LUIGI'S TASTES OF ITALY

Ribolita

2011-07-29T21:40:00.000+01:00

Given that this blog is called Luigis tastes of Italy, and im Italian, there have been a great deal of 'foreign' recipes lately, so have
decided to bring the blog back on track and post about one of my all-time favorite Italian dishes.

As well as foreign food, the word peasant has featured heavily on this blog, and unfortunately that is habit I can't yet break, the word peasant is going to feature again on my blog, it seems I can't post an Italian, or indeed any recipe without mentioning the word these days.

I think perhaps secretly I have a craving for the simple life. Who knows.

Regardless of why I keep mentioning them, the peasants are attributable to another beautiful Italian recipe.

It is quite easy to figure the origins of Ribolita, stale bread, simple cabbage, beans, basic roots. All things every home
will have at one time or another, so the comibination was somewhat invevitable.

The real star of this recipe, is undoubtedly Cavolo Nero. Wy we in the UK cant find this easily in markets, or even supermarkets, is beyond me.
It is immeasurably more delicious than any savoy cabbage, and is packed full of character and flavour.

Luckily however fear not, if you live in a reasonably temperate climate, have some kind of soil available to you, then you can most definitely grow Cavolo Nero yourself.

Growing your own, isn't exciting, it's not fun, but if you like fresh ingredients and Italian varieties, then it is sometimes essential.

They're one of the toughest, hardiest, unfussy vegetables I know, this past year they coped with an incredibly dry autumn, and temperatures of -15C during the first half of winter. And yet here they are in early spring looking remarkably healthy.

Basically the only care they need, is protection from caterpillars in the late summer. Simple.

The recipe itself, is not really worth commenting on, other than to highlight the importance of using a decent bread, perhaps a grain, rather than
just a cheap white loaf. A cheap white loaf will just turn to mush, while something decent will retain texture and flavour.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

7-8 sliced up large leaves of Cavolo Nero
400g can of Cannelini beans
1 potato, peeled roughly diced,
2 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion diced
1 carrot diced
1 stick of celery diced
1 litre of chicken stock
2-3 peeled tomatoes chopped
5-6 thick slices of a decent grain bread (stale is ideal)
Grated parmesan to serve

METHOD:

-In a large pan, gently fry the onions and garlic until translucent.

-Next add the celery and carrot, reduce the heat, and cook for around 15 minutes until everything is a golden colour.

-Next add the diced potato, cavolo nero and tomatoes, increase the heat slightly and cook for a few minutes.

-Next add the chicken stock and half the amount of Cannelini beans and mash them in the pan.

-Cover and gently simmer for around 40 minutes, next add the remaining Cannelini beans.

-Continue to cook for another 20-30 minutes, and then set aside.

-Take your slices of bread, and griddle them until coloured, like you would as if making a bruschetta. After this rub a garlic clove over them and set aside.

-Next take a large casserole type bowl, and add a ladle of the 'soup' followed by a slice or two of the bread, repeat this so you create layers.

-The final part is a waiting game, you can eat this after ten or so minutes, but if you were to allow the flavours to "steep" for a few hours, or overnight (and of course reheat) everything just becomes so much more intense. Enjoy!!

Russian Solyanka soup

2011-04-25T22:28:00.003+01:00

It has been quite a while since my last blog, I keep meaning to blog, but keeping getting distracted by our dear son Sergio (15 months old). If he isn't teething, he has a cold, and when he has neither of those.
He is due a shot that makes him cranky until one of the aformetioned happens again. Seems to happen that way anyway.

I expect this will continue until he is at least 10! In the meantime here are some catchup shots: Yep eating, and now walking/standing staring at tv (too often) and wearing a bizarre "ladies man" bib.

As mentioned a while ago, one of my favorite places to dine in southern Russia is a 24hr cafe pretty close to the main airport we fly into, the main reason this is my favourite is the delicious solyanka soup that is served throughout the day.

Throughout every culture the peasants eat well, and Russia is no different to anywhere else. This warming, filling soup is something we eat quite often, when taking a break from pasta.

Essentially this is a chefs or home-makers dream, it is basically a "left overs" soup, but as well as being a blessing to a professional kitchen its a useful trick for the home too, especially in harsh economic times (everyday in our house).

A few storecupboard basics, and a few scraps presto you have a delicious soup.

INGREDIENTS:

250g leftovers of beef, chicken, duck, or fish (in below recipe duck was used)
5 cups of vegetable stock
100g smoked bacon, or sausage diced
150g diced gherkin
1 Onion, diced
2 tablespoons of tomato paste/concentrate
1 cup of black olives
3 bay leaves

Garnish slices of lemon, sprig of dill and parsley.

METHOD:

-Fry the diced onion in a little oil, then add the remainder of the ingredients and simmer gently for approximately 45 minutes.

- Serve and garnish with slices of lemon, and some fresh dill, and/or parsley, a dollop of soured cream is optional, but almost obligatory in Russia. I however, just eat it with crusty bread.

Enjoy!!

Easy Tarte Tatin

2011-01-22T15:15:00.004Z

To be honest, I am not the worlds biggest fan of French cuisine when it comes to eating out. I find that it lends itself to being overly pretentious and over hyped. And to that end, it is no surprise that most Michelin stars awarded seem to fall to establishments serving French food.

There is no problem with that, most are greatly deserved, but it is a little unfair when this filters down to local resturaunts who abandon their roots, and instead try to create dishes beyond their ability simply with the vain hope of trying to attract attention.

Personally; I like to eat, I like decent sized portions, and I admire the flavors in my meal. And most important of all I want value.

I really do not wish to be charged huge prices so I can sit and admire the appearance and presentation of the food, if I want art, I will go to a gallery! Nor do I want to sit and fret with worry about the "over-inflated" price I will be paying at the end of the meal, but if that is your thing, then cool. And, I sort of get it.

However, moving away from fine dining, home cooked French food is in all honesty not so disimilar from Italian, in principle.
The French have an equally huge passion for food (and of course wines) and many of the finest dishes as in Italian history, date back to being recipes enjoyed by simple country dwelling peasants.

In many respects it is a huge disservice to the origins of French food, to have many of these classic dishes served in high-end establishments at all.

Although after talking about such history, the much loved, Tarte Tatin which I am blogging about was reportedly first created as recent as the early 20th century! This dish though in common with what I was talking about earlier, is so incredibly simple, it could almost be Italian.

Yet for many people I know, they still seem to have a missunderstanding that tarte tatin is incredibly difficult. This really isn't the case. Even if you were (and I don't, lifes to short) to go to the trouble of creating your own puff pastry, it is an easily (albeit time consuming) acheivable task.

Below I have probably the easiest dessert recipe I have seen, and it produces an incredibly tasty tarte tatin. You could use Pears in lieu of apples, and the result is equally incredible.

INGREDIENTS:

8 cox Apples, or similar firm fleshed apples.
4 oz of caster sugar
4 oz butter

1 packet of readymade Puff Pastry.

METHOD

-Peel your apples, core them, and cut them in half, then half again, and finally into equal wedges. Roughly aim for the shape shown below. Although yours will probably be more uniform (i'm rubbish at cutting things).

-Next take a heavy bottomed (oven safe) frying pan, and over the bottom cover it with the butter, so it forms an equal light covering over the bottom. I'd say nothing larger than 12" diameter or increase quantities.

-Next evenly sprinkle the sugar so it forms a uniform coating.

-Once happy the sugar is uniform put the apples wedges onto the base upside down, so the pointy edge of the wedge is facing skyward. Start on the outside and keep going until the base is totally covered.

-Next place the pan over a medium high heat, cover the apples with a weight, such as a plate to keep them firmly in place while the butter and sugar caramelise with the apples beneath. While this is happening, turn on the Oven to around a medium high heat Gas 6 for example.

-After around 5-6 minutes gently lift the weighted plate, if the caramel between the apples is golden, your're ready for the next step, if not cover again and heat until your happy. If you like it darker, feel free to heat for longer.

-Once youre happy, take off the heat, and roll out your puff pastry, so it is just slightly larger than the circumference of the pan. Then gently and carefully layer the pastry over the apples (lift off plate first obviously), and tuck in the sides!
Warning!! Caramel is insanely hot don't touch the apples at this stage!

-Next you can place the pan straight into the oven, and bake for around twenty minutes until the pastry is puffed and golden.

-Once cooked, you need to rest the tatin for around 15 minutes, so it's cool enough to turn over without burning you're hands. Gently turn over the tatin, as can be seen mine was quite pale, but if you prefer the caramel darker do, do it that way!

SERVING SUGGESTION:

Tarte Tatin is in my opinion best served warm, with ice cold vanilla ice cream, but it would sit equally well with a nice custard. As is obligatory a completely rubbish photo is shown below!

Can imagine yours will look better, but with no doubt in my mind I can say that it will taste as equally nice! How easy is this dish! Enjoy!

Happy New Year and a rant on Health!

2011-01-03T14:51:00.001Z

Only a few months, but it seems like an eternity since I last updated the blog, for one reason or another I just haven't had the time, but I can restart my blogging today by having a rant, but by first saying; Happy New Year!!

Early january is my favourite time of the year, a time for looking forward to the future and all the promise it may hold. For many other folks that I know it is also that "time of the year", that they give some consideration to thinking about healthy eating, and/or weight loss.

Personally I find this quite annoying, as the same way that romance should not be limited to a single day in February ( the14th), heathly eating should not be confined to two weeks in January to satisfy some shortlived resolution.

I enjoy eating healthy food, it shouldn't be a big deal. I would say that I eat very healthily. Admittedly, I make no effort because in my opinion regular everyday Italian food, is essentially healthy anyway.

I mean, Italian cuisine has to be one of the healthiest in the world.

I realize you might be thinking that is a silly thing to say, but it isn't. The problem arises, because it is not perceived so, and there is a misunderstanding over what Italian food actually is. This is probably because of the abundance of ready made "Italian" convenience meals, and bottled artifical sauces, and frozen pieces of cardboard masquerading as "pizza" that can be found in our supermarkets.

Sadly, all of these convenient purchases, are often jam packed full of calories, and are commonly can be laden to the brim with salt, and/or other unpleasantries. You really don't have to believe me, just flip them over and read the labels.

Another misconception and urban myth is based around the pasta iteslf. And that is, that supposedly eating pasta, WILL make you fat. No, actually, it won't.

A typical normal 'Italian' serving of pasta, with a home made tomato sauce, or lets not play around, even a rich cream sauce for that matter; And a sprinkle of regular parmesan cheese, even if eaten three times a day, will NOT make you fat.

A bore?,
maybe constipated?
Well possibly!,

an honorary Italian?, definitely!!!!,
but certainly not fat. Fact!

On the other hand though. If you were to eat a huge quantity of pasta, and you were to pour upon it a high calorie, salt laden, readymade tomato sauce. And upon that you were to dump a snowfall of ready grated artificial parmesan, or copious amounts of grated full fat cheddar cheese.
It probably, neigh definitely WILL make you fat. Fact!

The latter however, is definitely not, how an Italian would eat it.

The excessive sugars, excess salts, and all the artificial ingredients used in convenience foods, are our real enemies. Not the percieved waist bulking harm thought to come from carbohydrates.

These kinds of life choices between actually cooking, or being lazy and opening the readymade convenient alternatives, are the real choices which affect our health, and our waistlines. Which is why I am always so vocal about speaking against ready made convenience food, and such an advocate of home cooking.

It is a fact that it is ultimately both cheaper, and healthier to make you're own meals. Period. I can't see much of a valid, logical argument against it.

Convenience of time, I hear some people scream. Well there is no such thing as I don't have the time. The day still consits of 24hrs, and always has. If our grandparents and parents, had time to cook. So do we!

This fact was demonstrated the other evening when I had to work late, it didn't matter that it was 10.30pm, when I got home. I was going to eat. Ok so I wasn't going to make a lasagna, nor did I fancy a heavy pasta dish at that time of night. However I did want something healthy.

So I opted for our good friend the Salmon Steak, griddled straight from the freezer, these are affordable, and relatively nutritious to eat. In addition I had a few 'baked' potato chunks, and one of my favourite salads consisting of watercress, baby spinach, and wild rocket. For the dressing, well the best dressing for this sort of strong flavoured salad, is no more complicated than lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. This took no longer than 15 minutes to prepare, which is in anyones book, no great shakes.

I could quite easily have made simple spaghetti, with fresh tomatoes, and a few black olives,

or I could have made a simple bruschetta,

None of which im sure would be considered unhealthy, all within that same fifteen minutes of time.

I suppose the real point is, wether it was Italian or not, the fact is, that I did have time, even though home late, and there isn't an excuse to just opt for a ready meal, which in my opinion should be avoided, and consigned to history as an early 21st century culinary folly. Rant over!

Luigi Style Saltimbocca!!

2010-09-05T21:29:00.002+01:00

Saltimbocca translated into English basically means hop/jump into my mouth, which for this particular dish is quite apt, as it is absolutely delicious.

Essentially being Italian, this is very simple, and is no more than a veal fillet, with sage, and prosciutto, gently fried in butter, with a dash of Marsala wine added. Thats all it is.

Now, If I was being all uber traditional, I should insist that Saltimbocca can only be made with Veal (the meat from a young calf), and I do not doubt that is the best way of eating it.

However the real world being what it is, we do not always have easy access (or the budget) to Veal throughout the year, but to my mind, it should not mean that I deny myself this delicious dish. So instead, in this particular example we used tender pork loins as an alternative (you could use Chicken fillet, equally to excellent effect).

Obviously it tastes quite different, but with the pork being quite "fatty" it holds up very well to the strong flavours of the sage, and the salty prosciutto. And in my opinion it is not far from the veal version when finished.

For some reason our family, have always served this with a cream sauce, which is what I have presented here. It basically consists of adding the double cream once the meat is fried, and to gently simmer the cream with the meat, along with some extra sage leaves. We also add the Marsala wine, with the cream. Provided you use double cream, do not heat it crazily fast, you will not have any issues with splitting sauces.

I should add, Marsala wine, is commonly available now, but a sweet Sherry, can act as a substitute.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

4 pork loin fillets,
150ml Double Cream,
fresh sage, around 8 leaves
2 tablespoons of marsala wine
knob of butter
salt and pepper to season

METHOD:

- Take some pork loin fillets or similar, trim off as much fat as you like, and gently "hammer" so they are quite flat and of uniform thickness, season well with salt and pepper, both sides.

-Next onto the pork, add a leaf or two of sage, and onto that apply a slice of the prosciutto, give it a pat so that it "sticks" to the surface.

-Into a hot frying pan, on a medium high heat, add some butter, and gently put the pork loins in, so that the prosciutto is face down onto the cooking surface first, cook for a few minutes until golden, then gently turn them over.

-Once the meat has cooked, add the double cream, and add the extra sage leaves, and add the marsala wine. Cook for a few more minutes, then remove the meat. At this point increase the heat slightly and reduce the cream sauce, until it thickens to a consistency your happy with. Serve with the meat, but avoid pouring it over.

SERVING SUGGESTION:
We had this with fried mushrooms, just simply cooked with garlic and parsley, but sauteed rosemary potatoes are another excellent accompaniement.

Yes, another shockingly bad photo, it did taste delicious though, and if you try it, I am sure you will agree.
Enjoy!!

Ferrari's and Cima Di Rapa!

2010-08-28T22:19:00.000+01:00

Shopping is not really my thing, unless its for food, or something particularly exciting.

I just find (as do many men i'm sure) the task of walking around countless shop after shop, staring and looking at things, i'm never ordinarily going to buy, frankly, quite tedious.

I mean I do shop for clothes, but I generally know what im going to buy.

So it was with real effort that I went out with the mission of buying a few "essentials". Things like nappies, new changing mat, etc, while baby stayed at home and got his favourite milky cereal fed to him.

Long story short, rather like the tale of that boy Jack (Jack and the Beanstalk, google it) sent out to sell a cow for market, and coming home with magic beans, I managed to forget half the things I was supposed to buy, but I did come home with this!!

Yes, its inappropriate for a 7 month baby.
Yes, it was relatively expensive.
But it's a Ferrari racing car!
A Formula 1 racing car, thats baby sized.

To an Italian, the sight of the blood red gleaming curvy body, the yellow and black prancing horse emblazoned on the side it is as I explained to my wife, an impossible lure to avoid.

As happens I imagine to many husbands who have made impulsive purchases, I had to quickly justify the purchase. On this occasion justification would be achieved by testing wether Sergio liked it, or else it was going back to the shop.

Fortunately he did, and like any great racing driver, he immediately set about adjusting the brake balance, fuel mixtures, and engine mapping.

I think he figured it out. The face of a contented Italian, sat on his prancing horse, if ever I saw one.

Which is probably similar to the look of contentment on my face, when I saw that our Cima di Rape was ready to harvest! Almost like a bunch of flowers.

Basically it comes in a few forms locally, 40, 60, 90, 120 day varieties, the slower growing ones being the bigger, and having the best taste. I normally grow 40's and 90's. The idea being the 40's give you something to eat, very quickly, while your waiting for the slower varieties to mature. Using that method, means we have at least 3-4 harvests a season, which keeps us nicely stocked.

Apart from eating this with pasta, as mentioned in earlier blog posts, it also makes a delicious side to all kinds of meals, or is even great allowed to cool, and placed between chunky bread. Essentially the cooking method is the same, just wilt them down (heads and leaves) in a frying pan, with garlic, and few crushed dried chillies.

It is a real shame that British supermarkets don't stock these, as the unusual bitter taste, is absolutely delicious.

If anyone in the UK wants to give them a try, just google "seeds of italy" and you will find Paolo Arrigo's website, they stock the full range of Franchi seeds, including these (very inexpensive) which are literally throw in the ground and forget crops. Enjoy!

Baby Update and Coffee Cake!

2010-07-31T21:47:00.001+01:00

So since we had our lovely baby in January, I have realized (probably more so than my wife) just how difficult parenthood is, very little going out, spare time is almost non-existant, certainly no more playstation time, or spare hours spent messing around on the PC, shockingly even very little time for the blog here.

Now instead, life is all divided up into bite size smalll chunks. All of which revolve around baby, and take place between his feeds, nappy changes and random sleeping patterns.

Thankfully though, there is still time to cook, to share, and to eat, and that monumental moment has now come to baby Sergios life where he will be baptized into that lifelong activity! Eating food!

To mark this occasion we decided to bake a coffee cake, well why not, cake is always good for a celebration. Was just a simple affair of sugar, butter, a few eggs, self raising flour, baking powder, and a couple of tablespoons of strong espresso.

The bad news for Sergio, was that at all these ingredients were off-limits to a small baby, but it didn't stop him getting mighty excited to see it.

And the excitment continued, he was even pleased to pose for the camera (and no thats not a potty, its supposedly a special chair, thats good for his back)

Sadly however, the excitment was short lived, the cake was taken away, for mummy and daddy to enjoy later, instead there was something else in store for his inaugural meal.

As can be seen he was less than impressed with the tasteless, colourless, odourless baby rice he was confronted with. "WTF is that, that ain't cake" .

However having Italian genes, he soon got the hang of eating, greediness, and making a mess, baby rice today, piles of pasta tomorrow (not literally, before social services come beating down our door).

Hopefully in the next few weeks, I can finally share some more recipes, but for now I hope this update was of some interest. And at least explains my abscence. :)

Pastiera di Pasqua (Italian Easter Flan)

2010-06-19T13:28:00.001+01:00

Ok so this post is a bit belated, actually it is very belated, but there is no way I could not blog about one of the nicest Italian Easter treats, which is especially popular in the Naples area.

Actually Naples is where Pastiera originated. It is safe to say, that as much as Strufoli are associated with Christmas, then undoubtedly the Pastiera {passt-ear-AR} belongs to Easter, and especially to Good Friday.

Essentially this is a type of custard cheesecake, consisting of ricotta cheese combined with a custard mix, and with cooked wheat, and flavoured citrus zest running through it. When this mixture is eaten in combination with the shortcrust pastry it is absolutely delightful. And it is no surprise this became so popular.

Again as is usual for one of my recipes, I will mention a few of the ingredients. As I have found in the UK, cooked wheat is not always very simple to source (the effort is however, worthwhile), but if its an impossible task, you could substitute wheat, with cooked rice and you can get a similar textural effect.

In addition if you can't find candid orange zest, you could make your own by boiling orange peel in sugar water, for around 10 minutes, draining and then leaving the peel in sugar for a few days. After shaking off the excess sugar, you can store them in sealed jars where they will keep for ages (probaby forever).

Another note, and as many Italians do, this can be made a few days in advance, and kept quite happily in the fridge, if anything the flavour improves over time, so if you can, it is worth doing. However a word of warning, if your anything like me, the possibility of leaving something like this lurking in the fridge without eating it, is absolutely zero.

INGREDIENTS:
(Serves 6)

Short Crust Pastry, enough to line two 6" flan cases. Approximately in practice, this will be around 400g (14 oz). Readymade is fine, or you can make your own using 2 eggs, 100g (4oz) white flour, 100g (4oz) of butter. Just combine together and chill for 30 minutes in the frigde prior to using.

250g (8 oz) White granulated sugar,
150g (5 oz) cooked wheat,
500g Ricotta cheese
30g (1 oz) chopped crystalized orange zest (candid peel),
pinch of cinnamon
100ml (4 oz) milk
15g (half oz) butter
3 eggs and 1 extra yolk
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
half a lemon, zest only
milk and egg mixture for brushing onto pastry

METHOD:

- In a milk pan, pour the milk and butter, and into it add the lemon zest and the cooked wheat. Then bring to a simmer over a gentle heat, and cook for around 20 minutes. You can then set this aside.

- Meanwhile in a mixing bowl add the ricotta cheese, eggs, vanilla, crystalized orange zest, cinnamon, and rest of ingredients (not the pastry of course) and combine together.

-Next fold together the ricotta cheese mixture into the slightly warm milk pan contents, being gentle but thorough to make sure everything is well mixed.

-Line the flan dishes with the pastry leaving some overlapping the edge, but make sure to keep some of the pastry aside to decorate the top with.

-Next pour the mixture into the flan dish(es), fold the sides slightly over, and decorate the top by making 1" strips of pastry. Criss-Cross these over the top, you can prick the top with a fork, and brush with some milk and beaten egg to get a pretty glaze.

-Then place carefully in the middle of a medium heat oven (Gas Mark 4/ 175C / 350F), and bake the pastiera for approximately one hour, keep checking after 40 minutes, until it is golden brown and set.

-To serve, dust the top liberally with icing sugar. So as is traditional, its time to share some awful camera phone pics, and yes I do have a digital camera, but it is in the cupboard, and im very lazy.

As mentioned this does store very well in the fridge, so it is worthwhile making in advance. Although traditionally eaten at Easter, I see no reason why you couldn't eat this at other times of the year, just don't mention it to any Italians. Enjoy!

Torta Di Polenta, e Limone

2010-05-18T21:21:00.002+01:00

To be perfectly honest, I am not the worlds biggest fan of Polenta.

I mean I do like it, we eat it reasonably often, both wet, and in solid form. Polenta however is not something I would dream about, or suddenly get an urge, or craving to eat.

So it probably comes as no surprise that I tried something a little different to make things more exciting. As a child, I can remember eating a Polenta based tart, and as vile as maybe it sounds, it was actually delicious.

I could remember it was very sharp, and sweet at the same time. Obviously it was made with fresh lemons picked from the tree in the garden, but still my hopes in creating a replica using imported produce was quite high.

The main thing to note about the ingredients, is that you definitely need to use real Polenta, rather than the "instant" stuff, but at a push, the latter does work reasonably well, but the texture will suffer, and you will find it more dense, rather than crumbly and light.

It is also worth mentioning that when making the Lemon Syrup, you could add lemon zest as we sometimes do, it adds an extra note of bitterness. As always with cooking, tinker as you wish. There is also no reason why it wouldn't be delicious combining limes into this original recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

150g (5 oz)      unsalted butter
100g (3.5 oz)   granulated sugar
100g (3.5 oz)   polenta (non instant if possible)
200g (7oz)       ground almonds, or almond flour
50g   (1.5oz)    flaked almonds
3 eggs
1 lemon

Lemon Syrup
2 lemons, juiced,
50g sugar
50ml water

METHOD:

-First step is to cream together the butter and sugar until nicely combined, and lightened in colour.

-Next combine the eggs into this mixture, don't worry if it looks vile, or splitting, it will come together again later.

-Add the polenta, ground almonds, flaked almonds, the Lemon zest (optional) and/or juice. Mix very well, until everything is nicely combined.

-Pour the mixture into a flan case or equivalent and bake in the middle of an oven for around 30-45 minutes, at about Gas Mark 5 (190 C) until looking slightly golden, a hint of colour.

-Meanwhile prepare the syrup by heating together the sugar, lemon juice and water, you may need slightly more water than the 50ml I listed, but use that as a starting point. It doesn't need to be thick, but thick enough to coat and cling to the back of a spoon, so adjust accordingly.

-Once the tart has cooled sufficiently, remove from the flan case and place onto a serving plate. Then while it is still warm, pour over the hot lemon syrup.

You should end up with something resembling the below, but most probably yours will look better, as im not really one for "prettying up" food at home.

SERVING SUGGESTION:

This can be eaten while it is warm, or chilled, and is really nice served with a sweetened whipped cream, or creme fraiche. This will keep in the fridge for a few days no problem at all, and if anything the flavours intensify.

As can be seen above, being boring, I often eat it plainly. Incidentally it probably appears more crumbly than it is, it does actually hold together quite well! Enjoy!

Russian Salad Olivier (Russian Winter Salad)

2010-04-25T12:19:00.004+01:00

For a change, I thought I would blog about International cuisine again, and share a very nice simple salad I discovered quite recently.

This interesting salad, was reportedly first created by a Moscow based French Chef, in the mid 19th century.

For one reason or another it achieved notoriety, and has been adopted and adapted as a national favourite. Now it is one of the most well known and traditional of all the Russian winter salads, typically consumed on New Years Eve throughout Russia.

I first encountered this salad, rather bizarrely when on holiday in Malta, as the only restaurant where we could eat something half decent, happened to be Russian. So we had a an Italian from the UK, eating Russian food, in Malta. A very international affair. I couldn't speak Russian, they couldn't speak much English, or Italian, so we communicated via grunts, and finger pointing and this salad was amongst the delicious servings, I ended up with.

I almost immediately fell in love with it, and is now something we make a few times a year, and is excellent for spring or fall, as it is quite a hearty dish. We usually have it as an accompaniment to cold cut meats, but it could be made more substantial by throwing in some Farfalle pasta, and turning it into a meal. Although I am sure Russians would not approve of Pasta being thrown into their salad.

Essentially this salad is a combination of diced sausage (I like smoked), diced boiled potatoes, diced gherkin pickle, green peas (tinned are best) and diced hard boiled eggs. All of this is then bound together with a generous quantity of mayonnaise, served with a garnish of parsley, and slices of Gherkin.

Saying that though, I am aware there are variants which call for chicken breast in lieu of sausage, and black olives in lieu of slices of Gherkin, I haven't tried these, but I am sure they are equally delicious.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

2 medium sized potatoes, cooked in skins, peeled, then diced
3 medium sized gherkins diced
4 medium sized eggs, hard-boiled
200g cooked sausage, diced, (alternatively use chicken)
200g cooked peas, (tinned are excellent for this salad)
4-5 tablespoons of mayonnaise.

METHOD:

-This really could not be easier, you basically just combine all of the ingredients together until well mixed, and then add the mayonnaise, and repeat. Taking care not to mash the eggs around to much.

SERVING SUGGESTION:

As can be seen below (in the almost half decent photo this time).

I just served this salad with a garnish of slices of Gherkin, and a sprig of Parsley (to eat, not just decorate). Alternatively you could scatter over diced scallion, or just black olives, or even a quartered egg.
Enjoy!

A very kind gesture from Leslie...

2010-04-02T14:25:00.000+01:00

I am quite lucky, my lovely blog visitors, not only all leave exceedingly kind comments, sometimes they also link back, and even occasionally bestow awards from time to time.

Sometimes I just issue a thank you, and link, without actually displaying the picture, but this time, since its almost springtime and it looks such a beautiful flower, I thought I would post it.

I must add at this point, I don't like to feel like I have imposed some kind of list of rules with a blog award, so when I later nominate some of my favourites, I won't even mention a reciprocating link back, etc etc.

I'm quite shy like that. lol.

However if you wish to pass it on to others, here are the Terms and conditions under which the very kind Leslie awarded me.

The Sunshine Award is given to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world. Here are the requirements:

    * Put the logo on your blog or within your post. Pass the award on to as many as 12 bloggers.
    * Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog
    * Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.
    * Link to the nominees within your post.

Being the "law-breaker" that I am, I will try to do my best to adhere to most of those :)

My Awardee's in NO particular order are;

1. Mari of Namesta - Because Mari is very determined in pursuing her goals, is very adorable, and has a heart of gold. My main reason for visiting often though is because she always makes me laugh, cringe, and occasionally feel scared, when she posts pictures of her daily eats (Those roman beans scare me especially).

2. Charlene of Nolovesincerer - Because I adore her recipes, the fact she is in one of those organic veg box schemes and has stuck to it, and that she is growing some of her own vegetables this year.

3. Bridgett of La Bella Cook - Putting recipes aside for one moment, anyone who can make taking good pictures of food look easy, deserves an award. Oh, and of course her recipes are all amazingly executed and described too. I have bookmarked loads, to try.

4. Joanne of Eatswellwithothers - Great recipes, many of which I have tried. But I mainly visit very often, because of her very witty commentary, but definitely because she is the only person I know to be able to blog about disecting a corpse (cadaver) and cooking pasta in the same post. Wow.

5. Kim from Stirring the pot - Because she always amazes me with incredible creations, and educates me on the differences between biscuits, crackers, and cookies. All of which mean different things across the pond.

6. Tania from DulcisinFurno - Tania's blog is full of so many useful recipes, I could literally be there all day printing them. It is even more incredible that she posts these amazing recipes in English as well as Italian. She is very talented, and incredibly modest.

7. Erica from MyColombianRecipes - Because Colombian food is very new to me, very interesting, but mostly because the recipes I have tried have all been delicious and worked. I know it is sometimes difficult to correctly list the quantities or subtleties of the process, to those who are unfamiliar, but these all work beautifully.

8. Michaela from ilcricetogoloso - Because all of her recipes are things that I adore, and are written very clearly. If you don't speak Italian, you will find that they translate very well.

9. To anyone else I have ever commented, because I am always so very impressed with the skills of everyone in the blogosphere. There is always the next exciting blog to be discovered just around the corner.

Parmigiana Di Zucchini

2010-03-17T09:57:00.002Z

I am most defnitely a hypocrite, I often talk about seasonality, and local produce. Yet this past weekend I suddenly got an insatiable urge to eat Parmigiana. Even though normally we have Parmigiana di Melanzane which is made using Eggplant (Aubergine, Melanzane), typically that I have either grown myself, or are relatively local.

During late winter or early spring however, it isn't very ethical or environmentally friendly to be expecting to eat something which is quite unseasonal such as eggplant, and has obviously been shipped across the globe. Yet thoughts of CO2 emissions, and enivornmental catastrophe, didn't quite quench my urge. Yes the recent extreme weather hitting the eastern side of the US, and the extreme (2") snow in the UK is all my fault. I apologize. I purchased some Strawberries shipped in from Israel. Once.

But since life is all about compromises, I remembered that a great variation of Parmigiana is to create Parmigiana Di Zucchini (Courgette), to my taste it isn't quite the same quality, but it is not a distant second, and zucchini are easily grown in milder climates under glass so are available at less environmental cost to the planet, and less guilt for me. So that is what I used.

To those who don't know what Parmigiana is, Parmigiana is a method of baking previously fried slices of vegetable in a flour and egg coating, in layers, doused in a rich tomato sauce with inter-layer chunks of mozaeralla and generous amounts of freshly grated parmesan.

Parmigiana is scarily calorific, yet most Italians are not on diets so it isn't an issue. If you are on a diet, I would say still make this, just eat a little less of it. Parmigiana keeps for 2-3 days in the fridge, in fact it tastes better the day after, and can even be frozen very succesfully, so don't feel you have to over indulge all at once.

At this point I should clarify something, our dear cousins living across the pond in the US and living across the globe in Australia, have created some of their own variations of Italian Parmigiana. Namely Veal Parmigiana, and Chicken Parmigiana, essentially they are the same, in that they are cooked in the same manner as the original, and are certainly better examples of mutating Italian food, than say Pepperoni Pizza is. However they are not authentic Italian, despite being delicious. So if you are eating in a resturaunt claiming to be producing authentic Italian food, feel free to correct them!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup flour
4 eggs, gently beaten
10-14 Zucchini
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
salt and pepper to season

700-800ml of cooked tomato sauce use any recipe, for example I have one here.
2 Mozaralla balls (average sized ones, palm sized) torn into small pieces
Reggiano Parmigiano (Parmesan) Cheese

METHOD:

-First cut the ends off your zucchini, and slice them into 1-2cm thick slices. The number of slices you need will depend on the baking dish you are using. Generally I put them in to create a layer, and then work from that.

-Next in two seperate plates, add the flour, and add the beaten eggs. Now dip a few slices into first the flour, and then the egg, before shallow frying in a pan with the vegetable oil. Don't add all the vegetable oil at once, add a little at the time, as they do soak it slightly.

-Once browned on both sides, remove season with salt and pepper, and set to one side. Repeat process until they are all nicely browned.

-In your baking dish, add a little of the sauce, and spread over the bottom, now add a layer of the fried zucchini. On top of this layer add more sauce, and add a fair few chunks of the mozarella, finish with a sprinkle of parmesan. Repeat until you have around 4 or 5 layers.

-On the final layer, be more generous with the sauce, mozarella and the parmesan then bake in the oven for around 30 mins at Gas 7 until golden brown, or slightly over. Eventually you will have something looking like the below, only probably better.

-Important!! Allow the dish to cool before attempting to cut a piece out. It is really hugely beneficial to allow the parmigiana to cool, or else you will end up with the below. Tasty slop!

This can be kept in the fridge for a few days, and actually it tastes better the in the following days, as the flavours all combine. So if your planning a picnic or similar, it can easily be made in advance.

Enjoy!

Finally, a personal blog post, and some exciting news...

2010-03-05T07:47:00.007Z

Strictly speaking "I don't do" personal posts. I love reading other peoples, but personally, I don't go there.

It is really easy to talk about food, or to share a recipe, but when it comes to personal stuff I clam up. I have no idea why, but it feels so uncomfortable posting personal pictures, and personal details onto the web for the world to see. Who knows I might get used to it, but for now I have a phobia of doing it. And yes that is so stupid, but I am very silly and chicken like that (so this message will self destruct in about a week).

Anyway enough beating around the bush, as you may or may not know, depending upon wether I nonchalantly dropped a brief comment or hint about nappys, babys, childbirth etc, onto your blog. There is now a little Luigi running around the house (well sitting in a Moses basket, mainly sleeping, crying and peeing).

So since my little sister Mari, asked, and since it is of course one of the most joyous occasions one can enjoy, second only to marriage itself (cough), here is my "personal blog" of my road map to fatherhood. So without further ado meet the other half and junior.

Here is my better half, who despite my best efforts at turning her into a couch macaroni like me, does just enough exercise to stay healthy, despite devouring everything I cook.

The below photo was taken in Malta, we were on vacation and it was quite early in our relationship, so she was still impressing me with tight shorts, and I was impressing her with my ability to eat my own body weight in pasta. And where we discovered that the Maltese like to feed tourists on gruel, or the kind of stuff that gets thrown in bins in the rest of the world. Really, why is there so few decent places to eat, and on an Island thats only around 3 miles across, there can hardly be any hidden gems I didn't find. The island is so far as I can tell devoid of decent food. And oh, not much of a beach there neither. That aside, Malta is lovely.

The next photo was taken in the lovely town of Windsor, and it was the day I proposed. Hence the look at my "no ring" on my hand gesture. I had managed to purchase a ring about fifteen sizes too big. (my excuse was that I believed the ring of power would shrink to the size of the bearer, well it did for Frodo in LOTR)

So although she foolishly accepted a marriage proposal, she wasn't able to wear the "one ring" for a few weeks while it was sent away to Mordor to be halved in size, and have the elvish text removed. Still at least the diamond looked bigger in a smaller size ring.

Some time later on a very hot day, I was forced to dress up like someone selling icecreams, and went along happilly, to a church, to sign some documents. Apperantly they involved agreeing to willingly agree to give away everything I own (aka Marriage).

Aww don't we look sweet. And yes my button hole had wilted in the 40 degree heat.

Anyway, we had been happily married, for less than a year, when the below cute item was left on our doorstep in a moses basket, by a huge white stork, with no instruction manual, and most definitely, a no 28 day return policy (I tried calling the hospital, apparently they can't be put back).

That isn't quite what happened, but its going to be the way I remember it. Baby Sergio is now 6 weeks old, has smiled once at having his foot tickled, and does in the above photo look scarily ginger. But he isn't.

And for many reasons, I am very happy indeed.
Thanks for reading..

Spaghetti Pizzaiola

2010-02-24T11:24:00.005Z

OK the Pizza on the left is a missleading clue to the origins of this sauce, or perhaps given the name, it has to be assumed, or it is at least nice to think, that this sauce originated from someone who worked in a neapolitan pizza joint, and had left-over sauce to use up. And so invented this delightful recipe.

More likely however, is that the sauce is so-named "Pizzaiola" because it contains all the flavours used in a traditonal pizza topping sauce, namely oregano, tomatoes etc. My family however have always made it with the addition of black olives, and to my taste it fits nicely. Feel free however to omit them if you want to try the more original version.

In my version given below I have used rump steak (but any nice cut of beef will do) and then sliced it into thin strips to go with the pasta I was serving it with. Also please note, if your going to be serving it with pasta, the pasta should not be swimming in sauce, but enough to coat the pasta is usually sufficient.

However the steak could have been left in a whole piece and served that way with a suitable side, maybe a salad, or cooked vegetable. The real beauty of this sauce, is that it ticks all the versatility boxes. This sauce would have been equally delicious cooked with something other than meat, we have made it with a nice fillet of Cod in the past, but you could even go vegetarian and use slices of Courgette or Aubergine.

As with practically everything Italian this is incredibly easy to make, and uses simple ingredients. I would recommend using the best possible quality of tinned tomatoes though, given that the majority of the taste is dependant upon this, but it isn't that critical.

INGREDIENTS:
(Serves 4)

1 tablespoon of olive oil
8-12oz piece of Rump Steak or equivalent,
4 cloves of garlic finely diced,
500g tomatoes (regular sized can),
1 teaspoon of Oregano
12 black olives, stoned, halved
salt and pepper to season

METHOD:

-Heat a frying pan, add the olive oil, and once the oil is upto temperature drop the steak in, and colour it.

-Next add the garlic, black olives, tinned tomatoes together with their juice and the oregano and stir gently so as to coat the meat. Cover and simmer gently for approximately 30 or so minutes, or longer if using a cheap cut of meat.

-At this point we cooked some spaghetti and served the sauce with it. First slicing the steak into thin strips so it could be easily eaten with a fork. Yes, time for another shockingly bad photo!

SERVING SUGGESTION:

Aside from serving the sauce with meat, omitting the pasta. Fish is also delicious cooked in this way, and can be served with a side of boiled new potatoes, perhaps dressed with oil and rosemary. Enjoy!

A Curry Recipe (World Cuisine)

2010-01-20T12:25:00.001Z

It is very easy to tell why curry is one of the most popular foods throughout the world. Despite obviously normally eating Italian food, I do sometimes have days where I crave a curry.

The combination of spices and flavours to the uninitiated, is nothing short of pure magic and alchemy.

Keep your gold, or eternal life though, creating a great curry has to be one of the most rewarding endevaours when its comes to spices. And gettting them to work together in any single recipe is mystifying.

To be honest though the only things that normally used to put me of from making one at home, is (a) the smell of curry lingering for days later, and (b) it never tasted as good as a shop purchased one.

Finally however, I concocted a recipe that is easy to make, and tastes pretty close to something from a take-away! The only difference is, is that with this meal, you control the fats and what meat goes in!

In addition I have found that because this is created with NO ready made packet mixes, or "curry powders", or my nemesis the sauce in a jar. (yukkk!!!) It is relatively healthy, and does not impart a strong artifical smell into the house. Really a few hours after making it, you can not smell a thing. What a great result.

My personal favourite amongst the numerous curry recipes out there is 'Chicken Tikka Masala', to create it faithfully would be a nightmare for me. However this is an abridged version which is totally fool-proof and gives a similar interpretation and approximation of flavours.

I need to mention that this is most definitely NOT authentic Indian cuisine, and I am NOT going to pretend to know the first thing about the blending of spices, however as a curry this works, and is as good as an Italian can make it.

If you wanted you could make your own Garam Masala, but I prefer to use a reliably made one, available in any asian/indian stores. And as is the case with all cooking, the most important ingredient, is the heart and enthusiasm which goes into creating it. Without doubt, once you taste this, and find how easy it is. You will adopt and adapt this recipe to your own taste.

INGREDIENTS:
(Serves 4)

The meat;

2 chicken breasts diced, or
some diced lamb or
diced turkey thigh would also work.
fish could be used, something like cod, or haddock would be ideal.
(alternatively, this could be made vegetarian so use things like zucchini, aubergine, pumpkin instead)

Spice Mix;

1 tablespoon of sunflower or vegetable oil.
2 small red chilli (de-seeded and chopped)
1 teaspoon of Chilli powder
1 tsp of Cumin powder
200g of tinned tomato (approx half a can)
50-75 ml of water
1/2 tsp Turmeric
2 tsp Garam Masala
2 cloves of Garlic sliced up or crushed.
Pinch of Salt an Pepper to taste.
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, skinned and sliced up,
2 medium sized onion diced up,

The finish;

50-100ml (1/3 cup) of Yoghurt.
Fresh Coriander leaves chopped up (about a handful)

METHOD:

-In a saucepan fry the onions, the garlic, ginger and fresh chilli, cook for about 2 minutes.

-Next add all the remaining ingredients listed in the spice mix, cook for a further 2 minutes, next add the tomatoes and water, and gently simmer for 5 minutes.

-Next carefully pour all of these ingredients into a food blender/liquidizer and whizz them up into a smooth thick curry "soup" put this to one side! It might look quite pale,but it will darken again during cooking.

-Next wipe the previously used saucepan, add a drop of oil, and fry the chicken (or whatver your using), and brown them, or even slightly burn, then pour the previously made curry "soup" over the top. Cook this onwards for about 20-25 minutes.

-Finally when your happy for the consistency, and everything has cooked through, add some yoghurt to your taste, and the chopped coriander leaves! Then serve garnished with some coriander on top.

SERVING SUGGESTION:

Serve with Basmati rice, and/or with Chapatis! Yes, not very appetizing on my plate, but with some care and patience which I dont always have. Your efforts will look, and probably taste better. But you get the idea.

As I mentioned, don't forget that this can be made purely with vegetables if you wanted or with tofu for example! Enjoy!!

Russian Bortsch (World Cuisine)

2010-01-13T18:54:00.008Z

Having visited Russia a couple of times in the past, I am quite familiar with a few of the foods which Russia has to offer.

I encountered, things such as Blini, Pelmeni, Piroshoki, Plov, Shashlik.

However it is the soups that got my attention the most.

I like the sour tasting soup containing lemon, and black olives called Salanka, and a summer favourite is the "no cook" cold soup called Okroshka, which is made from a drink of fermented rye bread called Kvass and a variety of chopped raw fresh vegetables, such as gherkin and radishes, and is full of lots of fresh dill. Its infinitely better than Spanish Gazpacho in my opinion, and is very refreshing like a liquid salad.

However on this occasion we made a Bortsch, I think it is fair to say, that this soup is very well known universally, across the world. And that there as many variations of this soup, as there are variations for something like an Italian Lasagna.

Essentially though, the soup is a peasant type affair, (as the best dishes are) and is made from a broth made from meats normally beef or lamb, with the addition of roots such as white cabbage, beetroots and carrot. The beetroots in particular give bortsch its traditional red colour and taste. Personally I adore it.

Normally as I understand it, bortsch is served with sour cream dumped in the middle, although I usually have it without. Instead choosing to drizzle some very Un-Russian peppery extra virgin olive oil over the top.

For the meat part of this bortsch I decided to use a leftover roast leg of lamb we had in the freezer. If we have a roast leg of lamb, we normally have at least another two seperate meals from the leftovers. To eat the same thing two days in a row, would be a sin in my view, and it simply does not happen in our home.

I have made things like curries, shepherds pie (to be blogged), or a ragu style Italian sauce from left over meat. And usually the actual bone goes into the freezer to be used at a later date.

I am pretty sure most people just discard the bone after most of the meat has been carved off, however it is an absolute sinful waste if you do.

At the very least a stock could be made, or alternatively as a flavour giving base for something like a soup. So in the unlikely event that anyone reading this is one of those food wasters, then please stop!

With regards to the ingredients, the only worthy note to make is the recommendation to use fresh beetroot. And not the vacuum packed varieties, as the difference in flavour is immense. However if nothing else is available, then it can give a satisfactory result.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

1 bone-in piece of beef, or lamb, or at a push a piece of rump, or stewing steak could be used. Use enough to provide a portion of meat for each person. Quantity depends on your preference.

1 tablespoon of Vegetable oil
1 onion finely diced
1 sprig of fresh dill, chopped include stalks
2 medium sized beetroot, raw, grated
2 carrots grated,
1 tablespoon of tomato paste (puree, or concentrate)
4 large tomatoes diced up,
1 small white cabbage,sliced thinly
1 sprig of parsley, chopped
1 potato diced, peeled first
1 pint vegetable stock
1/2 pint water,
salt and pepper to season

To serve,
sour cream (optional)

METHOD:

-Add the meat, onion, dill, into a heated deep sided pan, together with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, stir and if using raw meat, rather than leftovers (as I was), then colour the meat until a nice nutty brown.

-Next you simply add the vegetable stock, the fresh tomatoes, and some water and bring to the boil. Once at the boil, simmer and cover for around one and a half hours.

-At this point you can add the sliced white cabbage, the parsley, and season the cooking liquor to your taste.

-While the cabbage is cooking, in a frying pan, lightly fry the raw beetroot, carrot, and add the tomato paste. Once this has softened slightly add the whole lot into the main pan.

-Continue to cook for another 30 or so minutes, remove from the heat, and then serve hot.

SERVING SUGGESTION:

Normally Bortsch is served with a large dollop of sour cream added to the center just before serving, it is quite delightful served that way. However as can be seen below I didn't have any. I have to assure you, it does, taste better than it looks. Although I will wager that yours would look better!

So on this occasion, being Italian I made it to my taste by drizzling some extra virgin olive oil over the top. I would however urge you to try it in the authentic manner and use the sour cream, or alternatively creme fraiche. The hot bortsch, with the flavours of the beetroot are really countered by the cold smooth sour cream, and it is lovely. Enjoy!

Panna Cotta (Cooked Cream Dessert)

2010-01-09T12:23:00.008Z

Whenever we are dining out, or visiting family. I suddenly for some strange reason, break out in feelings of guilt for eating rich foods in quantity, so wishing not to appear greedy, more often than not I decline the dessert course.

And I usually make the quite shocking claim of:
"I don't do desserts".

Whenever I utter those words however, it always later causes fits of giggles, and teasing, from my other half when we get home. Sometimes lasting days.

The reason for her cruel laughter, and mockery, is that whenever there is any leftover sweet desserts such as Sticky Toffee Pudding, Treacle Sponge, or Chocolate Cake in the fridge at home. It always dissapears quite quickly. In fact it dissapears almost instantly.

Assuming quite correctly then, that the cat is unable to open the refridgerator, it does not take Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, or Sherlock Holmes to deduce that it only leaves me as the possible culprit.

So for someone who does not do desserts, it might come as a surprise that I am blogging about a favourite Italian dessert, called panna cotta.

Panna cotta literally means cooked cream. In essensce that is precisely what it is. Normally I serve it with some kind of contrasting flavour. Generally raspberries, lightly cooked down with a little sugar, and a dash of lemon juice. In the variation given here, I add some rind from oranges and lemons, and a dash of orange liquor (Cointreau or Triple Sec is fine).

The only recommendation I have for the ingredients, is to try and source gelatin sheets (leaf), rather than powder. Although the powder works just fine. It is a little more variable in the results it produces, sometimes creating 'panna rocka' instead of 'panna cotta'. Using the sheets, I have always had excellent results, and very creamy just set, textures.

Many other recipes I have seen call for lining the ramekins with cling film, in my opinion a waste of time and money. By simply placing the finished rammekins in a little hot water for 10 seconds prior to serving, they "turn out" easily.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

Panna Cotta
1 pint double cream, or measure enough to fill 4 rammekins, since sizes vary.
2 ounces sugar
a few drops of vanilla essence, or some vanilla pod scrapings if your posh!
the zest of an orange and a lemon, finely diced up, around a tablespoon in quantity.
2 and a half gelatin sheets (leaf), but check quantity needed on packet, it may vary.
(If gelatin sheets/leaf is unavailable, powder will do fine)
1 teaspoon of orange liquore such as Cointreau or Triple Sec

Raspberry Sauce
5 ounces of frozen raspberries
2 teaspoons of sugar
squeeze of lemon juice
a little water

METHOD:

Panna Cotta

-In a saucepan over a medium heat, add all the ingredients EXCEPT for the gelatin sheets, and half the rind. Heat up until almost at boiling point, but DO NOT let it boil. So give it your attention. Then simmer away gently for around 10 minutes.

-Meanwhile soften the gelatin sheets in some water, refer to the packet for full instructions as it may vary. Essentially though you are just making them pliable before putting them into the cream mixture in a few moments.

-Once the cream mixture has simmered away for 10 or so minutes, remove from the heat and set aside.

-Put the gelatin sheets in a clean bowl, and onto it pour the still hot cream mixture, then proceed to stir until the gelatin has dissolved completly. Normally this will take a few minutes, so be patient.

-Arrange 4 ramekins, so that you have some space to pour in the mixture. Into each ramekin, sprinkle a few of the remaining rinds. Then proceed to pour in the mixture, distributing it, evenly between the four rammekins.

-Next place these into the fridge, and leave to set for 2 or 3 hours.

Rasperry Sauce

-Into a pan, throw in all the ingrdients, and heat through. I normally like them quite whole, but if you want more you could use a spoon and mash some of the raspberries. Using frozen ones is ideal, because freezing them breaks down the cell strucutre, and allows them to mush down very quickly.

-Once your happy, add a little water to loosen if needed, and set aside allowing to cool.

SERVING SUGGESTION

Once your ready to serve, place your ramekins into a shallow dish of hot water, so that it comes up most of the sides. Obviously be careful not to flood the top! After about 10 seconds, remove them, and turn them upside down over a plate and they will with a little shake, plop out easily, and hopefully in one piece. I prefer this rather than clingfilm, because they look more rustic, and I don't waste food wrap.

Yes its that time for another photo disaster. Although it gives an approximte idea, of what it will look like.

As can be seen, you then just spoon around your raspberries and juice, and consume. I can promise you that the combination of sharp and sweet is lovely. But then again I don't do desserts, so I would not know. Enjoy!

Zuppa Di Piselli (Green Pea Soup)

2010-01-06T11:11:00.005Z

I love peas, and to my mind not many fresh vegetables taste better than freshly podded peas, especially ones that have been picked straight from the veg plot only a matter of minutes previously.

Sadly though, In the northern hemisphere at least, peas during the winter, are most definitely not seasonal. However when you are nearing the end of the shopping week, and the larder is looking decidedly bare, the humble packet of frozen peas tucked away at the back of the freezer is worth remembering.

In fact, I would hazard a guess and probably wager that most people will have frozen peas in their freezer. And although often overlooked in the winter for seasonal roots, they are an outstanding vegetable all the year round. I would argue that they are probably the best frozen vegetable product, you can purchase.

Nutritionally because they are picked, lightly blanched, and frozen in around 2 hours from field to packet. They remain surprisingly comparable, to freshly shelled spring peas.

The taste although obviously clearly slightly jaded, is still superlative, and the intense and vibrant colour of freshly cooked peas, will brighten any dreary day. So whether just as an accompaniment to a meal, or a meal in themselves, as in this soup. Undoubtedly they are a fantastic standby to have at your disposal.

Also lets face it, few things are more warming than a nice hot soup on a freezing cold day.

In the below recipe, frozen peas are used as the base to a delicious thick soup, including a few other ingredients such as carrot, celery, onion and crispy pancetta lardons.

Being a carbohydrate fiend, I serve most soups with garlic and herb croutons, liberally scattered over the top. And for to my taste no soup is complete without an accompanying slice or two of warmed thick crusty well buttered bread.

When talking about soups invariably stock comes to mind. In my opinion the widely accepted belief that the key to achieving a good soup, is a good stock. Is definitely valid.

However. Since I, and probably most of the working world, don't always have the time to make sure our supplies of stocks are maintained. I often end up using the dreaded dried stock cube.

Recently however, I have arrived at the conclusion, that using a dried stock cube judiciously, sparingly, and bolstered with other fresh ingredients, actually isn't so bad as TV chefs or food snobs would have us believe, and decent results are possible. So personally feel free to subsitute fresh stock, with a weak dilute stock cube mix, and you won't be too far away, by the time the soup is served.

INGREDIENTS:

SOUP
1 teaspoon of Vegetable Oil,
1/2 of a white onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon of finely diced carrot
1 tablespoon of finely diced celery
Frozen Peas, (around a full cup per person, as a rough guide)
1 Pint of Chicken Stock (If not using fresh,use 1/2 a stock cube, quite dilute, or it will over power)
Fresh chopped mint, or a couple of teaspoons of dried mint.
Pancetta lardons (optional)

GARLIC AND HERB CROUTONS
1 thick slice bread, shoot for at least 1 inch thick.
1 teaspoon of dried mixed herbs of your choice:
Taragon, Sage, Thyme, Oregano etc.
1 teaspoon of grated garlic
1 tablespoon of Extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of grated parmesan

METHOD:

For the Garlic and Herb Croutons

-Cube the slice of bread into roughly square chunks, and place into a large bowl. Into this bowl add the remaining ingredients, and using your hands make sure the bread is thoroughly coated.

-Heat a large frying pan, until hot. If you are using them, fry the Pancetta lardons until crispy. Then set aside for later. Do not wash the pan, we want all these flavours to infuse into the croutons too.

-Next add the croutons into the pan, and 'dry fry' until each side is crisp and lightly golden. Lastly sprinkle over the parmesan evenly, and shake them around in the pan. Then put to one side and allow to cool, uncovered.

For the Soup

-In a deep pan, heat the vegetable oil, and throw in the onion, carrot and celery and cook until softened/translucent. Essentially I use this method for making most soups, it makes a good flavour base.

-Once happy that the finely diced veg have cooked out, add the quantity of frozen peas you are using. You can add them straight from the freezer no problem.

-Make a dilute Chicken Stock with boiling water from the kettle, and pour this over the Frozen pea mix, until you cover them by about a cm or two. Alternatively use a vegetable stock if you prefer. I just like the richness of chicken stock which I use probably more than any other.

-Leave to simmer gently for 5-10 minutes. If you were using fresh peas in the spring, slash the cooking time by at least half. There is truly no worse culinary crime than overcooking fresh vegetables.

-At the end of the cooking time, turn off the heat and add the freshly chopped mint, (or dried) and either using a hand blender, or as we do use blitz in a liquidizer until you have a nice smooth soup.

-Return the soup to the pan, and heat through thoroughly again before serving.

SERVING SUGGESTION:

As always seems to be the case recently, a tradition almost. I managed to take another shockingly bad photo on a camera phone. Taking such a bad photo is a skill, I like to think.
Anyway, you get a rough idea.

Being a carb fiend, I almost always have croutons as well as a side of warm crusty bread with my soup. However you could just serve this very simple soup with just cream, or nothing at all. Enjoy!

Pasta Puttanesca (Spicey Tomato Sauce)

2009-12-23T15:23:00.003Z

I have no idea why this pasta is called Puttanesca. The word in Italian, actually infers "lady of the night", or a "whore", in more simple terms.

Putting aside such sinister thoughts though. I imagine it might just be named so, because the sauce is hot and spicy, a bit like the percieved personality of those involved in that type of "business".

In any case, whatever the real reason for the strange name, this is an absolutely delicious, easy to make sauce.

Really if you ever wanted the definition for fast food, forget about your McDonalds, or your Pizza takeout, this is where the actions is most definitely at: Pasta.

The beauty of this dish, is that the time taken to boil the water, and cook the pasta, is the same amout of time required to make the sauce. In other words less than 12 minutes. Perfect!

I am now going to mention a dirty word to many, and that is the word, Anchovy. To my mind, this wonderful ingredient has been forever tainted by the cheap local pizza places. Who mindlessy throw poor quality anchovys onto the tops of pizza, pass them off as being Italian, and leave everyone with an inquenchable thirst, and vile fishy salty mouth for days, after the experience.

Used judiciously however, it can be a beautiful thing atop a pizza. Thats another story.

Personally speaking though, we generally use anchovy as an ingredient, where it adds a huge amount of flavour, without giving away its identity. No really, cooked in a sauce such as this, you really won't be able to detect anything fishy or salty, I promise, just a nice flavour. So I would say, even if you detest anchovy, give it a try.

Another foul word for many, is the word Caper! These days they seem to be thrown into a whole manner of recipes. Wether they suit it, or not.

To be honest where I have tried them in sauces paired with delicate white fish. I have found them to be far to overpowering. However in this recipe, they work. They are paired with equally strong flavour hitters, such as anchovy, tomatoes, and chilli, so they just balance out beautifully. Trust me.

INGREDIENTS:

450g (approx 14oz) tin of chopped tomatoes, or feel free to use fresh tomatoes, but de-seed first,
2 cloves of Garlic, finely diced, or crushed into a paste,
1 anchovy fillet,
1 pepperoncini diced, or 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes
1 tbsp capers (if dried, salted ones, rinse first) chopped small
70-80g (3oz) black olives, pitted, sliced in half
300-400g (approx 12oz) spaghetti, or a pasta of your choice,
1 tablespoon of olive oil

METHOD:

-Put plenty of water, in a large deep pan, add plenty of salt and put over a high heat.

- In a deep sided frying pan, add the olive oil and place over a medium heat, once up to temperature, add the anchovy, and the garlic. You will find the anchovy melts away into the oil. Gently heat the garlic until golden.

- Next add the capers, and the pepperoncini, gently fry for a minute or so, and then add the chopped tomatoes, and black olives, reduce the heat slightly.

-By this time the water for the spaghetti should be upto a boil, add the spaghetti and cook for around 6-8 minutes, until slightly firm, but cooked. There is nothing worse, than soggy spaghetti, so don't overcook it.

-Drain the pasta, and add the spaghetti (or other pasta) to the frying pan, toss over well and serve while hot.

SERVING SUGGESTION:
Generally we have this with Spaghetti, but it could also be enjoyed with another pasta shape of your choice. As can be seen in my portion below, Italians generally do not go "crazy" with the sauce. We don't want to drown the pasta, enough to cover the pasta is usually considered satisfactory, often with a little extra over the top.

This can be just eaten as it is, but you could if you so wished serve with freshly grated parmesan, or even chopped parsley added to the sauce before serving. Enjoy!

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

2009-12-19T13:45:00.008Z

Pizza is a very annoying issue for me. I really want to embrace those thick based, heavy, claggy topped, modern pizza's. I really do.

I can also confess that on the rare occasions that I encounter this type of "pizza", I love eating them, with even things such as Pepperoni plastered upon them.

I know they are unhealthy. I know they are swimming in grease, and generally quite nasty, but I still eat them occasionally. Admittedly, I have to say, I sort of enjoy it.

Despite this, deep down inside me, they annoy me immensely, as being poor imposters of the real thing.

I suppose the same way that real genuine Chinese or Indian food, bares no, or little resemblance, to the stuff served up in our take-outs, the same sorry state of affairs, applies to Pizza. It is a fast food love affair with something that is knowingly quite fundamentally wrong.

Truthfully. Pizza is one of those foods, that has really evolved beyond any recognition in many parts of the world. Despite my admission of occasionally eating them. Take-out readymade Pizza in particular, is an awful thing.

Artifical tasting bases, made far too thick, and doughy. Basically tasting as if they are made from floor sweepings and pure salt (probably, not far from the truth).

This is then compunded further by the toppings ranging from barbecue sauces, cheddar cheese, pineapple, chicken, hams, pepperoni. I mean what is pepperoni anyway? Aside from greasy, and probably made from some kind of meat by-product, in its murky past. It has as much in common with real Italian Salami, as has someone from Vietnam in common with a Korean.

Those other toppings also do not belong to an Italian pizza.

OK I grant you, these Pizza's may taste nice, they may be convenient. I am not unduly knocking what is essentially a part of culture in many parts of the world.

Is it however, a real Pizza?
Would Italians recognize it as a Pizza?

The answer has to be an undisputable, No! No Way!

Far from being a relatively healthy meal, most Pizzas found in take-outs, the cheaper chain eateries, or in the frozen food aisles of supermarkets have been turned into salt laden, artery clogging affairs.

In all honesty I would strongly urge people to avoid these, other than the rare occasional treats. Certainly never poison children by feeding them these vile creations, as unfortunately many parents in the UK seem to enjoy doing.

Now think of a Neapolitan Pizza, a freshly made ultra thin base, using fresh ingredients. Think of a freshly made sauce using fresh garlic, real tomatoes, and herbs. Think of real mozarella torn into pieces over the top. And finally think of all this being placed into an exceptionally hot, wood burning, clay oven.

Do you suppose the ever so slightly smokey (slightly burned in places) base, and beautiful fresh herby tasting topping has any similarity to the aforementioned take out variety, NOPE., Absolutely not.

However with a tiny bit of effort you can create an Italian pizza in your home oven. A pizza which is healthy to eat, and a million miles away from the awful ready made ones.

I grant you very few people are going to own a clay oven, but modern home ovens are capable of reaching fairly high temperatures, and a whole host of special pizza baking trays are available. So as I want to demonstrate here, absolutely excellent results are achieveable at home. The taste is pretty close to what you could enjoy on the Amalfi coast, at a fraction of the price of a resturaunt, and as all my recipes, VERY little effort is needed.

INGREDIENTS:
(for 2 large 12" square pizza's)

SIMPLE PIZZA DOUGH:
1/2 teaspoon of fast acting dried yeast (like the stuff you would use in a breadmaker)
300g (11 ounces) Strong white flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
150ml Water

PIZZA SAUCE
1 teaspoon of olive oil
400g tomatoes
1 teaspoon of dried Oregano
2-3 cloves of garlic finely diced, or grated
2 tablespoons of Tomato paste (puree, concentrate as it is known in the UK)
Salt and Pepper to season to taste

PIZZA TOPPINGS
This is a matter of conjecture, you can in theory add whatever you wish, for this example though, I am making a simple Margherita Pizza. Delicious and cheap.
1 Mozeralla ball torn into small pieces
Dozen or so Basil leaves torn up
Some Olive oil,
Freshly greated parmesan to sprinkle before baking,

METHOD:

-The Pizza Dough; OK there a host of methods of doing this, you can do this by hand, in a food processor, or even in a breadmaker as we do. Essentially you mix together all the ingredients, and allow for leaving the dough in a warm place to "prove" for around 20-30 minutes. Basically you want the dough to almost double in size. Note that I say almost, don't be too precise about this. 30 minutes in a warm place, will be fine! After the wait, your good to go. While your waiting for the proving, you can prepare your topping sauce as in the next step.

-Heat the olive oil, and throw in the ingredients, stir, and allow to gently simmer for around 20-30 minutes. Then switch off the heat, and allow to cool slightly. As mentioned. You can make this sauce while you are waiting for your to dough to prove.

-Once all your ingredients are ready, preheat your oven, and pizza tray. It is important you heat your pizza tray. Turn the oven upto around 475 Farenheit which is Gas 9, or higher, if your oven allows. If you do not have a fan assisted oven, arrange your shelves, so that the pizza can go in at the very top. At this point MAKE SURE ALL your ingredients are to hand, and can be quickly applied to the pizza, when needed in the next couple of steps.

-Next cut your dough into two halves. With a little dusting of flour, stretch and work each half seperately, so that they form a very thin base, and will fit onto whatever tray your using. Use your best judgement, but it should feel very thin, like paper almost.

-USING OVEN GLOVES, remove your hot pizza tray, and quickly onto it, (using caution) place your pizza dough onto it, stretch as needed. The tray needs to be hot to prevent sticking!

-Next drizzle the base with a little oil, and quickly smear over your sauce (not too much, not to wet), and finally add the toppings, waste as little time as you can, aim to get the pizza into the oven within a minute of removing the heated tray. Hotter and quicker you work, the better.

-After about 10-12 minutes baking in that hot oven, your pizza will be ready. I like it slightly charred, but obviously use your judgement. The beauty of baking at a high temp, means that the base wil be well done, but still pliable. This is also another important reason why the base NEEDS to be thin.

SERVING SUGGESTION:
In the pictures below, you can see my Margharita, enjoyed with a nice ale. Albeit the thinness of the base is not obvious, you can take my word for it, it was. If you wanted a thicker base, reduce the oven temp slightly and bake for a few minutes longer to ensure its cooked all the way through. Another thing worth mentioning again, is don't add to much sauce, or to many wet toppings, or you will get a soggy bottom. And who wants that!

And my other half having more "sophicasted" tastes than my own peasant ways, wanted slices of fresh tomato, black olives, red onion, and some capers on hers.

All in all, this took under one hour to make! Not bad!

Keep in mind that these are lovely eaten cold, or can be frozen, and re-heated in a hot oven whenever you want them. Enjoy!

Struffoli (Neapolitan Christmas Doughnut Balls)

2009-12-11T17:26:00.011Z

As you can tell from the picture on the left, it is that time of year again. The tree is up, the lights are on, Santa is trimming his beard, the weather has turned cold(ish), (or hot(ish) if your in the other hemisphere), it can mean only one thing! No, not that.

Yes, that's right, its almost Christmas, and more importantly the time for Christmas food. Now that I no longer get decent presents (toys). One of my favourite things about Christmas, aside from the day itself and the fish eating frenzy feast of the eve, are the sweet treats which are on offer during the whole build-up period.

One which always never fails to remind me of my childhood, are Neapolitan Struffoli.

Struffoli are tiny round doughnut balls, slightly crunchy, but soaked in a lovely, honey syrup, and are covered in sugar sprinkles. I guess, primarily they are aimed for children to enjoy, but who isn't a big child at heart. I adore them, and could eat platefuls.

At this point, im going to be brutally honest. They are delicious, yes, but time consuming, and frightfully boring to make. However if you are able to engage the assistance of willing hands, and promise them spoils, and wonderful gifts beyond their wildest dreams (a blatant lie) you might make light work of it.

Also it has got to be said again, they are delicious.

Essentially, its a simple dough, chilled, and then broken into tiny pieces, and rolled into marble sized balls. These are then fried, and dunked into a honey syrup, and finally served on a platter, with more syrup poured on top, and lastly sprinkled with candid fruits, and sugar sprinkles.

INGREDIENTS:
(Enough for 2 serving platters)

For the dough balls,
400g (approx 14 oz) plain flour
4 eggs (medium size)
50g (approx 2oz) butter, softened
1 and a half teaspoon, of baking powder (optional)
1 tablespoon of Sugar, granulated or caster

For the Syrup,
70-100ml water, used to loosen honey
6 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons of sugar

For the frying,
4-5 tablespoons of vegetable oil

To finish,
Some diced candid fruit (optional)
Some sugar sprinkles

METHOD:

-Pour the flour, baking powder (if using), and sugar into a large size bowl. Meanwhile soften the butter in a microwave. As seen below.

- Next make a small well in the flour and into it break the 4 eggs, and add the softened butter.

- Next using the handle of a wooden spoon, or a chop stick for example. Move and combine the mixture. If you were to plunge your hands in right away, you will end up wearing most of the mixture.

- Once combined, dive in with your hand(s) and bring the dough together. Do not be tempted to add water, it is going to be a relatively dry hard, dough mixture. Do not worry about leaving a few dry bits at the bottom.

- Now wrap the dough in some clingfilm (foodwrap) and place it into a fridge for around 10-20 minutes to cool it down and to rest. This will ensure the dough balls "blow-up" when you fry them later.

- Next, take the dough ball out the fridge, unwrap it. You should find its looking nice and smooth and moist.

- Cut the dough into a few parts, and begin to roll out one in a similar manner as if you were going to make gnocchi. Create a sausage shape using a dusting of flour.

- Next using the palm of your hand take each small section and create ball shapes, aim for marble size and smaller. Keep in mind these will expand slightly so think small. No matter how tempting it is to make larger balls, resist. We are not making meatballs!!

- Next add the syrup ingredients into a milk pan, and bring to a simmer, to create a honey syrup. Turn off the heat once it becomes a nice thick syrup.

- In a frying pan, add the vegetable oil, and bring to a medium high temperature. In the oil, fry around a dozen or so of the balls until they turn a golden brown colour, put them onto some kitchen roll, to drain.

- Once you have fried the full amount, pour them into the syrup mixture, and using a spoon make sure they are well coated in the syrup. Once well coated, pour them onto a serving platter, sprinkle over the candid fruits, spoon over any remaining syrup, and finish with some sugar sprinkles.

- If you cover these and keep them in the fridge, these will keep for days, unless you eat them all of course. Enjoy!

Risotto Alla Zucca (Pumpkin Risotto)

2009-12-05T11:40:00.006Z

It is undeniable that there is something pretty special about the way pumpkin and risotto rice go together.

The natural sweetness of the pumpkin, contrasting with the starchy, creamy nature of risotto rice, making it just the ideal partner.

Just like all good relationships though, the secret is in the balance.

For me the perfect balance is achieved when the two almost melt together combining into each other. Just so there is no clear divide between where the risotto ends, and the flavour, or texture, of the pumpkin begins. Behind these blurred lines however, is just a simply delicious but surprisngly rich dish.

To achieve this, I actually cube the pumpkin pretty small, ranging up to no bigger than quarter inch chunks, and fry it off together with the onion at the onset of cooking. In so doing this means that during the cooking proces some of the pumpkin effectively dissolves during the cooking process of the risotto. Releasing more flavour, and imparting a beautiful colour.

Although many people prefer to add the pumpkin later in the cooking process and have the pumpkin maintain some texture, and contrast, so the choice is entirely in the hands of whoever is making it. Another option is to hold back some of the pumpkin cubes, and to fry them seperately, and then add them as a garnish right at the end.

As usual with a risotto, the stock used is critical to the taste. However most people will not have time to continually create fresh stocks, so a decent shop purchased fresh stock, or even a stock cube, will work excellently too.

My personal preference is to use a dilute fresh chicken stock, and to finish the risotto with lots of butter and parmesan, and finally drizzle some extra virgin olive oil when serving. For me that is pretty much perfect.

Incidentally, don't get confused or put off, if you spy a risotto recipe in a cook book which starts talking about "mantecatura". For some reason people like to confuse or over complicate things. It just means the last step of the process, where you incorporate, butter or oil, and usually a cheese such as parmesan, to "cream up" and finish the dish. Nothing hard really.

Just remember, Italian food, is the same as Italian men, always very simple.

NGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

2-3 tablespoons (approx) of olive oil,
1/2 a medium sized butternut squash, or culinary pumpkin, cut into approximately quarter inch cubes,
1 finely diced shallott (or a small onion),
14oz (400g) of Arborio risotto rice,
1 glass of a decent white wine,
1 pint of a dilute chicken stock

4 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan
4oz (approx) of butter

METHOD:

-In a medium sized pan, over a gentle heat, add the olive oil, the finely diced shallots and the pumpkin. You want to gently cook both until slightly soft, we are definitely not looking to colour anything, just to soften. Cook for around 4-5 minutes.

-Next you can add the Arborio rice, and gently stir so that the rice grains are all coated. Cook for around 2 or 3 minutes, and then add the white wine. Gently simmer until the wine has evaporated. It is quite important that you allow the alcohol to evaporate, or it will over power.

-Next add a small quantity of the chicken stock and bring to a gentle simmer. Now while still simmering gently stir the risotto, and continue to do so, until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Don't boil it dry though! Once almost dry, add another small quantity of stock, and repeat the process. You will need to continue to do this for around 15-18 minutes, taste the rice and check for "bite" before adding the next quantity of stock.

-Once your happy with the "bite" (cooked state) of the risotto, you can turn off the head and add the butter, and parmesan into the pan, and stir very vigorously! Keep doing this until the butter has melted, place a lid on the pan. Let the risotto sit for 2-3 minutes and serve immediately.

-Again no camera to hand, sorry, but rest assured there is another "dodgy" piece of phone camera action on display. You can however, I hope just about make out the textures I was waffling about earlier, and that it does turn out looking edible. And it was! Honest!

Melanzane al Funghetto (Eggplant/Aubergine Starter)

2009-12-02T13:49:00.002Z

Upon reading this blog title, many people may have correctly guessed that the Italian word Funghetto implies something to do with Mushrooms, given that the latin term for Mushrooms, is Funghi. So if you were out dining in an Italian resturaunt and you were to order 'Melanzane Funghetto' from the menu, you may unless you read it very carefully, sit there quite rightly expecting to get something containing mushrooms.

Sadly however, you will be dissapointed.

Melanzane Funghetto, in context of this recipe, actually just means Eggplant (Melanzane) cooked in a mushroom style.

Actually not only in technique, but incidentally the finished dish gives the eggplant a sort of sliced up mushroom, type of appearance.

This mushroom less, un-seasonal part of the dish however, is where the dissapointment will end. As this recipe, although undoubtedly, embarassingly ridicolously simple to make, is hugely tasteful.

No really. Considering there are barely any ingredients at all, it is actually astounding how good it tastes.

As mentioned countless times before, that is the real beauty of Italian cooking. Largely speaking Italian cuisine is about delivering maximum flavours with minimal ingredients. Just simple cooking with simple ingredients, simply presented, but with results that taste fantastically good.

It is possible to rustle this up in around ten minutes, and easily feed, (if not impress), four hungry people with a nice light lunch, for far less cost than the average price of a couple of burgers from Mc wotsit. With, no salt laden ingredients, artery clogging fats, or extra sugars, just nutrionally healthier, natural, and more importantly tastier.

So far as the ingredients, although any Eggplant will do, it is worth pointing out that you should ideally choose a long slender thin skinned Eggplant variety, such as a Violleta Lunga, or similar. The reason for this, is that the dry center part, which often contains seeds, needs to be trimmed out of this. So it would just be wasteful to use a huge chunky fruit. When it comes to salting them, don't bother. Aubergines, Eggplants, Melanzane, do not need these days to be salted and pressed to remove bitterness. Modern varieties have had these traits bred out of them. Despite the fact many recipes and chefs still insist on maintaining this tradition. It isn't needed honestly. And especially not needed when cooking them in a rapid 'stir-fry' style, as in this recipe.

However if you want to waste perfectly good salt, and make them even more oil suckingly fiendish when frying them, be my guest. Be warned though, that once past the "sponge" stage, they do then release the oil back, so don't go crazy with the olive oil, or we'll be swimming in oil.

INGREDIENTS:

1 large eggplant (aubgerine)
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly,
1 Anchovy fillet
1/4 of dried pepperoncini finely sliced, or a 1/4 teaspoon of regular chilli flakes
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to season

Few sprigs of flatleaf parsley finely chopped, and an additional 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over to finish.

METHOD:

- Firstly, slice up (across the width) your eggplant into approximately quarter inch slices, next chunk them into 1 inch long slithers, but make sure you discard the center parts, which have little taste and are a bit dry. You especially want to keep the skin, as this adds a smokey taste, and actually gives the dish the right "look".
The photo shown is more or less the right size. Albeit you'll probably be neater than me, but you get an idea of the sort of chunked up size your looking for.

-Next heat a large frying pan over a moderate heat, and add the oil, when fairly hot throw in the sliced up garlic, chilli, and the anchovy fillet, stir till it melts and add the aubergine. Essentially the photo on the left shows the main flavours. Namely, garlic, anchovy, and pepperoncini (dried chilli).

-Keep moving the pan contents around, making sure nothing is "catching" or getting burnt. You do however, want to get some colour onto the ingredients. You will find the aubergines will render down a little, and colour up nicely, however we don't want mush. So 12-15 minutes is about the right fry time here.

-On this occasion we served them onto toasted bread, and served with a heap of lightly dressed Aragula (Rocket) leaves, which accompany it nicely. I like Aragula dressed with nothing more than extra virgin olive, and lemon juice, but feel free to use your favourite dresssing. Unfortunately just a camera phone snap shown on the left, but an idea of what it looks like. Well ok, only slightly mushroom like.

SERVING SUGGESTION:

This is particularly nice served onto some toasted crusy bread, sprinkled with parsley and drizzled with peppery extra virgin olive oil. Alternatively this can be served as a nice side dish to accompany something like Italian meatballs or a fried Steak alla Pizzaiola Etc. Enjoy!

Fresh Egg Pasta

2009-11-24T10:59:00.012Z

Given the very good quality of dried pastas these days, the desire, reasoning, or need for making fresh pasta is quite limited in our household to be honest.

Yes it does taste nice, but the time and effort given would perhaps better be spent making fresh Ciabatta, Potato Gnochhi, or perhaps nice Pizza dough.

For some people fresh pasta is a fashion statement, an excuse to purchase a shiny metal pasta maker to adorn the kitchen. A new talking point. Sometimes an excuse to impress friends with the use of words such as "doppia zero" when talking about the flour used.

Sure. I always make my own pasta, it was cooked in water colleced this morning, from a mountain stream, straight from the foothills of the Italian Alps. Wow. Yes, I have been to that sort of dinner party, an to be honest the more someone talks up the food, the less I enjoy it. So far as I am concerned, good food is, good food, is good food, it speaks for itself. While it is an endearing trait to be passionate about food, passion and being pretentious, are distinctly different in my opinion.

Probably pre 1970's Italy, was the era which saw most households making their own fresh pasta daily. But these days, availability, quality, the demands on time, means that most people now choose to spend their free leisure time, well, being leisurely. Rather than hand rolling pasta sheets in a hot dusty kitchen.

The reality is, Italians consume more dried pasta than fresh. Fact.

Once in a while though, we do dabble in the art of pasta making and pay some homage to days of old. As mentioned it does taste fantastically good, so if your slightly curious, read on.

Strictly speaking you should use a double zero "00" pasta flour (doppia zero), to get the best results, however excellent results using a good quality regular plain flour are still achievable, so do not fret if you can't get hold of the real deal.

The same applies to a pasta machine, yes it is easier to use a machine to roll the sheets, but a good old fashioned rolling pin, sharp knife, and the vital ingredient of elbow grease (hard work) will do the trick just as well.

When it comes to mixing the dough, sure you can use a processor but by hand is probably the best way. You get a feeling for what is going on, your becoming part of the dough.

Actually it is quite sticky at times, and you do quite literally become part of the dough if your not careful. To avoid become overly familiar, a smidgeon of Olive oil rubbed onto your hands prior to mixing, helps alot.

At this point, I will say feel free to experiment.

If you like whole wheat, then use whole wheat flour. You could if you wish add squid ink into the plain flour, and make some delicious and visually striking, squid ink pasta.

You could add finely pulsed spinach, to one batch. And add some finely pulsed sun-dried tomatoes to some other batch, and create a tri-colore (three colour) pasta selection.

The choice and experimentation, is only limited by your imagination.

The quality of the eggs is also worth a mention at this point, I can not emphasize enough the importance of using good quality free-range organic eggs if making pasta. The extra quality really does make a big difference.

INGREDIENTS:

140g (5 Oz) Plain, or Italian "00" flour
1 whole egg,
2 seperated egg yolks
A drop of oil for your hands,

METHOD:

- Firstly gently whisk together the whole egg, and the two additional egg yolks, just do it lightly to combine. We add two extra egg yolks, to get a more deeply rich pasta. You could cut back on the yolks though if you wished.

-Next sift the flour into a suitably large bowl, make a well in the centre, and slowly add the egg mixture and combine together with a lightly oiled hand.

-Keep combining until it all binds together, but hopefully not to your hands! At this point if it feels a little too wet, add a drop more flour.

-Next knead and pull at the dough, and press down into it and repeat over. When the dough feels relatively silky, dare I say "breast" like, wrap it in food wrap, or cling film and place in the fridge for around an hour.

-Next lightly flour the rolling surface, and cut your dough ball into two. Lightly flour one of the balls, and begin to roll out the pasta. When you have it to approximately a cm thick, fold it onto itself and continue to roll out, repeat this three or four times.

-Once you have rolled the pasta as above, you are ready to roll to finish, so gently roll out the pasta until is around a mm or so thick. Then lightly flour the sheet, and roll up gently into a sausage.

-Next using a sharp knife, cut the roll into very thin strips to get tagliatelle style pasta. Once cut, ruffle in your fingers to unravel, and toss the ready made pasta strips into some flour to keep them from sticking.

-Repeat the process for the remaining ball.

SERVING SUGGESTION AND TIPS:

Once made the pasta really needs to be used as soon as possible, you could keep it in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge for a few days, but the risk of things sticking together do increase by doing this.

Make sure you cook the pasta in a large pan, plenty of boiling salted water, is especially important for fresh pasta.

This fresh pasta, is delicious served with any of your favourite sauces, however I prefer it with somethng quite plain like a sage butter sauce, with a squeeze of lemon juice, or similar. Enjoy!

Over Complicated...

2009-11-23T14:53:00.005Z

In general, I have nothing against pretentiousness, apart from it being hard to spell, and assuming that the right to be pretentious, has first been earned.

If I booked a table in any of the worlds top restaurants such as 'The Fat Duck', ' El Bulli', 'L'Astrance', or 'The French Laundry', I would quite justifiably, expect to see it, in full glorious well earned abundance.

However, when it comes to just talking about simple Italian food, or dining in just a regular Italian Restaurant, or watching a tv program on Italian food. I really question the tactic of confusing everyone with complicated menu's, or being over zealous with the use of un-translated text. Let us also never mention the over complication of ingredients needed for what is essentially, just regular, everyday, or indeed even sometimes, peasant food.

It is infuriating, irritating, misleading, and plain unnessceary.

BEHIND THE FACADE

Italian meals other than special occasions, do not consist of elaborate multi course affairs. Growing up, we only had these types of meals on Christmas Eve, Christmas day, New Years eve, New Years day, Birthdays, and of course Easter. Most days of the week it was much the same, as the rest of the real world.

Namely a combination consisting of one, or rarely all, of the usual;
a starter,
a main,
and a sweet.
I mean who in the real world sits down to a three or more course meal, every single night. Almost nobody, in fact probably nobody at all, i'd wager.

Italians originally ate polenta, not because it was fashionable, not because it sounded interesting, but because it was cheap, versatile, filling and readily available.

Even the famous Spaghetti Carbonara, whether you want to believe the romance, that it hailed from the revolutionary clandestine almost masonic organization, called the "Carbonari", or the rather more down to earth story of it being the most favored dish of the hard working Coal Mining community. It really doesn't matter. We could even debate over whether guincale or pancetta, is the more authentic, and which provides for the better flavour.

However, what is certain in my mind, is that this dish was created by an average person to cheaply feed a family, not a recipe constructed by a chef. And was almost certainly, lovingly made, using average everyday store cupboard ingredients no more, and no less.

Namely pasta, eggs, cheese, some kind of cured pork, and black pepper. What household doesn't have those ingredients to hand most of the time, few I bet.

This dish was never intended to appear fussy, or to use ingredients which are not easily sourced. It is just homely food, designed to feed a hungry family, on a budget. So if Mr James from London wants to use a smoked streaky bacon in lieu of pancetta or guincale, or Mrs Jones from New York wants to enrichen it with some cream, does it make it anymore, or any less of a Carbonara, absolutely not.

I personally think chefs, and the whole expectation placed on the so-called "fine dining" experience, has placed far too high expectations on the average home cook, the ingredients expected to be used, and what were once just basic cooking skills, have been romantisced into seemingly out of reach art.

Far from being pretentious, real food, and indeed real Italian food, is all about simplicity, fresh ingredients, and being where possible seasonal. Versatility was a trademark of the Italian cook, not being able to source some or all of the ingredients wouldn't stop a dish being made. Sure a pasta machine is a nice toy, but it is not anything hard work, and a rolling pin, could not equally achieve. My Nonna didn't have calloused hands for no reason.

Does feeling this way, make me any less, or any more of a foodie, I think not. It does make me a realist though. Real good food, for real people is all i'm interested in. Rant over...

Torta di Zucca, Con Cioccolato Amarro (Italian Pumpkin Tart with Bitter Chocolate)

2009-11-18T19:41:00.004Z

Pumpkins are one of a few vegetables, which lend themselves very well, in fact equally well, to both sweet or savoury dishes. As much as I adore spicy pumpkin soup, or roasted pumpkin wedges, or even pumpkin risotto, my real favourite recipe, is one where it is combined with pieces of bitter chocolate, cinnamon syrup, and baked in a type of a tart.

To create the recipe listed below you can use practically any edible pumpkin, or a butternut squash, but I recommend an old variety from Venice called "Marina Di Chioggia". (As are most of my other Italian vegetables, the seeds for these are stocked by Franchi Seeds, if you fancy growing your own).

Admittedly it is quite an ugly looking, knobbly skinned pumpkin, but it has a beautiful firm, not to moist, orange flesh which possesses an incredible flavour, both nutty and very sweet.

In this instance, beauty is certainly not skin deep. In fact, quite the opposite for this pumpkin, it is a beautiful vegetable on the inside!

So ok, now I have to mention the dreaded P word, Pastry. I know lots of people love making it, but for me its a real chore, and time consuming. So when it comes to the base of the tart, I am not going to preach about the virtues of homemade pastry. As superior as it undoubtedly is, I personally feel life is just a little too short to make my own pastry (and basically because mine is often rubbish). On this occasion however, I did have a go, and although I didn't neatly finish the edges when laying into the tin, it did taste really nice.

Despite todays efforts, I would normally use a "ready to use", frozen puff, or short crust pastry. However, the choice, whichever way you go, is entirely yours. I do include a brief overview on how I made the pastry, it is pretty simple actually.

The filling however, is entirely home made, natural, and is just a delicious, delightful combination of mashed pumpkin, cinnamon syrup, dark rum, and a bitter dark chocolate. If you don't ever make this, you will have to trust me when I say it is just divine as a combination, practically beyond words.

I should mention this is probably horrifically calorific, however I am a firm believer in not excluding any foods from diets. I think a slice or two of this tart will do you no harm at all, and in my book a little natural sugar, is far healthier for you, than starving your body of any sugar at all, or eating copious amounts of that horrible aspartame stuff.

Having said that, if you are on a diet, you might want to pass on this one.

INGREDIENTS:

Base-
Sweet Pastry, (a puff pastry, or shortcrust would work fine) enough to line a 10-12 inch tart case, or flan dish. If you wanted you could even buy a ready made sweet tart base. Alternatively, if you insist on home made, to make a basic pastry, mix together 80g butter, and around 150g flour, turn into a breadcrumb texture then combine with 20g sugar, and around 100-150ml water until it gathers into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm (food wrap) and put in the fridge for 20 minutes, and then roll out as needed.

Filling-
One medium sized Pumpkin, (aim for around 400g peeled flesh)
70g Dark Chocolate, something with 70% cocoa solids or above is ideal.
I normally use a Lindt, as the quality is exceptional in my opinion.

Syrup-
100ml of water,
4 tablespoons of caster sugar,
2 sticks of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of a dark rum,

Icing sugar to dust finished tart.

METHOD:

-First thing to do, is to prepare the base. Line a tart case with the pastry, and cover with baking beans (or similar) and bake in the middle of a moderate oven for around 10-15 or so minutes, until the base is a nice golden colour. Then allow the tart to cool, and put to one side.

-Next you de-seed, skin and chunk the pumpkin, and roast in an oven until tender, somewhere around 30-40 minutes in a medium oven will do it. Bake in foil to avoid colouring. Once cooked, cool the pumkin, and then mash it down. Please mash it, after cooling, or else it won't work as well.

-Meanwhile, in a pan, add all the syrup ingredients, and bring to the boil, once at a boil, add the rum, then continue to simmer, and stir until you get to a syrup consistency. A good way of describing it, would be just beyond the coating a back of a spoon stage, so slightly thicker than usual. Strain the cinnamon out, allow to cool slightly. As you can see below, it goes a nice golden caramel colour.

-Next grab your 200g of dark chocolate, and smash it into irregular sized chunks, ranging from tiny, to 1 inch sized pieces.

-In a suitable mixing bowl, add the cooled mashed pumpkin, and slowly add the syrup, until you get a nice smooth mixture, a bit like a firm mash potato mixture. BE CAREFUL not to add to much syrup, almost always, you will have some left over (save it for sweetening drinks, or for next time). Certainly you want to avoid the mixture looking anywhere near runny!

-Now add the broken chocolate into the pumpkin mixture, and carefully using a spatula add the contents into the tart case, fill to the top. Not following my own instructions I actually mixed the ingredients while the pumpkin was hot, and the chocolate melted, so looked rather untidy, bordering ugly, before being baked to the finish. However yours, will look much better than mine im quite sure. Also don't worry the finishing step of dusting with icing sugar, will make it look pwettty! Honest!

-Carefully place the tart case into the center of a pre-heated moderate oven, and bake for around 15-20 minutes, until the top has browned. You will find it becomes a nice even medium brown colour. Remove the from the oven and allow to cool. Once cooled dust the tart with icing sugar, and serve with a nice vanilla ice cream, or some whipped cream. Enjoy!

Living on a budget, or just plain not wasting money!

2009-10-20T17:07:00.001+01:00

It amazes me that despite the financial turmoil, there are still huge numbers of people wasting hard earned money, and more importantly gambling with their families health by purchasing readymade meals, pre-prepared vegetables, and takeouts (takeaways) on a regular basis.

I wish people would stop and think before purchasing these, not only are they not friendly to the environment, because of the packaging, production costs, and food miles (transport costs). They are also extremely bad for your health.

Despite the blazen claims of many producsts which boast "Does not contain, artifical flavouring, colouring or preservatives", these do all to often contain huge amounts of hidden salt, and/or sugar. Neither of which are good for you!

Cooking on a budget however, could not really be easier, it is literally just a case of learning a few basics, buying the "essentials" and being imaginative and NOT wasting a single thing! Really, Do NOT throw away food! Ever! Stop it!

In the UK there are hordes of shoppers continually throwing away perfectly good food. I read recently that in the UK, the combined household waste consisting of perfectly edible fresh fruit, salad items, and vegetables is estimated at being several hundred tons annually, at a cost of millions of pounds. I am sure the exact same thing happens around the world.

Here are the few simple techniques which we employ, it is easily possible to save £20-30 ($40-60) upwards, a week, just by being slightly more prudent.

1. FORGET "best before" dates on vegetables.
It's just silly! Vegetables do not need best before dates. Just use your common sense. When possible, buy them loose, or from a fresh market. A Cucumber, in shrink-wrapped plastic, sitting on a supermarket shelf, with a best before date printed all over it, is the most absurd thing, I have ever seen.

2. Buy WHOLE Chickens.
Buying chicken pieces rather than whole, is an expensive bad habit, and a complete waste of money! To save some money, and get better value, buy whole chickens and cut them into pieces, turn the leftover carcasses into stock, or keep the carcass for making a broth. Once cooked you will be able to pick off lots of extra meat from the body. Perfectly fine, tasty, edible meat which would have been discarded. You can use this to make things like chicken fajitas, or as a filler to a chicken pie, no problem at all.

If you have any qualms over cutting up your own, youtube or videojug are full of videos showing you how to do it. Generally you will get two wings, two legs, two thighs, and one carcass (and not alot of waste). The portions can then be frozen, and used later.

3. Buy LOTS of Vegetables.
Vegetables are fantastic, they can be used for a huge range of things from soups, to curries. They are ideal for bulking out meals, and are basically far healthier for you anyway. Veggies are an economical shoppers friend, your larder should always contain lots of vegetables. If you have purchased to many, do not be scared of the freezer. Also any which are looking tired, can be used in stews, casseroles or can contribute towards making a vegetable stock.

4. DO NOT throw away stale bread.
Turn any slightly stale bread into breadcrumbs, or make Croutons for adding to delicious soups. Breadcrumbs can be used to coat things such as flattened out chicken or turkey fillets, or are a good natural 'filler' to add to things like meatballs or home made burgers (how delicious are they!).

5. MAKE a list, before you go shopping!
Avoid impulse buys! If something is on offer, buy more of it. However if you see something on offer, which is something you don't normally purchase. Avoid it!! Your not saving money, if your purchasing something you would not normally have.

Tiramisu, Tiramisu, Tiramisu!

2009-10-12T14:16:00.004+01:00

Tiramisu, is probably the most well known of Italian desserts, which if made correctly is so delicious and light, it is the perfect "pick me up", and in my opinion a perfect end to a meal. Incidentally, as a bit of trivia, Tira-mi-su, translated into English, does actually mean "pick me up".

Almost equally though, Tiramisu is rich enough to stand on its own, and can just as easily be enjoyed with a strong coffee, in the afternoon.

Sadly, my personal experience of eating Tiramisu from inferior Italian resuraunts, or trying ready made versions from chilled cabinets in supermarkets is NOT a good one.

Tiramisu these days bares hardly any resemblance to the original article. This Italian delight has been turned into a rather heavy, dense, claggy, artery clogging dessert, a thoroughly unenjoyable experience which sits far too heavily on the stomach.

A more of a pull me under the table to die, rather than a pick me up as intended.

In the recipe below however, in my opinion, the balance is restored, and it is as light, and easy to eat, as it should be. Although for those of you who may be calorie conscious, this is most definitely one to avoid.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

250g mascarpone
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, you could use the scrapings from inside a real vanilla pod if feeling posh!
3 tablespoons marsala wine, or a sweet sherry
125ml espresso coffee, cooled.
150ml single cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar
16 savioardi biscuits (sponge fingers)
70% chocolate, dark chocolate bar
Cocoa powder, to dust

METHOD:

- In a suitable bowl, combine mascarpone with the vanilla and Marsala and a 25ml of the espresso coffee, mix together thoroughly.

-Seperately whisk the cream and icing sugar until smooth, and then carefully add this into the mascarpone mixture, combine it nice and gently to keep if fluffy and light.

-On a plate, line out the savioardi biscuits, and gently spoon the coffee onto them. Keep doing this one spoon at a time, until it is absorbed, do this little by little. DO NOT soak the biscuits, we want them to maintain some firmness to them. You might have left over coffee, don't feel you have to use it all.

-In 4 suitable serving glasses, and yes I feel individual servings are better! Gently place a layer of the coffee soaked biscuits into the bottom. You will have to break them to fit inside. Onto that biscuit layer spoon the mascarpone mix, next create an additional layer of sponge fingers, and repeat, being more generous with the final layer of mascarpone.

-Place the glasses into the fridge, and leave them for at least 2 hours, finish by grating some dark chocolate over the top, and dust with the cocoa powder.

Enjoy!

Orecchiette Con Cime di Rapa

2009-10-06T20:22:00.009+01:00

One of the great successes of this years vegetable plot has undoubtedly been the Broccoli and the Cima Di Rapa. In case you are wondering what on earth Cima di Rapa is. It is basically a loose relation to Broccoli, but is actually a closer relative to Turnips (They are all part of the huge Brassica family).

In fact to many, these are known as Turnip tops, and they taste absolutely wonderful. A sort of bitter, mustardy type taste, but extremely pleasant.

In the part of Italy across from Naples, (Foggia) these are enjoyed in a classic dish called Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa. Orecchiette being the ear shaped pasta, which hails from the region. The dish basically consists of blanched Cime di Rapa, sauted in a pan with garlic, and dried chilli. Again very simple, but stunningly delicious.

If you have problems sourcing Cime di Rapa, you could substitute with Broccoli, including some of the leaf, stalks, and just add a teaspoon of a grained mustard to simulate the bitterness. Recently I have been informed by my American friends, that Cime di Rapa, is known as Broccoli Rapa, or Rapini in the US, or at least they are very similar, so if you see these, bag them! Simlarly, there is no reason why you couldn't use Conchiglie (pasta shells) in lieu of Orechiette.

At this point, I will recommend you try growing some of your own, the seeds for this wonderful vegetable are available from Franchi Seeds. They are pretty much a sow and forget type vegetable, so don't worry if you don't have green fingers. They almost grow themselves. If your interested in sourcing the pasta, the best Pasta supplier in my opinion, is La Molisana, they stock Orechiette, and a huge number of regional variations, and supply worldwide. So keep an eye out for this brand locally.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

400g orechiette pasta (approx 100g per person)
1 tablespoon of olive oil, or vegetable oil.
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (the best you can afford)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped small
1 teaspoon of chopped pepperoncini (dried chilli flakes)
15 stalks of cime di rapa, you could use 100g of broccoli, or try a dozen stems of sprouting broccoli.
salt an pepper to season

METHOD:

-Bring some water in a large pan to the boil, and blanch the Cime di Rapa for 2-3 minutes, if using broccoli, do the same. Remove them from the water using a slotted spoon, set to one side.

-In the same water, add some salt, and throw in the pasta, and cook as per packet instructions. Normally around 7-8 minutes as a rough guide. No soggy pasta please!

-Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat the plain olive oil, and once hot, add the garlic, pepperoncini, and the cima di rapa stalks (or broccoli), fry them around on a gentle heat until the pasta is cooked.

-Once the pasta is ready, drain, and add the drained contents to the frying pan, toss around the contents, and add around half the extra virgin olive oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

-Pour the pasta into heated plates, and drizzle with more extra virgin olive oil, and finish with grated parmesan reggiano. In the photo on the left, a combination of broccoli and cime di rapa were used. Incidentally, in case you are wondering why extra virgin olive oil is added at the end, its because to use expensive oil to actually fry with, would be a waste of money. The peppery taste is destroyed by the high temperatues, so just use normal olive oil for the frying process. As always, Enjoy!

Potato Gnocchi

2009-09-27T10:21:00.011+01:00

As good as shop purchased ready-made gnocchi can be, sometimes making them yourself is a bit of a treat. They taste far more potatoey (if such a word exists), you have control over the consistency, and most importantly you know precisely what has gone into the mixture!

As applies to most Italian food, gnocchi are surprisingly easy to make. They are just a combination of floury potatoes, flour and eggs. When it comes to serving them, we most often eat them with a sauce made from double cream, and a blue cheese such as gorgonzola, or a local equivalent (for me a mild Stilton). Yesterday however, we had them baked with a tomato sauce (see right hand menu), torn mozarella, and generous amounts of parmesan grated over the top. To say they tasted delicious is an understatement.

For this particular blog, because I think the process warrants it, I have included some additional photo's to assist.

INGREDIENTS:
(serve 2-3)

4 medium sized potatoes, any floury types.
100g plain flour
1 medium sized egg
salt and pepper to season.

METHOD:

-Place your potatoes unpeeled (VERY important not to peel them) into a medium sized pan, filled with cold water, place onto high heat and cook for around 20-30 minutes until tender. Be careful not to break the skin, or poke them too many times with a fork. We want to keep all the starch inside the potato.

- Once the potatoes are drained and cooled down sufficiently, very carefully remove the skins, chunk the potatoes and pass them through a potato ricer (shown above). It might be an idea to pass them a couple of times to make sure they are ultra smooth, and light.

- Form the riced potatoes into a mound, and break an egg into the center. Next add three quarters of the flour, season with salt and pepper, and combine the mixture into a dough on a floured surface. Add extra flour as you go, until you get a firmish dough but still slightly moist. It is important not to handle the mix too much, but do make sure its nicely combined and holding together well.

- Once happy with the mixture, flour the surface and dough lightly and mix into an oval, and cut into two pieces as above. Next roll the halves into sausages, approximately an inch in diameter.

- Take each sausage and cut into inch blocks, and then on the back of a fork gently roll them to get a thumb indent on one side, and a rolled look on the other. Don't worry you do not have to be too precise. This is home cooked Italian food, not a Michelin starred restaurant. Lightly flour the gnocchi, and put to one side.

-Next bring some water to a boil in a large pan, lightly salt, and drop the gnocchi into the pan. As soon as they start to float, wait about a minute. Then with a slotted spoon scoop them out, and serve as soon as possible.

SERVING SUGGESTION:

Gnocchi are fantastic served in a variety of ways, some of which include sage butter, with a freshly made basil pesto, or as mentioned baked in the oven with mozeralla, tomato sauce, and lots of parmesan. Another great idea is to gently heat some double cream in frying pan, and then slowly crumble into it a gorgonzola cheese, or a medium tasting blue equivalent, once melted pour over the gnocchi. Enjoy!

Italian Zabaione! (Zabaglione)

2009-09-25T13:48:00.002+01:00

This recipe as was served to me many years ago, probably would these days, go against and contravene every modern health and safety rule, parenting guideline, and probably legal law across the planet. However, when I was a kid, my mother used to regularly make Zabaione for her family.

Yes, at the tender age of 5 or 6 years old, I was consuming, in fact actively encouraged to consume, both alcohol and raw eggs (albeit in very small quantities).

How times have changed over the past 20 years. However it was far from a sadisitic ritual, or poor parenting, it was actually a sort of sunday morning treat, and ofen a cruel trick to entice us unwilling kids to Church early on a sunday morning. The promise of recieving this delcious treat, when we returned home, was a very alluring temptation, dare I say amlost sinful.

To those who don't know what Zabaione is, it is basically a comination of egg yolks, sugar and a flavourful sweet Italian wine called Marsala. No this is not a typo, there isn't a list of ingredients missing, or a paragraph omitted from the blog, that is all there is to Zabaione, three ingredients. Also, yes it is supposed to be Zabaione, Zabaglione as you will more commonly see is the new spelling, of the same thing.

Zabaione can also form the base for Ice Creams, and other delights which I will list here at a later date. One of my favourites, is a bread and butter pudding, using Zabaione, Grappa soaked currants, and slices of Italian Pannetone.

At this point I am going to be very risque, and mention that you can eat this uncooked (as we used too), so if your very brave, not in any of the "at-risk" groups, and have exceedingly fresh eggs feel free to try them as nature intended! Although it probably is wise, and in my opinion tastes better anyway, to lightly cook the egg yolks as described here.

INGREDIENTS:
(For 4 persons)

8 Egg Yolks, now I am not one to preach, I am hugely in favour of economy eggs for cooking if you are on a budget. However since you are consuming these practically raw, or at least lightly cooked, I feel flavour and more importantly quality is hugely important. For that reason, I am going to recommend you buy the most expensive free range, and organic eggs that you can afford. The difference, is immeasurable.

8 Tablespoons of sugar, granulated or caster is just fine. Lots of recipes call for caster sugar, you know what, it is going to dissolve, so I have no idea why anyone feels it makes a difference in this recipe, so just go with regular sugar in my opinion.

2 Tablespoons of Marsala wine, or a sweet sherry if you can't find Marsala wine. Although (again not preaching) I would recommend making the effort to find Marsala wine as its excellent in a variety of Italian dishes, and is an excellent after dinner tipple too.

METHOD:

-Now please don't be like me, dismiss thoughts of grabbing that electric whisk or equivalent, this is an old Italian recipe, so please show it some respect and use a nice hand wisk. With your wisk in hand, proceed to whisk and blend the egg yolks with the sugar in a medium sized bowl. Keep whisking until they become light, fluffy, and slightly frothy (as a guide 3-4 minutes of frantic hand whisking will do it, or 1 minute with an electric whisk, if your lazy like me).

-Next add the marsala wine, and with a spoon stir this into the mixture, take some care not to destroy the light fluffyness you have created earlier.

-Now at this stage you if your going to be brave, and I REPEAT if you are not in an "at risk" group, (i.e. very young, elderly, pregnant so forth) you could skip the next stage and go straight to my notes on Serving. However for most of us I would recommend you gently pour this mixture into a small pan, a milk pan for example, and proceed as below.

-Next, place the pan over a VERY low heat, and gently stir the mixture constantly. It is rather like making a custard, in that you don't want to be overheating the mixture, and you do need to keep occasionally lifting the pan off the heat to cool it slightly, and of course as mentioned, do keep gently stirring throughout. Continue to do this for somewhere around 5-8 minutes (or longer) until the mixture thickens slightly. Dont aim for really thick, think a thick pouring cream consistency, but I advise you, please do not overheat this mixture, it takes time to thicken. Be patient! Then your done, and it is ready to serve!

SERVING SUGGESTION:

Personally I pour this into pre-warmed, old style Champagne glasses, and serve it with long spoons while it is still fresh from the pan, just as it is! It is ridicilously delicious.

However the traditional way, to serve it cooked, is poured generously over fresh baked figs. Just rip the figs open, sprinkle some brown sugar on top, put them on a tray, and place in a medium heat oven for 10 minutes prior to serving, and then pour the fresh Zabaione over the top. Enjoy!!

Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino (Garlic, Olive Oil and Chilli)

2009-09-19T11:22:00.009+01:00

Being Italian, or simply just knowing about Italian food does have its advantages, one of the main ones in my opinion is knowing just how easy cooking can be, and understanding that you don't always need expensive ingredients, advanced skills, or masses of time to prepare something enjoyable.

A great example is the embarassingly easy to prepare, but simply delicious Spaghetti "Aglio e Olio", (pronounced "ally-E-o" -"eh" -"olly-Oh") The dish is basically a combination of pungent garlic, peppery olive oil, and chopped up dried Italian chilli (pepperoncini), all carried on strands of spaghetti pasta.

Despite consisting of so few ingredients, this spaghetti dish really does pack a flavour punch, and is something we make at home at least a few times a month. It is just ideal for those occasions when you need something to eat in a hurry, but don't want to compromise on taste. I recommend using a good quality spaghetti, something like a pasta produced by "La Molisana", the better quality does really shine, and certainly avoid the dreaded "quick cook" variety that some supermarkets stock.
One to thing mention though, is that if you don't cook the garlic long enough, you can risk producing a rather bland tasting meal. This is one of the few occasions were I recommend taking the cooking of the garlic to the point of being nicely browned, almost (notice I say almost) to the point of being burned. In this case, the slight charring is most definitely a good thing and the difference in flavour to the finished dish, is immense.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 2-3 persons)

-Dried Spaghetti (as a hint if you make an O shape with your index finger an thumb, as if to indicate OK, the amount of spaghetti that will fit through the hole, is generally enough for 2 persons).

- 2 or 3 fat cloves of garlic, chopped into a small dice.

- 1 or 2 medium size dried Italian red chilli (pepperoncini) chopped finely. Normally you can get these from an Italian shop, but at a push, you could use a teaspoon of regular chilli flakes as a substitute, but careful as they can be a bit stronger.

- Good few glugs of Extra Virgin Olive oil. Remember to be generous, because this will act as the "sauce" to coat the spaghetti. Use your best judgement, but no less than 5 tablespoons for 2-3 persons is a good guide.

-Handful of flat leaf parsley chopped up coarsely (optional).

-Salt, and Pepper to season.

METHOD:

-Boil water in a deep sided saucepan on a high heat, when the water reaches a rolling boil, add some salt, and add the spaghetti carefully, allow it to slightly soften, then help ease the spaghetti into the water. As usual when cooking pasta, don't forget to stir it occasionally!

-While the spaghetti is cooking, lightly heat the olive oil in a generously sized frying pan, or wok, and add the garlic. Now to get some good flavour, make sure you colour the garlic, aim for a rich golden brown to medium brown colour. When you get a good colour, throw in the chilli, and reduce the heat down to a very slow simmer.

-When the spaghetti is cooked, drain well, and pour the drained spaghetti into the frying pan, stir around and add the parsley (if using), season with salt and pepper, and serve. If you wish you can top with some freshly grated parmesan.
Enjoy!

Risotto Alla Milanese (Saffron Risotto from Milan)

2009-09-14T21:06:00.006+01:00

Risotto is one of those Italian dishes which seems to be shrouded in mystery. Many celebrity Chefs talk about the richness coming from the addition of Cream, or Creme Fraiche. Wrong. Some recipes I have seen recommend that you use American long grain rice, and I even saw one once which recommended using Basmati! WRONG! Che Confusione! (what confusion!)

Basically I can tell you categorically that making Risotto, a good Risotto, is surprisingly very easy. The secret to a good Risotto is in the rice you use, the simple principal techniques employed, and of course the quality of the stock.

There are basically three main Risotto rices which most people will encounter, the one most people are familiar with, which is the Arborio, and the other more robust grains of Vialone Nano and Carnaroli. You will hear mention of Superfino, Comune, and Fino on some websites, but that just refers to grain size, which in all honesty we don't need to know about. Just know that Arborio is the smallest grain of the three common types.

In this particular recipe the beautiful delicate flavours of Saffron are enjoyed, and this risotto is an extremely useful one to have in your repotoire as it is mainly made from storecupboard ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

2-3 tablespoons (approx) of olive oil
1 finely diced shallott (or a small onion)
400g of Arborio risotto rice,
1 glass of a decent white wine,
1 pint of a good vegetable stock (a cube is not really recommended)
4-5 strands of Saffron (infuse in a little warm water)
4 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan
4oz (approx) of butter

METHOD:

-In a medium sized pan, over a gentle heat, add the olive oil, and the finely diced shallots. You want to gently cook the shallot until translucent, we are definitely not looking to colour them. Cook for approx 4 minutes.

-Next you can add the Arborio rice, and gently stir so that the rice grains are all coated. Cook for around 2 or 3 minutes, and then add the white wine. Gently simmer until the wine has evaporated (important!).

-Next add a small quantity of the freshly made vegetable stock. So OK we do not always have fresh vegetable stock to hand. If you are caught short, make a very weak stock using a quarter to a half of a dried vegetable stock cube. Don't be tempted to use a whole cube, or it will ruin the taste of the risotto. I am not recommending using a dried cube, but it can be used if you want too. Now while still simmering gently stir the risotto, and continue to do so, until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Don't boil it dry though! Once almost dry, add another small quantity of stock, and repeat the process. You will need to continue to do this for around 15-18 minutes, taste the rice and check for "bite" before adding the next quantity of stock.

-Once your happy with the "bite" (cooked state) of the risotto, add the small quantity of infused saffron, and the liquid it was sitting in (around a tablespoon or two). Stir the risotto through, and now comes the magical part. The next step is what makes the risotto creamy, and in fact it is referred to as creaming the risotto, but rest assured no real cream is involved.

-To create the perfect creamy risotto add the butter, and parmesan into the pan, and stir very vigorously! Keep doing this until the butter has melted, place a lid on the pan, and remove from the heat. Let the risotto sit for 2-3 minutes and serve immediately.

SERVING METHOD:

This type of Risotto is traditionally served with something like Osso Buoco, but you can like we do, even serve it with a nice lamb chop, maybe one that has been grilled, or pan fried in butter for example. However equally, this would be a tasty supper served alone with some fresh Ciabatta bread, and a crisp white wine. Enjoy!

Italian Stuffed Squid, in Tomato Sauce

2009-09-09T16:37:00.006+01:00

When most people think about Squid, the word instantly conjures up images of mediteranean holidays, and those delicious deep-fried calamari squid rings. The ones with the crisp fresh batter, just begging to be drenched with tangy lemon juice squeezed from freshly cut wedges.

Unfortunately though, if not cooked correctly, Squid turns into the infamous chewy "squid elastic", which im sure most of us have encountered when eating them in the local Greek or Italian resturaunt. Or when trying to faithully recreate the dish at home.

The trick to achieving perfect squid rings is to firstly make sure the oil is hot, but secondly and the most important is to make sure that the squid is cooked for only a few minutes. We are seriously talking no more than 2-3 minutes or else it will be ruined. The squid is then best served with a wedge of lemon, and tastes delicious, with lemon squeezed freshly over it.

Squid, however is rather more versatile than you think! For example the squid ink gently squeezed from fresh uncleaned squid can be added to a basic pasta dough, and create a special black 'squid ink' pasta, which looks dramatic plated, and has a subtle, gentle, squid essence (taste) running through it.

Another great Italian squid dish, which is my personal favourite thing to do with squid, is the slightly less well known stuffed squid in tomato sauce. These are whole squids with the heads, tentacles and quills removed, filled with a delicious stuffing, fried, and then slowly cooked in a tomato sauce. Often served with Spaghetti.

So if you would like to try doing something a bit different, this is how you would do it!

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 4)

4-5 whole squid. If you have a decent fish monger, purchase the fresh ones. Otherwise I recommend you purchase frozen ones, as then at least you have some knowledge over how "fresh" they are. Supermarket fresh fish counters can be quite dangerous places. Who knows how long "fresh" fish has been lingering on their counters.

1/4 of a fresh white loaf of Bread (approx 300g)
2 handfuls of flat leaf parsley
2 Medium sized egg yolks (keep the whites for meringues, for dessert! etc)
4-5 cocktail sticks (1 per squid, so adjust accordingly)

1 Jar of Passata sauce
3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive oil.
1 clove of Garlic crushed!
Some salt and black pepper to season

METHOD:

- Remove the tentacled heads from your squid bodies, and the skin, and gently push on the bodies to expose the "plastic" quill which is in the middle, then pull it out. Alternatively have your fish monger do it. Put the cleaned squids to one side.

-Next cut the tentacles off the heads, just below the eyes, make sure no "beaks" are still in the tentacles, and rub-off any skin. Keep the tentacles and put to one side! If your squeamish about legs, discard the lot and ignore this step (but that is hugely wasteful, and im sure nobody would throw them!).

- In a medium sized mixing bowl, tear the white bread (avoiding the crust) into small chunks, chop the parsley coarsely and add. Lastly add the egg yolks and knead the mixture, you will find it binds together slightly. Yes it will look revolting, it won't look particulary nice, dont worry! Season well, and put to one side.

- Ok now your ready to stuff! Grab the squid bodies, open them gently, and using great care, put the "bread" stuffing into them. Take care not to overfill, or they will split, but you do want them to look quite plump. Once filled take a cocktail stick, and gently pierce and "stitch" the open end, so that your effectively sealing it shut with the cocktail stick going through the once open end. Be careful not to tear the skin. Put them to one side!

- In a sauce pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the Olive oil, add the garlic, fry for a few minutes, then add the jar of passata. Cook gently at a simmer and go immediately onto the next step.

-In a frying pan (of suitable size) heat the remaining Olive oil, and GENTLY add the squid bodies, and the tentacles, cook until slightly golden. Take off the heat immediately, and add to the simmering tomato sauce.

-Season the sauce, and continue to simmer very gently, covered, for about 1 and a half, to two hours. To get the consistency you want, cook the sauce for the last 30 or so minutes uncovered. Remove from heat, and serve as suggested below.

NOTE: This is also keeps excellently for reheating, or once cooked the squid and sauce could be easily portioned, and frozen again to have another day.

SERVING METHOD:

Cook some Spaghetti to 'al dente', drain, and add some of the above sauce to the Spaghetti to coat well. Add some of the tentacles to each portion together with one of the stuffed squid. Best served with a fairly robust but mild red wine, such as a merlot, or a sangiovese.

If you wanted, you could also add baby clams, or cockles at the same time as the stuffed squid to the simmering tomato sauce, which would then create a Spaghetti Marinare style dish. Enjoy!

The Easiest To Make Pasta Sauce in the World, Honest!

2009-09-05T10:21:00.007+01:00

Let me start by saying, Tomato Sauce is easy to make. It pains me to see supermarket shelves packed full of ready made tomato pasta sauce.

Please stop wasting your money by buying these artificial ready-made tomato sauces for Pasta. You can create any of these yourself with no trouble at all. Once made, you can freeze it for 6 months, or store it in the fridge for 2-3 days no problem. All of this without any unnatural flavourings, fillers or stabilizers. To be honest though, I think most people only buy these products because they have never thought about or tried to make the sauce themselves, but you can definately do it! Easily. Trust me..

INGREDIENTS:
1 medium sized onion diced up small,
2 cloves of garlic crushed up, and diced,
800g of chopped tomatoes (either fresh, or two 400g tins)
1/2 teaspoon mixture of dried thyme and oregano,
1 or 2 teaspoons of tomato concentrate,
salt and pepper to season sauce.

METHOD:

-Fry some chopped onion and garlic in a pan, in a little oil, until nice and soft but not coloured.

-Add the chopped tomatoes, a teaspoon or two of tomato concentrate, the italian herbs, the salt and pepper, and cook, uncovered on a gentle heat for between 10-30 minutes, until you get the desired consistency.

That is it finished. This sauce can be used right away served on pasta, or can be cooled and stored in the fridge for a few days, or even frozen for later use (upto 6 months later, easily).
However, don't think that is it. This sauce, can be used as a base to lots of other Italian dishes, some of which I will be listing later. You will be amazed at how easy some of the resturaunt favourites are to make. Enjoy!

A Flavourful Tomato Sauce

2009-08-29T09:52:00.009+01:00

Almost all Italians have their own version of a recipe for tomato sauce, this is our families version, and in my opinion (obviously), it is simply the best. As this needs to be cooked for many hours, it is only something we make a few times a month at most. However like we do, you could make it in bulk and freeze it in portions, or simply keep it in the fridge for a few days.

Personally, I like this sauce served over al dente, 'Zitoni Napoletani', (long pasta tubes). We break these into 2 inch pieces prior to cooking. As always, don't overcook your pasta.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cheap, beef frying steaks,
2 garlic cloves, diced up
Handful of fresh flat leaf Parsley, chopped,

700g bottle of Passata.
2 tablespoons of Tomato Puree (also known as tomato paste, or tomato concentrate)
1 teaspoon of a dry mix of oregano, and thyme
1 bay leaf
Some water (200ml Approx),
Salt and Pepper,
Pinch of Sugar,

METHOD

-Get the two pieces of cheap Beef, frying steak, lay one flat on a board, into the middle of it, put some chopped garlic, some chopped fresh parsley. Now roll the steak up, and tie it up with some cotton (yes, any colour is fine). Repeat this process for the second steak.

-In a deep pan, heat some olive oil on a medium high heat, once heated place the rolled steaks inside. Heat gently so to colour the meat slightly, next add the two tablespoons of tomato puree, stir in for a few minutes, then increase the heat slightly. Next add a bottle of Passata sauce, add some water equivalent to approxmiately three quarters of the volume of the bottle you just added.

-With the heat still on a high heat, stir the sauce, seasoon with salt and pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 3-4 generous grinds of pepper), add the pinch of sugar, and add the herbs, bay leaf, then stir the sauce.

-When the sauce reaches almost boiling point, reduce the heat to a low simmer setting. What we are looking for is a gentle "clocking" simmer, when you are happy its very gently cooking, cover the pan with a lid, and leave alone for around 2 hours, or longer (just the occasional stir is needed). You could quite safely go away and do something else, in Italy people would traditionally start making a sauce on Sunday morning, and during this period they would go to the church, or clean the house.

-After it has beens simmering for around the 2 hour mark, remove the lid, stir, and then increase the heat slightly, and cook until the sauce reduces to your preferred consistency. Taste, and adjust seasoning to suit your taste.

-Serve sauce with cooked pasta, and serve with freshly grated parmesan over the top.

As mentioned the leftover sauce, can be cooled and frozen for later use, or left in the fridge for a few days if you want to eat pasta again. Incidentally as is often the case, this sauce can be the base for many other dishes. Some of which I will list later. The steak can be eaten, either seperately or combined into the pasta dish. By the way, in case your wondering why I recommended cheap steak within the sauce, that is because normally even a cheap cut, will taste as great as a more expensive cut, if gently cooked for hours in an acidic base sauce such as this one. Feel free to experiment. Enjoy!

Three Way Bruschetta

2009-08-25T20:49:00.006+01:00

To most Italians, this is just a cheap and simple snack. It is quite strange to me, to see this being sold on resturaunt menus at quite a premium price.

It is very easy to make, no harder than say making cheese on toast, and is alot more healthy for you to eat. No matter how tired I am, I still manage to rustle this up as a snack, or a light meal. In this example, I provide three versions to provide lots of varities to suit all tastes. You really have to trust me when I say these are delicious. As a note, do not be scared of using alot of Olive oil, it is extremely healthy for you.

INGREDIENTS:

Extra Virgin Olive oil,
Sliced Ciabatta (but you could use any real bread if desperate, but not the ready sliced bagged stuff)
Tomatoes, Fresh, diced,
Garlic cloves
Fresh Basil*
Salt an Pepper to season,
Slices of Mozarella (Optional 1)
Balsamic Vinegar (Optional 1)
Tinned Cannelini Beans, Crushed with a fork, (Optional 2)
Blanched Broad Beans, Skinned (Optional 3)

METHOD:

-Chop the fresh tomatoes into a small dice, seeds, skin, everything. (Forget cutting those huge beef tomatoes into neat slices, or de-seeding and removing skins, that is not for Bruschetta).

-Mix a tiny pinch of salt into the chopped tomatoes, this will extract excess water, and improve flavour, and now add torn (or chopped) fresh basil leaves, and let the tomato basil mix sit for a while.

-Brush some Extra Virgin Olive oil onto both sides of the bread slices, and drop the bread onto a hot grill pan, or under the grill if you don't have one, and toast. Don't forget if your using a grill pan, always oil the food, and not the pan!

-When the bread is toasted, you have a choice of rubbing garlic onto the bread, for a subtle hint,or if like me you love garlic, crush/finely chop the garlic and combine into the earlier prepared chopped tomato mixture.

- Onto the bread add a tiny extra drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and then add the chopped tomato mix, so that they cover the bread, not too thick.

- Throw the bruschetta under a hot grill for a few seconds, and drizzle with a final drop of the Extra
Virgin Olive Oil and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

(Optional 1)
Instead of the plain Bruschetta as above, you can make this more substantial by adding a layer of mozarella cheese. The addition of the balsamic really helps to contrast the milkyness of the Mozarella, and in my opinion is essential.

- If you wish you could now heat some Balsamic Vinegar in a pan until the quantity you add, reduces to a syrup consistency. Normally this occurs when you reduce the quantity by about a quarter.

- Place a slice of Mozarella onto the tomato, and grill again until it softens.

- Drizzle the Balsamic reduction you made, over the top (not too much, it is very powerful).

(Optional 2 or Optional 3)
Not everybody loves tomatoes, or just for a change, you could use Cannelini beans or Broad beans in lieu of the tomatoes. The taste is very unusual and a nice change to a plain Bruschetta.

-All you do is mash up the Cannelini beans or Broad beans, with Olive oil, crushed garlic, season the mix well, and paste them generously onto the toasted Ciabatta.

-Again drizzle with copious amounts of Extra Virgin Olive oil and Serve!

Do not use the basil in this Optional recipe. Enjoy!

Fresh Tomato Sauce

2009-08-23T18:33:00.014+01:00

This year we have grown a large number of Cuore di Bue and St Pierre tomatoes. Both of these are fantastically flavoured and when picked fresh and slightly green are excellent for salads, however they can become truly exceptional 'cookers' if left to fully ripen on the vine, from which you can produce great tasting tomato sauces with the minimum of effort.

Really I never understand why people purchase ready made artificial tasting pasta sauce from supermarkets, when it is so easy to make your own healthy variety. So should you be in a position of having lots of spare tomatoes, even if its ones from the supermarket, the below recipe is an exceptionally easy and versatile way of making use of them.

All you need is a heavy bottomed pan, and a spare hour or so. The results will be far superior to anything you can buy in a jar, and can be portioned and frozen with little flavour loss, for at least six months.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil,
12-15 large Tomatoes (I would recommend heirloom varities for their superb flavour),
2-3 Cloves of Garlic crushed,
Handful of chopped Fresh Basil,
Salt and Pepper to season,
1/2 teaspoon of Oregano,
1/4 teaspoon of Sugar (optional),
1/4 teaspoon of Tomato Puree/Concentrate/Paste (optional),
100-150ml of Water

METHOD:

-Firstly prepare the tomatoes, by criss-crossing the skin with a knife just piercing the skin, plunge them into hot water for 10 seconds, before immediately dunking into iced water. This will allow you to remove the skins, as you will find they will crinkle, and curl up making it far easier. Once skinned, de-seed and chunk them into a small dice.

-Heat the Olive Oil in a heavy bottomed pan over a medium heat, add the garlic, soften for a few minutes then add the chunked/diced tomato. If the tomatoes are not fully ripe, or are flavour lacking ones from the supermarket you can add a 1/4 teaspoon of tomato concentrate to bolster the flavour (this little trick, really does work trust me). Then increase the heat slightly and cook out the tomatoes.

-After around 10 minutes of cooking, add the seasoning, oregano, the pinch of sugar (optional) and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. You now continue to simmer the tomatoes, and add some water to keep a good viscosity. I would recommend you simmer for around 30-40 minutes, taste and adjust the seasoning, and then finish with the Fresh Basil, and cook for a further 10 minutes to infuse the flavours.

This sauce can be used immediately, or can be cooled and kept in the fridge for a few days. Alternatively this can also be portioned into freezer proof containers and frozen for later use. Its a great standby to have available, and can be used as a base for other sauces. Enjoy!

Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta e Fazool)

2009-08-21T14:48:00.008+01:00

This is without doubt an incredibly delicious dish, technically a soup, but it is hearty enough for a winters evening.

In actual fact during the winter, and almost most of the English summer we probably have this dish a couple of times a month, it is very easy to prepare, keeps well for a few days (if you don't eat it all first sitting), and is incredibly cheap to make. Which during these harsh economic times, is a real bonus.

For the purists reading this I would refer to this as a Neapolitan (from Naples) dish, but variations of this are enjoyed throughout Italy, and Borlotti beans (Lamon in particular) are the most classic to use if you are looking for real authenticity.

As mentioend there are lots of versions, but this is my all-time favourite and in my opinion the tastiest.

The *'s at various points below indicate footnotes which can be found at the bottom of this blog.

INGREDIENTS:
(serves 2/3)

1 Clove of Garlic crushed,
1 Carrot finely diced,
1 Celery Stick finely diced,
1 Onion finely sliced (not diced)
Few Chilli flakes
Salt an Pepper

Virgin Olive oil
300g of cooked Cannelini Beans (mash half)*
1.5 Pints of Chicken stock (freshly made or use 1/2 a cube)**

Quarter tin of chopped tomatoes, 70-80g approx
300g of Tubbetini pasta, or Conchiglie will do.
2/3 Fresh basil leaves

METHOD:

-In a medium size deep sided pan, fry the Garlic, Celery and Carrot, for about five minutes. Use a gentle heat. Dont burn or brown, we are aiming to soften, rather than colour.***

-Next add the tomato, chilli flakes, and the stock, bring to the boil.

-Season to taste and Simmer gently for fifteen minutes.

-Add the basil leaves,
-Add the Cannelini beans, dont forget to mash half first and at this stage.
-Add the pasta.
-Stir thoroughly and cover.

-Continue to simmer very gently. Stir occasionally to prevent it sticking. You may at this stage also need to adjust the liquidity by adding some water to loosen, just add enough to get it to the "wetness" you want. Think very very very thick soup, and you will be spot-on.

-After about ten minutes check the pasta, and keep checking until its cooked.

-Serve generously into bowls,
-Add sliced onion over the top,
-Drizzle with some good Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Eat it while its hot, and Enjoy!!

By the way, this is also excellent reheated the next day, and is freezable if you want to save some for later.

FOOTNOTES

*You can use Borlotti beans instead, or a mix of the two. If using dried soak overnight, and cook ahead of this recipe. Tinned is easier, but drain and wash before using. Fresh if you can get them, would be the ideal ingredient for this recipe. (seeds of italy do sell seeds for Borlotti).

**You can use vegetable stock if you wish, and this will be suitable to serve to Vegetarians/Vegans.

***If your a carnivore you can add some Pancetta and fry it at this stage, it will add a great deal of extra taste. Personally I prefer it this way. Don't use Bacon.

The Worlds Easiest Lasagna Recipe, Probably!

2009-08-15T18:04:00.006+01:00

There are so many recipes for Lasagna out there, there is practically a version for everyday of the week, to a non Italian I imagine its confusion personified.

This recipe listed here however long it may appear, is very easy and dispenses away with the addition of carrots, peas, mushrooms and goodness knows what else people have tried to add into this classical dish over the years.

Instead we have here just a simple Classic Southern Italian variety which features (optional) sliced hard boiled eggs and does away with the creamy bechamel which is more of a Northern Italian thing, and is really not an essential element (arguably).

Basically, what this means is, is that this Lasagna has a more classical taste, and a deeper meaty and rich tomato flavour. In this dish the mozarella is used more freely than other variants, and adds a subtle creaminesss and texture, without the need for the claggy, often syrupy bechamels.

Despite what you may think or have been told Lasagna is very easy, and typically can be knocked up in around 1hr to 1hr and a half. Which even at an hour or so, is not a long length of time when you consider most of it is "oven time". Obviously the results will speak for themselves, and the taste will be far superior to a readymade meal.

So let me introduce you to the easiest, and one of the best tasting Lasagna's out there!
The *'s you will see below are explained in the footnotes the bottom of the page.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons of Olive oil
2 garlic cloves minced, or finely diced
1 small white onion, finely diced
1 large bottle of Passata sauce
1/2 small tin of Tomato Puree (around 3 tablespoons)
1/2 pint of Water (filtered is best)
75g Minced pork
100g Minced lamb
150g Mince Beef

Salt and Pepper
1 Bay Leaf
1/2 teaspoon of Oregano
2 Hard boiled Eggs, sliced laterally (optional)
3 Balls of Mozarella preferabbly Buffalo's milk, broken into small pieces.*
A couple of good handfulls of FRESHLY grated Parmesan cheese**
2 Packets of "Ready to use" Lasagna sheets***

COOKING UTENSILS NEEDED
A deep sided pan for cooking the pasta sauce.
A medium sided bakeware dish, or Pyrex, around 3 inch depth on the sides is adequate, but certainly not any deeper than 4 inches.

METHOD
This can be broken down into two parts, the first part is the preparation of the tomato "bolognese" style sauce, which will form the basis for the Lasagna's flavour. Incidentally this sauce could be used as a base to a whole host of other recipes.

PART I
-Very gently heat the deep sided pan on a medium heat setting, add the olive oil, onions and garlic, and fry very gently for a few minutes on a low minute. We are aiming to soften rather than adding colour. So be gentle.

-Next add the minced meats, and season rather generously at this stage, fry the meat until it is semi-cooked, stirring to break up the chunks, and continue until it is an even brown/grey colour.

-Next add the tomato puree, stir thoroughly to combine and cook this onwards for two minutes.

-Next add the Passata sauce, the water, the oregano and the bay leaf, and once again stir throughly to make sure everything is nicely combined.

-Next reduce the heat down to a simmer, and allow to lightly simmer for around a minimum of 70 minutes, but you could, and actually (if not in any rush) I WOULD recommend 2 hours or more, you are looking for a very gentle simmer so its barely cooking, season to taste after about the hour mark.

-Now you can remove from the heat and set aside, and continue to Part 2. As mentioned, if you find you have to much, don't forget this sauce can also be used as a simple Bolognese sauce, or for Pasta bakes too.

PART 2
NOTE- Read all the steps in Part 2 before you start, so you are familiar with what you are going to be doing~ Actually not a bad practice when following any recipe really.

-So firstly using a ladel, Smooth some of the tomato meat sauce onto the bottom of the bakeware dish, just a very very thin layer, but evenly coating the bottom. On later layers you can be slightly more generous, but more on that later!

-Next add a layer of the Lasagna pasta sheets to cover the bottom, avoid excessive overlap, cut-to-fit if you need to. Keep the pasta trimmings to add into Broths, that kind of thing.

-Now spoon over a generous quantity of the tomato meat sauce, and add some egg slices, and a few pieces of the mozarella. Be generous, but your better judgement is needed here, as we are aiming for three layers. When adding the sauce between layers, keep in mind that we are aiming to avoid waterlogging the pasta, but at the same time we don't want a dry dish.

-Now repeat the above procedure until you reach the top of the dish, 3 layers is the ideal. More than this, and it can become a bit too heavy.

-On the final layer, be extra generous with the sauce and mozarella, and sprinkle over the freshly grated Parmesan. This will create a nice delicious baked "crust".

-Next place into the middle of a pre-heated medium high oven (Gas Mark 6) and bake for around 25-35 minutes until golden. Start checking after about 20 minutes, but avoid opening the oven before this time.

-Remove from oven and DO NOT touch for at least twenty minutes, to allow it to cool. If you try to slice it earlier it will all fall apart. You could even make this the day before, and divide the dish into portions, then just re-heat each portion when needed. This is also perfectly freezable, and will hold its texture nicely. A great standby to have in the freezer!

ENJOY!

FOOTNOTES

*Use the Best Mozarella you can afford, the taste difference is immeasurable. The pieces should be the size of a ten pence piece.

**Ready grated Parmesan is not suitable at all, please grate Parmagiano Reggiano Parmesan cheese yourself, it is available in blocks in all supermarkets.

*** I would recommend NOT using the fresh pasta sheets though. They are never as good as the ready to use dried. If you opt for normal Lasagna sheets, pre-cook them per the packets information prior to Part 2 of the recipe.