It’s been a week of competitions for me, and this one is for a meal cooked in my house by none other than John Torode. That could only be a fun evening! It’ll take you about 6 seconds to realise that I’m not actually a vlogger – but we had to video some of this for the competition. Hope you don’t get sea-sick!
[youtube 66RsBrTqG4E]
I was sent the recipe card for Pizza Bianca or Not – one of the things this card suggests is that you let children make their pizzas, and so I did.
As it happens this week we were in a dodgy caravan on the Isle of Wight, with a terrible oven and not enough cuttlery or crockery, so it seemed like a great idea to make pizzas to keep the small people busy. But don’t worry John, the view from my dining room is much better… you’ll love it 😉
Well, I’ve made pizzas a hundred times, so I really didn’t expect to learn a whole lot from this recipe, but let me tell you something: this was my first experience of “00” flour. It’s something I’ve heard of often in Australian groups and from people who make fresh pasta, but flour is flour (so I thought) and I’d just stick with strong white.
The “00” flour, however, makes the softest, silkiest dough I’ve ever come across. It is simply beautiful. It made for light, fluffy, crispy pizzas, and I am entirely sold on it.
The original recipe is copied below, but I've made a few edits for Thermomix® users.
Author: Luschka
Serves: 4
Ingredients
For the dough
275ml warm water (275g)
7g dried active yeast (I used 10g)
½ teaspoon sugar
375g '00' flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for oiling
For the pizza bianca
200ml creme fraiche
200g Parma Ham
For a classic tomato base
1x400ml tin chopped tomatoes
300g mozzarella
salt & pepper
Instructions
To make the dough
Mix together the water, yeast and sugar and leave to sit for 10 minutes
Place half the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and pour in the liquid.
Beat on a medium speed for 10 minutes (Thermomix®: 3 mins, kneading setting) then leave to stand somewhere warm for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
Add the remaining flour, the salt and olive oil and beat the dough for a further 5 minutes, until it's a puffy white ball (Thermomix®: 3 mins, kneading setting)
Sit the dough in a well-oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave somewhere warm for about 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
Slap the dough down and knead on a floured worktop for a few minutes, until soft but not too elastic. Divide the dough into four pieces, roll into balls and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
For Tomato Base:
Empty the tin of tomatoes into a small saucepan.
Bring to the boil and season well.
Cook for 5 - 10 minutes or until it's the consistency you'd like, then take off the heat and allow to cool.
To finish and bake
Heat the oven to the highest temperature possible. Place a banking sheet in the oven so that it gets very hot
With a well-floured rolling pin, flatten each ball of dough and roll it out as thin as possible. (Or give it to children to beat the hell out of... .see video above)
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and dust it with a little flour. Rub the tiniest amount of oil on one side of a pizza base and flip it over onto the floured baking sheet.
For a piazza bianca smear a quarter of the creme fraiche over the dough
For a classic tomato version do the same with some of your tomato sauce.
tear some of the mozzarella and scatter it over the top. (We also added Grana Padana to some)
Slide the baking sheet onto the top shelf of your very hot oven and cook for 5 - 6 minutes, until the pizza is brown and crispy around the edges.
Repeat until all the pizzas are cooked.
Arrange the Parma ham on the pizza bianca along with any other toppings you like, and either eat the tomato version as it is or add your toppings.
(We added mushrooms, anchovies and capers to the different tomato bases, and rocket to some of the bianca bases)
A few weeks ago I was invited to participated in the Grana Padano #GPTopChef recipe challenge where we had to come up with a two course meal that:
Represented a taste of Italy
Used Grana Padano cheese as a highlight of the dish
Well, I love Italy, I love Italian food, and I loved the idea of this challenge. Plus they sent us cheese. And I can’t say no to cheese!
I had many ideas for recipes for this challenge, including Grana Padano Rice Fritters and Pizzas topped with Grana Padano, and even cheesy bread rolls, but I wasn’t excited about a starter and main that had such similar flavours, so decided instead on main and desert. For the main meal, the wet and rainy weather we’ve been having inspired me to try a soup recipe, and I was beyond happy with the results.
I’m not a huge fan of soups, normally, and especially not a chunky soup, so I was surprised by how much even I loved this dish.
The Deconstructed Butternut Squash soup involved roasting butternut squash, and frying lardons and sage leaves separately. While everything was bubbling away, I sliced Grana Padano into shards. Before serving, top the soup with lardons, sage and cheese and drizzle over the butter the sage leaves were fried in.
It may seem a little fiddly, but for this soup you need to roast the butternut squash. Once it's cooked, boil the soup for 15 minutes, while at the same time cooking the lardons and sage leaves for 10 minutes each. Slice up the cheese and everything should be ready at the same time.
Author: Luschka
Recipe type: Soup
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 3 -4
Ingredients
1 Butternut Squash
4 Garlic cloves
1 Onion
250ml chicken stock
30g butter
10 sage leaves
75g pasta
140g bacon lardons
50g Grana Padano shards
pepper to taste
olive oil to drizzle
Instructions
Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
Peel four garlic cloves and put them inside the hollowed out butternut squash.
Drizzle a good quality olive oil over the butternut squash, place on an oven tray and bake at 200C for about 40 mins till it's soft all the way through. Set aside to cool slighly, then chop into rough chunks. If it's a young butternut squash you can keep the skin, but if it's older, discard.
In the Thermomix®
Add the onion and baked garlic cloves to the Thermomix® and chop 3 seconds/speed 4.
Cook for 3 minutes/100C/Speed 1
Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook 15 mins/speed 4
Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
Thinly slice 'shards' of the Grana Padano cheese.
To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.
Regular Instructions
Chop and slice the onions and garlic, and saute for about 10 mins in suitable suit pot, till translucent.
Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat.
Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
Thinly slice 'shards' of the Grana Padano cheese.
To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.
3.2.2925
After this filling and delicious soup, a bit of sweetness is perfect, and there’s little that’s more “Italy” than basil. This recipe was born out of a chocolate memory from my own time in Italy too, so I think it’s pretty authentic, even if a little unusual.
In a sealable container, add 200g cream and whole basil leaves together.
Cover and put in the fridge for 5 hours. After that time, remove the basil leaves and discard
Add the icing sugar to the cream and whisk to stiff peaks. (I find it easiest here to transfer into a piping bag, and set aside.
Regular Instructions
Melt the chocolate in the microwave, on a double boiler, in a bowl nestled inside a pot on the stove top (making sure not to get any water in) or however you normally melt chocolate.
While it's melting, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the sugar slowly as you whisk, then put the egg whites in the fridge.
Next, whisk the cream to stiff peaks, and place in the fridge.
Finally, in a large bowl add the vanilla extract to the egg yolks and mix until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate slowly in to the egg yolks, stirring all the time.
Next, add the cream to the egg and chocolate mix, and stir till it's all combined.
Finally fold in the egg whites. Do not beat, whisk or over stir this as doing so will cause the mousse to collapse. Follow instructions below for combining.
Thermomix® Instructions
These instructions are for one bowl. If you have two, melt the chocolate in one and do the whisking in the other.
Place the egg whites and sugar in the Thermomix® bowl and whisk with the butterfly speed 4 about 1 minute. Keep an eye on it - the freshness of your eggs and the temperature will affect how long you need to whisk this for, and you don't want it to collapse again, so just stop when you reach stiff peaks.
Scoop into a bowl and set aside in the fridge
Wash out the bowl and dry thoroughly.
Pour the cream in and add the butterfly again. Whisk the cream for about 30 seconds/speed 4. Again, keep an eye on it - freshness of cream and starting temperature of cream will affect how long it needs to be whisked for. You don't want butter!
Set aside the cream, and wash and dry the bowl.
Add the chocolate to the Thermomix® bowl and chop speed 5, 10 seconds.
Heat to 50C/Speed 2/ 3 minutes. Meanwhile in a large bowl, mix the egg yolk and vanilla extract and stir to combine. When the chocolate is melted pour in a thin stream whisking together. (Don't pour the egg into the hot chocolate or you'll end up with scrambled eggs.)
Add the cream to the bowl, whisking to combine.
Finally, add the egg whites and gently fold them in. If you whisk or stir too vigorously you'll knock all the air out of the egg whites and your mousse will fall flat.
To Finish
Smaller ramekins or glasses are better for this desert as it is very rich.
Place a layer of chocolate mousse in your serving dish and flatten out.
Next you need a layer of basil. I find piping it around the edges first then in through the centre the easiest, before adding a final layer of chocolate. If you're confident in your piping skills, pipe a pattern of the basil cream on top - I messed it up first time, so scooped it up again, hence mine looks a bit chocolatey.
You can serve it immediately for a light and fluffy mousse, but it's equally delicious, if a bit denser and less airy a few hours later.
3.2.2925
I really enjoyed this challenge, and am as impressed with the Grana Padano cheese for melting, eating as is, and including in recipes as part of the base as I am with the microplane grater Grana Padano sent along – who ever knew grating could be so easy and effective! Even my 5 year old was comfortable using it!
Well, with that, my competition entry to the Grana Padano Top Chef cooking competition, and best of luck to Francesco Mazzei, the Italian chef who recently appeared on the popular primetime BBC1 series MasterChef and the chef-patron of Sartoria in Mayfair from September, who also happens to be judging the food submitted for this competition.
If you’d like to see the recipes other food bloggers are contributing, search Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #GPTopChef
I love Basil. It’s such a sensory herb, with the ability to transport you to just about anywhere – usually in Italy.
I also love chocolate, and one of my favourite memories is from my honeymoon, some 10 and a bit years ago, where we spent time backpacking through Italy, from Sorento through to Bergamo. Our last night was in a hotel in Turin, and by the time we got there we were pretty worn out. The 4-star hotel had an amazing jacuzzi in the bathroom, and with promises to return one day, we didn’t venture further than the cafe on the corner.
This particular cafe, however, had a delicious selection of home made chocolates and ice cream, and I fell in love with the combination of Basil and Chocolate. No, it’s not one you come across often, but it works – trust me, it works.
I recently agreed to participate in a challenge where I had to come up with a recipe that speaks to the taste of Italy, and I can’t think of much that speaks of Italy like Basil does, so here is my contribution: Chocolate Mousse with Basil Cream – and here is my advice: don’t knock it till you try it!
This is an incredibly rich mousse. We had two people (including two children) sharing the two ice cream bowls of mousse & cream in the pictures, and it was still a lot. So it’s a great sharers dish.
We hope you love the Chocolate Mousse & Basil Cream as much as we do!
Easy French Chocolate Mousse - Kids In The Kitchen
Serve with home made clotted cream, strawberries & mint leaves!
Author: Luschka
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
335g double cream
10 fresh basil leaves
15g icing sugar
150g chocolate
2 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Basil Cream
In a sealable container, add 200g cream and whole basil leaves together.
Cover and put in the fridge for 5 hours. After that time, remove the basil leaves and discard
Add the icing sugar to the cream and whisk to stiff peaks. (I find it easiest here to transfer into a piping bag, and set aside.
Regular Instructions
Melt the chocolate in the microwave, on a double boiler, in a bowl nestled inside a pot on the stove top (making sure not to get any water in) or however you normally melt chocolate.
While it's melting, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the sugar slowly as you whisk, then put the egg whites in the fridge.
Next, whisk the cream to stiff peaks, and place in the fridge.
Finally, in a large bowl add the vanilla extract to the egg yolks and mix until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate slowly in to the egg yolks, stirring all the time.
Next, add the cream to the egg and chocolate mix, and stir till it's all combined.
Finally fold in the egg whites. Do not beat, whisk or over stir this as doing so will cause the mousse to collapse. Follow instructions below for combining.
Thermomix® Instructions
These instructions are for one bowl. If you have two, melt the chocolate in one and do the whisking in the other.
Place the egg whites and sugar in the Thermomix® bowl and whisk with the butterfly speed 4 about 1 minute. Keep an eye on it - the freshness of your eggs and the temperature will affect how long you need to whisk this for, and you don't want it to collapse again, so just stop when you reach stiff peaks.
Scoop into a bowl and set aside in the fridge
Wash out the bowl and dry thoroughly.
Pour the cream in and add the butterfly again. Whisk the cream for about 30 seconds/speed 4. Again, keep an eye on it - freshness of cream and starting temperature of cream will affect how long it needs to be whisked for. You don't want butter!
Set aside the cream, and wash and dry the bowl.
Add the chocolate to the Thermomix® bowl and chop speed 5, 10 seconds.
Heat to 50C/Speed 2/ 3 minutes. Meanwhile in a large bowl, mix the egg yolk and vanilla extract and stir to combine. When the chocolate is melted pour in a thin stream whisking together. (Don't pour the egg into the hot chocolate or you'll end up with scrambled eggs.)
Add the cream to the bowl, whisking to combine.
Finally, add the egg whites and gently fold them in. If you whisk or stir too vigorously you'll knock all the air out of the egg whites and your mousse will fall flat.
To Finish
Smaller ramekins or glasses are better for this desert as it is very rich.
Place a layer of chocolate mousse in your serving dish and flatten out.
Next you need a layer of basil. I find piping it around the edges first then in through the centre the easiest, before adding a final layer of chocolate. If you're confident in your piping skills, pipe a pattern of the basil cream on top - I messed it up first time, so scooped it up again, hence mine looks a bit chocolatey.
You can serve it immediately for a light and fluffy mousse, but it's equally delicious, if a bit denser and less airy a few hours later.
This soup came about because I really don’t like a chunky soup. Contrary to popular belief this isn’t because of the texture, but rather is because I get bored half way through a bowl of same tasting bite after bite. And by the time you’ve boiled your vegetables long enough to extract the flavour into the broth, every bite tastes the same.
I prefer a deconstructed soup. It’s still hearty, filling, healthy, but it looks much prettier since everything retains it’s colour and shape, and every bite is a mini-adventure.
Take this soup for example. Butternut soup with lardons, sage and Grana Padano cheese.
The first bite has a little bit of lardon and a small sliver of sage. It’s tasty. The next bite, has a hint of garlic, and a bit of onion along with the butternut, and tastes homey. The following spoon picks up a large piece of melted cheese, and the rich full flavour of Grana Padano accompanies the butternut down my throat. The next spoon hits a pocket of sage butter, and provides a whole other taste to any of the previous bites – and next it’s just a plain spoon of butternut, that almost cleanses your palet. And so it goes, on and on.
Well, it works for me, and I hope you like it too!
For this soup I like to roast the butternut squash. While you can just go ahead and make it from an uncooked butternut squash, which gives it a fresh flavour, I find a roasted butternut squash has so much more depth to it. It’s definitely worth the extra 40 or so minutes.
It may seem a little fiddly, but for this soup you need to roast the butternut squash. Once it's cooked, boil the soup for 15 minutes, while at the same time cooking the lardons and sage leaves for 10 minutes each. Slice up the cheese and everything should be ready at the same time.
Author: Luschka
Recipe type: Soup
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 3 -4
Ingredients
1 Butternut Squash
4 Garlic cloves
1 Onion
250ml chicken stock
30g butter
10 sage leaves
75g pasta
140g bacon lardons
50g Grana Padano shards
pepper to taste
olive oil to drizzle
Instructions
Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
Peel four garlic cloves and put them inside the hollowed out butternut squash.
Drizzle a good quality olive oil over the butternut squash, place on an oven tray and bake at 200C for about 40 mins till it's soft all the way through. Set aside to cool slighly, then chop into rough chunks. If it's a young butternut squash you can keep the skin, but if it's older, discard.
In the Thermomix®
Add the onion and baked garlic cloves to the Thermomix® and chop 3 seconds/speed 4.
Cook for 3 minutes/100C/Speed 1
Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook 15 mins/speed 4
Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
Thinly slice 'shards' of the Grana Padano cheese.
To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.
Regular Instructions
Chop and slice the onions and garlic, and saute for about 10 mins in suitable suit pot, till translucent.
Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat.
Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
Thinly slice 'shards' of the Grana Padano cheese.
To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.
Now that the weather is turning, and the days are getting longer, we can start to enjoy our mornings and make the most of the best meal of the day, breakfast!
French family baker Brioche Pasquier are giving away a hamper full of goodies so you can enjoy the perfect French breakfast.
Brioche Pasquier uses traditional recipes and an authentic process to create its breakfast favourites. All Brioche Pasquier brioche products are free from any preservatives and artificial colours. We were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to meet and hear a bit more about the French family bakers, and learn about their traditional brioche making techniques last year when I shared the recipe with you, and apart from a fabulous day, we learnt a lot that impressed me!
The family run bakery opened in France in 1936, by Gabriel Pasquier. Despite the years that have passed, Brioche Pasquier continue this tradition of using a unique raising agent, levain, that has been passed on through generations of Pasquiers. Levain is the most natural way to raise dough and does not require any added sugar. It brings acidity to the dough that enables conservation without using preservatives.
Competition: Win A Basket of Brioche Pasquier Goodies
You can win one hamper filled with Brioche Pasquier goodies from their Traditional range, that contains everything you need for the perfect French breakfast, and from the Pitch range, which make great lunchbox treats or on-the-go snacks.
How many years has it been since Gabriel Pasquier opened a family bakery in France?
a) 25
b) 78
c) 150
To enter this competition, leave a comment below with your answer.
For an additional entry, follow me on Pinterest and leave a SECOND comment with the Pinterest name you followed with.
T&Cs: The competition runs for one week, ending Sunday 6 April. The winner will be selected using Random.org, based on the position in the comments. Winner will be notified by email, so please make sure you add your email in the required space. Winners will have one week to respond before a new winner will be selected. The prize cannot be exchanged for money.
I’m not a huge fan of soups, normally, and especially not a chunky soup, so I was surprised by how much even I loved this dish.
