Ricciarelli with a pistachio version - and my orange Christmas tree

Ricciarelli are delicious Italian (Tuscan) almond sweets, apparently originated in the XIV century.
Making them in New Zealand is quite special, as they really give Xmas an Italian flair. Bitter almonds are one of the ingredients though, and I have not found them here, so I add just a few apricot kernels (be careful, they are poisonous so you just need a tiny amount, and they MUST be blanched). Of course this is optional, you will get great results just with regular almonds. PLUS, this year I also made up a pistachio version - not ’traditional’ really, but they taste so good that I had to share the recipe (for both!)

200 gr of almonds
about 6 to 10 apricot kernels (optional)
200 gr of sugar
2 egg whites
zest of an orange or a tbsp of candied mix citrus peels
THEN
About 50g of ground almond for the traditional type, and 50 g of ground pistachio for the pistacchio version.
plenty of icing sugar to roll and dust

Blanch the almond and the apricot kernels separately in hot water and remove the skin.
Place them in the food processor with the sugar and grind to a powder. Do this in two lots, on pulse, making sure that the mixture doesn't heat or becomes a paste.

Lightly whip the egg whites, just gently, they don't have to be stiff like for a meringue, just starting to be white. Add the ground almonds and the orange zest or candid citrus peels. Mix well, divide into two and add the ground almond to one lot and the ground pistachio to the other, If it feels too soft add a little ground nuts. Cover and place in the fridge overnight.

The day after flour a board or working surface with icing sugar and roll the paste into thin rolls, about 2-3 cm thick. Cut and shape into biscuits, about 1.5-2 cm high. the traditional shape is like a grain of wheat, with two pointed ends.

Place on a oven tray lined with baking paper and sprinkle with more icing sugar. Bake at 150C for 15 minutes or until the edges start to be golden. Ricciarelli should not be overcooked! Let them cool down completely before removing them from the baking tray.

2023 Christmas tree was orange themed, in fact it was orange, sugar and spice (with sried orange slices, sugar and cinnamon decorations). 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Kiwi fruit: green, gold and ruby red

Well, it may seem silly but I never seen kiwi fruit disappearing so fast as when they were served this way! And I swear that they taste better sliced like this that eaten with a spoon...

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Kawakawa liqueur - liquore al kawakawa

I have been planning to make a kawakawa liqueur for a while now, so when I went to Italy I bought back a bottle of 70% alcohol for this purpose (they didn't have the 95% in the shop, but 70% is more than I can find here in NZ anyway, where pure alcohol for making homemade liqueurs is not sold).

So this is my first attempt:

Pick, wash and pat dry 5 leaves of kawakawa

Place in a jar and add 200ml of alcohol (I used 70%)

Leave for 10 days in a dark place

After 10 days make a syrup with

100ml of water and 100g of sugar

Make sure that the syrup is clear before turning the heat off

Let the syrup cool down completely and then add to the alcohol and leaves

Leave for 10 more days

Filter and bottle

Leave for a couple of days to settle and taste!

Well, it is delicious, the colour is green and the aroma is strong (can't believe that just 5 leaves can give you so much flavour!!), not sure if it is too sweet or not for my taste (as sweet as limoncello really) but in one month and a few tastings I will decide how to make a second batch. I am pretty sure that it is good for digestion, and blocked nose! But let me 'experiment' a bit longer :-)

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Ricotta cake with fresh redcurrants - Ciambella alla ricotta con ribes rosso

From my book Sweet As... ciambella alla ricotta. Ricotta ring cake. Usually made with jam filling, this time I added fresh redcurrants, it was great!

Ingredients

250 g ricotta

300g sugar

3 eggs

300 g self raising flour

grated ring of 1 lemon

1 cup of cleaned fresh redcurrants

The original recipe is in my book Sweet As...

Here is a quick explanation: cream together the ricotta and sugar, then add all the other ingredients following the order in the ingredient list. Bake at 180C for approximately 40mins. Sprinkle with icing sugar and decorate with fresh redcurrants.

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Tagliolini alle zucchine

 

For the pasta: 

200 g flour

2 free range eggs

Mix the flour with the eggs to make a smooth and elastic dough. Divide into 6 pieces and pass them through the pasta machine, in turn, going from the largest setting to the second thinnest (or thinnest, depending on how thin you like your pasta). Then pass through the taglioni setting and create some nests. Set aside.

For the zucchini:

4 small zucchini

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp olive oil

salt to taste

1 tbsp butter

a few fresh basil leaves (or chopped parsley)

Parmigiano Reggiano to serve

serves 3/4

Wash and cut the zucchini into strips. Rinse and pat dry. Peel the garlic clove, cut into two and then sauté with the olive oil. Add the zucchini, a few at the time, with a pinch of salt, and sauté on both sides. You will need to add less and less salt as you work. When you have finished put all the zucchini back in the frying pan with the butter and basil (or chopped parsley)and keep warm, while cooking the pasta. The tagliolini will need to boil for only about 2 minutes, then drain them and add them to the zucchini. Stir and serve immediately, decorated with fresh basil or parsley, and with plenty of grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Tè al ribes rosso - red currant tea

 

More than a recipe this is a tip: fresh red currants make a delicious tea, just wash the berries and add hot water, let them sit for 5-10 minutes and then serve, with lemon slices if you like, and sweeten if you wish (sugar, honey, maple syrup...)

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Zucchini and ricotta dumplings in spinach and blue cheese cream, with walnuts

For the dumplings:

Grate 4 zucchini, add 500g of ricotta, 2 tbsp of grated Parmigiano Reggiano, 2 eggs, salt and pepper to taste,  and enough breadcrumbs to make the mixture workable (about 2 tbsp) so that you can make about 25 golf ball-sized balls. Place the balls on an oven tray lined with baking paper and spray with a little oil. bake at 180C for about 20-25 minutes, or until they start to golden (turn over once if they seem to cook too much on the bottom). Cool down

For the sauce:

In a casserole place 4 frozen spinach portions with 250 ml of vegetables stock. Simmer until the spinach is defrosted, then add 300 ml of cream and 125 g of gorgonzola or blue cheese, cubed. Simmer and stir until the cheese has melted. 

Assemble:

Add the ricotta dumplings into the simmering sauce and stir gently, until the balls are well coated and simmer for 5 more minutes. Top with chopped parsley and walnut halves. Serve hot, with plenty of sauce.

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Vegan and sugar free chocolate mousse

I am on a diet but really wanted some chocolate for Mother's Day, something mostly raw, low carb and healthy. This dessert is so easy and delicious that I made it two days in a row, once with hazelnuts and once without. I'll share the basic recipe:

12 dates

a little water to cover the dates

1 heap tsp cocoa (I used Dutch cocoa)

half tsp vanilla essence

1 firm avocado

berries to decorate

Remove the stones from the dates and place in a nutribullet or blender and add enough water just to cover them. Soak for 20 minutes, then add cocoa (a real heap tsp of it) and vanilla. Blend. Add the avocado, sliced, and blend again. Divide into three serving bowls or glasses, top with berries (frozen ok) and refrigerate until serving time. Decorate with edible flowers if you like, I used Alyssum here. If you want to add hazelnuts you will need about 8, toasted and grounded, to add to the date mixture. 

My husband couldn't believe that it was made with avocado and no sugar! The texture is just like a mousse, you can increase lightly the cocoa for a more bitter-chocolate flavour, increasing the dates (or using dates that are too big) will make it sweeter but may give out more of a date rather than cocoa flavour. If the mousse is too thick add a drop of water and mix again.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Feijoa cake

👩🏻‍🍳about 20 feijoas, 3 eggs, 200 g sugar, 80 g butter, melted (I used salted butter, if you use normal butter add a pinch of salt to the mixture), 200 g self raising flour and a drop of pure vanilla essence. 

Cut the feijoas in two halves and remove the flesh with a teaspoon. Set aside. Beat the eggs and sugar first until the mixture is pale yellow, then add the butter and, little by little the flour. End with vanilla. Stop beating and fold in the feijoas. Pour into a greased or lined baking tin (20cm is good) and bake at 180℃ for about 45 mins (until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean). Tip upside-down on a serving plate while still hot, the feijoas tend to go to the bottom so I keep the cake upside down to have them at the top. Dust with icing sugar and let it cool down completely before serving (so that the base of the cake will flatten nicely). Yum with cream or mascarpone!

Also, did you know that you can eat feijoa flowers too? Find out more here

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Green smoothie with feijoas... and more flowers from the garden

Like most people in New Zealand I am loaded with feijoa this April. A good way to use them is in smoothies, and this is a particularly good one: feijoa, banana, spinach leaves and coconut water. Quantities to taste!

And now some flowers from the garden for my Pinterest board!

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Ricotta with strawberries, manuka honey, edible gold and cornflowers

 

I have been on a diet recently so this is a pretty low-fat dessert: ricotta with strawberries marinated with lemon juice (a mixture of regular strawberries and tiny Alpine strawberries from the garden) and a tiny little bit of mānuka honey. For best effect the dessert is decorated with edible gold and cornflower petals. It was stunning to look at, and delicious!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Colourful beet salad

 

These baby beets (and a couple of baby purple carrots) were boiled and then peeled (the skin comes off easily) and dressed with olive oil and salt, plus a sprinkle of fennel leaves. I added onion weed, borage and calendula petals to complete the salad. Very yummy, and pretty! 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

A round vegan custard slice, step by step

Thanks to my friend Ray I have recently discovered these sweet Spanish Ines Rosales' tortas (there is also a savoury version). And noticing that they are vegan I thought of making a quick dessert, a bit like a custard slice, which I love, with them!

For the custard I used oat milk (barista style).

Ingredients:

1 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

250 ml oat milk

a few drops of vanilla essence

2 sweet Ines Rosales pastries

Amarena cherries (optional)

Icing sugar to sprinkle

Fresh Fruit to serve (optional)

Mix the first three ingredients together and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Add the vanilla at the end. You should cook this custard until it is quite thick, and then keep stirring after cooking until it is lukewarm and no more steam comes out. Make sure that is thick, not runny!

Pile the custard on one of the pastry

I had some amarena cherries so I though of adding 4 to the custard, but any fresh or preserved fruit would work too. Just don't add too much 'juice'.

Place the second pastry on top and press lightly, smoothing the custard on the sides with a small spoon, if necessary. Sprinkle with icing sugar and refrigerate for a few hours.

This actually served three people, and we had fresh cherries on the side. I'll definitely make it again, probably with berries or with fruit preserved in alcohol! Yum! A real treat!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

And now some flowers for my Pinterest board!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Ricciarelli di Siena, and homemade/recycled Christmas decorations

Ricciarelli are delicious Italian (Tuscan) almond sweets, apparently originated in the XIV century.

Making them in New Zealand is quite special, as they really give Xmas an Italian flair. Bitter almonds are one of the ingredients though, and I have not found them here, so I added just a few apricot kernels (be careful, they are poisonous so you just need a tiny amount, and they MUST be blanched). Of course this is optional, you will get great results just with regular almonds.

200 gr of almonds

about 6 to 10 apricot kernels

200 gr of sugar

2 egg whites

zest of an orange or a tbsp of candied mix citrus peels

Possibly some more ground almond if the mixture is too wet

plenty of icing sugar to roll and dust

Blanch the almond and the apricot kernels separately in hot water and remove the skin. 

Place them in the food processor with the sugar and grind to a powder. Do this in two lots, on pulse, making sure that the mixture doesn't heat or becomes a paste.

Lightly whip the egg whites, just gently, they don't have to be stiff like for a meringue, just starting to be white. Add the ground almonds and the orange zest or candied citrus peels. Mix well, if it feels too soft add a little ground almond. Cover and place in the fridge overnight.

The day after flour a board or working surface with icing sugar and roll the paste into thin rolls, about 2-3 cm thick. Cut and shape into biscuits, about 1.5-2 cm high. the traditional shape is like a grain of wheat, with two pointed ends. 

Place on a oven tray lined with baking paper and sprinkle with more icing sugar. Bake at 150C for 15 minutes or until the edges start to be golden. Ricciarelli should not be overcooked! Let them cool down completely before removing them from the baking tray. They keep well for a couple of weeks in a biscuits tin. 

All the decoration on this Xmas tree are homemade or recycled.

I recycled small bottles fro Italian fruit juices and crochet around them to make lights. I used recycled old wool for the crochet, and also made a few balls and little doilies. I foraged and painted the pine cones, and also spray painted some dried hydrangeas flowers. And then my usual sugar decorations, made with fondant, all white this year! Finally I recycled the crystal drops from a broken chandelier, they look classy on the tree!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©