With the oven still hot from cooking, this is the perfect opportunity to roast seasonal stone fruit such as peaches, nectarines, apricots or plums for a simple no fuss dessert.
- Cut your fruit in half, remove the stones and place in a baking dish.
- Sprinkle with a little caster or brown sugar.
- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes in the hot oven.
- The fruit should be lovely and soft and just holding its shape.
- Allow to cool slightly before serving with ice cream or cream.
Suggestion:
You can let some of the fruit cool right down and then spread like a jam or preserve over your fresh baked bread.
Heat the oven to 250° C / 500° F and maintain the temperature.
Puncture the eggplant (aubergine) in a few spots, using a toothpick or bamboo skewer. Rub the eggplants with olive oil and place on a sheet pan. Place peppers and onions cut side down, on another sheet pan. Roast all vegetables for 10 minutes. Turn vegetables over and roast for another 10 minutes, or until eggplants are tender. Remove vegetables from oven and cover with foil.
Allow the vegetables to steam until cool enough to handle. Peel and seed the peppers, but do not rinse. Cut six of the pepper halves lengthwise then in half again (giving you 12 large quarters) and place in a mixing bowl. Remove 24 of the largest leaves of onion, discard and dry onion leaves. Add to the bowl of pepper pieces. Coarsely chop remaining onion and place in baking dish.
Cut the remaining pepper halves into 1⁄4 – 1⁄2 inch pieces and place in the baking dish with the onions. Split the eggplants lengthwise and scrape the flesh from the skins. Discard the skins. Coarsely chop the flesh and add it to the baking dish. Whisk the 7 tablespoon olive oil, salt, black pepper, lemon juice, garlic to make a dressing. Add all but 2 tablespoons of the dressing plus 1 tablespoon of the parsley to the baking dish, tossing well to combine with the chopped vegetables. Place the baking dish in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove, and let the vegetable mixture come to room temperature.
To serve, mound the vegetable mixture in the centre of a serving plate. Toss the large pepper and onion pieces in the mixing bowl with the remaining 2 tablespoons of dressing.
Scatter with remaining 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley and serve.
You can make these pita bread in a conventional oven, in a kamado or a smoker using a pizza stone. You can also grill them straight on your Fornetto grill.
- Prepare the yeast – mix with equal parts water and let sit for ten minutes.
- Sift the dry ingredients together into large bowl.
- Add the water, oil and yeast to the dry ingredients and mix together until it forms a rough ball before turning out onto a floured work surface.
- Work the dough for 15 minutes until the dough is smooth before returning to the bowl (oil the sides to prevent sticking).
- Cover with cling film or a tea towel and put the bowl aside or in the warming drawer (depending upon your oven model) and leave to rise or proof for at least 60 minutes.
- The dough must double in size.
- Split dough into 5 balls that you need to flatten with a rolling pin.
- Cover them with cloth and let them rise for another 25 minutes.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (at a temperature of 220-250C) using a pizza stone, an oven tray or directly onto the oven floor.
- Use a spatula to position them in the oven.
- The bread will be ready when it is puffed up.
Option: To grill on a gas grill, pre-heat the grill to at least 200C then turn the heat to low. Lay the pita’s directly on the grill grates. Close the lid for about 1-2 minutes. Flip over and grill on the other size for another minute or so.
Another option: You can also cook the pita on a hot griddle on your stove top.
- With your Fornetto Oven, or kamado, still hot after preparing lunch, this is the perfect opportunity to start a simple dessert by baking some apples and pears in foil.
- Use ripe and sweet apples or pears but do not peel the fruit.
- Cut the fruit in half and place on a large sheet of tin foil. Sprinkle with finely chopped pistachios (other nuts can be used if preferred), brown sugar and cinnamon or nutmeg and wrap the fruit securely in the foil to create a parcel.
- Bake in the hot Fornetto oven for twenty-thirty minutes. Fruit is cooked when it is soft and just collapsing on itself.
- Serve hot straight from the oven with vegan or dairy-based ice cream or cream. Delicious!
Suggestion:
For a more decadent treat – why not try whole bananas stuffed with pieces of chocolate inside – the kids will love it.
This flexible recipe can be made in a conventional oven or your Fornetto oven. You can also place the foil parcel in a kamado or on top of a grill. The higher the temperature the less time you will need!
To make the dough
- Combine yeast, sugar and 2 tablespoons of warm water and set aside in a warm place for approximately 15 minutes.
- Place flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.
- Add remainder of water to yeast and whisk through.
- Add yeast mixture to flour mix and combine thoroughly to form a rough ball.
- Add small quantity of flour if your mixture is too wet.
- Turn out onto a lightly-floured board and knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth.
- Place tablespoon of olive oil in a clean bowl, coat dough all over and cover with clean tea towel and put aside for 1-2 hours allowing the dough to double in size.
- Place dough back onto floured board and knead a few times.
- For thin base pizzas divide your dough into 4 parts. Shape each ¼ into a round ball.
- Take one ball of dough; keep others covered so they don’t dry out.
- Use a small amount of flour to dust the rolling surface and the rolling pin, to prevent dough sticking. Roll out to required size. (about 30 cm / 12 in)
- Place on pizza stone or tray and add your favourite topping – remember not to overdo it.
- If you use a pizza paddle leave the base on your surface, you can slide it under after all toppings are on the base.
Preheat your Fornetto oven to at least 200 C / 400 F and maintain the heat. You can also make this recipe on a hot grill (using a pizza stone) or in a kamado or smoker.
TIP: Sprinkling (uncooked) polenta meal onto your pizza spatula or stone will prevent it from sticking when you place on the pizza stone and also gives a delicious crispier texture to the base.
Suggested Toppings:
- Margarita – spicy homemade tomato relish and shredded fresh mozzarella or bocconcini, fresh basil leaves to garnish
- Mushroom pizza – sliced sautéed mushroom and basil leaves – served with crème fraiche
- Pancetta – rashers of pancetta, sautéed onions, shredded mozzarella
- Pescatoro – fresh salmon chunks, prawns, baby mussels or clams, scallops and calamari
- Salty pizza – black olive tapenade, salt flakes and chopped rosemary. Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with extra rosemary
- Tandoori – tandoori paste, tandoori chicken (cooked) fresh chopped tomatoes and mint yoghurt
You can make bread in the Fornetto Oven, a conventional oven or in the kamado.
- Bring the oven temperature up to 250° C / 480° F and maintain the temperature throughout.
- Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Make a well in the centre and pour in the water and oil. Mix ingredients together until your dough feels smooth and a little tacky. Oil the inside of a clean bowl and transfer the dough. Cover with a sheet of cling wrap and a wet tea towel. Place the bowl in the warming drawer (depending upon your Fornetto oven model) or somewhere warm and leave it to rise or proof for at least 60 minutes.
- The dough should double in size. If using a cloche, place on a rack in the middle of the oven and bring up to heat. Keep the smoker slide closed while baking. Once your dough has risen and your cloche is hot, retrieve your dough and turn it out onto a floured board (the Fornetto bamboo pizza peel is perfect for this) and shape into a round ball. Place the dough directly into the hot cloche and put the lid on. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes and then remove the lid. Cook for a further 10 minutes.
- Monitor and the bread and watch it bake – the time will depend on the temperature of the oven and the size of the dough. If cooking your dough directly on the baking stone use the Fornetto spatula to direct the dough into position in the oven. Sprinkling polenta or cornmeal onto the stone surface helps stop the bread from sticking and gives added crunch to the crust. When your bread is cooked take it out of the oven and leave it to cool before cutting. The hot air inside the bread will continue to cook the bread until it cools. This process enhances the flavour and texture of the bread.
Option: Try making bread in the kamado. Just place a pizza stone on the grill and stabilise the temperature at at least 200°C. Cooking time should be about 50 minutes. Before placing the dough in the kamado, place a small bowl of water on the deflector. In this way, you will increase the humidity inside and favour the formation of a delicious crust.
- In a large bowl combine all the ingredients except the avocados and tortilla chips.
- Peel and remove the pits from the avocados.
- Cut the avocado coarsely and add to the rest of the mixture.
- Mash the mixture with the back of a fork until you obtain a nice consistency. Do not over mash the avocado as guacamole should have chunks of avocado in it.
- Serve immediately with tortilla chips or cover and refrigerate
Click here to read our blog about Tex-Mex cooking (with links to other recipes)
A bread cloche, along with making fantastic bread, can also be used for preparing many different delicious dishes. Let your imagination run wild like we’ve done here!
- Preheat your Fornetto oven, your conventional oven, or your kamado to 190℃ (375℉).
- Wash the artichokes and using a very sharp knife, slice the stem end and the tips of the leaves off.
- Place 8 to 9 lemon slices in the bottom of the bread cloche and top each lemon slice with an artichoke.
- Salt each artichoke generously and drizzle each one with olive oil. Top with a second slice of lemon.
- Pour the cup of water into the cloche’s base and cover with the dome.
- Bake for 1.5 hours.
Tip: The base of the artichoke joining the leaves to the heart is the edible part and is eaten by biting off the tender ends of the harder outer leaves. As you near the centre of the artichoke and the leaves are a pale yellow-green, both the leaves and heart can be eaten at this point.
Rice meets spice and colour, a feast for the eyes and taste buds!
- Preheat your Fornetto or conventional oven to 175℃ (350℉).
- Combine all ingredients in an oven-proof pot, reserving the tomatoes, cover and bake for 50 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Monitor for doneness.
- Add the cherry tomatoes and continue to bake until all the liquid has been absorbed and the tomatoes have fallen, about a further 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and place a couple of paper towels over the rice. Cover with the lid and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
- Fluff with a fork and serve immediately.
Tip: Add a couple of whole hot peppers to the pot for a spicy treat!
