ORANGE & ALMOND CAKE
SERVES 8-10 / PREPARATION 25 MINUTES / COOKING 3¼ HOURS
2 oranges
6 eggs
250g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting 250g almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder orange syrup orange icing candied orange peel, to serve poppy seeds, to serve
Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Wash the oranges and cook whole in boiling water for 2 hours.
Drain, allow to cool to room temperature, then put the whole fruit in a food processor and blitz to a purée. This step can be done ahead of time.
Heat the oven to 140°C. Grease and line a 22cm springform cake tin, or use a bundt tin.
Put the eggs and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until pale, light and fluffy. Stir in the orange purée followed by the almond meal and baking powder.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and dust the top with extra caster sugar. Bake for 1-1¼ hours, until the top is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Spoon over the orange syrup as soon as the cake comes out of the oven and allow to cool in the tin.
Once cool, remove the cake from the tin. Turn the cake over and cover generously with the icing, allowing it to run down the sides a little. Before the icing sets, sprinkle with candied orange peel and poppy seeds.
You could also serve this cake with crème fraîche or chocolate ganache.
ORANGE SYRUP 200ml orange juice 200g caster sugar zest of 1 lemon 150ml water
Place all the ingredients into a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little. Spoon over the cake as soon as it comes from the oven.
ORANGE ICING 30ml orange juice 240g icing sugar
Combine the juice and sugar in a bowl and stir until it has a thick pouring consistency. Spoon generously over the cooled orange and almond cake.
HAND-ROLLED CASARECCE WITH LEMON & SAFFRON SERVES 5-6 AS AN ENTRÉE / PREPARATION 25 MINUTES PLUS 30 MINUTES RESTING / COOKING 3-4 MINUTES
HAND-ROLLED CASARECCE
180g semolina, plus extra for sprinkling 180g ‘00’ pasta flour
10g salt
175ml warm water
Mix the semolina and flour together, pile into a mound then make an indent in the centre leaving approx. 1cm thickness on the bottom and even walls all the way around.
Dissolve the salt in the water, then slowly pour into the indent making sure to keep the side walls intact. Stir with a fork to combine the flour and water into a loose ball and knead until fully incorporated. The dough will be dry. If necessary, add a little more water (a spray bottle is a good way to do this). Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes.
Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 30 minutes at room temperature before using. If you’re not using it after 30 minutes, put it in the fridge.
To form into casarecce, separate the dough into 7-8 pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll into a long thin sausage of around 1cm in diameter. Return what is not being used to the plastic wrap.
Cut into approximately 5cm lengths. Use a narrow dowel or knitting needle and align it horizontally to each piece of pasta, rolling from one long side to another. Apply gentle downwards pressure as you go, so that the dough rolls slightly up and around the dowel. Transfer the rolled casarecce to a tray sprinkled lightly with semolina.
1 x 750ml bottle white wine 3 pinches saffron threads 20ml lemon juice
420g butter, cut into 1cm cubes zest of ½ lemon, to serve 1 teaspoon chopped chives, to serve To make the sauce, place the wine and saffron into a saucepan, bring to a boil and reduce to a volume of 175ml. Cool. This makes more wine/saffron reduction than you will need but it keeps well in the fridge or can be frozen.
Put 85ml of the wine/saffron reduction and the lemon juice into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat. Add 4-5 cubes of butter, put back on the heat and allow to come back to the boil. Remove from the heat and blend with the hand blender until the butter is incorporated. Place back on the heat and repeat the previous step until all the butter is in the sauce. Season well with salt and white pepper.
Drop the pasta in boiling, salted water and cook for 3-4 minutes then drain. Bring the sauce to a simmer. Place the cooked pasta in the pan with the sauce and toss to coat well.
Serve the pasta in bowls and spoon over any remaining sauce. Top with lemon zest and chopped chives.
VILLAGE SALAD SERVES 1
100g tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 baby cucumbers, peeled, cut in half and seeds removed 30g Spanish onion, cut into 1cm wedges, soaked in red wine vinegar
7 Moroccan sundried olives, crushed and stones removed 5 pickled hot chillies
10ml red wine vinegar
20ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
60g feta (use barrel-aged feta if you can get it) 3 caperberries, cut in half through the stalk
1 teaspoon dried Greek oregano
1 lemon cheek, to serve
Put the tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, olives and chillies in a bowl and dress with the vinegar, oil and plenty of salt flakes. Arrange in a large salad bowl, place the cheese on top of the salad and garnish with caperberries. Give the whole thing a good dash of olive oil, sprinkle with oregano and serve with the lemon cheek – it’s all about the dressing so be generous. ■