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.
Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup
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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.
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.
Thick Chocolate Mousse & Basil Cream
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Author: Luschka
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
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.
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