Extra Virgin Olive Oil

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting David and Isabelle from Buongustai. Apart from talking about the delicious flavours of Italy, in particular Sicily, we also spoke about the range of products that they import themselves.

What I particularly liked about their range is that the selection is handpicked by David and Isabelle and not sent en mass by some agents and they must sell and market it at all costs. One of the advantages of being a small firm like theirs is that they can afford to keep a personal touch with their clients as well as with the items they sell.

As we were casually chatting about the delicious ingredients one finds in Sicily I tried their delicious latte di mandorla which left me speechless. This of course is nothing like the over sugared almond milk we are used to here. The taste is fresh and light and the almond is a soft taste and not an overpowering fake one.

Whilst I was sipping it I was thinking of all the panna cotta I could do with it….mmmm

But the show stopper was definitely their Sillitti Extra Virgin olive oil which is excellent in quality and above all very well priced. For those of you who scour the supermarket shelves looking for a real olive oil, here is the answer to your prayers!

David and Isabelle can be contacted on cardin@maltanet.net or 99424210. A product price list is available on request. Orders can be emailed or phoned in and we will deliver orders over €30.

To sample the extra virgin olive oil, try drizzling some over some fresh tortellini or flavour your chunky soups instead of grating some cheese.

Fresh Tomatoes

Tomatoes are plentiful at the moment and hence relatively cheap. This is the best time to stock up on some fresh produce and preserve it for the colder months.
Tomatoes are great to work with as they cook easily and do not require a lot of preparation.
You can preserve your tomatoes as a plain tomato sauce and use them instead of the tinned ones in the colder months. Alternatively you could turn the tomatoes into jam.
This week I shall give you 2 recipes; this first recipe is for preserve the tomatoes into jars and the other for a fresh and light pasta sauce.
To best preserve your tomatoes, I like to peel them and chop the roughly. Now place them alone in a pan. Do not add any oil, onion or garlic and allow them to simmer. Once the tomatoes have softened and achieved the consistency of tomato polpa (tinned tomatoes) place them into sterilised jars, label and store in a cool place.

There are 2 basic methods of sterilising:
Oven Sterilisation: Wash your jars with warm soapy water and rinse and dry them thoroughly. Now place the jars for 5 minutes in a hot oven (around 180C) just before filling up. Once the jars are out of the oven, fill immediately and seal. Allow the jars to cool before labelling or storing.

Pot Sterilisation: Wash your jars as above, and dry them. Fill the jars and close them. Now place a dish cloth around the jars and carefully place them in a large deep pot so that the jars are about 5 cm lower than the edge of the pot. Fill the pot up with boiling water until the jars are immersed half way up. Bring the water to a boil and keep them boiling for about 20 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the jars cool completely inside the pot before removing them. Once the water has cooled, wipe the jars dry from the outside, label and store.

Should you have a steam baby bottle steriliser, this too can be used to sterilise your jars. Just wash the jars as above and place them in the steriliser. Once the jars and lids are sterile and still hot, fill them with your jam/chutney and cool completely before labelling and storing.

Fresh Basil Pesto

Over this weekend I was getting a warm fuzzy feeling that tricked me into thinking that I am not in the middle of August but in some splendid March sunny day, when the days just start warming up but you still can stand being in the sun for more than 15 minutes.

As with most things, my state of mind will effect my cooking and so this week I started adding some baked dishes in my lunch/supper menu. Being nice and breezy gives me the peace of mind that I can spend some extra time in the kitchen and not cook the quickest simplest dish to get out of the firey heat.

So this week, I prepared one of my daughter’s favorite pasta sauces, fresh pesto. Pesto is an Italian sauce which is prepared differently in the different regions. The variations on the basic recipe all depend on what is abundant in that region. Pesto Siciliano for example has tomatoes whilst pesto Genovese has lots of basil.

Pesto Genovese is probably the most know and the most consumed, now produced in large amounts commercially, most of us just keep a handy jar in the store cupboard (which keeps for months) for that quick plate of pasta!

There is more that one can use pesto for besides as a pasta condiment, my husband uses it as part of his secret chicken marinade, you can also use it as part of your salad dressings.

The basil in my garden is pretty abundant at the moment so preparing this sauce came pretty easy. Basil grows easily in pot or window boxes and can be grown from seeds. You can also buy little seedlings from most garden nurseries and replant at home into a larger pot.

The proper Genovese Pesto is made with pine nuts, however these are pretty expensive locally. If you wish to substitute the pine nuts, I suggest using walnuts or even almonds. Don’t forget pesto is a thick sauce so a little bit of sauce will take you a long way. Here is what you need

200 gr. Pine nuts
1 large bunch of fresh basil leaves – remove all stalks
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – the best you can afford
Grated Parmesan Cheese.

Place the basil leaves and nuts in a food processor and with the motor running drizzle enough olive oil to create a paste. Add the cheese and taste. Do not add any salt or pepper, however, if required, add some more cheese. It is important to blend well after each addition. If you have made too much pesto to consume all in one go, place the extra amount in a sterilized jar and top with more olive oil so that all the pesto is covered with oil.

Pesto will keep for 1 week but is best consumed fresh.

BBQ sauce

Outdoor entertaining is a preferred option at the moment and what better way to share good food in good company then to have a BBQ. Here is a recipe you can add to your BBQ repertoire to make it a little more exciting; BBQ sauce.

This is my version of making BBQ sauce. Even though there are different brands available in most supermarkets, home made sauce always has a different taste. Preparation of this sauce might be ideal to delegate to the younger members of the family to keep them occupied till it is time to eat. You can use this sauce as a dipping sauce or even to baste you meats whilst cooking.

Here is what you will need:

1 large onion
½ green pepper
1 chilli pepper
1 teaspoon mustard
2 tablespoons vinegar
salt
few drops of Tabasco – depending on how spicy you like your sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons oil
4 tablespoons red wine

Place all the ingredients in a blender and whiz until the vegetables have been cut into very small pieces and the other sauces have amalgamated. It is important not to use olive oil in this recipe since its taste will be over powering, a flavour-less oil, such as canola would be better.

The mustard could be French or English, this depends on your preferred tastes I prefer using English.

This sauce can be prepared a couple of hours before being served. Allowing the sauce to set will help the different tastes to come together. BBQ sauce can be used as a dipping sauce for you meats, but can also be used to baste your chicken, beef or even pork.

This recipe has been previouly published in the E&D magazine (July, 08 Issue), out with The Times