Panzerotti

Panzerotti are like deep fried mini calzones and have to be among the most delicious food items on the planet. They come from southern Italy and are typical street snacks of the Apuglia region. My grandmother came from Molfetta and I will never forget the culinary epiphany I had when I first tried them as an eight-year old fresh from 1970's England.

I'm sure my Italian relatives will have plenty to say about my sacrilegious English version, but this is how I do them. This recipe makes 16 small panzerotti which are good for pre-dinner snacks.

Ingredients
For the bread:
225g strong white bread flour
140mls milk/water mixture
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant yeast granules

For the filling:
1 tin canned tomatoes
1/2 onion, diced finely
basil
salt
1 tsp sugar
olive oil
1 mozzarella, cubed

Instructions
1. Make dough either by hand (mixing all ingredients and kneading for 10 mins), or in a bread-maker on the dough setting. Let rise until doubled in size.

2. To make the sauce: saute the onion in olive oil until soft, add tomatoes and seasoning (basil, salt, sugar), stir and simmer until thick and cooked (about 15-20 mins). Leave to cool.

3. Roll dough into a sausage about 40 cm long. Cut into 16 pieces of equal size. If you want to be scientific about it, each piece should weigh between 20-25 g.

4. Roll out one piece to a circle about 10cm diameter. Keep the other pieces under a tea-towel.

5. Add a heaped teaspoon of cooled tomato mixture into the centre of the dough circle and add a couple of pieces of cheese. Do not be tempted to overfill, otherwise they burst during cooking.

6. Pat the edges of the dough with a dampened finger, fold over and seal the edges thoroughly. Crimp with your finger.

7. Heat the oil until it's frying temperature. Add the panzerotti as soon as it's made to the hot oil. Fry for 30 secs -1 minute on each side until puffed and golden.

8. Place on kitchen roll to drain excess oil. Cover with tea-towel until ready to serve.

Notes for frying:

a) Do not pre-make a whole batch and let them sit, as the tomato sauce will seep through and make the dough soggy. Make each one and fry individually.

b) Check and reduce the oil temperature during frying, as the oil will get very hot and start cooking them too fast. Keep the oil hot but on low-medium heat once it's reached temperature.

c) Watch each panzerotti closely during frying as they tend to 'float' on one side and can easily burn on one side. Use a utensil to force them over and fry on the other side.

Pesto without pine-nuts!

This is my economic version of pesto that uses almonds instead of pine nuts - it much cheaper to make and tastes just as good! These quantities will make about 300mls of pesto and should take you about 5 minutes to make.

Ingredients
50g almonds (flaked, whole or ground)
5 cloves of garlic
50g frozen chopped basil
50g frozen chopped parsley
25g parmesan cheese
65g olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

To make: put all the ingredients into a blender and whizz for about 20-30 seconds. Season and adjust quantities to taste.

Tarte Soleil

Being a Brit that hangs around with a lot of Francophones, I am naturally the butt of many a joke about British food and our genetic deficiencies in the kitchen. So I’m always ready to rise to the challenge and this is one recipe that will illicit comments from French guests such as ‘Sacré bleu! Une anglaise qui cuisine comme les françaises? C’est pas possible!’

Obviously you can put what you want in it, I used anchovies, home-made pesto and mozzarella. Don’t skimp on the filling, otherwise it ends up just being a big mouthful of pastry. 

The pictures on this site http://www.percheesurmabranche.fr/2014/09/28/tartes-soleil-pour-lapero/ are easy to understand even if you don’t speak French. The recipe is made even easier if you can get puff pastry sold in circles, as they do in France.

Ingredients

2 x 30cm circles of puff pastry

Filling of choice, e.g:

1 mozzarella, chopped into small slices

6-8 anchovies, chopped into small pieces

3 heaped tablespoons of pesto sauce

1 egg, beaten with a little milk

A little water

Instructions

1.  Lay out one of the circles of puff pastry onto a baking sheet; if possible first put the baking sheet onto a large flat plate or board to work on.
2. Spread your filling of choice onto the pastry, leaving a 1cm border around the outside and making sure not to break the pastry.
3.  Brush a little water around the edge of the pastry circle
4. Place the second pastry circle on top, being careful to line it up correctly, and press down  the edges to seal all the way round.
5. Get a glass and press down gently into the middle of the circle. Do not pierce the pastry, just score it.
6.  Using a knife or pizza slice, cut a line right through both layers of pastry from the edge of the inner circle to the outside.  Repeat until you have created a ring of ribbons attached to the inner circle. I did 16 slices.
7. Once your pastry is cut, start with one ribbon and from the centre gently twist it 2 or 3 times, making sure it stays attached to the inner circle. Repeat for all the ribbons. The more filling you have inside, the harder it will be to keep the ribbons together as you’re twisting them.
8. Now you should have a circle of twisted ribbons that looks a bit like a sun. Very carefully brush each ribbon with the beaten egg and milk mixture, try and avoid squashing the twists out of shape.
9. Transfer the tarte to the oven : I took my plate over to the oven and quickly slid the tarte onto the oven grill with its baking sheet. Bake at about 210C for 10-15 mins until it is puffed and golden.
10. Serve slightly warm with pre-dinner drinks. Ooh la-la!