Modern Italian with a view
Sitting high above the world-famous Bondi Beach with sweeping views of the golden sands, Bondi Trattoria is a local dining institution famous for both its food and location.
This cookbook takes you inside the kitchen of the Bondi Trattoria where menu staples, new dishes and a range of delicious recipes are lovingly prepared. The secrets behind the very best modern pasta, pizzas, vegetarian dishes, antipasti, and of course desserts are revealed by internationally renowned owners Joe Pavlovich and Alasdair France.
Joe Pavlovich is the executive chef, owner and director of Bondi Trattoria. He has cooked, run kitchens, written menus and opened venues for 23 years. Alasdair France has worked in four countries over thirty years. From green-rompered beginnings in the eighties, he has served in, managed and opened many restaurants before becoming owner, general manager and director of Bondi Trattoria.
Thanks to New Holland Publishers and The Buzz Group, you can recreate a smashed avocado dish for breakfast and, a mushroom pizza for dinner, washed down with a southside martini. These three modern Italian recipes with simple step-by-step instructions will bring a touch of goodness and sea air to your own kitchen.
Smashed avocado & cherry tomato with herbs, persian feta, poached egg & grilled sourdough (page 24)
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
Smashed avocado
- 4 ripe avocados
- 30 g (1 oz) confit garlic
- 45 ml (1.5 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil
- 45 ml (1.5 fl oz) lemon juice
- 15 g (0.5 oz) sambal oelek (chilli sambal)
Cherry tomato salad
- 250 g (9 oz) red cherry tomatoes, halved
- 250 g (9 oz) yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 red onion, finely sliced
- 60 ml (2 fl oz) extra-virgin olive oil
- 45 ml (1.5 fl oz) balsamic vinegar
Herb salad
- 1/4 bunch dill sprigs
- 1/4 bunch parsley leaves
- 1/4 bunch chives, cut into batons
- 1/4 bunch chervil sprigs
- 1/4 bunch mint leaves
Garnish
- 4 thick slices sourdough bread, toasted
- 4 poached eggs
- extra virgin olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
METHOD
Smashed avocado
- Using a small knife, halve the avocado, twist and then remove the stone. Using a tablespoon, remove the flesh and place into a bowl.
- Add the confit garlic, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and sambal oelek. Mix together with a large spoon, lightly smashing the avocado at the same time. Season.
Cherry tomato salad
- Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and gently mix together. Season and set aside.
Herb salad
- Pick all the herbs and place into iced water to wash and refresh. Drain, place in a salad spinner and lightly spin. Set aside.
To serve
- Grill the bread on a hot grill or toast in a toaster. Place one piece of toast on each of four plates.
- Arrange the avocado mix onto the plates so that half the mixture is on the toast and half is directly on the plate. Add the cherry tomato salad onto the avocado mix.
- Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic as dressing and scatter the feta on top. Lastly, add the herb salad.
- Put the poached egg on the other half of the toast, arrange a wedge of lemon on each plate and serve.
Mushroom, caramelised onion, blue cheese & balsamic grilled radicchio pizza (page 90)
Makes 1 pizza
INGREDIENTS
- 300 g (10.5 oz) pizza dough
- 2–3 tablespoons mascarpone
- pinch of dried oregano
- 80 g (2.75 oz) fior di latte cheese, torn
- 250 g (9 oz) oyster mushrooms
- 3–4 tablespoons caramelized onion
- 60 g (21/4 oz) blue cheese
- 12 flat-leaf (Italian) parsley leaves, torn roughly
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic radicchio
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 radicchio
METHOD
Radicchio
- Preheat a barbecue or frying pan to medium-hot.
- In a bowl, drizzle the radicchio with the extra virgin olive oil. Cook on the grill for 2–3 minutes, turning every 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, place back into the bowl and drizzle with balsamic and a little more olive oil. Cover to cool. Serve at room temperature.
Pizza
- Preheat a pizza oven to 400°C (752°F), or an oven as hot as possible.
- Spread the pizza dough on a floured surface using your fingertips to a thin thickness (the edge does not need to be even). You can use a rolling pin but fingers will give the pizza a more artisan texture.
- Place a thin layer of the mascarpone over the pizza dough leaving about 2.5 cm (1 inch) rim clear around the outside of the dough, add a pinch of dried oregano.
- Dollop some of the caramelized onion over the pizza, then arrange the oyster mushrooms on the pizza and season with sea salt and pepper.
- Evenly arrange the fior de latte cheese.
- Place the pizza into the hot pizza oven and cook for 3–4 minutes, or until crispy. If you are using a conventional oven, heat a tray in the oven as hot as you can get it for 15 minutes first. Then, carefully place the pizza onto this tray and bake.
- Remove from the oven and arrange add grilled radicchio & parsley and blue cheese.
- Cut into wedges, and place onto a pizza plate and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
Southside martini (page 187)
Serves 1
INGREDIENTS
- 45 ml (1.5 fl oz) gin
- 20 ml (0.5 fl oz) lime juice, fresh squeezed
- 20 ml (0.5 fl oz) gomme
- 5 mint leaves
- 175 g (6 oz) ice cubes
Garnish
- 2 mint leaves
METHOD
- Sort the mint leaves and set aside the best looking two for garnish.
- Add all of the ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Shake.
- Double strain into martini glass.
- Garnish with the remaining mint leaves.
Bondi Trattoria, New Holland Publishers, RRP $45.00 available from all good book retailers or online www.newhollandpublishers.com.