Florio's Pizzeria, Malton, North Yorkshire

Over Christmas on a visit to North Yorkshire we had an evening out with a friend to meet her new partner and reason for a forthcoming move to Australia.

We decided to go to perhaps the most popular restaurant in town, Florio's, after a couple of drinks at Suddaby's.

Whenever visiting Malton, I try to get to Florio's. The restaurant is always busy, full of couples, families, and parties. During a night there you are pretty much guaranteed to here the background music change to "Happy Birthday" and the whole restaurant joining in the singing, while a large desert of some nature complete with sparklers is carried across to the party table. My first visit there in fact was for a friend's birthday, and that was rather more years ago than I would like to mention as I'm sure it was for a 10th birthday party, or similar.

The menu has a large choice of pasta, pizza and meat and fish dishes as well as a generous selection of specials displayed on boards. Before my gluten/wheat free time I adored their baked pasta dish of Penne Alla Sbirraglia, only one time straying to try their lobster ravioli. And in fact this baked pasta was almost ordered by my friend. The staff in the restaurant are/speak Italian, and the kitchen is open, allowing you to see the fact that the pizzas are handmade, as the chefs toss the dough with flare! The food here seems to be consistently good, generous in size, and all made from scratch - making it far easier to cope when people like me come along asking for no gluten/wheat.

I ordered the mussels in a cream sauce from the specials board for a starter while the rest of the table shared a Rustica bread. This was a large pizzas-sized garlic bread with a tomato and herb sauce and anchovies and capers. If you weren't to know, you may order a garlic bread for one as a starter, but clearly, this would work for three! I had told the waitress about gluten/wheat free, and she instantly understood, saying that no bechamel would be added to anything I ordered and that most choices (outside of the pizza and pasta, obviously) would be fine for me.

The mussels were lovely. Very large and juicy, and the sauce beautiful. I did actually want to drink it from the bowl. The Rustica bread went down well too, delivering the right amount of saltiness to satisfy the cravings.

My main - to carry on the salty theme was Pork Puttanesca. Two generous pork steaks covered in a tomato sauce with capers and olives. This came served with rosemary and garlic potatoes and I chose the option of a side salad. The meal was very nice but there was no way I could finish it.

Tim ordered his normal for Italian restaurants of spicy meatballs. I think that is a rule. When meatballs in a spicy sauce are on the menu in whatever format, they have to be ordered.

We decided against desert as we simply had no more room, but the range on offer always includes fresh fruit and Italian ice cream as well as other specials. The bill came to around £30 per couple including a bottle of wine (our first bottle had been paid for by a friend who didn't eat with us).

Florio's is definitely recommended, and I'm sure we'll continue to visit every time we're in Malton. Just make sure you're very hungry before you go!

Northcote and the Tomato Consomme

Over a year ago we had a very pleasant trip to Northcote. We'd booked the Gourmet package which included an overnight stay as well as the 5-course Gourmet meal with champagne and canapes.
This was around the time that Nigel Howarth had been successful on the Great British Menu, and 4 of the 5 courses were from the programme. We had the famous Lancashire Hotpot, Muncaster Crab, Parfait of Duck with Duck Scratchings as well as the Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire cheese ice cream which we seem to remember made Oliver Peyton swear, and not in a good way! All we thought were superb and matched very well with the recommended wines.

The next day we were lucky enough to come across the head gardener who told us all about the various herbs that were picked each day from the kitchen, the edible flowers and where exactly the summer fruits came from that we'd eaten with the ice cream.

With the Head Gardener at Northcote

The course that stuck out for us though, had not appeared on the Great British Menu and this was Tomato Consomme. This was served from a cafetiere, after being infused with herbs, over sweet and sour cherry tomatoes and tomato caviar. It had the most intense tomato flavour we had ever tasted. The sweet and sour tomatoes burst with freshness in the mouth, and the tomato caviar was truly a thing of wonder. I did ask how it was made and the well-rehearsed answer was something to do with agar-agar and squid ink as well as tomatoes, and probably dropped from a height into oil to make the tiny black spheres. We later found out that this was a dish by Head Chef Lisa Allen, who has since gone on to become successful on the Great British Menu herself.

Rather more recently we happened across the recipe for this tomato consomme in Good Food Magazine, and thought it was definitely one to try. I should mention that the scientific tomato caviar was not listed as part of the dish. Here is the original recipe. We pretty much followed it all the way through but decided against trying the cheese on toast for this occasion. And the occasion was, dinner for the parents. We actually adjusted the quantities for 4.

You will need: (for 6 people)

For the Consomme:
3kg ripe plum tomatoes , quartered
175ml white wine
750ml tomato juice
3 garlic cloves, sliced
2 large shallots, finely diced
2 tsp salt
1½ tsp caster sugar
fresh picked herb leaves and small sprigs, such as chervil, baby basil, baby sorrel, snipped chives and small salad leaves, to serve

For the "sweet and sour" tomatoes:
18 baby plum tomatoes, peeled
squeeze lemon juice
¼ tsp icing sugar
2 tsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

Put the tomatoes in a very large pan (very very large, the largest you have. We used a big stock pot) with all the consomme ingredients.

Simmer on a low heat for 2 hours. Yes really.
It will then look like this.

Then strain the tomatoes through muslin. For ages. (We actually went out for a meal. I think to the Orange Tree as those were the next photos on my camera!) Eventually the liquid will drained through giving a lovely clear liquid. Apparently if you push the tomatoes through it will end up cloudy. The draining process was itself, an engineering feat. We managed to do this with cunning use of a colander, pegs and gravity. All well worth it though.

As Lisa suggests, we actually did use the left over tomato pulp as a base for a tomato sauce. We used it for a couple of meals, and through the slow cooking, it gave a very rich sauce on all occasions.

The Sweet and Sour tomatoes are made by skinning the cherry tomatoes - putting a small cross in the skin then plunging into boiling water for a few seconds worked for us, then marinading simply in the lemon juice, icing sugar, a little salt and a drizzle of oil.

To serve, put a few cherry tomatoes in a bowl, with the fresh herbs. We used mainly basil (as it is the best herb in the world) and some fresh oregano from the garden.

Then pour over the re-heated consomme. We had considered the cafetiere thing, but really? All very nice at Northcote, but maybe a bit too silly in our kitchen.

This consomme was very nice and rather special. It somehow didn't seem to have the same tomato hit as we remember, but that would obviously be effected by the quality and ripeness of the tomatoes. And we actually do not have one of the best kitchen gardens in the country, which is the only one with 100% score as organic from the soil association as at Northcote. We just had Lidl for our tomatoes on this occasion!

We would fully recommend you give this a go as it is a bit of a show-off soup, and it went down really well. The tomato hit was still there, and the way that it was served added to the occasion.

Parmigiana Di Melanzana (almost) was an organic experience

Well August Bank Holiday brought my only day off of the week and we were going to go walking but by the time we got up and finished off the curry we'd had boxed from the night before, it was afternoon!!  Then we got to thinking about what farm shops or markets might be open in the area.  We looked up a few on the Internet but most seemed to be shut on a Monday - all except for Kenyon Hall Farm near Warrington.

Fran informed me that they were in fact an award winning supplier of local/organic food so we thought we must go spend some cash - so that is what we did.

It wasn't particularly local but we managed to avoid the majority of the Bank Holiday traffic and 40 mins later we found the place.  It is a great place where you can pick your own fruit or (like us) just go and buy produce that someone else has harvested.

After a successful little shopping trip and we ended up with this array of delights:

Organic delights

We bought red wine vinegar, cheese, tomatoes, new potatoes, a massive courgette (for 10p), patty pan squashes, a couple of lettuces, a chilli plant and a sweet basil plant (as ours didn't appear to want to provide any more leaves!).  With this we thought we could make a lovely meal. - And we did, although we had to use some things that we already had in so it wasn't a totally organic meal - but tasty none the less.

Parmigiana Di Melanzana (Baked Sliced Aubergines with Tomato, Taleggio and Parmesan Cheese)

Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes was once again the book of choice.  As we had organic tomatoes and tomatoes form a big part of this dish we thought it would be perfect (we also had an aubergine that needed eating!).

The only change we made was the Taleggio Cheese which we couldn't find so we replaced it with some Emmental in the hope it would react in a similar way.  Our recipe (also adjusted for 2 people) was:

1 large aubergine
Extra virgin olive oil
150g Emmental cheese
Large handful of basil leaves (shredded)
300 ml tomato sauce as shown here
Parmesan cheese (grated)
Salt

Method

Slice the aubergine length ways and salt the slices and leave to drain for 30 mins.  Pat the aubergine dry and fry over a medium heat for 2 mins either side and put to one side.  When ready you can begin assembly.

To assemble, lay half the aubergine slices over an oven-proof dish.  Scatter over half the basil and spread half the sauce.

Then add the slices of cheese and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese.

Repeat the layer with the remainder of the ingredients and bake in a pre-heated oven for 25 mins - until bubbling.








To serve, I stir fried some of the Patty Pan Squash with salt, pepper and Greek oregano and finished with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and a just some organic lettuce on the side.

Parmigiana Di Melanzana, Stir-fried Patty Pan Squash and Organic Lettuce

Chicken with Chorizo, Courgettes and Butter Beans

Tea tonight was a dish adapted from a Rick Stein recipe from his Mediterranean Escapes.  I say adapted as it should be made with Sobrasada rather than Chorizo but cannot find anywhere that stocks it.  (Anyone know??)  Not even Rick Stein's Deli in Padstow stocked it!!  Also I have changed some of the proportions from the book to satisfy Fran's sauce requirements!!

Chicken with Chorizo, Courgettes and Butter Beans

For my version you will need:

2 Chicken Breasts
Small tin of Butter Beans - drained
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Teaspoon of Crushed Chilli Flakes
90g Chorizo (Gluten-Free)
2 Medium Courgettes
Handful of Chopped Parsley Leaves
Salt and Ground Black Pepper
300 ml Tomato Sauce (see below)

To make 600ml of tomato sauce (half can be frozen or fridged after for another day)

2 Tins Plum Tomatoes
20g Garlic Finely Sliced (about 6 cloves)
6 Tablespoons of the best olive oil you can find
Salt and Pepper

I made the tomato sauce this morning and left to cool for the day, here was how:

Finely chop the garlic
Heat the olive oil and add the garlic till it sizzles

Add the tomatoes

Season well with 1 teaspoon of salt and a good pinch of black pepper
Simmer for about 20 mins while breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.  The sauce should reduce a little and thinken.

Then a bit nearer teatime I started the chicken:

Season the chicken and fry in olive oil for 5 mins on each side
Move chicken to one side and fry the chorizo and chilli flakes till the oil is released

Stir chicken around all the lovely juices

Add the courgettes and a little more oil, cover the pan, lower the heat and cook for 15 mins

Add the tomato sauce and butter beans and cook for a further 5-10 mins

Sprinkle with parsley and serve

There turned out to be a bit too much sauce after all (the portions would work with 4 breasts) but not to worry as it will probably make a pasta sauce for another day!  So out popped the freezer tub - always the economist!!





All in all a success I feel.  It was spicy and moreish but we can't help wonder what it should have tasted like had we used sobrasada as per the recipe.  According to Mr Stein the sausage would melt a little and so produce a different textured sauce.  We will keep an eye out and report back if we find a stockist.