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Focaccia with Grapes & Rosemary {Schiacciata con L’uva}

October 9, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen Leave a Comment

Before we get caught up in the pumpkin spice madness that seems to take hold in the fall, let’s take a moment to appreciate the humble grape. Grapes are one of those fruits that I could usually take or leave, except for during the small window from the end of September to early October when Concord grapes are in season. So ten days ago when I saw some Coronation grapes – similar to Concords with with their dark blue-ish purple skin and tangy juice – at the grocery store, I snapped them up because 1) YUM and 2) I’ve been wanting to make schiacciata con l’uva, a Tuscan grape focaccia only made in September to coincide with the wine grape harvest, commonly made with Concord or similar grapes elsewhere in the world. And WOW – this stuff is amazing, the purple grape-iness mingled with rosemary, all sprinkled with coarse sugar and a little salt, not to mention the olive-oil infused focaccia bread base.

Focaccia with Grapes & Rosemary | Korena in the Kitchen

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Filed Under: Bread, Cookies & Squares, Fruit, Recipes Tagged With: baking, bread, focaccia, grapes, Italian cuisine, recipe, yeast

Torta Della Nona

December 7, 2016 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

Torta Della Nona | Korena in the Kitchen

Creamy custard inside a crisp, cookie-like tart shell, the whole thing flavoured with vanilla and lemon and topped with toasted pine nuts. Is your mouth watering yet? It should be, because I’ve just described an Italian dessert called Torta Della Nona and it is SO GOOD. Translated as “grandmother’s cake”, this was the November Daring Kitchen Challenge hosted by Ginger-Z, and of course, I’m over a week behind schedule for posting about it. But once again, better late than never – this one is worth the wait!

Torta Della Nona | Korena in the Kitchen

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Filed Under: Cakes & Pies, Daring Bakers / Daring Kitchen Challenges, Recipes Tagged With: baking, custart, Daring Kitchen, dessert, Italian cuisine, pasta frolla, pastry cream, recipe, tart, Torta Della Nona

Daring Bakers: Sweet or Savoury Sourdough Focaccia

April 27, 2015 By Korena in the Kitchen 14 Comments

Sourdough Focaccia | Korena in the KitchenFor the month of April Rachael of pizzarossa and Sawsan of Chef in Disguise took us on a trip to Italy. They challenged us to try our hands at making focaccia from scratch.

As soon as I saw this month’s Daring Bakers challenge, I knew exactly what I wanted to make: raisin focaccia. While not as well known as savoury, rosemary and salt topped focaccia, apparently this sweet version is a well-loved breakfast item in the Ligurian region of Italy. I’d had a recipe bookmarked for quite a while, and this seemed like the perfect chance to finally make it, so I did. However, I should have known better when the recipe only specified three minutes of kneading and no bulk fermentation. The resulting focaccia was pretty “meh” tasting, and it lacked so much in structure that it fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan. Sadly, raisin focaccia round one was a big ol’ FAIL.

raisin focaccia fail | Korena in the Kitchen

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Filed Under: Bread, Daring Bakers / Daring Kitchen Challenges, Recipes Tagged With: baking, bread, Daring Bakers, focaccia, Italian cuisine, raisins, recipe, sourdough

Porchetta-style Roast Pork Shoulder with Salsa Verde

April 24, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

Porchetta-style Roast Pork Shoulder with Salsa Verde | Korena in the Kitchen

I’ve had porchetta on the brain ever since watching the episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dive that featured the porchetta sandwich at Meat and Bread in Vancouver (I’m pretty sure Guy Fieri pronounced it as some combination of “too legit to quit”/”winner-winner-chicken-dinner”/”Flavourtown”). I’ve never been to Meat and Bread to sample their porchetta, but on Saturday of Easter weekend Nate and I checked out Roast Carvery in Victoria, which is a similar concept: big joints of beautifully roasted meat, sliced to order and piled on a soft and crusty artisan roll with minimal fuss for a truly transcendent sandwich experience. I had Roast’s version of the porchetta sandwich, featuring crispy crackling, provolone cheese, sautéed broccoli raab, and a good dose of salsa verde along with the succulent porchetta, and man oh man, I think it might have been the best sandwich I’ve ever had. So. Good.

(Also – the new Victoria Public Market at The Hudson where Roast is located is pretty rad! I could have spent an hour alone just tasting olive oils and vinegars (apricot white balsamic! cinnamon pear dark balsamic!) and definitely need to go back to browse through the whole place more thoroughly.)

Porchetta-style Roast Pork Shoulder with Salsa Verde | Korena in the Kitchen…

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Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: Easter dinner, Italian cuisine, panchetta, porchetta, pork, recipe, salsa verde, sandwich

Lasagne Bolognese {an epic from-scratch project}

May 9, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 12 Comments

Lasagne Bolognese | Korena in the KitchenDid you know that a true lasagne bolognese contains neither ricotta nor mozzarella? Just bolognese sauce, béchamel sauce and parmesan cheese (and pasta sheets, of course), and it is delicious.

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Filed Under: Main Dishes, Pasta Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: bechamel sauce, dinner, Italian cuisine, lasagne bolognese, pasta, recipe

Friday Night Pizza

March 11, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 13 Comments

Cheesy Sausage, Jalapeño and Fresh Tomato PizzaEvery couple Fridays, Nate and I make homemade pizza for dinner. This is one of the rare times we are actually in the kitchen making dinner together (something I would like to do more often), me stretching out the dough, Nate shredding cheese and slicing toppings, deciding together what to put on each pie. We always do one Blue Hawaiian, and the second is usually a mish-mash of whatever else we have on hand – salami, olives, sautéed mushrooms and onions, chopped bell peppers… Last week at Aaron’s birthday pizza dinner, Nate and I shared the pizza special of the day, which was topped with crumbled homemade Italian sausage, fresh sliced Anaheim peppers, and cherry tomatoes on a creamy, cheesy base. It was such a good, simple combination of flavours that I knew I wanted to add it to our homemade pizza topping arsenal. I feel a bit silly posting an actual “recipe” for a pizza because I never follow one myself, so instead here’s the basic rundown for this cheesy sausage, jalapeño and fresh tomato pie.

Stretch out your favorite pizza dough onto a lightly oiled baking sheet (I love this pizza dough – I use a little bit of whole wheat flour and freeze half the dough for our next pizza night). Drizzle it with a few tablespoons of heavy cream (spread it around) and shower it with a good amount of freshly grated parmesan cheese and a few shreds of mozzarella.

Scatter it with some cooked and crumbled homemade Italian sausage, some sliced fresh jalapeños (or Anaheim peppers, if you can find them), and a few quartered grape or cherry tomatoes.

Sprinkle with a bit more mozzarella (less is more in this case – I find too much cheese keeps the crust from cooking properly) and bake in a hot oven until the crust is golden and the cheese melted and browned. Let it rest for a few minutes, then sprinkle with more parmesan and some black pepper before cutting into wedges.

Filed Under: Bread, Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: dinner, food, Friday night dinner, homemade pizza, Italian cuisine, Italian sausage, jalapeños, pizza, tomatoes

Sourdough Pasta (with a Pasta Machine)

July 24, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 45 Comments

Recently I was lucky enough to receive a pasta machine from a relative (thanks Cecilia!), and I’ve been giving it a pretty good workout lately – it definitely makes homemade pasta easier to churn out than rolling it by hand. This particular pasta machine was made in Italy but comes under the name “NUDELMASCHINE”, which sounds more German than Italian and prompts me and Nate to put on our best/worst German accents whenever it comes out of the cupboard for a pasta-making session.

A little while ago I came across a recipe for sourdough pasta on The Gingered Whisk (one of my Sourdough Surprises buddies), and as recipes for using up excess sourdough starter are always useful, I gave it a whirl. …

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Filed Under: Pasta Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: dinner, food, homemade pasta, Italian cuisine, pasta, pasta machine, recipe, sourdough, sourdough starter

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I'm Korena: cook, baker, dirty-dishes-maker. My favourite things include flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate. Read More…

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All content © Korena Vezerian and Korena in the Kitchen, 2011 – 2021. Please contact me before duplicating any content, including pictures. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Korena Vezerian and Korena in the Kitchen with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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