Cooking with grappa: some recipes

4 servings:

1 dl extra virgin olive oil; 2 garlic cloves; 10 San Marzano tomatoes; 1 red hot pepper; 1 stock cube; 1 pinch of oregano; 15 basil leaves; 100 gr Parmesan cheese; 350 gr spaghetti; 1 small glass Grappa Bottega.

Preparation.

Parboil the tomatoes in boiling water, drain them, peel them off, remove the seeds and cut them in large pieces. In a pan brown the red pepper with the garlic cloves in oil; remove the garlic and add the tomatoes. Cook them over high heat while stirring with a wooden spoon for a few minutes. Add the basil after washing and chopping it, the oregano, the crumbled stock cube and the grappa. Go on cooking for some minutes. Cook the spaghetti in plenty boiling salted water, drain them when underdone, dress them with the sauce and grated Parmesan cheese.

4 servings:

4 round pieces of veal; 1/2 glass Grappa Bottega; some leaves of pepper mint; 50 gr white flour; 50 gr butter; 300 gr mixed wild mushrooms; 4 tablespoons gravy; 1 tablespoon cream; salt; pepper.

Preparation.

Clean the mushrooms, wash them and cut them in slices. Put the veal in a bowl, sprinkle it with grappa, add the mint and leave it marinate for two hours. Then take the veal out of the marinate, dip it in flour and brown it in a frying pan in hot butter. Add the mushrooms, salt, just ground pepper, sprinkle with the marinate, let it evaporate over high heat, add the gravy and one tablespoon of cream and let the liquid partly evaporate. Put the veal on the serving dish, dress it with the sauce and serve it with rocket salad and pine-seeds at will.

6-8 servings:

250 gr flour; 150 gr butter; 150 gr sugar; 1 egg yolk; 1 bag vanillin; 1 pinch of salt; 1 pot fig jam; 200 gr macaroons; 1 glass Grappa Bottega.

Preparation.

Put the flour in a heap on the pastry-board, add the egg yolk, the butter softened at room temperature and in pieces, the vanillin, a pinch of salt and the sugar. Work the ingredients rapidly into a homogeneous dough. Roll out the dough and line with it the bottom and sides of a cake tin with low edges previously buttered. Spread the fig jam on the bottom and cover it with the macaroons after dipping them in grappa. Put the cake tin into the preheated oven at 180 °C for 30-35 minutes. Do not serve the tart while still hot.