Tigelle

Street food is now everywhere on the streets of our cities and at every special event around Ticino. A few years ago when I attended Food Immersion Festival I was impressed by Tigella Bella‘s stand but there was so much to say and eat that I realized I had completely forgot to mention them! The thought of these soft flat breads didn’t leave me but only now I had the idea to reinterpret the original recipe. The result? Spectacular! Try them as soon as baked. Warm, soft and fragrant they lend themselves beautifully for a brunch in your backyard!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Rye Flour Tigelle / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Tigelle con farina di segale

 

Street food is now everywhere on the streets of our cities and at every special event around Ticino. A few years ago when I attended Food Immersion Festival I was impressed by Tigella Bella‘s stand but there was so much to say and eat that I realized I had completely forgot to mention them! The thought of these soft flat breads didn’t leave me but only now I had the idea to reinterpret the original recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. The result? Spectacular! Try them as soon as baked. Warm, soft and fragrant they lend themselves beautifully for a brunch in your backyard!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Soft Milk Flatbreads / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccine soffici al latte

Yet another Friday with Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook and yet another bread: a flat bread. Nothing more handy. Flatbread can be stuffed, lends itself perfectly as an accompaniment to a main dish or serves beautiful as a simple snack. A soft and versatile bread that doesn’t need to be sliced and can be easily portioned by tearing it into smaller pieces. Ideal to have for breakfast as for lunch and dinner. This time around I wanted to try and enrich the dough with eggs and milk to make the bread as soft as I could. The result is great but I would recommend you to consume this bread when still hot or to warm it briefly in the oven or toaster after brushing it with a little water, to fully taste its softness and fragrance. You can flavour the dough with seeds, spices or chocolate chips for a tasty snack.

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.

Persian Bread: Lavash / Pane persiano: Lavash

Of my great love for Persian cuisine and its language (which unfortunately I do not understand but never fails to move my heart, like a sweet melody, every time I hear my aunt talking in farsi) I already wrote in this post about Persian sweets. There I mentioned Mandana, a longtime friend of my aunt with whom a nice relationship of complicity and confidence was born after I met her at my cousin’s wedding. We often write to each other on facebook and often share some recipes too. She usually asks me for bread and pizza recipes, my requests are mainly for Persian recipes. On one of these occasions I asked her if she had a recipe for lavash, since it has been quite a while that with a friend who is in a relationship with and Iranian boy we are thinking about having an all Persian dinner and I do not want to show up at their place empty handed.

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Semolina Flour Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccine con farina di semola

For once my english introduction to the recipe has to be completely different from the italian one. Why this? Focaccia is quite a common snack (or at least it was) in High Schools both in Ticino and in Italy. I remember those round flatbreads, that were handed out at screaming and pushing (and quite commonly spotty) teenagers during recreation time. There were few focaccias and pizzas, wrapped in grease paper (or was it the actual grease from the breads?) and many, too many of us. Those who had the chance to get their hands on such a treat would rarely share, grinning at those who were left with nothing. Oh teenagers! What was it that made to us those rubbery and greasy breads so appealing I still ask myself, watching back to those days. But let’s look forward. Luckily my tastebuds have had a proper breaducation along the years, no such “breads” are seen in my house, and I rather not eat than bite into rubber foam discs. This focaccia is what all High School pupils deserve.

Sourdough Surprises: Gozleme filled with Kohlrabi, Aubergines and Parmesan Cheese / Sourdough Surprises Luglio: Gozleme ripieni di crema di cavolo rapa, melanzana e parmigiano reggiano

As you may well know by now the 20th of each month is dedicated to the beautiful sourdough bread – and not only, do you remember my lattst recipe for apple fritters? – collection Sourdough Surprises. This month the choice fell on a turkish filled bread, Gozleme. Those of you who know me well will know I absolutely love all kind of Middle Eastern foods. The ones who know me better and in person know about my regrets of going to Istanbul and not being able to profit fully of the experience, especially from a culinary point of view (I guess I’ll have to organize a trip with my friend Michela). It sounds so daft I know, but the only Gozleme I have ever eaten was savoured walking up and down the nice turkish market in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

A friendship’s tale: Msemmen bread from Morocco / Storia di pane e amicizia: lo Msemmen dal Marocco

This is a special bread, a bread of friendship. A bread to tear and share. My friend Amal taught me ho to prepare and bake it. I met her at a swap event in Chiasso, “Il trovatutto”, which is held monthly in a recreational center in town. I started going to it when I realized that many things stored during my last move weren’t of use anymore. Simply they stayed several months in the boxes without me noticing. An old mirror, some jeans I was given but never wore, things like this. Since waste is not an option in my house I was more than glad when my path crossed the one of “Il trovatutto”. I got rid of many things and met new people, and among them Amal. Funnily enough we met over our passion for food and baked goods.

My heart belongs to Genoa. Sourdoug Surprises: Focaccia with pickled artichokes, red cabbage and anchovies / Il cuore a Genova, una focaccia alla crema di carciofi, cavolo rosso e acciughe per l’amore della mia vita

Focaccia, Genoa’s most famous bread, is this month’s Sourdough Surprises theme. Genoa has adopted me for little less than a year back in 2006, and still is the city I consider my true home.

Naan Bread and a different kind of Curry / Pane Naan e un curry un po’ diverso

Bread comes first, always. I am quite amused, because this post would reasonably have to be about the curry recipe. Curry the main dish and bread just something on the side and not vice versa. But you know I’m a little crazy and love to do things all the other way round. Why put bread first? There are several reasons.