Filed under: Cookbook Recipes, Dishes of the World, Food on the Web | Tags: antonio, antonio carluccio, carluccio, Food, food channel, italian, samoriglio, tuna
© Antonio Carluccio
Just turned to the Food Channel on the TV and caught an episode of ‘Southern Italian Feast’ presented by my all-time favourite foodie Antonio Carluccio. It’s hard to believe that I first watched this show on the BBC ten years ago back in England.
After picking up some marvelous ingredients in Palermo’s Vucceri Market, Carluccio cooks a simple Tonno al Forno con Salmoriglio (Baked Pasta with Herbs) which he served with Zucchini al Pomodoro e Basilico (Courgettes with Tomato and Basil). While samoriglio (a mortar-and-pestled mxture of herbs, garlic and oil) is usually used to dress steamed or grilled fish, Carluccio dressed the tuna steaks before baking, adding a few pine nuts and breadcrumbs for added texture.
We have friends coming over at the weekend and, for once, I know exactly what I’m going to cook ahead of time!
Pissaladina
Over the holidays, I have read a number of great food books borrowed from the local library. These include the delightful Rosemary and Bitter Oranges, kitchen memories and recipes of a Tuscan childhood and brilliant The Man Who Ate Everything by lawyer/foodie Jeffrey Steingarten.
As usual when making food for family and friends, I have found a good deal of inspiration from my collection of Italian cookbooks. As Italian food rarely fails to please both the stomach and the eyes, here’s a few of the dishes I made with the odd photo for good measure.
Pissaladina
Inspired by ‘A Book of Mediterranean Food’ by the incomparable Elizabeth David of which I have a cherished 1960 paperback copy in which she writes the following
‘…across the Italian border, these dishes baked on bread dough are called pizza, which simply means a pie, and there are many variations of them, the best known being the Neapolitan pizza which consists of tomatoes, anchovies, and mozzarella cheese (a white buffalo/milk cheese). The local pizza of San Remo is very like the Provencal pissaladiere, but garnished with salted sardines instead of anchovies; it is known locally as sardenara.’
Writing in bleak post-war Britain, David advised getting unbaked dough from a local baker. Although I could ask Kevin for some of his, I usually make dough for my pizze, focacce and ciabatte to the superb recipes in Suzanne Dunaway’s No Need To Knead – Hand Made Italian Breads in 90 Minutes.
1kg onions, sliced
pizza or Italian bread dough
Black olives, stoned
Anchovy fillets
Olive oil
Roll out or hand stretch the dough to fit a large baking sheet or pizza stone. Cover the bottom of a saucepan with olive oil and add the sliced onions. Over a gentle heat, slowly cook the onions until almost to a puree – this will take around 40 minutes. Pour the puree on to the dough, put on the top and decorate it with stoned black olives and criss-cross with anchovy fillets. Bake in the oven, on the pre-heated stone or sheet as you would a pizza, until golden brown.
Salsa di pomodoro (l) and pissaladina onions (r) in the making
Salsa di Pomodoro d’Emilia
Emilia’s tomato sauce from ‘Rosemary and Bitter Oranges’ by Patrizia Chen. Emilia, the cook in Chen’s childhood home, would sometimes vary the recipe on a whim, adding a little rosemary or red wine to this classic sauce.
1 onion
1 carrot
1 clove garlic
½ stick celery
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
400g / 14oz can crushed or chopped tomatoes
Pinch of dried red pepper or chilli flakes (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Finely chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Saute the vegetables in the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a low heat for about 5 minutes, or until they begin to soften, stirring. Stir the tomatoes into the vegetables. For a little heat, add some red pepper or chilli flakes. Simmer gently for 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and flavourful. Season with salt and pepper.
Orecchiette Piccante
Orecchiette Piccante
From Antonio Carluccio’s Passion for Pasta. Antonio Carluccio is possibly the best champion of Italian food, certainly in the UK. His books and television appearances ooze with passion and excitement about great food. I made my own orecchiette by mixing 1lb of flour and five eggs with the dough hook of my Kenwood chef for 3-4 minutes, then wrapping in plastic wrap and resting the dough in the fridge for an hour. I then simply rolled out lots of ½cm thick strings and cut these into little 1cm lengths before flattening each with a thumb to make the individual orecchiette or ‘ears’, using a little flour to stop things getting too sticky.
4 oz / 100g sun-dried tomatoes in oil
4 anchovy fillets, in oil
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped basil
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley
¼ oz / 10g capers 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 small chilli pepper
1 oz / 25g stoned black olives
6 tablespoons virgin olive oil
½ pint / 300ml water
12 oz / 350g dried orecchiette
2 oz / 50g freshly grated Pecorino cheese
Drain the tomatoes and puree them in a food processor with 2 tablespoons each of the basil and parsley, the anchovies, capers, garlic, chilli pepper, olives, olive oil and water, until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Cook the pasta for 20-25 minutes, or until al dente. Meanwhile, gently simmer the tomato mixture in a pan for 5 minutes, adding a little more water if becoming too thick. Drain the pasta and mix with the sauce. Add the Pecorino cheese, mix together well and serve with the remaining basil and parsley sprinkled on top.
Minestrone
Also from Antonio Carluccio’s Passion for Pasta. Minestrone recipes vary from region to region depending on which ingredients are in season or available. For this vegetarian version – no bacon or ham – I adapted things a little further by substituting a tin or four bean mix for the borlotti beans and adding a little more pasta. These tweaks nudged the recipe to somewhere between minestrone and pasta e fagioli but that’s what I like to do; take a recipe as a starting point, not a prescription.
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 small clove garlic, peeled and chopped
4 celery sticks, diced
1 tomato, peeled, de-seeded and finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
A few leaves of fresh basil
1½ pints / 900 ml chicken stock
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 x 13 oz / 375g tin four bean mix, drained
5 oz / 110g dried tubettini
3 oz / 75g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic until the onion is soft. Add the remaining vegetables and the basil and toss well with the oil. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in the beans and the pasta. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente. Serve hot sprinkled with the Parmesan cheese.
Auckland is pretty empty this week with many folks out of town on their summer break. With so many people away, many of the cafes and restaurants are also closed with their owners also taking the opportunity to take a well-earned break.
Having breakfasted early on a coffee and doughnut, completed my morning’s work and then gone for a 4k run, I was more than ready for lunch and thought I might drive a few blocks over for lunch in Dominion Road, the longest straight road in Auckland and home to pretty much every type of eatery there is.
With a bowl of noodle soup in mind, I called SWMBO who was in town with the two youngest and suggested we meet for lunch. However, it soon became clear that many of the Chinese restaurants were closed and instead we walked into Super Pollo, a Peruvian cafe specialising in charcoal-roasted chicken. The menu centres around various dishes made from Peruvian spice-marinated chicken cooked on a spit over a charcoal fire accompanied by rice, cooked with herbs and vegetables, fried kumara, corn cobs and fresh salads. Other options include charcoal chicken burgers, chorizo, charcoal grilled lamb and other traditional Peruvian meals. To complete the Peruvian experience, there’s chicha morada, a traditional Peruvian drink or Inca Kola, a famous soft drink imported from Peru.
Between us, we tried the chicken and chips, chicken tortillas wrap with salad and mayo and roast chorizo with lettuce, tomato and cucumber salad. Each of these were freshly cooked and very enjoyable, though the tortilla wraps were a little on the small side (compared to the photos in the menu). The chicken portion was well-cooked with a deep dark skin full of flavour. The fries, which I believe were twice-fired like all great fries, had a satisfying crispness and were declared to be the best in New Zealand by the fussiest of our daughters. The chorizo had the rich taste of paprika-spiced pork and the plain and simple, dressed with a little salad cream or mayo, was fresh and plentiful.
With four of us admittedly sharing a bottle of Coke, this tasty and satisfying meal cost us about $7.50 a head, about the same as one might expect to pay at a certain fast food chain that serves chicken that none of us would eat. I’ll definitely be eating at Super Pollo again; next week, in fact, as I’ve just invited my management team for a lunch there to start the New Year.
As I’m sure I have mentioned here before, I like nothing better than spending time with good friends over a long meal and a few drinks and yesterday evening was a great example of this.
The Chairman of the Board is a life-long surfer who press-ganged me into a small band of brothers who make a twice-yearly ritual visits to his surf shack on the Northland’s east coast for surfing, seafood, ales and salty tales. Despite two of these trips and daily chats over coffee, we have never managed to get together with our respective partners until last night.
While the Chairman and our better halves settled down to getting to know each other over drinks on the deck, I rustled up a simple anti pasti of tomato slices topped with bocconcini, avocado and basil leaves, dressed with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic.
After much talk, we moved to the table and settled down to our meal. The primo course was a red pepper soup accompanied by a baby spinach and mushroom salad with a cider vinegar, olive oil and mustard dressing. The secondi was an involtini of chicken served with penne and broccoli.
With dessert, cake and coffee, this little lot took us close to midnight and our friends headed home with a parting request for the recipes below, the plan being, I believe, for the Chairman to extend his cooking portfolio beyond tuatua fritters cooked on a barbecue at the beach.
Red Pepper Soup
This soup is bursting with the best of Provence in the South of France; a combination of garlic, tomatoes, fennel and herbs that provide deep satisfying flavours without being overly rich. In hot weather, try serving it chilled as an alternative to gazpacho.
5 shallots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 red peppers, chopped small
400 ml can choppped tomatoes,
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 thyme
2 bay leaves
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
250 ml low-fat creme fraiche
fresh thyme sprig to garnish
In a pan, lightly saute the shallots and garlic in the olive oil until soft, then add the peppers and cook slowly until the peppers are soft. Add the tomatoes, crushed fennel seeds, paprika, herbs and stock to cook over medium-high heat until mixture comes to the boil. Remove from the heat
and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Blitz the soup in a food processor until almost smooth but still having a little texture. Gently whisk in most the low-fat creme fraiche until smooth and return to a low heat to ensure it is warmed through. Serve garnished with a spoonful of the remaining creme fraiche, a sprig of thyme and a sprinkle of paprika.
Involtini di Pollo con Penne e Broccoli
Taking the swordfish involtini recipe in the ‘Aldo Zilli’s Italian Food for Friends’ cookbook, I substituted chicken for swordfish and lengthened the cooking time accordingly. Find a good butcher who can cut and provide you with a crown; that is, the complete breast of large chicken, organic if possible, like the one I used. You can cut this into two breasts and then cut each again lengthways to provide four more than ample portions to work with.
75g fresh white breadcrumbs
40g pecorino or Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
5 green celery leaves, chopped
small handful of lightly toasted pine nuts
salt and freshly ground black pepper
75ml extra virgin olive oil
4 plump chicken breasts
2 or 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
500g penne pasta
450g broccoli, trimmed and divided into small florets
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 fresh red chillies, seeded and sliced or 1 tsp of crushed chillies
grated zest of 1 lemon
celery leaves, to garnish
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Mix together the breadcrumbs, just over half the cheese, the celery leaves, a little salt and 1 tbsp of the oil to form a rough paste. Place the chicken breasts between sheets of greaseproof paper or cling film and pound with a rolling pin to thin and flatten slightly. Remove the paper or film and lay out the four flattened chicken pieces. Divide the crumb and cheese paste equally among the pieces, spreading it out evenly. Roll
up the pieces and secure each roll with a wooden cocktail stick, or butcher’s string if you prefer. Place the rolls on a baking tray with the rosemary sprigs among them and drizzle with olive oil. Roast on a high shelf for 20 minutes, turning to brown evenly half way through. Meanwhile, cook the penne in a large pan of boiling salted water for 10-12 minutes until al dente and drain when done. At the same time, steam or boil the broccoli for 5 minutes until tender and bright green, before draining and refreshing. Gently heat the remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil in large frying pan and add the garlic and chillies. Cook for 1 minute, then add the broccoli and lemon zest. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring or tossing frequently. Stir in the pasta and the remaining cheese. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste before plating. Slice each roll diagonally and place on the pasta. Garnish with fresh celery leaves to
serve.
My Swiss niece and her Mexican husband have just had their second child. By way of celebration, I thought I’d offer up this recipe for a soup with a difference. The chilis, avocado, coriander and limes bring an unusual twist to the tomato and stock base. Good luck to Annette, Memo and both their boys now, as they will soon be moving from Europe back to Mexico for the second time.
Tortilla Soup
Don’t be afraid to experiment with recipes like this, a little less of this, a little more of that and adding a favourite ingredient to see how it influences the final dish. Tortilla soup comes in many guises, as these Flickr pictures show.
2 cloves garlic
½ onion, halved
4 tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
1 tbsn corn oil
2 sprigs coriander
8 corn tortillas
2 hot chilis
2 avocados
1 cup queso fresco or feta cheese
½ cup sour cream
3 limes — halved
Cut the chilis into thin ring and remove the seeds. Halve, peel and thinly slice the avocados lengthwise. Put the garlic, onion and tomatoes on a baking tray and roast at high heat until charred, should be about about 5 minutes. Peel the tomatoes, coarsely chop and place in a blender or food processor with the garlic and onion and blend until you have a thick puree. You can thin with a little stock if it’s too thick to pour. In a large saucepan over high heat, warm the 1 tablespoon oil the add the puree and stir for a couple of minutes. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered for about 5 minutes until the puree reduces slightly. Add the coriander sprigs and the remaining chicken stock and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes longer.
In the meantime, cut the tortillas in half, then cut each half crosswise into thin strips. In a small frying pan over high heat, pour in oil to a depth of ½ inch. Fry the tortilla pieces in batches until crisp, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Fry the chili rings in the same oil until crisp, about 1 minute. Ladle into individual bowls, add the fried tortilla strips to the soup and top with some of the chili rings, avocado slices and crumbled cheese. Serve immediately with the cream, limes and remaining avocado slices and chili rings in separate bowls at the side.
This recipe is dedicated to The Urge, a good friend, former colleague, rock chick and Spurs fan who describes herself somewhat self-deprecatingly as the silly blonde from Finnish Karelia.
After Dilbert-like days fixing bits of the internet in the booming London Docklands of the ’90s, we occasionally numbed ourselves with wine, beer and food in the local pub and tapas bar. Having lived there previously, The Urge is a frequent visitor to the Greek islands and regularly posts ‘count down to Greek holiday’ items on her blog, invariably accompanied by a picture of gorgeous Greek food.
A recent visit to her blog set my mind to thinking about such food and, with five hungry and fussy mouths to feed tonight, I decided that kebabs of some description would fit the bill nicely. Easy to prepare, easy to cook, easy to serve, kebabs (or gyros to our US and NZ cousins) can represent a pretty well balanced meal when accompanied by salad. The recipe below was more than adequate to feed five of us.
Lamb Kofte
If you plan to grill or barbecue the kofte, you can place three or four each on (pre-soaked) bamboo or metal skewers. Alternatively, simply shallow fry them in batches and transfer them to a warm oven until you are ready to serve.
2 slices bread
¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
¼ mint leaves, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 small onion, minced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
500g. ground lamb
Pita breads
Tzatziki (cucumber yoghurt salad)
Reduce the bread to a fine crumb in a food processor and transfer to a large bowl. Add the parsley, egg, mint, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, cumin, coriander, mix well and then work in the lamb by hand. Shape the lamb mixture into pieces like a small elongated egg – these are called koftes – and set out on greased paper on a baking sheet. Keep them in the refrigerator until you are ready to grill or freeze and then bag for future use. Shallow fry or cook over a medium/hot grill for 5 to 7 minutes, turning or moving a couple of times to ensure even cooking.
To make tzatziki, simply add grated or finely diced cucumbers to yoghurt. Depending on what recipe you read, you can then add varying amounts of any or all of the following to taste – minced onion, garlic, dill, parsley,mint. Once you have it to your satisfaction, season with a little olive oil, a teaspoonful of vinegar and perhaps an olive or two on top.
Serve the kofte in warmed pita with tzatziki, hummus and perhaps a little shredded lettuce if you feel like it, not to mention a large glass of your favourite wine.
Click on each image for full size before and after goodness.
As Kevin will tell you, most of us folks from the East End of London are partial to the odd curry. Having started out on my Dad’s homemade curries based on meals he’d eaten while in India with the army, I have enjoyed many curries over the years. From beer-chasing curries in student discount curry houses to the home cooked dishes of Indian friends, I have come to appreciate the almost infinite variety of foods from the Indian subcontinent.
Although I enjoy cooking, there are days when I wish that I could walk through the door after a long day and find a meal has magically cooked itself. Though that day may be a long way off, we recently picked up a family sized crockpot (slow cooker) that gets us a little closer. Given that rich, sauce based curries lend themselves to slow cooking, it seemed only fitting that the first meal cooked in our new purchase was just such a dish.
As the tolerance of chili and spices varies in the family, I decided on a curry house style butter chicken dish. Much like the British obsession with chicken tikka masala, butter chicken is very popular with Kiwis and is readily accepted as an authentic Indian dish, despite a somewhat doubtful and hazy provenance.
Regardless of authenticity, the only real test is taste and flavour and this slow cooked curry proved to be very popular with four out of the five present and declared one of the best curries ever made in our house. In fact, we polished the whole thing off inside 15 minutes despite having said we’d save a portion for the absent curry-loving daughter. All of which means I’ll be making it again soon and, having written about it here, I’d better invite Kevin and Tanya too!
Makhni Chicken
This recipe was adapted from one I found on Yogi Gupta’s web site Indiacurry.com. I substituted extra yoghurt for a reduced amount of cream and added a little hot curry paste which gave a little more depth to the flavour without adding any more heat.
3 tablespoons cooking oil
3 or 4 large skinless chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces.
1 finely chopped onion
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
½ tablespoon minced ginger
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 tablespoon hot curry paste
3 tablespoons yoghurt
1 cup chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon paprika
½ cup cream
Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan and fry chicken pieces till white/light brown. Remove with slotted spoon and put in the crock pot. Add onions, salt and cayenne to hot oil in the pan. Sauté until the onions are translucent and the edges start to turn brown. Add the garlic and ginger, sauté for another 2 minutes. Add the curry powder and paste and sauté for a minute before adding yoghurt and reducing for 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and butter and heat until the mixture starts to bubble before transfering to your crock pot. Use the ¼ cup water to deglaze the pan and add water to the crock pot. Add remaining ingredients, except for the garam masala and cream, stir and cover the crock pot. Set the crockpot to high, After the first 40 minutes, turn down cooker to low and leave to cook for 5 hours, stirring in the cream and garam masala 10 minutes before the end. Alternatively, if you want a quicker result, cook at high for 4 hours. Serve with basmati rice and roti
I’m just back from a three day business trip to Melbourne and thought I write a few words about the eateries I visited before the jet-lag finishes me off.
Blue Train Cafe – hip and stylish cafe in the heart of the South Bank. I had three extremely flavoursome minted lamb cutlets served on a Lebanonese styleflat bread heaped with toasted almond tabouleh, rocket salad & yoghurt dressing. This plus a freshly made lemon, lime and bitters and coffee for under $25 made a great value lunch.
The Courthouse – a very pleasant local restaurant located in the suburb of Berwick. After a Leffe blonde beer and a squint at the menu, I opted for the lemon and pepper calamari followed by three porks with pickled cabbage. Neither dish really stood out when compared to my companions’ meals and, while the pork chop was tender, the gammon was dry and salty and the belly limp and lacking flavour. Redemption came in the form of the sorbets I had for dessert and a superb Marlborough pinot gris. I didn’t pick up the tab for this meal but, despite nice decor and efficient service, I’m not convinced my meal justified the prices on the menu.
Eating House – This large airy restaurant in Lynbrook has been open less than a week but still provided a lunch for seven hungry business folk in quick order. Despite a large menu of modern Australian dishes, I choose a Caesar salad with barbecue chicken, which was pleasant with well balanced flavours if a little lacking in presentation. All the dishes were well-proportioned and offered good value for money, as did the Sauvignon Blanc we shared. I’ll be back to try more when I fly back to Melbourne in a few week’s time.
La Camera Southgate – this was my second visit to this down to earth Italian-influenced restaurant. Dips, warm olives and flat bread paved the way nicely for a firm fleshed marlin steak served with a rich tapenade and roast Mediterranean vegetables. The fish was excellent and the vegetables a good enough supporting act to help balance things out. We baled out early in order to grab rich sweet desserts and coffee at Zampelis Cafe Greco near the Crown Casino. I ordered a lemon cheesecake but failed to eat more than two mouthfuls – too sweet for my savoury tooth and too large for my at-capacity stomach.
For me, food is invariably linked to a memory or a place. As we ate a deli-style lunch today and I idly dipped my ciabatta in garlic olive oil, my mind went straight to the Spanish dish Gambas Pil Pil (chili prawns), always among my favourites and a great excuse for eating great bread and downing a few glasses of red wine. However, the place I associate with this dish isn’t some Spanish fishing village but London’s Docklands.
Ten years back, my office was near a great Balearic/Spanish tapas bar and restaurant on the Isle Of Dogs. This neighbourhood hangout served great gambas pil pil, squid, chorizo and tortilla, all authentic and as they would be in a local Spanish eatery, so Spanish colleagues told me. On a sunny day, it took very little to convince me to pop over the square and across the bridge for a lunchtime treat of a tapas or two, a glass of house red and an hour pretending I was somewhere in Northern Spain.
Sadly, time saw the clientèle drift away to the bright lights and big name restaurants of Canary Wharf’s new business district but whenever I make this dish myself, I think back to those days and the friends I fought for the last prawn in the bowl and the last bread in the basket!
There are many ways to cook the gambas but, if you don’t have the traditional pottery dishes in which to bake and serve these, they can be cooked in a pan on the top of the stove in two minutes flat as set out below.
Gambas Pil Pil
10 medium prawns
3 tbs. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
salt to taste
sliced lemon
1 chilli, chopped
1 tsp. parsley
a pinch of paprika
Peel prawns leaving tail section intact. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic, chilli and saute for a few seconds. Add prawns and cook quickly on high heat until coloured, no more than 60 seconds. Add salt and parsley and toss over heat for a minute. Garnish with paprika and lemon and serve in a bowl with crusty bread and a bottle of wine.
I like to cook for family and friends but occasionally it can be fun to cook for a bigger crowd.
As mentioned elsewhere, a few years ago I agreed to cater a one hundred cover wedding meal for the son of a good friend. The night before found me in the kitchen of a community centre chopping endless piles of vegetables for a ratatouille, helped by a guest who turned out to be a policeman just back from war crimes duties in Eastern Europe. The next day I was on my own and set to cooking to cook the meal in the garden of the centre, using two barbecues, a gas burner and not a lot else. Although it was a little chaotic, I had a great time and the guests got their meals without any dramas.
A month or so back, I invited my four colleagues from my management team and their partners to dinner at our place. As we’re a new team, we haven’t socialised much so I thought dinner would be a great way to kick back, avoid work talk and get to know each other a little better. Yesterday was the day of the team dinner and, true to form, I was still scanning cookbooks for possible recipes over breakfast. After a few cups of coffee and some thought as to dishes I could cook concurrently, I settled on a menu inspired by Italian food and flavours.
I set out with my eldest and youngest to pick up the ingredients from the local producers and the nearest supermarket. The local supermarkets have a fair range of international ingredients and there are a few European food importers in the area that I can use to get them less common items. However, one of the delights and benefits of living in our township is that we have so many fruit, vegetable and produce growers nearby, most of whom have a farm shop, so picking up fresh seasonal produce is never a chore. Needless to say, we spent a fair amount of time and money assembling the ingredients we needed.
From this mound of produce, my second eldest took over and helped me prepare a meal for ten in just under three hours. With our two large tables pushed together and set with pretty much every piece of cutlery, crockery and glassware we own, we welcomed everyone with wine, freshly baked foccacia and olives, chatting for a while before sitting down to eat the dishes we had prepared. These were:
Chickpea and Leek Soup – based on a chicken and vegetable stock, this is not a strongly flavoured soup but a warming one that suited the cool evening well – inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe.
Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni – a classic Italian dish of which there are many, many variations to choose from.
Spaghetti with Rocket, Tomato and Olive Dressing – another Oliver inspired dish that’s quick to put together and serve.
Porcini and Roma Tomato Orzotto – my own recipe made with aborio rice,
barley, porcini mushrooms and crushed tomatoes and chicken stock. Since first discovering Barbara Kafka’s Microwave Gourmet, I have rarely made a risotto the traditional way and yet have had raves from risotto snobs who can’t believe I use a microwave.
Peperoni Mandorlati – a delicious antipasti of sauted peppers with almonds, raisins and pomodoro from the always entertaining and authoritative Antonio Carluccio’s Southern Italian Feast.
A selection of desserts followed including pineapple upside-down cake, apple cake and a great cheese board provided by my boss. We accompanied these with a tawny port, a semillion dessert wine and a contraband bottle of homemade limoncella smuggled in from Italy. After coffees and teas, our visitors scooped up their kids – who’d had their own movie and popcorn party in the den -, said their goodbyes and headed home.
The inevitable pile of washing up we faced after closing the door was soon done but we left the tables set up because, this evening, we had close friends and their two daughters over for a cheap and cheerful one-pan dinner. For the second night running, we had ten around the table, with our two families tucking into a simple supper of quartered chickens roasted with cherry tomatoes and basil, served with potatoes and salad.
As a kid growing up on my own, I loved seeing big families sitting down to eat together in the old films and was envious of my Italian neighbours with their loud, boisterous and exciting family meals. I would dream of sitting around a big table surrounded by my family and friends and always thought it would be the best way to spend time. I’m rarely disappointed.
