7 Sienese recipes

Sample Sienese cooking at its finest with these recipes full of Medieval influences but packed full with modern flavours from seven of the Italian city's finest restaurants

1. Tomato bread soup with mussels and cuttlefish

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1kg fresh mussels
½ kg fresh cuttlefish
1 onion
500g canned tomatoes
Sprig of basil leaves
1 ground chilli pepper
300g stale bread
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Fry the onion adding the tomatoes, basil and chilli pepper. Leave to cook for 15 minutes, add the bread and carry on cooking on a low heat for another 15-20 minutes.

2. In the meantime, steam the cuttlefish and lightly sauté the mussels in a pan with parsley and extra virgin olive oil.

3. Serve the bread soup putting the cuttlefish in the centre of the dish surrounded by the mussels.

3. Mushroom and pigeon risotto

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

300g rice
50g porcini mushrooms
1 pigeon
Half a white wine onion
50g butter
50g grated pecorino cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:

1. Lightly fry the onion in four tablespoons of oil and half the butter in a saucepan until transparent.

2. Add the pigeon cut into quarters, season with salt and pepper and brown well. Pour some of the wine. When the wine has evaporated, baste the pigeon with a little stock, leave to evaporate and continue adding stock until the meat is cooked.

3. Bone the pigeon carefully and put the meat in the saucepan again.

4. Add the mushrooms, previously left to soak and then chopped up, and the rice, cooking everything by adding stock.

5. To serve, add the rest of the butter and sprinkle with pecorino cheese.

4. Pan-cooked rabbit

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

500g boned rabbit
2 carrots
3 onions
2 celery sticks
3 garlic cloves
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 sprig of parsley
15 juniper berries
Chilli pepper to taste
750ml white wine
3 slices of 'rigatino' bacon (or normal smoked)
1 sausage
3 tbsp of tomato concentrate
1 cup of stock
Extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:

1. Lightly fry the carrots, onions, garlic, celery, parsley, rosemary, chilli pepper and juniper berries. When browned, add the bacon (cut into small pieces), the sausage and rabbit. Brown well.

2. Add the white wine and leave to evaporate; add the tomato concentrate, stock and leave to cook on a low heat for 40 minutes.

5. “Cinta” pork fillet with speck and braised radicchio

Serves:4

Ingredients:

4 “cinta” pork fillets, 5-6cm thick
4 slices of speck (Tyrol smoked ham)
1 red trevise or radicchio lettuce
250ml white wine (eg Vernaccia)
Vegetable stock
Cocktail sticks
Salt to taste
Extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:

1. Line the pork fillets with the slices of speck, roll and hold with a toothpick.

2. Put everything in a pan over a high heat, with a little of the oil.

3. Brown for some minutes, discard excess oil and and add the white wine, heating until nearly evaporated. Add the stock and carry on cooking for seven to eight minutes.

4. In the meantime, sauté the radicchio, thinly sliced, in a pan with some oil. Turn into the serving plates by placing the fillet without the toothpicks on a base of braised radicchio.

5. Serve alongside roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

6. Beef fillet with pecorino cheese, mayonnaise and pears

Ingredients:

800g fillet of beef

2 pears
3 egg yolks and 1 whole egg
50g grated 'romano' pecorino cheese
50g grated, well-seasoned 'toscano' pecorino cheese
Juice of 1 lemon
½ tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp mustard
1l vegetable oil
½l extra virgin olive oil
Salt, to taste

Preparation:

Mayonnaise:

1. Put the three egg yolks and the whole egg in a round-bottomed bowl, adding a pinch of salt, the lemon juice and slowly start stirring with a whisk adding the vegetable oil first and the extra virgin olive oil after, until the right density is reached.

2. Add the half teaspoon of vinegar and after that the mustard. Leave to set in the fridge for half an hour and after that add the cheeses by stirring from the bottom to the top with a wooden spoon.

3. Leave to set in the fridge for a further 15 minutes.

Pears:

1. Peel and slice the pears and put in a bowl with water and the juice of half a lemon. We recommend the preparation of the pears while the fillet is in the oven because if the pears are left too long in the water and lemon, they will lose their flavour.

Fillet:

1. Grease a non-stick pan with extra virgin olive oil, heat and brown the whole fillet on all sides, season with salt and pepper. Once it is browned stop cooking and leave to rest on a grid placed on a baking tray for about five minutes.

2. Put the fillet with the baking tin and grid in an oven, heated to 200ºC, for about eight-nine minutes and after that, slice the fillet into 12 rounds, making sure the internal temperature is about 34-40ºC.

Presentation:

1. With the mayonnaise, make three circles with a diameter slightly larger than the fillet rounds, place the fillet in the circles, placing a slice of pear on top. Serve.

Recipe supplied by La Sosta di Violanta

7. Duck in red wine

Ingredients:

1 duck
300g chicken or duck livers
250ml red wine
3 tbsp tomato concentrate
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 sprig of parsley
1 celery stick
1 sprig of rosemary
1 chilli pepper
A few sage leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt, to taste

Preparation:

1. Finely chop the onion, garlic, parsley, celery, rosemary and put in a pan with the olive oil and the chilli pepper. When the vegetables are well-browned add the skinned duck. Add the chopped chicken or duck livers.

2. Brown everything together and after that pour in the red wine. When reduced, add the tomato concentrate. Cover with warm water, salt and carry on cooking on a low heat for about an hour.

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