VIVA ITALIA
Sicilian orange and chocolate recipe from Italian chef takes the cake for
Flipping through Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli’s new cookbook Made at Home: The Food I Cook for the People I Love ($50, Harper Collins), I got an idea of how fabulous it would be to cook in his childhood home in the village of Corgeno in northern Italy.
In the book, the now-U.K.-based Locatelli, owner of the Michelinstarred Locanda Locatelli restaurant in London and host of various food shows on the BBC, writes about cooking the foods he ate growing up — fresh fish from a nearby lake, persimmons from a neighbour’s tree and rabbits and chickens his grandfather raised in the backyard.
Trying to find some of the same ingredients at my local supermarket to create the same experience proved to be less enchanting. At least the produce aisle had the Tuscan kale (a tiny, wilted bunch that cost $5) required to make Locatelli’s Tuscan bread soup, which is basically kale boiled in water with hunks of stale crusty bread and pecorino thrown in. I imagine the soup wouldn’t taste as bland if I ate it in the Italian countryside rather than at my desk.
But this isn’t to say Made At Home isn’t worth picking up, as most of the 150 recipes top out at six to 10 ingredients, and the North American home cook can still get a taste of rustic Italian cooking, albeit with a few substitutions (I used sourdough when my hunt for Tuscan bread came up short).
Made At Home’s recipes include salads, pastas, soups, risottos, roasts, vegetable sides, pizzas and cakes. What I especially like is that the book has sections that show how to cook a particular ingredient in multiple ways, such as using spaghetti to make classic carbonara; cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper); a simple garlic, oil and chili combo; and a fast canned tuna, tomato and olive dinner.
A notice to fellow Canadians: The book was originally released in the U.K. and there is no North American edition.
This means the book’s British-isms are very much in place, including cooking terms (superfine sugar written as castor sugar), U.K.centric ingredients (fresh yeast) and oven temperatures for a convection oven, meaning you’ll have to convert the settings to the conventional oven widely used in North America (in general, increase convection oven temperatures by 25 F to get the conventional oven temperature and keep an eye on the cooking time).
Also, measurements are given in weights, which may be frustrating to home cooks used to measuring cups. But with the way many cookbooks are increasingly listing ingredients by weight, it might be worth investing in a digital kitchen scale.
Sicilian orange and chocolate cake
Star Tested My parents loved this cake so much they sliced up the leftovers for their friends. The cake is dense but moist and full of orange flavour, and the blanket of bittersweet ganache was easy to make.
I adapted the recipe to fit the Star’s style, converting weighted measurements to volume and adjusting convection oven temperatures for the more common conventional oven in North America. I couldn’t find Sicilian oranges, but navel oranges worked perfectly as they are in season and are extra large and sweet this year. Locatelli writes that lemon or grapefruit can also be used.
The original recipe also calls for liquid glucose, a sweetener popular in U.K. baking, but I used the easier-to-find corn syrup. Self-rising flour can be found at bulk food stores but you can make your own by blending 11/2 tsp (7 mL) baking powder and 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt for every 1 cup (250 mL) of flour. Superfine sugar can also be made by pulsing granulated sugar in a spice grinder or food processor until it reaches a texture finer than granulated sugar but not to a point where it’s powdered sugar.
1 cup plus 1 tbsp (265 mL) softened unsalted butter, plus more to grease pan
11/3 cup (330 mL) superfine sugar Zest of
5 large oranges
5 eggs
2 cups (500 mL) self-rising flour
1 cup plus 2 tbsp (280 mL) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup plus
2 tbsp (155 mL) 35 per cent whipping cream
1 tbsp (15 mL) corn syrup
Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Grease a 9-inch (23 cm) springform cake pan with butter and line bottom and sides with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, or a large mixing bowl with electric beaters or wooden spoon, cream butter, sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy. Whisk in eggs one at a time. Fold in flour gradually until well-incorporated but not over-mixed. Pour batter into cake pan. Tap pan gently on countertop to get rid of any air bubbles.
Bake on middle rack for 40 to 50 minutes, or until cake is golden and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in centre. Remove from heat. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing cake from springform pan. Let cake cool completely to room temperature. Refrigerate cake for at least two hours and no more than 24 hours before covering with ganache.
To make ganache, place chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk together cream and corn syrup. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate. Whisk until chocolate has melted and become smooth. Let ganache cool until just warm (15 to 20 minutes) or reads 95 F (35 C) on a digital thermometer.
Spread ganache all over chilled cake. Refrigerate for at least another 30 minutes before serving.
Makes 8 to 10 servings. Candied Orange Garnish (Optional) The recipe left me with some zestless oranges, so I candied them to make an edible garnish. 1 large orange, sliced into 1/4-inch (1/2 cm) slices, ends discarded 1/4 cup (60 mL) granulated sugar, plus more as necessary Preheat oven to 200 F (90 C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place orange slices in a single layer and generously sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 2 hours. Flip slices. Sprinkle with more sugar and bake for another 1 to 2 hours until slices turn translucent and have slightly dried out but are still pliable. Remove from heat and let cool on a wire rack before placing on cake.
Makes about 6 slices. Cook This Book is a bi-weekly column that looks at the latest cookbooks hitting the stands. Email karonliu@thestar.ca