risotto gorgonzola, pear and walnuts
It ‘s finished! Everything that needed to be done in the fields is finished. The grapes and now the olives have been picked. In fact , 3oo kg of olives , an equivalent of 48 liters of Extra Virgin Olive Oil!! Not bad.
We were very lucky over the weekend to have had two beautiful sunny days and that really did help. Believe me it’s not a job you want to do when it’s cold and raining ! To give you a brief idea of how to pick olives, you start by putting a net under a tree and begin combing through all the branches . Inside , outside , underneath and on top. This makes the olives fall into net. Remove the net , put the olives into a crate and start all over again with a new tree ….
As usual my family came to help, plus new friends from America and Sweden . It was a real joy watching all the activity, people up trees , people dragging net and finally people carrying crates full of olives back to the house. Me and my nephew Zeno loved climbing to the very top of the trees to get the last olives. Everyone did a fantastic job . Real team work .
So , around 12 o’clock , I left the field and went back to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Three different starters, two types of lasagna, sausages, lamb, vegetables and roast potatoes cooked in the oven. Finally, coffee and Tiramisu ….at the end .. no one was able to get up from their chair! Unfortunately we could not photograph the menu because Nick was too busy with cooking everything in the wood oven, but I hope you’ll enjoy the photos from the olive picking .
On Saturday evening we had a very good Risotto with gorgonzola cheese ,pears and walnuts!!!!We also had few exhalent bottles of white wine that my brother and Lara brought as a present for Nick. All gone …risotto ,wine and few more walnuts!!!!!
Serves 4
1 liter vegetable broth
50 grams unsalted butter
100 grams gorgonzola cheese
9 nuts
100 grams grated parmesan cheese
1 pear
300 grams Rice Carnaroli
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
How it work:
In a pan heat 30g of butter add shallots and cook until the shallots become soft . Add rice and cook for a couple of minutes .Add wine . When the rice starts to dry, add the broth, one ladle at a time until rice is completely cooked (15 minutes). Meanwhile cut the blue cheese into cubes, in a blender pure a pealed pear. Clean the walnuts. When the rice is nearly cooked add the pear pure, gorgonzola and some of the walnuts. Cook for 5 minutes more. Turn off the heat. Add the Parmesan, 20 grams of butter and whisk. Serve with the remaining walnuts.
Yes it was really a fantastic weekend…. and when i got home I ate the last slide of salty cake you had wrapped for me!! The pics are so nice, with everybody working (hard!) on trees, but the point is…why I see all of us except one?mmmhhh….paparazzi always the best job!!!
eh! not bad, 16% di resa! very good!
Ciao Simona, grazie per la splendida giornata. Sole, campagna e buon cibo…in più delle fantastiche foto!!!Ci vediamo sicuramente per il prossimo anno.
@nicolino grazie per il fantastico aiuto e per la compagnia. La prossima volta che ci vediamo proverai l’olio nuovo.
@cosimo ciao e ben tornato, come vanno le olive in Puglia?Avete iniziato la raccolta?
@lara u were great as usual, you’re becoming a real country girl! regarding Nick…any excuse for not working to the picking is good 4 him!!!
Wonderful day, fantastic company, exquisite lunch, lovely photos, delicious new oil and memories to savour…Mille graze!
It was wonderful to help you pick your olives and to enjoy your fantastic cooking!
All the best from Maren and Lassa from Sweden
One of the best meals I’ve ever had. Hoping for other chances to be together.
Love from Sheila and Mon. Brava!
We are back in Sweden enjoying our self-picked oil and carving the face of the pumpkin. What a wonderful day among olive trees and good friends, and such a delicious lunch you prepared.
Warmest from Lasse and Maren
Thanks so much for this. This might sound weird, but I spent the first few years of my teenage lifein Rome, then travelled around the globe. Now I’m living in New Zealand, with my Chinese wife, and son we had whilst in Japan! Truly internationalized, eh? Anyway, I’ve been trying to rediscover the smells and tastes of my youth with some authentic italian food like these, best I’ve found so far! Thanks again, I’ll see if I can add the feed to my google reader tonight, though my son usually does that for me!
Hi Simona and Nick,
I made this risotto the other night for my mother-in-law, Ellen, Ellen’s brother and his wife. They loved it, as did I. It’s great having your recipes to go to now that I’m doing the dinner cooking for the clan here in snow-laden New England (one meter of snow on the ground and more to come tonight–the cross-country skiing is terrific).