Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Labne is a strained yogurt 'cheese', to make it you just need plain yogurt (I used a pot   Straight Up  from  The Collective Dairy ).  To strain the yogurt I used a cotton cloth, not too fine, but finer that a muslin cloth or cheese cloth. Place the cloth in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl, spoon the yogurt in, close the cloth over it and top with plate that will fit the shape of the strainer, and then with a weight. Leave in the fridge for one or even two days if you can. The collected liquid can be used in baking, and what you are left with is a creamy labne, ready eating, for spreading, or to make  Labne balls . Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Nothing could be easier, and with only two ingredients (and yes, two of my favourite NZ products:  Fresh As  and  The Collective Dairy ). I used many different  Fresh As powders and freeze dried fruit slices  (you can find a few recipes  here ) in the past, but this time the choice was mango, as I like mango ice cream, and I guessed that mango frozen yogurt would be good too! I mixed 3 tsp of mango powder (btw, this is just 100% mango) to 450 g (half a jar) of  Straight Up  yogurt, and the put it in the freezer for two hours, stirring from time to time. The I whipped everything with an immersion blender (so I didn't even need to take the yogurt out of its pot) and served it. Easy as! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

In Uruguay, Chile and Argentina I ate a lot of  dulce de leche , the delicious caramelized milk that you find in almost every sweet dish, from the famous  alfajores  to flans, from cakes to ice creams. This is a variation of my classic vanilla cupcake recipe, and in New Zealand if you cannot get dulce de leche you can use a can of caramel. Some people even make caramelized milk by boiling down a can of condensed milk for two or three hours, but starting with fresh milk is better,  this blog had a good step by step recipe . Dulce de leche cupcakes Ingredients 130 g butter 3 eggs 130 g sugar A few drops of pure vanilla essence 200 g self-rising flour 12 tsp dulce de leche Makes 12 cupcakes Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a 12-muffin tray with cupcake paper cups. Melt the butter in a jug, either in the microwave or in the oven (while the oven is warming up for the cupcakes). Place the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk,...

Alpine (wild) strawberry smoothie Ingredients: All the wild strawberries you can find One banana Natural apple juice Photos and Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

In Uruguay I have discovered  this vegetable , and I thought of using it to create a pasta sauce before going back to New Zealand (where I guess that I could use zucchini or small marrows??? We'll see). Ingredients 3 zapallitos 1 tbsp butter 500 ml vegetables stock 2 garlic cloves, peeled Half cup parsley leaves salt and black pepper to taste Pasta Parmesan to serve (optional) Wash and cut the zapallitos, then put in a pan with half of the butter and one garlic clove. Sauté and when the zapallitos start to dry up add the vegetable stock and cover. Cook until all the liquid has been absorbed and the zapallitos are creamy. In the meantime finely chopped the last garlic clove with the parsley and cook the pasta al dente. I used egg  Farfalle  (bow ties), made in Uruguay. Add the remaining butter and chopped parsley to the sauce and season with salt and pepper, then drain the pasta and mix. Serve immediately.  For vegans just substit...