Piadina

I haven’t cooked much lately but I still like to make something nice on the weekends, and also try new recipes. And even though my husband and I are not big sandwich eaters, there are Saturdays when I make piadina for lunch: the dough is quick put together and since it is made with baking powder instead of yeast it does not take long to proof – it just rests for 30 minutes while you get on with other things in the kitchen.

Piadina is also great for it is very democratic: you can fill it with whatever you like or have in the fridge.

Piadina
own recipe

Dough:
3 cups (420g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking poder
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2/3 cup (160ml) whole milk, room temperature
½ cup (120ml) water, room temperature

Fillings:
cheeses, prosciutto, ham, salad leaves, whatever you like

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, salt and baking powder – whisk well to evenly distribute the baking powder and salt throughout the flour. Add the olive oil, the milk and the water and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough starts to form. Start kneading – with your hands or with an electric mixer attached with the dough hook – until an elastic and smooth dough forms, about 8 minutes using the mixer and 12 by hand. Shape dough into a ball, transfer to a large bowl lightly brushed with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Turn the dough into a lightly floured surface and divide it into 6 equal pieces – each one should be about 120g (4oz). Shape each portion into a ball and cover them with a clean kitchen towel to prevent them from drying out. Heat a large nonstick frying pan on high heat.

Working on a lightly floured surface, roll out each dough ball until you get a rough 23cm (9in) circle. Transfer the circle to the frying pan and cook for 2-3 minutes each side. When the piadina is cooked, slide it into a plate and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Cook the remaining dough the same way.

To serve, fill each piadinha with whatever you prefer and fold it in half – when I fill mine with cheese I place them back in the frying pan, over medium heat for a minute, until cheese is melted.
Serve immediately.

Makes 6

My tuna salad sandwiches

My husband and I are not people who swap meals for sandwiches very often – we do like our rice and beans, soups, pasta dishes, and now Joao has some serious competition on my Bolognese sauce, since my 2 ½ year-old nephew loves it as much as Joao does. <3

However, when burgers or tuna salad sandwiches are involved we are happy to have sandwiches for lunch or dinner, and more recently, the sardine rillette has become part of that small list. I did not imagine my husband liked tuna salad sandwiches until the day I made this recipe, which I have been making for over 20 years. He went crazy for the tuna salad and it instantly became part of our favorite things to eat on lazy weekends.

This tuna salad goes very well with all kinds of bread – including the soft rye bread I posted a while ago – but I find it very important to have the slices toasted if the kind of bread chosen is not very sturdy: it prevents the sandwiches from getting soggy.

My tuna salad sandwiches
own recipe

1 can of tuna preserved in water (120g/4oz drained weight)
1 carrot (about 100g/3oz) peeled and coarsely grated
1 small onion, finely diced*
handful of fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
½ cup green olives, pitted and chopped
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oli
2/3 cup mayonnaise – homemade is even better
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Drain the tuna very well, then transfer to a large bowl and flake it with a fork. Mix in the carrot, onion, parsley and olives. Drizzle with the olive oil and mix well. Mix in the mayonnaise, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately with your favorite kind of bread.

* this recipe is delicious too if you replace the onion with celery

Makes 5-6 sandwiches using regular, white bread

Mozzarella in carrozza

Saturday is my favorite day of the week and one thing I love doing is watching some of Nigella’s shows. They are basically reruns and I have already seen many episodes, but that’s fine – it’s a joy to see her cook, even though I’m not always crazy about the dishes she prepares. :)

One can certainly turn to Nigella when looking for delicious food that can be made in almost no time. And that’s what I did, right after watching one episode of her Christmas series – I was hungry but the couch kept calling out my name. :D

If that doesn’t inspire lazy people to cook, I don’t know what will.

Mozzarella in carrozza
from Nigella Bites

6 slices white bread, crusts removed
1 fist-sized ball mozzarella, cut into approximately ¼-inch (0.6cm) slices, then strips – I used buffalo mozzarella with a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup (120ml) whole milk
3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 egg
salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup (120ml) olive oil (not extra-virgin), for frying – I used much less

Make sandwiches out of the bread and mozzarella, leaving a little margin around the edges unfilled with cheese, and press the edges together with your fingers to help seal. (One of the advantages of soft white bread is that it easily smushed together.)
Pour the milk in to 1 soup bowl*, the flour into another, and beat the egg with salt and pepper in another.
Warm the oil in the frying pan over medium heat. Dunk the sandwiches briefly, 1 by 1, in the milk, then dredge in the flour, then dip in the beaten egg. Fry in hot oil on each side until crisp and golden and remove to a paper towel. Cut in half and serve.

* I found it easier to work with shallow plates

Serves 2