Category Archives: Recipes – Pasta

Amatraciana

Spaghetti with Amatriciana Sauce close-up on a plate. Horizontal Spaghetti with Amatriciana Sauce close-up on a plate on the table. Horizontal amatriciana stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

Today I had an early brunch dictated by my daily work schedule and at about 19H00 I was ravenous. I fortunately was working the preserved meats from the curing room and noticed a very attractive piece of GUANCIALE (cured pork cheeks) , which off coarse called for Bucatini all’amatriciana. What a wonderful recipe for a delicious pasta with only a few ingredients. Fry the finely chopped guanciale with a few cloves of garlic. Add Passata and cook for about 20 minutes. Also add black pepper, but no salt as the guanciale is quite salty. Keep the sugo moist be adding water from the pasta pot. Boil bucatini pasta in lightly salted water and when al dente, drain and add to the sugo. Cook and toss for another few minutes, then add shredded fresh basil. Toss and serve hot. Add a lot of grated parmigiano reggiano and ENJOY !!!

Do not forget the home made red wine to wash it all down !!!!!

Pasta ai Pomodori Verdi – Green Tomato Pasta

We still have a lot of green tomatoes. They have kept well in a dark spot with the potatoes, but we do need to use them before they start spoiling. We have been eyeing this recipe from Abbruzzo for a while, and today Mrs BYF decided to give it a try.  Because this is lockdown cooking she did not have all the ingredients the real recipe required, so here is the make do one. It was a very nice, fresh tasting pasta sauce, almost spring like. 

4 or 5 medium sized green tomatoes, diced

1 onion chopped

1 big pinch of nutmeg

1/2 cup marjoram

1 stalk of celery, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 hot chilli. We like hot food so use less if you want

6 tablespoons cooking oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Rigatoni or other cut pasta

Soften the onions in the cooking oil. Add the garlic and the chilli, cook until garlic browns a bit. Add the tomatoes and cook covered to release the juices. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water. When the tomatoes have softened, add the marjoram and nutmeg. When the pasta is cooked ladle a soup spoon full of pasta water on to the sauce. Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the sauce. Mix and serve with plenty of grated parmigiano. 

ENJOY!!

Do not forget a glass of home made red!!

Zucchine

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We have a lot of zucchini, as has almost every one I know. There is quite a harvest of spring onions, too. We have used up all the garden’s onions, but Mrs BYF decided to combine the lot and to use it for pasta sauces, on pizza, in frittata and fritters. The discovery we made was that slow sweated spring onion sliced finely, including the green part becomes really soft and tasty. Add the slices zucchini to that and braise over very low heat. Then, create magic by adding fresh mint and basil! It tastes so good that it may be eaten straight out of the pot in stead of being a part of another dish.

20 Spring Onions

1 Kg sliced Zucchini

1 Hand full of fresh Mint leaves

1 Hand full of Basil

6 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

Cut about 1/3 off the top of the spring onions to get rid of the harder leaves. Slice the rest very finely. Fry the onions for about 5 minutes in the olive oil and then cover and sweat on very low heat until soft. Scrub the zucchini and slice very thinly. When the onion is soft add the zucchini and braise for about 10 minutes over very low heat . Add the shredded mint and basil, cover and cook on low until the flavours have blended. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Pasta con la Rucola

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We had lemons from the tree of a friend of a friend and lots of flowering rocket that we had to use or lose. Mrs BYF came up with this delicious pasta using the ingredients at hand, while I was busy making cheese.

Lemon and Rocket Pasta

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

1 chilli or some flakes, as much as you prefer, but at least a bit is essential

2 handfuls of fresh rocket + 1 handful of fresh rocket

zest of 2 lemons + zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon

cracked black pepper

1/2 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano

Add the pasta to salted, fast boiling water. While the pasta cooks, make the sauce.
Heat the olive oil and add the garlic and chilli in a pan that can hold everything including the cooked pasta. When the garlic is translucent add the 2 handfuls of fresh rocket to the pan. When the rocket has wilted slightly add the zest of 2 lemons and the lemon juice. When the pasta has cooked, add a few tablespoons of boiling pasta water to the sauce. When al dente, remove the hot pasta from the pasta pot, drain the water and add the hot pasta to the sauce in the pan. Stir the sauce through the pasta. Portion out the pasta into the plates and scatter a few of the fresh rocket leaves, a bit of the lemon zest and cracked black pepper over the pasta. Add liberal amounts of parmigiano reggiano and serve immediately.

Do not forget a glass of home made red to finish it all!!

ENJOY!!!

 

Multi Purpose Rocket

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Yet another crop with many uses! This time it is rocket which is in abundance in our garden at this time of the year, sowing itself all the time.. Apart from great salads and pesto, the flowers make a really nice display for the kitchen window sill. Also enjoy the pesto as a pasta sauce, with fish or on fresh bread or toast

Pesto Recipe

100 g Pesto Leaves

25 g roasted Pine Nuts

20 g fresh Garlic

150 g Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 g Salt

Blend all the above ingredients well in a blender, or if you have the energy, mash it up in a mortar and pestle

50 g grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padana cheese

20 g grated Pecorino cheese

40 g melted Butter

Fold the above indigents into the blended product

 

It will last up to a week in the fridge, but is better fresh (after resting for about an hour from making it – the pesto not you)

ENJOY and do not forget a glass of the home made red!!!