Bill & Lo came from Maui, Haway, with a Robust intention to cook an italian meal.
Handsome, fit, easy, smiling: we had a Robust conversation abut health related to food, about health related to medicines. Having beeing a farmacist all his life, Mr William Robusto, has a deep knowledge about it.
I learned a lot.
Thank you Bill & Lo. Hope to see you again, maybe on Giglio Island, maybe swinging on the branches of the Banyan trees in Lahaina, Maui…
By the way: I come from an island, as well…
CRESPELLE ALLA FIORENTINA DI CATERINA DEI MEDICI
FLORENTINE CREPES OF CATERINA DE’ MEDICI
For 6 people:
Ingredients for the pasta:
150 gr (5 oz) flour
375 ml (1 + ½ cup) milk
3 eggs
a little spoon of salt
butter for the frying pan
Beat up the eggs in a bowl, whisk in the flour, the salt. Pour the milk into the batter slowly whisking continuously. Set for a half of hour.
Melt a little nut of butter in a not-sticking pan, spread in a ladle of batter and cook on both sides.
Ingredients for the filling:
1000 gr (2,2 Lb) spinach
400 gr (13 oz) fresh ricotta cheese
45 gr (1 + ½ oz) grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
45 gr (1+ ½ oz) extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper and nutmeg
1 garlic clove
Rinse well the spinach. In a large brown the garlic in the extra virgin oil. Toss in the raw spinach, salt and cook with a lid for a few minutes, until they are soft. Then drain, cool and squeeze out the excess water. Chop them. Then mix with ricotta cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. pepper and nutmeg.
Ingredients for sauce:
30 gr (1 oz) flour
50 gr (1 1/2 oz) extra virgin olive oil or butter
1 / 2 L (2 cups) milk
45 gr (1 + ½ oz) grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
salt, pepper and nutmeg
Heat the extra virgin olive oil and add flour mixing. Add the milk, previously heated, to the mixture all at once and simmer for about 2 minutes. Add salt, pepper, nut meg and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
Put the filling in each crespella. Grease a fire-resistant glass pan, continuing to stir, with butter and lay down them. Cover with the sauce and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Cook in an oven at 220° C degrees until the surface will be golden.
Note: Caterina brough the Salsa Colla – a white sauce made with butter, flour and milk in the proportions of 1 – 1 -10 – to France in 1533. This sauce took the name of Bechamelle in 1703; the name was given by La Varenne. With this name it was re-introduced in Italy, where it took the name of Balsanella. This name sounded like the French Bechamelle. Besides the sauce, for its consistence, resembled a balsam, from which “balsanella”.
Marcella Ansaldo © 2023