Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

This is a super quick, simple but tasty dish Ingredients: 1 large red capsicum 1 large yellow capsicum 2 garlic cloves (peeled) 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 400 g arborio rice 1 glass white wine 1.5 l hot vegetable stock Chop the capsicums into small cubes, place in a pot with the garlic and olive oil and sizzle. Before the capsicums start to brown add the rice and stir to coat the rice with the oil, then add the wine. Let the wine absorb then add the stock, ladle by ladle, stirring constantly, until the risotto is cooked (about 20 minutes). Serve immediately. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

  I found a Vegan frozen sweet short pastry in the supermarket, and I wanted to try it. Actually, I like making short pastry, but making Vegan short pastry is not that easy (for me) so I was really curious. Because the pastry is already rolled it was easy to cut it with a cookie cutter, and I opted for hearts. Up to here everything was fine, but then the pastry shrunk in the oven! My pretty fat hearts became long quirky hearts! Did this ever happen to you? My solution: transform the hearts into pretty-quirky-modern-art hearts with some glossy icing. I did the borders white first, and then I coloured some icing with saffron powder for yellow (this also gave the biscuits a lovely saffron aroma and flavour), cocoa for chocolate, and then I added a drop of red food colouring to the yellow saffron icing for a geranium orange/red. The colour reminded me of lipstick and nail polish, but I liked it! The kids took the biscuits to the Surf Life Saving Club and they were a...

John showed me his Italian pumpkin from his veggie plot. As soon as I saw it I though of  zucca barucca,  but I am not so sure now, so many years have passed since I had one... maybe the name is not correct. I have been told by an agronomist that it is a  zucca barucca  :-), possibly a Marina di Chioggia or Mantovana. John gave me half of his pumpkin! Half is a lot, we made a soup, a sweet pie, some ravioli... and I still have some left! The kids made the ravioli. I prepared some pasta dough for them (recipe  here ), then I took out the pasta machine and handed it over to two very excited kids. They took turns rolling the pasta out, from the larger to the thinner setting, and when I say 'took turns', I mean literally: one roll each, and then start again, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl... In the meantime I made a quick filling for the ravioli: I used some steamed pumpkin (steaming is better than boiling, which would make the pumpkin too ...

These cute little capsicums came from the shop, red orange and yellow I just could not resist them! Antipasto of mini capsicums stuffed with feta cream Cut the top off from the capsicums, remove the seeds, and then chop the capsicum flesh still attached to the stalks (it will be very little, but worth keeping). Wash well and then place everything (capsicum shells and pieces) in a pot of boiling water, with a pinch of salt. Simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and keep the water aside. Mash a little feta cheese, thinning it down with some of the capsicum cooking water. Add some finely chopped parsley and the small capsicum pieces. Use this feta cream to fill the capsicum shells. Serve cold as an antipasto, also suitable as finger food for a party. A final note on colour: I try to make colourful lunch boxes for the kids too: this one had green and yellow kiwi, blueberries, mango pudding and... a hummus sandwich made with brown bread, not so colourful by i...

One of my favourite hot drinks: lemon, fresh ginger (peel it first) and a few mint leaves from the garden. All into the teapot, add boiling water and let it rest for 5 minutes. Serve with honey, if you like. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Living in the bush means that I don't have many fruit trees, but from time to time I am lucky enough to get fruit from friend's trees. One of my favourite has to be quince; it looks so retro and photogenic (ok, I am talking about my dress as well!) and I love quince paste! But this year I decided to make quince jelly, just for a change. Cut the quinces and remove the pips, add the juice of half a lemon and then place into a pot with a little water. Cook until the quinces are a soft mush. Now you will have to place this 'mass' into a jelly bag or cloth (I use a cotton pillowcase which I bought just to make jellies) and hung it overnight over a bowl to collect the juices. Drip drip drip you will collect some lovely red-orange coloured juice, but do not squeeze the bag, or the jelly will become cloudy! Measure the juice and add the same amount in sugar. Bring to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Test to see if the jelly is s...

I got the plums from Arfi , when I went to her house for an Auckland food bloggers get-together. Wash the plums and place them in a large saucepan with a little water. Bring the fruit to a gentle boil. Simmer the jam for about 20 minutes and then pass through a sieve, discarding the stones. Put back into the pot and bring back to the boil. Add the sugar (I used 60% sugar to the weight of the fruit) and stir well. S immer until you are happy with the consistency (the more you cook it, the thicker the paste. You can also add an apple (not peeled, just chopped and pips removed) for a thicker paste. Place the paste into plastic containers, jelly moulds, cups... anywhere you can let it set for a few weeks. I used a silicon muffin tray. When you need to use the paste tip it over a plate. I did this a bit too early (I couldn't wait to try it) and the top was still soft, but the longer you wait the harder it will become. Photos and Recipes by Alessa...

Cut the long eggplants into halves and then quarters, if the 'strips' are too long cut them in half again. Sweat them with rock salt for 30 minutes, rinse well and place into a large roasting pan. Add 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved, 300 g of cherry tomatoes, halved (these were from my garden), 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp smoked paprika, half tsp smoked salt, a sprinkle of coriander seeds, and a sprinkle of cumin seeds, lightly crushed in a mortar and pestle. Roast the vegetables for about 1 hour. When the vegetables are nearly done, cook the risoni pasta in plenty of boiling water, drain and pour over the hot vegetables (still in the roasting dish). Add some cubed feta cheese and decorate with flat leaf parsley. Serve immediately, but if you have some leftovers this pasta will be good even cold, the day after. FYI, I have also made this dish using red and yellow capsicums instead of cherry tomatoes, and it was also very good, but I prefer the roasted tomato versi...

Agar Agar Mango Cubes 850 ml canned mango pulp (from India) 250 ml water (from the sky) 2 tsp agar agar powder Mix all the ingredients in a pot, bring to boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Pour into a rectangular container and let it set (a couple of hours) Cut into small cubes and decorate with small bamboo leaves. On another note, if you get Alive magazine check out my article: three pages on the history of pasta and 2 recipes (plus a view of me in the kitchen :-) Ciao A. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I always use eco cleaning products, or go for the 'home remedies' like baking soda, vinegar and methylated spirit, but I always fantasized about making some myself. I found some good ideas on Galline 2nd Life , a blog that I like very very very much! I was immediately attracted by the washing up and dishwasher detergent , but for a different reason: it reminded me of a beautiful lemon salt scrub for the body that someone presented me years ago. It smelled great and was so nice to use under the shower... it even looked like the one in the picture... So I tried! Ingredients, as given by Lo in Galline 2nd Life 3 lemons 200 g salt 400 ml water 100 ml white vinegar Slice the lemons, keeping the peel but discarding the pips. In a food processor blend the lemons as finely as possible with the salt and a little water (taken form the 400ml). Place in a pot, add the rest of the water and the vinegar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Once cold place ...

Egg biscuits with runny and royal icing Lamb biscuits with fondant icing   Chick biscuits with runny and royal icing Bunny Biscuits  with marzipan icing    Bird biscuits with runny and royal icing Candied fruit biscuits made with the leftover pastry and icing Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©