recepty s lidským příběhem
Casarecce con salsiccia, zucca e ricotta (recipe in English) (Glenn)
01/02/16 | Recept | Itálie
Varying from a light and creamy beige to a bold and bright orange - pumpkins in all colours and shapes have found their way into our gardens and kitchens and now also onto the SIMI foodblog! Pumpkin plays the leading role in our recipe from Glenn, the chef of the Tuscan restaurant Osteria Da Clara in Prague's neighbourhood Vršovice.
In Italy, pumpkin is popular in pasta sauces, especially in the north of the country. Around the city of Mantova zucca mantovana - a special kind of this distinctive autumn veg is grown. As it's juicy (but not watery), it's ideal for the preparation of sauces. That's why Glenn uses the Mantova pumpkin in his recipe for pasta with Italian sausage and ricotta - in which the contrast of the warming, sweet taste of the Mantova pumpkin with the sharper salsicia is softened with fresh cheese.
The perfect pasta to go along with Glenn's pumpkin sauce is casarecce (i.e. "homemade") - not a drop of the sauce will escape these short and wide stripes of pasta originating from the island of Sicily and used in kitchens especially in the south of Italy.
A tip fro Glenn: if you want your casarecce to be a touch milder you can replace the ricotta cheese by the even creamier mascarpone or lay a few shreds of stracciatella di burrata on the pasta before serving.
Preparation: 1 hour
Cooking for: 4
What you need:
Pumpkin:
- 500-600 g of baked pumpkin (if your local veggie shop or food market doesn't sell zucca mantovana, you can try Hokkaido instead)
- 2 spoons of olive oil
- Pinch of salt, 2 cloves of garlic, marjoram
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 chopped onion, 1 clove garlic
- 1 can peeled tomatoes
- 1 small chili pepper, 1 teaspoon sugar, pinch of salt and pepper, basil
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 50 g pancetta
- 3 pieces Italian salsicia
- 1 medium chilli pepper, 2 cloves garlic, thyme
- Half a glass white wine
- 100 g ricotta, 50g parmesan cheese, extra: 100 grams straciattela burrata
- Basil (or chives/ parsley)
Pasta:
- 500g casarecce
- salt
Preparation:
Wash the pumpkin and cut it into pieces. In a large bowl, mix olive oil, salt, crushed garlic and marjoram. Lay the seasoned pieces on a baking sheet and bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees until tender. Eventually, spoon the flesh out of the pieces of the roasted pumpkin.
Prepare a basic tomato sauce: in a pan, mix butter and olive oil, then slowly fry the finely chopped onion. Gradually add crushed garlic, sliced chilli pepper and peeled tomatoes. Season with a small spoon of sugar, pinch of salt, pepper and basil. Let the sauce cook for 15-20 minutes on low heat.
Fry the chopped pancetta on olive oil for a few minutes until crispy. Add the sliced salsicia and cook for about 5 minutes, then add sliced chilli pepper, half a teaspoon of crushed garlic and thyme. After another two minutes pour in the wine. Once the wine evaporates (after a few minutes), add the prepared tomato sauce and cook for about another 10 minutes. Finally, mix the baked pieces of pumpkin flesh into the sauce.
Meanwhile, boil the pasta: Pour water in a large pan and add salt. Once the water boils, put in the pasta and cook for 6-8 minutes. Drain the pasta and save about half a cup of the boiled water (you can add it later to your sauce if it's too thick).
Add the cooked pasta to the pan with the sauce. Stir in the ricotta and grated parmesan. Serve the sauce with pasta on plates and garnish with chives.
Glenn
It was Glenn's roots what brought him to the Czech Republic - in late 1950s, his parents met and fell in love in Prague. His British mother worked as an au-pair in the family of the American ambassador, his Czech father played the oboe at the National Theatre. At that time, however, their atypical family faced problems with the StB (State Security – secret police in former Czechoslovakia) and despite choosing to live in the more inconspicuous Czech town of Kolín, Glenn and his mother eventually had to move to Great Britain permanently. They did so without Glenn's father – he felt he couldn't leave his life's passion - music - and didn't want to put the rest of his family in danger by emigrating from Czechoslovakia. Today, Glenn is confident that if he had stayed in the Czech Republic, he would earn his living with music – all relatives from his father's side were musicians...
Glenn started his career of a chef in London where he earned a culinary apprenticeship. During his trips to Italy, however, he fell in love with the country and decided to move over there. He chose the romantic city of Florence where he would probably still be expanding his knowledge of Italian cuisine and wine, if he had not fallen in love with a Danish woman. In Denmark, where he followed his love, he gradually opened two Italian restaurants with Tuscan partners.
Finally, in 2008, Glenn set out to Prague and opened an osteria there - a family style restaurant with generous portions of Tuscan specialties named in honor of his daughter Da Clara. He felt that it was exactly this kind of Italian place Prague was missing at that time – and the popularity of his Vrsovice restaurant proves him right.
Finally, Glenn rediscovered his roots in the Czech Republic and deepened his relationship to the country – where he feels his soul is at home.
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