This is the perfect Christmas gift for your friends and family and, I recommend making it for you as well because it’s delicious.

I first tasted this special panforte at Virginia’s nursery school, more than 10 years ago. I can still see that little girl running to me. He had in her hand a transparent bag that contained cookies, closed by a beautiful colored ribbon. It was Virginia’s Christmas gift to her family.

Inside the small bag was also a piece of paper with Virginia’s drawing and the written: “Panforte di fichi e noci” (fig and walnut panforte).

So I understood that they were not “cookies”, but panforte “pieces” that the teachers cut and put in the bags.

Furthermore, it was not the “common” panforte, but a special one, made with figs and nuts.

I still remember the pleasant surprise of those flavors; I never tasted a so good panforte. The taste is enveloping, spicy and persistent.

Reading the recipe I immediately realized it was very simple and fast to do.

In short, I found the perfect Christmas gift for friends and family.

And so, from that Christmas time 10 years ago, my kitchen has turned into a laboratory and it bakes “panforte” of every dimension:

• for Christmas baskets along with other treats like the Befanini cookies
• as a Christmas gift along with a nice liqueur, in my case Orange / Limoncello liqueur made by me
• alone, wrapped in a fine yellow sheet of paper, and sealed with a rope or string ribbon

A BIT OF HISTORY

Panforte is a Christmas cake typical of Tuscany (Province of Siena) and that one with figs and walnuts seems to have been invented by Giuseppina Bonelli of the famous pastry shop Masoni.

During World War II, raw materials were scarce. Impossible to find expensive candies and spices.

It was so that Giuseppina invented a panforte made with the available ingredients; in a few words the dried fruit that at that time was considered poor: figs and nuts.

It came up with an exquisite product that immediately had great success.

I tried to interpret the old recipe according to my tastes. I tried to balance the flavors by accentuating those I love and I think that you can do in this way as well.

However, if you do not want to risk, know that the recipe below has been tested for several years, so be sure.

Once again, this year too, this panforte will be the Christmas gift for my closest friends.

Meanwhile, at my house, a big (10 inches; 24 cm diameter) panforte already disappeared (volatilized) and I only baked it yesterday.

Suggestion for your Christmas gift

This panforte, as a Christmas gift, can be even more beautiful accompanied by the recipe, perhaps you can print it on parcel paper, then you can roll up it and wrap it with a string.

L'articolo Christmas gift: fig and walnut panforte from Tuscany proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Riso coi Gamberi (Italian for Shrimps Risotto) is a very requested dish in our private dinners in Tuscany.

If you’d like tasting real Italian food comfortably sit at the table of your holiday home in Tuscany, it’s worth calling a private chef as one of “Cuoche in Vacanza”.

If you’re nowadays in your country (most of our customers come from: USA, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark…) and holidays are still faraway… try to replicate this recipe and you surely will not regret it: it’s a fantastic way to taste “Italian  Shrimps Risotto”.

From the book of Pellegrino Artusi (the greater recipes and food stories writer from Tuscany, who lived at the end of 1.800):

“It is related that a shrimp’s mum blaming one day her daughter, said to her: – My God, how do you go crooked! Can you not walk straight?! –
And you, mother, how do you walk? – said the daughter – Can I go straight when here, all I see is crooked? –
The daughter was right. “

Method making Shrimps Risotto (following Artusi).

It has been obviously tested by me and my family and I can guarantee about success!

1. First of all take about 300 grams of shrimp will be enough for 700 grams of rice and serve for eight people. Finely chop half an onion, three cloves of garlic, carrot, celery and parsley and put on the fire with EVO oil.
   Because I think that garlic, in this case, it is necessary to correct the sweet taste of shrimp.
2. When the garlic begins to brown pour in the shrimps and season with salt and pepper. Stir often and when all have become red, wet with sauce or tomato paste and a little later pour a lot of hot water that is enough for the rice.
3. So boil not so much, because shrimps cook quickly,
4. then remove and drain them dry and take a fourth part of them, choosing the biggest; peel and set asidethis fourth.
5. Crush the others in a mortar, pass through a sieve and stir the pulp passed to the broth where they were cooked.
6. Put on the heat a bit of butter in a saucepan and pour in the rice, stir constantly, and when the rice has taken the luster of butter, pour in the hot stock a little at a time;
7. when it’s more than half cooking time, add the whole shrimps, already peeled, and give them a bit of “grace”, before serving, with a handful of parmesan cheese. If, when you make this risotto, you have meat broth, use it because it will succeed with more nutricious and more delicate.

As you can see from this picture I added also other kinds of crustaceans: they are called, in Tuscany, “cicale” and maybe you call them mantis shrimp.

I made this shrimps risotto with so much love and it came out really delicious.
Not always, but sometimes, in addition to the ingredients, that are the “must” during this “cooking” period, the way of preparation is very important too.
This is the first lesson that I learnt from the great king, P. Artusi…I don’t think it’s a little one.
Try cooking guys! And let me know…xxx

Salva

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L'articolo Recipe N°82 ARTUSI Riso coi Gamberi (Shrimps Risotto) proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.