Recipe - Tomato and Chorizo Pasta Bake

Ingredients

• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 white onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 1 chilli, finely sliced
• 700g passata
• 1 large handful fresh basil leaves
• 1 tablespoon raw sugar
• 300g dried short pasta of your choice (I use macaroni or similar)
• 4 big handfuls Parmesan cheese
• 2 chorizo

Method

Go for it and multi-task of you're confident otherwise do in three parts

First cook the chorizo

• Preheat your oven to 200°C
• Cook the chorizo whole then when they have about 5 minutes to go take them out, slice them then return to the oven so they are browned on all sides

Second cook the sauce

• In an appropriately sized pan heat olive oil then add your onion, garlic and chilli and slowly fry for about 10 minutes on a medium to low heat until softened but without any colour.
• Add passata and sugar and bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes.
• Tear your basil leaves into the sauce and correct the seasoning with salt, pepper and sugar

Cook the pasta

• Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions

Put it all together

• Toss the pasta with half of the tomato sauce and a handful of Parmesan through the drained pasta
• Get yourself an appropriately sized baking dish and rub it with a little olive oil.
• Layer a little pasta in the pan, followed by some tomato sauce, a handful of grated Parmesan and scatter chorizos then repeat these layers until you’ve used all the ingredients, ending with a good layer of cheese on top.
• Pop it into the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden, crisp and bubbling. 

Recipe - Silvia Colloca's Healthy Dairy-Free Pear, Sultana And Olive Oil Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 150g brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 75ml olive oil
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1⁄2 tsp ground cloves
• seeds of 1 vanilla bean
• 170g self-raising flour, sifted
• 50g almond meal
• 100ml almond milk
• 50g raisins, soaked in grappa (or rum) for 30 minutes
• 3 bosc or corella pears, peeled and cut into eighths
• cinnamon sugar, for dusting

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly oil a 25cm cake tin and dust with flour, shaking out the excess.
2. Whisk the sugar with the eggs until fluffy; add oil, spices, vanilla, flour and almond meal. Pour in the almond milk and mix gently to create a loose batter. Drain the raisins, squeezing out any excess liquid, and add them to the batter along with the chopped pear pieces.
3. Pour the cake batter into the tin and bake for 35–40 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean if inserted in the centre of the cake. As most ovens vary, check your cake after 25–30 minutes.
4. Cool at room temperature for 20 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
5.  Serve dusted with cinnamon sugar and an espresso, in true Italian style.

Source link

Recipe - Fish Poached en Papillote

Ingredients

• 4 x 180g piece of boneless, skinless monkfish or snapper (or any other white fish)
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 anchovies
• 1 sprig lemon thyme
• 2 sprigs of parsley
• 2 tbsp capers
• 60ml extra virgin olive oil
• 80ml white wine
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and place four large pieces of baking paper on top of four large pieces of foil.
2. In a blender add the garlic, anchovies, herbs, olive oil and half the capers and blend.
3. Place one fish per baking paper with the herb paste both under an ontop (it will work out to be around (1-2 tsp) of the herb paste per fish.
4. Season the fish
5. Pour 20ml of white wine over each piece of fish and drizzle with a little olive oil.
6. Bring the two ends of the baking paper together to encase the fish, and crumple them together to seal. Tuck the other two sides underneath, then fold the foil over the fish, sealing the edges by crimping with your fingers. Repeat for the remainder.
7. Place the parcels on a baking tray and into the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes. Removed and place on plate, tear a hole in the top and serve.

Note: In the image we did this recipe in banana leaves. It was a bit of fun. The flavour was only tweaked slightly so i'll probably stick to the in-the-bag version.

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