Just finished eating it.

In the current circumstances I have quite an appetite, lots of different cravings ( rib eye steak at 11pm, cauliflower this morning…), so when making a risotto I put on the plates some extras, plus that cauliflower topped with melted cheddar, that I craved. We popped out to Whole Foods this morning, mainly to buy some good bread for all the good stuff we had in the fridge. Bought some lovely parmesan too, some veggies and a bag of frozen peas, for which I paid £2.50. I was wondering if it would be any different at that price. Well, it was. I made the usual risotto, simple, good chicken stock, good white wine, chopped fresh tomato, basil and  the peas, that tasted as if frozen yesterday. On the side I served some antipasti, a drop of truffle oil, freshly grated parmesan and basil. It was thoroughly enjoyed.

After a weekend of slaving in the kitchen, I wanted something super quick for dinner. I had a packet of green tagliatelle, so pesto was an obvious choice. I had no basil though, but what I had was lots of coriander, so I whizzed it  along with all the pesto ingredients, toasted pine nuts, grated parmesan, garlic, olive oil and seasoning, plus half a red chilli.

What I got was a nice pesto, but not as awesome, mouth smacking pesto, as the one made with basil.

Ewa and Jedrus came over this weekend. We spent quality time drinking cheap wine, eating rubbish, having nothing to talk about and we were sad most of the time. 🙂

To kick off our banquet I made some lovely scallops from Whole Foods, served them on celeriac puree, which tasted good, but the texture could have been smoother. Scallops got fried on butter, of course, topped with crispy pancetta and fresh thyme. I. Love. Scallops.

I had some lasagne sheets sitting in the fridge. But I didn’t fancy the traditional, meaty lasagne, wanted something different. I looked up a few ideas on food.network. co.uk, and came up with a green lasagne, not quite a veggie one, as pancetta is involved. I fried it first, then threw a good few chopped tomatoes, seasoned it well and then put the asparagus on top and covered the pan, just to cook it very,very lightly. Not that it needed it, I decided later.  I made the bechamel usual way and a little layer of whizzed basil and sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts, as suggested in one of the posts.  It didn’t contribute massively to the flavour overall, but must have been tried.

It was more filling than I expected, we have half of it for lunch tomorrow, but quite pleasant overall. Nothing beats lasagne bolognese though.

And it’s difficult to make it  look pretty on the plate!