RECIPE: Pasta with Baked Aubergine and Tomato Sauce

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aubergine, comfort food, creamy, food, Main, pasta, Recipe, Tomato, vegetarian

This has to be one of the simplest recipes of all times. It’s also comfort food. What’s better than comfort food that doesn’t involve a lot of effort? Hmm? Not much. Except for macarons, but who says you can’t still have those for dessert, hej? This blogpost is what my version is based on btw.

RECIPE: Pasta with Baked Aubergine and Tomato Sauce

1. Slice 1 Aubergine into 1.5 (ish) cm thick slices and cover with some salt. Leave for 10 Minutes.
2. Get rid of the liquid that came out of the aubergines with some kitchen roll.
3. Cut the slices into cubes and mix with olive oil, cayenne pepper, pepper and salt. Spread on an oven tray, add two cloves of (peeled) garlic and put in the 200° (ish) hot oven for around 35minutes. They’re done when they’ve taken on some colour and are really really soft.
4. Mix half a jar of tomato puree with a little over 1 tablespoon of sugar and heat up.
5. Cook your pasta.
6. Add in the baked aubergine and garlic and some grated Emmentale cheese and liquidize into a puree.
7. Serve with your pasta.

RECIPE: Spicy Spaghetti Napoli with Crispy (Fake) Chicken

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Chili, Fake Meat, food, Linda McCartney, Meat Substitutes, Mozzarella, pasta, Quorn, Recipe, Spaghetti, Spicy, Tomato Sauce, vegetarian

Today I thought I’d share one of Daniel’s recipes with you, because I absolutely love it when he makes this, and it’s one of the only two dishes that usually involve meat, where I find it’s actually worth replacing the meat with fake meat (normal people might call it quorn, but you know, there’s many different kinds, so if you say fake chicken, you instantly know which one!). Normally I’d just leave it out, because I’m not too bothered.

But since I already got talking about quorn and it’s other meatless friends, I thought I could also share my favourite products (in the UK that is… I really struggle to find any in Germany and/or especially in France). As I said before, I don’t really use them to replace meat in what I cook, but I think it’s nice to have some of them in the freezer, especially when you’re going somewhere, because others often want to get you something that replaces the meat, but don’t know what. So here’s which products I would definitely recommend:

1) Chicken Fillets from Quorn. I think they taste really nice and they are easy to handle. They are also what’s used in this recipe. I’ve just been on their website for the first time, and there’s many recipes for their products (who would have guessed hej?), so I think it’s worth having a look!

2) Anything from Linda McCartney really! Everything I’ve tried, has been absolutely delicious and it’s by a long short the best meat replacing stuff I’ve come across. I particulary like (well I haven’t tried more… otherwise I’m sure this list would be endless!):
- Burgers (nice for a fuzz-free BBQing, especially if you can’t see vegetable anymore and really can’t be bothered to marinate even more feta!)
- Country Pies (for when the others are having a Roast sort of meal)
- Sausages (my beloved aunt would actually not believe these aren’t meat, when she was served them at a B&B).
But now that I browsed through the website, I decided I will definitely also try the following:
- Cranberry and Camembert Burgers
- Farmhouse Pies
- Mini Snack Sausages
- Mozzarella Burgers
- Red Onion and Rosemary Burgers
Yep that’s right, pretty much the whole range! Btw you should definitely at least click some of the links, because they have pretty photos of the foods on the website.
Linda McCartney also has a campaign called Meatless Monday, which, if you haven’t been able to figure out from the name, encourages people to leave out meat at least once a week, which I think is a wonderful idea.

Anyway I think I’ve talked enough, haven’t I? Here’s the recipe:

Spicy Spaghetti Napoli with Crispy (Fake) Chicken
 1. Defrost fake chicken in the microwave. For normal people I’d recommend two pieces each, if you’re as greedy as I am though, use three.

2. Prepare three bowls. In the first one you put flour, in the second one you scramble up an egg and in the third one is for breadcrumbs.
3. Put the fake chicken (obviously the meat eaters among you can use actual chicken, but hej let’s all be a bit more vegetarian, shall we?) in the flour first (making sure it’s covered, but shaking off any excess), then egg, then breadcrumbs. Put aside.
4. Caramelize 1 chopped red onion, add in 1 crushed clove of garlic and 1 chopped chili (or less, depending on how strong the chili is).
5. Optional: Add roughly 500g of sliced mushrooms. But if you do this step, take into account that it will take some time for the water of the mushrooms to cook off. This is also the time, where you might want to start pre-heating the oven.
6. Add 1 tin of chopped tomatoes to the pan and any spices you would like to add (salt, pepper, curry powder, sugar whatever you fancy) and thyme.
7. Stir well and let it cook for a little while to get rid of any more excess liquid.
8. In a different frying pan, heat up some olive oil and fry the fake chicken pieces (make sure the oil is hot).
9. Cook Spaghetti according to instructions on the package. Use roughly 100g (dry weight) spaghetti per person.
10. On an oven tray, put the fried fake chicken pieces on some grease proof paper and put some of the tomato-mix on top. Cover with sliced mozzarella and put in the oven until the mozzarella is melted and slightly golden.
11. Mix the spaghetti with any sauce that wasn’t used (if any), and divide amongst the plates. Put 2-3 pieces of fake chicken on top of them and you’re done!

RECIPE: Rich Tomato-Basil Pasta Sauce with Creamy Peas

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comforting food, creamy, Creamy Peas, dinner, food, Lunch, Main, pasta, Peas, Pizza Sauce, Recipe, Spaghetti, Tomato

1) Cook some frozen peas in good quality vegetable stock

2) Cook spaghetti according to instructions on the package.

3) Caramelize 1 red onion (cut into tiny little cubes) with sugar

4) Add in half a jar of pizza sauce* (or another tomato-ey equivalent)

5) Spice with curry powder, salt, balsamic vinegar, possibly some more sugar and a lot of fresh basil (chopped up!)

6) Let it reduce for a little bit to get it nice and rich

7) When the peas are cooked, mix them with some lemon juice and something creamy (like Crème Fraiche or Ricotta). I once again used la vache qui rit, but only because it was in our fridge, not because I think it’s a particularly elegant solution! So if you go shopping, I’d definitely definitely go for either one of the above options!

8 ) Then it’s up to you really, you can mix the peas in or serve it seperately, you can see how I did it on the photo. Serve et voilà

* Or more, this was for one person!

RECIPE: Spaghetti with Caramelized Shallots, Pesto and Peas

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La vache qui rit, lemon, Mozzarella, pasta, Peas, Pesto, Spaghetti

Hi.

When you read the title, you were probably expecting some delicious recipe for homemade pesto. I’ll put a link in a second, don’t you worry. Whilst I would love to tell you all about how I made an amazing pesto, I unfortunately can’t. Firstly, it’s sunday, and in France (and Germany) that means that shops are closed), secondly I was in England and just returned this afternoon, so I probably wouldn’t have been bothered enough to go out and buy things anyway and thirdly, this badly equipped kitchen doesn’t have the right tools to make pesto. Sad times. Anyway, as promised, I’ll at least give you a link to a homemade basil pesto, which I think sounds delicious. It’s (who would have guessed) from closetcooking.

Aaaaaaanyway, I still had a much better time than expected eating this, so I thought I could share it, especially seen as I haven’t exactly posted an awful lot lately. First I thought I only had pasta and pesto in the house. Not the most exiting thing, but, you know, alright.

Then I remembered, I also had Mozzarella.

And Peas.

And Shallots.

Having remembered all these thrilling ingredients were in my cupboard in the kitchen, I decided I might as well try and make this a bit more exiting than Pasta with just bought pesto.

Anyway, I think I’ve  made this a slightly too long story, because really it isn’t one at all, but you know, I enjoy typing, so here’s what I did:

1) You’re hungry, so as for all quick “sauces” (can I even call it that??), you should start by putting on some spaghetti. Don’t forget to put salt in the water. I know everyone knows this, but I always find that most people are a bit shy about it. I recommend you do what my lovely aunt taught me: Use one tablespoon of salt for pasta for two people or so.

2) In another saucepan, bring some good vegetable stock to the boil and put in a big handful of frozen peas.

3) Cut 1 shallot into little cubes and start frying them in a little bit (but not much at all!) olive oil.

4) If you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know what now: Put some sugar on them to get them lovely and caramelized.

5) When that’s done, put in about 2 teaspoons of pesto. Obviously fresh pesto is best, but I enjoyed it with bought pesto too.

6) I then mixed in some la vache qui rit to get it nice and creamy

7) By now, the peas are hopefully done, so add them into the sauce as well.

8) Nearly done: Now you only need to mix the sauce with the lovely al dente spaghetti some mozzarella and some lemon juice et voilà. Not exactly difficult or haute cuisine, but a pretty nice dinner on a sunday night, when you don’t really have much in the house. Enjoy.

RECIPE: Summer Pasta with Aubergine

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aubergine, Crème Fraîche, eggplant, food, lemon, Lemon Zest, parmesan, pasta, Recipe, vegetarian

When I made the aubergine burgers the other day, I had one aubergine left over, so I’ve been wanting to do something with it all week. This is what I did:

1) Cut 1 Aubergine into fairly slin slices, and put some salt on them to get unnecessary liquid out.

2) Dry them with some kitchen roll

3) Chargrill them for as long as it takes for them to become lovely and crisp

4) Cook some pasta

5) In a frying pan, caramelize 4 spring onions with some sugar

6) Crush in 2 cloves of garlic

7) Deglaze with some sherry

8) Add in about 1 Tablespoon of Crème Fraîche, some freshly ground black pepper, some grated lemon zest and the juice of half a lemon.

9) Mix in the aubergine slices (slightly chopped up if you like) and then mix with the pasta.

10) Grate over some Parmesan

 

RECIPE: Caramelized Butternut Squash Lasagne

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Butter, butternut squash, closetcooking, creamy, lasagne, nutmeg, Recipe, sage, vegetarian

Yesterday we made this delicious caramelized butternut squash lasagne (for the second time). It’s another recipe of Kevin from closet cooking (here’s a link to the actual recipe, check it out, he’s got photos too!) and as with everything I’ve tried from his blog so far, it turned out delicious!

I’m just going to roughly describe what it is, since you can find the recipe on the closetcooking blog. This lasagne is really comforting and creamy, it’s also full of flavour, and I think it’s definitely delightful enough to be served in a good restaurant. The sauce itself is fairly basic and made out of quite a lot of butter, flour and milk with the main flavours being sage and nutmeg. The sauce itself is already really nice, but let us get to the star of this dish: the Caramelized Roasted Butternut Squash!

The butternut squash is cut into little cubes and mixed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper ( we also added some icing sugar). It then goes in the oven for half an hour, where it roasts and caramelizes until it’s perfect to join the sauce and the mozzarella for a little party in between fresh lasagne sheets. The whole thing is then topped with some freshly grated parmesan cheese and goes into the oven until it’s nice and golden, or in our case, until you can actually not wait any longer :)

TRY IT! Please? It’s so so nice!

Love,
Johanna

 

 

Asparagus and Mushroom Carbonara Recipe

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asparagus, cooking, egg, mushroom, parmesan, pasta, Rezept, Spaghetti, vegetarian

I love simple pastas, but I’ll admit that the reason why we made this fairly simple carbonara dish yesterday was that we wanted a pasta  that was plain enough to go with this amazing garlic bread!

This summery carbonara is flavourful without being too heavy, which makes it perfect for summer.

Here is how it works:
(All measurements are only estimates)

1.   Wash 400g of green asparagus and cut it into inch-sized pieces

2.   Wash 1 packet of mushrooms and cut into slices

3.   The mushrooms will take longer, so start by chargrilling/frying them (without oil)

4.   Chargrill the asparagus in a mixture of olive oil and butter

5.   When the veg is done, put some salt and icing sugar on it and mix thoroughly

6.    Cook Spaghetti as instructed on package

7. Whilst pasta is cooking, mix 3 eggs in a bowl with 3 heaped tablespoons of parmesan, 3 tablespoons of cream sherry or dessert wine, salt, pepper and some onion powder.

8. Safe some cooking water before you mix the pasta with the egg mixture immediately after draining it.

9. Mix well and add the vegetables

10) Sprinkle with basil and voilà