This is about the right amount. After adding your water and salt, let the dough sit covered with a damp kitchen towel or plastic wrap for five minutes or so to make sure that it’s fully hydrated, then add more water if it still feels dry.

Shaping an arepa is a two-handed process. If you’re a real expert, you can do it without a work surface, simply pressing it back and forth between your hands until it forms a disk about 1/4-inch thick and 4 to 6 inches wide. I find it easier to shape on a cutting board, using one hand to flatten and the other to shape. Once the arepas are formed, there are a few cooking options. A grill pan or actual grill are great, as is a flat, lightly buttered skillet (use cast iron or non-stick). Even easier is a panini press. Cheesy Arepas: Want to take your arepas to the next level? Try adding some cheese directly to the dough.

Whatever method you use, the key is low, slow heat. You want to cook slowly in order to drive off excess moisture from the interior as the exterior gets slowly browned. A well-made arepa should take at least ten to fifteen minutes to cook.

Young Colombian cheese tend to be slightly sour and have a relatively high melting point, which is necessary when you incorporate it into the arepa dough. You don’t want it to melt all over the place while you cook. If you can find traditional Colombian farmer’s cheese, feta, cotija, ricotta salata, or even a relatively young Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano will work (if using the latter two, cut the amount called for in half). Cheese-Stuffed Thick Arepas
Even more intense than basic cheesy arepas are arepas made with a thick layer of melty cheese stuffed right into the middle. I first had these at an outdoor stand in the small town of La Calera, about an hour’s ride outside of Bogotá. They were cooked on a little rotating stone pedestal near an open coal fire. Smoky, cheesy, and delicious.

This ubiquitous Quechan dish has taken on countless European-style variations, often served as a cake roll, terrine, casserole, or in colorful individual servings. Whatever the presentation, it starts with meaty mashed yellow Peruvian potatoes blended with lime, oil and spicy aji amarillo sauce. Shredded tuna, salmon, or chicken are mixed with mayo, followed by layers of avocado, hardboiled eggs, and olives. That surface is topped again with more potato mix, and so on, making as many lasagna-like layers as one dares. This bright, barely-spicy dish is served cold as a salad course or side dish.

Arroz con Pato (Rice With Duck)
This seemingly simple Spanish Criollo recipe is a signature dish in Peru. Rice is cooked in cilantro paste, herbs, and dark beer, giving a deep, earthy flavor to the vegetal grain. A roasted thigh and leg or—if lucky—crisp-seared duck confit is added on top of a mound of the green rice. The dish is so popular, it’s found on nearly every Peruvian family table as well as at the finest restaurants in Lima, and like much of Peruvian cooking, it’s been adapted into countless variations of rice mixture, texture and duck parts—and even with chicken or other poultry.

Spaghetti recipes from chef Claudio Chinali
Claudio Chinali, the Italian Executive Chef of Eataly Istanbul, shared his special spaghetti recipes.
Claudio Chinali, the Italian Executive Chef of Eataly Istanbul, one of the leading restaurants of Istanbul gastronomy, shared his special spaghetti recipes in MAG magazine.
Here are Chef Claudio Chinali’s recipes:

Lemon Infused Spaghetti with Saffron and Sand Mussel
Materials:

1 lt Lemon Infused Fish Juice
320 gr “Gragnano dop” Spaghetti
80 ml Saffron infusion water
1 kg fresh Sand Mussels from Gallipoli
20 g fresh parsley
40 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic
Preparation of:

Put a saucepan on the fire. When it’s very hot, add some olive oil, garlic cloves, pre-cleaned clams and some lemon-flavored fish stock. Cook with a lid for 60-90 seconds until the mussels are opened. Remove the mussels from the water and set the mussel meat aside. Strain the remaining water through a fine mesh strainer to remove any grains of sand.

Start cooking the spaghetti in boiling salted water. Cook the pasta for just 5 minutes and drain while still half raw. Meanwhile, put a pan on the stove and add the water in which the mussels were cooked. Add the spaghetti to the pan and finish cooking in this liquid. Add a tablespoon of saffron juice and add some more lemon juice if necessary. Add chopped parsley and some olive oil to the mussels. Mix well and serve in a deep plate.

Here’s what you’ll need to make these cranberry-studded beauties:

White whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour: Either one will work. White whole wheat flour (available in health food stores or well-stocked grocery stores) is made with white wheat berries instead of red, and has a more mild flavor as a result. As long as your whole wheat flour hasn’t been sitting on the shelf too long, your muffins will not have a strong “whole wheat” taste. In fact, if your flour smells rancid or your muffins taste bitter, your flour has gone bad.
Problem: The muffins were still far too tart, though (and I like tart).

Solution: To counteract the tartness of the cranberries, I added 1/4 cup more honey or maple syrup, which made these muffins perfectly sweet—not too much, not too little.

Problem: The extra moisture from the additional liquid sweetener made the muffins flatten out on the top. I wanted beautifully domed, fluffy muffins, so I tried decreasing the amount of yogurt, tweaking the baking powder and baking soda, and I was almost ready to give up…

Solution: I went back to the original formula and added 1/4 cup more flour. The muffins rose like a dream!

Eight tries later, I landed on perfect cranberry orange muffins! I hope you’ll make them while cranberries are still in season.