Caprese Salad with red impatiens flower dressing

You know I love eating flowers from my garden (they have to be organic), impatiens have a mild rucola flavour and are perfect for salads. The red ones are the best, I think. 

Pick the flowers and then place in cold water to rinse.

Put them on a tea towel to dry, then mix with extra virgin olive oil and salt to make a dressing. Leave a few for decoration. 

 Assemble your tomato, mozzarella and basil for a nice Caprese salad then drizzle with the dressing. 

Enjoy!

Have a great week!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Two variations on Caprese Salad

Caprese with edible flowers and Caprese with tree tomatoes and two basils

Caprese is probably one of the world best known salads (and antipasto), and there are many variations, so here a couple more:

Caprese with edible flowers

I used red and yellow cherry tomatoes, and mozzarelline (the cherry size), plus added some edible flowers (borage and dianthus from my garden, organic of course). Add small basil leaves too before serving, if you like. Suitable also for a cocktail party, and ever so pretty!

Caprese with tree tomatoes and two basils

I used a mixture of vine tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and semi-dried tomatoes, mozzarelline (but you can use regular mozzarella cut into slices or pieces) and green basil and purple basil leaves. Dress with olive oil and salt. A filling salad or light lunch.

And now some pictures from my garden!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Caprese with three types of tomatoes and two types of basil

The weather has been strange, one moment sunny and then rainy again, and I needed a colouful salad to keep me happy! So here is a Caprese with bocconcini, and I used cherry tomatoes, beef tomatoes and yellow tomatoes, plus green basil and purple basil. And a few very young leaves of cavolo nero from the garden :-). Drizzle with olive oil, add a pinch of salt, and the sun is shining!

I have prepared my reading deck, with flowers and all...

And cut the lavender to dry for scented sachets… but now it is raining again… never mind! Spring in Auckland!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Bruschetta Caprese

I feel like one of those fancy New York bloggers publishing this, as it isn't really a recipe but just a snack, or a quick summer lunch, and mostly it isn't something new and original, probably all the Italian bloggers are giggling too: hahaha Caprese salad, how original!

But I just got a new iPhone and I couldn't wait to try the camera out, after all I seem to use my phone as much as a camera as for making calls! For the 'recipe': well, just toast some nice crusty bread, rub with garlic if you like (not really necessary for a Caprese though!) top with mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, and then sprinkle with salt and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. The basil and the black and yellow tomatoes are from my garden, the red ones aren't, no more tomatoes now, but they are still cheap in the shops, and relatively tasty, so I hope to enjoy this kind of salad (or bruschetta) for a few more weeks yet!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

"French" Caprese Salad? Cherry tomatoes, bocconcini and blue borage flowers

I can never get tired of Caprese, the classic tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil salad that represent Italy both in taste and in colour. But just for once, and just for a change, when I picked my cherry tomatoes from the garden I also got a few borage flowers and thought that they may look pretty (and yes, just in case you ask, they are edible), and pretty they did look too! And because this looks more like the French flag than the Italian one, I just called it "French" Caprese.  And I guess it could be a good salad for the 4th of July too if you are in the US. What do you think?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Focaccia made with the water from mozzarella and no yeast

I saw it done several times in Italian blogs, and since the other day I had some mozzarella from Massimiliano I wanted to try it too. I think that I will need to work on it but as a first attempt it was brilliant and I will never throw away the water from mozzarella again!! Please read carefully because I think that some of you may be really interested in this one!

I had 200 ml of mozzarella water (you know that whitish water that you get in the bag when you buy mozzarella? Yes, that one!), I put it in a 900ml yogurt container, then I added 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, one pinch of salt, 1/3 tsp of brown sugar and 200 g of high grade flour. I though that it was wise to start with an equal water to flour ratio. I stirred the lot with a fork and covered it. I didn't expect it to rise so much, after 24 hours it was doubled! Maybe it is because I covered it with a good top? I decided to put it in the fridge overnight to slow the process, but the morning after the dough had gone down :-(. Still, half a morning in the sun and it was already bubbly again!

Just look at it! I thought that it could have handled a bit more flour, but I didn't really have time to experiment, so I poured it directly on a baking tin, without touching it! 

Then I placed it inside the cold oven for a couple of hours to see if it was going to rise some more, but it was too soft, it just spread out instead!! So I turned the oven on and baked it. When I thought that it was nearly done I brushed it with olive oil and added some rock salt and cumin seeds on top and then baked it for other 5 minutes.

I think that it is too early for me to give you a proper recipe for this, I am not quite sure how long it is best to bake it for, but one thing is sure: Please do try and experiment!! Don't through the water from the mozzarella away, it is an amazing starter for a sour dough type of bread and focaccia, especially if you are like me and don't fancy keeping a sour dough starter going for months and months (sorry sour dough, I travel too much for this!). Look at the cut focaccia! It was so soft and tasty... I will make it again and again and if you try I am sure that you will be pleased too!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Easy Parmigiana with zucchini and eggplants, step by step

Slice the eggplants and 'sweat' with salt for at least an hour. Rinse and pat dry. Slice the zucchini into long strips, you can also sweat the zucchini for 20 minutes to take away any bitterness and make them soft, if you like. Step two will be to either fry the vegetable slices (with olive oil) or to grill/bake them. If you fry them they are tastier, but a bit greasy (remove excess oil with kitchen paper) and it does take time! If you decide to grill them or bake them just put them on a baking tray lined with kitchen paper, brush with olive oil and add a pinch of salt. Place under the grill or in fan oven at 180°C until they look cooked on one side, turn them over and cook them on the other side. The grill is quicker, the oven tends to dry them up, so when I turn them I also cover them with more baking paper so that they keep some 'steam'. I prefer the baking method but for special occasions I fry!! Once you have all your veggies ready start assembling them like this:

In a roasting pan make a first layer of fried/baked zucchini (don't need to grease the pan,
the zucchini have been cooked in oil.

Add a little passata (Italian tomato sauce).

Add a second layer of fried/baked eggplants.

Add some more passata.

Add more zucchini.

Add some more passata and top with mozzarella. Bake until the mozzarella melts.

Eat.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Eggplant, tomato and mozzarella

I could almost call these mini parmigiana, but there is no Parmesan, so I am not quite sure. Still, same principle, but they are little individual portions, and they look quite good for a party, entree or fancy dinner.

Slice the eggplants and 'sweat' with salt for at least an hour. Rinse and pat dry. At this stage you can either fry the eggplant slices (with olive oil) or grill/bake them. If you fry them they are tastier, but a bit greasy (remove excess oil with kitchen paper) and it does take time! If you decide to grill them or bake them just put them on a baking tray lined with kitchen paper, brush with olive oil and add a pinch of salt. Place under the grill or in fan oven at 180°C until they look cooked on one side, turn them over and cook them on the other side. The grill is quicker, the oven tends to dry them up, so when I turn them I also cover them with more baking paper so that they keep some 'steam'. I prefer the baking method but for special occasions I fry!! Once you have your cooked eggplants add a little Italian tomato passata sauce on top, and a bit of mozzarella (I got mine from Massimiliano il Casaro). Place back in the oven until the mozzarella starts to melt. Serve individually or stack two together (like I did). Top with fresh basil, or fresh thyme or oregano (I used thyme). Eat hot or warm. I had them cold too, ok but not as good as hot! Variations are endless, and they look like mini pizzas, but without the dough!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Leftover rice: two Tians

When I have leftover risotto I make croquettes, when I have leftover short grain rice I make fried rice, and when I have leftover long grain, Thai or Basmati, I make tians. I am not sure why I only use long grain rice to make a tian, it is one of those thing that looks logical to me, maybe because long grain is not sticky enough and so I need to add an egg? Anyway, this is my classic tian recipe:

I grease a terracotta round pan with olive oil. Mix the leftover rice with some cooked spinach (or similar green leaves), add one or two eggs (depending on how much rice I have) and then salt, pepper and nutmeg. Put everything in the terracotta pan and bake until the top is crispy. A bit like a baked rice frittata really!


The other day I had some rice left, but no greens. Also, the rice wasn't Jasmine or Basmati but standard long grain and it was a little sticky. I thought that I could make a tian without egg, a pizza tian!



I greased my terracotta pan with olive oil, pressed the rice down, topped with Italian tomato sauce (recipe here), then mozzarella and oregano. Another drop of olive oil and into the oven to bake!
Certainly a bit more difficult to serve because it doesn't cut perfectly like a tian made with eggs, but nevertheless my kids, who like everything that smells like pizza, gulped it down in no time! Maybe a good gluten free variation to a pizza??

Happy weekend everyone!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

My favourite cheese at the Monteith's CheeseFest 2012

This year the Monteith's CheeseFest was even better than last year, I got a Monteith beer on arrival, but I was pleased to see that you could also have wine, and my friend Valentina got a white one, plus we were offered a small plate, fork and napkin (we didn't have those last year!). Then in we went for some serious tastings! Being both Italians I guess that we were a bit fussy (or at least I was, and Valentina obediently followed me to the cheese stalls that I wanted to visit). 

Remembering the previous year, and my inability to eat cheese without bread, I had a box of crackers in my bag (sounds cheesy eehh!) but I was also happy to see that there was also some bread available this year from one of the sponsors (and we even got a couple of loaves in the goodie bag). 

I didn't take many photos, in fact I only took these published below: it was hard to balance a bottle of beer, a small plate of cheese and fork, and get my iPhone out. So the photos this year are of my favourite cheese: Massimiliano's mozzarella!

I like to point out that his was the only cheese of which I had two tastings of (Valentina had three), maybe because we are Italian and mozzarella is what we like, or maybe because the cheese makers are Italians and it was great to see Massimiliano again (he even won a prize for his mozzarella so we were all happy), or a mixture of everything... anyway, the mozzarella I made at home and posted yesterday was quickly forgotten after tasting this one!

And Massimiliano gave Valentina and me a burrata each to take home! Yum, I saved mine for Arantxa, it is her favourite cheese and she was so happy when I told her!

We also bought lots of other yummy cheeses (really cheap on the night), and today I made a focaccia with some feta and some fresh goat cheese, a real luxury to have good cheese to cook with, instead of saving it only for after dinner treats!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

How to make mozzarella and ricotta at home

Making mozzarella and ricotta at home is possible and you don't need any special equipment except for a brewer or cheese maker thermometer. The basic recipe comes from my book Savour (page 12-13), it is quite detailed, so here I will do a quick step by step explanation, with a little trick to cut down time. 

Start with 2 litres of full cream not homogenised milk, if it looks too fat take away some of the cream at the top. Gently heat the milk to 38°C (110.4°F).

Add 4 heaps tbsp of live yogurt, in New Zealand I only use Cyclops Yogurt (thick and creamy type) to make cheese. I tried with a variety of yogurts, but this really seems to have the right bacterias kicking into curd action! Stir.

Usually I only add yogurt, and then the waiting time after cutting the curd is about 4 hours. if you want speedy results add a little citric acid too. I am not sure how many cheese makers would do this, on the other hand I am not sure how many cheese makers would actually use yogurt for bacterias!

If you wish to use citric acid add it now, for a 2 litres of milk I added about half a tsp.

After stirring the yogurt (and citric acid, if using) cover with a lid and keep the temperature at 38°C, wait 10 minutes and then add the rennet. I use vegetarian rennet, 1ml of it mixed to 1 ml of cold water.

Stir for one minute, check that the temperature is still 38°C, then cover with a lid and then let it rest for 45 minutes. During this time the temperature shouldn't drop, but if it is a very cold day it would pay to have your pot inside a bigger pot with hot water.

After 45 minutes the curd will be set. 

Cut the curd into 4-5 cm squares, cover and wait 15 minutes. This is the first cut.

After 15 minutes cut the curd a second time to 1cm pieces using a slotted spoon. If you didn't use the citric acid try bring the temperature to 35°C, then cover and rest the curd rest for 4 hours. During this time the temperature must be always kept at 35°C, so check often. If you used the citric acid bring the temperature up to 41°C and stir gently with the slotted spoon until the curd pieces look like a soft jelly (about 5 minutes). I am still not confident with the citric acid method but it was very successful during our Slow Food Waitekere mozzarella event, and Alli has the recipe here, so I guess that I mixed and matched a little with the two methods.

To check if the curd is ready drop a bit in hot water at 90°C, if it stretch it is ready to be rolled! I use a sieve to keep the curd in place, and the thermometer not to burn my fingers.

If the curd is not stretchy yet, wait 15 more minutes and try again, and again, and again... (if you follow the method of not adding citric acid. I guess that this is why so many people cannot be bother to make it, since you may have to wait a long time!).

Prepare a pot of water at 90°C, and one of cold water. Collect the curd into a colander or sieve and add a pinch of salt. Cover with the hot water (or lower the colander or sieve into the hot water), stir with the thermometer or a wooden spoon. I always forget to use rubber gloves, but here they would be a good idea: you need to pick up a piece and stretch it, and the water is hoooot!.

At this stage I had a surprise visit from Gwen, so I stopped everything to make us a cup of coffee (and maybe left the mozzarella in the hot water more that I had to), but on the other hand it was a good thing because I didn't consider the fact that with two hands occupied I couldn't have taken pctures. I gave Gwen my iPhone, she wasn't sure of when to click but she did a pretty good job, I think!

Stretch and stretch, working with big batches you just need to stretch and cut the end off, but with such a little batch unless you are making bocconcini instead of cutting the ends off you can just roll your mozzarella strip into a ball.

Don't roll it too tight or it will be hard, keep it really loose (I like soft mozzarella best),

and then drop it into the bowl with cold water. With 2 litres of milk I made 3 medium mozzarella and a little one. If you can, eat your homemade mozzarella on the same day :-).

Ricotta

Now with the whey you can make ricotta. Bring it back to 90°C, a froth will appear on top.

Turn the heat of and wait 5 minutes for the froth to set, then collect it with a slotted spoon,

and place it in a sieve lined with fine gauze, arranged on a container to collect the excess liquid.

I used to stop here and make very little ricotta indeed, and then I decided that patience was the best trick. So I just left the kitchen as it was, and covered the pot. Every 20 minutes or so I went back to the pot and collect the (now very fine) foam with a tea strainer (a slotted spoon is good only for the very first ricotta foam, the rest was too fine).

I did this all afternoon, I didn't need to heat the whey again, just leaving the pot to rest with the lid on was enough, and the ricotta kept coming up to the surface. I collected more that I ever expected.

By the evening I had a small ricotta, and the texture was very creamy. I think that I could have collected a little more but I got tired and needed the stove for cooking dinner, still, if next time I will use more than 2 litres of milk I could get enough ricotta for 4 portions (this one my daughter ate for dessert, and we all just had a tiny taste). We also ate the mozzarella for dinner, but I forgot to take a photo, sorry!

Well, this post was very appropriate for today, as this evening I am of to the Monteith's CheeseFest, to taste lots of cheese! Any other Kiwi blogger attending?

If you are interested in more homemade cheeses here is Halloumi (and ricotta again, this is my most popular post), and here is Labne.

Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini and Photos by Gwen Lenehan and Alessandra Zecchini ©