Kitchen garden soup with tiny herb omelettes

It’s almost winter here and I have to say I love cold days – maybe because they remind me of the time I spent with my mom as a kid, watching cartoons under the blanket after school with a bowl of her piping hot rice pudding, loaded with cinnamon...

Now that I’m a grown-up I have to do boring things – like going to work – but I still have a nice feeling when the cold wind hits my face. For days – and nights – like these, soups are my favorite kind of meal. I must confess, though, that I only made this recipe because of the tiny omelettes – aren’t they cute? :)

Kitchen garden soup with tiny herb omelettes
adapted from The Cook's Companion

1 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 bay leaf
1 large sprig thyme
100g unsalted butter
2 liters chicken stock
300g snow peas, washed and strung
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Herb omelettes:
2 eggs
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
1 teaspoon freshly snipped chives
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil, for frying

Sweat onion, carrots, potatoes and herbs in butter in a large saucepan for 10 minutes. Add stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are tender. Drop in snap peas and boil vigorously for 3 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and the thyme sprig, blend at once in a food processor, then strain through a coarse sieve and season with salt and pepper – I blended the soup but did not strain it. Keep warm.

Make the omelettes: place the eggs in a bowl, beat with a fork, then add the breadcrumbs, parsley, chives, salt and pepper. Heat a little olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over high heat and fry teaspoonfuls of egg mixture until crisp and a little puffed at the edges. Turn and cook until golden on the other side as well. Remove from the pan and keep warm.
Serve the soup with the omelettes as garnishes.

Serves 4

Baked ricotta with olive salad

Anyone who’s been reading my blog for a little while might have probably noticed I’m insanely partial to sweets – don’t get me wrong, I love food as a whole, but desserts ARE the best part of a meal. Don’t you think? :D

As a very responsible person, ahem, I know that one can’t live on cakes, cookies and ice cream – that’s why I’m always searching for delicious savory recipes that will be as much fun to prepare as their sweet counterparts.

I love cooking with ricotta, but what really caught my eye here was the olive salad and the dressing – what a fabulous combination of flavors.

Baked ricotta with olive salad
from Australian Gourmet Traveller

Ricotta:
350g ricotta – I used homemade
2 eggs, separated
75g parmesan, finely grated
pinch of nutmeg, freshly grated

Olive salad:
200g mixed olives
½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ thinly sliced zest of an orange
¼ cup firmly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil*

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF; grease well four 150ml-capacity well greased ovenproof dishes.

For olive salad, combine olives with chilli, garlic, orange zest, parsley and extra-virgin olive oil, season to taste – I used only freshly ground black pepper since the olives are salty already. Set aside.
Press ricotta through a fine sieve into a bowl – mine was really soft, so I skipped this part; add egg yolks, parmesan and nutmeg and stir to combine. Whisk egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form, add to ricotta mixture and gently fold until combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Spoon ricotta into prepared dishes and bake for 15 minutes or until golden – mine needed 25 minutes; they will puff in the oven like soufflés but will deflate.
Stand for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the molds and unmold the ricotta. Serve warm or at room temperature with the olive salad.

* I used garlic infused olive oil and omitted the garlic clove from the recipe

Serves 4

Herb and spinach fritters

Have you ever cooked something because you missed someone?

After watching a concert on TV, I could not stop thinking about my mom – she and my father met on one of that singer’s presentations, back in 1975. My way of dealing with it was preparing something I knew she’d love: it had to be something packed with veggies or fruit.

These fritters come from DH mag #29 and were perfect for the occasion.

Herb and spinach fritters
from Donna Hay magazine

1 cup (140g) self-rising flour, sifted
2 eggs
1 ½ tablespoons (21g) unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup (60ml) milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped chives
½ cup chopped basil leaves
½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 cup spinach leaves, packed, torn or chopped
vegetable oil for shallow-frying

Place the flour, eggs, butter, milk, salt and pepper in a large bowl and whisk to combine – a batter will form. Fold through the chives, basil, parsley and spinach. Place two tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan and heat over medium heat. Add tablespoons of the mixture to the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes each side or until bubbles appear on the surface – avoid making tall or very large fritters because they might not cook completely on the inside. Set aside.
Add another two tablespoons of oil and repeat with the remaining mixture.

Serves 4 – I got 10 fritters

Roasted carrot soup

A lot has been said about Michael Jackson’s death and I won’t bother you with my thoughts about it. Just wanna say that to me he was a genius, his music has been part of my life since I was a little girl and “Thriller” scared the bejeesus out of me for the first time - the guy never ceased to amaze me.

When it comes to food, Donna Hay is the one that always amazes me – this delicious soup comes from her website.

Roasted carrot soup
from Donna Hay magazine

1kg carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
340g brown onions, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1.5 liters vegetable stock
1 cup (240ml) pouring (single) cream
parsley leaves, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Combine the carrot, onion, oil, salt, pepper and cumin in a baking dish. Roast for 30 minutes or until the carrot is tender.
Process, add the stock and blend until smooth. Place in a saucepan over medium heat, add the cream and bring to the boil. Cover, cook for 5 minutes and sprinkle with the parsley.

* I used garlic infused olive oil

Serves 4 (generously)

Summertime tagliatelle, in the middle of fall

My dad sometimes tells me funny/cute stories about my mom and I especially like the ones about her weird pregnancy cravings, like the day she felt like cooking and eating a rooster – no, I’m not kidding. :D

She’d crave ice cream desperately in the middle of the winter and would get under 2-3 blankets to eat it.

Everyone that knows me and knew my mom says that we look exactly the same and they say that we have a lot in common, too, when it comes to personality. Maybe they are right, because I felt like eating summertime pasta in a very cold day. :D

Summertime tagliatelle
slightly adapted from Cook with Jamie

115g (4oz) pine nuts
juice and zest of 2 lemons
a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked
¾ cup (180ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ cups (150g) Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus extra for shaving
½ cup (50g) pecorino cheese, freshly grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g good-quality tagliarini or tagliatelle

Smash up half of the pine nuts to a paste, then put it into a big heatproof bowl with the rest of the whole pine nuts, the lemon juice and zest, and the extra virgin olive oil. Stir and add the Parmesan and pecorino. Season with some freshly ground black pepper.

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for your pasta. Sit the sauce bowl on top of the pan while the water’s heating up – this will take the chill out of the sauce and warm it through slightly. When the water starts to boil, remove the bowl and add your pasta to the water. Cook it according to the packet instructions then drain in a colander, reserving a little of the cooking water. Toss the pasta with the sauce and a little of the reserved cooking water to help loosen it up a bit. The heat from the pasta will melt the cheese, allowing all the lovely sauce to coat it. If you find the sauce is too thick then add a little more water. It’s not supposed to thick – it should be more a dressing than a sauce.

Serve with a little extra Parmesan shaved over the top and a sprinkle of parsley leaves. Eat immediately.

Serves 4

Rice fritters with nigella seeds

The same way one doesn’t need a velvety voice to sing fantastic songs - Dave Faulkner is there to prove it – food doesn’t have to be all fancy and complicated to be good. A simple salad, made with fresh ingredients, can be a wonderful meal. And these fritters, made of leftovers, are delicious snacks.

The original recipe calls for poppy seeds, but since I don’t have them here I used nigella seeds instead - they added a crunchy/earthy/nutty touch to something I ate on a regular basis as a child.

Rice fritters with nigella seeds
adapted from a Brazilian cookbook

2 cups rice, cooked
2 eggs
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Coating:
2 eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs
¼ cup nigella seeds
vegetable oil for deep frying

In a bowl, place the rice with the 2 eggs, parmesan, parsley, flour, salt and pepper. Using a fork or a potato masher, smash the ingredients together until well combined.
Take small portions (1 tablespoon) of the mixture and roll into balls.
Place the breadcrumbs in one bowl and mix in the nigella seeds. Place the other 2 eggs in another bowl and lightly beat them.
Dip each ball in the egg mixture, then in the breadcrumb mixture and turn to coat.
Heat the oil in a small and deep saucepan over medium-high heat and fry the rice balls, 3 at a time, until evenly golden.
Remove from oil and place on paper towels.

Serve hot.

Makes about 20

Olive gnocchi with parsley garlic sauce

Thank you all for being so supportive about my disastrous bread. I learned that KJ and Jenjen, two of my favorite bloggers, did not have any luck with this recipe either. And Syrie, tks for the suggestion of leaving Jamie a message – it had crossed my mind, but I thought I was being too childish... :)

With all the info I have received from you and from the people who read my blog in Portuguese, I ended up thinking that Jamie’s cooking recipes are great, but his baking recipes might not be all that. I say that because the complaints are about cakes and bread and not about pasta and salads.
Anyway, my new book has arrived and I am sure I’ll be baking some amazing bread this weekend. :)

I’ll offer you something savory today: a recipe adapted from here. I omitted the mushrooms just because I wasn’t in the mood for a grocery store trip. But even with this very simple sauce it was a good pasta dish – Joao had his gnocchi with tomato sauce and loved it.

I did have to use more flour than the amount called for in the recipe, but I believe it was the potatoes’ fault. Make sure you use potatoes that are suitable for gnocchi.

Olive gnocchi with parsley garlic sauce
from Australian Gourmet Traveller

Gnocchi:
800g (about 3) large desiree potatoes
3 egg yolks
80g (½ cup) black olives, pitted and finely chopped
110g plain flour*
salt

Sauce:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
50g butter
3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced**
1/3 cup (loosely packed) flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
grated parmesan, to serve – I took the photo before adding the cheese, duh!

For gnocchi, bring potatoes to boil in a large saucepan, cook until tender (25-30 minutes). Drain, peel and pass through a potato ricer into a bowl while still hot. Beat in egg yolks and salt, add olives and flour and gently work mixture together. Turn onto a floured work surface and, using your hands, roll into 2cm-thick logs. Cut logs widthways into 1½cm pieces, pinch in the sides of each piece slightly and set aside.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add gnocchi and simmer over medium heat until they float to the surface (2-3 minutes). Transfer to a tray to keep warm.
Heat olive oil and butter in a large frying pan, when butter starts to foam, add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft (2-3 minutes). Add gnocchi, gently toss until coated, scatter with parsley, sprinkle with parmesan and serve immediately.

* I ended up using more flour because the dough was extremely soft
** I used garlic infused olive oil instead

Serves 6

Pine nut-crusted cheese with roasted pepper

I think you have all been there: you see a wonderful recipe but one of the ingredients is not easy – or worse, impossible – to find where you live. That’s fine - we use something else instead.

Valentina had told me that queijo coalho is similar to haloumi – it even “squeaks” on the teeth once bitten. So queijo coalho it is. But the type found in the supermarket was one already cut in sort of sticks. :(
Not wanting to make my poor hubby march towards another grocery store, I decided I would glue the cheese sticks on the frying pan before dipping them on the pine nut mixture. Oh, yeah, I’m so smart, aren’t I? Except for one small detail: the cheese wouldn’t melt. At all. That’s why my plan did not work, as you can see on the photo. But this is such a delicious recipe I had to share it with you.
I highly recommend it - with the right cheese, of course. :)

Pine nut-crusted cheese with roasted pepper
from Donna Hay magazine

½ cup (80g) toasted pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 ½ cups flat-leaf parsley leaves - I mixed parsley and fresh oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
250g haloumi, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil, extra
450g store-bought char-grilled red bell peppers, torn*

Place the pine nuts, garlic, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper in the bowl of a small food processor and process in short bursts until just combined. Spread the pine nut mixture on the haloumi. Heat the extra olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over high heat. Cook the haloumi for 1-2 minutes each side or until browned.
Serve immediately with the roasted bell pepper.

* Or cut off the top of a (or more) bell pepper, cut it in half, remove all the seeds and pith and place it on a lightly oiled baking tray, skin side up. Brush the skin with olive oil and bake in a preheated oven (200ºC/400ºC) until the skin starts to blister. Remove from the oven and immediately transfer the peppers to a glass bowl, covering it tight with plastic or cling film. Set aside to cool. The skin will be removed very easily, then.

Serves 4

Garlic lime shrimp

It’s winter here now and you guys from the Northern Hemisphere keep tempting me with your ice creams and sorbets... Not to mention the cherry recipes, right, Susan? :)
To make things worse, the Mail Service is working again and yesterday I finally received the July issue of Bon Appétit – loads of ideas for barbecues and grilling outdoors. I’m not a fan of barbecues, but Joao loves them. And I even think he would be interested in grilling on the weekends, but we live in an apartment – no yard.:(

So, no barbie. But that doesn’t mean he can’t have something he absolutely loves: shrimp. For the hubby, the simpler, the better. And the recipe I adapted from the DH mag #37 was a huge hit.

I cooked the shrimp using a frying pan, but also posted how to make them on the grill, if anyone wants to give it a try.

Garlic lime shrimp
from Donna Hay magazine

1kg large raw shrimp, peeled, tails intact
1/3 cup (80ml) lime juice
4 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
chopped flat leaf parsley, to taste
lime wedges, to serve
aioli or mayonnaise, to serve

Place the shrimp, lime juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl and toss to combine. Cover with plastic/cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Remove the shrimp from the refrigerator and strain any juices – remove the garlic slices, also. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the shrimp and toss to combine. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp, turning to avoid burning. Cook until the shrimp turn pink, about 2 minutes each side – don’t overcook, or they will become rubbery.
Remove from heat, sprinkle with the parsley and serve immediately.

If you want to make them on the barbie: thread three shrimp onto a skewer (if they are wooden skewers, soak them in cold water for 30 minutes before using, to avoid burning). Repeat with the remaining shrimp. Heat a barbecue over high heat. Barbecue the shrimp for 2 minutes each side or until cooked through.

Serves 4

Tyler and Agdah's meatballs

I’m sure that most of you have your favorite meatball recipe – perhaps even a family classic. But these were such a hit at home I had to share them with you.

My dear fellow Brazilian blogger Adgah posted these meatballs a while ago and they looked so delicious – the exact kind of food Joao is crazy for. She adapted this recipe, from Tyler Florence, and I followed her version (which is the one I’m posting here).
I had a few myself and the mix of cooked onions, parsley and basil gives the meatballs a wonderful flavor – not to mention that melting cheese is always a winner in my book.

And I was right about Joao – he loved these.

Tyler and Agdah's meatballs

olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed*
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley leaves
a handful of basil, chopped
1 cup (240ml) milk
2 very thick slices firm white bread, crusts removed – I used whole wheat bread
1kg ground beef
1 large egg
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g mozzarella cheese, cut into chunks – I used the yellow mozzarella we have here, made from cow’s milk and used as pizza topping

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and parsley and cook until the vegetables are soft but still translucent, about 10 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let cool.

Pour enough milk over the bread in a bowl to moisten and let it soak while the onions are cooling. Combine the meats in a large bowl. Add the egg and parmesan and season generously with salt and pepper. Use your hands to squeeze the excess milk out of the bread and add that to the bowl along with the cooled onion mixture. (Hang onto the pan - you'll need it to cook the meatballs.) Gently combine all the ingredients with your hands or with a spoon until just mixed together. Don't overwork or the meatballs will be tough. Divide into 10 equal pieces and shape them into 10 nice looking meatballs.

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF.

Heat a bit of olive oil in the frying pan over medium heat and brown the meatballs on all sides, about 10 minutes – be careful not to tear them apart. Put them into a baking dish and bake until the meatballs are cooked through, about 15 minutes.

* instead of the cloves, I used a garlic infused olive oil I made a couple of weeks ago (I got the idea from one episode of "Nigella Express")

Makes 10 – I used 1 heaping tablespoon of beef mixture to format each meatball and got 40; half of them were eaten fresh and the others were frozen (while still raw).

Linguine with olives, thyme and lemon

Some people hate Martha, but I’m one of those who love her. :)

I got this recipe from her website; the original version calls for pappardelle, but I chose to use linguine (one of my favorite pasta shapes). I think the substitution worked well.

It is a quick, easy to put together sauce and it smells wonderful, but one thing that didn’t please me much was finding large pieces of zest in my pasta – as much as I love lemons and oranges, I’m sure that the result would have been a lot better if grated zest had been used instead of chopped.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by the adorable Anh, of Food Lover’s Journey.

Linguine with olives, thyme and lemon

½ teaspoon coarse salt– I used sea salt
225g (8 oz) linguine
16 Kalamata olives, pitted
½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
zest of 1 lemon, coarsely chopped
one 3-inch piece orange zest, coarsely chopped
¼ teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and the linguine, and cook until pasta is al dente, following label directions. Drain in a colander.
While pasta is cooking, combine salt, olives, parsley, olive oil, thyme, lemon zest, orange zest, and red-pepper flakes in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse until a chunky puree forms. Transfer to a warm serving bowl large enough to accommodate cooked pasta.
Add pasta, and toss to combine.
Serve immediately.

Serves 2, or 4 to 6 as an appetizer

Ricotta gnocchi with lemon thyme butter sauce

I know that many people frown at the simple mention of the name “ricotta” - right, C.? :)

I’m not one of those. I really like ricotta and find it very versatile. You can use it in both sweet and savory recipes and jazz it up with a diversity of flavors.

Valentina posted this gnocchi recipe a while ago on her blog in Portuguese and it sounded so easy I had to try it myself. Another use for the wonderful lemons in my fridge and also for my newest addiction: fresh thyme.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Margot, from Coffee and Vanilla.

Ricotta gnocchi with lemon thyme butter sauce

Gnocchi:
250g ricotta cheese
¼ cup (25g) grated parmesan
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ cup (70g) all purpose flour
¼ cup finely chopped parsley
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra grated parmesan, to serve

Sauce:
80g unsalted butter, room temperature
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Start with the sauce: place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring, until the butter melts completely. Remove from heat and set aside.

Now, the gnocchi: place the ricotta, ¼ cup parmesan, egg, flour, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well until smooth – the ricotta cheese we have here in Brazil is a bit dry, so I started by breaking it with a fork and then added all the other ingredients. You'll see specks of ricotta in the gnocchi because I did not want to overmix the dough.

Transfer the mixture to a lightly greased or coated with cooking spray surface and shape into a long log; cut the gnocchi – they should be about 2cm.
Make indentations in each dough ball with a fork – I did not do that.

Cook the gnocchi in a large saucepan with boiling salted water – as soon as the balls come up to the surface, they will be almost ready; let them cook for another 30 seconds then remove them carefully from the pan, using a skimming ladle.

Heat the sauce, pour over the gnocchi, sprinkle with parmesan and serve at once.

Serves 2

Sfiha

Besides the cake, I made savory snacks for the boys’ birthday get together at my house last month. Simple yet good food, easy and quick to put together, because they’d arrive at lunch time and I would not have much time to cook. So I went for mini carne louca sandwiches and sfihas.

As much as it sounds like a big cliché, Brazil is a melting pot and we have been influenced by many different cultures. Our food is a great example of that. Italian, Portuguese, Japanese – you’ll find all those flavors in our menu. Not to mention the dishes we inherited from the indians (Brazil’s first habitants) and from the slaves that came from Africa centuries ago.

There’s also a large Syrian-Lebanese community here (at least in Sao Paulo), so sfihas are extremely popular. These are so delicious, I’m sure you’ll love them – I did, even though I can’t stand beef. And my Italian/Portuguese/German family loved them, too.

Sfiha

Filling:
½ kg (17 ½ oz) ground beef
2 ripe tomatoes, seeds removed, finely diced
½ onion, finely diced
½ cup chopped parsley
2 teaspoons salt
juice of 1 lime
freshly ground black pepper*

Dough:
30g fresh yeast
500ml warm milk – I used 1% fat
3 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 ½ cups (about 780g) all-purpose flour – I used only 730g

Start with the filling: place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well until smooth. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/428ºF.

Now, the dough: place the yeast in a large bowl and add the milk. Mix well with a fork until the yeast is dissolved. Add the sugar, salt and oil. Start adding the flour, gradually, mixing with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest for 5 minutes. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 5 minutes. Take small portions of dough – the size of a walnut – and make them into balls. Place onto a floured baking sheet, cover with a kitchen towel and set aside for another 5 minutes.
Using your fingers – I used a rolling pin, it was a lot easier – open each dough ball into a circle. Place ½ tablespoon of beef filling** into the center of the circle. Fold in the lower third of the circle towards the center of the sfiha, then the left and right thirds of the circle, forming a triangle. Pinch the ends together to seal the filling inside.
Place the sfihas, 1 inch apart, onto an oiled baking sheet.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden.

If you prefer your sfihas softer, place them inside a pot right after they’re out of the oven and put the lid on (I did not do that).
You can also use an egg wash on the sfihas before baking them, which I think is completely unnecessary.

* the original recipe calls for 1 teaspoon bahrat; I didn’t have any in my pantry, that’s why I used black pepper instead.

** the ground beef is used raw in the filling and releases water and blood after being mixed with the other ingredients. To prevent the dough from being watery, I placed the filling inside a colander over a bowl and squeezed the small portions of filling between my fingers to get rid of any excess liquid before putting them in each dough circle.

Makes 60

Artichoke and lemon linguine and I've won a book!

Food bloggers are the best, aren’t they?

The talented Allen had his first book giveaway and I won! Yay!!
He’s sending me this amazing book, which comes with a DVD. I can’t wait to start making recipes from it!
Thank you, Allen!

I once tried a no-carb diet. Needless to say, it was a huge failure. I avoided rice and potato and bravely resisted cakes and cookies. But there are two things I can’t live without: bread and pasta.
Even those who are not that crazy about pasta will admit that, if you need a quick meal, that is the way to go. And to make it even faster, sometimes you don’t even need to cook the sauce.

If you decide to give this fabulous recipe a try, I promise you that dinner will be on the table in 10 minutes. Maybe 12, if you grill some bread with olive oil and serve along. :)

Recipe found on Fernanda’s beautiful blog – she used coriander in her pasta, but I did not have any around and went for parsley instead.



This will be my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Jai and Bee, from Jugalbandi.

Artichoke and lemon linguine

200g linguine
8 canned artichoke hearts – rapidly rinse them to remove any excess brine
juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
1 large handful of parsley
fleur de sel
freshly ground black pepper
4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
grated parmesan, to serve

Cook the linguine in a large saucepan of salted boiling water until al dente; drain and set aside.While the pasta cooks, make the sauce: place the artichoke hearts, lemon zest and juice, parsley, fleur de sel, pepper and olive oil in a food processor and process until you get a smooth mixture. Stir the sauce through the pasta, top with the parmesan and serve at once.

Serves 2

Cheese pinwheel scones

Don’t let these fool you: despite their pale look, they are pretty addictive. Don’t believe me? Joao had several. And he never eats my baked goods. Ever.

I usually don’t go for savory baking, but who can say no to bread filled with 3 types of cheese?

Even though the scones were delicious, there are two things I’d do differently: add more salt to the dough and use an egg wash to get them nicely golden.

Cheese pinwheel scones
recipe from this box

250g all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper – I used freshly ground black pepper
30g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
185ml milk

Filling:
40g goat’s cheese, crumbled
40g grated parmesan cheese
40g grated mature cheddar cheese – I used the yellow mozzarella we have here, made with cow’s milk
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF. Grease or line a baking tray with non stick baking paper.
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper into a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the milk and, using a flat-bladed knife, mix to form a soft dough. Add a little extra flour if the dough is too sticky.
Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and roll out to form a 20x25cm (8x10in) rectangle. Sprinkle the goat’s cheese over the surface, then sprinkle over the parmesan, cheddar and parsley. Starting from the long side, roll the dough into a cylinder. Cut the cylinder into 10 equal 2cm (3/4 in) thick slices. Transfer the slices to a baking tray, spacing them 2cm (3/4 in) apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes (mine took 28 minutes in the oven) or until golden and cooked through. Cool on a wire rack.
Serve warm.

Makes 10

Two side dishes worth trying: Jamie's potato salad and Martha's roasted asparagus

I beg of you – make one of these recipes. Or go wild and make both. You won’t be sorry, I promise.

Fresh asparagus are something quite new to me – I don’t ever recall seeing them in supermarkets when I was younger. But ever since I spotted them for the first time there was no turning back – I became a huge fan. In my humble opinion, fresh asparagus will taste great no matter how you make them – I especially love them in risottos – but pair them with olive oil, black pepper and parmesan and you’ve got yourself an addictive combination.

As for the potato salad… I’ll tell you that it’s another recipe from the show “Jamie at home” and I know you’ll be convinced of how good it is. I would never have thought that a simple potato salad could be so delicious – and it tasted even better the next day.

Jamie used lemons for the salad, but I used limes instead; since I’m making this again about 184 times, I’ll try it with lemons too.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Lia from Swirling Notions.

Martha’s roasted asparagus with parmesan
from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

2 bunches (680g/1 ½ pounds) asparagus
1 tablespoon olive oil
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 230ºC/450ºF. Trim the tough ends from the asparagus.
On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the asparagus with the olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Spread in an even layer. Sprinkle with the cheese.
Roast until the asparagus is tender and the cheese is melted, 10-15 minutes.
Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Jamie’s potato salad
from Jamie at Home

500g new potatoes, peeled
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
grated zest and juice of 1 large lime
3 tablespoons capers, drained
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 handful chopped parsley*

Cook the potatoes in a large pot of lightly salted boiling water until they’re tender but not too soft; drain.
Place the olive oil, lime zest and juice in a large bowl and mix well. Add the potatoes while they’re still hot, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Add the capers.
Add the parsley after the potatoes are cool. Mix well and serve.

* Jamie used dill