Gnocchi, Proscuitto & Feta
My basic gnocchi recipe comes from Philip Johnson’s fabulous book classic e’cco and I’ve previously blogged about it here. I love making gnocchi and am finally confident about it. I’ve been very light on the flour and the amount of mixing, but this last time have been increasing it a bit as the last couple of attempts were a bit too much like mashed potato!
Here I have it with a tomato sauce, soft persian feta, proscuitto and fresh basil.
Johnson has a recipe which involves making a tomato sauce but on this occasion I used a bottled one. However I adopted a trick of his which made it zing.
Put 100ml good quality balsamic vinegar in a saucepan and reduce until syrupy. Add 2 1/2 tbsp butter and stir. Then add your tomato sauce. This makes the sauce very rich with a delicious sweet-sourness to it.
His recipe uses goat cheese and I didn’t have any but the creamy feta worked fine.
Grilled Peach, Chard and Fennel Salad
I’ve become a fan of Jamie Oliver’s shared platters, so at least in the summertime they pop up fairly often in our house, either inspired by his “15 Minute Meals”, or my own simpler creations like this. Yes, I could have added some goat’s cheese, but I was saving that for dessert! Lettuce and baby…
Roast Garlic & Cheese Tart
This is such an excellent dish. It’s not too different from making a quiche. What makes it special is the sweet-sour roasted garlic and whatever combination of cheese you choose. My recipe is adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe in “Plenty“. I’ve added the greens (and changed the cheeses a little). Yotam is my ‘go to’…
Plenty
“Plenty” is a brilliant vegetable cookbook from Yotam Ottolengi, owner of London’s Ottolengi restaurant and writer of some wonderful cookbooks with his head chef Sam Taimimi. Ottolenghi’s Middle Eastern cooking draws on Jewish and Arab influences as well as other African and Mediterranean cuisine with a modern twist.
Smoked Salmon and Fennel Pizza
Brush the pizza base with garlic oil. [What is garlic oil? Well, you bake a whole head of garlic, unpeeled, in olive oil for 130-140C for about 30mins, and then put the garlic and the oil in a bottle in the fridge, and you have amazing garlic and oil for weeks.] Next add halved, small…