Monthly Archives: January 2012

King Basil in pesto and puttanesca

Posted on January 30, 2012 | 6 Comments

The basil plants on my terrace have a heady aroma in late summer. Their sweet scent on the terrace inspires me to make pasta – either with pesto or alla puttanesca. Their lovely perfume is due to the presence of oil of cloves and there are many different types – sweet, purple, Greek, lemon and Thai.

I grow the sweet variety (sometimes called italian) basil, which is the most common. It pairs beautifully with so many other flavours – tomatoes, lemons, mint, cloves, chicken, some cheeses and walnuts just to name a few. In fact one of the best icecreams I have ever eaten was a peach and basil gelato that I had several years back in the beach side town of Grado, which is on the Adriatic coast close to Trieste, Italy. After my first taste of it in the afternoon, I went back for seconds that evening!

Basil is a key ingredient of many Italian foods. Basil pesto that we all know and love originates from Genova, Liguria, where basil grows lush and plentiful on the hills right by the sea. Liguria is also where you find the Cinque Terre, an amazingly beautiful part of the world, where there are 5 tiny picturesque villages perched on the Mediterranean Sea. Pesto reminds me of the many holidays I have had there in beautiful Monterosso so I have pesto whenever I can to bring back those wonderful memories.

Essentially pesto is a pounded paste (pesto is related to the word pestle, hence pounding of ingredients). The main ingredients are basil and pine nuts You can vary this with other herbs such as parsley, coriander or rocket and other nuts such as walnuts or cashews. In Sicily they even make red pesto (with tomatoes). It is fun to experiment! Traditional pesto genovese (from Genova) has basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, parmigiano and salt. My version is not traditional and I add a bit of parsley as well as the basil and throw in an anchovy for extra saltiness – this is what I mean about experimenting! It is traditionally ground by hand but it is so easy to whizz it up for half a minute or less with a stick blender and then put a dollop of it on pasta or on a slice of bread for a panino. It keeps for a few months in the fridge as long as you don’t add the parmigiano immediately, put it in a sterilised jar and cover it with extra virgin olive oil. You can add the parmigiano just before serving. My recipe for basil pesto is here.

Another favorite dish to make with basil is pasta puttanesca. It literally means “whore’s pasta”, probably because it is hot, spicy and has a bit of everything in it! The key ingredient apart from basil is fresh ripe tomatoes, which must be a vibrant red so that they contrast with the black olives, green basil and yellow pasta. It should be a feast for the eyes. I like to use thick spaghetti or tagliatelle when I make puttanesca and I generally make my own pasta unless I am in a real rush. You can peel and de-seed the tomatoes if you like but I tend not to as it is not a dish that requires much finesse; it is about the rich sweet and salty taste and the gorgeous contrasting colours on the plate. The basil leaves get thrown in at the end, just before serving. If you put them in before that, they go black and don’t look as appealing (though tastes the same). There are lots of versions but I make the one that mamma taught me to make – click here for the recipe. Enjoy pasta puttanesca on a summer evening, with some crusty bread to mop up the sauce and a glass of chilled pinot grigio. Paradiso!

There are many more recipes where basil is the king. One day I will try to make the peach and basil gelato I had in Grado, and when I do, I promise to share it on this blog!


Basil pesto

Makes 1 cup

1 bunch of basil (80g), leaves only, washed and dried
20g parsley leaves, washed and dried
3 medium cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1 anchovy, roughly chopped
125ml olive oil
salt to taste
50g parmigiano, freshly grated (hand mix in at the end or leave it out to add just before using)

Put the basil, parsley, garlic, pine nuts, anchovy, salt and olive oil in a small food processor and process until it is smooth to your liking (it is ok for it to be chunky or smooth, it depends how you like it). If not using immediately, place in clean glass jars that you have sterilised by placing the jar and the separated lid in the oven at 110 degrees for about 15 minutes. Cover the pesto in the jar with a layer of olive oil to protect the pesto and place in the fridge until ready to use. Stir in parmigiano
 to taste when you are ready to use. If you are stirring it in pasta, save a bit of the hot salty cooking water and dilute the pesto with this so that it is evenly spread through the pasta. Top with more parmiggiano and a splash of olive oil if you like.

Pasta Puttanesca

Serves 2

2 cloves garlic, minced
4 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
12 kalamata (or other black) olives, pitted and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (less or more to taste, use fresh chilli if you have it)
500g ripe tasty tomatoes, roughly chopped into cubes
30 basil leaves (approximately) – they can be torn but I like to leave them whole, it depends on how big they are
175g pasta (tagliatelle, dried or fresh)
grated italian parmigiano to serve

Boil the water for the pasta and salt well (so it tastes like the sea). Prepare all your chopped ingredients and put to one side. The puttanesca sauce takes about six or seven minutes to complete so time it to coincide with your pasta being cooked al dente. Start cooking the pasta and when there are eight minutes left, heat the oil in a large fry pan on medium heat. Add the garlic, anchovies and chilli and cook until fragrant. This should take one to two minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer for a few minutes. Add the olives and heat through. The tomatoes pieces should just be starting to fall apart but still have some shape. Add the drained and cooked pasta to the frypan with the sauce. Remove from the heat. Toss. Add washed basil leaves. Toss. Serve with plenty of grated italian parmigiano.

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Luscious summer fruit – peaches – 3 ways

Posted on January 22, 2012 | 2 Comments

You know summer has arrived when mountains of peaches start appearing at the market. My parents have various fruit trees in their backyard and it is pretty clever how nature worked it all out perfectly – the peaches would mature a few weeks after the apricots and a few weeks before the plums. So summer was filled with a sequence for jam making in mamma’s kitchen -apricot jam first, then peach jam and at end the season, plum jam.

Apparently peaches originate in China and made their way along the Silk Road to the Mediterranean area in pre-Christian times. There are two varieties that are defined by how the flesh and the stone are related. Freestone peaches (both white and yellow types) are easier to eat as the central stone separates easily from the fruit – I always use these. Clingstone peaches are a bit trickier to separate (hence the name “clingstone”). One of my first memories of eating peaches is having slices that had been soaked in a glass of chilled dry white wine. I was probably ten or so at the time and papa’ would let me have a slice or two from his wine glass. He would get to eat the rest and drink the lovely peach-infused wine. It is still the simplest and my favourite way of eating peaches (after 5pm). All you have to do it find a ripe peach (I like white ones) cut it into about 12 slices and put these in a wine glass. Top with your favorite white wine and put in the fridge for an hour.

Drunken peaches (in pinot grigio)

There are several ways that I take advantage of luscious summer peaches – in wine (drunken); baked and stuffed; or in a simple short-crust tart. One of the important things to know about cooking with peaches is how to cut them in half easily – they generally leave this handy tip out of recipe books. I find the best way is to cut them horizontally (with the stalk part pointing up to the sky). Make an incision all the way around then give the top half a good twist and it will lift away completely (unless you have clingstone peaches and then it will take a bit longer to separate the top and you will have to twist harder).

If you want something fancier and it’s not too hot to turn on the oven, then baked peaches make a lovely summer dessert for a dinner party. Almonds go beautifully with peaches. Amaretti (Italian almond biscuits) make a great stuffing for baked peaches and can be purchased from most supermarkets. The stuffing is made from crushed amaretti and diced peach flesh and placed in the peach cavity where the stone used to be. The stuffed peach halves are baked in the oven for about an hour. I drizzle a bit of orange juice or some marsala around the peaches while they are cooking so this caramelises and there is a bit of sauce in the dish.

Baked and stuffed - peaches and Amaretti with cream

The peaches are then served with vanilla ice-cream, mascarpone or whipped cream, some crumbled amaretti and a bit of sauce. Baked and stuffed peaches are best eaten warm. Click here for the recipe.

There is nothing quite like a good fruit tart. In Veneto, which is where my mother comes from, finely grated lemon rind is added to the pastry, making it lighter and allowing the flavor of the fruit to not only complement the pastry but to really shine through. The pastry is made in an electric mixer and quite foolproof. It needs about 20 minutes resting time and only the base is blind baked. I find that blind baking the sides of the tart results in it having hard and almost burnt sides – I like mine to be soft and flaky.

Peach tart

I put a thin layer of jam (peach jam is preferable but I use my home made apricot jam which is quite runny and great for this purpose) under the peaches, which adds a bit of extra fruit sweetness and runs from the tart when it is cut. Click here for the recipe.

The tart can be eaten at room temperature or cold, with or without mascarpone/whipped cream. It lasts for around five days in the fridge however we usually finish it by the second day. I had amazing fruit tarts in both Roma and Venezia when I was last there – eating fruit tarts like this peach tart always gives me the most amazing memories of Italy!

Peaches with Amaretti – baked and stuffed*
Serves 4 (two halves per serve)

5 yellow peaches
1 heaped tablespoon brown sugar
4 crushed amaretti
2 tablespoons roughly chopped almonds
4 teaspoons butter
1/3 cup orange juice or Marsala

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Halve the peaches, remove the stone and approximately one teaspoon of peach flesh from each peach. Remove the skin from the 5th peach, dice the flesh and add this to the peach flesh you have removed from the other 4 peaches. Add the diced peach flesh to the crushed amaretti and mix with the sugar and almonds. Spoon the mixture back into the peach halves and place them in a baking dish. Put half a teaspoon of butter on each of the halves and place the dish in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the orange juice (or Marsala) around the peaches. Bake for another 15 minutes. Serve warm with ice-cream, whipped cream or mascarpone and sprinkle each serve with a crushed amaretto and a bit of the caramelised sauce from the baking dish.

Peach fruit tart
Makes a 23cm tart

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
30g icing sugar
grated rind of 1/2 lemon (use a microplane)
240g plain flour
pinch salt
1 egg
2 peaches, cut into 12 segments each
4 tablespoons peach or apricot jam (runny is best)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line a 23cm diameter tart tin with a removable base with aluminium foil. Place the butter, lemon rind and icing sugar in a mixer (I have a Kitchenaid with a paddle attachment) and beat until it is creamy. Add the flour and salt beat for less than a minute until the mixture resembles crumbs. Add the egg and beat for around half a minute or less until the mixture forms a ball. Remove the pastry from the mixer and flatten into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. Using a rolling pin, roll the pastry between sheets of plastic wrap until it is the right size to fit in the base and cover the sides of the tart tin. Using the removable base of the tin as a guide, trim a circle of pastry. Place the pastry into the lined tin, put a piece of baking paper on the pastry and weigh the paper down with pie weights (I use rice). Wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap (keeping it in the strips left from when you cut the pastry base) and place it in the fridge. Place the tart in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the weights and paper and place the remnants of pastry around the sides, pushing them down gently onto the base where they join (be quick as the base is hot!). Return to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and spread most of the jam on the base of the tart so that all of it has a layer of jam. Arrange the peach slices on the tart and brush the slices with the remaining jam (use a bit extra if you like; if it is not runny enough, heat it in the microwave oven for 10 seconds). Place the tart in the oven and cook for 30 minutes until the peaches have softened and the tart is golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack around 30 minutes before removing from the tin.

*adapted from recipe by Annabel Lanbein

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Zucchini flowers in Venezia

Posted on January 17, 2012 | 6 Comments

We travelled to Italy for a month in late 2010. One of the highlights was to be a full week in Venezia. After a few days with family near Trieste, we caught the train to Venezia and stayed in a little first floor apartment above a tiny Calle (lane) in San Marco. On the first day I went to an inspiring class run by Enrica Rocca who runs a cooking school in her beautiful house in the heart of Venezia. The next day, she met us at the Rialto Market and took us to where she buys her fresh ingredients. The market is hundreds of years old and right on the Grand Canal. So it is a pretty inspiring place, full of history and tales of Venetian glory. I was surrounded by gorgeous colourful produce and was particularly thrilled to find mountains of zucchini flowers. I had never seen so many in one place.

Back in Melbourne, the Victoria Market has zucchini flowers when they are in season though not in mounds like you would find at the Rialto Market! I bought some in late December and they were in little plastic boxes that held 6 perfect flowers. We think of zucchini (or courgettes if you want to call it by its French name) as vegetables but they are fruit in botanical terms. The part that we generally eat is the swollen ovary of the flower. My husband Mark tells me to keep such stories out of the kitchen, but having a medical background, I find this sort of thing really fun!

You can also eat the flower of the zucchini, either the female or the male (just the flower). I prefer the female flower as it does have a tiny zucchino attached. It doesn’t need much cooking as it is a delight on its own. You can make a simple batter and fry it, or else stuff the flowers with cream cheese or ricotta and then batter and fry it. Fried zucchini flowers with a dipping sauce such as aioli (garlic mayonnaise) make a beautiful, quick and impressive entree. You don’t need to cook them much either, they are so delicate.

The season for zucchini flowers is very short. If you see any, snap them up! I bought those pictured on plates at the end of December (they look a bit sad and lonely compared to the mounds at the Rialto Market in Venezia). If you can’t find any at the market and really have your heart set on cooking them, you can substitute other vegetables such as pieces of a large zucchino, strips of capsicum or asparagus spears in the recipe below. It won’t quite be the same but they will still taste amazing with some creamy garlic mayonnaise (aioli).

Zucchini flowers in batter with aioli

As an entree, 3 zucchini flowers per person are perfect. We were a bit greedy when we had them on New Year’s Eve – we scoffed 6 of them each. Before using, make sure you wash the zucchini flowers under running water and then pat them dry. To make the batter for the 12 zucchini flowers, you need 40 g of plain flour and 125 ml water. Put the water in a soup plate and add the flour a little at a time, beating continuously with a fork until all the flour is incorporated and you have the consistency you like. Stop before adding all the flour if you like a thin mixture. Mine was like thickened cream.

Dip the zucchini flowers in the batter until they are coated on all sides. To fry them, put about 2cm of olive oil in a frypan and when it is hot, add the zucchini flowers one at a time, gently turning them over with tongs when golden. Drain on some absorbent paper, sprinkle some sea salt. Dip in aioli (see below) and enjoy!

To make an extra creamy aioli, roast 2 cloves of garlic on a bed of 150g of rock salt at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. Then squeeze the garlic out of its shell when it has cooled down a bit – it will be in the form of a paste. However I used fresh garlic and minced it really finely – this is a lot quicker. It is not quite as smooth as the roasted version, but you can make it in 5 minutes. If you decide not to roast the garlic, use 2 fresh cloves (they don’t need to be giant ones – tiny flavoursome ones are better, like the ones I grew on my terrace a few months back). I made whole-egg mayonnaise, which is very simple and I find it easier than trying to buy one from a shop. Blend a whole fresh egg, the garlic, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a teaspoon of lemon juice (or white wine vinegar) and a teaspoon of salt with a stick blender. Slowly dribble in the olive oil, a drop at a time to start with, then a slow steady stream. When it is creamy, adjust salt to taste. Buon appetito!

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Posted in Pasta, rice and gnocchi, Places

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My love affair with cheese. Part 1 – Ricotta

Posted on January 10, 2012 | 2 Comments

There was always a tub of ricotta in the fridge while I was growing up. Papa’ would often have it on bread with some of my mother’s home made jam for breakfast. Ricotta is so versatile that mamma would use it most days in both sweet and savoury dishes. She tells stories of making it during World War II, when they had to leave the tiny town in Veneto in Italy where she grew up to escape the bombing and move to a small remote farm, which was considered a lot safer. With her sisters, she helped to run the farm and this included making butter and ricotta cheese.

My favourite was always her ricotta cake. The creamy centre filled with grappa soaked sultanas and pine nuts fills me with memories of growing up in my italian home. The recipe is my mother’s – she says that she copied recipes from her friends and adapted them to make this version. The secret is in the grappa soaked sultanas. A small jar filled with these is always in my fridge, ready to make a ricotta cake or even to put on some creamy yoghurt for a night-time adult snack. Grappa is distilled from left over grape skins/pulp/stems from wine making. It is a great use of what would otherwise be waste. I remember my father making it – illegally – when I was tiny. I love adding a splash of it in a cup of espresso coffee with some sugar (this is called caffe’ corretto). Of course you can have straight but it is rather potent and best drunk chilled. You can buy grappa from a good liquor store (like Piedimonte’s in Melbourne), or if you are still lucky enough to know someone making it in their backyard…..(let me know!)

Pinenuts, lemon zest and grappa soaked sultanas form part of the ricotta filling

When I asked mamma for the recipe of her ricotta cake, she could not tell me. I had to watch her make it, count the number of handfuls and non-metric tablespoons that went in. She has tasted my metric version of the recipe and agrees it is pretty close to hers! You don’t even need an electric mixer to make it. I find that the hardest part is not eating the ricotta filling before putting it in the cake.

Dolce di Ricotta alla Livia (Livia’s ricotta cake)

Cake: 1 large egg, beaten; 50g butter, melted; 4-5 tablespoons caster sugar (depending on how sweet you like it); zest of 1/3 orange and 1/3 lemon; 3/4 cup self raising flour; 1/4 cup of milk (plus a bit more if needed); 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla essence

Ricotta filling: 450g ricotta; 2-3 tablespoons caster sugar (depending on how sweet you like it); 60g sultanas pre-soaks in grappa (if you don’t have grappa, use brandy or warm water if you don’t want to use alcohol); 30g pine nuts; 1 large egg, beaten; 1 1/2 tablespoons self raising flour; zest 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line and grease a loaf tin. Mix all ingredients (remember to drain the sultanas) for ricotta filling including a bit of the grappa/brandy they were soaked in if you like. Set aside. Add more flour if it is too runny. It should be fairly firm (see photo above as there is a plate of ricotta filling in the background).

Mix the cake ingredients with a wooden spoon in another bowl. Layer half this mixture in the loaf tin. If it is too difficult to spread, add a bit more milk to achieve the desired consistency. Then layer all of the ricotta mixture on top of this. Smooth with the back of a spoon so that it is flat. Add the other half of the cake mixture as a thin layer over the top. You should have just enough to cover it.

Cook at 180 degrees for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 160 degrees for 40-45 minutes until golden. Allow to cool in the pan before removing. Serve at room temperature. You can dust the top with icing sugar if you like, it looks prettier that way.

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