These mini savoury panettoni are a bit time-consuming but not hard to do, you can decide whatever stuffing you love. The classic recipe included prawns with cocktail sauce, smoked salmon with cream cheese and chives and lemon zest. Or cold cuts and cheeses, or vegetarian fillings.

You can choose whatever filling you love.

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cooking Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes (4 hours for cooling down) | Yield: Makes 6  servings.

Ingredients

• ¼ cup (50 ml) warm milk
• 13 g fresh baker’s yeast or 4 g dry active yeast
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 ½ tbsp (50 g) butter, room temperature, cut in small pieces
• 1 cup (240 g) bread (Manitoba) flour
• 1/2 tbsp honey
• 25 ml water
• 1 ½ tbsp (20 g) white sugar
• Butter for the tin
• 4 tbsp fresh cream or an egg yolk + some milk for glazing

Preparation

Add the warm milk, honey, and water to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment on medium speed. Add the yeast and, after a minute, the egg.

Then add the flour, and when it is well mixed, add the sugar, and finally the salt. If the dough is too dry, add some water. The total time including the kneading of the dough takes around 15 minutes.

Let the dough sit in a deep bowl and cover with plastic wrap. If the temperature in your kitchen is around 77 F (25 C) let it rise for 2 hours. If your temperature is around 66 F (19 C) like in my kitchen, add half an hour.

After the dough has doubled, divide it into 6 balls and knead it, bending the folds under each ball.

Butter the muffin tin and place one ball in each hole. Let it rise again for 2 hours, covering with plastic wrap.

Modify the rising time according to the temperatures in your kitchen.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F (175 C).  Using a pastry brush, coat the balls with fresh cream, or an egg yolk mixed with 2 tablespoons of milk. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

When the pannettoni reach room temperature, move to a cooling rack. They will be firm enough to be cut in thin slices the next day. Calculate making 5 cuts, top included. Fill the layers every 2 cuts, in order to make a sandwich. Choose your favourite canapé fillings. Once you have finished, make at least one vertical cut.

This creamed codfish version is another example of the extreme variety and richness of Italian cuisine: stockfish and salted codfish were introduced to Southern Europe centuries ago, and they were adapted to hundreds of recipes across the Mediterranean.

Creamed codfish is a delicate appetiser which exalts two typical ingredients of Northern Italy, codfish (also popular in all of Southern Europe) and polenta. Yellow or white, hot straight from a copper polenta pot, or sliced and grilled, polenta is an excellent and gluten free food that is delicious in every season.

Even if it is referred to as baccalà (salted codfish) in this venetian recipe, the fish used in this dish is stockfish. Venice was the first city in Southern Europe where stockfish was introduced by the nobleman Pietro Querini in 1432. This gentleman was bound for Flanders, but his merchant ship encountered a terrible storm off the western coast of France. The storm ravaged the ship, and the few surviving sailors, after weeks spent fighting the storm and cold temperatures for weeks, finally drifted on the Gulf Stream far across the North Sea. Stranded on an island off of Norway amid the small Lofoten Islands, they were found by local fishermen and spent months with the Røst inhabitants.

This dramatic incident was the origin of trade between northern Norway and Italy, which made the combination of Norwegian stockfish and Italian cooking possible.

This kind of preparation consists of cod fish dried on wooden racks, where cold-adapted bacteria matures the fish. The word stockfish is a loan word from West Frisian stokfisk (stick fish), possibly referring to the wooden racks on which stockfish are traditionally dried or because the dried fish resembles a stick.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cooking Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes (3 hours for cooling down) | Yield: Makes 4  servings.

Ingredients

• 300 g stockfish, already soaked
• 4 cups (I L) cold water
• 3 garlic cloves
• ¼ cup (50 ml) delicate olive oil
• 1/3 cup (100 ml) vegetable oil
• 3 black pepper grains
• ¼ cup (80 g) milk
• 3 juniper berries
• 1 bay leaf
• Sea salt

Instructions

A day before, infuse two chopped garlic cloves in the combined oils. Filter it and discard the garlic before using it. If you prefer, you can rub the bowl you are going to use the cream the fish with the peeled garlic.

In a pot, add the milk, water, pepper, bay leaf, juniper berries, and the stockfish.

When it reaches a boiling point, reduce the heat and let it simmer for thirty minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool down in the cooking liquid, until it is room temperature.

Take the stockfish and crumble it, using your fingers, discarding the bones and the skin. Put it in a food processor and finely mince the stockfish.

Move the fish to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. While whisking, drizzle with the infused oil and a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid, alternating them, and add salt. The stockfish is ready when it has turned into a velvety and soft cream.

Store in the fridge and serve it cold on warm grilled polenta slices.

“Stoccafisso” is a particular way of preparing cod fish which comes from Germany where it is completely dried on a stick from which the name originates: stock (stick) and fisch (fish).

Maltagliati pasta is a very traditional shape in Emilia-Romagna, used for rustic soups like pasta & chickpeas or pasta & beans. Literally, its name means “badly cut”.

All good Italian housewives never waste food and this pasta is made from the remnants of dough cut for other shapes. When you roll pasta dough with a rolling pin you get an irregular shape, when you wrap it in a roll in order to cut fettuccine, or squares for tortelli, you cut the irregular edges.

I set the remnants aside, pile them up one on top of the other, and cut diagonally, first in one direction, then in the other, creating very irregular diamonds. I even cut small pieces into smaller ones by hand.

I then let them dry for an hour and freeze them in a bag.

If you need to make them from scratch, this is the recipe for 4 servings:

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Sitting Time: 2 hours minutes | Total Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes | Yield: Makes 4  servings.

Ingredients

• 7 oz (200 g) all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs

Instructions

On a wooden pastry board, pour the flour into a mound, make a hole in its centre and pour the eggs in it.

Mix by hand to make a dough that you are going to roll out using a rolling pin.

Let the dough sit for at least 30 minutes, wrap it in cling film or, even better, cover it in a glass bowl.

Roll the dough into a sheet about two millimetres (1/24-inch) thick. Let it dry for at least an hour and 1/2.

Flour it lightly, fold a few times to form stacking layers and, using a knife, cut fettuccine about ½ inch wide.

Follow the instructions above.

Pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans) is a very typical Italian soup, simple, easy, yet incredibly versatile, as it is prepared many ways all across Italy.

For thousands of years, beans have nourished people from every social class, but its richness in proteins allowed the survival of the most of population who could not afford meat. Every region and corner of Italy has a version of this kind of soup, the simplest soup. It is prepared with an incredible set of variations: with the trinity of onion, carrot and celery, the fundamental ingredients of the majority of Italian sauces and stews; just simply with sliced onion and tomato in order to highlight the flavour of the beans, or parsley, or rosemary. In every Italian town and family there is always the addition of a personal touch.

Yet, despite its modesty, it is considered a comfort food, nourishing, simple but heart-warming.

This recipe is the one I rely on as a Romagnola, and I used it to civilize my husband: he had never eaten beans and soups before meeting me, and since he was such a carnivore, my trick was to blend all the vegetables and add some pancetta or ham to disguise the vegetables. It was like a kind of weaning.

Nowadays, sometimes my pasta e  fagioli (the Italian for pasta & beans) is vegan: I often refer to a recipe I was given in Le Marche region by a restaurant owner/chef, which used just onion and tomato for his soffritto. Then of course you follow the recipe as usual. I always have a supply of frozen maltagliati (fresh egg pasta) in my freezer, but if I use dried pasta, I even create a vegan and even lighter dish.

If I am using fresh pasta which cooks quickly, I cook it in the soup directly, in which case some attentive stirring is in order or the pasta will stick to the bottom of the pot. If you prefer using dried pasta – you should  cook it separately and then add it to the soup.

The only tricky part of making this dish is remembering to soak the beans, which if you are me, can be quite tricky, but is most satisfying when you remember. Then you need to remember to cook them, at a gentle simmer for at least a couple of hours while you spend  your time reading everybody’s latest posts. You can use tinned beans. but then you will miss the water the chickpeas were cooked in which provides agreat stock for your soup.

Usually, in most cookbooks, the beans and the soffritto are cooked in 2 different pots, whereas, since washing too many dishes is against my religion, I use always the same one.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Yield: Makes 4  servings.

Ingredients

• 250g dried chickpeas soaked overnight OR 700g fresh Romano beans
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 small carrot, finely chopped
• ½ celery stick, finely chopped
• 50 g fresh pancetta or pork jowl, diced
• ½ cup (130 g) tomato puree
• 4 tablespoons cup olive oil
• 6 cups (1.5 L) water
• 200g maltagliati pasta (fresh pasta) or ditalini

Instructions

In the pot, sauté the vegetables in olive oil, and after 2 minutes, add the pancetta or pork jowl. Cook for 5-6 minutes on medium-low heat.

When the soffritto is golden, add the tomato puree and simmer for 15 to 17 minutes. Add the beans and 4 cups water (1 L water). Season with salt and let it cook, simmering. It takes about 80 minutes if you decide to cook with a normal pot; if this is the case, I strongly recommend a cast iron pot. In a pressure cooker it takes 20 minutes.

In the cast iron pot, you’ll have probably to add the rest of the water, or even more. Just add it gradually. Preferably hot, or you will lower the cooking temperature and it will take longer.

When beans are cooked, remove a ladleful of beans with some liquid and blend with an immersion blender in a container and add it back to the pot. It will give the soup a creamier texture without adding cheese.

Add pasta and follow the indications for cooking time.

When it is cooked, let it sit for 3 minutes and serve.

Around the time of the grape harvest in Tuscany, in all Florentine bakeries you can find a very popular dessert, flat bread with grapes (schiacciata con l’uva). This a seasonal dessert made with bread dough, , olive oil, rosemary and grapes. Some recipes include red wine, finely chopped rosemary and anise seeds. I prefer a simpler version, in which I heat the oil with a sprig of rosemary at a very moderate power (oil must not fry) and use the rosemary as a brush.

It’s an excellent dessert when fresh, like all leavened cake, based on bread dough, the day after tends to get rubbery, so my advice is warming it up for few minutes in an electric oven.

Prep Time: 35 minutes | Cooking Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Yield: Makes 8  servings.

TIP – rising time: 4 hours for rising

Ingredients for the dough

• 4⅓  cups pastry flour
• ½ cup white sugar
• 5 tbsp delicate olive oil or seed oil
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 0.35 oz fresh active yeast or ½ packet instant yeast (1 tsp)
• 1¼ cups warm water
• A pinch of sea salt

Ingredients for the filling

• 2 lbs red concord grapes
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp cane sugar

Instructions 

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and add the sugar, then mix in the oil and the sifted flour. Add the salt last.

The dough must be very soft and sticky. In order to work it, you should spread some drops of oil on your hands.

Spread a tablespoon of oil on the dough and fold the outer edges into the centre as you turn the bowl. Let it rest for 15 minutes, covering with cling wrap.

Again, spread a tablespoon of oil onto the dough and repeat folding. Let it rest for 45 minutes, covering with cling wrap.

Repeat, and let the dough rest for 2 – 3 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.

Heat the oil with a sprig of rosemary and prepare a baking tray with parchment paper. Brush it with the flavoured oil using the rosemary sprig, and sprinkle a tablespoon of cane sugar on it.

Pre-heat the oven to 480 F (250 C).

Divide the dough into two parts. Place a piece of it on the prepared parchment, using your fingers and not a rolling pin to flatten it out, but not too thin. Brush with a tablespoon of oil, sprinkle with sugar, and spread with half of the grapes.

Repeat and lay the other half of the flattened dough on top, using your fingers to seal the edges. Again, brush with a tablespoon of oil, sprinkle with sugar, and add the remaining grapes.

Lower the oven temperatures to 430 F (220 C) and bake the flat bread for 20-25 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick. Let cool, and serve.

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.

The tradition of Easter eggs is a very ancient one, as it stems from the celebration of spring as a rebirth. It is the only celebration in the Christian calendar which has a variable date, falling on the Sunday after the first spring full moon.

The festivity’s name itself – Easter in English and Ostern in German, comes from Eostre, the ancient Northern goddess who is at the origin of many traditions related to this festivity.

The egg, never mentioned in the bible, is present in many Indo-European cultures as a symbol of fertility, and eating it is a way to celebrate Spring, the renewed cycle of the seasons and the new agricultural crops.

In the Middle Ages, eggs were cooked and decorated with flowers and leaves. Being in lockdown because of the coronavirus, I had no time to indulge in buying decorations at the grocery store, so I used pansies from my garden.

If you have other supplies in the fridge (I had bought an incredible quantity of raspberry puree before the lockdown, and I always store supplies of gelatine and baking products in my pantry), it could be fun to make some namelaka – a Japanese word that means ultra-creamy.

Prep Time: 40 minutes | Cooking Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour + 15 minutes | Yield: Makes 8  servings.

Ingredients for chocolate bavarois

• 200 g dark chocolate, chopped finely
• 200 g fresh whipping cream
• ½ L (2 cups) milk
• 200 g white sugar
• 4 yolks
• 20 g gelatine

Ingredients for namelaka

• 112 g raspberry purée
• 7 g icing sugar
• 170 g white chocolate, chopped finely
• 2.5 g gelatine
• 200 g whipping cream

Instructions for chocolate bavarois

Put the chocolate, the milk, and half of the sugar in a saucepan and melt the chocolate, stirring constantly.

Soak the gelatine leaves in water to soften.

Prepare a bain-marie. Whisk the yolks and the remaining sugar in the bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy. Squeeze the gelatine, add it to the mix, and melt. Add the chocolate and str until it becomes thick.

Let it cool, and when it reaches room temperature, whip the cream and add it to the mixture. Incorporate slowly, folding it in with delicate movements from top to bottom.

Pour into the mould and refrigerate 4 to 5 hours before serving.

To remove it from the mould, dip it into a bowl of hot water for 2 or 3 seconds, then turn the bavarois over onto a dessert plate and remove the mould.

Instructions for namelaka

Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie.

Soak the gelatine leaves in water to soften.

In a saucepan over low heat, combine the fruit purée with the sugar, squeeze the gelatine, add it to the purée and melt.

Combine the fruit mixture with the white chocolate and emulsify it with an immersion blender.

Add the cream and emulsify with the immersion blender again.

Place in the fridge and let it sit all night.

The day after you can whip with a mixer and use it with a pastry bag.

Carbonara pasta is a typical Roman dish. Full of taste and very easy to make, its goodness is thanks to quality ingredients. Be that as it may, it seems that originally, the ingredients were different.

Legend has it that in the Rome of WWII, occupied by allied troops, a local innkeeper was asked to make food for some American soldiers who gave him bacon and powdered eggs from their military supplies. The best way to feed a lot of people with few ingredients is making pasta, so the innkeeper combined these few ingredients to make a dish that is big favourite of Lazio citizens, but it is also loved in many countries.

Later, when things got better and it was possible to have local ingredients again, the recipe was enriched with guanciale (cured pork jowl) and fresh, creamy eggs.

To celebrate Carbonara day, I made spaghetti alla chitarra, reminiscent of Roman tonnarelli (a fresh, long egg pasta) and enjoyed this epicurean dish during this period of quarantine with my husband.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Yield: Makes 2 servings.

Ingredients

For the pasta

• 100 g semolina flour
• 100 g all-purpose flour
• 1 egg
• About ¼ cup water, room temperature

For the sauce

• 3 tbsp grated Parmigiano Reggiano (I did not have Roman Pecorino)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 egg
• Black pepper
• 60 g guanciale (cured pork jowl)

Instructions

On a wooden pastry board, pour the flour in a mound, make a well in its centre and crack the egg into it. Blend by hand, making a dough that you are going to smooth with a rolling pin.  It should be rolled to a 3 mm thickness.  Then cut it into rectangles that will be cut on the chitarra.

Cook the pasta in salted water; if it is fresh, it will cook in a few seconds.

You might need to add some flour if the dough is too wet or some water if it is too dry and impossible to work.

TIPS:

As you work it, keep the dough near your belly, when kneading and rolling.

Lean into the dough as you work, exploit gravity, not your shoulders and arms.

In a frying pan, sauté the guanciale in its own fat. While the water for pasta is beginning to boil, I place the egg and egg yolks in a Pyrex or stainless steel bowl and place it over the pot, whisking them until they are fluffy, gradually adding the cheese and a generous sprinkle of black pepper. Remember to keep the bowl away from direct heat to avoid curdling the egg.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it and toss it in the frying pan with the guanciale. Transfer it to the bowl with the egg mixture. Toss until the egg mixture has coated the pasta  and enjoy.

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.