Parsley Pesto & Egg Yolk Spaghetti

Well, to be honest it's not exactly a pesto. I took inspiration (as on so many other occasions) from Jamie Oliver and put together one of the most simple and delicious pasta dishes. In fact, I guess that with pasta, simplicity is the key: keep it simple, good ingreds, watch, learn, practice, eat right away!

INGREDIENTS:

• spaghetti pasta;
• 2 cloves garlic;
• a big handfull parsley leaves (extra for garnish);
• 2 tablespoons grated pamesan cheese per serving;
• 1 egg yolk per serving;
• 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil per serving;
• salt, coarse ground black pepper;
• a few drops lemon juice (optional).

So, in a stone mortar crush 2 garlic cloves with salt (acts as an abrasive and draws moisture from the garlic making it pasty). Then pick the leaves from a good bunch of parsley (about how much you can squeeze into the mortar bowl). Crush well by hitting and with circular motions of the pestle. Poor in some olive oil, a few tablespoons. To make it more pesto like, you can add grated parmesan and pine nuts. I did not.

In stead I put the grated parmesan in a bowl and to that I added one egg yolk per serving. Stir well and add olive oil to taste. The same with coarse crushed black pepper. No fire so far!

Add the garlic parsley mush to the egg and parmesan. It must have reduced to a spoonfull by crushing it. 

Jamie adds some lemon juice. I added very little, just a few drops. It's true that it can bring a nice flavour to the dish but it can ruin it just the same. I personally like the olive oil flavour better.

Boil the pasta in salted water and when al dente just add it to the sauce bowl without straining it too much. Starchy pasta water is welcome to thin the sauce and give it a velvety consistency. Coat well the pasta and serve immediately with extra parsley leaves and grated parmesan.

It's a great pasta sauce idea which combines the velvet sauce of the carbonara with the freshness of the parsley and fruity olive oil.

It was so goo that I scooped up the remainder of the sauce from the plate with a loaf of bread. Enjoy!

Mushroom Soup

This is another adaptation recipe from Jamie Oliver's Cookbook Jamie's Dinners. In the soup chapter he gives us a mix mushrooms cream soup with at least three different kinds of mushrooms in it. It's a cream soup with some whole bits in it, too. The idea to make it came to me from the great loaf of bread that I just baked the other day. I could just imagine sinking a torn bit of bread in the mushroomy broth/cream and biting out of it!

INGREDIENTS:

• about 500 to 700 gr. mushrooms of as many types as you can find (wild ones are unbeatable in the taste dept. and porcini are the next best thing; I used two types of champignon - white and brown, and a third Chanterelle mushrooms);
• one large onion;
• few tablespoons olive oil;
• 2 cloves garlic;
• 1 inch cube butter;
• 1 liter water or chicken stock;
• salt, pepper, time, fresh parsley.

HOW TO MAKE:

Heat up some olive oil and the butter in a pan and add the onion (chopped fine). Add salt and then throw in the mushrooms cut into medium pieces (about 1 inch). Stir them around and add the finely chopped garlic cloves, salt and pepper. Stir and notice the mushrooms start to leak a lot of liquid. Add the time and cook on medium heat until the liquid has almost evaporated (about 10 minutes). Don't burn anything. Add water or stock to cover and boil another 20 minutes. 

At this point use a hand blender to cream at least half the soup. The other half or quarter of the mushrooms you put aside and add them back into the pot after blending the rest. The proportions are up to you. I personally like to feel the whole bits of meaty mushrooms in the bowl.

Bring to a last boil, taste and adjust for condiments, then turn off the heat. Now add the fresh parsley, chopped. You can serve it in heated bowls with a drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil over it, and maybe some sour cream. Jamie Oliver's recipe calls for two tablespoons of mascarpone cheese mixed into the soup. I thought it would make it to rich and fatty so I didn't use it.

Good bread is a must. A little toasted slice of country bread makes the perfect addition to the hot bowl of mushroom soup. Enjoy!

All Green Turnip & Courgette Salad

This salad is an ode to green. It is fresh, it is crispy, it is stylish!

Just cut up some fresh medium sized courgette into long thin ribbon style slices, and for this you best use a "econom", a vegetable peeler.
The turnip, not too large, you peel clean, wash and slice thin slices with a sharp knife. Assemble and season with the best extra virgin olive oil you can find , salt, pepper (I used green) and maybe some bits of green chilly pepper and chopped parsley. You can stain the corner of the plate with a little lemony mayonnaise.
Enjoy!

New Potatoes & Bacon Warm Salad

It's the time that you find new potatoes in the market. They are so small and cute. I've seen some people teach us how to peel them, but in this recipe I've decided to eat them with skin on, because it was so thin and tender. Someone fried them in duck fat. Yummy! I just decided to make a salad. And it is a warm one, since it has fried bacon in it.

INGREDIENTS:

• a handful of new potatoes, round and small;
• 3 to 5 strips of bacon;
• 1 or 2 spring onions, both white and green part;
• 1/2 red bell pepper;
• fresh parsley (can't use dry for this one);
• extra virgin olive oil, a dash of balsamic vinegar;
• salt & pepper.

HOW TO MAKE:

First you boil the potatoes, skin on, in 2/3 more water then potatoes, lots of salt in. Boil them until they are soft to the penetrating fork, but not as soft to fall apart. Drain the water away and cut the potatoes in half or quarters depending on how small they are.
While the potatoes are boiling, in a nearby pan, fry some bacon, cut into thin little inch size bits. You can fry long strips and brake or cut them after they are crispy. Do not burn the bacon. It's just not nice.
Chop up the red bell pepper into small little bits like in the picture and the spring onion into small rings. Use both white and green parts of the onion. Chop the fresh parsley roughly, not too fine. The parsley leaves look nice in this one.
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and (important) do it while the potatoes are still warm. They will soak up the aromas of the bacon and the onion. You can add a few drops of balsamic vinegar into the mixing bowl. Assemble on plate. Enjoy!

Parsley Study

Today I cooked a chicken soup. And for that I had to chop a handful of parsley. The parsley leaves washed and piled on the board looked interesting to me.