30
11, 2012
29
11, 2012
Orange, Raddichio and Fennel salad
Ingredients
- 2 x radicchio (or salad leaves), washed, dried and leaves separated
- 1 x bunch spring onions, sliced
- 4 x oranges, rind and pith removed, sliced
- 1 x fennel, stalks trimmed, thinly sliced
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 x tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 x lemon juiced
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Walnuts or macadamia nuts (optional)
Method
- Combine the oil, lemon juice, mustard and pepper and mix well.
- Toss together the fennel, orange slices and spring onions and reserve until ready to serve the salad.
- When ready to serve pour the dressing over the leaves and mix through the orange, fennel and spring onion mixture and serve.
- A handful of roughly chopped walnuts or macadamia nuts can be added just before
29
11, 2012
Zuccotto
Ingredients
- 1 x cup liqueur (eg Marsala )
1 x unfilled sponge cake - 600ml thickened cream
- 1 x tablespoon sifted icing sugar
- 150g dark chocolate, chopped
- 150g hazelnuts, chopped
- 100g dark chocolate, in pieces for melting
- Icing sugar for dusting
Method
- Line a 1.2 litre round bottomed bowl with cheesecloth, leaving the edges hanging over.
- Moisten the cheesecloth with a brush dipped in Marsala.
- Cut the sponge into 1.5 cm slices and brush with Marsala.
- Line the bowl with the sponge, making sure all gaps are filled in making a solid shell.
- Beat the cream with the icing sugar until stiff peaks are formed and put one third of the mixture into a separate bowl.
- Place 100g chocolate pieces and the remaining liqueur in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water and stir while the chocolate melts.
- Allow the chocolate to cool and then fold through the smaller quantity of cream and spread over the sponge cake to create an inner lining.
- To the remaining cream fold through 150g chopped chocolate and hazelnuts and fill the zuccotto.
- Create a lid with the remaining sponge dipped in liqueur.
- Fold over the cheesecloth, cover the top of the zuccotto with baking paper and place a plate over the paper. Put weights (cans of food is ideal) and refrigerate ideally overnight.
- To serve, invert the zuccotto onto a serving plate and carefully remove the cheesecloth.
28
11, 2012
Capsicum with chicken and olives
Baby Capsicum with a filling of spicy minced chicken and kalamata olives
21
11, 2012
Olive Oil – crushing and scutching – the traditional way
One of the things I love about our food tours to Italy, is how much I learn each time I go.
While we were in Chianti these past few weeks, we saw the region getting ready for the olive harvest which was to start in a few weeks time.
The olives were already starting to turn from their milky lime colour to rich a purple-black and the hills were covered in olive groves as far as the eye could see. In Castello di Volpaia, where we stay, the olives are still pressed using the traditional method; crushing the olives to a paste beneath a massive granite millstone, kneaded and pressed to separate the liquid from the ‘sansa’ (pulp waste) and finally the last stage, centrifuging, to separate the water from the oil. It is remarkable to imagine the intensive labour required to make this staple ingredient, but it adds a certain sentimentality too, that the millstone hasn’t been bettered by machinery, and the crushing is still best done in the time old manner.
The frantoio, (olive press) at Volpaia not only produces their own oil, but is also the press used by all the local farmers. You can imagine the anxiety this causes, among farmers who don’t want their fruit mixing in with their neighbour’s – some have been arch rivals for centuries – and each believing their crop to be superior! But all that anxiety disappears as their green gold elixir emerges – liquid gold.