FIVE RECIPES TO COOK AND HAVE FUN WITH YOUR KIDS

Ingredients

· 3 slices soft bread

· 3 slices cooked ham

· Emmental cheese

· 1 egg

· 50 ml milk

· Breadcrumbs

· Extra virgin olive oil

Take the bread slices and flatten them with a rolling pin or a heavy object. Then cut each slice in half and put 1 slice of ham and 2 strips of cheese on each half. Now roll the slices of bread (be careful to roll up the slices from the cheese side). In a bowl, beat the egg, then add the milk and some breadcrumbs.

Preheat the oven to 180°. Quickly dip the rolls in the beaten egg and then in the rest of the bread crumbs. Prepare an oven dish with parchment paper, place the bread rolls on it and drizzle some oil over the top.

Cook the rolls for 15 minutes at 180°. Halfway through the cooking time turn the rolls over to ensure that both sides are cooked evenly.

Ingredients

· 250 g dried biscuits

· 100 g sugar

· 50 g cocoa powder

· 80 g dark chocolate

· 100 g butter

· 70 g chopped toasted hazelnuts

· Half teaspoon vanilla essence

Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Meanwhile, get your children to put the biscuits in a plastic food bag, and make the little chefs break them into small pieces (the biscuits should be broken down but not ground into powder, so you can taste the crunchy bits when you eat the salami).

Mix the butter (take it out of the fridge in advance so it is soft when needed) with the icing sugar using a rubber spatula. Then, add the cocoa powder as well as all the melted dark chocolate, vanilla and hazelnuts. Finally, add the crumbled biscuits to the mixture and stir everything carefully until all the ingredients are mixed together. Next, spread a sheet of parchment paper, sprinkle it with icing sugar, and shape the mixture like a salami.

Wrap the parchment paper around the salami and close the ends by rolling them (the shape should look like a big sweet). Keep the dessert in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. After checking that the mixture has become hard enough, remove it from the fridge: et voilà! Your chocolate salami is ready to be cut, served, and devoured!

Ingredients

· 50 g crunchy puffed rice

· 150 g dark chocolate

· small size paper cups

These little balls can be a very quick and tasty snack and they are also really simple to make.

Chop the dark chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a slow flame.

Meanwhile, place the paper cups on a tray. As soon as the chocolate is melted, mix it carefully with the puffed rice. Be careful: this last process needs to be done quickly to ensure that the chocolate doesn’t get hard before being blended with the puffed rice.

Now you need the help from your “little chefs”: they will need to put a small amount of the mixture in each cup and give it a round shape. Let the balls rest until the chocolate has set. Sit back and enjoy these simple and delicious treats with your children.

Ingredients

· 200 g cooked and squeezed spinach (blanched)

· 250 g ricotta cheese

· 1 egg

· 20 g grated Parmesan cheese

· 1 pinch of salt

· Nutmeg

· 100 g breadcrumbs plus more for breading

· 100 g mozzarella cheese

First, blanch the spinach and make sure you squeeze it well and get rid of any excess water after cooking, otherwise there is the risk of souring the mixture. Take a bowl and press the ricotta cheese then add the spinach in and mix well.).

Take a bowl, add one egg, some grated Parmesan cheese, a pinch of salt, and nutmeg. Stir the mixture until it is completely mixed together and gradually add the breadcrumbs whilst stirring. Now prepare a plate with the Parmesan and cut the mozzarella into cubes.

For the next step, your children’s help will be super important! Make the balls by taking some of the mixture in your hands and flattening it. Then, add three cubes of mozzarella in the centre of the mixture and wrap it up around them to make a ball. At this point, you need to coat each ball in the breadcrumbs and place it on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

Keep going with this process until you finish the whole mixture (you should have made approximately 12 balls). Drizzle some olive oil on the top and bake the meatballs for 20 minutes at 180° in the oven. Halfway through the cooking time, turn the balls over on the other side to ensure they are evenly cooked.

Your spinach balls are now ready to be served: let the whole family enjoy them while they’re hot and the mozzarella cheese is melted and stringy!

Ingredients

· 125 ml warm water

· 125 ml warm milk

· 10 g brewer’s yeast

· 1 teaspoon sugar

· ½ tablespoon salt

· 50 ml olive oil

· 200 g all-purpose “00” flour + 200 g Manitoba flour

Start by mixing the milk and water in a bowl, then add the brewer’s yeast and sugar. Mix everything with a spoon to let the yeast dissolve completely. Before adding the yeast to the bowl, take care to crumble it well, otherwise it will be difficult to stir it in properly. Add olive oil to the mixture and then gradually some flour, while working the dough with your hands. Once you have added about half the flour, also add the salt. Then continue adding the flour.

Once the mixture has been kneaded enough, you can move to the worktop. Split the dough into several parts and let your children knead it too: everyone has to work on his/her piece of dough with energy for several minutes! You can check if the dough has been kneaded sufficiently by pulling its ends and testing whether it is stretchy enough. If the result of this “test” is positive for each part of the dough, shape it into a ball, cover with cling film and a cloth and let it “rest” for about 40 minutes.

Afterwards, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it gets to about ½ cm thickness and then use a cup to cut the dough into disks, until all the dough is finished. Cover a baking tray with parchment paper, and place the disks on it covered with cling film.

Let them rise for about an hour and a half. Once the volume has doubled (i.e. the dough has risen), make the typical focaccia holes with your fingers on each disk. Then, sprinkle some salt on top and cook them in the oven at 170° for about 25 minutes. Be sure to start checking the focaccine after 15 minutes and take them out of the oven only when they are sufficiently golden. You can also slightly moisten the focaccine on the top to make them even more spongy.