Tortelli of rocket and goat’s cheese with garlic, butter and lemon

Every year, Katie and I throw RoLo Fest, an evening of feasting to celebrate the birthdays of my sister-in-law Lois and her fiancé Rob. I spend the day in the kitchen lovingly putting together a four-course meal, before the evening arrives and we all sit in the (hopefully sunny) garden outside. A bottle or two is popped open and we all tuck in and catch up. 

 
Putting the menu together is both immensely fun yet immensely challenging. As it’s a family meal, I want to be out at the table with everyone else instead of stuck in the kitchen, so practicality and planning is key. Yet I also always want to do my best to spoil everyone rotten with impressive and elaborate food. In the past I’ve served up beef wellington, guinea fowl ravioli and fast-grilled leg of lamb. But on this occasion the centrepiece was an enormous piece of rolled porchetta, tender and herby in the middle with blistered golden crackling around the edge. I was overjoyed with how it turned out, a future recipe for this blog for sure.
 
Before the pork was served up, I made this pasta dish as a little primi. Rocket often seems to be used as an afterthought, chucked randomly to one side of a dish to add a splash of colour. But I wanted it to be the focus here, and I balanced the deep, bitter flavour with rich and tangy goat’s cheese. The little tortelli were served swimming in a little pool of garlicky melted butter, which is so simple but always a total crowd pleaser.
 
Making filled pasta is dead simple with a little practice, and once the basics have been mastered, the world is oyster with all of the different fillings and shapes that you can make. They’re also perfect for any kind of dinner party scenario, as they can be made and stored hours in advance, ready to be whipped up in a few minutes in front of your guests.
 
Serves 4
 
Ingredients:
 
For the tortelli:
 
300g ‘00’ grade pasta flour 
3 medium eggs 
3 large bunches of rocket, roots trimmed 
150g soft goat’s cheese 
200g ricotta 
4 tbsp pecorino romano, finely grated 
1 egg, for brushing
 
For the sauce:
 
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced 
4 tbsp unsalted butter 
1 bunch of rocket 
½ a lemon
 
To finish:
 
A few gratings of pecorino romano


Start by making the pasta dough. Tip the flour into a large bowl and mix with a generous pinch of fine salt. Make a well in the centre and crack in the eggs, and also pour in a good glug of olive oil. Using a fork, whisk the eggs, incorporating the flour at the same time until a dough is formed. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, until elastic in texture and not sticky. Wrap well with cling film and put in the fridge for an hour to rest. 

 
Fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add a good pinch of salt and the rocket leaves for the pasta filling. Blanche for 1 minute, then strain through a sieve and allow to cool. Squeeze out the excess water from the leaves then transfer to a food processor. Add the ricotta, goat’s cheese, pecorino and season well. Blend until the rocket is finely chopped and the filling is well combined. Tip into a bowl.
 
Use a pasta machine to roll the pasta dough to its thinnest setting, and lay the resulting long sheet onto a well-floured surface. Place tablespoonfuls of the filling mixture along the middle of the sheet, leaving gaps of about 8cm between each one. Break the remaining egg into a small bowl, and use a pastry brush to lightly coat the pasta around the filling. Carefully fold the long edges in over the filling, creating a seal with the other edge in the middle. Use your fingers to seal the pasta in between each bit of filling, making sure to disperse any air bubbles. Use a sharp knife to separate each square tortelli, and use your fingers to seal the pasta together one last time. Repeat until all of the tortelli have been made, rolling out more pasta if necessary.

 
Fill a large saucepan up with water and bring to the boil. Add a very good pinch of salt.
 
Melt the butter in a large frying pan and gently cook the sliced garlic for a minute or two, until lightly golden. Add the remaining bunch of rocket and wilt down.
 
When the water is boiling, drop in the tortelli and cook for 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked pasta to the butter pan. Carefully toss the tortelli to coat with butter, then squeeze over the lemon juice.
 
To serve, arrange 3-5 tortelli onto each plate, along with some of the wilted rocket leaves. Spoon over a good amount of the butter and garlic. Finish with some additional gratings of pecorino cheese.

Chargrilled octopus with red wine and sobrasada sauce, saffron and lemon mayonnaise, basil, peas and girolles

This week my blog is slightly different to normal, in that I have been asked to create a recipe around a certain ingredient; red wine. It is the first of a two-parter, with this entry covering a savoury dish and the next tackling a dessert. I have been challenged by Campo Viejo wines, who I first met up with a couple of months ago for a Spanish ham and wine tasting event. On that occasion I found it so interesting to discover different pairings between the two, and even for a relative wine novice like myself I learned so much. Despite loving to eat Spanish food, I very rarely cook it and I left hugely inspired and eager to rectify that fact! 

When I was initially challenged to create this recipe, I was really keen to create something around the iconic Iberico pork. During the wine and ham event I discussed it with the Spanish food expert, and I loved the idea of a barbequed piece of the pork shoulder; cooked rare in the middle like a steak with a beautifully charred crust. However, in the days leading up to testing my recipe I hit a pretty crucial snag, I just couldn’t get my hands on any of the meat. Working nine-to-five with blogging squeezed into any spare evenings or days off, this is a surprisingly common problem when it comes to some specialist ingredients. This was indeed the case here, and I was forced to consider a last-minute alternative. In the end it was a pretty easy substitution, and something also inspired from my recent travels to Barcelona: octopus. I have wonderful memories of sitting outside picking on juicy, tender bits of tentacle in the sweltering heat, and it also happened to match my other intended ingredients. So a no-brainer really.

When it came to using the red wine, I wanted to create something that was almost like a dressing instead of a thick, heavy sauce. Usually I would associate red wine in cooking with hearty winter dishes, clinging to soft mash potato or slow-cooked meat. But here it combines with lovely light, seasonal vegetables in a very summery plate of food. Campo recommended that I use the Tempranillo for this recipe, which with the sobrasada was perfect with the octopus. It’s almost a take on the classic squid and chorizo combination, but the addition of the red wine helps give a greater depth which ties everything together.

A lot of the more time consuming elements of this dish can be made in advance. Choose a double-suckered, Mediterranean species of octopus that has been frozen and defrosted. This process helps to initially tenderise the flesh, and means that a much shorter braising period is required. This can be done the day before, along with making the red wine sauce and the mayonnaise. The other elements take minutes to throw together and make a lovely midweek meal.

Serves 4:

Ingredients:

For the octopus:

1 large octopus, about 1.5kg, cleaned and previously frozen 
1 fennel bulb, roughly chopped 
2 onions, roughly chopped 
1 leek, roughly chopped 
1 carrot, roughly chopped 
3 cloves of garlic, crushed 
1 bay leaf 
3 sprigs of rosemary

For the marinade:
 
3 tbsp olive oil 
2 garlic cloves, sliced 
1 small dried chilli, crumbled 
2 sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked 
1 lemon, zest only

For the red wine and sobrasada sauce:

2 red onions, finely sliced 
170g sobrasada, cut into small pieces 
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 
3 sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked 
1 tbsp hot smoked paprika 
500ml red wine

For the saffron and lemon mayonnaise: 

1 clove of garlic, grated 
A splash of white wine vinegar 
½ tsp Dijon mustard 
1 lemon, juice and zest 
A pinch of saffron strands 
2 egg yolks 
250ml vegetable oil

For the charred spring onions:

12 spring onions, trimmed 
½ a lemon, juice only

For the girolles: 

20 girolle mushrooms, trimmed and brushed of any dirt 
1 knob of butter

For the peas:

3 handfuls of fresh peas, podded

To finish:

Basil leaves 
½ a lemon, juice only


First cook the octopus. Put the octopus and all of the vegetables and herbs into a large saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer for 30-45 minutes until the octopus is very tender. Allow to cool slightly, then remove the octopus and cut the tentacles into individual pieces and the body into strips. Put into a bowl and add all of the marinade ingredients and a good amount of seasoning. Stir to combine, then cover and refrigerate overnight. 

To make the mayonnaise, put the garlic, saffron, mustard, vinegar, egg yolks, seasoning and lemon zest into a food processor and mix together really well. Trickle in the vegetable oil very slowly, until the sauce comes together into a thick mayonnaise. Squeeze in the lemon juice and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

For the wine and sobrasada sauce, put a large frying pan onto a medium heat. Fry the sobrasada, onions, garlic, rosemary and paprika in a little oil for about 10 minutes, or until everything is very soft. Turn the heat up slightly and pour in the wine, then bring to the boil and reduce by half. Transfer to a food processor and blend together really well, then pass through a sieve lined with muslin. Keep warm.

Fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil.

Melt the butter for the mushrooms in a frying pan on a medium-high heat.

Set a heavy griddle onto a very high heat. If using a barbeque, make sure the coals are really hot.

Roll the spring onions in olive oil and season well, then cook on the griddle for 2 minutes each side until slightly blackened. Remove to a plate and squeeze over the lemon juice. 

When the onions are done cook the octopus on the same griddle. Fry very quicky for 1-2 minutes each side before removing and squeezing more lemon over the top.

While the onions and octopus is cooking, fry the mushrooms in the melted butter for 2-3 minutes until lightly coloured and cooked through.

Cook the peas for about 2 minutes in the boiling water until just tender. Drain and season.

To plate up, arrange 3 spring onions on each plate and top with three pieces of charred octopus. Dot some of the mayonnaise around the sides and scatter on some peas and girolles. Spoon over some of the sauce and finish with a few basil leaves.

Spaghetti Vongole

Just like the seared fillet recipe in the last post, vongole is as simple as can be but is a firm favourite in our flat. When Katie went away recently with work, I asked what she wanted me to make for her return. Her quick reply was “vongole!”, so it had to be just that. I was kind of disappointed at first, as I was thinking of something luxurious and intricate that I would spend the whole day cooking. I thought and thought of ways that I could elevate the simple pasta dish to a higher lever; adding langoustines, lobster, a shellfish sauce etc, but anything that I wanted to do took away from the distinctive clean tastes of sweet clams, dry wine, garlic, chilli and lemon. And not a lot else. Soon I had gone full circle and simply wanted to try and maximise those basic flavours. The fact of the matter is a good vongole on a warm evening is one of the best things that you can eat. It’s one of those dishes that can instantly make you feel like you’re on holiday.

The only extra thing that I did was make the pasta myself. Most of the time I just snip off the top of a packet of dried pasta and the dish is ready in minutes, but I wanted to add that special touch. I have met many people who snub the idea of homemade pasta and think it’s a waste of time, but for me the taste and texture that you can achieve by making it fresh can make even the simplest dishes incredible. And it really doesn’t take that long once you get the hang of it. You can even freeze the dough then simply thaw out and roll!

I like my finished vongole to be quite winey and lemony to taste, so feel free to adjust the levels to your taste.

Serves 2-3 as a main course:

For the sauce:

800g live clams
1.5 glasses dry white wine
2 shallots, very finely chopped
1 red chilli, very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
4 tbsp flat leaf parsley, very finely chopped

2 lemons, juice only
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the pasta:

400g ’00’ grade flour
4 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil
Large pinch of Salt


To make the pasta, combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Tip out onto a clean surface and knead together for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic in texture. It should be soft but not sticky. Wrap well with cling film and allow to rest for at least half an hour, preferably longer.

Once rested, unwrap and roll through a pasta machine around 10 times at the widest setting, folding after each pass. This will make the dough much easier to work with. Next pass the dough through the narrower settings, one at a time until the second thinnest (number 5 on a Imperia machine). You should have a long sheet of thin pasta. Cut the sheet to the length that you want the spaghetti to be, then cut using the spaghetti attachment. Flour the cut pasta lightly and lay on a rack, keeping the strands as separate as possible. Set aside until needed.

Fill a large saucepan with water, add a good amount of salt and bring to the boil.

Heat a large frying pan or skillet to a medium temperature and add 2 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the shallot, garlic and chilli for a couple of minutes until softened, seasoning as you go. Turn the heat up slightly, add the white wine and bring to the boil. When the alcohol has burned off tip in the clams and cover the pan with a lid. Shake the pan gently and keep covered until the clams have opened, about 2-3 minutes.

While the clams have been cooking for a minute add your pasta to the saucepan of boiling water. Cook for 1-2 minutes, tasting a strand occasionally to make sure that it is al dente.

You want to try and time it so that the clams and pasta cook at the same time.

Once the clams have opened, transfer the cooked pasta into the pan using some tongs, along with 3 tbsp of the cooking water. Combine well, agitating the pasta to release to gluten and thicken the sauce. Add the juice of one lemon, the parsley, salt and pepper and a good glug of olive oil and combine again. Taste to make sure that there is enough seasoning and lemon.

Spoon into shallow bowls and squeeze some more lemon over the top, along with a drizzle of olive oil and some cracked pepper. Simple as that!

Crab risotto with basil oil, brown meat mayonnaise and tomatoes

It surprises me that it’s taken just over a year for me to post a risotto recipe. Now that the days are longer and it’s a bit warmer, a bowl of light risotto is a perfect midweek dinner to have sat on the balcony in the evening sun. The joy of risottos are they can be as simple or complicated as you want them to be, and they are often a saviour when you need to make a meal out of the scant remnants in the fridge. They were one of the first things that I learned to cook post university, when it wasn’t considered acceptable to live on a diet of lasagne and poorly cooked steaks. My dad also makes a mean risotto, usually the centrepiece of a big family gathering and usually using vegetables that he has pulled from the ground that very day. Good times and full stomachs. 

For this recipe I have returned to an old favourite, crab. These early summer evenings just cry out for a fresh piece of seafood, and I fear that it may be weeks before I’m lusting over a piece of red meat again. My mind has sprung to life with recipes that make the most of light, delicate fish and zingy citrus and herbs. I was particularly inspired by the idea of a crab risotto because I saw it made on Masterchef during the finals this week. On that occasion, the cook made a real mess of it, but in my head it lit a spark and from then I craved it. Luckily, I work just across the road from a good fishmongers so was able to pop over and get my hands on a crustacean that was perfect for the job. Risottos are normally associated with stodgy cold weather meals, but with crab, lemon and basil flavours running through it’s much lighter. I used very similar ingredients in my crab and scallop ravioli recipe that I posted last year and I couldn’t help using them again; they complement the crab perfectly without overpowering. The dish still tastes distinctly crabby - the worst thing you can do to crab or any other shellfish is mask the taste with heavy flavourings. 

To someone who has never worked with crab, especially live ones, they can seem really daunting. However, there is a mine of online information about how to prepare one yourself, with videos and photos to make the directions easier to follow. The best thing to do is just get stuck in and learn as you go along. Once you’ve prepared a couple it gets loads quicker and are even dead easy for midweek after work suppers. Sourcing your crab is important. Always try and buy them live or freshly cooked from a local fishmongers, as they will taste way better and fresher than any supermarket bought alternatives. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 crab, cooked with brown and white meat removed and kept separate

For the stock:

2 fennel bulbs, sliced

2 shallots, sliced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1/2 red chilli, sliced

4 tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 tsp smoked paprika

A small pinch of saffron

1 litre light chicken stock

1/2 glass dry white wine

Legs and claw shells from the leftover crab

Salt and pepper

For the risotto:

1 shallot, finely sliced

Splash of brandy

5/6 of a mug of arborio risotto rice

The white meat from the crab

1 lemon, juice only

30g butter

Salt and pepper

For the brown meat mayonnaise:

The brown meat from the crab

1 egg yolk

Splash white wine vinegar

400ml vegetable oil

1/2 lemon, juice only

Salt and pepper

For the basil oil:

2 bunches basil

100ml olive oil

1/2 tsp caster sugar

Salt and pepper

For the tomatoes:

1 plum tomato

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp caster sugar

To finish:

Red amarinth leaves

First make the stock. Heat up a large saucepan with a little olive oil to a medium heat. When hot, add the crab and lightly caramelise on all sides. Chuck in the fennel, shallot, garlic, chilli, seasoning, saffron and smoked paprika and cook for a couple of minutes until everything starts to soften. Pour in the white wine and bring to the boil to cook out the alcohol. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir through for another minute before adding the hot chicken stock. Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer and cook for around 20 minutes, until the stock is full of flavour and colour. Strain the liquid through a sieve into another saucepan and discard the shell and vegetables. Keep warm.

Heat up about a litre of lightly salted water in a small saucepan.

Whilst the stock is cooking make the basil oil. When the water is boiling quickly blanch the bunches of basil for about 20 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon, keeping the same water for use later. Transfer the basil to a small food processor with the oil, sugar, salt and pepper and blitz well until very fine. Taste and adjust if needed. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl or bottle and set aside. 

Also make the mayonnaise. Put the brown crabmeat into a high-sided bowl with the egg yolk, salt and pepper and white wine vinegar. Whisk well until frothy. Carry on whisking whilst very slowly adding the vegetable oil until all of it has been emulsified into a thick mayonnaise. Squeeze in a little of the lemon juice and taste. Adjust the seasoning if needed and pour into a bottle. Set aside. 

To prepare the tomato, score a cross into the bottom of it and put it in the water still boiling from the basil earlier. Boil for about a minute, then remove and plunge in a bowl of cold water. Pull the skins off, then slice segments of the flesh from around the edge. Discard the seeds from the middle. Cut the flesh of the tomatoes into 1/2cm squares and place into a small bowl. Dress with the olive oil and sugar and set aside.

Put a large frying pan or skillet onto a medium heat with a little olive oil. When hot, add the chopped shallot then season and fry for a couple of minutes until tender. Add the rice and cook for another minute or two, stirring to coat the grains. Pour in the brandy and allow to bubble away and cook out. Add a ladle of the hot stock and allow the rice to absorb the liquid before adding the next. Stir regularly. When the rice starts to get plumper and the starch has thickened the mixture, start tasting a grain every so often to judge the cooking. The rice is cooked when soft with a little bite remaining, and it should be wet enough to spread out once dolloped onto a plate. At this point stir in the white crabmeat, butter and lemon. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. 

To serve, spoon a good amount of the rice into the middle of a shallow bowl and shake to spread out evenly. Squeeze a few blobs of the mayonnaise evenly on top and place some of the tomato pieces around the middle. Scatter some of the amarinth leaves over the top and drizzle a little bit of the basil oil around the edge.

Scallop and crab ravioli with basil oil, tomatoes and fennel fronds

When I cooked crab for this blog a couple of months ago, it made me realise that I really don’t eat enough of it. It ticks all of the boxes, with wonderful sweet flavour, great sustainability and reasonably priced. On that occasion I served it very simply, boiled and then eaten with fresh bread and lemony mayo. While this was delicious, it also inspired me to think of loads of other ways to use it; crab tian, crab roll, crab linguine, crab green thai curry... you get the picture! 

Crab ravioli is a really lovely way to make the most out of fresh crab, with light fresh summery flavours. Cooking a fresh live crab and then making pasta may seem like a major hassle, especially for a starter, but there are loads of ways that you can turn it into a quicker meal. When I tested the recipe for this blog I made it as a midweek, after work meal. To save time, the crab can be cooked in advance, or you can buy one that has been already cooked and dressed from a decent fishmonger. Once you have this, the only time consuming thing is making the pasta, but after a few practices this process speeds up dramatically. To make the meal really quick, you can even make the ravioli well in advance and freeze it until needed. This would be great for when having friends over as all you have to do is thaw it out and prepare the finishing touches. 

Skinning tomatoes and adding fennel fronds may also seem like too much work, but it is all worth it. By discarding the bitter skin and seeds you are left with just the sweet flesh, and the texture harmonises with everything else on the plate. The fennel adds a subtle, fresh flavour and makes the dish look delicate and inviting. 

Scallops and crab are both very delicate flavours, and mixing them with lemon, chilli and herbs lets that flavour really shine through. As with sourcing anything, try and find local, independent suppliers who will often be able to give you the best quality produce. I only use a little of the brown crab meat in this recipe, spread the leftovers on hot toast with a squeeze of lemon.

Serves 4 

Ingredients:

For the pasta:

400g strong 00 flour

4 eggs

salt and pepper

For the filling:

1 crab, cooked, white and brown meat removed

8 scallops

2 small red chillies, finely chopped (or to taste)

2 lemons, juice only

Small handful parsley, finely chopped 

40g butter, melted

To finish:

4 tomatoes

1 small chilli, finely chopped

Large handful fresh basil

Extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon, juice only

Fennel fronds 

Rocket leaves (optional)

Make your pasta by putting the flour, eggs, a good pinch of salt and olive oil in a food processor, and blitz until the mix looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Tip everything out onto a floured surface and knead together until the dough has an elastic texture but is not sticky. Knead in a little flour if necessary. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for at least half an hour to rest.

While the pasta is resting, make the ravioli filling. Put all of the white crab meat and 2 tbsp of the brown meat into a bowl, and add the chilli, parlsley, half the lemon juice and salt and pepper. Mix well and stir in the cool melted butter. Taste the mixture before you add the raw scallops and adjust with the remaining lemon, you want to slightly over-season the mixture to cater for this. Chop the scallops, but not too finely as you want the cooked filling to have texture. Mix everything together for a final time and set aside.

After you have made the filling and once rested, remove the pasta dough from the fridge. Using your pasta machine, roll the dough through until it’s at it’s finest setting and you are left with a long sheet - you want the finished ravioli to have nice thin pasta.

Roughly mark on one of the pasta sheets with the pastry cutter that you are using for your ravioli. Carefully place a spoonful of the filling mixture in the middle of each marking. Brush a little water on the pasta sheet around the filling and then place the other sheet on top. Gently seal the pasta around each pile of filling, making sure that no air bubbles are left. Using the pastry cutter, cut through the pasta around each filling until you are left with the finished ravioli parcels. If you don’t have a pastry cutter then you can just use a knife - traditionally they are square shaped anyway. Dust with a little flour and place on greaseproof paper; they can now be refrigerated until needed or frozen.

Fill a small saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Score a small cross in the bottom of each tomato and drop into the water for 10-20 seconds, or until the scores in the skin start to expand down the sides. Remove the tomatoes from the water and peel off the skin, then cut into quarters. Spoon out the seeds and discard with the skin. You will now be left with the flesh. Cut into very small squares and put into a small bowl. Add the finely chopped chilli, salt and pepper and a little olive oil. Taste, season and set aside. 

To make the basil oil, blitz the basil with the lemon juice, salt and pepper and a little extra virgin olive oil in a food processor until finely chopped and smooth. Adjust the seasoning and pour into a bowl. 

Bring a large saucepan of very salty water to the boil. 

When ready to cook, drop the ravioli into the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes. When cooked, remove from the water onto heated plates. Quickly drizzle over the basil oil and spoon over the tomatoes, making sure each ravioli gets some. Decorate with the fennel fronds and rocket if using, pour over a little more extra virgin olive oil and serve.

Courgette flowers stuffed with goat’s cheese, oregano and lemon with a tomato and sombrasada dipping sauce

I first tried courgette flowers a few years ago, randomly enough from a food stall at a Cornish music festival, and have always wanted to have a crack at cooking them myself. They are one of the only things that manage to turn what is basically deep fried cheese into something delicate and beautiful. They also have the wow factor, but despite looking complicated, with a little care they are really easy to make. 

The only difficult thing about courgette flowers can be getting hold of them. Only very good greengrocers and food markets will stock them, and when you do find them they can be quite expensive. The most satisfying and cheapest way would be to grow them yourself. I had high hopes of doing that this year, but my plans were scuppered by hungry slugs with educated palates. So with my tail firmly between my legs I found myself walking to Borough Market, knowing if anywhere would have them it would be there. 

There are some really fantastic food markets and local suppliers in London and around the country, and they often have a much wider range of great quality produce than you would find at the supermarket. My trip to Borough didn’t disappoint: it really is a mecca of food produce that cannot fail to inspire. I had to control myself and remain disciplined to the recipe in hand, and I emerged with a bag of ingredients that had me excited to get home and start cooking. 

As well as the courgette flowers, I also needed to find ingredients for the stuffing and the dipping sauce. The cheesemonger recommended that I used a soft goat’s cheese from Poitou Charentes, which has a sweet and mild taste to complement the courgette. With that bought, all I had to find was something to flavour the dipping sauce. Originally when planning this recipe, I wanted to get hold of some ‘nduja sausage, which is a spicy spreadable salami from Calabria. On this occasion I couldn’t find any, but upon stopping at a Spanish delicatessen I saw some sombrasada, which looked like it would fit the bill perfectly. This is a soft chorizo that has similar qualities to ‘nduja, and I knew that it would melt through my sauce giving it a strong, hot flavour. 

Courgette flowers are seasonal, and you can only really source them in the summer. With this in mind I urge you to make the most of them over the next month or so!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the courgette flowers:

4 courgette flowers

200g soft goat’s cheese, I used a Poitou-Chareutes

1 lemon, zest and juice of half

5 sprigs fresh oregano, leaves picked and finely chopped

20g parmesan, finely grated

Salt and pepper

1.5 litres vegetable oil  for deep frying

For the dipping sauce:

120g sombrasada, skin removed and roughly chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 small red chilli, finely chopped

2 anchovy filllets, finely chopped

2 handfuls good quality cherry tomatoes, quartered

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

For the light batter:

100g plain flour

200ml sparkling water

salt and pepper

First get the dipping sauce on. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan (one with a lid) to a medium heat, and when hot add the shallots, garlic and chilli. When they soften, add the sombrasada and anchovies and cook for another couple of minutes. Finally add the cherry tomatoes and season well, mix everything together and put the lid on the pan. After 15 minutes, the tomatoes will be dissolving and the mixture will be looking like more of a sauce. After another 5 minutes transfer the contents into a food processor and blitz until smooth, adding a little water if if needs thinning down. Season and adjust if needed, before  pouring the mixture into a saucepan to be heated up later. 

While the sauce is cooking make the batter. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl, mix with a good amount of seasoning before slowly whisking in the sparkling water. Once the batter is thoroughly mixed and the thickness of double cream cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes. 

To make the filling for the courgette flowers, mash the goat’s cheese, lemon juice and zest together with a fork to loosen slightly.  Mix in the oregano, parmesan and seasoning before tasting and setting aside. 

Pour the frying oil into a large, heavy saucepan and heat up to 170ºC.

To prepare the courgette flowers, carefully part the petals until you can just squeeze your fingers through to remove the stamen. Spoon your filling mixture into a piping bag, and once any air pockets have been removed, carefully squeeze in the filling. You want enough filling in each flower to create a nice full pocket, but not too much that you can’t fully seal with the petals. Repeat until all flowers have been filled, trimming the ends of the courgettes if necessary at the same time. 

Put the saucepan containing the dipping sauce onto a low-medium heat and gently warm up.

When the oil is hot, very carefully dip the courgette flowers into the batter mixture, making sure they are completely covered. Allow any excess to drip off before lowering into the hot oil. Quickly repeat with another. I usually do this in batches of 2 flowers to stop them sticking together. Cook for a few minutes, or until the batter turns a light golden colour before removing from the oil and draining on kitchen paper. 

When all of the courgette flowers are cooked, arrange 2 on each plate, adding a small bowl of the dipping sauce and a few fresh oregano leaves. 

Any leftover dipping sauce can be used as a fantastic base for a pasta sauce or soup, and goes particularly well with butternut squash.

Slow-cooked beef shin cannelloni with girolles, anchovies and broad beans

For the love of slow cooking!

I don’t often get long periods of time to cook big meals, but when I do I really enjoy it. I’m all for quick and easy meals - they form a large part of what I eat - but there’s something great about spending the whole day or afternoon cooking something really special. This time consuming style of cooking will sound really mad to some people, but I love it when you are cooked for by someone else and they go to town on it. With this style of cooking you can achieve things that you could never do in a short space of time - cooking things for 5 or even 10 hours can have the most incredible results that are definitely worth the wait. On the plus side, most of these processes are fairly low maintenance, and once on can be left alone for a long time.

This style of cooking also lends itself to cheap, alternative cuts of meat. In this case I have used beef shin, which is unbelievably underused. As in most cases, the cheaper cuts of meat hold way more flavour than the more expensive ones, all they need is to be cooked with a little care and time until mouthwateringly tender. The shin that I bought for this recipe cost me five pounds for a kilo - that’s less than one fillet steak would be! Slow cooking meat like shown in this recipe is also a method that is excellent for loads of different things - stews, ragu sauces, ravioli fillings etc. You can even make amazing chilli or shepherds pie using flaked slow cooked meat. When cooking meat in this way, I often make more than I need and have a lovely intense stew for dinner the next night.

The cannelloni in this recipe is not typical to how it is usually made, with a creamy cheese sauce and baked in the oven. Making it this way makes it much lighter and more of a summer dish, and the combination of the beef with the mushrooms, anchovies and beans really works. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the slow cooked beef:

500g beef shin, cut into a few large pieces

1 litre good beef or veal stock

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

2 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked and finely chopped

Small handful of thyme sprigs

3 carrots, peeled and cut into small cubes

1 large parsnip, peeled and cut into small cubes

2 onions, finely chopped

Large glass red wine

2 anchovy fillets

For the fresh pasta:

200g Italian 00 flour

2 medium eggs

Salt

For the cannelloni filling:

10g dried girolle mushrooms

2 tbsp parley leaves, finely chopped

2 tbsp pecorino cheese

For the sauce:

10g dried girolle mushrooms

300g broad beans, podded and shelled

2 anchovy fillets, very finely chopped

2 knobs of butter

To finish:

Grated pecorino 

Baby rocket

First of all get the beef going. Put the stock in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Heat up a little olive oil in a separate large saucepan on a medium to high heat. Season the meat well and brown well on all sides until well coloured, before removing and setting aside. Turn down the heat a little and add a little more olive oil if needed before adding the onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary. Cook until softened before adding the carrots, parsnips, anchovies and bay leaf. After a couple more minutes, turn the heat up slightly and add the wine, letting it bubble and reduce slightly. Now add the meat back to the saucepan and cover with the hot stock. Season well and bring to a simmer before turn right down and cooking with the lid on for about 5 hours, or until the meat falls to pieces. 

Meanwhile make the pasta. Put the flour, eggs and a good pinch of salt in a food processor, and blitz until the mix looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Tip everything out onto a floured surface and knead together until the dough has an elastic texture but is not sticky. Knead in a little flour if necessary. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for half an hour to rest.

After half an hour, remove the pasta dough from the fridge. Using your pasta machine, roll the dough until it goes through the thinnest setting. Cut the thin sheet of pasta into 4 inch pieces (allowing 2 per person), flour each side well and put in the fridge until needed later. Spare dough can be saved for another occasion.

Now prepare the rest of the filling for the cannelloni. Put the dried mushrooms (for the sauce and filling) in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for half an hour before removing the mushrooms from the water, and finely chopping the half being used for the filling. Leave the other half whole and set aside for the sauce. Keep the soaking liquid to use in risottos, soups etc. Combine the chopped mushrooms with the grated pecorino and chopped parsley in a medium bowl and put aside. 

Use any more time while to meat is cooking to prepare the other ingredients for the sauce.

When the meat is really tender, gently remove it from the broth and shred finely. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then add to the bowl of other filling ingredients. Combine well, adding a couple of tablespoons of the broth liquid and seasoning to taste. 

Fill a medium saucepan with salted water and bring to the boil. When the water is bubbling, add the pasta sheets and cook for 1 minute. Once cooked, remove the pasta and lay each piece on an individual piece of greaseproof paper that is a little bit bigger than the pasta. Carefully add a line of the cannelloni filling to one end of the pasta, leaving a lip of about 2cm. Using the greaseproof paper, ease the pasta around the filling to create a filled tube. Try and get it so that the seal is on the bottom of each tube. Gently move all of the tubes onto one piece of greaseproof paper (small enough to sit in a steamer) and set aside until ready to cook. 

For the sauce, strain 4-5 ladles of the broth liquid into a small saucepan and heat on a medium heat until boiling. Add the anchovies and mix well, then reduce the liquid by half until the flavours have intensified. 

Meanwhile, pour a little water into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. When the water is boiling, put the rolled cannelloni into a steamer and place on top of the boiling water for 2 minutes. At the same time, add the broad beans, girolles and butter to the saucepan with the sauce in it before mixing well, tasting and seasoning. 

When the cannelloni has cooked, arrange two on each plate and carefully spoon some of the finished sauce around them. Finish by scattering some baby rocket and a pinch of pecorino on top. A very time consuming process, but well worth the wait!