Carmelita’s Cookitaly

Balsamic Poached Figs and Cheese Crostini

Fruit season is in full swing now. We still have berries and cherries, we have apricots, peaches and nectarines, melons and watermelons and now plums and, and, and .....the figs have started!

When there are figs, we make fig crostini on cooking class, because they are quick and easy and a totally luscious mouthful. The blue cheese is tamed down by the cream cheese and the buttery balsamic figs, soft sharp/sweet lusciousness on crisp toasted bread, just perfect!

Crostini ai Fichi

Balsamic Poached Figs and Cheese Crostini (for 4)

 

2 slices Tuscan type bread, cut in half or 2 slices baguette cut on a diagonal

2 small figs

50g Squaquerone (or substitute Macsarpone)

50g Gorgonzola

half a tablespoon. chopped flat leaf parsley

black pepper

50 ml ordinary Balsamic Vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon butter

 

With a fork, mash the Gorgonzola then mix with the white cheese and the parsley.

Season with freshly ground black pepper

Wash the figs and cut vertically into 4 segments

Heat the butter, sugar and vinegar in a small saute pan and cook 5 minutes to reduce - test the consistency by dropping a little on a cold saucer to see if it is too runny (cook further) or too thick (dilute with water)

Place the figs in the pan and cook just one minute on each “flat” side so they take on some colour. Remove to drain.

Lightly toast the bread and pile generously with the cheese mix.

Place one or two fig segments on the cheese, top with a dab of any left over cheese mixture and serve as an antipasto.

White Chocolate Tart with Seasonal Berries

This is a very easy, very quick desert that looks and tastes great. If you can have a good dish without much effort I am all for it and this one you can put it together in moments. Keep your cupboard stocked and you can amaze your unexpected guests withj a stunning loking sweet .

It is not a traditional dish but one I picked up from an Italian cooking magazine a few years back. It is wholly Italian in it simplicity: just a few ingredients and no going mad adding this spice and that garnish. I have no desire to "put my twist" on recipes that are perfectly good already. Certainly not in the case of recipes that have been tried, tested and imporved over decades and at times centuries, but also when the recipe comes from a friend or a food magazione. If it works, no need to "fix it".

So here it is, just as I found it in "Sale e Pepe"  Or maybe it was the Italian "La Cucina Italiana": a recipe for a simple sweet that looks and tastes sublime.

Torta al Cioccolato Bianco con Frutti di Bosco

250g (9 ounces) of ready made puff pastry (or make your own pasta frolla or short crust if you prefer)

200g (7 ounces) white chocolate

400g fresh runny cheese ( for example a mixture of Ricotta and Robiola or Philadelphia)

120g (4 ounces) small berries in season - ideally the tiny elongated and super fragrant Alpine strawberries or woodland strawberries, or else whatever berries are at their seasonal best

optional

2 tablespoons sugar

half a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon

Confectioner's sugar to finish

 

• Pre heat the oven to 180° C (350° F).

• The flaky pastry I buy here comes on it own sheet of baking paper. If yours doesn't, flour and butter the tart tin. Delicately roll out the bought pastry.

• Place the pastry in the baking tin and pierce the base several times with a fork. Cover with baking paper and fill with dried beans . Bake at 180 ° for 20 minutes till crisp and golden.

• If when you lift off the paper the inside of the tart does not look well cooked, protect the edges with kitchen foil and return to the oven for a 5 minutes or so.

• While the pastry shell is baking, very briefly rinse the wild strawberries and leave to dry on kitchen paper. Break the chocolate into small pieces

• Place the two cheeses in a bowl with the cinnamon if using and whisk together with a wooden spoon or spatula till it is very smooth and well blended

• Melt the white chocolate over low heat in a water bath.

• Leave to cool a little then pour gradually onto the cream cheese and blend the two mixtures thoroughly. Taste and adjust for sweetness with sugar or honey if you wish. Refrigerate this filling for at least 2 hours.

• 10 minutes before serving, sprinkle the raspberries with the sugar and leave to macerate.

• Just before serving fill your pre-baked tart with the cold white chocolate "cream". Smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a metal spoon.

• Pour the fruit all over the top of the filling and serve.

** If you like this recipe you can click below to give it a Facebook like, or click the gold star at top right of the recipe to mark as a favourite. I'd appreciate that, and also your comment. **

Variations:

As you can see in the top photo, we made a little rasberry syrup by cooking the riper fruit with a little sugar and water.

You can sprinkle thickly with confectioner's sugar (icing sugar, powdered sugar) if you like. Do this only just before serving.

You can garnish with little sprigs of fresh mint and/ or chocolate curls or grated chocolate.

You can" bury" most of the fruit if you want a white colour top: Place most if the berries, reserving some for decoration, on the bottom of the cooled tart then spread or pour over the white “crema”. Smooth the surface over as before. Use the reserved berries to form the outline of a flower, circle, an initial, a heart shape etc.

Octopus Stew

Polipo in Umido

The recipe I am sharing here I know from Malta, where I come from. People have told me that they have eaten a similar dish in Greece and some say they tasted something like it in Calabria, which is the tip of the Italian boot. Now Calabria was once part of ancient Greece, but many centuries later it formed part of the the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which included all Southern Italy from Naples to Puglia, as well as Sicily itself of course, and the tiny little island of Malta off Sicily's shores, just one of many similar small islands.

This octopus stew is richly savoury and only very mildly fishy. What I like best of all is the occasional surprise of biting on a currant or a walnut - somehow it is always a surprise though I know it is there. A savoury / sweet combination mixing olives and capers with pine nuts and raisins is typical of much of the cooking of North West Sicily and is a legacy from Sicily's golden period under Arab rule. Malta at that time, as well as for many centuries after, was ruled directly or indirectly from Sicily by the rulers of Sicily. So is this dish originally Arab or Greek? Is it Maltese or is it Southern Italian? I have called it simply "octopus stew" in Italian and decided that Octopus Stew Mediterranean Style seems a good description of this lovely dish that I enjoyed as a girl and still love today.

Do try to get real currants, "Uvetta di Corinto" in Italian, the small dried black grapes orignially from Corinth. They are right both because they are very small, so they add just the right amount of sweetness, and because they have a nice sharp edge, which means they work much better than larger sweeter raisins. But if you can't get them, then by all means use raisins.

Octopus Stew Mediterranean Style

For 4 people you will need:

A 1. 5 kilo (3 pounds 5 ounces) octopus, ideally a defrosted one which is more tender and cooks faster

an onion

2 garlic cloves

3 tbsp. thick tomato paste

2 tbsp. olive oil

a glass of red wine (white will do but red adds colour)

1 or 2 tbsp. currants or substitute smallest raisins

1 or 2 tbsp. small black olives

6 walnuts

2 bay leaves

black pepper

Optional: a tsp. of allspice or cinnamon or cloves; you can also add two handfuls of shelled fresh peas to the sauce

Wash the octopus and place whole in a heavy bottomed sauce pan that has a tight fitting lid. Place on lowest possible heat and leave to cook about 45 – 60 minutes. Do not check on it till at least 30 minutes have passed, the ideal is not to lift the lid at all.

While the octopus is cooking, shell the walnuts and chop roughly, not too small. Peel and slice the onion into thin half moons.

Very gently fry the garlic in the olive oil till just golden then remove. Add the sliced onions and soften gently till well wilted and softened .

While the onions are softening dilute the tomato paste in hot water. When it is well blended add it to the onions along with all the other ingredients: olives, currants, walnuts, bay leaf, any sweet spice you are using.

Leave to simmer on low heat, allowing it to reduce then topping up with a little water, till it has thickened into a good sauce consistency.

When the octopus is cooked through, remove and discard the liquid it has expelled, which will be too salty to use. Decide if you want to skin it or not, then chop into 5 cm pieces and add these to the tomato sauce.

Add the wine and simmer uncovered till the sauce has thickened again.

Serve with small boiled potatoes rolled in olive oil and dusted with fresh parsley or on its own with good crusty bread. We found samphire  when shopping, a sea vegetable known as sea aspargus - so we used that in instead.

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And here's a little extra!

We had more than enough octopus for the stew so we decided to keep back some of the tentacles to use for an antipasto. For this we heated up a cast iron grill pan and placed the reserved tentacles on it - no oil on the pan, no oil on the tentacles, they were just just patted dry with kitchen paper to minimise sticking. We placed the tentacles on, then turned the heat low and let them slowly grill and crisp, turnign them over to crisp all round. We " toasted" some bread on the same pan, drizzled the bread with olive oil, topped with some sliced sun dried tomatoes filled with capers, then the tentacles and there was our very yummy octopus bruschetta, all ready to go.

Zuppa Inglese

Emilia-Romagna's favourite sweet

This custard concoction of sunny cheerful colours is the most popular traditional dessert here, loved throughout the region: from Emilia, spreading west of Bologna, to Romagna to its east and of course in Bologna itself. It is now found in other regions too but nowhere else does it appear without fail on every restaurant menu. That this is its home and its place of origin is, for once, not contested.

The story goes that it originated sometime in the course of the 1500s in the kitchens of the rulers of Ferrara at the time, the Dukes of the Este family. They were leading patrons of the arts and under their rule in the Renaissance period the city enjoyed a long period of intense cultural and artistic activity. Besides encouraging musicians, poets and painters the Este family engaged in diplomatic activity to develop and maintain good relations with other powerful ruling families in Italy and in Europe. It is said that a courtier returning from diplomatic duties in England described a popular sweet served at the end of the banquets at the English court, the sweet today known as "trifle". He described its layers of custard, sponge and cream and the cooks of the Este court created the Zuppa Inglese inspired by his description.

This story does not entirely hold water as it would seem that the various dainty "little trifles" served in 16th and 17th century England had no trace of sponge cake. But it makes a pretty tale and suggests a plausible explanation of why the sweet is described as "Inglese", in other words, English.

Then there is the "Zuppa" part, which often confuses non-Italian speakers. The Italian verb "inzuppare" means "to dunk" or "to dip" or more generally to moisten something dry with some form of liquid. In this sweet, as in the much newer invention Tiramisù, sponge cake or lady finger biscuits are dipped into a liquid, making the resulting sweet a "zuppa".

There are savoury "Zuppe" too, usually thick stews of fish or meat served on a slice of toasted bread or else chunky soups containing cereals and legumes. The thing to remember is that the word "zuppa" in Italian does not translate as soup, and that it is often used to describe desserts.

But enough, on to the recipe for Italy's famous Zuppa, the "English" one from Emilia-Romagna.

 

 Zuppa Inglese

 

For 6 people you will need:

300g of lady finger biscuits ("Savoiardi") (10 and a half ounces or as many as fit in your container)

120g (4 ounces) sugar

30g (an ounce) flour 

500ml (a pint) milk 

5 egg yolks  

a vanilla pod (optional, but makes it special) 

50g (scant two ounces) chopped 70% cocoa chocolate 

a glass (cup) each of water and Alchermes liqueur  

(or substitute a liqueur of your choice or a diluted strawberry syrup for the traditional bright pink colour ) 

20g (1 and a half tablespoons) butter

optional sour cherry or sharp apricot jam

 

Set aside 100 ml (0.4 of a cup) of milk. Heat the rest with the sugar and the scraped out vanilla seeds till it comes to the boil.

Meanwhile, place the 5 yolks in a bowl and whisk them with the sifted flour, then still whisking, add the cold 100ml of milk gradually.

When the remaining milk has come to the boil and all the sugar is dissolved, add it gradually to the yolks while still whisking. Then place everything in the pan in which you boiled the milk and return to a moderate heat for about 10 minutes to thicken.

Whisk constantly and whisking patiently on low heat to bring the mixture almost to boiling point so that it thickens - the very fine bubbles on the surface will disappear when it is ready. Snatch it off the heat, and transfer to a cool bowl as soon as possible, as it can continue to cook and so curdle, .

Divide in two thirds and one third by pouring into two separate bowls - there is no need to be precise here. Add the chocolate, broken into bits, to the smaller amount and mix to melt the chocolate and blend well. Leave to cool.

Mix the water and Alchermes* together. Dip the lady fingers lightly in the liquid, and use make a layer at the bottom of one large or several small glass bowls. Place with the pink side facing the outside, so it is visible through the glass.

Now add a layer of the chocolate custard and if you wish carefully top with a very thin layer of sour cherry or apricot jam, dropping teaspoonfuls at regular intervals as it is impossible to spread the jam over the soft custard with a knife or spoon. If you like you can reserve some of the chocolate custard and place it in a piping bag or squeegee bottle to use for decorating the top.

Finish with a deeper layer of plain custard.

Refrigerate for  at least one hour before serving. For special occasions you could further garnish with one or more of whole sour cherries in syrup, grated chocolate and toasted flaked almonds.

* Today artificial colourings are used but originally the natural dye "Kermes" was used, hence the name which is clearly of Arabic origin.

Rotolo di Vitello alla Bolognese

Bologna Style Veal Pot Roast filled with spinach and Mortadella

A real Bologna classic, this filled veal roll. The picture is of one very skillfully made by my cooking class guests last week, they did a fine job.Though this can be cooked in the oven, most Italians prefer to pot roast, which makes the roast more moist and tender. The Rotolo is not everyday family food, but a special and  spectacular dish for Sundays and holidays, for dinner parties or for the Christmas meal. And yet it is not complicated to make or to cook, as you'll see reading on.

We served it with the first sweet little tomatoes I felt were good enough to buy - finally! It's been a long cold winter so everything is late this year, and I am firm in my refusal to eat out of season or green house tomatoes. What's the point? They are a pale, dull, watery imitation of what tomatoes can be like at their best even today. I bore people with my complaints against today's hybrid varieties, all tough skin and stalk, all identical, lacking both seeds and flavour. I remember as a child that if there was one - just one - ripe tomato in the kitchen you could smell it from the top floor of our three storey house.

Tomatoes were a constant throughout spring and the long summer but were never ever seen in winter even in the southern Mediterranean where I grew up. And they were never stored in the fridge: tomatoes should not be stored in the fridge, they become mealy and lose flavour. The variety we bought is a new one but tasty. The little tomatoes are called "Datterini" or little dates, though they have a slight bumpiness that makes them look more like little peanuts. They were oh-so-sweet, candy sweet. Having tasted one we couldn't resist and snacked on a few as the class unwound. I just cooked them for a few minutes in olive oil with a couple of peeled sliced cloves of green garlic and a grinding of salt. I let the skins burst just a little to make a nice little sauce with the olive oil, and tipped them round the sliced Rotolo on the serving platter. Sometimes things look much better served in good old family style.

The Recipe

The cut of veal my butcher says is best is the "Fesa", numbers 21 and 23 in the diagram here

A flat piece of lean veal or young beef weighing about 500g (just over a pound), 300g (10 and a half ounces) thinly sliced Mortadella di Bologna, 300g fresh uncooked spinach, 1 or 2 eggs, 40g (one and a half ounces) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, 20g butter, 1 tbsp. olive oil, nutmeg to grate, salt & pepper

• Place the washed spinach leaves in a deep pot with just the water clinging to the leaves, season with salt and steam the vegetable in its own water on low heat for about 5 minutes. Turn leaves over and stir occasionally as water is released and the spinach starts to wilt and soften. Drain and squeeze hard to eliminate any remaining moisture.

• Place in a processor with one of the eggs, the Parmigiano-Reggiano and a quarter of the Mortadella plus very little salt and pepper. Whizz to a fine puree. Add a yolk, or the whole of the second egg *only* if the mixture seems very dry. Season generously with nutmeg.

• Place the piece of veal on a working surface, and gently pound it flat and wide as possible using the bottom of your clenched fist. Line with the sliced Mortadella. The fat in this will help to baste the lean veal.

• Spread the spinach/Mortadella evenly over leaving a wide margin all round. Careful not to put too much on, be prepared to leave some aside rather than over stuffing the roll.

• Roll up the meat in the direction of the grain so that later you will slice across it. Roll pretty tightly. Tie it in several places with kitchen string about 1 cm apart - again tie tightly because the meat will shrink when you brown it.

• Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil with the butter in a deep pan and brown the roll on all sides over moderate heat, about 10 minutes. Add a little stock or water, then cover and leave to simmer about 30 / 35 minutes. During the cooking time turn the roll over occasionally and add stock as needed so it does not dry out but has a little sauce at the end - the "intingolo".

• When cooked, leave to rest 10 minutes, then remove the string and slice along the grooves where the string was..

• Serve the veal pot roast with simply cooked tomatoes or carrots or squash - in other words a vegetable that is not green as you already have one in the filling.
  

Variation: You can replace the spinach layer with a layer of Frittata, either plain or else a wilted onion or mushroom Frittata.

 

Bologna Polpette on Zucchini Ribbons

I had left over zucchini and some left over mixture from the cooking class and the next day I made myself this simple tasty supper.

Left over prepared mixture from making Polpettine alla Bolognese - see below - , 3 or 4 medium sized zucchini (courgettes), olive oil, salt and pepper, optional chopped parsley.

• Shape the meat mixture into patties like small high burgers - I do this because I like my meatballs still pink in the middle. If you want your meat cooked all the way through (Heathen!!) then make themflatter and thinner. Leave to rest and firm up in the fridge while you prep. the vegetables.

• Cut the zucchini into neat narrow sticks. Bring a pot of water - it need not be too full - of water to the boil, add salt when it comes to the boil, then tip in the zucchini ribbons. Cook uncovered till they are gracefully wilted: Italians have no time for rigid crunchy vegetables unless they form part of an uncooked salad. Drain and refresh under cold running water to preserve a bright colour.

• Heat up a little olive oil and when it is fairly hot place the meat patties in and cook to your liking. I test doneness by poking the top of one of them with a finger and like to find it still has plenty of "give".

• Set aside and place a little olive oil in a pan. Throw in your cooked zucchini ribbons and stir to warm through. Season with salt and pepper. You can use another pan or do as I did and start out with a large pan so as to use it for both meat and vegetables, coating the zucchini in some of the yummy pan juices.

• Serve the ribbons as a bed. sprinkled with chopped parsley and the patties cut up. Resist any temptation to put ketchup all over it and serve with good crusty bread.

And here's Vivian Bauquet Farre and her knife skills video with a clear explanation of useful general  chopping technique:

 

 

Bologna Style Micro Meatballs

Whenever I make these, even if I make 4, 6, 8 times the amount below, which is for 4, every single last one gest eaten up!

The Recipe

250g (about 9 ounces) of finely minced pork (pork is traditional but you can use veal or beef also), 50g (a little under 2 ounces) Mortadella, 3 tbsp. freshly and very finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano, 3 tbsp. ricotta , dry breadcrumbs to roll the meatballs in, 1 organic lemon, 1 egg, 1 tsp. powdered cinnamon, 4 tbsp. olive oil, salt and pepper

• Chop the Mortadella very fine or whiz in a processor and place in a mixing bowl. Using your clean hands, mix the meat with the ricotta (or substitute butter), 3 tbsp. fresh breadcrumbs, the Reggiano and squish everything together well

• Before you juice the lemon, collect about 1 tbsp of lemon zest ( yellow part only, no white pith) using a micro-planer or zester. Squeeze out about 3 tbsp of the juice. Add 1 tsp. of the zest and half the juice to the meat mixture, along with half a teaspoon powdered cinnamon and the egg, Mix till all is very well amalgamated - you can use a wooden spoon but clean hands are best. Test by smell or taste and adjust seasoning.

The Polpettine should taste of meat with the lemon and cinnamon in the background, not dominating, so go easy and don't overdo them - these flavours should be just detectable and should not overpower the taste of the meat itself.

• Make sure the ingredients are thoroughly blended - I mix by hand squeezing the mixture through my knuckles - and then get ready for the fun part!

If the mixture seems too soft add grated cheese or very fine breadcrumbs, if it seems too hard, then add more ricotta or butter

• Lift up and slap the mixture down several times on to a wooden board or marble counter to lighten the texture. Do it as many times you want to, it's therapeutic and the more the better. If any of the mixture sticks to the board scrape off with a long knife or pastry scraper and return it to the main ball.

• Dampen your hands lightly to prevent the meat mixture sticking to them, take very small amounts of the mixture and roll between your palms to shape into very small balls, small cherry size. Roll them well to prevent cracking when they shrink in the pan later.

• I didn't do this today but if you like you can roll in breadcrumbs or flour to coat. The jiggle the tin about so the Polpettine roll about and coat themselves.

• Leave to wait in the fridge if not cooking at once - the wait helps to firm them up and they fry better - less cracking - if they have a spell in the fridge.

• Fry them all at once in the olive oil, for about 5 minutes till golden. If you are concerned about fat levels use a non-stick pan and you can get away with very little olive oil

And here's something else you can do with these Polpettine, nice summer starter, or lunch, or picnic food.

:

Zucchini Sformato with Bologna Polpettine

Here is a Bologna classic, a vegetable sformato served with tiny Polpettine alongside. It was the main course we made ona  recent cooking class and we as we found zucchini flowers in the market we went one further and lined the mouls with zucchini flowers. I can't have explained the method well enough, because my guests thought the Sformato would be served in the cups not turned out, so they lined the moulds with the golden part of the blossoms "on top", which when turned out becomes the bottom of course. I think they look great this way too, with all the nice pale and dark green stripes.

I've said it before and I'll saying it again,. Sformati are absolutely wonderful, really light texture, totally scrumptious! Here's the recipe for 4 people:

 500g (a pound) fresh zucchini (courgettes), a thick béchamel (made with 40g (1 and a half ounces) of flour, 40g of butter, and 250ml(a cup) of milk), 3 eggs and an extra egg yolk, 100 ml (scant quarter cup) of cream, 50 g ( generous 1 and a half ounces)of Parmigiano-Reggiano, nutmeg, salt and pepper, butter and flour or fine breadcrumbs for the mould

• Bring a pan of water to the boil, add salt and cook the vegetables till tender. Lift out and place in cold or iced water leave to cool, then drain, pat dry and whiz to a cream in a food processor or with a stick blender. If you have neither but have a food mill then putting them through that will give you an even smoother texture.

• Prepare four individual mould or one larger ring mould - preferably non stick - by buttering and lining with breadcrumbs or flour. To make sure they turn out easily either use throw away alu-foil or else cut a piece of cooking foil to fit the base, butter it and place that in the bottom of your already buttered mould(s). If anything sticks it's going to be the bottom, which needs to look pretty as it becomes your top.

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / 350 ° F

• Heat the milk while you cook the flour in the melted butter whisking to make a smooth roux ( a well blended paste of the two ingredients) which you cook on low heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Add the boiling milk to the roux all at once off the heat and whisk hard to smooth it all out. Cook a further 7 minutes or so to lose the floury taste.

• Mix the zucchini puree into the besciamella, then add the cream. Next stir in the eggs and yolk: they need to go in one at a time, not adding the next one until the first has been fully incorporated into the mixture. Stir in the grated cheese and season the mixture with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

• Pour the mixture into the prepared mould/s, tap on a surface to make sure the mixture settles evenly, and bake in a waterr bath for 30 – 45 minutes (depends on the size and shape of the mould) then test with a tooth pick - it should come out very lightly flecked for a softer texture, totally clean and the sformato would be a little on the dry side

• Allow to cool a little then turn out and serve with very tiny meatballs, or with a cheese or tomato sauce if serving on its own.

The ring mould version of the Sformato, again carefully lined with zucchini blossoms, looks pretty spectacular!

Risi e Bisi

Risi e Bisi

Venetian risotto soup with fresh peas and pea pod stock

I look forward every year to the first fresh peas and to making Risi e Bisi. This delectable spring dish was once served with great pomp and ceremony to the Magnificent Doge of Venice - the elected head of the powerful city state - on the 25th of April, the feast of the patron saint of the city, San Marco. This was traditionally the day when the very first peas of the season went on sale in the Rialto market

Venice is one of the rice growing regions of Italy along with parts of Lombardy and the Piedmont. The Primo course, which precedes the main or protein course, is usually risotto here rather than pasta, though polenta is also popular in the colder months. A Veneto risotto is wetter than its Lombardy and Piedmont counterparts; the lagoon dwelling Venetians insist should be "all'onda" meaning it should form a crested wave when you tip the plate to one side and then the other. Risi e Bisi is wetter still and it is not a risotto, its preparation does not follow the classic risotto procedures. It looks like a risotto that is wetter than "all'onda", more liquid and definitely pourable, so it is a soup, a soup thick with rice, and it is eaten with a spoon not a fork.

There used to be a rich man's version made with the addition of goose foie gras, but it is the simple recipe which has survived the test of time. Today the fois gras version is unknown while the one below is loved and revered throughout the Veneto and beyond.

 

Rise e Bisi

For 4 people you will need

1 kilo (2.2 pounds) fresh peas in the pod (or use sugar snap peas)

200g (7 ounces) Vialone Nano rice

50g unsalted butter

1 tbsp. Extra Virgin olive oil

50g (1 and 3/4 ounces or 3 and 1/2 tablespoons) Grana Padano cheese

6 spring onions (scallions)

salt, freshly ground black pepper

2 very thin slices of rolled pancetta (or substitute 1 slice cured but not smoked streaky bacon)

Optional: fresh Italian flat leaf parsley to end up with 2 tbsp. chopped

If your peas are very sweet and tender, do not simmer them with the spring onions but add them after the rice has been cooking about 13 minutes

• First of all make the pea pod stock. Shell the peas and collect them in a bowl for later, and reserve the pods. Discard any pods which are blemished.

• Rinse the pods. Bring 1.5 litres of cold water to a boil, add 2 teaspoons of salt and plunge the pods in. Cook till pods just soften, not too long so they stay bright green.If you rinse them in very cold water straightaway it helps to preserve a bright colour.
  

• It is easiest to strain the pods off and just use their cooking water made up to 1 litre, but for a special day, whizz the pods in a food processor first (easier than using a hand held blender which is also possible) and then patiently push through a very fine sieve to eliminate stringy bits and to get a beautiful velvety puree to add to the dish. An easier alternative is to cook and puree some of the peas.

• While the stock is boiling, prepare the remaining ingredients. Peel the spring onions and slice thinly, using some of the green part. Dice the pancetta very fine. Both these ingredients should melt away and not be discernible in the finished dish. Grate the Grana Padano cheese very fine so that it melts into the "risotto soup" when you add it. Wash the parsley if using , strip the leaves from the stalks and chop fine.

• When the stock is ready, place the spring onions and pancetta in a large saucepan with half the butter and all the olive oil, and soften them on a gentle heat with a little water for a few minutes till well wilted.

• Before they colour add the peas and a couple of ladles of the pea pod stock. Season with salt and only if needed (taste a raw pea) a pinch or up to 1 teaspoon of sugar. Cover and simmer on very low heat for 3 - 10 minutes according to size and tenderness of the peas.

• Add the rice and all the stock at once and cook on moderate heat for 12 minutes. Add the pea pod or pea puree and cook a further 3 minutes.

• When the rice is cooked, take the pot off the heat and whip in the remaining butter. Grind over a little black pepper and add the grated cheese and stir well. Add the chopped parsley if using and stir again.

• Pour into a soup tureen and serve in bowls, or ladle into bowls directly from the pot

Mushrooms with Mortadella Mousse

 

I am going to be away for a week with my family and old friends, as my niece is getting married in Malta. I am not sure how much I will be able to post while there so I thought I would post a recipe from today's Bologna cooking class before I set off tomorrow. Spuma di Mortadella is a traditional Bologna favourite for antipasto, and serving it in mushroom caps give it a bit more substance. The mushrooms - and the balsamic reduction - are a good foil to the very tangy savoury Mortadella mousse.

Real Mortadella di Bologna is a centuries old fine "cooked salami", one of the many feathers in Bologna's gastronomic cap, for this is the city that gave it birth. It is a pork only product, made from the finest parts of the pig very finely ground. It was once knife chopped and then pounded with pestle and mortar, hence the name. It is larded with fine back fat strips and lightly perfumed with mace, white pepper, allspice berries and coriander seeds. It is very fragrant and it is a sheer pleasure to breathe in deeply when you unwrap the neatly folded package you bring home from the deli.

Mortadella di Bologna I. g. p. - this means Indicazione Geografica Protetta which is a European Union quality standard that guarantees the place of origin - contains neither peppercorns nor pistachios - these are found only in other mortadellas made in the south. The "sausages" are cooked slowly - a 10 kilo (22. 5 lbs) Mortadella takes 24 hours to cook. Big is good where Mortadella is concerned, the bigger the better. Around 12 kilos is a good size though larger ones are made. Very little Mortadellas are also available today but a true Bolognese gourmet will always prefer to buy just a few ounces freshly sliced from a huge Mortadella - just a little as the heady aromas quickly fade and it is best to go back to the deli for more when you need to, rather than to eat Mortadella at anything other than its very best. Best of all is the Slow Food protected Classic Mortadella which is not easy to find outside Bologna, but which is well worth a try should you ever come across it.   

As I always have 25 year old Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale, we used this in the centre of the mousse today. You can see in the photo how richly dark and glossy it is compared to the paler reduction of ordinary Balsamic vinegar on the plate.

Notes

It is better to use a good quality cooked ham rather than a inferior Mortadella iIf you cannot get Mortadella di Bologna I.g.p.  You can add a little Marsala or a little Dijon style mustard to the ham mousse.

If you wish you can make 3 times the amount of Balsamic reduction and store for future use  - it will last many months stored in the fridge. If you transfer it to a plastic squeegee bottle with a fine tip you will be able to draw pretty patterns with it more easily.

 Vegetarian versions - no longer Bolognese - can use avocado or pea puree for the filling.

Cappelli di Funghi con Spuma di Mortadella

For 4 people you will need:

100g (3 1/2 ounces) Mortadella di Bologna I.G.P., 4 very large mushrooms, 50 ml (quarter cup)fresh cream

Optional Balsamic Syrup: 30 g (an ounce) sugar, 25 ml (a tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons) water, 40 ml ( 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons) ordinary Balsamic vinegar

Washed dried salad leaves for serving

The mushrooms

Wipe the mushrooms clean, remove stalks and reserve for another use

Brown the mushrooms caps without using any fat on both side in a non stick pan. At a certain point liquid will from inside the caps: when it does turn them over so that it drains out. Continue till golden brown on both sides Remove from the pan and place upside down on a plate to drain off excess liquid.

It is best not to season the mushrooms. Adding salt produces too much watery liquid and the Mortadella is already highly seasoned

The Mortadella mousse

Chop the Mortadella finely then place in a small processor or whizz with a stick blender. Add the cream and whizz again. Add water as needed to achieve a nice creamy texture.

Empty the Mortadella mousse into a bowl, season with a little pepper only, it is already salty enough

The Balsamic Syrup

Place the sugar and water in a pan and cook until almost all the water has evaporated. Let the sugar caramelise then deglaze the pan carefully with 40 ml of ordinary Balsamic Vinegar.

Carefully means you add just a little of the vinegar to being with as it will spit and sizzle when it hits the pan.

Allow the liquid to reduce till syrupy. It will stay liquid while it is hot so place a drop on a cold saucer to test the consistency at room temperature. If it is too thick dilute with water and test again. If it is too thin and runny reduce further. Leave to cool

To assemble and plate

Fill each cap with some of the Mortadella mousse, making a dome on top so there is lots of filling.

Place salad leaves on each of four serving plates with 1 or more mushroom caps on top of the leaves.

Make a depression in the centre of the Mousse and drizzle the Balsamic reduction into this and on and around the mushroom caps.