It’s Valentine’s Day: what better gift to surprise your loved one than a meal prepared by you? Claudio Arciglione, Gold’s executive chef, reveals all the secrets for a perfect hand-made dinner.  The following ones are just creative ideas to inspire you: twist it as you like for a more personal take.

Poached egg with artichokes Crème brûlée and Parmesan

 

Ingredients:

3 eggs

Parmesan

Artichokes

Maltitol

Milk cream

Claudio says: “Egg is the symbol of life so why not use it on Valentine’s Day?”

Mix the artichokes with maltitol (that is less sweet) and eggs to jellify so that you create a Crème brûlée. Bake it to caramelize it. Poach an egg and then coat in panko bread and fry to create a contrast between crispy shell and soft centre.  Place the egg on the Crème brûlée.

Parmesan is presented as a cream (milk cream and desired quantity of Parmesan mixed) and as a “chips”, which you can obtain placing on a plate for microwave a thin slice of Parmesan and cooking it for 10-20 seconds at maximum power.

Beetroot Ravioli in Jerusalem Artichokes cream

 

Ingredients:

Beetroots

Jerusalem Artichokes

Black truffle

Hazelnuts

Buffalo Ricotta

For the ravioli filling: hazelnut paste (mixing peeled hazelnut with seed oil) and ricotta.

For the pasta: Egg pasta using different flours: cereal and soft wheat. Replace part of the egg portions with beetroots to give the color.

The Jerusalem artichoke cream: sautée the artichokes and add broth to them. Mix everything.

Decorate with shavings of black truffle.

Monkfish Millefoglie Pastry

 

Ingredients:

Monkfish

Tomatoes

Sea urchin

Clean the monkfish, wrap it in cling film and place in the oven at 68° C degrees for 55 minutes so that it stays very soft. Accompany it with confit tomatoes, baked at the same temperature for the same time with some sugar, pepper and herbs. At home, to ease the process, place the “monkfish roll” in a pan that is filled with water. The sea urchin sauce has aphrodisiac powers. Use the raw fish, add some olive oil and fish broth, mix it and filter it. Always use the sea urchin raw.

Accompany it with passion fruit oil. How? Place the passion fruit cleaned in a bowl with olive oil and salt. Let it rest overnight. Filter it.

“Vaca Vieja” Beef Sirloin with white beans

 

This is a special kind of meat from aged milk cow that are then dry aged for over 35 days, building a certain level of tasty fat, so that it stays very soft once cooked.

Simply sautée the meat in olive oil and rosemary to keep it rare and tasty. Serve it sliced on Cocco white beans from Spello previously seasoned with olive oil, spicy pepper and mustard seed sauce.

Marinated Pineapple raviolo

 

Ingredients:

Pineapple

Raspberry

Anise

Vanilla syrup

White chocolate

Slice and marinate a pineapple in vanilla syrup with anise. Shape it like a big ravioli and as a filling use white chocolate and raspberries.

Strawberry and Champagne jelly Millefoglie Pastry

 

Ingredients:

Strawberry

Champagne

Heat some champagne with Agar-Agar (natural jelly from red algae) to jellify, add strawberry juice and pour it in a stamp (heart shaped, if you can). Place in the fridge over night.

Millefoglie pastry with Chantilly cream with pistachio: se the same procedure you would for   Chantilly cream and flavor with pistachio paste (make sure to not use the chemical ones, if possible picking the Bronte one.

Not feeling in the mood for cooking? If you are in Milan, simply head to Gold Restaurant for a romantic atmosphere and a delicious Menu thought for Valentine.