Big & Little Cooks – Italian Recipes

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Big & Little Cooks

Big & Little Cooks – Italian Recipes

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Big & Little Cooks – Italian Recipes

We hope you enjoyed your class and are ready to recreate the meals at home. The recipes work really well as mid-week dinners for all the family.

We Cooked:

  1. Main & Sides: Sunblushed Tomato and Ricotta Tortellini, Choritzo Arrabbiata Sauce and Cheesy Garlic Bread
  2. Dessert: Chocolate Fondant

Sunblushed Tomato & Ricotta Tortellini

Ingredients: Serves 2

For the pasta (makes more dough than needed for this recipe):

  • – 2 medium eggs
  • – 200g ‘00’ flour, plus extra for dusting

For the filling:

  • – 150g ricotta
  • – 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • – 50g of sun blushed tomatoes. chopped
  • – 50g Parmesan (or a similar vegetarian hard cheese), grated
  • – 1 lemon, zest only
  • – pinch grated nutmeg
  • – salt and freshly ground pepper
  • – knob of butter, to serve

Method:

  1. Put eggs and flour in a food processor and process until smooth. The mixture will look like breadcrumbs at this stage. (This could be done by hands only, you will just have to increase kneading time slightly). Tip out onto a lightly floured board and bring together using your hands. Knead the dough until it’s no longer sticky. Cover and rest in the fridge while you make the filling.
  2. For the filling, mix the ricotta, parmesan, tomatoes, garlic, lemon zest, nutmeg and a pinch of salt and pepper until well combined. Transfer to a piping bag or a plastic food bag with the corner snipped off or just use a teaspoon to fill your pasta.
  3. To assemble the tortellini, roll the pasta dough through all the sizes on the pasta machine starting with the widest setting and finishing on the smallest setting when the pasta is very thin. Using a 9cm/3½in round cutter, cut out as many circles as you can. (Any leftover dough can be frozen to use another time.)
  4. Pipe a heaped teaspoon amount of filling inside each pasta circle and fold in half to create a half moon shape. Wet the edges and press down to help them stick. Pull the two narrow ends together to form a tortellini shape.
  5. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Cook the pasta in the boiling water for 2–3 minutes, or until al dente. Drain well.
  6. Meanwhile, put a frying pan over a medium–high heat and add a knob of butter. Cook until lightly browned and starting to bubble. Then add the hazelnut pesto and gently heat through.
  7. Serve the tortellini with a sauce of your choice and parmesan on top.

Chorizo Arrabbiata Sauce

Ingredients – Serves 2:

  • 1 Banana shallot, diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 250g of Passata
  • Handful of sun blushed tomatoes, chopped
  • Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
  • 1/4 chorizo sausage, diced
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt & Pepper

Garnish

  • Basil leaves
  • Sprig Thyme – stalks removed, roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp of chopped parsley

Method:

  1. In a small pan, heat the olive oil then soften the shallot for a minute and add diced chorizo. Cook for additional 3 minutes.
  2. Add garlic, cook for an extra minute.  
  3. Then add all the tomatoes and stir – season with salt and pepper, plus a teaspoon of sugar, simmer for 15 minutes.
  4. Finish with chopped herbs lemon zest.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Ingredients: Serves 2

  • 2 slices Italian bread such as Ciabatta
  • 2 tbsp salted butter, room temperature
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • handful shredded mozzarella
  • 2 tsp grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 tsp chopped parsley
  • Salt & pepper
 

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Slice bread in half lengthwise. Cut two sheets of foil about 24-inch long and place side by side letting one slightly overlap the other on a rimmed baking tray. Place bread, cut side up, on baking sheet.
  2. In a mixing bowl, using a fork, stir together butter, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Spoon and spread mixture evenly over entire surface of both bread halves (working to coat the edges too so they don’t burn). Wrap foil over bread and crimp edges together and roll ends of foil up. Bake 10 minutes.
  3. Remove from oven, open foil and sprinkle bread evenly with cheeses. Return to oven, bake uncovered, 5 – 6 minutes.
  4. Sprinkle with parsley. Cut into slices and serve warm.

Chocolate Fondant

Ingredients – Makes 2

    • 50g Plain Flour
    • 50g Caster Sugar
    • 50g Butter
    • 50g Dark Chocolate (60-70% cocoa solids)
    • 1 Egg
    • 1 Egg yolk (Optional: for extra gooeyness)

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 190˚C/170˚C fan/Gas 5
  2. Grease 2 ramekins with butter.
  3. Dust inside of ramekins with cocoa powder
  4. Put the butter and chocolate into a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water (don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water underneath) and leave until melted, stirring occasionally.
  5. Remove from the heat then add the rest of the ingredients and mix together until smooth and well combined.
  6. Pour the chocolate mixture into the ramekins.
  7. Leave to set in fridge for minimum 20minutes but can be overnight.
  8. Bake for 12 minutes – the fondants are ready when you shake each one gently and only the middle moves a little.
  9. Remove from the oven, and gently loosen the edge.
  10. Carefully invert each fondant onto a plate. Serve with crème fraiche or vanilla ice cream, mint and berries.

We hope you enjoyed the class!

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