Mozzarella Bites - Mini Croissants

After a full day of work, I found myself having to cook something good for my hungry people in less than 20 minutes. I came up these mini-croissants which turned out to have an amazing taste. You can make this recipe more advanced, but the core of it is so simple! It takes only 3 ingredients: mozzarella a puff pastry sheet and olive oil and 20 minutes of your time.

Ingredients:

Puff Pastry sheet
A mozarella
Olive oil

Procedure:

1) Cut the mozarella into small cubes.

2) Cut the puff pastry sheet into triangles. If your puff pastry is round, you simply cut it in 8 equal parts. If your puff pastry is square you will better off watching the video linked bellow as I show how you can cut it in triangles.

3) Wrap the mozzarella into the puff pastry forming a croissant shape (the video shows this step too). Place a baking paper sheet into your baking tray and lay the croissant in it. Finally put a little bit of oil on top by using a brush or a small spoon.

4) Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius or 390 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake them for 10-15 minutes until golden. Serve them warm.

Here is the link to the video..you get more insides in there:
Comming soon!

If you try this recipe, please come back to let us know how it was! Thanks a lot for the support and make sure to bookmark it should you want to give it a try later on!

Riciarelli Cookies

 This recipe is part of a collaboration with many other mums. We  are sharing some handmade gift ideas or Christmas. And of course all I could think of are recipe ideas. One was fresh pasta...but that is hard to store properly..so I went for Ricciarelli, a traditional cookie from Sienna. It's made with almond flour, sugar and egg whites! Very simple to make and it's gluten free too! It's a fresh cookie....so they are better if consumed in maximum a week time! This is the most delicious cookie that I have ever tried and hopefully it's going to be like that for you too.

Ingredients:

Almond flour*              200gr /7oz
Powder Sugar               200gr/7oz
Egg White                     2
Almond extract             2 small spoons
Vanilla Stick                 1 (Only the beans)
------------------
I also used
The Juice of Half Lime  
Lime zest**       

Notes:
* You can obtain the almond flour by blending pealed almonds :)
** These extra aromas vary from recipe to recipe. Sometimes orange zest is used....in some brands. I do not suggest to use orange zest as it kills the delicate taste of almond that this cookie has...some lime zest instead remains very settled with the overall taste of this cookie.

Procedure:

1) Mount the white egg. If you think this is hard, it's not, just take a fork and energetically mix the egg. Give it 5 min and that's it.

2) Mix the almond and almost all the powdered sugar. Keep a bit of sugar aside. We will use it on the dough (3-4 full spoons will do). Add slowly the egg-white mixture to the almond flour. Attention as it may take less egg-white than the recipe ask for, so you need to mix the two by adding the egg-white mixture slowly.

3) Once you get to a workable dough consistency (watch the video linked bellow if you are not sure what the consistency has to be like) add the beans of the Vanilla stick, the zest of a lime, the juice of half a lime and the almond extract.

4) Use wrapping paper to cover the dough and leave it rest in the fridge for 1 night...or 8 hours

5) The next day can make them into a cookie shape and bake them at 160 degrees Celsius or 320 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. They don't have to brown so make sure that you remove them from the oven earlier.

Leave them cool and store them in an air tight container.
You may pack them and give the presents in a couple of days max!

Next you need to let me know how they turned out :)! Enjoy!

If you want more insides on the making of these cookies watch the linked video..it will also bring you to other handmade Christmas ideas from other ladies!

Peanut Butter and Oat Bran Cookies

My nutritionist keeps suggesting Oat Bran as a good cereal to eat for breakfast. It's rich with fiber and helps the metabolism. With all my good intentions, this thing added to yogurt (her suggestion) tastes like yogurt with flour. So, I tried to find a cookie recipe that stays on the healthy but still tastes well.

Ingredients:

2 egg Yolks
4 Tbs of Peanut Butter
4 Tbs of Sugar
2 Tbs of Chocolate chips
16 Tbs of Oat Bran
About 12 Candied Cherries

Note: The amount of sugar that I used does not make extremely sweet cookies. You may consider adding 1-2 spoons of sugar or more chocolate chips if you like the cookies to be very sweet

Procedure:

Mix the egg yolks with the sugar then add the Peanut Butter. After mixing well the ingredients, add the oat bran and finally the chocolate chips.

Use a baking sheet or non stick spray or just butter/oil on the backing tray. Wet your hands with water and form round balls which you then press down to take the cookie shape. Finally add one candied cherry in the center of each cookie (like this they look like flowers).

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees centigrade (about 390 F) and bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes. You will see that they are ready when they become slightly golden-brown.

Leave them cool a couple of minutes then Enjoy!

Watch me and my daughter prepare them:

Video coming soon!

Fusilli with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Ricotta

This is a pasta with a very delicate taste and that is very simple to make. All the ingredient are fresh and simple and overall it's much lighter in calories than other cheesy pasta.

When you cook pasta, you must count 80gr of pasta per person (that is the suggested amount at least). So, in order to serve 4, you need 320gr (0,7 of a pound). The truth is that it is always better to cook a bit more ...just in case. The packaging of pasta has 500gr (about 1 pound), so if you would like to cook it all, you have a 1-1 relationship pasta/cherry tomato and count half dose for the ricotta. This means 500gr (1 pound) of pasta, 500 gr (1 pound) of cherry tomato and 250gr (half pound) of ricotta cheese.

Ingredients for 4 people:
Ricotta cheese 160gr  (40gr a person) / 6 ounces
Fresh Cherry Tomato: 320gr / 3/4 of a pound
Fusilli Pasta: 320gr / 3/4 of a pound
Fresh Basil: 6-8 leaves
Onion: 1 small
Olive oil: 3 spoons
To your discretion: Some black pepper and some parmigiano

Steps:

1. Put the cherry tomatoes in a pot with water. Let them boil for a couple of minutes, so that you can easily remove the skin.  Then, drain the water, peal them and crush them into a creamy sauce by using a fork.

2. Meantime, boil 2l of salty water that you will use for cooking the pasta. Cook the pasta following the cooking directions on the package.

3. Chop finely the onion and the basil. Place them both in a non-stick pot with some olive oil. Cook then until the onion looks transparent. Add the cherry tomato sauce that you prepared earlier and let the tomato juice reduce for 3-4 minutes. Keep mixing so that it does not burn. When all looks creamy,  turn off the heat and add the ricotta cheese. Mix well and then add the sauce to the pasta.

4. You can sprinkle black peeper, parmigiano and some basil on top!

If you would like to view how I make this recipe you can do so on my YouTube Channel:

If you would like me to do a specific Italian recipe, just let me know!
Also let me know if you try this out and if you enjoyed the recipe as I do.

Other Pasta Recipes that you may enjoy:

Egg Pasta With Salmon and Cream

Cold Pasta Salad

Bucatini All'Amatriciana

Turkish Style Stuffed Bell Peppers

Step1: Clean the onions and chop them finely. Mix the minced meat to the chopped onions. Add the oil, cover and cook them in medium heat.

Step 2: Meantime, cut the top of the bell pepper and clean them from the seeds. Keep the top of the bell peppers aside. Once you clean all of them, chop the top of the peppers in tiny cubes and mix it with the onion and the meat.

Step 3: The cooking onions will release water. Cook the mixture until the onion is transparent and the released water has evaporated (20-30 min). Then, add the tomato sauce (or chopped tomatoes if you are choose to use fresh ones), the rice and some finely chopped parsley. 

Step 4: Adjust salt and pepper and mix everything well. Leave the mixture cook for no more than 3 additional minutes.

Step 5: Place the previously cleaned bell peppers in the baking tray. Add a pinch of salt inside each bell pepper and then fill them with the prepared mixture. Place the filled peppers in a baking tray by lying them down in a horizontal position (see Fig 2 or watch the linked video if you are unsure).

Fig. 2 Before baking.

Step 6: Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius (about 400 degrees Fahrenheit). Cover the filled peppers half way with water and place them in the oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour, help yourself with two spoons to turn them so that the side that was covered with water now is on top. Cook them for another hour. 

Fig 3. After 1 hour of cooking, the peppers and the rice starts to brown. You turn this side on the bottom and, within another hour all will be done!

Note: Be aware that cooking times may vary depending on the oven that you use. The dish is ready when all the ingredients are very soft and melt in your mouth. Despite having rice inside, you serve the dish with some fresh bread. Enjoy!

Our video recipe will give you a detailed step by step visual guide on how to make this dish:  

 

If you try this dish I would love to know how it turned out for you!  

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