Cassata Al Forno - sponge cake.

Cassata Al Forno | Food Network UK: cassata cake.
Recipe by: Paul Hollywood.
Ingredients
For the Pastry:
250g plain flour
100g unsalted butter, diced
100g caster sugar
Zest of a lemon
1 egg, plus 1 yolk
For the filling:
500g ricotta
175g caster sugar
75g chocolate chips
Zest of a lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g cake or biscuit crumbs
To finish:
Egg white to glaze
Lots of icing sugar to dust

Method
1. To make the pastry, place the flour into a bowl, add the butter and sugar and with your fingertips rub until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
2. Add the lemon zest and stir through the mixture.
Add the egg and yolk and mix together to form a soft dough.
At first, the mixtures appears dry but as you work it the pastry comes together.
Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge to chill.
3. To make the filling, drain the ricotta through a sieve to remove any liquid.
Pass the drained ricotta through a sieve a couple of times until smooth and creamy.
4. Mix with the sugar, chocolate chips, orange zest and vanilla extract.
5. Heat your oven to 180°C/Gas 4.
Grease and line the base of a 20cm Tart Tatin tin with parchment paper.
Grease the sides with butter.
Take the pastry from the fridge and cut off a quarter to use as the lid.
6. Lightly dust your work surface and roll the pastry to 4-5mm thick.
Line the prepared tin with the pastry trimming the edges to neaten.
Sprinkle half the cake crumbs into the base.
Cover the cake crumbs with the ricotta filling and spread out to level the surface.
7. Top the ricotta with a layer of the remaining crumbs.
Roll out the remaining pastry just bigger than the tin.
Place the tin on the rolled out pastry and cut round the base to make a lid just the right size.
8. Sit the lid on top.
Brush the edges with egg white then fold the exposed sides of pastry down onto the crumb, this will be about 1cm.
9. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp.
10. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edge and turning out onto a serving plate.
Dust the top heavily with icing sugar.

Related recipe:
Making Cassata alla Siciliana.
Making Cassata alla Siciliana, in Sicily - David Lebovitz
- a traditional sweet from all areas of Sicily, Italy.
Cassata consists of round sponge cake moistened with fruit juices or liqueur and layered with ricotta cheese, candied peel, and a chocolate or vanilla filling similar to cannoli cream.
It is covered with a shell of marzipan, pink and green pastel colored icing, and decorative designs.
The cassata is topped with candied fruit depicting cherries and slices of citrus fruit characteristic of Sicily.

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Italian Quinoa Risotto Lasagna.

Half Baked Harvest - Made with Love:
Ingredients
Sauce
4 ounces pancetta, chopped (optional, but adds great flavor)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 small sweet onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
1 red pepper, diced
1 pound ground spicy italian chicken sausage or regular spicy italian sausage (may sub regular ground chicken or beef if you do not like spicy)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon pepper + 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup milk (I use 2%)
Truffle Oil Quinoa Risotto
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 cups dry quinoa
5 cups warm chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon salt + pepper, plus more to taste
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
truffle oil, for drizzling
2 cups provolone cheese, shredded
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
chopped fresh basil or parsley, for garnish

Instructions
Start by making the sauce.
In a heavy bottomed pot, cook 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the pancetta over medium heat, stirring, until the pancetta is lightly browned, about 5 minutes.
Add the onion, garlic and red pepper and cook, stirring until the veggies are softened, about 5 minutes.
Push the veggies off to the side of the pan and increase the heat to medium-high.
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the center of the pan and crumble in the ground sausage.
Cook without stirring for 3 minutes and then begin breaking up the meat and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned, about 5 minutes.
Add the oregano, basil, parsley and thyme.
Cook another minute or so.Add the tomatoes, tomato paste,1 cup milk, salt and pepper to the pot.
Simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 20-30 minutes.
Taste to season with salt and pepper.While the sauce is cooking, make the quinoa.
Bring 4 cups chicken broth to boil in 12 inch high sided skillet.
Add quinoa, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until tender and chicken broth is absorbed, about 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, remove the lid and add the butter, olive oil and remaining 1 cup of chicken broth, stir vigorously for 5 minutes, until the quinoa is thick.
Add the wine and parmesan cheese.
Continue to stir vigorously for 2 to 3 minutes, until the quinoa is thick and creamy.
Season with salt and pepper.
Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons truffle oil.
Preheat the oven to 190C/375 degrees F.
To assemble the lasagna, grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
Spread the quinoa risotto in one even layer over the bottom of the greased dish.
Spoon the meat sauce over the quinoa and then top with the provolone and mozzarella cheese.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cheese is lightly golden and the sauce bubbling.
Let sit 10 minutes and then cut and serve with some crusty bread and a drizzle of truffle oil.
Garnish with fresh basil or parsley.

Nigel Slater's classic ribollita.

Nigel Slater's classic ribollita | Life and style | The Guardian
Ribollita - which means 'boiled twice'.
Literally "re-boiled", this sustaining, ancient recipe is the very essence of kitchen economy – a big fat soup substantial enough to be a main course.

THE RECIPE
Leave 2 peeled onions,
2 carrots,
3 peeled cloves of garlic and
3 ribs of celery, all roughly chopped, to cook for 20 minutes in a couple of tbsp of olive oil in a deep pan.
When they are soft, stir in a 400g can of chopped tomatoes, and
250g cooked cannellini beans with
250ml of their cooking water and a couple of bay leaves.
Leave to simmer over a low to moderate heat for 30 minutes.
Tear up 4 thick slices of bread and dunk them into the soup.
Chop four large handfuls of cavolo nero or other kale and stir it in.
Season and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes until you have a thickish soup, adding more bean water if you need to.
Serve in bowls with a trickle of olive oil on each.

THE TRICK
A night in the fridge will encourage the flavours to marry.
Keep the pieces of vegetable quite small – the soup should be thick, but not a chunky stew.
Use a firm white loaf, torn into rough chunks.

THE TWIST
Cavolo nero is pretty much a given if you are adding greens to your ribollita, but spring greens and Savoy cabbage also make fine alternatives to the finished soup.
Some cooks add cubed potatoes, courgettes, diced prosciutto, leeks, thyme leaves, fennel seeds and crushed dried chillies.
I like to pour in a spoon of lemon oil too at the last minute to brighten up the flavours.

Note: Substitute for Cannellini Beans (large white Italian kidney beans ): - Great Northern or white (navy) beans or flageolets.

Ribollita – Tuscan White Bean Soup.

Ribollita – Tuscan White Bean Soup Recipe - Love and Lemons
Ribollita is a famous Tuscan soup, a hearty potage made with bread and vegetables.
There are many variations but the main ingredients always include leftover bread, cannellini beans and inexpensive vegetables such as carrot, cabbage, beans, silverbeet, cavolo nero, and onion.
Its name literally means "reboiled".

10 servings.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 carrot, diced
1 red onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
4 ounces cauliflower florets, diced
4 ounces savoy cabbage, diced
1 leek (white part only), washed and diced
1 bunch cavalo nero (black cabbage), cleaned and chopped
1 potato, peeled and diced
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 cup cooked white beans
1 14-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes, crushed
1 quart chicken broth
1 large sprig rosemary
1 to 2 large sprigs thyme
Peel of 1 orange
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 pound Italian peasant bread-diced and oven-dried
Extra-virgin olive oil, preferably Tuscan

In a soup pot over high heat, heat half the olive oil, and add all the vegetables.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stirring occasionally, cook until the vegetables are semi soft.

Add the cooked white beans and the crushed tomatoes with the juice.
Cook 3 minutes and then add the chicken broth.
Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Tie in a piece of cheese cloth the rosemary, thyme, orange peel and peppercorns to make a bouquet garni and add to the pot.
Bring to a boil and then turn down a simmer for 1 hour.

Refrigerate overnight.
The next day, bring the soup to a boil, and stirring constantly, add all the bread until the soup becomes very thick, like a stuffing.
Set aside.

Heat a little olive oil in a large nonstick saute pan, and add the bread soup.
Brown on both sides and serve immediately, garnished with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Note: Substitute for Cannellini Beans (large white Italian kidney beans ): - Great Northern or white (navy) beans or flageolets.

- Nigel Slater's classic ribollita | Life and style | The Guardian

List of Italian soups - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rachel Roddy successful blog.

Sicily and Rome: two journeys, two kitchens - FT.com
Food writer Rachel Roddy grew up in a town outside London, one of three, and trained as an actress before moving to Italy in 2005, from where she now writes her hugely successful blog racheleats.wordpress.com.
Roddy lives in Rome with her partner and son, Luca.
What prompted the move to Italy?
As an actress I worked, and then I didn’t work, at which point I became a waitress who preferred helping out in the kitchen rather than ferrying plates. Then I worked as an actress again, finally getting sort of jobs I had always wanted, but by then I realised acting wasn’t what I wanted to do. I had an idea I wanted to write, but nothing certain. I had some money saved so decided, impulsively, to travel. Naples was the starting point from where I traveled down to Sicily and then up to Rome, where I intended to stay for a short time before moving further southwards again.

Do as the Romans do: the secrets behind Italian cooking - Telegraph
Here she shares tips and recipes from her first book, Five Quarters.
Rachel's Roman dishes:
- Broad beans and pecorini recipe
- Pasta and potato soup recipe
- Courgettes cooked in olive oil recipe
- Spaghetti with olive oil, garlic and chilli recipe
- Classic Italian meatballs in tomato sauce recipe
- Baked peaches with butter and almonds recipe

Tuscan Beans.

Tuscan Beans - Divina Cucina:
"Cooking beans the Tuscan way:
Rinse off the beans several times, look for small rocks or broken beans.
Place the beans in your pot.
Cover with cold water. Place on heat and bring to a boil, then lower the heat.
Add a branch of sage, a peeled garlic clove or two and a healthy 1/4 of olive oil, I only use extra virgin.
Cook the beans until they are tender.
Remove any scum which rises to the top while cooking.
I tend to add more cold water as the beans cook, and absorb the cooking water.
It keeps the pot from boiling to hard also.
At the end of the cooking time, salt to taste and let sit before serving.
keep it simple.These are like having an empty palette to paint on.

Polenta Incatenata
3 cups broth from cooking kale ( water with salt and olive oil)
1 cup chopped kale
2 cups cooked beans with some of their cooking water
1 cup polenta
Heat the broth with the kale and beans and their liquid.
Slowly let the polenta fall into the cooking liquid while stirring.
Do not stop stirring until the polenta is cooked. Follow the instructions on the package.
We eat this with a spoon like a soup."

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Italian Soffrito

Italian Soffrito

In reality, soffrito means "softly fried", and it's actually the Italian version of "sweating", or cooking aromatic vegetables at a low temperature. It's used in the same way mire poix is, by being a flavourful base to just about anything savoury.

Lemon posset with fennel biscotti.

From Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food.

Introduction to Italian Cuisine. Marcella Hazan.

Introduction to Italian Cuisine -Bureau of Taste:
In the nineteenth century, modern-day Italy was a group of separate republics.
Unification created a single state.
But people carried on cooking according to local tradition, resulting in a country with an enormously varied cuisine.

Traditionally, the country’s wealth comes from northern Italy.
It had trade routes with the rest of Europe – but most importantly, the port of Venice imported coffee, spices and sugar since the Middle Ages.
Salts were used to cure meat like bresaola, salami and pancetta, and trading in luxuries afforded expensive food: liqueurs, nougat, osso bucco, truffles and nuts.

Central Italy is known as the country’s ‘breadbasket’: rolling Tuscan hills and green grazing pastures surrounding Bologna and Umbria.
Spelt or farro is one of the oldest crops, with pasta, bread and beans forming the base to most meals.
Tuscan beef stew, and carafes of Chianti shape day-to-day of life in this agricultural part of Italy.

The craggy, dry and comparatively poor south of Italy owes its rich cuisine to past invasions: honey, olives and nuts from the Ancient Greeks, and citrus trees from the Byzantines.
Aubergine is used as ‘the poor man’s meat’, and buffalo milk is turned into the region’s most famous export – mozzarella.

While pizza, pasta, and ice cream are products of unified Italy, for a true taste of the country you should start with authentic, local dishes which can be found in Bocca, The Silver Spoon and Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.
Remembering Marcella Hazan, Who Brought A Taste Of Italy To America : The Salt : NPR:
Marcella Hazan (April 15, 1924 – September 29, 2013) was an Italian-born cooking writer whose books were published in English.

Recipe: 'Roast Chicken With Lemons'
If this were a still life its title could be "Chicken with Two Lemons."
That is all that there is in it.
No fat to cook with, no basting to do, no stuffing to prepare, no condiments except for salt and pepper.
After you put the chicken in the oven you turn it just once.
The bird, its two lemons, and the oven do all the rest.
Again and again, through the years, I meet people who come up to me to say, "I have made your chicken with two lemons and it is the most amazingly simple recipe, the juiciest, best-tasting chicken I have ever had."
And you know, it is perfectly true.

Serves 4
1-2kg chicken
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
2 rather small lemons

Zabaglione Recipe.

Zabaglione Recipe | Simply Recipes:

Add to shopping list
INGREDIENTS
6 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup Marsala wine
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Ground cinnamon
Vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
Strawberries, raspberries, or biscotti

Cazzola - pork stew with cabbage.

The Cassoeula,sometimes Cazzuola or Cazzola (Italian).

To make cazzola, preboil the various parts of the animal in salted water for an hour, then drain, pat dry with kitchen towel, and gently sear in a pan in some olive oil, along with the salami, if using.
The pig pieces should be left intact and whole, so the snout, ears, etc, are easily discernible.
In other words, this is not a dish for the squeamish.

Once you have cooked the meat, put it in a large casserole, add carrots, celery and onions, two tablespoons of tomato purée and white wine to cover, then cook, covered, for an hour.
Once the hour has passed, steam the savoy cabbage leaves, and add them to the pot.
Carry on cooking over very low heat for two and a half hours.
Cazzola is best (and traditionally) served with polenta.
Note: If the stew in the oven for 2 hours, the result is much better than on the stove.

- Giorgio Locatelli: Cazzola | Life and style | The Guardian: "Cazzola"

- Classic Italian Cassoeula- Bottagio alla Milanese Recipe on Food52

- Porcini Chronicles: Cassoeula:

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Stuffed Peaches.

Pesche ripiene.

Makes eight peach halves

Ingredients:
4 big yellow peaches
7 ounces Amaretti crunchy cookies
3.5 ounces sugar
1 egg yolk
Eight knobs (about 8 to 12 tablespoons) butter
Half glass white wine

Method:
- Wash the peaches then cut them in half and pit.
- Use a spoon to remove some pulp in the center of each peach and cook it in a saucepan over low heat with the sugar for about 15 minutes.
- In a bowl, crush the Amaretti cookies and mix with egg yolk. You can add a drop of sweet liquor, like Sassolino, if you'd like.
- Fill the peaches with the mixture and add a knob (about 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons) butter and a dash of sugar to each one.
- Pour the wine into a tray, arrange the peaches on it, and cook at 340 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes.
- Enjoy warm or even cold. They're also delicious the day after.
From Here!
- https://www.dwell.com/article/bertazzoni-family-recipes-ca9d2b77
PS
My...are apricots with syrup of strawberry +wine + lemon zest.

OR: - Pesche Ripiene – Stuffed Peaches | Emiko Davies:

Prosciutto, mozzarella and basil stromboli.

Stromboli - Pizza Roll.
By The Hairy Bikers From Hairy Bikers' Bakeation.
This is a really fantastic recipe for a kind of filled bread, a bit like a rolled-up pizza! It can also be made with ready-made pizza or bread dough and bought tomato pizza sauce.
We cooked this at Si’s sister’s family feast at her house near Florence.
Ingredients