Asparagus Milanese Style

From Mietta’s Italian Family Recipes, Mietta O’Donnell, Black Inc., 2000.

Asparagus is a vegetable that works well with a simple treatment. This style of serving asparagus is so good.

A pot of salted water was put on the stove and the asparagus added when it reached boiling point. Now a pan was put on to heat up and butter was added. When the butter had begun to froth eggs were added to be fried. When the white were cooked a little salt was sprinkled on.

Now the asparagus was taken out and placed on the plates. Grated parmesan was sprinkled over and an egg placed on top.  The dregs of butter in the pan were poured over as a sauce.

This is such a quick dish to make and wonderful eating. The vegetable still had a slight crunch to it, the parmesan had slightly melted from the heat of the egg and the yolk made a golden sauce with the butter. Writing this makes me want it again right now.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔ 

Focaccia

From Mietta’s Italian Family Recipes, Mietta O’Donnell, Black Inc., 2000.

I am very fond of focaccia so I just had to try and make it. We were having a soup for dinner so an accompanying bread is always good to go with it.

A teaspoon of yeast was dissolved in 200 ml of warm water and left to do its work. A pinch of sugar was added.

While this was happening a large potato was put on to boil. When it was cooked it was put through a fine sieve and 100 g measured out. This was put into a little over 300 g of plain flour. I used 00 flour.

From here on the instructions were a little vague. We are told to work it in an electric mixer with a dough hook but we are not told what. After a bit of deliberation I decided it had to be the flour and potato plus the yeast mixture.

While the dough was mixing a tablespoon of olive oil was dribbled in and the mixing continued until it was all taken up. The ball of dough was lightly dusted with flour and left in a warm place to rise for two hours. There is a carefully detailed explanation of rising and the time it could possibly take but mine was well risen by the end of the time.

The dough was punched back and left to rise again. This took about one and a half hours. It was now taken, placed on an oiled baking sheet and formed into its loaf shape. Again it was left to rise some more and then it was time to poke your fingers in it to make dents. It was brushed with oil and put into a very hot oven until cooked.

It turned out to be not a bad effort. It was not anywhere near the expensive focaccias you purchase but it was certainly an edible bread. The crust was really crunchy and the bread was airy and light. I think it could have done with a little salt added to the mix.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Gnocchi with Chestnut and Fontina Cheese

From Mietta’s Italian Family Recipes, Mietta O’Donnell, Black Inc., 2000.

Chestnuts have appeared in the markets which set me looking for recipes that included them. I had been looking at Mietta’s recipe for gnocchi with chestnuts for a while so this was the to make it.

Firstly the potato had to be boiled and mashed and the chestnuts boiled and peeled. It needed equal amounts of potato mash and gnocchi chestnut puree. I used 200g of each.

On the benchtop I measured out flour, a quantity one quarter the weight of the potatoes and chestnuts (100g in this case). Some freshly grated nutmeg was grated on top. The ingredients were combined to make a dough.

The dough was then taken in portions and rolled out into sausages that were then cut into gnocchi-sized pieces.

A pot of water was put on the stovetop to boil. A frying pan was also made ready with butter and a little olive oil to prevent it burning.  

Fontina cheese was cut up into small blocks. A mixture of herbs (parsley, sage, basil and tarragon) were chopped.

When the pot of water boiled the gnocchi were dropped in and cooked until they rose to the surface and the pan was turned on to heat the butter and oil. The gnocchi were then scooped up with a slotted spoon and placed in the frying pan. The fontina was added, and then the herbs.  Once the fontina had begun to melt it was ready and could be dished onto plates and served.

I think I was a little late in taking the gnocchi off the heat as the fontina quickly disappeared into the mix. It still tasted fine though. This is a pleasant variation on the standard gnocchi and worth remembering when chestnuts come into season.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Caponata

Caponata

from Mietta’s Italian Family Recipes, Mietta O’Donnell, Black Inc., 2002.

Eggplant, tomatoes and celery: a great mix. I’ve always been fond of caponata but have never made it before. It was good to find it in this book of Italian family favourites.

It’s an easy dish to make. The eggplant is cooked separately to begin with and put aside. The onion is fried, then tomatoes and celery added. Finally the eggplant goes back into the mix. Capers and olives are added. Then vinegar with sugar is heated and poured onto the mix to be simmered a little longer to ensure all the flavours are blended.

A tasty starter or, with some rice, a nice light meal.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔