The Best Lava Brownie Cake Ever

It's not that complicated, folks! I kid you not...this is the best chocolate dessert I have eaten in my life.  Courtesy of my husband! I will admit, when Valerio told me he bought oven-safe jars in the middle of this global emergency, I was skeptical of what seemed like an unnecessary purchase.  However....  I now see the use of these jars, particularly in quarantine!  You can use them to make desserts, soups, yogurts and even for traditional canning. And some people use them to make candles!?  Most importantly, you can use this to make "The Best Lava Brownie Cake Ever".

Weck 741 - 0.25 Liter Mold Jars with Lids - 6 Rings and 12 Clamps
by GSM Sales
Learn more:
Weck Jars Amazon


So... here's the recipe for "The Best Lava Brownie Cake Ever"

Ingredients:

200g Dark Chocolate

120g Butter

50g Potato Starch

2 Eggs

4g Dry Yeast

A pinch of salt

Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Oven-resistant jars

Directions: 

1)  Chop the chocolate into squares. Place them in a small pot.  In a larger pot or pan below, fill with water. Cook on medium heat. The chocolate will melt by the water in the pot below - do NOT add water to the chocolate!

 

2) When the chocolate is melted, turn off the stove.  Then add the butter.  Stir the butter into chocolate. Then remove from stove.

3) While chocolate is melting, prepare mixture #2 in a small/medium sized bowl: eggs and brown sugar.  Whisk eggs and pour sugar in slowly while whisking until you have a homogeneous mixture.

3)  In another bowl, filter the potato starch so it becomes as thin as possible. Then add yeast and a pinch of salt and mix all together. 

4) Add the egg mixture to the chocolate pot.

5) Then, add the potato starch/ salt/ yeast mixture and stir with a spoon until it is very smooth- no lumps

6) Distribute the chocolate lava cake mixture into jars. We filled two jars almost completely.

6) Put them in the oven for 30 minutes at 160 degrees C.   Serve with whipped cream or ice cream! Eat warm! ENJOY!

Homemade Gnocchi alla Sorrentina

Gnocchi alla Sorrentina

Part 1: Making the Gnocchi

This recipe will give you enough gnocchi for a tray of 4 portions.  In addition, you will have extra gnocchi you can freeze and use for another meal.

What you need:
 6 medium potatoes, yellow or white (should weigh 2.2lbs),
1 cup all purpose flour (in Italy we use 00),
1 room temperature egg,

1. Start by washing the potatoes to take off any dirt.  
2. Peel the potatoes (the italian recipe says it is better to boil them and then peel them after they are boiled when they are very hot....my husband said this was very difficult without burning your hands.  If you are brave you can peel them after you boil them..personally I don't think there is much of a difference in taste to peel before)
3. Put the potatoes in a pot with cold water and put your timer on for 35 minutes. Then drain the water.
4.  After, the italian way is to use one of these potato mashers.  If you don't have one you can use a mixer to make sure the potatoes are smooth without lumps. Our potatoes looked like this after using the italian masher- they were smooth without lumps.
   
   
   
   
5. Next step is to pour your flour on a clean work surface. Put the warm potatoes in the center.
   
6. After you have mashed together the potatoes and flour by hand, add an egg in the middle.
   
7. Mix this all together with your hands until the mixture is smooth (you are not kneading like when you make other kinds of pasta.) Mix until it is homogeneous like below (should take 2-3 minutes).
   
8. Cut a slice of the dough (it will still be soft and a little warm from the warm potatoes).
   
9. You need extra flour on the table for the next step, which is rolling and cutting the gnocchi.
   
10. With flour on your knife, begin to make 2-3 cm gnocchi size "little pillows".  If you are doing this with someone else, they can cut while you continue to make the long rolled strips of dough.   If not, make all your long strips first and then cut into little pieces.  
    
11. Using a fork, you will role each gnocchi "pillow" gently on the top of the fork with a finger to create a classic gnocchi shape. Put the finished gnocchi on a flour coated tray without them touching each other.  Cover the gnocchi with a towel to prevent them from drying out.  Continue this until you finish all the dough. (this will probably take you 1-2 hours)
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Part 2:  Make the marinara sauce and boil/bake gnocchi

What you need:

-Jar of tomato puree

-two garlic cloves

-basil

-mozzarella

-grated parmigiana cheese

1. To make the marinara sauce, lightly saute two garlic cloves in olive oil.  Add the tomato puree or crushed tomatoes (depending on what you like best).  Add salt and pepper.  Put a lid on, stir occasionally, and it will be ready in 20 minutes.

2. In another pot, boil water that you will use to cook the gnocchi. Once the water is boiling, add a few pinches of salt.  Slightly turn your burner down so that the water is not boiling too much.  You should see small bubbles.  Pour in the gnocchi.  Wait for the gnocchi to rise.  When they rise, it means they are done and you can put them into a separate tray.

3.  As you are boiling your gnocchi and removing them, your marinara sauce will be ready and you can start pouring in some of the sauce. 

4.  Once you have a layer of gnocchi and tomato sauce on the bottom of your tray, you can add a layer of mozzarella (diced in small pieces) and parmigiana cheese.   Then you will do another identical layer of gnocchi, sauce, mozzarella, parmigiana cheese.

5. When you have finished adding all the cooked gnocchi, sauce, and cheese you are ready to put it in the oven.   Put the tray in a precooked oven (475 F).  Keep your tray in the oven for 5 minutes. When you take it out, add the fresh basil on top. 

Serve your gnocchi hot and enjoy! Buon Appetito!!!

Part 3: Freeze your leftover gnocchi

Freeze the extra gnocchi you have.  You most likely did not need to add them all to your tray, but it depends on how many people you served and how large your tray is.   Put your tray with the extra gnocchi in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Then, transfer the frozen gnocchi into a bag and store in the freezer.  For your next meal, you do not even need to defrost the gnocchi.  You can put them directly into boiling water.  When they rise to the top, they are done! 

Cucina Quarantine

Since I last wrote on this blog there have been some minor changes in my life.  I moved to another part of Rome, met the love of my life, and got married! We have a dog named Jersey. We have been in quarantine for 3 weeks now, and haven't gotten sick of each other yet.  Maybe it's because we make so much delicious food? :) 

News can be overwhelming to absorb, especially hearing how difficult the situation is in Italy.  We never forget how many people are struggling and we consciously remind ourselves how grateful we are to be healthy.  Eating homemade food is a great reminder that we are what we eat.... we are what we absorb.

Here's a sample of some recipes we would like to put on the blog:
-baked ziti with ragu sauce
-cheesecake
-homemade pizza
-homemade bagels
-every type of Roman pasta (amatriciana, gricia, cacio e pepe)
-various soups (tuscan bean, lentil soup)
-chocolate salami roll

We mainly cook italian food although sometimes we get eager for a change and cook something different like Indian or African.   Each week we are eager to try new recipes...so we thought, why not start documenting and share some of our recipes.

We hope you will take a step away from the news, put some nice music on, and give yourself the time to prepare a meal, eat it slowly, and rest after for at least 20 minutes (this is an Italian tradition that I hold very dearly as a way of respecting your body and the food you eat).  Perhaps you'll have fun making some of these recipes by yourselves or with your family.  Enjoy some time in your cucina.  Cucina quarantine.
Buon Appetito!