Gourmet Christmas and New Year’s Eve with creative recipes and the presence in every dish of fruit and vegetables: a healthy revolution on the table.

Finally December has arrived with the sounds, colors, scents and flavors of Christmas.

Lunch on December 25th and dinner on December 31st are the most anticipated moments of the holidays.

This year let’s season them with lots of taste, but above all with creativity.

Cheeses accompanied by fruit jams, risottos, main courses, winter salads, delicious desserts.

And then canapes, skewers, sushi and exquisite side dishes. And then all to overturn the traditional menus and indulge in preparing new and original dishes made with fruit and vegetables, from appetizers to desserts.

The “I love fruit & veg from Europe” project revolutionizes your table with taste, in the name of well-being and seasonal products, making it possible to create Christmas lunches and dinners with fresh fruit and vegetables present in every dish.

Let’s not forget that in this period we have a great variety of products available to make the most disparate recipes and amaze guests during the holidays.

The holiday dishes will be gourmet and oriented to the well-being of mind and body. “It is important to be gratified at the table during the holidays – explains the nutritionist biologist Maurizio Gallo – but it is not necessary to overeat.

You can also be satisfied by eating a little bit of everything and maybe with lots of small bites.

We try to favor the use of fresh and seasonal fruit and vegetables in the kitchen and not to overdo it with condiments „. In short, Christmas and New Year’s menus can be healthy and tasty, because lunches and dinners do not necessarily have to rhyme with extra pounds.

Let’s keep the balance right and get in the kitchen with the aim of surprising friends and relatives in a healthy and greedy way.

Let’s start with the winter aperitif: white sangria for Christmas, red sangria for New Year’s.

The first is prepared with: 5 mandarin wedges, 2 blond oranges, 50 cl of Cointreau, 25 cl of lime, 2 bottles of sparkling wine, 1 green apple and 1 red apple.

Cut the apples into cubes, take a container and leave them immersed in a little lime juice.

Meanwhile, slice the oranges into small pieces and dip them in the remaining lime and Cointreau and put them in the fridge in a second container.

When ready to serve, pour everything into a transparent jug, adding the very cold sparkling wine and mix vigorously.

We can decorate with mint leaves and with some orange slices kept aside.

The second sangria includes: 1 lime, 2 oranges, 1 bottle of red wine, 1 apple, 50 ml of brandy, 50 ml of port, sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks.

We pour wine, port, brandy, sugar into a transparent jug and mix. Add the cinnamon and the chopped fruit, mix vigorously and put in the fridge to cool for at least three hours.

Let’s move on to the tasty and light appetizer in view of the first and second courses that will be more substantial: for example, cherry tomatoes stuffed with turmeric yogurt and peas or skewers of ricotta and spinach meatballs cooked in the oven with sesame.

Let’s have fun with first courses: lasagnette with artichokes, mozzarella, Parmesan cheese and extra virgin olive oil or let’s go for the risotto. With chestnuts and speck, burrata and figs or with pomegranate and leek cream.

Even for the main courses there is only the embarrassment of choosing between a classic duck with orange, an unusual salad with mango and prawns, roast pork with apples and chestnuts, sea bass with lime and honey, grilled fish with guacamole, octopus salad with potatoes accompanied by tzatziki sauce.

For the side dishes we start with grilled vegetables, here you are never wrong, strictly prepared with seasonal products and seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, mint or parsley and garlic.

A mixed salad with orange wedges and thinly sliced ​​raw onion, black olives and capers.

Let’s not forget the legumes, certainly lentils are the right choice and potato chips, to be cooked in the oven, seasoned with salt, pepper, a little breadcrumbs and extra virgin olive oil.

And for dessert? Let’s unleash the taste buds of our guests, but first let’s pamper them with a fresh fruit skewer to clean the mouth. We can revisit tiramisu and make it more creative and modern.

We will use dry biscuits instead of ladyfingers, which we will soak in milk instead of coffee and to which we will superimpose the coarsely cut figs and mascarpone cream.

To serve our dessert in a more elegant way, we will pour the mixture into many dessert bowls lined with biscuits, even crumbled and mixed with pieces of figs.

Also on the table a pear and ricotta or pear and chocolate cake. Christmas log with chestnuts, fruit tarts, also covered with dried fruit and for children a hazelnut cream dessert must not be missing.

These are the gourmet Christmas and New Year’s Eve in the name of „I love fruit & veg from Europe“.

Enjoy. It’s from Europe!

Federica Riccio