CHOCOLATE VOLCANO

A chocolate volcano cake. The cold and hot contrast is a pleasant surprise.

CAKE
150 g (5 1/2 oz) 70% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
140 g (5 oz) butter
100 g (3 1/2oz) sugar
3 whole eggs, at room temperature
1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1 pinch of salt
40 g ( 1 1/2 oz) flour

ASSEMBLY
Grease and flour eight ramekins and line with a smal piece of parchment paper.
Heat the chocolate, butter and sugar in a double boiler over simmering water until completely melted.
Cool to room temperature. Beat the eggs and salt until frothy and whisk into the chocolate. (Note: it is important that the chocolate and eggs, when combined, are the same temperature so that the chocolate does not solidify).
Sift in the flour and mix quickly until just combined. Divide the butter among the ramekins, cover with foil and freeze for at least two hours.

TO SERVE
Preheat the oven to 250 °C. Place the ramekins on a baking tray, uncovered and bake for 7/8 mins, or until the cakes feel crunchy on the outside but are still soft in the centre.
With a towel in each hand, carefully remove each individual cake and place, right side up, on a plate.
Dust with icing sugar and serve hot (with ice cream is great).

BUON APPETITO!

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Written by Itri on 19 August 2010 | Posted in All News Entries, Recipes

TIMBALLO ALLA TERAMANA

Originally from the town of Teramo in central Italy, this timballo is constructed of five layers of crespelle (thin crepes) and four succulently prepared vegetables.

CREPES
250ml (8 fl oz)
100 g (3 1/2 oz) flour
28 g (1 oz) butter, plus more for cooking
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste

Wisk the ingredients toghether. Heat a non-stick 20cm (8″) skillet or crepe pan over a medium-high heat. Spread 1 tea spoon of butter around the pan and wipe with a paper towel. Remove the pan from the heat.
Ladle 50 ml (2 fl oz) of butter into the pan and swirl to spread. Place the pan back on the heat and cook until one side is golden. Flip and cook the other side. Repeat with the remaining batter (makes 12 crepes).

FILLING
3 garlic cloves
1 sprig rosemary
7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
250 g (9 oz) mushrooms, roughly chopped
200 g (7 oz) peas
2 shallots, chopped
280 g (10 oz) courgettes, cut into 1 cm cubes
250 g (9 oz) cooked spinach
7 g (1/4 oz) butter
100 g (3 1/2 oz) grated Parmesan
250 g (9 oz) mozzarella cut into 1 cm cubes
Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

Mushrooms: Saute` 2 cloves of garlic and the rosemary in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until brown.
Add the mushrooms and saute` over a high heat. Cook until the liquid has evaporated.
Remove from the heat, take out the garlic and the rosemary and season to taste. Set aside.

Peas: Cook the peas, half the chopped shallots, 1 1/2 tablesppons of olive oil, pepper and enough water just to cover.
When the peas are tender, remove the vegetables, strain off the liquid, season to taste and set aside.

Courgettes: Saute` the courgettes with the remaining shallots in 1 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil.
Cook until any liquid has evaporated and season to taste. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Spinach: saute` the spinach in the butter, remaining oil and garlic. Season to taste. Remove from the heat anddiscard the garlic.
Chop well and set aside.

ASSEMBLY
Grease a 20cm (8″) square baking dish. Line the bootom with two crepes. Sprinkle with a quarter of the grated cheese. Spread the chopped spinach over the bottom.
Add a quarter of the mozzarella cubes over the spinach. Line with two more crepes. Repeat this process of crepes, grated cheese, vegetables and mozzarella with the mushrooms, peas and then courgettes.
Top the final layer with the remaining two crepes. Dot with butter. Cover with aluminium foil and bake at 180 °C for 20 minutes.
Cut into 4/6equal portions and serve immediately.

BUON APPETITO!

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Written by Itri on 19 August 2010 | Posted in All News Entries, Recipes

ITRI VIDEO

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Written by Itri on 03 August 2010 | Posted in All News Entries

INVOLTINI DI MELANZANE

Aubergine spring rolls.
A delightful Mediterranean taste with cherry tomatoes contrasting with the fried aubergine. Lovely with a filling of buffalo mozzarella.

Ingredients:
- 4 medium aubergines, peeled and sliced lenghtwise into 5mm (1/4″) pieces
- 400 g (15 oz) Italian ‘00′ flour
-Sunflower oil, for frying
- 3 mozzarella balls
- 20 basil leaves
- salt to taste

Submerge the aubergines in water with 1 tablespoon flour for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oil. Drain the aubergines from the water, pressing two slices at a time between your palms, and arrange over a tray to dry. Cover the slices with flour to coat all sides. Fry in the hot oil until golden-brown and transfer to a tray lined with paper towels. Cool for two minutes, then gently press each slice between clean paper towels to get rid of any excess oil. Season with salt. Slice the mozzarella into rounds 5mm thick, and cut again into wide strips. Place one piece of mozzarella and one basil leaf across the lower third of each aubergine slice and gently roll up.

ASSEMBLY:
- 20 cherry tomatoes
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
- extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 5 basil leaves, coarsley chopped

Toss the tomatoes with the garlic, oil, salt, pepper and basil and drizzle with more olive oil until well-combined. Layer half the seasoned tomatoes over the bottom of a 20×20 cm baking dish. Line the aubergine rolls on top and top with the remaining tomatoes.
Bake at 180 ºC for 15minutes. Serve hot.

BUON APPETITO

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Written by Itri on 29 June 2010 | Posted in All News Entries, Recipes

CIAMBELLA

Ciambella is a typical Italian sponge cake, the favourite of kids. You could eat tons of it in your morning milk bowl (zuppetta). Is a very easy to make pudding but still one of the best. Traditionally it is cooked in a pan with a hole in the middle but any pan is actually fine. This is the recipe for the “two colors” one. Vanilla and chocolate.

Let`s see how to make it:

Ingredients:
- 250 g butter
- 250 g sugar
- 500 g plain flour
- 125 ml milk
- 40 g yeast
- 4 eggs
- 120 g cocoa
- vanilla flavouring

In a large mixing bowl with a whisk combine first butter and sugar until it becomes a compact whipped mixture. Add the eggs, flour and milk to the dry mixture and beat hard until creamy.
Add the vanilla flavour and the yeast and mix until it becomes a dense liquid.
Separate the compote in two parts and add the cocoa in one.
Finally put the two mixture in a cake tray and give a final mixing. Put in the oven at 180°C for 45/60 minutes.
To check if it`s cooked my mom would put a “spaghetto” in it and if it comes out dry the ciambella is ready!

itri ciambella

Buon appetito

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Written by Itri on 22 May 2010 | Posted in All News Entries, Recipes

I-TRIp: SARDEGNA NIGHT

Sardinia is the second large island in the Mediterranean sea (after Sicily).

Its strategic position (in the middle of the Mediterranean) made the Sardinia an attractive location for many civilizations. In modern history Sardinia was under the Spanish domain (Ferdinad II of Aragon and his “Kingdom of Sardinia). After the “Spanish war of succession” the Sardina became first Austrian and then finally Italian in the 1978.
Sardinia is one of the most beautiful regions of Italy with a fantastic variety of landscapes.
Probably the best part of it is the seaside. The coasts of Sardinia are generally high and rocky, with long, relatively straight stretches of coastline, many outstanding headlands, a few wide, deep bays, many inlets, and with various smaller islands off the coast.

Now let us skip to the most important part (from our point of view): THE FOOD.
Typical products of Sardinia are cheeses, meats and special breads.
Cheese like Pecorino Sardo (hard and strong mature cheese), known since prehistory, is a cheese made only from sheep milk and obviously marked with D.O.P (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) that means it can only be produced in Sardinia and by Sardinians.
They`re also very good with goat cheeses thank to a particular kind of goat they have.

Other famous cheeses are: Caciotta Sarda, Fresa, Casu. And also a very strange kind of cheese that is not allowed by law to be commercialised. It`s called “CASU MARTZU” (rotten cheese) and is a cheese where grubs lived.

When it comes to meat stuff, Sardinian are great! Suckling pig, wild boar and lamb are the most famous. The “PORCEDDO” (the pig) roasted in its whole shape, or the boar and the lamb cooked with herbs such as mint and myrtle.

Breads are very particular in Sardinia, the most are dried so they keeps longer: CARASAU, CIVRAXIU, PISTOCCU but also MODDIZOSU and COCCOI.

If you are thinking about going to Sardinia, remember that it is not just “COSTA SMERALDA”, the entire island is amazing. Don`t miss places like: Piscinas (Oristano), Stintino (Sassari), Golfo di Orosei (Nuoro), Quartu Sant`Elena and Pula (Cagliari).

Sardinia is fantastic. We hope you will have the chance to visit it.

SARDEGNA NIGHT @ ITRI

THE MENU
Starter
Tortino di carciofi
Homemade artichoke timball oven baked and served with rocket and toasted bread.

Pasta Dish
Gnocchetti sardi con salsiccia
Homemade gnocchi cooked with sausages, cherry tomatoes, garlic, olive oil,
fresh basil and saffron. Finished with Pecorino Sardo.

Main course
Agnello al mirto
Lamb stew finished with typical Sardinian liqueur “Mirto”.

Dessert
Seadas
Seadas is a typical dessert also called “sweet ravioli”.
Stuffed with sweet lemon ricotta. Deep fried.

Grazie a tutti!
See you next time

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Written by Itri on 01 April 2010 | Posted in All News Entries, Events

Vote ITRI at the Gordon Ramsay`s Best Restaurant

Do you think Itri is a fantastic restaurant? Click here and vote for us now!

Following on from the success of last year’s search on The F Word, Gordon is on the hunt for the best restaurants of 2010 – restaurants run by people with a passion for food who deliver great food, great service and a great atmosphere.

To vote for us just click here and follow the instruction on the Channel 4 website.

Thank you very much for doing this.

Grazie

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Written by Itri on 13 March 2010 | Posted in All News Entries

I-TRIp: LOMBARDIA NIGHT

Another great night of the culinary trip through the different region of Italy.
This time we`ve been to Lombardy.

Lombardy is one of the 20 region of Italy. It`s situated in the north of the country and Milan, its capital, with its history and culture is one of the major tourists attraction of the region.
Lombardy is a region with different geographical carachter with mountains, hills, plain and lakes.
Milan, Lake Garda, Como are all great destination if you are thinking about going in Lombardia. Those are the most famous destinations but not the only ones. For example you would like to see the little city of Saronno (just north of Milan) where they make the world famous liqueur AMARETTO.

Nice places and also very nice food. The culinary culture is diversified as is the territory.
Typical dishes of Lombardia are Polenta, Risotto alla Milanese (saffron risotto), Gorgonzola cheese that are the most famous but also Osso Buco, Cotolette alla Milanese (breaded escalope), vitello tonnato (veal with tuna cream) and Caseula (pork stew).
Lombardy is also famous for its cured meats and cheeses like the Bresaola of Valtellina, Duck salami and Brianza salami. The most famous cheeses are Gorgonzola, Grana Padano (similar to parmesan cheese), Taleggio (soft cheese) and Quartirolo lombardo.
About sweets who doesn`t know the “Panettone” but there are a lot of nice desserts like the “Sbrisolona Mantovana” (crumble tart).

This is what we had at ITRI:

Carpaccio di manzo
Beef`s Carpaccio served with potatoes, chives and tomatoes timball. Served with onion`s stew.

Risotto alla Milanese
Risotto with onion, saffron, parmesan cheese and butter.

Maiale e polenta
Pork chop cooked with thyme, honey and gorgonzola cheese.
Served with polenta.

Sbriciolata Mantovana
Crumble almond tart with patisserie cream.

Thanks to everyone who was here.

We`ll see you soon.

Ciao

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Written by Itri on 11 March 2010 | Posted in All News Entries, Events

ITRI CHOCOLATE NIGHT

For the chocolate lovers yesterday at ITRI has been a great night!

This was a real particular night, everything made with chocolate, from starters to dessert.
Every one has enjoyed it and we want to thank you all those that were with us last night.

Have a look at what you missed:

Trofie pasta with butternut squash cream and drizzled with chocolate

itri chocolate pasta

Scottish venison with herbs and dark chocolate served with mash potatoes

itri chocolate venison

Trio of chocolate tart, chocolate mousse and chocolate salami

itri chocolate night dessert

Thank you again to everyone.

Ciao

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Written by Itri on 18 February 2010 | Posted in All News Entries, Events

The new ITRI look

If you haven`t been at ITRI recently you probably
haven`t seen the new ITRI look.
Almost everyone knows that here at ITRI we care more about the food rather than the decor… Now we are trying to fix the look as well…

New look at ITRI

We strive to offer the best Italian cooking in town and we want you
to enjoy it as much as possible.

Come at Itri to see the new brick style

We are waiting for you to come!

Ciao

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Written by Itri on 17 February 2010 | Posted in All News Entries