Pizzas pizzas pizzas

In Cypriot here.
My friend Antonis was here for a few days and one night we made a few pizzas with Federica's dough recipe.
600 gr. of village flour made 3 large ones.

Pizza the First

We topped the first pizza with:
Courgettes, cut in strips and grilled in advance
Anchovies
Artichokes (from a jar)
Olives
Mozzarella

Pizza the Second
For the second one we roasted in advance half a butternut squash with some butter, garlic and sage leaves in the cavity. When it cooked we melted it onto the pizza base (instead of tomato) and topped it with:

Sage leaves
Red onions
Brie (in place of goat's cheese)
Balsamic vinegar

Pizza the third
We made the third one in two halves with whatever was left. Half we topped with anchovies and the other half with ham. Then we added:
Fresh tomatoes
Artichokes
Red onions
Parmesan rind
Mozzarella

I made the snail for my little girl with the rest of the dough. She had fun, I baked it and she ate it (until we go back to Cyprus for some real snails).
The pizzas were lovely. I'd invite you round but we polished them...

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Pasta with courgettes and fetta cheese

From Pasta with courgettes and fetta

Στα κυπριακά δαμαί

Ingredients (for 4 hungry ones)
500 gr of pasta of your choice
3-4 small courgettes
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
200gr of fetta cheese
lots and lots of dried mint
salt

Execution
Chop the garlic very finely and dice the onion. Cut the courgettes and have your mint and cheese on stand by. Lightly fry the garlic and onion in some olive oil on a low fire for a few minutes. Add the courgettes and stir them lightly until they are nicely coated with the oil. You don't need much olive oil at all, just enough to be able to saute the onions in. I sometimes peel the courgettes, as their skin might be bitter if they're not very fresh. Crush the mint in the courgettes. Add some water to the frying pan, just enough to half-cover the courgettes, and then cover the pan with a lid, allowing it to lightly simmer for about 20 minutes. This way your courgettes become steamed rather than fried, which makes the dish nice and light. Stir it a couple of times and when the courgettes are nice and soft, add the fetta, all crumbled, and stir for 1-2 minutes. Turn off and set aside. You'll notice I didn't add salt to the sauce-the fetta more than compensates for it.

For the pasta, just bring some salted water to the boil, add your pasta and cook for the designated time. Drain it and then add the sauce, giving it a good stir. You'll notice I didn't add salt to the sauce-the fetta more than compensates for it.




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Stuffed Marrows

I found these lovely marrows...here's the outcome:

Ingredients (serves 4)

1/2 kg of minced meat (beef or lamb)

1 large marrow

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

lots of mint

Olive oil

Tomato aste

Salt & pepper

Ground cinnamon

Ground nutmeg

Shallow-fry the onion and garlic in a pan. Add the minced meat and the mint and cook slowly. Add some tomato paste, cinnamon and nutmeg. Salt and pepper. In the meantime, cut the marrow in pieces roughly 4-5 cm thick (see pic). Hollow the pieces out by removing the seeds with a spoon. For the tips it's OK if there's no hole, make them like cups.

When the meat is ready, put the pieces of marrow flat in a pan and fill them with the minced meat. Fill them as much as possible. Add hot water in the pan, carefully and from the side so as not to make a mess with the filling. Add enough water to roughly half cover the marrow pieces. Allow to boil lightly, with the lid closed, for about 30 minutes. Check if the marrows cooked with a fork-if they're soft, they're ready. Serve them by carefully picking them up with a spatula underneath so the filling doesn't fall out.

Serve with cous cous or salad (or even both).