After eating so much lovely food in Melbourne last week I couldn’t bring myself to have a boring old sandwich for lunch on my first day back, that just wouldn’t do! So I put together something that is becoming a bit of a favorite of mine in its various forms – I cooked up some sweet corn & tomatoes with salt and pepper until thick & flavorsome then stirred through some chipotle sauce & fresh coriander. I served this on a toasted pita bread with a dollop of sour cream & a bit more chipotle…delicious! I was so pleased with my lunch that I emailed a photo of it to my husband who…unfortunately for him…was back at work a day earlier than me!
That night I wanted something quick & easy to prepare for dinner (still tired from all the shopping and eating!) so I made pasta with a Napoletana sauce out of my “Southern Italian Home Cooking” cookbook. It is so easy to make but so so tasty, I forgot to take a photo of this one…I must have been too hungry!
On Saturday morning I was looking through my cookbooks and wishing I had more time to cook (a common wish!) so that I could become more proficient in certain cuisines. Another thought followed closely on the heels of this one…I decided that I will spend the next 1-2 months concentrating on Spanish, Portuguese and Italian recipes (my current favourites) so that I can immerse myself in these cuisines…sounds like fun!!
The first things I cooked under this new regime were a few recipes out of my book “Flavours of Tuscany”. I made Meatballs with Porcini Mushrooms and Pecorino in a tomato sauce, Pumpkin Roasted with Sage and Onion and balsamic vinegar and Tuscan Saltless Bread. The meatballs and sauce had a lovely deep flavour and the balsamic vinegar gave the pumpkin a lovely tang while still complementing the sweetness. I have mixed feelings about the bread – it had a great texture and was cooked well but the lack of salt did make it bland. The theory is that Tuscan cooking is very salty and so the saltless bread complements this, however I cooked the food to my salt palate and therefore the bread fell a bit flat. I think I would make this recipe again but next time I will add salt. I almost cooked a sweet and sour cabbage as well but I ended up cooking that on a different night – no photo unfortunately but very easy and delicious.
Another one I didn’t photograph was a spaghetti omelette that I made for my Sunday lunch, loosely based on a Rachel Khoo recipe. I needed to use up some left-over spaghetti so I put it in a bowl with an egg, pepper, salt, olives & roast capsicum. I heated some olive oil in a pan and fried it until it was crispy on both sides & ate it with some chutney…lovely. It would have been nice with a salad as well.
According to my recipe book, a lot of Tuscan recipes make use of day old bread so I was keen to follow this tradition. As well as the bread I also had the last tomatoes from our garden to use so I made a Tuscan Creamy Tomato and Bread Soup with Basil Oil to take for my lunches during the week. This soup has quite basic ingredients; the tomatoes and onion are softened in a pot before pureeing them and then adding quite a lot of bread and other seasonings. For serving the soup you make a herb oil by whizzing up some fresh rocket and basil with some olive oil which is poured onto the soup once served. I followed these instructions on the first day and I did not enjoy the oil at all…it made me feel sick for the rest of the day with a terrible taste in my mouth! I have just eaten my second serving of the soup and this time I made a few adjustments…I added some red wine vinegar to give it a bit of tang, ripped in a couple of fresh basil leaves, added quite a bit of salt and pepper and – most importantly – left out the oil!! It was much better today and I enjoyed it a lot more! However I’m still not sure that I like the volume of bread in the soup – I’ve had other soups with bread in them and really enjoyed them but this one is just a bit too thick and…gloopy.
For Sunday night I sort of stayed within the Spanish/Portuguese/Italian theme (let’s call it the SPI theme!) because the ingredients were very Spanish (chorizo sausage, smoked paprika, capsicums…) but the recipe was not Spanish, it was Creole…it was a Chorizo Jambalaya from my Julie Le Clerc recipe book called “Viva Food”. I don’t know if it’s just me but I always struggle to find recipes that use chorizo which aren’t just a side dish or a tapa, so while I thought it would be easy to find a Spanish dish for my chorizo, I didn’t mind stepping slightly outside of the SPI theme to make this dish because it was so delicious!
So a good start to my month (or 2!) of SPI! The question is…will I be able to resist dipping into other recipe books?!
for the love of cookbooks... 