Authentic Stone-Baked Pizza

Pizza is hands-down my favourite food. Put one in front of me and I'll eat it- there's no stopping me. So when we arrived at our Masseria and we saw an authentic stone pizza oven, we all got a little jittery... well maybe just Patrick and I. From Day One we said we were going to make our own pizzas in the ovens and we were determined to stick to our word!

Despite the concierge Angelo saying it was practically impossible for us to cook our own pizzas in the oven because it involves skills that only pizzolos have, we still went ahead with it. And guess what Angelo, they were bloody fantastic. 

First things first: Gather your team. You'll need some strong hunky men (queue Oliver and Adam) to help gather the wood for the fire whilst the rest start making the dough and sauce. 

The thing is with a stone oven is you need to light it a good 3-4 hours (depending on it's size) before you're planning to start cooking. We therefore lit it at 4ish in time for dinner at 7. This is so the stone is so hot that the pizza only needs to be in there for a short while (around 4 minutes). 

Make the fire and then push it to one side of the oven so the flames curl up the roof.

After the fire is lit and burning away, go and fetch only the finest ingredients. 

 Or in Patrick's case some Limoncello...

We found an amazing shop called Di Vino in the local town where, because we purchased so much, the kind man threw in (well-obviously not literally) an extra bottle of rose. Thank you very much- we will be coming back again!

So, at this point your fire should be on fire (excuse the pun). Now it's time to start on the dough and the sauce. We actually got the dough recipe from Jamie Oliver as he's always a super reliable chap. Put a tea towel over the bowls and let them rise in a warmish/dry place. Obviously being in Italy we just put them outside!

It's now time to make the sauce.

There was already a bottle of Passata in the house already which was ideal. So to save on washing up, chop up garlic and fresh basil, scrape it all into the bottle itself and give it a little shake. (with the lid on obviously). Put the bottle in the fridge until you need to use it.

When the oven is hot enough, separate the dough into medium-sized balls and roll them out and stretch them into flat circle shapes.

Then find a super cute child to help you put the toppings on....

We chose the standard Moz, Tomato Sauce and Pepperoni but added a dribble of pesto to make it that extra bit more authentic.

On some of them we did Mushrooms and Peppers.

Put some flour on the pizza- spatula so that when you put the pizza on, it slides off easily without breaking. 

Put your pizzas in your oven and occasionally turn them round using the spatula to make sure they cook evenly.

If your oven is hot enough they shouldn't be in there for very long!

Sit down and enjoy either by themselves or if you're super posh, have a starter like we did of parsley and garlic prawns. Yes please!

Unfortunately this is the only picture we have of our finished- pizzas! They were eaten up so quickly I barely had time to take my camera lens off!

The final thing you need to do is sit down and enjoy the beautiful food you've made with friends!

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Warm Mackerel and Asparagus Salad

So after reading the title of this blog post you're probably conjuring up images of merely mackerel and asparagus tossed in a few iceburg lettuce leaves. Think again. When I was younger (and maybe still) I always wanted to open a soup and salad restaurant. In the summer I love making up my own salad recipes as it was a far lighter way to eat lunch rather than always bread-based food. However, in restaurants I always think that original salads are hard to find. Obviously you'd get your standard Caeser, Nicoise etc. etc. But I reckon I could give these big names a run for their money with this bad boy.

The joy of this salad, and in fact virtually any salad, is that you can chuck in whatever is left in your fridge. You all know about my unconditional love for Mackerel (check out my homemade pate recipe). It's so healthy and delicious and even scrummier when chucked in the oven for a few minutes to heat up (although I would recommend shutting all kitchen doors- the smell is rather pungent.)

Now I'm home from uni my fridge is brimming with food which is probably one of the best sights possible, especially seeing as regularly at uni I would open my fridge to find half a solitary rotting lime. So after opening all doors and cupboards of my kitchen and ransacking my fridge, I was quite content with my final ingredients for my super warm super good salad:

Handful of cherry tomatoes
Leftover Mushrooms
4 Asparagus
1 cooked Smoked Mackerel
Handful of rocket salad
1 shallot
1 deseeded chilli

It was destined to be a beautiful food love affair.

To start off, cut those little tomatoes into quarters, chuck them in an oven-suitable pan, soak them in oil, a bit of garlic salt and basil and let them grill in the oven with the Mackerel for literally about 7 minutes (until the juices start to run and the skins start shrivelling up).

Next, cut up all your ingredients: tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, shallot and chilli and bung that all into a non-stick frying pan and let it do it's magic for about 7 minutes.

Take the Mackerel out after about 5 minutes, leaving the tomatoes in for a couple extra, take the skin off and cut it (very roughly) into small chunks.

Toss the salad, adding the Mackerel and then the tomatoes, letting the juices seep in. When the rest of your ingredients are ready, mix it all in a big bowl before serving it up. Just divine!

What I love about this salad is it's so colourful and exciting. You know that you're eating pure goodness when a rainbow salad appears. Enjoy and don't be afraid to experiment with different ingredients!

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Smoked Mackerel Pâté

I absolutely love Pâté and I adore fish (especially fishy-fish). So for me this is an ideal lunch. This may not seem as smooth as you might consider Pâté to normally be, but I promise you it's just as delicious. As well as being unbelievably easy to make (I challenge you to take longer than 5 minutes to make it) Mackerel Pâté is bursting with Omega-3 oils, is a high source of protein and fills you up for the rest of the day. 

Serves 4

2 Packets (400g) of Smoked Cooked Mackerel

100g Soft Cheese

Pepper

Squeeze of Lemon

Tear off the skin of the Mackerel strips underneath, break it up into small pieces, put it in a bowl and scoop in a big tablespoon of soft cheese. Mash it up with a fork until it's smoother and you don't have big chunks of Mackerel, add a squeeze of lemon, lots of pepper and ta-dah! You're done.

Perfect served on some ciabatta rolls or rye bread. 

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Daddy's Famous Canadian Pancakes

I have said this many many times before.... hands down best pancakes EVER. People often throw this phrase around, but they must be lying because these bad boys are genuine. You will not find any Aunt Jemima pancake mix in this house. This is the real deal boys and girls, made my genuine Canadian father.

This is definitely not the first time my dad has heard this. My friends have learned that the only thing you need to do to get on my dad's good side and for him to like you is compliment him on his pancakes and you are officially his favourite guest. He is so easily pleased, and thrives on it. It got to the point when I was younger that my friends would consider staying the night at mine just so they could have pancakes in the morning. To this day, I believe this is still an incentive!!!

The tradition started when my brothers and I were very young and as a weekend treat, my dad would spoil us with either a full english fry-up or his pancakes. Obviously as we grew older we realised that frying an egg and some bacon isn't actually that hard, so that was eventually off the breakfast menu. However, our weekend pancake tradition has always stuck. Still to this day I will return home from uni and wake up to the smell of warm pancakes in the AGA. Best alarm clock ever.

Over the years we have tried and tested many different kinds of pancakes: blueberry pancakes, mini pancakes, banana pancakes (inspired by Jack Johnson), extra large pancakes, pancakes with more milk, pancakes with more flour etc. You think of it, my dad has tried it and used us as his guinea pigs in order to perfect his recipe. 

I have in fact never been up in time to watch him make them (apart from maybe when I was a lot younger in which case I don't remember) so I have asked him for his recipe and ingredients to share with all of you lucky readers. Especially as pancake day is nearing why don't you give this recipe a go?

Best way to devour your stack of pancakes: (my method which I have perfected over the years as well)

Big wedge of butter between each pancake so it melts and a sufficient amount of Canadian maple syrup glugged over the top. mmmmmm. Enjoy!

For 9 Pancakes (3 each):
1 cup of plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping tablespoon of baking powder
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Milk (enough to be equal in volume to the contents of the dry bowl)

1) Mix flour, salt and baking powder well in a big bowl
2) In a separate bowl beat the egg with oil.
3) Mix in milk (enough to be equal in volume to the contents of the dry bowl)
4) Gently add the contents of the wet bowl to the dry bowl. Do not beat too much
5) Let sit for 20 mins
6) Dollop onto frying pan (or if you have an AGA, grease up the right hob and dollop them straight on there!)

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Super Chicken Noodle Soup

This has to be one of my favourite soups. It truly is a super soup: healthy, cheap, quick and easy to make. What more could you want? As a student it's great because I can make a big batch on a Monday afternoon and it will last the rest of the week in the fridge for lunches.

Serves 4
200g or 2 dry egg noodle nests or medium rice noodles
900ml chicken stock water
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
5 times 4mm thick slices of unpeeled root ginger
300g chicken breast, very thinly sliced (or you can use prawns)
4tsp fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
7 spring onions, trimmed and sliced at an angle
large handful of roughly chopped coriander
Large handful of sugar snaps
1 small chilli (if you like some extra heat)
1 Cinnamon stick

1) Put both noodle nests in a bowl, cover them with boiling water and let them soak whilst you make the soup.
2) Place the stock in a large saucepan with the garlic, ginger and cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil, then add the chicken and cook for about 2 minutes until the chicken is opaque. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, coriander, spring onions, chilli and sugar snaps and cook for a further 2 minutes.
3) Drain the noodles and add to the saucepan.

Other than the main components of this soup (noodles, stock, chicken), the best part about this recipe is that you can improvise and add other elements or veggies to make it more substantial. So feel free to mix and match with ingredients! Genuinely delicious and perfect for a cold, wintery afternoon. Hearty and Healthy.

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