Pizza. A classic dish.

I bought today fresh basil. I opened the box and suddenly I felt like I was in Roma again walking through Via Gustiniani to see Pantheon, surrounded by ancient buildings and aroma of freshly ground coffee. Above me blue, clear sky and warm sun on my face. Yes...
I already knew, what to make for a dinner. The classic Italian dish. A pizza!

First time I was in Roma, I found the best pizza in a small suburb restaurant near Torre Maura. It wasn’t round pizza and it had only 3 ingredients. That was something surprising and I fell in love with this simplicity.
During my second visit in this beautiful city, I found delicious pizza in the restaurant near St Maria Maggiore thanks to lovely Marta (Martina) M., who showed me this nice place. Without her company the trip to Roma wouldn’t be the same.

Making pizza is very simple and everybody can have their own recipe. If you prepare dough earlier, finishing this perfect Italian dish takes less than 30 minutes.
Today I used for my pizza a goat cheese, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and of course fresh basil.

Makes 2 small pizzas

Pizza dough*
4g dried yeast
90ml warm water
150g (1 cup) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon oil

Tomato sauce:
100ml tomato puree
Glove of garlic, crushed
1 chopped onion
fresh basil, chopped coarsely
salt, paper
1 teaspoon oil

Extra adding:
Fresh tomato
goat cheese
mushrooms

*adapted from The Australian Women’s Weakly, Food we Love

Method:

1. Combine yeast, flour and salt in a bowl. Stir with water and oil. Mix to a soft dough. Turn dough onto floured surface; kneed about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.
2. Place dough in oiled bowl, cover; stand in warm place about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in frying pan, add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, until onion is soft. Add tomato puree, salt and pepper. Simmer uncovered, about 5 minutes. Stir in basil.
4. Preheat oven to 220C.
5. Roll pizza dough on floured surface to a 25cm round; placed on oiled pizza tray. Spread with basic tomato sauce.
6. Arrange goat cheese, mushrooms and tomato over tomato sauce. Bake about 25-30 minutes, until well browned and crisp.
7. Serve sprinkled with basil.


Enjoy :)

Simple cake.

This is going to be really simple cake. Something between banana bread and sponge cake and it’s really good! I must admit this is my ‘comfort food’. There is no better afternoon as with a cup of tea or milk, a good book, nice music around, while eating warm cake full of aroma.

You can choose different fruits and nuts if you like but don’t forget about banana (it makes cake moist). There is also important to use eggs and butter at room temperature*

*when you use cold eggs cake butter could be curdled

Simple cake.

Makes 1 loaf pan**

Ingredients:
100g butter, softened
150g (1 1/5 cups) icing sugar
1 egg, (room temperature)
6 tablespoon double cream
200g (1 1/3 cups) white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 banana, mashed
50g almonds, blanched, chopped coarsely
6 prunes, chopped coarsely

** Loaf pan (22x11 cm)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175C. Grease loaf pan.
2. Place the butter and icing sugar in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy (about 10 minutes).
3. Gradually beat in the egg and double cream, then sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and fold in with the chopped almonds, mashed banana and chopped prunes. Mixture will be very thick.
5. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes in 175C. Cake is ready when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean
6. Cool in the pan until completely cold. Dust with icing sugar, if desired.

Enjoy :)

Coffee muffins.

Coffee, coffee everywhere. Well, for some of us living without coffee is a disaster :). For me coffee is a good thing but only if drinking from time to time, made by myself with fresh milk and some extras like Kahlua or Bailey’s liqueur or vanilla ice creams.
Today, instead of another cup of coffee I decided to make a few coffee muffins. It’s so nice to take a short break from work*, don’t you think?

* Working at home sometimes is a big advantage. For example, you can take a 30 minutes break and bake some delicious muffins :)

When comparing to a regular coffee cup, these muffins aren’t that strong, but still they can wake you up. They are very soft and fluffy and they get even better next day (coffee flavor gets stronger).
But who will be waiting for the next day?

Coffee muffins

Makes 9 muffins

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients
150g (1 cup) plain flour
75g (1/3 cup) brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Wet ingredients:
1 egg, beaten lightly
6 tablespoons oil
6 tablespoons milk
7 tablespoons good quality dark espresso (one medium shot), cooled
3 tablespoons Kahlua liqueur **

** Optional, you can also add 1tbsp of coffee extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven, 180c. Put 9 paper baking cases in a muffin pan.
2. Put flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and stir together.
3. Combine milk, cooled coffee, oil, egg and Kahula liqueur in a separate bowl.
4. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. Do not over stir the mixture.
5. Divide the muffin mixture between the paper cases (they should be about two-thirds full).
6. Transfer to a preheated oven, 180C, and bake for 25-30 minutes until risen and golden (skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean).
7. Transfer to a wire-rack to cool.
8. Dust with icing sugar, if desired



Enjoy :)

Marta's Tarte Tatin.

This recipe is not an original tarte tatin because I used ready puff pastry, I didn't use special frying pan and I added extra banana slices. That is why I called this cake Marta's tarte tatin. To be honest the taste is very similar to the original tarte tatin and the only difference is in the way you make this cake. You bake it like a normal cake with filling, not like an upside-down cake.

This tarte tain's puff pastry is a little bit moist from caramel but it's still crunchy on the edges. If you like that combination you will love this cake. Try also adding some extra bananas or pears, this makes cake more unusual but still very tasty.

Marta’s Tarte Tatin

Makes 6 *

Ingredients:

1 ready puff-pastry (I used 30x25cm)
3 medium apples, peeled
2 medium ripe bananas, (cut into slices)**

Caramel sauce:
70g butter
150g brown sugar (2/3 cup)
3 tablespoon water

* Pieces 9x8cm (I used rectangular pan 28x19x3cm, my puff pastry was rectangular)
** Bananas are optional, you can also add pears, If desired

Method

1. Combine water, sugar and butter in heavy-based pan, stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolved. Simmer about 10 minutes (do not stirring) until mixture becomes a light golden caramel. Remove from heat.
2. Cut apples into pieces and add into caramel mixture, simmer uncovered about 15 minutes, remove from heat and add banana slices.
3. Preheat oven, 210C. Grease a pan.
4. Lift puff pastry (follow the producer tips how to make a puff pastry) into tin, press into side, prick base all over with fork. Cover pastry with baking paper, fill with dried beans or rice and bake 15 minutes.
5. Remove paper and beans from pan; pour caramel with apples and bananas into puff pastry. Bake again in 180C for 15 minutes. Remove from oven.
6. Serve warm with ice cream, if desired. Cake is best first day.

Enjoy :-)