Recipe: Simple meal for 2

 

I always say simple meals are the best. Yes of course I like eating out, and have something fancy, but after spending most of my time in the kitchen,nothing beats home-made.

Now its summer, fresh vegetables are just over the roof, its hot and we need fruits and greens. Again Im not vegetarian, but I much prefer meatless dishes. One of my new favourite ingredients and greens are the romanesco broccoli. Why? Cos they just look fun, and the taste is somewhere between a broccoli and a cauliflower, cooks really fast, and goes well with most of the meats, especially steak. But this time “We” are not frying steaks, we making pasta.

Pasta always comes in handy, when you have not much time, or want to create something simple. However you make it, it`s going to be good. Sometimes I just look around what I have hidden at home, and a new recipe gets born every time..true story! So, last time I`ve been to the market, and spotted the romanesco I thought I come up with a pasta dish. It goes well with cream and garlic, so this was pretty much set. I had some spinach stuffed ravioli, and some mozzarella balls, so one part of the meal was covered.

With all of this I wanted something fresh and light. Bruschetta works all the time as well. I mean it`s one of the best meals ever. Just chop up some tomatoes with garlic and basil, and salt, put it over olive oil toast, and you have the perfect appetizer or party food. To make it look even better, try and pick up various cherry and regular tomatoes, red, yellow, green you name it, its going to look fantastic!

I also wanted to make some simple salad. I had some red wine seeded mustard at home, which I didn`t have the chance to try yet. My favourite lettuce is romaine lettuce, so most of the time I use that, and I juts love fresh cress. especially onion cress. So the salad was set as well.

When you get a meal ready, dont over think it. Just look around what you have at home, hiding in your fridge, pick up some things from the market or grocer which you fancy, and want to try, and even the smallest efforts go a long way.

Ingredients

Tortelloni with romanesco cream and mozzarella

A pack of fresh stuffed tortelloni for 2

half of a romanesco

100g of small mozzarella balls

100ml of creme

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

salt, white pepper

small slice of butter

Cook the tortelloni in hot boiling water, it gets ready just in a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, divide the romanesco in small roses, put it in boiling water, and cook just for a couple of minutes until soft. Don`t over cook it, when ready leave it under cold running water for a bit. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, add the garlic and creme, bring it to boil and watch not to burn it.  Add the romanesco, salt and pepper to taste, stir and add the pasta, make sure it all warms trough. Put it in a serving plate and put the mozzarella balls on top. Just let it melt a little over.

Ingredients

“Rainbow” bruscetta

2 ciabatta breads

a selection of fresh colourful tomatoes yellow, zebra, green, cherry, and red

3-4 cloves of garlic

pinch of pink Himalayan salt

4-5 leafs of fresh basil

Toast the bread slices in a frying pan over olive oil. Set aside. Slice and mix all ingredients together. Spread it over bread. YUM!!!!

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Recipe: Pappardelle in Yellow tomato sauce with grilled cherry tomatoes.

To be perfectly honest, there`s nothing new or interesting in this recipe, only I used yellow tomatoes for the sauce. I really like tomatoes, and when their colourful friends appear in stores and markets I just go crazy, because they just look cool. Of course their price isn`t really friendly most of the time, but I can tell people love them as despite their price they disappear from the shelves pretty fast.

I find that using the orange or the zebra or the yellow tomatoes in salad and sauces can really spice up the look of some old favourites, and make the lunch or dinner a bit more fun. Only the yellow tomatoes are a bit sweeter then their red version, and they are incredibly tasty with some extra garlic and parmesan cheese.  As much for italian traditions, they just go mental when they see people eating pasta with the salad, in their eyes it is just WRONG! But, I found that this version of tomato sauce goes very well, with some dried-fruity salad.

It is an easy and fast meal. If you are not a professional and experienced cook, you can still make f un dinners and surprise your guests.

Recipe (2-3 people)

• half a package of pappardelle
• 1 big onion (brunoise)
• 3 cloves of garlic ( finely chopped)
• 5 big yellow tomatoes.
• 2 spoons of butter
• olive oil
• a couple offresh rosemary leafs
• Couple of cherry tomatoes for decoration.
• salt, white pepper, nutmeg

Boil some water add the pasta, and some salt. If you added oil into the water so far, please don`t do it, it is just the waste of oil, you don`t need it! Stir it occasionally, don`t overcook it!

Put the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or 2 so you can easily get rid of the skin. After that slice them up into small cubes, and mix it with the finely chopped garlic, and the rosemary leafs.

Heat the oil and the butter, in a small saucepan, untill the butter melts. Get a spoonful of this mixture out and put it in a frying pan, this is for frying the cherry tomatoes. Add the onion, and  sweat it,while stirring occasionally, make sure the onion doesn`t get brown! Add the tomato, garlic, and rosemary mix, and cook for 10 or so minutes or untill sauce is ready. If your sauce is a bit thick you can add some water, but make sure, you bring it to boil and reduce the liquid! Before you finish add salt, pepper to taste, and a pinch of nutmeg. Serve it with the fried cherry tomatoes and some fresh parmesan, and maybe a glass of dry rose wine!

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Pasta Made easy pt2: Spinach and Bacon Pasta

I guess I don`t have to repeat myself and of course I don`t say anything new, if I say: Pasta Is EASY! Of course sometimes we ran out of ideas, and just  cook up a fast tomato sauce as a topping (It is still an all time favourite). Anyway if you are just hungry, just look inside the fridge, and see what you got in there and you can easily come up, with a new gourmet pasta recipe.

I did the same thing a while ago. I had some already defrosted spinach leafs, left over from a Sunday Brunch poached egg maddness – recipe soon. And Some leftover bacon from a never made Cesar salad.  pretty much that’s all you need. If you got some creme and onion, you arte already better than me, as I was a bit short on necessary veg at home, still, the fried bacon was enough. Also it goes very well with the spinach.

ingredients (for 3-4 persons)

If accessible:

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

small spoon of butter

In my case

Half a bag of defrosted spinach leafs

Half a pack of bacon-sliced

2 handful of chosen pasta

Cook the Pasta. meanwhile, fry the bacon in a saucepan, add the spinach, season, and when ready, mix it with the pasta, serve it with some parmesan, and garlic bread! Enjoy!:)

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Pasta made easy 1: Tortelli with Butternut Squash

It`s September, and we know it not only because the school starts, but the markets and supermarket shelves are getting full with pumpkins and squash. I have to tell you it is one of my favourite vegetables. It`s so tasty and good almost in and with anything. Soup,dip, lasagna, pie you name it, this orange treat its versatile, easy to use, and with the right seasoning we can reach to new culinary heights.

Of course it is also perfect with pasta. Pasta is good, pasta is a heavenly invention, which almost everybody likes and can be eaten with anything. What I love about it the most is, when the fridge is empty an there’s nothing at home, some pasta with some oil and herbs can even save a day or a hangover.

ingredients

Half of a butternut squash

3 cloves of garlic

olive oil

salt

1 pack of tortelli or any pasta really

a bit of butter

100ml of creme

Slice the squash into wedges, put it in a baking dish, with the garlic, salt and oil, and put it in the oven for 180C for about 30-40 minutes or until soft.

Cook the tortelli

When The squash is ready mash it in a saucepan with the butter and creme and fold in the tortelli. Now, you can use any seasoning you like sage, thyme, sumac and nutmeg are good friends with the squash. You can add some extra salt and maybe some white pepper. Perfect with white wine. Enjoy!

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