In the trattorie of Florence I have heard shelled beans cooked in this way called “fagiouli all’uccelletto”.
(Pellegrino Artusi, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well)

This recipe is a typical Florentine way to eat their beloved cannellini beans which have replaced meat for centuries. The name originates from the way small game birds were cooked in Tuscany, seasoned with a generous amount of sage.
The bean’s abundance in vegetable proteins and fibre has nourished Mediterranean populations for centuries. In these times of abundance, they are still quite appreciated.
Beans are an excellent side dish, but you can add sausages to the basic recipe and create an excellent traditional Tuscan main course.
There are many versions of this recipe, some include onion and seasoning. The recipe reported by our Romagna gentleman consists of sage and tomato, I personally love adding garlic.
The first recipe we find in the original cookbook of Italian cuisine is the one which considers beans as a side dish, excellent for accompanying stewed meats. In it, the beans are browned in a substantial amount of oil and sage, and later enriched with tomato sauce. I prefer to use a milder temperature and less oil.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Yield: Makes 4  servings.

Ingredients

• 500 g beans, already cooked in water with a poached garlic clove, a sprig of rosemary and 3 sage leaves. Reserve the cooking liquid.
• 4 sausages
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tin of crushed tomato
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Sea salt
• 10 sage leaves
• A sprig of rosemary

Instructions

Put a pan on the stove with the oil, sage leaves and garlic. When the oil starts to sizzle, toss in the sausages and brown them, piercing them with the prongs of a fork in order to make them lose their juices.

When the sausages are golden, toss in the beans and season with salt and pepper. Add the tomato sauce to the beans with 2-3 tablespoons of their cooking liquid. Let them simmer for 15-20 minutes without a lid, take them off the stove and serve.

Green beans are an excellent fresh vegetable, but there are not many variations for their preparation. They are usually boiled and eaten accompanied by simple olive oil. But Italian creativity enriched a dull preparation with a touch of herbs and the beloved tomato, inventing a unique and tasty side dish, a symbol of summer and its fruits.

There are many versions of this dish: mine is the simplest, but an excellent one is using minced onion instead of garlic and adding chili pepper. Another version that is very popular in Tuscany, the land of meat-eaters where it is difficult to make vegetables appetizing for children, some grandmothers prefer preparing a soffritto with finely minced onion, celery, and carrot, and diced pancetta.

While up to few decades ago vegetables were boiled for an unnecessarily long time, or as my vegetarian brother complained, they were “tortured to death”, now we prefer crispy vegetables.

They are easy, quick to prepare, and impossible to get wrong, unless you abandon them in boiling water for hours. The result is a half-destroyed yellowish hay that not even a horse would eat.

Break off the top and wash them, leaving them whole. Today’s green beans have no strings, since only the fresh and best ones are harvested.

An excellent way to cook green beans and vegetables in general is to cook them in simmering water for 6 to 7 minutes (test them, they must be cooked but still al dente), and then immediately drained in a colander and plunged into ice cold water to bring the temperature down.  A rule of thumb is that the beans should spend as much time in the cold water as in the hot water.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely minced
• 500 g fresh green beans, washed
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tin crushed tomato or peeled plum tomatoes

Instructions

Preparation 1

Cook the green beans in simmering water for 6 to 7 minutes, immediately drain in a colander and plunge them into ice cold water to bring the temperature down.

In a deep pan (the one you use for sautéing pasta is ideal) sauté the garlic in the olive oil. Add the tomato sauce and cook for 10 minutes. When the tomato sauce has lost its acidity, season with salt and pepper and add the green beans and parsley.

Stir for 2 to 3 minutes and serve.

Preparation 2, the original

In a deep pan sauté the garlic in the olive oil. Add the tomato sauce, season with salt and pepper and add the green beans and parsley. Add water to cover the beans. Simmer for 10 minutes covered with a lid. Remove the lid and simmer for another 35 to 40 minutes, checking the green beans by tasting them, and if necessary, adding a bit more water.

This way of cooking them has the advantage of using less saucepans and bowls, and of course the green beans have more taste because they absorb the tomato sauce while cooking.

Cauliflower is normally not a very exciting dish, but you can give it some pizazz thanks to this recipe: a crispy and flavourful gratin turns a conventional vegetable into a real treat.

This recipe uses the same ingredients as a Mornay sauce, but is a bit lighter because there is no cream added. If you do not have Grana Padano or Parmigiano cheese, add some other cheese that you love, as long as it is not too strong so that it does not overwhelm the cauliflower’s flavour. The gratin needs Grana Padano or Parmigiano though, to which you could add a bit of grated bread if you want to make it even crispier.

Italian sformato, also known as flan, can be prepared with a variety of vegetables. This cauliflower version was once prepared in the French cuisine tradition. The cauliflower was puréed with the same sauce ingredients as our recipe, placed in a fluted pan baked in bain-marie in the oven. This type of recipe dates back to a time when Italians cooked their vegetables until they had no texture, taste or nutritional value left. Thank goodness times have changed!

Cauliflower is a very ancient vegetable in Italian cuisine, already mentioned in the 1st century AD by Pliny the Elder, who included it among his descriptions of cultivated plants in his Natural History treatise. This sauce adds a bit of fat to an amazing vegetable, which is low in calories, has no fat, but it is an incredibly healthy choice. It is rich in sodium, dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium. Last, but not least, since it is mainly composed of water, cauliflower can help keep you hydrated. The list of benefits is not finished yet, since this veggie has a group of substances known as glucosinolates. During digestion, these substances are broken down into compounds that may help prevent cancer , since they help protect cells from damage and have anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antibacterial effects.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Yield: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg (2 lbs) cauliflower florets, washed
• 1 L (4 cups) milk
• 80 g (⅔ cup) flour
• 80 g (cup) butter + more for the gratin
• Salt
• 50 g (1.5 oz) grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano cheese
• 2 egg yolks
• ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

Boil the cauliflower florets in salted water for 15 minutes. If you have a steamer, even better.

In the meantime, make the bechamel sauce.

Drain the cauliflower when it is cooked but still firm, since it will be baked. Move the florets to a bowl.

Heat the milk.

In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour and stir. When it begins to thicken, begin to pour the milk in batches, stirring constantly until you finish. Add the nutmeg, yolks, salt, and ⅔ of the Grana Padano cheese to the bechamel, and stir, mixing thoroughly. If there are any lumps, use a hand blender. Toss the cauliflower with the sauce to coat. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 200° C (400° F).

Brush a casserole dish with oil using a pastry brush.

Move the cauliflower mix to the casserole and sprinkle the remaining Grana Padano cheese and dot with bits of butter on top.

Bake for 20 minutes until the top turns golden and serve warm.

This risotto recipe is typical of Tuscany and Northern Italy, where asparagus is a symbol of Spring. I use a local asparagus variety that is smaller but tastier than bigger varieties. Risotto is a much appreciated first course on Italian tables, and while this recipe can be used with other vegetables, the main steps are the same.

The origin of this dish is quite ancient. News of the cultivation of rice in Italy date back to the 15^th century. Rice has come a long way, since it was domesticated from the wild Oryza rufipogon  grass  roughly 10,000–14,000 years ago the middle Yangtze and upper Huai rivers, as archaeological evidence points out.

In Italy, rice was an exotic grain introduced by the Arabs in Sicily, and later by the Aragon Dynasty during their domination of the kingdom of Naples. From there, it slowly spread north, to Tuscany and later to Lombardy, under the rule of Lodovico Sforza. Since the great Leonardo da Vinci was working at his court at the time, some Lombards like to think that Leonardo himself suggested transforming the Lombard marshes into rice paddies, but there is no historical evidence of it. What we know for sure, from diplomatic correspondence, is that rice was cultivated in Milan, and in 1375 Lodovico sent some sacks of rice to the Dukedom of Ferrara as a gift, in order to introduce its cultivation in Ferrara too.

The typical Italian rice is derived from the Japonica variety, more adaptable in the temperate regions of Europe.

In some way, this risotto with vegetables is a variation of more prestigious recipes, like the typical Milanese risotto with saffron, of which we have a recipe by Leonardo. As rice was still an exotic and expensive grain, it was eaten at the courts, and enhanced with other precious ingredients such as saffron, cinnamon, or the addition of savoury meat stock. It later developed into fantastic dishes such as Parmigiano risotto or the Champagne risotto.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 lb (400 g) asparagus, washed
• 12 oz (300 g) Carnaroli or Arborio rice
• 4 tbsp (60 g) butter
• ½ white or yellow onion, minced
• 2 cups (500 ml) vegetable stock, warm
• 3 tbsp grated Parmigiano
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Sea salt

Instructions

Steam the asparagus for 10 minutes – they must be crisp.

Cut the tips and set aside. Chop the rest of the asparagus and set aside.

In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter and sauté the asparagus tips for 1 minute. Meanwhile keep the vegetable stock warm.

In another saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and  sauté the onion, stirring often, until golden and very soft, about 8–10 minutes. Add the rice. Stir until the grains become translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the asparagus (not the tips) and ladle in ½ cup of the  broth and simmer, stirring frequently, until completely absorbed, 5–6 minutes.

Cook the rice according to the package instructions, stirring and adding the warm vegetable stock in small ladles as needed.

When rice is cooked al dente, turn off the stove and add the rest of the butter, stir, add the Parmesan, stir, add the asparagus tips and carefully stir.

Cover the saucepan with the lid and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Serve.

Tangerine gelo. The mere mention of this dessert evokes a sensation of freshness, citrus scents, and summer nights. Tangerine gelo is a typical recipe of the Sicilian tradition. Whereas its origin has been lost over time it likely has its roots in the Arab-Norman domination, so rich in creativity, pervaded by the scent of oriental spices and citrus fruits. Before the advent of corn starch carob flour was used as a thickening agent.

This tangerine gelo is a very simple and light dessert that uses fresh fruit, offering you the opportunity  to create a dessert that is fresh, seasonal, vegan and perfect for avoiding all kinds of food allergies and intolerances. The use of corn starch adds thickness to the gelatine since traditional gelatines do not work with acidic ingredients. Moreover, not only do you avoid using ingredients of animal origin, but you also enjoy the freshness of tangerines. The same basic recipe can easily be turned into other gelatines with other seasonal fresh fruits, like watermelon and melon in summer, or even with cinnamon.

The tangerine is quite sweet, but the addition of lemon adds an acidic note that is offset by the piped decoration. If you are lactose intolerant, substitute the whipping cream with the lactose free variety, or with sugar pearls if you are vegan.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Freezing Time: 4 hours | Total Time: 4 hours and 20 minutes | Yield: Makes 2 servings.

Ingredients

For the gelatine

• 45 g (⅓ cup) corn starch
• 1 kg (2.2 lbs) tangerines, juiced and filtered
• 1 lemon, juiced and filtered
• 55 g (¼ cup) white sugar

For decorating

• 125 ml (½ cup) fresh whipping cream
• 20 g  (3½ tbsp) powdered sugar, sifted

Instructions

Pour all the ingredients except the corn starch in a saucepan and put it on the stove. Simmer over low heat for 3-4 minutes, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add the corn starch, sifting it directly into the saucepan and mix thoroughly.

Pour into glass bowls and let them set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

For the decoration, chill a medium mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for 10 minutes before beginning. In the chilled bowl, whisk the whipping cream until it begins to foam and thicken. Add the powdered sugar and continue to whisk until soft peaks form. Do not over-whip. Pour into a pastry bag and decorate the top of the gelatine.

Zabaione is a fluffy mixture of egg yolks, sugar and a sweet wine, usually a Moscato d’Asti or Marsala wine. As a mousse, the addition of fresh whipping cream lends a more sophisticated touch to a very traditionale dessert.

Cooked in a bain-marie, zabaione is usually served, still lukewarm with crunchy biscuits called lingue di gatto as they are reminiscent of cat tongues. Easy to make, these biscuits are made with egg whites, and they are ideal for scooping up the zabaione.

This recipe is quite similar to making eggnog, including the addition of fresh cream: in this case it is whipped, and with gelatine, it gives a unique texture to this dessert.
In this recipe I offer two different ways of serving it: either in a cocktail cup with a biscuit and mixed berries, or a type of sandwich made with two biscuits.

Zabaione is traditionally appreciated in all of Northern Italy. The recipe seems to have originated in Piedmont in 15th century, and there are probably individual variations. Is also typical of Romagna, where it was turned into a liqueur called Vov.
Near Forlì, a local restaurant owner found a precious recipe book (published in 1907), when helping friends clearing out an old attic. In it, a woman who lived there at the time had made notes. The ingredients are quite different, but it testifies the deep appreciation for this dessert and its taste. This mousse is quite often served in small dark chocolate cups, inside croissants or with poached pears in red wine.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cooking Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 60 minutes | Yield: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients

• For the zabaione
• 1 cup (250 ml) whipping cream
• ⅓ cup (80 ml) dry Marsala wine or brandy
• ¼ cup (60 g) white sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tsp (5 g) gelatine

• For the lingue di gatto biscuits
  
• 3½ tbsp (50 g) butter – room temperature
• ½ cup (60 g) powdered sugar
• 1 egg white
• ½ cup (50 g) cake flour

Instructions

For the zabaione

In a large saucepan, bring 1 inch of water to a simmer. Remove from heat and melt the gelatine in the water.
In a large copper or stainless-steel bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until thickened and light yellow in colour. Whisk in the Marsala wine or brandy and place the bowl over the pan of simmering water. Mix slowly until the zabaione gets thicker, at least 5-6 minutes.
Add the gelatine to the zabaione, and stir until it is perfectly combined.
Turn off the heat and move the bowl to a cold bain-marie. Cover the bowl with food wrap and place it in the fridge to set for 20 minutes.
Whip the cream and fold it carefully into the zabaione. Fill a pastry bag with a star nozzle.
Place the biscuits on a dish, squeeze the mousse on them, and cover with another biscuit. Repeat the process and add some berries to add colour. Serve.

For the lingue di gatto biscuits
Pre-heat the oven to 375° F (190° C).
Get 2 muffin trays and brush each bottom and sides with melted butter, then cover the bottoms with parchments rounds.
In a bowl, mix the butter and the sugar carefully with a spatula, without letting it become fluffy. Add the egg whites, and mix until smooth. Add the flour until it is incorporated. Place the mixture in a pastry bag with a plain 10 mm tip.
Pipe a dollop of the mixture onto each parchment round and place in the oven for 10 minutes. When the biscuits are cooked, place them on a cooling grill to dry, and only when they are perfectly dry and crunchy, place them in a biscuit box.
To make the traditional cookies, lay parchment paper on a cookie sheet and pipe 10 cm-long rows.

Capon is a traditional Christmas bird in Europe. It is used either to make a very tasty but fat stock to accompany minestre, such as tortellini, or as a main course, usually stuffed. This stuffing is very simple. I had some cured meats leftover and I thought of giving them a second life. It is a very simple dish, and although there are other ways to cook it, for an Italian Christmas lunch, where there are also children who do not love exotic tastes and spices, this is the ideal cooking method.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 4lb (1.8 kg) capon, cleaned and trimmed
• Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the stuffing

• 12.5 oz (350 g) ground pork and beef
• 3 oz (90 g) Emmental cheese
• 3 oz (90 g) rolled pancetta
• 3 eggs
• 2 potatoes, boiled and peeled

For cooking

• 2 garlic cloves
• ½ cup (125 ml) dry white wine
• 30 g butter
• 4 tbsps. olive oil
• 4 sage leaves
• A sprig of rosemary
• 2 ladles of chicken broth.

Instructions

Remove the giblets from the capon. Rinse out the cavity with cold water and pat it dry. Season it with salt and pepper.

Add all the ingredients to a food processor and mix. If you like the giblets, coarsely chop them and add to the stuffing.

Stuff the capon and sew the cavity. Put the capon in a big saucepan, brown the capon in butter and olive oil, with the aromatic herbs. Roast it for 20 minutes, then turn it on the other side and roast it for another 20 minutes. Add the wine and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Cook for two hours, basting and turning very carefully, to avoid the skin from breaking, adding some broth and cooking on a medium-low temperature.

To serve the capon, present it at the table whole, then carve it. Remove the stuffing in one piece if possible and slice it.

The cuisine in Emilia-Romagna is permeated with sexual innuendos, expressed in its iconic stuffed pasta, tortellini. Local legends say that the creation of tortellini was inspired by the goddess Venus herself, who was spotted by an innkeeper while staying at his inn. Stricken by this vision, he rushed to the kitchen, rolled out a sheet of pasta and shaped it like the only part of his beautiful guest’s body he had seen from the lock. Today, the hole in the centre of a tortellino is still called “Venus’ navel”.

I follow my grand-grandmother’s recipe, who was from Modena, and made an all-pork stuffing, whereas in other parts of Emilia they prefer substituting pork loin with beef.

Tortellini are a typical Christmas dish in Emilia, but nowadays you can find them at any time during the winter season.

At Christmas, my family cooks them in a warm capon stock that I prefer preparing one day in advance, in order to refrigerate it in a smaller container overnight to remove the solidified fat from the top of the chilled stock. On normal Sundays, we have tortellini in our traditional meat stock (link).

Making tortellini is quite complicated and time-consuming, and it has always been a team effort. Traditionally, the entire family gathered around the “arzdora” (the mother, the real family boss in Ravenna dialect) to put the filling on the small squares of pasta and shape the tortellini. With their small fingers, women and children were the most capable when it came to sealing the tortellini.

In order to be efficient, the filling and the dough can be prepared one or two days in advance. I love using a piping-bag for the filling, and recently, a chef suggested I refrigerate the dough in a vacuum-bag, since the absence of air in the bag prevents oxidation and the dough from changing colour. Still, it is better to work as a team – at least two skilled people – in order to shape tortellini in time to prevent the sheet of pasta from drying.

Prep Time: 4 hours | Cooking Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 5 hours | Yield: Makes 10 servings.

Ingredients

For the filling

• 3.5 oz (100 g) pork loin
• 1 tbsp dry white wine
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp (30 g) butter
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 small rosemary sprig
• 2.8 oz (80 g) Parmigiano Reggiano
• 3 oz (90 g) Parma ham
• 3 oz (90 g) Bologna mortadella
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated

For the pasta

• 6 eggs
• 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour

For the capon stock

• 1 medium onion, peeled
• 1 medium carrot, peeled
• 1 celery stalk
• Half capon
• 3 parsley sprigs
• 4-5 black pepper corns
• 1 kg (2.5 lbs) various beef cuts used for Italian braised meat like beef tongue, tail, shin bones with meat, marrow bones and bones with a little meat on them, such as oxtail, short ribs, or knuckle bones (cut in half by a butcher)

Instructions

For the capon stock (one day in advance)

Place a large stockpot on the biggest burner. Fill with 4-5 litres/4.5 to 5.5 quarts of cold water (about two-thirds full) and add all the ingredients. Bring the water to the simmering point.

Gently simmer the stock, covered, for 3-4 hours, or even longer if you have time, topping up with water if necessary. Skim the white foam that bubbles to the surface with a slotted spoon.

Strain stock using a fine-mesh sieve and discard bones and vegetables. Let the broth continue to cool until barely warm, then refrigerate in smaller containers overnight. Remove solidified fat from the top of the chilled stock.

For the filling

Add the butter, rosemary, and garlic to a small pan, and sauté the meat. When the meat is roasted externally, add the wine and season with salt and pepper. Cook for five minutes and let it cool down. When it reaches room temperature, coarsely chop and put in a food processor with all the other ingredients. mince at maximum speed until the filling is perfectly blended and is pink in colour. Fill a piping-bag and keep in the fridge. Take it out and keep at room temperature an hour before using it, or it will be too hard to squeeze it out of the piping bag.

For the pasta

On a wooden pastry board, pour the flour into a mound, make a well in its centre and crack the eggs into it. Blend by hand, making a dough that you are going to smooth with a rolling pin.

Divide the dough into two halves, wrap them in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Roll them out, remembering to sprinkle them with flour. Roll each ball of dough into a sheet about 2 mm (1/24 inch) thick.

Cut each dough into small 2-inch (5 cm) squares, and put little piles of filling in each  centre.

Fold the squares into rectangles enclosing the filling. Gently lift one of the long sides against the stuffing at a time, roll around your baby finger and overlap the two corners. Lay on a paper tray or a normal tray covered with parchment, make regular rows and avoid that they come into contact with one another or they will stick together.

Cook them in the boiling stock and serve them still fuming hot.

This Christmas Log, also known as Swiss Roll, originates from the French Bûche de Noël.

It represents the ancient tradition of burning a large log in the fireplace which started on Christmas eve and was supposed to last for the entire festive period, later replaced by this suggestive dessert. Nowadays, the different fillings for the sponge cake can vary from pistachio to tropical fruits. In the European tradition, we can find similar cakes all over the Western countries, such as in Spain with its Brazo de Gitano literally the Gipsy’s Arm, which probably share a very common concept.

Although it is not an extremely difficult recipe, it is fundamental to respect the temperature and cooking time for the sponge cake. If it dries out too much, it will be impossible to roll, and it will break.

Prep Time: 45 minutes | Cooking Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour| Yield: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients

For the sponge cake

• 5 eggs
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ tbsp (10 g) honey
• 1 cup (100 g) cake flour, sifted
• ¾ cup (140 g) white sugar

For the chocolate ganache

• 1½ cups (350 ml) fresh whipping cream
• 12.5 oz (350 g) dark chocolate, chopped

Instructions

Put a bowl in the freezer.

For the sponge cake

Pre-heat the oven at 425° F (220° C)

Separate the eggs, and put the yolks in the bowl of a free-standing mixer and in another bowl, whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt.

Add the honey, the sugar, and the vanilla to the yolks, and beat for 7 to 9 minutes with the whisk attachment.

Gently fold in the whipped egg whites in two batches using a large spoon, with large circular movements from top to bottom.

When it is well-mixed, add the flour in 3-4 batches. Pour the batter in a 12×15 inch (30×37 cm) baking pan, covered by parchment. Level it, creating a ½ inch (1 cm) layer.

Bake for 5-6 minutes until golden and firm.

While it is baking, prepare a film layer on the kitchen top, the surface must be larger than the one of the sponge cake.

When the sponge cake is ready, lay the top of it on the film, take the parchment off immediately, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar, in order not to make it stick together. Roll it immediately, using the film to help your work, close and leave it in the film.

For the chocolate ganache

Put the cream on the stove and bring it to almost a boil. Switch off and pour the chocolate in it. Mix it with a whisk until chocolate will be perfectly melted.

Move to the bowl you take off the freezer and whip with an electric hand whisk for 10 minutes.

Spread half of the ganache on the sponge cake, except 1-inch (2 cm) from the border. Roll it again, cut a small piece which shall be connected to the log, in order to make a small branch.

Spread the rest of the ganache on the log and use the prongs of a fork to simulate the surface of a log.