February, a month still very cold, it's time for soups and hot dishes.
Nature still offers the various types of cabbage, artichokes, spinach, radicchio ... and we can take advantage of our pantry of dried vegetables to create soups. It is also the month of Carnival, which offers us the opportunity to play a little more in the kitchen. Here are the five recipes that we offer for your February diet.
Pear, walnut and stracchino risotto
Ingredients for 4 people
> 350 grams of carnaroli rice;
> 1 medium or two small pears ;
> 1 small glass of white wine;
> 1 liter of vegetable broth;
> 100 grams of stracchino;
> shallots ;
> 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil;
> salt;
> 30 g of walnut kernels.
Preparation
Fry the finely chopped shallot in the oil, add the rice and toast it. Add the white wine. Slowly pour the broth and cook the rice until half cooked. Add the pear cut into very small cubes and cook until always adding vegetable broth. Season with salt and, with the heat off, stir in the stracchino and add the coarsely chopped walnuts.
Radicchio Baked
Baked radicchio is a very simple and fast recipe, so it is also suitable for those with little time to cook. Very few ingredients are enough: radicchio, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
Preparation
Clean the radicchio, wash it and dry it with a cloth. Cut it in quarters lengthwise . Arrange the radicchio quarters in a baking pan lined with baking paper, without overlapping them, and add olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes, turning a couple of times, for example, after 5 and 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and serve as a side dish.
Rosemary-flavored pasta and chickpeas
Ingredients for 4 people
> 350 g of dried chickpeas ;
> 200 g of striped ditalini;
> 1 clove of garlic;
> extra virgin olive oil;
> 1 sprig of rosemary ;
> 1 clove of garlic ;
> pepper ;
> 1 bay leaf;
> 1/2 onion.
Preparation
Soak the chickpeas overnight or for 12 hours . Rinse them and cook them in water to which you will have added a bay leaf and a clove of garlic. When cooked, brown a chopped onion and rosemary in a little extra virgin olive oil, add the chickpeas and mix well. Cook the pasta separately, add to the chickpeas and finish with a drizzle of raw oil and pepper.
Beetroot leaf pie
Ingredients
> Leaves of 8/10 red beets (depending on the size of the beetroot, in total it takes about 800 grams of leaves)
> 1 egg
> 3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
> 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese
> 2 slices of Emmenthal cheese
> salt
> vegetable butter or margarine.
If you find it hard to find beet leaves you can use rib chard.
Preparation
Wash the beet leaves or the beets and cook them in salted water . They must remain al dente. Drain them very well, and chop them with a pair of scissors. Grease the bottom of a baking dish and pass about half of the breadcrumbs in it, distributing it well over the entire bottom and also on the edges. Beat the egg and add it to the vegetables, if you want you can also add a tablespoon of milk. Place the vegetables in the pan and season them with a tablespoon of Parmesan, the slices of cheese cut and strips and the rest of the breadcrumbs. Finish with a few tufts of butter or margarine and bake at 180 ° for 15/18 minutes.
Apple fritters
We end with a Carnival dessert, apple fritters . The fried must be included in moderation in the diet, but at Carnival we can make an exception to the rule.
Ingredients
> 2 renette apples;
> 130 g of flour;
> 30 g of sugar;
> 25 g of melted butter or margarine;
> 125 g of beer;
> 1 egg;
> 1 teaspoon of brewer's yeast;
> high oleic sunflower oil;
> icing sugar.
Preparation
Prepare the batter by pouring the flour, sugar, melted butter, egg yolk, beer and baking powder into a bowl. Mix well and add the whisked egg white. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes. Peel the apples, remove the torso and cut them into round slices about an inch thick. Dip the apple slices in the batter and fry them, a few at a time, in high oleic sunflower oil. Drain the pancakes on kitchen paper and finish with icing sugar.
