Homemade tomato pesto
Homemade tomato pesto made from sun dried tomatoes make a perfect pesto with a strong taste of summer.
Italian quince pie recipe
Crostata di cotognata
Quince pie recipes present a marvellous solution to the problem of having too much quince marmalade or ‘cotognata’ for one extended family to stomach. One pie can easily absorb 4-500 g of marmalade and the result is refined and delicate and not at all as perfumed as I would have feared.
If you have not been blessed with extraordinary amounts of cotognata, you might use another kind of fruit compote, mincemeat or marmalade, if it is not too sweet.
If you have only got raw quince, and want to prepare your own cotagnata, try cooking the fruit with half-and-half sugar. In vain, I have tried to lure the cotognata recipe from my Italian friends, but for one thing all their measures are approximations, and second they are not that strickt about the ingredients either. Some would never use anything but quince and sugar, while others add figs, grapes and other mature fruits that happen to be close at hand. It’s all a matter of taste.
Ingredients
400 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsb salt
1 organic lemon – rind
120 g sugar
150 g cold butter
2 eggs
500 g cotognata (or other fruit puree)
Preparation
Mix all the dry ingredients for the pie dough. Add the cold butter and cut it to pieces in the flour. Rub the ingredients together until they resemble fine bread crumbs.
Add the eggs – one at a time – and gather the dough in two balls. If is seems too dry, add a drop of cold water.
Put the dough in a plastic bag and leave it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Grease an oven-proof tart pan with butter. Place the bigger of the two dough balls between two pieces of cling-film (this really saves time and annoyance), and roll it out in a circle that can be used to line the pan.
Spread cotognata evenly on top
Roll out the other dought ball between two pieces of cling-film. Cut it into strips and use the strips to decorate the pie.
Bake the quince pie for 40-50 minutes in a pre-heated 175 degree C (350 F) oven until golden brown.
Other sweet ideas like this quince pie recipe
Apple cake with walnuts and amaretti
Original Tiramisu Recipe
Weekends promise a sweet allowance, and why not rediscover the pull-me-up classic of the 80s, Tiramisu.
Fresh orecchiette with tomato sauce
Orecchiette con pomodoro e ricotta dura
Orecchiette with tomato sauce ia a traditional Puglian recipe based on a few basic ingredients mixed with lots of love and care.
It is amazing how much time and energy, you can invest in a simple dish like orecchiette with tomato sauce and grated cheese, but both orecchiette and ricotta dura are puglian specialities that can be quite hard to obtain, unless you stocked up on these basics before you left the region. Therefore you either have to prepare the orecchiette yourself or use substitutes, in which case the dish can be ready to serve in a matter of minutes.
‘Orecchiette’ means ‘small ears’, because that is what the look like, and they are made by preparing normal pasta dough, rolling it into long rolls, slicing the rolls in small sections, and shaping them with a knife. Add final touches by inserting the thumb into each pasta
Ricotta dura is alternately known as ricotta secca, ricotta stagionata and ricotta salata, depending on where you are or who you ask. It is a hard cheese as opposed to the soft fresh ricotta, and if you are looking for a replacement use parmaggiano (parmesan), Grana Padano, pecorino or another cheese that can be grated.
Ingredients
350 g orecchiette (or farfalle)
250 g skinned tomatoes – preferably the small pomodorini
Salt
Olive oil<
Fresh basil (dried basil can also be used)
4 tbsp ricotta dura
Preparation
Heat the oil in a small pan. Fry the tomatoes for a few minutes before you turn down the heat, and leaves them to simmer for about ½ hour. Regulate the taste with salt and dried basil.
Heat up a large pan with plenty of water and bring it to the boil. Add a fistful of salt along with the orecchiette. Cooking time for home made orecchiette is about 10 minutes depending on how long they have been left to dry, i.e. shorter for freshly made pasta and longer for pasta that has been prepared days ago.
Drain the pasta when al dente and serve with tomato sauce, grated ricotta and fresh basil leaves.
Other dishes similar to orecchiette with tomato sauce
Walnut sauce for pasta in less than 10 minutes
Mixed bean salad
The beauty of a mixed bean salad consists in its versatility, economy and high nutritional value. And some mixed bean salads are also a pleasure to eat.