Cream of Mushroom Soup

We stumbled across this recipe trying to find something to do with excess mushrooms. We both love mushroom soup, but this recipe is a special treat. It is so easy to make and incredibly tasty. It is a beautiful pale colour;  the lemon gives it an extra zip and the parmesan thickens it up a bit. Original version from Simon Hopkinson for Spring, but we tried it in autumn and will be eating it throughout Summer in Australia. If you want to be really naughty (like Simon H) you can add 4 tbsp of double cream before you scatter on the parmesan...but we generally prefer it without the extra cream.

We have also used Porcini mushrooms (soaked on milk and drained then chopped) mixed with closed cup mushrooms; the porcini overwhelms the dish, but if you like a strong mushroom flavour try this alternative. 

Foodstuff you will need: 

175g mushrooms (peeled and sliced) - cultivated closed or open cup mushrooms work best

medium onion (peeled and chopped)

125ml milk

125ml pouring cream

salt and pepper

generous helping of grated nutmeg

25g butter

300ml vegetable or chicken stock

lemon juice to taste (1/2 lemon)

generous helping of grated fresh parmesan

Equipment:

2 medium sized saucepans with lids

Chopping board and knife

Measuring jug

Liquidiser/blender

Ladle

How to throw it together

Place mushrooms, milk and cream and seasonings in a pan and bring to a simmer. Cook very gently with lid on for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile soften the onion in the butter until pale/golden. Then pour in the stock. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Combine the 2 pan-fuls and liquidize until very very smooth

Sharpen with lemon juice and check seasoning.

Reheat without boiling and ladle into individual soup bowls.

Scatter with parmesan and serve immediately.

Great with warm bread or toast.

Ricotta cakes and tomato salsa

We discovered these cakes from Jamie’s Italy last year and have tried all sort of variations with them but prefer the original recipe. These are great after a long morning in the garden or a long cycle ride, with a 2-4 hour siesta out of the sun to look forward to...:) We have also had them for brunch; delicious especially when the tomatoes and basil come straight out of our garden

Foodstuff you will need: 

450g crumbly ricotta cheese (from Deli- not packet stuff)

350g parmesan cheese grated finely (reserve some for serving)

10g flour

Salt and Pepper

1 egg

4-6 large ripe tomatoes

2 sprigs of fresh basil

extra virgin olive oil

red wine vinegar

nutmeg (grated)

Equipment:

Large mixing bowl

Non stick frying pan

Fish slice

Fork/Spoon for mixing and placing in pan

Chopping board and knife

Bowl for mixing tomatoes in

How to throw it together

Mix the ricotta with the parmesan, flour, salt and the egg.  Stir well.

Season with pepper and place in fridge.

Halve the tomatoes. Remove and discard the centre and all the seeds.

Chop the flesh into small chunks and drain off any excess liquid. Place in bowl.

Chop the stalks of the basil finely and tear the leaves up roughly then add to the tomatoes.

Season with salt and pepper, olive oil and add a small glug of red wine vinegar. Mix well.

Put oil into a frying pan over a medium heat. Remove mixture from fridge and add to pan in small spoonfuls.  The pieces should not be touching. 

Fry the ricotta cakes for a couple of minutes on each side until golden brown. Carefully turn them over using the fish slice.

Serve at once onto warm plates.

Sprinkle salt and grated nutmeg over the top. 

Arrange a spoonful of tomatoes on the side. 

Drizzle on extra olive oil and parmesan. Eat and enjoy!

Lemon Tart

This is my all time favourite lemon dessert. It comes from Galton Blackiston, a Norfolk chef with a fantastic hotel/restaurant.  Do not be put off by the number of eggs involved. It is worth it. Just cut down on your egg intake for the rest of the week. The photo below is how it should look when finished. Not quite managed this look yet but worth trying again and again...until we can produce a master chef like version...

Foodstuff you will need: 

For the sweet pastry (makes double the quantity you need)

310g plain flour

150g caster sugar

salt

175g unsalted butter

3 egg yolks

few drops of vanilla essence

3 tablespoons of water

Lemon Filling

2 egg yolks beaten for sealing pastry case

7 eggs

275g caster sugar

zest of 2 lemons

juice of 4 lemons

22ml double cream

Equipment:

25cm fluted flan tin (with removable base)

Sieve

Large bowl

Oven

Small bowl

Whisk for beating or wooden spoon

Flat surface big enough for rolling pastry on

Cling film

Baking beans/Rice

Baking paper/Greaseproof paper

Pastry brush

Jug

Baking tray

How to throw it together

Sweet Pastry

Sift together the flour sugar and salt into a large bowl

Add the butter in small cubes and using your fingertips, combine to produce a fine breadcrumb like mixture.

Beat the eggs yolks together and add the vanilla essence

Drizzle this into the flour mixture, followed by the water and gently bring it all together to produce a soft dough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

Divide pastry into 2 and wrap individually in cling film (glad wrap for Aussies!)

Place in fridge for at least 1 hour or freeze and use later.

You need one of the portions for the lemon tart but can save the rest for another day.

Preheat the oven to 180C

Take pastry out of the fridge and bring to room temperature.

Line the tin with the pastry.

This can be quite tricky but as a picture paints a thousand words, try this..

Once the pastry is in the tin, cover with baking paper over the top and put in baking beans or rice.

Place in preheated oven and bake blind until the pastry starts to brown around the edges

Remove from the oven, carefully lift out the baking paper and beans/rice and return to the oven.

One the base starts to colour, remove from the oven and brush the pastry all over with the beaten egg yolks to seal any cracks.

Return to the oven and bake until the yolk mixture is cooked. Repeat this process twice more to ensure that the pastry case is absolutely sealed. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Turn down oven to 140C

Filling

Gently whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl without creating too many bubbles or forth.

Add the lemon juice and the double cream and pass the liquid through a sieve into a jug.

Skim off any froth and finally stir in the lemon zest

Place the warm pastry base onto a baking tray and put it into the oven

Pour the lemon mixture into the pastry case there as it is hard to avoid spilling it if you move it after it has been poured.

Cook for about 50 minutes until just set although it should still wobble in the middle.

Remove from the oven and cool. Only cut to eat when cool.

Do not store in the fridge.  Store in dark cool place in airtight container.

The best courgette recipe: Flora’s courgette cake

Sarah made 15 of these cakes over the course of the Italian summer as we had a glut of courgettes in the garden.  My mum liked the cake so much she copied the recipe from us and made it for some of her friends who are also now trying it.  It originates from Nigella Lawson: “How to be a Domestic Goddess” – recipe referred to us by Eric Culley (Nigella gives credit to Flora Woods for devising this exceptional cake) 

After so much tasting and trying to get the filling to set, we often ended up with a runny messy cake (see photos) but the taste ....mmmmm! We adore this recipe.  We prefer it without the icing and making the lime filling ourselves; my mum prefers it with icing and uses M&S lemon curd sharpened with fresh lime juice for filling. 

It is a versatile excellent cake with a cup of tea or coffee after a long cycle ride. I served it to my parents for dessert and we have also had it for breakfast with an expresso.

Foodstuff you will need: 

Cake

60g raisins

250g of courgette (weighed before grating)

2 large eggs

125ml veg oil

150g caster sugar

225g self raising flour

½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

Lime filling

75g unsalted butter

3 large eggs

75g caster sugar

125ml lime juice (approx 4 limes)

zest of 1 lime

Icing

200g cream cheese

100g icing sugar

juice of 1 lime (more to taste)

2-3 tablespoons of pistachio nuts

Equipment:

2x21cm sandwich tins (greased and lined with baking paper)

2 large mixing bowls

Wooden spoon (or electric beater)

Spatulla

1x350ml jar

Grater

Rack for hot tins

Sieve x 2

Kitchen towel

Oven

How to throw it together

Cake

Preheat oven to 180C

Put raisins in a bowl and cover them with water to plump them up

Wipe courgettes with a kitchen towel.

Grate the outer part of the courgette(s) using the course side of the grater (not the fine side otherwise will turn to mush) You can throw away the softer centres.

Place grated courgette in sieve over the sink to drain any excess liquid.

Put eggs, oil, sugarin a bowl and beat them until creamy

Sieve in the flour, bicarb and baking powder and continue to beat until combined.

Drain the raisins. Stir in the grated courgette and raisins

Pour the mixture into the tins and bake for 30 minutes until slightly brown and firm to touch

Leave in their tins on a rack for 5-10 minutes , then turn out and let cool on the rack until the filing and icing are ready.

Lime filling

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, add all the other ingredients and whisk to a custard over a gentle heat. Care: Do not put in more lime juice than stated in the recipe! The filling will not set.

Let it cool in the fridge before filling the cake with it.

Cream Cheese Icing

Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth, add the sieved icing sugar, beating well to combine then stir in the lime juice to taste.

 

Constructing the cake

Put one half of the sponge cake on a plate and spread on the lime filling.

Put on the top of the cake and spread on the icing (as thick as possible)

Place the pistachios on top.

You can keep this in the fridge to firm up the icing/filling but we preferred the cake kept in a cool place in an airtight container.

Figs in rum syrup

This will be a surprise as we have not tasted these yet and have to wait another 4+ weeks or even wait for Christmas. Car must be taken whilst boiling the syrup so it does not turn into toffee or become brittle.

Foodstuff you will need: 

1kg green or black figs

500g caster sugar

500ml water

75ml white rum plus several tablespooons

Equipment:

Large pan

1 litre jar

Wooden mixing spoon

How to throw it together

Wash and wipe figs

Take top stalk and a slice off the bottom (thicker skin) from each of the figs.

Put sugar in water and dissolve bringing slowly to the boil (sugar should dissolve before it reaches boiling point)

Let syrup bubble for 15 minutes

Take off heat add 75ml of rum and gently add the figs

Swill the pan so that the figs are covered ad cook for 90 minutes with lid on at an angle so liquid does not evaporate too much

Turn the figs from time to time so all are cooked equally

Remove figs to preserving jar

Put liquid back on heat to reduce further for 10 minutes

Remove from heat, add more white rum and pour over figs.

If the liquid does not cover the figs, add more white rum into the jar.

Close lid and keep in cool dark place for 6 weeks but not more than 6 months.

Nectarine, fig, plum and nut crumble

We were very challenged by a glut of green figs from the trees in our garden as we have not cooked with them before. Surprisingly for beginners, we have really enjoyed the results. We searched a while for a good fig crumble recipe but found nothing. In the end we have adapted a plum crumble recipe from Nigella Lawson, changed the fruit and have given it a more nutty topping. This went down a treat with my parents.  It also goes to prove that you can put almost any fruit in a crumble and make the topping as nutty as you like!

Foodstuff you will need: 

Filling:

1 kg fresh green figs

6 plums

2 nectarines

30g unsalted butter

4 tablespoons soft brown sugar

1 tablespoon of plain or cornflour

Crumble topping:

150g cold unsalted butter

250g self raising flour

150g soft brown sugar

200g mixed nuts

Equipment:

Chopping board and sharp knife

Large Buttered pie dish (for this amount of fruit we used a 30cm long dish but use 2 of other sizes if you cannot fit all the fruit in)

Electric food mixer to chop nuts

Large bowl for crumble

Small bowl

How to throw it together

Pre heat the oven to 190C and put in a baking sheet

Take top stalk and a slice off the bottom (thicker skin) from each of the figs.

Half or quarter all the fruit and place in dish cut side up

Dot with butter, sprinkle on the sugar and place in the oven uncovered for about 20 minutes

Make the crumble topping whilst this is cooking

Rub butter into flour with fingers in large bowl

Remove a few of the nuts (the one you want to keep whole) and finely chop all the rest in a food mixer

Add the nuts (chopped and whole nuts) and sugar to the crumble mixture and mix with a fork.

Remove fruit from oven (after 20 mins) and spoon a little of the juices into a small bowl. Add the flour and stir into a paste. Add this mixture back into the fruit and stir well

Add the crumble topping on top of the fruit, and press down lightly at the edges

Put the crumble back into the oven on the baking tray (to capture any overflow)

Cook for 25 minutes or until the crumble is golden brown

Eat with cream or vanilla ice cream

Pasta with aubergines, tomato passata and courgettes

We have taken a classic recipe (Pasta alla Norma) with aubergines and tomatoes but made several variations. This started life as a Jamie Oliver recipe but as we felt the need to eat up a variety of things in our veggie garden we have adapted and expanded it to include Auntie Pat’s tomato passata, courgettes, fresh tagliatelle and flat leafed parsley.

Foodstuff you will need: 

• 2 medium sized aubergines or 4 small ones
• 2 small courgettes
• Olive oil
• Dried oregano
• 4 cloves of garlic (peeled and chopped)
• Fresh basil and fresh parsley (separate stalks and chop; chop leaves separately)
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• 600ml passata
• Salt and pepper
• 500g fresh pasta
• 200g Parmesan cheese - grated

Equipment:

• Chopping board and sharp knife
• Wooden spoon
• Large Pot to cook pasta and sieve
• Teaspoon
• Large deep frying pan with lid
• Ladle

How to throw it together

Cut up aubergines lengthways. Remove middle (fluffy or seedy bit) and throw this away. Cut remaining aubergines into finger sized pieces.

Cut up the courgettes lengthways into finger sized pieces. Remove the seedy centres and throw away.

Add oil to the frying pan and use a high heat. Add the aubergines and courgettes and fry until brown on all sides. You may need to do this in one or 2 batches.

Add a good dash of dried oregano when all are brown and some salt and stir well to ensure all are coated

Turn down the pan to medium heat and add the garlic and parsley and basil stalks, stirring well to cook evenly

Add a teaspoon of white wine vinegar and the tomato passata and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes with the lid on (but tilted to let out a little steam)

Season with salt and pepper.

Add half the chopped basil and parsley leaves and add to the sauce and toss around.

Cook the fresh pasta in salted boiling water as per instructions (see packet or until pasta is al dente)

Drain the pasta, and serve on warm dishes.

Spoon sauce over the pasta with a ladle and sprinkle remaining chopped herbs and Parmesan over the top.

Serve immediately.

Our favourite bread recipe

Sarah has used all sorts of recipes to make bread but this one is the most reliable and our current favourite. It originates from Jamie Oliver and varies dependent on the type of flour used (whole meal, plain or seeded) and whether or not we have any beer to add in. 

 Foodstuff you will need:

 

• 30g fresh yeast/ 21g dried.
• 30g honey (I even use honey with dried yeast although it is apparently not necessary).
• 625ml tepid water or warm beer
• 500g strong flour
• 500g other flour - semolina, plain etc.
• 30g salt
• Extra flour/ semolina for dusting.
• Make sure all ingredients and the kitchen are warm.

Equipment:

• Bowl to dissolve yeast
• Big bowl for dough
• Baking tray (s)
• Large worksurface
• Loaf tins (s)
• Wire rack

 How to throw it together

1. Dissolve yeast, honey and half the warm water. Leave for 10 mins to ferment.

2. Make a pile of both flours and salt on a workbench or in a big bowl. Mix them together and make a well in the centre.

3. Pour all the yeast mixture into the well and with 4 fingers of one hand make circular movements from the centre working outwards - gradually mixing all the wet and dry ingredients together.

Pour the remains of the tepid water into the mixture and gradually incorporate. Some flours need more water to make a moist dough.

4. Knead - roll, push, fold over and over for at least 8 mins.

5. Flour both your hands and lightly flour the top of the dough. Make it into a roundish shape and place in a bowl or on a baking tray. Score (i.e. 2 slashes across the top - 1cm deep) the dough with a knife as this allows it to relax and prove more quickly.

6. Leave the bread to prove for 1.5 to 2 hours. The place you leave it must be warm, moist, draught-free. I usually put a tea towel over the top to protect the dough further (but not resting on the dough).

7. Wait for it to double in size. Knead and punch the dough. Knock all the air out of it for a few minutes..

8. Shape the dough - I often make 3 loaves out of the amounts provided in this recipe. So i cut the dough into 3 and then shape each chunk. Place the shaped dough (each loaf) on a baking tray or in a loaf tin - and leave to prove a second time. Again loaf should double in size but this time it should be quicker (may be an hour). Switch the oven on.

9. Now cook your loaf - put the oven as high as poss (250 degrees C for most ovens). When the temperature is reached, I place a tray of water in the bottom of the oven. Then I put the loaves in and I squirt water on their tops, to make them crusty. This all has to be done quickly otherwise the temperature of the oven will drop. Turn the oven down to 225 degrees C. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check the bread is cooked by tapping its bottom. It should sound hollow.

10. Place the bread on a rack to cool. It should smell divine, but leave to cool for at least 45 minutes.

Variations 

Beer bread 

Substitute tepid water for warm beer. Makes the bread malty and even more delicious.

Foccacia 

Roughly chop 1 clove of garlic and a good handful of basil and immerse in olive oil. Add a squeeze of lemon, some salt and pepper.

At stage 8, just before leaving the dough to prove for the second time divide into quarters/ halves and roll or push it into an oval shape. 

Smear the basil mix on the top and stick your fingers deep into the dough many times.  

This should only need 15 mins in the oven and when you take it out pour olive oil over the top plus sprinkle with salt. 

Can be eaten as soon as it has cooled.   

Fig Jam

We are lucky to have five green fig trees in our garden; they seem to get better and better as they mature. This year, our first harvest was 4 kilos of ripe fruit for jam and a few kilos of insect infested or over ripe fruit for the compost. After searching in our conserves recipe books we drew a blank for fig jam so I consulted my primary source for all cooking dilemmas: my mum. This helped a bit but my secondary source was Delia on line for what to do with sterilizing jars and other such hints and tips. Here is her 10 steps to jam making: 

http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/preserves/ten-steps-to-jam-making.html

Of course I did not follow this exactly, but what I did below worked for our figs.

No pectin, no jam sugar.. just granulated sugar and lemon and lime juice boiled rapidly for hours!

Foodstuff you will need: 

1 kg of figs (I made this with 3.3kg and just multiplied it up)

350g sugar

125ml lemon and/or lime juice

125ml water

Equipment:

Multiple sterilised jam (glass) jars and lids (plastic containers with lids works too)

Very large pot

Large wooden spoon

Saucers (placed in a fridge) and teaspoon

Measuring jug and scales

How to throw it together

Chop the stems off the figs and cut into quarters. (the figs should not contain any bad bits)

Toss the fig pieces with the sugar in the large pot and leave to stand for 15 minutes. No heat is required.

At the end of this time, all or most of the sugar should be dissolved. The figs should look juicy!

Add the lemon juice and water and bring to a boil on a high heat.

Boil rapidly over a moderate heat, stirring from time to time. Be patient; if the jam runs off the wooden spoon you need to boil it some more. It took me 3 hours for 3.3.kg before the jam looked like setting.

Ignore any scummy bits, these should disappear with a good stir and more boiling.

When you think the jam looks like it is setting, (drops thickly from the side of the wooden spoon) Take the saucer from the fridge. Use a teaspoon to skim off some jam and put it on the saucer. Place back into the fridge for 2 minutes. If the jam has a wrinkled appearance when you push it, it is ready. If not tip the sample back into the pot and continue to boil.

When it is ready (see step above) remove pot from heat and stand, (How long is up to you Delia says wait a bit but not too long)

Spoon the jam into the glass jars leaving a few cm of space at the top. Close the jars and let cool at room temperature.

Store the jam in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Delicious on toast for breakfast!

Chicken- slow cooked with potatoes, garlic, bacon, wine and thyme

We stumbled over this recipe as we were very surprised at the cost of a whole roast chicken in our local supermarket (between 8-17 euros) and bought a raw one to cook ourselves. Instead of roasting it, we found another option so we could cycle whilst it cooked. We have adapted this from a Simon Hopkinson pot roast chicken recipe (on the stove with vermouth) to be a mouth watering slow cooked whole chicken in white wine (as well as all of those other things mentioned in the title) Remember – with slow cooking, less is more!

Serves 4.

Foodstuff you will need: 

1 whole chicken – 1.5kg  (with giblets but no stuffing)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

50g butter

250g cubed pancetta

12 cloves of garlic – peeled and left whole

2-3 large splashes of white wine

1kg potatoes peeled and cut into large chunks

5-6 springs of fresh thyme

300ml good chicken stock

Salt and pepper

Equipment:

Large Slow cooker – big enough to take the whole chicken resting on a bed of potatoes

Large pot with lid – big enough to take the whole chicken

Hob

Forks or tongs to turn chicken around in pot without burning your fingers

Measuring jug and kettle to boil and measure stock

Chopping board and knife

Plate to rest chicken

How to throw it together

Melt butter with olive oil in the large pot

Season the chicken inside and all over with salt and pepper

Place chicken inside pot with lid on.

Turn it regularly to brown it on all sides

Remove and place on a plate to rest

Turn on slow cooker to HIGH

Put the pancetta and garlic into the pot to brown. Allow to sizzle and brown slightly before adding the white wine. This mixture will froth and splutter a bit.

Add the potatoes to this fatty residue and stir until well coated.

Remove from heat and transfer contents of pot into slow cooker

Add chicken stock  and thyme sprigs to the slow cooker

Add whole chicken to the slow cooker – it should be able to nestle easily into the potatoes

Put on lid of slow cooker and cook on HIGH for at least 5 hours

Potatoes should be tender and chicken well cooked so it falls off the bones easily.

When ready, lift the chicken out of the slow cooker onto a plate to carve / debone before serving.

Spoon some of the potatoes together with the juices around each serving.

Great with green beans.

Parmesan Aubergine/Eggplant

This is a fabulous way to eat up several aubergine/eggplant. It can be a meal in itself or if you crave for meat, it is excellent with pork sausage. (sizzled on a  BBQ) Delicious hot or cold.

There are many variations in Italian cookbooks but this one comes from “The Silver Spoon” but the recipe is not credited to any individual. We have adapted it a bit by adding more parmesan

Foodstuff you will need: 

4-5 eggplants cut lengthwise into ¼ inch thick slices

500ml tomato passata

½ bunch fresh basil

6 tablespoons of olive oil

250g finely grated parmesan cheese  (add as much or as little as you like dependent on taste)

200g mozzarella cheese (chopped into slices) – use a firmer mozzarella block for cooking

2 eggs beaten

50ml butter

salt and pepper

Equipment:

Large mixing bowl

Large frying pan & spatula

Tray in which to rest the eggplant once browned

Kitchen towel

Chopping board and sharp knife

Large oven proof dish

Oven

How to throw it together

Put sliced eggplant into a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and let it drain for at least 1 hour. Drain the eggplant and throw away the dark brown juice. You can squeeze the eggplant if necessary. Pat dry with kitchen towel.

Pre heat the oven to 200C

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the eggplant in batches and brown on both sides.  

You will probably have to do this in batches unless you have a super large frying pan.

Once cooked, remove and set aside the browned eggplant in a tray or dish and use kitchen towel to absorb any excess oil.

Spoon the tomato onto the base of the oven proof dish.

Arrange a layer of eggplant on top

Sprinkle with parmesan

Cover with a layer of mozzarella

Sprinkle with a few basil leaves

Add 2 tablespoons of the beaten egg on top.

Repeat this until the ingredients are used but end with a layer of eggplant, sprinkled with tomato passata.

Cut the butter into cubes and sprinkle on top

Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove and eat at your leisure. This is just as good cold!

Auntie Pat’s roasted tomato passata

Auntie Pat is a golden source of great recipes. She donated this one to us last year (originally sourced from Sainsbury’s magazine Sep 2004) as we were complaining about not knowing what to do with a glut of tomatoes when they all ripen at once. We make this recipe in bulk. Our first batch this year started off with over 10 kilos of tomatoes.   After a bit of chopping out stalky bits and bad bits of tomato (lots of rain damage to fruit plants in Italy this year) we managed to get it down to 8 kilos.  The recipe below makes about 1 litre for every 2kg of tomatoes. This is a fantastic base to many other Italian dishes and a great staple for the fridge/freezer. You will not regret the effort to make it; it is delicious. Thank you Auntie Pat.

Foodstuff you will need: 

2kg large ripe tomatoes (I used a mix of plum, beef and ordinary round ones; anything goes!)

2 large onions, peeled and chopped

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme leaves (these grow in our garden too) – alternatives are oregano or majoram

2 teaspoons of brown sugar

Generous splash of good quality thick balsamic vinegar

4 tablespoons of olive oil

salt and ground pepper

Equipment:

Sharp knife and chopping board

Large bowl and boiling water

2 large baking trays - oiled to fit tomatoes snugly when halved

Food processor

Oven

How to throw it together

Heat the oven to 190C.

Put all tomatoes into a large bowl and pour over boiling water to cover the tomatoes

Leave for 1-2minutes; the skin should now peel off easily.

Drain and peel.

Scatter onion, garlic and herbs over the base of each baking tray

Halve or quarter the tomatoes (if very large) and place them cut side up over the onions to cover them. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle over the sugar, then drizzle over the balsamic and olive oil (1/2 the quantities above in each tin)

Roast for 60-95 minutes, swapping tins around if required until the tomatoes are shrunk and brown at the edges but not charred.

Allow to cool, before puree in a food processor

Adjust seasoning according to taste.

Optional: add de seeded red peppers – discarding their skins after roasting before you puree the mixture

Store in sterilized jars in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.

You can also freeze this in plastic containers for anything up to 12 months.

(Defrost it in a saucepan as you warm it up from frozen before adding to other ingredients)

Involtini di vitello (or stuffed veal bundles)

 Our local butcher refused to sell us any veal as he believes Italians eat too much veal so he does not stock it. It just forced us to buy meat from super market  instead, but we have also cooked this with very thinly cut lean pork. It is a bit fiddly to make as you have to roll up the bundles before cooking.(first time this year, we could not get any kitchen string so Sarah and I spent several minutes messing around tying up these bundles with cotton reels! Fortunately we found it after looking up the words for this in Italian)  

The result is worth the fuss. Best served with roast potatoes. 

These take longer to make so start them first!

The better quality the ingredients, the better these will be.

Recipe comes from Loukie Werle (an Australian writing about Italian country cooking)

Foodstuff you will need: 

4 veal scallops (very thin)

100g mozzarella

60-100g sliced prosciutto (preferred) or cubed pancetta

Large handful of flat parsley leaves

50g grated parmesan

2 tablespoons of olive oil

125ml white wine

Equipment:

Large frying pan

Chopping board & sharp knife

Large bowl

Grater

Plate for bundles to keep warm

How to throw it together

Combine the mozzarella, prosciutto (or pancetta) and parsley on a board and chop together

Combine in a bowl with the parmesan and combine with salt and pepper.

Lay the veal flat on a board. Pound to make more thin if necessary

Divide the mixture up between the veal

Roll the veal up enclosing the filling and tie securely with kitchen string

Heat the oil in a heavy based frying pan and cook the bundles over a moderate heat until golden brown on all sides

Season lightly, add the wine and cook gently for 10 minutes or until cooked through and the sauce thickens slightly.

Transfer the bundles to a plate and keep warm

Add a few spoons of water to the pan and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom; cook over a high heat and stir until the liquid is syrupy.

Transfer involtini to serving plates; remove string (or ask your guests to do so themselves if you are in a hurry!) and spoon over some sauce.