Life's good on an Italian Sunday

Luca Flammia and Francesco Rota are chefs at the Tea Rooms of Yarck, a relaxed highway haven two hours' drive from Melbourne. The two Italians cooked together in Modena, in the northern Emilia-Romagna region, and travelled to Australia four years ago with temporary work visas, a few words of English and an appetite for adventure. Now they see their future here, sharing the delicious food of their homeland.

Today, the chefs share a winter menu that channels relaxed family feasts from home. "On winter Sundays, we gather, we eat, we fall asleep and we wake up at 6 o'clock to watch the soccer. There's snow outside and life is good," Rota says. The pattern isn't quite the same here. One friend goes for a jog before lunch. Another tries to resist the fried gnocchi passed around by Bianca, Rota's girlfriend and the manager of the Tea Rooms. "They're pockets of deliciousness," she says.

But by the time Rota serves the beef, all resistance has ebbed away. Flammia has opened a bottle of Lambrusco, there's slow blues on the stereo and talk of taxis home. "Wow, it looks good," Rota says. "Usually, I am working in the kitchen and I don't get to see the food on the table or see people eating it. But cooking at home for friends, I can enjoy it, too.

"And," he adds, "my friends can wash up."

Potato and porcini soup with kale

The mountains behind Modena are known for their porcini mushrooms, but it's also fine to use other full-flavoured mushrooms, such as slippery jacks or shiitake, in this sturdy soup.

½ brown onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

1 tbsp olive oil

700g porcini mushrooms (frozen is fine), sliced

20g dried porcini, soaked and drained

500g potatoes, peeled and diced

½ cup dry white wine

2 litres vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp olive oil

Few leaves kale

1. Heat oil in pot. Add onion and garlic, cooking gently until onion is translucent.

2. Add fresh and dried porcini mushrooms. Cook for 1 minute.

3. Add potato. Cook for one minute.

4. Add wine and let alcohol evaporate.

5. Add stock and bring to boil. Turn down heat and simmer until potato is tender. Check the seasoning.

6. To prepare the kale, rinse leaves well and plunge into boiling water for two minutes. Drain and refresh in cold water. Drain again and pat dry. Tear leaves from stem into small pieces. Heat the oil in a pan and cook the kale for a minute or two. Season with salt and use as a garnish.

Serves 6-8

Zuppa Inglese

Make this trifle the day before and turn it out confidently when ready to serve. Try continental grocers for bright red alchermes liqueur or use easily available cherry liqueur in its place.

Alchermes syrup

100ml alchermes liqueur, or maraschino cherry liqueur

100ml water

50g sugar

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to dissolve sugar.

Custard

10 egg yolks

250g sugar

110g plain flour

1 litre milk

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

100g 70 per cent dark chocolate

1 packet sponge finger biscuits (you'll need about 20)

1. Soak enough sponge finger biscuits in the alchermes syrup to line the inside of a two-litre bowl. Set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, whisk yolks and sugar until pale. Add flour and whisk until mixture is smooth.

3. In a pot, bring milk and vanilla to the boil. Gradually add hot milk to egg mixture, whisking. Pour mixture into a clean pot and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Allow to boil for one minute. Remove from heat.

4. Pour about half the mixture into sponge-lined bowl. Add chocolate to remaining hot custard and stir until chocolate is melted. Set aside.

5. Soak more sponge fingers in the alchermes syrup and arrange over the vanilla custard.

6. Pour chocolate custard over the sponge.

7. Add a final layer of soaked sponge fingers. Set aside to cool then refrigerate overnight to set.

8. To serve, place a plate over the bowl and turn over. Remove bowl and slice.

Serves 10-12

Beef cheeks in balsamic vinegar

Francesco Rota has a stash of his grandmother's thick, sticky balsamic vinegar and treats it with the respect due to any family heirloom. He drizzles nonna's treacly balsamic over parmigiano reggiano and eats it with homesick tears in his eyes. But he uses less-precious vinegar in this warming, filling braise. The beef is lovely with polenta. "When making polenta, the trick is to use a lot of butter and cheese," Rota says. "A lot, a lot," Flammia says. "And stir it patiently."

For the stock:

1 ltr balsamic vinegar

1 clove garlic

3 juniper berries

1 sprig rosemary

1 sprig thyme

4 tbsp sugar

For the braise:

2 tbsp olive oil

6 beef cheeks

2 carrots, diced

2 celery sticks, diced

3 gloves garlic, crushed

3 juniper berries

2 bay leaves

1 sprig rosemary

1 sprig thyme

200ml white wine

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees.

2. Combine all the stock ingredients in a large pot. Slowly simmer until liquid has reduced by about half and vinegar is sweet rather than bitey.

3. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan and brown the beef cheeks. Set the meat aside and add all ingredients except the white wine.

4. Gently sweat the vegetables until almost translucent, then deglaze the pan with the white wine. Cook until the wine evaporates, then add beef cheeks and balsamic reduction.

5. Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for about 2 hours 30 minutes or until tender.

Serves 6-8