The “MIL” is on her annual holiday in Italy for a few weeks so we have to cook our own Sunday lunch, bah humbug!! I love going to her house every Sunday as we have a day off from cooking which is such a treat when you are in the kitchen all week cooking for the masses. We went out to eat a couple of Sundays but gave up after a few very poor meals, why is it so hard to eat well for Sunday lunch?? so we’re back to cooking for ourselves, reluctantly I might add. Last Sunday I picked up some lovely tuna  steaks and new potatoes so we had tuna steaks with garlic, oregano with a balsamic reduction served  with some sauteed potatoes with onions  on the side and it was absolutley delicious, much better than Sunday pub grub! I usually use flat leaf parsley but I found a James Martin recipe which used oregano so I decided to give it a go, I’ll give you his measurements as I don’t measure mine.

what you need:

2 tuna steaks

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

150ml extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp oregano/flat leaf parsley chopped

2 garlic cloves thinly sliced

sea salt and black pepper

what to do:

make a marinade with the majority of your olive oil, 1 tbsp balsamic, oregano, garlic, sea salt and black pepper.

pour over your tuna and leave to marinade for about 2-4 hours in the fridge covered with tinfoil.

heat a griddle pan and cook your tuna until medium rare.

to make the balsamic reduction, pour the remaining vinegar into a small saucepan and heat over a low heat until it has reduced by half and is quite syrupy.

serve the tuna with the reduction poured over the top.

buon appetito….

The weather has changed with a vengeance, not that we had much of a summer but the last couple of weeks have been glorious, it’s so hard to go back to this again. If you live in Ireland chances are you will be indoors for the next week so it’s a perfect opportunity to make this pasta as you need to let these tomatoes roast slowly for a couple of hours. When I go shopping I always buy loads of tomatoes and normally make a roast tomato soup or just a simple tomato sauce. I was flicking through one of my pasta books and spotted this recipe which is perfect to use up tomatoes or to produce a really impressive dish when you have very little in the fridge.  

what you need:

 - 500g cherry or plum tomatoes – as usual I used tomatoes from SQ

 - 2 garlic cloves finely chopped

 - chilli flakes

- dried oregano

 - olive oil

 - balsamic vinegar

 - pappardelle or fettuccine

 - parmesan cheese

 - salt and black pepper

 - cut your tomatoes in half and place them cut side up in a oven tray.

 - sprinkle them with your oregano, chilli, garlic, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar.

 - roast in the oven until soft and wilted for about an hour and a half.

 - bring a pot of water to the boil, add salt and your pasta and cook until al dente.

 - Drain when cooked, put back in the pot and add some olive oil and mix in some parmesan.

 - serve with your roasted tomatoes on top.

I really enjoyed this pasta and it was a lovely change from my regular tomato sauce, I had some tomatoes left over so I used them in a sandwich the next day with some grilled chicken and brie which was “YUM”.

buon appetito!!