DELICIOUS RECIPES FOR YOUR EASTER’S TABLE BY THE STARRED BIO-S CHEF PAOLO SARI

by Paolo Sari the only starred bio chef in the world MONACO. Easter is definitely one of the most important moment of the season for my organic menus.That’s an easy task thanks to my bio-experience, all of which is guaranteed to add a special sparkle to your festive menus. The spring garden is rich in everything we need. Organic food is not limited to a single market of diet-depressed people and vegetarians. Organic is looking for non-chemically treated, non-use of unapproved pesticides, fresh or minimally processed food. My advice for the healthier organic choice is mostly to buy directly from growers. During Easter time and especially in these times of economic crisis it is a good way to support the local producers. They use to come to the town markets from the country, offering their freshly grown products. There is no better than a short chain to take the exclusive advantage to know personally the farmer who cultivates, produces and breeds wonderful products of the nature. Of course, the biological practice of my festive menus does not disregard the great classics of the traditional parties. This Easter 2018, treat close friends and family to a meal of magnificent memories of my one star Michelin bio-table and bio-recipes. I propose something different from usual gnocchi, and I have photographed the dish for you as well.

 PRIMO PIATTO No.1 is VEGETABLE RAVIOLI

Servings: 4

Preparation time

Ingredients: 

– 8 baby carrots
– 1 chunk yellow squash
– 4 mini courgettes
– 4 pink radish
– 32 peeled baby broad beans
– ½ Romanesco
– 8 minis asparagus
– 4 mini beets
– 60 g lightly salted churned butter
– 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
– Pepper
– 1 pinch oregano

Spinach filling
– 500 g baby spinach shoots
– 50 g bread crumbs
– ½ bunch oregano
– ½ bunch basil
– Salt and pepper
– 25 g grated Parmesan cheese
– 50 g ricotta
– 2 eggs

Dough (prepare the day before and refrigerate 24 hours before using)
– 500 g flour
– 400 g egg yolk

Recipe:

Vegetables (cook at the same time as the ravioli)
Wash the vegetables by rubbing them gently under running water.
Peel the Romanesco. Put aside a few round pieces.
Cut the squash into half-centimetre sticks.
Cut the broad beans into thin strips.
Save the asparagus tips, the most tender part.
Cut the radishes in half.
Melt some lightly salted butter in a very hot pan and add 4 spoonfuls of the ravioli cooking water.
Sauté the chopped vegetables in the pan.
Add a little salt and pepper and another ladle of ravioli cooking water.
Put aside.

Spinach filling
Blanc the spinach leaves in hot water without salt for no more than 30 seconds.
Chill immediately in ice water.
Squeeze the leaves to remove water.
Finely chop the spinach.
Place in a mixing bowl. Add Parmesan, bread crumbs, ricotta, 1 egg and chopped oregano.
Season and mix.

Ravioli (cook at the same time as the vegetables)
Dust the ravioli dough with flour (prepared or bought in advance).
Spread the dough very thinly into a rectangular shape with a rolling pin.
Cut the dough into two strips.
Dampen the dough with water using a brush.
Place the filling on the dough (spheres of filling evenly spaced).
Fold the dough strip in two so that the filling is completely covered.
Stick the dough together, make the edges even, and cut into ravioli squares.
Using the brush, dampen the edges of the ravioli with water again.
Finish by pinching the two outer edges together in the middle to make oval ravioli. Make sure the joints are tight.
Cook the ravioli in salted boiling water for about 4 minutes.
Finish cooking the ravioli in the vegetable cooking water.

Plating: 
Place the ravioli in the hollow of the serving dish.
Place the vegetables one by one following the image below:

 

PRIMO PIATTO No.2 is GNOCCHI

Preparation: 90 minutes – For 4 people

For the vegetables dressing: 8 mini-carrots, 4 mini-marrows, 8 mini-radish multicolour, 20 Peeled fava beans, 8 pieces of violet cauliflower and 8 pieces of mini Roman cabbage, 8 mini-asparagus, 8 dried flowers, 4 leafs of borage, 4 leaves of verbena, 8 leaves of basil. Two spoons of extra virgin olive oil – Salt and pepper to season.

For the gnocchi: 600 gr potatoes, 200-gr flour 00,2 egg yolks, Salt and pepper to season, 1 pinch of nutmeg

For the sauce: 100-gr butter, one pinch of finely chopped chives

Process:

Wash the potatoes and boil them in a pan with salted water for one hour. Rinse, peel and crush the hot potatoes putting them in a bowl with the yolks, salt and pepper to season, one pinch of nutmeg and the flour. Stir the preparation until soft. Flat the preparation over your worktable, cut to form pieces of gnocchi 2 for 3 centimetres each, dent and rifle them delicately with the help of a fork. Boil the gnocchi in a pan full of salted water for 3 minutes. Melt the butter in a large pan with the chopped chives and some of the gnocchi’s’ boiled water until obtain a soft sauce. Drain the gnocchi, put them in the pan and melt them delicately in the warm sauce. Wash the vegetables, grad the smaller ones and cut into smaller pieces. Blanch all the vegetables in boiling water for one minute. Put the vegetables in a frying pan with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper for one minute. Set the plate placing the gnocchi in the middle, garnish with the vegetables and finish with the herbs and flowers, like in the image below:

MAIN is ROASTED LAMB CHOPS WITH HOMEMADE LARD AND ACACIA HONEY, CELERIAC PURÉE AND LICORICE, CRISPY POTATOES

Servings: 4

Preparation time: 40 minutes.

Ingredients:
For the celeriac puree: 300 g peeled and diced celeriac – 150 g whole milk – Salt, pepper – one grated licorice cling and a small licorice stick.
For the lamb: 8 lamb’s ribs, each cutlet 90g – 16 thin slices of salted lard “Colonnata” – Lamb’s offal – 1 glass of white wine – 4 spoons of acacia honey – 4 pinches of thyme – Salt / pepper

The puree recipe:
Put in a saucepan the celeriac with the milk, the seasoning and the licorice. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Beat until reach a creamy and homogeneous puree.

The lamb’s recipe:

Season the meat thoroughly, spread it with honey and thyme then wrap the cutlet chops with the bacon and tie to an even shape. Cook the lamb’s offal with the vegetables and the herbs, sprinkle with the wine, add a cup of water and gently reduce the sauce to a creamy consistency. Filter to strainer. Peel the potato, cut into long spaghetti with a sharp knife.
Form a kind of spiral with the potato strings and stir-fry in hot oil until golden and crisp. Drain and keep it apart. Heat the oil in a frying pan, put the lamb chops and brown them well. Deglaze continuously with the cooking grease. The chops need 10 minutes of cooking for a pink cooking. Remove the chops from the frying pan and remove the string.

Plating:

Place a spoon of celeriac purée in the center of the dish and press on the lambs’cutlets. Add the sauce and garnish with the potato strings, thyme and a small licorice stick, like in the image below:

DESSERT I am giving you two different recipes, so that you can explore your attitude to the difficult art of making a dessert. First, an Amateur preparation of Hazelnuts dark pudding cream, chocolate ice cream and caramel, and then a second recipe, a more professional preparation: Black cream with hazelnuts, Puffed with cane sugar, caramel and cocoa ice cream, green tea sponge.

No.1 is HAZELNUTS DARK PUDDING CREAM, CHOCOLATE ICED CREAM AND CARAMEL

Servings: 4

Preparation time: 30 minutes.

Ingredients:
For the black cream: 5 eggs – 100 g of cocoa – 50 g almond liquor, “amaretto” – 175 g sugar – 1 liter of milk
For the caramel: 200 g sugar – 50 g coffee

The recipe for the caramel:  

Putin a pan the sugar and the coffee and cook at gentle fire until reaching a beautiful amber color. Pour the caramel into a cake pan.
The recipe for the black cream:
 Beat the sugar with the eggs, incorporate the cocoa, the amaretto and the boiling milk. Pour the mixture into the pan with the caramel and cook in a bain-marie (double pan) at 105 ° for 55 minutes.   Put in the refrigerator.

No.2 is BLACK CREAM WITH HAZELNUTS, PUFFED WITH CANE SUGAR, CARAMEL AND COCOA ICE CREAM, GREEN TEA SPONGE

 Servings: 4

Preparation time: 90 minutes.

Ingredients:
For the black cream: 5 eggs – 100 g of cocoa – 50 g almond liquor, “amaretto” – 175 g sugar – 1 liter of milk
For the caramel: 200 g sugar – 50 g coffee
For the cocoa ice cream: 220 g cream – 280 g whole milk -100 g egg yolk -125 g sugar – 150 g cocoa
For the chocolate cylinder: 200 g dark chocolate 64%

The recipe for the caramel:  Put in a pan the sugar and the coffee and cook at gentle fire until reaching a beautiful amber color. Pour the caramel into a cake pan.
The recipe for the black cream:  Beat the sugar with the eggs, incorporate the cocoa, the amaretto and the boiling milk. Pour the mixture into the pan with the caramel and cook in a bain-marie (double pan) at 105 ° for 55 minutes.   Put in the refrigerator.
The recipe for the cocoa ice cream: Beat the sugar with the egg yolks, incorporate the cocoa and then the cream and milk until boiling. Cool, put in the sorbet machine and follow the instructions to prepare ice cream.
The recipe for the chocolate cylinder: Melt the chocolate in a bain marie (double pan). Remove and bring to the temperature of 36 °. Put the preparation on a marble board and flatten it with a spatula, cut a rectangle and wrap it on a metal cylinder. Store in a cool place.

The recipe for the Chocolate Crumble:Beat all the ingredients and pour into a mold of 15 cm diameter and cook on 0ven at 150 ° for 15 minutes. Cool, remove from pan and crumble.
The recipe for the Green Tea Sponge:
Infuse tea with boiling water with sugar for 5 minutes. Beat all other ingredients with sweetened water and infused for 5 minutes. Bake in small microwave plastic containers for 30 seconds. Arrange the dish as shown in the picture below:

 

Paolo Sari – The Bio starred Chef – www.facebook.com/SariPaolo