Saturday 6 September - Meatballs in Lemon and Wine Sauce

We decided to have an Italian themed meal, mainly because it's fig season and this means one of my favourite starters.

No cooking involved, just fresh figs, parma ham and some walnuts drizzled with honey.

After this some giant meatballs - these were made with veal and pork mince, with some milk soaked bread added for body, and flavoured with garlic, parmesan, nutmeg and parsley. An egg was added to bind and they were formed into large meatballs and topped with a thin slice of lemon.

After baking in a hot oven for 15 minutes they were transferred to a roasting tin, and some more lemon slices, bay leaves and white wine were added. This was all then cooked for two hours in a very low oven.

These were served with potato puree.

For dessert I had come across a recipe for something called Bonet which was new to me -  a sort of chocolate creme caramel but with amaretti bicuits in it.

First of all a rich caramel was made and placed in the tin.

A paste was made from cocoa powder, chopped plain chocolate, rum, espresso, eggs and vanilla, and hot milk was poured onto this.

Into this went crumbled amaretti, which were left to soak before whisking again. This mix was poured into the caramel lined tin, and it was baked in a bain marie

We could only manage a tiny portion of this, it was so rich, and possibly too chocolatey.
It needed cream to make it easier to eat! Interesting to make, but don't think I'll do it again.