mushrooms stuffed with spinach and pancetta…
It was the princess’ birthday on Monday so on Sunday we headed out to Killaloe to visit the farmer’s market and feed the ducks which she loves. The market is small but it has some nice stalls and we picked up some lovely organic spinach and large field mushrooms. We popped into Andrew in Ponte Vecchio for a quick macchiato too, his little Italian shop was buzzing with Sunday morning revellers sipping coffee and reading the papers. The place is tiny but he stocks a great range of Italian products and wines and has a lovely selection of home-made cakes so if you’re out that way pop in.
I love this recipe, we always eat quite late at night with one of us working in the shop everyday so we just want something light and fulfilling that’s not going to take hours to digest especially at 10pm at night and this fits the bill perfectly.
what you need:
4 large field mushrooms
1 bag of spinach, forget the weight, sowwy as the princess would say!
100g pancetta cubes
1 garlic clove
30g dried or fresh breadcrumbs(fine without too)
50g grated parmesan cheese
4 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and black pepper
what to do:
pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees.
wash and rinse your spinach and cook in a dry pan for 2-3 mins until wilted. Drain and squeeze out as much liquid as possible and finely chop.
cut the stalks out of the mushrooms and finely chop.
heat your oil and add your onions and garlic and cook over a low heat for about 10 mins until soft but not coloured.
add your pancetta and mushroom stalks and cook for 5 minutes.
add your spinach, breadcrumbs and 1/2 your parmesan to the pan, season and toss together.
arrange your mushrooms rounded side down on a baking tray, season and divide your stuffing between the mushrooms. Top with parmesan cheese.
cook for 15 mins until crisp and golden.
buon appetito…
roast chicken with thyme and garlic…
I don’t know if I can even call this a recipe as it is so simple, it’s one of those “one pot” meals when you are too lazy (which is generally me) to make too much effort on the cooking side. I really like it though as you can taste each individual ingredient as there is no sauce, it might sound like it’s dry but if you use good quality chicken, I used free range/organic it should have enough moisture and you will have yourself a tasty little dish. You can add stock, white wine, lemon etc if you have to have a sauce as I know some of you probably do, but I’m sticking with this way. I think we tend to rely too much on sauces in Ireland and never actually taste the main ingredient as it’s covered with lots of other flavours so try this for a change and you might be pleasantly surprised:)
I’m not giving you measurements as I haven’t a clue, I just fire it all into a tray but here’s what you need:
chicken legs and thighs
thyme
garlic cloves peeled
potatoes
sea salt and black pepper
olive oil
what to do:
pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees
peel your potatoes, cut into chunks and par-boil in salted water.
with a sharp knife, make incisions in your chicken pieces and stuff with garlic and thyme, put some under the skin too.
season with salt and pepper
put your chicken and potatoes into a roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil.
cook for about 45 mins until golden and serve.
orecchiette with courgette, garlic and chilli!
I’m in a really good mood today as the sun is shining, we’re just back from Killaloe where we had lunch and brought the princess to feed the ducks. This week the builder has also come back with a rough price for changing La Cucina around and putting in seating for 26 people and surprise, surprise it’s actually affordable – I LOVE THE RECESSION:)! We just have to sort out a few things with the landlord and the bank of course and then it’s all systems go, I can’t wait as we have wanted to do this for ages but couldn’t as everything was too expensive in relation to building work but with the downturn it is now possible.
My sister also had her baby this morning by c-section as he was completely breached and everything went perfect, he was 8lb 1 oz, big babies run in this family, it must be our love of pasta:) I’m so relieved as she had a really rough pregnancy and they didn’t think she would make it at 21 weeks, she threatened miscarriage about 3 times so he is a little angel in disguise. They are both doing great and I hope to get over to see them both next week as they live in Canterbury.
I love pasta dishes without an actual sauce and I’ve mentioned before that one of my favourite pastas is spaghetti alio olio which is one of the most simple pastas you can make. This one is quite similar and just as easy and as tasty, I think the difference without the sauce is that you can taste the actual ingredients. I find this recipe great for using leftover courgette and garlic, you could also replace it with spinach for a change.
what you need for 2:
- 1 large courgette
- 1 garlic clove
- olive oil
- 1 tbsp dried chilli flakes
- 350g pasta – I use orecchiette but you could also use linguine, fettucine, tagliatelle.
- sea salt and black pepper
- grated Parmesan
what to do:
- bring a pot of water to the boil, add salt and your pasta and cook until al dente.
- grate your courgettes with a cheese grater and chop your garlic.
- fill the base of your frying pan with olive oil, heat and add your garlic and chilli and cook for a couple of minutes until golden but not too brown.
- add your courgettes and cook until soft, make sure you stir them constantly.
- season with salt and pepper, drain your pasta reserving some of the water.
- add your drained pasta and Parmesan to your pan with courgettes, toss well and add water as needed.
- serve with Parmesan cheese on top.
buon appetito!!
abbacchio alla romana!!
I was driving past my local butchers Jim Flavin last week and spotted his sign for leg of spring lamb for just €20. I would never notice anything like this but I really have become more aware of my spending since this recession went into overdrive. I don’t think anyone expected it to get this bad so fast! La Cucina is still doing fine but is definitely down a bit but we are lucky in that we can just work a little bit more ourselves – about time I hear some people say;) To be honest we’re probably lucky that the new restaurant didn’t work out as this is not the time to be opening something new. I know we would have still done well but we would have needed to be packed out every night just to cover the bills and the cost of setting it up but that’s not guaranteed in this climate.
After seeing the sign for the lamb I went home and had a look through the Silver Spoon and found this recipe which sounded delicious, I had all the herbs required in the garden(best thing ever) so I popped back down and picked up my lamb and some potatoes. The recipe called for the lamb to be cut up into pieces which I would never be able to do myself so I asked the butcher to do it and he even carried my bags to the car – now that’s service. I also picked up 2 free range chickens as we had friends coming over for dinner the next day and they were only €8.95 each! I do go to my local butcher regularly but sometimes I do take the easy option and just buy meat and chicken in the supermarket but there is no comparison in those prices, I’ve paid up to €30 for a leg of lamb and €15+ for chickens so I know where I will be going every time now regardless of convenience or not.
what you need:
- leg of lamb cut up into pieces. I only used half of it and have the rest in the freezer.
- plain flour for dusting
- olive oil
- 3 fresh rosemary sprigs – you won’t get fresher than my garden.
- 4 sage leaves
-1 garlic clove finely chopped.
- 175ml white wine
- 5 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 4 potatoes sliced as thin as you can.(note to self)
- salt and pepper
what to do: - pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees
- dust the pieces of lamb with flour and season.
- heat the oil in a roasting tin, add the lamb and cook over a high heat until browned all over. Keep turning the pieces.
- season again and add the garlic, sage and rosemary and cook for about 5 mins.
- add your wine and vinegar and cook until evaporated.
- add 150ml boiling water and put the potatoes on top.
- cover and roast for 30 – 40 mins or until tender.
- if the gravy dries out just add a little more water.
- when cooked transfer the lamb to a serving dish and EAT!!!
I loved this recipe, the dish was bursting with flavour and so tasty, I think I prefer to eat the leg cut up rather than whole so this will be on the italian foodie table a lot this winter:)
buon appetito!
pappardelle with oven roasted tomatoes!
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!!
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