Veg terrine wrapped in crispy speck & a day to remember

One of my favorite cartoons when I was a little girl was Jem and the Holograms, where the protagonist – Jem, a beautiful and exuberant singer – always played in between the real and the virtual world, the real Jem and her hologram. Well, last Saturday, in Viareggio (LU), at Lombardi store, I shifted from the virtual Juls from Juls’ Kitchen to the real Julia, made of  flesh, bones, knives and cast iron pans! I reckon I was a bit scared: being the star of a small and personal cooking show, baking sweet and savory crumbles and vegetable terrines.. it all gave me that little trickle of anxiety due to questions like : will I be able to that? will it be all right? will I put the right amount of salt?

But then, with the arrival of Sara & her boyfriend and Dario from Rome everything fell at its proper place and we really enjoyed ourselves, learning to handle knives as professionals, discovering the secrets of cast iron pans and perfect cooking. As Sara rightly stated, after you have had the chance to use Zwilling knives and Staub cookware, it’s hard to turn back, the quality is so high and everything is so reliable that you really can’t turn back to old knives and cookware without being disappointed! Moreover, all the staff at Lombardi store was fabulous, helpful and have greedily enjoyed crumbles and terrines, giving me tons of confidence and satisfaction… they are simply incredible.

Now let me show you the terrine recipe I made on Saturday, then you’ll have the chance to peek some of the cooking show pictures!

::::: VEG TERRINE WRAPPED IN CRISPY SPECK :::::

Ingredients:

• Aubergines, 2
• Small courgettes, 4
• Smoked scamorza cheese, about 300 g
• Speck (smoked ham), about 200 g thinly sliced
  
• 5 cereals bread, about 4 slices
• Grated parmesan cheede, 30 g
• Egg, 1
• Milk, 50 ml
• Frying oil
  
• Salt
• Nigella seeds, 1 tablespoon

Slice aubergines into 5 mm thick slices, put them in a colander, sprinkle with coarse salt and put a plate on top with a weight, in order to make them loose bitter water. Slice zucchini into 5 mm thick slices and grill them in a cast iron skillet.
Rinse aubergines, pat them dry and deep fry slices in steaming hot oil, then set them aside on a a few paper towels to remove extra oil.

Beat the egg with salt, grated Parmesan cheese, a tablespoon of nigella seeds and milk.

Line a terrine or a plumcake mold with speck slices, leaving at least 1/3 of slice on all sides of the mold (see pictures below). Make a layer of fried aubergines, then a layer of bread – previously soaked in egg mixture – then a lyer of cheese cut into thin slices, then grilled zucchini, eventually two slices of speck.

Start over again with aubergines, bread soaked in egg mixture, cheese and zucchini. Seal speck slices over the top of the terrine, folding one slice over the other, then bake in preheated oven at 200°C for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven easily and turn the terrine out on a serving dish. Let it  rest 5 minutes, then serve, cutting it into slices about 2 cm thick. If you want, you can serve it with a side dish of diced tomatoes seasoned with garlic, olive oil, salt and a tablespoon of nigella.

Tasting test. Not a light meal, especially if you decide to fry both eggplant and zucchini (give it a try, belive me!). But, even if you decide to grill both eggplant and zucchini, it remains a rich and tasty dish, perfect to impress and amaze with a very little effort! It takes just a few minutes to assemble it, but the smoky flavor from speck and scamorza and the crispy shell  make it a dish for special occasions, a signature recipe and a warm cuddle all at the same time!

And now, thanks to Sara, some photos of the day! As soon as I have more pictures, I will update the post!

This is only the first of many other times! Do you have any special request? We will definitely have fun together!

Related posts:

Omelette with herbs, from an Elizabeth David’s recipe A midsummer night’s dinner. Chicken galantina A vintage recipe: homemade mayonnaise and stuffed eggs Mozzarella in carrozza and the Italian aperitivo for the Italian Table Talk