A traditional Italian Pie to celebrate Spring

Easter, or Pasqua as the holiday is called in Italian, is just around the corner for many people around the world.  Of course, as usual for the long weekend, the weather folks are predicting rain.  Let’s hope they’re wrong for everyone who is heading off for a bit of a holiday!  This year I decided to try my hand at making Torta Pasqualina.  This is a traditional pie, originally made in Liguria (the part of Italy on the coast in the west of the country) for Easter, but now is enjoyed all over Italy. The main ingredients are ricotta, spinach and, especially to celebrate Easter, eggs.  Some people mix the ricotta and spinach all together, and some make it in separate layers.  I decided to do the separate thing as I thought it looked pretty, but in the end, the taste is the same, so you can do what you want.

Why you shouldn’t make the traditional pastry

I thought I’d go all out and make the pastry too since it’s the first time I’ve tried it.  After doing some reading, I decided NOT to make the real version as you are mean to roll out 33 incredibly thin layers of dough for the crust.  This is apparently meant to symbolize the number of years that Jesus was said to have lived.  I chose to go for 4 layers, which is the average life-span of a guinea pig.  This is maybe not quite as symbolic, but I’m really OK with that.  There’s nothing not to like about round fluffy balls that squeak when you pick them up  It’s true that when I say four layers, I actually did two on the bottom and two on the top crust, so I’m not sure what that means at all, except for the fact that I’m lazy. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of making the dough, go ahead and buy some good puff pastry and use one layer of it for the base and the crust on top.

The making of the pie in photos

I made this handy collage below to show you each step of the pie-making process.  The first photo shows the pie dish with two of the thin layers of dough spread over it.  Once you’ve spread one layer in the dish, you need to brush it with olive oil.  this helps the sheets separate a little when the torta pasqualina is  cooking and become flaky.

You can check out more delicious traditional Easter recipes from the Cucina Conversations group this month:

Flavia from Flavia’s Flavors made a special Easter bread called Crescia di Formaggio

Carmen from The Heirloom Chronicles both fried and oven-baked Cassateddi from Sicily

Daniela from La Dani Gourmet  made a Torta di Riso Massese

Rosemarie  from Turin Mamma made sweet Salame del Papa

Francesca from Pancakes And Biscotti  baked a Chocolate and Ricotta Pie

Marialuisa from Marmellata e Cipolli baked Lamb chops alla Scottadito

Happy Easter everyone!

By Lisa Watson

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Torta Pasqualina: Italian Easter pie

Use this recipe to make a traditional Italian savory pie to celebrate the arrival of Spring.

Course buffet, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes minutes

Dough resting time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings 1 pie

Ingredients

• For The Dough:
• 500 g All-purpose flour 4 cups
• 25 ml Olive Oil 1 Tbsp
• 1 pinch Salt

For The Fillings:

• 1 kg Fresh Spinach 2.2 lb
• 8 Eggs
• 60 g Grated Parmesan Cheese 1/2 cup
• 500 g Fresh Ricotta 2 cups
• 1 tsp Salt

Instructions

For The Dough:

• Knead all the ingredients for the dough together until the dough feels soft and elastic in your hands.
• Cut the dough into 4 balls.  You should have approximately 800 g of dough.  Make 2 balls of 250g and 2 of 150g.
• Leave the balls on a floured surface, under a humid tea-towel to rest for at least an hour.

For The Fillings:

1. Spinach Filling:

• Steam the spinach until it is wilted, then leave to cool.
• Squeeze the spinach to remove any water, then chop the spinach finely. Put it in a medium-sized bowl.
• Add 30g (2 - 3 Tbsp) grated Parmesan Cheese, 1 egg, and a sprinkle of salt.
• Mix well, and set aside until needed.

2. Ricotta Filling:

• Put the ricotta in a medium-sized bowl.  Use a whisk to break it up.
• Add 2 eggs, 3/4 tsp salt, and 30g ( 2-3 Tbsp) of Parmesan Cheese.
• Whisk to mix everything then set aside until needed.

To Make The Pie:

• Brush a 25 cm pie-dish with olive oil.
• Heat the oven to 180ºC  (350ºF).
• Roll out one of the two heavier balls of dough on a floured surface until it is so thin that you can almost see through it.
• Drape it over the pie-dish and push it down gently with your fingers until it lies flat against the dish. Brush the dough with oil.
• Roll out the second heavier ball of dough in the same way, then drape it over the pie dish and gently push it down until it lies flat against the first round of dough.
• Add the spinach mixture and flatten it gently with a spoon.
• Add the ricotta mixture and smooth it out over the top of the spinach.
• Wet a tablespoon and make five indentations in the ricotta and regular intervals.
• Break the last five eggs, one at a time, and gently drop them into the indentations.
• Sprinkle grated Parmesan Cheese over the top of the eggs.
• Roll out the third ball of dough thinly and drape it over the top of the pie. Brush it with olive oil.
• Roll out the last ball of dough and drape it over the top of the third circle of dough.
• Cut the excess dough off from around the edges of the pie dish.
• Carefully roll the edges up and press them on to the surface of the pie.
• Brush the top with oil, and bake for 50 - 55 minutes.

Making the most of  Winter vegetables before they disappear

I’m jumping in here with a winter-y recipe just before the season ends completely. Some of you may be snarling at this right now as you’re still up to your knees in snowdrifts, but where I am, Spring has definitely started with a vengeance.  I can tell because there are blossoms everywhere, weeds are sprouting all over the garden, and Phoebe the cat is shedding hair in bucketfuls. Before the Winter vegetables disappear for a few months, I wanted to make a tart with two of my favourites: pumpkin and radicchio (red chicory). Pumpkin and radicchio seem to have evolved to be eaten together.  The sweetness of the pumpkin and the slight bitterness of the radicchio, or Italian Chicory, suit each other wonderfully and get on together famously in this Radicchio and Butternut Squash Tart.

The difference between a quiche and an Italian savoury tart

You may have already seen from my recipes for pasta with radicchio and speck and  fusilli with radicchio and olives that I’m a big fan of the cooked salad.  I’m always excited by the arrival of radicchio in the stores over the Winter and try to use it as often as possible while it is in season.  I don’t really like it raw that much as I find it too bitter, but it loses its astringency when it’s cooked, and for me, becomes sort of addictive, kind of like wanting to eat fresh coriander on everything.

“So,” you ask, “What’s the difference between a quiche and an Italian tart (torta salata)?”. It’s all in the egg mixture.  A quiche has a lot more of the custard-like mixture holding the fillings together.  Many Italian tarts use whipped ricotta with the eggs, which makes them deliciously creamy.  In my laziness, I just used a little cream and milk for this one as I didn’t feel like going out to buy ricotta.

All about the pastry

I have never been brave enough to try to make puff pastry at home.  I saw a video of someone making it once and saw how much butter is rolled into it.  After that, I decided that I”d rather act like an ostrich with its head in the sand and buy it ready-made so that I can’t see all that butter I’m eating.  That’s also why I don’t read the ingredients list on the packet when I buy it.  If the thought of puff pastry being too rich disturbs you, you can always make it with a less fat kind of pastry that you industriously make yourself, or buy from the supermarket.  What I love about this recipe is that the filling can be anything savoury you would like it to be.  I often fill the tart with fried onions, cheese and ham (to make a kind of a quiche Lorraine), or you could fill it with precooked spinach and dabs of fresh ricotta.  Your imagination is your only limit!

This post is part of Cucina Conversations.. We’ve gone for lighter food this month to fit the Italian tradition of observing the period of Lent, a period of abstinence which comes before the Easter celebration. To find more healthy recipes, click on the links below:

Francesca from Pancakes And Biscotti with Spaghetti and Asparagus Frittata

Carmen from The Heirloom Chronicles with Potato And Chicory Croquettes

Flavia from Flavia’s Flavours with Rustic Spinach Tart

Rosemarie from Turin Mamma with Carciofi Trifolati

Marialuisa from Marmellata e Cipolle with a Chard And Cheese side

Daniela from Le Dani Gourmet with Pasta al Forno With Ricotta And Chicory

By Lisa Watson

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Pumpkin and radicchio tart

How to make a delicious Italian savory tart using pumpkin and radicchio (red chicory)

Course entree, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 1 tart

Ingredients

• 1 roll Puff Pastry
• 250 g Butternut Squash 8.8 oz
• 150 g Radicchio 5.2 oz
• 30 g Grated Parmesan Cheese 6 Tbsp
• 3 Eggs
• 100 ml Cream 1/2 cup
• 180 ml Milk 3/4 cup
• 1 tsp Salt

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Grease a quiche pan and line it with baking paper.
• Place the puff pastry in the pan and roll over and pinch the dough down so that you get a "pie-crust" form, with raised sides.
• Peel the squash and chop it into small cubes.   Slice the radicchio into strips.
• Put the squash pieces on the dough and spread them out evenly. Scatter the strips of radicchio over the top, then sprinkle everything with parmesan cheese.
• Whisk the eggs, cream, milk and salt in a bowl, then pour it over the vegetables.
• Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until the top of the tart browns and the filling is firm to the touch.

Notes

The tart can be baked 1 - 2 days in advance. To store it, leave it in the quiche pan and cover with clingfilm. Store it in the fridge until needed. Heat the tart in the oven for 10 minutes before eating, or eat it at room temperature.

Zucchini or courgette, the frittata tastes good with either name

So, do you call these long green vegetables zucchini or courgettes?  After living in various English-speaking countries where each country uses slightly different words, I’ve forgotten who calls them zucchini and who calls them courgettes. Anyway, whatever they’re called, thanks to the Summer, there are tons of them floating around right now that need to be used in a hurry! So, that’s where this zucchini frittata comes in.  You can cram it with lots of zucchini so that they don’t rot in the fridge. 🙂

Slice them, dice them, or grate them

You can slice or dice the zucchini, depending on your preference; or even grate them.  Any way they’re cut works fine in frittata, as long as the cubes aren’t too thick.  I prefer to slice mine into rounds, but that’s mainly because I’m awfully lazy and hate dicing vegetables.  Why can’t they make all vegetables into exact cubes so that all the pieces comes out the same size? Actually, joking aside, I have seen a photo of cube watermelons.  Apparently it makes them easier to pack.  I’m not sure that I would want to buy one though.

I was recently showing a friend how to make frittata and realized that there are all kinds of little hints that help it to come out well. So, after my teaching experience, here are all the hints that will guarantee a successful frittata comes out at the end!

Eight tips and tricks to help you realize your dream frittata

1. Don’t beat the eggs too much. They should be just mixed together.
2. Use a non-stick frying pan.
3. Let the vegetables cool at least to warm before adding them to the egg.
4. If you are using a watery vegetable, such as spinach, squeeze all the liquid out of it that you can before you add it to the egg.
5. The oil in the frying pan should be medium-hot.  If you put your hand over the top of it, you should be able to feel the heat coming off, but it shouldn’t be shimmering.  If it is too cold, the egg will stick to the pan; if it’s too hot, the egg will blow up in your face!
6. Lift a corner of the frittata every now and then once it starts to set.  If it is browning too much, turn the heat down.
7. Before trying to flip the frittata, lay a tea-towel along your arm so that you don’t get burnt by splashes of hot oil.
8. If you’re scared to flip the frittata, keep the lid on tight and let the egg set completely.  It’ll taste just as good if it’s not browned on both sides.

Travel Photo of the Week

This week comes from the Salento region in Puglia, far down in the heel of Italy’s “boot”.  Centuries ago, these watchtowers lined the coast all around the South of Italy to guard against invasions by the Saracens.  The towers were close enough that you could see the next ones from the one you were standing in.  That way the signal could be passed quickly to get the defenses ready (as the Saracens were never just coming for a cup of tea). Nowadays, most of them are in ruins like this one below. It makes a great sightseeing trip to drive along the coast and visit them.  There are nearly 60, so you may not be able to see all of them!

I’m going to be taking a break for the next couple of weeks to clean out some spider-webs and drink a Spritz or two  Enjoy the rest of August!  There are all KINDS of super things that will be coming up on Italian Kiwi in September!

By Lisa Watson

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Eight Tips and tricks To Make A Perfect Zucchini Frittata

Eight Tips and tricks To Make A Perfect Italian Frittata

Course buffet, entree, first course, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 1 frittata

Ingredients

• 3 - 4 medium-sized Zucchini
• 6 Eggs
• 2 Tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 tsp Salt
• To taste Pepper

Instructions

• Slice the zucchini into rounds about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick, or chop into cubes.
• Heat a frying pan with 2 - 3 Tbsp of olive oil. Cook the zucchini until they become slightly translucent and browned (approximately 10 - 15 minutes). Drain them on a kitchen paper-towel and leave to cool a little.
• Wipe the pan with a paper towel and add another 3 -4 Tbsp olive oil. Heat on a moderate heat.
• While the oil is heating, put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat them until the eggs become homogeneous.
• Stir in the zucchini.
• Pour the mixture into a frying pan and cover the pan with a lid.
• Check the egg mixture every 5 minutes. When it is set on top, your frittata is done!  This step should take 10 - 15 minutes.
• If you would like the frittata browned on both sides, slide the set frittata onto a plate and then place the pan over the top of it (after pouring out the excess oil). Flip everything upside-down and then place the pan with the frittata in it back on the heat for 3 - 4 minutes.

Even spinach haters like these

Spinach is one of those poor maligned vegetables that everyone loves to hate, but happily eats when it’s mixed in with other ingredients, such as eggs or cheese. Even my kids, who vow and declare that they detest spinach, gobble it up when it’s “hidden”. I put hidden in quotation marks as it’s obviously there, yet they eat it anyway and don’t complain as if I’m trying to poison them. These spinach and ricotta self-crusting mini quiches are a big mouthful to say for such a small thing.  I need to come up with a zappy name for them……anybody got an idea? Verdant Delices, Eggy Wonders? Just as long as there’s no mention of the word spinach!

Spinach quiches are great for any occasion

If you have a muffin tin, these spinach quiches are incredibly easy to make. There’s no fussy messing about with pastry. The most difficult thing you have to do is thaw the frozen spinach, or cook the fresh stuff.  The rest is just a matter of mixing all the ingredients together.  I made them for Thanksgiving as a side to the fabulous turkey (I’ll tell you about that beast another time).  They would be perfectly at home as a first course draped in an elegant robe of béchamel sauce, or as part of a crowd in a buffet at a party.  They make great finger food too.  The spinach quiches are really just all-round kinda guys. Though….maybe not for dessert….unless you’re into that sort of thing.

Do make sure to get as much water out of the spinach as possible before adding it to the egg mixture.  I stick it inside some paper towels and squash it as much as I can.  It’s not a very pleasant feeling, but it does get rid of most of the water.  If you have fresh spinach, boil or steam it and then after squeezing the water out (when it’s cooled down so that you don’t burn your hands), try to mince it up in as small pieces as possible.

With the holiday season coming up on us like a freight train, I hope this gives you an idea to make the preparation for it a little it easier.

Travel Photo of the Week

This week I thought I’d take you to California!  This is Malibu Beach in Los Angeles.   I’ve never seen a beach that was so incredibly wide, even when the tide was in!  In fact, the kids decided to run to go and see the water when I wasn’t paying attention.  When I did look around, I just saw them as tiny dots on the horizon, waaaaaaay down near the sea. It took a lot of slogging through the sand to get within shouting distance of them and tell them to come back.

By Lisa Watson

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Mini Self-Crusting Spinach Quiches

These quiches are easy to make and great for any occasion.  Find the recipe on Italian Kiwi!

Course Appetizer, buffet, fingerfood, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine French

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 15 quiches approximately

Ingredients

• 250 g frozen, or two large bunches of fresh Spinach 10oz
• 4 Eggs
• a pinch Nutmeg
• 1 tsp Salt
• Pepper to taste
• 100 ml Single Cream 1/2 cup
• 100 ml Milk 1/2 cup
• 100 g Fresh Ricotta 3 Tbsp

Instructions

• Thaw the frozen spinach and let it cool enough to squeeze it in a few paper towels to get as much of the water out as possible.  If you have fresh spinach, boil it for 5 minutes before draining and squeezing it. Mince up the spinach if it is not already in tiny pieces.
• Heat the oven to 180°C (350)°F.
• Put all the ingredients except for the ricotta in a bowl, then stir them until they are well mixed.
• Add the ricotta in small lumps and stir it in gently.
• Grease a muffin tray very well with butter or oil.  I cut little circles of baking paper out and put them in each muffin well.  This helps to unmold them after cooking.
• Fill the muffin wells until they are 3/4 full.
• Bake in the oven for 30 -40 minutes until the quiches are set and slightly browned on top.
• Leave them in the muffin trays until cooled. Run a knife gently around the sides of each quiche and carefully lever them out.
• The quiches can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days.  To prepare the quiches for eating, heat them for 5 minutes in the oven.

Souffles are not as hard to make as they seem

Now, don’t let the fact that there is the word “souffle” in the title scare you off.  Souffles have an undeserved reputation (along with sponge cakes and meringues) of being difficult, if not impossible to make at home unless you are some kind of magic whizz-kid in the kitchen.  I’m here to shatter the myth that surrounds them! This souffle recipe was inspired by a book I’ve just been reading (that’s also just comes out as a movie) called The Hundred-Foot Journey By Richard C. Morais.  The book itself was relatively forgettable.  It had a lot of promise as a concept, but seemed to get itself lost about halfway through.  The inspiring bit came from the recipes they make in the restaurant during the course of the story.  One that caught my imagination was souffle with goat cheese and pistacho nuts.  I already had a good recipe for cheese souffle so decided just to modify it a little.  Now, I’m not sure that I want to go back to eating just plain old cheese souffle!  This was so much more interesting!

Hints and tricks for making a fail-proof souffle

So, here are the tricks to making a good souffle that rises just as it should.  There aren’t that many, and they’re not difficult, so bear with me…..don’t let your attention stray just yet! The most important thing you need to know is how to make a bechamel sauce. Wait!  Don’t go away!  Also bechamel is easy.  Get yourself a medium-size pot and a whisk and I’ll explain everything below.  After that, the rest is easy!

So, the few hints are:

• Don’t touch the inside of the souffle dish with your fingers once it’s buttered. The grease/dirt (!) on your fingers with stop the batter from sticking to the side as it rises.
• Have all your ingredients measured so you don’t panic halfway through the process.
• Make sure the beaten egg whites are really stiff.  They should be able to stand up in peaks when you pull the beaters out.
• Fold the egg-whites in very slowly. Patience is everything in this step (and I have very little!).
• Do NOT open the oven door in the first half of the cooking time.
• Make sure everyone is sitting at the table when you take the souffle out of the oven as it will fall quite quickly.

If the souffle falls, act like it was supposed to do that

So, that’s it!  See, there’s not that much to it! Go on, have a try!  Even if the souffle doesn’t rise much, or falls as soon as you take it out of the oven, it will still taste good. Some restaurants even serve dishes called “fallen souffle”.  You can just tell your guests that you meant to do it like that. If you don’t like/can’t get goat cheese or unsalted pistachio nuts you can try other combinations, like cheddar and hazelnut, gruyère and walnut, or Monterey Jack and macadamia nuts.  Your imagination is the only limit!

You can make the souffle batter up to 2-3 hours before baking it.  Just cover it with clingfilm and place it gently in the fridge until you’re ready to cook it. Take it out of the fridge about 15 -20 minutes before baking to let it warm up a bit.

Travel Photo of the Week

Since this recipe is french (well at least the goat cheese and souffle parts are!), I’ll leave you with a photo of one of my favourite places in the South of France: The Pont du Gard just outside Avignon.  It’s a beautiful Roman aqueduct that is still standing.  The area around it has been turned into a park.  Absolutely worth visiting if you’re down in Provence!

By Lisa Watson

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Goat Cheese and Pistachio Souffle

How to make souffle.  Tips and tricks to help you make a fail-proof souffle.

Course entree, first course, Main Course

Cuisine French

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings 6 - 8 people

Ingredients

• 1/2 - 1 Tbsp Dried breadcrumbs
• 65 g Butter 1/4 cup
• 70 g All-purpose flour 5 Tbsp
• 1 pinch Paprika
• 1 pinch Nutmeg
• 60 ml White or rosé wine 1/4 cup
• 300 ml Milk 1 1/4 cups
• 6 Eggs
• 1 tsp Salt
• 60 g Hard goat cheese 2oz
• 40 g Unsalted pistachio nuts 1/4 cup
• 25 g Grated Parmesan Cheese 1/4 cup

Instructions

• Weigh out all the ingredients first. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Butter a large souffle dish or 6 small ones. Sprinkle the bottom with dried breadcrumbs (this makes the bottom crunchy and helps it to not stick). Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. When it has melted add the flour all at once and stir with a whisk for two minutes.
• Add the paprika and nutmeg.
• Add the milk and wine and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens to the consistency of custard. Add the parmesan cheese.
• Take it off the heat and leave it to cool for 2 - 3 minutes.
• Whisk the egg yolks and salt together, then add them to the bechamel (yes, you've done the heardest bit!) and whisk them together.
• Beat the egg whites until they are stiff (when you take the beaters out the whites should stand up in peaks).
• Now use a wooden spoon. Take 1 spoonful of the whites and stir them into the bechamel. Gently fold the rest of the whites into the mixture.
• Crumble or cut the goat cheese into small pieces (depending on how hard it is). Stir it gently into the mixture.
• Chop or crush the pistachio nuts into tiny pieces. Add 3/4 of the pistachios and stir them in. Pour the batter into the already prepared souffle dish(es).
• Sprinkle the rest of the pistachios on the top of the souffle.
• Put in the oven and turn the temperature down to 170°C (375°F).
• Bake one large souffle for 45 - 55 minutes and small souffles for 12 -15 minutes. Don't open the oven for the first half of the cooking!
• Serve IMMEDIATELY!

What to do with all those zucchini

Zucchini, zucchini everywhere and not a recipe in sight……or is there? My kids and I grew zucchini plants from seed this year.  They’ve taken a while as the weather’s been all over the place, acting like a teenage girl who doesn’t know what to wear on a date: “Shall I go stormy and dark?  Shall I be light and sunny?  Or shall I give them a bit of both so that they don’t know what to expect?”.  Anyway, now, just a couple of days before we go on holiday, there are zucchini coming out our ears.  I’d been throwing them in pasta sauces, and putting them in places that they really have no place being (please don’t get smutty on me….I didn’t mean THAT!!), when I suddenly remembered that fritters are the way to the light.  They are so versatile that you can stick pretty much any vegetable in them and it comes out tasting great!

Fritters are very forgiving

So I set to work trying to remember the recipe my mother used to make when I was a kid and she made corn fritters.  It worked!  I also found some spring onions in the fridge that needed using up before we leave, so I minced them up and threw them in with the grated zucchini too. Fantastic!  Fritters can be seen as the seagulls of the fridge world.  They swallow up everything that you have left and are not sure what to do with.

Try not to go on holiday when the vegetables are ready

The worst of the whole vegetable garden thing this year is that I think our house-sitters are going to be the ones reaping the benefits while we’re away in Italy.  There are all types of tomatoes on the brink of ripening and even MORE zucchini bursting out like balloons that are all planning to be ready on the day after we leave.  I’m beginning to think that the vegetables do it on purpose as some sort of protest (we are in France, after all), as they didn’t get cared for enough in their younger months.

Travel photo of the week

Here’s something to get the travel bug working inside your head. This week I’m taking you to one of my favourite places in the world: Yosemite National Park in California. When we lived in California, we used to go there at least four times a year.  I miss it dreadfully still!

By Lisa Watson

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Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 12 -15 fritters

Ingredients

• 150 g 1 cup All-purpose flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 Eggs
• to taste Pepper
• 120 ml 1/2 cup Milk
• 2 medium size about 200g/7oz Zucchini
• 2 Spring Onions

Instructions

• Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
• Add the eggs and milk and mix in.
• Grate the zucchini. Blot it with a paper towel to get rid of excess moisture. Finely mince the spring onion.
• Add the vegetables to the batter and stir in.
• Heat a frying pan with a thin layer of oil in it.
• Pour tablespoons of the mixture into the pan once the oil is hot.
• Wait until one side browns and flip them over. Each fritter should take 3 - 5 minutes to cook.
• When the fritters are cooked, drain them on a plate with a paper towel on it.
• The fritters acan be eaten hot or cold.

My love-hate affair with artichokes

It’s coming into artichoke season!  I have a love/hate relationship with artichokes.  I love to eat them but hate dealing with them: from the minute I pick them up at the market and they prick me with their nasty thorns, to the time when I’m trying to pull the tough outer leaves off (and again not get pricked!), to trying to get rid of the fluffy “choke” in the middle that seems to get its hairs all over everything.  By the time I’ve prepared them, I get to the edge of reason and throw them in the boiling water yelling, “DIE, DAMN YOU!!” at them.  Anyway……I do love to eat them, so every now and then I get them anyway.

Why you you always serve your guests a flan

This recipe for Flan di Carciofi (Artichoke Flan) is one of those things that you eat in a restaurant (flans like this are served often in Northern Italy) and think, “Wow!  This is so complicated and elegant!”.  I’ve always loved eating vegetable flans with cheese sauce whenever I get get them in Italy, but never tried to make them at home, as I thought that they would be FAR too difficult.  Well, do you want to hear a secret that I’ve just discovered? It’s actually super-easy, but looks really impressive! I decided to take the bull by the horns and actually do it myself.  This is the best kind of recipe there is to bowl over your dinner guests!  I made it with artichokes, but you can make the flans with any kind of vegetable you like, e.g. carrots, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower: it is only limited by your imagination.

Hints to make a great flan

There are only two slightly tricky things in the making of this: one is not spilling the water on you from the pan the artichoke flans cook in when you pull them out of the oven (yes, that happened to me), and the other is that when you make the cheese sauce that goes with it, you have to keep stirring it all the time, otherwise you’ll end up with a gloopy mess (yes, that happened to me too).

I used Fontina cheese for the artichoke flans, but if you can’t find Fontina, I’m sure any other flavour-filled cheese that melts well, such as gruyere, or a good cheddar cheese, would work well. The flans can be cooked in advance and heated up later.  I reheated some that I had kept in the fridge for 3 days and they were just as good as fresh.  They can even be frozen (apparently: I’m trying that one out right now and will get back to you in a few days to tell you if it works). The cheese sauce has to be made fresh and just before serving, otherwise it congeals (take that one from me as the truth: yes, that happened to me too!). You can make individual portions in a muffin tin, as I did or make one big one.  They are very delicate to get out of the moulds, so keep that in mind if you decide to make a large one.

Travel Photo Of The Week

So, this photo has nothing to do with artichokes at all, and is not even of Italy, but isn’t it a beautiful place? This is the north-east coast of the island of Mallorca, just off the coast of Spain.  The graffitied building you can see on the left is an abandoned half-constructed house. The view from its terrace was astounding, which is why who-ever started to build it, chose that site in the first place.

By Lisa Watson

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Artichoke flan with fontina cream

Flans are a wonderful way to impress your dinner guests, yet very easy to make.  Try this recipe for artichoke flan with cheese sauce

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 10 small flans

Ingredients

• 500 g Artichoke hearts 1.1lbs
• 4 Eggs
• 200 ml Milk 1 cup
• 3 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese
• 1 tsp Salt
• a dash Nutmeg
• to taste Black Pepper

For the Sauce:

• 100 ml Milk 1/2 cup
• 100 g Fontina Cheese 3.5oz
• 2 Egg yolks
• 1 Tbsp Butter

Instructions

For the Flans:

• I used frozen artichoke hearts this time, which just needed to be boiled for a few minutes to thaw them.  If using fresh artichokes, pare them down to the heart and stem, then boil them in water containing lemon juice until they are tender.
• Put all the ingredients (except those for the sauce!) in a bowl and use a blender to puree them all together.
• Grease a muffin tin well, and put little rounds of baking paper in the bottom of each well.
• Bake at 160ºC (325ºF) for 25 -30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
• Leave them to cool for about 15 -20 minutes, then run a knife around the edges before turning them out (CAREFULLY!) onto a plate.

For the Sauce:

• Cut the cheese into small pieces.
• Put all the ingredients for the sauce into a metal bowl placed over a pot of simmering water.
• Stir continually until the sauce thickens.  This will take about 10 minutes or so, so be patient and keep stirring.  🙂
• Put the flans on individual plates and spoon the sauce decoratively on them/around them. (Don't forget to remove the little rounds of paper!). The flans can be reheated in the oven with no problem.

The signs of Spring: flowers, tourists and fresh broad beans

“Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder  where the birdies is?” as the eminent writer Spike Milligan was said to have recited, and my Mum always used to say when I was a kid.  And indeed, Spring has finally come (boy, did it take its time to get here!).  There are tulips, irises and daffodils popping out in the garden, and, more tellingly for the area I live in, foreign tourists everywhere (though not in our garden).  It MUST be Spring! There are strawberries and asparagus appearing at the markets, and also fresh fava beans!  Fava beans are lots of work to prepare, which means that I don’t buy them as often as I should as I’m terribly lazy, but when I do decide to buy them and they don’t go rotten as I’ve taken too long to get around to actually using them…….then, they’re wonderful!

About using Pecorino cheese in the frittata

This frittata recipe is based on one from Tuscany.  It uses pecorino cheese which is a salty sheep cheese (try saying that fast 3 times in a row!) that you find in many, many different forms in Italy from Tuscany all the way to Sicily and over in the west to the island of Sardinia.  If you go to a market in Tuscany, you have a choice of 50 or so different types of pecorino, from hard and flaky, to soft and very delicately flavoured.  I love using the one in the photo below, called pecorino pepato, to make this frittata. Pecorino pepato actually comes from Sicily (yes, I had to find another way to sneak that place into a post again!).  It is filled with whole black peppercorns, which gives it quite a kick. The only problem with it is that my kids and husband like it so much that when I go to use it for cooking, it has often mysteriously “disappeared” from the fridge never to be seen again.

When to eat frittata

I’ve talked once before about the work  it takes to extract delicate green fava beans out of their prison.  It is totally worth it, which I realise each time I set my kids to opening them while I sit back with a cup of tea in hand and watch them. The frittata tastes like Spring, and that’s a wonderful reason to make it!  It’s great made the day before at eaten and room temperature as a first course, or as a light lunch with a green salad.

By Lisa Watson

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Broad bean and spring onion frittata

how to make broad bean (Fava Bean) And Spring Onion Frittata

Course Breakfast, buffet, entree, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 1 frittata

Ingredients

• 6 Eggs
• 200 g Fresh fava beans (broad beans) 1 cup - once taken out of their pods
• 2 Spring onions
• 6 Tbsp Pecorino cheese grated
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Italian parsley a small handful
• 2-3 stems Fresh oregano

Instructions

• Shell the fava beans and cook them in boiling water for about 1 minute.  Once they have cooled, squeeze them out of their skins and roughly chop them.
• Mince the white part of the spring onions, and chop the parsley and oregano. Grate the pecorino.
• In a bowl, whisk the eggs and salt and pepper together.
• Add the other ingredients and mix together.
• Heat olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat.  When the oil is hot, pour the egg mixture in.
• Cover and cook on medium-low until the frittata is set.
• Slide it out onto a plate.  If you want to brown the upper side, flip it over carefully and leave it to cook for 2 or 3 minutes.

Notes

This is great eaten at room temperature.

Green makes you grow muscles

This is a broccoli dish that even all those broccoli-haters out there love (well at least are prepared to eat under coercion).  I can attest to this through vigorous scientific “blind” taste tests….i.e.. not telling my broccoli-disparaging husband and kids what was in the flan. I only told the kids that it was green because that’s the only colour with which you can grow stronger muscles.  They promptly tried to arm-wrestle with a friend of mine straight after eating it. She was gracious enough to lose to them, so they really thought that it had made them into “super-beings”.  Don’t you just love being able to pull the wool over the eyes of young impressionable kids?  Now, if you don’t think you’d “pull the wool over the eyes” of anyone, then it means that you haven’t quite made it to the lofty heights of owning a New Zealand passport yet.  That’s one of the questions they ask you on the residency form….honest!! 😉  It’s all about the sheep down there.  Get your mind out of the gutter!  I didn’t mean that! (Though I do know a good joke about that to do with sheep being tied to lamp-posts, there’s no way I’m going to write it down here).

I’m sorry that there are very few photos just yet…..my techie (techy??) husband decided a couple of weeks ago that it would be a great idea to change me from a PC to a Mac……the kinks aren’t out  of the change-over yet, though that’s more likely to reflect on my inability to make computers work rather than the fact that the Mac’s not working.  I will have the photos to go with this ASAP (just as soon as I beat the Mac with a rolled up newspaper to make it let go of the them)….I just wanted to let you know that I’m still around!

This is a slightly modified version of a recipe I found in the La Repubblica series of cookbooks.

By Lisa Watson

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Broccoli and Spinach Flan

A great recipe for Broccoli and Spinach Flan: very good for you and tastes delicious too!

Course first course, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 head Broccoli
• 600 g fresh Spinach 1 1/2 lb
• 3 Eggs
• 25 g Butter 1 Tbsp
• 1 bunch Basil large
• 1 tsp Salt
• pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 180 C (350 F).
• Cut the broccoli into florets and boil it in salt water for 3 - 4 minutes.
• Wash and steam the spinach.
• Saute the broccoli and spinach with the butter for 5 minutes.
• Put the vegetables in a blender with all the other ingredients and blend until you have a smooth mixture.
• Scrape the mixture into a greased tart pan, or individual souffle containers, depending on how thick you would like the flan.
• At this point, if you like you can sprinkle breadcrumbs or grated Parmesan cheese (or both) over the top.  I've tried it with various combinations and all are good.  It's also good without any topping.
• Bake in the oven for 45 - 50 minutes.

Notes

This flan can be eaten warm or at room temperature.

The frittata recipe that only mother-in-laws know

This recipe is a favourite of my mother-in-law, who learnt it from her mother-in-law. Who knows….maybe it’s a secret recipe passed down only by mother-in-laws.  In which case, I shouldn’t be sharing it with you and will probably be struck by lightening as soon as I publish this.  I’ll keep you posted on that outcome.  Maybe I should start dragging a kite with a metal key attached to it behind me…..just in case!.  Luckily I have two kids so maybe when they grow up, if they get married I can be a mother-in-law and teach my acquired “children” how to make onion frittata too.

Where does the original onion frittata come from

I did a little research to see where in Italy this dish originated and found out that many regions claim it as their own.  Given that onions are a fairly ubiquitous and easily grown vegetable, I award the honour to any Italian region that wants it as a piatto tipico.  I have to say though, much to my chagrin, that I have never been able to grow onions in my garden……my only consolation was that out of everything I’ve planted, the only plants that seem to grow well here are olive trees, lavender, rosemary, thyme and oregano. …..well, that was until I went for a hike in the hills behind the town we live in and discovered that these things grow wild everywhere…..in an instant I was sucked back into the vortex of being ashamed of my gardening prowess.

Making frittata is easier than you think

Now, I have a super-exciting revelation for you that makes it ever so much easier to make frittata than I ever dreamed possible!  You know how I was droning on in the post on making spinach frittata about how to flip these guys in the least destructive way possible? Well, do I have news for you?!  After all these years, I learned that if you cook the frittata over a low heat with a tight-fitting lid (wait for it….!) you don’t have to flip it! And, when I whoopingly told my Italian husband this, he said, “Yes, I know. That’s how my mother taught me to make it.”  Come on, man….does 16 years of being together mean nothing to you?! All those broken frittatas that got eaten and nobody ever said anything?

Tips for making onion frittata

So, now my sage advice to you is not to flip the frittata at end, just slide it out of the pan gently using a fish slice, and we’ll all be able to breathe a sigh of relief and sleep better at night.  This dish does take time to make well, but it’s honestly worth it.  You can cook the onions before-hand and keep them for 1-2 days in the fridge before finishing the dish.

For Eight Tips To Make the Perfect Frittata click here!

By Lisa Watson

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Caramelized onion frittata

An easy recipe to make Caramelized Onion Frittata. Delicious as a main with green salad on the side, or as a first course.  Or, stick it between two pieces of bread for a wonderful sandwich!

Course Breakfast, buffet, entree, Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 500 g Onions 3 large
• 6 Eggs
• 1 Tbsp Milk
• Salt to taste
• 30-40 g Parmesan cheese 2-3 Tbsp

Instructions

To cook the onions:

• Halve the onions then slice them (not too thick and not too thin!)
• Saute the onions in olive oil for 5 minutes on a medium-high heat, stirring often.  Do not let them brown. Sprinkle them with some salt.
• When the onions are becoming translucent, add water to just cover them.  Turn the heat down to medium-low.
• Simmer the onions for approximately 30 minutes, stirring very gently every so often.
• Turn the heat up to medium-high and let the water boil off.  This will take about 10 minutes.  Be very vigilant that they don't burn!
• Leave the onions to cool.

To make the frittata:

• Beat the remaining ingredients together.
• Add the onion and mix in. Meanwhile heat olive oil in a frying pan.
• Pour the egg mixture into the pan and turn the setting to low heat.  Put a tight-fitting lid on the pan and let cook slowly until the frittata is completely set. (about 15 minutes)
• Slide the frittata onto a plate and let cool.  It tastes best when it is tepid or at room temperature.