Tagliatelle with pancetta, gorgonzola and leeks

Here's another tasty recipe by Simply Italian. Pasta del Papa. Who knew that just a few ingredients — tagliatelle, pancetta, leeks, gorgonzola cheese — could taste so delicious together. And this recipe's really quick!

The recipe's published on the Chiappa sisters' website.

But what really inspired me to try it was watching them make it on YouTube (Jamie Oliver's Food Tube channel). 

Farfalle with tomatoes, olives and spinach

I recently discovered a cooking show called Simply Italian starring the Chiappa sisters, who are based in Wales. I have to say that I love their recipes. I've only tried two so far, but they've tasted fantastic and it's so convenient that they're only a few ingredients each. That makes shopping for them very easy. Here's the first I want to share with you:

Farfalle with tomatoes, olives and spinach. 

The base for the sauce is the Chiappa family's tomato sauce, which is lovely and easy to make. This recipe's oozy and gooey because of the addition of mozzarella cheese. The olives give it a nice, salty kick, and the spinach makes it super healthy.

Please click here to find the recipe on Channel 4's website.

Minestrone soup - second take

Still working on the perfect minestrone! I like this version better than my first attempt. It has some nice fresh vegetables such as zucchini and green beans and isn't as thick. I ate this with some little parmesan croutes for dipping.

Minestrone soup

2 onions, finely diced
2 celery stalks, large dice
2 carrots, large dice
2-3 strips of bacon, sliced into paperclip-sized strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
one can of white kidney beans
1 zucchini, large dice
2 handfuls of green beans, chopped into one-inch pieces
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz)
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp herbes de Provence
half a cup of shell pasta
olive oil for frying
parmesan cheese, grated, for garnish

Fry the bacon in the bottom of a stock pot on medium heat. Drain off and discard all but one tablespoon of the fat. Add a bit of olive oil to the pan. Add the onions and garlic and fry seven to 10 minutes until softened but not browned.

Add the celery and carrots, stirring for a couple of minutes.

Add the chicken stock, diced tomatoes, water, bay leaves and herbes de Provence. Bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and add the white kidney beans, green beans and zucchini. Simmer gently for 30 to 40 minutes. Add the pasta during the last eight to 10 minutes of cooking.

Take out the bay leaves and discard. Ladle into bowls and top with grated parmesan cheese.

Minestrone soup

This is the first time I've made minestrone. The highlight for me was the cannellini beans. I'd like to keep working on this recipe and make it with no potatoes next time so I can freeze it. I freeze my bacon strips so it's easy to slice them into a paper-clip size when needed. I have to remember to make this in summer when the vegetables will be in season!

Minestrone soup

2 onions, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, diced
2-3 strips of bacon, sliced into paperclip-sized strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
one bunch Swiss chard or kale, ribs discarded and leaves chopped
one can of white beans
one can of chickpeas
piece of parmesan cheese, diced
8-9 cups of chicken stock
2 bay leaves
chopped fresh herbs - thyme, rosemary, parsley
two cups of small new potatoes, halved
two cups of rotini pasta
olive oil for frying

Fry the bacon in the bottom of a stock pot on medium heat. Drain off and discard all but one tablespoon of the fat. Add a bit of olive oil to the pan. Add the mirepoix - celery, carrots, onions - and garlic and fry seven to 10 minutes until softened but not browned.

In the meantime, blend 3/4 cup of the beans with some of the chicken stock. Set aside.

When the mirepoix mixture has softened, add the Swiss chard, whole beans, chickpeas and potatoes, stirring for a couple turns around the pot after adding each ingredient to combine. Add the chicken stock, blended beans, parmesan, bay leaves and herbs. Bring to a boil and let simmer bout 45 minutes. Add the pasta at the beginning of the last 12 minutes of cooking.

Discard the bay leaves before eating.

Spinach and cheese ravioli in rose sauce

I love this pasta because it's quick, delicious and only five ingredients! I saw this on a Giada de Laurentiis show. It's good lazy-day food that looks gorgeous when served up family-style on a big platter. I just use frozen spinach-and-cheese ravioli because it's my favourite, but you could also use tortellini or gnocchi. Now's a good time to make this recipe because of all the fresh summer-sweet basil that's available.

Spinach and cheese ravioli in rose sauce

one package frozen spinach-and-cheese ravioli
half a tall jar of marinara sauce
one cup ricotta cheese
a handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
half a cup of grated parmesan cheese

Boil the pasta in a big pot according to package directions, taking care not to overcook because you will be combining the pasta with the hot sauce, which will cook it a bit more. Drain and set aside.

Pour the marinara sauce into a big, high-sided frying pan and heat. Once it's warmed through, add the ricotta cheese and stir to blend until smooth, about a couple of minutes. Just before serving, add half of the torn basil to the sauce and mix together until the leaves are wilted.

Slide the cooked pasta into a serving platter and top with sauce, grated parmesan cheese and remaining fresh basil leaves for garnish. Serve right away with garlic bread.

Orzo with fennel and pancetta

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I was recently introduced to orzo, a wee member of the pasta family. Anything delicious wins me over, but anything delicious and cute has a definite monopoly. This is a nice lunch to take to work :)

Orzo with fennel and pancetta
Serves two

1 cup orzo
¼ cup cubed pancetta or bacon
2 finely minced shallots
½ cup thawed frozen peas
1/2 cup finely chopped fennel bulb
1 cup chicken broth (or a combo of broth and water)
2 Tbsp white wine
favourite fresh herb for garnish, torn
salt and pepper

Cook the orzo according to the directions on the package. Reserve half a cup of pasta water in case you need to add some liquid to the final dish.

Cube the pancetta and fry it with minced shallots in olive oil in a frying pan on medium high heat for five minutes or so. Then add the thawed peas and finely chopped fennel, stirring to coat them in the oil. Add chicken broth or water and then stir occasionally, uncovered, until the liquid had reduced by half. Add the wine to deglaze the bottom bits, and cooked it for a minute. Finally, add the precooked orzo and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with your favourite chopped fresh herb.

Linguine with clams

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I'm still on a seafood kick, so we made some linguine with clams the other day. It was yummy. Those winey, clammy juices really tasted like the sea. The whole meal reminded me of summer and made me happy that winter is ending.

It seems there are two golden rules when it comes to cooking with clams: Before cooking, throw any out that are open, and after cooking, throw any out that are closed.

We kept our clams in a metal bowl in the fridge, but S's father, an expert cook when it comes to seafood, told us of a better way to store clams. He recommended we put them in salted water, a solution of 3.2 per cent (for example, 32 grams salt per litre of water). Keep them on the counter at room temperature. These conditions mimic their natural environment and they will even put out their little feet and do their thing happily. I will have to try this next time.


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Linguine with clams
Printable version

serves two
prep and cooking time: 30-45 minutes

linguine
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
30 clams (15 per person)
one small onion, finely diced)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried red chilli pepper
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup pasta cooking water
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
zest of one lemon
salt and pepper
additional lemon wedges for garnish

substitutions/variations: spaghetti for linguine, olive oil for butter or vice versa, onions and red chillis are optional (but really make it better!), I have also seen this recipe with cherry tomatoes and bacon added

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Cook some linguine until al dente.

While the pasta water comes to a boil, rinse the clams in cold water in the sink. Discard any that have opened.

Wait until you've added the linguine to the pot before cooking the clams because the sauce doesn't take long. While it's cooking, reserve about 1/3 cup of the cooking water.

In your largest, high-sided frying pan, heat the olive oil. Add the diced onions and chilli pepper and saute for two minutes, until the onions are starting to soften. Add the minced garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, taking care not to burn.

Add the clams, half of the chopped parsley and all of the white wine and cover the frying pan until the clams have opened, which will take between two to six minutes. Discard any clams that have stayed shut.

Add the cooked linguine to the clams and the butter and some of the pasta water. Mix gently into the clam mixture until the butter has slicked over the noodles.

Sprinkle over with grated lemon zest and the rest of the chopped parsley. Serve with additional lemon wedges.

Roman holiday: La parte due

A pizzeria sighting and great Roman graffiti!

Please welcome guest bloggers Peanut Butter and Jelly, foodie friends recently back from a vacation in Rome. In the second half of their guest post, Peanut Butter shares some of their experiences eating out and reviews their three favourite restaurants. —Asha

Both lunch and dinner are served on the later side, which suits us well. Some restaurants don't open for lunch until 12:30 or 1 p.m.

A full meal at a restaurant consists of a small appetizer, a primi (usually a medium-sized portion of pasta) and a secondi (usually a meat dish with a few veggies).

We did not consider the service slow as much as leisurely. Generally speaking, the food was very good or excellent, sometimes regardless of price point. We did encounter a few misses but not too many.

Mind you, we followed a few important rules when eating out:

* We followed our noses and smelled the restaurant once inside.

* We avoided restaurants where there was someone outside who was aggressively waving for us to come in or yelling after us in English. This was actually a tip from Eyewitness' Top 10 Rome guidebook that stated “no self respecting Roman would go to such a restaurant and neither should you.”

* We avoided restaurants on main streets near major tourist attractions (which is somewhat difficult as Rome is teeming with these). Some of the best places to eat are on side streets and not much to look at.

* We tried to order what the restaurant is best at. For example, if we were at a pizzeria, we ordered pizza.

* We steered clear of “tourist menus.”

Of the many restaurants that we tried over our 12 days in Rome, here are our favourite three:

Il Bocconcino
Via Ostilia, 23, phone 06 77079175
www.ilbocconcino.com


The luscious menu at Il Bocconcino.

This is the restaurant that we were the most impressed with and we were lucky enough to visit twice. It has a rustic, welcoming feel and the staff were patient when explaining in detail all the items on the Italian menu. We started with the antipasto plate, which was plentiful and had a decadent array of cheeses, meats as well some interesting baked goods. The rigatoni carbonara was the best carbonara we had on vacation (this is a common Roman pasta dish consisting of pasta, bacon, parmesan cheese and egg). The rabbit medallions in red wine sauce were tender and juicy and so good that we came back and ordered this item for a second time. We also enjoyed the artichoke torte; while not the strongest item on the menu, it was good nevertheless. We skipped our usually daily gelato and went for dessert. We split a chocolate cake that was similar to a soft, chewy brownie. Molto buono!

Maccheroni
Piazza Delle Coppelle 44, phone 39.06.683.078.95
reservations@ristorantemaccheroni.com

This was a restaurant that Jelly had researched ahead of time and wanted to try. After we made our reservation we discovered that it was in a few tourist handbooks, which explained the number of tourists we saw there. But in fact, we benefited from their presence — during dinner we met some interesting American tourists who were nice enough to give us their tickets for that night's midnight mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

But I digress, the food...

We shared artichoke cooked in white wine and garlic, unexpectedly good. We cut into it easily, and it was a nice starter. For our primi, we tried a gorgonzola and pear gnocchi and a red-lettuce risotto that was subtle in taste and quite a refreshing change from the heavier flavours usually found in risotto. Although a good pairing of ingredients, the gnocchi itself was not as good as we tasted at Casa Coppelle (the next review below). Our two secondis this night were osso bucco and carpaccio. The osso bucco was good, but the carpaccio was excellent. It consisted of paper-thin slices of uncooked tender beef, covered in arugula and parmesan cheese, and served with olive and balsamic. The meat almost dissolved in your mouth and we enjoyed every last bite.

Casa Coppelle
Piazza Delle Coppelle 49, phone 39.06.6889.1707
ristorante@casacoppelle.it

The atmosphere and friendly staff also set this restaurant apart. The highlight was the gnocchi in gorgonzola sauce. This was by far the best gnocchi I had ever tasted. It was clearly made from scratch on the premises. The gnocchi did not have a sticky or heavy consistency but was rather light and tender. We also both tried the veal escalopes with lemon sauce that we a bit salty but still enjoyed it.


Nuns caught out in the rain during midnight mass in Vatican City.

Roman holiday!

Peanut Butter eating gelato at the Trevi fountain in Rome, Italy.

Please welcome guest bloggers Peanut Butter and Jelly, foodie friends of mine recently back from a Christmas adventure in Rome. In part one of their guest blog, Peanut Butter shares their general Roman food observations. —Asha

For those considering a trip to Rome, it is well worth it if you have any interest in art, architecture, history and of course food! Allow yourself lots of time as there is far too much to see and so many restaurants to try in only a few days.

We noticed that most restaurants served similar dishes. Antipasto was available everywhere, from the least expensive of bars to the most high-end of restaurants. In many respects, the variety of food in Rome is very limited relative to similar-sized cities in North America, but that does not mean it's not worth visiting as many restaurants as possible. The Romans focus on serving their classic dishes in their best possible form and way with the freshest ingredients around.


A chocolate nativity scene in a Roman shop window.

Breakfast

For breakfast, most Romans favour taking an espresso or cappuccino along with a sweet pastry at the bar in the local cafe. This morning tradition became a ritual that Jelly really got into. We found it interesting that even the pastries and bread were sold by weight.

Cooking at the apartment

Most days, we ate a large lunch out, and stuck to making simple meals for dinner at the apartment with fresh ingredients that we picked up at the local grocery store. The clementines, tomatoes and artichokes tasted particularly fresh to us, having just come from Ottawa's cold winter. We bought different varieties of salami and prosciutto to compliment the different cheeses that we found. We observed the locals getting into heated discussions over cheeses at the cheese counter. One of our favourites was a sheep's cheese called piccolino. It spreads on bread similar to butter and is delicious.

Gelato

Gelato was a great ice cream treat that we enjoyed almost every day (see photo of me at the top!). It did not look to us like the Romans ate as much gelato in the winter as the tourists, who still regularly enjoyed it. A favourite of Jelly's was pine nut, a flavour we found in Florence.


Two Swiss guards in Vatican City.

A Roman feast

Visit beFOODled on Flickr.

My friends Peanut Butter and Jelly went to Rome for two weeks over Christmas. They had many delicious food adventures and came back with mouthwatering stories.

They kindly invited me for dinner on New Year's Eve and this is what they cooked for me, above. An insalata caprese to start, followed by spaghetti carbonara and tartuffo for dessert. The other two photos are from their trip to Rome and show the Septimus Arch forum and a never-ending row of scooters! (Crossing the street as a pedestrian in Rome is a leap of faith, they say, you just got to take a deep breath and go for it!)

PB and J have also generously offered to write a guest post on beFOODled about their adventures. Stay tuned because the next two posts on beFOODled will be all about their Roman holiday!

Read part one: General Roman food observations
Read part two: Roman restaurant reviews

Mushroom risotto

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I made this over the holidays with my dad. We used the turkey stock he made after Christmas instead of chicken broth. It turned out really well. I think the secret is to include the mushroom broth that comes from soaking dried mushrooms. You could also add garlic. Another secret: do not rinse the rice. Usually I wash rice four or five times or until its water runs clear, but with risotto, you don't want to wash off the starches because they are what gives this dish a creamy consistency.

Mushroom risotto
Serves six

pat of butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
handful of dried wild mushrooms
4 cups turkey stock
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 2/3 cups arborio rice
2 1/2 cups of mushrooms, sliced
pinch of pumpkin spice
finely chopped parsley
grated parmesan

Bring the turkey broth to a boil in a stock pot and turn down to maintain at a low simmer.

Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 cups of boiling water from the kettle for about 10 minutes or until soft. Drain but keep the resulting mushroom broth and set aside. Slice the soaked mushrooms. Bring the mushroom broth to a simmer in a small saucepan.

Add the butter and olive oil to the bottom of a large, high-sided frying pan. Cook the onion until glassy (a couple of minutes). Add the rice and turn down the heat. Mix in the rice until it looks like every grain is coated with oil.

Add the fresh mushrooms and pumpkin spice (we used this because we didn't have nutmeg). Season with salt and pepper and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced soaked mushrooms and their broth. Cook, stirring, until all of the liquid has been absorbed.

Add a ladleful of turkey stock and stir the rice continuously until all of the stock has been absorbed. Repeat with another ladleful. Continue until all of the stock has been added and the rice is al dente. This will take about 20 to 25 minutes. The actual amount of stock you need may vary.

Remove the risotto from the heat and garnish with parmesan and parsley. Serve.

Pea and chorizo rotini

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Two nights ago when I made rösti again, it really didn't turn out. The outer part was crispy but the inside was uncooked, and after frying it for a long time I finally gave up and I ended up eating chocolate for dinner instead. The next day, to boost my ego, I made this tasty old standby that I haven't yet messed up.

Pea and chorizo rotini
serves two

1 chorizo sausage, casing removed
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp favourite dried herb
pinch hot pepper flakes
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup pasta water
parmesan cheese (optional)
1.5 cups rotini

Boil salted water for the rotini and cook until al dente.

In a big frying pan, drop in little chunks of the sausage meat and break it up while cooking. When the sausage has almost cooked, add the garlic, hot pepper flakes and herbs and cook a few more minutes. Add in the frozen peas and warm through for a minute while stirring.

Drain the pasta but reserve some of the cooking water. Add the drained rotini to the sauce and mix well. Add the ricotta cheese and half a cup of the reserved pasta water and stir until the ricotta has combined with the water to make a cheesy sauce. Top with grated parmesan and serve.

Remembering Pompeii with homemade tomato sauce

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I still had some mason jars left over after making jam with Squeaky, so I decided to try my hand at canning tomato sauce next. I adapted a delicious recipe given to me by Chef Hermann Jenny that uses canned tomatoes instead of fresh.

I used San Marzano tomatoes. You can get these at any Italian grocer (I got mine from La Bottega in Byward Market). They are grown and imported all the way from the fertile plains of Mount Vesuvius near Naples, shown in the map below. Pompeii, that famous ancient Roman city buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., is also nearby. It's just a little southwest of where they still grow the tomatoes in San Marzano sul Sarno.

It's strange to think that the same volcanic ash that makes San Marzano tomatoes so special today was also responsible for burying entire cities over 2,000 years ago. That said, San Marzano tomatoes are not native to the region. Coincidentally, just 22 years after archeologists uncovered the remains of Pompeii in 1748, the Kingdom of Peru gave the first San Marzano seeds to the Kingdom of Naples.


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Tomato sauce
makes about 6 and a half cups

drop of olive oil
1/2 cup diced pancetta or bacon
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
2 crushed dried cayenne peppers (or 1 tsp dried)
1 cup olive oil
5 Tbsp tomato paste
2 800-g cans of San Marzano tomatoes
a 1" by 3"piece of parmesan rind or other hard cheese
small hunk of salt pork rind
1/2 Tbsp herbes de Provence
a couple of beef bouillon cubes
1 Tbsp oregano
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the pancetta and the onions in the olive oil for about 10 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and the dried cayenne pepper and saute another minute. Add the tomato paste and stir to make a paste with the other ingredients.

Then add the canned tomatoes and break them apart a bit with your wooden spoon. Add the rest of the ingredients and cover and cook in the oven for three hours at 125 C/250 F.

Discard the salt pork rind and bay leaves. The parmesan rind should easily break up and dissolve into the sauce.

Follow the canning directions that come with your preserving jars, and top each jar with a layer of hot olive oil, about 1/4 of an inch think to sterilize the top layer of sauce.

Alternatively, you can freeze the sauce if you'll be keeping it for more than a few weeks, but in that case, store it in a Tupperware instead of a glass jar.

This is lovely in pasta or pizza, and to spread on toast!

Stracciatella

Stracciatella soup on Flickr by beFOODled.

On Friday, S and I had lunch on a patio in Little Italy and I ordered stracciatella. It was so good and reminded me of the leek and egg drop soup that we made with Mark in Calgary.

Today, I made my own version for lunch.

Stracciatella is a Roman recipe and the word means "little rags," which refer to the shape the egg and cheese take when they are dropped into hot soup. The authentic Roman method adds semolina or flour to the egg and cheese mixture, and uses parsley. I did things a little differently and julienned some basil and spinach instead, and I made a soup base by sweating some leek and onion like we did with Mark.

Stracciatella
serves four to six

1 leek, white and light green part, finely sliced
1/2 an onion, finely diced
6 cups chicken broth
3 eggs
lots of grated fresh parmesan cheese (I used our microplane zester for an extra-fine grate)
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup baby spinach leaves, finely sliced
6 big basil leaves, finely sliced
salt and pepper

For the croûtes
2 baguette slices per person
some grated parmesan

Add the leek and onion to some hot oil in the bottom of a stock pot. Add some salt and sweat over low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add five cups of the chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Wash, dry and julienne the spinach and basil leaves.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and parmesan together. Add the last cup of broth and the nutmeg. Stir and set aside until the leek and onion broth is boiling.

Make the croûtes. Cut the baguette into slices, two per person. Put on a baking sheet and grate some parmesan over top. Put under the broiler until golden and crispy.

Turn the leek and onion broth down to medium-low heat. Add the egg and cheese mixture in a thin stream, stirring the broth constantly with a whisk — watch for the little rags forming!

Add the spinach and basil and stir. Ladle into bowls, top with two croûtes. Garnish with more grated cheese and cracked black pepper.

Fettuccine's on Elgin St.

Fettuccine with tomato vodka sauce for two on Flickr by beFOODled.

On Friday night, I rented three movies and take-out from Fettuccine's for S and I. Fettuccine's is our neighbourhood's fresh pasta joint. (When I lived in Parkdale, I used to go to Parma Ravioli).

For unknown reasons, I always assumed that in Italy people ate fresh pasta and that dried pasta was an inferior, but non-perishable, alternative. I think it was an episode of Jamie's Great Italian Escape where Jamie Oliver said that both fresh and dried pastas are valued equally in Italy. They use dried when they want the "al dente" texture that fresh pasta can never achieve or when they want a firm texture that can stand up to hearty sauces, like a meaty bolognese. In contrast, they use fresh pasta with light sauces, for example, made with tomatoes and cream.

At Fettuccine's, I usually get fettuccine for two (plain or spinach), two tubs of tomato vodka sauce and two garlic breads. It's a great deal for only $18. The garlic bread is the best in the city — I told this to Squeaky who later investigated on her own and now concurs.

I usually cook the pasta for about eight minutes and heat up one of the tubs of vodka sauce for the two of us (the other I save for later in the week). I toss the pasta in half of the sauce, and save the other half to ladle on top. Then I add cracked black pepper and grate some fresh parmesan over top. The garlic bread is an eight-inch piece of fresh baguette with a garlicky butter spread inside. I open them up and cook them for a few minutes at 350 F and then broil them for a couple of minutes until they are golden and the edges almost charred. I am generally not good at timing but I have made this so many times everything is now ready at the same time. Booya!

The other dish I am partial to at Fettuccine's is the sun-dried tomato cappelleti. This is an antipasti salad of cheese cappelleti (looks like a hat-shaped tortellini), sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, fresh parsley, olive oil and mozzarella. It is unbelievably tasty either hot or cold and very very garlicky.

Fettuccine's
280C Elgin St.
Ottawa, ON K2P 1M2
Tel │ 613.230.4723


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Guest post by Ella: Italian tomato sauce

Guest post by Ella: Italian tomato sauce, originally uploaded by beFOODled.

This simple and tasty sauce is a staple in Europe. Everyone has their own little spin on it and you’ll see that it’s just so much better than store-bought tomato sauce.

Ingredients:
green onions or white onion
garlic
two cans of chopped tomatoes
bouillion cubes
olive oil
sugar
salt
bay leaf
pepper
oregano
basil

Cut up one to two small green onions (or one large, sweet white onion) and sauté over medium-high heat in a pot drizzled with one tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté for about 10 minutes until the onions turn clear. To make sure the onions are done — try a little piece, it should be sweet.

Finely mince one to two cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you like your sauce). Add to the onions and sauté for about two minutes.

Add two small cans of chopped tomatoes (or one large can). Make sure you buy good-quality tomatoes, such as the San Marzano brand.

Stir and add:

1/2 to one bouillion cube, depending on cube size (beef is best but vegetable or chicken works just as well)
1 bay leaf
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1 teaspoon sugar (you may not need as much sugar if your onions and tomatoes are very sweet)
1 tsp dried oregano (you can add more or less)
1 tsp dried basil (you can add more or less)

Turn the heat down to low and simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes. Stir every few minutes and remove the bay leaf when the sauce is done.

This makes a great and simple sauce for pasta! Serve the sauce with some fresh basil and parmesan cheese.

Variations:

Vodka sauce:
Add 1/2 cup cream and 1/8 cup vodka (optional) at the end. Simmer for two minutes.

Cream and herb sauce:
Add one teaspoon of herbes de Provence with the basil and oregano. At the end, add chopped basil and 1/2 cup of cream. Simmer for two minutes.

Chorizo, mushroom and red wine sauce:
Halfway through the cooking of the onions, add two finely chopped chorizo sausages and one cup of finely chopped mushrooms. Add in a few drops of hot sauce or chilli peppers and 1/4 cup of dry red wine when adding the other spices.

Gnocchi and tomato sauce

Gnocchi and tomato sauce, originally uploaded by beFOODled.

Please accept my apologies for being a tardy blogger of late. I have still been having foodie adventures, but just haven't had the time to write about them until now.

Without further ado, let me tell you that Ella and I made gnocchi from scratch the other day and had a very fun afternoon. Once again I was squidging about in some nameless dough, elbow deep in flour :)

We made the gnocchi the way Ella used to make it with her grandmother in Switzerland. It made me nostalgic for my Oma in Holland, who was also a very good cook. Oma knew my penchant for gravy and always made a meal with it when I was visiting. Once she even made a gravy for fish. Do any of you have a favourite recipe that reminds you of your grandmother?

We ate the gnocchi with some homemade tomato sauce and it was really good. However, we did have some trouble at the stage where you have to add flour before you roll out the dough. How much is too much? Our dough was still sticky and wet, so I just kept adding flour until I was almost halfway through the bag! This is roughly what we did:

Making gnocchi, originally uploaded by beFOODled.

Spicy Lamb Casserole

On Monday, Squeaky came in with a mouthwatering Julia Child boeuf bourguignon that Calimocho had slaved over while we were out making jewelry on the previous Sunday afternoon. It was so wonderful that it set up a craving in me after just one taste. And no wonder when it's made with almost a whole bottle of red wine!

That memorable mouthful stayed with me all afternoon and inspired me to create this equally tastilicious lamb casserole after work. It's a recipe adapted from one of my favourite cookbooks, The Food of Italy.

I also supported local business in buying the lamb, veggies and tomato sauce from my neighbourhood butcher, fresh food market and Italian grocery store, instead of my usual big box StupidStore.

And for the first time I used my new Le Creuset! Doesn't it look great in the picture?

(Go back to Flickr)

Spicy Lamb Casserole

2 Tbsp olive oil
500 grams (1 lb) lamb, cut into cubes about 1.5 inches each
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 C red wine
1/2 tsp dried red chilli flakes
1 Tbsp crushed juniper berries
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 cups chicken stock (or 1 stock and 1 water)
1 whole rosemary sprig
package of cipollini onions
5 small potatoes, cut into cubes
handful of fresh chopped parsley for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Heat the oil in a large pot that can go from stovetop to oven or, if you don't have one, a stock pot (which I did because I didn't realize at first that this had to go in the oven). Salt and pepper
the lamb cubes and brown them in batches over high heat (about level six or seven). Remove the lamb and set aside.
Add more oil in the pan if you need to and fry the onion and garlic. Reduce the heat and cook for about five minutes.
Return the lamb to the pan. Pour in the wine and scrape up all the caramelized bits sticking to the pan. Reduce the liquid by half. Add the chilli and juniper and cook for about 30 seconds.
Add the tomato paste, rosemary and chicken stock/water, or just enough liquid to cover.
Transfer the stew to an ovenproof casserole dish at this point if you started with a stock pot.
Bake covered for 40 minutes. Add the onions and potatoes and cook for another 40 minutes, covered. Stir in the fresh parsley just before serving.

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Fusilli with Spinach, Tomatoes and Asiago Cheese

I'm starting a series of 5-ingredients-or-less recipes (not counting oil or seasonings like salt and pepper). This pasta goes into that category. It's another one by Giada de Laurentiis from her show Everyday Italian. It's meant to be a fast weekday dinner. The sauce literally takes five minutes, so you should start it after you've put the pasta on. The spinach and tomatoes make it very healthy as you can see in the photo. (Pay no attention to the iron in the background.)

Fusilli with Spinach, Tomatoes and Asiago Cheese

fusilli or another curly pasta of your choice, enough for two
1/4 C olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 bag baby spinach, washed and roughly chopped
cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 C grated asiago cheese (and/or grated Parmigiano Reggiano)

Cook the pasta according to package directions. As soon as you've put the pasta into boiling water, it's time to start the sauce.

Add the olive oil to a frying pan on low-medium heat. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant but not brown, about a minute or two. Wash the spinach, dry it in a tea towel or salad spinner, and roughly chop it. Add the spinach to the pan and stir for a minute or so or until wilted. Halve the cherry tomatoes and add to the sauce. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce in the frying pan. Toss to mix. Add one cup of grated asiago cheese. Toss again until the cheese has combined and becomes stringy.

Le Ragoût de Veau Avec les Oignons de Cipollini

Ma chose préférée de ce ragoût est que c’est un repas d’un seul pot – c’est facile quand c’est le temps pour faire la vaisselle. La deuxième raison que j’aime cette recette est les oignons de cipollini. C’est difficile de manger des choses aussi mignon qu’oignons de cipollini!

Le Ragoût de Veau Avec les Oignons de Cipollini
6 portions

· un sac d’oignons de cipollini (environ 30 - 40)
· huile d’olive, a gout
· viande de veau (vous pouvez substituer le boeuf, l’agneau ou le poulet) 2.5 lbs
· le sel et le poivre
· farine (1/3 tasse)
· gousses d’ail, 3, hachées
· feuilles de thym fraîches (n’importe quelle quantite)
· vin blanc sèche (1 1/4 tasse)
· bouillon de poulet (1 ½ tasses)
· tomates hachées dans leur jus, une boîte d’environ 8 oz
· 14 petites pommes de terre rouges (ou 4 grande couper dans huit pieces)
· 1 grosse carotte, pelée et coupée en tranches épaisses
· persil frais pour la garniture (facultatif)

Dans un pot du bouillon, porter l’eau a ébullition. Cuisiner les oignons cipollinis non-pelees pour 2 minutes. Filtrer et a laisser se refraichir. Les peler et couper les fins (ceci prendra à peu près 5 minutes).

Chauffer l’huile dans le meme pot sur le chaleur moyen-haut. Saupoudrer le veau avec le sel et le poivre, et finalement les donner un manteau de la farine. Ajouter le veau au pot et frire jusqu’ à ce qu’ils soient colorés (à peu près 8 minutes). Réserver.

Ajouter l’ail et le thym au même pot et même sauté pour d’une minute. Ajouter le vin et deglaze, grattant en haut tous les morceaux croustillants. Mijoter par-dessus la chaleur moyen-haut jusqu’ à réduit par la moitié (à peu près 3 minutes). Retourner le veau au pot.

Ajouter le bouillon et les tomates avec le jus. Partiellement couvrir et mijoter sur la chaleur bas-moyen pour 15 minutes. Ajouter les pommes de terre et les carottes et mijote découvert pour à peu près 20 minutes, et remuer de temps en temps. Ajouter les oignons et mijoter découvert pour encore 25 minutes, et remuer encore de temps en temps. Saison le ragoût avec le sel et le poivre et server dans les bols avec les pièces du pain crousillant.