Spring chicken noodle soup with lemon, asparagus and parsley

This recipe is based on this one by one of my favorite cook book authors Nigel Slater. It is an ideal template recipe to play around with as it is simple, adjustable and the results will be delicious.

I used about 6 chicken wings for roughly 1 liter of water. One adjustment I would recommend is only using one half of a lemon.

Brown your wings on both sides in a little fat over medium to high heat (the darker they go, the more flavour and colour your soup will have), then the cut side of the lemon half. Add your water, let it come to the boil and let it simmer for about 45 minutes.
Now you can play around with it and adapt it to your taste... I lifted out the wings and put them to one side. Squeeze the juice and discard what is left of the lemon. Try to sieve out the pips as they are really unpleasant if you happen to bite in one. Season the bouillon to taste. It will need a lot of salt.

Regarding the meat you have the whole range of possibilities: return them to the soup whole, debone them and give them a rough chop or painstakingly remove every bit of skin and sinew and finely chop the meat before returning. It's all up to you (and maybe your guests') preference.

Think about what kind of vegetable(s) you would like to add and how long they will have to cook for. I went with asparagus (still had a few spears in the fridge), which I cut into 1 cm chunks at an angle. Add the pasta you like (I go for orzo quite often). Then add the vegetables according to how much time is left on the pasta timer. (This sounds so complicated. But I am sure you know what I mean. :-) )
At the very end sprinkle on a few chopped sprigs of your fresh herb of choice, such as the first shoots of flat leaved parsley, season for the last time and serve.

The perfect dinner for a cold spring evening!

Spaghetti con Barba di Frate

Yes, indeed spaghetti with monk's beard.

Last year I was asked if I would translate a cookbook from German to English. As I wasn't working full time and you all know how I feel about food the answer was pretty obvious to me. It was a wonderful experience and I was already enamored by Donatella Maranta's work, but I have come to an even higher appreciation for her cookbook Rule of Pi.

The cookbook has now been published as an ebook in English and I can't help but feel a little proud to see the (virtual) product of something I helped make.... Go have a look here. 

Two weeks ago I ventured out to the farmer's market for the first time in a very long time and came away as inspired and excited as always. I had found an ingredient that Donatella wrote of with near reverence and I was very enthousiastic to try it out. Barba di frate or monksbeard is a vegetable I would most liken to samphire or "Meeresbohne" as it is sold here.

This dish from Donatella is light, easy to make and was very well received by the friend who came for dinner.

Here is the recipe, with permission, in the words of the inventor herself:

Barba di frata – monks beard – grows on sandy ground near the ocean.

Whenever I see these green bundles I always imagine how the wind moves the plants in gentle waves and makes them glint silver in the sunlight. Salty air and the scent of algae.

One bunch will serve 4 people. Remove the reddish roots and carefully wash the barba di frate.

Fry 1 cm strips of streaky bacon until crisp and put to one side. Pluck the leaves off about three sprigs of flat leaved parsley. It shouldn’t be too much as you only want to add a hint of fragrance.

Cook your spaghetti all dente. Add the barba for the last 3 minutes of cooking time.

Keep back one cup of pasta water!

Drain the spaghetti and the barba and add them into a preheated serving bowl with a few knobs of butter and some good olive oil. Add the cooking water slowly and mix well. Sprinkle over your parsley and the bacon.

This goes well with lots of Parmesan. And if once again I have some ricotta salata I am truly in seventh heaven. 

There you go. It couldn't be easier or tastier. And if you can't find the monksbeard, do give it a try with samphire!

PS: It was so delicious I made myself the exact same thing the next evening! ;-)

 

For Thea...

Just returned from a weekend in the gorgeous Engiadina mountains with the whole family. Had a wonderful time, even though I felt like sleeping for most of it. ;-)
One of the fabulous things we did was exchanging birthday gifts due for dates past, present and future. I was once again at loss what I could give my sister. She's a tricky one...
But a hint made me go out and buy this kind of contraption for her:

For all of you wondering what the hell this torture instrument is; It's a Spätzli Reibe!

Spätzli are big news with my family. They are a form of egg dumplings that are part of the traditional venison meal (with for example Brusselsprouts and stewed red cabbage) in autumn here in Switzerland. But they can also be served as a pasta variation the rest of the year.

So all that my sister needs to make authentic Swiss Spätzli in here London apartment is my mothers recipe. Without further ado:
For 4 as a main course (halve if you plan to serve it as a side dish in a larger menu)

Ingredients:
•400 gr of flour
•2 Tbsp semolina flour
•2 Tsp salt
•4 eggs
•3 dl of water

Mix all of the ingredients until well combined. Leave the batter to rest until bubbles start to appear on the surface.

Cooking method:
Boil a pan of water and salt it as you would for cooking pasta.
Prepare the dish, which you want to serve the Spätzli in and put in a pat of butter. This will prevent the Spätzli from sticking together.

Mount the Spätzli Reibe on the pan and pass through a portion of the batter. Remove the Reibe, let the water come back to the boil and let the Spätzli cook for about two minutes. They will go slightly puffy. Remove them with a slotted spoon, let the water drain off and place them into the serving dish with the butter.
Repeat until the batter is used up completely. Maybe add another couple pats of butter during the process.

PS: Photo to follow, as soon as Thea sends me one. ;-) She has a much fancier camera anyway.

Linguine Salsa Nesa

This is a recipe I came up with about three years ago. A product of profound hunger, wanting something that packs a punch(flavor-wise) and a prolonged look into the storage cupboard. It's been my favorite pasta sauce ever since.

It's easy to make, quick, and has lots of flavor. And a well stocked pantry will have most of the necessary ingredients.
It's good with all kinds of hard wheat pasta. Linguine has really become a favorite lately.

Ingredients per person:
one splash of olive oil
one clove of garlic, sliced
chili to taste, finely chopped of fresh &crumbled if dry
one to two anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
one handful of de-stoned black olives, sliced or chopped
a handful of cherry tomatoes or one big plum tomato, roughly chopped

Heat a pan of water for your pasta. You can do prep work while it heats up, but in this case you actually have to be boiling the pasta to be able to prepare the sauce...

Drop the pasta into the salted boiling water. Then:
In a large enough frying pan pour in some olive oil, add the garlic and turn on the heat. Wait until you hear it sizzling and the garlic turns just the lightest shade of brown, then add the chili and the anchovy. Stir it a couple of times while frying for about a minute. Add the olives.

When it gets too hot take a table- or serving spoon and add a dash of the pasta cooking water. This will do three things; cool down the contents of the pan, add salt to the finished sauce and the starch in it will help bind the finished product.

Two to three minutes before the pasta is al dente, add your chopped tomatoes. They shouldn't completely disintegrate, but wilt and loose their form a bit.
Continue adding pasta water if it gets too dry.

When the pasta is just almost done(erring on the underdone side), save one cup of the water and drain the rest. Add the pasta into the frying pan with the sauce and stir. Mix well (the pasta will dry up a bit in the heat) and maybe add another splash of the reserved water if too dry.

As with all cooked pasta: Serve this spicy, salty dish immediately.

Best new pasta recipe tasted in a long, long time

I don't have any pictures to share with you today. Sorry.
But I just had the most divine dinner possible.
It's a pasta dish I have wanted to try for a very long time. It definitely surpassed my expectations, which were high to begin with.

DO yourselves a favor and check out this link:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/wild-rocket-and-chilli-spaghetti#

The dish is by the King of quick, easy and flavorful; Jamie Oliver.

I got the rocket from one of my pots, and used the first red chili on the tree. I hope to have lemons on my potted plant by the end of summer, so I can make this dish with the most local ingredients possible! ;-)

Give it a go (even if you think you don't like rocket), you won't be disappointed.
Add a glass of nice white wine and it'll be like a mini break to Italy...

Arrivederci!

PS: For my taste the quantity of sauce in this recipe serves two to three people.

Simple Carbonara

Well, what do you cook when you get home ravenously hungry?
This is one of my favorite sauces of all times and I have long ago given up ordering it at restaurants... they just don't measure up to the homemade stuff.

I don't normally use any cream in it. I know this to be a break from traditions that will have purists shaking their heads. But try before you judge.
I have added a splash of cream or a bit of cream cheese when I wanted it (aka I was even hungrier than normal).



Ingredients per person:
100-150 gr of semolina wheat pasta (personal favorite is linguine)
ca. 3 rashers of streaky bacon, cut into pieces
1 egg yolk
a handful of freshly grated parmesan
black pepper to taste

1. First of all, put on your water for the pasta and add salt when it comes to the boil. Put in your pasta.
2. Fry your bacon on a medium heat until crispy.
3. When your pasta is almost done, mix the egg yolk, the parmesan and three to four tablespoons of the pasta water together well. The pasta water adds salt and will help the thicken the mixture with the egg yolk.
4. When your pasta is just cooked reserve a cup of the water and drain the rest. Immediately return the pasta to the still warm pan, add the eggy mixture, mix well, cover and let it sit for about ten seconds. If the pasta is too dry, add a splash of the reserved cooking water and mix again.
5. Mix again, add black pepper to taste and put onto a serving platter. Top with the fried bacon.

This is a sauce that doesn't take longer to make than the pasta takes to cook. My favorite kind!

Hollandaise sauce and all its merits

I remember having a lively discussion with my aunt about all the different ways to enjoy Hollandaise Sauce; on steamed asparagus, with roast beef (granted, this would more likely be its cousin the Sauce Bearnaise), over poached eggs for breakfast or cold with hard boiled eggs at Easter Brunch. (It's a family tradition, don't ask.)

She added as an afterthought, that a friend of hers had confessed to have the habit of eating leftovers of it as pasta sauce.... We both tried picturing this and were not at all enamored of the idea. I should have made a picture of the disgusted faces.

Well, I am here to repent and recant. I had made a lemon foam sauce to go with pork chops the night before. It was simply a mixture of vegetable stock, two eggs and the juice and zest of half a lime whisked and heated over a double boiler. When this was quite firm a small amount of cold butter (50 gr.) was cut into pieces and stirred into the mixture.
This is a light version of a Hollandaise Sauce.

At lunch the next day I cooked my favorite pasta (linguine, for the record) and added a good handful of grated parmesan and some more lemon juice to the cup of leftover lime sauce.


I drained the pasta, but not too dry. The residual heat of the pasta ensures the sauce, the cheese and the pasta water come together beautifully. This is a silky, rich indulgence. I will surely make this again one day.