Cooking Together Italian Lunch Club – Bruschetta; Saltimbocca;
Our cooking together cookery classes are as much about learning to cook as they are a sociable experience. We hope you enjoyed your evening and are ready to recreate the meals at home. The recipes work really well as delicious dinners and make a great combination for dinner party ideas.
You Cooked:
Starter: Bruschetta ala Busarra;
Main: Chicken Saltimbocca with Basil Pesto, Homemade Pasta and Roasted Red Pepper and Mascarpone Sauce;
Dessert: Lemon Posset
Brushetta ala Busarra
Ingredients – Serves 6:
- – 6x Chunky slice of sourdough, toasted and rubbed with fresh garlic
- – 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
- – 1 garlic clove, crushed and peeled
- – 1kg prawns, medium-sized, deveined
- – 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- – 1 small onion, golden, peeled and finely chopped
- – 60ml of dry white wine
- – 200g of sun blushed tomatoes, finely chopped
- – 1 dried chilli, crushed
- – fine sea salt
- – freshly ground black pepper
- – 1 handful of parsley leaves, minced
Method:
- Heat the olive oil in a very large skillet set over a medium heat. Add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the onion and cook until soft and translucent, stirring often so it doesn’t colour.
- Add the prawns and cook for about two minutes per side, ensuring that they don’t overlap. Pour in the wine, increase the heat to medium-high and allow it to evaporate. Remove the prawns; transfer them to a plate while you carry on with the sauce.
- Remove the garlic and add the tomatoes and crushed chilli. Lower the heat, cover and cook until the tomatoes have fallen apart and look saucy; add a splash of water if needed to help the sauce come together. Taste and season.
- Now, put the prawns back into the skillet and stir to coat in the sauce. Increase the heat and sauté for about five more minutes, then remove from the heat and sprinkle with parsley.
- Serve on toasted sourdough rubbed with fresh garlic.
Chicken Saltimbocca
Ingredients – Serves 4:
- – 4 (6 Ounce) Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
- – 3/4 Cup All-purpose Flour Seasoned With Salt & Pepper
- – 1 1/2 Tablespoons Minced Fresh Sage Leaves
- – 8 Thin Slices of Prosciutto
- – 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
- – 1 1/2 Cups Dry Vermouth or Dry White Wine
- – 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
- – Salt & Pepper to Taste
- – 4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
Method:
- Slice each chicken breast in half lengthwise, then pound thin with a meat mallet. Chicken should be about 1/4 inch thick.
- Place the seasoned flour in a shallow bowl, and dredge each piece of chicken on both sides, then place on a baking sheet.
- Sprinkle the top of each cutlet with the chopped sage, then cover with a slice of prosciutto.
- Press the prosciutto to help it to adhere to the chicken and then refrigerate until needed.
- 30 minutes before you plan to cook, remove the chicken from the refrigerator.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat until lightly smoking, then place 4 cutlets in the pan prosciutto side down.
- Cook the cutlet until you can see the edges are beginning to brown, about 3 minutes.
- Carefully flip the cutlets over and reduce heat to medium and cook until no longer pink inside, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Move the cutlets to a warm platter, cover with foil, and cook the remaining cutlets in the same manner.
- Once all the cutlets are cooked and moved to the platter, add the wine 9or vermouth) and lemon juice to the pan and scrapping up and browned bits, cook over high heat until the liquid has been reduced to about 1/2 cup.
- Add the butter and season with salt and pepper and stir until blended.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and garnish with fresh sage leaves.
Basil Pesto
Ingredients – Serves 4:
- – ½ clove garlic
- – 1 big bunch of fresh basil
- – 1 handful of pine nuts
- – 1 good handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- – extra virgin olive oil
- – 1 lemon, optional
Method:
- Peel the garlic, then pound in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.
- Pick, roughly chop and add the basil leaves, then bash to a paste (or pulse in a food processor).
- Add the pine nuts (very lightly toast first, if you like) to the mixture and pound again, then stir in half the Parmesan.
- Drizzle in some oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce and get it to an oozy consistency.
- Add most of the remaining cheese, then season to perfection with salt and black pepper. Have a taste and keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency.
- Add a squeeze of lemon juice at the end to give it a little twang, if you like, but it’s not essential.
Homemade Tagilatelle
Ingredients – Serves 4:
- – 2 large eggs
- – 200g of 00 flour, plus extra for dusting
Method:
- Place 180g of the 00 flour onto a large wooden board. Pour the remaining 20g of flour into a small bowl, ready to use if necessary.
- Shape the flour into a volcano with a large hole in the centre, then crack the eggs and pour them into the middle.
- Using a fork, lightly beat the eggs, then mix in the flour a little at time. It is essential that the flour is gradually beaten into the eggs to ensure the walls of the volcano don’t break too soon. Add the reserved 20g of flour if the dough is too moist.
- Bring the mixture together with a spatula and your hands until you obtain a consistent ball of dough.
- Work the dough with the heel of your hand for 10–15 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth and very elastic. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Dust a wooden board with 1 tbsp of flour. Unwrap the dough and flatten it with a rolling pin. Roll out the dough into thin pasta sheets, less than 1mm thick.
- If you have a pasta machine, divide the dough into 4 before rolling it out. Flatten it to a rough square so that it fits through the machine at its highest setting. Roll it through & fold it back over it to itself. Rotate it through 90 degrees and repeat this a few times. This releases the gluten which increases the elasticity of the dough and stops it cracking & tearing. Now reduce the thickness of the machine 1 click at a time until you reach the 2ndlast setting. You can feed it through the cutting attachment.
- To cut the pasta sheets into tagliatelle, roll the sheets up and cut into large ¾cm strips. Unravel the cut tagliatelle strips and twirl into little nests. Dust the nests liberally with flour to stop them from sticking.
- Cook the tagliatelle within a few hours in boiling salted water for 3–5 minutes before serving with your favourite sauce.
- Alternatively, freeze for up to 1 month. To freeze the pasta, layer the tagliatelle flat on a tray lined with parchment paper and freeze for 1 hour, then transfer to a freezer bag or another suitable container.
Roasted Red Pepper and Mascarpone Sauce
Ingredients – Serves 2:
- – 1 can of chopped tomatoes
- – 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
- – 1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped
- – Salt & Pepper
- – 1 Banana Shallot, finely diced
- – 100g of roasted red pepper, sliced
- – 2 tbsp of mascarpone
- – 1 teaspoon sugar
- – Sprig Thyme – stalks removed
- – Teaspoon of olive oil
- – Lemon – squeeze.
- – Splash of oil for cooking
Method:
- Heat a non-stick saucepan on medium heat, add oil, sauté shallot for a couple of minutes.
- Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds longer.
- Add all the other ingredients, leaving the mascarpone for the end, just fold it through before serving.
- Simmer the sauce for at least 15 minutes, correct the seasoning, garnish with freshly chopped basil or parsley.
Lemon Posset
Ingredients – Serves 3-4:
- – 300ml of double cream
- – 60g caster sugar
- – 1 juicy lemon
Method:
- Squeeze the lemon.
- Bring the cream and sugar to the boil (careful it should just boil but not boil over). Once you see it boil – stay there and boil for exactly 3 minutes.
- Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the lemon juice.
- Strain this into a jug and leave to cool for 20minutes.
- If you wish to put a crumbled biscuit in the bottom of the receptacle – this is the time to do it. If not gently pour the cream into the glasses.
- Refrigerate for 6 hours minimum.
- Serve with fruit and edible flowers
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