Tag Archive for: carb counting

Coffee-flavoured oil doughnut

The cold season stimulates the desire for hot drinks that immediately bring us a sense of contentment and pleasure, especially when accompanied by a simple, light and old-fashioned sweet such as this Coffee-flavoured oil doughnut.

A few ingredients, a non-stick mould and the handy release agent spray are all you need for a guaranteed result.

You can use the Coffee-flavoured oil doughnut either as a dessert at the end of a meal, accompanying it with a cream of your choice, a scoop of ice cream, a spoonful of jam or a small glass of coffee liqueur, or enjoy it at breakfast accompanied by a refreshing and invigorating yoghurt.

More breakfast ideas? Try the Brioche braid.

Coffee-flavoured oil doughnut

46g carbohydrates per 100g

ciambella all'olio

Ingredients

  • 125g sugar
  • 100g potato starch*
  • 100g wholemeal rice flour*
  • 100g water
  • 100g coffee
  • 100g seed oil
  • 50g corn starch*
  • 3 eggs
  • 16g baking powder*
  • cinnamon powder
  • tonka bean

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten-free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. With an electric whisk, whip the eggs with the sugar until white and frothy, add the oil in a trickle, the warm coffee and water.
  2. Very slowly incorporate starch, flour and baking powder by sifting and continuing to stir.
  3. Flavour with cinnamon and grated tonka bean. Grease and flour a mould and pour in the mixture.
  4. Bake in a static oven preheated to 180°C for about 40 minutes.
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Recipes with Porcini: Omelette with Porcini and Provolone cheese

Autumn in Parma means Porcini because the local town of Borgotaro has its Fungo Porcino PGI, protected by a Consortium. What recipes with Porcini mushrooms can we prepare? Certainly this delicious Omelette with Porcini and Provolone cheese.

Porcini mushrooms from Borgotaro are not cultivated, but they grow wildly and the hunting season goes from late spring to late autumn. Porcini are rounded and plump, they feature a typical mushroom smell and aromatic flavour. Depending on the type, their caps can range in colour from brown to red or from cream-white to chestnut or blackish brown.

From a nutritional point of view, it is important to remember that mushrooms should be eaten with moderation because, even if edible, they are always slightly toxic, yet they are very rich in micronutrients and low in calories. So, try this super fast omelette that will make you fall in love with it!

If you like omelettes, try my Rolled omelette.

Omelette with Porcini and Provolone cheese

2g carbohydrates per 100g

frittata-ai-porcini-e-provolone

Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 8 eggs
  • 400g peeled tomatoes
  • 300g mild or sharp Provolone cheese
  • 300g Porcini mushrooms
  • 2 sprigs of parsley
  • 4 twigs of basil
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten-free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. Clean the mushrooms and slice them, sauté them in a large non-stick frying pan with a dribble of oil and the clove of garlic for 5-6 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper, then dust with chopped parsley and remove the garlic.
  2. Chop the onion thinly and put it in another frying pan with a dribble of oil, then add the peeled tomatoes in pieces and cook for 15-20 minutes adjusting salt.
  3. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl, add a pinch of salt and pepper, slightly oil a non-stick pan of 18cm diameter and pour the beaten eggs in it. Cook the omelette on one side only over medium heat.
  4. Spread on the surface ¼ of the warm Porcini and ¼ of the thinly sliced Provolone cheese, then fold the omelette and put it in the frying pan with the peeled tomatoes.
  5. Repeat the operation with the other 3 omelettes. Put a lid on the frying pan containing all the omelettes and heat them up to melt the cheese. Serve.

 

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Salads of october with legumes, fruit and vegetables

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In October you can choose between a super-light salad or a rich one that you can use as a main course, so find out what the Salads of October are.

October is often a time that holds surprises for us in terms of temperatures because we can enjoy days that are still like summer or we can be plunged into the first cold days of winter: so choose the most suitable salad for autumn days.

The Fruit and vegetable salad is prepared with some of the most iconic fruits of winter, namely orange, apple and pear. The same applies to vegetables, where the purple cabbage is king. The addition of milk flakes is consistent with the lightness of this salad, but you might be tempted to replace them with grilled Tomino cheese without thinking too much about the calorie intake.

The legume and salmon salad, on the other hand, will be a great way to fill up on both animal and vegetable proteins with the strong touch of mustard sauce to bind all the flavours together.

Don’t miss out on more ideas for your salads and also discover the raw and cooked salads of April.

Fruit and vegetable salad

13.16g carbohydrates for the whole serving

Ingredients for 1 serving

  • 50g milk flakes*
  • 40g purple cabbage
  • 40g fennel
  • 30g Pink Lady apple
  • 30g pink grapefruit
  • 30g pear
  • 30g orange
  • 1 lemon
  • a few parsley leaves
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. Peel the orange and grapefruit. Slice the apple and pear leaving the peel, sprinkle with lemon juice, salt and pepper.
  2. Slice the fennel with a mandoline so that it is very thin and do the same with the purple cabbage.
  3. Prepare a vinaigrette by mixing a few tablespoons of oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and chopped parsley.
  4. Arrange the fruit and vegetables on a plate, dress with the vinaigrette and top with a few teaspoons of cheese flakes.

Insalatona-di-frutta-e-verdura

Lentil and salmon salad

7.5g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 300g cooked lentils
  • 200g smoked wild salmon
  • 100g Pink Lady or Granny Smith apple
  • iceberg lettuce
  • lemon juice

Ingredients for the sauce

  • 60g soy milk*
  • 50g extra virgin olive oil
  • 30g Dijon mustard*
  • 6 anchovy fillets
  • 20g lemon juice
  • dill
  • salt and pepper

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. Pour all the ingredients for the sauce into a tall glass and blend them with an immersion blender to obtain a smooth and creamy sauce.
  2. Slice the apple thinly with the peel and spray it lightly with lemon juice so that it does not darken.
  3. Take four plates, cover the bottom of each plate with iceberg lettuce cut into pieces, lay a quarter of the cooked lentils, the apple slices, the wild salmon and season with mustard sauce on top of the salad. Complete with some dill leaves.

Insalata-di-lenticchie-e-salmone

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Oat pasta with cannellini beans

Can you think of those simple flavours that spark memories?  Oat pasta with cannellini beans is the perfect combination of traditional flavours and a touch of novelty.

One of the most typical dishes of Italian cuisine is in fact Pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans), a recipe often prepared with Borlotti beans and the addition of lard or bacon, which in the past were useful to give the necessary energy to face the hard work in the fields.

Instead, this version of Pasta e fagioli uses cannellini beans combined with oat pasta, where the wheat protein, gluten, is replaced by the high protein content in oat. Remember that beans are a valuable source of complex carbohydrates, plant proteins, fibre and are cholesterol-free, so the consumption of legumes is always a valuable ally in a balanced diet.

The flavour variation is the presence of sautéed cherry tomatoes with aromatic herbs that transform a classic taste into a fresher, juicier one.

If you love beans and tradition, try my Pisarei e fasò.

Oat pasta with cannellini beans

carbohydrates 13.63g per 100g

Mezzi-rigatoni-di-avena-ai-cannellini

Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 500g boiled cannellini beans (about 180g dry beans)
  • 240g cherry tomatoes
  • 140 g Oat pasta Felicia**
  • 1 shallots
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • dried sweet pepper or Crusco pepper
  • bay leaf
  • oregano
  • thyme
  • rosemary
  • chilli pepper
  • salt and pepper

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. Soak the cannellini beans for at least 12 hours, then boil them slowly in plenty of water with the addition of a bay leaf and, if available, a piece of Kombu seaweed to facilitate the beans’ future digestibility. Drain the beans and keep the cooking water.
  2. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and sautée them for a few minutes on high heat in a non-stick pan with a little extra virgin olive oil, a clove of garlic cut in half, a chilli pepper and chopped herbs.
  3. Put a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in a pan, brown a finely chopped shallot and a clove of garlic and add the cooked cannellini beans, cover with plenty of cooking water or vegetable stock and leave them to take on flavour for 10 minutes.
  4. Keep a few tablespoons of cannellini beans aside and blend the rest with an immersion blender, then reassemble the bean soup.
  5. Cook the oat pasta in plenty of salted water, drain and pour it into the cannellini soup, then complete the dish: place the pasta and beans on individual plates, complete with the herb flavoured tomatoes, a grinding of pepper, a drizzle of oil and some chopped dried sweet pepper or Crusco pepper.

Version with gluten of Oat pasta with cannellini beans

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients.

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September salads

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September is the month when summer and autumn meet, just like the ingredients that characterise it: this is what you are going to discover in September Salads.

So what are the September salads? First of all, a tasty Chicken salad with radicchio and melon balls that is also perfect for your lunch box to take to the office as a balanced and light meal, or it can be a nice dinner to ensure a quiet night.

The second recipe is tasty and colourful, versatile and suitable for meals at home or away from home, the Salad of citrus flavoured cherry tomatoes with Venere rice introduces us to the quintessential winter fruit, i.e. oranges, which I have used here together with lemon to flavour the cherry tomatoes and make them really special.

So more colours to cheer us up into the less sunny days of September.

If you fancy some richer salads, check out the May and its fortified salads.

Chicken salad with radicchio and melon balls

carbohydrates 3.3g per 100g – 8.93g per serving

Insalata-di-pollo-al-radicchio-e-sfere-di-melone

Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 500g chicken breast
  • 280g melon
  • 180g red radicchio
  • 120g dried tomatoes in olive oil*
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena
  • sage
  • bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon green peppercorns
  • 3 cardamom berries
  • 1 star anise berry
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

  1. Put a pan of water on the stove with a few sage leaves, a bay leaf, cardamom, star anise, green pepper and salt, and boil the chicken breast in it for 20 minutes. Once cooked, leave the chicken to cool in its stock.
  2. Assemble your salad by cutting the radicchio into strips and placing it on the bottom of the plate. Flavour it with the dried cherry tomatoes cut into strips, thread the cooled chicken over it and complete with melon balls.
  3. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Salad of citrus flavoured cherry tomatoes and Venere rice

carbohydrates 13.7g per 100g – 39.79g per serving

Insalata-di-pomodorini-agli-agrumi-e-riso-Venere

Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 600g mixed coloured cherry tomatoes
  • 140g Venere rice
  • 120g Greek feta cheese
  • 80g pitted green olives*
  • 80g pitted black olives*
  • 1/2 orange with edible peel
  • grated lemon peel
  • basil
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten-free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. Boil the Venere rice in lightly salted water and drain when al dente.
  2. Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves or quarters, add the sliced olives and season for 15 minutes with orange slices and grated lemon peel.
  3. Put the Venere rice in the salad bowl, cover it with the cherry tomato and olive mixture after removing the orange slices. Season with a drizzle of oil and some freshly-ground pepper (no need for salt as the salad contains salty ingredients) and complete with crumbled feta cheese and a few basil leaves.

 

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Summer vegetarian rolls

I think it has happened to everyone to have bought a product to be used in a recipe and then have the leftover part lying in a corner of the kitchen not knowing what to do with it: this is how Summer vegetarian rolls came about.

I had bought a packet of rice paper with the claim ‘gluten-free’ prominently displayed on the front because I wanted to cook some spring rolls in a moment of nostalgia for trips to Asia, but after using them for this recipe, the leftover sheets stared at me for a long time from the cupboard without me finding a creative and easy way to use them.

Then, obsessed by the heat and the desire for tasty snacks, I came up with the idea of trying to use the rice paper simply wet, so without the need to turn on the cooker or oven: they were so good that I decided to buy another packet of rice paper! Not only that: they will be ready in a matter of minutes!

If you are a fan of oriental flavours, also try the Basmati rice with curry, tuna and peppers.

Involtini-di-verdure-con salsa-di-soia-agrodolce

Summer vegetarian rolls 

 4.5g carbohydrates per roll without sauce

Ingredients for 1 roll

  • 1 sheet of rice paper*
  • 1 sprig garden rocket
  • 1 handful grated carrots
  • 1 tablespoon soft cheese
  • 1 scant teaspoon olive pâté*

Ingredients for the sauce for about 6 rolls

  • 4 spoonfuls rice oil
  • 2 spoonfuls apple vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup*
  • 2 teaspoons of soy sauce*

Preparazione

  1. Soak the rice paper briefly in a bowl full of cold water.
  2. Spread the rice paper sheet out on a board and stuff it quickly so that it does not stick to the board itself: form a layer of rocket, lay the soft cheese in a sort of strip in the middle, also spread the olive pate and finally add a handful of grated carrots. Wrap everything up to form a fairly tight roll.
  3. Prepare the sauce for dipping the rolls: put all the ingredients in a small bowl and emulsify well using a fork.
  4. Serve the rolls with a small bowl containing the sauce in which to dip them.

Involtini-di-verdure-con salsa-di-soia-agrodolce

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Pasta salads: Greek-style Strozzapreti

Pasta salads are one of the most popular dishes in summer and every year I like inventing new ones to make a tasty and balanced dish suitable for all occasions.

The protagonists are the Strozzapreti Zero+, organic pasta made with 100% red lentil flour and eggs from free-range hens by the Spinosi pasta factory, a pasta designed to reduce the glycemic index of Italy’s most popular dish while providing a high protein and fibre intake: discover the entire range of gluten-free egg pasta with legume flours to have fun in the kitchen.

This pasta salad proposal is meant to take us tastefully to Greece, using the same ingredients we find in traditional Greek salads, but combined in a slightly different way.

Thanks to the presence of egg in Strozzapreti, the pasta salad has a perfect texture even when cold, which is very unusual in the world of gluten-free pasta, especially with a legume base, so you can enjoy an exquisitely fresh dish that is both healthy and balanced.

If you are looking for more pasta salad ideas, try my Coronation Pasta Salad.

Greek-style Strozzapreti pasta

10.8 g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 250g Strozzapreti Zero+ with red lentil flour*
  • 200g fat free Greek yoghurt
  • 200g cherry tomatoes
  • 100g Greek pitted black olives*
  • 100g Greek feta cheese
  • 70g pickled cucumbers*
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • mint
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

  1. Boil Strozzapreti in lightly salted boiling water for 7 minutes. Drain them, mix them with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and leave them to cool.
  2. Cut the cherry tomatoes into 4 wedges and add them to the Strozzapreti together with the black olives, then crumble the feta cheese and mix well.
  3. Prepare a sauce mixing Greek yoghurt with finely chopped pickled cucumbers, season with salt and pepper and pour it over the cold pasta. Complete by adding a few mint leaves and serve.

strozzapreti-alla-greca

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April salads

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What vegetables await you in our April salads? Cauliflower, peas and leek will be the stars with the red touch of strawberries: find out how to prepare them.

Let’s start with an uncommon use of cauliflower: raw. Have you ever tried it? You will be surprised to discover that it is sweet and has a much more delicate smell than when cooked. It is in fact during cooking that the typical sulphurous smell develops, which often makes cauliflower not liked, especially by children. In the first salad, cauliflower is grated to make a tasty, micronutrient-rich couscous with lots of flavour and few calories.

My Quinoa salad, on the other hand, is perfect for a refill of plant protein. Quinoa is a gluten-free pseudo-cereal that has all 8 essential amino acids (i.e. those that must be taken in with food as they are not produced by our body) and therefore has a very similar nutritional profile to foods of animal origin. Moreover, due to its wealth of other micronutrients, it is considered a super-food whose consumption is strongly recommended as an integral part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Remember to rinse quinoa before cooking to remove saponins, substances naturally present in many vegetables, which may cause irritation to mucous membranes, but are completely eliminated by a pre-cooking wash.

If you only have a few minutes available, see how to prepare Three five-minute salads!!

Cauliflower couscous with Radicchio variegato

carbohydrates 14g for the whole serving

cous-cous-di-cavolfiore-uvetta-e-fragole

Ingredients for 1 serving

  • 80g cauliflower
  • 40g radicchio variegato di Castelfranco
  • 15g raisins
  • 15g shelled walnuts
  • 1 teaspoon of toasted sunflower seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of pumpkin seeds
  • 1 strawberry
  • Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

  1. Grate the cauliflower with a coarse-hole grater to obtain a couscous-like consistency.
  2. Wash, dry and cut the Radicchio into pieces.
  3. Assemble the salad by placing the radicchio on the bottom of the plate and the cauliflower couscous on top; season with salt and pepper, oil and traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena, then complete by adding the raisins, nuts, seeds and finally the strawberry cut into thin slices.

Quinoa salad with leek and peas

carbohydrates 20.11g for the whole serving

insalata-di-quinoa-e-piselli

Ingredients for 1 serving

  • 25g quinoa (weighed raw)
  • 40g shelled fresh peas
  • 30g leek
  • 7g desalted capers
  • chopped basil and sage
  • sun-dried tomatoes*
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

  1. Rinse the quinoa under running water and cook it in 75g of lightly salted water for about 20 minutes or until it has absorbed all the water.
  2. Put a little oil in a non-stick frying pan and brown the finely sliced leek and peas in it, adding a few tablespoons of water to cook them. Add desalted capers and chopped basil and sage. When the peas are almost cooked, add the quinoa and season with salt (if necessary) and pepper.
  3. Serve the quinoa topped with a few chunks of sun-dried tomatoes and basil leaves.

insalata-di-quinoa-e-piselli

Cous-cous-di-cavolfiore-uvetta-e-fragole

Version with gluten of April salads

The recipes contain only naturally gluten-free ingredients, so no adaptation is necessary for their version with gluten.

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One-course meals: Vegetarian Mussakàs

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If you have been to Greece, you cannot have missed the Classic Mussakàs made with eggplants and meat sauce, a one-course meal rich dish that I thought I would revisit to create a lighter, vegetarian version: here is my
Vegetarian Mussakàs.

This Vegetarian Mussakàs is the perfect substitute for Lasagna for the warmer months when light recipes rich in seasonal vegetables are preferred, but it is also loved by everyone in the family, including the little ones. It is also very useful for those who have to organise family meals, as it can be prepared in advance and then cooked with 30 minutes to spare.

If you don’t like peppers or find them indigestible, replace them with courgettes!

Remember that you can also prepare this recipe lactose-free by replacing the milk in the béchamel with vegetable stock: all other ingredients are lactose-free!

When you have eggplants in season, this recipe will be a dinner-saving one-course meal for every family need: enjoy!

mussakas-vegetariano

Vegetarian Mussakàs

9.26g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for 6 servings

  • 1kg eggplants
  • 450g potatoes
  • 300g red pepper (or courgettes)
  • 200g tomato sauce
  • 150g carrots
  • 120g onions
  • Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
  • breadcrumbs*
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • basil
  • sage
  • salt and pepper

Ingredients for the béchamel sauce

  • 350g milk
  • 35g brown rice flour*
  • 35g grated Parmesan cheese
  • 30g extra virgin olive oil
  • salt

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation

  1. Slice the eggplants and place them on a baking tin lined with parchment paper,  bake in a convection oven preheated to 180°C for about 20 minutes.
  2. Boil the potatoes with their skins on until they are soft enough to be sliced.
  3. Prepare the vegetable ragout browning the garlic in a little oil, then add the diced carrots and peppers; season with chopped basil and sage, add the tomato sauce, season with salt and pepper and cook for 15 minutes.
  4. Prepare a béchamel sauce by mixing the rice flour with the oil, then gradually add the milk so that no lumps form and heat until the mixture starts to thicken. Remove from the heat, add the Parmesan cheese, mix well and add salt to taste.
  5. Take a rectangular oven dish, form a layer of vegetable ragout, cover it with the wilted eggplants, the sliced potatoes, a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and start the layers again: you should have two layers of aubergines and ragout and only one layer of potatoes. Finish with a layer of béchamel sauce and a sprinkling of breadcrumbs.
  6. Bake the Mussakàs in a convection oven preheated to 190°C for 20-30 minutes until crispy.

mussakas-vegetariano

Version with gluten of Vegetarian Mussakàs

Replace gluten free breadcrumbs with standard breadcrumbs; the rest of the recipe is naturally gluten-free, so no adaptation is needed for the version with gluten.

 

 

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Gluten-free Carnival Fried Tortelli

Do you know how the recipe for gluten-free Carnival Fried Tortelli came about? By pure chance, while experimenting with doughs for the Cicerchiata cooked live with the Rieti and Viterbo Chamber of Commerce! Among various combinations of flour, egg and sugar, having obtained a beautiful smooth and firm dough, I thought I would try making Tortelli with plum jam.

The result? Delicious fried Carnival Tortelli! And it’s a good thing I had written down all the weights of the ingredients, otherwise I would have missed out on the doses for an ideal dough for a traditional recipe that has always been prepared in my family (usually in a version with gluten) for Mardi Gras.

Here are other recipes you can prepare for Carnival: Cicerchiata, Fried cream e Krapfen with jam.

Gluten-free Carnival Fried Tortelli

54g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for 10 Tortelli

  • 150g plum jam*, very firm
  • 100g gluten-free flour mix for bread, brand BiAglut**
  • 100g gluten-free bread flour, brand Mix B Schär**
  • 2 eggs
  • 20-30g milk (add it gradually)
  • 25g sugar
  • 15g butter
  • lemon rind
  • sunflower seed oil for deep frying

Preparation

  1. Pour the eggs into a bowl, beat them with a fork together with the sugar, add the soft butter and lemon zest. Gradually incorporate the flour, stirring with a fork until the mixture is firm enough to knead with your hands. Add enough milk to obtain a firm mixture, then transfer to a cutting board and knead with your hands until you obtain a smooth, homogeneous and non-sticky dough.
  2. Cover it with cling film and let it rest for 15 minutes.
  3. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 5mm, place a teaspoon of very firm plum jam on top of the pastry, cover with another layer and cut out the Tortelli with the mould provided. Continue until everything is used up.
  4. Heat the seed oil to a temperature of 170-180°C and deep-fry a few Tortelli at a time, using a skimmer to flip them so that they brown evenly. Drain them well on paper towels.

tortelli-dolci-di-carnevale

Version with gluten of Carnival Fried Tortelli

Replace the BiAglut and Schär flours with equal amounts of 00 wheat flour and adjust the amount of milk added.

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