Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’s panna cotta with grappa and raspberries
Serves 6
double cream 1.2 litres
vanilla pods 2
lemons 2, rind thinly pared
gelatine leaves 3
cold milk 150ml
icing sugar 150g
grappa 120ml, plus extra to serve
raspberries 3 punnets
Pour 900ml of the cream into a pan, add the vanilla pods and lemon rind, bring to the boil, then simmer until reduced by one-third. Remove the cooked lemon rind and keep to one side. Remove the vanilla pods and scrape the softened insides into the cream.
Soak the gelatine in the milk for about 15 minutes or until soft. Remove the gelatine, heat the milk until boiling, then return the gelatine to the milk and stir until dissolved.
Pour the milk and gelatine mixture into the hot cream through a sieve, stir, then leave to cool.
Lightly whip the remaining cream with the icing sugar, fold into the cooled cooked cream, then add the grappa. Place a piece of cooked lemon rind in each of six small 200 ml (7 fl oz) moulds or bowls, pour in the cream mixture and allow to set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Turn out on to dessert plates and serve with fresh raspberries and a tablespoon of grappa poured over
the top.
From River Cafe Cook Book Two by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers (Ebury Press, £20). Click here to buy from the Guardian Bookshop for £16
Angela Hartnett’s osso bucco
Male calves are an inevitable by-product of the dairy industry. Welfare farmers such as Brookfield Farms in Dorset use a method of farming that provides a sustainable and long-term solution to this issue. When osso buco is done well, it’s heaven for carnivores. Ask your butcher to cut up the veal shin for you, and make sure all the vegetables are cut into pieces of roughly the same size so they cook evenly. I like to encourage people to eat it with their fingers – so much easier than fiddling around with a knife and fork!
Serves 4
olive oil 100ml
plain flour a handful, for dusting
veal shin 1, cut into pieces 5cm thick
onion 1, roughly chopped
carrot 1, roughly chopped
leek 1, roughly chopped
celery stick 1, roughly chopped
garlic 1 head, cut horizontally through the middle
fresh thyme 4 sprigs
bay leaves 2
white peppercorns 5, crushed
white wine 200ml
chicken stock 250ml
tomatoes 2, cut into quarters
salt
freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oil in a large pan or casserole over a high heat. Lightly flour the veal and add to the pan in a single layer. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until lightly coloured. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the onion, carrot, leek, celery and garlic to the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until light golden in colour. Add the thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns and a little salt, and stir well.
Arrange the pieces of veal on top of the vegetables in a single layer. Add the wine and boil until reduced by half. Add the stock and tomatoes and season well. Reduce the heat, cover with a cartouche (a circle of baking parchment) and a lid, and simmer for 2-3 hours, or until the meat is so tender that it falls off the bone easily.
From Cucina by Angela Hartnett (Ebury Press, £25). Click here to buy from Guardian Bookshop for £20
Florence Knight’s polpettine
I use a light touch to make these small Italian meatballs as otherwise they become too dense. I don’t use eggs and instead soak the bread in milk and add mustard, using this to combine the mixture. The sauce is slow cooked and improves with time. It is worth making a big batch of these, since polpettine go really well through pasta and in sandwiches, and you can store any extras in the freezer for a month or so.
Makes 4 small plates
For the sauce
extra virgin olive oil
onion 1
salt a large pinch
garlic cloves 2
dried chilli a pinch
thyme 3 sprigs
oregano 3 sprigs
plum tomatoes 2 x 400g tin
unwaxed lemon zest of 1
For the polpettine
onion 1 large
garlic cloves 2
salt a pinch
rosemary 2 sprigs
thyme 3 sprigs
extra virgin olive oil
bread (stale or fresh) 2 slices
milk 100ml
parmesan 5g, plus extra
dijon mustard 1 tsp
beef mince 250g
pork mince 120g
dried chilli ½ tsp
fresh nutmeg grated, to taste
Heat a glug of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan on a low heat. Halve, peel and slice the onion. Add with the salt to the hot pan then reduce the heat and cook for ten minutes or so until soft. While the onions are cooking, peel and finely slice the garlic.
Stir through the garlic, chilli and herbs and cook for a minute, then add the tomatoes and their juices from the tins. Swill each of the emptied tins with a little water to get the last remnants of tomato and add this to the pan too. Increase the heat to high and simmer for a few minutes, avoiding the temptation to keep stirring. Then turn the heat down low and leave to reduce to a thick chunky texture. The longer you cook it, the better the sauce will be. I tend to leave it to simmer quietly for about 30 minutes to an hour while I make the meatballs.
While the sauce is reducing, make the polpettine. Peel the onion and garlic, dicing the onion as finely as you can. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the garlic with the salt to a smooth paste. Pick and finely chop the rosemary and thyme leaves.
Preheat the oven to 160C/gas mark 3 and lightly grease a baking tray.
Put a pan on the heat with a little olive oil and sweat down the onion, garlic, rosemary and thyme. Once they’re completely soft, spread them over a plate and put it in the fridge to cool.
Soak the bread in the milk in a shallow bowl for five to ten minutes until the milk has been absorbed. Grate the parmesan on a fine setting. Once softened, break the bread into small chunks with your hands and discard any leftover milk.
Put the cooled onions and garlic, soaked bread, parmesan, mustard, beef and pork mince, chilli and nutmeg in a large bowl and mix together with your hands. Be careful not to overwork the mixture.
I like meatballs to be light and juicy, and overworking results in a very dense and heavy meatball. Grease your hands with a few drops of olive oil and then shape the mixture into balls about the size of giant marbles.
Place the polpettine on the greased baking tray and bake in the oven for ten minutes. They will still be soft when they come out – the baking is just to colour them and set their shape, not to cook them through which happens in the sauce.
Grate the lemon zest into the now-reduced sauce and add a splash of olive oil. Then add the polpettine to the sauce to simmer for a few minutes to cook through.
Serve on small plates and eat topped with finely grated parmesan and a dash of olive oil.
From One by Florence Knight (Hodder & Stoughton, £26). Click here to buy from Guardian Bookshop for £20.80
Nigella Lawson’s chocolate olive oil cake
Although I first came up with this recipe because I had someone coming for supper who – genuinely – couldn’t eat wheat or dairy, it is so meltingly good, I now make it all the time for those whose life and diet are not so unfairly constrained, myself included.
It is slightly heavier with the almonds – though not in a bad way – so if you want a lighter crumb, rather than a squidgy interior, and are not making the cake for the gluten-intolerant, then replace the 150g ground almonds with 125g plain flour. This has the built-in bonus of making it perhaps more suitable for an everyday cake.
Made with almonds, it has more of supper-party pudding feel about it and I love it still a bit warm, with some raspberries on the side, as well as a dollop of mascarpone or ice cream.
Cuts into 8–12 slices
regular olive oil 150ml, plus more for greasing
good-quality cocoa powder 50g, sifted
boiling water 125ml
best vanilla extract 2 tsp
ground almonds 150g or 125g plain flour
bicarbonate of soda ½ tsp
salt a pinch
caster sugar 200g
eggs 3
Preheat your oven to 170C/gas mark 3. Grease a 22cm or 23cm springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.
Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.
Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.
Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.
Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.
From Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration by Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus, £14.99). Click here to buy from Guardian Bookshop for £11.99
Jacob Kenedy’s sour cherry granita
My grandmother used to make me yogurt soup as a child, by opening a jar of Morello cherries and spooning yogurt into it. I loved it, and still do – sour cherries have a special place in my heart. In Sicily they make a mulberry granita that is exceptional, but it is hard to find black mulberries these days if you don’t have a tree. Morello cherries are my replacement – tarter, but just as full of fruity goodness, and full of happy memories.
Serves 4
Morello cherries 500g, stemmed
water 600ml
caster sugar 175g
Put everything into a pot, bring it almost to a simmer, turn it off immediately and leave to cool. Put the lot in a food processor (not a liquidiser, which would crush the cherry stones) and purée until the flesh has come from the pits, and broken down to a red liquid. Pass through a sieve, pressing down to extract the juice, and discard the stony residue. Pour the liquid into a deep tray that will fit in your freezer (metal is best, as it will conduct heat from the granita fastest – but this is only a question of time, rather than quality). Place it in your freezer, and check after half an hour. Once ice crystals start to form, stir every 15 minutes or so with a fork or sturdy balloon whisk until you have a thick slush. If it gets too hard, you can always thaw it a little before serving – and it can be stored this way (frozen solid) for weeks. Serve on a hot day.
If you can’t get fresh Morello cherries, use cooked ones from jars, which can be liquidised and strained. Alternatively, use fresh, eating cherries and the method above. In either case, add sugar to taste if necessary, remembering the granita will taste slightly less sweet when frozen.
From Bocca: Cookbook by Jacob Kenedy (Bloomsbury Publishing, £30). Click here to buy from Guardian Bookshop for £24
