Courgette Spaghetti

I discovered a new blog recently - Smitten Kitchen. It quickly went on my google reader subscribe list and I'm now suitably hooked so I urge you check it out too. This recipe immediatley appealed as it's another courgette recipe. Although very similar to other courgette pasta, this is a sort of light version. Courgettes are shredded finely, preferably with a mandolin for paper thin strips, but you can do it with a sharp knife too (see the picture below, although I must warn you now, I am particularly anal when it comes to chopping things finely). The idea being that the courgette take the place of some of the pasta, so you have a lighter summery dish. Simply soften a little garlic and chilli in a generous glug of olive oil, throw in the courgette and cook for a minute or so if that (longer if you're strips are larger). Add some cooked spaghetti, a few torn basil leaves (or chopped parsley) and season well. Serve with grated cheese if you like.


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Courgette Carbonara

We were away at the weekend and so returned to a huge pile of vegetables, not only from the vegbox but also kindly donated from an allotment. In search of courgette inspiration, I got this recipe from Rachel Eats. A wonderful blog brimming with simple, colourful and delicious Italian food. Every time I read it, it makes me yearn to have long leisurely lunches of pasta. In a departure from the norm, I actually followed this recipe as is, it's super easy and you end up with smooth and creamy pasta, made a little lighter and fresher by the use of courgette and basil rather than bacon.

The only tricky bit with carbonara is you need to allow the egg mixture to cook in the residual heat of the pasta and courgettes rather than directly on the hob, so you end up with a silky sauce rather than scrambled eggs. Jamie Oliver also does something similar.
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Cauliflower Pasta

A reworking of this Cauliflower Pasta recipe taking inspiration from this recipe on 101cookbooks. Instead of braising the cauliflower, I stirfried it in a large frying pan with some onion until golden and nutty. Add some pasta and spoonful or two of creme fraiche to finish. Some chopped parsley, basil or toasted pine nuts would be a welcome addition here.

This is a great way to cook cauliflower. The key is patience, you need to stand over the pan for a good 5mins, turning the cauliflower regularly as it browns and tuns golden on each side, this is the key to giving the cauliflower the nutty caramelised flavour.

Try this as a base to a simple cauliflower curry, frying the cauliflower in curry powder and ading chopped tomatoes at the end.
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Courgette Pasta

We got the first of summer's courgettes in our veg box this week, small, firm and sprightly specimens. Perfect for the first Courgette Pasta of the summer. I wrote about this last year, but for those of you who might not have read it or who simply forgot, then this is a little reminder.
A perfect way to cook courgettes, grated coursely and fried slowly in plenty of butter and olive oil, left long enough to create crusty caramelised bits in place. Add plenty of garlic, lemon zest and pepper and eat with pasta. This is fresh and summery, none of the usual mushiness that makes most people dislike courgettes. Try adding a handful of pine nuts or a few spoons of creme fraiche.
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Spicy Sausage Pasta

A simple bowl of pasta. Cheap, cheerful and full of flavour.

Put a large pot of water onto boil, and cook some pasta - whatever you have to hand really. Heat a large chopped garlic and chilli in a glug of olive oil. Add a couple of sliced sausages and fry until golden brown and caramelised. Pour in a can of chopped tomatoes, season well, perhaps add a pinch of sugar and simmer for 10mins or so until it's reduced and full of flavour. Add your cooked pasta to the sauce, mix well and throw in some shredded basil if you have it.


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Creamy Cauliflower Pasta

I'm a big fan of fried vegetables plus creme fraiche plus pasta for tea. It's quick, easy and delicious. So, with yet another cauliflower to use up this week, I thought I'd give a similar treatment.

I had initially thought of making a cauliflower cheese (i.e. cheesy bechamel sauce) and adding pasta. But, instead sizzled some garlic in oil and butter in a frying pann, tumbled in cauliflower florets, gave them a quick stir and then poured in a little stock. On went the lid and the cauliflower was left to braise and soften in the tasty broth. Stir in cooked pasta, creme fraiche and cheese for all the tastiness of cauliflower cheese, but a little lighter and healthier.

Try this with a sturdier wholewheat pasta, or baked in the oven sprinkled with breadcrumbs.

Ingredients

Serves 4

350-400g wholewheat fusilli or penne
6 rashers streaky bacon, cut into small pieces
50g butter
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets
125ml vegetable stock
1 small tub creme fraiche(about 300ml)
1 tsp english mustard
100g strong cheddar, grated

• Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water until al dente.
• Meanwhile heat a large frying pan (that has a lid) and add the bacon. Cook for a few minutes until the bacon starts to brown.
• Add the butter and garlic, and stir. Throw in the cauliflower and stir well to coat. Season well and pour over the stock, turn the heat down, cover to braise for about 5mins until the cauliflower is soft.
• Pour the cauliflower onto the drained pasta along with the mustard, creme fraiche and cheese. Stir well and serve.

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Spaghetti with Tomato and Sausage

We got some tomatoes in the veg box this week, which was a welcome change, although we of course got the ubiquitous swede of course too (which I made into tasty rostis). I'm always a bit stumped as to what to do with tomatoes, cooking them seems to be a waste as I really want to make the most of their fresh, sweet flavour.

After a bit of time with my recipe books and Google, my favourite Saturday morning past time, I decided on a fresh pasta tomato sauce. I diced the tomatoes, added a little, salt, pepper, garlic and olive oil and left them to marinade before stirring them through hot pasta with a little creme fraiche.

If the tomatoes were firm, red and tasted of summer as I'd hoped, I'd definitely have skipped the creme fraiche and just added some basil. Unfortunately, they were a little insipid and overripe, so needed a boost, but at least I have a recipe for tomatoes past their best.

This spaghetti and almond pasta is another favourite way to eat tomatoes.


Ingredients

Serves 4

350g spaghetti
4 sausages
2 tbsp olive oil
300 tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
handful chopped thyme or oregano
6-8 tbsp creme fraiche

• Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water.
• Add the garlic, 1tbsp olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper to the tomatoes, stir well and set aside.
• Meanwhile, heat a frying pan. Cut a slit into the sausages, remove the skin and break up the filling into small pieces.
• Add these to the pan with 1tbsp olive oil and thyme.
• Fry until the sausage is golden, add the tomatoes, cooked pasta and creme fraiche and stir well before serving.

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Pappardelle with Sausage and Savoy Cabbage

Possibly the best way to eat savoy cabbage (along with colcannon). There aren't many vegetables that don't benefit from being paired with pasta and cream or cheese. Faced with another cabbage in the veg box, I rustled this up and it's definitely one to make again.

The cabbage is definitely the star, you're not trying to mask it with all the other ingredients, simply enhance. So don't be alarmed at the amount of raw cabbage you have to fit into the frying pan, it will cook down. This is all about using what you have, any other pasta will do, try mozzarella in place of the parmesan or strong cheddar. Any other greens would also work well, kale, chard, or spinach.


Ingredients

serves 4

400g pappardelle
1 pack sausages, approx 250g
2 fat cloves garlic, finely chopped
50g butter
1 Savoy cabbage
200g grated parmesan
3 tbsp pine nuts, toasted

• Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and reserve a mugful of the cooking water.
• Meanwhile, quarter the cabbage, remove the core and slice as finely as possible.
• Heat a large frying pan and add a little oil, split the sausages, and add the insides to the pan, use a wooden spoon to break the meat up into chunks whilst you're frying. Once golden, add the cabbage, garlic and butter.
• This will look like a huge amount of cabbage, but it will cook down. Stir as best you can and try to coat it all in the buttery juices. Continue frying and stirring for about 5mins until the cabbage is completely cooked, season well.
• Tip the pasta into the pan along with the cheese and 2 tbsp cooking water. Stir the pasta into the cabbage, be patient after a minute or so, the cheese will melt and form a lovely shiny sauce that clings to the pasta, add some more pasta water if you need to.
• Sprinkle over the pine nuts and serve.

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Bacon and Parsnip Pasta

I've been thinking of using parsnip with pasta for a while, but just hadn't come up with the right way of doing it, then I came across this Jamie Oliver recipe and I earmarked it for the weekend.

I personally think he's got the proportions a bit wrong, too much bacon and not enough parsnip, plus I think it was a little too oily, but that might just be my generous hand with the butter.

Either way, I definitely think I'm onto a winner and I love this way of cooking parsnips in long thin strips, I actually think it could work quite well in some sort of carbonara or with creme fraiche and pine nuts.

Definitely something to add to the (growing) parsnip repertoire.

For the recipe, click here. Read more...

Rocket Pesto

I'll never understand why people buy those horrid, bland ready made pasta sauces from the supermarket, full of who knows what and expensive! Pasta is the quickest, easiest thing to cook, you can often assemble a sauce in the time it takes to cook the pasta. Like this rocket pesto, and if you make lots, you can keep leftovers in the fridge for future quick pasta dinners. Below we had it as a quick lunch with some cherry tomatoes and bit of goats cheese that was languishing in the back of the fridge


This is a recipe from Cranks Bible, one of my favourite recipe books. I remember discovering this at university when rocket was the trendy new thing, what a revelation, rocket pesto is completely different to a classic pesto with the sweet creaminess of pine nuts and basil, this is altogether different; peppery, garlicky, it really packs a culinary punch.


Rocket, parmesan, looots of garlic, lemon juice and almonds all blended into a knobbly paste. You can then keep it in a jar in the fridge for at least a month. Eat this with linguine, some oily black olives, and a few sunblush tomatoes for a pleasing colour contrast as much as anything. Cranky also suggests stirring into a risotto, half way through cooking the rice for rocket and parmesan risotto.

Ingredients

Makes about 6 portions

3 cloves garlic
50g parmesan or strong cheddar, grated finely
50g blanched almonds
150ml olive oil
a few basil leaves (optional)
½tsp grain mustard
juice ½ lemon
1 red chilli

Throw everything into a small blender with a generous amount of seasoning and whizz until smooth. Simple as that! Adjust the amount of seasoning and lemon juice according to taste and decant into a clean dry jar. Read more...

Sausage carbonara

I have a lot of Jamie Oliver books, they make good reading, but haven't actually cooked that many of his recipes, he's all about using amazing (expensive) ingredients simply, when I'm often not. That said, you can't really fault him, he does make beautiful food and on his Ministry of Food website, he's some delicious looking basic recipes too. I'm also mildly obsessed with his website, In this case, I found this rather decadent pasta dish that looked pretty simple, being a glutton in general, I always defualt to creamy pasta dishes as opposed to tomate-ey ones...

Jamie's Italian credentials are pretty good too, having worked at the River Cafe, with Gennaro Contaldo and travelling around Italy to write his book - Jamie's Italy, I'm always keen to try his pasta recipes.

This is a classic carbonara in that it uses eggs as the base, they are tossed with the hot cooked pasta, golden crispy sausage and bacon, and cooked gently to form a smooth and silky sauce. The emphasis being on gentle otherwise you'll end up with scrambled egg. Some lemon zest and parsley add freshness and cut through the richness of the sauce. Delicious and simple.

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Mushroom and Walnut Pasta

This dish evolved from hunger more than anything, adding things to the pan until it looked good,
I like to fry mushrooms in a very hot pan but with no oil as they just slurp it all up. Be patient. Mushrooms tend to leak all their juices readily, but given time soak them back up again, its important to season them as soon as they hit the pan so they can absorb that too, once they get going add a few sprigs of thyme and garlic too. Plump with seared edges in what you're going for, not soggy and limp. Finish with some lemon juice and your laughing.

I added a luxurious dollop of creme fraiche and some walnuts for texture, stirred into pasta, this is the way to eat mushrooms. I'm becoming a fan of using walnuts and almonds instead of the ubiquitous pine nuts with pasta, cheap and they add a much mellower flavour than the (admittedly delicious) pine nuts. I've also taken throwing chopped parsley onto everything, I love the freshness it adds, it would work particularly well here to cut through the richness of the sauce.


Ingredients

Serves 2

1 onion, finely chopped
200g short pasta (we used rigatoni)
200g mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
a few sprigs thyme
4tbsp creme fraiche (or double cream)
squeeze lemon juice
100g walnuts, chopped
parmesan and parsley to serve (optional)

Begin by cooking the pasta in plenty of boiling water. Once cooked, drain the pasta, but reserve a little of the water.
Meanwhile, cook the onion in a little oil on a low heat in a large frying pan until softened, then remove from the pan. Turn up the heat and add the mushrooms along with some seasoning and the thyme. Fry for about 5mins until the mushrooms are tinged brown.
Return the onions to the pan along with the garlic, give it a stir and add the creme fraiche, the creamy white turning a grey on contact with mushrooms. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and taste to see if it needs for seasoning.
Add the pasta to the sauce and stir well to coat in the sauce, add a little cooking water if the sauce seems too thick, sprinkle over the walnuts and tuck in immediately. Read more...

Another Crab Spaghetti

This version is slightly different to the previous one as it has asian leanings, admittedly a bit strange with pasta, if you feel that weird about it, you could always have noodles...

The point is, this is a perfect way to eat crab, with chilli, garlic, coriander and lime. Add to that that this was lovely crab from a day boat in Dorset and you've true indulgence.

Ingredients

Serves 4

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 chilli, finely chopped
4-6 spring onions, finely chopped
1 bunch coriander, chopped
1 lime, zested
1 dressed crab
1 bunch parsley, chopped
250ml white wine
400g linguine

Cook the linguine in plenty of salted boiling water. Meanwhile, soften the spring onions, garlic, chilli and ½ the coriander in a little oil, add the brown crab meat and white wine and cook for about 10mins until the crab has melded with the wine into a thick sauce. Drain the pasta (reserving a mugful of the water) and add to the pan along with the white crab meat, the rest of the coriander, the parsley and a squeeze of lime juice. Stir to coat thoroughly and season. Add a little of the pasta water if necessary to loosen the sauce. Read more...

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

Mmmmm, I can't begin to describe how good this pesto is, I just had some leftovers for my lunch and its even better than yesterday.

For some reason we ended up with 4 red peppers in the fridge, I decided to roast them as I'm a bit fussy about raw peppers, in that I'm not really a fan and like them diced really small. Anyway, I cut the peppers in half, deseeded them, and lay them skin side up on a baking tray, I drizzled with a little oil and left them under a hot grill until they were really black and blistered, I then turned them over and grilled the underside a bit too, just because I like my roasted peppers to be really soft. Then its into a sealed tupperware to steam of the skin until cool.

Once cooled, I peeled the peppers and blitzed them with about a small bunch of basil, stems and all. We've got a basil plant in one of our window boxes that has just gone crazy, so I was pretty happy about being able to cull it a bit, also, check out our wormery in the background! I also added a small handful of toasted pine nuts and the same of cheese and a splash of balsamic vinegar. I didn't add any oil as the peppers are moist enough to lubricate the pesto. I must admit that in the absence of parmesan, I cheated and added mature cheddar too (you can't taste the difference).


Red pepper and almonds go particularly well and I have a feeling toasted almonds would be delightful in this pesto, but I have loads of pine nuts (always a nice position to be in) so pine nuts in was.

Either way, you end up with a slightly sweet and smoky pesto from the chargilled peppers. We had it on homemade gnocchi, it would be great on pasta, or with fish or chicken. I'm thinking now that chilli and perhaps coriander instead of basil would be good. Either way, make this and make it soon! Read more...

Spaghetti Puttanesca

Ah, the holy trinity of capers, olives and anchovies, they go so well together. You can't really beat a puttanesca, I used fresh tomatoes in this recipe, but that's mostly because we had lots. I think this is perfectly fine with chopped tomatoes. The intensity of flavour in the anchovy, capers and olives see to that.

I've included a recipe here, but once you made it once, you'll never the recipe again, its so easy. Just fry onions with garlic, chilli and anchovies, (I love anchovies so use loads), add the tomatoes, simmer for 10-15 mins until the sauce is thick, then add some capers and chopped black olives. done! I had mine with parsley, but you could have basil or nothing. Cheese is somewhat unorthodox but also good with this. Read more...

Crab and Chilli Linguine

I've been wanting to make this for ages, and last weekend we decided to indulge in a bit of yuppie food buying with the rest of the YPs on Lorsdship Lane...it was all local fishmongers and organic greengrocers. Anyway it was definitely worth it, this is absolutely delicious, some lemon, garlic and chili go really well with the crab and lots of parsley makes this a lovely fresh dish. A fennel and rocket salad goes perfectly with this.



serves 4

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 dressed crabs
125ml olive oil
1 lemon, juice and zest
500g linguine
1 bunch parsley, chopped

Mix the garlic, chilli, lemon juice and zest with the olive oil. Add the crab and some seasoning, mix well and set aside. Meanwhile cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water. Once cooked, mix well with the crab and add the parsley. Add more lmeon juice or seasoning as necessary. Read more...

Simple Tomato Sauce with Basil Oil

This was another staring in the fridge moment, or rather my friend Rose was, we decided to make a fresh tomato sauce, I suggested a raw one but she didn't agree. Anyway, with some lazy chopping we decided to try blending it and came up with lovely sauce. Some red pepper that needed to be used up added some sweetness and I made the basil oil to utilise some limp basil I had. We also threw some capers in a the end, just because we love them.

This is really good for using up tomatoes that have past their best. Make as much of this as you can and you can keep the leftover sauce in a jar in the fridge.

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
250g tomatoes, roughly chopped
1tbsp capers
Couple sprigs of thyme

Basil Oil
1 small bunch basil
1 clove garlic
3 tbsp olive oil

Blend all the ingredients for the basil oil and set aside. Fry the onion and pepper in olive oil for 5mins until softened, add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add the tomatoes and thyme and season well. turn the heat down and leave for 15-20mins until the water has evaporated and the sauce has thickened. Take off the heat and blend (carefully! Make sure the sauce doesn't splash everywhere...). Serve with pasta and drizzle the basil oil over. Read more...

Broad Bean Pesto

Mmm... more broad beans in my veg box and this is the perfect way to use them, as usual you can always substitute frozen broad beans.

This is a lighter version of your classic pesto, I didn't use pine nuts, but some toasted and sprinkled on top would be a welcome addition. I also had some lovely tomatoes that I chopped up and added to the tomato for my lunch the next day, making it even lighter (and marginally more healthy.)

Ingredients

Serves 2

200g penne
150g cooked broad beans (remove the skins for a brighter green colour)
½ bunch basil
50g grated parmesan (I cheated and used strong cheddar)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water. Meanwhile, blend all the pesto ingredients and season to taste. Stir through the cooked pasta and add a cooking water to loosen up the pesto if necessary. Read more...

Pasta with Spiced Chickpeas

A somewhat unorthodox flavour combination of chickpeas spiced with cumin, cinnamon and turmeric, combined with tomato, flaked almonds, parsley and er... pasta, but it works all the same. Don't skip any of the ingredients in this, they're all pretty essential. This is based on a recipe from Accidental Vegetarian, a fabulous book by Simon Rimmer, incidentally, if you're ever in Manchester, you must go to his amazing restaurant Greens (ignore the terrible website, but remember to book), possibly my favourite restaurant of all time.

Ingredients
Serves 2
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
½ red chilli, finely chopped
4 tomatoes chopped
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground cumin
½tsp ground coriander
pinch turmeric
3tbsp flaked almonds
½ can chickpeas
bunch fresh parsley chopped
200g spaghetti

Cook the pasta in plenty of salted boiling water. Meanwhile toast the almonds in a large frying pan until golden (be careful they don't burn!). Remove the almonds and add the oil, fry the onions, garlic and chilli until softened, add the chickpeas and spices, stir thorughly and fry for a minute or so more, add the tomatoes, turn the heat down and cook for 15-20mins until the tomatoes have broken down, you may need to add a little water as they cook. This is all down to personal preference, cook the sauce for less time if you'd like a fresher tomato taste.
Add the pasta, flaked almonds and parsley (possibly reserving some almonds and parsley for garnish), stir throuoghly and eat! Read more...

Pistou

All the tastiest things (olives, anchovies, capers, garlic, parsley) blended into a paste and eaten with pasta. What could be tastier?

This will keep for a few weeks in the fridge, if you cover it with a layer of oil.

Ingredients

200g spaghetti
grated rind and of 1 lemon and juice of ½
small bunch fresh flat leaf parsley
1 tbsp capers
large handful black olives
pinch crushed chilli flakes
4tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove
3 anchovy fillets
salt and freshly ground black pepper
parmesan cheese, to serve

Blend everything apart from the parmesan and stir through pasta.

The first night I made this, I had it on its own with spaghetti. The next night, I had lots of things to use up in the fridge. I chopped some tomatoes, added a couple of tablespoons of the pistou, some creme fraiche (my new favourite ingredient), basil and pine nuts. Delicious with pasta.

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