Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I have beautiful sage leaves in the garden now, big and fat, perfect for frying! Make a batter with egg, flower and a pinch of salt, add some cold water to thin it down and coat the sage leaves. Fry in hot olive oil, drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt. Serve with aperitivo. you can also fry sage leaves without batter, just as they are, they are delicious! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Personally I am not a great fan of pavlovas, but they are so easy to make and a good way to use egg whites, so once or twice a year a make one. This is my easiest recipe so far. Ingredients:  3 egg whites  1 pinch of salt 1 tbsp white vinegar 1/2 tsp cream of tartar 200g white sugar Start the evening before. The most important ingredient is egg whites, use free range and possibly organic eggs for egg whites that have lots of proteins and beat into perfect standing peaks! Start beating the egg whites at high speed with a pinch of salt. Add the vinegar, then the cream of tartar, then the sugar (I add this in three-four goes, but quickly). Don't need to use caster sugar if you are beating at high speed and if the egg whites are really stiff. Sometimes I forget the cream of tartar so I add it after the sugar, nothing has ever happened. Some people add vanilla, but I like pavlova to smell and taste of meringue, not of vanilla! The vinegar takes away that...

Pick as many cowslip flowers as you can from a field and clean them gently, removing the green parts. Keep the best for topping and chop the remaining, adding them to eggs whisked with grated Parmigiano and a little water. Pan fry the frittata (I make several thin 'frittatine' if I have time) with a little olive oil. Cut the frittata into pieces and lay over a base of mixed salad. Top with the remaining flowers. You can add some Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena on top if you like. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Nothing beats a green green green smoothie! Kale, spinach, banana, frozen mango, and coconut water as a base.  The croquettes are zucchini (raw and grated) mixed with feta, eggs, herbs and bread (stale bread soaked and crushed) and instead of frying them, as I usually do, I just drizzled them with olive oil and place them in the oven. Turn over halfway through baking and add more oil in necessary, you will be happy for how good they taste, even if they are not fried! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

The best crop in my garden is borage because snails, rats, possums and caterpillars don't eat it! So here is yet another borage recipe!  Pick the top of the plant with flowers and tender leaves (make sure the flowers have no seeds yet). Wash well. Grate some old bread (must be really hard and dry) to make breadcrumbs. Or use ready made breadcrumbs. Make a batter with eggs, salt and pepper and breadcrumbs, the ratio being approximately one egg for one tbsp of breadcrumbs, use s much as you need depending on how many flowers you are cooking. Coat the borage in the batter and pan fry in hot olive oil, turing on both sides, until golden. Place on kitchen paper to drain excess oil. Sprinkle with salt and serve. And now a few photos from my garden: Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

This is an easy dish using two of my favourite ingredients: Parmesan and cumin seeds. For the base I use some frozen short crus pastry, topped with chopped and cooked spinach and chunks of Parmesan (or choose another mature cheese, with vegetarian rennet) and sprinkled with cumin seeds. Then I mixed eggs, cream and a pinch of salt, pour it over and baked the quiche until golden on top and with a crispy pastry. The Parmesan and cumin seeds pairing worked really well, definitely something to make again! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

My mother told me that to make zabaione one must measure the marsala wine with the egg shell. I.e., for every egg yolk use 1 tsp of sugar and the broken eggshell of the same egg for the marsala.  And it works, but for this zabaione I wanted to finish the end of a bottle of limoncello. Half an eggshell would it been too much!! So I just used a third of that. Hand beat the egg yolks, with the sugar, then put over a pot at Bain Marie (double booking) and keep beating, adding the limoncello little by little. Keep beating until the 'custard' is light and foamy. Pour into shot glasses (won't need any bigger, I can assure you, it is sweet, decadent and … alcoholic!). The verdict? Although the taste was great and lemony (taking away that 'egg edge'), the small amount of liquid made this zabaione quite firm! Next time I may water down the limoncello, and go back to the eggshell measuring cup! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

In a hurry? Try this frittata made with free-range eggs (I used 4), mixed with a heap tbsp of self rising flour. To flavor the frittata I used chives from the garden, and the usual salt and pepper. Grease the frying pan with olive oil and cook on both sides. Tip: if you put a lid on and lower the heat the frittata will be easier to flip. Frittata before flipping Frittata after flipping Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Bibimbap is a Koran dish based on rice, and possibly Korea's most famous 'comfort food'. Plain rice is topped with a variety of ingredients, then the diners add chili paste and mix it just before eating. There are many types of bibimbap, some quite complex, other just made with left-overs. This is a very simple one, made quickly after the boy came home for sailing, starving! I cooked some short grain rice, then added some spinach sautéed with sesame oil and a pinch of salt on the side. Topped with a fried egg and some nori seaweed (this nori has been cut to resemble cherry blossom). I usually add some grated cucumber but I didn't have any. To finish add chili paste or sauce to taste, mix and dig in! Quick, delicious and filling! Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

From  Party Food for Girls , eggs colored with natural vegetable dyes, recipe by Alessandra Zecchini (in the  April Dante Newsletter ), photo by Shaun Cato-Symonds Alessi-mania, a  serious talk  about eggs, and breadsticks  instead of soldiers Iced  animal biscuits  for Ester Bunnies?  Fondant and marzipan , or  sushi ? Natural: quail and chicken eggs are beautiful enough as they are, and for an interesting touch, eggs decorated by the children with  Italian prehistoric patterns Wow, a full Easter page without Chocolate! What do you think? Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

In  this post  I mentioned using feijoa zest, I have use them before for  this cordial , but I wanted to experiment more. Feijoa zest is bitter, that kind of bitter that makes you think that in large doses could be poison (possibly, anyone knows?) just like apricot kernels or fern fronds, but in small amounts, and occasionally, they feel safe (and I am still alive!). And they were good, possibly not as good as my favourite  passion fruit meringues , but still good!  First I put into a pot the zest of about 20 feijoas (you don't need all these, but there is another recipes coming out of this!) with 500 ml of water and 100 g of sugar, and I made a thin syrup. Then I drained about a tsp of zest and set it aside for the meringues. With the rest I made agar agar jelly (the next post). For the meringues I used 3 eggs white at room temperature and 150 g of sugar (normal white sugar). Once the egg whites and sugar were well beaten and stiff I added the zest...

Here there are some images form  a market in Montevideo , where I introduced the zapallito, a vegetable that looks like a round zucchini. Today I will show you a recipe we made during an Uruguayan cooking class  (offered by our Spanish language school  La Herradura ) . Faina is like a flan, but be aware: this is not like the  faina  that you get in pizzerias here (which is more like an Italian farinata made with chickpea flour - lots of immigrants from Liguria here!). These  fainas  are different and based on eggs an flour, plus different ingredients for flavor. A part from the faina de zapallitos we also made a faina de queso (cheese) and Arantxa and Max made a salchichon de chocolate (just like the Italian salame di cioccolato). Faina de zapallitos 500g zapallitos half onion 2 eggs 3/4 cup oil 1 cup milk 12 tbsp flour 1 tsp baking powder salt and pepper to taste butter to grease and breadcrumbs to sprinkle Ch...

I brought these egg moulds in Japan, you just need to put inside a boiled egg (peeled), close the mould and place it in a bowl filled wit water (cold) and after 15 minutes your eggs are shaped like a bunny and a teddy bear! So cute! I also got some small ones for quail eggs, can't wait to try them, the kids love them! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I got the idea from  this Italian blog  and although I changed almost everything in it, I kept the main ingredients: cauliflower and quinoa. I liked this idea because A: I really wanted to do something else with quinoa that didn't involve a salad or a risotto-type-of-dish, and B: I had cauliflower. Ingredients 1 cup quinoa 1 small cauliflower 200 g feta cheese 2 free range eggs Half tsp cumin seeds salt and pepper to taste olive oil Wash the quinoa, then place in a good pot with 2 cups of water. I also decided to cook the cauliflower at the same time (save gas, flavour and nutrients). Cut and wash the cauliflower florets and place over the quinoa. Simmer for 20 minutes. turn the heat of and let it rest for 15. Cube the feta and add to the quinoa and cauliflower, mixing very well. Add the eggs and mix well. With a mortar and pestle lightly crush the cumin seeds and add to the mixture. Adjust with salt and pepper. Brush a terracotta or other ...

When I started these mushrooms were three times this size (I used the 'breakfast' Portobello type) but never mind, the flavour was all there and this is a great way to cook them! Clean the mushrooms and remove the stalks (set them aside) and top skin if you can (discard). Place the mushrooms on a baking tray lined with baking paper, cap side down, sprinkle with salt and a drop of olive oil and bake on medium for 15 minutes. Turn and bake for other 10 minutes. In the meantime clean the stalk, chop the very end bits off and discard, and them chop the rest with a couple of garlic cloves and plenty of Italian Parsley leaves. Add one egg to the mixture (vegans can omit egg and add a little more oil instead), a pinch of salt, a tbsp of olive oil and enough breadcrumbs to get a malleable consistency, like for croquettes. Remove the mushrooms form the oven and stuff with this mixture pressing down well at the top. Place back into the oven and bake until the tops look golden and...

Ingredients spinach feta egg breadcrumbs Olive oil for frying thyme (optional) Wash and cook a big bunch of spinach, then chop as finely as you can/wish. Place in a bowl and add some feta (about 100 g for each bunch of spinach), one egg and as much breadcrumbs as you need to make a mixture that can be shaped into small walnut size balls. Pan fry in olive oil turning them often until cooked. Place on some kitchen paper lined with fresh thyme (if using) to remove excess oil and give the polpettine a hint of thyme flavor. Serve hot, or even cold. My kids love them! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

A little twist to my usual tiramisù with coffee: Italian Amarena cherries! I mixed a few cherries and their syrup with whisky (I usually mix coffee with whisky, I find it to be the best booze for tiramisù). Ingredients: 3 tbsp Italian Amarena cherries (with syrup) 2 tbsp whisky (a good one or, like in my case, what your husband let you use) 1 packet of savoiardi biscuits 3 large free range eggs 3 tbsp sugar 300 ml cream Cocoa to dust Mix the Amarena cherries with whisky: this is the syrup to soak the savoiardi. Use only half of the savoiardi, making your first layer in a 20 x 20 cm square and at least 5 cm high (or similar size rectangular) serving dish.  Please note: it is important not to over-soak the biscuits or the base will be too soft. Just dip them quickly on one side only (the sugary side is better), and place them in the serving dish with the soaked part facing up: this way the juices will slowly go through the biscuits. A...