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Posts Tagged ‘Pasta’

Proper Ragù alla Bolognese

Posted in Beef, Food, tagged , , , , , , on 9 June 2011| Leave a Comment »

Italians don’t serve Bolognese with spaghetti or make a really runny tomato sauce like us Irish, so we went to our Italian experts for guidance: Giorgio Locatteli came up trumps. Jono also got to practice his new pasta trick which he’s somewhat obsessed with.

Ragù alla bolognese – serves 8 generously (but don’t divide the recipe, just make the lot and freeze it in small tubs -ready meals!)

  • 2 kg of minced beef neck (you may need to order this – chump will do if you can’t get it)
  • 5 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 carrots, finely chopped
  • 1 celery stick, finely chopped
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • a large sprig of rosemary and one of sage, tied together
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • a bottle of red wine
  • 1 tbsp of tomato paste
  • 1 litre of tomato passata
Take the meat out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature, spread  it out on a tray. This will make it sear rather than boil when you put it in the pan.
Heat the oil in a wide bottomed saucepan and add vegetables, herbs and whole garlic cloves and sweat over a high heat for 5-8 minutes without colouring – you need to keep stirring.
Season the meat with salt and pepper and add it to the vegetables making sure it covers the base of the saucepan. Don’t touch it for 5-6 minutes so it seals underneath and heats through. Careful your vegetables don’t burn – you can add a bit more oil if you need to.
Stir the meat and veg every few minutes for about 10-12 minutes until it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan.
Now add the wine and let it reduce to almost nothing. Add the tomato paste and cook for a couple of minutes – keep stirring.
Add the passata with one litre of water, bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook for an hour and a half. Add a bit of water now and again if necessary, until you have a thick sauce. (You could also cook it in the oven at 120C if you prefer).
When you’re ready to serve, heat the ragù, cook your pasta (preferably pappardelle, tagliatelle, or short pasta) and drain, reserving the cooking water. Add the pasta to the ragu and toss well – add some cooking water if you need to loosen the sauce a bit.
Serve with freshly grated pecorino.
(Original recipe from Giorgio Locatelli’s ‘Made in Italy: Food & Stories’)

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We want to be Italian!

Posted in Food, Healthy, Pasta, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , on 21 May 2011| 2 Comments »

So home from honeymoon and we had all the boxes in the new house to unpack (you know all this from the last post). The sensible thing would be to stay home and unpack them but I felt the need to go on the hunt for Tipo 00 flour instead. We had got a shiny pasta machine in Italy see.

Jules wanted to unpack but I insisted on kneading dough; I won her over in the end! This is my homemade and fresh fettuccine with The Frankies Spuntino’s Sunday Sauce (really tasty tomato sauce). A success and so much more fun than unpacking 🙂

I actually made enough for the village and didn’t research how to store fresh pasta. The first meal was fantastic … and the rest … well I’ll live and learn.

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We didn’t think this would be good enough to blog, but …

Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 7 April 2011| 2 Comments »

… it was. You know when you read a recipe and it looks tasty enough, but nothing special; good for a weeknight. Well this looked like that, and then had such great balance of flavours it had to make the blog. It did take longer than we expected, but the pizza-like aromas from the oven had us salivating and it was worth the wait. More like a veggie pasta bake than a frittata we reckon.

Easy oven frittata (serves 4, or less if you’re hungry)

  • 1/2 tsp oilve oil
  • 85g fusilli, macaroni or small pasta – we used conchigle
  • 1 bunch of scallions, chopped
  • 85g frozen peas
  • 85g frozen or tinned sweetcorn
  • 1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 2 large eggs
  • 150ml milk
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 50g good Irish cheddar, grated (Bandon Vale worked well)
  • 2 tbsp parmesan, finely grated
  • a green salad to serve

Preheat oven to 190C / fan 170C and grease a 1.2 litre baking dish with olive oil

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 8 minutes. Add all the veg and cook for a further 2 minutes. Drain and tip into baking dish.

Beat together eggs, add thyme and milk and beat a little more. Mix in most of the two cheeses and some black pepper and a sprinkle of salt. Pour into the baking dish, stir, then scatter remaining cheeses on top.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden and set. Cool for a minute or two and serve with the salad leaves.

Surprisingly tasty and low fat too! What more could you ask for?

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Creamy Conchiglie with Gorgonzola & Pistachios

Posted in Food, Pasta, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , on 20 March 2011| 2 Comments »

We’ve been away all weekend, so after 2.5 hours in the car we needed a tasty treat: this delivered the goods really well and was quick and easy. The recipe is from our favourite pasta book, The Silver Spoon: Pasta, which never ever fails.

Conchiglie’s great for creamy sauces as all the cheesey goo gets caught in the shells.

Conchiglie con Gorgonzola e Pistacchi – serves 4 but easily halved

  • 50g pistachios
  • 100g Gorgonzola, diced
  • 2 tbsp double cream
  • 300g conchiglie
  • 40g Parmesan, grated

Put the pistachios into a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over. Leave to stand for 3 minutes. Drain well and rub the skins off with your fingers – don’t burn yourself! Chop the kernels and set aside.

Cook the conchiglie in plenty of boiling, salted water until al dente.

Meanwhile put the Gorgonzola and the cream into a small saucepan and stir constantly over a low heat until smooth. Set aside until your pasta is done.

Drain the pasta and tip into a warm serving dish. Toss with the melted Gorgonzola, chopped pistachios and Parmesan.

Serve right away and enjoy.

Wine Suggestion: If we’d had one we would have drunk a Greco di Tufo with this – a full-bodied but crisp and minerally white from southern Italy. It also has a nutty character which would compliment the pistachios nicely.

 

 

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Easy Prawn & Curly Kale Linguine

Posted in Fish, Food, Healthy, Pasta, tagged , , , , , , , on 3 March 2011| Leave a Comment »

We debated whether this could actually be called a recipe as it is so simple; it’s more of an assembly job.

To serve 2:

  • 200g linguine
  • 200g curly kale or spring greens
  • olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, finely sliced
  • 200g raw prawns

Cook the linguine following the instructions on the pack and add your greens for the last 3 minutes.

Heat a little olive oil in a small frying pan and gently fry the garlic and chilli until soft.

Add the prawns and stir around until they are pink and then season well.

Put the linguine and greens in some bowls and serve the prawns etc over the top.

Drizzle a bit of oil over and you’re done.

Wine suggestion: something light and white and a little aromatic like a Cote de Gascogne. We had a Marsanne/Viognier blend from the Languedoc which was also good.

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Sausage Carbonara

Posted in Food, Pasta, tagged , , , , , on 7 December 2010| 4 Comments »

A mid-week treat that tastes creamy, silky and flavoursome. The kick of lemon in this gives it a light touch too. Plus it is quick to make 🙂

Serve with a glass of Nebbiolo.

Enough to feed 4 people:

  • 4 Italian sausages
  • olive oil
  • 4 slices thick cut pancetta, chopped
  • 500g dried linguine
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 100ml double cream
  • 100g grated Parmesan cheese
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • sprig of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • extra-virgin olive oil

1. Slit the sausages and pull out the meat. Roll it into little meatballs with wet hands.

2. Put a big pan of salted water on to boil for your linguine and cook for as long as it says on the packet.

3. Heat a glug of olive oil in a big frying pan and fry your meatballs gently until they are nice and brown. Add the pancetta and cook for another couple of minutes until it’s golden too.

4. Get a big bowl and put the egg yolks, cream, half the Parmesan, lemon zest & parsley in it and stir together.

5. When the pasta is done drain it but keep a little bit of the cooking water. Throw it back in the pot and stir in the creamy mixture right away. Add the sausage mixture and toss together. The sauce should be smooth and silky – if it starts to clag a bit just add some of your reserved pasta cooking water.

6. Sprinkle over the rest of the Parmesan and drizzle with a bit of extra virgin. Add a bit of pepper if you like.

Original recipe from Jamie’s Italy.

 

 

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