Cooking With Vasco Era

Roman Cheesecake

Cookbook

Written by Sarah Guppy on 16 June 2012

What were your food influences when you were growing up and what kind of food did you eat at home or with your family?

My grandmother won a heap of awards for her Jams and cakes at the Royal Melbourne Show over about fifteen or so years. Even became a judge there for a while, so we used to have loads of really nice jams teeming out of the cupboard. And her home made tomato sauce. Amazing! Our birthday cakes were also probably the best things ever. Nan passed most of this information onto Mum, who also owned the Moosewood Cookbook, full of vegetarian recipes from New York in the seventies. She added meat to a lot of it, but we had a lot of really beautiful home cooked goodness. We traveled throughout South East Asia a reasonable amount when we were younger, so Mum picked up some influences from over there too. I don’t think we quite appreciated just how good we had it as kids, foodwise.

What dish or cuisine do you most like to eat on tour and why?

Probably either sushi or spinach and ricotta rolls. You see, I’m a pescatarian (you know, one of those vegetarians who also eat seafood, but still call themselves vegos? Another name for us is Fish and Chipocrites). I became pesco after watching a documentary on animal cruelty, and just could stomach meat afterwards. One thing I do not like, though, are vegetarians who think they are morally above people who eat meat. Everyone has their own tastes, needs and desires. Can’t we all just get along?!

What type of food do you hate, and what is the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten? Tell us the story.

I hate the smell of trazi (a fish paste from South East Asia). It goes through the house, making you feel like you are on a fishing boat full of off fish. But it makes everything taste so good! The most disgusting thing I have eaten would have to be wallaby stew. We lived on aboriginal communities for a while, and of all the things I ate, that was the most unpalatable. Turtle eggs, however, are amazing. So so good! (disclaimer: do not go getting yourself some turtle eggs. We were lucky enough to be with some locals, who are allowed to take them).

What type of food do you make sure to avoid before a gig or going on stage?

I try to avoid eating anything for a couple of hours before a show. I tend to eat like a pig (myself and Sid, my brother both do it. I think we learned how to eat from our dogs. Put as much food in as quickly as possible, because you never know when it is going to run out! We manage to cough or choke at least once a meal. Fitzy calls it the O’Neil choke). Because I jump around like a fool, if I eat too close to a show, I’ll feel a touch nauseas during the show.

Imagine for a second you can request anything on your rider at a gig. What food do you put on it?

I would request a chef and a restaurant’s food store worth of food. That way I could have whatever I felt like after a show. My own personal chef. Now that would be amazing!

What has been your biggest cooking disaster to date? Tell us the story.

The best one was a combined effort from Sid and myself. We were living in Apollo Bay (when I would have been about 17, Sid 13, Mum and Dad weren’t home and we decided we wanted to have roast chicken. So we prepared it and chucked it in the oven. Sid got hungry, so he turned the oven up to about 260 degrees, figuring it would cook quicker. We had a roast in about twenty minutes. None of it was edible. We had two minute noodles instead.

When you tour overseas, what food from home do you miss the most?

Vegemite and butter on freshly baked bread, hot out of the oven. Holy goodness!!!

This is your last day on earth, what is your final meal?

A massive banquet, with every type of cuisine you could imagine, fresh fruit, heaps and heaps of sweet stuff, plenty of beverages to wash it all down, and maybe I would go roman style, with a bucket so I could just keep eating when I felt sick. That way, it can’t be your final moment until after you have finished your final meal. Mine would go for about four days. Genius!!

Ingredients

Roman Banquet
A large round tray is brought in, with the signs of the zodiac figured all round it, upon each of which the artist had placed some appropriate viand (delicious dish). A goose on Aquarius, a pair of scales with tarts and cheesecakes in each scale on Libra. In the middle was placed a hive supported by delicate herbage. Four slaves come forward dancing to the sound of music taking away the upper part of the dish beneath which appeared all kinds of dressed meats. A hare with wings, to imitate Pegasus in the middle and four figures of Marsyas (satyrs) at the corners. Then pouring hot sauce over the fish, that were swimming in the Euripus (the Euripus was a strait on the Aegean Sea) below. Finishing with the porcus Trojanus (a huge sort of pudding stuffed with the flesh of other animals).

To make the Dough:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon or more ice water

For the Filling:

1 carton (15 ounces) whole milk ricotta cheese

1 package (7 1/2 ounces) farmer cheese

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup Romana Sambuca Liqueur

1/2 cup pine nuts, preferably toasted

1/4 cup finely diced candied orange peel or other dried fruit

1 cup dried cherries, cranberries or golden raisins

Egg wash:

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon of milk

2 tablespoons Confectioners' sugar for garnish

Roman Cheesecake

Method

You'll need a round cake pan, preferably with a loose bottom, 9 inches in diameter and 1 1/2 inches deep.

TO MAKE THE DOUGH: In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, salt and process until blended. Add the butter and process until broken into the flour. Add the eggs and ice water to the flour and process, by pulsing several times, until the dough comes together. If the dough seems dry, add another teaspoon or so of ice water. Turn the dough onto a board and gather it into a ball. Flatten the dough slightly, wrap it in waxed paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Flour a pastry board and rolling pin. Remove 2/3's of the dough and roll it into a circle about 1/4-inch thick and 11 inches in diameter. Line the cake pan with the dough, pressing it into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. If it breaks apart, don't worry, just press it back into shape. Roll the remaining 1/3 of dough into a circle about 3/8 -inch thick and 10 inches in diameter. Divide this circle into 10 strips, each about 1/2-inch wide; this will be for the lattice top.

FOR THE FILLING: In a food processor, combine the ricotta and farmer's cheese, sugar, flour, egg and Sambuca and process until smooth. Transfer the filling to a mixing bowl and fold in the pine nuts, candied orange peel and cherries, or golden raisins and transfer this to the dough-lined cake pan.

Lay 5 strips of dough across the ricotta filling and set the other 5 strips across them, at a 45 degree angle, to form a lattice. With a pastry brush, paint the lattice top and edges with the egg wash.

Set the cake pan on a baking pan and bake for 1 hour or until the filling has set and the crust is golden. Remove the cake and cool it thoroughly on a rack before unmolding. Right before serving, shake the confectioners' sugar through a sieve to completely coat the top.

NOTES: To toast the pine nuts, set them in a 400 degrees F. oven for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them; they turn from golden to burned in seconds.

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