Risoni Pasta with Charred Cauliflower, Peas and Pancetta

This is a simple warm pasta salad flavoured with fresh flat leafed parsley, thyme and good thickened cream.

I love easy weeknight dinners that have all the benefits of a labour intensive meal. This pasta is perfect for spring afternoons with a bottle of wine.

Ingredients

Serves 2

2/3 cup risoni pasta

½ cup peas

¼ small cauliflower

 150g pancetta

¼ small red onion, finely chopped

3 tbsp flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

½ tsp fresh thyme

3 tbsp thickened cream

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Directions

Bring water to boil and cook risoni pasta as directed on the packaging. Usually 5 – 7 minutes.

Chop cauliflower into small pieces and coat in olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook in a frypan on high heat, turning only once the bottom is charred. Continue to do so until all sides have a nice dark brown charring. Add peas and reduce heat to medium. Add 1/3 cup of water and let reduce.

Once the water has reduced and the peas are a bright green, add cream and mix well. Set aside.

In a separate pan, lightly fry pancetta and add to cauliflower. To finish, combine risoni, cauliflower mix, red onion, parsley and thyme. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Marty's Meatballs

This is one of my favourite things to cook, but every time I make it, it changes. It’s really never the same each time, but I’m going to post my last make so I finally have something captured. Meatballs are a two pronged endeavour; purists would argue less is more, and others would argue that more is the end of the story. I like more. But granted, there is a time and a place. On a winter’s night I want heat, I want texture, I want spice and I want complex.

Meatballs have been prepared all over the world for many years and there are records in the Ancient Roman cookbook Apicius that make reference to meatballs.

Ingredients

Serves four - five

For the meatballs

500g beef mince

2 eggs

½ cup panko breadcrumbs

½ large onion

½ large field mushroom

2 large cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin

1 tbsp black pepper

4 cloves, crushed

1 tsp nutmeg

3 ground bay leaves

1 tbsp ground mustard

1 tsp salt

½ teaspoon chilli flakes

For the Sauce

2 cans whole, peeled tomatoes

3 large vine ripened tomatoes, diced

½ cup red wine

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 large onion, diced

1.5 large field mushrooms, diced lengthways

Olive oil for cooking

1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp cumin

½ chilli flakes

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp parsley

1 tbsp nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Start by finely dicing all of the meatball ingredients and combine, using your hands to meld the mixture. Roll into small balls and let sit in refrigerator.

In a pan, heat olive oil and fry meatballs off on medium to high heat, browning evenly, then set aside. Add more olive oil to the pan and add garlic, onions and mushrooms to brown. After cooking for 3 -5 minutes, remove from pan and add a dollop of red wine to deglaze. Let the alcohol cook out of the wine to leave behind the grapey nodes. Add tomatoes, both fresh and canned and then add back garlic, onions and mushrooms. Add the herbs and cook for 5 – 10 minutes, adding and adjusting herbs, salt and pepper to taste. It is a matter of trial and error until you reach your desired taste.

Bake in the oven with meatballs for 40 – 60 minutes at 180 degrees. Serve with pasta, as desired. 

Speck and Porcini Bow Pasta

This is an easy eat, with plenty of flavour. I like salt, a lot. So this recipe uses speck, a beautifully cured pork leg that comes from the Italian region of Alto Adige. It has a beautiful flavour, smoked with juniper and pine wood, cured in salt and herbs. If you are using capers, always buy capers kept in sea salt, they have a nicer after taste. Porcini mushrooms too, are a poor man’s answer to the truffle, a middle ground between common field mushrooms and the almighty truffle.  Because it is quite hard to cultivate and production is localised within Europe and Asia mostly, the porcini mushroom is often dried for year round sale.

Ingredients

Serves two

2 cups bow pasta

150g Speck

1 small red onion

2 tbsp porcini mushrooms

½ cup frozen green peas

2 tbsp salted capers

¼ cup olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Start by cooking the bow pasta, adding salt and olive oil. Dice the speck and fry on medium to high heat, tossing regularly, browning evenly. Separately, soak the diced porcini mushrooms. Dice red onions and set aside. When the pasta is half cooked, add the peas and allow cooking until both al dente. When the speak is near complete, add porcini mushrooms with a little of the remaining juices and stir through speck.

Combine all ingredients and add olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

Butter and Butternut Pumpkin Pasta

A great pasta and also an ode to the anchovy. I love them – salty and a flavor enhancement for everything. Anchovies are great if you want to add a more natural salt to a recipe. If you add them to your cooking, especially sauces, they will dissolve and become a well rounded saltiness, no fishy aftermath. I love them so I use them whole too.

This was pretty much a throw together of everything I had left, but it turned out a lot better than I had expected. An easy, partially vegetarian eat.

Ingredients

Serves two - three

250g fettuccini

80g butter

2 cloves garlic

½ medium onion

300g butternut pumpkin

100g walnuts

½ lemon

2 tbsp parsley

¼ cup olive oil

1 shallot/scallion

1 tsp chilli flakes

Pinch of cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Start by coating pumpkin with olive oil, salt and pepper and cook in preheated oven for twenty minutes at two hundred degrees Celsius. Next, cook the pasta with olive oil and salt. In a separate pan heat the walnuts with chilli flakes and cumin to release the flavors and set aside. With the pan still slightly herb coated, add the butter and cook on a medium heat, adding onions and garlic, browning slightly. Follow with chopped anchovies and quickly remove from heat.

The next step is to add all ingredients to the butter sauce, retaining some of the pasta water to help coat pasta with a thicker sauce, adding olive oil to taste. Using the lemon juice, coat pasta an add salt and pepper.