What I've been Cooking - July.

This post is a bit of an end of month roundup of the stuff I've been cooking the last few weeks, but haven't blogged.
July has seen me cook a disproportionate amount of recipes from the same book, that old favourite 'Big Flavours and Rough Edges' - recipes from The Eagle. There are so many good pasta recipes in it, and regular readers of Essex Eating will know I'm a big fan of pasta for midweek, apres work dining.


So, bearing that in mind, first up we have Penne with Artichoke Hearts & Greens. I really enjoyed this, first time I've cooked anything with Artichoke Hearts and I was quite shocked at the price - I had no idea they were so expensive. Garlic and Chilli are finely chopped and then left to sit in Olive Oil for 10 Min's, whilst the Pasta is cooking, the Chilli Oil is added to a hot frying pan, and then the chopped greens are added and stir fried for 5 Min's. The smell this generates is gorgeous, then finally the Artichoke Hearts are added and tossed in the oil. The Pasta is then combined with this and grated Parmesan. For the greens I used purple sprouting broccoli. A really nice, quick and fresh tasting meal - I'll be cooking this again.


Next we have Spaghetti with roasted Fennel, Lemon and Chilli. This was gorgeous, so much so that I've cooked it twice this month. The sliced Fennel is roasted in the oven cranked up to Max, with Olive Oil, Lemon zest and juice, 1/2 a finely chopped Chilli, Capers and Garlic - covered with foil for 20 Min's and then uncovered to colour for another 10 Min's. This is then tossed with the cooked Spaghetti, Parmesan and Parsley.
Lovely - so simple, but again really fresh and light tasting.

This is an interesting recipe - Pizzoccheri, apparently a speciality of Milan. It's Baked Buckwheat Pasta with Sage, Fontina & Cabbage.
I couldn't get buckwheat pasta, so the recipe suggested substituting for wholewheat Spaghetti. I also had a bit of trouble finding Fontina locally, so swapped this for Taleggio.
This is really a bit of a winter recipe - a real heavy meal of Potato, Cheese, Pasta and Savoy Cabbage. But it was very nice indeed. A couple of negatives, I'd say is that the recipe is a bit pan intensive - the Potatoes, Sage oil, Cabbage and Pasta need to be cooked in separate saucepans - so it generates a sink load of washing up. The other negative would be, this is so unhealthy - loads of cheese, loads of butter....you couldn't be eating this regularly if you want to live to a ripe old age.

Next we have Penne with Sausage, Tomato and Sage. I've cooked a very similar recipe from the River Cafe cookbook which also uses broken up sausages - this recipe is slightly different in that it's quicker to make, and the meaty tomato sauce, made up of plumb tomatoes is cooked in a frying pan with a lid on for 20 Min's (I don't have a lid so used a large plate) and breaks down into a thick sauce. Very nice indeed. My GF preferred this version to the River Cafe version, as it's "Less Spicy".

This recipe isn't from The Eagle cookbook, it's Nigel Slater and Graphic Foodie (mentioned in the same breath eh Fran!). I had leftover Taleggio cheese from the Pizzocheri dish, so cooked Slow-Fried Potatoes with Thyme and Taleggio from the excellent recipe book 'Appetite'. Again, another totally unhealthy dish, swimming in butter and cheese.....but wow, It's so good and to balance it out I cooked Graphic Foodies Italian Peasant style dressed Greens, of which I've said before and I'll say again are fantastic. One of the best veg dishes I've ever tasted.

Last but not least, we have a creation of my own, well sort of....it's the Bastard love child of a Jamie Oliver warm salad recipe, combined with a Moro recipe. This was really nice actually. We have Pancetta and Red Onion fried off, with Pinenuts, then mixed with salad leaves, warm Pearl Barley to bulk it out a bit and a dressing of Olive Oil and Balsamic, finally shaved Parmesan slices are scattered over the top. Compared to everything else I've been eating lately, this was almost virtuous.

Looking back now, I think it's going to have to be more salads in August!