Easter Dinner Ideas

Easter is just a few short days away and many of you have your menus all ready. But for those of you still looking for ideas, here are a few from blog posts in the past. Click on the name of the dish below the photo to take you to the recipe.

Ricotta Broccoli Rape Torta – This is a dish my son makes as an appetizer for Easter, using broccoli rape. No, that spelling is not a mistake, it is rape in Italian, while most Americans spell it broccoli rabe or raab. Any way you spell it, it’s delicious, and a lighter alternative to the heavier, meat-laden pizza piena.

Braided Easter Bread – This bread, studded with hard boiled eggs, is braided with soppressata, olives and cheese, and would be perfect with drinks before dinner.

Grilled Leg of Lamb – Marinated and cooked on the grill, this lamb recipe from Julia Child, is tender and full of flavor.

Honey Baked Ham with roasted grapes – This recipe will make you forget those prepared hams purchased from franchise ham shops – and it’s so easy to make too.

 Neapolitan Pastiera – This traditional Southern Italian dessert is made with ricotta and wheat berries.

Colomba Pasquale – It wouldn’t be Easter in most Italian households without this Easter dove, which you can make at home too.

Coconut covered lamb cake – A childhood favorite, I continue the tradition with the same cake mold my mother used more than sixty years ago.

chocolate lamb cake – Why not give equal time to the black sheep? This cake, decorated with crushed cookie crumbs, will please the chocolate lovers in your family.

coconut cream Easter eggs – These are a weakness of mine, which is why I can’t make them more than once every few years. Otherwise, I’d end up eating dozens of them.

Perfect hard boiled eggs – And if you don’t make any of the above recipes, you’ll probably make hard-boiled eggs at some point. If you’ve ever struggled with peeling them, here’s a primer that will help you avoid frustration.

Buona Pasqua a tutti!

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Tuscan-style Pork Roast

If you’ve ever roasted a pork loin (not the tenderloin) and ended up with a tough piece of meat on your plate, this post is for you. Except for an outside layer, the pork loin has no fat and is easy to overcook. But this recipe, adapted from “America’s Test Kitchen,”  gives you a circular interior roll of marbling that adds lots of juicy flavor.

I started out with what I thought was one five pound roast, but when I untied the butcher’s string, I discovered a couple of two and a half pound roasts instead.  I needed only one of these roasts for my book club’s dinner earlier this week, and cooked the second one the following night.

Take a long, sharp knife and cut through the roast, slicing to open the piece of meat so it lies flat, trying to get an even thickness. After cutting, pound it with a meat press (keeping a piece of plastic over the meat) to help make it flatter and more even. Then season liberally on both sides with salt, pepper and fennel pollen (or fennel seed pulverized with a grinder or mortar and pestle). Set aside.

Place some chopped garlic, minced rosemary, red pepper flakes and lemon zest in a cold pan with olive oil and cook gently for a few minutes, until the garlic starts to sizzle. Drain through a strainer, reserving the oil, and placing the solids in a food processor. Chop some pancetta and add to the mixture in the food processor.

Blend until a paste. If your pancetta is too lean (as mine was), add a little olive oil.

Spread the paste over the flattened meat.Roll up and tie with butcher’s twine. Season the meat again on the outside with salt, pepper and fennel pollen (or crushed fennel seed).Place on a rack and roast at 275 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours, or until a thermometer reads 125 to 130 degrees. You can still end up with a tough, dry roast if it reaches too high a temperature, so keep a close watch on it.

Remove from the oven (it will not have much of a browned appearance – yet) and let rest, covered with aluminum foil for 20 minutes.While the roast is resting, sear lemons in a hot skillet and make the lemon-olive oil sauce (recipe below).

After the roast has rested for 20 minutes or so, heat a bit of olive oil in a cast iron pan, or a heavy skillet, and sear it until the fatty side takes on a nice browned color. 

Slice and serve with a lemon-olive oil sauce (recipe below).

Tuscan-style Pork Roast

printable recipe here

Ingredients

• Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen:
• For Two Pork Loins (2 1/2 pounds each)
• 16 cloves garlic (yes, that’s right)
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• zest of one lemon, grated
• 2 tablespoons minced rosemary
• 5-6 ounces pancetta (not too lean)
• salt, pepper
• 2 teaspoons fennel pollen (or ground fennel seed)

Instructions

1. Put the garlic, red pepper flakes and lemon zest in a cold pan with the olive oil.
2. Heat on low to medium for about 3 minutes or until the garlic starts to sizzle.
3. Add the minced rosemary and stir for about 30 seconds.
4. Pour everything (over a bowl) through a fine mesh strainer, pressing to get as much liquid through as possible. Set the olive oil aside.
5. Cut the pancetta into small pieces and put into a food processor, along with the lemon garlic mixture (not the olive oil).
6. Pulse about 30 seconds or until you have a paste, adding some olive oil if needed.
7. Take a long, sharp knife and cut into the pork loin, about 1 inch from the edge, and staying even, cut it open in a “book” fashion, until the roast is one long flat piece.
8. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the meat and pound even.
9. Season liberally with salt, pepper and the fennel pollen.
10. Spread the paste evenly over the inside of the roast and roll back up.
11. Tie it with butcher’s twine and place on a rack.
12. Put it in the refrigerator at least one hour, or even overnight to allow flavors to meld into the meat.
13. Roast in a 275 degree oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until an internal temperature of 125 degrees to 130 degrees. The temperature will continue to rise while it’s resting.
14. Cover with aluminum foil and allow to rest for twenty minutes to a half hour.
15. Meanwhile, make the lemon olive oil sauce by cutting two lemons in half and searing the cut ends in a very hot cast iron skillet.
16. Remove the lemons from the heat, and squeeze out the juice.
17. Add the juice to the reserved olive oil mixture and whisk.
18. Using a heavy skillet, heat it over high flame and pour about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil into it.
19. Sear the fatty side of the roast in the olive oil.
20. Slice and serve with the lemon-olive oil sauce.

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Flourless Coconut and Chocolate Cake

I ate one of these delightfully delicious little cakes in London not long ago, at Yotam Ottolenghi’s restaurant in the Spitalfields neighborhood. I was so glad to see he had included the recipe in his latest cookbook “Sweet,” and set about to make them a couple of weeks ago.

The recipe calls for them to be cooked in either a loaf pan or a round springform pan, but I wanted to make them in individual pans, since I remembered eating one in a small rectangular shape in London. I owned small rectangular pans, but opted to bake them in a pan that is traditionally used for Yorkshire puddings. After filling six of the cylindrical pans, there was a little more batter left over, so I used one of the little rectangular pans.

The cylindrical shape worked out beautifully, while the rectangular one didn’t release properly (I forgot to dust the pan with flour after buttering it and some of the cake stuck to the pan).

Either way, they were delicious, especially smeared with the chocolate “water” ganache. I had to toss out the ganache the first time I made it, since, in my experience, the recipe doesn’t have enough liquid. I made it a second time adding more water, and it was perfect.

Ottolenghi’s restaurants (there are several in various neighborhoods) sell the cakes with coconut shavings as decorations. But since I had a bit of gold leaf in the cupboard, I chose that instead. This recipe makes an elegant dessert for company, but is rather quick and easy to prepare for everyday family meals too.

Want more Ciao Chow Linda? Connect with me on my Instagram page to follow my food adventures, both in my kitchen and elsewhere.

Flourless Coconut and Chocolate Cake

Author: from Yotam Ottolenghi’s “Sweet”

printable recipe here

Ingredients

• For the Cake:
• 3/4 cup plus 2 T. butter/200 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
• 1 1/4 cups/250 grams granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup/60 grams finely shredded coconut (note: I put the coconut and the sugar in the food processor to ensure that the coconut was finely shredded.)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 2/3 cup/180 grams almond meal
• For the Water Ganache:
• 2 oz./55 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
• 3 Tablespoons water (note – You’ll need more. I tripled this amount.)
• scraped seeds of 1/4 vanilla pod
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 3/4 inch cubes

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (180 degrees C.)
2. Grease (and flour) six or seven small individual pans, or a standard 8 1/2 ” x 4 1/2″ /900 gram loaf pan or a 9 inch/23 cm round sprinform pan. Set aside.
3. Put the sugar and coconut in a food processor and pulse until coconut is finely grated.
4. Place the butter, sugar, coconut, vanilla seeds and salt in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place.
5. Beat on medium high speed, until pale and fluffy, about three minutes.
6. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
7. Turn the speed to low, add the almond meal and mix until just combined.
8. Scrape the mixture into the pan and bake for 40 minutes (maybe 30 to 35 in the small pans) or 50 minutes if using the round pan, or until the cake is golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
9. Remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool in the pan before inverting onto a serving plate.
10. Set aside until completely cool.
11. To make the Water Ganache:
12. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.
13. Put the sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan and place over medium low heat.
14. Stir to combine (I found this difficult, because it stuck to the spoon, so just let it melt together over low heat until it turns a light amber color.)
15. Remove from heat and add the water.
16. Return to the heat and add the vanilla seeds.
17. Stir gently and continuously until it returns to a boil and the sugar is all melted.
18. Remove from heat and wait for a minute before pouring the mixture over the chocolate.
19. Allow to stand for a minute or two, then whisk to combine.
20. Add the butter, a couple of bits at a time, whisking after each addition.
21. Continue until all the butter has been added, whisking to combine until the consistency of thick syrup.
22. Pour the ganache over the top of the cakes, letting it run down the sides a little.

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