Tuna, anchovies and capers pasta

Today ( one of my favourites) the pasta sauce. Firstly: I really love anchovies, secondly: it’s ready in 3 minutes! It’s a savour in all crisis situations when you are starving or unexpected guests come with a friendly visit… decorate with some parsley and I’m happy!

Ingredients
package of pasta (i.e. tagliatelle, spaghetti, etc.)
2 cans tuna in oil
about 6 anchovies
2 tbsp capers
3 tbsp oil
1 garlic clove
pepper (dry chilli)
parsley to serve


Method
Bring a big pot of salted water to boil add pasta. Cook until it’s al dente.
Heat the oil in a pan. Add the garlic and anchovies. Stir until anchovies fall apart, add tuna and capers. Season with pepper and dry chilli.
Toss the pasta with the sauce, drizzle with oil. Serve with parsley.

Cannelloni with Bolognese sauce

When I have no idea what to serve for a dinner there is always a big chance I’ll serve pasta! It’s delicious, fast and you can make it with all kinds of sauce! Today version requires more work as you have to stuff all those cannelloni! (By trial and error I think the easiest is to use your own fingers instead of the icing bag to stuff cannelloni bags)

Ingredients
24 oz (600 g) mix minced meat
8 fl oz (250 ml) thick tomato juice
2 oz (50 g) butter
1/3 cup wheat flour
1 cup milk
¼ fresh ground nutmeg
2 garlic cloves
1 large onion
1 carrot, parsley root, celery root
salt, pepper
oil
rosemary
grated Parmesan


Method
In a saucepan melt butter add flour, stirring cook it for 3 min., continue stirring add warm milk, mix until smooth. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Sauté chopped onion, chopped garlic and rosemary. Diced carrot, parsley root, a piece of celery root and minced meat add to the onion. Fry until slightly brown. Add tomato juice. Well combine all ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Uncooked cannelloni stuff with the Bolognese sauce. Transfer cannelloni into greased baking dish with a béchamel sauce on bottom. Each layer of cannelloni alternate with béchamel sauce. Sprinkle top with grated Parmesan. Bake for 20 min. at 360 F/180 oC.

Simply, pasta!

There is nothing faster to make for a dinner than pasta! Preparing such a meal take as much time as to cook the pasta – shorter than waiting for a kebab. For me the choice is obvious!

Ingredients
1 package pasta (i.e. bucattini)
3 garlic cloves
handful chopped parsley
salt, pepper, chilli flakes
cheese: Parmesan or Grana Padano
olive oil


Method
Cook the pasta al dente. Heat the oil in a pan, add thinly chopped garlic. When the pasta is ready drain it and transfer into the pan. Toss adding more oil, season with pepper, chilli and parsley. Serve with cheese.

Pasta with Gorgonzola sauce

A few days ago I ate this dish the first time in my life. We spent a really nice weekend in my friends’ home and our host made us delicious penne pasta with thick, cheese sauce. Don’t be scared of the ingredients (cheese plus cheese) and calories! Its taste is worth the next day’s diet! The recipe is from the original Italian straight from Munich! J

Ingredients
7 oz (200 g) Gorgonzola cheese
4,5 oz (125 g) cream cheese (i.e. Philadelphia)
about 0,5 cup milk (amount depends on your preferences)
18 oz (500 g) pasta (tagiatelle or penne)


Method
Crumble the Gorgonzola cheese, put in a pot and combine with cream cheese. Still stirring heats it up on a low heat. Add milk (or sour cream), stir until get a creamy sauce. You may season it with pepper and nutmeg. Serve with pasta and i.e. with chopped dill.

Roasted zucchini lasagne

It’s one of the most delicious (and very filling) Italian cuisine dish.

Layers of the meat ragù, delicate béchamel and pasta I varied with young roasted zucchini.

Ingredients
1 package Lasagne sheets
25 oz (1 kg) minced beef meat
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 carrots
¼ celery root
4 sage leaves
1 teaspoon dry rosemary
½ teaspoon ground coriander
salt, pepper, pinch sugar – to taste
20 oz (0,5l) thick tomato sauce (passata)
2 oz (50 g) butter
3 tbsp wheat flour
2 cups milk
salt, pepper, nutmeg
4 young zucchinis
2 mozzarella balls
oil to fry

Method
Heat up 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Add coriander, sage and rosemary. Slightly fry, so the flavour of herbs gets strong, add onion, meat, grated carrots, celery and garlic. After 10 min. of simmering add tomato sauce. Season to taste.

In a pot heat up the butter, add flour. Continuing whisking pour in a warm milk. Boil until gets thick. Season to taste.

Thin slice zucchinis. Each slice rub with oil. Fry in a grill pan.
In a bottom of a baking dish place one layer of the lasagne sheets (dry or blanched), top with a portion of the meat ragù, béchamel sauce and slices of mozzarella and zucchini. Continue with the layers until you use all ingredients, ending with a top layer of pasta, béchamel and cheese ( I also put sage leaves). Bake for about 50 min. at 300 F/150 oC (until cheese gets golden brown).

Lazy about the lazy 'gnocchi'

After polishing the floors, icing gingerbreads counted in hundreds, filleting carps, suddenly you realize you should eat something for a dinner..
Something delicious, quick to be made and with a cinnamon flavour. Maybe the 'gnocchi'? Today’s recommendation!

Ingredients
14 oz (400 g) minced cottage cheese
6 tbsp mash potatoes ( cooked one day before)
3 tbsp wheat flour
3 tbsp cake flour
1 tbsp butter
1 egg
pinch salt
to serve: cinnamon, sugar, butter


Method
Knead all the ingredients until elastic. For a minimum 30 min before cooking put the dough in a fridge. Cooled dough divide into small pieces. Each roll into a strand, slice diagonally (1 inch). Cook in boiling water until gnocchi will pop back up to the top.

Twisted (with roasted pepper) “spaghetti Bolognese”

One thing is to feel full after Christmas but the other is the human basic need to eat ! For me always “something to eat” is pasta, which I make in different variations depend on what actually I have in my fridge (yesterday: prosciutto, olives and sun dried tomatoes). Some time ago I made the most delicious, lightly revolutionized spaghetti Bolognese with roasted pepper.

Ingredients
500 g (1 package) pasta: spaghetti or tagliatelle
500 g (18 oz) minced beef
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 cup tomato puree
3 tbsp oil
2 teaspoons dry pepper flakes
1 teaspoon sweet ground pepper
½ teaspoon dry rosemary
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
1 tbsp molasses (or sugar to taste)
salt, pepper
Parmesan

Method
Start with boiling salted water in a big pot. During working on the sauce, you can cook pasta ‘al dente’.
In a big pan heat the oil, add chopped onion and garlic ( it is enough to crush garlic cloves with your hand or with a flat side of a knife). Add mince meat and fry stirring from time to time. Pour in tomatoes, add spices. Well combine all ingredients, cover and simmer for a few minutes. Serve with pasta and grated Parmesan (or different type of hard cheese).

Roasted vegetable cream

When I’m asking Peter what he would like to eat for a dinner, every second time the answer is” roasted vegetables”. It is a surprise how different is the taste of roasted veggies to boiled or fried ones. They become more aromatic and genuine sweet. Carrot, parsley root, potatoes, pepper – roast them all!!

This time I combined few Mediterranean style vegetables, added herbs and mixed so I got a soft cream. It is perfect for sandwiches, for pasta and also (with minced fried meat) as a filling for crepes.

Ingredients
2 medium size eggplants
1 red pepper
2 onions
3 garlic cloves
few sings of thyme
1 tbsp tomato puree
about ¼ cup oil
salt, pepper

Method
Peel the eggplants and slice them. Dice pepper. Cut onion in quarters. Leave the garlic clove in shell (after roasting it become creamy and sweet). Place all the vegetables on a baking tray, drizzle with oil, add salt and pepper. Make sure everything is well coated with oil, put thyme on top. Bake until the vegetables are golden brown, in preheated oven to 180 oC (360 F), stirring from time to time. When the vegetables are roasted and soft mix them with tomato puree (remember first peel the garlic clove). If you want you can add more salt or pepper. Serve with pasta, bread or i.e. as a meat sauce.