Vinchef is created from the skilful combination of quality Italian white wines and infused herbs. The careful production process preserves the natural qualities and aromas of the infused herbs and spices.
Vinchef’s convenience and value are clear: with one simple step, you can add a whole range of flavours!
Vinchef draws on Italy’s tradition of good food and the pleasure of cooking with simple, wholesome ingredients full of flavour.
Italian white wine and the mediterranean aromatic herbs tradition come together in a recipe designed to bring the taste and experience of Italian cooking into every kitchen.
A small gesture, a great result: the easiest way to add an authentic Italian touch to your recipes.
The recipe was developed under the guidance of renowned Italian chefs and food connoisseurs and includes a blend of the herbs most widely used in Mediterranean cooking.
With its intense fragrance and bittersweet aroma, rosemary is traditionally appreciated for its role in helping the body digest fats.
With its pleasantly bitter flavour, thyme is especially popular in soups, fish soups, omelettes, roasts and stews.
With its sweet, spicy flavour, oregano has been used since ancient times to season meat, fish and tomatoes.
Dried bay leaves are commonly added to sauces and sautéed bases.
Carefully measured, coriander enhances and refines the wine’s savoury character.
Ideal for experienced cooks who are always looking for a personal touch, and indispensable for kitchen beginners who want a simple, quick way to add flavour to their dishes.
Vinchef is ideal for experienced cooks who are always looking to add a personal touch to their recipes, and indispensable for kitchen beginners who want a simple, quick way to add flavour to their dishes.
Vinchef brings together Italian white wine and the fragrance of aromatic herbs from the Mediterranean tradition. A simple, versatile ingredient designed to bring an authentic Italian taste to everyday recipes.
Rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, bay leaf and garlic are carefully measured and left to infuse in the wine for an extended period, creating a harmonious balance of aromas and flavours.
Versatile and ready to use, Vinchef is ideal for marinating meat and fish, deglazing pans for risottos and scaloppine, enriching sauces and dressings, or adding character to pasta, vegetables and many other dishes.
On its own, it adds a pleasing aromatic complexity to dishes. Combined with your favourite herbs, spices and ingredients, it becomes a way to express your creativity in the kitchen.
For those who love Italian cooking and those who want to discover its flavours, Vinchef is a simple, natural way to turn every recipe into a little masterpiece.
The anchovy is a small fish that can grow to around 15 centimetres in length; exceptionally large specimens can weigh approximately 80–100 grams. It is common throughout the sea and travels in enormous schools, sometimes weighing several tonnes. During the breeding season, anchovies move into shallow waters to lay their eggs. The Etruscans already preserved them in salt; Roman times left us with an enduring mystery about the composition of garum, a sauce made by fermenting fish, which continues to fascinate people today.
Anchovies should be extremely fresh, preferably caught during the night and handled carefully, as their delicate, blood-rich flesh does not keep well for long in refrigerated storage. Their eyes and gills should be bright, their flesh firm, and their skin shiny, with a fresh smell of the sea. They should be stiff to the touch, with no white eyes or gills, cracked skin or flesh that breaks under light pressure.
Clean the anchovies by removing the heads and continuing the movement to remove the backbone, taking care not to detach the end of the tail, which will hold the two sides together. Rinse them and let them drain first in a colander and then on kitchen paper. Meanwhile, finely chop the salted anchovies, parsley, capers and chilli. Add the crushed garlic, hard cheese, oregano, breadcrumbs and some lightly beaten egg, mixing until well combined. Fill the butterflied anchovies with the mixture, roll them up and secure with a toothpick.
Arrange the anchovies on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with a little oil and a few spoonfuls of Vinchef, which will both add flavour and help balance the anchovies’ sharpness. Anchovies are moreish—one leads to another—so they are best enjoyed in moderation, perhaps alongside a chilled white or rosé wine. Bake at 200°C for about 10 minutes and serve hot, accompanied by battered and fried vegetables. Batters can vary according to what they are used for; for vegetables, a simple mixture of cold sparkling water, flour and a few spoonfuls of Vinchef works well. Add salt after frying.
Sea bream is a queen among fish—and its name says it all. Its body is robust at the front and gradually tapers towards the tail. Its strong, compact teeth allow it to eat a varied diet: its small rounded teeth and tough palate enable it to feed on mussels, crabs, prawns, small cuttlefish and octopus, and even to break the very hard shells of murex snails. This diet gives its flesh a particularly prized flavour.
Dice the vegetables and sauté them in a pan with a drizzle of oil, salt, pepper and a few spoonfuls of Vinchef. Meanwhile, scale and clean the fish, opening it along the back so that you can remove the backbone and central bones, creating a kind of pocket. This is a slightly tricky operation, but a sharp knife will make it easier—remember, a knife that cuts better is safer to use.
Stuff the fish with the vegetables and bring it back into shape, tying it with kitchen string. Place each fish on parchment paper, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with oil, add a couple of spoonfuls of Vinchef and wrap into two parcels. Bake for about 15 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish, remove the paper and spoon over the cooking juices. Finish with a drizzle of oil and a few drops of lemon juice.
At night, armed with a carbide lamp—which we all jokingly called, in our own ‘scientific’ terminology, a frignolo—and a spear, we would walk among the rocks, searching every crevice along the shoreline. The cuttlefish, out hunting at that hour, became easy targets for our harpoons… (from “I Pesci della Terrazza”).
Clean the cuttlefish and separate the head and fins from the body. Put the chopped shallot, chilli and the tougher parts of the cuttlefish into a pan and cook, covered, with a little Vinchef. Meanwhile, blanch the Swiss chard in a little lightly salted water; drain, cool and gently squeeze out the excess water.
Add the cuttlefish bodies to the pan and cook very briefly with a spoonful of Vinchef. Add the roughly chopped Swiss chard. Meanwhile, blanch the tomatoes, remove their skins and seeds, and cut them into strips before adding them to the cuttlefish. Cook for another couple of minutes and adjust the salt. Serve with a drizzle of oil and, if desired, a little freshly ground pepper.
Cuttlefish, like all molluscs, should be cooked just long enough and never overcooked, as is sometimes the practice. Some parts are tougher—the head, tentacles and fins—while the body is exceptionally tender. It should retain all the flavours and aromas of the sea, rather than becoming a buttery, flavourless texture.
The smooth-hound is a small, harmless shark common in the Mediterranean. It can grow to over a metre in length and weigh several dozen kilos. Its flesh is delicious and boneless, as its skeleton consists of a central support (commonly called a ‘bone’) that can easily be removed after cooking.
Its tough skin is easily removed by the fishmonger. The fish is excellent fresh, with a mild, delicate flavour, and also freezes well, retaining appealing tenderness and savouriness.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into small pieces, then brown them in a pan. Meanwhile, cut the cherry tomatoes into wedges and remove the seeds. Dust the smooth-hound lightly with flour and briefly sear it in an ovenproof pan over high heat. Season with salt. Transfer to the oven for about 10 minutes with Vinchef, the partially cooked potatoes and the cherry tomatoes. At the end of cooking, add the capers, olives and oregano. Serve with the cooking juices and a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley.
It is excellent served with fresh peas. It also pairs well with tomatoes, whose acidity balances the slightly sweet flesh. Smooth-hound has tender, firm meat that lends itself to many preparations and is ideal for those who prefer fish with a milder flavour.
The field in front of the house always yielded a few vegetables which, after a quick blanch, could be combined with leftover milk from the cow or goat. With a resourceful approach to cooking—guided by the rule of wasting nothing and by the traditional wisdom of making good food from whatever was available—it was always possible to prepare something special. Wild greens, whether Swiss chard, borage, spinach or something else, mixed with a little ricotta and wrapped in freshly rolled homemade pasta, made a dish that is hard to match.
Mix the flours with the eggs using the method described in the previous recipe and leave the dough to rest, covered. Meanwhile, wilt the spinach in a pan with a spoonful of Vinchef. Remove and repeat with the Swiss chard. Once cooled, squeeze out the excess water, place the greens on a chopping board and finely chop with a knife. Put them in a bowl and mix with the ricotta, egg, grated Parmesan and a light grating of nutmeg (about 30% of one nut).
In a saucepan, heat a drizzle of oil and add the carrot, celery and fresh white spring onion, cut into pieces (or a mild onion). Cook for about 30 minutes with the roughly chopped tomatoes, chilli and two or three spoonfuls of Vinchef.
Meanwhile, prepare the tortelli: roll the pasta through a pasta machine as thinly as possible and cut into squares of about 7–8 cm, or circles of the same diameter. Fill with the well-mixed filling and seal into the shape of ‘Venus’s navel’—which, I promise, you will have learned by now.
