Italy

Mamma mia! Home to arguably some of the best food in the world, we were very excited to dream up some plant-based Italian dishes.

Much of Italian food lends itself to be naturally plant-based — particularly if you’re a fan of tomato! Which goes a long way: penne arrabiata, neapolitan sauce, pizza marinara, bruschetta etc… But I decided to focus on one of my favourite veggies: mushrooms.

I wanted to make a very light risotto but with a bold flavour that wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the accompanying mushrooms. So I picked truffle. I also wanted to add some different textures to the plate, so I picked artichoke and also made a rosti – not exactly Italian, but we’ll call this fusion food 🙂

Here’s my main dish: truffle risotto, mushroom veloute, whole roast artichoke, parsnip and celeriac rosti

Recipes

Main course

I started off with the mushroom veloute, for which I adapted this recipe. I used Elmlea’s new plant-based single cream in place of the heavy whipping cream, and simple vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. I also used chestnut mushrooms combined with shiitake mushrooms for a real umami flavour.

Next, I made a simple truffle risotto. Tip: you can get truffles for amazing value at TK Maxx or Homesense! Which is where I got mine. I made up my own recipe here (for 2):

• 150g risotto rice
• 2 medium shallots, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 500ml veg stock
• 100ml white wine
• 1 truffle, grated
• Nutritional yeast (optional)
• Vegan cheese, to taste (optional)

Fry the shallots in plenty of oil (I used light olive) and a knob of vegan butter until translucent. Add the garlic and fry briefly, careful not to burn. Add the risotto rice and fry for a further few minutes. Add the wine until it’s almost all absorbed. Then, add the stock ladle by ladle, until the rice is almost cooked (15-20 minutes), stirring constantly. When it’s almost ready, add in a tbsp nutritional yeast, a handful of grated vegan cheese, and your grated truffle. Stir to mix well and continue to cook until the rice is soft but with a bit of a bite!

For the parsnip and celeriac rosti, I used the Vegetarian Society’s recipe. I didn’t have any soy flour, so I replaced this with a tablespoon of Orgran’s vegan egg replacer (I found this in Asda’s free from section) mixed with 1-2 tablespoons of water into a paste.

Finally, for the whole roast artichoke, all you need to do is: chop off the stalk and the top 1 inch, separate the leaves with your fingers, drizzle generously with oil and stuff a garlic clove into its heart. Wrap it tightly with 2 layers of foil and bake in the oven for about an hour and a half at 200 degreed Celcius (fan) for an hour and a half.

Voila!

Dessert

I used to love eating ferrero rochers, so I wanted to invent a dish that recreated those flavours. So I came up with the idea to emulate it in several parts: deconstructed if you will! Here’s my dish: hazelnut chocolate cup, chocolate ganache, hazelnut butter mouse.

I started off by making my own hazelnut butter, which was very easy. I roasted a cup of hazelnuts at 175 degrees Celcius for 12 minutes, shaking then half way. I then blitzed them in a food processor with 2 tbsp nut oil, a generous pinch of salt and a tbsp maple syrup for about 8 minutes, once cooled.

I then adapted this recipe from The Veggienator to make chocolate hazelnut chip cups. I substituted the chocolate chips for crushed hazelnuts, used my own hazelnut butter, and added in a tbsp cocoa powder (this meant I had to add a splash more water to get the right consistency).

For the hazelnut butter mouse, I made a very simple 3-ingredient recipe:

• 300g silken tofu, drained
• 3 tbsp hazelnut butter
• 2.5 tbsp maple syrup (or liquid sweetener of choice)

Blitz in a food processor and voila! That’s it. It was so delicious, it tasted a little bit like the inside of a kinder bueno!

Finally, I made a very simple chocolate ganache. I used 50g dark chocolate and 70ml Elmlea plant cream. I boiled the cream and poured it on top of the dark chocolate, stirring until the chocolate was melted.

I filled the chocolate and hazelnut cup with the ganache, and served the mousse in a little espresso cup. Ta-dah! My 2-course, plant-based Italian meal was finished.

All in all, this took just under 3 hours to make the two courses. So it is a little effort, but definitely not complicated.

Good luck recreating any of the recipes!

Justine x