Fusilli funghi e speck

We are back in England. We spent the Christmas holiday in Italy with our families, as tradition dictates, but with a twist. In fact, this year we decided to travel to Italy by car which turned out to be quite funny when you drive a pink car with right-hand drive!

Today recipe is a warm and wintry pasta, perfect for the recent snowy days. For this dish we used fusilli, but you can also use a long pasta such as spaghetti o tagliatelle. The main ingredient is mushrooms, the best is to use porcini (ceps) but if you cannot get hold of them any other type of mushrooms is fine. We used some oyster mushrooms, which are probably the best farmed mushrooms you can buy. The other ingredient is speck, which we always bring back from Italy where it is widely used, even though it is typical of Austria.

FUSILLI WITH MUSHROOMS AND SPECK

For 2:

200 g fusilli
200 g oyster mushrooms
100 g speck, one slice
125 ml soured cream
1 shallot
1 garlic clove
parsley, chopped
black pepper, ground
pink peppercorns
olive oil

In a large pot bring to the boil enough water for cooking the pasta. Heat two tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil in a pan and then add the garlic slightly crushed with the flat of the knife. When the garlic starts to turn gold add the sliced shallot and the speck cut in small stripes, and cook until tender at medium heat. In the mean time wash the mushrooms and cut them in large slices. Add them to the pan, cover with the lid and cook them until tender.

At the same time cook the pasta. Add a handful of coarse sea salt followed by the pasta and cook for the required time (usually ~12 minutes for fusilli). Just before draining the pasta add the soured cream and the chopped parsley to the sauce, then add the fusilli to the pan and carefully mix with the sauce while the hob is still on low heat.

Serve with some ground back pepper and a few pink peppercorns.

Nutty bread

I can’t resist good bread. If we have some at home I stuff myself to death until it’s all gone. Good bread is not that easy to make and especially to find, at least here in the UK. The national bread here is the white bread used for toasts and sandwiches, the industrial an highly chemical one, that stays soft and airy for weeks. I remember I called it “fake bread” when I was living in Italy. Luckily, we have found a couple of very good bakeries here in Oxford, which have become a usual stop during our grocery shopping.

Anyway, Michele is always tempted to try out some new bread recipes and his last experiment was this bread with nuts and fruits, which turned out to be perfect with cheese or prosciutto. The idea of this recipe comes from a food magazine that I bought in Australia, but we have modified it to make it quicker and similar to soda bread. In fact, to make this bread no proofing and rising times are needed, once the ingredients have been mixed the dough is ready to be baked.

For 2 medium loafs:

160 g bulghur
450 g plain flour
160 g wholemeal flour
2 tablespoon of honey
150 g mix nuts
150 g dried raisins
1 table spoon of mixed spice (cinnamon, ginger, cloves)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
600 ml butternut milk (or yogurt)
a pinch of salt 

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Cook the bulghur in a pan with 250 ml of water. Cover and leave it to soak. In a large bowl combine the flours with baking power, baking soda and a large pinch of salt and the spices. 

Grease two medium baking tins with some butter. Add the bulghur to the flours, mix and then mix in the butter milk. Finally add the nuts and raisins, mix and place the dough in the baking tins.
Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 160°C and bake for a further 30 minutes.

Carbonara – the Italian one

Real Carbonara

I am a bit ashamed of writing on this blog again. Such a long time has gone from the last post and so many things have happened. The main news is that I changed my job, twice, I had been driving over two hours every day to go to work and back, but now, I have a job I like, closer to home and hopefully I will have more time to spend on my blog.

So, here I am with a new recipe, la carbonara, ma quella vera. So many times I have seen “strange dishes” called carbonara here in the UK and often the recipe doesn’t even contain the two main ingredients: eggs and pancetta. Instead the main ingredient in the English carbonara is cream, a loooot of cream, ah, and mushrooms! Generally you have spaghetti floating in a white sauce, squisito!

For the original carbonara you would need guanciale which is a sort of bacon prepared with  pig’s jowl or cheek. In fact, its name derives from guancia, Italian for cheek. The other main ingredients are fresh eggs and a good pecorino romano. Since we are in the UK (or somewhere else in the world), some ingredients can be quite difficult to find, therefore you can substitute guanciale with a good quality unsmoked bacon and the pecorino romano with a simpler pecorino. If you do not find the pecorino you can use some good Parmigiano, but it is not going to be a real carbonara!

The secret for a good carbonara is to be careful not to cook the eggs. The creamy sauce is simply due to the raw eggs and molten cheese and nothing else.

CARBONARA, QUELLA VERA

For 4:

400 g spaghetti
90 g guanciale
4 eggs
80 g pecorino romano, grated
salt and pepper

In a large pot bring to the boil enough water for cooking the pasta. Cut the guanciale into small cubes or strips and fry it in a small pan. Cook until it turns slightly gold and the fat is transparent, then set aside to cool down. In a large bowl whisk the eggs with half of the grated percorino, some of the fat released by the guanciale during cooking and a pinch of salt.

Once the water is boiling add a small handful of coarse sea salt followed by the pasta and cook for the required time (usually ~10 minutes for spaghetti). Drain the pasta and add it very quickly to the bowl with the egg mixture. Mix and add the guanciale and the remaining grated pecorino. Mix with a wooden spoon until the sauce is creamy and homogeneous. Serve with some grated back pepper.

Dairy free biscotti with cocoa and hazelnut

Cocoa and hazelnut dairy free biscuits

Autumn has certainly arrived and I am really looking forward to pumpkins, squash, chestnuts and all the typical seasonal fruit and vegetables. I love autumn colors and food. This is a very autumnal recipe perfect for celebrating the arrival of this season and another special occasion. In fact, today, 23rd of September is the autumn equinox which denotes the start of the new season and my sister birthday! Happy b-day sis!

The recipe I selected for today is a shortcrust pastry made using olive oil instead of butter. The inspiration for this recipe comes from Juls’ Kitchen, a fantastic Italian/English blog with lots of ideas and personal recipes. The first time I saw these biscuits I though that it was a fantastic idea but the thought of making a mayonnaise scared me a little. In reality, Juls’ instruction are perfect and easy and the result is impressive. In order to leave my mark and make the recipe a bit more autumnal I opted for a chocolate shortcrust biscuits topped with some fresh hazelnuts bought from a stall in our local farmers market.

If you decide to replace butter with olive oil in other recipes make sure to consider that olive oil is 99.9% fat while butter is made of 83% of fat, therefore you must take into account the percentage of water in the butter and remember that 100 g of butter are equal to 83g of olive oil plus 17g of water. 

For 4:

56 g egg yolks (about 3 medium yolks)
230 g 00 flour
75 g potato starch
65 g fine corn flour
140 g caster sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
pinch of salt
175 g good quality extra virgin olive oil
35 g water
a handful of chopped hazelnuts

In the hand blender container pour the egg yolks and water and placing the hand blender to the bottom start blending. Slowly add the olive oil and keep blending until you have obtained the consistency of a mayonnaise, it should take 4-5 minutes. Sift the flours on a working surface and make a hole in the middle (i.e. the fountain). Place the sugar, salt, cocoa powder in the middle and then add the mayonnaise. Mix the mayonnaise first with the sugar and then with the flour using your fingers and knead the dough with your hands until you have obtain an homogeneous and smooth mixture. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour wrapped in a film sheet.

Heat the oven to 175°C. Take the shortcrust pastry out of the fridge and roll it on a lightly floured working surface until you have obtain a thickness of 5 mm. Cut using any cookie cutter shape you like. Place the cookies on a baking tin over a sheet of baking paper. Prick the cookies with a fork to give them a rustic appearance.

Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack. Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffe.

Lo so non e’ una torta, ma questi biscottini sono molto intriganti e autunnali, perfetti per farti i miei auguri di buon compleanno! Un bacione sister!

Roasted sweetcorn soup

Sweetcorn soup

Late summer is the best time for sweetcorn. When it’s fresh and straight from the field it is deliciously sweet and juicy. We picked a few sweetcorn cobs from our trusted local farm and decided to cook something a bit unconventional.

The idea for this soup came from a recipe by Debbie Major on the September edition of Delicious. The sweetcorn is contrasted by some tangy lemon juice and fragrant spices. The  bright yellow colour is a joy for the eyes. We served it accompanied with a slice of homemade soda-bread which we baked following our own recipe modified by substituting buckwheat flakes and hazelnuts to the oats.

For 4:

3 sweetcorn cobs
30 g butter
1 onion
1 garlic clove
1 litre vegetable stock
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin seeds
1 tsp tumeric

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the sweetcorn in a roasting dish and roast it for 30 minutes. In a large pot melt the butter. Chop the onion and the garlic clove and cook on low heat until light brown. Then add the vegetable stock and cook for another 10 minutes. when the sweetcorn is ready remove it from the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes and then separate the kernels from the cob by slicing with a sharp knife. Add the corn kernels to the pot, then blend with a food processor until smooth. Pour the soup into bowls, then drizzle with the mixed spices. Serve with a thick slice of warm bread, preferably a rustic wholewheat soda bread. Enjoy.

Elderberries juice

Elderberry juice

At this time of the year trees and bushes are heavy with berries of all colours. Everybody knows some of the most popular ones like blackberries but there are a lot of other edible berries just waiting to be picked in the English countryside. Take care when you are foraging for wild berries: there are poisonous berries that may seem quite similar to edible ones to the novice.

Elderberries are the fruits of sanbucus nigra which is found throughout Europe. The flower of the plant are also edible and are used to make syrups, drinks, cakes or in marmalades. Unfortunately, this spring when the flowers where blossoming we where away and we could not try out any Elderflower recipes, but thanks to our wet August there is now a huge amount of Elderberries everywhere so we picked a bucketful. Elderberries are abundant and  particularly easy to recognise, so there is minimal risk of poisoning yourself, but be careful, they are mildly poisonous when row and so they must always be cooked.

Elderberries have been used in traditional medicine for centuries and are believed to have many beneficial proprieties. I don’t know how much of this is superstition and how much is fact, perhaps there is a chemist among our readers that can give us more information. They make a good syrup and can be used in jams but we decided to make a thick strong juice to be added to apple juice or milk. The inspiration of this recipe comes from the River Cottage Hedgerow Handbook.

ELDERBERRY JUICE

1 kg Elderberries
1 l water
1 cup caster sugar

Wash the berries carefully then place them in a big pot with the water. Cook for 15 minutes on medium heat. Strain through a sieve, add the sugar and cook for another 10 – 15 minutes. Then bottle in sterilized glass bottles or jars. Add to apple juice or milk for a immune boosting drink.

Cherry tomato and goat cheese tart tatin

Cherry tomato tart tatin

Summer is almost over here in England, although I’m not sure it ever started this year. Apparently this summer was one of the coldest in the last 30 years in the UK. I know that in Italy everyone is complaining for the very hot weather and probably reading these lines the only thought you have is “lucky you!”, but believe me, you would soon miss the true summer weather! Wearing socks all year round is a real failure!

Anyway, here is a delicious recipe for the last summer sunshine. A simple tart using red and colorful cherry tomatoes. As always we try to cook using seasonal and organic ingredient from our local farm. For this recipe I used a ready to use butter puff pastry, but if you have time you could make it from scratch.

For 4:

300 g cherry tomatoes
a sheet of puff pastry 
50 g goat cheese
2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
a handful of fresh basil and thyme

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Wash the tomatoes and place them in a heavy-based oven proof frying pan of about 24cm in diameter. Sprinkle with the goat cheese and some basil and thyme leaves. Drizzle with the olive oil.

Roll the pastry on a lightly floured work surface into a shape of about the same dimension as the pan . Cut it into a circular shape and then top the cherry tomatoes with the pastry, tucking in the edges well. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Stand for a couple of minutes and then  invert the pan onto a plate. Add extra thyme and basil leaves and serve.