This cherry tomatoes Tarte Tatin is a very intriguing and tasty appetizer which gives a new perspective to a typical Italian ingredient. in these last years, in Italy too there was the introduction of the recipe of the Taste Tatin with its fascinating story as one of the many masterpieces that was created by a mistake.

There are different versions in Italy, since many decided to replace the sweet apples with confit cherry tomatoes and the crisp pastry, in which Parmigiano cheese and thyme combine to make this heavenly Italian appetizer.

I copied this recipe from a brilliant blogger, one of the best in Italy, Sonia Peronaci  and if we follow the instructions you can make it perfectly every time.

In case you need to serve it to a celiac person or want to try a variation with spring onions there is an interesting variation in the blog.

Bring it to room temperature before serving.

Prep Time: 30 mins | Cooking Time: 35 mins | Yield: it serves 4.

Ingredients 

Ingredients for a 26 cm (10 inch) diameter cake tin,  3-4 cm (2-2,5 inch) high

For the savory shortcrust pastry

• 250 g (2 cups) multi-purpose flour
• 40 g (1,4 oz) Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
• 140 g (5 oz) unsalted butter, very cold
• 1 medium egg
• 6 thyme sprigs
• salt and pepper to taste

For the filling

• 650 g (1,5 lb) red cherry tomatoes
• 20 g (1 + 1/2 tbsp or 0,7 oz) white sugar
• 1 clove garlic
• 4- 5 thyme sprigs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 15 g (0,5 oz) pine nuts

Preparation

The savory shortcrust pastry

In a food processor, add flour and cold butter into small piecesand blend for a few moments until the butter is reduced to very fine crumbs.

Add the grated cheese, egg, thyme, salt and pepper and blend again until all the ingredients are mixed together.

Turn the mixture over on the work surface and knead quickly until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous. Form a ball with the dough and, using a rolling pin, roll it out between two sheets of parchment paper. Once you have created a circle of about 30 cm, place it on a baking sheet and store in the refrigerator to firm.

The filling

Take a cake tin or pan suitable for baking in the oven and cooking on the stovetop with a diameter of 26 cm and add a little extra virgin olive oil to the bottom, a clove of garlic, and thyme leaves. On medium heat on the stove top, sauté and brown the garlic then remove it and put the whole tomatoes in a pan adding sugar, salt and pepper then cook for 10 minutes and then turn off the heat.

Pine nuts

Put the pine nuts in a pan on low heat and cook until golden and crispy, taking care to turn them often so as not to burn them. Let them cool.

Assemble and bake

Take the salted pastry, pierce the surface with the tines of a fork (or with a toothpick) and place it on the cherry tomatoes treading the outer edges towards the inside of the pan as if to embrace them. You can help yourself in this operation with a spatula.

Bake the tarte tatin in a preheated static oven at 175 degrees Celsius for about 35 minutes (or 350 F for 30 mins)

Remove from the oven, wait 10 minutes so that the juice of the tomatoes is absorbed by the pastry and turn it upside down on a serving plate. Add some toasted pine nuts on the surface, a few fresh thyme leaves and serve your slice of tasty salted tarte tatin with cherry tomatoes!

Chickpea flatbread is a humble but delicious dish, with its origins dating back to ancient Greek and Roman times.   On the Tuscan coasts it is called Cecina, Farinata in Liguria, and is a common dish on the coasts of the Mediterranean, where it was spread by Ligurian sailors.

Porridges and legumes were commonly in use in the Ancient Mediterranean, and it is now common knowledge that this recipe was introduced during the Middle Ages by the Maritime Republics of Pisa and Genoa. The legends which recount the birth of this recipe are fascinating: the first narration recalls the siege of Pisa in 1005, when the Pisan fleet was in Calabria to help its inhabitants, which had been attacked by Saracens. Some Arabic vessels pointed North and assaulted Pisa. Its desperate citizens reacted to the attack, hurling anything they could grab on the attackers. Almost anything was hurled on the heads of the Saracens, furniture and food too; sacks of chickpeas, which were stepped on and mixed with boiling olive oil, among other things.

When the attackers left, the hungry citizens tried to salvage their properties, and the chickpea flour, which had been mixed with olive oil. At the time, wasting food was not an option, and the citizens tried to recover the slop, which had dried in the sun. The citizens called it “Pisa gold” referring sneeringly to the attempts of the Arabs to seize the city’s riches.

Another legend refers to an ensuing battle, the one in Meloria in 1248. Genoa won over Pisa and took the Tuscan sailors as hostages. The Ligurian galleys were involved in a storm, and the sacks of chickpeas and vases of olive oil were thrashed in the hold and mixed with sea water, making a slop which was served to the sailors in wooden bowls. Some of them refused to eat it, but the bowls were left in the sun, which dried and cooked the gruel, making a delicious dish.

Another version tells of the effort to spread the slop on sea rocks, in order to dry it, but the result was still the same; the following and decisive result is added by the cooking the mixture  in a wood burning oven, which is the real secret of its excellence.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes + 5 hours standing | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups (150 g.) chickpea flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 for the batter and 2 for the pans
• 2 cups water, room temperature
• black pepper
• 1 baking pan, in steel or copper, diameter 13 inches (32 cm)

Instructions

In a bowl, gradually mix the flour with water, cover with a film and let it sit for 4-5 hours, mixing it every half hour.

The flour will produce impurities which make a kind of foam and must be discarded, using a slotted spoon.

This procedure is used in Liguria, the Tuscans are much quicker and mix all the ingredients together almost immediately and bake them, without the sitting time.

After the resting time, add salt and olive oil to the mixture and pour it into a baking pan, and put into a pre-heated oven at 425 F (220 C) for 10 minutes in the lower part of the oven, then move it to the upper part and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until it is light brown.

An excellent addition can be spring onion, fresh parsley, Italian sausage, or aromatic herbs like rosemary, mixed to the batter before baking them, together with salt and oil.

This way of roasting lamb is incredibly simple but involves some degree of organisation, since you need to calculate the time needed for marinating and cooking.

This a very traditional Tuscan recipe, celebrated in Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. In those days, preparation snd cooking times, and ingredient quantities were rarely indicated, so I am trying to give more precise indications.

This Arezzo style roasted lamb is usually cooked on the BBQ, and is frequently basted with the marinade: in Italy we use a rosemary sprig as a brush.

This recipe’s ideal side dish is an oven dish full of golden potatoes, roasted with olive oil, garlic and sage.

Cook them apart, not in the same baking dish as the lamb, since the sharpness of the vinegar would give the potatoes an acidic taste.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 1 hour + 10 minutes ( + 2 hours for marinading) | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 2.5 lb (1 kg) lamb shoulder
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 3 sage leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Sea salt

Instructions

Coarsely chop the herbs and add the olive oil and vinegar. Poke holes in the meat with a fork to absorb the marinade and let it sit for 2 hours.

Bake in a convection oven at 375° F (190° C) for an hour, turning and brushing it with the marinade (using a rosemary sprig).

Serve with sage and garlic roasted potatoes.

A luxurious braised beef in a precious wine like Barolo, again a recipe from Piedmont.A real comfort food,above all if served with polenta and its sauce or with borretane onions.

Beef braised in Barolo is typical of festivities and holidays. This special dish contemplates the cost of the ingredients and the time – both the marinading and cooking time – involved in its preparation.

The secret of its success rests in the quality of the ingredients and the cooking method: after marinading, it is necessary to pat the meat dry and brown it in olive oil to “seal” the meat and avoid its loss of juices.

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cooking Time: 2 hours | Total Time: 14 hours + 30 minutes (including 12 hours marinating | Yield: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients

• 4-pound (1,2 kg) boneless beef roast – chuck or sirloin trimmed of excess fat.  These cuts do well for braising – 1,2 kg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
• 1/2 cup (5 spoons) extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium onions, peeled and diced
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 3 large celery stalks, diced (the vegetables should be chopped in similar sized pieces to ensure even cooking)
• 2 plump garlic cloves, peeled with internal germ removed
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary with lots of needles
• 5 – 6 whole peppercorns
• 1 750 millilitre bottle of Barolo wine (if substituting wine for another select a good drinkable red wine and extend the marinating time by 6 hours)
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 – 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon (50 gr.) butter
• 3 – 4 whole cloves

Recommended equipment

A heavy saucepan, enamelled cast-iron dutch-oven, glass or ceramic round or oval pan with a cover.  Select a pot in which the roast will fit with no more than 2 inches of space around it.  (The less space in the pot the less wine you’ll need). Select a bowl in glass or ceramic of similar size.

Instructions

Start marinating the meat in the wine and herbs the night before to ensure it marinates a minimum of 12 hours.

Dry the meat with paper towels and place in the bowl.  Add half of the diced vegetables, garlic cloves, the rosemary, peppercorns, and the bay leaves.  Put the remaining vegetables in a covered container and place in the fridge for later when they will be added when cooking the meat.  Pour the bottle of wine over the meat and vegetables ensuring everything is completely submerged. Season with salt and pepper.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge (in the warmest section) for at least 12 hours.

When ready to cook, remove the meat from the marinade, dry using paper towels and put the roast into a pan that you have previously added the oil and butter and warmed slightly.  Brown it on all side for 4 – 5 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon remove the vegetables and aromatic herbs from the marinade and add them to the roast.  At this time, add the reserved vegetables from the fridge.  Cook this mixture for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring frequently just until the vegetables soften.  Once the vegetables have softened add all   the marinade, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for approximately two hours.  Rotate the roast so it is submerged in the braising liquid.  Braise this way, turning the meat every 30 minutes, never using a fork that would pierce the meat and cause it to lose its juices.

Once the meat has finished cooking, remove the meat to a platter and cover with tinfoil to keep warm.  Take the saucepan off the burner, remove the rosemary and bay leaves.

Make a puree with the vegetables and marinade together with an immersion blender.  Heat to a boil, reducing the sauce to a consistency that coats the back of a spoon.  Season the sauce to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

To serve – slice the meat crosswise (against the grain).  Heat the sauce to a gentle simmer, then spoon over the beef so the slices are lightly coated.

In Italy it is usually served with mashed potatoes or sweet and sour borettane onions.

Cacciatora stew is one of those simple dishes which comfort you, above all if served with mashed potatoes on a cold winter day.

It is an incredibly rich and simple dish, the result is an amazing sauce in which you can plunge bread and collect it in the famous “scarpetta”. It is a gesture not be made in a restaurant, still the most of us would not resist the temptation. It is almost a moral obligation, none could waste such a treasure.

With some variations, this Tuscan dish is loved and prepared in all Italy. Some cooks add olives, they use dry white wine and no tomato, probably the version I am proposing is revised compared to it. Tomatoes appeared on the tables of Central and Northern Italy quite late, only in the second half of the nineteenth century, I guess that this addition was made more recently.

For the white version, follow the same recipe replacing the red wine with a dry white one and do not add tomato. Some also add pitted olives half an hour before the end of the cooking process.

The same recipe is used for the rabbit too, and the result is always excellent.

It is those of these dishes that represents Italy at its best: Mediterranean herbs, vegetables, wine. The frequent use of wine allows us to use fewer fats and keeping the meat or fish moist. In the meanwhile, it enhances the taste of the seasoning, letting us to use less salt.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 2 hours + 20 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours + 30 minutes | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

Tuna and rabbit, together? Why this odd name?

A legend says that in 19^th century the rules about fasting were particularly strict, and the friars in a convent of Avigliana, near Turin, decided to circumvent them by baptising their chickens and rabbits and calling them ‘tuna’ in order to eat them without sinning.

In spite of its country origin and simplicity, it is an elegant and delicious dish, perfect in every season, but particularly appreciated in summer. It was created in Piedmont, in a time where even the most modest families had barnyard animals and because it was necessary to find a way to preserve their meat, given there were no freezers, they started imitating the techniques used for tuna.

Rabbit meat is white and light, perfect for kids and all those who want or need to be careful with red meats. It is healthy and delicious – far from the sadness of eating kale or other depressing vegetables.

This recipe of stuffed eggplant was generously given me by Carmela, a very sweet woman from Puglia.

In Calabria they boil the eggplant whole and then scoop out the flesh. Of course there are many variations: stuffed with stockfish, with or without tomato, with meat…And of course each family claims its own version is the best one, and if I were you I would agree with them – just saying…

I love this one because it is vegetarian and really enhances the sweetness of ripe eggplant: capers and the herbs are totally Mediterranean.

We cannot help again to thank the Arabs who imported eggplant and gave us all these wonderful recipes that enrich the cuisine of the Mediterranean, from Lebanon to Spain.

It is a very rich dish, my advice is avoiding it for dinner, digestion is very demanding. Accompanied by a green salad, it is a perfect main course.