Tag Archive for: idee per l’estate

Quinoa Salad with Watermelon, Feta, and Mint

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After a refreshing swim in the pool or sea, there’s nothing better than a fresh and nourishing dish to restore your energy without feeling heavy. This Quinoa Salad with Watermelon, Feta, and Mint is exactly what you need.

Light yet complete, quinoa provides complex carbohydrates while feta offers a good protein boost. Watermelon and cucumber ensure hydration and freshness, while mint adds an aromatic touch that makes this recipe irresistible even on the hottest days.

Prepare it in advance and take it with you to the beach, the pool, or enjoy it at home after your workout. It’s a healthy, practical, and colourful one-dish meal that will make you feel like you’re on holiday with the very first bite. And if you want to know what’s best to do after swimming for optimal recovery, check out the tips from Bianca Balzarini.

Looking for more summer ideas? Try our Couscous with Octopus and Avocado.

ilaria-bertinelli-insalata-di-quinoa-e-anguria

Quinoa Salad with Watermelon, Feta, and Mint

9.8g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 300g watermelon (net weight, without rind and seeds)
  • 100g quinoa (white or mixed)
  • 160g cucumber
  • 150g feta cheese
  • 1 bunch fresh mint
  • ½ lemon
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • pumpkin seeds

Preparation

  1. Rinse the quinoa thoroughly under running water to remove any saponins, then cook it with triple its weight in lightly salted water for about 12-15 minutes with the lid on, until it has absorbed all the water. Turn off the heat and let it cool slightly.
  2. Peel and coarsely grate the cucumber, sprinkle with salt, place in a colander, and let it rest to release its water.
  3. Cut the watermelon into small cubes, removing all seeds.
  4. Crumble the feta cheese with your hands.
  5. Mix the cooled quinoa with the watermelon, well-drained cucumber, crumbled feta, and finely chopped mint.
  6. Dress with lemon juice mixed with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
  7. Garnish with pumpkin seeds for a crunchy touch and a few mint leaves.
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Tasty summer? Pan-cooked creamy flatbread

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What can you prepare when you are caving for a savoury snack, but you have little time available and don’t want to use the oven? This Pan-cooked creamy flatbread is a perfect solution for snacks, aperitifs, garden parties and unannounced guests.

Prepare the dough in few minutes, leave to rest for 30 minutes and that’s it: roll out two disks of dough and stuff them with your favourite ingredients or what you have available in the fridge or larder.

I found the perfect occastion to enjoy the vegetable creams with no preservatives and no gluten of the Citres company, my booth neighbours at the Cibus 2024 food exhibition. I made my Pan-cooked creamy flatbread both with Radicchio cream which you will find in the recipe below, and with Pumpkin cream which I used with slices of Taleggio cheese: cook both of them because it will be very hard to decide your favourite one.

Schiacciata-in-padella

Pan-cooked creamy flatbread

33.22g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for the dough

  • 150g flour mix for bread, brand Nutrifree**
  • 100g milk
  • 10g extravirgin olive oil
  • salt

Ingredients for stuffing

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Prepare the dough mixing all the ingredients in a bowl until you obtain an even and firm mixture. Cover the dough with cling film and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
  2. Divide the dough in half and roll out each half with a rolling pin to obtain two disks of about 24cm diameter, but with one the two slightly larger.
  3. Spread the Radicchio cream and cream cheese on the larger disk leaving about 1-1.5cm along the permiter uncovered, then top with the second disk and fold the edge to seal the disks.
  4. Slightly grease a non-stick pan, better using spray extra virgin olive oil, and cook the flatbread for about 5 minutes on each side using a lid to turn it half-way through the cooking.
  5. Serve the flatbread hot and be creative with stuffing ideas!

Schiacciata-in-padella

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Coronation pasta salad: all the flavour of summer

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If a historical company like Pastificio Berruto asks you to think of a nutritionally balanced one-dish meal for young consumers to be published in the middle of summer, I immediately thought of my kids, of what they would be able to cook on their own and, above all, of what would make them and their friends happy for a summer lunch. Here is my Coronation Pasta Salad.

My recipe draws inspiration from Coronation chicken, a cold chicken dish that was invented by the two women who ran the London Cordon Bleu cooking school for the banquet organised for Queen Elizabeth‘s coronation in 1953. The name is therefore a clear tribute to the event for which it was intended.

In addition to boiled chicken left to cool, the recipe called for dried apricots, curry, mayonnaise and sour cream, as well as other ingredients in smaller amounts. The two ingredients I took the liberty of making changes to are mayonnaise, the amount of which I have drastically reduced, and sour cream, which I have replaced with zero-fat Greek yoghurt. Furthermore, I turned the recipe into a delicious pasta salad.

So, I enriched the chicken with pasta as a source of carbohydrates and cherry tomatoes as a source of fibre and a touch of freshness. In short, a riot of aromas, flavours and colours for a truly royal summer!

Gli ingredienti principali dell'Insalata di pasta Coronation

The main ingredients of the Coronation Pasta Salad

Coronation pasta salad

22.16g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for 4-6 servings

  • 600g chicken
  • 300g gluten-free Penne Berruto**
  • 150g water used for boiling the chicken
  • 85g dried apricots
  • 75g fat-free Greek yoghurt
  • 75g mayonnaise*
  • 1 onion
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 shallots
  • 2 teaspoons curry*
  • 1 level tablespoon of tomato paste
  • The juice of ½ lemon
  • chopped parsley
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 peppercorns
  • salt and pepper

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Boil the chicken breasts in a large pan with the bay leaf, onion and carrot. Add half a tablespoon of salt and the peppercorns; bring to the boil over medium heat and cook for about 25 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow the chicken to cool in the cooking juices.
  2. Meanwhile, fry the finely chopped shallots in a non-stick pan with a little oil; add the curry and continue cooking for one minute. Add the tomato paste dissolved in the chicken stock, the lemon juice and cook for 10 minutes to thicken the sauce. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
  3. Remove the chicken from the broth and cut it into fairly even pieces.
  4. Mix together mayonnaise, yoghurt and curry sauce; add chopped apricots and season with salt and pepper.
  5. Season the chicken with the sauce and stir, making sure that it is completely covered by it. Leave it to rest.
  6. Cook the penne al dente in plenty of salted water, drain and dress with the chicken salad. Complete with a few chopped cherry tomatoes and a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Serve the salad warm or cold to taste: it is simply irresistible!

Pasta coronation

Version with gluten of Coronation salad

Replace the gluten-free Penne Berruto with standard Penne Berruto, while the sauce contains only naturally gluten-free ingredients, so no changes are necessary.

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