End of Summer Spring Clean!

Here are a few pics that I’ve cooked recently, with no particular link, except that I’ve cooked them! I’ve decided to blog them altogether, as they might get forgotten soon with all the new books due out, and the corresponding new pictures. These are all worth a mention though…

Firstly there are a couple from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop.

Matled Milk Ice Cream, very rich but so good!

Orange Popsicle Ice Cream with wine poached apricots from Crazy Water Pickled Lemons by Diana hendry

and again with Dorie Greenspan’s chocolate sauce from Baking From My Home To Yours. I liked the second pairing best, but this is no surprise with my chocolate and orange tendancy!

Prawn Fra Diavlo
A yummy light pasta dish from Giada De Laurentiis’s Everyday Pasta. It should have been lobster, but prawns are more readily available here.

Mushroom, Leek and Tarragon Risotto
This one is a vegetarian dish from The 30 Minute Cook by Nigel Slater. I thought it was an unexpected pairing (or I suppose that would be trilogy?) but it was really inspired and really good.

Rigatoni and Asparagus au Gratin
Delia Smith’s Summer Collection is the home of this recipe, which spins out a small amount of asparagus into a tasty and delicious supper. The recipe is here as well as in the book.

Pea and Coriander Soup, this soup in real life is a real vivid just-cooked-pea-green, I just could not get it to come through in the pictures I took...

Lastly one of my most favourite fast soups from Rachel Allen and Rachel’s Favourite Food. My little one loves this soup. I think she wanted initially because Primrose on Fifi and The Flowertots made pea soup, but now she asks for it because she likes it so much. If you haven’t a clue about that last bit don’t worry – kiddies TV programme! Anyhow here is the recipe for this gorgeous soup.

Pea and Coriander Soup
From Rachel’s Favourite Food by Rachel Allen. I have varied this only slightly by omitting a chilli from the recipe, and I’ve also made it with parsley in place of the coriander - which was also lovely.

50g butter
150g onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped
½ tsp salt and pepper, or to taste
850ml chicken stock or vegetable stock
450g fresh or frozen peas
2 tbsp chopped coriander
Melt the butter in a large saucepan, and add the onion, garlic and chilli. Cover with a greaseproof paper and a lid, and sweat over a low heat for 3 or 4 minutes, or until the onions are soft. Pour in the stock, and bring the soup to the boil. Tip in the peas and boil rapidly, without the lid, for about 2 or 3 minutes, or until the peas are tender. Add the coriander to the soup, and blend in a liquidiser until smooth.

Spaghetti with Red and Yellow Peppers

Spaghetti with Red and Yellow Peppers

I am mad for bell peppers, in fact we as a family are mad for them! They are just so juicy and full of flavour, good raw, sauteed, baked, on the barbecue, stewed - any which way. When I saw this recipe for spaghetti with red and yellow peppers in Giada De Laurentiis’s Everyday Pasta I knew I’d have to give it a go. There is another one with sausages, peppers and onions – and it’s time is coming too.

It is more work blistering and skinning the peppers, but in this dish it was definitely worth the extra effort, because the flavour was much deeper and delicious. I’ve done my usual trick and halved the amount of pasta and left the sauce the same – there was no way 1 pepper per portion would have been enough for us! Sometimes I alter the quantities of cheese, cream, butter or other ingredients a little when down scaling the pasta, and here I changed it about a bit. I’ve left the vegetables and olive oil as they are and altered the wine, stock, pasta, parsley and Parmesan by halving the amounts – if you’d like Giada’s original recipe just up them to 1 cup, 2 cups, 500g etc. The method will be the same for both.

It wouldn’t be okay to use jarred peppers here I don’t think as some of the concentrated flavour is lost in the preserving process, and it’s that flavour which this dish stands upon. I use jarred sometimes, but not here!

Spaghetti with Red and Yellow Peppers

3 large red peppers
3 large yellow peppers
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
4 large shallots, thinly sliced
salt and pepper
½ cup (4 fl oz) dry white wine
1 cup (8 fl oz) chicken stock
250g spaghetti
¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
¼ cup Parmesan, grated or shaved

Preheat the grill or oven and line a baking sheet with foil. Arrange the peppers on the sheet (Giada does this whol, I seed and quarter them first), cook until skins brown and blister (in my oven that’s 20 – 30 minutes at 200 oC). Then place in a plastic bag and set aside until cool enough to handle. Skin the pepper pieces and cut them into strips.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over a medium – low heat. Add the shallots and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add pepper strips, salt and pepper and saute for 5 minutes. Add the wine and chicken stock and cook for 10 minutes, or until the peppers are very soft (Giada suggested 20 minutes here, but mine were fine in 10).

Meanwhile cook the pasta, when everything is ready add the pasta, parsley and Parmesan to the sauce, stir to combine.

Ditilini with Mushrooms and Artichokes

This is a Giada De Laurentiis pasta from Everyday Pasta. I changed it by halving the pasta and leaving the sauce the same. Which is something I do quite often, it probably stems from me having had a gluten intolerance for a few years. Very fortunately after I was pregnant the shock and re-boot to the system seems to have cleared it for the main part, but if I eat too much bread or pasta it can flare up a bit. So my remedy is to eat a bit less of the the lovely carb-y pasta.

We thought this was really very good, the sauce was not runny, it just coated the pasta more thickly. Mushrooms, Marsala and cream, a classic combination in themselves, but with a bit more added here. I used tinned well drained artichokes because I have never seen them frozen here and fresh is a nice treat for a very short time in the Summer months.

I served this as an all inclusive side dish to some roasted chicken. The pasta shape is ditalini, little fingers or thimbles, I discovered it last year when making another recipe from Giada’s Family Dinners. I am very fond of the little shapes, and they are a bit more dainty for a side dish. To make it with the full amount of pasta suggested by Giada just use 500g pasta, but you get more vegetables per person for a side dish with half.

Ditilini with Mushrooms and Artichokes

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped

1 pound mushrooms, trimmed, cleaned and finely chopped

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus 3/4 teaspoon

1 cup dry Marsala wine

1/2 pound frozen artichoke hearts, thawed

1/2 cup cream

3/4 cup grated Parmesan
250g ditalini pasta
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

freshly ground black pepper

Place the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Saute, stirring occasionally, until all the moisture has evaporated and the mushrooms have cooked down, about 10 minutes. Add the Marsala and continue cooking until almost all the wine has evaporated, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Stir in remaining salt. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta and add it into the mushrooms, Marsala and onions. Add the artichoke hearts, Parmesan and cream and cook until the artichokes are heated through, about 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

Creamy Orzo & Farfelle with Creamy Mushroom Gorgonzola Sauce

A Couple of Pastas from Giada's New Book

Everyday Pasta by Giada de Laurentiis arrived last week, the third book by Giada, preceeded by Everyday Italian and Giada’s Family Dinners. It is as you would expect full of pasta recipes; but that isn’t all – there are also a chapter for Antipasti & Appetisers and another for Something on the Side.

The pasta recipes are divided into five chapters, Soups & Pasta Salads, Hearty Pastas, On the Lighter Side, Quick & Easy Weeknight Pastas and finally Pasta for Special Occasions. The format of the book is much the same as her previous two. This one also has a short crash course in Italian wines, which I thought was very helpful as I only know a handful of Italian wines, and Marsala is the one we use most often! The first recipe I looked at in this book was Turkey and Cranberry Ravioli. It sounds so delicious, ravioli stuffed with the turkey, cranberry sauce, cheese and parsley. Gravy for the sauce flavoured with chicken stock, cream, cheese and parsley. I am going to try that one out one weekend for sure.

Among the 37 recipes I’ve book marked are cornbread panzanella, Winter salad with sherry vinaigrette, baked penne with roasted vegetables, turkey and artichoke stuffed shells, capellini Piedmontese, chicken in lemon & cream with penne, cheesy baked tortelini, baked gnocchi, rigatoni with sausage, artichoke & asparagus and finally prawn lasagne with creamy marinara.

Creamy Orzo

The first three recipes I cooked from it were creamy orzo, farfelle with creamy mushroom Gorgonzola sauce and sauteed spinach with red onion. The creamy orzo was orzo pasta mixed into a tomato sauce with shallot, garlic, cream, peas and Parmesan cheese. It was good hot, but I liked it even better cold.

Farfelle with Creamy Mushroom Gorgonzola Sauce

This one had a nice creamy edge (although not from cream, only from a full fat milk bechamel sauce) with a pungent bite from the blue cheese, I thought it was lovely, really well balanced and it had added peas and mushrooms, so there was colour and vegetables as well. I don’t know about you, but I like to have vegetables at most lunch and supper meals.

I also made spinach with red onion is a side dish that Giada says she cooks at least three times a week. I forgot to take a picture, but it’s worth a mention as it was a gorgeous spinach dish. One I hope to slot into my weekly cooking.

Next on my list to try this week are an Italian White Bean, Pancetta & Tortellini Soup and Ditalini with Mushrooms and Artichokes.