Panfusine

You know that a collective project is a success when you lose track of the number of bakes you've done, and yet when the name pops up, you seem to know exactly what went into that particular confection and (as is usually the case with me) what quirky tweak I incorporated. This month,  +Aparna Balasubramanian  's choice was a traditional Roman bun known as Maritozzi, based on a suggestion I gave her. I spotted this recipe on  +Food52  last month as part of a series on regional Italian food . I've been a fan of Emiko Davies' recipes on Food52 ever since I signed up to test  her recipe for grape jam dumplings  - Celli Ripieni - for a community pick. Her articles are a fabulous introduction to the simple home fare from various regions of Italy. When you see the recipe on Food52, the first thing you realize from Emiko's head notes is the number of tweaks and variations that this recipe can weather and still remain a robust and delicious. Well, Emi...

 It almost seems like yesterday when a group of us bakers (wannabe) started with posting  yeasted goodies for this series. It was pull apart bread and a part of me gets nostalgic and wants to make some right now when I think about it. Well, thanks to the fact that Aparna Balasubramanian (My  Diverse kitchen ) is constantly on the search for different delightful breads & cookies, there is only a slim slim chance of a repetition! We had a poll about what we should bake in January & my pick got the most votes (I detect a whiff of gloating at my end here, don't you?) and so, this months recipe is that of Focaccia Caprese. Focaccia is a classic Italian bread, with Greek origins interestingly and is native to the North Eastern part of the county. Caprese, as the name suggests involves tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, just like the salad. I had 2 iterations with this particular project. The first a straight forward try with Aparna's recipe , and the s...

Last year at this time, I  bought (and fell head over heels in love with the idea of) a bushel of tomatoes (in two batches of about 25 lbs each). At this time of the year , my local farm sells these gorgeous plum tomatoes by the bushel,

Disclaimer: I will not claim credit for thinking of this particular recipe even though I've experimented with cuppy versions of other stuff like Nachos.. The underlying punchline applies though... Just as the Nacho's were not made with corn chips (but with Corn Tortilla's instead), This version of the  classic Italian Pasta dish does not contain * Drumroll * any Pasta!! I came across an article for cupcake Lasagna  being the latest fad in the cupcake series that is sweeping across the US. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960804576120453548957890.html As luck would have it, I had nothing but a jar of Pasta Sauce, shredded pizza cheese, a zucchini & a pack of wonton wrappers. and yes an aluminum muffin tray, one of those disposable ones from the dollar store. "@ this point, I leave you to imagine a cacophony of clanging & clattering sounds in your head " 40 minutes and one disposable muffin tin later, what turned out from the...