Paccheri fritti ripieni di baccalà / Fried pasta stuffed with salt cod

 Salt cod is a true Christmas staple, and this delicious modern Neapolitan dish brings an original slant to a traditional idea.

 Ingredients for 4 people

For the paccheri

• 200g paccheri or other wide tube shaped pasta
• 50g each of diced celery, carrots, and onions
• 200g baccalà (salt cod) in pieces, previously soaked to remove salt, bones and skin removed
• Small glass of Prosecco
• 100ml milk
• 100g fior di latte (mozzarella made with cow’s milk), diced
• Handful each of chopped basil and chopped parsley
• Salt and white pepper
• 50g flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 50g fresh white breadcrumbs
• Olive oil

 Cook pasta in lightly salted boiling water until al dente. Be careful not to overcook. Drain, place in a bowl with a little olive oil, mix and leave to one side. To make the stuffing, fry onion, celery and carrot for 5 minutes, then add baccalà. Toss together for a few minutes. Pour in Prosecco and cook until it has evaporated. Add milk and continue to cook until mixture is well mixed and densely creamy. Leave to cool.

 Add the chopped fior di latte to the cooled stuffing mixture along with the chopped basil and parsley. Season if necessary, but remember that the baccalà mix might already be salty enough. Fill the pasta with the stuffing. Roll each tube of pasta in flour, then in the beaten egg, and finally in the breadcrumbs. Fry in olive oil at 170ºC until golden brown. Drain quickly and serve immediately.

Cappone Ripieno / Stuffed Capon 

 This recipe hails from Molise where capons were traditionally bred and raised. A capon is a young cockerel that has been castrated and fattened, an antique practice that yields particularly tender meat. Of course a good quality free range chicken could be substituted but might take a little longer to cook.

Ingredients for 6 - 8 people

 1 capon, 3 – 4kg, with giblets

For the stuffing

• 25ml olive oil
• 300g homemade breadcrumbs
• Pinch salt
• 1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
• Handful flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 50g Parmesan
• 4 eggs, beaten

For the sauce

• 50ml olive oil
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• Cup of water
• 200g tomato concentrate
• ½ liter water

 To make the stuffing, chop giblets into small pieces. Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan and gently fry the giblets. Once cooked, mix with the breadcrumbs, salt, garlic, parsley, Parmesan, and beaten eggs. Sprinkle the cavity of the capon with a pinch of salt, add the stuffing and sew the opening closed.

 Next place the capon in a large terracotta pot along with 50ml of olive oil, the onion and the cup of water. Cook uncovered over a medium heat until the water has almost completely evaporated, turning capon from time to time to give it a nice golden brown color all over. This stage normally takes 40 – 50 minutes. Next, mix the tomato concentrate with the ½ liter of water and add to pot. Cover and cook over a low heat until an obvious layer of oil has formed on the surface of the tomato sauce. (3 hours or more, depending on size of bird.) This is a sign that the capon is perfectly cooked. Remove from pot, carry to table and carve. Glaze capon with a few spoonfuls of the sauce and serve with slices of the stuffing and perhaps some fried polenta chips.

 (Traditionally the leftover sauce would have been used to flavor pasta - usually a long pasta like spaghetti or bucatini - for the first course of the Christmas dinner, but it can just as easily be kept for Boxing day. Skim some of the oil from the sauce and simmer, uncovered, over a medium heat until it has reduced somewhat.)

Panforte / Christmas spice cake
 

Sliced thinly, this specialty from Siena is a perfect accompaniment to small cups of potent black espresso, or, why not, a warm glass of mulled wine.

Ingredients for 1 cake

• 200g almonds
• 100g walnuts
• 100g hazelnuts
• 150g candied orange and lemon peel, chopped
• 100g dried figs, chopped
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch white pepper
• Generous pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• 50g cocoa powder
• 75g type 00 (or all-purpose) flour
• 175g honey
• 100g sugar
• 25g powdered sugar plus 1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F, and line a buttered 24cm round cake tin with rice paper. (Otherwise, buttered, floured baking parchment will do.)

Toast the three types of nuts under a hot grill, being careful not to burn them, then chop or whiz briefly in a food processor. Place nuts into a bowl and add the candied peel, the figs and all the spices. Sieve in the cocoa powder and the flour and mix well.

In a small, thick-bottomed pan (or in the microwave), gently heat the honey then add the sugar stirring continuously until the honey is hot and the sugar is perfectly incorporated. Pour honey mixture immediately over the fruits and nuts and stir gently until well mixed. Spoon mixture into the prepared cake tin, smoothing the top with the spoon. Bake for 40 minutes until dry. Allow to cool slightly then remove cake from tin and place on a wire rack. Once completely cool, dust the top of the cake with the icing sugar mixed with the cinnamon. Alternatively, cake can also be covered with melted dark chocolate. Wrapped well in foil, this cake will keep for up to a couple of months.