pumpkin galore

October and November in Turin are the months of the pumpkin but no matter when pumpkin season is where you live, whether you celebrate Thanksgiving Day or you just like its flavor, do it like us and make one of these amazing recipes of ours. You'll surprise and entice your family and friends and most definitely, you'll gratify yourselves 😋

Porta Palazzo market: the farmers' section

ginger carrot gnocchi

Fall is the best time to get back to the kitchen and cook, and what's more therapeutic than working with your hands? What gives you more satisfaction than something you can share with your family and friends and that you can make into a large batch and freeze to keep handy for any occasion and impromptu feast?

Our answer is gnocchi!! 🙆

TurinEpi19 talk-show 3

The third talk-show of the 6th edition of Turin Epicurean Capital had Jan Egan aka The Watchful Cook moderating Ulderica Masoni aka THE Turin fashion guru, Benedetta Oggero aka Miss Bee, Paola Pressi of Il Reale and Monica Buzio who is bringing back to life her great grandfather's liqueur recipes.

* Lucia Hannau presenting the third talk-show

green risotto

March means green and Saint Paddy's Day 💚 so we are sharing with you one of green rice based dishes: our staple risotto with peas and mint 🙆 

Easy and healthy, it will be feasible virtually everywhere you are in the world, as long as you have access to any kind of white rice, frozen or fresh peas and fresh mint leaves. 

In order to preserve the fresh aroma of the mint and the peas flavor, we recommend you use white wine but, in case you happen to have it handy, a mild white beer will do too... and if worse comes to worse, you can always omit it for a lighter flavor.

aphrodisiac risotto

For this Valentine's Day we are sharing one of our risotto recipes: THE aphrodisiac risotto to help you friends get in the right mood 😉

Many of you already know about the benefits of ginger, a powerful root that has been used for centuries in China.
Being related to cardamom and turmeric, ginger has anti-inflammatory properties that make it an ideal natural remedy for nausea (during pregnancy and chemotherapy too), cold, flu and help digestion, thus stimulating appetite... 

It is also very good for people who regularly exercise because it reduces muscle pain. On top, it helps lowering blood sugars - making it a great anti-diabetic - and cholesterol, it is one of the oldest pain reliefs and it helps burning fats too!

According to some studies ginger protects the brain from Alzheimer and the body from infections.

pumpkin risotto

Despite all the differences that divide us, sometimes we are forcibly brought together by an external common circumstance like these days: the extreme cold weather!

As many areas of the world are going through some exceptionally freezing temperatures, we can only think about one thing to keep ourselves warm and happy:

Pumpkin Risotto 

with red ale ... optional

topped with (optional) crunchy bacon bites... 

  

foodies' basic necessities

Some weeks ago we talked to you about Chiara and her nonna's dairy, Latteria Bera founded in Turin in 1958.

Now you may think that any dairy is the same and all you can get is just dairy based products. Sure, they may differ locally, but it's always cheese, butter, milk, eggs and yogurt, and that's basically it.

Well, that's not the case with this historic latteria that is more to be considered like a gourmet dairy and a small production specialty shop 😎 

Today we would like to share with you what Chiara's basic necessities bag contained for us... just in case you needed some culinary shopping ideas when in Turin 😉

TurinEpi18 talk show 3 and dinner

For the third talk show of the fifth edition of Turin Epicurean Capital, food historian Francine Segan directed Kelly Strobel and Alberto Semenzato of Italian At Heart and Clare Reed of Piemonte Dreams.

Lucia Hannau introducing: Alberto Semenzato, Kelly Strobel, Clare Reed and Francine Segan. Photo by Alberto Bonis

Kelly's passion from Turin

Kelly Strobel of Italian At Heart - La Dolce Vita Through Food and Wine From Italy to California is sharing with us how her love for food and wine was born back when she studied abroad here in Turin.

Kelly is one of the TurinEpi18 guests. 

Kelly is a teacher of Italian and English as a Second Language and she blends her love for languages with food and wine. She shares her blog with her partner in crime Alberto Semenzato, also a Turin Epicurean Capital 2018 guest. After all, the best things in life are those you can share 😎

Alberto & Kelly

 

OUR lentil loaf

Happy 2018 dear all, our first post of the year was requested by our friend Jan Egan aka The Watchful Cook.

On NYE we made a delicious lentil loaf and after researching for the best recipe, we decided to give it a Piedmont twist by including some Jerusalem artichokes.

Regular Italian artichokes have always been an all time favorite of ours but it is only since a few months we started cooking and eating Jerusalem artichokes too.

Usually Jerusalem artichokes are part of bagna caoda THE Piedmont and family/friends dish, however, they can be cooked in virtually any way and can be eaten raw too.

Apparently their English name derives from the anglicized version of the Italian girasole or sunflower because the Italian immigrants in the US found the plant very similar to the sunflower one.
As for the artichoke part, it is due to their similarity with the regular artichokes, but they really have nothing else in common because "J art" are a tuber like potatoes.

In Italian we call them topinanbour and they come in 2 species, regular and white - the better and more delicate quality.

In the winter particularly, they are a super food as they are packed with potassium, iron, fibers and niacin, consequently they help you purifying your system, are  great option to bananas, give you strength and energy. Moreover, they reduce your cholesterol and regulate your blood pressure. 👌

As their flavor is mild and they can be cooked and roasted, slowly but steadily we are including them in many of our cold weather/comfort food dishes paired with rice, legumes and other vegetables to keep them in good company 😉

Xmas dinner @CasaJasmina

A couple of months ago, we were contacted by world-renowned Sci-Fi author Bruce Sterling who is currently living in Turin. He's a fan of Turin Epicurean Capital and had a question about wine for his guests at Casa Jasmina. This is how we found out about this amazing project in collaboration with Fab Lab Torino and Officine Arduino.

Bruce Sterling and Miss Bee