This is a lovely easy recipe and is beautiful with fresh green prawns. It’s a great mid-week recipe because it’s quite quick to prepare, and the sauce is smooth and silky. I think it’s a nice change from having a tomato based sauce.
This dish reminds me of an amazing scampi (small prawns) pasta we had in Venice. We had visited the amazing fish markets in Venice earlier in the day and had heard good things about the seafood at this restaurant. After some language confusion we were presented with an enormous serve of fresh, fragrant garlic and tomato scamp pasta. It was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, and it was so simple. I’m still working on recreating the taste – it all turns upon the quality of your seafood.
Ingredients - 500 grams Pasta (I use spaghetti or linquine)
- 3 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
- 1 cup White wine
- 2 tbsps Butter (more if you want more sauce)
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 pinch Chilli flakes
- 20 Green prawns, peeled except for tails
- 5-6 Semi-dried tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 tsp Lemon zest
- 2 tbsps Parsley
- handful Cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 stalk Bok choy, chopped
- 1 tbsp Parmesan cheese, finely grated
Directions
- Cook the past in a large saucepan of boiling salted water. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Drain pasta and set aside to keep warm.
- Put oil in a frying pan with the garlic and heat gently over a low heat.
- When the oil is hot add the prawns, chilli and half the parsley. Increase the heat to high and cook for 2-3 minutes. Turn the prawns and cook through.
- Remove the prawns and set aside.
- Add the lemon juice and white wine to pan, allow to bubble and reduce for two minutes. At this point I added the semi-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bok choy and some pasta water and parmesan.
- Once the bok choy has cooked down a bit, stir in cold butter and lemon zest until you have a smooth sauce.
- Add the prawns and pasta and toss through sauce and heat through.
- Top with remaining parsley and some more grated parmesan cheese.
- Enjoy!
It was the Thursday before Easter, I was little later home than usual owing to the congestion on the roads, J was working until 6, picking up our FoodConnect box and then we were heading out for drinks. I needed to make something quick and tasty for dinner, and I had no vegetables in the fridge save some fresh herbs.
Pasta was the logical choice – it’s quick, it’s easy, I could throw it together based on what’s in the fridge. The result was this surprisingly tasty, simple meal.
Ingredients - 2 Shallots, chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic, sliced thinly
- 1 tsp Fresh oregano, chopped
- 1/3 cup White wine
- 1 tsp Olive oil
- 1-2 cup Tomatoes (crushed, diced)
- dozen Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
- 50 grams Edam cheese, diced
- 50 grams Marinated feta (plain also fine)
- 1-2 cup Pasta
- Parmesan, to serve
Directions
- Boil a pot of salted water and cook pasta until al dente.
- Drain pasta and remove from pot.
- Heat olive oil in the pot over a medium heat, then add shallots and garlic. Cook gently, being careful not to burn.
- Add oregano and white wine to pot, turn up heat and evaporate off some of the wine.
- Add tomatoes and heat through.
- Add olives, Edam and feta, then stir through the pasta. Season to taste.
- Serve with shavings of Parmesan, cracked pepper and fresh oregano.
Wow – so that’s how gnocchi is supposed to taste/feel?! I never realised what I was missing out on – and maybe you don’t either…
Real gnocchi, the kind you make with your own two hands, should be soft yet with a distinctly toothsome texture, light yet surprisingly filling, subtle yet distinctly flavoured. The key to this recipe, it seems, is an egg, and being very gentle with your dough – whatever you do, don’t overmix it or it will be tough and unpalatable!
Sadly, I am not responsible for this particular recipe (although I have an original creation coming up!). Once again, this comes from the divine Maggie Beer cookbook, Maggie’s Kitchen (buy it, now!).
I know there’s a lot of butter in this recipe, and I actually think it could be reduced by up to half without losing much of the flavour. However, remember that the butter is the sauce – don’t try to substitute margarine, I promise it will not be the same. This dish also reinforced by recent and ongoing love affair with sage. My what a wonderful herb it is, particularly browned in a little butter. We now have a little sage plant growing in our garden (thank you David!) that frequently finds itself rather short on leaves!
Ingredients - 750 grams Waxy potatoes
- 2 Eggs
- 2.5 tsps Salt
- 125 grams Plain flour More as necessary
- 170 grams Cold unsalted butter, chopped
- 1/3 cup White wine Maggie uses verjuice - like grape juice
- 1 bunch Sage leaves
- Drizzle Olive oil
- 12 larges Prawns, peeled, cleaned, tails intact
- pinch Sea salt
- pinch Black pepper
Directions
- Steam unpeeled potatoes. We did this in the microwave, which takes far less time than the stove, but if you're a purist do it on the stove. The potatoes should be cooked through, but not falling apart. Note, it's very important you don't boil the potatoes - this will add to much water, and will ruin your gnocchi.
- Peel and mash potatoes in a bowl. Use a ricer if you have one, but a fork seemed to work adequately.
- Add eggs and salt to the potatoes.
- Place flour in a rectangular shape on the bench.
- Spread the potato/egg mixture on the flour. Quickly mix to make a dough. Maggie suggests using a "pastry scraper", but a spatula works just as well.
- Our potatoes seemed to be quite wet, so we had to add additional flour. Just keep mixing gently until the dough comes together. You need to be able to gently roll it out, but it can still be quite loose. If you're not sure if it is combined well enough, try dropping a piece in boiling water. If it doesn't come apart you're doing it right!
- Now, divide the dough and gently roll into rough logs. You can cut the pieces, and press with a fork. But I just rolled little rounds.
- Preheat your oven to 200* (fan-forced, slightly higher if conventional).
- Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Cook the gnocchi in batches - don't overcrowd the pot or it won't cook effectively. You will know it's done when it floats at the top. Remove and strain.
- Meanwhile, spread 150g of cubed butter in a large flat baking dish. Scatter the sage evenly on top. Put in the oven and bake for 5 minutes until the sage begins to brown and cook.
- Increase the oven temperature to 230*. Put your cooked gnocchi in the baking dish with butter and sage. Bake for 5 minutes.
- Turn over the gnocchi (you can use tongs), then drizzle with 1/4 cup of wine and return to the oven for 3 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining butter with a splash of olive oil in a frying pan until nut-brown. Reduce the heat to medium and add the prawns. Cook until pink and cooked through. Be careful not to overcook or they will be tough. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the prawns and deglaze the pan with remaining wine.
- Pull out your gnocchi and add the prawns. Toss to combine and add the prawn juices.
- Serve and enjoy!
- Side note - I added broccoli, to make me feel slightly more virtuous. I simply added the broccoli to the gnocchi water for two minutes and then tossed through with the prawns at the end.
We made this recipe several weeks ago, it’s just been waiting for the blog to get up and running.
Earlier this year we spent 4 months in Europe (you can read about our adventures here). I, of course, was interested in getting the authentic travel experience by trying lots of regional specialities.
We enjoyed the egg-based spaetzle pasta on several occasions, so when we found a packet of the dried pasta at Aldi we decided to bring a bit of Germany into our kitchen.
- 1 cup of store-bought spaetzle (or you can make your own)
- some Grated cheese (we used a mix of parmesan and cheddar)
- handful Baby spinach
- 2 whole Onions, chopped (for both spaetzle and stew - I used about 2 onions)
- pinch Salt and pepper
- sprig Fresh thyme
- 400 gs of beef strips (we used rump steak)
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic
- handful Bacon, chopped
- 1 whole Carrot, chopped
- 1/4 cup white wine
- some Cream
- some Salt and pepper to taste
- pinch Thyme
Directions
- Prepare spaetzle by cooking dry pasta for about 10-15 minutes until cooked to your preference. Drain, reserving about 1/2 a cup of the cooking water. Season with salt and pepper.
- Cook half the onions on a medium heat until they caramelize - this will probably take about 15 minutes, but you can cook for longer if you prefer. Then stir your onions, grated cheese, and baby spinach through the cooked spaetzle. Add your cooking water until you have a texture that you like.
- In a large frypan, brown your meat. Take out of the pan and put to one side, covered. Add remaining onions, bacon, garlic, celery and carrot to the pan. Cook on a medium heat until everything starts to brown and soften, then add in the wine. Bring to the boil, add the beef and then turn down the heat.
- Add cream (as much or as little as you like - we probably added about 1/2 cup). Leave to simmer for about 5-10 minutes until it starts to smell delicious! Season with salt and pepper and thyme, and then serve with the spaetzle and maybe some green beans.
- Enjoy!
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This is a lovely easy recipe and is beautiful with fresh green prawns. It’s a great mid-week recipe because it’s quite quick to prepare, and the sauce is smooth and silky. I think it’s a nice change from having a tomato based sauce.
23.07.10 | 
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