mint – 6 tbsp

Olive oil for frying

Roughly chop the mint leaves, garlic, capers and pistachio nuts and put them into a bowl. Grate in the peel of one lemon and mix well in the olive oil. Put your chops in there to marinate for an hour or two.

Heat the frying pan with a little oil and add the well coated chops. Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes depending on the thickness of the cut. Serve immediately with a crunchy green salad and new potatoes.

Asparagus with lemon olive oil mayonnaise

I have a big smug smile on my face today because I’m reaping the rewards of my winter preserving frenzy. No vegetables were safe as we grilled/boiled/salted and sugared any organic matter in the kitchen. Today’s strenuous follow-up task was to twist open a jar of grilled asparagus spears preserved in olive oil with garlic, lemon juice and thyme and pop them in my mouth. They were delicious slathered in lemon mayonnaise, made of course with our lemon olive oil. If you didn’t do your winter homework, steamed asparagus is (nearly) as good and those first silky spears should start to appear any week now.

Ingredients for the mayonnaise

Egg Yolks – 2 large free range, separated

Sunflower oil – 150ml/5 fl oz

Nudo lemon olive oil – 150ml/5 fl oz

Lemon – a teaspoon of juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Asparagus – 350g/13oz

To make the mayonnaise put the egg yolks into a big, round bottomed bowl. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the yolks as you whisk them gently. Now start the serious part by adding a drop of the sunflower oil at a time, whilst constantly whisking. When it seems the yolks have taken on board the oil without curdling, start pouring a slow steady stream of the oil while you whisk.  When the sunflower oil has run out swap over to the lemon olive oil.  Towards the end the mayonnaise should start to thicken up nicely.

If you are using fresh asparagus, wash and trim off the woody ends before steaming.

Meet our new olive grove: Lavanda Blu

For centuries, food artisans across the Italian countryside have been quietly producing some of the finest food in the world. For them, it’s a way of life.  Every time we discover another such hidden gem, we rejoice. One such producer of olive oil (and organic lavender) is Lavanda Blu. They’ve just agreed to join our olive tree adoption program and a lucky few of you will have the privilege of becoming an Adoptive parent to some of the best cared-for olive trees in the whole of Italy.

This agriturismo and organic farm is run by Hans, Elizabetta and her daughter Francesca. Their home is a self-sufficient Eden with vegetable and herb gardens, fruit trees, the olive grove and fields of lavender. Hans originally hails from Amsterdam and Elizabetta is American but was raised in Rome.

They found their heavenly spot just to the north of Ascoli Piceno seven years ago, put their heart and soul into making it their own and haven’t looked back. Since those early years, they’ve turned the farm and its well-appointed agriturismo into a sustainable, self-sufficient operation where they grow most of their own food, generate their own heating and recycle water for the gardens.

To celebrate their arrival, you can adopt one of their trees with a $10 discount for the next week (or whilst orphan trees are still available). Just use voucher code “lavanda10” and adopt your tree today. You can also take a little photo tour of their farm on our Facebook page.

Frittelle di Carnevale

Carnival donuts, or frittelle di carnevale, are consumed in huge quantities in February all around Italy. Each region has its own twist, a different liquor or candied fruit, to make them their own. This is the way our kids like them.

Ingredients for lots!

Milk – 1 cup/250ml/8.4 fl oz

Instant yeast – 4 tsp

Eggs – 3

Sugar – 4 tblsp, plus a load for coating

Salt – a pinch

Butter – 45g, melted/1.6oz

00 Flour – 300g/10.6oz

Raisins – ½ cup

Citrus peel – ¾ cup

Pine nuts – ½ cup

Lemon – 1 grated zest

Extra virgin olive oil – around 400ml/13.5fl.oz depending on pan

Gently warm the milk and put it in a mixing bowl with the yeast. Add in the eggs, sugar, salt, melted butter and mix it all together. Then add the flour and mix it with a wooden spoon until it becomes smooth. Now you can throw in all the other ingredients (except the olive oil which is for frying!). Knead this together for 10 minutes with a spatula, scraping around the bowl and mixing from bottom to top. Now you need to let it rest for half an hour with a damp cloth over the top to stop it from drying out. The doughy mixture should double in size.

Now heat your olive oil over a medium flame. Once the oil is hot, use two spoons to mould a cherry tomato sized ball of dough, and scrape it into the hot oil. Fit a few in at once then take them out with a pair of tongs, drain them on some kitchen towel for a minute, then transfer them to a plate of sugar for a darn good coating.

Chickpea soup with thyme oil parmesan croutons

So I’ve hit that age where I’ve started cutting down on the carbs a bit. (Cath says she’s never going to hit that age). To be honest my take on abstinence involves little more than having a bit less pasta and a bit more sauce, or a bit less bread and a bit more cheese, so it’s not exactly hair shirt territory. But when I come across a low carb, stomach filling, delicious meal I feel the delight of a zealot. This soup is one such dish. Though, as Cathy is keen to point out, it’s even more heavenly with these cheesy carb-a-licious croutons.

Ingredients for 2

Ciabatta bread – 60g/2.1oz
Parmesan cheese – 40g/1.4oz
Extra virgin olive oil with thyme – 2 tblsp
Garlic – one clove
Rosemary – couple of springs
Extra virgin olive oil – 2 tblsp
Chickpeas – one 400g/14oz tin (240g/8.5oz net weight)
Vegetable stock – 400ml/13.5fl.oz

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Cut the bread into cubes and put in a bowl with the thyme oil and the grated parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Once everything is soaked up spread the bread on a baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes, till they’re crunchy and light brown.

Chop the garlic and gently sauté with the rosemary in the plain olive oil in a saucepan. Wash the chickpeas and add them to the saucepan with the stock. Season with salt and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.
Remove the rosemary and a few whole chickpeas and liquidise the rest. Get your serving bowls, pop some of the croutons in the bottom (if they are hidden they don’t count in the carb calculation, apparently) and fill with the soup. Make it look pretty with a few whole chickpeas, more croutons and a drizzle of thyme olive oil.

Spaghetti with Varnelli, tomatoes and pancetta

My friend Gianluca Giorgi is a bit of a guru. He’s the man Jamie Oliver turns to help his under-chefs get under the skin of Italy and Italian cooking. Gianluca regularly takes Olivettini on gastronomic tours of the hotspots of Le Marche, showing them the olive groves, and introducing them to the artisan pasta makers and chefs of the region.
I asked Gianluca for his favourite recipe the other day. As you’d expect the recipe is extremely simple, but depends on the best ingredients – pendolino tomatoes, the red onion of Tropea and an anise-flavoured liqueur from Marche called Varnelli. Obviously, unless you’re reading this from the east coast of Italy, you may need to compromise, but do the best you can.

Ingredients for 2
Onion – 1 from Tropea
Pancetta – 70g/2.5oz diced
Extra virgin olive oil – for frying
Varnelli – 1 espresso cup
Cherry tomatoes – 150g/5.3oz
Spaghetti – 160g/5.6oz
Freshly ground black pepper – to taste

Chop the onion and pancetta into small cubes. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the onion and pancetta. When the onion is golden, turn the heat up a bit and add the Varnelli, and enjoy the smell. (It’s chef’s privilege to have a soupcon yourself, just not straight from the bottle). Once this has more or less evaporated add the chopped up tomatoes. Cook this all together for a further 15 minutes.

Meanwhile cook the spaghetti in very salty boiling water.

Taste and season the sauce. Drain the pasta once it’s cooked but keep a cupful of pasta water aside. Add the pasta to the sauce. Mix together well and add some of the pasta water if it needs loosening up. Season with some freshly ground pepper and enjoy.

Ice cream made with lemon olive oil chocolate crema

It’s indulgent, it’s an aphrodisiac, it’s proof that you are a god or goddess in the kitchen. So it’s a no brainer for that indulgent or romantic dinner. The 30% cacao in our chocolate crema gives the gelato a rich chocolate taste and then you can choose if you want a lemon, mandarin or even chilli twist.

Ingredients for 4 portions:

Heavy/double cream – ½ cup

Whole/full fat milk – 1 ½ cups

Egg yolks – 4

Granulated sugar – ½ cup

Nudo chocolate fondente with lemon olive oil – ¼ cup

Bring the cream and milk to boil in a medium-sized saucepan, then immediately remove from the heat and set aside. With an electric or stand mixer beat the egg yolks and sugar, on the highest setting, until the mix triples in volume.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally to ensure thorough mixing.

Slowly add all the hot milk mixture to the egg/sugar mixture, and whisk constantly on a low speed until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon.  Then add the chocolate fondente and mix thoroughly at a medium speed.

Chill the mixture for about 4 hours or overnight. Then add it to your ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions for freezing. Stop the churning as soon as the gelato is just frozen.

Chocolate Crema Cookies

This time of year, with the final stretch of Winter delivering the last of the snow and pretending to be snuggled up next to a wood-burning fire is the only way to pull through the day, the humble chocolate cookie makes its appearance in the big glass cookie jar at home. Chocolate cookies can be all sorts of things – crisp, light, decadent, gooey, dark, spicy and so comforting dunked in warm milk or coffee. But this chilli olive oil chocolate crema cookie is almost all of that, in one crumbling bite. Inspired by my favourite new cooking duo discovery – Two Tarts – this little recipe should have you skipping to Spring in no time.

Ingredients for 30 cookies:

Chocolate crema with chilli olive oil – 175g/6oz

Plain flour – 1 1/4 cup

Organic cocoa powder – 1/2 cup

Baking Powder – 2 tsp

Salt, two pinches

Extra virgin olive oil – 10 Tbsp (use Nudo’s chilli oil for extra bite)

Raw brown cane sugar – 1 1/3 cup

Eggs – 2

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Milk – 1/3 cup

Icing sugar, for rolling

First, cream the sugar and olive oil together, then beat in eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, organic cocoa and salt).  Add and blend the chocolate crema into the bowl with creamed sugar. Then add dry ingredients and bit of milk as needed. When this is all combined the dough will be quite sticky, like thick cake batter.  Before making the cookies, chill the dough for about two hours or until hard enough to scoop into balls.

Once the batter is sufficiently chilled, heat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 5/350F. In a larger bowl, place some ice cubes and cold water. Float your mixing bowl in the ice water to keep the dough cool whilst preparing the cookies. Line a baking tray with a sheet of baking paper. Using two teaspoons, scoop out a spoonful of dough, shaping it between the two spoons to form ball (it would be more a dollop, really), then roll the ball into a bowl of icing sugar to coat it well. Line the balls up on the baking sheet, leaving sufficient space for the cookies to spread, and bake at or 12-15 minutes. The shorter the cookies are baked, the more gooey they come out. Enjoy with a little espresso or, if you like dunking, a big glass of milk.

Panettone cake bites with mandarin chocolate ganache

It was like the panettonegeddon. This past Holiday season we received all sorts of the famous Italian holiday confection.  There were bite-size ones and fruity ones and chocolate-covered ones and two that looked like golden Mayan temples (inappropriately delivered on December 22nd). And then there was the delicious Nudo olive oil panettone, of course. Unfortunately now that January is at its end and we’ve still not managed to eat out way out of the panettone mountain, we decided to save ourselves and others from this cakey lot. The time has come to use our leftover panettone for some delicious desserts. Cathy shared a quick and easy recipe for panettone bread and butter pudding, and below we have another rather decadent invention to try at home.

Ingredients (makes 12 bites)

Nudo olive oil panettone – 1 quarter

Mandarin (or orange) – 1 small, juiced

Marsala liqueur – 2 tsp to sprinkle (optional)

For the ganache

Nudo olive oil with mandarins – 3 tsp

Organic white chocolate – 100g/3.5 oz bar

Double cream – 2 tbsp

Start by peeling off the soft panettone crust. Using a sharp bread knife, cut the remaining cake in thin slices and then small cubes, placing the pieces into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl mix the Marsala liqueur with the orange juice (optional).  Drizzle the mandarin juice mixture over the cake pieces, mixing it with a fork or your hands as you pour to spread the moisture. The cake should be moist, but not wet.

In a bain marie or small glass bowl over a pot of hot water, melt the chocolate. Once melted, add the olive oil and stir until mixed through. Now add the cream and mix through. Take off the heat. Make 1.5 inch balls with the moist cake pieces, pressing and rolling it together in your hands. Dip and roll the balls in the chocolate ganache so that all sides are covered. Place on a baking sheet to cool and set. Chill in the fridge before serving.

No panettone in store anymore? Get one of the last Nudo Olive Oil Panettone in the Nudo Italia shop (USA only).

Cantucci with pistachio and mandarin olive oil

This biscuit is a tasting tour of Italy minus the carbon emissions.  The pistacchio is a superb Sicilian sensation, the mandarin olive oil a creation unique to the Apennines in Le Marche, the almonds evoke the intoxicating amaretti of the north , and the citrus peel is pure Amalfi coast. But these erstwhile warring factions unite and sing in sweet harmony in this delicious biscuit, which should really be eaten dipped in a glass of Vin Santo. And fine health to you too.

Ingredients for about 30 biscotti

Almonds – 60g/2.2oz whole blanched

Pistachios – 80g/2.8oz shelled.

Eggs – 2 large

Flour – 250g/8.8oz

Caster sugar – 150g/5.3oz

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Mixed peel – 4 tsp

Vanilla bean paste – 1 tsp (an alternative is 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Extra virgin olive oil crushed with mandarins – 6 tsp

Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180^oC/GM4/350^oF. Spread the almonds on a baking tray and roast them for 5 minutes. Make sure that you don’t burn them though, they turn in an instant. I like to then skin the pistachio – it’s time consuming but makes the biscuits so much prettier. Toss them into a bowl of just boiled water, leave for 10 minutes, then start slipping the loose skins off.

Lightly beat the eggs, and then grab a big mixing bowl and chuck in the flour, sugar and baking powder. Give a quick mix and then add the nuts, eggs, peel, vanilla and mandarin olive oil. Mix it all well together with a spoon. Then with your hands scoop out a quarter of the mix and mould it into a thick sausage shape. Roll this in icing sugar and place it on a baking tray lined with bake-o-glide or parchment paper. Press down on the top of the sausage to flatten it a bit. Repeat this process with the rest of the mixture, and make sure you leave a decent space between the 4 sausages. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Once they are ready take them out of the oven and using a decent serrated knife carefully cut the sausages into 1cm thick slices. It’s tricky cutting through the nuts, and if it starts to fall part squash it back together into the right shape. Lay these out on the baking tray and pop them back in the oven for a few minutes. Leave to cool and store in a sealed container or eat once they’ve cooled down. I like to bake extra and give them as gifts in one of our Nudo tins.

Get your Homemade Cantucci Box now for the special price of $11.50 from Nudo-Italia.com