Pappardelle with creme fraiche, parmesan and asparagus

Kelly’s love of Italian food knows almost no bounds, and one of her favourite chefs is Theo Randall. I’d have to agree – his dishes always seem so flavoursome, often quite simple, and smack of authentic Italian cooking. Perfect for the home cook.

With the publication of his new book Pasta there’s now a great resource for some of his best recipes. This is one of our favourites which appears typically simple, but which delivers a satisfyingly tasty meal – Pappardelle with crème fraîche, parmesan and asparagus.

Made using egg yolks, crème fraîche and Parmesan, the sauce is particularly rich but the asparagus is a great counterbalance, cutting through the robust flavours and adding a fresh dimension – grassy and slightly bitter. The asparagus is also a fantastic visual ingredient – little shards of apple-green amidst the deep yellow of the pasta and the creamy-gold of the glossy sauce.

I’ve tinkered with the recipe a little, preferring the thick ribbons of pappardelle to tagliatelle and changing some quantities to match what was readily available at the supermarket. I’ve also used a little lemon zest and juice to give the final dish a little kick.

Serves 4 as a main course or 6 plus as a starter.

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Ingredients

• 300ml crème fraîche
• 2 egg yolks
• 150g parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus extra to serve
• 500g fresh pappardelle (you could use tagliatelle)
• 200g young asparagus spears, trimmed and finely sliced at an angle
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, zested and squeezed

Method

1. Put the crème fraîche, egg yolks and a tablespoon of lemon juice in a large bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the base of the bowl.
2. Whisk vigorously with a balloon whisk until the mixture is the consistency of yoghurt and then sprinkle in the grated parmesan, whisking continuously.
3. The sauce is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon – Check the seasoning and then leave to one side.
4. Put the pappardelle and asparagus in a saucepan of boiling, slightly salted water and cook until both the pasta and asparagus still have a little stiffness to them. It should take between 3 and 5 minutes.
5. Drain the pasta thoroughly and add the sauce – as much as you want, but remember that the dish really doesn’t need to be swamped in the sauce – tossing the pasta to mix the sauce through.
6. Serve with some freshly ground black pepper, some lemon zest and more parmesan.

Enjoy!

Pasta al nivuro di siccia

Ever since I managed to find some sachets of squid ink I’ve been dying to make pasta al nivuro di siccia – pasta in squid ink sauce.

I’d never seen the dish in person and I’ve only managed to track down a few photographs online, which only added to the mystique. It’s always seemed like the most exotic attack on the senses – delicate rings of squid mixed through a healthy serving of pasta, drenched in a midnight-black sauce – you have to overcome some subsconscious barrier which tells you that, despite the marvellous aroma, nothing that looks like that should be in your mouth.

With St. George’s market still several days away we paid a flying visit to the Chinese supermarket on Donegall Pass to locate the last elusive ingredient, the squid.

Finally, and with a growing sense of trepidation, I was ready to attempt the recipe..

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Serves 3-4

Ingredients

• 2 large squid tubes
• 2 sachets of squid ink
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1 medium red onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 500g long pasta (such as spaghetti or linguine – we used the latter)
• 120g grated pecorino cheese (parmesan will do at a pinch)
• Flaked red chilli

Method

1. After washing the squid tubes, carefully peel off the outer membrane, taking care not to tear the soft, white flesh.
2. Slice the squid tubes into 1cm-thick rings and leave to one side.
3. Finely chop the red onion and garlic.
4. Cook your pasta in a separate saucepan with some lightly salted water – drain and leave to one side when the pasta is al dente.
5. Pour a good glug of olive oil into a deep saucepan and sweat the onion and garlic over a low heat.
6. When the onion has softened and become translucent, add the chopped tomatoes and stir thoroughly.
7. When the tomato sauce has heated through, add the squid rings and allow them to cook for 5 minutes.
8. Add the squid ink and watch your sauce transform from a vibrant red to an inky black.
9. Add the chilli flakes (as much as you think you could handle) and stir thoroughly.
10. Take your cooked pasta and tip the pasta into your sauce, stirring the sauce through the pasta.
11. Serve each portion of your pasta and squid ink sauce in deep dishes, grating the pecorino and drizzling some good olive oil over the pasta at the last moment.

Enjoy!

Thought for food

Traditional Italian cookery dictates that it’s sacrilege to add cheese to any seafood dish – but seafood with pecorino (well, anything with pecorino) is our guilty pleasure. Kelly and I just love the flavour far too much to leave it out. Whether you add cheese to this dish or not is between you and your conscience.

Squid ink is an intense black colour and has a strong iodine taste which is strangely addictive. I just couldn’t get enough of the pasta in squid ink sauce – it was on my mind for hours after our meal, and I found myself making excuses to visit the kitchen for another nibble.

Other information

Image 7 is taken from another, excellent blog – FX Cuisine (just until we get a decent one ourselves!).

Pappardelle with chestnut mushrooms

Here’s another quick and tasty recipe that’s a mid-week favourite of ours: Pappardelle with chestnut mushrooms.

Admittedly, it doesn’t sound that exciting – but you’ll be surprised just how tasty and filling the dish it. While you can substitute other types of pasta (tagliatelle would also be good), I really wouldn’t try using white/button mushrooms in place of the chestnut mushrooms – they just don’t have the earthy flavour that the recipe needs to make it worthwhile.

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Serves 2-4

Ingredients

• 200g of chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced
• 500g of fresh Pappardelle
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 50g of butter
• A good glug of olive oil
• Parmesan (to grate over the finished dish)

Method

1. Heat a saucepan of water to boiling point and add the fresh Pappardelle.
2. In a separate saucepan melt the butter over a low heat, adding the olive oil to prevent burning.
3. When the butter has melted add the garlic and allow to soften.
4. When the pasta has cooked, drain and return to the same saucepan.
5. Add the sliced mushrooms and mix through the pasta.
6. Add the garlic butter and mix through the pasta.
7. Allow to stand for 5 minutes, so the mushrooms “cook” in the residual heat.
8. Serve the pasta with a good grating of parmesan and season to taste.

Enjoy!

Broccoli and Pasta Bake

This is a great crowd-pleasing dish in our house. You can make it as a vegetarian dish or alternatively add bacon, pancetta or chicken.

It’s also quite quick and easy to make.

Ingredients

• 400g Penne Pasta
• 1 red onion
• 250g Broccoli florets
• 2 chicken/vegetable stock cubes
• 1 tablespoon of french mustard
• 200g creme fraiche
• 100g gruyere cheese
• 1 tablespoon of parsley
• 2 handfuls of breadcrumbs
• 1 teaspoon of mixed herbs
• 50g parmesan cheese

Method

1. Heat the grill.
2. Boil pasta and chopped onion in salted boiling water for 7 minutes then add florets and boil for a further 3 minutes.
3. Reserve 400mls of water, then drain pasta and vegetables.
4. Return reserved water to the pan and dissolve vegetable/chicken stock cubes. Whisk in mustard and creme fraiche and season to taste.
5. Add pasta, vegetables, gruyere cheese and parsley to the stock, mustard and creme fraiche mixture. Stir until melted.
6. Tip pasta and vegetables into ovenproof dish.
7. Mix the parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and mixed herbs together, then scatter on top of the pasta and vegetables.
8. Place under the grill for 3 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Pasta al forno

Pasta al forno means “pasta from the oven” and is a popular dish in Italy.

The method for making Pasta al forno is fairly simple and similar to those for lasange but you’ll see that it is much easier to make and needs far less cooking time.

This recipe for making this Pasta al Form con Pomodorino e Mozzarella is taken from “Jamie Oliver’s Italy” – although his was made with “orecchiette” pasta (“little ears”), we found this type fairly difficult to come by at last minutes’ notice, so we made ours with “conchiglie”, which resemble small sea-shells.

There’s a real rustic feel to this dish and it’s surprising hearty. I think it’s important to get the best mozzarella that you can lay your hands on – the “Taste the Difference” mozza that we tried was worth the extra cost and was a tasty, chewy treat amongst the tomato and pasta.

We served ours with a small rocket salad and home-made garlic bread made with ciabatta – delicious!

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Ingredients

• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 500g of conchiglie pasta
• 8 fresh, large pomodorino tomatoes
• Some tomato puree
• 3 balls of mozzarella, sliced
• A wedge of parmesan, grated
• A handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped
• Salt and pepper for taste

You also need a large bowl and a kettle full of hot water.

Method

1. Cook the conchiglie in a large saucepan of salted water and drain thoroughly when done.
2. Place a large saucepan over a low heat, add some olive oil, and add the garlic and onions, sweating them until they are soft and translucent.
3. Half-fill the large bowl with the boiling water and add the tomatoes for a couple of minutes.
4. Remove the tomatoes one at a time and run a finger firmly down the flesh – you should notice that the skin peels away easily. Remove all of the skin and set the tomatoes aside.
5. When all of the tomatoes have been peeled squeeze them into the onion and garlic mixture, adding the soft flesh but disgarding the woody core.
6. Reduce the tomato mixture and fully soften the tomato pieces.
7. Squeeze some tomato puree into the tomato mixture and stir thoroughly.
8. Add salt, pepper and fresh basil and remove from the heat.
9. Preheat oven to 180°C.
10. Empty the sauce into the drained pasta and mix thoroughly.
11. Place some of the pasta into a casserole dish to form a layer of pasta that reaches half-way up the sides.
12. Take some of your mozzarella and lay them on top of the pasta to form another layer.
13. Place the rest of the pasta on top of this again.
14. Complete the dish by laying the remaining mozzarella on top of the pasta, grating a good amount of parmesan on top of this again, and drizzling the top with good olive oil.
15. Place the casserole dish in the oven and cook until the top has formed a golden crust.
16. Once you’ve spooned out the portions grate a little more parmesan over the top (can you ever have enough?) and drizzle with olive oil.

Enjoy!

Spinach and ricotta canneloni

Here’s the recipe for one of our favourite Italian dishes: spinach and ricotta cannelloni (or is that “canneloni”?). Given that the recipe is suitable for vegetarians, it just shows you that bechamel with melted cheese can overcome all obstacles to enjoyment!

The recipe does take a little bit of effort – stuffing the pasta tubes with the spinach and ricotta mixture requires some patience – but it’s all worth it in the end. The canneloni is also great for mid-week dinners, as it invariably lasts for two nights, and tastes even better the next day.

The dish is great by itself, but we prefer a small rocket salad and warm ciabatta alongside.

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Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and minced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 pinches of dried oregano
• 2 pinches of dried basil
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp red wine
• 500g spinach
• 300g ricotta
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• Freshly ground black pepper
• As many cannelloni tubes as will fill your oven dish

For the Napoli sauce

• 25g butter
• 25g flour
• 300ml milk
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 60g Cheddar cheese, grated
• 30g Parmesan cheese, grated

To finish:

• 60g Cheddar cheese, grated
• 10g Parmesan cheese, grated

You might also use: a piping bag to put the mixture into the cannelloni tubes.

Cooking Method

Cooking Method – Spinach and Ricotta

1. Place a frying pan on a low heat and add some olive oil
2. Place the spinach leaves in the pan and cook until they have wilted slightly
3. Remove the leaves from the pan and drain in a colander, using the back of a spoon to press the leaves until most of the excess liquid has drained
4. Chop the drained spinach leaves until they are quite fine
5. Allow the spinach to cool
6. Place the ricotta in a bowl and add the cooled spinach leaves, mixing thoroughly
7. If you are using a piping bag, spoon the mixture into the bag and squeeze it down to form a continuous mass, ready for squeezing
8. Taking your cannelloni tube either: squeeze the mixture into the tube until it is full; or using the back of a spoon, scoop the mixture up and place inside the tube
9. Repeat this process until all of the cannelloni has been filled, placing each filled tube into the oven dish as they are finished

Cooking Method – Napoli Sauce:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 225°C.
2. Heat the olive oil in a hot pan and sweat the garlic and onion down until they are translucent.
3. Add the basil, oregano, and black pepper and stir thoroughly.
4. Add the wine and cook off the alcohol.
5. Add the tomatoes and bay leaf, stirring well before leaving to simmer for a further 2-3 minutes.
6. Finally add the tomato puree and allow some time on the heat to reduce the sauce (it needs to be relatively thick, without any excess liquid).

Cooking Method – Bechamel:

1. In one saucepan. add the butter and place over a low heat.
2. In a second saucepan, add the milk and nutmeg, warming the milk until it is just shy of boiling point.
3. Reducing the heat completely When the butter has melted, add the flour and mix together, until you have a thick paste (similar to play-doh).
4. Add a third of the milk to the play-doh, whisking to prevent any lumps forming – then add the rest of the milk a third at a time, whisking as you go. You want to get a smooth sauce.
5. Allow the sauce to cook out for another minute before adding the Cheddar cheese. Stir and remove from the heat.

Cooking Method – Assembling the dish:

1. Spoon the sauce over the filled cannelloni.
2. Pour the bechamel on top of this, making sure that you cover the layer below.
3. Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese and parmesan over the bechamel.
4. Place the oven dish in the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Wine selection

There’s only one option for me here – a robust chianti compliments the rich, tomato-based cannelloni perfectly.

Gnocchi with blue cheese sauce

After reading Sarah’s recipe for Gnocchi Piedmontaise, I had decided to make our own gnocchi, and was just waiting for the opportunity.

With plenty of left-over mashed potatoes from the previous night the time had come – and I was amazed how easy the process is – and how tasty the results! Seriously, the little gnocchi pillows are wonderfully light and make a delicious meal out of those potatoes which were destined to be thrown out.

Needless to say, Kelly loved this recipe – but I have the feeling that I could cover an old tyre in blue cheese sauce and Kelly would ask for seconds! But give it a go – you definitely won’t be disappointed.

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Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the Gnocchi:

• 150g warm mashed potato
• 1 egg yolk
• 15g unsalted butter
• 55g plain flour
• Maldon sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Fresh nutmeg, grated

For the blue cheese sauce:

• 2 tbsp of good quality olive oil
• 200ml of double cream
• 180g blue cheese (preferably gorgonzola)
• 100g fresh grated parmesan
• freshly ground pepper

To serve:

• Grated parmesan
• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• Some good quality olive oil to drizzle
• Thinly sliced pancetta (optional)

Method:

1. Make your mashed potatoes – I’ll assume you know how to do this
2. Warm the mashed potato, which can be prepared in advance, gently in a saucepan adding the butter once warmed enough to melt the butter. Once the butter has fully incorporated add the seasoning, a good couple of pinches of nutmeg and the egg yolk. Mix again well. Finally, fold in the flour using your hands to finish the mixing whilst taking care not to over-mix as this shall toughen the dough.
3. Split the mixture into three batches and roll into finger thick long sausage shapes on a lightly floured surface. Cut into one inch long pieces and squeeze the middle to create bow-tie like shapes (this helps the middle of the dough to cook through properly).
4. Bring a large pan of salted water to a simmer and poach the gnocchi in batches of 8-10 until each rises to the surface of the water. Remove and drain on a clean tea towel. Allow to cool, preferably in the fridge. The gnocchi can be frozen at this stage and pulled out in batches once required.
5. Once required, heat a frying pan and add a dash of clarified butter. Gently fry the gnocchi until they are a pale golden colour, seasoning if required.
6. Add the cream to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over a low heat
7. Add your chopped blue cheese, a pinch of black pepper, a good glug of olive oil, and the parmesan and turn off the heat, mixing the ingredients
8. Put some olive oil into another saucepan along with the chopped pancetta and place over a medium heat. When the pancetta has coloured and started to crisp, lower the heat and add the sliced garlic, sweating gently until the garlic becomes translucent
9. Place the gnocchi onto your plate, scatter the pancetta and garlic on top, add the blue cheese sauce, dust with the grated parmesan and drizzle some olive oil on top

Buon appetito!

Other information:

Lots of people have trouble pronouncing “gnocchi” – but it’s not that difficult..

1. The “gn” makes a “ny” sound with a silent “g”
2. The “occh” is pronounced as a hard “k”, as in “ock”
3. The “i” is an “ee” sound, as in “three”

Which gives you “nyockee”.

Gnocchi is the plural form of the word. The singular is “gnocco.” So you might order a plate of gnocchi and devour every gnocco on that plate.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken fillets cut into pieces
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• salt and pepper
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 500mls fresh cream / whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
• 3 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of ground chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
• 1 teaspoon of chopped parsley
• Parmesan
• fresh or dried pasta

Method:

Heat the butter in a saucepan until melted.  Add chicken pieces and cook for  5 minutes or until cooked through.  Add tin of tomatoes, sugar, salt, pepper and rosemary and cook for a further 5 minutes.  Then add cream, chilli, chilli flakes and parsley, bring to the boil and allow to simmer for around 20 minutes.

10 minutes before this is cooked, cook the fresh pasta.  Add sauce and serve with loads of parmesan and garlic bread! Enjoy

NOTE: I didn’t give an exact amount for the pasta as it depends on how much you like yourself! In our house 1 packet is enough for myself, the hubs and our 2 year old -we are quite greedy when it comes to pasta portions!

Photographs to follow

Pasta with meatballs in a creamy tomato sauce

Another mid-week favourite of ours, and another pasta dish – but the spaghetti with pork meatballs is more of a winter-warmer compared to the pasta and prawns.

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Serves 4

Ingredients

• 500g dried spaghetti (i.e. one packet)
• 500g of pomodorino tomatoes
• 150ml of double cream
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 3 fat garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 medium-hot red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• A good handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped (again, don’t use the dried stuff!)
• 1/2lb of butchers sausages
• Parmesan to grate over the dish (entirely optional)

Method

1. Using a pair off scissors (it’s far easier than a knife) split and remove the sausage casings, so you’re left with the sausage-meat ina bowl
2. Add a couple of pinches of ground black pepper
3. Using your hands, mix the pepper through the meat thoroughly
4. Take a small portion of the sausage-meat, enough to make a meatball that will be about the size of gobstopper – and roll the meat between your palms to make a meatball. Don’t worry if it’s messy and the meatballs are a bit “rough” looking – we’ll fix that in the next step
5. Wash your hands and rinse them again to keep them slightly damp – and re-roll all of the meatballs to make firmer, more rounded balls
6. Place the frying pan on a low heat and add two tablespoons of olive oil, frying the meatballs in batches of 6 or so until they are golden or slightly browned on both sides
7. As they finish cooking, place the browned meatballs in a separate bowl – and remove the frying pan from the heat
8. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to the packet instructions, until al dente
9. Meanwhile, roughly chop the tomatoes into quarters
10. Heat the oil in a pan over a low heat
11. Add the garlic and red chillies and sweat gently until the garlic has become slightly translucent
12. Add the tomatoes and increase the heat slightly, cooking gently – with the seeds included, the contents of the pan will look a little water-y. We’re going to leave the pan over the heat until the tomatoes have fully broken down and the liquid has reduced to form a thick, concentrated tomato “jam”
13. Season to taste with salt and pepper
14. Lower the heat under the tomatoes completely, add the chopped basil and then the cream, mixing both through the sauce
15. Re-introduce the meatballs and make sure that they are well-coated in the sauce
16. Drain the spaghetti well, return to the saucepan, and add the tomato mixture
17. Toss together until the sauce is thoroughly mixed through the pasta, and serve

Wine Selection

A bit of a heartier, richer dish this time.. Something like a young Chianti will stand up to the cream and concentrated tomato flavours.

Other Information

• Use the best sausages you can get – none of the processed stuff though – anything made by your butcher is fine
• You could also substitute sage for the basil – but be careful how much you use – it’s a very strong herb, and needs to be used sparingly
• It’s important not to add too many meatballs into the pan when browning them – they hold a bit of fat, and too much liquid will make the meatballs stew rather than fry

Spaghetti and prawns

This easy pasta supper is probably the meal that’s made most often in our house, and is great for during the week when you’re not in the mood to spend too long in the kitchen after a long day at work.

Also known as “picchi-pacchi spaghetti with prawns and chilli”, the dish is a Sicilian specialty (the further south you go in Italy, the most prevalent the chilli becomes in the local dishes).

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Serves 4

Ingredients

• 500g dried spaghetti (i.e. one packet)
• 250g of pomodorino tomatoes
• 4 tbsp olive oil (and some more the drizzle over the finished dish)
• 3 fat garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 medium-hot red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• A good handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped (don’t use the dried stuff!)
• 350g uncooked and peeled king prawns
• Parmesan to grate over the dish (entirely optional)

Method

1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to the packet instructions, until al dente
2. Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees
3. Take each prawn and run a sharp knife down the back of the prawn, removing any black “thread” that is there and opening the prawn up
4. Drizzle some olive oil on a roasting dish and place your prawns on the dish, sprinkling them with a little black pepper
5. Gently roast the prawns in the oven until their flesh has turned pink – it’s important not to overcook the prawns at this point otherwise you’ll be left with a dry, tough prawns that really aren’t that pleasant to eat
6. Meanwhile, working over the sink, gently squeeze and burst the tomatoes to rid them of most of their seeds, then roughly chop
7. Shortly before the spaghetti is ready, heat the oil in a pan over a low heat
8. Add the garlic and red chillies and sweat gently until the garlic has become slightly translucent
9. Add the tomatoes and increase the heat slightly, cooking gently for 30 seconds until heated through and just starting to break down
10. Season to taste with salt and pepper
11. Drain the spaghetti well and return to the pan. Add the tomato mixture, prawns and chopped basil
12. Toss together until the sauce is thoroughly mixed through the pasta, and plate up
13. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle over the grated parmesan cheese, and serve

Wine Selection

The dish is light and full of seafood-sweetness and zingy tomato, and deserves a similarly light, zesty accompaniment – a citrus-y Pinot Grigio would be perfect.

Other Information

“Picchi-pacchi” simply means a fresh, raw or barely cooked sauce.

We ALWAYS have a good Parmesan to grate over this dish, even though a true Italian would blanch if you suggested add Parmesan to a seafood dish.