Cheese and Pears

Archive for the ‘starters’ Category

Bruschetta Recipe: Brown Bread Bruschetta

Posted on Aug 18, 2009 04:20:27 PM

My huge fan base has been complaining that I haven’t been posting for a while. The truth is I haven’t been cooking a lot recently, but this is only temporary, you’ll see. In the meantime, check this super quick bruschetta recipe: brown bread bruschetta.

I’m stretching the concept of bruschetta a lot here, as I didn’t use the classic Tuscan bruschetta bread, but Irish brown soda bread. The topping is 1 ball of mozzarella cheese, and zucchini with bacon bits.

This is actually three recipes in one. But first things first. For the Irish soda bread:

• 500g (1lb) whole flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp of salt
• between 350 and 500 ml (12-17 fl oz) buttermilk

Preheat the oven at 180°C ( 350° F). Combine all the dry ingredients, then add the buttermilk. I don’t have a specific quantity, but whole flour tends to make a hard bread, so I like a very very sticky dough, I won’t say liquid, but almost.

Stir just enough to mix all together, pour the dough in a cake tin and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes. For the best result you want to make the bread the day before, as it’s more taste after a day.

For the zucchini topping:

• 2 finely chopped zucchini
• a clove of garlic
• a tsp of olive oil
• ½ pint of stock, heated
• ½ a glass white wine
• 2 tbsp of bacon bits

Heat the olive oil in a pan and suteé with the garlic and the bacon bits. Add the zucchini and stir until they’re all coated with oil. Turn on the heat and pour the wine. When it has evaporated turn down the heat again and add the stock, a little at the time. Let it absorb before adding it again (like you would do in a risotto recipe). When the zucchini are tender set aside.

Preheat the oven at 100° C (210° F) , cut 4 slices of brown bread and leave them for 30 seconds in the toaster. Slice the ball of mozzarella cheese and cover each slice of bread, put some zucchini on top and stick the bread in the oven until the cheese is melted. The remaining zucchini will be your side dish.

As I said, this is not the real recipe for bruschetta, but if you have non-Italian guests at your table, you can show off a little bit and say that this is how they do it in that secluded Tuscan village, it’s just a pity you can’t remember its name right now…

Easy Recipes: Melon and ham | prosciutto e melone

Posted on Jul 7, 2009 05:37:28 AM

Another easy recipe: this dish is very popular as a summer appetizer, and just like with Cheese and Pears, is one of the few recipes where the name totally matches with the ingredients and the final result is as good as its ingredients. This usually works as appetizer, but it cam be a filling main course if you don’t feel particularly hungry.

The ham that you see is not Italian Prosciutto di Parma, but some excellent German smoked ham bought at Lidl. The magic here is all in the combination of the sweet and the salted, so the aim is to lay the slices of ham and cantaloupe in a way that you can cut a piece of both and bring them together to your mouth. The trick is to make sure you’ll cut the ham following the meat fibers, not perpendicularly, as it won’t cut easily.

I found this out after taking the picture.

More easy recipes

Easy recipes: Cheese and pears (formaggio e pere)

Posted on Apr 22, 2009 12:50:30 PM

I bet you ended up here because you were looking for easy recipes. You found one.

Dublin’s cloudy sky (which, by the way, arrived after many, almost uninterrupted sunny days. I think the in-Ireland-it-rains-all-the-time crap should be dismissed once and for all) is no friend of unskilled photographers like me, but here we go:

• 2 slices of cheese
• one pear
• 2 teaspoons of honey

Like all easy recipes, like all simple dishes, it’s as good as its ingredients. I admit that the pears were not the best, and the honey was ordinary. But the cheese is mature sheep cheese that comes directly from my aunt’s little village in Sardinia.

A slice of warm bread and a glass of wine should complete the picture.

Needless to say, it should be eaten combining the flavours together.