The Pasta's Always Greener...

Pasta con Piselli, Patate, Salvia & Ricotta Salata

Pasta with Peas, Potatoes, Sage & Salted Ricotta

Another simple dish- so typically Sicilian and probably enjoyed all over Italy- and one that has been a favorite ever since the great depression- which is when dishes like this were first invented.

And do you want to know the best part about it? If you are ever feeling low- this is the kind of dish to cheer you up with its simple goodness... it is a great, edible anti-depressant!

Back in the old days, after the war, when people like my grandparents were poor and hungry, people had to learn to make the few simple things they could afford go as far as possible. A can of peas was always inexpensive and close at hand, an onion added a bit of sweetness and a potato to make things more substantial... that what people used to add to their pasta to try to make a satisfying peal for themselves. And by golly- it also tasted pretty fantastic!

I added a few extras to my pasta dish this evening and I also used fresh peas instead of canned... but it still cost next to nothing to make! I needed a couple of handfuls of peas, 1 small onion, 1 small potato, a little fresh sage, olive oil, pepper, salt, nutmeg and a little salted ricotta.

And as you can see- a little bit of each thing, goes a long way when you add them all together! And doesn't that look terrific?

Begin by frying the finely diced potato and onion with 5-6 finely sliced sage leaves until they become golden brown, in just 1 tablespoon or so of olive oil.

Stir-fry whilst you boil the spaghetti and the peas together for 5-6 minutes and by that time, you should have nice golden potatoes, juicy, firm peas and pasta that is "al dente".

Add the spaghetti and peas into the frying pan along with plenty of the water that they cooked in.

Keep stirring until all of the excess water has been cooked-in or evaporated away, grate generously with nutmeg and a grind of pepper.

Add a last trickle of olive oil before serving, a generous amount of salted ricotta... and prepare to enjoy!

Stir it together and enjoy that salty and sweet and intense flavor- its such a great combination!

Dude- Where's My Spoon?!?!

Crema di Ricotta, Rosmarino, Lampone, Miele, Pistacchi di Bronte

Ricotta Cream with Rosemary, Raspberries, Honey and Pistachios from Bronte

No time to make dessert? Not really "good" at making those sweet dishes? Ha! You are beginning to sound like me!

So- the thing to do, if you are in the mood for a sweet treat, or need to whip something up for guests to end a nice meal, without stressing- is to just choose a couple of nice ingredients and let them do all of the hard work for you...

I am Sicilian, so it is no surprise that I love ricotta cheese- and even a lower fat one, like this, with a little fresh fruit and honey, already is guaranteed to taste delicious.

But you KNOW we can do better than that!

2 tablespoons of ricotta, 1 handful of raspberries, 1 tablespoon each of honey and chopped pistachios... and a sprig of rosemary!

Those were my ingredients- and this is what I made from them!

Sure, you can add thickening agents and gelatin, you can add cream and you can add loads of sugar- but can also choose to have less stress and just as much flavor, chill out, relax and make something simple like this.

Simply combine your raspberries, ricotta and the very finely chopped rosemary in a bowl and grab yourself a fork... you could use a machine- but I preferred not to this evening...

Simply mash down the raspberries into a pul and stir everything briskly together- use a whisk if you prefer- but leave yourselves a few little chunks of raspberry in there! Let this just be rough and ready and good to go as it is!

You can choose to add a little sugar at this point if you prefer, but I like to leave the fruit to be tangy, the ricotta to be neutral and creamy, the rosemary to bring the perfume and the honey to add the sweetness later on as a contrast.

Stir briskly until everything is well blended and then serve by spooning the ricotta cream into a serving ring or a large cookie cutter and then lifting that away. 

Sprinkle with coarsely chopped pistachios... and then make a grab for that honey!

Of course it's simple! But it looks great and tastes great- so whoever would you want to start acting pretentious and making things into a chore! 

And with a couple of berries and a nice drizzle of honey... wow! Just wow!

Dude- where's my spoon?!?!

Something Souperior!

Minestra Vegetale con Cavolo Nero, Zucca, Porro & Pomodorini

Vegetable Soup with Tuscan Kale, Butternut Squash, Leek & Cherry Tomato

A nice bowl of vegetable soup- needn't be hard work or time-consuming and is always better fresh than from a can... for all of the obvious reasons!

Grab whatever is in your fridge, add a little stock if it makes you happier- but just simply DO IT and you will always be glad you made that little bit of effort! After all- you DO deserve it!

This is a light "minestra"- not quite a "minestrone" as it doesn't have all the other goodies like pasta or potatoes or beans and what have you, but still varied and colorful and full of great flavors!

These are the kinds of dishes I like best- that are improvised and adapted to use whatever you may have in your fridge... real-life, sensible cooking!

See how few ingredients I needed to make 3 good bowls of soup?? What do we have here then... 3 cherry tomatoes, 1/3rd of a leek, 1 small onion, about 3" slice of celeriac root, 5-6 leaves of Tuscan kale, a chunk of butternut squash that was about the size of an orange... and what else did I need? Salt, pepper, olive oil and a little vegetable stock. And 45 minutes of time.

Some soups taste great only after they have boiled away for ages- and usually they taste even better still if you warm them up the day after... but some, taste great because you DON'T cook the vegetables in them slowly to death- you make it swift and painless and delicious and fresh tasting instead!

I started off this soup by frying the finely diced celeriac, butternut squash and onion, together with the finely chopped parsley stalks, for 2-3 minutes in olive oil, until they began to brown slightly.

I then covered the vegetables to about twice their height with boiling water and a little stock, brought that back up to the boil and then reduced it to a gentle simmer and continued cooking for the next 10 minutes.

I then added the relatively finely chopped kale and a pinch of salt and let that cook down into the broth for 10 minutes too.

Last, but not least, I added the leek, which I split down the middle in order to rinse it properly and then cut into thin slices. I cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters and added them along with plenty of freshly grated nutmeg and let the soup continue bubbling away for another 10-15 minutes.

Try to add your ingredients, whichever you decide to use, in order, starting with the firmest or those requiring the longest cooking time, so that nothing becomes really overcooked at all. It make a nice change from a soup from a packet or a can! This is just SO MUCH better!

Serve with a sprinkle of freshly chopped parsley and a drizzle of olive oil and see your Winter blues fade away... in wonderful technicolor!

No Confusion- Fusion!

Zucca Butternut al Miso, Erbe Aromatiche & Miele su Riso Rosso

Miso Butternut Squash with Aromatic Herbs & Honey Glaze on Red Rice

I hadn't had butternut squash in a while, so when I saw this little, handy, 1-person-sized cutie-pie at the market hall on Saturday, I decided it just had to come home with me!

But, small as it was, it was still way more than 1 person could eat in one go... so this evening I decided to cut myself 3 nice slices from it and to do something really nice with them!

By using miso paste, honey and lots of herbs, I managed to transform the otherwise sweet and tasty but ultimately rather bland butternut and to give it a whole, wonderful dose of "umami" goodness! 

I served it on a bed of they, red rice that was flavored with hoisin sauce- and lo and behold- I had a quick, tasty, health, un-Asia dish using a couple of Asian ingredients, with European herbs and olive oil... Am I in a state of confusion? Or do they call that kind of cooking, "fusion"?

So, I needed just 3, 1 1/2" slices of this small squash, 1 teacupful of red rice, 1 tablespoon of miso paste, 1 tablespoon of honey, plenty of sage, parsley and thyme, salt, pepper, hoisin sauce and olive oil... what a mix-up of flavors! But they all work so wonderfully together!

I think that this picture can paint a thousand words... right? because come on... does that look good? Or does that look good? wink emoticon

Next, cut your squash into slices, about the thickness of your finger and score them in a criss-cross pattern from each side... mind not to go TOO deep now! But at the same time, cut deep enough to allow the flavors to soak in during cooking.

Put your teaspoon of miso paste into a frying pan, cover the base of the pan with boiling water and stir until the miso has completely dissolved, In the meantime, finely chop around 4-5 sage leaves, 1 sprig of rosemary and a few sprigs of thyme and add them, along with the squash and let them simmer together for 3-4 minutes from each side.

After that time, the squash will be half-way dome and the water will have all-but evaporated away. At this point, remove the squash and add the honey, stirring it in and removing it from the heat so that it doesn't begin to caramelize or burn.

And together with the remaining juices, this will be your glaze for the squash slices.

Brush with the glaze and a light drizzle of olive oil, add some freshly ground pepper and bake in a pre-heated oven, at 200°C, for 10 minutes or so, then turn on the grill function for the next 2-3 minutes... because now you DO want that honey to caramelize and become golden!

And there you have it- rich and flavorful and delicious... and ready to serve!

I served mine on a bed of red rice, which I seasoned with just a hint of salt during boiling and finished with a drizzle of hoisin and olive oil. Add a few fresh herbs as a garnish and simply enjoy!

Gold & Delicious

Schiacciate con Cavolo Nero, Gorgonzola, Peperoncino & Pomodorini

Schiacciate with Tuscan Kale, Gorgonzola, Chili pepper & Cherry Tomatoes

Yep- I have a whole bunch of kale from the market hall this week- and I ain't afraid to use it! But, of course, I am not going to just make any old thing with it- I am going to make different and delicious stuff... 'cause that's just the way I am!

My first creation, this evening, was a folded-shut, filled flatbread, which we call a "schiacciata" in Sicily, which I packed with kale, onions, gorgonzola, chili peppers and cherry tomatoes... ha! I bet you wouldn't have thought of doing that!

This is, as I already mentioned, no great innovation- we have made these for years in Sicily- back in the old days, with the excess bread dough and whichever greens were left over from last nights meal for example.

But with a roll of handy-as-can-be, store-bought pizza dough, you can whip something like this up in less than an hour. And that's a pretty fine thing in itself.

So- how much kale do you need to make these? Well, let's start the other way around... if you are using 1 roll of dough, you will need 1 good frying panful of kale. That I what I used to make my 2 small schiacciate. That and 1 onion, 1/2 of a chili pepper, 4 cherry tomatoes and about a 2" slice of gorgonzola. I also added a bout 1 teaspoon of fennel seed- which not only tastes good, but makes the kale easier to digest too. A little olive oil for a glaze- and that was it!

Plain and simple but plainly and simply delicious! With he slightly bitter kale, the sweet onion, the hot chili pepper and the rich gorgonzola, this is such a satisfying snack that it easily makes a great evening meal!

The first thing I did was to cook the onion in a dry, non-stick pan with the finely chopped chili and the fennel seeds. Yep- no oil! You don't want to have soggy, greasy bread, do you? And don't worry- it will be fine!

After 2-3 minutes, the onion will be translucent and just beginning to turn golden and to caramelize and the fennel seeds will be toasted and aromatic- just perfect!

Next, add the kale leaves, removed from the stalks of course and washed, but still wet, into the frying pan. I cut them into smaller pieces- each leaf into 3-4 pieces, to make it easier to handle... and to eat afterwards!

Put the damp leaves into the pan and put on the lid for them to steam for 2-3 minutes.

After 2-3 minutes, remove the lid and then continue stirring and cooking until the leaves wilt down and become tender and bright green. 

There is no need to add salt, as the gorgonzola has plenty of that already... and with all of those chilies, there is no need for pepper either... all you need to do is to let it cool off now and you are good to go! 

In the meantime, turn on the oven to the highest setting to get it hot and ready.

All you need to do now is to fill up your dough pockets. I split me roll of dough into 2 equal rectangles- but you can make yours any shape or size you like. Start off with the kale and onions.

Then add the cherry tomatoes in slices and the gorgonzola... don't overdo it with the cheese though- or it will both be too salty AND you will find that it will all spill out and simply make a mess... less is more sometimes!

Fold the dough pockets shut and pinch and fold the edges to make sure they are well sealed... and pretty! 

Brush lightly with olive oil and cut a few slits into the top for ventilation, to let the steam out so that the bread does not become soggy and blow up like a balloon. Bake at the highest setting, at least 220°C, for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

And then once they have cooled for 5-10 minutes, slice up... and enjoy!