Pizza on a focaccia base

In the last post I gave you the recipe for focaccia, but what I didn't tell you is that this dough makes an excellent base for pizza.

All I did was roll it out thinner than the focaccia and top it with some:

tomato passata,
stoned olives,
thinly sliced chorizo
grated mozarella cheese
a few dried herbs: origano or thyme

Allow it to rise for about 30 minutes and cook in a very hot oven until brown and bubbling.

One of the advantages of pizza over all other doughs is that you don't have to leave it to get cold before digging in.

Spinach and Ricotta Pancakes

For these melt in the mouth pancakes you will need:

100g cooked spinach

3 tbs SR flour

125g ricotta

2 small eggs or 1 large one

3tbs milk you may need a little more, see below

½ tsp salt

1 tbs grated parmesan cheese

Chop the spinach up really well. You want something that is fine. No big chunks here.

Add to a bowl with all the rest of the ingredients and mix well. At this point, you can decide whether you need any more milk. What you are aiming for is a thick batter that will drop off the spoon and spread a little in the pan so that you get a thick smallish pancake rather like an American breakfast pancake.

Heat some vetgatable oil in a heavy based frying pan and cook over a moderate heat until lightly brown on one side. Flip over and cook on the other side. Serve hot with a thick tomato sauce and a good dredging of parmesan cheese.

These are delicious as a starter or a vegetarian breakfast alternative to a British fry up.

Aubergine or Melanzane Ravioli

Many of you who visit this blog will have seen that I've made stuffed pasta before but today I want to present you with the latest recipe that has come into my repertoire. It came about principally as I had an aubergine that needed to be used and I thought what the heck and gave it a go.



You will need:


For the filling
1 large, and in Italy they are large, or two normal sized aubergines.
250g of ricotta cheese that you will have to drain
5 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
4 basil leaves chopped
1 large clove of garlic chopped and about
3 tablespoons of olive oil

To make the filling
Peel the aubergine and chop into small dice, about half a centimetre. I then put them in a plastic bowl and microwaved them for about 4 mins on high power until they were soft. Drain away the water that they give off in cooking.
Now heat the olive oil in a frying pan no need to brown the aubergines and chopped garlic. Leave to cool.
Add the ricotta and parmesan cheese, salt pepper and some dried breadcrumbs if the mixture is too wet. Remember that a wet mixture will make the uncooked pasta soggy and it won't hold together to pick up and cook.
For the pasta:
400g of 00 flour
4 medium eggs.
Make the pasta as I have explained in earlier recipes.
I'll finish this recipe when I've got more time later on today.

Cannelloni filled with Broccoli and Ricotta

These broccoli and ricotta cannoli are just the thing to fill you on a cold autumn night and as that's what we're going to have in the next few weeks, you'd better get cooking straight away. They also freeze well so you can make them up to the pre-bake stage and freeze until you want them.

What you need to make these for 4 people:

12 sheets of lasagne pasta. You can use fresh of dried.

1 large head of broccoli

250g ricotta

100g freshly grated parmesan

salt. pepper

1 egg

fresh breadcrumbs if needed

I tin of tomatoes

1 medium onion

1 clove of garlic

Hot chicken stock

1/2 pt of white sauce

What you do:

Steam the broccoli until tender and then mash roughly.

Add the egg, ricotta, parmesan, salt and pepper and enough bread crumbs to make a soft mixture. You don't want it to be sloppy as you will have to roll it in the pasta.

Now make the tomato sauce, by frying the onion and garlic in a little oil until lightly golden brown. Add the tomatoes and and about half a tin of hot stock. Simmer gently for about an hour until the sauce is reduced, season to taste.

Cook the lasagne sheets until soft enough to roll. Drain and lie them out on the work surface.

Divide the filling equally between the pasta sheets and then roll up. Make sure than the fold is under the cannelloni so that they do not open while cooking.

In a large roasting pan or baking pan that will hold the cannelloni in one layer add about 2 large spoons of tomato sauce. The tomato sauce should not be too thick. Place cannelloni side by side in the pan leaving a tiny space between each cannelloni. Cover with additional tomato sauce and the white sauce.

Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over top. Bake the cannelloni for about 1 hour.

Late Summer Vegetable Bake

The next dish that I've made is one that is really useful when you get a glut of zucchini(courgette) and aubergines. Now I know that aubergines are not usually plentiful in British gardens but zucchini are so buy the other items from the supermarket.

You will need:

1 aubergine

3 or 4 tomatoes. It depends on the size of your tomatoes.

1 onion, sliced

Parmesan cheese

2 courgettes

Olive oil for frying the onions.

The first thing that I want to say is that I am not over fond of frying aubergines as I think that they soak up so much oil that the pleasure of eating them in lost in a sea of grease. What I do is slice the aubergines and put them on a microwaveable plate. Cover with cling film and cook until soft. The time that this takes will depend on the power of your microwave. Leave them aside until ready. Do the same with the zucchini.

Fry the onion until soft.

Skin and slice the tomatoes.

Make up the dish by putting layers of alternating vegetables in an oiled, oven proof dish . Cover with a layer of Parmesan cheese and bake in a hot oven for about 30 mins. Most of the vegetables have been pre-cooked so it does not take too long. It should be brown and bubbling like the photograph.

Serve as an accompaniment for grilled meat.