Crispy& Crunchy Chicken

Although it contains parmesan cheese,  it  might seem like a Cajum dish.

Ingredients: A whole chicken but deprived of the chest (that you will cook later for another dinner ), 60g of breadcrumbs, 40g of grated cheese (Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano), little olive oil, salt and pepper. 

Here I added quantities, but I just did by eye.

Preheat oven to 150°C (short less if the oven is vented).
Mix breadcrumbs with grated cheese and pepper.

Preheat oven to 150°C (short less if the oven is vented).
Mix breadcrumbs with grated cheese and pepper.

Cut chicken into small pieces.
Broke wings into 2 pieces each as well as the above-thighs, but let whole thighs. If you have time and it is possible, remove skin.
Then, with hands or a brush, grease with olive oil every chicken piece. Bread them in the breadcrumbs mixture.

Everything is ready, it's grape-harvest time!

We are just in grape harvest time, a period that, this year, will be long if the weather holds.

In fact this year in Tuscany  Sangiovese grapes are not yet  arrived all at full maturity.

Not so for the Chianti Vepri.
So they will probably harvest by the end of this week: everything is ready.

Last Saturday I was right there with my sister,  to visit Siro Cicogni, owner of the Vepri Vineyards.

Mint Schnapps.

If you have a lot of mint in your garden or on your balcony, this is a recipe that I recommend.
Besides to be drank pure, this liquor should give a refined flavor to ice cream, in particular to chocolate ice cream and also to other delicious desserts.

You should use a mix of different mint. The choice is yours.

Ingredients: about 100 beautiful fresh mint leaves, 1 lemon, 1 liter of alcohol from liquor at 95 °, 1 liter of water, 800g of sugar.

Tarragon Chicken scallops

Chicken and turkey breast, can be cooked in many different ways.
If we are careful and skilled in cutting, we can make from a single chicken breast cutlets lot more slices than we might believe at first glance, as  tells us also Pellegrino Artusi:
"[..] a capon breast may be sufficient for four or five people. Slice breasts into thin slices almost like paper, give them the best shape that you can [..] he says in the recipe" Chicken Breasts to sauté "

Ingredients for 4 people: 2 chicken breasts or a similar amount of turkey breast, butter and a little olive oil, ½ cup of dry white wine, a sprig of fresh tarragon, 2 tablespoons of fresh cream (optional), Flour, Salt and pepper. 

Automn Quiche

Ingredients for 4 people: 1/2 medium sized onion, 300g Chards (only the white part of the stalk), 2 medium Carrots, 80g Bacon, 2 slices Emmenthal or Fontina cheese, 3 eggs, 1 cup of milk or cream, pastry crust Brisée (made from 250g of flour, 100g of butter and 1 egg), a little parsley, salt and pepper

A good Chianti!

Chianti Vepri

Siro e Clio Cicogni

The winery is located at Ambra, in the Chianti area of Valdichiana.
Its name come from the quaint village of Vepri that borders one side of the property. This country has ancient pre-Roman roots and a special vocation for wine.
C conducted by Clio Cicogni who in 2010 bought an old vineyard of 15 hectares, abandoned from several years and immediately decided its conversion to organic farming.
The family Cicogni has a tradition in the field of milling wheat for bread (5 generations). Since 1976 developed the sector of cereals and in the past 14 years begun the production of organic feeds, and more recently converted the mill to exclusive organic production. (see website).

Clafoutis

The Clafoutis is a typical dessert of the Limousin, a region of south-central France whose territory is situated around the Massif Central and that includes 3 departments: Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne

 The original Clafoutis is only made with cherries, although today quite often the same name is used also for other desserts which in fact should be called Flaugnarde and that are prepared with the same method but  with different fruits such as apricots or plums, apples, pears, blackberries, peaches, plums, etc..

The term Clafoutis derives from the occitan dialect verb claufir, that means to fill and come from Latin clavum ficere = to fill of points similar to nails ( that are in this case the sweet cherries).

image from Wikipedia

The Clafoutis or Clafouti is a cake made with cherries and pancakes batter.
It is a very popular dessert in France but it's not rare to find others similar to it, as the cake called millard in Auvergne.

Tuscan Panzanella

Tuscan Panzanella is a salad made with stale unsalted bread from Tuscany, onion and tomatoes.
Its name could be a familiar short of the word panzana, a term used to indicate the usual meal: a way to say pap.

image from www.theblackfig.com

Further south in Italy, in Cilento, this salad of dried bread and vegetables is usually called Caponata or Caponatina and as bread are used the Friselle, those slices of toasted bread well known and available all over the eastern Mediterranean.

This type of preparation is now popular in most of the italian peninsula and, they told me also in the Sicilian province of Enna: each place has got time to create some local legend about its source.

In Lebanon and Palestine is very much liked a veggie salad, the Fatousha, made with Arab or pita bread, dried and broken.

Hasselback Potatoes

In Sweden these potatoes are called Hasselbackspotatis, name derived from the restaurant where they were created and served first in 1940: the 3 centuries old Hasselbacken Restaurant in Stockholm.

The recipe is simple.
Its gorgeous taste depends from the special way potatoes are cut, a shape that requires some care.
So prepared, potatoes become crispy outside and very soft inside.

Ingredients for 6 persons: 12 medium potatoes, 40g of melted butter, 2 tablespoons of olive oil,salt and bread crumbs.

Gazpacho Andaluz

Isabel Gonzales in his book Round ricos de Comida, Comida pobre writes:  

Sòlo decis que hay tantos gazpachos como pueblos incluso come familia, pues cada una le da su toque, su punto especial, quie es, desde luego, el mejor. Los gaszpachos veraniegos, ya sean majados o no, pues tutavia hay quien sigue majando y no por ello ha de ser octogenario, se hacen, cuando menos, a base de tomate, pimiento, pan, ajo, sal aceite y vinagre. Segùn los casos, les pueden anadir otros ingredientes. 
(There are many gazpacho many villages or families, everyone gives his special touch, which of course is the best. Gaszpachos the summer, which may or may not be purées without necessarily intended to be an octogenarian, prepare at least with tomato, pepper, bread, garlic, salt, oil and vinegar.Depending on the circumstances, you can add other ingredients.)

This is the queen of cold soups, a salvation for appetite in hot summer days

Ingredients: 1kg of Ripe red tomatoes, 2 green peppers, a cucumber average, a clove of garlic (optional), Mollica Bread or Crackers Corn, Olive oil, a tablespoon of vinegar, 3/4 of a liter of water and salt.

Lebanese Rice with Apricot Compote

I combined the recipe for Lebanese Rice&Milk  with an easy apricot compote to get a fresh and delicious dessert that fits well in the heat of these days

Ingredients for 6 servings: about 125g of small grain rice or basmati rice, the same volume of water, 1 liter of milk, 150g  sugar (preferably raw and cane sugar), 2 tablespoons scented water (orange blossom or thousand flowers), 1 kg of apricots cleaned and without stones, juice of 1 lemon, 300g of water.

Lebanese Rice&Milk

Ingredients: 3.5 ìl. of milk, 200g rice, 50g of orange flower water, 20g of cold water, 500g of sugar

Heat milk in a saucepan and add the rice when boiling.
Let boil gently for about 50 minutes.
So turn up heat and stir constantly until it becomes thick and dense.

Finally add orange scent water and sugar and let it boil longer.
Pour into a bowl or on a large individual dish and let it cool.
Serve garnished with a fruit compote.

Benefits of the sun

Nature Santé Innovation, a site to which contribute doctors and researchers, sends to readers a very interesting newsletter with contents often overlooked or little known that may be beneficial to our well-being .
From one of these letters I have drawn the following.

What we often forget about sun 

A hat, sunglasses, long sleeves, total sunscreen, stay in the shade and also in house from noon to 4pm. These prescriptions we believe are usefull to protect ourself from skin cancer. But this is not just a way to ruin our vacation and our fun in the summer, it is also bad for health.
The sun indeed has many beneficial effects often not known by all.

Sauce of Mushrooms

Ingredients: 50g Mushroom , approximately 30 grams of any kind of mixed mushrooms (optional), 1 Shallot , a small piece of Butter, ½ glass of Port, 1 cup of beef broth concentrate, little Parsley, Salt and Pepper.

Finely chop the shallots.
Clean  mushrooms and cut them into slices.
If you have them available, cut in pieces also the other mushrooms (Pleurotus and even frozen mushrooms).

Pot-Roasted Duck

Ingredients: 1 Duck, Goose grease, Olive oil, 2 cloves of Garlic, 2 Shallots, a spring of Sage, 1 wineglassfull of Red Wine, Salt and Pepper.

Clean and flame the duck and cut it in small pieces.
Arrange them into a baking pan with the goose fat, garlic cloves and thyme.
Season with a little olive oil and sprinkle with coarsely chopped shallots.
If you do not have goose fat, replace it with a few bits of bacon and increase the amount of good olive oil.

Cover and place in preheated oven at 180°C.
After about 20 minutes, add the glass of red wine, turning the duck pieces over so that they all brown evenly.
Add salt and pepper.
Cook for at least 1 hour.

The goose fat is a noble fat, delicate and fragrant. It gives a delicious taste to foods.

Patatoes "à l'échirlète"

Ingredients: 3/4 ]b. (about 16) 1 1/2 inch new potatoes, 1 cup water or chicken or beef stock, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons goose fat, salt. 

Wash patatoes.
If you do not have the new one, you can choose yellow potatoes and cut them into small pieces  giving them a rounded shape typical of this recipe. Put them in a saucepan just covered with water or stock, with garlic cloves and salt.
Cover and cook 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. If all liquid is not absorbed, take patatoes out of the saucepan and let them to dry on a dish.
Take a large skillet, add goose fat and when it will be warm add patatoes.
Cook slowly until they are lightly browned.
Serve with roast of pork, beef, veal or lamb.

Sauce Hollandaise

This is one of my favorite sauces.
Although many claim that it is hard to do because it can easily "go crazy", this never happened to me, since the first time I have cooked it.
It is only a question of patience proceeding carefully and without haste.
The best method of cooking in a bain-marie, but you can also cook directly over a vry low flame using an heat spreader.

Ingredients for 6: 1cl of Water, 125 gr of Butter, the juice of 1 Lemon, 2 Egg yolks, Salt and White pepper.

Broccoli with raisins and pine nuts

This to me is a recipe from memory. It remembers me a gentle woman who worked for my family as cook: a dalicate and tiny woman and very kind as well and also a very good cook.
She was Friulian but cause she had worked in many in many cities in Italy, from North to South, and brought in her kitchen the memory of the places where she lived and worked.

Ingredients: broccoli tops, a clove of garlic, pine nuts, dried raisins, olive oil, salt.

Hauner Winery - Malvasia delle Lipari

La Malvasia delle Lipari ed altri vini dell'Azienda Hauner

Carlo Hauner Junior

The Hauner farm located on the island of Salina, in the Aeolian Islands was founded in the '70s by Carlo Hauner senior, who moved there and bought a land size of 20 hectares. After cleaning and having restored the ancient terraces, he made this land a vineyard Malvasia, grape already cultivated by local farmers on the island. The wine Hauner is today well known in the most prestigious restaurants worldwide

The farm now is led by Carlo Hauner Junior, son of the founder. It produces two types of Malvasia (natural and raisins), one white wine and two red wines and a unique Grappa di Malvasia delle Lipari. The production is made from the grapes from the vineyards, in the district of Lingua in Salina, and from grapes of other small local winemakers

Carlo Hauner, from Brescia but with Bohemian origin was the creator of the farm that bears his name. He arrived for the first time in the Aeolian islands in 1963 as a tourist. As a young man he was a painter and not yet twenty years old, he exhibited at the Biennale di Venezia. In the years of maturity he gained significant international success as a designer. His passion for winemaking can be seen as the ultimate challenge of an intense life full of interests... So begins the page on the website that tells the story of the Hauner winery.

Crépes with Agretti

What are Agretti? They look like grass, and are a succulent plant that grows in Italian bog land.

Agretti are a tasty vegetable that grows in Italy and in France.
They can be eaten raw but they are better blanched in salted water or steamed and tossed with olive oil and lemon.
They look like grass thin as spaghetti and this could suggest recipes more imaginative and creative. As nutritional value and taste are similar to spinach, but they have a much more delicate flavor .

The cleaning needs attention: snap off the red roots, and rinse the dirt off of them.

Stuffed artichokes "in teglia"

Artichokes are delicious both raw or cooked in different ways.
A simpler version of this recipe is on my book Cucina mediterranea. La Storia nel piatto

Ingredients: Artichokes (Roman or Sardinian), Lemon, a bunch of Parsley, a small Shallot, a bread crumps, few tablespoons of grated Parmesan, Olive Oil, white Wine and water, Salt and Pepper.

Sprouting Broccoli and Sausages

Ingredients: 6 pork sausages, about 1kg of broccoli, 1 clove of garlic, oil, 1 fresh chili pepper, dry white wine, salt.

 It's a simple very tasty.
Cut broccoli into small florets and let them to soak in cold water for at least 10 minutes.
Blanch quickly in unsalted hot water, so that they remain still crunchy.

Cut each sausage in half, sauté briefly in a pan and then with white wine.
Meanwhile, in another saucepan heat a clove of crushed garlic with the olive oil.
When garlic is golden, add chilli sliced, well drained broccoli florets and, after a few minutes, also sausages.
Salt and simmer, partially covered, for others 10 or 15 minutes .

Pan Fried Chicory

This easy and healthy way to prepare chicory, is typical Roman cuisine.
In Ciociaria this preparation is called "crazy chicory" probably due to the presence of hot chilli, usually abundant.
However, in Rome it is often prepared also without chilli, because the goodness of this recipe depends on the type of chicory, usually tender and sweet.

This is a great recipe to cook the green longue leaves that surround the heads of chicory buds used to prepare the salad of Puntarelle.

Ingredients: 1kg of chicory, 1 hot Chilli, 2 cloves garlic, 4 Tsp of olive oil, salt.

Clean and wash very carefully chicory to remove all traces of dirt.
Boil it in plenty of lightly salted water until it will become soft (it may take even longer than 30 minutes).
When cooked, drain and squeeze it immediately.
Now in a pan, sauté garlic and chilli with olive oil. Then add chicory and continue cooking for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add salt just before serving.

Frittedda

A wonderful Sicilian dish where is crucial the freshness of the ingredients, that should be all first produce, is crucial It's a recipe for the spring, to cook in the month of March and, in the north, until the month of April.
All ingredients should be fresh and just as soon sprung up from the ground.

Ingredients: 2 fresh onions or the corresponding weight of onions weds, 6 new and tender artichokes, 800gr fresh medium peas, 800gr of fava beans, ½ cup of olive oil, salt and pepper. Wild fennel or mint, minced.

Shell the peas and fava beans and if you want to do a good job, remove from favas even their outer skin. This may takes some time but also creates an occasion to get help from friends in the kitchen .

In ancient times, the particular envelope that surrounds fava bean has fueled legends related to myths of death and rebirth. Pythagoras himself, because of a myth telling that inside fava beans there were souls of the dead, decided to abstain from eating.

Clean artichokes removing the woody parts and any outer leaves that are tough, slice them into rather small wedges, remove the central hay (that should not be there if the artichokes are just young and fresh), and put them on hold in water acidulated with lemon juice.

Thinly slice onions and let them dry in a pan with the oil. Add to the pan artichokes, well dried, and brown for 10 minutes. Then add fava beans and finally, after few minutes peas. Cook very slowly, shaking the pan occasionally until vegetables are cooked and only finally season with salt and pepper.
Finish with chopped Ffennel or Mint as I prefer.
The Frittedda might be over here and that's how I prefer it.
But as I mentioned in the recipe described in my book La Storia nel Piatto, somebody completes it fading with ½ cup of not too strong vinegar and evaporates it quickly over high heat.

Note
However, never add water and possibly limit the risk of drying too much vegetable, keeping the pan partially covered.

Merveilles, Carnival fritters

Everywhere fritters are the Carnival sweets.
In the south of France, in Aquitaine they are called Merveilles and are quite similar to what we call Chiacchiere in Italy .

It’s a simple recipe, but there are several variants with different yeasts, different liquor and more or less sugar.

Ingredients: 1/2kg flour, 100gr sugar, ½ small bag of yeast, 10gr butter, 4 eggs, orange scent water, a pinch of salt, oil for frying, powdered sugar.

In a bowl, mix flour with sugar, orange water, yeast and a pinch of salt. Add eggs and then the melted butter.
Mix very well to obtain a homogeneous mixture.
Knead until it detaches from your hands, adding a little flour if needed and then put it to rest for 1 or 2 hours in a cool place, covered with a sheet.
To make fritters, heat the oil for frying and lightly flour the work surface.
Take a small amount of dough at a time (a little more than a walnut) and roll it out very thinly with a rolling pin. Cut portions of various shapes, square, rectangular or even sticks and put them immediately to fry. It's traditionalyou to make lozenges engraved in the middle.
The frying time is fast cause the Merveilles must have a light golden color. To make they swell well, it is necessary a very thin dough and an oil temperature hot but not smoking, because this would affect the result.

image from the blog 123Merveilles

As you remove them from the oil, drain immediately the Merveilles on a sheet of absorbent paper.
Garnish with powdered sugar and serve warm or cold.

Chicken Tajine with vegetables and plums

A tajine is a unique type of ceramic cookware that's popular in North Africa.
The bottom is a wide, circular shallow dish used for both cooking and serving, while the top of the tagine is distinctively shaped into a rounded dome or cone.

The word tajine also refers to the succulent dish which is slow-cooked inside the cooking vessel.
A tajine is a rich stew of meat tipical of Morocco and most often includes vegetables and fruit.

How works a TAJINE

This pan allows slow cooking times, where meat are juicy and very tender.

Ingredients: 1 whole chicken of 1200gr cut into pieces, 200gr dried plums, 1 medium onions, 1 clove of garlic, 2 carots, celery, 2 big potatoes and eventually other vegetables, some slice of preserved lemon (Citron Confit), 2 teaspoons of mixed spices (ginger, curcuma, saffron threads, cumin and cilantro seeds crumbled), salt and pepper, a little olive oil.

Arrange the chicken pieces in the tagine (flesh-side down).
Distribute onions and garlic, very finely chopped, all around and also all other vegetables cut into medium sized pieces. Add preserved lemon slices and spices. Salt and pepper.

Add a small amount of water and place over a medium-low heat eventually on a diffuser and always covered. Simmer slowly always covered for at least 2 hour.
If necessary add again a little water to mantain the meat wet. In the meantime, put dried plums in water and add them to the stew only when the cicken is near cooked.

Stir gently not to mash plums and vegetables and let on the fire other 20 minutes.
If you like, add also sliced almonds, first stir fried with a little oil.

Serve with white boiled rice or Couscous.

Kolhrabi and Topinambur Gratin

Ingredients for 4 people: 2 kohlrabi, the same weight of Jerusalem artichokes, 1 cup fresh cream, 1/2 cup dry white wine, 1 tsp  mustard of Dijon, diced bacon, salt and pepper.

Peel the vegetables and cut into slices.
In a large pan, mix wine and fresh cream. Cook for 5 minutes and season with salt, pepper and Dijon mustard. Then add kohlrabi and Jerusalem artichoke sliced.
Cook again for 5 minutes. Add a part of bacon.
Transfer everything in a well-greased casserole and bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes, until hot and golden.
Before serving, if you like, garnish with diced grilled bacon.

Roast Chicken with Tarragon and Citron Confit

If well cooked, this chicken is delicious and the sauce has a delicate lemon scent.

Ingredients: A small chicken or a cockerel, 2 thick slices of fresh bacon, Citron confit, Tarragon, Olive oil, Salt and Pepper

Take a baking pan with high walls and with a lid.
The ideal is a Pyrex baking dish.
Ungetene the bottom and appoggiateci chicken.
Guarnsh the breast with 2 slices of fresh pork bacon that with some toothpicks.


Put inside the chicken at least 4 slices of citron confit (a total of at least ½ lemon) and add a generous teaspoon of dried tarragon.
Pour over the chicken a few tablespoons of olive oil
Add salt and pepper. Cover the pan and place it in the oven at 180° C for 1 hour and a half and after continue cooking until at a temperature of about 160°C until tender.
Check the cooking. The sauce must be clear, abundant and without burning.

Citron Confit (Preserved Lemon moroccan style)

This preparation comes from Morocco where it is traditional .
Usually lemons are left whole and are engraved at the petiole practicing a cross cut quite deep. Sometimes, in some more traditional recipes to lemon are also added pink berries of pepper.

These lemons are preserved in large jars with salt and water and are used in many recipes .

European chefs discovered them a few years ago and since then the citron confit have become part of the ingredients of many fine dishes, both sweet and savory.

In my recipe I suggest you cut lemons into slices because in this way you will be able to store them in less space and also to use them more easily.


Ingredients : Lemons untreated, salt

Wash lemons and cut each of them into 8 wedges or slices.
Arrange the lemon slices in layers in a glass jar, cover each layer with salt pressing it well.
At this point you can also add juniper and peppercorns, if desired.
Close the jar.
Wait at least 3 weeks before you start to use

Mastroberardino: a family and its wine

The Mastroberardino family for over two centuries deals with wine.
The first evidence of the presence in Irpinia date back to the Land Registry Bourbon, in the middle of the eighteenth century, a time when the family chose the village in the province of Avellino Atripalda their headquarters, where they are still located on the old cellars, and there originated in offspring that their fate inextricably tied to the cult of the wine. Since then I have spent 10 generations that have carried on the business of the family of origin ups and downs: the phylloxera, the first and the second world war that depopulated the countryside and the earthquake that struck so disastrously in the 70 territory.

"We defended our traditions and our tastes gaining recognition worldwide. Pliny spoke of Fiano and Falanghina in these areas, we fought to preserve the history" was use to tell to those who visited the winery Antonio Mastroberardino, the guru of wines from Campania, who died last January aged 86. It 'about her though many winemakers have retained the Irpinia Aglianico vines, Taurasi, Fiano and against any Greek fashion, against any approval of taste would say almost ahead of its time, at a time when the Ministry of agriculture pushed to replace old varieties with more productive, Trebbiano and Cabernet.

Puntarelle "a la Romana"

In Italy, in the country near Rome are called Puntarelle the chicory sprouts when they are cut and treated in a particular way. This roman chicory is not the quality rather tough and bitter widespread in northern regions, but a more tender and sweet quality.  However today, it's not difficult to find it in almost every fruit and vegetable markets .

Ingredients for the salad : Garlic, 4 or 5 salted fillets of anchov, 2 tablespoons of good wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper.

The secret for this salad is the way to cut the chicory sprouts

Artichokes "a la Matticella"

This recipe is a specialty of region of Velletri and Viterbo, in northern Lazio First,

Why this strange name, matticella?

Matticella is a bundle of vine shoots, those which are cut off the plant during maintenance of the vines carried out in early spring.
These branches are pruned quite thin and long it would weaken the plant. Branches are gnarled and are generally very irregular, and they seem a bit ' crazy .
Artichokes a la matticella are cooked on a fire of bundles of matticelle .

Some argue that this recipe was already in use by the Etruscans, but they are first documented in the early 1800s or late 1700s and come from some of the writings of the Jesuits. In fact they settled in the territory of Lazio precisely on those dates.

There is also a legend of a girl, named Assuntina who, while flirting with a boy, forgot artichokes that she had collected, right near the embers of matticelle and then, to repair the damage and not be scolded by her father, had the idea to remedy stuffing them with olive oil and garlic. This idea, fortunately, was lucked and pleased to her father who decided that these artichokes were very good if eated drinking the new wine ...

The recipe is not complicated but need absolutely not only matticelle but also patience, and this is a quality not easy to find: the matticelle, in fact, should be left to consume slowly until they are brace.

I recommend it especially for those who are working in the country or in the garden and who are friends of some farmer who has a vineyard.
It is a good way to organize an outdoor barbecue ... tasting the new wine .

Ingredients: artichokes, bacon, pork, olive oil, garlic (as always optional and at your discretion ), salt, pepper, mint leaves.

Spinach Flan

When well done this Spinachs Flan is a real delight.
A delicate and refined dish.

In my home, it has been for a long time the undisputed specialty of Rita, our maid and excellent cook who worked many years for my family and in now also a good friend.

According to my concept, a Flan has a special feature: the first part of the cooking needs to be conducted in the oven in a bain marie and only at the last 20 minutes is finishes directly in the oven . However, there are some dishes that despite being called Flan do not respect this rule.

Ingredients: 1/2kg of fresh spinach
,
 2 eggs, grated Parmesan cheese to taste
. For the bechamel sauce : 25g butter, 50g flour
,
 quarter of a liter of milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Boil spinachs and squeeze them very well and then chop them finely.
To cook spinach I 'm used to wash them well and to put them in a large pot, without water sprinkled with a little salt and then to cover the pot with a lid. The cooking will be fast and spinachs will lose most of their volume.