Stuffed Conchiglioni

Many years ago, in the early 1990's, I worked as an adult literacy teacher in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne.. Airport West, to be exact. And as is often the case in my life, the focus of the class morphed from reading and writing, to food... or reading and writing through food. The class was made up of middle-aged Greek and Italian migrants who had been retrenched for the clothing, textile and footwear factories... something to do with Mr Keating's new world order. I had one student, Pasquale, younger than my other students and originally from Calabria whose pre-occupation with food paled my own.

Pasquale would bring to class fresh bread his wife had made that morning in their wood fired oven, salami made from pigs he had hand fed and slaughtered, omelettes made with yolks only and streaked with finely grated carrot and he ate everything with birds eye chillies. One day he brought in a plate of conchliglioni (giant pasta shells) stuffed with ricotta and spinach, and a seemingly simple tomato sauce that tasted amazing... and he explained to me how to make the dish...
Tip: I search high and low for these shells, and have been known to carry them in my hand luggage from distant locations. (If you cannot find them, you could use cannelloni, or some large spiral pasta.)

Ingredients
200 - 250 gms Conchiglioni shells
300 gm Ricotta
Parsley
Bunch Spinach
1 egg
Parmesan Cheese
Nutmeg (optional)
2-3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
500gm fresh, ripe Roma tomatoes (or 2 tins)
1/2 bottle of tomato puree (salt and tomato only in ingredients)
Small piece of pork on the bone (raw)
Fresh basil
Salt & Pepper

Method Sauce

1. Saute chopped onion and garlic in olive oil in a large pot until soft.
2. Add fresh tomatoes and cook down.
3. Add tomato puree and pork bone and about a half litre of water.
4. Bring to simmer, and continue to cook for around one hour.
5. Strain sauce through a fine strainer, making sure you get as much of the pulp as possible.

Method Conchiglione

1. Clean and trip spinach and cook briefly in large pot.
2. Strain, and when cool chop finely.
3. Place in mixing bowl with Ricotta, chopped parsley, egg and grated parmesan, and mix through. (Optional: add sauteed onions and garlic for more flavour.)
4. 4. Taste, and add pepper, salt, grated nutmeg or more parmesan to your taste.
5. Put aside.
6. At the same time, bring a large pot filled with salted water to the boil.
7. Add the pasta, and cook for half the allocated time on the packet.
8. Strain, and return to a bowl with cool salted water.

Method: Assembly

1. Place around a desertspoon of filling in each shell and place in overproof baking tray, facing upward.
2. Continue with the rest of the shells and filling.
3. 
4. Pour over sauce, fresh basil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and a good dribble of olive oil.
5. Cover with alfoil and bake in medium to hot over for 20 minutes, then remove alfoil and continue cooking for around 10 to 15 minutes until the top is brown.
   
6. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving with extra parmesan.

Enjoy!

Ricotta Cheesecake

Over the past 18 months I like to think I have perfected this cheesecake. Last night I made if for the first time without a recipe and it was fab.
Try and use 'real ricotta' for this recipe. Here I refer to the slabs you buy by the kilogram at your deli or supermarket deli. The prepackaged ricotta will suffice, but the texture is quite different and it has a host of additional ingredients to make it last a lot longer. I used to buy hot ricotta directly from the factory in Melbourne, and it would only last a couple of days, in comparison the prepackaged ricotta have very long expiry dates.
You can adapt the ingredients in the filling: if you don't like sultanas, don't use them. Same for preserved orange. My sister adds a little bit of dark cooking chocolate, but I'm not such a fan. Also, taste the filling once you've made it and add sugar etc as required.

Ingredients:
1 quantity of shortcrust pastry made with 250gms flour, and 125 gms butter. (Refer previous recipe in blog.)
500gms fresh ricotta
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
vanilla bean (or equivalent)
2 slices preserved orange, diced
2 tablespoons brandy or desert wine
grated rind of 1 orange
grated rind of 1 lemon
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 egg beaten with a tbs milk for top pastry.

Optional:
1/2 cup sultanas
small quantity of dark chocolate roughly chopped
1-2 tbs cream

Method

1. Butter a 22 cm spring form cake tin or square/rectangular quiche tin.
2. Roll out pastry and line cake tin. (Reserving around a quarter for the top). Prick pastry with fork.
3. Line pastry with baking paper and put baking beans in.
   
4. Cook in 170 degree oven for 15 minutes. Take out, remove baking paper and beans and cook for 5 more minutes. Take out and cool. (This is referred to as a 'blind bake'.)
   
5. Reserve any of the unused pastry for top of cheesecake.
6. Soak preserved orange and sultanas in alcohol for around 10 minutes.
7. Combine all the filling ingredients and lightly whisk.
8. Pour mixture into pie shell and sprinkle top with pinenuts.
9. Roll out remaining pastry and cut into strips.
10. Create a lattice effect with remaining pastry and brush with egg mixture.
11. Bake in 180 degree oven for 45 minutes. You may need to move the cake around in the oven, and watch the top for burning.
12. Allow to cool before serving.