eatmania » buffalo mozzarella

Freselle: round hard biscuits from Puglia

Olivia — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:10:46 +0000

The first time I saw freselle was when we used to run Bocconci restaurant in Valletta. We used to serve them as bruschettas with cherry tomatoes and basil. Today these biscuits, which originate in Southern Italy, are available in local supermarkets. So here’s a suggested recipe and if you happen to come across a packet of freselle, try it out!

Freselle salad

Ingredients for 2 persons:

2 freselle biscuits
125g buffalo mozzarella
4 fresh figs
a small bunch of basil leaves
good quality extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Moisten the freselle with some water and crumble into bite-size pieces. Cut the mozzarella and the figs approximately the same size as the freselle. Mix delicately the freselle, mozzarella and figs. Tear the basil leaves with your hands and add to the mixture. Dress with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and serve.

Globe artichokes

Olivia — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:01:21 +0000

Italian variety artichokes

At the moment artichokes are in full season and relatively cheap. We bought 4 lovely artichokes for just €1! Artichokes come in a variety. The most commonly found are the classic green globe artichokes which are quite meaty and the oblong Italian bred artichokes which are purplish and have a tender heart.

For this recipe we used the Italian purple artichokes.

Mozzarella & anchovy stuffed artichokes

Artichokes with buffalo mozzarella and anchovies

Ingredients for 4 persons:

8 artichokes
200g buffalo mozzarella
25g grated parmesan
1 egg
1 lemon
fresh parsley
8 anchovy fillets
breadcrumbs
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Clean the artichokes, by removing the hard outer leaves. Put the artichokes into a bowl of water with lemon juice. Mix together the chopped mozzarella, egg, grated parmesan, minced anchovies, chopped parsley, salt & pepper. Open the artichokes, season with salt & pepper and stuff with the mozzarella mixture. Put in an oiled baking dish sprinkle with the breadcrumbs, add some olive oil and water. Cook in a pre-heated oven of 180 degrees Celsius for around 30 minutes adding more water as necessary.

Sweet Figs!

Olivia — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:58:13 +0000

It’s fig time again! We’re lucky of having a ‘fresh from the tree’ fig supplier who comes knocking at our door as soon as the season starts. There’s nothing sweeter and juicer than Maltese grown figs. Having the supply in hand, I decided on a light refreshing antipasto for today’s lunch. Follow the following instructions and you cannot fail, it’s all so simple!

Mozzarella and figs antipasto

Antipasto: Mozzarella & figs

Ingredients for 4 persons:

1 x 250gr buffalo mozzarella
8 small figs (if the figs are large you can reduce figs & all other ingredients to 4)
8 slices thinly sliced prosciutto San Daniele (or parma ham)
8 basil leaves
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Slice the buffalo mozzarella into 8 pieces, wash and halve the figs. Place the mozzarella slice first then top with the prosciutto, the basil leaf and finish off with the figs. Dress with some extra virgin olive oil and salt & pepper. Serve with crusty bread.

Low calorie pasta

Olivia — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:29:46 +0000

An Italian classic, very light, low in calories and deliciously tempting… pasta with rocket and cherry tomatoes.

Ingredients for 4 persons:

400gr brown pasta
10 cherry tomatoes
bunch of rocket leaves
good quality olive oil
ricotta salata (can be substituted with parmesan)
salt & pepper

Bring the water to boil and add some salt, throw in the pasta and leave al dente. In the meantime wash the rocket leaves and cut them with your hands into bite sized pieces. Quarter the cherry tomatoes and prepare the cheese shavings. When the pasta is ready, drain it and add cherry tomatoes and pour 2 tblsp olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Plate the pasta, top up with the rocket leaves and the shavings. Your meal is ready.

P.S. You can substitute cheese with mozzarella di bufala which makes the dish even tastier.

Pasta rucola e pomodorini

Fish parmigiana

Olivia — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:15:55 +0000

As we were walking to the car we realized that the other fish shop had just put on display 2 trays of fresh anchovies – cleaned and filleted – a rare sight in Malta! So we immediately made our way to buy them and with only € 6 we had just less than a kilo of this delicacy! Anchovies are very rich in vitamins and although not much popular in Malta they are extremely common in Italian dishes especially in Southern areas like Sicily and the Campania region.

Fresh Anchovies

Here’s a recipe for you to try out!

Anchovy parmigiana

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 kg fresh anchovies, cleaned, filleted and opened
800g tomato sauce
2 eggs
100g grated parmesan cheese
200g mozzarella di bufala
100ml milk
flour
parsley, chopped
frying oil
salt & pepper

Prepare the batter by beating the eggs with the milk, salt and pepper. Lightly flour the fish and coat them with the egg mixture. Fry them in hot oil and put them to dry on absorbent paper. Then, take an ovenproof dish and cover with some of the tomato sauce and on top place a layer of the fried anchovies. Scatter some parmesan, chopped parsley and the mozzarella cubes. Dress with some tomato sauce and repeat the layers until you use up all the ingredients. Cook in a pre-heated oven of 200 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes. You can prepare a day in advance and its taste will be even better!

Parmigiana with fresh anchovies

Vegetable Terrine

Olivia — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:00:14 +0000

Vegetable Terrine

Serves 8 (as a starter)

3 leeks
150g mange tout
150g green beans
2 yellow peppers
2 red peppers
4 artichoke hearts divided into quarters
3 eggs
2 buffalo mozzarella
rosemary, thyme, oregano

Cut the top green part of the leeks and throw it away. Also remove and throw the first 2 leaves from the leeks. Then continue to take away the rest of the leaves leaving only the core of the leek and keep these aside. Bring a large pan of water to boil. Put the leek leaves in the boiling water for 5 minutes and then leave to drain in a colander. Pat them dry with a cloth.

Now wash the peppers, leave them whole and put them under the grill until they are blackened from all sides. When ready put them in a plastic bag and leave them to stand for about 10 minutes. In the meantime chop the remaining leek cores, wash the green beans and mangetout and cut their ends. Cut the artichoke hearts in 4 parts. (You can use frozen artichoke hearts or the ones in jars). Now take the peppers out from the plastic bag and peel their skin, clean the seeds and cut them into wide strips. Also chop the mozzarella into cubes and leave it in a colander to drain its own water.

Subsequently, wet and squeeze a piece of baking paper the size of your dish and line the dish with it. You can use a rectangular loaf tin for this recipe. Prepare the eggs by beating them. Take a large pan put some olive oil and start cooking the vegetables. Put the chopped leeks first, then add the green beans and mangetout, and finally the artichoke hearts. Leave for 10 – 15 minutes to cook adding some warm water if veg are too dry. Put in the chopped herbs and season with salt and pepper. Leave to cook on low heat for another 5 minutes.

Take the dish and start putting the leaves of the leeks on all sides – leave them hanging out from the border of the dish so that you can wrap the terrine up in the leek leaves. When the tray is lined start putting the first layer of coloured peppers then brush them with the beaten egg. Continue layering the other vegetables, add a layer of mozzarella and brush it up with the eggs. Repeat the layers of veg, mozzarella and beaten egg until finished. Wrap up with leek leaves, cover with foil and put in a pre-heated oven of 180 degrees Celsius and cook for 20 minutes. Then remove the foil and cook for another 15 minutes uncovered. When ready leave to cool, slice into thick pieces and serve warm dressed with some good quality olive oil.