Snacks and breakfasts - Lucretia B's Cookbook

Tuna fish spread
Bread puffs
Breakfast bread & fruit pudding
Zeppole (AKA Zappla)
Sugar &Spice Nuts
Pizzette

Tuna fish spread

Lucretia B

Ingredients: (serves 4 - 6); 1 x 400 g tin tuna fish in olive oil; 4 tb cottage cheese or ricotta; a few drops of lemon juice (if using ricotta); 2 shallots, chopped; 1/3 cup alfalfa sprouts, chopped; 1 clove garlic, mashed; salt; black pepper, coarsely ground
Method: Place the tuna fish and its oil in a largish bowl; mash with a fork. Add the cottage cheese or ricotta, shallots, sprouts, garlic and optional lemon. Mix well, adding salt to taste, then place the spread in a serving bowl and sprinkle with pepper.
Serve with bread slices (or toast), tasty biscuits and corn chips, as a starter or a snack.

Bread puffs

Lucretia B

Ingredients: (makes 12 - 16 puffs); 1 tb plain flour; 4 tb breadcrumbs; 1 tb grated parmesan cheese; pepper; mixed herbs; 2 eggs, whole; 1/4 to 1/2 cup beer; frying oil
Method: In a small bowl, mix flour, breadcrumbs, grated cheese, pepper and herbs. Make a well in the centre. Pour in the eggs and beat with a fork until smooth. Allow to stand about 1/2 hour.
Pour approx 1 cup of frying oil in a 20-25cm non-stick frying pan. Heat the oil over medium heat. Stir the batter well and add the beer; the batter should be thick enough to drop from a spoon. Test the temperature of the oil by pouring just one drop of batter; as soon as it starts frying and foaming, the oil is ready.
Pour 4 to 6 spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil; turn over after 30 seconds, then turn again once or twice, until the fritters are puffy and golden brown. Drain and repeat until all the puffs are ready. Serve hot or cold.
You might need to experiment with the thickness of the batter; bread puffs should absorb very little oil. If they're too oily, the batter is too runny and the amount of beer should be reduced.

Breakfast bread & fruit pudding

Lucretia B

Ingredients: (serves 8); 1 lt milk; approx 3 buns of day old bread; 1 cup raisins; 8 dried figs; 8 dried apricots or plums; 2 apples; 1 pear; 1/4 cup Port or Marsala; 2 tb pine nuts; grated rind of 1 lemon; 2 eggs; 1 tb melted butter; 2 tb breadcrumbs; 1 cup green or red seedless grapes; 2 tb sugar
Method: This is a very popular and healthy breakfast treat in Italy, where it's made using leftover bits of bread. Italian bread dries up completely when it's a couple of days old, and it's rather important that for this recipe only dried up bread is used. If you don't have any such "bread leftovers", you might want to place your bread in a slow oven for 10 to 20 minutes, or until it's completely dried up.
Scald the milk. Break the bread into bite-size pieces and place it into a large earthenware bowl. Pour the hot milk over the bread bits and cover the bowl with a lid or a plate. Allow to stand for 1 hour at least.
Prepare the fruit: rinse with hot water the raisins, figs and dried apricots. Drain, then chop figs and apricots. Quarter, core and dice the apples and pear. Place all the fruit (except the grapes) in a bowl; add the wine, pine nuts and lemon rind. Mix well.
With a fork or a wooden spoon, stir and mash the bread and milk mixture; it should be rather "runny", with little lumps of bread still visible. Describing the exact consistency is impossible, and you'll need to experiment also based on the final results.
Preheat the oven (180º C). Brush a 30x4cm baking pan with the butter; sprinkle with the breadcrumbs.
Add the fruit to the bread and milk mixture. Add the eggs, mix well and pour into the baking dish. Arrange the grapes on top and sprinkle with the sugar. Bake for 60 minutes approx, until the surface is golden brown. Let cool in the baking dish and serve cold (not chilled).
This bread and fruit pudding can be stored in the pantry for two or three days, but it never lasts so long when the kids are around. Do not refrigerate.

Zeppole (AKA Zappla)

Thanks: Aunt Carmel, US

Ingredients: 1 pkg. yeast; 2 tb sugar; 2 tb shortening; 1 cup milk; 1/4 cup warm water; 1 ts salt (scant); 2 eggs; 4 cups flour (more if needed); dash of pepper; frying oil
Method: Dissolve yeast in warm water. Place all ingredients except flour in a large bowl and mix well. Add flour and knead until sponge-like. Add more flour if you need to, so it doesn't stick and is easy to work with. Place in a greased bowl and cover lightly with oil. Make the sign of the cross on top of the dough. Loosely place plastic wrap over the top and allow to rise until double in bulk (about 1 hour).
Punch down, then scoop out by spoonful, put the dough on a greased cookie sheet (so they won't stick) and let rise again until double.
Fry in oil, drain on paper towel. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Good with coffee, tea and as a snack. Sue's Mom puts raisins in the mixture once in a while for variety.

Sugar and Spice Nuts

Thanks: Valerie, US [ moose10475 --at-- aol.com ]

Ingredients: 1 egg white; 1 pound pecan halves; 1 cup sugar; 1 ts salt; 2 ts cinnamon; 2 tb water; 1 ts ginger; 1/2 ts cloves; 1/2 ts nutmeg
Method: In one bowl, mix the egg white, the water and pecan halves. In a second bowl mix everything else. Pour into first bowl and mix well. Put pecan mixture on cookie sheet and bake one hour at 250ºF, stirring every 15 minutes.
Store in an air tight container.

Pizzette

Lucretia B

Ingredients: 2 slices of bread; 2 ts olive oil; 1 tb grated mozzarella cheese; 2 tb chopped tomatoes; pinch of oreganon; pinch of pepper; anchovy fillets or ham, pitted olives, capers, garlic (optional)
Method: Place bread in a baking dish, greased with a little olive oil. Arrange on top cheese and other optional ingredients. Cover with tomatoes, sprinkle with pepper &oreganon. Bake in preheated oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

Last updated 28 jun 2011