Home-cured Bacon Carbonara

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My favourite pasta dish of all time

So yes Carbonara is my favourite pasta dish of all time. I've been making it for years. Every so often will get a craving for it that won't go away until I've made myself an enormous bowl of creamy spaghetti. I'm pretty sure it has to be spaghetti - tagliatelle at a push.


Now the most important ingredient in this dish is indeed the bacon. Just to say the pig wasn't a saddleback but a rarebreed Tamworth from the Wishing Well Farm. The University of Bristol carried out a taste test of all breeds of pigs in 1999 and the Tamworth came out on top. They are now in the process of getting a sow to start breeding. Most special about this particular pig is that, it was their first pig. 


We saw Ed Hick butcher a side of the animal at Inishfood in Donegal. Then we all got down to curing our own bit of bacon. I chose a cure that had some bay and juniper in it. The meat was pierced to allow the cure to get deep into the meat. Then you rub the cure well into the meat with your hands. Seal the meat in an airtight container and store in a cool dry place for two weeks for the curing to take effect. The meat needs a turn everyday to ensure both sides as evenly cured. I stored mine in the fridge.

The resulting piece of meat was just some of the finest bacon I've ever eaten. It's nice to have a large piece of bacon to cut from as you can choose how to cut it - ie rashers or lardons. I got 3 breakfasts and a carbonara for two from my piece. Sadly I forgot to weigh it at any point of the process - whoops. The cure brought lovely notes of bay to the meat. Also the fat when fried or grilled turned a lovely dark rich brown - whether that's down to the meat or the cure I'm not sure. There was dark brown sugar in the cure so that might well be it.


I will def be looking into curing my own bacon again providing I can find the same quality of meat to do it with. That might be some tall order though, given the tender love and care this pig received I'm sure.


Now onto the recipe which I took from Donal Skehans new book - Kitchen Hero. Like him I've experimented with many versions before often involving ingredients such as wine, cream, cheddar. The pared back version is more true to the genuine Italian version, and just as tasty.


Ingredients - Serves Two
3 egg yolks - broken up
5 rashers sliced / or pancetta / or my amazing bacon!
Spaghetti for 2 cooked al dente
Parmesan cheese


Method
Cook your spaghetti in plenty of well salted water. While the pasta is cooking fry up your bacon till it's nice and crispy.


Drain the spaghetti and reserve about a cup full of the cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the hot pan - but don't return the pan to the heat. Stir through the bacon and a little of the cooking water. Then quickly stir through the egg yolks. The heat from the pasta cooks the egg yolks and makes a nice sauce that coats well. Stir quickly though to ensure you don't scramble the egg.


Serve with a good healthy amount of freshly grated Parmesan and a good crowd of black pepper.


This dish is full of flavour that belies it's simple ingredients, it will be a while before I go back to my more extensive ingredient list.

Cooks Academy Week 3

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Monday

Have I got your attention yet - mmm I'm yummy!

Up bright and early an continuing on with the Italian theme again mostly. Pea Risotto, Chorizo and Chickpea and Apple Tarte Normande, ok so that makes it more European Day then I guess. My lack of partner today saw me tackle the whole menu alone.

Practising my mise en place. You know on TV cookery shows when the chef says 'I'll just add some finely diced onion' and promptly tips a small glass bowl full of perfectly diced onion into his pan. I always thought this was just for TV shows. Apparently not. This is what you do if you're a super organised chef - like myself of course. Yup, even two cloves are lovingly placed in their own little tiny receptacle - cute.

Now this is super helpful - if you have a little assistant/elf/kitchen hobbit. Lacking any of these and even a human cooking partner; I set about establishing a veritable colony of little bowls filled with all my ingredients.

The words 'must try harder' were invented for this photo

Now I can cook. The morning passed in a super efficient manner, until I got to making my risotto. Glancing over my shoulder I noticed that nobody else was even cooking anymore - whoops. Oh well and I wasn't even the only one cooking solo today. Ah well nothing to do but keep going. So one I went stirring and stirring risotto, stir stir stir all alone whhhhhhy - oww my arm.

The big mistake I made with the risotto was to add stock a little too early before all the liquid had been absorbed. The end result wasn't too pretty but what risotto is. It was delicious, and there is some fresh mint in there too - a nice subtle amount with the peas and Parmesan - nice.

Chorizo Soup

The tarte Normande was amazing, anything involving pastry and apples is a winner in my book. Alan was the first to reply to my free cake tweet. So the lucky guy had some cake delivered to his place of work in Temple Bar.

Chorizo soup was nice I might leave the lid off for a little longer next time to thicken up a bit more, I was otherwise preoccupied with the other dishes to pay it too much attention - many apologies pot of soup!

Tuesday

I'm typing up Tuesday antics on Wednesday morning with the last slice of Apple Normande for breakfast  - it's grand it has apples in it! I also awoke to find that all my nice white chef smocks have been turned pink by a rouge sock - I'll never get work in a Michelin star restaurant in these.

Lamb Madras

Yesterday was Indian Day, which saw us produce an array of delicious and authentic (with some deviation towards the Middle East) We prepared Lamb Masala and lamb koftas. Along with these we also made naan breads spiked with onion seeds.

Koftas

Yumbo dessert

For dessert we prepared cardamon cream pots.  A lovely subtle and light (ish) dessert ideal served with fruit. It was a chance to use some gelatin for the first time - very easy a good trick to have up your sleeve allowing you to turn many delicious liquids into impressive and tasty desserts.

The lamb koftas were spicy and full of flavour, and ideal starter, for the barbeque or smaller for canapes.

The afternoon demo was jam packed. Our pastry expert showed use some sugar boiling techniques and then produced an amazing and sparkling array of spun sugar cages, nests and spirals. To be tried at home with extreme caution due to very high temperatures of the sugar/caramel mix and the fact that you need to kind of throw it around the place. Utensils to be well oiled before starting!

A whole salmon was poached and prepared, with eyes and scales recreated from various other food items. It looked  bit creepy, but I can imagine on the centre of a  large buffet it would look pretty impressive.

We had a demo on how best to prepare and cook scallops - quickly and at a high heat. They were made into a tasty linguine with pancetta, spinach and rosemary butter mmmmmmm.

Finally an large bowl of hummus was prepared, illustrating my need for a food processor once again (hint hint Internet philanthropists!) One of the best recipes I've tasted, nice and spicy a good amount of lemon and lots of tahini. About to be late now for Wednesdays sushi workshop, so 'd better run off in my pink smocks.

byee

Wednesday

Looking at today on the timetable made me feel a bit quesy. Sushi workshop, then cheese tasting, followed by canape making and a wine tasting evening. That's a lot of food to be putting in one stomach - oh and wine.

Sushi to start. The rice seems to be a  key part in how your sushi will work or not. Japanese sushi chefs can train for up to 16 years. The wash must be washed many times, until the water runs clear (or near to clear) Then the rice must be put in cold water before being brought to the boil, then boiled for 15 mins, then sits for 15 minutes. Then covered in rice vinegar and sugar solution, spread on a tray and fanned! la de dah miss sushi rice!

Skills!

Now a careful and colourful assembly of fillings was prepared - after a quick demo on riling techniques we were a bit pushed for time. I still managed to make a few nori rolls, sashimi and sushi balls. It's a shame that the morning was a bit rushed, but that's the nature of the game. I will def be making sushi again, lots of fun and above all delicious.

Lunch

Cheese Montage

The morning demo was then from Kevin Sheridan from Sheridans cheese. He explained the broad cheese making processes and main types of cheese. How various factors influence the finished cheese, such as cultures, temperature, milk type, cutting, turning, storing, heat, size, the list goes on and on!

He brought in a nice range  of cheeses for us to taste,  some Irish traditional like Gubeen, Cashel Blue and a few more recent additions to the Irish cheese circuit (agh I've forgotten their names - will look at my notes) a lovely young, soft goats cheese, and a smaller more mature goats cheese as well as an amazing cheese very like Comte. Comte is the biggest selling cheese in France! There was also the most divine French Camembert.

He made the case for artisan farmers and producers clear in a succinct statement. Artisan suppliers foremost priority is taste, supermarkets foremost priority is profit. Nothing new there but I just thought it summed it up well. The manner in which supermarkets sell and display cheese is harmful to the taste, cheese is essentially very ugly really. Supermarkets attempt to make this product more attractive and in the process homogenise the taste appearance and personality of the cheese. This is a whole other argument - so this is only a small mention of a huge overall point!

After lunch it was full steam into canape preparation for the evening. I think I might have been tasted out as I was finding it very hard to get excited about our canapes - or make some taste decisions. Maybe my palette was a little overwhelmed.

Mini Lemon Tarts

With Our Sushi Combined

The evenings wine tasting was great, everyone in the class invited along a friend. We tasted a variety of red and white wines and had our canapes to accompany various wines. Ok I know I should write more about his but I'm tired - it was fun! There were lots of different canapes but my camera ran out of batteries - damn!

Thursday

Quick Chorizo Pasta

Ok so we're all a little tired after yesterdays hectic schedule and possibly also the many wines! Luckily the timetable for this morning was made up with this in mind. Nothing too taxing.

First we made up mayonnaise - add the oil slowly slowly - from the tip of a fork and you'll be alright - seems to be the major factor in success. I'm feel like I'm stuck in second gear so no chance I'll be rushing. One of the really interesting things about looking at every ones finished products is how different they are. We all followed the same recipe, used the same ingredients and equipment. The finished mayos were greatly varying in consistency. It was a point that our tutor made the day before that even the most highly trained chefs will make the same dish differently. We're like little chef snowflakes - perfectly unique (poetic!)

Also prepared was a delicious salad of Cashel blue cheese with honeyed pecans, watercress and pear - loved it. Linguine with chorizo, rocket and Parmesan - didn't sound the best on paper, but was light and fresh despite the heavy ingredients. Other dishes made included Spaghetti Carbonara (my all time favourite pasta dish) Chestnut and Carrot cannelloni (amazing) Monkfish putanesca, spicy aubergine parpadelle and a range of salads, including Ceasar, chicken  and roasted veg pesto and an spicy horseradish coleslaw. A good feed for all.

Very yummy salad

The afternoon saw our tutor making beef Wellington, moule marinere, potatoes with thyme and tallegio, creme brulle and chicken Ballentine. A delicious and impressive demonstration of multi-tasking and blowtorches, that'll stop you falling asleep!

Muelle Marinere

Afternoon Demo Foods

That's it I'm hiding away form the crazy weather in my apartment practising my wine tasting skills for the night.

Friday 

There was cooking alright - look at the pretty pictures!

Romantic Themed Raspberry Creme Brullee

Salmon Yakatori - very very nice dish

Cerviche

Paella

Chicken Balentine Tastes better than this photo

Cooks Academy Week 2

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Monday

Half eaten 'something' of crab

bold Lucy bold bold - I forgot my camera. Today I made a beef and carrot casserole with horseradish cream - that description doesn't really do the dish justice, it was divine, possibly due to the amount of wine that went in there. To go with this we made polenta mash - now don't get me wrong - but this was just gross. If anyone out there has a decent recipe for polenta - please share it with me - it's the one food stuff I am ready to give up on right now, like yesterday would be too soon to eat it again! And I like everything. There were other nice sides knocking around.

I also made a crab starter (it had a fancier name that now escapes me!) Served with avocado and melon balls - 80's tastic. Also made in the class was a smoked mackerel pate - which was delightfully moreish. Will most definitely make this for people sometime soon.

Better to camera phone picture or not

The afternoon was jam packed - choux pastry, chocolate sauce, choux swans, chicken liver pate (butter lordy!) melba toasts, gratin dauphinoise, duck breast, red win jus, and puy lentils. Most of these dishes I have to make tomorrow so prepare yourselves for some seriously yummy pictures - the camera is already in my bag! 

Tuesday 
In early to get together time plan and grab a coffee before hitting the kitchen. It was straight into the choux pastry. Quite a strange thing to make due to it resembling scrambled eggs at one point. But you've not gone wrong here - just keep going and you'll eventually get a very shiny and strong dough that really does not want to drop off them beaters - oh no.

Into a  piping bag and onto a tray in well spaced little lumps. Oven time of 25 minutes and don't open that door or they'll flop.

Next my partner and I prepared a aubergine and tomato tower with goats cheese and basil.  A teaspoon of sugar and balsamic to the usual tomato sauce seemed to make all the difference - as well as some wine!

This plate means business

Oh hello enormous profiteroles - I feel like a mini Alice in Wonderland

Then the main course to prepare was duck served on a bed of puy lentil with carmelised shallot and a reduction sauce. This was challenging as most of this was prepared in the last 45 minutes. As well as having to construct the aubergine tower and also pipe the cream into the profiteroles. Extreme multi tasking - I think I only finished 5 minutes late.

Then a massive clean up before getting to eat it - other sides prepared were potato grating and some kind of gratin sweet potato. Both pretty tasty. My duck was a little rare - mainly for fear of overcooking it. Still good to get constructive criticism on your dish. Everyone is finding their way around the kitchen a little better - feel like I'll be pretty damn handy by the end of this course - and if not undoubtedly a little heavier - eek! 

Wednesday
Short and sweet and to the point.

Lost in a sea of fallen souffles - couldn't get this shot fast enough!

Today I made the most delicious dessert of my life - chocolate orange souffles! Divine and light and melty and gooey all at once, heaven!

Amazing meringue with kitchen scene in the back ground

Followed on quickly by what can only be described as a close second in the most amazing dessert I've ever made. Hazelnut and almond roulade with raspberries. Beautiful crispy and gooey meringue hiding toasty little bits of nuts - with raspberries - out of this world.

This course was worth it - just to have made this!

It was a tough decision to choose between them - but I'd have to go with the souffles on wow factor! BAM WOW


Also on the menu were fish cakes - modest in comparison to the other two dishes - but packed with flavour in all the right places. I seriously can't wait to try out some of these recipes on friends and family - they're gonna be so impressed. Did I mention the very large folder we have for the course which is packed full of these amazing recipes.

Best Fish Cakes Ever

I wonder how many times I've used the word 'amazing' and 'delicious' in this post so far? Tomorrow is Thai day - so a break from the butter and cream, phew!

Thursday
This morning we made one Thai soup, a curry and a salad. Those of you familiar with Thai cooking will know that there is a lot of prep involved and the cooking itself is pretty fast.  
A more relaxed morning resulted, though to get maximum benefit from the class I think we could have prepared some other Thai starter to fill in the time more productively. Maybe because I've cooked quite a bit of Thai food before that I found this morning pretty laid back.

Tom Ka Kai

Red Chicken Curry

The afternoon was a demo from James - a cook in Cornucopia. The afternoon was  a 'Free from' afternoon. He demonstrated how to make some Divine desserts that are suitable for celiacs and vegans. Panna cotta pots with cashew or coconut milk - the coconut was great. A chocolate orange torte with dates and toasted hazelnuts for the base. He also prepared some very tasty tofu and tempeh. The meals were delicious I'd feel happy serving them to anyone. He also showed us how to make cashew milk, how to whip soyaceoliac class as well as a vegetarian class.

Friday
Italian Day - ci ci!  

Some Impressive Pasta Skills

We start off with tiramisu. A dessert that I always thought was merely an assembly of some ingredients coffee and cream is actually more complex than that. And involves sugar boiling. This process has some interesting stages with odd names - short line, long line, soft ball and hard ball. All of these to do with how the syrup falls from the spoon. Practice will make perfect. Add the syrup at 'soft ball' stage to whipped fluffy egg yolks. Mix lots. Then add in cream cheese, then mascarpone, then wiped double cream! Woo hoo dairy overload - oh and there was marsala in there somewhere.


Dip your biscuits in coffee mixed with rum and more marsala. Layer this with your magic dairy concoction with a little dusting of cocoa powder on between. This is the boyfriends favourite dessert - he'll be delighted with the leftovers this evening.

We were shown how to make pasta on Wednesday think I've forgotten how since then, but no my notes remind me. 00 flour and eggs dash of olive oil - that's it. Mix in well, then knead like mad for 10 minutes./ I've learnt there is a stance for kneading - spread your weight and get your whole body weight behind it. Tutor will notice if you're not giving it socks so get your back into it. After kneading it well - give it a wee rest in the fridge while you prepare your yummy filling, pesto, tomatoe sauce or whatever you need to put with it.

I made ravioli with ricotta, sun dried tomato and parma ham filling. Rolling out the pasta is fun - but most defiantly a two person  job. Free pasta also cooks in a flash. Another group in the class made wafer thin tagliatelle and it cooked in one minute - my raviolis took about 5/6 minutes. A nice subtle colour arrangement on my plate got me some good comments for presentation - and good feedback on taste so happy days.

Not my dish! Amazing melt in your mouth tagitelle

Mine - yup I made this! Hurray

My tiramisu was kinda ugly so no photos I'm afraid (bold Lucy bold)


The afternoon demo included risotto Milanese which is made with saffron giving it a great colour and taste. There was also a rich and dark French onion soup with chessey gruyere croutons. Our lovely dessert and pastry tutor showed us how to make an incredible Normandy Apple Tart. The swirls of apple making a rose in the centre of the tart - fab! Sampled warm with a creme anglais - amazing. That does mean that today I ate three dessert lucking I'm doing a 5k run tomorrow then, though I should prob do 3!

Squid and fennel with squid ink pasta

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Rings of gold

In Venice there is an annual tradition which dates back a thousand years in which the Doge would every year throw a gold ring into the lagoon to symbolise the city's Unique relationship to the sea, in fact, its metaphorical marriage to the sea. Of course Venice is unique, its a city in the middle of a sea, built upon thousands and thousands of wooden poles driven into the lagoon mud. It shouldn't really exist but it does, and that is what gives the whole place its magical and otherworldly atmosphere.

This extra special relationship the Venetians have to the sea carries through to their food of course, and this dish is inspired by some squid ink pasta with black squid in sauce that I ate at a restaurant called Ai Beccofico in campo Santa Stefano in December. Apparently it is a signature dish of Venice, where Colm and I went for a few days holiday. Though it was my third visit, it felt like a different place without the hoards of summertime tourists. Despite it being FREEZING, It was my favorite visit as the city was amazingly quiet and at times swathed in freezing but very picturesque fog. It was great to see actual Venetians going about their daily business, including buying fish from the mind blowing selection at the Rialto Fish market, where I shopped for our dinner. Self catering is great sometimes!

I bought this squid from an asian fishmonger in Dublin town. It looked so pretty that in my excitement I forgot to ask the fishmonger to clean and skin the squid! I learned the hard way that squid have weird cartilage bones that look exactly like the clear plastic from a biro! I couldnt find squid ink anywhere, but I did manage to get the black squid ink pasta from Fallon and Byrne. Im sure Little Italy in Smithfield or any good Italian Deli would also be able to oblige

Ingredients, serves 3-4

2 squid, cleaned & skinned
1 large bulb of fennel
3 shallotts
2 cloves garlic
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 glass white wine

1 handful flat leaf parsley

Black pasta made with squid ink

Parmesan cheese

Start by chopping the squid into rings and separating the tentacles ready to be cooked. Then chop shallots and garlic and cooking them in some olive oil in a frying pan. Add the chopped fennel and cover the whole thing with a lid to soften the vegetables. Cook for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, put your pasta on to cook. When your pasta is almost done, add the squid to the fennel and onion in a medium hot pan and fry very quickly, about 2 minutes only. Then add the white wine and lemon juice and bring it up to a simmer for 1 minute, stiring continuously. Drain the pasta and throw it into the pan with the squid and fennel. Mix it around, throw in a handful of chopped parsley and serve with the parmesan cheese and some sprigs of the fennel leaf that sometimes escapes the chop!

Clam Linguine

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Warm and clammy

I can't believe how long I have left it to blog this recipe! This was the main course at the dinner party we had back in August and its now November, shame on me! Lucy has been holding the fort on the blog front recently as I seem to be going through a cooking drought, and have, embarrassingly, cooked a number of things recently that were NOT Delicious!

However,

this recipe definitely is not one of those. This was perhaps one of the most delicious things I have cooked with pasta and I think blogging it now might help me get my food-mojo back! Onwards and upwards!

Recent Clam related activity: I was in California in September and when in San Francisco sampled their famous clam chowder served in a sourdough bread bowl. The bowl was not really my thing, but the chowder was spectacular. Then in Monterey I ate 'steamers', a bowl of steamed clams, which made me want to cook with clams again and reminded me that I still had not blogged this recipe. I also like saying the word 'clams' in an American accent... 'Claaaaaaaayms'... oh the hilarity!

Clam linguine (Serves 10!)

Ingredients

1kg fresh clams ( i got ours at Kish fish near Smithfield)

10 shallots, finely chopped

white wine

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

500ml cream

100 grams butter

glug olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

enough linguine (i used a packet and a half!!)

Parmesan cheese

freshly chopped parsley

Melt the butter along with the olive oil in a large pot. Add the shallots and garlic to the butter, cover and saute for about 10 mins or until soft and translucent. Meanwhile, start cooking your linguine. add the (washed) clams to the shallots and pour in 2 wine glasses of white wine. Simmer for 5 -8 minutes or until all of the clams have opened. If there are any that have not opened, throw them away as they could make you and your guests sick (I was a bit paranoid about this happening!). Add the lemon juice at this point. When the linguine is cooked, drain it but reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the cooked linguine into the pot with the clams and mix it well. If it looks a bit to dry or starts to stick together add a little of the cooking water from the linguine. Garnish with chopped parsley and some lemon wedges but serve the Parmesan on the side as there is a school of thought that says Parmesan should not be served with seafood pasta dishes, weird huh?

This was absolutely delicious and went down a storm with our 10 guests. Its also nice for the 'stick a pot on the table and let everyone dig in' style of dinner parties.

Thick Minestrone Soup

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Mammy Minestrone

Yup so this is a minestrone I made with my mum while home over the bank holiday. I decided to make it when I saw how much lovely homegrown spinach that they had in their cupboard. Then I forgot to add it in - whoops- well it was still a great soup and a nice filling lunch that got me the whole way back to Dublin in the car without any belly rumbles.

Ingredients

 1 white onion finely diced
2 cloves of garlic finely sliced
6 fresh tomatoes (chopped, skinned if you like)
3 carrots diced
3 sticks of celery finely sliced
big bunch of green beans cut into whatever size pieces you like
1 tin of mixed beans
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
3 handfuls of dry pasta (whatever shapes you like)
1 sprig of thyme
1 bunch of parsley
1 pint of vegetable stock
A couple of handfuls of basil leaves

To Garnish 

freshly grated Parmesan
basil leaves
 
Fry your onion over a medium heat for two minutes before adding in the garlic. Cook until the onion begins to soften, then add in the diced carrots and celery. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Then add in the sprig of thyme, the bay leaf, tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes begin to soften. Then stir in all the other ingredients, except the basil, mix well and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for about 12-14 minutes until the pasta shapes are cooked. Stir in the fresh basil just before serving and garnish with a few leaves and a generous grating of Parmesan. Enjoy with some nice brie and a glass of good red wine.

I only used about 1/2 litre of stock in this and it turned out very thick, so I recommended more stock in the recipe to make for a more liquid soup. I love cooking with my mum, she ways things like 'what'll I chop next?' and 'I'll get that from the garden' the perfect cooking partner

Thanks Mum!

Roasted Tomato and Parmesan Sauce

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For Pasta, Bread or Dipping

I say bread and dipping without having tried it myself, but I bet it's work, try it before I do!

Growing up my Dad would be traveling a lot during the week, so on Saturdays he would often make the lunch. I think he found cooking a nice way of unwinding. One of his signature dishes was pasta and tomato sauce. He was always sure to have the plates warmed and have plenty of grated cheese ready to lash on, it was eaten before watching the rugby beside the fire and drinking tea in Spring. Good memories.

After a lazy morning - I made a tomato and pasta sauce for Lola who was working away pretty hard. I think she liked it. We also watched the rugby long enough to see a try - perfect! 

Ingredients

12-14 small tomatoes on vine

6 cloves of garlic (in their skins)

1 small red pepper, cut into 8

1 small red pepper, cut into 8

2 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan

2 handfuls of rocket

grated cheddar cheese

8oz pasta 

Olive Oil

Seasoning

Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 7. In a baking dish put the tomatoes, garlic and peppers and drizzle with olive oil. Bake at the top of the oven for 45 mins until getting black at the edges. I use my stick blender for the next step, but if you have a food processor - use that. Pop the roasted garlic out of it's skins, if it's properly cooked it should just pop out easily. Then liquidise everything as well as the Parmesan together. It should make a good volume of sauce.

Stir into cooked pasta, serve in warmed bowls, topped with rocket and grated cheese. If using this as a dip, it could be cooked a little longer to just thicken it up a little.

Happy Saturday

Almond Pesto

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With roasted vegetable pasta

Lu and I recently came across this new company, fruitfellas, who are better known as Rob and Gav, two lovely lads who for a mere 20 quid will deliver a box of gorgeous, colourful fruit and veg straight to your door. If like me you don't have a car, this is a godsend as it eliminates the need to carry tesco bags up a hill with your arm muscles straining and the bags cutting into your hands. Also, the produce is fresher & nicer than Tescos, and straight from the markets of Dublin to keep everything nice and local, kinda.

We got very excited about or box of fruit and veg, and, finding out that you can also get fresh herbs we ordered a silly amount of basil and flat leaf parsley. One week later, said herbs were still sitting around the kitchen looking slightly the worse for wear. 'We could make pesto if only we had some pine nuts' said Lu 'No way', I'm never eating pine nuts again, I'm too scared of getting Pine nut mouth' said I.

This pesto is subsequently made with almonds, which worked out perfectly. I don't know whey I never tried it before. Much cheaper than pine nuts too which I have seen at an aforementioned super market for €8 a bag!

Almond pesto

NB- I didn't really measure anything, so this is a kind of guesstimate recipe. Use your instincts about how pesto should look and you will be fine

Ingredients

1 big bunch Basil

1/2 a big bunch Flat leaf parsley

about a double handful of flaked almonds (i dunno, about 1 cup in American measurements)

about 100 ml olive oil

2 oz Parmesan cheese, finely grated

1 small clove garlic (or half a big clove)

salt and pepper

In a food processor, whizz up the herbs and almonds. Then add the olive oil slowly while you whizz until the mixture reaches your desired consistency (you know, pesto-like) stop whizzing and transfer to a bowl. Add the Parmesan and crushed garlic clove and mix with a fork. Add salt and pepper to taste, and more olive oil if you think it is too stiff.

We made a delicious pasta with this pesto.

We roasted some vine tomatoes, whole cloves of garlic(in their skins) red peppers and broccoli (that we had blanched in boiling water) all for about 40 mins. Then we cooked some pasta, threw in all the veg (took the skins of the roasted garlic first!) and a couple of big dollops of the pesto. Man was it good! It was so good I decided that Lucy and I are true culinary geniuses (genii?)

Speaking of which, I will be blogging a recipe from my new Julia Child cook book very, very soon, so get ready for butter, and lots of it.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

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After the Party....

so it was Sarah's birthday and we had a party, there's was enough mess and chaos to lead me to believe we were all 16 again, raiding your parents drinks cabinet, and drinking the concoction of 6 different spirits mixed into a coke bottle.

Let's just say some of my plants were quite the worse for wear afterwards, including the basil and chili plant, so based on this unplanned harvest I made this nice meal, and fed it to my brother who was visiting before returning to his home in the snowy French alps.

Ingredients -
sauce 1 white onion - finely diced
12 tomatoes - skinned if you prefer and then diced
nice bunch of home-grown basil
1 home grown chili
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 pound of minced beef
1 large potato - mashed
1 egg
marjoram and thyme (fresh or dried)
Grated Parmesan - a grand old lump - grated
a cup of breadcrumbs
Spaghetti cooked to your liking - my secret confession is I like mini squishy - very non-foodie I know!

I made the sauce first and let that cook away while I made the meatballs and then spaghetti while I cooked the meatballs. Fry the onion up in some olive oil for a minute or two before adding the garlic and sliced chili - cook it all until, it's softened nicely - then add in your tomatoes. Season. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover.

Cook for about 30-40 mins until it's thickened up nicely, it's perfectly ok to use tinned tomatoes here, I just had lots of tomatoes that day. I always add in a small teaspoon of sugar to sauces made using tinned tomatoes.

In a clean bowl - mix together the meat, breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan, herbs and mashed potato. Season. Then bind it all together with the egg. This made about 16 meatballs, and three is a big serving, so have some for tomorrow - make your own Meatball subs if you fancy.

Roll each bit of mixture into golf ball sized balls, then coat them in the breadcrumbs. Heat some oil in a pan and cook your meatballs in batches of around 5 or so. Turn gently and brown evenly on as many sides as you can. Serve them on top of a bowl of spaghetti and topped with some of your tomato sauce. These were just super and perfect for a Sunday night in by the fire.

Linguine with Chorizo and Shallots

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Chef's secret

Lola had recently been reading 'Kitchen confidential' by Anthony Bourdain. In it he reveals the secret of delicious restaurant food, so wait for it - drumroll please........

It's Butter and shallots, so to put this to the test we devised this simple pasta dish - and by all accounts it was very, very tasty indeed. Maybe not the healthiest advice to follow everyday, but every once in a while, sure what's the harm. 4 shalots, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

about 10 slices of chorizo, chopped into squares

Butter
olive oil

2 tbsps creme fraiche

lots of grated Parmesan

S & P

Cook the linguine the way you like it. Meanwhile, saute the chopped shallot and garlic in a frying pan with a big dollop of butter until soft & translucent. Add the chorizo and cook until it has released some of its red oils into the pan. Add the cooked linguine to the pan with the shallot/chorizo. Stir in the creme fraiche, and another glug of olive oil and half the Parmesan. With a spoon and a fork, toss everything about until evenly coated. Season, and serve topped with the extra Parmesan.We're off to the Electric Picnic tomorrow morning, we may well be heading here for a few snacks during the weekend - looks great. If we're together enough we may even try to review some of the food.....we'll see

Sage, Bacon & Parmesan Gnocchi

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When Love comes Gnocchi at your door

Oh it's a Friday after work and I'm knackered, and I'm at home cooking dinner for me and Lola. Not straight home exactly, we did manage to polish off a bottle of wine in town. For a Friday that counts as pretty much straight home.

This dish is super quick and very delicious, and a little bit naughty as befits a Friday. I've also been looking for recipes that involve sage to use some of the plant in the garden, it's gone bonkers.

1 packet of gnocchi (will make from scratch one day, but today is not that day)
3 rashers of bacon
10-12 fresh sage leaves - sliced finely
Freshly grated Parmesan
Grated Cheddar

Chop up bacon and fry until approaching crispy, add in the sage and then proceed to crispy. Cook the gnocchi in plenty of salted boiling water - for two minutes or till the little gnocchi float tot the top. Drain, mix in the bacon, sage and cheese into the gnocchi, until the cheese melts. Sprinkle over a little more Parmesan to serve and some black pepper.

Transfer to heated bowls and serve

Feast in Venice

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I went to the launch of the Venice Biennale recently, and on my first night in there was all by myself and wondering what to do for the evening, when the phone rang and I got invited to dinner. Patrick, Ruth and Rebecca were all staying in an apartment across town so I got on a vaparetto and trundled my way around the outside of the island. After being on a boat for 40 mins, you get sea legs, so when you get off, you get an horrible rocking sensation which lasts for ages. I think the only cure is prosecco, so I brought a bottle with me.

Patrick cooked lovely squid ink pasta with fennel, which I didn't photograph, but, here's what I think the recipe was...

Pasta with Fennel

Cook the pasta (Pat used black pasta which has squid ink in it)

while its cooking fry onion, garlic and chopped fennel in olive oil until soft. Mix into the cooked pasta and finish with a generous grating of Parmesan cheese. serve!

We also had a selection of Italian meats and antipasti, and a caprese salad, and LOADs of wine...

What a great night! I stayed until after the vaparettos had stopped running, so, resisting invitations to sleep on the couch, I tipsily venturing out into Venice and somehow found my way back to my hotel on the other side of town. I even took a detour to find a bar where other friends, who had just arrived, were having a late drink. Yay me! I love Venice at night. Thanks guys! It was the perfect way to start the week.