Zeppole - Make Your Own Dough or Store Bought?

[panthera]

Paulo,

That was brilliant and I thank you.

One of the joys of eating in Italy (you travel to Germany or England, you eat your way through Italy) is the fact that there is no standard Italian recipe for anything. Well, there are standards of course and my Italian-American relations are always shocked, shocked I tell you to discover that the primary Italian recipe for lunch these days is:
1)Open the freezer
2)Open the microwave
3)Eat in front of the TV

But that's irrelevant.

Your yeast tips are very useful, I am going to cut and paste this into my recipe file.

And yes, Lawrence was right. Goodness, I have three totally different pizzeli recipes from three different Italian (real, not the Italian-American kind) aunts...

Back to pizza, if nobody minds. I hate it, generally speaking. Only decent pizza I ever had in my life was in Terracina. Salt-free dough, barely worked, bottom covered in a very fruity olive oil, rosmary scattered on top, potatoes sliced thin (3mm) over that, more olive oil, into the oven and out. Little street vendor's cart. The neat thing about Latium is, it can be 42°C in the early afternoon and then you need nordic clothing to take a walk at ten in the evening. No wonder Southern Italians do warm drinks so well.

It's a funny twist of fate that the Italian equivalent of fast food has become the symbol of the greatest cuisine on the planet.

 

[dj-gabriele]

Indeed pasta should be al dente

... but then I'm only 25 years old.
Badly cooked pasta either under or overcooked is just inedible, no matter in what country you're going to eat it!

Second, pizza made by a good pizzaiolo with a properly mantained wood fired oven is better than a pizza made by a good pizzaiolo with an electric or gas one for the simple fact that combustion products will enrich the aroma.
If the pizza is burnt to make customer see that it is made "in the traditional way" send it back and change place to eat! It's not worth it!

@panthera: as much I love proper Italian cooking I also love experimenting other countries' tastes...
So I'm going to come to Munich this Christmas, do you have any good places to suggest where I could have my meals on the 25th? (also my family is coming)
I already know Fraunhofer restaurant but didn't like it much, I'm open to suggestion! Maybe some kind of typical "imbisstube" or something like that?

Third: what to have pizza done in 4 minutes in your electric home oven?
Here's the solution:
http://www.smeg.it/International/Catalogue/Product/SCP112PZ8.aspx?SID=5541442
I have the catalitic cleaning variety in black and I fell in love with it! (and mine goes up to 300°C or 572°F)

And now there is the "standard" recipe of the "Ragù alla Bolognese" as dictated by the Italian Accademy of Cusine:

300 g of beef skirt
100 g of bacon, unsmoked, unsalted
100 ml (half a glass) of Sangiovese red wine
200 ml (a glass) of beef broth (not stock cube broth)
5 spoons of tomato sauce or tomato concentrate (reduce accordingly one half or one third)
1 small onion (50 g)
1 carrot (50 g)
1 celery stick (50 g)
one spoon of milk cream

the "modern" everyday quicker variation I use is as follows (and here are a million of recipes):

200 g minced lean beef
200 g minced lean pork (or pork sausage with only salt and pepper as savoring)
2 spoons of milk (optional)
100 ml of extra virgin olive oil (as the meat is lean, less if using sausage)
celery, onion and carrot
2 full spoons double tomato concentrate
half a glass of Sangiovese wine

This quantity serves 4 people.

First mince the meat coarsely, it shouldn't be sand-like.
put the bacon and carrots and onion and celery, all minced in a pan with high sides and cook till it starts sizzling.
Add the minced beef and let cook well. Add the wine and continue cooking on gentle heat.
When the wine will have dried out add the broth, salt, pepper and sauce or tomato paste. Cook on low for 2 hours at least, this is important to make the meat tender. Add the cream not long before the sauce is ready.

On my everyday variety I don't chop the greens as I hate celery and onion, so i simply throw them away after the sauce has cooked.
I put all together the meat and greens and oil, cook until it sizzles and the meat is no more red and the water it leaks is evaporated, then add wine, when the wine has evaporated I add the concentrate and cover the meat with water. Just stir once in a while, when the water is evaporated, cooking on low, the sauce should be ready, add the milk and cook some more and you're done!

Oh and if you use a pressure cooker the time will be cut in half! Have a try!

Serve with egg pasta like tagliatelle (that should be 8 mm wide once cooked and not sheet like thin!) with a lot of Parmigiano Reggiano, buon appetito!

 

[panthera]

Gabriele,

A great looking recipe, thanks!
Here's a list of a few good restaurants

Mangostin, Tantris, Schubeck's, Weisses Brauhaus I know personally and they are good - if expensive.

You'll have to see whether they are open around Christmas.

Weisses Brauhaus is one of my parent's favorites in all of Germany and Austria. I like them because, as a vegetarian, I can eat well there while my German friends can eat pork with butter and salt and did I mention the pork?

Mangostin is, unfortunately, rather popular right now.

There is a very good Indian - Swagat - directly on Prinzregentenplatz which is always packed full but has excellent Indian food.

As far as Imbißbüden...hmm, Rischart's stands at many big train stations are good. They won't be open at Christmas, but the Lebensmittelpassage from Hertie which you get to directly from the Hauptbahnhofschallterhalle is pretty decent.

Viktualienmarkt München (right off of Marienplatz) has several tens of booths with outstanding stand-up food, including exotic, traditional Bavarian (the real stuff, not the "gut bürgerliche Küche trash) and a really quite decent Nordsee. Probably all closed on the 25th!
Sorry!

Dallmeier is over-rated, as is Kafer.

Hope that helps. Best to buy stuff a few days ahead as things from the afternoon of the 24th through the 26th are pretty dead in Germany.

http://www.restaurant-kritik.de/Deutschland/Bayern/m/muenchen/die_besten_restaurants.html

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Just Sauce & Cheese, Please...

Here is the SECOND of a Roll of Pizza Dough that made an ACTUAL PIZZA:

(Don't ask what happened to the first roll--which Laura is actually rolling, in an attempt to save it--it unfortunately deformed itself into some breadsticks, so I rushed out to buy another one!)

-- Dave

 

[robbinsandmyers]

Im very fortunate to have grown up behind DiSorbos Bakery in Hamden. Their pastry was shown in The Sopranos movie its that good. In fact it blows away the Italian pastry from the old institutions in New Haven. This area seems to be pizza and Italian pastry ground zero. We have the best pizza in the country and locals here are pretty much pizza snobs including myself. I have a 16" square pizza stone and love making my own thin crust pizza. I use King Arthur flour but Im lazy and buy dough made in NY most of the time because I dont have freezer space to store it after I make a batch. I've recently discovered a 6 lb can of 7/11 ground California plum tomatoes for $5.00 is perfect for my needs all around. Its not too sweet and has body to it and just needs a tiny bit of salt and seasoning and 15 mins low simmer to be ready for pizza or pasta. Its a steal compared to small cans at $4.50. I get it at the local food terminal plaza.

 

[norgeway]

Never had Zeppoli

But I normally make everything from scratch.