After hesitating for a few weeks and postponing the work several times, we finally set up the garden.
I don't have a lot of outdoor space, but it's certainly enough for a table, six chairs, three lemon trees, two deckchairs to relax and a small square of soil dedicated to aromatic herbs, which never fail in my kitchen and which I strongly wanted when we thought about how to fix the outside of the house. Not being in an area of car passage, during the summer evenings it is particularly pleasant to sit outside, turn on a few lights otherwise the mosquitoes arrive with greater conviction and enjoy the scent of lemon leaves, intense and fragrant: I bathe the plants and notice that the leaves are invigorated, almost like when we drink a glass of water after a run and a smile and a sigh of relief appear on our faces. On the ground I planted sage, perfect to be fried or to flavor butter, rosemary, which I love with meat, wild fennel, even two plants because I love it very much, and then mint, marjoram, lemon thyme, lemon grass, and finally a plant of small chillies, so beautiful, they look like cherry tomatoes and here it is used to stuff them with tuna and preserve them in oil.
This year I also added a small structure that includes 6 plastic vases so I can expand my crops: I used two for basil and parsley, and I divided the other 4 between 6 little plants of cherry tomatoes and 6 strawberries. It gives me great satisfaction to be able to add the tomatoes grown by me in a colorful salad, go out of the door and reach out to retrieve them and smell the real scent of vegetables. Unfortunately I do not have the space for a "real" and ample vegetables garden, but I would like it very much: I'd like to see zucchini, onions and maybe watermelons grow.
I then replaced some dead plants that I had in two terracotta amphorae: not happy enough, even here I putted some strawberry plants.
I have high hopes for production this year: I hope the birds will be kind and let me eat some, or have the pleasure of collecting them enough to prepare this cake I love. It is not part of the Venetian tradition, but it has always been part of my cooking repertoire: over time, after trying many recipes, I stopped on this one, which belongs to California Bakery Milan. I put so many fresh strawberries on it and a delicious compote underneath: I don't want to see those phosphorescent sauces that imitate real strawberries.
I hope you will like it and become one of your flagships in the kitchen.
For the crust: blend the biscuits then add the butter, honey and cinnamon and work quickly with one hand. Put the dough by handfuls in the pan and cover the edges first, then the bottom, crushing it against the walls and pressing well. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
For the cream: using a wooden spoon or a silicone spatula, mix the robiola with the ricotta, the sugar, the cream, the yogurt, the lemon peel, the vanilla, the lightly beaten eggs, the cream and lastly the sifted flour. Pour the cream into the mold and cook in a preheated oven at 160 degrees for 55 minutes with the oven closed and 5 minutes in the oven as soon as it is open to let the steam out: to see the cake can be taken out of the oven, move the pan slowly and check which, although still dancer in the center, is firm and non-liquid.
Once removed from the oven, it should be left to cool at room temperature for at least 3 or 4 hours, then in the refrigerator for another 2 or 3 hours (or rather a whole night) before docorate it.
For the compote: in a casserole put the chopped strawberries, so small, the sugar and the lemon juice, then cook until, simmering, it has thickened a bit. Let it cool.
Decorate the cake with the compote and then place the fresh strawberries on top.
Notes:
- If you are celiac or if the dessert is made for a gluten intolerant, use glutenfree certified biscuits and replace the flour with potato starch or cornstarch. Remember that the products you use must all be certified as gluten-free and you must follow the hygiene rules necessary to avoid contamination: for example, do not use a wooden spoon.
- if you want to prepare the cake without lactose, there are no problems: buy the lactosefree butter, the lactosefree robiola, the rlactosefree icotta, the lactosefree cream and the lactosefree yoghurt and it will be very good anyway.
