I have wanted to make this recipe since I got Bill Granger's, Simply Bill cookbook many years ago. The picture looked like something I could happily live on, and a good variation from the tradition beef bolognese.

The recipe is really quite easy, you could easily make it after a day at the office. Once you have done the basics and everything is in the pan simmering away; just cook the pasta and you'll have dinner in no time.
I found I had to add a bit of sugar to the sauce as it was quite salty. The parsley really cuts through and adds a lovely freshness to the sauce. Be sure to add the parsley in at the end to ensure the fresh flavour.

We now have a rule in our house; no seconds. With summer on it's way, it's time to shed some of the winter fat we have accumulated for hibernation. So we can only have the seconds as another meal the day after or later on in the week. We were both really wanting seconds of this pasta, but the best thing is we are looking forward to the leftovers tonight for dinner!

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Woot! I'm back baby! Picked up my laptop from the apple store today after hearing good news from Genius Simon that it was back up and running.

I've been trying a whole lot of recipes from the Masterchef website. Not always the ones they feature on the show, but also the ones the sponsors put up. And now that I have my own kitchen, I can cook whatever I want, and as many meatballs as I want! Om... ah nom nom nom nom!!



I had never made meatball mix with stock before. I was a little hesitant at first wondering if the mixture would even combine with liquid. But the breadcrumbs did an excellent job of soaking them up. For a mixture with not that many ingredients, it should did smell fantastic as I was rolling them into little balls of delicious-ness.

The end result, juicy, flavoursome packed meatballs, with pasta and a rich tomato sauce, all in done in less than an hour.


3. Stir in risoni & tomatoes. Cook for 8 mins, uncovered, stirring occasionally, or until pasta is al dente. Garnish with parsley & serve with steamed vegetables and parmesan.

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No matter how many times I tell myself I'm never buying another Women's Weekly cookbook... I buy at least two. I found this cookbook half price at a discount bookshop; had a quick flick, and knew there were many things I wanted to make that I hadn't seen in any of their other cookbooks I owned.

What better for cool week than ice-cream?
I had a few other options flagged; like jellies and mousses, but who can resist a three layer ice-cream?... well I guess you can if you are highly lactose intolerant and go into anaphylactic shock if you eat ice-cream... then you might wanna resist this!

Even though it was three layers, it wasn't too much work. I didn't really wait for each layer to freeze firm before adding the next layer, cos let's face it; I started making it after dinner, and I wanted to go to bed before I turned into a pumpkin.

My favorite layer was the top layer, with a lovely almond flavour. It is the taste you most remember about cassata. The added texture of the glacé fruits and flaked almonds makes this ice-cream a real winner. Mum even kept praising it whilst she was eating it; that's when you know something is really good!


Cassata
Australian Women's Weekly
2 eggs, seperated
1/2 cup (80g) icing sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) cream
few drops almond essence


Second Layer:
2 eggs, seperated
1/2 cup (80g) icing sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) cream
60g dark eating chocolate, melted
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 tablespoon water


Third Layer
1cup (250ml) cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg white, beaten lightly
1/3 cup (55g) icing sugar
2 tablespoons red glacé cherries,  chopped finely
2 glacé apricots, chopped finely (I couldn't find these, so I just used extra glacé cherries.)
2 glacé pineapple rings, chopped finely
1 tablespoon green glacé cherries, chopped finely
30g flaked almonds, toasted


1. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form; gradually beat in sifted icing sugar. Fold in lightly beaten egg yolks.


2. Beat cream and almond essence in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form.; fold into egg mixture. Pour mixture into deep 20cm-round cake pan. Level top; freeze until firm.


3. Make second layer and spread over almond layer; freeze until firm.
Second Layer: beat egg whites in a small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form; gradually beat in sifted icing sugar. Beat cream in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form; fold into egg white mixture. Place chocolate in small bowl; stir in egg yolks. Stir blended cocoa and water into chocolate mixture; fold chocolate mixture through cream mixture.


4. Make third layer and spread over second layer; freeze until firm.
Third Layer: beat cream and extract in small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form. Beat egg white in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form; gradually add sifted icing sugar. Fold egg white mixture into cream; fold in fruit and nuts.


5. Run small spatula around edge of cassata; wipe hot cloth over base and side of pan. Turn cassata onto serving plate.


Cassata can be made a week ahead; keep, covered, in freezer.


Serves 8.

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So Rilsta from My Food Trail, and I organised a little Melbourne blogger meet up with some of our fellow bloggers over the weekend. We invited Sarah, Penny & Adrian from the Salami Summit, and we rounded up a few other bloggers; Kat and Nicole.

Rilsta found this place on the Epicure section of The Age website. Matt Preston gave it a good review; but it was his mention of a sticky date pizza that got us really wanting to go there.

After much debate of whether we should get a few pizzas to share, or just get our own thing; we ended up just getting our own thing, and sharing with whoever wanted a taste.
I was down the end of the table that didn't order any pastas, so my review will consist soley of pizzas!


The pizzas were okay. They definitely weren't as good as Zonzo. I found they lacked a little flavour. I really expecting more from them.


I got a calzone, as none of the pizzas on the menu really excited me; and I thought it would make for an interesting set of photos instead of just pizzas. It was also just okay.

We of course stayed for dessert:

Kat had this for dessert, whilst pretty much everyone else on the table ordered the sticky date pizza. Mr.My Food Trail also branched out, and got the tiramisu.


Well, to be honest... I was expecting some form of date involved with a sticky date pizza. Instead, it was just a pizza base, LOTS of butterscotch sauce (never a problem in my opinion) and ice-cream.

As for returning to Pizza Espresso, I don't think I will be. I know Adrian left a bit hungry and was contemplating trying the Angus burger on his way home. It was all just a bit too average for me.
Thanks to the bloggers for a good night out though, and a special thanks to Rilsta & Mr.My Food Trail for letting me be a 3rd wheel to see Julie & Julia with them!

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So I tweeted a picture of this last week and had a nice reaction to people wanting the recipe! So without further delay, I give you the tiramisu cheesecake:

The occasion? My mum's boss came to dinner, I owed him a cheesecake, and this one looked the most impressive in off of my books. The only problem was, we needed marsala which mum kindly took care of at the local bottle-o.

I not a big coffee person. I can drink a mocha (half chocolate, half coffee), but I've never really enjoyed a cappuccino. But this cake was just heaven! I was even chomping on the chocolate coffee coated beans just for the hell of it... sure the chocolate helped! I couldn't really taste the marsala, but my mum's boss picked up there was alcohol in it. Everyone really enjoyed this cheesecake, so light and creamy.

I was a bit worried it would collapse when it unmoulded, but luckily everything stayed in place. Going to be whipping out this one at the next dinner gathering I think!

Tiramisu Cheesecake

1/4 cup medium ground expresso coffee
1 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/3 cup marsala
250g savoiardi sponge finger biscuits
150g chocolate-coated cofee beans, coarsley chopped

Filling:
2 teaspoons gelatine
2 tablespoons water
125g cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
250g mascarpone
2 tablespoons marsala
300ml thickened cream, whipped

1. Grease a 24cm round springform tin.

2. Combine coffee and the water in a coffee plunger; stand for 4 minutes before plunging. Combine coffee, sugar and marsala in medium heatproof bowl; cool 10 minutes.

3. Place 1/3 cup (80ml) cofee mixture in small saucepan; simmer, uncovered, until reduced to about 1 tablespoon. Cool.

4. Cut each biscuit into 7cm lengths; reserve end pieces (don't eat them!). Dip flat side of biscuit lengths one at a time in remaining coffee mixture; arrange biscuits, round side out; around the side of the tin. Dip reserved biscuit ends in coffee mixture and place of the base of the tin to form the base.

5. Make filling by sprinkling gelatine over the water in a small heatproof bowl. Heat in microwave until dissolved. Mine took about 20 seconds on high. Cool.

6. Beat cheese and sifted sugar in a medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Add mascarpone and marsala; beat until combined. Stir in gelatine mixture; fold in whipped cream.

7. Spread filling into tin. Drizzle reduced coffee mixture over cheesecake, pull skewer backwards and forwards several times for a marbled effect. Refridgerate overnight.

8. Serve topped with chocolate coated coffee beans.

Serves 12.

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Today was a day of amazing food, delicious local and imported wine and fabulous company.
We set out for a trip down to the Yarra Valley to celebrate Alana's birthday. With lots of wineries only offering extremely high priced set menus on a Sunday, the birthday girl found a lovely place that didn't send us broke; Zonzo restaurant at Train Trak.

On a Sunday, the busiest day of the week, there were only 2 options; order a la carte or a sharing menu at $40 per head. As there were 7 of us, we weren't too sure what to do. We wanted pizzas, but pizzas weren't on the a la carte menu, so we did a silent ballot to decide. It was 6 for the sharing menu and 1 for the a la carte, so we went with the sharing menu. The good thing about the sharing menu meant, all you can eat pizza, so we knew we could get our money's worth.

The Moscato wine was Tristan's pick and it was just amazing! Very fruity, sweet with a light fizz was a nice wine to accompany everything.
The dining room was very open with gorgeous views of the vineyard and cascading countryside, allowing lots of natural light in, almost giving the illusion of eating outside.
We received 2 antipasto platters with delicious fresh produce, including proscuitto, artichokes, zucchinis, olives, a selection of cheese, eggplant, onions, pancetta and the most amazing semi-sundried tomatoes I've ever tasted. They were rather sweet and just divine! To accompany the platters, we received fresh bread and 2 salads.


I cannot express in words how amazing these pizzas were. But I will say, for me to find the perfect pizza it's very hard. These were just perfect, thin crispy base, loaded but not overloaded with fresh napoli sauce, fresh herbs and fresh toppings. The flavours were just bliss for the tastebuds! ... ok I think you might get how good they were now.

Service was very attentive throughout our dining experience. The views and company definitely helped us enjoy such a delicious menu. I really look forward to returning here again to gobble my way through the rest of the menu!

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Last night I hosted my 2nd dinner party, around this time last year I hosted my first dinner party. This year was also a success, bringing my closest high school friends together for a night of good food and company.

This year I went for a less stressful approach and got everyone to bring along a dish. We settled on the theme of "Wog" and allocated dishes for everyone to bring.

Alana and Adrian provided this lovely anti-pasto spread for everyone to nibble on whilst things were cooking in the oven. Complete with lovely fresh bread, bread sticks, prosciutto, bocconcini cheese, stuffed olives, marinated mushrooms and semi sun-dried tomatoes. It was a great way to get things going with everyone gathered around with a drink catching up on life.

For mains we had a lovely spread (apologies for terrible photos, all you can see is melted cheese and the lighting wasn't the best).

David and Chris brought along this lovely vegetarian lasagna. Although they were going to go with David's mum's recipe they had decided they didn't have enough time and adapted this "Cheat's Lasagna" which was vegetarian ravioli, sauce and cheese. It didn't matter that it was a cheat's version, it was so delicious. Nice and saucy and cheesy and everyone loved it.

Kiran also made a vegetarian dish, eggplant parma. Delicious eggplant in sauce, smothered in cheese. This was also very nice and fit in perfectly with the theme. An excellent effort since Kiran only really cooks Indian dishes. She is the opposite of Andre from Masterchef who only cooks Italian!
Nerdy Rob cooked this delicious chicken cacciatore. I believe this was his first cacciatore, however it was a massive success! The chicken was simply falling off the bone, and the sauce was so rich and full of goodies like olives and mushrooms. It worked perfectly with everything else.

David & Chris supplied this gorgeous salad. And thanks to Tristan for bringing along garlic bread even though he doesn't eat it!

Dessert was my course to take care of. David had jokingly said I should do petits fours, but of course I thought that was an awesome idea and simply had to do it.

The first petits fours I knew I was going to do my chocolate mousse. I knew all my friends loved it since I had served it to them before. So I bought these cute little espresso cups from the $2 shop (3 for $2!!) and divided the mousse among them.

I wanted to make them extra special for the dinner party so I topped them with Persian fairy floss. I had quite the adventure trying to find the stuff with David Jones not being able to get in stock for 6 months. I rang around a few gourmet food shops and finally tracked some down at Jones The Grocer. The next hard part was decided what flavour, I picked up pistachio and chocolate, but there was also vanilla, saffron and rose on offer.
The mousse however was a hit, everyone intrigued by said fairy floss.

The second petits fours was an simple and refreshing fruit skewer. I was going to add a few more fruits, but I thought I'd just keep it simple since there was so much on offer. I did some googling and got the idea to put them in shot glasses for presentation.

The third petits fours was a mini doughnut which I had made before. I decided to make these because I knew they were simple to make, they were bite sized as well so people could have room for them. And well, how cute do they look?

The final petits fours was going to be my biggest risk. Something I hadn't really tried before. Whilst I had attempted a lemon meringue pie before, I remember transporting it in my car and it just spilling everywhere. So I decided I'd give it a go again in smaller form. I was going to make the pastry but then realised how much of a task I had taken on doing 4 desserts and having to clean the house AND work so I cheated and bought the frozen tart shells. This also reminded me of MasterChef at the wedding when they used store bought shells, but I thought, "Hey, if they can do it, then so can I!"

I filled the tarts with Donna Hay's lemon curd recipe which was nice and sour, but not too sour. Then the meringue was from Gourmet Traveller magazine, and I thought this part was going to let me down. It was an Italian meringue which uses a sugar syrup instead of caster sugar when beating the egg whites. For this I bought a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature. LUCKILY for me they turned out well and I could pipe them just how I wanted. I tried to brown them with a small blow torch but that failed, so I popped them under the grill. I had a few MasterChef fail moments here, the blow torch one tasted of butane, and when I was trying to extra brown a few of the meringues my baking paper set on fire! Oh it was hilarious, however the fire was easily blown out and no one got hurt.
The Italian meringue was all marshmallowy inside, and the tarts were a huge hit. I thought everyone would go halves on the tart, but everyone had one tart each! They must have been good!
I would personally like to thank Alana, Adrian, David, Chris, Tristan, Kiran and Nerdy Rob for coming and each bringing something along. An extra shout out to Alana for giving me these goreous flowers and to Tristan for his lovely culinary gift!

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