Italian Recipes

[tod2]

Venturing through a dozen or so magazines that feature lots of cooking and recipes I found something I just have to make. It is the Italian pastry-less quiche/souffle called SFORMATO.
I Googled a few more recipes but this is the one that tickles my fancy.

It is : Sformato with roasted red grapes, radicchio and olives.

The gist of the recipe is to make a thick white sauce and when it is completely cooled you add cooked vegetables like potato, cauliflower, baby spinach and wild rocket, ricotta, eggs and parmesan. Then bake in a spring-form tin.
The topping of roasted grapes is what I think will make the dish special as the grapes are mixed with shredded radicchio, fat green olives, fresh sprigs of rosemary, pine nuts, runny honey, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

To me it sounds like the perfect Sunday lunch with lots of Riesling. If anyone wants the full recipe I will type it out here.

[kerouac2]

You would drink riesling with an Italian meal?

[casimira]

Gosh, that sounds delicious Tod!!!
I would request the recipe but do not have the proper cookware here to make it. 
It has been particularly frustrating as it has prohibited us from cooking many dishes at this time.

(I am especially curious and have never heard of roasting grapes. Inspiring a concept)

[tod2]

Jan 22, 2022 18:00:35 GMT kerouac2 said:

You would drink riesling with an Italian mea?

Is that because it is German wine? Darling Kerouac, we have wine from South Africa 95% And then a trickle from South America and I think one variety from Greece and one or two from Italy and if I look hard at the shelves maybe fine something from France. Have pity on me... but I know what I like!

[kerouac2]

Actually, I consider riesling to be a French wine, although I know that it also exists in Germany. But as we all know, it is just a grape variety, so it can be made anywhere (Hungary, Austria, Luxembourg, Australia...).

I just think of red wine when I think of Italian food even though I know that I am wrong. In any case, consumption of white wines in France is down to 10% and still dropping.

[tod2]

This is the result of my first attempt at making Sformato. I was quite pleased with the overall flavour and would season it a little more next time.

[kerouac2]

Hmmm, my first impression was of an Alsatian Baeckehoffe until you cut into it. Beans?

[casimira]

It looks just as delicious as it sounds Tod.

[bixaorellana]

Jan 22, 2022 17:18:25 GMT tod2 said:

If anyone wants the full recipe I will type it out here.

I would love to have it if you don't mind, Tod.

[tod2]

Jan 23, 2022 17:24:06 GMT kerouac2 said:

Beans?

Beans......where? No beans. Are you looking at the grapes in a sauce on top? There should have been radicchio and olives in the sauce as well but I didnt have any. I do have green olives but they are not the ones I like. So why add something that tastes awful.

[whatagain]

Looks delicious.

For us here Riesling us definitely alsatian wine.

German wine ? What a strange idea. Better than dutch beer of course, but still...

[tod2]

SFORMATO WITH ROAST GRAPES, RADICCHIO AND OLIVES. (From magazine 'Delicious' Nov.2019)
Serves six - Oven time 20-25min.for individual molds or 35- 40min for large loose bottom cake tin.

You Need: For the souffle.
30g butter, 30g cake flour, 450 whole milk, 250g potato peeled and cut into chunks, 250g cauliflower in small florets, 25og baby leaf spinach, 140g wild rocket, 250g ricotta, 4med eggs, nutmeg for grating, 100g parmesan grated.

For the topping:

200g red seedless grapes, 1 small radicchio shredded, 100g fat green olives pitted and smashed, 2 fresh rosemary sprigs, 3 tbspoons toasted pine nuts, honey to drizzle, Extra-virgin olive oil to drizzle, Balsamic vinegar to drizzle, rocket leaves to decorate - I used flat leaf parsley.

You will need 4X10cm springform cake tins or one large deep 20cm tin.

Method:
1. Heat the oven to 200C/180C - fan/gas 6, Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the flour to form a paste. Cook for 1-2 min until it smells toasty then remove from heat and whisk in the milk little at a time until smooth. Return to the heat and bring to boil stirring and simmer for 3min until thickened. Season well then set aside and cool.
2. Cook potatoes in boiling water until tender. Drain then transfer to a roasting dish with the cauliflower pieces and roast for 10min. until just golden.
3. Prick holes in bag of spinach and rocket and microwave until wilted. Place in colander to drain. I used my potato masher to squeeze out excess moister. Then roughly chop.
4. Once the Bechamel sauce has cooled stir in the ricotta, beaten eggs, generous grated nutmeg, and 75g of the parmesan. (Here I put in a crumbled disk of feta and less ricotta). Then gently stir in the potatoes, cauliflower and chopped spinach. Season well and spoon into the prepared tins ( I used a spray and cook) level off with spatula and sprinkle on remaining parmesan. Put on baking trays and bake until golden and set.
5. For The Topping:
Toss grapes with the radicchio, olives and rosemary, pine nuts, ( toasted mine separately and added to the topping just before serving), honey, oil and balsamic in a baking dish. Bake in the oven for 10 min or until grapes begin to burst and the radicchio is just charred. Keep warm.
6. Let the sformato cool slightly in their tins before removing and serving with topping and extra rocket leaves.

MY Note:
I replaced the potatoes with butternut chunks and cubed zucchini.

[kerouac2]

Oh, if only they would stop misusing the word quiche!

[tod2]

Please explain the misuse as I've no clue..!

[kerouac2]

Quiche is a French tart consisting of eggs, cream and lardons. Barbarians around the world have decided that just about any savoury tart can be called a quiche, but they had better not set foot in Lorraine.

(For the record, I do not really like quiche because I do not like tarts.)