Tag: Italian Cuisine

Courgette Spirelli
Have you ever noticed, how despite endless varieties, we seem to always gravitate towards the same kind of vegetables. It is different with fruits as they change with every season. It is different with fish and meat, as they are linked to specific recipes of types of meals. Whatever I do, I seem always to choose carrots, leeks, paprika, aubergine and courgette as part of our weekly shopping. Let’s be honest. They really do make fabulous meals!

Like this amazing fresh and filling courgette spirelli. The recipe comes from one of my favourite cook books by Tom Kerridge called “Lose Weight for Good”. I am not sure about losing weight, but the recipes inside are really good. The Courgette Spirelli is a classic take on the Italian pasta-and-pesto combo. However, 10 times lighter and 10 times fresher! Something wonderful happens with all ingredients mixed as one. The meal feels vibrant, delicious and simply just right.

I mentioned classic Italian, yes… and no. There is a freshness of lemon zest in the courgette. The seasoning includes the spices of nutmeg. The pesto is made with basil and spinach. It takes a real chef to know how to play with flavour and Tom Kerridge is simply the best. Just try and see!
Ingredients

180g half-dry cherry tomatoes

500g courgettes, spiralized

150g baby spinach

30g basil leaves

1 clove garlic, finely grated

1tbsp virgin olive oil

Zest 1 lemon, finely grated

2tbsp fresh vegetable stock or water

½tsp freshly grated nutmeg

10g pine nuts

Small handful basil leaves, shredded

2tsp Parmesan, grated

125g Ricotta
Method

1. To make the pesto put the basil leaves, spinach, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and parmesan into a jug blender or food processor, add some seasoning and blitz until smooth.
3. Toast the pine nuts for the garnish in a small, dry pan for 30 secs, then tip onto a plate and set aside.
4. Put the spiralized courgettes and the lemon peel into a bowl and season. Mix well with your hands, then leave to stand and wilt for 20 mins. Drain in a colander, patting the courgetti firmly with kitchen paper to remove all the excess water and seasoning.
5. Tip the spiralized courgettes into a large pan, season with the nut meg, salt and black pepper and add the pesto. Stir well to coat with the sauce and cook over a medium heat for 2 mins.
6. Divide the courgetti between 2 warmed serving bowls and sprinkle with the shredded basil leaves, Parmesan, pine nuts, half-dry tomatoes and a table spoon of Ricotta cheese.

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March 28, 2020
Red Pesto Rigatoni
There is hardly a week passing by without cooking pasta at home. Such a quick and easy meal. Just a few ingredients and a few minutes prep and cooking time and a steaming, fragrant magic is ready to serve. I admit, cooking a pasta is within everyone’s ability. But how to cook pasta like a real Italian is a slightly different matter. There are plenty of ready made pasta sauces on offer, but once you know how to make your own deliciousness, you will never ever spare the time to make your own proud creation.

Today, I am making a simple rigatoni with sun-dried tomato pesto sauce. Rich, luscious, robust pesto packed with sweet, tart sun-dried tomatoes and studded with aromatic fresh basil, sweet roasted red bell peppers, buttery pine nuts and salty parmesan. Insanely quick and easy to make, this homemade tomato pesto is the perfect versatile condiment to have on hand in your kitchen! Use it to jazz up pastas, soups and pizza, or spread it on sandwiches and toast! No matter how you use this pesto, I promise you will never go back to store-bought pesto ever again!

Once my rigatoni are ready I mix them with the red pesto sauce. The smell is amazing. But my pasta is not quite finished yet. To serve, I select a deep plate and next to the pasta add a mozzarella burrata, half-dry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts and fresh oregano and basil leaves. Only when the ball of burrata is pierced and its juices run into the pesto sauce I am ready to have a bite. A real, rich and gratifying perfection, enhanced by the sweet-sharp taste of the half-dry tomatoes and the nutty flavour of the pine nuts. I can only sit, close my eyes and enjoy every single bitе.
Ingredients

For the Red Pesto

1 Jar Sun-Dried Tomatoes packed in oil – tomatoes removed from oil & oil reserved

2 Garlic Cloves – peeled

1/3 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

¼ cup Roasted Red Peppers from jar

¼ cup Fresh Basil Leaves

¼ cup Pine Nuts

¼ heaping tsp Kosher Salt

1/8 tsp Ground Black Pepper

Pinch Red Pepper Flakes

1/3 cup Good Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil

For Serving

Mozzarella Burrata

A handful of roasted pine nuts

Half-dry tomatoes

Fresh oregano and basil leaves
Method

1. Set a deep pot filled with water over a medium heat. Once the water starts boiling add the pasta, a pinch of salt and drizzle of olive oil and mix well. Leave the pasta to boil until ready.
2. In the meantime, prepare the red pesto. Add the raw nuts to a small skillet. Place skillet over medium-low heat and toast, stirring frequently, until fragrant and slightly golden around the edges, about 3-4 minutes. Remove pan from heat and transfer the toasted nuts to the bowl of a food processor.
3. To the bowl of the food processor, add the tomatoes (not the oil), garlic, cheese, red peppers, basil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Pulse until finely chopped and uniform in size, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add ¼ cup of oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes. Pulse until ingredients are minced. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the processor running, stream in enough olive oil until the mixture has a slightly smooth, but still chunky, pesto-like consistency. Taste and adjust pesto for seasoning with salt and pepper.
4. One the pasta is ready, rinse the excess water and bring the pasta back to the same pot. Add the red pesto and mix well.
5. Serve generous portions of pasta and red pesto sauce, add a few half-dry tomatoes, mozzarella burrata, toasted pine nuts and fresh oregano and basil leaves.

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November 27, 2019
Green Veggie Risotto
Summer garden vegetables are great cooked in many ways and picking up a favourite is basically unfair. Today’s choice however is hardly a surprise – a green garden vegetable risotto. I say hardly a surprise simply because we have often rice on our weekly menu. One day meat, one day rice, one day fish, one day soup, one day salad and one day pasta or potato meal. We are not strict, but we love for our meals to vary.

Today’s delight is a green risotto served with extra grated parmesan and rocket salad. The risotto feels so velvety and light. Sweet green peas, crunchy green asparagus and succulent grilled courgette. I am not mixing all veggies from the start with the risotto but adding them only at the end so they retain their taste and flavour. Adding them at the start will make a tasty mash, if you are up to it, you may always try. But my preference is different. Adding the green peas and the asparagus ten minutes before the rice is ready so they soften and give the risotto a character and taste. As for the courgette, grilling them a little and adding them to the risotto only at the end. A generous portion of grated parmesan and fresh rocket salad to serve and dinner is ready. Taking a spoonful and watching the sunset in the garden, a summer evening at its best!
Ingredients

250ml vegetable stock

1l water (gradually added)

2 dry vegetable bouillon Knorr

4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

400g rice

250 ml dry white wine

1 courgette, cut into small cubes

2 handfuls of small green asparagus, chopped

250g frozen peas

40 g parmesan, grated

fresh parsley

green rocket salad

salt

black pepper
Method

1. Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the cubed courgette and bake until lightly brown. Take out of pan and place in a separate dish for a few minutes.
2. Add the onion in the remaining oil and sweat on a medium heat until softened. Stir in the rice with a wooden spoon and coat each grain with the oil.
3. Add the wine and allow to evaporate, stirring all the time. Add a couple of ladles of hot stock and, stirring continuously, cook until the stock is absorbed.
4. Add more water and repeat. Continue adding water, cooking and stirring in this way for about 15 minutes, until the rice starts to get cooked. Stir in dry vegetable bouillon together with the asparagus and peas. Cook for additional 10 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked. It should be soft on the outside but al dente on the inside. Add the courgette and grated parmesan. Season with salt and ground black pepper.
5. Sprinkle over fresh parsley and serve with additional parmesan and green rocket salad.

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September 10, 2019
Orzo Cold Pasta
Orzo is a rice-shaped pasta that you can cook and serve in much the same way you do rice. That is, you can boil it until the liquid is absorbed, cook it risotto-style. And, because it is pasta, you can also cook it via the traditional pasta method where you drain away the excess cooking liquid after it is done. Like other kinds of pasta (and rice), you can serve it hot or cold, as a side dish, and as a component in casseroles, soups, and salads. Orzo usually comes in a basic pale yellow color, but it is also available in a tricolor variety that is commonly used in rotini and other pasta types. Orzo is not a type of grain. It is a form of pasta, which means it is made from wheat. So if you follow a gluten-free diet, then orzo is not for you.

Orzo is a wonderful ingredient to use in salads, and it functions equally well as rice or pasta would. Just be sure to rinse it, drain well, toss it in olive oil to keep it from clumping, and chill thoroughly before adding it to your salad. We love to make a simple Orzo Cold Pasta with speck, red paprika and mayonnaise. It serves as such delicious office or a picnic meal that my husband even loves to make it in advance and pack together with his suitcase as a travel meal.

With the summer heat upon us, nothing cools the day like this easy and delicious, family friendly dish.
Ingredients

200g Orzo Pasta

Water

1 tsp olive oil

1 red paprika

120g speck

2tsp mayonnaise

micro greens

salt

black pepper
Method

1. Cooking the Orzo using the Risotto method: Risotto is made by sautéing uncooked rice (specifically, a starchy, short-grain type of rice like arborio), in oil, along with some onions and other aromatics, and then cooking it by adding a hot stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring continuously until each ladleful of liquid is completely absorbed before adding the next. Which is exactly how you would prepare orzo using the risotto method. The risotto method coaxes out the starches in the orzo, making it creamy and velvety. In some cooking circles, the result of this cooking method is called “orzotto”.
2. Once the orzo is cooked, let it cool completely.
3. Cut the red paprika into small pieces.
4. Bake the speck in a hot pan until golden brown.
5. Mix the mayonnaise, paprika, speck together with the orzo. Season additionally with salt and ground black pepper.
6. Serve as cold pasta with micro greens.

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August 13, 2019
Roasted Tomato Panzanella
Loving the Italian cuisine is like loving a perfect summer holiday – funny, sunny and ever green. Surely we all have our favourite round the corner pizza or pasta place, but as good as it most certainly is nothing compares to the real foods and drinks in Italy. I have been fortunate enough to spend years in Milan on business trips and to my delight, have had countless of occasions to talk, taste and be merry around simple but out of this world delicious foods. Something happens to the heart with such perfection. Food tasted only once, remains to haunt our imagination and unbidden questions fill our mind: “How can I make this? What might be the ingredients of this dish? Where can I find the recipe?”. To such extend, that unintentionally new Italian recipes start to appear in our family kitchen repertoár, as natural and easy as smiling or breathing.

This Roasted Tomato Panzanella Salad is one of my summer favourite. It is a simple salad – toasted multi-grain bread, soaked in all the amazing juices of tomatoes and runny mozzarella Burrata. Something wonderful happens in this salad by mixing three different tomato types – fresh tomatoes, roasted tomatoes and half-dry tomatoes. Like a simple melody suddenly played by three instrument orchestra, singularly beautiful yet intertwined in one. A drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a pinch of freshly ground black pepper and fragrant basil leaves – is all it needs to combine all salad flavours. My lovely, perfect summer meal… Anytime. Every time!
Ingredients

4 cups grape tomatoes

4 cups cubed multigrain bread

6 tablespoons olive oil

half-dry tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 fresh mozzarella Burrata

15-20 fresh basil leaves
Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. On one baking sheet, lay 2/3 of the tomatoes down and drizzle with 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. On a separate baking sheet, place the cubed bread and toss it with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Place both sheets in the oven. Roast the tomatoes for a full 20 minutes, tossing once during cooking. Toast the bread for 10-12 minutes, until golden, tossing 2-3 times during cooking.
2. Place mozzarella on a paper towel to remove a bit of the moisture and water.
3. Chop any larger basil leaves, leaving the smaller ones intact if desired.
4. Chop the remaining tomatoes in quarters.
3. In a large bowl, add bread, roasted, fresh and half-dry tomatoes, basil, remaining salt and pepper. Gently toss with two large spoons, trying to keep the tomatoes intact for pretty visual purposes. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the salad, and then add on a liberal drizzle of balsamic glaze (optionally if desired). Serve immediately.

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May 21, 2019
Million Dollar Spaghetti
It is the depth of winter and the days are shaded, casting colours of dark. White, blue and grey during the day and star gazed purple and sapphire blue during the night. The chill is gripping and while there is joy in taking a deep air-crisp fresh breath and listening to a solitary bird song singing the spring to come during the early morning hours we still hurry to get in doors, set the fire roaring and steep a honey sweetened cup of tea, rather then venturing for long hours in the outside.

Deep winter days, call for deep flavour winter dishes. The kind that warm the heart inside out, the kind that cast mouth watering aromas like a blanket, the kind that build the inner walls of our resilience with richness and sustenance.

This Million Dollar Spaghetti recipe is just the kind. Cheesy Carbonara like spaghetti base, layered with Bolognese sauce and topped with melting mozzarella cheese to perfection. A dish that will set your senses reeling, sampling spoonful after spoonful, endless times.

{The original recipe is from the Half Baked Harvest food blog by Tieghan Gerard.}

Ingredients
- 1 package of spaghetti
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup whole milk cottage cheese
- 1 package cream cheese, softened
- 500g minced meat
- 3 cups tomato sauce, homemade or store-bought (in this recipe – 1 Bertolli jar)
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup gratin cheese
- olive oil
- black pepper
- salt
Method

1. Start by boiling water in a deep pot. Once the water is slightly simmering add the spaghetti broken into pieces. Add a few drops of basil flavoured olive oil and some salt. Leave the spaghetti to boil until soft.

2. In the meantime, prepare the sauce Bolognese: heat a table spoon of olive oil in a deep pot over a medium heat. Add the minced meat and let it baked until the meat has changed its colour from pink to dark brown. Season with salt and black pepper. Add the tomato sauce and let it simmer for additional 5 minutes until all flavours are well infused.

3. Once the spaghetti have boiled, drain the water and poor the spaghetti in a deep oven pan on a low heat. Add three table spoons of butter and mix well. In the meantime whisk together the four eggs and mix well with the grated Parmesan cheese and the chopped parsley. Add the egg mixture to the spaghetti and mix well. Add the cottage cheese and the cream cheese and mix until well combined. Let the spaghetti simmer for a few minutes until the sauce ha thickened a bit. Season with black pepper and salt if needed.

4. Level the spaghetti mixture and poor over the sauce Bolognese spreading it evenly. Arrange on top with gratin cheese and pieces thinly cut mozzarella. Set the dish in a preheated oven to 225C and let the cheese melt, forming a light brown colour (approximately 20-30 minutes). Take out of the oven and spread freshly cut parsley on top before serving.

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January 30, 2017