Category Archives: Recipes – Pasta

Pappardelle al ragù di quaglia (Egg pasta with quail sauce)

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Fresh egg pasta and quail ragu shall always remain one of my favorites. Mrs BYF took off to foreign shores (again) and I shall have to look after myself for ten weeks. Tuesday being slaughter day and the quails were young, plump and very soft, so I decided to treat myself. While slowly simmering the quail ragu, I decanted a bottle of Blackcurrant wine, made on 2014-09-01, for the occasion. Even though I already racked it twice (and tasted it every time) I was pleasantly surprised. This is a bold and concentrated full bodied dark red wine with a pleasant strong velvety aroma and an endless after taste. Being young, I shall bottle tomorrow and keep it for some time and I am sure it is going to be very good as the bottle I had with the paste was excellent. I am fortunate to have made about 70 liters of this wine and I shall post the recipe later during the week.

Recipe for fresh paste

Mix 500 g plain flour with 20 quail eggs (5 chicken eggs). Knead until smooth (ad water or flour to get the correct consistency), cover and place in the fridge for one hour. Fold and roll the dough several times through the thickest setting on the pasta machine, then gradually pass it through at a thinner setting each time, until the desired thickness is obtained. Use ample amounts of flour whilst rolling the dough. The pasta can now be used or allowed to dry for later use. This fresh pasta cooks very fast and is ready in less than five minutes.

Paccheri alla Puttanesca

Putanesca

 

Today I was alone and very busy, but also very hungry. So what do you do to get a quick, filling and delightful meal. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, ad thirty pieces of Paccheri pasta. While it is cooking, put a few spoons of Salsa al Pomodoro (Traditional Italian tomato sauce), something an Italian kitchen is never without, into a pan, ad a handful of caper berries, another hand of marinated black olives, one freshly chopped chili and two fillets of anchovies. While simmering slowly and you taste the quality of the red wine, adjust for salt and ad enough freshly ground black pepper.  When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain the water and ad to the sauce. The sauce must be thick and not watery. Mix through and ad a handful of torn fresh basil. Grate some home made Romano or Parmigiano cheese over the top and make sure the second glass of red wine is full.  ENJOY

Foraging for Cockles (Vongole) close to home

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On the way to fetch milk from the farm I passed the bay where the locals forage for cockles and clams. The tide was right so I went down to the water and scooped up about 100 cockles with my hands. No implements allowed or needed and the quota is 150 shells per person. In the hour I was there I was kept company by a solitary black swan who kept an eye on what I was doing. I invited the troops for lunch and had Linguine alle Vongole on the table within 1 hour of harvesting.  Next time I will soak them in fresh water for a little longer  – my sauce was a little salty but no one complained

Linguine alle Vongole (spaghetti with a cockle sauce)

Use  a large saucepan with a lid that can hold all the vongole

100 cockles or vongole

6 tablespoons of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh rosemary

1/2 cup of white wine

Pinch of chili

Cook the garlic until soft but not colored, add the chili and rosemary, add the wine and cook for a few minutes. Put all the cockles in the pan and cover tightly. Cook until the cockles open, releasing their liquid. Remove the cockles to a heated dish as they open. At this stage start boiling the pasta, I use spaghetti in place of linguine because the grand kids will not eat anything else. When all the cockles are removed from the pan turn up the heat and reduce the liquid by about half to intensify the flavor. When the pasta is done and drained return the cockles to the pan and add the pasta, mixing well. Serve immediately. Do not add salt at any time.

Simple Italian food at its best – and I got to forage for it myself. I love this island!

 

 

Low-Fat Fad Has Done Unfathomable Harm – Eat Healthy

Dreamtime

 

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/02/24/modern-diet.aspx

The Curse of the Cookbooks

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I had to photograph the result of a cooking discussion or, cooking bickering, if you must.

The great thing about being self sufficient and eating from the vegetable patch is the joy of harvesting something one grew oneself. It is organic and fresh even if, at time whatever is harvested is gnarled and puny it still tastes wonderful. The bad thing is that one is held hostage by the blackbird that eats all the seedlings the chickens overlooked when they were free ranging last time. The seasons and climate, especially here in Dunedin , dictate whether things grow or not and the person in control of the garden constantly suffers arched inquiries as to why in the world so much (or so little) of something was planted

Sometimes there is a glut of something and then the search for a great recipe, or, often many great recipes of one particular vegetable or fruit depending on the amount harvested. The frantic paging through the cookbooks begin, and since my 200 plus books are all about regional Italian cooking the search can not be narrowed down to, say, Indian or Chinese, and mutterings of  ‘ it was always in this book, where has it gone’ are commonplace. A lot of time is spent getting side tracked when I see something fondly remembered or something I always wanted to try. Once the recipe is selected sudden resistance from the household to the ingredients could flare up, prompting the beginning of a new search and the hauling out of more books!