Pancake day or “Martedì grasso”

Pancake day (What in Italy would be Martedì grasso – Fat Tuesday) is my last excuse to indulge in some yummy food before lent starts (although a pregnant woman kind of have the right to eat whatever she feels, right? *cheeky*!).

This time I decided to go for a savoury taste and use one ingredient that I literally adore: goat cheese!

I could eat goat cheese every day, on crostini with caramelised red onions and balsamic vinegar, on pizza with sun-dried tomatoes, in a quiche, the options are endless.

I decided to give it a go and cook a simple, still super tasty goat cheese, mushroom and spinach pancake.

The ingredients you would need to make the filling:

150 gr goat cheese
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon butter
250 gr mushrooms
1 tbsp thyme
200gr spinach
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar

Ingredients to make the pancakes mixture (fantastic recipe and explanation from Delia Smith)

110g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml milk mixed with 75ml water
50 gr butter

To make the pancake batter, I sifted the flour into a bowl. I made a little well in the centre and then I cracked in two eggs.

“Can I try it mommy?”

I gradually added the milk mixed with water and whisked continuously until all the flour was incorporated and the batter was runny and smooth.

This time I followed the instruction and melted the butter in a pan, spooned 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisked it in. I used the rest of the butter to lubricate the pan to actually cook the pancakes.

As Delia suggested in her recipe, I got the pan really hot then I turned the heat down to medium. Now it’s up to you how much batter you add to the pan based on whether you like your pancake very thin or quite thick. I cooked the pancake for about 30 seconds/1 minute and then I attempted to flip it without using any palette knife (it worked 2 our of 3!) and I cooked it for a further 30 seconds, until golden.

I transferred it to a warm plate and in between layers I put a nonstick paper.

I then repeated the procedure for the rest of the batter.

For the filling I heated the oil in a pan then added the onion and let it cook until just starting to caramelize, about 5-9 minutes. I added the garlic and sauteed for about 1 minute, then the butter and let it melt. Subsequently I incorporated the mushrooms and thyme and seasoned with salt and pepper. I cooked all vegetables until they started to caramelize.

At last I added the spinach and let it cooked until wilt.
To make the balsamic vinegar to a syrup like consistency, I just poured it in a small sauce pan and let it boil (please keep checking as all of the sudden the vinegar gets really thick!)

Then I filled the pancakes with the mushroom and spinach mixture, sprinkled some goat cheese, drizzled the balsamic syrup (if you love balsamic vinegar reduction like I do please abuse of it!) and folded it.