A simple rustic Italian apple pie recipe. I like this one mainly because it is mostly about the apple, without any other overwhelming flavors from other stuff, along with a crunchy crust you can’t go wrong. So over all an over a basic practical every day apple pie recipe.
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Italian crostoli pastry
Every part of Europe seems to have a version of the Crostoli pastry each with their own name, also called called “Angel wings”. I guess because of a strong influence from Italian immigrants in Australia we simply go by the Italian Crostoli.
Sometimes only Crostoli hits the spot. Light, sugary crunchy add a Cafe Late – perfection.
[Read more…] about Italian crostoli pastryBiscotti – Italian cookies
“Biscotti” simply means cooked twice, which, no surprises, is exactly how biscotti are cooked. These are a traditional Italian cookie that, according to wikipedia, goes back to roman times as the second baking would allow them to have a much longer shelf life. These days biscotti just make a great cookie to dunk in your coffee.
Biscotti
Ingredients
- 4 eggs 700gram
- 120 grams castor sugar
- 100 grams of chocolate bits I used dark
- 60 grams almonds (choped up to a “rustic” size)
- 190 grams dry fruit
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup olive oil light (not extra virgin as it has to strong a flavour)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract I actually used extract concentrate so 1/2 a tablespoon
- 1 tablespoon orange essence
- 1 tablespoon aniseed essence
- Rind of 1 lemon
- Rind of 1 orange
- 250 grams self-raising flour
- 150 grams plain flour
Instructions
- Beat eggs and sugar together until thick.
- Add nuts, chocolate and fruit and mix in.
- Add oil, milk, orange and aniseed essence, vanilla extract, lemon and orange rind and gently mix in. (At this point the mixture looks like an absolute mess)
- Sift the flours together and add, folding it into the mixture.
- Pour onto baking paper on a large baking tray, 6 – 8cm wide, 2-3 cm high (This bit will depend on the size of the oven 2 trays may be needed). There is an ancient Italian trick of folding up the baking paper to stop the dough spreading.
- Bake for 25-30 min until golden brown, the oven should be 200 C. Then remove it from the oven and let them cool right down.
- Using a very sharp knife cut up the log into 1-2cm wide slices.
- Spread pieces slice side down on a tray and grill each side until toasty golden brown. Should take a few minutes (Lets face it this will depend on how good your grill is, mine took 30 min a side)
- Cool down on a wire rack, good for 2 weeks (if they last that long)
Notes
Nutrition
Chicken Parmigiana Recipe
I hope that the Chicken Parmigiana video is fairly self explanatory. Chicken Parmigiana or “Parma” is is a bit of a traditional pub meal in Australia. The idea for using avocado on the chicken parmigiana came from taste.com.au.
Chicken Parmigiana (parma)
Ingredients
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- 6 tablespoons Napoli Tomato Sauce
- 2 cups shredded Tasty Cheddar Cheese
- 3 slices of Ham
- 1/2 Avocado
- Parmesan Cheese
- Olive Oil
- 2 Egg
- 1/2 cup Plain Flour
- 1/2 Bread Crumbs
- 1/2 Panko Bread Crumbs
Instructions
- Flatten the chicken breasts
- Crumb each chicken breast
- Pan fry on a moderate heat until just cooked through
- Place on a baking tray
- Cover each piece of chicken with about 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce.
- Tear up pieces of shaved or sliced ham and put on top.
- Slice up half an avocado, and place slices on top of chicken.
- Put a generous handful of shredded cheese on each piece.
- Grate some parmesan cheese over each piece.
- Put the chicken into a pre heated oven on about 200 C for about 4 minutes.
- Serve.
Notes
Ham can be substituted with prosciutto or fried bacon.
Nutrition
Making Fresh Pasta
Making fresh pasta from scratch is great fun and comes with the added gadget appeal of requiring a pasta machine. Here I am making Fettuccine as an example. The basic rule of thumb is one egg (70g) to 1cup (100grams) of flour. In this example I have used 400 grams of flour so 4 eggs needed. As eggs vary in size the dough may need a little more flour or a little water. When I am making fresh pasta I prefer the dough to be a little on the dry side.
Making Fresh Pasta
Ingredients
- 70 gram egg per 100 grams of flour
- 100 g plain flour per egg
Instructions
- Pasta machine needed, (get a decent Italian one it will last for years)
- Put flour in a bowl
- Stir in one egg at a time
- Mix until uniform large loose crumbs form
- Knead into a firm lump
- Divide into pieces ( for 4 eggs pasta split into 4)
- Set pasta machine to largest setting. Pass through the rollers 12-15 times folding sheet in half each time and turning 90 degrees.
- If the pasta sheet becomes tacky dust with flour before continuing.
- Once the pasta has reached a smooth (babies bottom) texture continue to the next step.
- Without folding this time turn the pasta machine down a notch
- Continue reducing by one notch until you reach the 2nd or 3rd last setting on the machine (6 on my machine). Passing the increasingly long sheet through the rollers between settings. Again if the pasta becomes tacky give a light dusting of flour.
Notes
Dust with flour
Put the sheet through the fettuccine cutter
Dust with flour and lay on tray (I will normally freeze the whole tray, then put the frozen pasta into portion sizes)