Jennieworld Today

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A couple of weeks ago I promised my husband that I would make cake for him ready for Easter Day, so that he could celebrate the end of Lent in style! I’d forgotten all about it until I came home from work on Saturday and he reminded me, so these were my last-minute baking efforts (which went down very well, I might add!)

I made the cupcakes first, as I think the desire for chocolate was getting to my husband after six weeks! But then, as I always have lots of icing left after making these cakes, I decided to make some viennese sandwich biscuits as well, so that it wouldn’t be wasted!

I added the mini eggs to the chocolate cakes to make them fit in with the Easter season a bit better, and to make sure that he got the full and maximum chocolatey effect!

I usually use a piping bag to pipe the biscuit mixture onto baking sheets, but on Saturday I just put teaspoons of the mixture in slightly flattened small heaps, which gave this less symmetrical, ‘rustic’ appearance!

If anyone is interested in getting the recipe for these cakes, let me know and I’ll post it at a later date. It’s a really good recipe, producing cakes with a texture somewhere between sponge and madeira, and has never failed me!

As promised, here I am, even though I’m showing up a bit earlier than I expected. My Easter weekend hasn’t been quite so frantic with activity as I thought it would be. I managed to get a last-minute half day holiday from work on Saturday, which was really nice. Then I had a lovely lazy day, with my only gainful activity being some baking in the evening (I’ll tell you about that later). Yesterday (Easter Day) was another good day, spent visiting all the local branches of the family and eating cake and chocolate for the first time in six weeks or more! Anyway, here’s the recipe I promised…

Gnocchi in a Mediterranean sauce

Ingredients
Packet of gnocchi (readily available vacuum packed in supermarkets or there are numerous simple recipes on the internet)
1 small red onion and one small white onion
1 large red pepper
handful of cherry tomatoes
tin (400g) of chopped tomatoes (or equivalent amount of passata)
packet of low fat mozzarella (think I used about 150g)
approx. 12 fresh basil leaves, torn
1 clove of garlic, crushed, or 1 tsp garlic puree
Worcestershire sauce
freshly ground black pepper
spray oil

Method

1. Finely dice the onions and red pepper. Quarter the cherry tomatoes. Dice the piece of mozzarella.
2. Using a few squirts of the spray oil, fry the onion on a medium heat, adding the garlic once the onion is getting softer.
3. Add the red pepper and the cherry tomatoes, cooking briefly before adding the tin of tomatoes, freshly ground black pepper and dash of worcester sauce. Stir well and then leave to cook on a low heat to allow the sauce to reduce and the flavours to all combine. This shouldn’t take too long, maybe ten to fifteen minutes.
4. Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil and then add the gnocchi, cooking according to the instructions on the packet (or until they float to the surface and don’t sink again). Don’t leave them in the water or they will be overcooked. Drain immediately.
5. When the sauce and the gnocchi are both ready, add the mozzarella and basil to the sauce and stir gently for a few seconds to allow the cheese to start to melt.
6. Serve immediately, garnishing with a couple of extra leaves of basil.

I like this recipe because it’s simple and quick to make and doesn’t involve lots of expensive ingredients which I would use once and then bury at the back of a cupboard. Not only that, but it’s vegetarian (nice to have a couple of meat free meals every week) and quite healthy, with a couple of portions of vegetables in it. I hope you give this recipe a go and enjoy it. If you do make it, please let me know how it went. Similarly, if you modify the recipe and it goes well, or if you have alternative gnocchi recipes, post them as comments. I’m always on the lookout for new recipes to try on my family, so all suggestions gratefully received!