Orecchiette with courgette and goat’s cheese sauce

This food stylist wannabe got crazy when she saw yellow courgettes in farmer’s market for the first time – until then I had only seen it on books, magazines and food TV shows. Of course I brought some home and immediately thought of something tasty and visually beautiful to make with it.

For this recipe I used red onion so I could have a nice color contrast, however after that day I made this pasta several other times using regular onions and courgettes and it was flavorsome anyway.

Orecchiette with courgette and goat’s cheese sauce
own recipe

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
½ large red onion, thinly sliced in half moons
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 courgette (about 350g/12oz), sliced in half lengthwise and then sliced into thin half moons
finely grated zest of 1 lime
handful of fresh marjoram leaves
2 tablespoons dry white wine
¼ cup (60ml) heavy cream
35g goat’s cheese, coarsely grated or crumbled
200g orecchiette pasta

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente (follow the instructions in the package). In the meantime, make the sauce: in a large frying pan, heat the butter and olive oil until butter is melted. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute only – do not let it burn or it will be bitter. Add the courgette and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 minutes or until softened. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the lime zest and the marjoram. Add the wine and cook until it evaporates. Stir in the cream and the cheese and cook just until the cheese melts.

Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking water, and stir into the sauce – if sauce is too thick, stir in a bit of the cooking water to loosen it up. Serve immediately.

Serves 2

Other ideas: this recipe tastes great if gorgonzola and fresh oregano are used instead of goat’s cheese and marjoram.

Panzanella with a Spanish touch - perfect for the weekend

I remember the first time I made panzanella at home: it was a revelation. Who could have thought that a salad made with stale bread would be so delicious? The Italians, of course. :)

As much as I love Italian food – half of the blood in my veins is Italian, after all – I have added a couple of Spanish touches to my panzanella: crispy chorizo, chickpeas, sherry vinegar in the dressing. The salad turned out wonderful and it is a beautiful idea for lunch or dinner in the really hot days we have been having in Sao Paulo (to make it even fresher, add 1 thinly sliced small Japanese cucumber sliced to the salad). It is also great for lazy weekends, like the one I plan to have. :)

Panzanella with a Spanish touch
own recipe

½ red onion, peeled and cut in half
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 cups stale bread cubes (approximately 2cm each cube)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use
2 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
100g chorizo, chopped in small cubes
¾ cup (127g) cooked and drained chickpeas
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper
handful of fresh basil leaves

Thinly slice the onion, transfer to a small bowl and drizzle with the vinegar. Set aside for 15 minutes or until you get the other parts of the salad done.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a medium baking sheet with baking paper or foil. Spread the bread cubes over the paper/foil and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Bake for about 8 minutes or until bread is crispy and golden. Remove from the oven and set aside.
In the meantime, heat a nonstick frying pan over high heat. Add the chorizo and cook, stirring now and then, until crispy. Drain the chorizo over paper towels.

Transfer bread, chorizo, tomatoes and chickpeas to ta large bowl. Drain the onion (save the vinegar for the dressing) and stir into the salad. To the bowl with the vinegar, add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, mustard, salt and pepper and whisk well. Pour over the salad, toss to combine and set aside for 30 minutes. Stir in the basil leaves and serve.

Serves 2

Tomato, red onion and gorgonzola salad - simple and delicious

Ok, I’ll admit it: this is not a very romantic salad – all that raw garlic and onion (not to mention the gorgonzola!) won’t do your breath any good. But it is so simple – I put it together in a matter of moments – fresh and delicious, and it comes from such an amazing book, that I had to share it with you – even if, in the end, you make it for a solitary lunch/dinner (or some “me time”, as I like to call it). To wrap things up beautifully, a bowl of ice cream, the couch and one of those movies you have seen several times but make you cry your eyes out every single time. :)

My husband loved this dressing so much that he drizzled some over his steak and used it for dipping his fries, too. :)

Tomato, red onion and gorgonzola salad
slightly adapted from the fantastic Sunday Suppers at Lucques

Dressing:
1 ½ tablespoons marjoram leaves, packed + a few extra leaves for decorating
1 clove garlic
¼ teaspoon Maldon sea salt or fleur de sel, or 1/8 teaspoon regular table salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Salad:
1 large red onion
4-5 ripe tomatoes
200g (7oz) cherry tomatoes
80g (3oz) gorgonzola cheese, coarsely crumbled

Pound the marjoram, garlic and salt in a mortar to a paste. Add the pepper, olive oil and lemon juice and mix to combine. Set aside.
Soak the onion rings in ice water for 5 minutes to mellow their strong flavor. In the meantime, quarter the tomatoes and arrange them on a plate. Halve some of the cherry tomatoes and arrange them all on the plate, too. Tuck in the gorgonzola pieces. Drain the onion slices and pat them dry with paper towels. Add them to the plate. Drizzle the salad with the dressing, sprikle with the extra marjoram leaves and serve.

Serves 2

Easy sausage bake

I believe that most of you reading me now like cooking and baking, just as I do. But we are all caught up in busy days and tight schedules, so finding time to spend in the kitchen is a difficult mission.

This dish is a great choice for a quick meal: it’s put together in a flash – you can chop the veggies while grilling the sausages and boiling the potatoes – and then leave it in the oven for half an hour or so, unattended.

Easy sausage bake
from this magazine

1 tablespoon olive oil
800g good-quality pork sausages
500g small new potatoes
2 large yellow peppers, sliced
2 red onions, peeled and sliced
4 ripe tomatoes, seeds removed, roughly chopped*
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
handful fresh basil, torn

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF; heat the oil in a large frying pan and brown the sausages on all sides. Par-cook the potatoes in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain.

Put the sausages and potatoes in a roasting pan, add the peppers, onions and tomatoes. Drizzle over the balsamic, season with salt and pepper, and mix well. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the sausages are cooked through – time may vary depending on the size of the sausages.
Just before serving, scatter over the fresh basil leaves.

* the recipe called for one 400g can chopped tomatoes

Serves 6

Autumn spicy rice

I know, I know, it’s not autumn anymore – and the hot days here in Sao Paulo keep me pretty aware of that… but being a rice lover it was impossible for me to resist this recipe.

I don’t eat meat and you know it – and even when I did, back in the day, I would never eat pork. It’s nothing religious or anything, I just don’t like it.

I always have chorizo sausages in the fridge since Joao loves them – there’s a kind called calabresa that is used in barbecues and also as a pizza topping. I decided to put my prejudices aside for a moment and try this recipe with the calabresa sausage. And I’m glad I did – the rice was packed with flavor and most of it due to that ingredient.

There’s no rosemary in this recipe – I just thought it would make the dish look prettier. :)



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Vani, from the blog Batasari.

One last thing: the results for this DMBLGIT (in which one of the judges was yours truly) are up - congratulations to all the winners!

Autumn spicy rice
from Donna Hay magazine

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, sliced
3 chorizo sausages, sliced
200g (7oz) butternut squash, peeled and chopped
½ teaspoon chilli flakes
2 cups long-grain rice
3 cups (24fl oz) chicken stock
2 zucchinis (courgettes), thinly sliced

Heat a deep frying pan over medium heat. Add the oil, onion, chorizo, squash and chilli and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the onions are soft. Add the rice and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook for 15 minutes or until the stock is absorbed and the rice is cooked. Stir through the zucchini and allow to stand for 2 minutes.

Serves 4

Almost Greek salad

Yep, almost Greek. Because I used a different type of cheese to replace feta – queijo Minas frescal. And I used lime juice in the dressing, instead of red wine vinegar.

The verdict? I had a huge bowl of this salad. HUGE. I mean it – it was all I had for lunch, with a glass of wine. Ok, 2 glasses of wine. :)

I still want to try it with feta, but my Brazilian twist worked so well I’m submitting this salad to this Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by its creator, the lovely Kalyn, of Kalyn’s Kitchen.



Almost Greek salad
adapted from Kitchen: The Best of the Best

4 ripe tomatoes
2 Lebanese (short) cucumbers
1 red onion
175g (1 cup) Kalamata olives
½ teaspoon dried oregano
200g queijo fresco or creamy feta

Dressing:
juice of 1 small lime
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Cut the tomatoes into chunks and arrange on a serving platter.
Thickly cut the cucumbers; cut the onion in paper thin slices. Add to the tomatoes and scatter the olives over the plate. Cut the cheese in thick slices and arrange over the vegetables. Sprinkle the salad with the oregano.
Make the dressing: mix well the ingredients. Drizzle over the salad and serve.

You can present the salad as I did, inspired by one episode of Take Home Chef: mix the vegetables in a bowl, sprinkle with oregano and drizzle with the dressing.
Place amounts of salad on serving plates and top with the slices of cheese. Drizzle once more with the dressing.

Serves: 4 (as a side dish)