March 2013 - Sfincione Siciliano

I don't often post more than one recipe from each issue. This month I have made three things so will post all three. I also have another couple on my list to make but haven't yet made them. Hopefully I will get them made this week although I am not sure I will also get them blogged. 

There is a Gennaro Contaldo section in this month's issue. It is an excerpt from his new book Let's Cook Italian: Favourite Family Recipes. From the recipes in this issue it looks like it would be a good book but I have decided that I am not buying any more cook books. I already have so many that I barely use. 

This looked really good and Gennaro's description said that it was a traditional focaccia from Palermo. It said that the dough was supposed to be very soft. Mine wasn't, it was hard and dense and doughy. I am not really sure what happened. I did everything according to the recipe but it just didn't turn out for me. I am going to be really lazy here and say that it is a long recipe and it didn't work for me so, sorry, I am not going to post the recipe. 

It did look good though....

Delicious May 2011 - Tomato Soup with Melting Bocconcini

Hmmm, I have been on holidays. I went away for a few days. I had planned on doing a lot of blogging throughout my two weeks off but it just didn't turn out that way. Oh well, I guess that is just the way that things turn out some times. 

I really couldn't go past the cover recipe from this issue. Valli's Tomato Soup with Melting Bocconcini just looked so inviting. I also love making tomato soup as with the leftovers use it to make a lovely tomato risotto. I just loved this recipe it was relatively easy to make. It was rich and wonderful. Make sure to take the bocconcini straight from the oven and into the soup. Mine sat for about a minute and they were a bit rubbery. Oh, and next time I would roast the cherry tomatoes later too as they were cold by the time I served the soup. I think it would have been better to have been much better if they were hot. Although I have a recipe for tomato soup that I have made several times I think it will definitely be replaced with this one. I served it with the Parmesan & Garlic Bread recipe that followed.

Tomato Soup with Melting Bocconcini 

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg roma tomatoes, halved
• pinch caster sugar 
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle 
• 12 vine-ripened cherry tomatoes
• 50 g unsalted butter 
• 2 each, onions, carrots, celery & garlic cloves, chopped 
• 400g can chopped tomatoes 
• 2 tbsp sundried tomato paste (I used tomato pesto) 
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 basil sprig, plus extra leaves for garnish 
• 1 L (4 cups) vegetable stock 
• 12 baby bocconcini

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 160 C. Place roma tomatoes, cut side up, on a baking tray. Sprinkle with sugar, drizzle with oil and season. Roast for 30 minutes until softened.
• Add cherry tomatoes to the tray, drizzle with a little more oil and season. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes or until lightly charred and softened. Set aside. 
• Heat butter and 1 tbsp oil in pan over a medium heat. Cook onion, carrot, celery and garlic, stirring, for 2 - 3 minutes or until softened. Add canned tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf, basil, stock, roasted roma tomatoes and any cooking juices. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 - 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. (I cooked about 40 minutes) 
• Discard basil sprig & bay leaf, cool slightly, then blend the soup in batches. Pass through a sieve into a clean pan, then cook over low heat, stirring, for 2 - 3 minutes or until warmed through. Adjust seasoning. 
• Place the bocconcini on a baking try lined with baking paper and bake for 2 - 3 minutes until just warm and lightly melted (do not overcook or the cheese will melt completely). Ladle the soup into serving bowls and scoop molten bocconcini into each one. Garnish with the roasted cherry tomatoes and basil leaves.

Parmesan & Garlic Bread

Ingredients: 

• 3 garlic bulbs (skin on), halved horizontally
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 250g unsalted butter, softened (I used 150 g)
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley 
• 2 sourdough baguettes (I used regular) 
• 1 1/4 c finely grated parmesan 

Method: 

• Pre-heat oven to 170C 
• Drizzle garlic with oil and roast for 40 minutes or until soft. 
• Cool and then squeeze from the skin and mash together with the parsley & butter. 
• Cut baguettes diagonally, but not all the way through. 
• Spread with butter and then stuff some parmesan in and then sprinkle the rest on top. 
• Bake for 15 minutes or until crisp. 

May 2003 - Midweek Pizza

This is the first actual Italian issue from delicious. magazine. There is great variety of food in it. It is not the only Australian food magazine that does an annual Italian issue, I think that most of them do these days. I cannot say whether or not delicious. did it first either. I would like to think so but I just don't know.

There were a number of different recipes that I wanted to make from issue #16. The Semolina Shortbread with Caramelised Apples looked divine and I tossed up whether to make this or another dessert from a later issue for a long time before finally deciding on the other one. I really like caramelised apples. I have been known to slice up an apple, caramelise it and serve with ice cream or custard for a quick and tasty dessert. Plus it is very easy to make for one.

The other thing that really caught my eye was Maggie Beer's Rabbit with Anchovies and Roasted Garlic. I remember eating rabbit as a child but I do not think that I have ever eaten it as an adult and I have certainly never cooked it for myself. I was intrigued and the recipe seemed easy enough. However, at my butcher, and all the others in town, rabbits need to be ordered in and the price I was quoted was more than I wanted to spend on a meal just for myself. I think if I was to have someone over, like my grandparents, I would probably buy one and make the meal. They were away when I was choosing recipes so it wasn't possible to have them over.

I ended up deciding to make Valli Little's Midweek Pizza from the regular Tuesday Night Cooking section. To be honest I didn't follow Valli's recipe at all but I did make a quick and easy pizza. I used Lebanese bread for the base. Topped with home made pizza sauce (that I keep in the freezer), sliced onion, very finely slice Sicilian hot salami, black olives, semi-dried tomatoes and baby bocconcini and baked at 200 C for 15 minutes. It was just perfect for a quick after work meal and something that I do every couple of weeks.