Zeppoli ta San Guzepp

Ingredients

1 cup hot water

1/2 cup butter

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

4 eggs

1 tsp grated orange peel

1 tsp grated lemon peel

honey and chopped almonds for finishing

Ricotta Filling 

3 cups ricotta cheese

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tsbp grated orange peel

2 Tbsp grated lemon peel

Figolli

I promise I'll take a better picture this year... It tastes yummy though :)

 

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

350 grams caster sugar

800 grams plain flour, sifted

400 grams butter

Grated rind of 1 lemon

4 egg yolks, beaten

For the almond paste:

600 g caster or icing sugar

2-3 egg whites

Grated rind of 1 lemon

A few drops orange flower water

600 grams almonds, ground

To finish:

Glacé icing or chocolate for covering

Royal icing for decoration

Small Easter eggs

Method:

Make the pastry:

mix the sugar with the flour, then rubbing in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

Add the grated lemon rind and the yolks, mixed with a little water to make a pliable dough.

Leave to chill.

Make the filling:

Add the sugar, orange flower water and lemon rind to the ground almonds, and bind with the egg whites.

Roll out the pastry and cut out your shapes.

Make two of each figure as they will be sandwiched with almond paste.

Lay the first shape on a greased and floured baking tray, spread with almond paste, leaving a small margin.

Lay the second shape over the top and press the edges together.

It helps if you wet the edges with a pastry brush to ensure adhesion.

Bake at 200 degrees C for 5 minutes, then at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes, until pale golden.

Cool on the tray.

Finishing:

When cold, coat with glacé icing or melted chocolate, then decorate with royal icing in a different colours.

While the icing or chocolate is soft, press a small, foil-wrapped Easter egg in the middle of each shape.

Kwarezimal

Ingredients:

done yesterday (with pistaccios and cashews instead of just almonds)

100g of blanched almonds

100g of plain flour

125g of caster sugar

a dash of brandy or orange-flower water

the grated rind of one orange, one tangerine and one lemon

one tablespoonful of cocoa

honey and almonds to decorate

Method:

Toast the almonds briefly and grind them fairly roughly so that they are chunky rather than powdery.

Put them into a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients.

 

Stir them together adding enough water to make stiff dough. Be careful as after you add just a little water, the dough will still look dry. Do not add more water untill you knead it by hand. If it is still too dry add a little more water. Be carefull not to use too much water.

 

roll the dough and shape them into rectangles. Don't forget to make the traditional diamond pattern with the back of a knife.

 

Place them on well-greased baking-sheets and bake at 190 degrees celcius for 20 minutes.

They should be crisp at the edges but still soft. Don't worry if they feel soft, they will keep on hardening. If you leave them too long, they will be too hard.

Remove them from the oven and spread them with honey, scattering almonds on top.

The almonds will stick to the honey.

 

Tagliatelle with Meatballs

Here' s another classic which at first might sound difficult to prepare but is very easy and tasty.

Ingredients for 2

250g minced meat
1 spring fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 clove garlic chopped.
1 egg lightly beaten or breadcrumbs
plain flour for dusting
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion sliced
1 celery stick chopped
1 carrod chopped
1 spring small fresh rosemary chopped
350 ml passata
250g rigatoni
Parmesan cheese freshly grated
salt and pepper.

Method

Mix together the minced meat, parsley and garlic in a bowl, then stir in the egg and seaons with salt and pepper.

Shape the mixture into small meatballs, dust with flour and set aside. 

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the onion, celery carrot and rosemary and cook over a low heat stirring occasionaly for 5 minutes, then add the meatballs and increase the head to medium.

Cook until the meatballs are lightly browned all over, then add teh passata and season.
reduce the heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for about 40 minutes.

Cook the rigatoni in a large pan of salted water until al dente, then drain and tip into the main with the meatballs. 

Mix well and heat through for 2 mintues. 

Serve with parmesan.

Jerusalem Arthichokes Soup

Ah!!! this is one of my favourites...Jerusalem Artichokes are so tasteful. If you never used them in your kitchen before, give them a try and if you did but not for a soup, you should really try this recipe out.

You will need the following ingredients

Serves 3-4

Jerusalem Artichokes

500g Jerusalem artichokes

1 onion, roughly chopped

4 celery sticks roughly chopped

2 carrots roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves

3 tbsp olive oil

1.2 litre vegetable or chicken stock

4 tbsp double (heavy cream)

salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 200C / 400 F.  Scrub the artichokes well and half them lengthways.

Toss the arthicokes, onion, celery, carrots and garlic together in a rosting tin.  Add the olive oil, mix well and spread the vegetables out in the pan.

Roast the vegetables in the hot oven for 30-40 minutes, until they are soft and golden brown.  Stir them once during cooking so that the edges brown evenly.

Tip the roasted vegetables into a larger pan, scraping any bits from the roasting pan.

Add the stock and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat, cover and simmer the soup for 15 minutes.  Process or blend until smooth, then return the soup to the rinsed out pan.

Add the cream and reheat the soup gently, stirring to prevent it from sticking.  Do not boil.  Season to taste and serve seasoned with freshly ground black pepper.

Qastan tal-imbuljuta

It's beginning to get cold and I had been thinking of doing this recipie for a while... It reminds me of cosy winters at home with all the family.

Hope you enjoy it...

Kannoli tar-rikotta

These cornets / kannoli require specially shaped tin moulds which may be bought from any supermarket.

Ingredients

for the pastry

225g flour

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp drinking chocolate

2 tsp margerine

2 tsp shortening

2 tsp red wine

approx 470ml cold water

For the filling

400g rikotta

55 g plain chocolate

115 g glace cherries

55g icing sugar

115g blanched and roasted almonds

Method:

Mash the rikotta, chop up the chocolate, cherries and almonds.  stir these into the rikotta together with the sugar.  Make the pastry:  either place all ingredients in an electric mixer and blend, using a dough hook, or mix by hand, using the rubbing-in method.  Roll the pastry out thinly.  Cut into rounds with a cutter and place each round over a tube. Deep - fry the kannoli a few at a time turning them until they are evenly brown.  When the lemon rind gets brown, replace it with a fresh piece.  Cool the kannoli on absorbent paper.  They ought to be filled at the last possible moment.