Schiacciata alla Fiorentina (Florentine orange cake)

For ➏
250 g flour
200 g sugar
4 tbs sunflower seed or corn oil
7 tbs warm milk
2 eggs
juice & zest of 1 orange
1 tbs baking powder
confectioner's sugar

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Beat the eggs, and mix all the ingredients together except the confectioner's sugar. Sift in the baking powder and pour the batter into a baking pan (something like 20x24 cm).

Bake the schiacciata for 20 to 30 m, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry.

Let cool it, then remove it from the pan. Dust with the confectioner's sugar.

Serve or stuff it with a generous layer of lightly sweetened whipped cream, or with crema pasticcera. In either case, slice the cake open as if it were a book, spread a layer of filling over the bottom half, and replace the upper half.

This traditional Easter cake is an (even) sweeter variation on Tuscan flatbread which goes by the same name: schiacciata con l'uva. Adding to the confusion, a schiacciata can also be salted: see the recipe of pizza bianco.
Image shows the ancient Via degli Strozzi in Firenze.

Ballekes met krieken (Flemish meat patties with sour cherries)

For ➍
800 g minced meat*
1 slice white bread, crumbled
1 egg yolk
500 g sour cherries** with 30 cl juice, bottled or canned
40 cl meat stock
100 g butter
a small glass of jenever/gin***
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 200°C. Moisten the bread crumbs with a tbs of cherry juice. Drain and mix with meat and egg yolk. Avoid that the mix becomes too wet. Roll into 8 balls and flatten to patties.

Butter an oven dish, large enough to fit the patties. Put in oven and bake for 5 m. Pour in the stock and the cherry juice. Cook for about 45 m. Remove patties and keep warm. Pour cooking liquids in a pan and reduce until halved. Put in the cherries and heat for 5 m. Add the patties and reheat. (Add salt & pepper, if necessary).

Serve with mashed potatoes.

* A mix of pork and veal. (Add an exotic flavour by using spicy lamb's meat from merguez.)
**Tart cherries, canned or bottled
***Obviously, this should be good Belgian jenever, but a drop of good gin will do. Or you could omit it ;-).

Read tip on minced meat & salt Or a tip on replacing a part of the meat with mushrooms.

Lettuce soup

For ➍
1 onion, minced
1 tbs olive oil
1 l water
2 chicken stock cubes
1 bag of mixed lettuce, shredded
4 small tomatoes, peeled, seeded & cut
8 sprigs chives

Heat oil in soup pot. Add onion and fry for 4 m.

Add water. Bring to boil. Dissolve cubes. Cook for 4 m.

Add lettuce (spare a few leaves for decoration) and tomatoes.

Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 m.

Mix the soup. Reheat if necessary to reduce volume.

Decorate with sprigs of chives.

Serve with freshly toasted bread with creamy cheese.

*Can be served cold.

Black sorbet

For ➍
55 cl water
80 g unsweetened cocoa powder
200 g sugar
170 g bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped finely
pinch of salt

Freeze the bowl of an ice cream maker.
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the water, cocoa powder, and sugar. Set the pan over medium heat and bring to a boil, whisking continually. Remove from heat, and add the chopped chocolate.
Let rest for 30 s as the chocolate begins to melt, add the vanilla and salt, then stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Let cool on the counter, then refrigerate until chilled.
Whisk the mixture again just before using, and freeze in the ice cream maker.

Fettuccine al burro e panna (fettuccine Alfredo)

For ➍
40 cl heavy cream*
80 g (6 tbs) unsalted butter
240 g Parmesan or Asagio cheese, grated
1 ts salt
fresh-ground black pepper
pinch of fresh-ground nutmeg
400 g very thin fettuccine pasta**

Combine the butter and 30 cl of the cream in a large pan. (It must fit the sauce and the pasta.) Heat over a low flame, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted and the cream comes to a bare simmer. Remove the pan from the heat once the butter is evenly incorporated into the cream. Avoid cooking.***

Cook the pasta, draining it before it reaches the al dente stage (3 m). (The pasta should be slightly undercooked because it will continue to cook while the sauce is being finished.)

Drain the pasta and add it to the pan, along with the remaining cream, the cheese, the salt, the nutmeg, and several grinds of the pepper mill.

Heat the pasta and sauce over a low flame, tossing continuously, until the cheese melts into the sauce and the sauce thickens slightly, about 1 to 2 m.

*There are several versions of this recipe, some with cream deleted, and with equal portions of butter and cheese (150 g). The cheese is melted in the soft butter until smooth.
**Fresh if possible. All thin pasta, like tagliatelle, will do.
***Try a quick & innovative way of cooking.

This recipe was created in Rome in 1914 by Alfredo Di Lelio for his pregnant wife. It refers to a traditional way of making butter sauces for pasta, but the cook doubled the quantity of butter. It become popular in the US after some Hollywood stars ate the dish in Rome and brought it back home, where it became known as Fettuccine Alfredo. The original restaurant is still a tourist restaurant in Rome. The family opened a new Alfredo's and franchised restaurants in the US, proudly bearing the image of the master, as seen in the picture.
Americans tend to add chicken or shrimps. This is really a primo piatto, a first course, to be followed by something substantially meaty or fishy.