Pasta with Carne Macchinato and Mushrooms.

So yesterday was St. Francesco's feast day and seeing as he is the patron Saint of the town where I live I was awakened at 5am with the market setting up for the day's festivities. Argh! Then at 6am the fireworks started so therefore I decided it was time to get up and start another day.....Anyhoo last night hubby decided he wanted a typical dish that is eaten on this feast day, Pasta with mince and mushrooms. I was happy as it's easy to make and most of all quick seeing as I didn't get home until 9pm. Long day, so here's the recipe for 4 people. There was some left over so this quick and easy plate is also on the menu for lunch today!
You can also prepare more sauce and freeze it for an even quicker midweek dinner!

• extra virgin olive oil
•  2 cloves of garlic
• 100g ground beef
• 50g of ground veal
• 50g ground pork
• 1 can of beer, I use a good quality lager
• 500ml of tomato passata
• 100g porcini mushrooms, cut into chunks
• 1 chilli pepper, salt and pepper to season

Preparation

1. sauté the garlic in oil,
2. add the meat and brown
3. add the beer and allow to evaporate
4. add the tomato passata and cook for 30 minutes on a low flame, season and cover
5. boil the water for the pasta and cook (100g pasta per person cooked in 1 litre of water per 100g of pasta)
6. add the mushrooms, cover and simmer until the pasta is cooked
7. serve while piping hot

Fresh homemade Minestrone

So have a household of illness, flu, sore throats and manflu so needs be for some Minestrone. I hate manflu. He gets manflu and with a temperature of 37°C he is literally dying, and even though he doesn't realise it, he raises his voice, which means that if  I'm ill, as I am, I'd rather be in the kitchen cooking so that I don't have to listen to him. lol. 

This is a basic recipe for the traditional minestrone. Other soup recipes will be forthcoming seeing as I live of soup for most of the year.

If you don't have "short pasta", you can break up some spaghetti into 2 cm pieces and use that. I would advise against using pasta if you are bulk making for freezing as the pasta will absorb all the liquid, just add the pasta when reheating after unfreezing. This makes 4 servings.  

•      120 grams of “short” pasta or rice
•      300 grams of cannellini beans
•      50 g pancetta
•      1 stick of celery
•      1 courgette
•      1 carrot
•      1 potato
•      1 clove garlic
•      1 onion
•      2 tomatoes or 1 tablespoon of sauce
•      1 stockcube
•      butter
•      Salt
•      Pepper
•      parsley

preparation:

1. Wash the vegetables under cold running water for a few minutes, and then cut into cubes, smaller cubes for the carrot and potato and bigger cubes for the fleshy veg.
2. Heat up a saucepan and then add a lttle butter with a litte extra virgin olive oil and brown the pancetta, garlic, onion and parsley.
3. Add the vegetables, chopped tomatoes (or a tablespoon of sauce), the stockcube and 1 and a half liters of water.
4. Put the lid on the pot, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. At the end of this time, add the pasta, or rice of your choice and simmer for another 5 minutes.
6. Turn off the flame, remove the lid and add a pinch of pepper and salt, stir and let stand in the soup pot for 2-3 minutes.
7. Serve immediately, drizzling a little olive oil on top.

Pasta with Pumpkin

So this is a favourite in our house all year round great in winter as a quick hot dish, or in summer as a cold soup like dish. This is for 2 people so adjust quantities as you need them! Enjoy!

• 200 g pumpkin
• 150 grams of mixed pasta (in Italy you can buy this in packs, if you can't find it just save the little bits of pasta that you don't use, break up some spaghetti, some quills etc and use this.)
• • 1 large onion
• • 1 clove of garlic
• • 1 vegetable stock cube
• • salt and pepper
• • extra virgin olive oil
• • grated parmesan cheese
• • parsley

1. Heat up a large frying pan and put in a little oil, fry of the onions and garlic.
2. Cut the flesh of the pumpkin into cubes and add to the pan.
3. Add the stock cube and a glass of water.
4. Allow to cook until the pumpkin becomes soft and creamy, if it drys add some of the water from the pasta.
5. Cook the pasta and drain.
6. Add to the pumpkin and sauté for a few minutes.
7. Serve in a dish with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley.

Wild Boar Pasta Sauce

So 2 Sundays ago hubby and father in law went out hunting. They got a wild boar. Lovely! So after preparing it, hanging it and than dividing it I decided that today I'd make a wild boar sauce for the pasta. And, even if I do say so myself it turned out great!!! Thankfully I made enough for tomorrow too! I served pappardelle pasta, a thick spaghetti which is great for this type of sauce. 


Pappardelle Pasta 

• 600g Tipo ‘00’ flour (plain flour works just as well)
• 6 large eggs

Place the flour on a large wooden board. I got one made for me which is 2metres by 2 metres so I can mix, knead and roll with no problems. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth. Using the fork take little of the flour at a time from the sides, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. Knead well.
At this point I usually put it in a bowl, cover it, and let it rest in the fridge for half an hour.
There are two ways to roll your dough. With a pasta machine, which I refuse to have in the house, or with your rolling pin, a tried and trusted method. Dust your board, or surface with a little flour, cut a quarter of the dough and start to roll. Roll until it is ribbon thin then Dust with flour and loosely roll it into a cylinder. Using a sharp knife, cut into 3/4-inch-wide slices.You can do this with more sheets of dough at a time if you wish. Then gently toss to seperate.

At this point some people hang it to dry it but I just lightly dust it with semolina flour and leave it on a shallow baking tin, covered with a teacloth until I'm ready to cook it.

Sauce. 

• 1 kg. wild boar meat ( I use a bit of mince and some nice cubes of loin and steak)
• extra virgin olive oil
•  1 large white onion 
• 1 stick of celery 
• a small bunch of parsley, 
• 1 large carrot 
• two bay leaves 
• peppercorns, juniper berries 
• 1 litre  (3 cans) of chopped tomatoes 
• A bottle of Chianti or a good quality red wine

 
preparation:

1. Chop up the onion, celery and carrot into small pieces and put them into a container along with the wild boar meat, add the bay leaves, peppercorns and juniper berries, then cover with the chianti, stir and let stand for about 12 hours in the fridge or a cool place
2. Separate the meat and vegetables from the marinade, making sure to remove the bay leaves. In a large saucepan (I use a cast iron one because I think the flavours come out better) heat up the olive oil and add the chopped vegetables, let them cook for 5 minutes then add the meat and seal for 5 minutes, then add the wine from the marinade, cook for about 30 minutes or until all the wine has evaporated, add the pureed tomatoes, season and cover and cook for at least three hours over low heat, stirring often. 
3. Bring some water to the boil (1 litre for 100g of pasta), salt and add the pasta. The fresh pasta will need no more that 5 minutes to cook. Drain.
4. Put the pasta back into the saucepan and add some sauce, put over a low flame stirring for 3 minutes until the sauce is absorbed by the pasta, serve and add a little more sauce once plated. 
5. Serve with a good quality red wine and enjoy!

Roast Pork Loin

• small bunch sage, shredded
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 50g butter
• 2kg boned pork loin, ask your butcher to score the skin really well and cut a long cavity for the stuffing
• 2 large onions, cut into thick discs
  

Roast Potatoes

• 2kg potatoes , peeled and halved
• 4 tbsp goose fat
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• sea salt

Gravy

• 1½ tsp plain flour
• glass white wine
• 250ml chicken stock

1. Heat the oven to 180C. Mix the sage, fennel seeds, shallots and butter and season well. Stuff into the pork then close and tie with string along the length of the joint.
2. Rub the skin all over with a little oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Put the onions on the bottom of a roasting tray, sit the pork on top, skin side up, and roast for 1 and a half hours.
3. After 1 hour 15 minutes, put the goose fat, or the fat from the pork, into a shallow roasting tin and put it in the oven to heat up. Put the potatoes into boiling water and cook for 6 minutes. Drain well and put in the roasting tin, make sure the potatoes are coated with the grease and put back into the oven.
4. After the pork has cooked for 1 and a half hours turn up the oven to 220C and allow the pork and potatoes to cook for 30 minutes then take out the pork and rest.
5. Turn the potatoes, then press down gently on each with the back of a large spoon until it cracks slightly. Toss in the salt and rosemary. Roast for a further 20 minutes until crisp and golden .
6. Meanwhile, put the pork roasting tray over the heat and add the flour. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes until it darkens a little. Gradually add the wine and stock until you have a smooth gravy. Strain into a pan, simmer for another 10 minutes and season.

Zuppa di Pesce (Fish Soup)

So God love the Mother in law! She knew that today was a really busy day with NO chance of doing anything other than sit in a corner and cry with the stress and the uncontrollable desire to pull my hair out at every possible opportunity, she went to the port this morning and got me fresh fish knowing how much I love it and how yesterday I missed out on my weekly feed of fish with my Sunday lunch....so arrive home this evening starving. I swear I was starving! I've been up from 6 am and have been surviving on espressos since then.....and VOILA the other half produced my vice. FISH! So I decided to go for a zuppa di pesce so that I can take some to work tomorrow for lunch! I LOVE it cold too! So here we are lads and lassies. Mother in laws Fish Soup!

Ingredients for 4 people:
1 kg of mixed fish: redfish, gurnard, john dory, king prawns, tender squid and cuttlefish, shrimp
500 g of mussels
500 g clams
3 cloves garlic
500 g of tomato pulp
1 bunch of parsley
Black pepper
salt and extra virgin olive oil to taste. 

Preparation:

1. Clean and scale all fish, cutting the fins off, eliminating the innards. Open them and separate them from the head and bones. In a little water cook the heads and bones for the fish broth and keep warm to add to the rest of the soup.
2. Clean the mussels and clams and cook in a pan with a little oil and a whole clove of garlic until they are opened, remove the garlic.
3. Clean and cut the cuttlefish and squid, prawns and wash well.
4. In a large pot brown the garlic in oil, then add the tomatoes and crush with a fork, finely chop the parsley and add most of it, keeping a little to season at the end, and season with salt and pepper. Stir and cook for 5 minutes, now add the cuttlefish and squid and cook for a few minutes before adding the rest of the fish.
5. Sieve the fish broth and add to the soup.
6. Stir carefully so you don't break fish up and cook for about 15 minutes. Add the mussels and clams to the sauce.
7. Meanwhile, prepare some sliced bread and toast in the oven, if you like it you can rub a clove of garlic over one side of the toasted bread.
8. Add 2 slices of bread at the bottom of each plate, then divide the fish and place it in the plates on top of the bread, and pour the hot broth. Otherwise serve the bread on the side (like I do)
9. Sprinkle with a little parsley and serve  

 
 

Pasta con le lenticchie

You either love or hate lentils. I used to hate them and turned my nose up at them when I lived in Ireland. Called them "foreign food" then I came to Italy and ate this dish! This is a staple in my home and all of us love it! I always make a big pot, enough to feed an army I think to myself, but after dinner time the pot is clean. I think the Other Half may actually lick it but I'm not sure.......anyway...this is a soup/pasta dish that I make at least once a week and it never grows old and boring because its one of the best pasta dishes there is!  Remember to soak the lentils overnight. And serve with crunchy fresh bread! Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

2-3 sprigs parsley
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 liter of vegetable broth
200 g chopped tomatoes or tinned tomatoes
100 g dried red lentils
salt
100 g of pasta tubes or mixed pasta. I use broken spaghetti
pepper

1. Wash the parsley, select the leaves and chop finely with the crescent on a cutting board.
2. Put oil in a pan, along with the peeled and finely chopped onion and garlic cloves, do not crush the cloves. Bring on the heat and allow to brown over medium heat. Combine a few tablespoons of broth and cook for 4-5 minutes. Add salt.
3. Add the tomatoes, stir, then add the lentils, a spoonful of chopped parsley, stir and bring to the boil.
4. Add the hot broth, a pinch of salt, reduce heat and simmer for an hour covered, stirring occasionally.
5. After the cooking time the lentils should be nice and soft.
6. At this point, raise the heat, add the pasta and cook for the time indicated on the package.
7. Drizzle with a little olive oil, grated pepper and serve.

Pasta Twists with Prawns and Zucchini

So between meetings, interviews, work and running errands for everyone except myself, I arrived home tonight so hungry I could eat a horse and go back for another one. So I needed something quick, easy and without fuss tonight for dinner so I went with what I had in the freezer. Zucchini, zucchini flowers, basil and parsley from this summers harvest and prawns (already shelled). And There is nothing on earth that I could do with all those ingredients........... I then realised I needed to go and do the bleeding shopping too. ARGH! And what to make for dinner....pasta, prawns and zucchini.....

So here we go. For 4 people.

360g of Fusilli pasta, or Pasta Twists (remember 90g a person is more than enough)
400g small, shelled prawns 
2 zucchini sliced
salt and pepper to taste
half a glass of white wine
a handful of fresh parsley
1 clove of garlic
cream (optional) 

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic in a pan. 
2. Add the prawns and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, letting all the flavours infuse. Add the white wine, and let the liquid evaporate.
3. Add the zucchini.and allow to cook.
4. Put the pasta into salted boiling water (remember 1 litre of water for 100g of pasta)
5. When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain and throw in on top of the prawns and zucchini. 
6. Add the salt and pepper and the cream if you decide to use it (just enough to bind the pasta and prawns together) and sautee for 2 minutes

Serve and enjoy! I usually add some chilli flakes as well and remember that no parmesan cheese is needed as cheese and fish are never eaten together in Italy.Eat with a nice cool white wine and enjoy!

Bruschetta

So I'm just in from work and starving!! I need something quick! So Bruschetta it is! Quick, easy and filling! This makes 4 bruschetta

500g cherry tomatoes
200g extra virgin olive oil
Fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
a pinch of salt
Fresh black pepper
Italian bread

1. Wash and cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters, deseeding as you go along
2. Put the tomatoes into a bowl and cover with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and basil
3. Stir with a wooden spoon, cover and place into the the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 
4. Slice the Italian bread and toast it on both sides
5. Take the garlic clove and gently rub it over the warm toasted bread
6. Use a slotted spoon to add the tomatoes to the bread and then add one tablespoon of the oil on top of the bread and tomatoes. 

You may also like to add a slice of mozzarella to the bread before the tomatoes, as I do!