There are blackberries - mora and sloe berries - prugnolo, figs - fica and various plums - prugna, there is rosemary and sage - rosmarino e salvia (plus other things I am yet to identify) on every trail around the house, so going anywhere means inspiration. I can’t drink much at the moment so although a vat of sloe gin sounds great I just can’t see it happening so if anyone has any ideas on what to do with sloes hook me up! The figs are unfortunately still green so thinking about the leaves etc..
Foraged blackberries and Sage
Go to super easy cake recipe to add fruit to
1/2 C oil - olio
3/4 C Sugar - zucchero
1/2 C Yoghurt - yogurt
3 Eggs - uova
2 tsp baking powder -lievito
pinch salt - sale
1C flour - farina
1/2 c almond flour - farina di mandorle
a cup or so of your fruit. - frutta
mix the sugar and oil then add all the wet ingredients and mix. Add the dry. Pour into greased tin then press in fruit 175/180 for 35 mins until the sides start to pull away. sprinkle with powdered sugar if you prefer.
I had to make quite a few exchanges here so used a fine semolina from the cupboard instead of almond meal and added a little extra oil to up the fat had demura sugar which I actually prefer not quite as sweet.
Tuscano adds.. 8 finely sliced sage leaves and too many blackberries .. no baking powder so added soda ..No cake tin meant a saucepan and I’m pretty sure this was lunch wrap not baking paper! The oven is pretty hot on top so will need to allow for this in future.
It was interesting.. The fine semolina was too heavy so a little on the pancake side of things, but the sage was a win. I baked a couple in pots and sent one down the road to the lovely Madeleine and Joe who had invited us to the olive oil/wine gathering the night before last.
Todays Bread - Schiacciata - A Tuscano focaccia style bread -
Mixed some water, flour/s and mother last night and left covered til morning. The dough is a cracker! I’ve stretched and folded adding olio then after an hour resting I used my fingers to press into the dough to create little pockets for the olio to sit in, I added some sale e rosemarino to one although not the tradition it’s hard to resist. I folded the dough after the olio to create layers like pastry which worked but it means it didn’t have that squishy centre. Lesson learned.
Schiacciata is a sandwich bread so some fresh tomato, basil, mozzarella and a campari spritz is a perfect late lunch in the sun out front of the villa.
