Archive of posts from November 2011

Easy lemon cake

Today I made this nice lemon cake for R.! It took me only 15 minutes plus 30 in the oven. Happy sunday everyone :0)

What you need:

  • 3 large eggs
  • 200 g sugar
  • 250 g flour
  • 1 cup lemon yoghurt
  • 20 g baking powder
  • lemon essence
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • some slices of lemon

How to make it:

Preheat the oven to 180°C and meanwhile grease and flour a cake pan.

Put the eggs in a bowl and mix them well with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and whisk it together with the eggs.

In another bowl sift together the flour and the baking powder and then slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add the salt and make sure it’s fully incorporated in the mixture. Add the yoghurt and the lemon essence (1 teaspoon should be enough) and gently whisk with a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter into the pan, add the slices of fresh lemon on the top and bake for about 30 minutes at 180°C. Below your cake:

Lemon cake

Tips:

  1. if you are not sure about the cake after 30 mins in the oven you can check with a toothpick. If it comes out dry the cake is ready.
  2. you can add some icing sugar or serv your cake with some ice cream on the side.

Ragú alla Bolognese

Today’s recipe is about one of the most famous pasta sauce: the Ragù (or Bolognese sauce!). This is probably the most known recipe among all the Italian food so I decided to share with you the most original version, the one with milk and stock! This is how they cook it in Bologna, the city where the sauce takes its name from.

What you need:

  • 2 chopped carrots
  • 2 chopped celery
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 400 g of minced beef
  • 150 g Italian pancetta
  • 200 g (or 2 cans) of chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato purée
  • 1 glass of white wine
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 glass of milk
  • 1/2 glass of stock (vegetable stock)

How to make it:

The first step is to cook the Italian pancetta in a low heat with no or little oil . While the cubes are cooking finely chop the carrots, the onion and the celery. Add them to the pan and cook until brown. Add the meat and stir well: when the meat starts sizzling add the wine. You can now add the tomato purée, stir well and then incorporate the chopped tomato.

Stir all the ingredients well, decrease the heat to the minimum and cook the ragù for around 1h30 . If you notice the sauce it’s too dry you need to add the stock.

Add the milk and incorporate it well to the sauce: this is a trick that will help reduce the acidity of the tomatoes sauce and it is what the original recipe for the ragù says.

Cook the sauce for another 30 minutes, adjust in salt and pepper and your bolognese is ready!

Ragú

Tips:

  1. you can use bacon instead of Italian pancetta;
  2. no need to add oil while you are cooking the pancetta as it will release its own fat;
  3. for more flavour you can add sage and rosemary leaves with the vegetable;
  4. do not add Parmesan cheese while preparing the sauce: this can be added to the final dish (i.e. with pasta) but the original recipe does not include cheese;
  5. the best pasta shape to enjoy this sauce is tagliatelle but it can fit any type of pasta. Bolognese it is also perfect to fill tacos or simply - with ciabatta bread.