Spaghetti omelette with rocket leaves and parmesan shavings

Serves 6

• 500g spaghetti
• 1 garlic clove
• 250g tomato sauce
• 2 eggs
• 40g Parmesan cheese, grated
• 60g Parmesan cheese, shavings
• a bunch of fresh rocket leaves
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper

Spaghetti omelette - Photo by David Caruana

Boil the spaghetti for half of the minutes indicated on the packet instructions. In the meantime, pour some olive oil into a saucepan, add the garlic clove and remove when browned. Add the tomato sauce, season with salt & pepper and leave to simmer on low heat for around 20 minutes.

When the pasta is ready drain, rinse with cold water and leave in colander. Beat the eggs with the grated Parmesan, season with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, toss the spaghetti with the tomato sauce, add the egg mixture and mix well. Take a non-stick frying pan, pour 3 tblsp olive oil and pour in the pasta leveling it with a wooden spoon. If the mixture is too large you can fry it in two separate batches.

Cook the omelette on medium heat until its golden. Then flip on the other side adding some more olive oil in the frying pan to avoid sticking. When it’s ready serve with the rocket leaves and Parmesan shavings on top.

Well, this recipe has no meat and since we need to eat more vegetables for whatever moral, health or environmental reasons I suggest that you try this out. And if you are a read-the-recipe-but-do-not-follow-it type, please feel free to change vegetables to what’s in season like artichoke hearts, spinach, pumpkin or courgettes.

The no-meat meal

Vegetable bake - Photo by David Caruana

Serves 6

• 300g aubergine
• 250g yellow or red pepper
• 300g ricotta
• 2 eggs
• 2 tblsp breadcrumbs
• 40g grated pecorino cheese
• milk
• 8 basil leaves
• 4 mint leaves
• a bunch of parsley
• 1 garlic clove
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper

Clean and cut the aubergine and pepper into small cubes. Heat some olive oil in a saucepan, add the garlic clove and when it starts to brown remove it from the pan.

Add the chopped vegetables and leave to saute for 10 minutes on low heat. Season with salt & pepper. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with the pecorino cheese, ricotta, breadcrumbs and chopped herbs; add the cooked vegetables. If the mixture is too dry add some milk. Season with salt.

Line an oven proof dish of 22cm diameter with baking paper. Transfer the mixture into dish; smooth the surface and drizzle with olive oil. Cook in a preheated oven of 180 degrees Celsius for around 40 minutes.

You can serve this dish cold or warm with crusty bread.

So to satisfy his enthusiasm I had bought him the book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: The River Cottage Meat Book. It’s a must read for all meat lovers and a source of information for anyone who wants to know if the butcher you are buying from is a good one, and it can help you recognize good meat and identify the best methods to cook different types and cuts of meat. Here are some tips I have seized from the section about beef.

Beef fillet or Undercut

If you are ever wondering why the beef fillet is an expensive cut well it’s because in a whole, average sized beef carcass there is only 2 to 2.5kg of fillet. Moreover, its tenderness is coming from the fact that it is the muscle which is exercised least. What you might also need to know is that the fillet is the less flavorsome from all other cuts therefore for your taste-buds’ sake do not overcook fillet. I suggest you buy fresh beef fillet and serve it rare or medium that should make a tastier dish.

Recipe: Beef fillet al cartoccio

Beef fillet al cartoccio - Photo by David Caruana

Serves 4

• 4 beef fillet medallions (3cm thick)
• 4 potatoes
• a large bunch of fresh thyme & chives
• 1 garlic clove
• 50g butter
• 4 tblsp white wine
• chopped chilli pepper
• extra virgin olive oil
• 100g green olives
• salt & pepper

Peel, wash and pat dry the potatoes, then cut them into wedges. Place the potato wedges in a frying pan with some olive oil, season with salt and cook them on a moderately high heat for around 10 minutes, until they become golden. Remove the wedges from the pan and keep them aside. In the same frying pan, put the butter and when this melts add the beef medallions. Fry for a couple of minutes from each side on a high flame to seal the meat.

Take the herbs, wash and pat them dry, finely chop herbs together with the garlic clove. Distribute the mixture on each side of the beef fillets covering them well. Transfer the medallions individually in a sheet of foil, add the potatoes, olives, some chilli pepper, and a tablespoon of white wine to each of the parcels. Season with salt & pepper, seal parcels and place in the oven, preheated to 200C, for around 15 minutes.

Serve with a glass of Chianti Classico.

Ingredients for 4 persons:

• 1 whole chicken breast
• 24 pancetta slices
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 red apple unpeeled, cut into cubes
• 20 roasted chestnuts, peeled
• ½ glass white wine
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Fresh thyme sprigs
• Salt & pepper

1. Cut the chicken breast horizontally into 4 pieces. Season with salt and pepper and wrap each piece in the pancetta slices.
2. In a frying pan, pour a little olive oil and fry the chicken breast from both sides until cooked through. Remove from pan and keep warm.
3. In the same frying pan, cook the chopped onion in a tablespoon of olive oil for 5 minutes adding some water. Add the chestnuts and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Pour the wine and allow it to evaporate. Add the apple cubes, season with salt and keep cooking for a further 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring continuously.
4. Finish off with the freshly grinded pepper and thyme leaves. Serve warm with the chicken breasts wrapped in pancetta.

Ingredients:

• 500g dried chestnuts
• Rind of 1 orange, in strips
• Rind of 2 tangerines, in strips
• 3 tblsp cocoa powder
• 100g dark chocolate (60% minimum cocoa)
• 5tblsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground mixed spice

Leave the chestnuts to soak in cold water for 2 hours. Wash well and place in a saucepan covering them with cold water. Boil until slightly tender.

Add all the remaining ingredients, stir gently to dissolve the chocolate and cook on low heat until the chestnuts are soft. Serve warm.

Ingredients for 4 persons:

• 400g Vialone Nano (Riseria Ferron) rice*
• 800ml vegetable stock (I make my own with 2 carrots, 1 celery, 1 onion and 2 litres of water – simmer for 30 minutes)
• 2 small onions, finely chopped
• 1 celery stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 150g Maltese sausage
• 150g pumpkin, cut into small cubes
• 100g chestnuts, roasted and peeled
• 30g grated parmesan cheese
• 30g butter
• Extra virgin olive oil

*Ferron rice is a product imported from Verona exclusively by Eatmania

1. Finely chop one onion and celery stick. Pour some extra virgin olive oil into a casserole and cook the onion and celery for 5 minutes together with the bay leaf. Add the pumpkin cubes, crumbled sausage meat and the chestnuts and cook for a further 10 minutes.
2. In a large deep pan, pour 2 tablespoons olive oil and cook the other finely chopped onion until soft. Add the rice until heated through and pour all the boiling stock at one go. Lower heat and simmer rice for 10 minutes or as indicated on the packet instructions. Add the chestnut and sausage mixture to the risotto. Mix well.
3. Remove from heat, add butter and parmesan and stir. Cover pan with lid and leave to rest for 2 minutes. Serve immediately.

There are few people around me who understand the passion I have for food, or as my husband says, the obsession with food.

I have recently read the book ‘Creating a meal you’ll love’ which groups a collection of memorable dining experiences of various food writers and chefs. This book inspired my post of today.

Some cook purely to satisfy hunger, so maybe any kind of food will do for them. Others cook since it is their duty to do so and end up repeating boring dishes from week to week. I cook and have fun. I get excited when I see appetizing recipes. My shopping therapy is for food items rather than clothes. My heart throbs when I need to prepare a special meal for a particular occasion or person. I get euphoric when I sense good food in a restaurant. I am in love with food as much as I am in love with my husband, family and friends. That’s why when I cook for these precious beings I want to prepare delectable food. Because through food I feel I can express my love, appreciation and respect!

It was Lauren’s turn to sit down at the glass dining table of my new home. My friendship with Lauren is hard to describe. We do not meet frequently, we do not communicate regularly, we do not update each other with our lives all the time. We just exchange emails occasionally and meet for a lengthy dinner 4 or 5 times a year. And then we say it all in between courses and flowing glasses of wine.

As soon as I found the right time for some ladies quality talk, that is when the husband is away, I invited Lauren over. I thought of the menu some weeks before, bought the necessary ingredients and transformed them into:

• Toasted baguette slices with grilled aubergines dressed with pinzimonio (extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, crushed sea-salt and spices)
• A selection of cheeses from Chianti
• Spinach and ricotta gnocchi served with sage butter
• Turkey drumsticks with chicken liver pate
• Chocolate & prune tarts

The pace of the dinner was a languid one, we paused between one bite and the next, we chatted about our lives, our interests, our worries.  Yeah we gossiped as well! We sipped on a decanted Saint-Emilion Grand Cru of 2004 which Lauren proudly brought for the occasion. I have very limited awareness of French wines but we were both impressed with the ameliorated tastes of the wine as it sat undisturbed in the decanter.

We only looked at our watches when we heard my husband’s key unlocking the door. As we concluded our pleasant evening with a caffè and a home-made limoncello I could sense that our dinner was, not only a flavorsome experience, but a comforting moment which can only be conceived when two honest friends open their hearts and minds to each other.

Recipe: Gnocchi ricotta and spinach

Serves 4:

• 500g fresh spinach
• 500g ricotta
• 80g flour
• 80g grated parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• nutmeg
• sage leaves
• 40g butter
• salt

Clean well the fresh spinach leaves and cook them in a casserole with a pinch of salt for 3 minutes. No need to add water since spinach looses a lot of moisture when cooked. Put the spinach under running water to cool, drain well and finely chop.

In a bowl, mix together the ricotta, spinach and 50g parmesan, the eggs, a pinch of nutmeg and salt, and 50g flour. Work the mixture with your hands to obtain a soft homogeneous dough. Form gnocchi the size of a walnut.

Roll the gnocchi in the remaining flour and throw them in salted boiling water. In the meantime, soften the butter in a pan add the sage and cook until the butter turns golden.

As soon as the gnocchi start to come to the surface pick them up with a slotted spoon and serve them with the sage butter and the rest of the grated parmesan cheese.

TIP: You can also serve these gnocchi with a plain tomato & garlic sauce.

If you can do some simple mathematical calculations you will realise that after a 5 day working week I generally end up with 10 bananas, 10 apples and 5 oranges. Oh you need to deduct 5 bananas, since I have one daily. So my weekly ration of fruit to take home is 5 bananas, 10 apples and 5 oranges. And what do I do with all this fruit surplus?

Here’s my first recipe where I use a couple of apples.

Moist apple and date cake

Ingredients:

• 450g apples, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
• 150g dates, chopped
• 225g self-raising flour
• 150g dark soft brown sugar
• 110g butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 100ml whole milk
• 2 tblsp honey
• 2 tsp ground cinammon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 2 tsp baking powder
• icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180? Celsius. Butter a 22cm round cake tin and line with baking paper.

Beat together the butter and sugar until it turns to a creamy and fluffy consistency. Add the eggs, a little at a time, and keep beating on medium speed.

Add the flour, cinnamon, cloves, milk, honey and baking powder. Mix well with a spatula. Fold in the chopped apples and dates making sure the mixture is well blended.

Pour in the baking tin and cook in the preheated oven for 50 minutes. Check if cake is ready by inserting a skewer in the centre. If skewer comes out clean then cake is ready. Leave to cool. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Serves 4 persons

Ingredients:

• 4 large firm, but ripe peaches
• 100g savoiardi biscuits
• 80g softened butter
• 80g sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 60g pine nuts
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Slightly butter a baking dish. Wash the peaches and cut them in half, remove the stone and place on the baking dish.  Mix together the crushed savoiardi, soft butter, sugar, egg yolk, pine nuts and cinnamon. Cover the peach halves with the mixture and cook in a pre-heated 200°C oven for about 35 minutes.

Serves 6 persons

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 500g durum wheat flour
• 350ml lukewarm water
• 1 sachet instant yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil

For the topping:

• A small bunch of white grapes
• A small bunch of red grapes
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tbsp sugar

Mix together the flour, water, yeast, sugar and salt in a food processor until the dough starts to form. Continue to work the dough with your hands until it becomes soft and uniform. Put the dough in a large bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rest for 1 hour until it doubles in size. Add the cinnamon, sugar and olive oil to the dough and work it out again. Leave to rest, in bowl, for another 15 minutes covered with a clean cloth. Roll out the dough in a slightly oiled rectangular baking tray (26x37cm) and leave to rest for another 30 minutes. Preheat oven on 180°C, remove grapes from bunch, wash them, and spread them on the dough pressing them slightly downwards. Brush the dough with olive oil. Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and cloves and sprinkle over the focaccia. Cook in the oven for 35 minutes, then lower temperature to 160°C and cook for another 15 minutes. Serve warm or cold.