Sunday, therefore fresh pasta.  Yesterday in Saturday Kitchen puttanesca was somebody’s food heaven, accompanied by fresh focaccia, so I looked it up. I looked at Nigella’s and read a nice little article comparing what Gennaro, Jamie and Angela Hartnett had to say on “whore’s pasta”.  We gave up on focaccia this evening, we decided we’re not hungry enough for both, but it might still get done mid week. While Florek The Husband was getting on with fresh spaghetti, I made the sauce. Simple, delicious, flavoursome and moreish. 4 anchovies chopped and fried on olive oil, 2 crushed garlic cloves in. Half a tsp of chili flakes in( could have taken more), a handful of chopped capers. Kalamata olives, pitted, chopped, about twice as much as the capers. And then tomatoes; I used half a can of Italian tomatoes, a tsp of tomato puree and about 15 cherry tomatoes, blanched and skinned- all blitzed together into a flavoursome passata. Nigella just recommends tinned tomatoes, I didn’t see why not use the lovely, sweet cherry tomatoes. It all reduced for a few minutes, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, some basil and that’s it.  We loved it and would have pigged more if there was more.  Fab!

As pledged ( election in the UK next month), fresh pasta on Sunday evening happened again. This time roasted coquina squash, blue cheese( St Agur), roasted garlic, shallot and pine nuts made into a filling.  Served with a simple tomato sauce and basil. Once again, rather excellent. Next fresh pasta will be spaghetti or tagliatelle. 🙂

The new pasta machine has arrived.  🙂

We’ve spent a lovely hour in the kitchen, the three of us, Florek making pasta and rolling it out, me stuffing it and cutting out, Izzie playing with flour, making mess and being happy for being included in making our dinner. Good times.

And even better result, I think I should make a 5 star category here, that really was one of the nicest pasta dishes we ever made.

Asparagus is turning up now, British, not Italian or Chilean, ours, from Cotswolds, from Evesham. Fresh, crunchy and fantastically flavoursome. I bought 2 bunches in Hayles Farm, tossed it in olive oil, seasoned lightly and chargrilled for a few minutes. The filling for ravioli was a mixture of finely chopped cup mushrooms and shallots, fried, one large cooked potato, squeezed through the ricer, some grated parmesan and some thyme from the garden, a splash of truffle oil too. Cooked ravioli I still tossed with some bacon lardons, finished with parmesan shavings, more truffle oil. Phenomenal. We might make Sundays pasta days, making it from scratch is so rewarding.

Second time I’ve ordered halibut from Ocado, very tasty, a tad expensive though. But I figure if we’re to eat fish once a week, let it be a good fish.  I saw a nice recipe which uses pesto, but I had none and no basil to make it, what I had was a jar of “truffle pesto” from Sacla.  A nice enough condiment, the amount of truffles in it rather modest, to be frank.

I seasoned my fish, covered with a thin layer of the “pesto”, then a bit of a chestnut mushroom duxelle and a few cherry tomatoes. Into the oven, 200 degrees, 15 minutes. Served with green beans and crushed new potatoes. Nice.

Ken made it last weekend, I took the recipe straight away. Had to pop out and get some red wine good enough to marinate the chicken in, but not necessary my favourite Catena cab sav, that was sitting on the rack.

I used boneless chicken thigs, so that certain people had no reason to complain. Seasoned them with salt and pepper, crushed 2 cloves of garlic and threw it all into the dish alongside some bay leaves and rosemary sprigs. Quite a lot of wine to cover the chicken, but none was wasted, as the next day we enjoyed a rich, lovely sauce. It marinated in the fridge overnight, today I took it out, drained the chicken, saving the marinade, dusted with flour and quickly pan fried together with 2 sliced cloves of garlic. Then onto the baking dish with 3 fillets of anchovy, a handful of black olives, a can of tomatoes and the marinade. Covered, baked in 180 degress for 1,5 hour filling with the house with wonderful smell.

Served with rice and asparagus( I saw British asparagus on sale already today, £4 per bunch, won’t be long now!). 🙂

Tom Kerridge’s.

Appealing from the moment he added powdered porcini mushrooms to this shortcrust pastry. It works! It fills the kitchen with a lovely smell, adds to the flavours of the pie.

The fillings’s made of fried chestnut mushrooms, fried red onion, chopped, good quality ham, all this brought together by a thick white sauce flavoured with chicken stock and dijon mustard. Filling cooled before assembling with the pastry.  Baked in 190 degrees for about 40 minutes, served with green salad.  Very good indeed.

By far my most favourite of all taco fillings, since my Mexican craze began.  Chicken tinga tacos were the first dish brought to the table when we dined in Wahaca and it blew me away. I made it 4-5 times since, but tonight I think I hit the spot. Previously I used the mixture of recipes from foodnetwork.com and others, I consulted Tommi’s book of course too.  I once poached the chicken breasts and used the stock to make the sauce, which is apparently The Right Tinga Way, I cooked the thigs in the sauce too, but today I used a shop bought roasted chicken thighs, made the sauce the way I like it and I thought it rocked. Chicken breasts don’t excite me, I love thighs, but I never roast the whole chicken, as my husband-to-be hates meat on the bone(!!!!!!!!!).  Luckily Waitrose and Co-Op sell very tasty roast chicken thighs and that’s what I’ll be sticking with from now on. Dustin too is a dog for roast bird, he will approve!

For the sauce I gently fry a shallot or a red onion, 2-3 crushed cloves of garlic, a chili, then chuck a can of plum tomatoes in, some chicken stock, season well with salt, pepper, brown sugar, 2-3 tsps of chipotle paste, some liquid smoke, fresh oregano and simmer for up to 20 minutes to reduce and thicken it.  Chopped roast chicken goes in, lots of coriander in the end. This evening I stood by the pan and licked the spoon. What I love about it is the combination with good red wine, the palate just goes nuts!

Good chunky guacamole would be grand here, but my avos are slightly, ekhm, crunchy, so tonight it was tomato salsa with lots of lime juice- another one that enjoys a renaissance in my cooking.

Fab. 🙂

“Dry soup”, from “Mexican Food at Home”, Florek bought for me. When Tommi made it on telly it looked very appealing, so I had to try. It didn’t wow us though. I really liked the idea of frying my vermicelli before placing them in the sauce to rehydrate.

That was fun. The recipe didn’t specify whether the final texture should be slightly crunchy or should the pasta be left in the sauce until completely soft. I left mine a bit crunchy and rather liked it that way.

The rich tomato sauce ; a shallot, a garlic clove and 1 birds eye chili were gently fried. A can of plum tomatoes added, salt, pepper, allspice, brown sugar, a sprig of thyme and 2 bay leaves, gently cooked down for 20 minutes. Then a mug of chicken stock added and 2 tsps of capers- new for me too, I never use capers in my cooking, but absolutely adore them in the steak tartare they serve in Brasserie Blanc. The last thing- the sauce got blitzed into smoothness, the vermicelly nests placed in to take all the flavours in.  There should be dollop of sour cream on top, which I forgot to buy, my shaved cheese was Grana Padano, not Pecorino, but I was generous with coriander. It tasted nice, nothing wrong with the flavours, but not astounding.

Back to the book, which, by the way is one of the best cook books on my shelf, it’s a good read alongside the recipes.

I’m still into Mexican food big time. Every now and then I manage to catch Thomasina Miers of Food Network doing something exciting and that was the case with these empanadas.  I’ve never tasted an authentic Mexican empanada, but what I made this evening tasted a bit British, apart from a slight chili kick.  The filling was simple, but delicious. Chopped ham, grated cheddar, some spring onion, dijon mustard, mayo, salt and pepper, a small red chili. Wrapped in all – butter puff pastry, brushed with egg yolk and baked till dark golden brown.  Enjoyed with green salad and tenderstem broccoli.  Excellent, filling, simple.