Black Truffle, Lavender & Porcini PastaIn honour of moving into my new home, I decided to cook a special first meal. Actually I found some black truffle sitting in the pantry during the move and realised I had to use them, so what better way to celebrate than chopping it up into some pasta and enjoying it with a glass of prosecco? Lavender might seem like an odd ingredient but it really adds to the recipe. I have a supply[…]
Gin & Yang
An east meets west food & drink blog
Garlic Chicken Pasta
This is a recipe I recreated from a simple pasta dish we had in Italy. Phoebe loved it so much that she demanded I make it when we got back home. My version is quick and easy to make but utterly delicious – as is all good Italian food. All you need is some chicken, pasta, garlic, butter, extra virgin olive oil and some parsley (or other herb). For the calorie conscious you can reduce[…]
Bacon, Leek & Mushroom Pasta
This must be one of the easiest recipes I can think of, nothing fancy, super quick and really tasty. It’s a perfect mid-week meal when you don’t have time for anything big, easily done in 30 minutes or less. I always make extra, because it is so easy to eat and so good, it’s hard to put the fork down. Any leftovers can be reheated the next day for lunch. Use good quality, smoked streaky bacon.[…]
Langoustine and Lobster Cannelloni
This was the fourth course from my tasting menu, a Langoustine and Lobster Cannelloni with a Saffron sauce, braised baby fennel and pink grapefruit pearls. Had this been at a different time of year I would have used blood orange to make the pearls but they are out of season. I wanted pearls that would look like fish roe but also provide an acidic hit to counter the seafood and saffron sauce. This was the dish[…]
Pappardelle alla Bolognese
“Spagbol” it has to be one of my most loathed terms. It represents all that is wrong with British-Italian cooking. Spaghetti with a bolognese sauce? Every time you tell an Italian to try the spaghetti bolognese, they will look at you like you are some kind of freak. Spaghetti just doesn’t pick up a lot of meat sauce, it works for a marinara sauce but not for a meat based sauce. If you are making bolognese it should[…]
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Carbonara has to be one of my favourite Italian dishes. It’s so simple but incredibly tasty. Sadly a lot of restaurants get it horribly wrong. It must be a British thing but there does seem to be a propensity to add cream to a Carbonara or stranger yet mushrooms? Carbonara is not meant to be a white sauce otherwise it would be “Spaghetti with a Bacon, White Wine and Mushroom sauce”. And if that was[…]
Rigatoni ai quattro Formaggi
So after the disappointment of Bottelinos “Rigatoni con Formaggio”, I decided to try to see if I could go one better… I had initially planned to use mascarpone cheese but I forgot it when doing the food shopping for the week! I do this a lot, despite the fact that I have a list. This is largely down to me buying the ingredients as I see them. I have a rough idea what I want[…]
Follow Me
Not logged in