Leo’s Pizza

salsiccia

My friend Francesca lives in Pegli, a small town close to Genoa, near her house there is my favorite pizzeria of Liguria. When I arrived to her place the other night she said “for you is the one with salsiccia right?” oh yes, I was dreaming about it since a while, when her husband came home with pizzas we just jump on them, so please forgive me if I didn’t dedicate too much time to the photo shooting.. but pizza of Leo’s pizzeria just can’t wait!

stracchino bianca

marinara

Focaccia

Focaccia is so famous in Genoa, everybody here eats focaccia. For breakfast with a cappuccino, for lunch instead of bread, for the Italian aperitivo with a glass of prosecco, in the night when you come home a “little” late and bakeries are already working..

focaccia's label

port of Nervi

Focaccia is a kind of bread but more salty and oily, very tasty. You can find the nature version or with olives, onion, rosemary…

Cappuccino

Promenade of Nervi

Focaccia is produced in Genoa and Liguria, if you are a little lost about where to go to eat the real one follow the orange label, it should be a guarantee of the real focaccia.

Portofino

Promenade of Nervi

My favorite is produced in Nervi in a bakery named Paolin, since I discovered it I never changed focaccia supplier anymore.

Capolungo (Nervi)

port of Capolungo

So this morning I woke up, I took my camera and I made the promenade of Nervi under this perfect sun. After focaccia break I took a real cappuccino in my favorite café. Is December, but as you can see from pictures it’s like spring time.. flowers, people outside.. a Sunday morning as it has to be.

Focaccia al formaggio

Focaccia al formaggio is a special treat from Genoa. Actually the original one comes from Recco, a town on the coast of Liguria but my favorite is sold in San Rocco di Camogli.

But what is focaccia al formaggio? The dough is without yeast and very elastic. Between 2 layers of it there is a white cheese called stracchino. Sometimes inside you could find a special cheese from Genoa called prescinsêua.

the bakery

Let me say few more words about the dough.. flour, water, salt, olive oil and.. Manitoba, an elastic flour that will help you to roll the dough very very thin.

the view from San Rocco

Portofino

Outside of the bakery there is a wonderful view on Portofino and Liguria coast..

sunset 2

sunset 1

sunset 0

..where is my focaccia?

from here the earth is round!:)

Cassata Siciliana

Today I want to share with you few words about The Cake. Cassata Siciliana is my favorite cake ever. By the way I didn’t get the right recipe yet, I tried many times to make it but I didn’t appreciate the result..! Is made with good ricotta, almonds, sugar, candied fruits, chocolate drops.. and many others secret ingredients that I will discover soon, sure!

Out of Sicily is hard to find an original Cassata, so if you’ll have the chance to visit this beautiful region of Italy don’t miss the opportunity to have a taste of this wonderful cake.

The one in pictures comes from a famous pastry shop of Palermo, my friend Edoardo, who lives there, brought it to me last time he came to Paris (actually he had no choice), it was more than delicious, just perfect!

Rose cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for the birthday of a little girl, she made her party here at the restaurant and I thought this kind of cupcake was a girly idea ..

I used natural rosewater for the dough and a little bit of raspberry coulis to give the color to the icing, everybody loved it!

American lunch



bacon burger

Today I tried this restaurant specialized in American food with my friend Olivier; if the quality of pictures of this blog is improving day by day I have to thanks him who is a professional photographer and, with a lot of patience, he gave me a lot of advices to progress my technique!

cheeseburger

We chose a cheeseburger and a bacon burger with a sea of french fries.. and after we tried also an original U.S. pancake with maple syrup, very good!

After lunch I feel that I should go to visit my gym club… subitissimo!:)

pancake

Gâteau au citron

Vite une photo! avant que je mange la totalité du gâteau! Le gâteau au citron c’est un des desserts que je fais comme excuse pour les clients du restaurant.. en réalité j’en fais 2, un pour moi (que je dévore entièrement) et l’autre je le laisse à la clientèle (quelle gentillesse !)

J’apprécie la texture moelleuse, le gout de citron qui vous donne du tonus immédiat (zeste et jus de 4 citrons pour chaque cake) et le parfum… délicieusement gourmand !

Panettone genovese basso

Everybody knows Panettone, is the cake that we usually eat in Italy in the Christmas period. In Genoa we have a different version of it, lower, dense and less sweet than the classic one. The recipe that I will give you is the one of my mother, some old ladies from Genoa gave it to her many years ago, I think is important to keep alive ancient regional cakes, why not also through this blog..

Ingredients: 1kg flour, 250g butter, 300g honey, 20g baking powder, 1 glass orange blossom water, 2 glass rum, 300g pine nuts, 500g raisin, 400g dried mixed fruits chopped, 2tbsp fennel seeds.

Put raisin with rum in a bowl. Put baking powder with orange blossom water in another bowl. Mix flour, butter and fennel seeds, then add all the others ingredients as shown in pictures. Make one big or 4 small smashed balls and put in the oven at 180°C for 40, 45 minutes

Artistic note:This is the first photo shooting on my mother’s life so we didn’t coordinate very well the “stop moving I have to take a picture” she stopped only for one second.. not even the time to push the button.. anyway I think you’ll understand the procedure!

Pan di Spagna

photos Olivier Vigerie

Ecco un grande classico della pasticceria internazionale.. a Parigi si chiama Génoise.. a Genova Nervi Pan di Spagna..! Ne ho mangiati tanti nella mia vita, ripieni di crema pasticcera, panna, frutti di bosco, nutella… insomma la lista é lunga.

Credo che ognuno di noi abbia nella propria storia il suo Pan di Spagna personalizzato che a seconda delle necessità si trasformava in un sontuoso dolce di compleanno con decori e candeline o finiva in un pezzo di carta stagnola nella tasca dello zaino...

Ho letto moltissime ricette su questo "dolce di base" alcune con lievito, altre senza, alcuni aggiungono la polvere di mandorle per renderlo piu soffice, altri la maizena. Le varianti sono infinite e ancora una volta la scelta finale della ricetta dipenderà dal vostro gusto personale.

Per le persone che, come me, si deliziano nella versione senza lievito (ovvero la versione dura e pura del Pan di Spagna) ricordatevi di:
-montare uova e zucchero a una temperatura tiepida, tenete sempre sul fuoco una pentola di acqua calda da utilizzare come "bagno maria"
-quando aggiungete la farina al composto fatelo delicatamente, con una spatola, dal basso verso l'alto
-infornate in un forno ben caldo, 180°C, e non aprite la porta del forno prima del tempo per vedere "come va".. potreste compromettere il risultato finale!

Lebkuchen filled with raspberry jam and pine nuts

Lebkuchen is a traditional German baked Christmas treat, invented by Medieval monks in Franconia, Germany in the 13th century. The dough is made with honey (a lot) and in this version I filled them with raspberry jam and pine nuts, but you can use the jam that you like and the nut that you prefer, of course!

Lebkuchen dough: melt in a saucepan 100g butter, 350g chestnut honey and 50g caster sugar. Out of fire add: 450g flour, 2tbsp cocoa powder, 2tsp baking powder, 1tsp cinnamon, 1tsp cloves. Mix well until dough is formed; put to rest in the fridge for 3 hours.

Roll the dough thin between 2 baking papers (don’t add extra flour) and cut it in squares of 5 cm side. Put the filling of your choice in the middle, put a little bit of egg wash on sides and fold it in triangular shape. Put in the oven for 10 minutes at 180°C.

Finish your cakes with chocolate glaze and white icing.