Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Bread in a can / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Pane in lattina

Today for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook I want to present you with a very practical and entertaining recipe, as well as delicious of course! Bread in a can is the perfect example of how man can use anything as a cooking tool. Really, there is no point in owning multiple moulds and bread tins when you can re-use tin cans. Besides the result is so nice and the rounded slices of bread are perfect for making appetizers!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Savoury Semolina Flour Pancakes / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Pancakes salati con farina per pasta e pizza

Breakfast, you already know how much I love this moment of the day and I won’t go on stressing how important it is for me to start the day with a rich meal. I have already experimented with a bread recipe using Maroggia’s Mill pasta and pizza flour (which is a mixture of wheat flour and very finely ground semolina flour) and I was pleasantly surprised. The result was very good, with an aromatic flavour and a good texture regarding the crumb.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Parmesan and Chive Polenta Muffins / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Muffins alla polenta, parmigiano e erba cipollina

Polenta. For centuries it has been the staple of our grandparents and great-grandparents diet, accompanied by meat, cheese, or more commonly by milk (even though I’m aware it is a quite childish on it’s my favourite combination). Corn is a tenacious plant with a very good yield, two features which make of this plant the most commonly cultivated and the staple of many peoples diet all around the world. It can also be toasted and reduced to a fine powder to produce farina bona, a special flour which is typical of the Valle Onsernone, a Valley in Ticino. Corn flour can be used in many different ways, as coating meat or bread sticks instead of using breadcrumbs, and can also be used in sweet preparations such as cakes (like amor polenta) and biscuits.

A piadina that believed itself to be ravioli, sweet version / La piadina che si credeva raviolo, versione dolce

In this post I propose the original recipe for the piadina that believed itself to be ravioli. Oh yes, the recipe was originally conceived as a sweet and only later I was asked to change it into a savoury version. In fact, the first recipe’s name should have been “Piadina that believed itself to be ravioli… but also a bit cannoli”because of its sweet filling made with goat cheese and candied fruit, like the traditional cannolo. Since no recipe goes to waste and blog posting optimization has become vital to me I propose the recipe with a slight modification in the dough too, with a mix of fine semolina and AP white flour which is reminiscent of fresh pasta. I recommend using goat cheese because it is much more delicate on the palate and less creamy (too much creaminess is likely to cover the flavours of the other ingredients). I added lemon zest and fennel powder to give some freshness to the filling which would be otherwise a little too bland. Sometimes it takes very little to make a recipe special and I am very happy to say this one passed the guinea pigs test with no problem, despite the presence of candied peel which are not always to the taste of everyone. If you are among those who do not like candied peel you can always replace this ingredient with chocolate chips or other ingredients you like the most.

Cardamom and Turmeric Pancakes / Pancakes al cardamomo e curcuma

Sunday morning, 6 o’ clock, Chiasso. I must be crazy but I have a mission, a very complicated recipe I have been wanting to bake for many years. Breathe in, breathe out. I reach to the bag of special flour I purchased a few months ago fr the purpose…only to find out it is full of flour bugs! I have no alternative but a change of plans and must decide what to bake quickly. Luckily I had refreshed some liquid starter just the night before, but what could I come up with in order no to waste too much time and be able to take pictures while the sun was still out?

MTC Challenge: Of Mice and Men, a muffin dreamed by labourers / MTC Challenge: Uomini e topi, il muffin sognato dai braccianti

And so we are approaching the end of the month, and as usual I am posting just a few days before the end of this month’s MTC challenge. Last month, Francesca from the Blog Burro e Zucchero won and for this last challenge before the end of the year she decided to set a higher bar. This time not only a basic recipe to take inspiration from, but the obligation to take inspiration from written work, may it be a book, a poem, a story or a song, justifying the use of ingredients in relation to it. After a first enthusiastic reaction I got into panic. What to choose? What writer, poet, singer-songwriter? What inspiration to follow, which ingredients to choose?

MTC Challenge: Piadina Romagnola

This month’s MTC Challenge was a massacre for me…never underestimate what a flatbread can do to your brain. Tiziana (last month’s winner) requested not one but 5 recipes. Yes 5 recipes, and obviously I had to come up with something different, an attitude I have always had and which eventually turns up against me like in this case.

A late Christmas treat, Gingersnap biscuits by The Garum Factory / Un dolcetto molto natalizio…po’ in ritardo! Biscotti allo zenzero e spezie di The Garum Factory

Last Christmas I was full of good intentions. Many challenges were thrown around the web, themed especially for the festive season and in all good faith were pinned down on my calendar, looking forward to participate. Not only I forgot to bake a bread for Twelve loaves but didn’t participate to a single contest. Blame it on the panettone obsession, on the new part time job, and well…on the festive season! The only recipe that was completed, foreseeing many happy festive baking moments was candied ginger.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Merlot flavoured Ticinese Taralli with polenta breading / Il ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Taralli Ticinesi al Merlot con panatura di polenta

I already mentioned Maroggia’s Mill and the high quality of its Farina Nostrana flour in my post for my Autumn Flower’s recipe, a sweet brioche with pumpkin and chestnuts cream, and I expressed the good intention of making an extra effort in the selection of flours that I use for my experiments in the kitchen. Said and done.