Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Tomato

Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomato Salad

I think this is my favourite salad. It is so easy to throw together and any variation on it is welcome at my table. This time, I used a fresh, creamy Buffalo Mozarella, bought from Tony’s Italian deli, Buongiorno Italia in St Albans. The tomatoes are fresh plum tomatoes, now in season. A handful of rocket leaves and a few black olives. Some avocado wouldn’t have been out of place. A drizzle of good quality olive oil is essential. Usually, I go for a Tuscan olive oil, but this week I’ve been trying a hand picked, cold pressed olive oil made from Koroneiki olives called Olive Branch produced by a family who live locally to me in Hertfordshire, from olive farms in Crete. I think it stood up to the Italian ingredients well and it positively loved the fresh tomatoes.

My sister and niece also came over from Italy and brought me a small bottle of Crema Con Aceto Balsamico di Modena – a beautiful thick Balsamic glaze, which seeped into the olive oil and into the fresh cheese bringing it all to life. We ate the salad with a few slices of mortadella from Bologna and proscuitto crudo served on a board. Delizioso.

The summer holidays have arrived! I have realised that the only way I’m going to be able to keep up with blogging is to keep my posts short and simple. Is that possible? Let’s see…   

I’m sending this salad across to Fleur at Homemade by Fleur who is hosting Simple and in Season for me this month as well as to Laura at How to Cook Good Food who co-hosts the One Ingredient Challenge with Working London Mummy. July’s ingredient is tomatoes.

What have you been eating now our summer seems to have finally arrived?!

  

With thanks to Olive Branch for the sample bottle of olive oil.

 

 

Ultimate Comfort Food: Quick Tuna Fish Pasta – to make us all better!

Well, we’ve gone from a great week to a not-so-great week. Half-term was brilliant, with exciting trips to our friends in Devon, a visit to Bath and then a trip home to my parents. When we came back we had a day to get ourselves organised before school although I then came down with a nasty cold and fever and my little girl came out in chicken pox! So, we’ve all been feeling a bit sorry for ourselves and I’m struggling, as usual, to get on top of things.

Luckily, my mum came to stay and helped to look after us all. She’s left today having cooked a huge pan of leek and potato soup and I made this yummy and quick tuna fish pasta – my ultimate comfort food dish. No roux required and ready in about 20 minutes. Obviously, if you don’t like tuna, you can use ham instead. If you want a veggie option, try using some lightly cooked, chopped leeks.

We’re feeling better already…

There’s lots to catch up on in the food blogging scene, so I am currently making my way round. Please bear with me! I also had a major panic when I noticed that ALL the links to Simple and in Season and Family Friendly Fridays had disappeared! After lots of frantic emailing around, they re-appeared! Apparently some kind of server move. Phew.

[gmc_recipe 2697]

As I didn’t manage to post a Family Friendly recipe last Friday, since it was half-term, I’m posting this one ahead of tomorrow and linking it up to Family Friendly Fridays here on Fabulicious Food! Hope you can join in too for a chance to win a signed copy of the great cook book by My Daddy Cooks.


More comfort food recipes:

Easy Macaroni Cheese with baby Leeks

Golden Leek Soup

Easy Home Made Pizza

Pear and Chocolate Brownies

What’s your ultimate feel-better comfort food?

A Bubbling Cauldron of Lamb Rapid Ragu (Nigella)

Yay, Sarah from Maison Cupcake has opened up a new round of Forever Nigella, a really popular blog event in which Nigella recipes old and new get a themed makeover. This month, excitingly, the theme is ‘Halloween Horrors‘ and Sarah has challenged us all to use our imaginations and create any Nigella dish we like, but we have to adapt it to make it suitable for Halloween in some way.

So, my interpretation might be a bit of a cop out, but we’re half way through half-term, we have a leak in the kitchen and so the mains water is off again, it’s cold and the heating is off too. And in my cold and grumpy state, I felt like making a big pan of Nigella’s Rapid Ragu from her Nigella Express book. It is really easy to make, you just need some garlic olive oil, cubed pancetta, minced lamb, a jar of caramelised onions, some chopped tomatoes and a can of lentils. Nigella suggests a splash of Marsala, but I didn’t have any of that so I just used any old sweet sherry in the cupboard, probably from last Christmas. You then just grate some bright orange cheese on top, et voilà.

Having made it, I did think to myself that this would be a great thing to have bubbling away on the stove, ready for post-trick or treating and so I have spooked it up…sort of. As my kids are really little, I didn’t want to make it too scary. Basically, that’s my excuse for having a brain-freeze lack of imagination.

Anyway, I hope it counts. Forever Nigella #9 is open until 1st November so if you can think of anything suitably spooky do join in!

I won’t reproduce the recipe as I hardly changed a thing, but you can find Nigella’s recipe for Rapid Ragu here. Nigella even has a nice Halloweeny background on her website for good measure. 

Forever Nigella Halloween event

Happy Halloween! What spooky things will you be making, Nigella-themed or otherwise?

Sausage, Fennel Seed and Tomato Crostini

I want to win a week in a Tuscany Villa!

I was recently challenged to create a Tuscan-inspired recipe, which included three key Tuscan ingredients – olive oil, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese.

Tuscany, Tuscany, Tuscany…

I last visited Tuscany around nine years ago, during a visit to my sister, who lives in a small village in the North of Italy. We challenged ourselves to take a cross-country coach trip to the alluring town of Florence and I think it remains the single most memorable daytrip of my life. 
 
We passed through the region of Chianti and I was simply stunned by the beauty of the Tuscan countryside. Since then, it has always been my dream to go back and visit Tuscany.
 
So, here goes. I have created a recipe called Tuscan-Inspired Sausage, Fennel Seed and Tomato Crostini. I remember eating plenty of crostini and brushetta in Florence, although not with sausage meat though I hope the Italians would approve.
 
 
In Tuscany, the flavour of fennel and fennel seeds is common although if you can’t find fennel sausages you could just use the best-quality lean pork sausages you can find and flavour with fennel seeds.  Italians often buy good sausages and split them open to use the meat.

Creating Italian recipes is never a chore for me, since I love nothing more than to stop by at my local Italian delicatessen called Buongiorno Italia. Established over 30 years ago, Tony, the owner, is always super keen to recommend fantastic Italian produce as well as some wonderful fresh seasonal produce and the most amazing locally-made gelato.

So, I picked up the three key ingredients – Olive Oil which happens to come from Tuscany called Seggiano – produced by smallholders from the Olivastra olives of Seggiano in Tuscany, Pomidori Pelati Italiani (Italian peeled tomatoes) and of course, the obligatory wedge of Parmesan Cheese.  
I also found some Salsiccia Finocchio – Fennel Seed Sausages – made at La Bottega di Ado, some fresh garlic, one white onion, fresh ciabatta and fresh basil.
 


Tuscan-Inspired Sausage, Fennel Seed and Tomato Crostini
Serves 4


Ingredients:


1 small loaf Ciabatta or other country-style bread
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
2 whole garlic cloves, minced or crushed
4 best-quality pork sausages, flavoured with fennel if possible
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
200g Italian peeled plum tomatoes (in a tin)
2 teaspoons tomato puree
50g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
A few springs of fresh basil


Method:

1. Remove the sausages from their casings and put to one side.

2. Put a large frying pan on a medium heat, pour in two tablespoons of olive oil and gently fry the chopped onion. Once it starts to soften, add the garlic and gently fry too for just a few minutes.

3. Add the fennel seeds into the pan and stir then add the sausage meat into the pan, breaking it up with your hands as it goes in.  Fry for around 6 minutes on a medium head, until the sausage meat browns and is cooked through. If there if too much fat, you could drain a little off at this stage. Keep stirring the sausage meat to break it up some more and make sure it doesn’t burn or stick.

4. Add the tinned tomatoes and tomato puree and stir well. Sprinkle some of the Parmesan cheese into the pan which will help to bind the sausage meat making it easier for topping the toast.

5. Leave the sausage and tomato mixture to cook gently while your prepare the crostini/bread.

6. Slice your Ciabatta or other bread (I like to cut mine diagonally across the loaf) drizzle with the rest of the olive oil and either place under the grill or in a griddle pan until golden.

7. Top each slice of bread with some of the sausage mixture, a scattering of more Parmesan cheese and some fresh basil leaves.



Enjoy!

Tomato and Garlic Pasta

Last week I posted an interview with Vanessa Kimbell and hosted a competition to win a copy of her new book, Prepped!

As mentioned in the post, Vanessa gave up her job in order to pursue her dream of writing a cookery book, documenting the process through her blog Writing a Cookery Book giving us all a fascinating glimpse into the world of food writing and publishing. Her book offers time-saving recipes and introduces a concept called ‘linked cooking’ as well as double-cooking, incorporating flavoured sugars and syrups that can be made-ahead and ‘mixed and matched’ according to what you have to hand.

Thank you to everyone for entering and telling me which one of the chapters in Vanessa’s book would be your favourite from the inspiring selection on offer including Elderflower, Rhubarb, Lavender, Lemon, Vanilla, Tomato, Plum, Caraway, Chocolate, Cardamom or Orange & Clove.  

I’m very pleased to announce that the winner, chosen by a randomiser, is Sally from My Custard Pie who I am sure will love Vanessa’s book and make excellent use of it!

I have to say I am truly torn. Having tested recipes for the book from both the Chocolate and Vanilla chapters I am certainly won over by the ease of Vanessa’s recipes.

I’m also both intrigued and inspired  by some of the more unusual flavour combinations in Prepped! – the Victoria Sponge with Cardamom Rose Cream and Rhubarb along with the Chocolate Beef are next on my hit list. However, my favourite recipe so far (and one that, I confess, I am slightly addicted too at the moment) can actually be found in the Tomato chapter, so I’m probably with Sally on her winning choice.

Vanessa’s Tomato & Garlic Pasta, also known as “Garlic Yum Yum” pasta is possibly one the the quickest and simplest recipes in the book. It also happens to be a ‘linked’ recipe, meaning that you can make double the quantity and use it as the base for the Tomato Pizza. 

Vanessa has kindly given me permission to share the recipe with you below – I urge you to try it – it is so simple but really delicious and my kids love it too.  

Last week also marked the official launch Prepped!   It was lovely to be able able to chat and mingle in a very leisurely fashion at Rococo Chocolates with Vanessa, other food writers, bloggers and members of the ‘Prepparati’ including Helen from Fuss Free Flavours, Katie from Feeding Boys and a Firefighter, Jayne from Jaynerly and Becky from Rebecca Bakes Cakes. We also sampled some of our favourite treats and recipes from the book, including Chocolate Chilli Cupcakes, Pink Meringues with Elderflower Cream, Victoria Sponge with Cardamom Rose Cream & Rhubarb, Chocolate Cookies, a Chocolate & Raspberry Cake, the Chocolate, Vanilla & Black Pepper Cupcakes as well as the obligatory taste of some Rococo Chocolates too.

What a clever idea to host a party in a chocolate shop and not just any chocolate shop, Rococo’s was a truly luxurious experience and we all left hideously high on chocolate!

Thank you so much to Vanessa’s good friend Chantal Cody and to all her lovely staff who looked after us so well and of course, to the bright and bubbly Vanessa Kimbell for the kind invitation for us to take part as recipe testers for Prepped! and to the launch. 

Prepped! is available on Amazon, currently at £10.48 or at many branches of Waterstones (RRP £20.00) and is published by Spring Hill 

Tomato & Garlic Pasta
Posted with the kind permission of Vanessa Kimbell

 

(Serves 4)

 

Ingredients:

1 whole medium garlic bulb
500g spaghetti
1 x 200g tube tomato purée (I used a can)
80ml extra-virgin olive oil
120g fresh Parmesan, grated, for serving
Salt
Method:

 

1. Peel and finely chop all the garlic cloves (I put them in a mini blender but you can just finely chop). Put a pan of boiling water on for the pasta and add a teaspoon of salt to the water before cooking. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.
2. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan for 1-2 minutes then add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes (do not burn!) You are not looking to brown the garlic at all, so you must keep the heat at a medium temperature.
3. Stir in the tomato purée and turn the heat down to a slightly lower temperature. Keep stirring. As the tomato cooks it incorporates most of the oil and turns from a fresh red into a deeper, darker red. After 5-7 minutes the sauce is cooked. The pasta will be ready too.
4. Drain your pasta and add it to the tomato sauce, stirring well. Serve immediately with fresh parmesan.
There won’t be any left as it is so delicious but you could make double the quantity of sauce, as Vanessa suggests, and use it as a base for Vanessa’s Tomato Pizza and Oregano Bread