The Food Diaries

Trofie pasta with pesto and aubergine

Finely cube a small aubergine and place in a hot pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Fry till crisp and golden. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and add 180g trofie pasta (or other small pasta shape). Cook according to packet instructions.

Drain the pasta, setting aside a cup of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the aubergine, add a few heaping tablespoons of good quality fresh pesto, stir in enough of the cooking water to create a thick sauce. Add a good sprinkling of grated parmesan, season with sea salt and pepper and stir.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a scattering of little basil leaves.

Serves 2.

Grilled salmon with pancetta and radicchio

A personal take on a Jamie Oliver recipe, which has the added bonus of taking just minutes to serve up.

Fry up 6 rashers of pancetta till golden. Remove from the pan and set aside. Immediately add the leaves of a radicchio (preferably the large-leaf Treviso variety, see photo above) to the hot pan (don’t drain any of the fat from the pancetta) and stir fry for just under a minute. Remove the radicchio to a large shallow bowl.

Immediately add a handful of baby pinenuts to the pan and stir fry quickly till golden. Remove and add to the bowl. Now at 2 salmon fillets (skinned) to the hot pan and sear on both sides till the centre of the fillets is still a little pink.

Season the radicchio with a glug of olive oil and good quality balsamic vinegar (the Belazu brand is highly recommended). Top with the pancetta (crumbled) and the salmon fillet. Season with sea salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Serves two.

Veal scaloppine with lemon and fennel

My twist on an Italian classic balances soft veal escalopes, with the kick of a super-lemony sauce and the added crunch of finely sliced fennel.

Take 250g veal escalopes and pound with a meat tenderiser hammer, or with the side of a rolling pin to flatten a bit. Dredge in 2 tsp flour and shake lightly to remove the excess. Heat a little olive oil in a pan and fry the veal quickly, around a minute or two on each side, till lightly golden. Season with sea salt and pepper and add 1/3 cup white wine, the juice of 1 lemon, and 1 small head of fennel, cut in half lengthwise and then sliced thinly cross-wise.

Add a knob of butter and reduce the liquid down for a couple more minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and the zest of 1 lemon. Serve immediately.

Serve 2.

Pugliese pasta with chard, tomatoes and mozzarella

I used the little cavatelli pasta shape in this recipe, but other short pasta shapes will do nicely.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In the meantime, slice up the leaves of a few stalks of swiss chard (finely chop the stalks). Add a good glug of olive oil to a pan and drop in the leaves and stir fry. Add 3 finely chopped garlic cloves and continue frying till the leaves have wilted nicely.

Meanwhile, drop 300g cavatelli pasta into the boiling water and cook according to package instructions (around 8 minutes). Meanwhile, deseed and chop 3 ripe tomatoes and tear apart a buffalo mozzarella ball into chunks. Set aside.

To assemble, drain the cooked past of most (but not all) of its pasta water and add the swiss chard, tomatoes and mozzarella. Add 2 tbs fresh pesto (optional) and stir till well-combined.

Serve with a sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan.

Serve 2-3.

Ruby chard slice

This is a lovely and vibrant winter snack or appetizer. Cut a few slices from a country loaf and toast. Rub with a cut clove of garlic and set aside.

Meanwhile, finely chop a half dozen ruby chard stalks along with one fat garlic clove. Stir fry in a little olive oil till nicely softened. Pile onto the bread slices and sprinkle on some sea salt and pepper. Add a drizzle of olive oil and serve.

Sicilian pasta with aubergines & tomatoes

This is a nice autumnal vegetarian pasta option - using up the very last of the season’s tomatoes (if you are lucky enough to find some).

Cut up 400g aubergines into a fine dice and place on a non-stick baking pan. Place in a hot oven (200c) till they turn a light golden colour (around 15 minutes).

Meanwhile, fry a finely chopped onion in a little olive oil, till lightly golden. Add 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped, followed by 400g ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped. Stir around, and add 1tbs tomato paste, a pinch of sugar, a pinch of sea salt, and some ground pepper. Cook for 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft. You may need to moisten with a little water.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook 400g spaghetti according to packet instructions (around 10-12 minutes).

Once the aubergines are cooked, add to the tomato sauce, along with a few torn basil leaves, and 60g fresh ricotta cheese (optional). Stir, and add a couple ladles of the pasta water to loosen the sauce. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce. Stir till well combined and serve in pasta bowls, passing around some grated parmesan cheese.

Serves 4.

Spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and prawns

Take advantage of the last of the summer tomatoes with this super fresh pasta sauce.

Bring a bot of water to a boil and drop in 100g spaghetti, referring to package instructions for cooking time.

Meanwhile, chop up 2 garlic cloves and 1 spring onion and warm in a pan with a glug of olive oil. Add 1 medium-sized tomato (yellow if possible) seeded and finely chopped and a glug of white wine. Add 125g cooked prawns and stir till the wine reduces down. Season with sea salt and pepper and add a small handful of finely chopped parsley.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the pasta sauce. Stir till well incorporate and serve up straight away.

Serves 1.

Rib-eye tagliata

Tagliata (Italian for “sliced”) is a simple Italian dish of grilled steak, seasoned with a variety of toppings (rocket & parmesan, rosemary, etc.) and then sliced up before serving. This version sees one of my favourites Italian combos; garlic, parsley and lemon.

Heat a pan with a dribble of oil, till quite hot. Season your rib-eye steak with some smoked, flaked salt and place in the pan. Grill for around 4 minutes on each side for a rare, but not too bloody piece of meat. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Meanwhile, add a little olive oil, a handful of chopped parsley, a chopped garlic clove and the juice of 1/2 lemon to the pan and deglaze. Turn off the heat. Return the meat to the pan, turning the meat over to coat with the sauce. Place on a cutting board and slice the meat before serving.

Panzanella salad

(AKA what to do with a stale loaf of bread)

Tear up some leftover, stale ciabatta bread (1/2 loaf) into bite-sized pieces and place in a large, shallow salad bowl. Add 4 medium-sized tomatoes cut into wedges, 1/2 cucumber peeled and cut into chunks, and 1 small red onion, sliced thinly. Mix all together with your hands.

Whisk together 3tb olive oil with 1tb red wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the salad, cover and refrigerate (at least 1 hour but even overnight will work).

Stir again before serving. Drizzle a little more olive oil over top and sprinkle with 12 basil leaves, torn into pieces.

Stuffed tomatoes with mozzarella

Slice off the tops of 4 medium-sized tomatoes (try to keep the stems intact) and set aside. Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes and chop up the pulp. Place in a bowl along with shreds of mozzarella from a 125g buffalo mozzarella ball. Sprinkle in around 125ml/1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (I like Japanese panko for its crispy consistency), along with some chopped basil and 1tbs olive oil. Mix well and then stuff back into the tomatoes. Put the “hats” back on, place in a roasting dish and drizzle with a little olive oil. Place in a hot oven (200c) and bake for around 25 minutes.

Sprinkle some more basil inside the tomatoes shells before serving. Serves 4.

Linguine with courgette (zucchini) blossoms

This is a lovely and bright summer dish which really brings out the delicate flavours of the blossoms.

Warm 2 tbs olive oil in a large pan. Now add 1 carrot and 1 red onion, finely chopped. Stir over a medium heat till the onion becomes translucent. Now add 12 courgette flowers sliced lengthwise, and 1 courgette, finely chopped (unless of course you are lucky enough to have the baby courgettes still attached to the courgette flowers, in which case you use those). Stir around, and now add 350ml good quality chicken or vegetable broth, a pinch of saffron threads, and a handful parsley, finely chopped. Reduce down till there is a film of liquid remaining.

In the meantime, bring a pot of water to a boil and add 350g linguine pasta. When nearly done, scoop out 100ml pasta water into a small bowl and whisk in 1 egg yolk. Add both the drained pasta and the yolky water to the vegetables and mix well in the pan before serving. I like to garnish this pasta with 150ml toasted breadcrumbs and a dusting of parmesan.

Serves 3-4.

For a vegan version: omit the yolk altogether and instead stir in a little soya cream at the end.

The classic (peach) Bellini

A seasonal favourite, invented by Giuseppe Cipriani the founder of Harry’s Bar in the 1930’s - this a two-ingredients cocktail requiring only white peach puree and Prosecco (Italian sparkling white wine).

Puree 3 white peaches, peeled and cored. You can pass the puree through a fine sieve if you like a smoother texture. Pour into 6 champagne glasses (fill to 1/3). Top with Prosecco (you will need 1 bottle Prosecco or other sparkling white wine).

Serves 6.

Yellow tomato risotto

Peel and deseed 450g ripe yellow tomatoes. Dice the tomatoes, sprinkle with sea salt and place in a sieve over a small bowl. Set aside.

Repeat as above with 250g ripe dark red tomatoes.

Heat 1 tbs olive oil in a deep pan, add 1 onion, finely chopped and stir over a medium heat till softened. Add 300g risotto rice (I used the delicate Aquerello variety) and stir for a couple of minutes till well-coated with the onions. Add 250ml white wine and let reduce down completely. Now start adding some vegetable stock, one ladle at a time, waiting till it gets absorbed before adding the next (you will need about 600ml in total).

When the rice is nearly done (i.e. al dente - so with still a bite to the grains of rice), turn off the heat, add the chopped yellow tomatoes and strained juice, cover, and set aside for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, add 2-3 tbs finely chopped basil leaves to the red tomatoes and a little glugg of olive oil. Stir and set aside.

To serve: divide the risotto between four pasta bowls, garnish with the red tomatoes mixture and a sprig of basil, add a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper. Pass around some grated parmesan at the table.

Serves 4.

Italian grilled aubergine slices

I love the mauve varieties of aubergine which, with their creamy and dense interiors, lend themselves perfectly as a meat alternative. The less you do to these aubergines however, the better. The combo of herbs, olive oil and lemon juice is a Sicilian classic.

Slice a large mauve aubergine into rounds (5mm thick). Heat up a grill pan on the stove top and brush with a little oil. Brush the aubergine rounds in olive oil too. Grill the rounds on both sides till they are nicely marked by the grooves of the pan and transfer to a serving platter.

In the meantime, in a small bowl place 3 tbs olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon, 2-3 garlic cloves finely chopped, 1 tbs chopped parsley, 1 tbs chopped basil, and some sea salt and pepper. Beat till well-combined and creamy and pour over the aubergine slices.

You can serve these straight away or leave overnight to marinate in the refrigerator.

I like to serve the aubergine as part of an antipasto platter (grilled peppers, shavings of parmigiano, marinated mushrooms, olives, etc.) alongside plenty of crusty bread to mop up the juices and oil.

Braised spinach shoots - testine di spinaci

This dish cheerfully sits under the category of “waste not, want not”.

Next time you buy long leaf spinach, the ones with the pink-tipped stems still attached, rather than throwing them in the bin, trim them to a thumb’s length, rinse thoroughly under cold water and slice in half length-wise. See photos above.

In Italy they call these shoots testine di spinaci and are a speciality of the Veneto region. Here’s my take on this recipe:

Take around 6 large, cleaned spinach shoots (as above) and place in a small pan. Drizzle generously with olive oil and throw in 3 large garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped. Place on a medium heat and cover. Toss occasionally. You shouldn’t need to add any water as the spinach shoots will extract quite a bit of water into the braising liquid. Once well-softened, but still retaining their vibrant colour transfer the shoots to a serving dish. Season with sea salt and pepper and add a final drizzle of olive oil.