Focaccia!

Today I made a wonderful Focaccia. It's a typical Italian pizza bread practically, it's simply pizza dough with oil, salt and rosemary. Very yummy! And it's a great appetizer together with some ham, mozzarella and tomatoes etc. I've never met anyone who's not a fan of focaccia! ;) So here's the quick and simple recipe!

INGREDIENTS: 

• 170ml of hand-warm water
• 330gr of flour
• 20gr of oil (or 1 and 1/2 spoonfuls)
• 1tsp of salt
• 1/2 a bag of yeast
• To make the emulsion: 30ml of water and 30ml of oil + 1/2 tsp of salt (this can vary to personal taste, if you like it mushy add more than 30, the important thing is to have an equal ratio of water to oil

Mix the flour, the yeast, the warm water, the oil and the salt. Work until you have a soft not too sticky dough. If it's very sticky add some flour. Leave to rise.

Butter a baking tray and add a little bit of flour in order to avoid the focaccia to stick onto it. Lay out the dough on the tray and press your fingers into the mix to make tiny holes. 

Mix the water, oil and salt to make the emulsion and then pour it onto the dough. Pressing your fingers into it once more. Add the rosemary if you like.

Bake at 250°C for 10/15mins or at 200°C for 18/20mins. 

Enjoy! 

Tagliatelle ai funghi porcini

This is a very quick and easy recipe if you want to impress your friends!

Ingredients: 
500g of Tagliatelle pasta 
A sachet of dry porcini mushroom
Fresh mushroom (I'd say about 3/4, depending on the size and how many mushrooms you want!)
Olive oil
Garlic
*optional* fresh double cream, white wine
----
1. Pour the dry mushrooms, half a sachet, in a pan of water and bring to the boil. About 15/20mins, check the  texture of the mushrooms, they shouldn't be hard.
2. Boil in a separate pan water to cook the pasta.
3. Fry a little bit of garlic in a frying pan. There are two options. Cut the garlic very fine and leave it there or simply cut it in spikes, fry 1/2 spikes until brownish colour then throw it away.
4. Cut the fresh mushrooms, wash them under cold running water and add them to the oil. Add the porcini as well. To improve the flavour, add some of the water in which you boiled the porcini to the frying pan and mix.
5. To further enhance the flavour add a few drops of white wine and let it evaporate.
5.b) If you fancy, you can now add the double cream to the mushrooms. Stir well and let it heat up, let it bubble and take away from hob.
6. Once the mushrooms have all turned a brownish colour and appear to have a soft texture add the pasta and mix.
7. Serve warm and enjoy :)