Our publisher Marta Hallett and author Jean Salvadore are here together at the steps of Villa d’Este in Lake Como. Check out her books available from Glitterati Incorporated: Tales of Risotto & My Dolce Vita.
An exclusive recipe from Tales of Risotto and the master chef at Villa d’Este, available from Glitterati Incorporated.
Risotto con seppioline farcite e basilico / Risotto with Small Stuffed Cuttlefish and Basil
Ingredients
6 servings
24 small cuttlefish cleaned ( 6 cut in small stripes)
2 sliced of white bread cut in cubes
2 tomatoes without skin and seeds cut in small cubes
2 oz greens ( spinach ? ) washed and thinly cut
1 whole egg
2 tablespoons cream
2 tablespoons pecorino cheese , grated
½ garlic clove, minced
2 tablesppons of extra virgin olive oil
1 onion thinly sliced
1 glass vegetable broth
2 glass dry white wine
fresh basil leaves
In a stock-pot mix bread with the cream : let it rest until it becomes soft, mixing with a fork. Then add the greens, the egg, the pecorino cheese, the garlic and half of the tomatoes, salt,pepper and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Mix well and use to stuff the cuttlefishes . then close them with a tooth pick.
Sautè onion in oil, add the cuttlefishes and the remaining tomatoes. Cook for a few minutes. Pour over white wine, let evaporate then add the vegetable broth. Cover and let it cook on low flame for about 20/30 minutes.
In the meantime prepare a basic risotto with the following ingredients :
2 cups Carnaroli rice
6 cups vegetable broth
5 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup dry white wine , or Spumante ( pour over rice. Let evaporate then start adding broth )
1 tablespoon fresh basil, minced
When half done add the cuttlefishes cut.
When done, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the remaining butter, the Parmesan cheese and the minced basil.
Serve on hot dishes with the cuttlefishes and garnish with fresh basil leaves
A shot of Villa D’Este, from Jean Govoni Salvadore’s, My Dolce Vita, available from Glitterati Incorporated.
My Dolce Vita
Released: May 4, 2011
ISBN: 9780982379929/ Suggested List $30.00
When Giovanna Govoni, age seventeen, welcomed
the allied troops into Rome on June 5, 1944, never did she imagine that on this day, she was opening a door that was to become an illustrious adventure filled with glamour and excitement that rubbed shoulders with luminaries ranging from American army generals to international movie stars to corporate magnates. But such was her luck that she happened to be on Rome’s via Flaminia as the American liberation troops entered the city and when overheard in the crowd speaking in perfect English to her mother by “Stan the Donut Man” at the head of the column led by General Mark Clark and the Fifth Army, Giovanna’s life changed. Salvadore was born in France, educated until age six in England, and returned to her native Italy during World War II. She was cosmopolitan before the word had any meaning. An incredible chronicler of both fact and intuition, Salvadore has always kept copious appointment agendas from the age of ten.
In My Dolce Vita, Salvadore describes her teenage school days and the horrors of World War II, her exciting years as the first female public relations executive in Italy for TWA and Howard Hughes, and her more than four glamorous decades as the PR legend of Villa d’Este on Lake Como.
Organized into three parts, replete with four 32-page
photo inserts that illustrate the past to the present, the
memoir not only spans eight decades, but bumps into
people of distinction and interest-Queen Elizabeth,
Jacqueline Kennedy, Eddie Fisher, Ava Gardner, Richard
Burton, Joseph Heller, and Dirk Bogarde, to name a few.
