Gnocchi

The best side dish to Pasticada is gnocchi. Do you make good homemade potato gnocchi?  We have the perfect recipe for you.

Ingredients:
750 g potatoes
¾ teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
1 ½ to 2 cups multi-purpose flour

Preparation
In salted water boil  potatoes in the shell until tender. Rinse and allow to cool slightly. Peel and mash them, do not use an electric mixer. Place the  potatoes in lightly floured surface. In the middle make a dip and add 2 egg yolks and 125 grams of flour. Knead it in soft dough. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour - the required amount depends on the type of potatoes you use. Sprinkle  hands with flour and divide the dough into 8 equal parts. Shape the rolls 3 cm thick and a 22 cm long. Cut the dough into 1 cm tubes and with the tines of the floured fork press against a dough. Cook the dumplings in a large pot with plenty of salted water. Dumplings are cooked when they float to the surface.

If it seems that the amount of made gnocchi  is too large for one meal, gnocchi can be frozen. Freeze them first on a floured or lined tray, then once frozen you can put them into a freezer bag for more easy storage. To cook, just put the frozen gnocchi into the simmering water for the next step. Use them within 6 weeks.

My friend Milda and I have decided to write you a recipe for Pasticada.
Although we spent a lot of time looking for the "right" pasticada we gave up and here we are giving you one of the possible recipes of the Dalmatian specialties.
Milda is from Hvar (who for love moved to Newport News, Virginia) and she gave us her original recipe from the island.


Feel free to attach your comments, or better yet, recipes and advice.
Ingredients required for Pasticada:
• piece of beef frikandoa (approximately 3 kg)
• beautiful piece of meaty bacon (about 30 grams)
• 2 heads of garlic (about 7-8 slices)
• 1.2 kg of carrots
• 4-5 onions
• 1 celery root
• 1 parsley root
• 2 dl Prosecco
• 1 liter of red wine
• 4-5 dried figs (or plum)
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• salt, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, bay leaf
• tablespoon of lard
• sunflower oil
• vinegar

How to prepare:
Theories about the "right" pastizzada started already with the choice of meat. Most agreed that it is of utmost importance to get for pasticada beef frikandoa (the hardest pieces of beef) and no other piece of meat. Then there was not easy to get any consensus whether to make pockets for cutting vertically stroking the fibers of meat, or with fiber. Long story short, frinakdo nicely drill in with bacon, garlic (for example, a clove in half in height in two parts), and cloves, and some recipes say you can and carrots (carrots we put only the TOC).
Marinada Meat
So filled piece of meat soak in the marinade and marinade made from wine (according to one theory) or from the local wine vinegar which dilute with plain water (another theory) in which burn roots with which they will later cook meat, I like it better with wine but if there is no wine, vinegar is always handy in my kitchen. Marinate Meat  at least overnight, and some argue to this day and a half.
Just before baking, remove meat from marinate,  drain (you can soak up as much liquid with paper towels), and then in pan brown well meat on all sides in lard. Experienced housewives in Dalmatia claim that this is the most important. Of course, if there is no fat, you can brown in the oil. When the meat is  became nicely brown on all sides, remove the meat to a plate on a side. To the used lard or oil, where meat was browned add if necessary oil and glaze onions and add other root vegetables, stear fry all and return the meat in a baking dish, pour the wine (and those who advocate sherry, pour it in). Cook over low heat for a long time (at least two to three hours, depending on the weight of meat) as long as the piece of meat has no more blood, take meat out of the pan and cut into steaks before you serve.
The secret of aromatic sauce
We now come to the stage where the recipes for marinating differ, and that is the secret of a typical aromatic sauce (hail). First,  you should all root vegetables  mashed into a fine sauce and for taste add spices. In some recipes (for what proud cooks claim in their centuries-old family secrets) in the sauce do not put tomatoes but in most recipes tomatoes are whole canned tomato or spoon of concentrate (or how will you say in Dalmatia "Canned") - the decision is yours.
If it is too acidic or taste of wine is too strong, you should  add dried figs to neutralize the taste. In addition to laurel, in various recipes are mentioned  rosemary, thyme, marjoram ... you select spice to your taste, but with caution especially if you cook pasticada the first time.
Pasticada is usually served with potato gnocchi.

Grape harvest in Vrbnik

I am in Cavtat, the hometown of one of the most famous Croatian painter Vlaho Bukovac. Wherever I look I can fall in love with what I see. It is a city that opens your heart, and in it I always want to come back. I wander the cobbled streets looking for a Bukovac house which is located in the old town.
This is a typical urban house of the 19th century. Particularly interesting are the wall paintings of the young Bukovac which cover the old walls in the eastern part of the house.
Cavtat was founded by Illyrians few centuries BC. Shortly before the birth of Christ the Romans took Epidaurum and proceeded by his own rules to develop the city, so at that time it was quite large. The whole Zupa Bay was a city.
The great earthquake that came after this great construction, destroyed most of the city. Legend says, and some historians wrote that in central part of the Zupa Bay some two or three kilometers behind the island of Supetar covered by seabed, there is today a pure gold statue of Zeus high 16 meters.


















The story of the golden statue of the god Zeus was told to me by Andro Crvik, one of the leading Croatian wine producers from Cilipi near Dubrovnik.
I remember the first conversation with Andro. I was preparing the recording of the series of Croatian wine varieties and agreed to shoot with winery Crvik. Extremely charming, polite and eloquent Andro on my question with whom I am speaking, in front of cameras replied:
"You have to talk to Peter to work a little, these young people would just like to have fun, nothing else, and they do not care about anything."
We arranged shooting in a few weeks. 
Before shooting, I spoke with a wine critic Sasa Spiranec who, when asked about the winery Crvik among other superlatives said: "... only when the son Peter entered the winery, and he entered active in the creation of wine, Peter who graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at the Univesity of Zagreb, and  had an incredible passion for wines as such a young man, which is really rare to see, then they add an extra zest to the quality, and their wines are now truly a class among the Dalmatian wines.
Most importantly, they interpret the great terroir of the Dubrovnik Malvasia, and their red wines, Merlot and Cabernet primarily, are one of the best red wines of Bordeaux varieties in Dalmatia. "

It quickly became clear to me that these two create a great and very interesting team. Father Andro has set the entire business on its feet and son Peter gave new impetus to the quality.

Their most important grape variety is Dubrovnik’s malvasia. In Konavle it is produced sweet and very often made as dry wine. It is a rich and complex wine. There is no connection to the Istrian Malvasia white, but this is a variety which is also called the Mediterranean and Malvasia delle Lipari, Malvasia di Sardegna, Greco di Gerace and Malvasia de Sitges.

I asked Peter where name Tezoro is coming from?
"It's an interesting story. First of all, the malvasia is guarded Dubrovnik’s treasure in Konavle. For this reason, I wanted to connect it with the Dubrovnik’s history and culture, and Marin Drzic was there, our great inspiration, and in one of his works, ”Skup”, the main object around which the story is  about, is the treasure that is hidden by the father from the family, because he loved it and wanted it all to himself, he called it “my tezoro, my tezoro” my treasure, my tresure. And that's why I called this wine Tezoro.

So the Malvasia is known accurately from 1383, when it was written that one doctor to his patient's needs requested from the Government, the Council, a few liters of that malvasia. Primarily, there was not enough of it. Malvasia is usually very sensitive to peronospore, powdery mildew, botrytis and it was not easy to protect it. For all these reasons malvasia was very rare. It is a small berry that does not give much kg of fruit on the grapewine, and this berry was not really productive, so it was really a rarity and used only as medicine, concentrated.
Historic moment for Malvasia occurred 1424 when the Malvasia grape variety as the wine name was first time mentioned in Croatia. This was in the law of the Republic of Dubrovnik. The law said that any wine has a price limit, but whoever produces Malvasia has no limit and can put any price he wants. " 

From Cavtat I am going to the city about whom are written numerous books, countless songs sung. Here you can touch history. It is a city where are encountered cultural heritage and modern life. The whole world admires it, those who visit it seek paradise on Earth. Simply put, it is an outdoor museum – (unique) one and only
Dubrovnik !!