Cooking Together Italian – Recipes
Our cooking together cookery classes are as much about learning to cook as they are a sociable experience. We hope you enjoyed your class 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 Gamberi with Piadina Flatbread;
Main: Creamy Chicken a with a White Wine Squash Sauce Tortellini with Herb Pesto and Red Pepper and Tomato Puree;
Dessert: Chocolate Brownie;
Brushetta ala Busarra
Ingredients – Serves 6:
- – 6x Chunky slice of sourdough, toasted and rubbed with fresh garlic (we used piadina flatbread)
- – 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
- – 3 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
- – 600g prawns, medium-sized, deveined
- – 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- – 1 small onion, golden, peeled and finely chopped
- – 60ml of dry red wine
- – 200g of cherry tomatoes
- – 200g chopped tinned tomatoes
- – 1 dried chilli, crushed 9or fresh)
- – fine sea salt
- – freshly ground black pepper
- – 1 handful of parsley leaves, minced
Method:
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet set over a medium heat. Add the prawns and cook for about two minutes per side, ensuring that they don’t overlap, set aside. Add the onion to the same pan and fry for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the garlic and cook until soft and translucent.
- Pour in the wine, increase the heat to medium-high and allow it to evaporate.
- 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.
Piadina Flatbread
Ingredients – Serves 2:
- – 185g plain or 00 flour – plus extra for dusting
- – 20 ml of olive oil
- – 80ml water
- – 0.5tsp of baking powder
- – 1tbsp of dried oregano
- – 2tbsp of grated parmesan
Method:
- Add the flour, baking powder, parmesan, oregano, olive oil & 80ml water to the mixing bowl, stir all together using a wooden spoon…once it all combines, take the dough with your hand until it becomes a springy dough. If your dough is too sticky, add a little more flour. If too crumbly, add a little more water.
- Set Aside – it doesn’t need to rest for long, but you can wait until you need to cook.
- Split dough into 8 balls, heat frying pan to high heat, while the temperature builds, sprinkle flour on clean work surface or board, and some on your rolling pin.
- Take a ball of dough, flatten into rough circle with your hand then roll until thin, keep turning and flipping over.
- Add 2 -3 flatbreads to your pan at a time and cook until you see the piadinas blister and char.
- Once both sides cooked, keep wrapped in tea towel – this softens your flatbreads.
Confit Chicken Legs
Ingredients:
- – 2 tbs salt
- – 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- – 1 tbsp cracked pepper
- – 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
- – 4 chicken legs (1 1/4 lb/600 g)
- – 4 cups olive oil (approx.)
Method:
- Toss together salt, thyme, pepper, and lemon zest; sprinkle all over chicken legs in bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 150°C. Arrange chicken in large Dutch oven in single layer.
- Pour oil over top, adding enough oil to submerge chicken completely. Cover and bake for 2 to 2 ½ hours or until chicken is very tender but not falling off the bone.
- Let stand in oil for 30 minutes. Carefully transfer to foil-lined baking pan fitted with metal rack. Broil on centre rack for about 10 minutes or until skin is crisp. Let stand for 5 minutes.
White Wine Squash Sauce
Ingredients:
- – 1 small butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, and diced
- – 1 white onion, diced
- – 2 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed
- – Pinch of saffron
- – 100ml of dry white wine
- – 400ml double cream
- – Handful of chopped chives
- – 1tbsp of olive oil
- – 2 sage leaves
- – Seasoning
Method:
- Heat up a medium size saucepan with oil. Sweat of the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes.
- Add the squash and seasoning, sauté until golden brown.
- Pour in the wine and saffron and reduce by half to cook of the alcohol and prevent bitterness.
- Add the double cream and cook on low heat until the squash is soft and blend the sauce until smooth.
- Finish with chopped sage.
Tortellini Dough
Ingredients:
- – 2 medium eggs
- – 200g ‘00’ flour, plus extra for dusting
Method:
- Put eggs and flour in a food processor and process until smooth. The mixture will look like breadcrumbs at this stage. 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 and pesto.
- 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 10 circles. (Any leftover dough can be frozen to use another time.)
- 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.
- 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.
- Serve the tortellini with the pesto spooned over the top.
Herb Pesto
Ingredients – Serves 4:
- – 1 clove of garlic
- – 1/2 big bunch of fresh basil
- – Handful of chives
- – Handful of coriander
- – 1 handful of pine nuts
- – 1 good handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- – extra virgin olive oil
- – 1 lemon
Method:
- Peel the garlic, then pound in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.
- Pick, roughly chop and add the basil, followed by coriander and chives, then blend in a food processor.
- Add the pine nuts (very lightly toast first, if you like) to the mixture and blend again, same with 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.
Red Pepper & Tomato Puree
Ingredients – Serves 6:
- – 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- – 1 1-inch-thick slice of crusty bread, torn into pieces
- – 1/2 cup blanched almonds, chopped or slivered (can substitute hazelnuts, peeled)
- – 5-6 garlic cloves, chopped
- – 1 teaspoon salt
- – 1 15-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, or canned whole tomatoes (including the juice) that have been de-seeded, or 1 pound fresh tomatoes that have been par-boiled, skins removed, and de-seeded
- – 1 8-ounce jar of roasted red bell peppers, drained
- – 1 tablespoon smoked paprika (preferred) or sweet paprika
- – 2-3 tablespoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
Method:
Sauté torn bread and almonds:
- Heat the olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, sauté the bread and almonds, stirring often, until they just begin to brown.
- Add the garlic and sauté another 1-2 minutes, stirring once or twice.
Remaining ingredients:
- Place the contents of the sauté pan into a food processor with the remaining ingredients—salt, tomatoes, roasted bell peppers, smoked paprika, vinegar. Purée until smooth.
Food Sorcery Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients – Makes: 24 brownies
- – ¾ cup (180g) unsalted butter
- – 8oz (250g) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
- – 4 large eggs
- – 1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar
- – ½ cup (100g) light brown sugar
- – ¼ tsp salt
- – 1 ½ tsp vanilla essence
- – 1 cup (150g) plain flour
- – 8 oz (250g) milk chocolate, coarsely chopped.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350F (180C gas 4 )
- Butter and flour a 9x 13 inch (33 x 22 cm) baking pan.
- Line with foil leaving pieces to foil overhanging the sides.
- Place the butter and dark chocolate in a double boiler and stir over barely simmering water until melted, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
- Beat the eggs and both sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until creamy, then with the mixer on low speed, beat in the salt and chocolate mixture, followed by the vanilla.
- Gradually beat in the flour, stir in the milk chocolate and then spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake until the brownies are set in the middle, 25-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the centre will come out slightly gooey.
- Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then use the overhanging foil to lift the brownies out of the pan.
- Remove the foil and place on a cutting board. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 mins before cutting.
We hope you enjoyed the class!
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