The most delicious Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse ever

   Today Facebook let me know it's been a year since I discovered this absolutely amazing chocolate mousse recipe that I used it SO MANY times in the last 12 months I just had to post on this blog as well! 

   A year ago, after making this recipe for the first time, I posted this on Facebook:
"Today I felt like making a new dessert, but not something with a lot of layers, something airy and somehow light. And I was lucky because I had a mascarpone packet that I needed to use soon so this is how I found the MOST DELICIOUS chocolate mascarpone mousse on Goodfood! So easy, yet so tasty! 

   I decided to go for a base of crumbled graham biscuits and a cocktail of fruit on top! Talking about graham... Graham Elliot was my inspiration in adding the fruit on top :D Masterchef FTW! 

   I can't begin to tell you how good it tastes! I will definitely use this mousse for cupcakes, birthday cakes and any other recipe involving chocolate cream! Mmmmmmm! To die for!"

And use it I did! :D So now you HAVE to try it out as well! ;)

Ingredients for about 4 servings:

- 100 g dark chocolate, broken into pieces, or dark chocolate drops

- 75 g caster sugar

- 2-3 Tbsp brandy

- 2 eggs

- 250g mascarpone

- about 200g of digestive biscuits

- whatever fruit you prefer or have handy (I used kiwi, pear, orange and an exotic fruit can)

Steps: 

1. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and allow to melt, then remove from the heat. 

2. Add the sugar, brandy and eggs and, using a hand-held electric beater, whisk for 5 minutes or until the outside of the bowl has cooled down to lukewarm. 

3. Whisk in the mascarpone for a few seconds, just until combined. (The mousse will thicken once the mascarpone has been mixed in.) 

4. Put the biscuits in a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs exactly like you would prepare a cheesecake base. If you want some texture with the mousse, you can leave the bites a bit bigger.

5. Dice all your fruit and set it aside.

6. Game time! Prepare the wine glasses, then layer your work: biscuit crumble, chocolate mascarpone mousse and fruit on top! Mmmm, you'll enjoy this so much you'll want to thank me later! :D 

Oliver's Pesto Pasta

   I showed you quite a few recipes until now but I somehow seemed to have forgotten a quintessencial recipe in our household: Oliver's Pesto Pasta! Another recipe that got me hooked from the first bite, one that I would eat every week and that made me love pesto forever (I actually hadn't tried pesto before this dish). So now you know that if you like pesto, you HAVE to try this dish! :D Just sayin'... ;)

Ingredients for 3 servings:
- a jar of Barilla pesto (it HAS to be Barilla, the other brands won't do the recipe justice - It's soooo good I would eat this pesto on its own! Oh wait, I actually did:P Other girls have chocolate, I have pesto ;) )
- a pack of mozarella bocancini (we used around 150g but the more, the cheesier!!!)
- 5 medium mushrooms
- 1/2 chicken breast
- a small white onion
- 250g Fettuccine pasta (or any other pasta you prefer)
- 2 Tbsp oil
- ground pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Boil the pasta in a pot with water and salt.

2. Dice the onion, slice the mushrooms, cut the chicken into small pieces.

3. Put the oil in a pan, then add the onion and cook it for about a minute, until it is starting to caramelize.

4. Add the chicken to the pan, then season it with ground pepper. Give it about 2-3 minutes until it's cooked on one side, then turn it over.

5. Then add the mushrooms. Cook them until they're nicely caramelized.

6. Add the pesto, the mozarella and the pasta. Stir it all together and let it simmer until the cheese is melted. Bon appetit!

Zucchini Lasagna

   If you always loved eating lasagna but you never had the courage to cook it yourself because it sounded way too complicated (like myself) or if you simply want to try out a new lasagna recipe, I'll give you an amazing one I found on TipHero and tweaked a bit. It's as easy as it is delicious! Simple ingredients and no complications at all! Are you ready?

Ingredients for 4 servings:
- 2 zucchinis
- salt, to taste
- 2 Tbsp oil
- 1 medium red onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- around 400g minced meat (we used a mix of pork and beef)
- ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/2 jar Bolognese sauce
- 1/2 pack of mascarpone
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup Parm cheese
- 1 1/2 cups shredded gouda, mozarella or whatever melty cheese you have in the fridge

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.

2. Using a mandoline slicer or sharp knife, slice the zucchini lengthwise into ¼-inch thick slices.

3. Place the zucchini slices in a bowl, sprinkle them with salt, and toss to coat the slices evenly. Set them aside for 10-15 minutes. (Salting removes a lot of the excess moisture in the zucchini).

4. While the zucchini is being salted, heat a large pan over medium heat. Add the oil and onion and cook, stirring often, until the onion is soft (about 3-5 minutes).

5. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.

6. Add the minced meat, season it with salt and pepper, and cook, breaking the meat into small pieces as it browns (about 4 to 5 minutes).

7. Add the Bolognese sauce. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes, or until sauce is very thick.

8. In a medium bowl, mix the mascarpone, egg, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and pepper. Stir well.

9. After the zucchini has been sitting for about 10-15 minutes, use paper towels to blot the excess moisture that the zucchini has released.

10. In a 9 x 13-inch casserole dish, spread about ⅓ of the sauce on the bottom and layer about ⅓ of zucchini slices in a criss-cross pattern to cover the sauce.

11. Spread ⅓ of the mascarpone and egg mixture over the zucchini, and then top that with half of the shredded gouda (or mozarella) cheese.

12. Repeat the layering process until all of your ingredients are used up.

13. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until the zucchini is cooked through and the cheese is melted and starting to brown.

14. Let the lasagna stand for about 5-10 minutes before serving. Bon appetit!

Here's the original (non-tweaked) recipe, just in case you wanna see the steps:

Baked Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs and Coleslaw

   We tried another recipe from the amazing Looneyspoons recipe book by Janet and Greta Podleski and we LOVED it so we decided to share it with you! I love the chicken and honey mustard combination, so if you do too, you'll love it as well! :D

*Note: In the original recipe there were chicken drumsticks instead of thighs, you can choose those if you like them better.

Ingredients for 3 servings:
- 4 chicken thighs or 6 drumsticks
- 1/4 cup liquid honey
- 2 Tbsp grainy mustard
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp Herbes de Provence (basil, marjoram, rosemary, sage, thyme, savory and lavender)
- 1/4 tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper

Coleslaw: (our choice of side, not in the book)
- 1/2 small cabbage or 1/4 of a big cabbage
- 1 medium red onion
- 1 large carrot

Coleslaw vinaigrette:
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1/2 lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- salt and pepper to taste
*Optional: to increase liquidity: add some water and a dash of vinegar

Steps:

Chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC. Spread some oil in a baking pan, pour some water, then arrange the thighs in a single layer.

2. Whisk together remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Spoon sauce evenly over chicken thighs. 

3. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove from oven and baste chicken with sauce (Tilting the pan to one side helps!) Return chicken to oven and bake an additional 30 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink in the center. (For the drumsticks you only need about 40-45 min total cooking time.)

4. Arrange chicken on a serving platter and pour sauce from pan over chicken. 

Coleslaw:

1. Finely slice the cabbage and the red onion and grate the carrot.

2. Make the vinnaigrette by mixing all ingredients together and adjusting according to taste, then add the vinnaigrette over the veggies and mix well. 

Bon appetit!

Oliver's Chicken "Alfredo"

   This is the very first dish Oliver cooked for me. And I fell in love with it (and him) from the first bite! It's soooo creamy and delicious, a real comfort food for bad days and unhappy times, one of my favorite dishes ever!

   Oliver kind of played with the ingredients and put this recipe together in his own way without taking an already written recipe as inspiration. Because of this and because it's so creamy and reminds us of an Alfredo sauce (even though it's more of a ragu), we decided to call it Oli's chicken Alfredo dish :D It's really easy to make, so why not try to make it tonight? :)

Ingredients for 2-3 servings:

- 1/2 chicken breast, diced

- 4-5 white mushrooms, sliced

- 1 small white onion, finely diced

- 50ml cooking cream

- 2 Tbsp of your favourite Chicken Seasoning

- 1 Tbsp oil for cooking

- 150g rice

Sides: 

Broccoli 

- 250g broccoli

Caprese Salad

- 2 tomatoes

- 1 large mozarella ball

- fresh basil 

- balsamic reduction

Steps:

1. Bring some water to a boil and cook the rice.
2. Heat up a pan, add oil and the diced onion.

3. After the onion caramelizes a bit, add the chicken and half of the seasoning (1 Tbsp).

4. When the chicken is 75-80% cooked on both sides, add mushrooms and the remainder of the seasoning. 

5. Let the chicken cook completely and the mushrooms caramelize, then add the cooking cream and reduce it.

6. Make the side: chop the broccoli into small bites, then put it in some boiling water for about 5 min.

7. Slice the tomatoes and the mozarella, then alternatively place a slice of tomato and a slice of mozarella, add chopped basil on top and drizzle some balsamic reduction. 

8. Set the dish: bed of rice, chicken ragu and broccoli and the Caprese Salad on the side.

Bon appetit! Let me know what you think about it! :)