Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

For the fresh pasta recipe just click  here , for instruction on how to roll the pasta with a pasta machine click  here , and to fold the tortellini just look at the pictures below. The filling was improvised: a bit of feta cheese, some breadcrumbs, and a few chopped herbs (Italian parsley, chives, basil, but anything goes).  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini, Artwork by Arantxa Zecchini Dowling  ©

I have been telling friends about onion weed these days, everybody seems surprised (and happy) that you can eat it, especially those who gave up growing spring onions because they seem to take so long for what you get. And onion weed is free and plentiful! I kept telling everyone to use it as a spring onion without realizing that most people here use spring onions just chopped in salad, and that'a about all! So now for more suggestions for onion weed, and spring onion! After reading about the creamy onion weed pasta sauce ( here ) you may like check this  old post  as well for more images of the plant and its uses, and in the photos above there are some more things I have been cooking this week. On the top left my  nabe  (pot) with simmering  Yudofu , one of my favourite tofu meals for chilly evenings: In a capable pot I put water with some dried kombu (about a large sheet broken into 3-4 pieces), and a few dried shitake mushrooms to simmer, a...

If you like foraging onion weed is widely available, it is edible, and tastes very nice too. In fact when I discovered that I could eat it I stopped planting spring onions in the veggie garden, and started foraging instead. The weed has pretty white flowers and a strong spring onion smell. You can eat the flowers, the leaves, the stems, the bulbs... basically everything except the dirt!  One of the first things I make with fresh onion weeds is usually a nice raw sauce for pasta: just put the onion weed (every part of it) in the blender (leave out a few flowers for decoration) and blend with a little water, some feta cheese (Vegans can omit this and use a little tofu + salt and pepper instead) and some roasted cashew nuts. Add a little olive oil and toss into your hot pasta. This is a very filling dish and the sauce has a beautiful pale green colour. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

This is such a classic NZ soup, everybody seems to know how to make this one: You just need some kumara (I used the red ones, peeled). Cook about 2 large kumara with 3 or 4 celery sticks (with leaves, most Kiwis do not add the leaves here, but celery leaves have lots of flavour and they are perfect for soup) in a litre of light vegetable stock. When the celery and kumara are soft blend well and serve. No need to add cream, in my opinion,  but do if you like. Serves 4. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

photo by Shaun Cato-Symonds Another extract from the book Party Food for Girls : Teapot biscuits! For the recipe and step by step decoration instructions please click  here  and scroll down.  In the post by NZ King of book blogs  Graham Beattie, you can also find photo of the book launch and his article entitled  ‘New Holland’s youngest author launches her first book, ‘Party Food for Girls Extracted from the book Party Food for Girls , photos by Shaun Cato-Symonds, recipe and styling by Alessandra Zecchini and Arantxa Zecchini Dowling. Decorated by Arantxa.

Photo by Shaun Cato-Symonds Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini  © This is our Chocolate Truffle Cupcake, extracted from the book Party Food for Girls . Please click  here  to find the article on Yahoo Lifestyle, with the  link  for this recipe (chocolate ganache included). The book is available on Amazon .

Kumara , the New Zealand sweet potato, is a very Kiwi winter staple. There are different types of kumara, but the most common are the gold/yellow/orange ones, and the red ones. The reds look prettier, but if you peel them inside they are white, while the orange ones are still colourful under their skins. Kumara are sweet and they mush and blend so well that I used them a lot when I was making baby food, years ago. The kids have progressed from baby food now, but I haven't stopped blending kumara: I am just adding more seasonings to it now :-). Kumara dip I used the orange kumara here, peeled. This is not a recipe as such, you can add what you like to your blend.  Peel and boil the kumara, or roast them for more flavour. Blend with a couple of garlic cloves (peeled), salt and pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and a fevourite spice (some examples are smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, or a mixture of all of the above if you like). ...

Win two jars of Pohutukawa Christmas Honey, kindly offered  by   J. Friend and Co . To enter please click here and follow the instructions!