Salsa di noci (walnut sauce for pasta)

We are hooked on the great Italian supermarket in Sydhavn. S snuck a pot of salsa di noci into our shopping basket last time we were there, despite my protestations at buying anything walnut-based, considering our epic quantities. But it turned out to be delicious, and a little different from any walnut-based pesto I'd tried before. I googled for a recipe, and it seemed pretty simple. So I tried this one. And it was great! So there is an argument for buying walnutty things after all - new ideas for our supply!

35 g white bread, crusts removed

100 ml milk

150 g walnuts, toasted

10 g parmesan, grated 

1/2 garlic clove 

40 ml olive oil 

lemon juice, to taste 

salt, to taste 

pepper 

extra chopped walnuts (optional)

chopped parsley (optional)

 

Put the bread into the milk and leave to soak for a few min.

 

Put the soaked bread in a blender along with the walnuts, parmesan, garlic and oil. Blend to a smooth paste, slowly adding the leftover milk back in to reach the desired consistency

Season the sauce with salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste

Often served with gnocchi or long, flat pasta shapes such as tagliatelle (we ate it with penne and it was still good). Garnish with extra toasted walnuts and chopped parsley if you like (we didn't have any so didn't, and it was still good). Had some roasted aubergine pieces on the side and that was nice mixed in, as an option. Oh and I think a bit of ricotta salata as an option too.

Spinach lasagne

I often end up cooking to make myself feel better, and following a recipe for lasagne is about as comforting as it gets. I checked all the recipes I could find for the one heaviest on the spinach, and this one won (4 big bags!). Oh I didn't exactly follow the recipe - I added pine nuts. It was yum.

70 g butter (used naturli)
50 g plain flour
800 ml milk (used oat)
salt+pepper
1 bay leaf
800 g spinach
200 g ricotta cheese
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
300 g fresh lasagne sheets
1-2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
100 g parmesan, grated

Heat the oven to 190C/375F. Melt 50 g of the butter in a pan and whisk in the flour. Cook for 1-2 min, then whisk in the milk till smooth. Season with salt and pepper, add the bay leaf and simmer for 5 min. Turn off the heat. Wilt the spinach with the remaining 20 g butter in a covered pan. When wilted, drain, then, when cool enough to handle, squeeze out the liquid. Chop the spinach and mix with the ricotta, a ladleful of the white sauce and a good grating of nutmeg. Season. In a baking dish, layer the lasagne sheets, white sauce, spinach mixture, toasted pine nuts and a grating of parmesan. Finish with a layer of pasta topped with sauce and more parmesan. Bake for 30 min, or until golden.


I haven't quite worked out how to make-ahead lasagne. This one I think I assembled and let sit for an hour or two in the fridge before baking, and I think it made the pasta slightly soggy. Was still delicious, but there is prob a better way - bake until nearly done then finish off in the oven before serving?

Lentil and potato pasta (the best lentils in the world)

When we were at S's in Italy last winter, we bought a packet of 'the best lentils in the world' from Santo Stefano di Sessanio. I just remembered them around New Year, because apparently lentils (along with a big fat sausage) form part of the traditional Italian New Year's feast. We didn't eat ours at New Year, but we had some with Amy on Jan 2nd, and the rest I made into this. I found a bit of paper with a few recipes in Italian in the packet from the lentils - I attempted to translate it, and this is the result. It was deceptively simple-looking, and very tasty, like a lot of real Italian food.

200 g small green/brown lentils
2 cloves garlic, 1 whole / 1 peeled and chopped
1 bay leaf
salt
2 tbsp olive oil 
4 medium tomatoes, diced
4 medium potatoes, approx. 2 cm dice
pasta

Put the lentils in a saucepan with 1 clove garlic, bay leaf and a little salt, and boil for about 25 min. Drain, reserving the liquid.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add chopped garlic and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes. Add a little salt and the liquid from cooking the lentils (and more water if needed), and the diced potatoes. Halfway through cooking, add the lentils.

While the lentils are cooking, bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook enough pasta (your choice of shape) for 2 people. Stop cooking halfway through, drain, and pour pasta into the pot of lentils. Simmer until the pasta and the potatoes are well cooked.

Walnut pesto (and walnut-cauliflower pasta salad)

Our heap of walnuts remains, as yet undwindling. Seb is mocking me for spending all my spare moments cracking nuts with my Granddads favourite nutcracker from 1981. But the proceeds are so nice. Some went into cookies for people waiting to be deported in Jutland at J's bday get together. For a totally different use, I thought of walnut pesto, I think inspired by this. I adapted that recipe only in as much as I substituted stuff we had in the house.

1 cup shelled walnuts
1 small garlic clove
1/4 cup grated parmesan
3 tsp mixed dried thyme, chilli and salt
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp red pesto (subbed for 2 tbsp sundried tomatoes - used a bit less oil and cheese accordingly)

Toast the walnuts and let cool. Put in a blender with the garlic and pulse until roughly chopped. Transfer to a bowl and mix in grated cheese, herbs and salt, vinegar, oil and pesto. Mix together, taste for seasoning and vinegar, and eat on everything.

Some became an awesome pasta salad, with roasted cauliflower and tomatoes, white beans, parsley and diced mozzarella (or feta) - this is recommended. But it works with everything - a spoonful on top of some pasta e ceci, for example...

Pasta and chickpeas (pasta e ceci)

Our trip to Italy last winter got us excited about more foods than pizza. We did a cantina food tour in the village next to S+C's house. We had seven or eight little courses and glasses of wine in different cantinas (private cellar / bars opened up for the event) connected by a walking map. Far and away S's fave was pasta and chickpeas. It's really simple, like most of the best food we had in Italy: pretty much just pasta and chickpeas cooked in stock to make a hearty soup.

I saw these recipes soon after getting back, and then pasta e ceci went into heavy rotation in our house through the winter months. In the end, I think our fave version was a merger of those two versions: dried pasta, dried chickpeas, rosemary, garlic, olive oil, and perhaps some celery.

250g dried chickpeas
2 garlic cloves
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 stick of celery (optional)
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
200g short pasta, stumpy rigatoni was usually what we ended up with - you're aiming for something chickpea-sized
Salt and black pepper
olive oil and black pepper / red chilli flakes to serve

Soak the chickpeas in plenty of cold water for 12 hours or overnight, changing the water twice if you can. Drain the soaked chickpeas, cover with 2 litres of fresh water, add a clove of garlic and a sprig of rosemary. Bring the pan to the boil over a medium heat, and simmer for 1½ hours or until the chickpeas are tender. Start tasting after one hour. Keep in mind you want 1.2 litres of cooking liquid, so top up with more water if necessary.

In a large heavy-based pan or casserole, heat the olive oil and add the remaining clove of garlic (peeled and gently crushed with the back of a knife), and the other sprig of rosemary. Fry gently until the garlic and rosemary are fragrant. Cook for another few minutes.

Add the chickpeas, and then add the chickpea broth, making sure there is 1.2 litres – make it up with hot water if there isn’t – and a pinch of salt. Increase the heat to bring the soup to the boil.
Add the pasta and cook until tender, stirring, tasting and adding more broth to keep it a nice soupy consistency. Serve with a grinding of black pepper (or sprinkle of red chilli flakes) and a little more olive oil poured over the top.

Note: this works well simplified to use chickpea broth from cooking any amount of chickpeas (the more you cooked, the more intense the broth flavour), and without any measuring - heat oil and fry rosemary and crushed garlic, add cooked chickpeas, add enough chickpea broth to cook pasta (top up with water if not enough) and some salt, add pasta and any additional veg desired (e.g. chopped celery, diced courgette), boil until pasta is done and eat with a drizzle of olive oil and some black pepper or chilli flakes... or even a spoonful of walnut pesto on top if you want to be fancy. Also good with chopped fresh tomatoes added at the end... And our fave pasta shape for this, after testing many, is oriechette.

Birthday mohnkuchen; and birthday pasta cake

 It was S's birthday yesterday. I had decided weeks ago upon his cake: mohnkuchen. I'd bought the poppy seeds even longer ago, in Germany, and had been meaning to make mohnkuchen ever since. Seems like I make cakes less and less often... But birthday cakes are essential!

I used the same recipe as before, without veganising it this time. I made it the day before, and it was delicious on the day and he loved it. BUT it was the ugliest cake ever. I mean, black poppy seeds don't make for the most beautiful cake to start with, but on top of that the mohn mixture rose up in a wall all around the edges like crazy. This didn't happen before and I don't understand why it happened this time. Perhaps I didn't put the streusel mixture thick enough on top? Anyway, I trimmed that bit back down so it didn't look quite as bizarre, and it tasted great. It meant it was a bit more sunken in the middle and the mohn layer wasn't quite as thick as it should have been, but it held together well and I can't really complain.

We had a good day - a good balance of making plans and being spontaneous, and being lucky. Cake and presents for breakfast; bus over to the sauna, some sunny sauna action; up to Papirøen for good food (the best pizza place has gone completely vegetarian, including many vegan options - wahoo!); bus back in time for S to watch Dortmund, who won, and it started raining as soon as we got back... While S watched football and then spoke to his mum, I decided to cap his day off by making his this spaghetti pie for his dinner - I had seen the recipe a few weeks back and it had his name written all over - pasta, cheese, crispy pasta, more cheese... This was a perfect opportunity to make it!

butter for greasing springform
8 oz broccoli rabe, chopped into few-inch segments
1 lb dried spaghetti
1 1/2 cups milk
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2-3 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp coarse salt
8 oz aged pecorino cheese, grated, divided
8 oz fontina cheese, grated, divided

Heat oven to 425F (220C, 200C fan). Butter a 9 in springform baking tin and wrap the outside tightly in foil. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add broccoli to the pot and boil for 1-2 min, until just tender. Fish out with a large slotted spoon and drain well. Set aside.

Add spaghetti to boiling water and cook until 2 min short of done (i.e. very al dente) as the spaghetti will continue cooking in the oven. Drain well and let cool slightly.

Wring all extra moisture out of the broccoli and blot on paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible. Chop into very small pieces.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk together with salt and pepper. Stir in all but 1/2 cup of each cheese and chopped broccoli. Add spaghetti and toss to coat.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake for 50+ min (mine took more like an hour and a half), until the top is brown and there is no runny egg in the centre. If the top browns before the center is set, cover with foil for the remaining cooking time.

Cut around the springform ring to loosen, then remove ring. Run a spatula underneath the pie to loosen the base and slide onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges.


The mixture only just fits in the tin, but doesn't rise up so that's OK. It is huge, and very filling, so definitely serves many people or makes lots of leftovers. It took ages to cook: definitely not something to make in a rush or when hungry! It also messed up the springform quite a lot. I won't be making this often but it had a lot of impact for a special occasion for a pasta lover! He was pretty excited!

Pasta with white beans, celeriac and sundried tomatoes

The last and best thing I made with my mound of cooked white beans. I never usually cook pasta for S as he always cooks it for himself, so he was especially excited about this. And I thought it worked really well. I took a little inspiration from here and here.

1 tbsp oil from sundried tomatoes (or olive oil)
1 small onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 very small celeriac, peeled and diced into 1 cm dice
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 cups white beans
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup water or veg stock
5 sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
enough pasta for 2 people, cooked in boiling salted water until very al dente
4 kale leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp chopped oregano
salt+pepper

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and saute until starting to soften, 2-3 min. Add diced celeriac and chilli flakes, cover and cook without browning until softened (about 15 min). Meanwhile cook the pasta (v al dente), drain and set aside. Add white beans, white wine and stock/water to the celeriac pan, heat and cook for 10-15 min. Blend using a wand blender until it is about half smooth, half remaining unblended. Add the sundried tomatoes, pasta, kale and oregano and cook for another 5-10 min. Taste for seasoning and serve in bowls.


I thought this was a triumph. Quick, hearty and warming, with a lovely combination of tastes and textures. Blending up part of the bean and celeriac mixture is the key - it makes a delicious sauce that coats the pasta, while the unblended parts keep it toothsome and interesting.

Creamy mushroom sauce (pancake day fail)

This is a basic white sauce made with vegan ingredients and intensified with mushroom powder. Then mixed with sauteed mushrooms, walnuts (and optional artichokes). The sauce comes out nice and thick and creamy, and the mushroom powder makes up for any flavour lost due to not using real milk or butter. My intention was to wrap pancakes around it (we attempted pancake day yesterday, one day late as I had no time on the day), but my pancakes completely failed and I don't understand why - they just kept sticking to the pan. I've used both pans and batter recipe many times before, am stumped. So anyway, we gave up and ate the sauce with noodles instead, which worked just as well - I guess pancake day this year was not meant to be.

For the sauce:
5/8 cup fake milk (used almond, soy might be better), heated
1 tbsp fake butter
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp mushroom powder
salt and pepper

For mushroom fry:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
~5 medium-large mushrooms
1-2 tbsp chopped walnuts
1-2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper

Heat the milk. In a separate, small pan melt the butter. Add the flour to the butter and stir / let bubble for a few minutes (do not colour). Add the hot milk and mix well for a few minutes, until smooth and starting to thicken. Keep stirring and heating gently for a minute or two more, then add mushroom powder, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

In a medium frying pan, heat the olive oil, then add the garlic and sizzle for a minute or so before adding the mushrooms and walnuts. Cook for a few more minutes, until the mushrooms are lightly browned. Finally add the parsley, stir for a minute or so more, add salt and pepper to taste and turn off heat.

Mix the mushroom fry into the sauce, toss and then serve, either as a pancake filling or mixed through pasta.

Celeriac pasta

We ate pasta with a creamy celeriac sauce at a place called Fressen in Toronto, years ago now (the restaurant has since been reinvented... but the celeriac sauce has survived on their menu). I didn't immediately realize quite how much S had fallen in love with it, but he had. So ever since we have been recreating versions - cooked celeriac, pureed and mixed through pasta. For this one, I cooked the celeriac just like this, before blending to a smooth puree.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 a medium celeriac, peeled and chopped into ~1 cm dice
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
salt+pepper
~2-3 tbsp fake milk (used almond)

enough dried pasta (twists or penne, used brown) for two people

Heat the oil in a medium, lidded saucepan then add the celeriac, garlic and thyme. Cover and cook for ~25 min, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile boil a big pan of salted water and get the pasta on. When the celeriac is tender, soft and a little sticky, take off the heat, taste and season, then transfer to a blender cup. Blend until smooth, adding fake milk to achieve the desired creamy pasta-sauce consistency. Taste to check seasoning. Drain the pasta when done, then return to the pan and toss with a little olive oil. Mix the celeriac sauce with the pasta and eat. If you like mix in chickpeas as well.


A good version. Happy to make pasta for S: he loves it so. The celeriac has a remarkable intense taste and creamy texture and this recipe brings both out beautifully while remaining simple, warming and satisfyingly comforting. Perhaps this celeriac sauce would make an interesting substitute for the white sauce in lasagne?

Egg yolk ravioli (and oriecchette)

I spent much of the weekend getting in the mood for Christmas: I cooked brussels sprouts, we bought a tiny tree, I caught up with family and their Christmas plans, I made zimtsterne, put up Christmas decorations, we bought and initiated an advent calendar, stayed in playing games and eating Lebkuchen... And overnight last night it snowed and capped off my indoor decorations with a beautiful (if rapidly melting) outdoor sprinkling of white. I do feel a bit more festive now.

With the three egg yolks remaining after making zimtsterne (I decided Christmas / zimtsterne was enough of a special occasion to warrant buying eggs... fancy, multicoloured ones) I decided to try out making egg yolk ravioli. We'd seen an egg yolk raviolo on Professional Masterchef a few years ago and it looked awesome (think we are usually inordinately excited whenever they make something vegetarian, but in this case it seemed justified). I used the eggless pasta dough recipe I have used before, and decided to try turnip as an additional filling (the traditional version seems to involve ricotta; I was intrigued by the idea of turnip though and had some in the fridge).

For the pasta dough:
(note: this makes way too much for 3 ravioli, hence the oriecchette - estimate enough for ~15 ravioli)
1/2 cup pasta flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tbsp gram flour
1/2 tsp salt
water

For the filling:
(note: the mashed turnip is probably enough for about 10-12 ravioli, depending on size of turnip)
1 large turnip (the white kind)
salt
~ 1/2 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tbsp soy yoghurt (or fake milk, or nothing)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
pepper
3 egg yolks, carefully separated from the whites so as not to break the membrane
a little bit more egg for closing

First prepare the pasta dough: mix the flours and salt in a pile on a clean worktop, then made a pit in the middle and add the water a little at a time, mixing with your fingers (while being careful not to break the ramparts), until it comes together into a kneadable dough. Knead for a few minutes then wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least 30 min / up to a few days.

While the dough is chilling, peel the turnip, chop into large chunks and then put into a pan of salted water to boil. Boil for ~10-15 min, until tender, then drain thoroughly and transfer back to the pan. Add the thyme, yoghurt (if using), olive oil and some salt and pepper and mash with a fork until fairly smooth. If it seems liquidy at all heat a little while to evaporate off the extra liquid. Set aside and let cool until handlable.

Take out the dough and make six small balls (each about the size of a large marble). Flour a clean worktop and rolling pin, then roll out each ball until it is super thin and you can see through it (try and keep the shape roughly circular). Choose three base pieces and space them out flat on a board. In the centre of each make a little nest of ~ 1 1/2 tbsp turnip mash, with a dent in the middle for the egg to go in. Wet your hands (and anything else you plan to touch the egg yolks with), and carefully transfer one egg yolk into each nest. Gently place the top pieces of rolled-out pasta dough over the egg yolks and press into place carefully, trying to exclude large air bubbles from getting in with the filling. Make a ring around the filling using any remaining egg yolk and/or white and press down firmly all around the circle to close the ravioli. Use the back of a fork to press some more if you want to be really sure of a firm closure. Trim the edges to remove excess pasta (keep the offcuts - you can cook them as random pasta shapes).

Bring a large pan of slightly salted water to the boil. Add the ravioli. Boil for ~3-4 minutes. Remove carefully with a slotted spoon, drain, transfer to plates and eat.


I cooked the offcuts as irregular fettucine. I also made oriecchette (wanted to try making a shape that didn't involve rolling!) with some of the remaining dough to make this into more of a meal: pinch of pieces about the size of a small marble and flatten into discs about 7 mm thick. Put on a clean surface, then roll your thumb across the disc, pressing firmly all the way across. It should roll up into an oriecchette (little ear) shape. These will take a little longer to cook than the ravioli as the pasta is quite thick - perhaps 5-6 min. They can be dried and stored if desired.


The egg yolk ravioli were amazing. The turnip and thyme went beautifully, and I felt like it was nice / important to have something extra to complement the egg yolk taste and also for structure when building the ravioli. Really fun to cut into the ravioli and have the orange yolk gush out. S was excited, and that was my main aim, so I'd call this a success. The mashed turnip was also pretty tasty on its own, and what's more reminded me of S's favourite celeriac pasta sauce, so I mushed it in with the oriecchette and that worked quite well too.

Brown pasta with tempeh, garlic, sugarsnap peas and mint

S's go-to is pasta with some kind of veg-based sauce. He bought some brown pasta as a special concession to me: I prefer it, he doesn't. Somehow, though, today we both managed to agree that this one is weirdly good. Realised after making it that this combo is also very much inspired by N+G's picnic special pasta salad recipe: tempeh, pasta, peas and mint. The garlic scapes and sugarsnap peas came out of the CSA, and the mint is from the yard. It's the best thing about this time of year: being able to eat superfresh food.

Sufficient brown pasta for two people
water
salt
olive oil
3-4 garlic scapes, chopped
1 small punnet of sugarsnap peas, washed and trimmed
1/2 a block of tempeh, diced
1 tbsp mint, chopped
black pepper

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then add the pasta and simmer until done (10-20 min depending on variety). Drain.

Meanwhile, heat 1-2 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan. Add garlic and fry until softened and starting to colour. Add peas and tempeh and fry until the peas are just tender and the tempeh is lightly golden. Add the mint, and salt+pepper to taste.

Eat the pasta mixed with the pea-tempeh-garlic mixture, and be happy about Summer despite the oppressive heat.

We mixed in some carrot green-lime stuff with some of it, and that was also good, if the above combo isn't exciting enough for you... Also good with finely grated lemon zest, avocado chunks, or grated parmesan, depending on your proclivities.


Open to variations: made some last night as a salad using brown pasta left over from this, pea shoots (from CSA), regular garlic fried with the tempeh, chickpeas, and lemon juice. And coriander instead of mint, although I think mint is better here.

Mushroom and walnut ravioli

S made me a nice Saturday lunch, so I decided to make him a nice dinner. His favourite food is pasta. I made a fresh, eggless pasta a few weeks ago, and wondered if the same dough would work as ravioli. Which, I just realised, is a merger of two of S's favourite food things: pasta, and little packages. I had been thinking about what would be good as a filling, and mushroom and walnut was a forerunner. So when we got home with mushrooms among our grocery shopping I decided to go for it and give ravioli a shot.

(made 12 fairly large ravioli = a good quantity for two people, with some dough left over that made a portion or two of fettucine to dry out)

For the pasta:
1 cup pasta flour
1 cup plain flour
1 tbsp gram flour
1 tsp salt
water

For the filling:
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~8 medium sized mushrooms, cleaned and finely diced
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp chanterelle mushroom powder
1 tsp white vermouth
1/2 tbsp chickpea and barley three-year (dark) miso
~10 walnut halves, half ground / half chopped
salt+pepper

First, make the pasta. Mix the flours and salt in a heap on a clean work surface. Make a well in the middle and add water, mixing with your fingers until it comes together into a dough. Knead for a few minutes, until the dough is pliable. Wrap in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for ~30 min.

While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling. Heat ~1 tbsp of olive oil in a medium frying pan. Add the garlic and fry until softened and starting to go light brown. Add the mushrooms, mushroom powder and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, so the mushrooms soften, go dark and release their liquid. Continue cooking until the liquid is reabsorbed / evaporated. Add the vermouth and cook until it too is evaporated. Add the miso, walnuts and seasoning to taste.

The pasta dough should have had sufficient time in the fridge by now. Take one third and roll out on a floured surface until thin. Cut out circular pieces using a Coke glass or other circular cutter. Pair them up. Place a teaspoon full of the mushroom filling mixture in the centre of one of each pair of circles. Lightly wet the edge of the circle around the mushroom pile, then place the other circle of the pair on top and squish the two circles together all around their circumference with your fingers. Try not to let any air get sealed in the middle. You can press around the edge with a fork as well if you want to be sure of the seal.

As each one is completed, transfer it to a baking sheet lined with coarse cornmeal or semolina. Refrigerate them on the baking sheet until you are ready to cook them. Roll out the next third of dough (and then the next third) and shape more ravioli, continuing to add the completed shapes to the collection on the baking sheet until you are out of filling. If there is any remaining dough you can just roll it out and shape it into fettucine or another shape, and dry it out if you don't feel like eating it all straight away.

To cook the pasta, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Put the ravioli in. Cook for about 5 minutes - they will float, then you will need to cook them for a minute or two longer. The exact cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of the pasta. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil (or truffle oil?) and some salt and pepper, or with whatever kind of sauce takes your fancy.


These turned out good: S loved them and said they were one of the best things I ever cooked. The pasta was a little thick - it is hard to roll it out really thin manually, and since these involve a double layer of dough all around the perimeter any slight too-thick-ness is magnified. We both quite enjoyed the thickish pasta anyway, although I don't know if it would have passed inspection on Masterchef... None of them burst while cooking - think using water to help the seal was a good tip. Not sure if the gram flour made any difference (might be an idea to try varying the quantities of the different types of flour in the dough more though?). The filling was really successful - incredibly flavourful and savoury, and a great texture. The next filling I'd like to try is butternut squash, sage and hazelnut or pecan.

Fresh, eggless pasta

S loves pasta, but not the eggy variety: good quality dried pasta is his favourite. I thought it might be fun to try making him fresh pasta without egg. I used this recipe as a reference, and then guessed from there

(makes enough for two people)

1 cup plain flour
1 cup pasta flour (extra fancy durum wheat plus unenriched golden semolina)
1 tbsp gram flour
1 tsp salt
water

Put the flours and salt in a pile on a clean work surface and mix them a little with your fingers, keeping it together as a heap. Make a hollow in the middle and pour in a few tbsp of water. Mix with your fingers. Add more water, mixing and kneading until the dough just comes together. Knead for a few minutes until it is smooth and pliable. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 20 min or a bit longer.

Pull off about 1/3 of the dough and make it into a little ball. Dust a clean work surface generously with flour. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it is thin: 3 mm or less.

Cut the rolled out dough into pieces of the shape you want. I just made fettuccine type strips, cutting with a dinner knife from S's grandmother's set. Move the shaped pasta to a well-floured baking tray until you are ready to cook it. Repeat the rolling and cutting steps until all the dough is prepared.

Bring a large pan of slightly salted water to a boil. Add the fresh cut pasta. Cook for 3-5 minutes, until it is al dente. Drain and toss with some olive oil. Serve however you like.


This worked pretty well: the dough rolled out quite thin, better than I expected, and was not at all sticky either before or after cooking. It was whiter in colour than egg pasta, due to the lack of orange egg yolks in it. Perhaps adding a couple of tbsp gram flour would be a good thing to try (edited in as I tried this and liked it)? Infinite scope in the shapes we could make too: perhaps some ravioli, or pappardelle, or anything really. I dried some we didn't cook by spreading it out on a floured baking tray and putting it in the oven (off, but it has a pilot light so is always a little warm) overnight. We ate it the next day so not sure yet about how long it lasts when dried but S I think preferred cooking it from dried.

Chicken of the Woods (+spätzle)

We went mushroom hunting a month or so ago at Breakheart Reservation, with our friends Carly and Jason.  We found lots of mushrooms on that trip - including black spiky boletes and one large frilly mushroom we got particularly excited about, thinking it might be Hen of the Woods (Maitake). When we got home and looked more carefully at the identification guides we decided that it was actually probably a Berkeley's Polypore and supposed to be way less tasty, so we didn't end up eating it. Even so, we were all very enthused about more mushroom hunts soon...

Black spiky bolete aka Old Man of the Woods
aka Strobilomyces floccopus (photos by Carly)

Berkeley's Polypore (Bondarzewia berkeleyi)

S+I were thinking of going to a party in a cabin in the woods with C+J on Friday night, but Seb's mum is in town right now and we ended up doing some more Boston-y tourist-suitable stuff.  But while we were down in Rhode Island on Saturday I got a text from Carly saying they'd found masses of Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus: this is different from Hen of the Woods, and is supposed to have the taste and texture of chicken) on a night hike near the cabin and did we want to come help them eat it?  Ohhhhhh yes!

The mushroom was indeed huge, and beautiful: red-orange on top and creamy coloured underneath, and quite thick and substantial. They cleaned it and chopped it into chunky pieces, then fried it in olive oil / butter, with onions and salt and pepper. We ate it with spätzle: Seb was able to show off his authentic Swabian spätzle-making skills (while teasing his mother about her never having made it before despite being a 'Schwäbische Hausfrau', sort of).

The spätzle came out really well, so I thought I'd make a note of the dough recipe we used - since I have some eggs at the moment perhaps a repeat effort could be a good idea?!

(quantities below make enough for two people)

1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 pinch freshly ground white pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together flour, salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Beat eggs well, and add alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Rest in the fridge for an hour or so (not essential).

When ready to cook, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Spread about a ladleful of spätzle dough thinly on a smooth chopping board, then hold it over the water and use a large knife with a flat, smooth blade to scrape off the dough, making small, slim worms of spätzle fall into the water. Watch each batch rise to the water's surface then cook for a minute or two while floating, then fish them out with a slotted spoon and put them in a colander. Keep the cooked spätzle warm and repeat with the remaining dough until it is all done.

Finally, either toss or saute the spätzle in olive oil or butter, and optionally garnish with parsley.

                                  (Video of spätzle forming technique: Seb on spätzle in front, Jason on chicken of the woods behind)

Spätzle is really simple, but these worked very well so I thought it was worth hanging onto the recipe. I think the egg is relatively important, but it would be easy to make them without dairy (and likely possible to make them without egg, probably using a little raising agent for lightness and some gram flour for eggy taste and colour).

The mushroom was wonderful - really substantial, with a dense, almost dry texture, and a mild taste. It really was a bit like chicken, taste and texture wise - funny for S to try it as he has never knowingly eaten chicken.

Now I am just wishing I knew where to find more equally awesome, edible mushrooms...

Note: Alvin says that Chicken of the Woods is really best eaten raw.  Not entirely convinced, but now we know that we don't have any adverse reactions to it perhaps next time we can try it (if there is a next time)...

More golden food: vegan 'cheese sauce' with moghrabieh

We had a leaving party at the weekend for a colleague who is moving to France.  My boss's wife has a tradition of making 'American food' for such events, and this time is was macaroni cheese.  S couldn't make it to the party, but I got to thinking yesterday about how he used to love cheese sauce when I made it before I stopped eating cheese, and also how it is a good, warming, comforting thing to eat with cauliflower or chard or similar.  So I was thinking about whether a vegan alternative would be remotely viable (a vegan white sauce would be easy enough, but how to make it cheesy?), and consulted ppk - seemed like the obvious place to start.  I found this recipe there.  The ingredient list looked somewhat weird - sauerkraut?!  But actually we have a huge jar of sauerkraut in the fridge that S bought and decided he didn't like.  And way better than anything involving fake cheese.  So, much though I feared it might turn out disgusting, I thought I'd give the recipe a try.

3/4 cup cashews, soaked (perhaps blanched almonds would be an alternative)
2 cups veg stock, divided
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 cup sauerkraut
1/6 cup plain flour
black pepper
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp lemon juice

To soak the cashews, put them in a bowl and submerge in hot water. Leave for at least an hour, preferably 2 hours or overnight.

Prep whatever you want to eat with the sauce in parallel or in advance: pasta, cauliflower, whatever (I boiled some moghrabieh in the same way as I would pasta).

Put the soaked cashews and 1 cup of the veg stock in the blender and blend until smooth.

Meanwhile, heat a large pan over medium heat, then fry the onions and garlic and a pinch of salt in half a tablespoon of the oil, until onions are softened.  Drain the sauerkraut in a sieve, squeezing it in your hands to remove as much of the wetness as possible. Add sauerkraut to the pan just to heat through, a minute or two.

Add the sauerkraut mixture to the cashew mixture in the blender. Blend until smooth.

Wipe out the pan reheat it over a medium heat. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil, along with the flour. It should become a gooey clump. Toast the roux for about 15 minutes, until it smells toasty and turns medium brown. Stir constantly so that it cooks evenly.

Gradually pour in the remaining cup of stock, whisking constantly so that it doesn’t go lumpy. Whisk until thick and smooth, about 2 minutes.

Add the cashew sauerkraut mixture, and whisk until well incorporated. Add the black pepper, nutritional yeast if using, salt and lemon juice. Heat through and stir occasionally, allowing the mixture to thicken.

(If you want to make a baked macaroni cheese, at this point heat oven to 350F and grease an 11 x 13 oven dish with olive oil, then mix the cooked pasta back with the sauce and put it in the oven dish, cover with tin foil and bake for 20 min, remove foil and bake 5 more min...  Otherwise just mix the hot sauce with whatever)


It worked amazingly well!  The sauce was not completely smooth, neither was it exactly like cheese sauce, but it did have a creamy, comforting texture and consistency, and it tasted really mellow and interesting (the sauerkraut definitely remained secretive).  S liked it too (I only told him about the sauerkraut after he'd tried it).  Perhaps that sauerkraut will get eaten after all (I'll have to stock up on cashews...). This quantity was plenty for S and I - would prob serve 4 - and the leftovers keep well in a pot in the fridge (unlike non-veg cheese sauce).  Other recipes I saw use miso to get that 'matured' taste - perhaps I will try that too (if we ever run out of sauerkraut). 

Tempeh; carrot+cumin hummus; pasta salad

I can't get to grips with tempeh.  To start with, it looks kind of off even when it's fresh...  I also haven't yet worked out a good way to cook it - the taste and texture often end up a bit odd.

So I saw this recipe and thought 'ah, steaming, maybe that's the secret'.  I tried it last night:

8 oz packet tempeh

2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup veggie broth
2 tablespoons white balsalmic vinegar (used 1 tablespoon regular balsamic)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (used lime juice instead)
1/4 cup fresh thyme, leaves whole, soft stems roughly chopped (used basil instead)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Slice tempeh into 2 squares. Slice the squares sandwich-like into two thin squares. Cut each square into triangles, to make 8 thin triangles.  Steam the pieces for 10 minutes.

Mix the remaining ingredients together in a big bowl. When tempeh is ready, add it to the bowl.  Marinate for 1 to 4 hours, flipping occasionally.

Grill or fry in a pan.  In pan, cook for 10-12 min, turning every so often.  Attached bits of herb are a good thing - they go pleasantly crisp.

Note - the marinade can be re-used:  I pressed some firm tofu while the tempeh was in the marinade, and bunged the tofu in and into the fridge once the tempeh was out.

Hmmmmm.  It's definitely a good way of cooking it.  But ultimately it tastes good because the weird tempeh taste is being masked a bit.  I like the texture of tempeh, I just don't 100% like the taste.  Tempeh is way better than seitan though, seitan is really not very good.  Think they both appeal more to people who miss meat more.


Carrot and cumin hummus

A variation on hummus, merging with carrot spread.

~ 1 cup chickpeas, defrosted
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
small piece garlic
3 smallish carrots
salt+pepper
lump (~50g) of tofu (extra firm silken, as that's what I had open)
juice of ~1/3 lime
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp honey (just to boost the carrots' sweetness)

Grind toasted cumin seeds in spice grinder.  Peel the carrots and steam for ~10 min.  Put all ingredients into blender cup and blend til smooth.  Add water to get desired texture; add seasoning and oil / juice to taste.  Considered adding coriander too - might be good another day - but decided to keep it simple for today.

This came out well - the carroty sweetness and earthy chickpeas balanced out, and the spicy cumin taste finished it off.  The tofu adds a kind of creaminess I think - it's an interesting addition as a texture enhancer.


Pasta salad

S and I have an ongoing disagreement about pasta - in short, he would happily eat it for every meal, I wouldn't (although it's OK once in a while).  This tends to resolve itself in him cooking pasta every time he cooks, and me never cooking it.  There was some leftover pasta (gemelli I think - kinda fancy twists) from one of his escapades, and I thought I would surprise him by making something pasta-based.  This is really so simple it doesn't need a recipe, but it did go down well, so here it is.

1 1/2 cups pre-cooked pasta
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 large 'leaves' raw fennel, chopped
1/4 of a purple pepper, chopped
1/2 an avocado, chopped
6 small radishes, sliced
2 small spring onions, finely sliced
small handful mixed leaves (rocket+lettuce), chopped

handful frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
2 tbsp pumpkin and sunflower seeds, toasted
1-2 tbsp fresh basil, torn into pieces
salt+pepper
olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dress

Prepare all ingredients, put in a bowl, with dressing and seasoning to taste, and toss.


Simple and colourful and tasty - nothing fancy but definitely pleasing.  A high proportion of veg for a pasta salad - prob about 50:50.  Lots of room for variation.

Caper raisin pasta

S loves pasta, I am not so excited about it. I saw this recipe and thought of him - he also loves salty olives and capers, parsley, and fennel. And we had all those things in the fridge...

Basically this.

6 stalks celery (ie, around 180g) (or fennel, or red onion which would need more cooking)
90ml olive oil
30g pine nuts, roughly broken (used sunflower seeds instead)
40g capers, plus 2 tbsp of their brine
10 large green olives (40g), pitted and cut into 1cm dice
1 good pinch saffron, mixed with 1 tbsp hot water
1½ tsp white-wine vinegar
100g raisins, soaked in water
250g conchiglie pasta (shells)
30g chopped parsley
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Grated parmesan (or pecorino for vegetarian alternative), optional

Trim any leaves from the celery (save them for later) and cut the stalks into 1cm dice. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan and add the diced celery and pine nuts. Over high heat, fry, stirring all the while, for a minute or two until the nuts begin to brown (take care as they can easily burn). Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the capers and their brine, the olives, saffron and its water, the vinegar and the drained raisins. Set aside.

Cook the pasta until al dente, drain into a colander and shake well. Tip the pasta into the pan, place over medium high heat and, stirring gently, quickly heat through. Once hot, stir in the parsley, lemon zest, garlic and lots of black pepper. Taste and add salt if needed.

Transfer to serving plates or bowls, scatter the reserved celery leaves on top and finish with a little cheese, if you like.


It was good - caponata crossed with S's perversion pasta.