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♪ ("La Donna è mobile") ♪

♪ La Donna è mobile ♪

Bonacini: Trentino-alto adige...

A mountainous wonderland dotted with deep valleys

and apple orchards,

and a cuisine influenced by nearby austria.

For my antipasto,

asparagus topped with velvety egg sauce.

A primo of savoury bread dumplings with sauerkraut.

A secondo of stuffed quail with wine-soaked plums.

And a dolce of rustic apple cake.

(Man singing opera)

♪

Up in the northeast of italy,

lie the majestic dolomite mountain range.

And there, you'll find the city of bolzania,

and asparagus is a particular favourite of theirs,

especially when it's served with an egg sauce.

♪

And a sauce like this

is about building a foundation of flavours...

Little tartness from vinegar...

A little tasty mustard

to help emulsify and bring things together,

and bright fresh flavour of lemon juice,

which works so well with asparagus.

And drizzle in olive oil.

The more oil i add, the thicker the sauce.

♪

And look how thick and creamy that sauce is.

This would be a good time to add a little seasoning.

That's my base done.

I'll let that sit, allow those flavours to come together,

whilst i work on me eggs.

And i find the best way to peel a hardboiled egg

is whilst they're still warm, right after the cooking.

♪

You could either chop the whole eggs as they are

or separate them and do the yolks and the whites separately,

either or works.

It's just more the look with the coarser chopping.

♪

I think it's time to throw on the asparagus.

It's all about timing.

Splash of white wine in the water.

An old trentino trick.

♪

And i like my asparagus to be cooked just through,

a little firm,

as they move down towards the thicker part of the stem.

Egg yolk and egg white to my sauce.

A little parsley and chives.

Again, this is a sauce that is so fitting for asparagus,

so fitting for springtime.

♪

♪

Look at that.

Time to check on the asparagus, see how they're doing.

Perfect.

Now, if you wanted, you could drop these into icy cold water

and serve them chilled.

I love to serve my asparagus...

Lovely and warm.

Pile your asparagus high.

And let's serve them up.

You can tell that this sauce loves this asparagus

just by the way it's hugging them.

I'm a sucker for parmesan cheese

and i need to add some to this dish.

I know it may not have it in every recipe,

but this is my little twist on it.

Now, i get to taste.

Just take one of those wonderful, warm asparagus,

dip it in the egg sauce.

There's just a wonderful little tartness to that sauce

from the vinegar and the lemon juice,

but a solid base foundation from the mustard.

It's a perfect little dish to start any trentino meal.

For my primo, a classic italian dish served with sauerkraut.

♪

Austria shares the towering dolomite mountain range

with alto adige. in fact,

that part of italy used to belong to austria,

and you can see that in its cuisine,

like this dish...

Bread dumplings with sauerkraut.

And it all starts with stale bread

that i've had soaking in milk with an egg

because, in an italian kitchen, nothing goes to waste.

And this dumpling

is about packing as much flavour in there as you can...

Milk, eggs, cheese, chopped parsley,

and something called speck,

and speck is a strong German-influenced cured meat.

It's almost like prosciutto.

And this is the speck.

(Sniffing) Mmm...

That is good. Got a little peppery note.

So, just tear this up into small pieces,

so each one of the dumplings

have lots of these little bits of speck

studded throughout them.

Now, a little nutmeg...

Because this nutmeg is an important part

of the seasoning of the dumplings

that fits so well with Sauerkraut.

And now, for a little onion that i've cooked and cooled.

♪

And the final ingredient

to bind these dumplings without making them too heavy...

A little flour.

And with the flour, it's just a case

of getting that dough to the right consistency

where they hold.

♪

Now, to cook my dumplings,

i have what i think is the most important ingredient

of most kitchens...

Really great chicken broth.

As a young cook, it with was a great point of pride

to have really great chicken broths and stocks,

whether it was beef, chicken, veal, even fish stock,

because they were the ingredients

that were the foundation for your sauces.

And as a young saucier, i was out to impress.

Now, a gentle simmer, so these dumplings cook slow,

allowing the heat to penetrate and become light and fluffy.

This is store-bought sauerkraut,

which is great for what i'm doing.

And sauerkraut is nothing more than really salted,

fermented cabbage.

And the reason they would make sauerkraut,

it was a staple during wintertimes,

it was a great way to preserve beautiful big heads of cabbage

that you could pull on all winter long.

So, to add a little bit more german meets italian influence

with the seasoning flavours...

Peppercorn,

the all important juniper berry,

and, of course, fennel seed.

Flavours that work so well... With sauerkraut.

♪

Juniper berries, fennel seed, black peppercorn,

soft onions and melted butter and a nice dry white wine.

♪

Gentle with the dumplings.

Don't they look good?

I think three canederli is good.

A little grating of parmesan cheese.

Gotta add a little parsley.

Olive oil.

On a cold winter's day,

a hearty meal like this, tough to beat.

Packed full of speck.

(Sniffing)

And i can smell the light smokiness from it.

Rib-sticking good dumplings, let me tell you.

Packed full of flavour.

And to think these were made

from stale bread as the foundation.

How about for your next dinner party,

a sophisticated stuffed quail

with stewed plums as a secondo?

♪

The folks in trentino-alto adige

love to pair meat with fruit.

Quail stuffed with red wine plums.

And this apple is part of that fruit addition

that they love to serve with their meat.

(Man scatting)

Let's finish off the stuffing.

My italian sausage has really crisped up nicely,

along with some onions,

and that makes a great foundation

of flavour to this stuffing.

Throw in the white cabbage, a little thyme.

And because everything is diced so small,

this takes no time at all to cook.

A little light chicken broth just to moisten things up.

(Sizzling)

And my chicken stock will reduce,

intensify in flavour.

A gentle simmer

and it's onto the quail.

♪

All that stock has reduced down.

It's all been absorbed

by the onion, cabbage, sausage.

And it's nice and cold, so i can stuff my quail.

And with these quail,

it's really important that they're nice and dry

'cause they can be a little slippery at times.

There's over 100 types of species of quail out there.

And, of course, i got my butcher to debone this for me...

Just took the backbone out,

the ribcage, left the leg bones in...

'Cause it's much quicker and easier for him to do it.

A little salt and pepper.

Now, it's about getting as much stuffing

into this quail as you can.

But the more you get in there, the better.

And then, to keep them all tied up,

so i don't lose any of the stuffing...

Butcher's twine.

♪

♪

Put my little stuffed quails onto the baking sheet.

Light oiling.

My quail is stuffed, all tied up.

Now, into a good, hot oven.

♪

♪

Poaching plums in wine and sugar is so simple,

and especially with juniper berries and a little thyme.

♪

Look at those beautiful quail,

how brown and roasted they all look.

They do look tasty.

And my plums...

Dark, rich, red colour,

and so aromatic from the spices.

Look at those.

♪

I have to take the string off the quail.

♪

A lovely drop of that juice.

And i see the stuffing all inside this quail.

Look at that lovely stuffing

and that dark roasted meat of the quail.

Succulent and moist.

The savouriness from the stuffing and the sausage,

the well seasoned quail,

and then, that wonderful sharp acidity,

but sweetness, too, from that plum.

I'd like to follow this up with a dolce

that's a tribute to the trentino-alto adige apple.

♪

♪

It's hard to imagine

a more picturesque sight

than that of an orchard of apples

in full bloom

up against a backdrop of beautiful mountains

off in the distance.

And every home in trentino

will have their own secret family recipe for torta di mele

or apple cake.

Better put a little bit of lemon juice in these apples,

stop them from turning.

(Man singing in italian)

♪

Nice, soft, room temperature butter.

And, of course, a little sugar for sweetness.

And working this butter into the sugar makes it nice and creamy.

Eggs... one at a time.

Easy to mix 'em in that way.

Next ingredients... Almond liqueur.

And if you can't find almond liqueur,

almond essence works just as well.

My wet ingredients are done. Over to the dry...

Flour, little cinnamon, baking powder and salt.

Now, the two become one.

The dry goods go into the wet mixture.

♪

The batter is done.

Now, i'm going to take some of these apples

and just fold them into that batter.

And you eat into this cake,

you're going to hit that lovely,

sweet, tangy apple.

Now, load this up

with all that lovely batter and apples.

That ought to do it.

A little fancy decoration right on top.

Just taking the apple slices around in a circle.

♪

Excellent.

The melted butter with a little sugar

sticking to the top of them

to get them just a tad crispy.

Ready for the oven.

♪

My cake is nicely baked.

Apples have browned off a little on the top.

A little powdered sugar,

touch of cinnamon.

♪

I'm ready for an espresso.

♪

Moist, tender, succulent

and delicious.

I started with an antipasto of asparagus and egg sauce,

a primo of bread dumplings with sauerkraut,

a secondo of a stuffed quail

sitting on top of wine-drenched plums,

and a dolce of sweet apple cake.

These are a few of my favourite recipes

from trentino-alto adige, an entire meal.

Buon appetito.

(N n it n ital n italia n italian)

♪