Monthly Archives: April 2012

No-bake Chocolate, Mascarpone and Espresso Fudge Cake

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Hang in there, Chocoholic friends!

I have got what you need…

Pain no more, just go over to the stove and start melting some chocolate… You can also lick the bowl!

This is the ultimate chocolate  fudge cake for me: flourless, creamy, opulent and unapologetically chocolatey.

And you don’t even have to turn your oven on.

Where’s the catch?

It is seriously, scarily addictive…

You have been warned…

Ingredients, serves 6-8

1/2 cup   of dark chocolate chips

3 tablespoons of  soft butter

2 tablespoons of espresso coffee

1 tablespoon of cocoa powder

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or extract

1 tablespoon of Galliano or Rum

250 gr  (8 oz) of Mascarpone

2 handfuls of walnuts

How to

Melt the chocolate with the butter in a double boiler, bain marie or in the microwave.

Add the sugar, coffee, cocoa, liquor and vanilla and mix well, until all th ingredients are combined.

Add the marscarpone and , either by hand or with electric beaters, cream it into the chocolate mix. Be careful not to whip it too much or it may split:

1 minute on low using electric beater and a couple of minutes by hand should do.

Dry roast the walnuts in a frying pan over low heat fopr 1-2 minutes or until they smell fragrant.

Cool for a couple of minutes, then incorporate them into the fudgie mix.

Line a round, small cake tin with plastic warp, leaving some to over hang.

Pour the batter into the tin and flatten with the back of a spoon.

Lick the spoon clean then fold the over hanging plastic wrap over the top of the fudge to enclose it securely.

Leave to the fridge to set for 4-6 hours.

Take the cake out of the fridge 20 minutes before serving.

Turn in onto a serving dish, dust it liberally with cocoa powder and serve wedges with fresh berries.

You are about to experience utter bliss…

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Home-made Dried Chili Oil

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DSCN9699Home-growing is an occupation that I leave entirely to my green-thumbed husband. It’s not that I don’t see the appeal of gardening and I’m not attracted to such rewarding labour, but I must admit I was born with a black thumb. I don’t seem to have inherited my mum’s natural flare for all things green and I am, alas, responsible for the atrocious death of many innocent flower beds, herbs in pots and the occasional tomato plant, that I have had to surrender my resignation. I limit myself to the occasional watering, the picking and, naturally,  the cooking with the bounty that my garden produces under Richard’s watchful eyes. his year he propagated a fecund and lush chili plant from seeds he dried and preserved last year (see what I’m dealing with?), and now our autumnal veggie patch is specked with hundreds of green and red fruits, hiding their potent heat within their plump, shiny flesh.

DSCN9693

Ingredients

1 green-thumbed husband

Alternatively

800 gr (1.7) of mixed chilies

4 cups of extra-virgin olive oil (or enough to fill up the jar you wish to use)

How to

1. Wash the chilies and spread them on an oven tray big enough to accommodate them in one layer. Make sure to line the tray with baking paper.

You have two options here: the one that suits the patient and gracious people, and the one made to please the not-so-patient ones!

If you belong in the first category (my respects):

2. place the tray in the sun everyday for 20-30 days, until the chilies are dry.

2/a. For those, like me, you cannot be asked… every time after  you  use the oven, place the tray inside while its cooling. The residual heat will quickly dry the chilies.

If you do this over a weekend during which you plan to bake a roast, some cookies and perhaps even some bread, that should give you enough residual heat to dry your chilies completely. You know they are ready when they feel dry, hollow and feather-light. My 800 gr (1.7 lb) reduced to a mere 150 gr (0.3 lb)!

3. Roughly chop them with a knife or with scissors.

4. Put them in sterilized  glass jars and submerge them in extra-virgin olive oil.

5. Leave them in a cupboard, away from direct light, for a minimum of 3 weeks before consuming.

You will notice that the heat will increase and concentrate over time. You can use chili oil to add a bit of zest to any food you love, but I particularly like to add it to soups and some pasta sauces.

Note

If you have an abundance of basil in your garden, here’s my basil-infused oil.

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Pizza! Home-made and utterly delicious (and healthy too!)

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Very few things speak of Italy to me than a perfectly baked Pizza.

The thought of a wonderfully crispy and thin crust, so masterfully stretched and folded to create the perfect base for our favorite mediterranean combination of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and a few other usual suspect, topped by a drizzle of top-notch quality extra-virgin olive oil, is enough to send me delirious and wish for a scalding slice of Margherita straight away. My most luxurious culinary vision is a happy face stuffed with Neapolitan-style pizza, melted mozzarella dribbling down my chin and all!

Neapolitan-style pizza could not be farther from those doughy, rubbery, gummy disks of dough fried in lesser fats and topped with a cornucopia of ingredients that we Italians have never even heard of…Can someone please enlighten me on what Pepperoni is??

No, pizza, Italian pizza, is light, delicate and accommodates only a few ingredients on top. It is gentle on your digestive system because of the slow-fermentation of the dough and it, by all intents and purposes, good for you.

So, get your flour and start kneading!

Ingredients for the dough

3 1/2 cups  00 type flour (or plain)

1/2 cup  wholemeal flour

1 teaspoon of dry yeast

1-1/4 cup  lukewarm water

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

2 teaspoons of salt flakes

Extra-virgin olive oil, to grease the bowl and to drizzle on top.

How to

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Stand for 5 minutes or until frothy.

Place flour in a large mixing  bowl, add the yeasted water and mix for 1-2 minutes, then tip the dough onto a floured surface, add the salt and knead vigorously for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Shape it into a ball.

As all flours tend to differ slightly, you may have to add a little more water of a little more flour in order to have the perfect dough. You want a soft, pliable dough, but not too sticky.

Rest the dough in an oiled bowl, covered with a tea-towel for 30 minutes, then lift it out, place it back onto a floured surface, stretch it with your hands and fold it into three and then back into a ball. Put the dough back in the bowl to rest for another 30 minutes, then stretch and fold again.

As tedious as this process sounds, this is paramount for obtaining a light, crispy and easy to digest base.

After the second stretch-and-fold, place the dough in a large oiled container fitted with  lid (like a Tupperware one). Place in the fridge (with the lid on) and slow-prove for a minimum of 6 hours, up to 36 hours.

When you are ready to make you pizza, take the dough out of the fridge and place it in an oiled bowl and cover it with a tea-towel. Rest at room temperature for 30-45 minutes.

Your dough is now ready to be stretched, topped and baked.

How easy is this?

Pre-heat your oven to 220 C, 425 F.

Roll it out to your desired thickness, keeping in mind that it will rise a little while baking.

If you plan to use a pizza stone, place it in the oven now to heat up. Dust it with coarse semolina to prevent the dough from sticking.

I normally roll the dough and place it onto a sheet of baking paper. It easier to carry to the oven and you can slip the paper off the stone 15 minutes into baking, to allow the base to crisp up nicely.

Top with tomatoes, salt, a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and whatever you love more, keeping in mind that, less is more… I have a personal love-affair with anchovies, capers and olives.

If you plan to add cheese, do so only for the last 5 minutes of baking, or it will dry out.

You pizza should take 20 minutes to bake, but since all ovens vary, check it after 10 minutes and judge for yourself.

Take the pizza out of the oven, top with basil or rocket leaves, if liked, a drizzle of extra-virgin, and , Ecco, (there it is!) your authentic Pizza Napoletana is ready.

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Cannelloni with Ricotta and Spinach

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Home-made pasta is the ultimate Sunday Lunch treat in Italy.

Forget about a roast beast with all the trimmings, we need our share of starchy goodness, home-made, of course.

From scratch, goes without saying!

Naturally you can use store-bough dried cannelloni, but the flavor and texture won’t be as luxurious.

And, after all, this is Sunday lunch we are talking about, it’s your declaration of love to your family and those lucky friends invited to your table.

It’s well worth a bit of effort.

Just make them do the dishes…

Ingredients and  method, serves 4

16 dried cannelloni shells or 1 quantity of fresh egg pasta dough

For the pasta dough

3 eggs

300 gr (2 -3/4 cups) of all-purpose flour

semolina for dusting

Put eggs and flour in the bowl of a food processor fitted with blades. Pulse 8/10 times or until the mixture resembles wet sand.

Take it out the bowl, press it together with your hands and knead it for 1 or 2 minutes to release the gluten and make it come together in a smooth ball. Add 1 tablespoon of water if the dough feels too dry.

Cover in cling wrap and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Using a pasta machine or a rolling-pin -and your biceps- roll the pasta as thinly as you can.

Cut the pasta sheet into 16 4×10 cm (1.5×4 inches) rectangles, dust them with semolina flour and set aside

For the filling

4 cups of spinach

1 garlic clove

1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil

300 gr (1- 1/2 cups) of whole milk ricotta

2 eggs

3/4 cups of pecorino cheese (or parmigiano)

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup of chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Sautee’ the spinach with garlic and oil, cover with a lid and cook until just wilted. Set aside to cool.

Mix the ricotta with eggs, pecorino cheese, nutmeg, lemon zest, parsley  and seasoning.

Add the cooled spinach and mix to combine.

Rest in the fridge to firm up for 30 minutes.

For the sauce

500 gr (2 cups) of tinned tomatoes

200 ml (3/4 cup) of hot water

1 brown onion, chopped

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste

fresh oregano leaves

For the topping

1 cup Parmigiano or pecorino and  1 cup shredded mozzarella

Sautee’ the onion in oil until soft and translucent, add the tomatoes and the water and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat down, and cook gently for 15 minutes. Season with salt  and fresh oregano leaves.

Assembling the dish

Line an oven tray with baking paper. Smear a few tablespoons of tomato sauce to create a moist bed for the cannelloni to lay on.

Fill each cannelloni or pasta rectangle with 2-3 tablespoons of filling. Roll the pasta sheet to enclose it and place it, seam side down onto the tray. Repeat with remaining ingredients until you have 1 layer of cannelloni. If you have left-over pasta and filling, proceed to fill up another tray.

Cover the layer of cannelloni with the tomato sauce so that each pasta roll is nicely drowned in it. Add some water if you think you don’t have enough sauce.

Dust the top with pecorino or parmigiano,  shredded mozzarella cheese, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and bake at 200 C (390 F) for 30 minutes or until nicely browned on top.

Rest at room temperature for 20 minutes covered in foil, then serve.

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Easter Scrolls and Hot-Cross Buns!

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As the Holy Week marches on, I feel the urge to get my hands in more festive doughs! What could be better than home-made hot cross buns and scrolls? With the warm tang of cinnamon, the liveliness of orange peel and the opulence of chocolate, they are definitely going to be on offer at my Easter table this year.

Ingredients

For the ferment:

1 tablespoon of dry yeast

150 ml (2/3 cup) ml lukewarm milk

1 tablespoon honey

100 gr (3/4 cup+1 tablespoon) all-purpose flour

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

Dissolve the yeast in milk. Stand for 5 minutes then add the other ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until well incorporated.

Cover with a tea towel and rest for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size

Dough:

Risen ferment

250 gr (2 cups) of all-purpose flour

50 gr (1/4 cup) of soft butter, cubed

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground clove

100 (1/2 cup) gr of sugar

1 egg

3 tablespoons of floured, mixed peel

3 tablespoons chocolate chips

Criss-Cross dough

4 tablespoon of flour

2 tablespoon of water

Mix together of form a soft, pliable dough

Egg wash

1 egg+2 tablespoon of milk

Beat egg with milk and brush on the buns just before baking

Glaze

1/3 of a cup ml of milk, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Simmer of milk with 2 sugar and  cinnamon.

Stir until sugar is dissolved and the glaze is slightly reduced.

How to

1. In a large bowl, or using a stand mixer, add flour to the ferment, then the butter, a little at a time, the spices and the sugar. The dough will be a little dry at this stage.

2. Add 1 egg and knead for 15 minutes or until the dough is smooth and silky and is see-through if stretched with your fingers. Shape the dough into a ball and rest, covered with a tea towel for 20 minutes.

3. Stretch the dough with floured hands to shape a rectangle.

4. Sprinkle the surface with mixed peel and chocolate and roll the dough tightly, as if rolling up a cigar. Shape back into a ball and leave to prove in a floured bowl for 2-3 hours.

5. Stretch the dough one more time, fold it into three then shape into a log. Cut the log into 6. Shape 3 pieces into long ropes, roll them up to resemble snails and leave them to rest onto an oven try lined with baking paper. Shape the remaining 3 pieces into balls and place them next to one another on the oven tray.

6. Make the paste for the crosses. Roll it up and place on top of the balls in a criss-cross patters.

7. Leave to prove for 45 minutes.

8. Heat your oven to 180 C (340 F)

9. Glaze the buns and the scrolls with egg wash and bake for 20/25 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

10. While the oven does its job, make the milk glaze.

Take the buns and scrolls out of the oven, brush the milk glaze over them and allow to cool on a rack, at room temperature.

Happy Easter!

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