On the menu tonight... and a beautiful blog

In my effort to be a better food blogger, I've got what's on the menu for tonight! The meal I've created is all about simplicity. (Sorry, posted a day late!)

Menu 16 Nov 2010
Potato and leek soup
Pasta with gorgonzola sauce

To make the soup, you roughly chop equal parts leek and potatoes. Tonight I used two huge leeks and about six medium to small potatoes. Throw the leeks into a heavy-bottomed pot with a tiny bit of roughly chopped onion and plenty of olive oil and a bit of butter. Cook on low with the top on the pot until the vegetables are soft. Then add the chopped potatoes and mix. Add enough water to cover the veggies and add vegetable stock cubes (1 for every 500 ml of water). If you're cool and have homemade vegetable stock ready, use that! Bring to a boil on high and then reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally so it doesn't burn. Cook until the potatoes are very soft and crumble to the touch. Add freshly ground black pepper and blend with a stick blender until a smooth purée. If it's too thick, add a little water.

For the pasta, take 1 cup double cream and just over a cup of crumbled gorgonzola cheese (I used dolcelatte tonight) and heat them together in a non-stick pan. Stir until the cheese basically dissolves. Add a generous amount of pepper and turn off the heat. Cook the pasta in salty water until just 'al dente'. Mix sauce and pasta and devour with a good amount of grated parmesan on top.

Beautiful blog find: Cannelle et Vanille by Aran Goyoaga
http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/
I was just going through my Flickr page and saw that there was a feature on photos of citrus fruits. One photo stood out and it was by Aran Goyoaga, who is a Basque ex-pat living in the USA, pastry chef by training. I quickly went to her Flickr page and then her blog. The photos are just stunning and the recipes look tasty and wholesome. I don't post them here because I'm respecting her copyright and haven't had time to ask for permission to use her images, but do check her work out. You'll be drawn in by her superb artistry.

Al Dente

Copyright © supinfocom 2007

A friend sent me a link to this sweet animated short film about an evil Italian chef who makes ravioli out of little children. This is to keep you amused while you wait for more stories from Spain.

Al Dente - short movie

Tomatoes and Ricotta - heaven in a bowl

Pasta with Creamy Ricotta Tomato Sauce

I'm stuck at home on a rainy London Saturday with a sinus infection. What to do? Make pasta to pamper myself. This serves 1, but perhaps you should make double so that you can relive it again.

3 roma tomatoes - squeeze out the innards and chop
4 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
olive oil
2 Tbsp ricotta - the higher quality the better, it should be slightly sweet, not bland like many generic versions. I like Santa Lucia ricotta.
Several leaves of fresh basil
parmesan to garnish
salt and pepper

Fry the garlic lightly then add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt and cook on medium for not more than 10 minutes. Blend this sauce until smooth in a blender. Cook the pasta to al dente and drain. Add the sauce to the pasta and then the ricotta. Stir until evenly blended and add some basil leaves (torn to release flavour) and some pepper. Garnish with a bit of parmesan.

Oh, I wish I'd made two portions!

Pasta with spicy tomato sauce and mozzarella

Doesn't the thought of it just make you drool? Inspired by one of our 50 cookbooks, this has Carew piggies licking their lips in anticipation.

Pasta with spicy tomato sauce and mozzarella
Serves 4
Time: 30 min
4 medium-sized tomatoes - chopped, squeeze out the seeds
4 cloves garlic - finely chopped
pinch of hot red pepper flakes
olive oil
mozzarella - chopped
fresh basil - torn a bit
fresh parsley - chopped finely
salt and pepper
2 Tbs butter
freshly grated parmesan
500g/1 lb penne pasta

Fry the garlic and red pepper in olive oil. Add the tomatoes and some salt. Cook on high for 5 min and then lower to minimum heat and cover for about 10 minutes. Stir the tomatoes a bit to help them break down. Add black, ground pepper and the basil and parsley. Cook for 1 min and take off heat. When the pasta is cooked to al dente, drain and add a bit of olive oil and the butter. Stir until the butter melts and then add the sauce and mozzarella. Serve with parmesan.

You will go back for seconds.

Salmon Pasta Improvisation

We had a visitor recently from Finland and she brought loads of whole smoked salmon/rainbow trout. Our refrigerator and freezer are bursting at the seams, so I decided to do something about it by improvising with the last bits of veg from the previous Saturday's market run. The result was delicious and so easy a child could do it (though I wouldn't want them wielding the big knife to slice the salmon. A nice, refreshing summer dinner.

Salmon Pasta with Tomatoes, Leek and Parsley
Feeds 4
Time: 30 minutes, max
200-300g smoked salmon or rainbow trout, thinly sliced and loosely broken into bite-sized pieces
3 fresh, chopped tomatoes with most of the juice and seeds squeezed out
A handful of parsley
1 leek, finely sliced
400g pasta
salt, pepper
olive oil

Chop the salmon, tomatoes, leek and parsley. Sauté the leek until cooked through and soft using a non-stick pan. Take off heat when cooked. Cook the pasta to al dente. Drain and put back in pot with olive oil, add all of the ingredients, a pinch of salt and generous amounts of pepper. Toss together until evenly distributed. Eat without cheese.

Eat your veg!

Our first courgettes/zucchini were ready last night and I bought some delicious fresh peas at the outdoor market on the High Road as well. I've had a bit too much meat in the past week and wanted something nice and fresh to make me feel more as if I were enjoying 'summer' as they call it here. This meal left me feeling refreshed and there was plenty left to enjoy again today. It also felt good to know that the peas were from Yorkshire, the zucchini from my garden and the leeks hopefully didn't travel from outside Britain either...

Pasta with zucchini, parsley and garlic
3-4 cloves of garlic chopped finely
1/2 leek, sliced finely
bunch of fresh parsley chopped finely
2 medium sized zucchini, grated
1lb/500 g pasta
salt and pepper
olive oil
parmesan

Sauté the garlic and leek in the olive oil and a non-stick pan. Add the zucchini, salt and pepper to taste. Cook on medium and let some of the water evaporate. I also squeeze out some of the excess water you find in super fresh zucchini beforehand. Cook for about 10 minutes, maybe a bit more (don't overdo it), then add parsley and let it wilt. Add to your al dente pasta with a little extra olive oil and garnish with parmesan or romano cheese.

Fresh peas with leeks
Peas
leeks, sliced finely
olive oil
salt and pepper

Shell the peas and steam until you smell the peas (5 min?). Don't overcook. Sauté the leeks gently in a non-stick pan and when they are soft, add the peas for a couple of minutes, no more. Add a little salt and pepper to your taste.

Tomato and mozzarella salad
tomatoes
mozzarella
olive oil (nice, flavourful)
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

When in Rome

Continuing from a previous post about artichokes, I wanted to share a few more anecdotes from my all too short visit to Rome in mid-April. The last day of our stay, before heading to the airport, my mom and I spent a few hours running around the historic centre of Rome. Our first stop was Campo de' Fiori, which has a posh fruit and veg market in the first half of the day. Come here to buy whatever is in season and locally grown. The produce is gorgeous and so fresh. There is also a cheese and cured meat stall that sells the cheapest parmigiano reggiano I've found - 12.50 Euro/kilo. There is also the guy who sells dozens of different spice mixes! My favorite was seeing two cute elderly nuns picking out some goodies.


Nuns pick out produce in Campo de' Fiori, Rome

For lunch we headed to Da Tonino, Via del Governo Vecchio, 18 (very close to Piazza Navona), my preferred dining spot in Rome when I want something cheap, homestyle, informal and packed with Romans. The food is delicious. It hasn't got a sign on the outside. We had pasta e fagioli (pasta and borlotti beans), a heavy, but thoroughly filling dish. I also indulged in yet another delicious plate of carciofi alla romana. It's a place you can just sit down and [if you know how to speak Italian] just ask them to rattle of the specialties of the day - no menu (though you can ask for one. If you look like a tourist they'll just hand you one automatically). I've seen people come in and do custom orders and the waiters don't bat an eye. The place gets packed by about 2.30 p.m. on a weekday and people share tables and can barely move around. Romans talk and gesticulate loudly and everyone just seems to have a good time.



Da Tonino and carciofi alla romana

They specially trim the artichokes in Rome (see my photo below) with very sharp little knives. I attempted this back in London, but couldn't get the knives sharp enough to do the trimming on the edges. These are rubbed with lemon and soaked in lemon water until you are done trimming them. A mixture of mint, parsley, garlic, olive oil and salt is rubbed into the leaves and then they are cooked in water and olive oil until tender (25-40 minutes). I tried to do this, but the ones I ate in Rome were so much more tender!

Home Alone

This weekend my flatmates abandoned me, but this girl kept herself happy with the leftovers in the fridge. I sit here gobbling down Fusilli with Sausage, Broccoli and Fennel, but this weekend there were peppers and cream... Never be afraid to pamper!

Fusilli with red pepper cream sauce and jamón Serrano (or prosciutto)
Serves 1
Cooking/prep time: 25 minutes

Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 large onion, finely chopped
5-6 pimientos del piquillo (or any small, red, roasted pepper in oil), chopped
3 slices of jamón Serrano or prosciutto, chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
1/2 pint single cream (though I would only use about 5 tbs, depending on how much sauce you like)
Salt & pepper to taste
Parmesan to garnish
100g fusilli

How it's done:
In a non-stick pan, gently fry the onion until translucent. Put the pasta water to boil. Add the jamón/prosciutto to the onions and fry for just a minute. Then add the peppers and stir just to warm and blend flavors (2 min). Add cream and stir to warm and blend, but don't let it boil. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and black pepper. Add pasta to water. After a couple of minutes, blend the pepper-cream mixture in a blender until smooth. When the pasta is al dente, drain and coat with olive oil and the blended sauce. On your plate, cover in a light coat of grated parmesan and a bit more black pepper.

Tip: As a side dish I had steamed purple sprouting broccoli. Counter that cream with veg!

I also made some sort of rustic egg bread with dried cranberries and poppy seeds. Yum.

Purple fronds

We've got a bit of a backlog in terms of meals that need blog attention. I'll get an easy, and delicious one out of the way before it goes out of season!

The Pigs have a bit of a soft spot for broccoli (especially the Canadian Pig who calls them "the little brushes for the colon".)... We eat it all year, even when it's not in season, but it's a veg that can grow at any point of the year, really. We grew some in the garden last summer/autumn and it tasted marvelous. Iron, vitamins A & C, folic acid and fiber - broccoli is king!

Around 1 March I went to our local outdoor market on the High Road. In a corner near the bramley apples there was a crate of virtually ignored purple broccoli. I don't think I'd ever seen them stock it before. I went a bit mad and bought a huge bag of it. The kid who was at the till only works there on the weekends, I think. He's always yelling out the football scores which they receive on a live feed at the back of the stall. Though he has a remarkably large vocabulary, he's the last one you would think would say in reference to the broccoli, "Aw, these are really nice. I just bought my mum a bunch for Mother's Day; she loves them." I adore that guy. He's my hope for humanity. A working-class, English teenager who likes purple broc, bought it for his mom for Mother's Day, and was happy to tell me about it.

Purple (or normal) Broccoli, Sausage and Fennel Pasta
(extracted and adapted from Pig Out 2007, our first book!)

4 cloves garlic, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
4 fresh sausages (pork and leek is good; I think I did lincolnshire)
1/2 cup dry white wine
Purple broccoli, cut down to edible pieces
1/4 cup salt water (from pasta water)
1 Tbs whole fennel seeds
Salt & pepper
Parmesan
1 lb/500 g pasta (pref. orecchiette, penne or fusilli)

Steam the broccoli over the boiling and salted pasta water (or blanch for a couple of minutes. This will turn the pasta water purple, which is really cool.) Cook the broccoli less that you would to eat it plain, slightly underdone. In the meantime, fry the garlic and pieces of sausage in the olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook thoroughly. Add the wine and cook it down a bit. Add the fennel seeds, black pepper and fry for another minute. Then add a bit of salt water from the pasta water to the pan and all of the broccoli. Cook on medium with the top on until the broccoli is ready. If a bit too watery, just cook with the top of for another couple of minutes. While that finishes, cook the pasta. When it's done, mix with the sauce, serve and smother each bowl with grated parmesan.
Serves 4.

I had mine with a glass of prosecco.

I found this on purple broccoli:
Early Purple Sprouting: An English heirloom variety, bred for overwintering, produces lots of purple broccoli sprouts in the spring. Grows slowly through the winter, very frost hardy; a great variety that is very hard to find in this country; delicious! rareseeds.com

So you see that, folks - plant your purple sprouting broccoli in May and you'll have it in the winter (providing you live in a temperate climate like good ol' England).

Mac 'n' cheese and american uselessness

Yesterday at work I encountered racism head-on. A posh Lady donor called into the office asking about an event to which she'd been invited. I think she's probably just difficult by nature, feeling like she's entitled to royal treatment even though it's her husband who earned the title for the two of them. At any rate, the 30-second conversation ended with her calling me a "useless American." This was despite the fact that I dealt with her courteously and efficiently.

Not only has she never met me, she has no idea whether I'm American or not. I'm angry because that kind of class entitlement mindset is just SO not cool. So out of line. So pointless. So backward. {Honey, I hate to tell you this, but despite the fact the royalty is still around, the Empire is over.} For the record, she was also rude to my British colleague.

My reaction at home, following work, was to cook up a posh little macaroni and cheese number to spite her. I can be American AND cultured. I cleaned out all of the random bits of cheese left in the fridge from trips abroad: smoked scamorza, some sort of Roman goat cheese, cheddar, parmigiano reggiano, some hard Spanish cheese.

Five cheese revenge mac 'n' cheese

350g of various grated cheeses
40g all-purpose flour or type 00 flour
40g butter
600ml milk
3 finely chopped spring onions/scallions/shallots
pepper
300g pasta

Make a bechamel sauce by slowly melting the butter in a non-stick pot. Keep heat low and add flour little by little until it has formed a roux. Then slowly stir/whisk in the milk until smooth. When it's all nice and smooth and warm, add most of the cheese (save a tiny bit to garnish the pasta). Grind a bit of pepper to taste. When it's all smooth, take off the heat. Cook pasta to al dente. In the meantime, gently fry the scallions/shallots. Drain pasta and stir in the cheese sauce and scallions. Put the mixture into an oven-safe dish (preferably Pyrex). Sprinkle with extra cheese and grill until it's light brown and crispy. Devour (with some veggies) and think of sweet revenge.

A silly radio clip from NPR on mac 'n' cheese: A Brief History of Mac and Cheese

PS My boss says this is very similar to a restoring, traditional Bavarian dish. So maybe it's not so American after all!

A Carew Piggie Favorite: Fishy pasta

We piglets have some clear favorites when it comes to quick, easy, and absolutely delicious dinners. This pasta shouldn't take you more than a half hour to make from start to finish. We tend to have a freezer chock full of frozen seafood and just take out a selection an hour or two ahead to defrost, but you can also run them under cool water for 20 minutes. This is a variation of one of my favorite dishes of all time - spaghetti alle vongole - but with not just vongole (Italian for clams). In Sicily I noticed that they often make this with several different types of seafood and as a garnish sprinkle pistachio powder on top. We just finished our little bag of it which cost €4, but it was heavenly and deep green because it grows on the slopes of Etna.
Spaghetti al fishy
Serves 4.
Selection of seafood of choice: clams (in brine or raw in shells), shrimp (raw), calamari (raw), mussels (raw in shells)
1/2 cup clam juice if you don't use clams in brine
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil
approx. half cup white wine
parsley, finely chopped (as much as you like, but don't overdo it)
two tomatoes, or so, chopped pretty small (you could also not use tomato at all, your choice. If you go this route, just make sure you have a bit more juice and wine to have a sauce to cover the pasta.)
pepper
pistachio powder to garnish (you could just mash up some whole pistachios)
1 lb spaghetti

How it's done:
Fry the garlic in the olive oil a tiny bit (don't let it brown!) and then add the clam juice and the wine and reduce by half. (I really wouldn't follow this scientifically because we only work from recipes when we bake!) Add the tomatoes and cook on medium for a few minutes, stirring frequently to turn it into a nice sauce. Don't overcook - it ruins the flavor. Add the seafood in the order of time each needs to cook and again, don't overcook, especially the shrimp because they dry out. If the clams are in brine, they are already cooked and can go last just to warm them up. Finally add parsley and pepper. You probably won't need salt if you used clam juice/brine. Cook the pasta to al dente and mix it all together when done. And remember: DON'T PUT CHEESE ON IT. IT'S FISH. (I think only tuna or possibly salmon can go with a dairy product.)

Thank you. Si mangia!