Janice Tripepi

This Tuscan dish is another Tripepi family favourite and like ANY pasta dish, this has been lovingly prepared in hundreds of different variations.   Thsee little balls of heaven are basically “naked ravioli”.   Ricotta cheese is blended with any number of ingredients to form little naked ravioli balls.   They are quick to prepare and are light on the tummy.  You get the good stuff ie. the ravioli or panzerotti filling without the pasta!!!!   IT’S ITALIAN DIET FOOD people ……hehehe!

Some have tried to link Gnudi (pronounced NYOUDIE) to the Gnocchi family – NOT SO!!  The Gnocchi family is potato based and Gnudi are cheese based.  The great chefs of Italy have refined these from the Family Golf Ball / Egg sized treats to

teeeeeny weeeeny cheffy Marbella pearl sized

pretty food. 

Nothing wrong with this refinement i say!! BBUT seeing as I would have to make literally hundreds of them

in order to fill Max’s bottomless- pit- of- a- well- of -an- unfed starved stomach – i pass – opting for

the romantic peasant approach aka. “rustico” ie. rustic ie. bigger is better.  Cos it’s

easier!

Perhaps if I were cooking for a dinner party i would make these with some super gourmet

foodie luxury ingredients – such as Truffle with Ceps or Crab & Saffron or or or ….. who know’s but this would

mean that I would serve only 4 or 5 per person and therefor bearable to prepare!!!

Gnudi are perfect for our summer evenings – and as you will see we ate

Al Fresco for dinner one night this week with a plate of antipasti and Italian chopsticks

 aka -  Grissini.

This is Spinach & Mushroom Gnudi in a Chilli Tomatoe Sauce ….. buono!!!!

For the Gnudi you will need:

500g of Ricotta cheese

1 large packet of baby spinach

1 punnet of mushrooms

10 cloves of finely chopped garlic

olive oil for frying

salt & pepper

3 tbl spoons of flour

a good grating of nutmeg

In a frying pan – lightly fry some garlic – salt and pepper (use the ready ground powder NOT cracked pepper)

add the baby spinach and fry until all the water has evapourated.

Take out and chop nice and finely and allow to cool.

In the same pan – fry the finely chopped mushrooms in garlic and salt and pepper (powder) until

the water has evapourated and they are slightly caramelised.

Set asided and allow to cool.

In a bowl – mash up the ricotta with a fork and add the grated nutmeg – about 1/4 of a teaspoon,

then add the cooled spinach and mushrooms, the flour and salt and pepper to taste.

Taste a little of your mixture to check for the seasoning.

IF your ricotta is very wet – you can drain it in a piece of kitchen cloth.

The flour is to bind the mixture – so 3 – 4 tlb spoons should be enough.

Ingredients for the Cherry Tomato & Chilli Sauce:

Cut one large punnet of cherry or rosa tomatoes in half

1 tin of peeled tomatoes liquidised

2 small onions finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 chilli finely chopped – if you want it hotter add 2 chillies or if you dont like chilli u can leave it out.

1 chicken stock cube

pepper

a handful of chopped fresh basil

In a pan – fry the garlic, chilli & onion in olive oil till lightly browned

add the salt – pepper – cherry tomatoes and liquidised peeled tomatoes (or you could use passata)

 and cook.  When the sauce is ready – about 20 minutes add the fresh basil,

To assemble the Gnudi:

Pre-heat your oven to 180d.

In an oven proof dish place a few spoons of the tomato on to the bottom of the dish to prevent the gnudi

from sticking.

With clean hands – pour a little olive oil over your hands to prevent the mixture from

sticking and make egg sized balls of the mixture and place them in the oven proof dish.

Once the dish is full – pour over the rest of the tomatoe sauce and cover with a good grating of

parmesan cheese and bake @ 180d for about 20 minutes until the top is nicely

browned .

On the plate ready to be eaten with the

Italain Chopsticks!!!

Buon Appetito!!

Jan

Luscious Lamb and I have had an on-going love affair for as long as i can remember.   From looooong lovingly roasted legs and shanks – to crispy little riblets on the braai – to my all time faves – rack and rolled loin of lamb.  My girlfriend Carol is lovingly fattening up some darling little lambs on her farm up in the hills of Underberg.  They are munching away on all sorts of indigenous flora – and Carol assures me that she is feeding them fresh rosemary for an extra special bit of pre-cooking seasoning !!!  She can often be found running around in the late afternoons – trying to catch the little critters to go into their pen for a comfy, SAFE night away from any danger.  Short of naming them – A HUGE NO-NO in the farm world, Jan-Jan’s lamb is doing very well.  What could be more animal friendly and honouring of ones food than this?

This dish – I venture to say, would be perfect for the upcoming feast of St Valentino.  It’s cooked in a flash – and drenched in a sweet onion and red (the colour of luuuuuuuuuuurv) wine marmalade.  The juiciness and flavour of this cut – doen’t require much competition on the plate.  Here i served it with simple boiled organic baby potatoes napped with olive oil, maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper – and a trio of mushrooms in garlic and butter.

Ingredients

For 2 people

2 rolled loin of lamb

1 jar of Woolies Onion Marmalade (for the quick and easy version – if you want

to make your own and you have the time – FAB!)

a dash – about 2 tbl spoons of balsamic vinegar

2 glasses of red wine – i used a Diemersfontein Shiraz Cab Sauvignon seen here below

4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

maldon sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

olive oil – for browning the meat

Get your rolled loins to room temperature because they are not going to be cooked for very long

and there is nothing worse than biting into a piece of rare meat that is still ice cold in the centre.

Pre-heat your oven to 200d in a thermo fan oven or 220 in a normal oven

Insert sprigs of fresh rosemary into each end of the rolled lamb

In a pan brown the meat well on all sides in olive oil

Remove from the pan and transfer into a roasting pan

Place in the oven for 8 – 10 minutes

8 minutes of rare and 10 minutes for medium

While the meat is roasting

Deglaze the frying pan with the two glasses of red wine – making sure that

you get all of the caramelisation off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon

add 4 -5 generous table spoons of the onion marmalade with

salt and pepper and a dash of balsamic vinegar and reduce to a nice thick

gooey sweet and tart sauce.

Take off the heat and set aside.

Remove the meat from the oven and cover the pan with some tin foil and

leave the meat to rest for a good 5 minutes.  This will relax the meat and

make it tender.

Some juices will leech from the meat while it is resting – DONT throw them

away – add them to the sauce for extra flavour.

Slice the meat – one fillet or loin per person

and plate up with a generous helping of the sauce over it.

Add your veggies – this would go very nicely with a flvoured herbed mash and any

number of fresh veggies.

Buon Appetito!

xx

jan

In this day and age when we are generally rushed off our feet,  this dish cracks a ten out of ten.  Ragu – basically is a meat sauce for pasta.  A bolognaise is a ragu – any sauce that contains meat falls under the generic term ragu.  This ragu – takes the cake.  You are cooking a sliverside roast in a sauce – the meat imparts a rich deep flavour to the sauce – which is generally used to prepare the starter for the meal ie. pasta and the meat constitutes the main dish of the meal.  So WALLA – two dishes cooked in one pot. 

The eye of a silverside is a really really inexpensive cut of meat – the success of cooking this piece of beef is in looooooong slow cooking.  You cannot cook it any other way – it’s not forgiving like a nice juicky fillet that can be browned and bunged into the oven for 20 minutes.  I guess – as it’s a cheaper cut one needs to coax flavour out of it and tenderness into it!!!   But when prepared with some love and care it’s delish!!!

INGREDIENTS FOR THE RAGU

1 Eye of Silverside Roast (the one in the picture cost R68.90)

4 tins of peeled tomatoes liquidised

6 cloves of garlic finely chopped

3 medium onions finely chopped

3 carrots grated

3 sticks of celery grated

2 chicken stock cubes

2 glasses of white wine

water

4 sprigs of thyme and 4 of rosemary

In a nice heavy pot – brown the roast well on all sides and remove from the pot

Here is the browned Silverside and it cooking away happily

in the tomatoe sauce.

In the same heavy pot -

Pour in some olive oil and brown the onion & garlic

When browned add in the dry white wine and reduce until the alcohol has cooked off

Add the celery, carrot, chicken stock cube, rosemary, thyme and liquidised tomatoes

Bring this to the boil stirring frequently

Add the Siverside back to the pot and top up with water until the roast is covered with liquid

Bring this to the boil – for about 15 minutes and then reduce to a slow simmer

and let the meat gently cook in the tomato sauce.

I cooked this for about 3 hours nice and gently – turning the piece of meat

every hour or so.

Don’t worry that the sauce is watery – when the meat is cooked you will remove it

and bring the sauce to the boil – and reduce it to a nice thick consistency.

When the roast is cooked – take out of the sauce and wrap in foil or put in a dish with a lid and

allow to cool slowly.  When it’s cooled nicely cut into slices using an electirc knife.

Place in dish and cover with half of the nice deep meaty tomato sauce.

NB: I HAVE COOKED HALF OF A SILVERSIDE HERE, SO IF YOU HAVE A LARGE FAMILY

GATHERING OR SUCH TO COOK FOR – A WHOLE SIVERSIDE WILL FEED 15 TO 20 PEOPLE

WITH EASE. 

The rest of the sauce you can use to prepare a nice

dish of pasta.

And here you have – your starter of Spaghetti al Ragu with a dash of fresh cream

and

Arrosto di Carne al Ragu seerved with a nice rocket salad.

Buon Appetito!

Ciao For Now!!!!

Jan

xxx

Today is the first gruelling day of the Hansa Powerade Duzi Canoe Race!!  Carol and I have seconded her son Sebastian many times over the 3 hot and sweaty days of this wonderful race.  We would load up the “kedunta-wa” with everything but the kitchen sink.  Armed with food, tents, medical supplies, resin & fibreglass, extra paddles and the end of each day libations!!!  Hundreds and hundreds of people rushing around the countryside – from Pietermartizburg all the way down to Blue Lagoon in Durban.  The overnight camping spots were loads and loads of fun.

The commeradery is on the Duzi absolutely fantast!  With complete strangers helping each other out with broken paddles and rudders etc.  So, in honour of this race of champions - I am posting my latest cocktail creation – which i shall from hence forth refer to as The Duzi!!! 

How do you know when you have mixed a successful cocktail you may ask …….. I’ll tell you how.  You mix with the deftness of the famous apothecary Merlin,  you decorate with more flair than South African fashion design guru Renato Palmi and you drink like our wine Ed Cathy Marston!!!! (hehehe … sorry Cathy).  First you drink one and then another and then just for good measure, to be absolutely sure that you have the right mix you drink another.  IF – you have managed to concoct a cocktail of great balance and fortitude you will notice that the decorations from one drink to the next – change somewhat!!!  IF  your cocktail is having the desired effect on all of your senses you will notice how your decorating ‘FLAIR” just get more and more fabulous!!!  Mission accomplished!!

Check out THIS BABY for decorating talent!!!!!!!!!!

This is how they started off – elegant and

understated  ….  i would call this

minimalist …

Cocktail creating should be fun and provide a moment of

lunacy …. shouldn’t it!!!!

The Duzi

Potion Extraordinaire!!!

Add the following to your blender:

chopped kiwi fruit

chopped plums

chopped peaches

the juice of two lemons

the beans from 1 vanilla pod

sugar – to taste

a dash of lime juice

Blend this up until nice and fruity and smooth

Pour into suitable glasses

and top up with crushed ice and your fave bubbly

In this case we used a bottle of

KWV sparkling, bubbly stuff

Decorate to your hearts content … and then decorate some more

I can’t quite remember the technical name of the bubbly

So i guess,

Mission Accomplished!!!

Cin Cin

Salute

xxx

Good luck Sebastian – I hope the river is kind to you!!!!!!!!

This truly is a cracker of a recipe.  What it lacks in general visual appeal it kicks A### in the taste department.  This is the perfect dish to serve al fresco or for a fabulous lunch.   How often do we wrack our brains for something that included meat but is served chilled on these hot summer days and nights. 

This wonderful dish from the Piedmont region of Italy – is incredibly easy to prepare.    The pilgrims and even the Crusaders travelling from Cantebury to Rome would pass through Piedmonte and enjoy this dish in roadside taverns.  What a romantic fact!!! 

Nonna Lilly, has often presented a dish of Vitello Tonnato for either the Christmas or New Years Eve buffet table.  I remember one year, she prepared the dish on a beautiful round silver platter and decorated it with black truffle – to look like a clock.  I mean, this is one sassy Nonna, who, in her day NEVER spared any expense or effort in presenting and preparing wonderful inspiring food.  I don’t know if I have publicly thanked her, for she taught me how to cook when hubby and I were courting.  Every Thursday night – and I must add that I could not cook ANYTHING!! – Nonna would patiently walk me through a recipe explaing absolutely everything with such kindness.  Grazie infinite Mamma xxxx

Vitello tonnato is traditionally prepared using a veal roast – but with the general scarsity of this cut of meat I would venture to suggest that (People of Piedmonte forgive me !) a nice fillet sealed and roasted to medium rare would be even nicer.  Oh my hat I could be burnt on the stake for this one. 

I hope that you make it – and I just know that you will enjoy it tremedously.  It’s the perfect dish for an African summer!!!

Ingredients for the Roast Veal

1 Veal Roast

1 carrot

1 onion

1 stick celery

3 bay leaves

2 chicken stock cubes

2 glasses of dry white wine

whole pepper corns

a few sprigs of rosemary

Olive oil for frying

6 cloves of garlic

In a pot – seal the roast on all sides in the olive oil

Add all of the other ingredients and cover with water

Bring to the boil for 15 minutes and reduce right down to a slow simmer

I cooked mine for about an hour and a half

when it’s cooked.  put the lid on the pot and leave to cool off the stove nice and slowly

this will tenderise the meat nicely.

If you want to make this with a fillet

roll the fillet in lots of flaked sea salt and cracked black pepper

Seal the fillet in a pan and then place it in the oven

at 200d for 20 – 25 minutes depending on how rare you enjoy your meat

when cooked enough remove and cover and allow to cool.

FOR THE TUNA & CAPER MAYO SAUCE

There are 2 ways to do this.

If you are feeling all cheffy make a home made mayonnaise and add the following to the

blender when its nice and creamy.

2 anchovettes very finely chopped

100ml of capers – well drained and finely copped

the juice of 1 large lemon

the zest of half of the lemon

lots of freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp sugar

2 tins of well drained tuna (in oil for those not watching their weight and without for the dieters)

Add the above to the blender and pulse until nicely amalgamated.

Taste – taste taste – i dont add salt because the anchovettes are salty and so are the capers

but have a taste and adjust to your liking – I like lots of lemon in mine to cut through

the richness of the dish.

The Other way to make this sauce

If, like me, you were hecticly busy go the Nigella route – quick and easy

Take a small bottle of Helmans Mayonnaise and

add the ingredients above.

I can promise you that you are not compromising the end result using ready made mayo

It’s delish!!!!!

Finally – to put the dish together

Cut thin slices of the veal or fillet and lay them on a platter

Pour the tuna caper mayo over and decorate with some

capers. 

Or – if you are feeling very very energetic

buy some black truffle and decorate

the platter to look like a clock –

Just like Nonna!!!!!!

Bless Her!

I served my vitello tonnato with salad.

You could also go the more traditional route and serve with

baby potatoes tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper with a green salad!!

Any special meal in the Tripepi household and indeed in any Italian home will always begin with antipasto.  This collection of cured meats, pepperoni, olives, pickled vegetables, roasted tomatoes and artichoke hearts in all its vibrancy heralds the begin of the feast!.  One would also traditionally put either mozarella or provolone cheese on the platter.  I chose not to put cheese on these platters as the second dish of our Christmas lunch was prawns and langoustines on a bed of Italian rice salad.  I served another platter- but some how i forgot to photograph it. 

At this time of year with all the beautiful sweet melons around I would have been shot at dawn had i not included the duo “favoloso” parma ham (prosciuto crudo) and melon.  A bread basket of ciabatta and grisini (thin crunchy bread sticks) never stops moving around the table.  This is all washed down with a good bottle of wine or ten!!  I shall attempt to link this post with the recipes i have already posted for peperoni and roasted tomatoes!!! 

Ciao for now!!!

jan

ps : I shall try and link this to my recipes for pepperoni and roasted cherry tomatoes here for the roasted cherry tomatoes and here for the pepperoni recipe!! 

 Wow – I think i did it!

It takes more than one platter to feed my lot!!!

This year is already challenging the living be-jivers out of me.  I am not one to fall about fainting – my head goes down and my natural instinct is to fight back with every ounce of my fibre.  It all started on New Years Day,  there I was swanning around the pool at the Wild Coast Sun – loving life, the smell of sunscreen and swimming pool in the air.  

The Tripepi Troupe was about 20 strong – we were having a good laugh about our New Years Eve bash at the hotel.  Sun International scored a solid 2 out of 3 in our assessment of the bash – was the general consensus.  Food – excellent  Midnight Fire Works display – excellent  – Live Band (consisting of only 3 members had a combined age of at least 155) – not good.  They would definitely have been better suited to a pub evening.  Anyway – as the fire works banter grew – my mind went to my dogs.  Phoenix (mummy dalmation) is absolutely -positively – 190% terrified of bangs – she vomits and will run full tilt into a wall at the sound of fireworks.  Her daugher (half bull terrier half dalmation aka - my damnation) doesn’t flinch.  She is liable to run and chase them – WHICH, IT WOULD APPEAR is exactly what she did.  I called home to check up on my dogs and Bubbles was “missing”!!!!!!!!

Arrangements had been made for the dogs but Bubbles had a different agenda.  I shan’t go into a lengthy discription of how we found our lost puppy!!! In only two hours we had the whole of Durban mobilised into “Find Bubbles” cadres.  Bubbles is a celebrity dog now and i quote, “A scared Bubbles was one of many dogs who panicked and fled as fireworks exploded in durban on New Year’s Eve. ………. She was found running down South Ridge Road jsut after midnight. …. “We caught her and kept her in the house for the night.  She is wearing a red collar with the name Bubbles in glitter AND LOOKS WELL FED.”  While the family made a fuss of the frightened dog, their pet pig Leonardo da Piggy was less than impressed and gave a grunt of relief when the SPCA van drew up outside the house on New Year’s Morning” ………… need I say more “Well Fed” – she is a Tripepi after all - AND may I just add – that our Bubbles had been on diet!!!!! 

The article had an accompanying pic of Bubbles with the young lass (14yrs) who found her and took her in.  Our deepest thanks and gratitude to a wonderful young lady Vicky, who loves animals so much that she did not just turn a blind eye to a Bubbles in need.  Vicky puts the “kind” in the word humankind. 

In keeping with our weight-loss programme, here is a quick and easy summer salad of prawns and mango with a red pepper dressing.

Ingredients

Butter Lettuce

1 Mango

200g peeled – deveigned prawns (Woolies sell them already prepared)

A handfull of cherry tomatoes (these came FROM MY GARDEN)

Broccolli – stalks off

A handful of sprouts – lentils and chick peas

2 chopped spring onions

1 handfull of either fresh basil or coriander (whichever you prefer)

Arrange the salad in individual bowls and top with the prawns

Red Pepper Dressing

You have 2 choices here –

A.  In a blender place some red Pepperoni (see my pepperoni antispasto recipe)

 or

B.  Place 5 tbl spoons of Woolies organic Red Pepper Spread in the blender

add – the juice of one lemon

a good grinding of black pepper

salt to taste

1 tbl spoon of white balsamic vinegar

1 tbls of honey

1 tsp of origanum

1 tsp of cayenne pepper or a chopped red chilli (for a nice bite)

Blend the above together – no oil needed – taste the dressing and adjust is to your liking -

once you’ve got it just right dress your salad with this tangy bright red dressing.

Hop on the scale – and marvel at the weight you have lost!!!!

Buon appetito!!

I am FINALLY up to date at work and am rolicking through my “loose ends” from last year.  I have cleaned and filed and thrown out a mountain of unwanted and unused garbage clogging the arteries of my home.  Mondi paper waste will be able to produce toilet paper for the entire nation with my paper waste!!!!  Well done Mondi Paper Waste programme. 

I did mention, if a little sheepishly that the Tripepi’s are dieting!!! Horror of horrors …. the word diet gives me the shivers.  Break the word down and what do you get???  Die – with a T on the end.  I KNOW it’s purely psychological – and when I get in that swimming pool in the mornings I am a demon – the more laps – the harder i swim and sweat (and believe it or not – YOU SWEAT IN THE WATER) the sooner I will attain an acceptable shape ……… well, for my liking.  I don’t believe is scales, I don’t even have one in my kitchen (maybe that is why my baking is sooooo diabolical … just a thought) !!!!  I see myself as a Boticelli woman – abundant and curvesque. 

My meals at the moment are moderate and ……………….. moderate.  No other way to put it.  Hubby informed me that he felt “weak” this morning.  The poor man is languishing, for in his world food is not only comfort it is the beginning and ending of all life, it’s reward, it’s the expression of our love for him – it punctuates his day with hapiness and joy.  WELL NOT NOW DARLING!!!!   Soooooooo, bear with me for I am cutting corners and calories like a scissor crazy barber at the moment.  Invention is the name of this kitchen game ………. substitution, substitution, substitution.  Oh well, no use in banging on about it. 

As a little girl my most favourite and highly prized treat was ice cream, Rasberry Ripple ice cream in cup – I can remember cleary pondering over little cups of this pretty pretty ice cream.  How do they get these streaks of sweet raspberry ripple into the ice cream was my question.  I would carefully dig out the deep red veins of raspberry with the ever-so-dinky plastic spoons that came with it.  As I recall the spoons were kept and cleaned and made perfect dolly feeding tools.  I loved watching the vanilla ice cream turn the palest  of pinks as it melted.  I could only wonder at pure indulgence of a whole tub of the ripple … the thought of that was just about more than I could imagine. 

So, I make fruity berry gooey coulis, reductions, jus’, compotes and anything inbetween whenever I can.  I still feel as if I am treating myself and the recipients of berry bounties.  So with no further yakking here is the Berry Blitz recipe …….. from last year!!!!  Apologies for taking soooooo long! 

INGREDIENTS

For the Fruit

1 packet of Woolies frozen berries for the winter version of this

or

In summer when the berry bushes proffer garnet coloured jewels

1 punnet of black berries

1 punnet of raspberries

1 punnet of strawberries

2 cups of castor sugar

1 vanilla pod

1 star anice

3 cardamon pods

1 glass of champagne or water or dessert wine

the juice of a lemon and the zest of half of that lemon

Place all of the fruit in a pot or frying pan

add the vanilla pod, star anice and the seeds from the 3 cardamons

the zest and juice of the lemon and the wine or champagne

add the sugar and bring to the boil

boil until the juice has reduced and  you have

a thick syrupy ruby red juice bursting with berries.

For the cream

1 tub of Full Cream (oi) Greek Yoghurt

1 tub of double thick cream

1 vanilla bean

Combine all of the above

Line up your glasses or glass dessert bowls and

Ripple away!!!!!

Ready and willing glasses!!!

Buon Appetito!

xx

Jan

You can ask anyone who has visited the Casa Tripepi – Tricky Ricky’s white pasta is legendary.  Italian babies get started on pasta early in life.  I know that it probably contravenes the Childcare Act, but any Italian mother will tell you just how WELL the little bambini sleep (HOOOORAY) after a good plate of pasta.  For this very purpose you can buy “PASTINA”  aka little pasta in any number of shapes and forms.  He used to make pastina and use either Kiri cheese or Bel Paese cheese with a little pasta water – to make the sauce.

Well – the combo is a complete winner and still finds its way onto our dinner table on many a night.  This recipe takes babies pastina from kiddy food right up to Burlesque-ness.   It’s pretty AND SEXY!!!  I purchased some fresh Norwegan Salmon from Woolies to make a sushi salad known in our home as 007 (LOOOOOOOOOOOONGE STORY – i will tell this one another day) – the latter only requires two pieces of salmon – SOOOOOOOOO we had 2 left.  Tricky won the, Who is going to take occupation of the cucina argie bargie and came up with this.   

Fresh Taglietelle with Norwegan Salmon and Marscarpone

2 slices of fresh Norwegan Salmon – thinly sliced (we used the Woolies pre-packed fresh Norwegan Salmon)

3 Tbspn of Marscarpone Cheese

1 large knob of butter – approx 100g

2 cups of Pasta Water

2 rounds of Bel Paese cream cheese or 2 Kiri cream cheeses (the ones in the foil) or Philladelphia Cream Cheese

Black Pepper

Parmesan Cheese – one handfull

2 packets of fresh taglietelle

Boil a large pot of salted water until a rolling boil.  Put the taglietelle in and cook until just off Al Dente

Once the pasta is ready – take out the two cups of water and set aside

Then drain your pasta and put it back into the pot.

You need to work quickly – as the rest of the “cooking” takes place off the stove.

Add the thinly sliced raw salmon, 3 Tbs of Marscarpone cheese, 2 rounds of Bel Paese cheese, 1 knob of butter and a handfull of parmesan cheese, a good grinding of black pepper, Give this a gentle stir - then add the pasta water little by little to create  a sauce.

That’s it – serve with nice hot ciabatta bread and a good

Sauvignon Blanc – like this Neil Ellis one.

Yummmmo!!!

A whole meal cooked in one pot!!

These amounts is enough to serve 4 greedy Italians!!!!!

Buon Appetito!!!

I have only made ONE New Years resolution – and that is to put my mobile phone into the mobile phone pouch in whatever handbag that I am using – as I am sure that I spent at least 6 months of last year SEARCHING for my mobile in my handbag !!!! 

I have also had a few niggling unanswered questions from last year to resolve!!!  So HERE is one of them SORTED …..  Drum Roll ………… I posted a recipe for Lamb Rogan Josh – that called for 1 tspn of ginger powder in the recipe.  A number of interested people contacted me to ask WHY ginger POWDER was used and not fresh ginger. 

Answer:  because the recipe required a paste of coriander, gennel, turmeric powder and ginger powder.  In using a paste of these ingredients one ends up with a smoother consistency in the finished curry.  Ginger powder is much more pungent than fresh ginger hence the use of only one teaspoon of ginger powder. 

So there you have it!!!!!

I will be back later with a recipe for the prettiest plate of pasta you are ever going to see.  One of hubby’s creations – Taglietelle Al Salmone ………. Taglietelle with Fresh Salmon and marscarpone accompanied by one of the most fabulous Sauvignon Blancs around ….. well, according to my palate a Neil Ellis triumph!!!!

Best I get down to some bookkeeping and sort out the end of last year!!!! 

It’s just soooooooooo good to be back home – my dog BUBBLES is now a celebrity pooch.  She got lost and was found and ended up in the newspaper,  a whirlwind bliksemed my garden smashing a huuuuuge flower pot and my fish pond is emerald green -  sjoe – i am loving this year already!!!!

Nyummy!!!!

Ciao for now!!!

Happy New Year AGAIN!!

I just can’t stop saying that !!

xx

Jan