TARTE TATIN

TARTE TATIN

This really famous cake was first created by accident at the Hotel Tatin in France in the 1880s. The hotel was run by two sisters Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin who gave name to the tart.

I usually serve it as a desserts with some homemade icecream as a side. The original version is made with apples but is delicious also with pears.

Prepare “pasta brisè”: 200gr flour, 100gr melted butter, 60gr water and salt. Pour in a bowl all the ingredients knead quickly then let sit in fridge for about half an hour. Peel 4 big apples, cut in 8 pieces each and put aside.

Cover the bottom of a baking pan with sugar, then let candy. Out of the stove add the apples, splinkle with sugar, cinnamon and some butter flakes.

Stretch pasta brisè using a rolling pin and roll over the apples soldering well the sides. Bake in pre-heaten oven 180° for about half an hour. Roll over in a tray when the cake is still warm. Rolling over when it is cold could make the cake break.

                                   

PANZANELLA

PANZANELLA

We always discuss about the real ingredients of Panzanella, a very simple Tuscan course. In Florence it is a habit adding cucumber, not in Siena. Celery is admitted but I do not use it.

Ingredients for 6 people:

400gr hard bread

3 tomatoes

3 onions

1 cucumber

Basil

Red vinegar

Olive oil and salt

Cut the bread and put in the water for about 10 minutes. Squeeze well the bread and crumble in a bowl, add chopped onions, salt and vinegar. Let sit for a couple of hours in the fridge. In the meantime prepare a salad using tomatoes, cucumber, basil, olive oil and salt. Before serving mix bread and vegetables.

It is important bread soaked with onion and vinegar would sit in the fridge because onion become sweeter and bread flavour itself.

CARROT CAKE

CARROT CAKE

Ingredients:
300 gr. peeled almonds
300 gr. carrots
300 gr. sugar
4 eggs
1 lemon
80 gr. flour
salt
1 dose of baking powder

Pass almonds to the mixer then add chopped carrots, sugar, eggs and salt. Mix all together until smooth. Pour in a bowl and add flour, juice and lemon zeist, baking powder, mix them. Bake 180° for about 40 minutes

MULTIGRAIN BREAD

MULTIGRAIN BREAD

The season at Il Caggio has started again and we just had the first guests. They were really interested in my cooking so today I want to write about my homemade bread and my carrot cake. There are lots of different and  ready flours to prepare a good bread but they all contain preservatives. So I prefer mixing various organic flours to prepare different kind of bread. I use for 75% soft wheat flour adding kamut, rice, corn, barley or spelt in variable dose.

Today I prepared 1kg flour mixing (I prepare 2 breads with these ingredients):

750 gr. soft wheat flour
100 gr. Kamut flour
50 gr. spelt flour
50 gr. rye flour
50 gr. rice flour

To have 700 gr. bread:

500 gr. mixed flour, add 10gr dehydrated malt and 10gr salt. Make a hole in the middle of the flour and pour in the middle 20gr olive oil and 280gr warm water with 20gr sugar and 25gr fresh yeast melted inside. Knead using a fork and hands, then add 30gr flax-seeds and 40gr sunflower seeds. Make a ball and let rise in a warm place. To have a better rising: after 1 hour knead using hands then let rise again. Bake 200° for about half an hour. To have a softer crust put in the oven some water in a pot.