pasta with cime di rapa and ricotta pugliese

During my last night in Milan, rushed for time and other things to do, I quickly cooked this pasta dish with my brother. The cime di rapa, also called rapini, are from the brassica family and you can also find them in Chinese stores (although not as pungent as the Italian varieties).

Sorry about the photo quality, I took the pics quickly with my iPhone, and it was dark...

Anyway, we washed the rapini, then cut the hardest stalks and set them aside. The leaves, flowers and thin stalks went into the frying pan with olive oil and garlic, and a pinch of salt. I also added half a glass of white wine.

At the same time we boiled the water for the pasta. We didn't have orecchiette, pity, so we used penne (but use orecchiette if you can!!!). When the water was boiling we added salt and the pasta, and halfway through cooking (check on the packet for pasta cooking time) we added the rapini stalks (the ones we had set apart). When the pasta was nearly ready I picked up the rapini stalk with a slotted spoon an place them in the fryingpan with the rapini leaves, then I drained the pasta and put that too into the frying pan.

My brother had some hard ricotta pugliese, you must use the dry one for this dish, not the soft ricotta.

My brother grated some dried ricotta over the pasta and cime di rapa, and then added some black pepper. It was fantastic!!!!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

How to make Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum), and Sweet New Zealand

Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum) Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not! This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book Sweet As... where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights. Ingredients 1 l water 300 g sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 100 g cornflour 1 tbsp frozen raspberries 1 tbsp rose water icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust. In a pot put hal...

Mezze Maniche with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Since I had some left over mushroom sauce from yesterday's dish , today I made some pasta. I heard from other bloggers about the Garofalo pasta brand, in NZ I could only find it in one shop, and it was too expensive even to consider, so I thought that I should try it while I am in Italy. I choose mezze maniche for this dish. Mezze maniche with mushrooms I cooked the mezze maniche al dente. In the meantime I warmed up the pan with the left-over mushrooms and added 250 ml of cream. Then I added some freshly chopped Italian parsley and some freshly ground pepper. I drained the mezze maniche and passed them in the pan with the mushroom and cream sauce. They tasted great! Photos by Alessandra Zecchini©

Paccheri with tomato, parsley and garlic.

Paccheri are hollow pasta tubes that look like rigatoni or tortiglioni, but with a difference: the paccheri tubes flatten once they are cooked. Usually the have very rich sauces, but I am one for 'less is more' these days, and so here I just warmed up a ready made Italian tomato passata ( a good one ). Once the passata was hot I added some salt, extra virgin olive oil and finely chopped Italian parsley with garlic. These days I am chopping a lot of parsley and garlic together, it is too early for basil, and parsley taste really good in Italy! Also, I like the idea of having a cooked sauce but with raw herbs and garlic in it: the taste changes completely. Simple but really effective!!! If you are not vegan you can add some ricotta to this. Photos by Alessandra Zecchini©

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