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Vegetarian main courses: No-cook stuffed tomatoes

We could write pages and pages of recipes with tomatoes, so let’s start with this one: my No-cook stuffed tomatoes, a vegetarian, tasty, fibre-rich preparation that does not require the oven.

The main trick to make good stuffed tomatoes is to drain them and let them lose their water by sprinkling them with a pinch of salt and laying them ‘upside down’ on a surface covered with kitchen paper. Furthermore, it is important to choose perfectly ripe and firm tomatoes to get the best out of this preparation.

And if you like fresh fillings for summer, try my Travel Caprese.

No-cook stuffed tomatoes

6.64g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 720g approx. tomatoes (4 ripe, firm salad tomatoes)
  • 170g yellow and red pepper
  • 50g peas
  • 40g onions
  • 30g breadcrumbs**
  • 30g pitted black olives*
  • 8g capers
  • extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Cut the tops off the tomatoes, empty them, add a pinch of salt, then place them on a tray covered with kitchen paper to drain the water they produce. Use the inside of tomatoes to add to a soup or sauce.
  2. Meanwhile prepare the filling. In a frying pan, sauté the sliced onion, then add the peas and diced pepper, and cook. Remove from the heat and add the breadcrumbs, capers, chopped olives and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Stuff the tomatoes with the vegetable mixture and serve.

Pomodori ripieni senza cottura

Version with gluten of No-cook stuffed tomatoes

Replace gluten free breadcrumbs with standard breadcrumbs; no other adaptation is needed.

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Talent for food: What would you have prepared?

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For a foodie, what could be nicer than getting to know the products of an area? This is the purpose of Talent for Food, the event designed to put bloggers from all over Italy in contact with companies producing and processing food, wines, spirits and liqueurs from the provinces of Padua and Treviso, of which Valdobbiadene, recently recognised as an intangible heritage of Unesco, is the best known expression.

Talent for Food: discovering the products of an area

How can you say no to such an extraordinary opportunity? So, I too submitted my application to participate in the initiative and after a few weeks I received the Mystery Box containing the 18 products to choose from to make a recipe… mouth-watering!

You can imagine that every time I embark on these wonderful adventures, there is always the fear that I cannot use most of the ingredients because of the presence of gluten… so bated breath until the mysterious box arrives!

I must admit that the first impact was… shocking, do you know why? Because the box had been damaged in transit, causing a bag of Agugiaro&Figna Molini organic wholemeal flour (one of their mills is just a stone’s throw from my house!) to break, which, of course, covered everything like a fine snowfall. What to do? Panic in the ranks! In the end, I decided to separate the gluten free products and subject them to a nice bath in the garden to try to remove all the flour from the waterproof packaging to avoid contamination of their contents when opened.

Having overcome my fear, I was finally able to ‘see’ the gifts from the land of Padua that I could use. Are you curious? Drum roll and here are the products to choose from for my gluten free proposal:

Agricola Grains high oleic sunflower oil https://www.agricolagrains.it/

Bbovis granulated stock preparation https://www.bovis.it/

Dialcos rice and quinoa pasta https://www.dialcos.it/

Molino Favero lentil flour http://www.molinofavero.com/

Goppion Native Coffee http://www.goppioncaffe.it/

Italdroghe saffron powder https://www.italdroghe.it/

Lazzaris strawberry mostarda https://www.lazzaris.com/

Serbosco artichoke cream https://www.serbosco.it/

Well organic stock https://www.brodowell.it/

My first idea of making a pie with a lentil crust, rice and quinoa pasta topped with artichoke sauce and saffron cream vanished in front of the packet of Dialsì pasta, which I found damaged, thus contaminated by the broken bag of wheat flour. I had to find an alternative quickly.

What would you have made with these ingredients?

What would you have prepared with these ingredients considering that the regulation required at least 5 ingredients to be used amongst the ones provided? One of my favourite desserts immediately came to mind: saffron panna cotta! All that was left for me to do was to think about how to use at least four more ingredients in the preparation and, despite the somewhat daunting premise, it only took a moment to come up with my dessert!

Saffron panna cotta is a bit of a workhorse of mine and I usually serve it by simply accompanying it with crumbled amaretti biscuits (super quick version), so I simply had to replace the amaretti biscuits with something similar, but more interesting: a lentil flour crumble. For this crumble, pre-cooked lentil flour and sunflower oil were two perfect allies. In fact, pre-cooked flour allows for better workability and texture, as well as shorter cooking times, and the high oleic oil is a perfect substitute for butter, but allows you to use half the amount.

Another ingredient I chose was coffee. I love coffee and its aroma paces my days, generally associating it with moments of pleasure and tranquillity, so pairing it with a dessert, the quintessential expression of pleasure, was almost a must. A nice coffe pot on the stove and voilà: I could replace water with coffee in a chocolate icing to obtain a coffee-flavoured chocolate sauce for an unforgettable treat.

The unexpected touch to the dish is the spicy sweetness of the strawberry Mostarda: Lazzaris often accompanies my cheese-based desserts (of which, as a good daughter of Parmigiano Reggiano producers, I am very fond), but never before has it accompanied a classic dessert: I’d say it passed the test very well!

Before I unveil the recipe, I’ll give you a smile: I decided to prepare the panna cotta in single portions (whereas I usually prepare it in a large version to be sliced) because I wasn’t sure about the plating…coffee chocolate cream on top or underneath? crumble on top or on the side? and the strawberry? So, with all these doubts, I prepared 8 single portions and set the whole family to work, asking each person to serve their favourite version of this panna cotta. We had a lot of fun and, above all, we ate up all the panna cotta we had prepared as a test! Fortunately, I kept a few aside to photograph and our favourite version is the one I’m sharing with you!

These are the official hashtags for Talent For Food: #talentforfood, #t4f, #aifbt4f, #aifb and this is anoter Panna cotta if you like this type of dessert.

Saffron Panna cotta with lentil crumble and strawberry mostarda

Panna cotta 20.22g carbohydrates per 100g

Crumble 46.83g carbohydrates per 100g

Coffee flavoured chocolate sauce 31g carbohydrates per 100g

Preparation time: 35 minutes

Cooking times: 30 minutes

Rest time: 6 hours

Ingredients for 8 servings

  • 500g fresh cream
  • 250g milk
  • 150g sugar
  • 2 sachets of saffron powder
  • 15g gelatine sheets* (3 sheets)

Ingredients for the crumble (you will have some left over to use as granola for breakfast)

  • 55g red lentil flour Bio Miks*
  • 40g almonds
  • 40g Demerara dark sugar
  • 30g wholemeal rice flour*
  • 20g organic high oleic sunflower oil Agricola Grains
  • 1 egg
  • 15g pine nuts

Ingredients for the coffee flavoured chocolate sauce

  • 150g fresh cream
  • 100g Goppion Coffee
  • 100g sugar
  • 75g dark chocolate*
  • 50g bitter cocoa powder*

Ingredients to complete

  • Lazzaris strawberry mostarda*

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

Preparation

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water.
  2. Mix cream, milk and sugar and put them on the stove in a saucepan. Stir to melt the sugar and when the mixture is hot, add the saffron and squeezed gelatine; stir until the gelatine is completely dissolved.
  3. Leave to cool and pour the mixture into 8 single-portion moulds of the desired shape. Put the moulds in the refrigerator for Panna cotta to solidify and cool for at least 6 hours.
  4. Prepare the crumble. Coarsely chop the almonds, leaving some whole, and mix them with the lentil flour, rice flour, pine nuts and sugar; then add the oil and egg to moisten the mixture and when it forms large crumbs, spread them out on a sheet of parchment paper and bake in a static oven preheated to 180°C for about 15 minutes or until the crumbs are golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
  5. Prepare the chocolate sauce. Prepare 100g of coffee; put the cocoa powder in a small pan, pour in the coffee and stir with a whisk to obtain a lump-free cream, then add the cream and sugar and put on the heat for 5 minutes, stirring well with the whisk (if you have a thermometer, the temperature should be between 70 and 80 degrees, if you do not have a thermometer, keep the mixture just below the boiling point).
  6. Turn off the stove and add the lightly chopped chocolate, stirring with a whisk so that it melts completely, then leave to cool, stirring occasionally. Once the sauce has cooled, keep it in the refrigerator until it is time to serve the Panna cotta.
  7. To complete the Panna cotta, unmould each single-portion on the serving platter, top with the coffee chocolate sauce, sprinkle with crumble and complete with a Lazzaris strawberry.
Gli ingredienti della mia ricetta per Talent for Food

The ingredients of my recipe for Talent for Food

Version with gluten of Saffron Panna cotta with lentil crumble and strawberry mostarda

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients or ingredients bearing the gluten free wording, so no adaptation is necessary for its version with gluten.

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Gluten-free potato pizza with olives

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A gluten free potato pizza with olives as an alternative to conventional pizza.

We know that pizza for those with diabetes and coeliac disease is one of the absolute most difficult dishes to manage. It is so because not only are really good gluten free pizzas very difficult to find, but also because people with diabetes have to manage the ‘pizza effect‘, i.e. abnormal rises in blood sugar levels due to the combination of ingredients in pizza (and alas, also high amounts of sugar hidden in the dough and tomato sauce, as well as fairly high amounts of salt), even many hours after eating it.

The potato pizza is a nice alternative; yes, we have to pay attention to the carbohydrates contained in the potatoes, but they are much easier to handle than low quality pizza. Furthermore, it can be a nice idea for a naturally gluten free dinner or snack in the garden! You can serve it with a Swordfish salad.

Gluten free potato pizza with olives

14.27g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 700g potatoes
  • 400g tomato sauce
  • 250g cow’s milk mozzarella
  • 80g pitted green or black olives*
  • 20g spring onion
  • extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

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

Preparation

  1. Peel the potatoes, slice them thinly and steam them for 20 minutes. Put a little oil in a non-stick frying pan, pour in the potatoes, season with salt and pepper and brown them lightly by pressing them down with a fork or a wooden spoon.
  2. Meanwhile, prepare the tomato sauce. Put a few tablespoons of oil in a non-stick frying pan, brown the finely chopped spring onion, then add the tomato sauce, season with salt and pepper, then cover and leave to cook for 15-20 minutes.
  3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper, cover the bottom with the potatoes, then top with tomato sauce and pitted olives in pieces.
  4. Bake in a static oven preheated to 200°C for about 10 minutes, then add the mozzarella and continue baking until the mozzarella has melted.
  5. Serve the potato pizza hot.

pizza-di-patate-olive-senza-glutine-uno-chef-per-gaia

Version with gluten of Potato pizza with olives

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients, so no adaptation is necessary for its version with gluten.

 

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Potato gnocchi with tomato sauce and ‘nduja

A tasty recipe prepared with a few simple ingredients where the taste of good things becomes a real pleasure to share with family or friends: Potato gnocchi with tomato sauce and ‘nduja.

We thought we would start with the classic and timeless dish of gnocchi with tomato sauce to give it an even more distinctive flavour. So ‘nduja seemed the perfect solution to us!

Try it!

Potato gnocchi with tomato sauce and ‘nduja

carbohydrates 28.03g per 100g of uncooked, unseasoned gnocchi

Ingredients for gnocchi for 6 servings 

  • 1kg potatoes
  • 200g potato starch*
  • 1 egg
  • salt, rice flour* for dusting

Ingredients for the sauce

  • 600g tomato sauce
  • 40g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
  • 30g shallot
  • 30g ‘nduja*
  • 1 clove garlic
  • extra virgin olive oil and salt as needed

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Boil the potatoes in water until soft when pierced with a fork. Peel them and pass them through a potato masher. Spread them out on the cutting board so that they cool down faster.
  2. When the mashed potatoes are cold, add the other ingredients and knead.
  3. Form cylindrical strips by dusting with a bit of rice flour and cut into chunks of about 3 cm. Pass each piece over the prongs of a fork, applying a little pressure so that the piece is hollow on the inside and with slight grooves on the outside in contact with the fork.
  4. Prepare the tomato sauce. Slice the shallot and brown it with the clove of garlic in a pan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil; when the shallot is wilted, add the tomato sauce and cook for about 15 minutes; add the ‘nduja, stirring so that it incorporates well into the tomato sauce and add salt to taste.
  5. Boil the gnocchi in salted water for a few minutes until they rise to the surface. Dress them with tomato sauce and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Gnocchi di patate pomodoro e 'nduja

Potato gnocchi with tomato sauce and ‘nduja

Version with gluten of Potato gnocchi with tomato sauce and ‘nduja

The recipe contains only naturally gluten free ingredients, but it is possible to replace potato starch with wheat flour.

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Salt cod patties

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These Salt cod patties are perfect for a meal with family or friends, but are also ideal as finger food to enjoy standing in the garden. They are low in carbohydrates, making them a tasty and easy solution for bringing diabetes and celiac disease to the table.

The recipe is inspired by the patties eaten at the Osteria del baccalà in Vairano Scalo, in the province of Caserta, run by Antonio Ruggiero, a lecturer at the ISISS Marconi hotel school in the same locality, where I had the pleasure of tasting an entire menu based on salt cod, an experience that Antonio describes as “Therapeutic salt cod dinner“.

Starting from the story of Antonio’s preparation, I tried to remake them and I must admit that the result obtained is not very far from the original. The certain difference is that in this recipe they are breaded in corn flour, whereas the original Osteria recipe uses white flour.

Salt cod patties

13.18g carbohydrates per 100g patties without accompanying sauce

 Ingredients for the patties

  • 440g desalted cod
  • 150g boiled potatoes
  • 100g sheep or buffalo ricotta cheese
  • 65g coarse corn flour*
  • 50g milk
  • 35g gluten free white bread**
  • 5g salted capers
  • parsley
  • frying oil
  • salt and pepper
  • extra virgin olive oil

Ingredients for the accompanying sauce

  • 300g Ciro Flagella tomato sauce
  • 25g triple tomato paste
  • 1 clove garlic
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • dried Crusco pepper or sweet paprika
  • chili
  • salt

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Cook the desalted cod for 20 minutes in a pan, covering it with equal amounts of water and milk. Remove the skin and any bones and let the cod cool down.
  2. Boil the potatoes, then peel and dice them. Soak the bread in milk.
  3. Prepare the accompanying sauce. Put a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in a pan and brown 1 clove of garlic; add the tomato paste and dilute it with a bit of water, then pour in the sauce; season with salt and cook for 15 minutes. Season with chopped Crusco pepper, or paprika, and chilli.
  4. Place the cooked cod in a bowl, crumble it with a fork, then add the diced potatoes, soaked bread, ricotta cheese, chopped capers and parsley and a pinch of pepper. Form small balls of 30g each, roll them in a dish containing a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil so that the corn flour sticks to the surface when rolled on it.
  5. Fry the patties in plenty of peanut oil until golden brown and serve with the spicy tomato sauce.
Polpette di baccalà

Salt cod patties

Version with gluten of Salt cod patties

Replace gluten-free bread with conventional bread in equal amounts.

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Gluten-free Sbrisolona almond cake

In the Emilian and Mantuan tradition, it is one of the most popular desserts, the perfect end to a meal to be savoured piece by piece, perhaps accompanied by a delicate cream or, for the greediest and most traditionalists, with sabayon. Fragrant, crispy and crumbly: this is my gluten-free Sbrisolona, the cake that is best enjoyed down to the last crumb.

Compared to more traditional Sbrisolona recipes, this gluten-free version contains less butter and fewer eggs to make it more diabetes-friendly without taking away the richness of its flavour and inimitable texture: remember to break it up with your hands so that the pieces are uneven and form crumbs… which everyone will try to grab!

Preparing it is so simple that you will find yourself making it whenever you have guests and little time. And if you like crumbs, don’t miss the Oat and ricotta crumble.

Gluten-free Sbrisolona

55.2g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 250g almonds (of which 150g with peel and 100g peeled)
  • 250g flour mix for bread, brand BiAglut**
  • 170g butter
  • 150g coarse corn flour*
  • 150g sugar
  • 50g wholemeal rice flour*
  • 2 eggs
  • grated rind of 1 lemon

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Chop the almonds very coarsely, leaving some whole.
  2. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
  3. Cover a round baking tin 30-32cm in diameter with parchment paper, pour the mixture onto it and spread it out with your hands in an even layer. Finally, bake in a convection oven preheated to 160°C for about 35 minutes.
  4. Once cooled, break it up with your hands into nice irregular pieces.
sbrisolona-senza-glutine-ph-chiara-marando

Gluten-free Sbrisolona

Version with gluten of Sbrisolona

Replace the gluten free Biaglut flour with an equal amount of wheat flour.

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Turkey meatballs with Porcini mushrooms

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We are in the middle of the mushroom season, a foodstuff with intense aromas that can give that extra touch to even the simplest of dishes.
Today we are preparing them with meat and, precisely, with the food we consider to be ‘the favourite of young and old’: here is how to prepare delicious Turkey meatballs with porcini mushrooms.

And if you love meatballs, enjoy the “Meat balls and patties” section.

Turkey meatballs with Porcini mushrooms

1.8g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients

  • 550g minced turkey meat
  • 40g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
  • 20g breadcrumbs**
  • 1 egg
  • 5g dried Porcini mushrooms
  • 5g salt
  • extra virgin olive oil

** Ingredients specific for celiacs

Preparation

  1. Soak the dried mushrooms in lukewarm water.
    Meanwhile, place the ground turkey meat in a bowl, add the egg, Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs and mix well. Remove the soaked mushrooms from the water and save the water for cooking the meatballs.
  2. Cut the mushrooms into small pieces, add them to the meat, season with salt and mix again. Form patties and place them in a non-stick frying pan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil; brown them on both sides, then add the mushroom soaking water, put the lid on and cook the patties. After about 20 minutes, if a lot of liquid is present, remove the lid and brown the meatballs before serving.

ricetta-polpette-di-tacchino-ai-porcini-ph.-chiara-marando

Version with gluten of Turkey meatballs with Porcini mushrooms

Replace the gluten-free breadcrumbs with standard breadcrumbs.

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Tuna loaf for everyone

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The mild temperatures and sunny days don’t seem to want to leave us yet – thank goodness, I would say – and even at the table we want to continue enjoying tasty, but fresh food that reminds us of the time on holiday: Tuna loaf is the anwer.

That’s why the recipe we are going to prepare today is exactly what you need: tasty, easy and perfect as a one-course meal accompanied by some fresh vegetables. If you love the combination of tuna and vegetables, have a loot at my Curry rice with tuna and vegetables.

Roll up your sleeves and let’s prepare Tuna loaf together by following the step-by-step video!

Tuna loaf

carbohydrates per 100g negligible

Ingredients

  • 400g canned tuna in oil
  • 50g pitted green olives*
  • 2 egg whites
  • 20g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
  • 20g salted capers
  • 20g anchovy fillets
  • 1/2 grated lemon peel
  • extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

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

Preparation

  1. Drain the tuna and put it in a blender or robot with capers, anchovy fillets, olives, Parmesan cheese, egg whites and grated lemon zest. Blend everything together to obtain an even mixture.
    Take a sheet of parchment paper, wet and wring it out, then roll it out and pour the tuna mixture over it, forming a cylinder. Wrap it with paper and close the ends with string or metal hooks.
  2. Cook the tuna loaf in a pot of boiling water over low heat for about 45 minutes.
    Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
  3. In the meantime, place some olives and parsley in a blender together with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, then blend to a coarse sauce.

polpettone-di-tonno-uno-chef-per-gaia-ph-chiara-marando

  1. Slice the meatloaf and serve it with the olive and parsley sauce.

polpettone-di-tonno-uno-chef-per-gaia-ph-chiara-marando

Version with gluten of Tuna loaf

The recipe contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients, so no adaptation is necessary for its version with gluten.

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