REAL BOLOGNESE MEAT SAUCE

Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:
1/2 lb of mixed ground beef (not too lean, not too fat)
1 or 2 Italian sausages, chopped
3 tbsp of a mix of onions, carrots, celery and parsley, finely minced
2 tbsp of olive oil
2 24oz cans/bottles of peeled San Marzano or strained tomatoes
1 cup of white wine, if desired

Put oil in a big saucepan over medium heat; when the oil is hot, put the vegetables and sautee them for 3-4 minutes.
Now add ground beef and sausages and cook them over high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring them frequently to avoid sticking.
At this point you can add wine (always on high heat), in a couple of minutes the alcohol evaporates, leaving just the flavor; turn the heat to medium and add the toamtoes.
Adjust with salt, pepper if desired, and, when it starts boiling, turn heat to minimum and cook the sauce for at least 2 1/2 hours (the longer, the better) stirring occasionally.

Remember that it's better to cook this sauce for a longer time at the lowest heat possible instead of cooking it quickly.
Don't worry about the wine, as said the alcohol evaporates, leaving just its flavor.

CREAMY PUMPKIN PASTA SOUP

Soup - First course

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb pumpkin, peeled, seeded, cubed
4 cups milk
5 oz Spaghetti
Parmigiano, grated to drizzle
Olive oil to drizzle
Salt

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt and pumpkin; cook until tender.
In the mean time, break the spaghetti into 2" pieces.
Drain and puree half of the pumpkin.
Transfer both pureed and cubed pumpkin into a heavy bottomed pot, add milk, stir well and bring to a aboil; add salt and spaghetti, stir often and cook until "al dente" (7-8 minutes).
Remove from heat, serve and drizzle with grated parmesan and olive oil.
To add more flavor you can use nutmeg, rosemary and sage. For a creamy texture (but a less sweet taste), you can use the spices mentioned above, cook and puree a big potato (with the pumpkin) and add salted water to cook spaghetti.

MOLTEN CHOCOLATE CAKE

Dessert

Ingredients:

7oz. dark chocolate, chopped
7oc butter, diced
5.5oz sugar
1.5oz flour
4 eggs
vanilla or other extract (orange, ruhm, etc)

Butter and flour 8 molds (the ones for muffins are perfect) and put in freezer.
Melt chocolate together with butter (you can do it in the microwave), than add sugar and whisk until smooth; when it comes at room temperature, it shouldn't take too long -whisking helps- add eggs, one at a time, then flour and your favorite extract.
Put in the molds cover with cello film and put them in the freezer at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven at 365'F and, once at the right temperature, put the frozen molds in it, bake for 10-15 minutes. This will allow the mini-cake to be warm and still melted inside.
Unmold and dust with confectioners' sugar or whipped cream or cocoa powder (or as you prefer!)

SPUMINI WITH PROSCIUTTO

Appetizer

5 1/2oz ham
4oz ricotta
4oz mascarpone
5-6 lettuce leaves, washed and shredded
salt
pepper if desired

In a food processor put ham, ricotta, mascarpone and salt (pepper if you like it) and process until you obtain a smooth thick cream; put it in the fridge for about 2 hours.
Sprinkle lettuce over 4 small plates.
Take the cream out of the fridge, put it in a piping bag (sac-a-poche) and distribute it over the lettuce in 3-4 small "mountains", serve immediately.

You can also spread it over crackers, crostini or toasted bread.
You can add some walnuts in the food processor, this will give a crunchy taste to your cream.