Grapes-based recipes
From starter to dessert
Table grapes, fruit with a thousand varieties, rich of healthy salutary properties, perfect to eat at the end of the meal but also precious ingredient for a lot of tasty recipes.
As starter to flavour crostoni or ingredient for the preparation of risotto; grapes offer something more in kitchen: we selected three recipes, from starter to dessert, by Valentina De Palma, known for participating to transmissions on Gambero Rosso, La7 and for broadcasting “Chef in tacchi a spillo” on Telenorba.
Risotto with Scarlotta grapes, leek and caciocavallo di grotta
For 4 people
280 gr Carnaroli rice or Vialone nano, 40 gr butter, 40 gr evo oil, ½ leek, 100 gr flaked caciocavallo di grotta, 400 gr Scarlotta red grapes, 1 lt vegetable broth, ½ glass of rosè wine.
Brown finely cut porrum and 50% of half-cut grapes, in two tablespoons of oil, remove from saucepan and set apart. In the same saucepan toast the rice, in two tablespoons of oil for some minutes, soften with rosè wine, condensing and then reduce the flame. Add browned leek and grapes and begin the cooking of rice adding sometimes vegetable broth. Add residual grapes and continue to cooking.
Moderately salt it at ¾ of cooking. At the end of cooking, add butter and caciocavallo, kneading slowly. Plating and decorating with some crunchy grapes or a bit of parsley.
Crostoni with Summer Royal black grapes
For 4 people
½ kg Laterza’s bread, 200 gr datterini yellow tomatoes, 350 gr Summer Royal black grapes, 50 gr evo oil, 1 Acquaviva’s red onion, 100 gr sugar, 3 tablespoons white wine’s vinegar, 100 gr cacioricotta, mint.
Stew onion with oil and salt for 5 minutes, soften with vinegar and add sugar, caramelize for other 5 minutes and then remove from heat. Cook half-cut grapes with tomatoes, with oil and salt until they’re soft enough. Flavour crostoni with grapes and cooked datterini, a generous handful of flaked cacioricotta and decorate with caramelized onion and mint.
White grapes Princess Melissa cheesecake
For 4 people
400 gr cookies, 100 gr rendered butter, 50 gr butter, 1 pinch of canella, 1 tablespoon of honey, 400 gr Princess Melissa table grapes, 300 gr cream cheese, 100 gr cow’s ricotta, 2 eggs, 150 gr sugar, 2 flour tablespoons.
Cook half-cut grapes with 50 gr of butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar and set apart.
For the base: churn cookies, add honey, canella and rendered butter.
Line springform pan with parchment paper, arrange on the base for a 1.5 cm height and put it in the fridge. For the cream: whip cheese with sugar and eggs. Pour the mixture in the springform pan and cook at 150° for 25/30 minutes. Take oven, let the cake cool and decorate with grapes on the top. Keep refrigerated until serving.