Focaccia di Recco
A few days ago I received a text from my local deli shop, Provender Brown, announcing that my special order has been delivered … the crescenza. This fresh and creamy cheese is known in Italy as crescenza or stracchino and has a flavour and consistency like no other. Now that I’m on holiday I have more time to cook and bake so I decided to use some of this very precious cheese, precious as it’s usually quite difficult to find, to make a focaccia. This recipe is a traditional focaccia from the Ligurian town of Recco, although it’s made with few ingredients, the distinguished flavour of the crescenza and the…
My ultimate passion … bread!
I love making bread, taking few simple ingredients like flour, yeast, salt and water and create magic! Bread is at the base of every community. In Italy, as in many other countries, the mill and the wood oven used to be shared by many family to mill their grains and then bake their goods. Bread used to be the most consumed food in UK centuries ago and now is relegated to a small piece of bread at the beginning of the meal. I have to say that I miss the big bread basket that is forever present on the Italians tables and that in restaurants is removed only when the…
Mozzarella & basil Stromboli
Moving abroad had open my horizons and I discovered Italian recipes that don’t exist in Italy. Since then I tasted garlic bread, spaghetti and meatballs, pasta alfredo and many more dishes that are the results of Italian emigrants adapting their recipes to the customs of the country the moved to. As my neighbour give me a bowl full of amazing homegrown tomatoes, I decided to make this amazing bread to accompany a simple tomato salad and some baked feta. To bake the feta it’s very easy, just cut it in cubes, drizzle with olive oil and oregano and bake at 220C until golden brown on the top. This bread quickly becomes a…
