Gubana

Who doesn’t like cakes? Well, Giulia and I like them a lot! Cakes are obviously not the healthiest foods of all, but, “as a nutritionist, I believe a balanced diet should also include some cheat foods every now and then… and —let’s be honest— Christmas is all about cheat foods!” said Giulia

Our choice for this Christmas was Gubana cake from Friuli Venezia Giulia, a region in the North-East of Italy. Bordering with Slovenia and Croatia, it is not that surprising that this cake has a lot in common with cakes from these countries.

In order to make a dessert less “bad for you” from a nutritional perspective you can easily cut down on the amount of sugar you put into it — usually, if I’m baking for a party, I use 1/3 less sugar compare to original recipes; and 1/2 less sugar (I also use honey) if the cake/biscuits I’m making are for my household. This is a quick effective suggestion that can make a massive impact on your health if you eat sweet foods regularly.

Also, to slow down the absorption of sugars from your digestive tract, adding fibre to your cake is a very smart move!
Fresh or dried fruit and nuts such as almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and pine nuts are a great source of fibre! And this is what we did, we researched and picked a traditional Italian dessert that would have a good amount of nuts and raisins in the recipe.

Nuts also contain a number of vitamin and minerals such as phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, vitamin E and K, so don’t be afraid of adding them to your Christmassy cake!



Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30-40 minutes

Total Time: 1.30 minutes 

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE DOUGH

350 g strong bread flour

150 ml  milk

80 g sugar

10g instant yeast

1 medium egg

70g butter, melted

Finely grated zest of one lemon

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped of seeds

FOR THE FILLING

150 grams raisins

70 ml marsala wine

20 ml honey

40 g peeled almonds

40 g walnuts

30 g hazelnuts

20 g pinenuts

10 g butter

1 lemon zest

2g ground cinnamon

1 egg yolk for brushing 

INSTRUCTIONS

To start soak the raisins in the marsala wine and set aside. 

For the dough bring the butter outside the fridge to soften. Then in a large bowl or a mixer, if you have one, combine all the dry ingredients together except the salt. Add the egg and the butter, and keep mixing with your hands until everything is well incorporated. Pour in the milk a little at the time and keep kneading until you reach the right consistency. The dough should be smooth, firm but soft and elastic. 

Cover the bowl with a cloth and set aside to rise in a warm place. 

For the filling preheat the oven to 150 ºC and roast the almonds for 10minutes or until they become lightly coloured.

Blend the raisins in a food processor with the marsala wine, lemon zest, honey, sugar and ground cinnamon. 

On a chopping board, crush the nuts lightly and add them to the filling mix.

Take a circular baking tray of about 18cm in diameter. Spread a little bit of butter all around the inside with your hands and lightly dust some flour with a fine sieve. This is to avoid the dough from sticking into the tin while cooking. A good trick I discovered some time ago is to use rice flour instead of wheat flour.

Now scatter some flour on a large flat surface where you will roll the dough with a rolling pin. The aim is to create a rectangular shape. Our rectangle was about a 48x25cm and about 4mm thick. With a knife or spatula spread the filling over the dough, leaving a small border all around. 

Roll the dough up along the longest edge, you will obtain a long cylinder. 

Then roll the cylinder around itself into a spiral shape and place in the baking tray. 

Let rise in a warm place for about 2-3 hours or until it is doubled in size.

Brush with an egg yolk over the top and bake at 180 ºC for 30-40 min.

To check if the cake is ready, I suggest using a long skewer to poke the cake. If it comes out clean then it means your cake is ready. 

“The food of the Gods”

Polenta cakes with mushrooms sauce and kale

Once I read that the ancient Romans believed mushrooms were the “food of the Gods” and I think most of us (Italians) still see mushrooms in the same way.
The properties contained in mushrooms are slightly different depending on each variety. For this recipes we used chestnut mushrooms which are rich in vitamin K —an essential nutrient to ensure healthy blood and bones—B vitamins and minerals such as copper and selenium. These succulent vegetables are also an amazing source of antioxidants and immune-boosting compounds such as beta-glucans.

“What I have realised during over three decades of dinner parties and, particularly, Christmas parties is that we all often start binging on appetizers and starters—high-calorie foods, made with refined ingredients and almost zero fibre— to find ourselves feeling full before the main meal even arrives on the table. For this reason, I like to inspire my guests with low-calorie vegan or vegetarian starters, and to share with you the recipes I tried.” says Giulia

Polenta is a delicious food, typical from Italy. In my region, Sardinia, people used to eat polenta as a primo, often served with a tomato sauce. In Lombardia instead, Giulia said “there is no party without polenta, but this corn-flour pudding gets generally served as a side dish (contorno), together with roasted or stewed meat.” Since polenta is very light, gluten-free and has a delicate flavour that works well with pretty much everything Giulia and I decided to use it as a base for our Christmas starters.

The combination of vegetables we used as topping also has the traditional flavours of Italy. However you could potentially use other veggies if you don’t like mushrooms or cavolo nero.

Cavolo Nero, also known as Tuscan Kale, is just an Italian variety of kale, but with dark green-blue leaves —here the adjective “nero” which means black.
Kale belongs to the cruciferous vegetable family, known for its high amounts of phytonutrients which help promoting detoxification and protecting against cell-aging. Like most leafy green vegetable, kale is also high in beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin K and minerals, especially manganese.

These polenta cakes are perfect served as a starter either for Christmas or NYE. 

They are really easy to make, provided that you buy the instant polenta, or the task will become way longer. 

For a more luxurious version you can use Porcini mushroom which have a stronger taste. 

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Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes 

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

POLENTA

200g Instant polenta

800ml vegetable stock 

1 tsp salt 

MUSHROOM SAUCE

200G chestnut mushrooms

1-2 cloves garlic

15g butter

30ml red wine

100g tomato sauce

a few leaves of kale (Cavolo nero)

100ml water 

5g butter

1/2 lemon squeezed 

TO SERVE

a bunch of parsley

INSTRUCTIONS

For the polenta I recommend using Instant polenta unless you want to spend your day cooking. For best results follow the instructions on the package. I used De Cecco polenta for mine (This is not a sponsored post). It just needs about 8 minutes to be ready. 

The procedure is more or less the same for every polenta though, it consists in  boiling your vegetable stock in a large pot, add in some salt to your liking. 

Then remove the pot from the stove and pour in the polenta slowly into the water while stirring.

After you poured it all in, bring back the pot on the stove and cook at low heat stirring continuously for about 8 minutes or until the water is fully absorbed. 

Take a large flat tray and pour in your polenta. It should form a layer about 1 inch thick. Leave to cool down.

In the meantime we can work at our mushroom’s sauce.

First thing clean your mushrooms using the tip of the knife to scrape the stalk a tiny bit and use a kitchen towel to clean the top of the mushroom. 

Slice your mushroom into small pieces. 

In a small pan heat up the butter and when it is melted add in the garlic cloves. Cook for 2-5 minutes or until they have some colour. Add in your mushrooms previously cut, add half a glass of water and cook with the lid on for about 10-15 minutes at low heat. Your mushrooms are ready when they are soft. 

Spoon in your tomato sauce and cook at low heat for another 10minutes. Season to taste. Sprinkle some parsley on the top. 

Now we will quickly prep the kale that will form a base for our mushroom sauce to seat on top of the polenta. Wash the kale, then on a chopping board shred it into 1 inch wide strips.

Bring to the boil 100ml of water with salt, add in the butter and lemon juice and cook your kale for about 5 minutes or until tender. Drain it well and set aside.  

Cut the polenta into circles with a cookie cutter or squares if you prefer.

Heat up a pan and heat-up the polenta for about 2 minutes per side.

Place the circles on a serving tray. Then place some of the kale leaves on top of each one and spoon in some your mushroom sauce.

The polenta cakes are now ready, they are also delicious served at room temperature.