Zuc-cake-chini

Now, with the horrible weather of these past days - or better say weeks - I am in the mood of savoury baking. So I decided to experiment with short crust pastry and various ingredients to make a light but tasty salted cake. The result was this zucchini "cake" and curry chicken "candies", which I will post in the following days. 

What you need is short crust pastry (I follow this recipe), 2 to 3 zucchini, 2 to 3 eggs, some philadelphia cheese, salt, pepper, sage leaves, parmesan cheese. Prepare the bottom of your cake, by spreading the short crust pastry in a round or rectangular baking pan. Beat the eggs, salt, pepper, and sage with the philadelphia cheese. Then slice your zucchini and pan fry them for 10 minutes or until soft (if you prefer a lighter version you can also boil them). You can either leave them like this (that´s what I did) or you can mince them and mix them with the eggs and cheese. Then pour the filling in the baking pan and sprinkle some parmesan cheese. If you have some short crust pastry left, you can either close the cake or make a decoration on top. Bake in the oven at 180°C for about 15 minutes or until golden-brown.

This is a very easy and quick recipe; not a very refined one, but rustic and home-made. Everyone will love it and if you don´t like these ingredients you can change, add, and experiment with many others: asparagus, ham, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, turkey, speck, and many more...

Enjoy ✿

Martina

Aperitivo muffins

The weekend is over . . . but it was a good one!

The weather was nice, I went riding, walking the dog, I saw friends, had hot punch, ate chestnuts in front of the fire, played monopoly, took pictures, and baked!

I want to share with you a very simple savoury muffin recipe you can do to have a little something to bite during your happy hour (or as we say in Italy: aperitivo). 

Ingredients:

250 gr. flour

250 gr. of cheese (I prefer parmesan, but you can also use cheddar, gouda or emmental)

2 eggs

250 ml. water

200 ml. milk (or water again if you want to make a lighter version)

50 ml. olive oil

basil or sage if you like

Procedure:

Beat the eggs with the water, milk and oil. In a separate bowl mix the flour, the cheese and the basil/sage. Then stir both mixtures together until smooth. 

Bake in the preheated oven at 190°C for 20 minutes; when well risen and golden brown they are ready.

Eat while still warm so the cheese will go stringy.

Don´t forget your aperitivo: I love to combine them with a spritz Aperol and Pimm´s!

Enjoy lovin´ from the oven ♥

Martina

All palates lead to Rome

They say that all roads lead to Rome, but this recipe will take your palate to Rome!

"Gnocchi alla romana" is an easy and tasty dish from the Italian region of Latium and it is part of my childhood memories. When I used to visit my grandmother she would always make them for me because she knew they were my favourite; I never had enough.

Traditionally Thursday is in Rome the day for gnocchi, you´ll find them on every menu, in every restaurant, on every table of Roman families. It is "giovedì gnocchi", but I could have them every day of the week, that´s why I like to make them myself whenever I want to.

You try!

Ingredients for 4:

250 gr. semolina

1 liter milk

2 egg yolks

50 gr. butter

40 gr. parmesan cheese

pinch of salt

What to do:

Put on the stove the milk and the salt in a pan. As soon as it boils sift the semolina and stir; cook for 10 minutes. Let the semolina cool then add one yolk at a time, the butter, and the parmesan. 

Pour the mixture on a clean working surface and with the wet blade of a knife spread it till it is about 1 cm thick. Then with a glas of the diameter of 4 cm. cut out as many discs as possible.

Grease an oven dish with butter and overlay the semolina discs. Cover with parmesan and some butter knobs. Cook in the oven at 200 degrees C for 15 minutes until the crust is golden.

Enjoy ♥

Martina

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