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Our first dinner in the garden, spring has been cold this year… the blossoms have been blown away by storms of rain and hail. We have had a few days of fine spring weather in March and then winter came back to taunt us. All I want to do is sit by the stove and read a good Jane Austen novel. Wrapped in a blanket and sipping a cup of Earl grey tea…
This morning the sky looked a little blue so we left the house early to go to the organic market in Brussels. I bought fine looking Spanish spinach and found freshly made Ricotta at an Italian stall. That was dinner sorted. I just love simple pasta dishes, simple is gorgeous in Italian cuisine.
I generally don’t use recipes, I mostly just start cooking and see how it goes. Don’t get me wrong I love cookery books but I don’t really use them for cooking. Unless for pastry, you need to follow the recipe there!
We eat pasta nearly every day at our house, vegetarian ones as we only eat meat once a week. There’s nothing more soothing than a good bowl of pasta after a busy day at the office.
So here we are, one of my favourite easy dishes, penny with spinach, Ricotta and Pecorino.
What do you need
1 bunch of fresh spinach (I used Spanish but you can also use the regular one)
150 g of Ricotta
Pecorino cheese grated
Pepper and sea salt
Method
Boil salted water and add the spinach, cook for 30 seconds and drain.
If you are using Spanish spinach, keep the flowers and buds separate to decorate your dish.
Put all the Spinach leaves in a container with a few teaspoons of the cooking water and puree with a handmixer. If the mixture is too dry, add more water.
Add the penne to the cooking water you used for the Spinach.
Wait for 4 minutes, put a heave based pan on the hob and add the spinach to it.
Add the Ricotta and stir, you might need some more cooking water so if you do, add until you get a good consistency.
Add a handful of grated Pecorino and stir well so you don’t get lumps.
Taste and add pepper and salt if needed.
The sauce shouldn’t be on the stove too long, so add the pasta as soon as it’s ready and fold in the sauce.
Put your flowers and buds on top of the pasta and serve with extra grated Pecorino cheese.
Enjoy
You might also like:
Please feel free to leave a comment, I love reading them!
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I had never seen this type of kale before and to be honest, I had to do some research.
‘Haak’ or ‘Collard greens’ is a leafy green vegetable from mustard – cabbage family.
They are native to the Mediterranean region but I bought them in Kent.
The leaves look like outer cabbage leaves but darker in color and sometimes almost black. The aroma and taste is something between cabbage and mustard leaves and the leaves do not get very soft after cooking like spinach leaves tend to do.
‘Haak’ or ‘Collard greens’ are also very nutritious, a 1 cup portion of cooked collard greens has about 50 calories. It is an excellent source of vitamins C, A, and K. This same serving will provide a good source of calcium, fiber, and beta-carotene, as well as vitamin E. Rich in nutrients and antioxidants, ‘Haak’ or ‘Collard greens’ are beneficial for supporting the immune system.
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| the paste |
The taste does take some getting used to but after you do, you will enjoy the warm mustardy flavour. I made the leaves into a pesto-like paste and mixed them with parmesan. The parmesan softens the mustard flavour a bit and the Ricotta gives the greens a sweeter touch.
What do you need
serves 4
1 bunch of Collard greens
1 clove of garlic crushed
1 cup of grated parmesan
4 tsp of olive oil
2 tsp of ricotta
parmesan to serve
olive oil to serve
1 bunch of Collard greens
1 clove of garlic crushed
1 cup of grated parmesan
4 tsp of olive oil
2 tsp of ricotta
parmesan to serve
olive oil to serve
Method
– Rinse the Collard greens well
– Remove the stalks from the leaves
– Boil salted water
– Cut the leaves to create strips
– Add to the boiling water, do not put the lid on
– Boil for 5-7 minutes
– Drain the Collard greens and keep the cooking water to cook the pasta in.
– Add the pasta to the boiling water
– Divide the Collard greens so you have 2/3 and 1/3.
– Add the 2/3 of the Collard greens to a food processor or mixing bowl
– Add the olive oil, parmesan and garlic to the Collard greens and puree.
– Add the Ricotta to the paste and stir
– Drain the pasta and keep some of the cooking water
– Stir the Collard greens paste trough the pasta, if its to dry, add some of the cooking water.
– Finally stir in the 1/3 of Collard greens leaves
– Serve with a generous amount of parmesan and drizzle some olive oil over the dish to finish it of.
– Rinse the Collard greens well
– Remove the stalks from the leaves
– Boil salted water
– Cut the leaves to create strips
– Add to the boiling water, do not put the lid on
– Boil for 5-7 minutes
– Drain the Collard greens and keep the cooking water to cook the pasta in.
– Add the pasta to the boiling water
– Divide the Collard greens so you have 2/3 and 1/3.
– Add the 2/3 of the Collard greens to a food processor or mixing bowl
– Add the olive oil, parmesan and garlic to the Collard greens and puree.
– Add the Ricotta to the paste and stir
– Drain the pasta and keep some of the cooking water
– Stir the Collard greens paste trough the pasta, if its to dry, add some of the cooking water.
– Finally stir in the 1/3 of Collard greens leaves
– Serve with a generous amount of parmesan and drizzle some olive oil over the dish to finish it of.
This dish is delicious with a fruity white wine.
Enjoy
Please leave a comment, I appreciate every single one!
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I’m already dreaming of travelling to Tuscany again…
On our first evening in Tuscany I ate a dish with beans. A friend of our hostess told me that dish was named “Fagliolini al Fiasco” “beans, cooked in a wine bottle”.
He told me this is a dish often sold by bakeries who used the leftover warmth of the bread oven to cook the beans in old Chianty bottles.
The technique was quite simple, the dried beans are dropped in through the narrow neck of the bottle and just barely covered with water, herbs and olive oil.
In the old days, the bottle was sealed with a wad of muslin and set in a corner of the fireplace onto the smoldering ashes. While everyone in the house was asleep, the beans cooked. Imagine waking up to that.
This dish is also one of the classic “pane e companatico” which means “Bread and something to go with the bread”. That something in was very often these beans.
It was a grey morning but as the weather was still mild for the year I was still able to fire up my oven in the garden and keep it warm for a few hours. In the evening we were rewarded by a aromatic bottle of beans and the smell of smoke in our hair. You do need some time, it takes 6 to 8 hours to cook.
What do you need
an empty clear wine bottle like a Chianty bottle (remove the straw)
fresh sage, a small handful
3 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
a good quality olive oil
dried white beans, fava beans or another small type of bean
wood for your fire (I used old grape vines)
One day before
Soak the beans overnight
On the day
Light your fire with wood, I used a smoker BBQ which is basically a long bullet shaped BBQ with a lid and a thermometer so you can monitor your heat. I hope to build a Tuscan bread oven in my garden next summer but in the meantime this does the trick. I you have a fireplace, this will work to. Just be sure the flames can’t touch the bottle and the bottle isn’t placed in too much heat.
My oven was around 70° Celcius for 5 hours.
Drop the beans into the bottle until it’s filled to 3/4. The beans will expand so you will need that extra space. Add the 3 crushed cloves of garlic, the sage leaves and a bit of black pepper.
Pour in about 3 teaspoons of olive oil and add water so the beans are generously covered in water.
Close the bottle with a wad of muslin or cotton wool so the steam can escape the flask.
You best warm the bottle by putting it in warm water before you put in into the oven or fireplace.
Put the bottle into the oven when the fire is smoldering and leave on the cover for 3 hours.
After 3 hours, the beans in the bottle will look like in the picture.
Leave for another 2 hours.
After those 2 hours, open the bottle and try to get a bean out by using a skewer, have a taste, if the beans are still tough just put the bottle back in the oven for an hour and check again.
Mine were perfect after 6 hours.
We ate the beans in a few ways: just with parmesan and olive oil, with olive oil, croutons from homemade stale bread and parmesan and finally with Italian sausage I brought home with me from Tuscany.
Enjoy
Other posts about Tuscany:
A fabulous Tuscan foodblog to go to: Juls’ Kitchen
Please leave a comment. I appreciate every single one.
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