Stromboli (Focaccia filled with Spinach and Mozzarella)

By Matthew Luca

A Delicious alternative to the flat Focaccia bread, this beauty is filled with melting cheese and spinach. The origins of Stromboli suggest this type of rolled bread is named after an Italian love child based on a film called "Stromboli" and it sure tastes dangerously good, traditionally made with either Italian bread or pizza dough this focaccia version is amazing.

Ingredients Bread

360g Strong white Bread Flour

7g Fast acting Dried Yeast

200ml warm water

1 Tablespoon olive oil (plus extra for glazing and greasing.)

1 tsp fine table Salt

1/2 tsp caster sugar

1 tbsp Coarse sea salt

1 sprig chopped rosemary

Ingredients Filling

2 Mozzarella balls (drained and torn into pieces)

2 tbsp Parmesan cheese (grated)

1 large handful spinach (chopped)

3 Garlic Cloves (chopped)

1 tsp cracked black pepper

1 sprig chopped Oregano

1 tbsp Olive oil

Method

To make the focaccia, In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, fine salt, sugar and mix together with your hand, then add the yeast, mix again and make a well in the middle. Pour in the warm water, olive oil and mix together with your hand to form a dough. When combined on a lightly floured surface knead for around 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic in texture.

In another large mixing bowl smear the inside with some olive oil ensuring its fully coated and transfer the kneaded dough to the bowl, roll it a couple of times in the oil and then cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise for around 1-2 hours until doubled in size.

On a floured surface roll out the dough gently to form a rectangle shape, ensuring not to roll it too thinly, lightly dust the dough and cover with cling film for around 10 minutes. At this stage preheat your oven to 190c.

Time to make the filling, add the mozzarella, parmesan, spinach, garlic, pepper, oil and oregano into a bowl and mix together.

Remove the cling film from the rolled out dough and spread over the filling, then roll up to form a loose cylinder shape and tuck the ends under to seal the focaccia. Grease a baking sheet with some olive oil and transfer the bread carefully onto it, cover loosely with cling film and leave to rise for a further 30 minutes.

Remove the clingfilm and with a skewer pierce a few holes in the top of focaccia and sprinkle over the rosemary and course sea salt, plus a light drizzle of olive oil.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 40-45 minutes until golden brown and firm to touch.

When ready remove from the oven a place on a wire cooling rack and drizzle over a generous amount of olive oil to glaze. Leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving. Best served warm as the melting cheese is the highlight of the Stromboli.

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Banana e pane alle mandorle ( Banana and Almond Bread )

By Matthew Luca

A delicious recipe that turns a few over ripe banana's into something perfect for afternoon tea.

Ingredients

2 large, or 3 small over ripe Banana's (Mashed)

Handful of flaked Almonds

130g Unsalted Butter

10g Olive oil

150g Caster sugar

160g Strong bread flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 large eggs (beaten)

2 Tablespoons Icing sugar plus extra for dusting

Method

Preheat oven to 160c. Grease the inside of a loaf tin and dust some flour around the inside of the tin to coat the base and sides.

In a mixing bowl add the butter, oil and caster sugar then cream the butter and sugar until combined. add some of the beaten egg and mix thoroughly, then add the remaining egg and mix together again.

Put the mashed banana's into the bowl and bind together, add half the flour and fold in until the mix is holding together, then add the remaining flour, baking powder and fold again until combined.

Empty the cake mix into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for around 40 minutes until risen and firm. To check if it's done stab the middle with a skewer, remove and if it comes out clean then it's ready, if not continue baking for around 5-10 minutes.

When ready remove tin from the oven, allow to rest for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. When cool, mix the icing sugar with a touch of water to make a thick icing and pour over the loaf to glaze, finally sprinkle over some flaked almonds and dust with some more icing sugar.

The loaf will keep in an airtight container for up-to 4 days or can be frozen for upto 6 weeks.

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Pizza Salami

By Matthew Luca

Not even the Godfather could refuse a slice of a classic Italian Pizza, the traditional thin crispy base topped with tomato, mozzarella and casereccia salami is beautiful. No wonder its one of the worlds favourite foods but this recipe goes back to the true origins of pizza where its not perfectly round, a little crispier than your usual takeaway and that's how I like it. I baked this pizza on a stone but equally you can use a pizza tray.

Pizza Dough

Ingredients (For 2 Pizza bases) what's the point to make only one :-)
300g strong white bread flour or 00 flour
7g Fast acting dried yeast
210ml warm water
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons Peanut Oil or Olive Oil (plus extra for greasing)

Method
In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, salt and make a well in the middle. Pour the yeast into a measuring jug along with the warm water, stir and then pour into the centre well of the flour, then then add the oil. Using a fork mix the flour towards the centre of the bowl until crumbly. The using your hands combine together to form a dough.
On a floured surface, knead the dough for around 5 minutes until elastic, cut the dough ball in half and knead each ball for another 1 minute each. using a couple of bowls or deep baking tray, lightly cover the dough balls with some oil and lightly grease the bowls or deep baking tray. Place the dough balls in the tray or bowls and cover with cling film and leave to prove for around 1-2 hours.

Once proved, pre-heat the oven to 200c, lightly flour a work surface and press the dough outwards from the middle of the dough ball turning in a circular motion until thin and a good size for your pizza. Lay the dough on a pizza baking tray or hot stone and bake in the oven for 2-3 minutes just until the base becomes firm and a little crisp to touch (especially the centre of the pizza base). remove from the oven and this is when you put on your desired topping. (You could cook this pizza without part baking the base but this method will bring consistency without the risk of a soggy bottom/base)

Pizza Sauce Passata

Ingredients

1/2 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

pinch of salt & pepper

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

20 red wine or water

Method

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and cook on a moderate high heat stirring continuously for around 3 minutes, use a potato masher to press down any tomato chunks and continue stirring, if the mixture is too thick add a little more wine or water but otherwise thick is good and rustic. Take off the heat ready for spreading on your pizza base

Pizza Salami

Ingredients

3 tablespoons Passata sauce

10 slices of salami

5 cherry tomatoes (halved and seeds squeezed out)

1/2 mozzarella ball

Rocket leafs (garnish)

Grated parmesan (Garnish)

Truffle oil or Olive oil (for drizzling)

Method

Spread some Pizza Passata on your pizza base using the back of a spoon, tear up some mozzarella and spread evenly, add some cherry tomatoes, salami and freshly chopped basil and bake in the oven for a further 5-8 minutes or until golden brown. Garnish with rocket leafs, parmesan and a light drizzle of truffle oil.

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Cannoli recipe

by Matthew Luca

A world without cannoli is like a world without the earth beneath our feet, it would be impossible.
The first Cannoli I tasted was at the world famous Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken New Jersey ( home of THE CAKE BOSS hit TV show). The owner (Buddy Valastro) really works his magic creating these Italian and now American favourites with various fillings. I'm basing my recipe using some traditional Sicilian methods and my own travel influences as well as taste preferences, I hope you like them. You'll also need (Cannoli forms) these are the thin metal tubes that you use to make the shells, I purchased mine from eBay.

Ingredients

For the Dough (Cannoli Shells)
275g Plain Flour (plus extra for dusting)
2 Eggs
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Salt
50g Butter
10ml White wine vinegar
30ml Amaretto Liqueur

(2 litres of Vegetable or Sunflower oil for frying) Peanut oil is preferred but quite expensive for deep frying.

Method
In a mixing bowl add the flour, salt, cinnamon, cocoa and butter then mix together until you have reached a breadcrumb type texture. Put in the eggs and butter then mix together to form a dry dough. Add the white wine vinegar, knead into the dough then add the amaretto liqueur and contine to work into the dough. At this stage the dough will be quite wet so using some extra plain flour 1 tablespoon at a time, add to the dough until it becomes dry enough to knead without it sticking to your hands.
Knead the dough ball on a lightly floured surface for 4-5 mins until elastic and combined well, shape into a ball then wrap tightly in cling film and leave to firm in the fridge for around 1 hour.

Remove dough from the fridge and cut a slice off around 1/2 inch thick and with a rolling pin roll out the dough until paper thin.
Cut out circles (4-5 inches in diameter) and roll each one around a cannoli form (tip: use a little egg white to stick down the fold of the dough around the form) then set aside on a floured surface.

In a large heavy based pan or fat fryer, fill up to around 4 inches (ensuring their is at least another 3 inch gap to the rim of the pot, if not use a larger pan). heat oil to around 180c or until a piece of bread takes 10 seconds to turn golden brown. then carefully add the cannoli forms into the hot oil (only two at a time in the pan) and fry until golden brown, this will take around 1 min. remove from the oil being careful to ensure all the hot oil has drained out of the form tubes and then set aside on some kitchen towl for 5 minutes until cool.

When the form tubes are cool, slightly bang the forms in an upright position on a work surface then gently remove the cannoli shell away from the metal form. repeat this process until complete.

For the Filling
Ingredients
500g Ricotta cheese (Drained)
100g Icing Sugar (plus extra for dusting)
40g chopped glace fruit
1/2 vanilla pod (seeds only)
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp amaretto liqueur

Method
In a large mixing bowl combine the ricotta, sugar, vanilla seeds, orange zest and amaretto with a whisk until smooth and silky. Add the glace fruit and fold in gently. Place filling into piping bags or sandwich bags ready for piping (if using the sandwich bag just snip a 5 cm hole in the corner and push down.

To make the cannoli, pipe some filling into each side of the shell/tube, you can garnish the ends with candied fruit of you like then sprinkle over some icing sugar for decoration.

Watch the YouTube video for a recipe walk through

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Torta rustica di Mele (Rustic style Italian Apple Pie)

By Matthew Luca

So what makes an apple pie Italian? this recipe uses a flaky style pastry that's synonymous with the countries pastry desserts along with a little flavour twist from me. It's a melt in the mouth pie that is best served with a good spoon of vanilla ice cream / Gelato.

Ingredients for the Pastry

300g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)

250g caster sugar

100g butter

2 egg

1 tablespoon baking powder

Ingredients for filling

6 large apples (peeled & sliced)

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 tablespoon of amaretto liqueur

Sprig of fresh thyme (leafs picked of the stem)

2 tablespoons caster sugar

1 teaspoon of butter

For the pastry, combine the flour, butter, 1 egg, sugar and baking powder using a mixer or by hand and knead into a dough. wrap in cling-film and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.

Cut the dough into two halves, dust a work surface with flour and roll into large circles to just over the size of the pie dish you will be using.

Lightly grease and flour the base of your pie dish and lay a sheet of pastry on the base (The base sheet should be intentionally thin as we will not blind bake the pastry).

For the filling, In a large pan add the apples, cinnamon, amaretto, butter, sugar and thyme leafs and cook on a high heat for around 2 minutes.

Put the apple filling onto the base layer and spread evenly. Lay over a thicker sheet of pastry on top, brush glaze the pastry with some egg wash (1 egg whisked) and put on the middle shelf of the oven for 35 minutes on 180c until the pastry is firm and golden brown. Allow to rest for a few minutes prior to serving.

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