Tag Archive for: ricette veloci

Spring brings us wonderful and versatile ingredients like asparagus — grown in many regions of Italy and the star of this simple yet impressive recipe. This Chicken and asparagus pie is a complete meal that combines flavour, nutritional balance and practicality. It’s perfect for anyone following a gluten-free diet with a mindful eye on the recipe’s composition, particularly its carbohydrate content.

Asparagus is an excellent source of fibre, B vitamins (especially folate), vitamin K and natural antioxidants. Thanks to its asparagine content, it also supports kidney function and has a natural diuretic effect. Combined with chicken, a great source of lean protein, and brown rice flour, which adds fibre and complex carbohydrates, this dish offers all the essential macronutrients and is suitable for those with specific dietary needs.

The crisp gluten-free puff pastry topping adds a rustic and visually appealing touch, making it ideal even for a last-minute dinner with guests when you don’t want to give up on seasonal vegetables. If you’re looking for another all-in-one dish, try the Vegetarian Moussaka too!

ilaria-bertinelli-pie-di-pollo-e-asparagi-al-feta

Chicken and asparagus pie with Feta cheese

7.8g carbohydrates per 100g

Ingredients for 6 servings

  • 1 pack of gluten-free puff pastry** (you will use about 200g)
  • 850g chicken breast
  • 420g asparagus
  • 120g Feta cheese
  • 70g leek
  • 30g brown rice flour*
  • 1 egg for brushing the surface
  • meat or vegetable stock*
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and papper

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

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

Preparation

  1. Slice the leek and let it soften in a non-stick pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Add the chicken breast cut into cubes and cook until it turns white on all sides.
  2. Trim the woody ends off the asparagus, then divide the stalks from the tips. Cut the stalks into small pieces and add them to the chicken. Pour in a few ladles of broth, season with salt and pepper, and cook.
  3. When the chicken is nearly done, add the asparagus tips. Sprinkle in the rice flour and, if needed, add another ladle of broth — it will thicken into a sauce similar to béchamel.
  4. Transfer the chicken and asparagus mixture into a baking dish, top with crumbled Feta cheese and cover the top with the puff pastry. Seal the edges well to create a lid, cut a few slits to allow steam to escape, and brush the surface with beaten egg.
  5. Bake in a preheated fan oven at 180°C for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, let rest for 10 minutes, then serve.

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

I don’t know about you, but with the kids home from school, the need to cook lunch and dinner every day makes it difficult for me to find solutions to satisfy their appetite, desire for variety and time available, so try these Potato and courgette patties with Parma Ham.

Boiling potatoes will be the longest step, but the rest will only take you a few minutes. Obviously you can replace Parma ham with another ham you like, but it is important to remember that by combining a source of fat and protein with potatoes, you will slow down the absorption of carbohydrates, so it will be helpful to avoid glycaemic peaks.

You can accompany these Potato and courgette patties with a side dish of vegetables for a complete and balance meal. And if you love pies, but don’t want to turn on the oven, try this Pan-fried potato pie.

 

Potato and courgette patties with Parma ham  

14.41g carbohydrates per 100g of patties without Parma ham

Ingredients

  • 700g potatoes
  • 350g courgettes
  • 80g spring onion or leek
  • 60g breadcrumbs**
  • 40g butter
  • Parma ham
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

Preparation

  1. Boil the potatoes in a pot of water, then peel and mash them with a potato masher, add butter while they are still hot so that it melts well, then set them aside.
  2. In the meantime, put a few tablespoons of oil in a non-stick frying pan, brown the finely chopped spring onion or leek, then add the courgettes grated with a coarse-hole grater, season with salt and pepper, then cook for about 10 minutes, making sure that the courgettes are nice and dry.
  3. Add the cooked courgettes to the mashed potatoes, mix well and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
  4. With the help of a 6cm diameter cutter, form 2cm thick patties; roll them in breadcrumbs very carefully because they are quite soft, then brown them in a non-stick frying pan with a few tablespoons of oil until very crispy on both sides.
  5. Top each patty with a slice of freshly sliced Parma ham and serve.

Pizzette di patate e zucchine al prosciutto

Version with gluten of Potato and courgette patties with Parma ham 

Replace gluten free breadcrumbs with standard breadcrumbs

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.