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.

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 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!