Chow Down to Eurovision 2015 - Italy

Ciao tutti siamo arrivo in a Roma!!!!
There is no secret about my love for Italy and how much I wanted Il Volo to win Eurovision 2015. 

Who wouldn't want an Italian hosted Eurovision? The show would go for days with all the talking and 2 weeks in Rome, Florence or any where in Italy...sign me up!!

Being the country I heart the most (after Australia) and with the song Grande Amore it makes perfect sense that the Italian entry for Chow Down to Eurovision is heart.

Ok how many of you have I lost there?

This dish is inspired by coratella the Italian offal dish of pretty much most organs, lungs, kidneys, livers, spleen and heart.

I believe that if we are going to kill an animal for food we should at the very least eat all of it.

So when it comes to any grande amore it really is just all about the heart. 

Grande Amore on toast
Ingredients

• 2 lamb hearts
• 1 small brown onion
• 1 clove garlic
• Olive oil
• Knob of butter
• 30ml verjuice 
• A small handful of mixed herbs chopped, rosemary, parsley and thyme
• Thick slices of toasted sour dough

Method

• Trim the hearts of excess fat
• Cut into small even pieces about 2-3cm
• Add a good splash of oil to a fry pan on medium heat
• Add onion and garlic and let soften
• Add the heart and saute for a couple of minutes
• Season well with salt and pepper
• Add the verjuice, butter and herbs, stir through
• Serve on buttered toasted sourdough and garnish with extra rosemary

When your local farmers market has an amazing lamb farmer you just gotta take heart!

The heart is so tender and flavoursome it is well worth trying it at least once before deciding it's not for you. 

After a stellar performance in Vienna Il Volo won the televote but then finished 3rd when combined with the jury votes......aka robbed! 

Il Volo red carpet Vienna, Piero going the beard grab! 

I think Piero was very kind to say he liked my beard the couple of times I saw him in Vienna as looking back I think I may have been bordering on the wrong side of a hipster Worzel Gummidge!

Don't worry Stockholm I've had a trim...

Previous Italy Chow Down to Eurovision:

2014 Zucchini and Pork Pizza

2013 Pasta Broccoli

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Italy

Buona Sera tutti Ponte Galeria, a Roma Italy calling and our final country in the Chow Down to Eurovision 2014...it only seems like 8 years ago we began this journey!

Without wanting to sound like a well travelled reality cooking show contestant, this year's Italian entry is based on the time I spent studying in Italy.

I had a cute 1 bedroom flat on the outskirts of Roma, passed the sheep as some of my class mates would say. This meant that my late night drinking adventures had to happen at home as the last train was about 10.20pm.....read they didn't happen!

On the plus side I didn't find Thursday's classes as tough going as my hungover class mates from a wild night at La Radio.

The winning aspect of the location was I lived above a pizzeria, Mary Pizza, which was always a buzz with activity that I understood about 50% of but enjoyed 100% of the aroma. You can see my balcony on their website.

Most days, if I wasn't making pasta con I broccoli I would stop in for a chat with Maria (a Ukrainian girl) and grab some pizza or a kebab....which incidentally in Italian is kebab. 

As a strange fun fact it seemed every time I didn't know the name of something in Italian and would ask "come si dice....kebab?"(pointing) the answer would always be the name I knew it by. A golf jumper is a golf.

Also due to my location I could look down into the shop on a weekend from my other balcony to see when the kebabs were ready....living the dream!

Marco Mengoni sang L'essenziale in 2013 and strangely just by tweeting a quiz answer "Italy Marco Mengoni L'essenziale " I had a flood of Retweets, so I'm sure including him today won't hurt my stats!

He placed 7th last year

 

My favourite of all of Mary's pizzas was a thick fluffy focaccia base with grated zucchini and pork sausage balls, they also had a variation with zucchini and prawns. I can't wait till I go back and have some more pizza and a kebab but till then my version is pretty darn good too.



 

I have borrowed Paul Hollywood's focaccia recipe for the base, doubled it with a little extra water.

 

Zucchini and Pork Pizza

Ingredients for 2 large pizzas

• 1kg strong flour
• 20g instant yeast
• 20g sea salt flakes
• 280ml extra virgin olive oil
• 740ml cold water
• 4-5 pork and fennel sausages
• 3 large zucchinis
• Grated parmesan cheese (as much or as like as you like)
• Extra shaved parmesan for garnish

Method

• Add flour, yeast, salt, oil, water to a stand mixer and knead
• It will take about 5 minutes to be a smooth and elastic, very wet dough
• Transfer to an oiled container to prove for about 1 hour, Paul's tip is to use a square container as the dough will want to hold that shape. They don't call him a dough genius for nothing.
• Cook the sausage by pinching, twisting and pulling little balls from the sausage skin and fry in a frypan on medium heat
• Finely grate the zucchini and squeeze off the excess liquid
• When dough has risen, half it and stretch each half onto a 39cm x 26cm tray (sprayed with spray oil and a dusting of semolina flour)
• Allow dough to prove a second time for about 45 minutes
• Top base with zucchini, sausage and a light sprinkle of parmesan (or heavy)
• Bake in a 220°C oven for 15 minutes
• I have pizza stones in the over to assist the base to crisp
• My other tip is to remove them from the tray as so as they are cooked and not chat with friends as the steam can create a soggy bottom
• Garnish with a drizzle of oil and shaved parmesan and you could be in Ponte Galeria before you know it.

This was baked on a smaller tray so is a fraction thick than normal.

 

I adore that Emma used wonderful Italian produce to make her postcard flag! Oh to be wandering through an Italian market again.



 

Emma sang La mia Citta in Copenhagen and loving all things Italian I was a fan, even if I shouldn't show favouritism here.....

Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 - Italy

Ciao tutti, come state oggi? Siamo arrivati in L'Itallia, penultimo paese in questa Chow Down a Eurovision 2013.

Unlike France I could probably continue this post in L'Italiano but I wont, Italy is our second last country in the Chow Down to Eurovision 2013.

The essence of Italian food is simplicity and when it comes to cucina povera it's about making do with what you can.

Today's dish is what I lived on when I was studying in Italy, not only could I eat it by the truckload but it was something I could actually say it! "Vorrei mezzo chilo di broccoli, grazie" once you have that half kilo of broccoli, pasta con i broccoli is the only way to go.

I also really love Italian cinema and spent a lot of time at the movies, I even saw Australia dubbed into Italian which was weird but there was a sneaky home sick tear shed.

Fiumi di Parole (river of words) by Jalisse was another surprise Eurovision treat when it featured in the movie Ex. She also won Sanremo in 1997 with the song but came 4th in Eurovision and Italy wasn't seen at Eurovision for 14 years!!

Pasta con i broccoli
Ingredients

• 1kg dried pasta any shape (penne or anything that holds the sauce)
• 500g broccoli
• 160g bottle of anchovies
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 200g parmesan or pecorino

Method

• Add pasta to a large pot of boiling salted water
• Cut the broccoli into pieces and add to the pasta pot once water is back to the boil
• Cook pasta till al dente and drain
• Return the pot to the stove
• Over medium heat add anchovies including their oil and olive oil to the pot
• Crush the garlic and add to pot and stir
• When anchovies have broken down add pasta back to pot and stir to coat
• Take off the heat and stir through the cheese
• Buon appetite
• You can also add a knob of butter or a touch more oil if you prefer
• The size of the broccoli is varies when I make it so it breaks down more but size if up to you.

Italy will host the 2014 Eurovision song contest, eh magari!! (I wish)

Marco Mengoni will sing his Sanremo winning song L'Essenziale in this years final, can he do better than Jalisse and win both? I can't cope with another 14 year Italian absence!

Buona Fortuna!