AN ITALIAN SPRING MENU – the food dept.'s food story with Luca's recipes.

This month we take inspiration from Italy with some fresh new Spring recipes from Milanese chef and friend Luca Ciano.  Luca's enthusiasm for food and people is contagious and loves to share beautiful recipes, stories and tips for creating authentic Italian meals. If you have ever wanted to learn how to cook like an Italian, Luca often travels around Australia and Asia doing cooking classes and demonstrations. Contact Luca through his website for details. 

For now please enjoy the food dept.'s food story with Luca's recipes.

Orecchiette pasta with spicy n’duja with asparagus and fresh ricotta

This is an easy pasta to make mid week for your family. N’duja is a spicy, soft, spreadable salami available from good Italian delis. You can substitute this salami for any salami of your liking.

PREP 20min COOKING TIME 5min SERVES 4-6

• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 3 spring onion, cut into 3cm lengths

• 3 garlic cloves, bruised with skin on

• 2 bunches of asparagus, cut into 1cm lengths (tips kept separate)

• salt and pepper, for seasoning

• 350g Orecchiette pasta

• 1 punnet ripe, grape tomatoes, halved

• 100g n’duja (salami), broken into 1cm pieces

• 10 leaves, fresh oregano

• 150g fresh ricotta

• 50g dry salted ricotta

1. Bring plenty of salted water to the boil (about 7g salt to 1 Litre water)

2. Heat oil in a large frying pan, then add spring onions and cook for 3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for 2 minutes, then add asparagus (not the tips) and cook for further 2 minutes, add salt and pepper.

3. Drop pasta in the water and cook accordingly to packet’s instruction and 2 minutes before draining add the asparagus tips into the pasta water.

4. Meanwhile, add tomatoes to the sauce and cook for 3 minutes, then add n’duja and cook for 2 minutes.

5. Drain pasta and asparagus tips when al dente, reserving ½ cup of cooking water, and toss with the sauce for 1 minute. Add a little cooking water if needed to loosen the pasta.

6. Remove from the heat and add oregano and fresh ricotta, stir to combine.

7. Serve with a sprinkle of salted ricotta, cracked pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Steamed zucchini flower with ricotta, zucchini pesto and toasted almonds

Is there an Italian restaurant that doesn't serve zucchini flowers? Stay in and cook your own, this recipes is wonderfully light and delicious.
PREP 20min COOKING TIME 5min SERVES 4

• 300g fresh ricotta

• 4 anchovies in oil, drained, finely chopped

• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

• salt and pepper, for seasoning

• 12 small zucchini, flowers attached

• 10 large basil leaves

• 1 tablespoon pine nuts

• ½ garlic clove

• ½ cup grated grana Padano or other Parmigiano Reggiano

• juice of ½ lemon

• 1/3 cup flaked almonds, toasted

1. Mix together ricotta, anchovies and 1 tablespoon of oil until smooth. Season.

2. Remove flowers from zucchini. Split open one side of flowers and, using fingertips, gently remove stamens. Fill flowers with ricotta mixture and gently twist ends to enclose.

3. Chop zucchini and place in a food processor with basil, pine nuts and garlic. Pulse until finely chopped. Add remaining oil and process until smooth. Add Grana Padano and lemon juice and pulse to combine. Season.

4. Lay filled zucchini flowers in a bamboo steamer. Steam, covered, over a pan of gently simmering water for 2-3 mins, until filling is firm.

5. Place 2-3 tablespoons of zucchini pesto onto each serving plate. Top with zucchini flowers and scatter with toasted almonds.

Tuscan panzanella with rosemary marinated prawns and pancetta

PREP 20min, plus overnight COOKING TIME 5min SERVES 4

• 16 medium green prawns, med size, peeled, leaving tails intact and de-veined

• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped

• pepper, for seasoning

• 1 spring of rosemary

• ½ punnet cherry tomatoes, squashed to release juices

• ½ telegraph cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced

• ¼ red onion, diced

• 1/3 cup black olives, torn in half and pitted

• 2 slices of stale bread, 1cm diced and ‘soaked’ in water for 1 second

• 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

• extra, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

• sea salt, for seasoning

• ½ cup of white wine

• 100gr store bought Basil Pesto Genovese

1. Marinate the prawns with 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, garlic, pepper, and rosemary overnight.

2. In a large bowl combine tomatoes and the juices, cucumber, red onion, olives and bread. Add remaining oil and vinegar and season. Stir very well till all ingredients blend nicely together.

3. In a large frying pan, heat the butter and the extra 1 tablespoon of oil, cook the marinated prawns for 2-3 minutes, add salt then add wine and let evaporate.

Remove from heat.

4. Divide the panzanella into 4 plates, garnish with 4 prawns in each plate and drizzle a little Basil Pesto Genovese

Ricotta and saffron fritters with watercress and asparagus salad

PREP 20min COOKING TIME 5min SERVES 4-6

• 400g fresh ricotta

• 100g plain flour

• 2 truss tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus 1/3 cup extra for dressing

• 0.5 gr saffron threads, soaked in 1 teaspoon water

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• pinch of ground nutmeg

• salt and pepper, for seasoning

• 2 bunches asparagus, ends trimmed

• 1 bunch watercress, sprigs picked

• finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

• 1 litre frying oil

1. Mix together ricotta, flour, tomato, egg, olive oil, saffron and water, baking powder and nutmeg. Season. Cover and chill for 15 mins.

2. Meanwhile, using a vegetable peeler, shave the asparagus into ribbons. Place in a bowl with watercress. Whisk together lemon juice and extra olive oil and season. Add dressing to the salad and toss to combine.

3. Heat vegetable oil in a large shallow pan until 180C or until a cube of bread sizzles on contact. Spoon 3 heaped tablespoons of ricotta mixture around edge of pan. Shallow-fry for 3-4 mins, until cooked through. Drain. Repeat to make 18 fritters, reheating oil between batches.

4. Place the fritter on the watercress and asparagus salad, serve.

Thank you! We would like to thank Luca Ciano for his generosity and for creating these wonderful recipes for the food dept. Thanks for hanging out with us on the shoot day, you have been a dream to work with. We hope you love the pics!

AN ALL AMERICAN DINER DESSERT - the food dept. have photographed and produced a recipe developed escpecially for us by mega food blogger Naomi Robinson from Baker's Royale

the food dept. and Baker's Royale join forces to create this food feature
This post is super exciting for the food dept. and a first for us! So who is Baker's Royale you ask? Baker's Royale is an American food blogger Naomi Robinson, who recipe develops, styles and photographs her beautiful baked treats on her blog Bakers Royale. She is also a working Mum and wife, so she really is an inspiration to everyone. This little baker didn't eat a real cupcake until she was a teenage, grew up on Jiffy’s blueberry muffin mix and doesn't like perfume. Yet Naomi bakes fragrant cakes such as lavender honey cupcakes, and rose cupcakes so go figure. This duplicity, her everyday musings, and breath taking food photography, make her blog totally addictive and clearly very successful.

For the food dept.'s American diner food feature, Naomi has developed a melt-in-your-mouth banana split whoopie pie recipe. We wanted an all American dessert recipe for our diner story and we have all admired Naomi's blog for some time, so she seemed the perfect fit. Lucky for us, she said yes! Check out her awesome 8 layer, Coconut and mango cake, (she also likes to smash things a little). Her tuxedo cake is super cute as well, for its name, and the sweet image. 

For anyone who aspires to be a food blogger or make their blog better, Naomi has generously written for the food dept. some cool tips and tricks to making your food blog a success.

Bakers Royale Top 5 blogging tips:
1. Find your voice and style, while this may not happen immediately, it will happen more quickly the more you blog. There are a lot of excellent food blogs, with crazy good recipes and awesome pictures, but the ones that have me coming back regularly are the ones that have a distinct voice and photography style.
2. Hone your craft, and take measured risks to grow. By measured I mean, know why you are doing something different, rather than just trying to be different. I tend to gravitate to blogs that take risks with their craft and switch things up, especially their photography. 
3. This is a philosophy that I blog by and live by, “Take your work and craft seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.”
4. Embrace the food blogging community and use social media as much as you can. It’s a great place to connect, make friends and learn from your peers.
5. Know your ability and measure your success to it. I know this is common sense, but it’s something I forget sometimes and it causes me undue frustration.

For more cool tips.

Banana split whoopie pies

I know it seems long but there are essentially 3 components to making this recipe. Firstly the whoopie cake then the 2 fillings, the banana pastry cream and Swiss meringue buttercream and lastly the chocolate glaze. For image

Whoopie cake
• 245g all-purpose flour (2 ¼ cup flour)
• 75 g light brown sugar (1/2 cup, lightly packed)
• 5g baking powder (1 teaspoon)
• 105g sour cream (1/2 cup)
• 5g baking soda (1 teaspoon)
• 45g egg (1 large egg)
• 5g vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
• 95ml vegetable oil (1/2 cup)

• 85ml carbonated water (1/2cup)

1. Sift flour, brown sugar and baking powder in a bowl; set aside.
2. In second bowl fold baking soda and sour cream until combined; set aside.
3. Place egg, vanilla extract and vegetable oil in a bowl and whisk until well
combined and mixture is slightly emulsified. Add in sour cream mixture and
whisk until combined. Add carbonated water and whisk until combined.
4. Combine flour mixture with wet mixture fold to combine.
5. Transfer mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe onto a
parchment line bake sheet.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Banana pastry cream
• ½ cup plus 1 ½ cup of whole milk
• ½ cup cornstarch
• 1 large egg
• 3 large egg yolks
• ¾ cups of banana, mashed (about two medium bananas)
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoon sugar
• pinch of salt

• 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
Whipped cream
• 1 cup heavy cream
• ½ cup confectioner sugar

1. Combine ½ cup milk and cornstarch stir to dissolve. Add in whole egg, egg yolks and bananas and beat until well combined; set aside. Prepare an ice bath; set aside.
2. Combine remaining milk with sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove saucepan from heat and transfer mixture to a new pan to reduce any residual heat. Set aside and cool milk mixture for 5 minutes.
3. Slowly add egg mixture into cooked milk mixture, stirring constantly so the eggs do not curdle..  Return mixture to stovetop and stir vigorously until mixture comes to a boil. Continue to stir until the whisk leaves a trail in the pastry cream, about 5-7 minutes. Once pastry cream reaches this stage, remove saucepan from heat and stir in butter and vanilla extract. Transfer the saucepan to the ice bath. Stir occasionally until pastry cream is cool about 30 minutes.
4. Place heavy cream and confectioner sugar in a chilled stainless bowl. Using a hand mixer beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
5. Once banana pastry cream has cooled, combine 1 part whipped cream to 2 parts banana pastry cream.

Bakers Royale note: The filling is a diplomat crème—a combination of pastry cream and whipped cream. You can skip the whipped cream and just use the banana pastry cream. But keep in mind the banana cream will have a greyish tint to it. Making the filling as a diplomat creme will help to lighten the color, since adding any yellow food coloring to banana pastry cream seems to give it a mustard color.
Frosting (Swiss meringue buttercream)
Can be made up in advance and kept refrigerated until ready for use. Place on counter to bring to room temperature (do not mircorwave)

• 5 large egg whites
• 11/2 cup sugar
• 4 sticks unsalted butter, sliced and softened
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Combine egg whites and sugar in a stand mixer bowl and place it over (not on) simmering water. Heat mixture to 160 degrees F while whisking constantly.
2. Transfer mixer bowl to stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium high speed (speed 8 on a KitchenAid stand mixer) until mixture cools, doubles in volume and forms stiff peaks; about 10-12 minutes.
3. Add butter in one piece at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition. The mixture may appear clumpy and almost curdled looking at first—this is normal. Keep mixing and it will become even and smooth again.

Chocolate glaze
Can be made up in advance and kept refrigerated until ready for use. Reheat to pouring consistency

• 7 oz. chocolate, 65% cacao
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 10 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
• 4-5 tablespoons water, warm

1. Place chocolate and heavy cream in a bowl over simmering water. Let chocolate and cream sit for 2-3 minutes to melt without stirring. Then stir mixture to combine. Add confectioner sugar and mix to combine, mixture will clumpy. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition until pouring consistency is reached. Push mixture through a sieve to avoid any clumps
Set aside and let sauce cool to warm.
Assembly
2. Place frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe frosting along the bottomside
perimeter of one whoopie cake. Fill center with banana filling. Place a second whoopie cake
bottomside down on top of filling.
3. Place assembled whoopie pie on a grated rack with a bowl fitted underneath (to catch excess chocolate). Drizzle chocolate glaze on top. Dust top with sprinkles. Place a small dollop of frosting on and garnish with a maraschino cherry.