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.

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!

Sunday Ragù

So it’s Sunday once more and a Sunday favourite in my house is my Sunday Ragù. It’s like “Bolognese” sauce only different, if that makes any sense. This is a meat and tomato sauce using meat pieces instead of mince and 2 or 3 different types of meat. This sauce needs to “bubble” that’s the secret as it were. I normally bring it to the boil, cover the saucepan, turn the gas down to the minimum and allow it to bubble for up to 3 hours, the more it cooks, the better it is my mother in law always says! Here you go! Buona Domenica!
700g of veal, cut into chunks (if you don’t like veal a nice rump steak will do the trick)
200g of pork ribs
4 pork chops
4 Italian sausage  (I use one per person. If you can’t get Italian sausage a good quality beef sausage is fine)
2 onions
1.5 litres of Tomato passata (if you can’t find passata some good quality tinned tomatoes passed through the processer)
200g Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 of a litre of red wine
basil
salt and pepper

1. Heat a deep saucepan (one with a lid) on the hob
2. Add the oil and add the onion (chop it finely with a mezzaluna) and the meat to the saucepan
3. Let them cook for a few minutes just to colour the meat
4. Add the wine and allow it to “evaporate”. This takes about 5 minutes.
5. Add the passata and season with salt.
6. Bring to the boil and cover
7. Turn the heat down to the minimum and allow to “bubble” for 2 and a half to 3 hours. This is called “pippiare”
8. Stir the sauce often when it is bubbling on the hob, remember that sauce is stirred only with a wooden spoon and NEVER with a metal one!
9. Add the basil at the last minute to the sauce!
10. When it’s cooked I allow it to cool for about an hour before cooking the pasta, Penne rigate would be the best, or even better pennettone (big penne pasta)
11. When the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the saucepan again, add a little knob of butter and some sauce, put on a low heat and mix often so that the pasta absorbs the sauce.
12. Serve the pasta and turn on the heat back on under the sauce.
13. The meat is served as a main dish (secondo piatto) with some sauce and bread to “zuppare” (dip) into the sauce.

Enjoy!

Spaghetti Carbonara. The REAL one.

So this is my mother in law’s recipe for spaghetti carbonara. No chicken. No cream. No mushrooms. Just simple homecooking and a real Italian recipe. I often make this for my friends when I return home a few times a year and they love it. Italian cuisine is so easy, no faffing about! It’s also very good for you, it’s not for nothing that the Mediterranean Diet is one of the best and the healthiest in the world, you just need fresh, good quality ingredients and the best quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil, I think it’s worth paying that little bit more for the “first press” which is a nice green colour.
This recipe is for 4 people
360g spaghetti
200g guanciale (pancetta) or bacon
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 whole eggs and 1 yolk
80g grated Parmigiano or Pecorino
extra vergin olive oil
salt
pepper

1. Bring about 4 litres of water to the boil (the general rule is 1 litre of water every 100g of pasta). When the water is boiling add a nice handful of course salt.
2. Add the spaghetti to the boiling salted water helping it “fold” down with a slotted spoon or a “spaghetti fork”
3. Stir the pasta often so it doesn’t stick together!!!!
4. While the pasta is cooking, in a frying pan fry of the pancetta and garlic for a few minutes.
5. Taste the pasta a few minutes before it reaches the cooking time indicated on the packet, I like my pasta “al dente” but different strokes for different folks! Don’t throw the spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks! Drain the pasta and throw it in the pan together with the pancetta on a low heat, add a little glug of olive oil if you like.
6. While the spaghetti is in the pan, prepare a large serving bowl and lightly whisk two full eggs and one yolk with a pinch of salt and the grated cheese.
7. Throw the pasta and pancetta into the bowl on top of the egg mixture and give it a good mix before serving. Don’t thrown the egg into the pan as it will become scrambled!
8. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper.

I sometimes add some fresh chopped parsley and a little chopped chilli to the spaghetti just to change it up! Remember in Italy pasta is considered a starter and the 90g of spaghetti a person here is a big enough portion!!