Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

This recipe is from my book  Savour ,  it is really easy and the result is guaranteed to make your dinner guests go WOW! All you need is ordinary brown onions (one per person for a main or just half per person for a starter). Peel the onions and boil whole for about 10 minutes (or until half cooked but not too soft) then cut in half horizontally. For every two onions melt about 50g of salted butter in a pan and add 2 to 4 tsp of brown sugar (it depends on your taste). Put the onions, cut side down, into the pan and them place them into individual ramekins (still cut side down. Add the remaining butter. Cover each onion with a disk of flaky puff pastry (your own or bought, I used  Paneton ) and press down well until you get a 'bowler hat' shape around your onion. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden. Reverse over a serving plate (or individual plates, they will pop out easily). Serve hot, they are deliciously butte...

These lovely and aromatic little onions can be served hot or cold, as an antipasto or side vegetable. I should have used little Italian flat onions, like the  borrettane , but they don't sell them in NZ so I used some normal pickling onions. Peel the onions, soak in water for two hours, drain and then cook very slowly with a dollop of salted butter (vegans use extra virgin olive oil), a few fresh sage leaves and a pinch of salt for a long long time. I cooked them in a Le Creuset pot, with the lid on, stirring often. Check to see if you need to add just a little water half way through, but personally I didn't need it, mostly they cooked in their own steam (Le Creuset pots have great lids!!) and they caramelized a little too, becoming sweet and fragrant. All in all they took about 2 hours. Once they were cooked I turned the element off and added a drizzle of  Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena Extra Vecchio (25 year old) , covered them again with the lid, and let them...

At the  Festival Italiano  I received a very special present from Naomi of  Aceto Downunder : a bottle of ABTM ( Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena ), the  extra vecchio  (25 years +). This  Balsamico  is the real thing, only sold in specially designed 100ml bottles, expensive but worth it, every drop of it. The first thing I made was this classic Italian salad: Rocket leaves (fresh from my veggie garden), shaved Parmesan, thin slices of crunchy pears, and a drizzle of ABTM. This salad is absolutely delicious, and perfect as an entree or a sophisticated yet easy and light summer main course. Thank you Naomi! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

What do vegetarians eat? Lots of vegetables! Some people call it rabbit food, I don't know why, I swear to you that we are not rabbits!  Let's start with the red radicchio, my brother made this: cut the red radicchio into strips and place onto an oven tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, salt and dried oregano (he says that dried thyme is better but we didn't have any).  Bake until the red par of the leaves is crispy (and most of the bitterness is gone!).  And what about this lovely green cauliflower? I think that green cauliflowers taste 'sweeter' than the white ones, and this one did! I just boiled it  al dente , let it cool down and dressed it with extra virgin olive oil, salt and  Aceto Balsamico di Modena . Simple but perfect! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini and her brother  ©

This salad is really simple: I just chopped half red onion and marinated it for 30 minutes in white balsamic condiment of Modena (FYI, white balsamic vinegar of Modena doesn't exist, it can only be called 'condiment') and then I added one can of Italian butter beans and one can of Italian chickpeas (obviously drained and rinsed...), salt, extra virgin olive oil, and flowers from my garden: chive flowers, borage flowers and calendula petals. Easy but yummy! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I was not sure if you post this or not... I roasted some veggies, pumpkin, potatoes (previously boiled but not too soft) and orange kumara with red onion... everything was drizzled with olive oil and the first two were seasoned with salt, smoked paprika, garlic, cumin seeds and just a little chili. The kumara and red onion just had salt and olive oil, and once baked I added some Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena. Everything was so yummy, but ... by mistake I must have deleted the image with the roasted veggies! I looked for it on my phone, it was gone, completely gone! I think that these days I am taking far too many photos with my iPhone, and to make space I need to delete a lot of them, and sometimes I delete them before downloading them!!! Yes, it is not the first time that something like this has happened :-(. Does it ever happens to you? And does anyone know how many pics I can have on my iPhone at any moment? I am so scared of overloading it... thank you and enjoy the...

I like small things, even when it comes to food: small plates with small tastings, miniature bites, doll houses' type of things...  This is a 'fruit salad' that could be served at the end of a formal 'Japanese' meal, where presentation is important and fruit is often the only dessert, or at the end of a formal Italian meal (we also tend to have fruit rather than 'pudding'). For the dressing I used some  Aceto Tradiozionale Balsamico di Modena , not to be confused with  Aceto Balsamico di Modena  (they are two different products) and it goes well with all the fruit used here, including bananas. And to accompany, no ice-cream or similar, but I dared to be different and went for fresh petals... if you choose them go for pink, cherry or peach, and yes, they can also be dipped in the  ABTM  and eaten,  I did it (but I don't know many other people who regularly eat flowers like I do :-). Ingredients: for each person: 2 slices...

It may sounds strange for those who live on the other side of the world, but here Christmas means strawberries, cherries and red fruit! For this aperitif I used one punnet of strawberries, washed and cut, 500ml of natural apple juice, and one tsp of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena (ABTM) . The real ABTM is only sold in 100ml round bottles, like the one pictured below. Blend everything well and serve in small glasses. Great aperitif before an 'important' Christmas meal, and suitable for children too! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©