Caprese - spring is there?!

Finally, first sunny day in spring.

 What better to celebrate this than with a light yet savoury salad? One of my favourites; a caprese salad.
Simplicity at its best but with the best of products. Well....apart from the tomatoes as these were Belgian/Dutch greenhouse products as I didn't have a better quality available.
Nothing that makes me long for the summer more than tomatoes. Usually we plan a trip to Italy in the summer and for me that means tomato time! Fresh,sweet tomatoes grown under the generous Italian sun and packed with firm tasty flesh - not like our water tomatoes over here!
So if you can, get good quality tomatoes like a decent Coeur de boeuf or a plum tomato.

Ingredients:

•  about 4 ripe tomatoes
• 3 balls of mozzarella di bufala
• plenty of fresh basil leaves
• some dried oregano
• black pepper
• salt
• good olive oil

Cut the tomatoes in slices and do the same with the mozarella and put them in a layer on a plate. Put some leaves of basil in between and on top of the mozzarella and tomatoes. Grind some black pepper over it, sprinkle some salt and add a generous amount of oregano.

Drizzle with a good amount of decent olive oil.

Dig in and....

Enjoy,

Kev

Pasta - Sausage/pancetta/tomatoes/fennel

A nice complete pasta dish. The fresh taste of fennel, the fatty from the sausages and the salty from the pancetta all together with the herbs combine perfectly. And ready in no time!!

Ingredients for 4 persons :

• 1 whole fennel, chopped roughly into fine parts
• 5-6 chipolata sausages ( small sausages, try to find the ones that have plenty of herbs), chop them in small bits
• 100gr. of pancetta
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 finely chopped garlic clove
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 small can of tomatoe puree
• a handfull of cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
• a handfull of chopped fresh sage
• a tbsp.of dried oregano
• some olive oil
• a splash of  balsamic vinegar
• Parmesan cheese, grated

Heat up some olive oil in a large pan, add the chopped panceta and let it bake slightly crispy. Then add the sausages and let them brown firmly on all sides.

Take the pancetta and sausages out of the pan,keep aside-add some more olive oil if needed- and add the onions and garlic and fry them for a minute or 2.

Throw in the chopped fennel with the chopped sage, let it feel the heat for 2 minutes, add the cherry tomatoes and a splash of balsamic vinegar and  let it cook out while you scrape the bottom of the pan.

Add the can of tomatoes together with the tomatoe puree and the oregano. Season with pepper and salt, bring to a slight boil and let it cook/reduce while you boil the pasta, +/- 8-10 minutes.

When the pasta is al dente you can add it to the sauce together with a few spoons of the pasta water.

Tear up some basil leaves, add it to the pan and stirr well.

Serve in a deep pasta dish with some grated parmesan on top and.....

Enjoy,

Kev

Halloween pumpkin risotto

A nice rich and creamy pumpkin risotto to be served as an appetizer or as main dish. Ideal for cold fall weekend days ;)

Ingredients:

• 600gr. of pumkin, cleaned and seedless and diced in small cubes(+/- 1cm)
• 1,3lt of chicken stock
• 300gr. or risotto rice - Arborio or carnaroli
•  about 50gr. of grated parmesan cheese and some slices for decoration
• a couple of sage leaves
• 1 challot, finely chopped
• a glass of white wine
• couple knobs of butter
• salt and black pepper
• olive oil

Make sure the chicken stock is warm.

Heat up some olive oil in a pan and fry the diced pumpkin until soft. Keep about a third apart for later and put the rest in the blender.

 Blend until you get a fine pumpkin puree, add some water if necessary. Season this puree with black pepper and salt and keep aside.

Heat up a couple of drops of olive oil in a large pan and fruit the challots.

 Add the risotto rice and stir firmly. As soon as the rice starts to get translucent you add the glass of wine and just let the alcohol cook out, this won't take long.

 Then you start to add the stock, ladle by ladle. You add one ladle and when the risotto starts to get dry you add another one. This takes about 15mins to get the rice 'al dente'. Make sure to taste from time to time, you don't want this to be overcooked and mushy but not undercooked neither. The grain should be soft but still with some bite. Now add the grated parmesan and let it melt under the rice.

 Add the pumpkin puree and diced pumkin and stir well. 

Throw in some knobs of butter, taste and season with salt and black pepper to your liking.

Heat up some olive oil in a small pan and fry the sage leaves shortly.

Take a big ladle of risotto and plate it on a dish, decorate with slices of parmesan and some sage leaves.

Enjoy,

Kev

Brodetto

Brodetto is a flavourfull and easy to make fish stew, the Italian answer to Bouillabaise. All you need is some good quality fish so go check out what your fishmonger is offering or scout the weekly/daily market for some yummy seafood. The ingredients that I used are not binding, just choose a firm white fish, some crustacean and some types of clams. See that you have a nice variation to prepare this dish!

Estimated preparing time: about 60-90 minutes, fishstock included

Ingredients:

• 3Dl. of fishstock  -  you'll need the following to make about 1-1,5lt. of it
• 1,5Lt. tabwater
• +/-500Gr. of fish ( a cheaper but firm fish, for instance Red Gurnard)
• some fish bones +/- 500Gr.
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 leek, only the white part, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
•  some flat parsley leaves, a little handfull
• 2 fresh squid
• 300Gr. of mussels
• 300Gr. of vongole
• 4 gamba
• 300Gr. of cod cheeks
• 1 chillie, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• a big drop of dry white wine
• a handfull of flat parsley
• Cayenne
• Pepper and salt
• Olive oil

Start by making the fish stock. Bring up 1,5lt. of water to a boil, add the vegetables, parsley, fishbones and fish. Season with pepper and salt and let it simmer for 20mins. 

Let all the ingredients cool down. Take out the chunks of fish and pass the liquid trough a sieve. Keep 3dl. of the stock aside for this recipe, after you're done with it  you can save it for later by putting it in the freezer. 

Clean the fresh squid. 

Take out the intestins and the 'bone' and cut in rings.  Heat up some olive oil and fry the squids shortly. 

Add the chillie, garlic and gamba and fry untill the shell of the gamba starts turning red.

Add the mussels, vongole and chopped parsley and pour in the white wine. Start adding the fishstock and make sure all is submerged, add some more stock if necessary. Throw in a pinch of cayenne and bring to a light boil for 10 minutes. Put in the cod cheeks and the rests of the Red Gurnard that you used for the stock and let these cook for 5 more minutes.

Divide the fish, clams and seafood into deep dishes and pour some sauce over it. Serve hot,  just like this or with a simple boiled potato or rice! The remaining sauce/stock can be recuperated for later!

Enjoy,

Kev

Sugo al ragu is one of these Italian dishes/sauces I need to have once a month, in fact it might even be my favourite sauce. The Italians have many different versions and I like them all but the base is allmost every time the same: a good sofrito...a mixture of chopped carrots and celery fried in olive oil, meat, tomatoes (not too much normally, usually more meat than tomatoes).

My version is with minced meat.

Ingredients:

• +/- 800gr. of minced, seasoned meat. Half pork/half veal. This is quite a lot but I like my sauce meaty
• 750ml of good passata
• one onion, 2 garlic cloves, one red chillie. All chopped finely
• Some finely chopped carrots and celery. About 2 carrots for 1 celery. This is the sofrito
• a glass of red wine. Don't use that Chateau Petrus from your wine cellar but don't pour in vinegar neither! A good cheap wine will do
• Some chopped smoked bacon +/- 50gr.
• 2 bayleaves, about 4 leaves of sage, couple sprigs of thyme and rosemary. Chop up the sage and rosemary
• a tbsp.of tomato paste
• 1 tbsp of dried oregano
• 4-5 drops of worcestershire sauce
• some chicken stock

Heat up a drop of olive oil in a large pan and brown the bacon. Don't use too much oil cause the bacon will release some fat also. Let it fry until it starts to get brown and crispy and then add  the sofrito -carrots and celery -. Add a drop of EEVO if too dry and let this fry for about 10mins but don't let it burn. Throw in the sage, rosemary and thyme and let it release it's aroma's. Your kitchen will be smelling heavenly by now. 

  Pour in a couple of drops of red wine; just enough to deglace the pan and cook out the wine.

Throw in the onions, chillie and garlic and fruit these for a minute.

Now add the minced meat, turn up the fire and use a fork to squash the meat. Avoid any big lumps of meat. 

When all the meat is browned you can add the passata, worcestershire sauce and 2 bay leaves. Mix well and pour in the rest of the red wine.

Put on a low fire, the lowest you got and let this simmer for a bout 1½-2 hours. Stir regulary and add some chicken stock if it gets too dry. After an hour or 2 you'll get a nice dry but still moist sauce. You can let this rest over night, it will only get better!

Serve with the pasta of your choice and enjoy!

Kev