I’ve made no secret over the last few years that I just love meatballs. I make them often and I am always trying to improve on my recipes. So last week when I made my first batch of home-made Ricotta, I wanted to use it in a way I had never done before. I thought of serving the ricotta on top of the pasta, which I did at the end as well, but also decided to mix some of the ricotta into the meatball mixture. I know how deliciously light the ricotta made my Ricotta blueberry pancakes and thought it might do the same with the meatballs. And I was…
Archive for the ‘Pasta’ Category
I am not ashamed about the fact that I dream about food. I do it quite often actually. Even when the dream isn’t ABOUT food, food features in my dreams more often than not. But when you dream about one ingredient, every night for a full week, you know the obsessive line has been crossed. Last week, this happened to me and I dreamt about Chorizo every single night. Now, I like to listen to my dreams when they repeat themselves and so I knew I would need to cook something with chorizo soon to stop myself from waking up, salivating! I wanted to keep it simple as my…
After weeks of excess and indulgence in December, I find myself craving simplicity in January. Even though, surprisingly, us as a family behaved ourselves on the food front and didn’t allow ourselves to get carried away, I still have the need to eat the simplest of foods. Toast with a smear of Bovril is great for breakfast and a simple Caprese salad is all I need for lunch but for Dinner, I’d like something a long those same lines, but with a little more punch and flavour. That’s where this ridiculously simple but absolutely delicious pasta comes in. I love that the sauce (if you can call it a sauce)…
The first time I saw this on Martha Stewart’s site, I just loved the look of it. Simple ingredients, beautiful flavours and using mostly ingredients that everyone has in their kitchens. Except for the artichokes of course. Let me just clarify here that I have not and probably will never prepare and cook an artichoke from scratch. This is where my laziness gets the better of me and I just can’t imagine myself peeling, cleaning and cooking them. I am very happy to buy the marinated kind from good supermarkets or deli’s. Granted, they are not cheap but they are definitely worth it. It is the Festive season after all! Any…
I know this looks terribly fiddly and like it’s going to be way too much trouble for a week night. And in some ways, it is. Because of that, I decided to eliminate the whole bechamel/cheese sauce part of normal lasagna making and substituted it with a very easy creme fraiche ‘sauce’ which can be made in a minute. To save even more time, you can buy ready-made fresh lasagna sheets. They aren’t easily available but I’ve seen them at a few supermarkets and I know Food Lover’s Market has most of the time. This just makes this recipe even easier to do as you don’t have to worry about…
As promised, here is the first of my “bumper” posts with some of my favourite recipes. I didn’t even have to think twice about sharing all my favourite pasta recipes with you because it’s something I eat weakly and is definitely in my top 5 favourite foods list. These are all my absolute favourite pasta recipes and ones I cook quite often. All simple and delicious using ingredients you have in your fridge and pantry already. Linguini with Garlic & Mushrooms Fussili with Bacon & Chilli Pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes, ricotta & Pesto Cheesy Meatballs in tomato sauce Summery Spaghetti Bolognese
When I need to have tasty but fast food, I always look towards chicken thighs. It’s one of the things I always have in my freezer and I love it so much because there is a plethora of things you can do with them. From using them in stews and curries to roasting them and the meat shredded makes the best chicken mayo sarmies the next day. This is the ultimate weeknight meal because the thighs take no more then 20 minutes to roast in a hot oven and the orzo salad is the work of minutes. I used a combination of courgettes, feta cheese, mint and basil for the…
I am not often left with lots of left-overs after a Sunday roast but it does happen occasionally. The usual manner of dealing with left-over roast is to sandwich it between fresh white bread, a generous dollop of mustard and perhaps a slice of cheese or two. But when I can hide it from the men in the house for long enough, I like to do something a bit more interesting with it and use it in a meal on Monday. This idea could work with any roast meat you have left over but I think there are few things as delicious as moist roasted pork that has been shredded into…
Throughout Winter, most people turn to a bowl of soup, stew or curry to get warm and toasty but at times I feel like it’s just a bit too heavy and I need something lighter, but no less comforting. Enter pasta with hearty sauces. Chicken Parmigiana is originally made by crumbing the chicken breasts, frying them and then placing them in the tomato sauce to bake. I never do the crumbing part. I find that the crumbs almost always goes a little soggy because of the tomato sauce and it adds unnecessary fat to the meal. By just browning the chicken in a tablespoon or two of olive oil it…
After this last week, I needed something fresh and light. I don’t know about you, but with all the public holidays and Easter in South Africa, I ate non-stop. It also didn’t help that we had a few very icy days where all you want to do is stay indoors, snuggled up on the couch with cake and hot chocolate. So when dinner time rolled around last night, I knew I needed something light but yet again, it’s winter so I wanted some comfort. My mind immediately went to pasta and it just so happened that I had some lovely Smoked Salmon in the fridge so I knew that would…
