Torta Della Nonna

This classic recipe is a regular sight in Italian cafes and pasticcerie. The sweet pastry is filled with a rich ricotta custard which bakes to a firm yet smooth texture. Italians would probably eat such a tart with an afternoon coffee rather than as a dessert. I think it works equally well as either.



Ingredients:

For the pastry:
500g of flour
5 egg yolks
300g of butter
200g of icing sugar.

For the ricotta cream:
300g of ricotta
4 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (or real vanilla)
half a litre of milk (room temperature, not straight from the fridge)
60g plain white flour
150g caster sugar
pine-nuts to decorate.

Method

Prepare the pastry by mixing all the ingredients carefully and leave this mixture in the fridge for a while. For more info on the pastry making, refer to the similar pastry in this pear and almond tart recipe. Keep at least 1 egg white safe as you'll need if for the egg wash.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.



Now prepare the custard. Mix the egg yolks in a mixing bowl with the sugar and vanilla flavouring. Slowly add the flour, stirring continuously. Slowly stir in the warm milk and mix thoroughly. Put the mixture in a pan on a low heat and continuously stir the custard as it comes up to the boil. Once it has boiled for 3 minutes, remove from the heat and stir in the ricotta.

Take the pastry mix out of the fridge. Roll out just over half of the pastry mix with a rolling pin until thin. Form the pastry into a 'bowl-like shape' inside a round 28cm flan case. If pastry rolling isn't your thing, try the grating method also in the pear and almond tart recipe.

Prick the pastry base a couple of times, fill with ceramic baking beads and blind bake it for 20 mins or until it just starts to brown. Remove the base from the oven and allow to cool. Reduce the over temperature to 160.

Roll the remaining pastry 4-5mm thick and from it cut a 30cm round. Pour the ricotta custard mix into the cooked pastry base and top with the pastry round. Seal the tart by pressing the pastry together round the edges. Brush the top of the pastry with some reserved egg white and sprinkle with pine nuts. Bake at 160 for 30 to 40 minutes in fan oven or 1 hour in a conventional oven. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm.

Aubergine millefeuille

I get a bit stuck when veggies come for dinner. Especially gourmet ones like my friends Barney & Tam. I saw something similar to this cooked on TV years ago and always wanted to give it a crack. It's quite a light starter, which is great if you're serving 3 or 4 courses as it improves the chances of your guests enjoying the whole meal.



Ingredients

To serve 6

4 aubergines
a large handful of parsley
the juice of one lemon
1 clove of garlic, chopped
150ml olive oil
seasoning

Method

Slice two of the aubergines crossways - about 5mm slices. Generously salt the slices and place them in a colander with a tea towel on top and something underneath to catch the drips. Leave to stand for at least an hour (preferably two).

Fire up 2 gas hobs with a low-medium flame and place the other 2 aubergines directly over the flame. Keep moving them about until the skins are completely and evenly burnt. Fear not, the flesh will not burn, it will just pick up a lovely smokey flavour.

Allow to cool, peel and rinse (to remove the little bits of burnt skin). The flesh should be soft and cooked. If the middle is still hard, your flame was too high. Should this happen, cut the peeled aubergines in half and roast in a medium oven for another 20 mins or until soft.

Cube the cooked flesh and add to a food processor with most of the parsley, the juice of the lemon, the olive oil, garlic and a generous seasoning of sea salt and black pepper. Blend until smooth, taste for seasoning and set aside.

Rinse the salted aubergine slices and pat dry with kitchen roll. Brush the slices with olive oil and fry each one in a medium-hot griddle pan. The aim is to get the charred stripes while not overcooking the middle of the slices. You'll probably need to do them in batches.

Assemble the towers with alternate layers of fried slice, and puree dollop. You should aim for about 3 slices per portion. End with a small dollop of puree and garnish with a little parsley. Serve with the slices warm. The puree can be cooler without sacrificing the experience.

Pear & Almond Tart

This recipe was inspired by a bakery in Rome called Il Fornaio. More details can be found on my Roman food notes page. The recipe is cobbled together from various ones I found on the net and is vouched for with appreciative murmers.



Ingredients

Serves 8

For the pastry:

350g plain flour
175g salted butter
100g icing sugar
3 egg yolks

For the topping:

300g unsalted butter at room temperature
300g caster sugar
300g blanched almonds
3 eggs
5 ripe comice pears - peeled and halved

Method

To make the sweet pastry, combine the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor. Once well mixed (you're aiming for breadcrumbs), beat in the egg yolks one by one. I do this in a food processor and finish it off in a mixing bowl. Wrap the pastry in cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

For the topping, finely chop the almonds in a food processor. Don't be tempted to substitute ground almonds at this point. They wont have the bite and the texture of the filling will suffer. Mix the almonds with the caster sugar and eggs until light and creamy.

Lightly grease a 28cm flan tin with a removable base. Take the chilled pastry from the fridge and grate it into a pile in the middle of the flan dish. Using your fingers, press the grated pastry into the edges and base of the flan tin until there is an even layer all around - that's right, no rolling. Once the pastry is even, prick the base a couple of times and blind bake it for 20 mins or until it just starts to brown. I add ceramic baking beads to stop the base lifting.

Assemble the tart by evenly-spacing the halved pears on the pastry base. Spoon the almond mixture around the pears (and fill in any cored cavities). If there is too much mixture it will overflow. This isn't a problem but bear in mind that you'll need to put it on a baking tray or your oven will become a butter bath.

Reduce the oven temperature to 160 and return the tart to the oven for 40mins or until it is browned all over.

Serve with double cream or crème fraîche. Its great hot or cold.

Raisin & Marsala Ice Cream

This upgraded version of rum & raisin was a complete accident. The mixture was made as a dessert filling but I had far too much and froze the leftovers. When I tried it from the freezer it was delicious and it has been recreated many times since.

Now when I say ice cream, I say it in a broad term. I have never made ice cream from a recipe and I certainly don't have an ice cream maker. So this is my take on ice cream. It is certainly creamy enough and I reckon it fights its corner admirably against real italian gelato and our friends at Oddonos. It is my Gelato Accidentale.

Ingredients

200g raisins
200ml sweet marsala such as Targa Riserva
500g marscapone (full fat)
600g creme fraiche (full fat)
60g icing sugar

Method

Soak the raisins in the marsala for 24 hours. You may need to mix them occasionally as the top raisins will poke out of the liquid once they start to soak up the wine.

Beat the cream and marscapone together with a whisk and once blended, whisk in the sieved icing sugar. Drain the raisins and mix them into the cream mixture. Take half of the remaining liquid and mix into the ice cream mixture. Taste the mixture, check the consistency and decide if you think it needs (and can take) more of the raisin liquor. Add as appropriate.

Transfer to plastic containers and freeze. Remove the ice cream from the freezer each hour and beat the mixture with a wooden spoon. This should keep the mixture light and fluffy and ensure that the raisins are equally distributed. When it gets too stiff to beat, leave to freeze completely.

Notes for gluttons

The spare wine mixture is just too good to waste. If you have a lot of raisin liquor left over, you could reduce it with more sugar to form a syrup topping for the ice cream. You will obviously need to cool this. Remember that it will thicken as it cools.

I have tried this with white port in place of marsala. It worked well but required more sugar.

Baked Scrag End Lamb

This wonderful hearty dish is the epitome of simple home cooking. The flavours and textures are robust, the ingredients cheap and best of all its a one-dish meal - so minimal washing up. Scrag end chops cost next to nothing and because of the quantity of bone, the meat has great flavour.

Ingredients

Serves 4

10 smallish new potatoes
4 plum tomatoes
1 large aubergine
2 medium onions
6 cloves garlic
50ml olive oil
a few sprigs of rosemary
4 thick cut neck chops - at least 220g each

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Clean the potatoes and halve lengthways. Add them to a medium/large roasting tin. Halve the tomatoes (also lengthways), dice the aubergine and add them both to the potatoes. Peel the onions and slice them thickly. Peel the garlic but leave it whole. Add the garlic and onions to the dish, pour over the oil and season generously with salt and pepper.

Give the mixture a good mix so that the vegetables are covered with seasoned oil and tuck the rosemary sprigs under the vegetables. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Toss the vegetables once during cooking to prevent any burning but try not to break up the tomatoes.

Pick any bone fragments off the lamb chops and rub them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Remove the vegetables from the oven, toss them gently and put the chops on top. Turn the oven up to 220 degrees C and return the dish to the oven for 30 minutes. Test the lamb, it should be browned on the outside and still pink inside.

You will find that during the second period of cooking, juices from the chops drip down and douse the softened vegetables with a wonderful rich lamb flavour. When you plate up the meal, be sure to scoop the spare juice onto the plates. I like to eat this with my sister's crabapple jelly or redcurrant jelly if I've run out.

Pot-Roast Half Pig's Head

My first experience of pig's head was a brawn at St John Bread and Wine. Not just a faultless terrine, it was served in its element - sourdough toast, pickles and beetroot leaves. The acidity of the pickles cuts through the fatty terrine and the bitter leaves refresh. Now why didn't I think of that?



Making "head cheese" is not rocket science but to achieve the consistent elegant simplicity of the St John menu is a true feat. St John mastermind Fergus Henderson is such an inspiring man. Though best know for dealing with the rougher cuts of the pig, it his his dedication to the traditional British dining experience which makes him my food hero.

You will just have to get down to St John to see what I mean. Starters include Ox Heart, Beetroot & Pickled Walnut, Brown Shrimp & White Cabbage and perrenial favourite Roast Bone Marrow With Parsley Salad. My preference is to eat in the bar and order 3 or so starters per head. They have a great selection of draft ales and a wonderful wine list so you should plan to wobble home. Finally, if you're there in the festive season, make sure you snaffle a mince pie with a glass of Le Vitriol.

Enough chat. Introduced and lovingly penned by Fergus, here is the recipe...

I say only half a head, as it is a perfect romantic supper for two. Imagine gazing into the eyes of your loved one over a golden pig's cheek, ear and snout.

Ingredients

To serve two

a dollop of duck fat
8 shallots, peeled and left whole
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
½ pig's head (your butcher should have no problems supplying this) - remove any hairs with a razor
a glass of brandy
1 bundle of joy - thyme, parsley and a little rosemary
½ bottle of white wine
chicken stock
a healthy spoonful of Dijon mustard
1 bunch of watercress, trimmed, or other greens - a case of Liberty Hall
sea salt and black pepper

Method

Dollop the duck fat into an oven tray wide and deep enough to accommodate your half a pig's head and put it on the heat. Add the shallots and garlic and leave them to do a little sweating to improve the flavour of the dish. Shuggle the tin occasionally to prevent any burning, but you do want some colour.

When happy with these, cover the ear of your demi-head with foil so that it doesn't frazzle, then rest the head in the tin. To welcome it to its new environment, pour the glass of brandy over it, nustle in your bundle of joy, add the wine and then the chicken stock. Now, I'm sure we have covered this before - the alligator-in-the-swamp theory - what we are looking for is the half pig's head to lurk in the stock in a not dissimilar fashion to an alligator in a swamp.

Season with salt and pepper, cover the tin with greaseproof paper, offering some protection but not denying the need for the rigours of the hours to come in the oven - which is where you should now put your tin, in a medium oven for 3 hours, until the head is totally giving. Check it after 2-2½ hours; you could remove the greaseproof paper at this point and get a little colour on your cheek.

When ready, remove the head to a warm place. Whisk the Dijon mustard into the pan liquor, in which you should then wilt the bunch of watercress. Finally, on the head presentation platter, make a pillow of shallots, garlic and wilted watercress, where you then rest your head. There you have it, dinner for two; open something red and delicious: Moon, June, Spoon.


Dan can hardly believe his luck

Oh. Now you've read the recipe, why not watch the video?

This recipe is taken from Beyond Nose to Tail by Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly, Bloomsbury 2007

Notes for gluttons

Though most butchers can find you a pig's head, they may well need notice. Call the butcher a few days in advance to avoid dispair.

You will end up with a lot of cooking liqueur - far too much indeed to serve with the head. I suggest you remove two thirds of the juice towards the end of the process, reduce it over a furnace until gloopy and mix it back in with the remaining liquid.

Don't be shy about asking the butcher to half the head. However big your cleaver, you're guaranteed to make quite a mess doing this at home.

Slow Baked Quinces With Mascarpone

Quinces are deeply misunderstood. I suspect that kilos and kilos rot under their trees each year as people don't know what to do with them.

Well I've got news for you - there is more to life than quince jelly. This recipe shows of the unique texture of the fruit and ends up with a beautiful aromatic liqueur which also makes a great ice cream base (more on that later).

I am giving you the choice of using a low oven or a slow cooker. The latter is certainly more economical. You may also find that your oven has an auto cut-out after 6 hours or so so keep an eye on it. I've never tried the oven method but I've eaten the result and it is equally sublime.



Ingredients

Serves 4

4 quinces
a bottle of white wine
250ml water
400g sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
2 star anise
200g mascarpone or greek yogurt
bay leaves for serving

Method

Heat the oven to 100c (gas mark 1/4) or warm your slow cooker up. Combine the wine, water, sugar and aromatics in a heatproof, ovenproof lidded dish (or a large pan if using a slow cooker) and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Scrub the quinces, peel them (reserving the peelings) and cut in half lengthways. If oven baking, add to the liquid-filled oven dish immediately with the peelings and transfer to the oven. If using a slow cooker, add the liquid, quinces and peelings to the cooker and set it to low.

Oven bake for 8 hours or slow cook for 10 hours. Over this time the cooking liquor will develop a deep red colour and your entire home will be filled with a glorious smell of Christmas. Once cooked leave to cool, strain out and discard the aromatics and peelings and serve the fruit with their juice, a dollop of mascarpone or greek yoghurt and a bay leaf to garnish.

Notes for gluttons

The cooked quinces keep for up to a week in the fridge so don't be shy, double up the quantities! Unless you guzzle it in a glass, you will have spare cooking liqueur when you have eaten the quinces. This can be reduced and used to flavour a delicious mild ice cream. I'll try and post it soon.