Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I had a great summer of red and yellow cherry tomatoes, the reds are always the best for flavour, but the yellow are pretty to look at and I like a contrast of colour on my plate, so why not! This schiacciata is easy as it doesn't need muck kneading. For the schiacciata: Place 300 ml warm water in a large mixing bowl, add 2 tsp active yeast granules and 1/4 tsp raw sugar. Wait 5 minutes then add 500 g high grade flour and 1 tbsp wheat gluten flour, plus a good pinch of salt. Mix well then dust with four, cover with cling film and let it rise for 2 hours. After 2 hours place a little olive oil on your hands and then gently mix the dough, pick it up and place it on a baking sheet cut so that it will fit you over tray (I have a 90cm oven so one long tray is good for me, for a standard oven divide the dough into two pieces). Roll the dough to cover the baking paper and then place on the baking tray. Brush with more oil if you like, then cut the cherry tomatoes into halves and pla...

One of my favourite dishes from my village in Italy, borlenghi or berleghi. A bit like a savoury crepe, made with a simple batter, just flour, a pinch of salt and enough water to thin it down to a glue consistency (in fact the batter is called  colla , i.e. glue!). Then it is cooked between two very hot and greased flat iron plates called  cotte  and turned several times until cooked (still flexible and soft but a little crispy on the borders). For the dressing traditionally lard is used, but since I don't eat meat I use salted butter mixed with finely chopped fresh rosemary and garlic. Then add parmigiano reggiano and fold. Eat immediately, and patiently wait for another one!  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

It is so cool to make grissini, I just use some basic bread dough (500g high grade flour, 2 tbsp gluten flour, 300ml water, pinch of salt, brewer yeast and pinch of sugar), add a bit of olive oil and stretch out long grissini which I roll in polenta flour before baking. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Cabbages are cheap and healthy, and when I buy one I can cook with it for a family of four for three days! Usually I start with cabbage rolls, to use the larger leaves, and these can be done in a zillion ways! I have another  good  Vegan recipe here , but today for the filling I used stale bread. But first thing first: Wash the cabbage leaves (the bigger outer leaves, about 15, and steam or boil until soft but not too soft! In the meantime put one onion, one carrot, two celery sticks with leaves and a little parsley in the food processor and mince. Heat two tbsp of olive oil in a pan and sauté the vegetables, stirring often, for 10 minutes. Soak some old bread in water, doesn't matter what kind of bread, I had two white bread rolls and some seed sourdough, so I used those.  Squeeze the water out of the bread and crumble it into the pot with the cooking vegetables. Add a little vegetable stock if necessary and cook everything for about 15 minu...

Tonight's dinner,  gnocco fritto  with the stracchino  Massimiliano (il Casaro)  made! First stracchino made in NZ, Max approves! Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I felt like baking something savoury, like cheese scones, but instead of making individual ones (like you are supposed to do with scones) I made a cheese scone ring, it was soft and delicious, especially when still warm from the oven, cut in slices and served with butter. A great afternoon snack for a rainy day, when it is nice to have the oven on and the kitchen warm and smelling of baking. Ingredients: 1 egg plus 3 eggs yolks 200 g self raising flour 100 g grated cheese (like Edam) 1 pinch dried mixed Italian herbs (rosemary, sage, parsley, thyme) 1 cup milk Salt to taste Mix all the ingredients and pour into a ring tin greased with butter. Bake at 180°C until the top is golden and the "big scone" is shrinking away from the edges of the tin.  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

This recipe comes from my book  Savour , and I have just seen on the  Amazon website  that they have 4 'used' copies from $2.42 (plus postage), good to know as now it is almost impossible to find in New Zealand.  Rye Bread Ingredients: 300 ml warm water 2 tsp active yeast granules 1/2 tsp brown sugar 300 g rye flour 200 g high grade flour 1 tsp salt 1 tbsp molasses 1 tsp caraway seeds Place the warm water in a large bowl, add the yeast and brown sugar then set aside for 5 minutes. When the yeast starts to bubble, add both kinds of flour, salt, molasses and caraway seeds. Work into a dough for about 10 minutes using your fingers; it will be quite sticky so knead it in the bowl. Shape into a ball, sprinkle it with rye flour and leave to rise in the bowl, covered with a damp tea towel, for about 2 hours. Punch the dough and knead it for 1 minute. Form into an oval shape (this time I made it into a long loaf instead), sprinkle with m...

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 doug...

The original recipe (which was for a silver beet, not spinach, paneer) is  here , but I changed a few things, like adding celery, and more spices. Fist sauté with 2 tbsp of vegetable oil or ghee 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tsp turmeric. Then add a couple of roughly chopped shallots, a good pinch of salt and finally 500 g chopped frozen spinach (defrosted at room temperature) and three celery stalks, with leaves. Add a little water too, about a cup, and simmer for 20 minutes. Then add 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp freshly grated ginger, and salt to taste. In the meantime cut a block of paneer and sauté until lightly golden on the borders (Vegan use tofu). Blend the spinach with an immersion blender, then add the paneer. This is my very favorite Indian dish!  Ah, and I made chapati too, the edges are not very smooth, but I was in a hurry! I used 1 cup wholemeal flour, mixed with 2 tbsp vegetable oil and then enoug...

My motto is "when in doubt bake some bread!" Not cake but bread, my kids like bread over cakes, which is good, since I like it too! This is easy, a mixture between flat bread and focaccia really: place 300 ml warm water in a large mixing bowl, add 2 tsp active yeast granules and 1/4 tsp raw sugar. Wait 5 minutes then add 400 g high grade flour and 1 tbsp wheat gluten flour, plus a good pinch of salt. Mix with one hand (sticky!), then dust with four, cover with cling film and let it rise for 2 hours. After 2 hours flour your hands and then pick up the dough and divide into two pieces which you will pull to make two long loaves (like in the picture).  Place the loaves on a long baking tray (I have a 90 cm oven) or make 4 smaller loaves if you have a regular oven. brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and then with seeds. I used sesame seeds on one loaf and cumin seeds on the other one. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200° C for approximately 20-25 mi...

My silverbeet is not big enough to be picked, but I was working in the veggie garden and I broke one entire little plant by mistake. Well, I cut it right back, and maybe it will grow again. I  saut é  the leaves with olive oil, some  onion weed  (again) and a few black olives. A pinch of salt and pepper and some grilled bread for bruschetta, and lunch for two was ready, maybe unplanned, but ready! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

More than a recipe this is a serving suggestion for breakfast! We like to have (free range) eggs and soldiers on Saturday morning, but even better if instead of 'soldiers' made with toast strips, we have thick grissini (Italian bread sticks). Just dip the grissini into the soft boiled eggs and enjoy! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Canederli ( Knödel in German) is something my Mum made often when I was a child. There is no strict recipe because they are made with left-overs, and the base is left-over bread. But  here  you can find my basic recipe, with step by step instructions. I really prefer them in a broth, but the other day I wanted to make them with onions and cheese, I didn't think of publishing them on the blog as the photos are not exactly pretty, but my husband loved them! He said that he actually preferred them served this way! Once again left over bread was put into good use! Canederli with Cheese and Onion Sauce Prepare the canederli and cook them in a light vegetables stock (instructions  here ). Peel and finely slice 4 onions (white or brown) and simmer them slowly with a little olive oil and salt. I cooked them in my Le Creuset pot, on low and keeping the lid on, for about 45 minutes. I added a little stock from the canederli from time to time, but j...

This type of bread is typical of my area of Italy, in the province of Modena. In other parts of Italy some people call them tigelle , but tigelle is the name of the terracotta disks in which they were originally baked in. Terracotta disks are still used, but today most people use large iron plates with long handles called cotte , or the more modern version, made from aluminium. Personally I still prefer the iron cotte , they are heavy and many years ago I carried them to New Zealand via Japan, almost half of my luggage allowance, but worth it. Great food for cold nights, and the children go crazy about them! They helped, Max chopping the rosemary that goes in the filling, and Aranxta dividing the bread dough into small balls. The balls are flattened and then placed on one of the hot plates, which I greased with vegetable oil (not olive oil, I used rice bran oil, which has a high burning point and no flavour). Then you cover them with the other hot plate. So this bread 'bakes'...