Pappardelle with Chestnut Mushrooms
Posted: 25 March '10 by Niall
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.
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4
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
- Heat a saucepan of water to boiling point and add the fresh Pappardelle.
- In a separate saucepan melt the butter over a low heat, adding the olive oil to prevent burning.
- When the butter has melted add the garlic and allow to soften.
- When the pasta has cooked, drain and return to the same saucepan.
- Add the sliced mushrooms and mix through the pasta.
- Add the garlic butter and mix through the pasta.
- Allow to stand for 5 minutes, so the mushrooms “cook” in the residual heat.
- Serve the pasta with a good grating of parmesan and season to taste.
Enjoy!
Categories: Featured Post > Italian Food > Pasta > Recipes > Vegetables
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Beetroot salad with mozzarella and rocket
Posted: 10 March '10 by Kelly
Beetroot salad with rocket and mozzarella
After watching Giorgio Locatelli’s “Pure Italian” for some inspiration, we made beetroot salad with mozzarella and rocket at the weekend.
This is a great starter either for a dinner party or a quick and easy mid-week meal. Not only does it look bright and colourful on your plate but it tastes so fresh and clean. The flavours go really well together: the peppery rocket, the milky mozzarella, and the earthy beetroot with wonderfully sharp vinegar vinaigrette – fantastic!
You can of course use the jarred beetroot but, honestly, the fresh stuff tastes much, much better. Make sure you get some good quality buffalo mozzarella too as you will definitely taste the difference.
Be warned though – beetroot is incredibly messy.. Our kitchen looked like the set from a Tarantino movie when we’d finished.
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7
Serves 2-4
Ingredients
- 4 unpeeled beetroot
- 6 tsp red wine vinegar
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- 100g rocket
- Buffalo mozzarella (we bought the smaller pieces so we could add as much as we wanted)
- Black pepper
Method
- Scrub the beetroot, removing any woody areas or roots.
- Put the beetroot in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 40-50 minutes until tender. Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave it to cool.
- When the beetroot are cold, remove them from the liquid with a slotted spoon, making sure to keep the liquid for later.
- Peel and slice the beetroot into 1/2 disks and reserve the skin. Put the beetroot slices into a bowl and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of the red wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and leave to marinate.
- To make the vinaigrette put the beetroot skins into a food processor along with 2 or 3 tablespoons of the beetroot cooking water, 2 teaspoons of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and process until the mixture is smooth. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the remaining 2 teaspoons of vinegar, the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, salt and pepper.
- Spoon the vinaigrette on top of the sliced beetroot.
- Arrange the beetroot slices around the serving plate and pile the rocket leaves on top. Place the mozzarella in the centre. Drizzle the mozzarella with olive oil.
- Sprinkle with several grindings of black pepper and serve.
Enjoy
Categories: Featured Post > Recipes > Starter Course
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Tagliatelle with Bolognese Ragu
Posted: 08 March '10 by Niall
Tagliatelle with Bolognese Ragu
Last weekend I thought I’d make one of my favourite dishes, Bolognese.. A really simple meal that has a million and one recipes for it.
This is the best recipe for Bolognese that I know of and it produces a very tasty, authentic Italian meal. You’ll be surprised by a few of the ingredients – minced pork for instance, and milk too – and by the absence of garlic. The dish is delicious though, and much more flavoursome than the basic spag bol I would make during the week.
One of the most important things to remember is that a lot of Italian dishes start with the same three ingredients: celery, onion, and carrot. I think that the carrot gives a slight sweetness to the dish but, other than this, you won’t notice any discernible flavour from the basic ingredients – they just help to make a more robust and mouth-watering sauce.
The recipe also calls for Tagliatelle rather than Spaghetti. Depending on where you are in Italy, this is either complete blasphemy or the proper way to make Bolognese. For me, I have to say that I prefer the Tagliatelle – it feels much more authentic as it lends itself to the “mix the sauce through the pasta” approach and holds more of the sauce than Spaghetti would.
Making Bolognese Ragu really is a weekend job though as it takes over three hours to cook – but it’s worth every minute.
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 400g minced beef
- 400g minced pork
- 100g pancetta, roughly chopped
- 100g onion, finely chopped
- 100g carrot, finely chopped
- 100g celery, finely chopped
- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
- 1 glass of dry white wine
- 500ml fresh milk
- 200ml of chicken stock
- 3 bay leaves
- Pepper and salt
- 500g Tagliatelle
Method:
- Place the pancetta in a large, deep saucepan with some olive oil on a low heat until the fat has melted and the pancetta has a nice golden colour.
- Add the onion, stirring until the onion is translucent.
- Add the carrot and celery and the bay leaves and keep cooking until the vegetables start to soften and get some colour.
- Place the minced meat in a bowl and add some seasoning. Mix the meat together with your hands.
- Increase the heat to just above medium and add the minced meat. Keep cooking and stirring the mixture until the meat has browned.
- Pour in the white wine and stir through the mixture, cooking the ingredients until the wine has evaporated.
- Reduce the heat and add the chopped tomatoes, mixing them through the meat.
- Leave the mixture on the heat for at least 2 hours. Check your sauce regularly during this time – if the tomatoes reduce too much just add some beef stock. By the end of the two hours you should have an intense, thick tomato sauce.
- Now, add the milk and some chicken stock, stirring them through your sauce. Leave this mixture over a low heat for another hour.
- Remove the sauce from the heat, season to taste, and leave to rest.
- In a separate saucepan, add some water and a good pinch of salt and bring to the boil.
- Add your tagliatelle and cook until the pasta has softened.
- Drain your pasta and add several spoonfuls of your Bolognese Ragu, mixing the sauce through the pasta.
- Serve with some grated parmesan.
Enjoy!
Categories: Beef > Featured Post > Italian Food > Main Course > Recipes
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Tea Brack
Posted: 25 February '10 by Ciara
Irish Tea Brack
I got this recipe for Tea Brack from a work colleague and tried it out at the weekend. I absolutely loved it, although i had to give half of it away to my mother-in-law, being the only one in my household to like this sort of cake! Otherwise i would have eaten all of it myself…
Irish tea brack is a rich, moist cake which is perfect for a breakfast or an afternoon snack. “Brack” comes from the Irish word “brac”, which means speckled.
You can see more photos hereImage 1
Makes 2 generous tea bracks
Ingredients
- 450g Dark brown Sugar
- 2.5 cups of tea (make it in tea pot first)
- half cup of whiskey
- 375g raisins
- 525g sultanas
- 3 eggs
- 450g plain flour (no need to sieve)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 teaspoons mixed spice
- honey for glazing
You’ll also need a little butter and some baking paper to line your baking tins.
Method
- Dissolve the sugar in the hot tea, mix in the whiskey and soak the fruit overnight in this.
- Next day, preheat the oven to 17o, gas mark 3 and line the loaf tins.
- Mix the eggs, flour (no need to sieve), baking powder and mixed spice with the fruit mixture, (i just use a fork) and pour into the prepared tins.
- Bake for 1 hour.
- Remove from oven, place on wire rack and immediately brush with honey to glaze (I used a pastry brush).
- Serve with tea and butter.
Enjoy!
Other information
Please note that these bracks will keep for up to 2 weeks because the whiskey preserves them, although they wouldn’t last that long in our house.
Please also note that instead of the 1/2 cup of whiskey you can just add another 1/2 cup of tea.
Categories: Biscuits and Cakes > Featured Post > Irish Food > Recipes
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Pancakes – How do you eat yours?
Posted: 17 February '10 by Niall
American pancakes with maple syrup
Yesterday was “Pancake Day”, the last day before Lent and a day to celebrate all of those guilty pleasures that might soon be denied us: butter, flour, milk, and eggs.
I have to admit, I was never the biggest fan of pancakes, a result of too many gluey, flavourless versions bought in convenience stores. Crepes were the only exception, especially those bought from the French Crepe stall in St. George’s Market – delicious! But Pancake Day isn’t about crepes – I was after the fluffy, sweet, bready pancakes that you see on American TV.
I came across this recipe in an old cookbook – welcome to pancake heaven!
All that remains is to decide what to have on yours..
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4
Ingredients
- 135g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 130ml milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly), plus a little more for cooking
To serve: real maple syrup
Method
- Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the melted butter.
- Pour the milk mixture into the flour and, using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing.
- Now for the important bit – Let the batter stand for a few minutes.
- Grease a non-stick frying pan with a little butter and place over a medium heat.
- When the pan gets up to temperature add a ladle of batter. It will seem very thick but this is how it should be.
- Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over (or toss it, if you’re feeling brave!) and cook until both sides are a nice golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm thick.
- Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven.
- To serve, drizzle some maple syrup over your pancake stack and tuck in.
Enjoy!
Other information
- You can try separating the egg-yolk from the white, mixing the egg into the batter, but whisking the whites into stiff peaks before folding the batter into the egg-whites for a lighter, souffle-like consistency.
- After you’ve made the batter allow it to rest – this resting period allows the gluten in the flour to relax so the pancakes will be tender, and lets the baking powder form bubbles in the batter.
- After the batter rests, do not stir it or you will deflate all the bubbles.
Categories: Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes
