spaghetti with cavolo nero and pancetta

 

i’m loving the new autumnal vegetables that are appearing everywhere at the moment. one of my absolute favourites from last year was cavolo nero and i’ve been eating lots of it over the past few weeks. as well as having it as a side vegetable so something like sausages baked with fennel and cherry tomato, i’ve added it to risottos and pasta.

last year it was all about jamie oliver’s blokes sausage pasta, which i added the cavolo nero to. this year it’s pancetta that is the shining co-star with my black kale.

this was a very simple supper – while the spaghetti cooked i fried, in a little butter, some pancetta pieces, chilli flakes and garlic slices. cavolo nero leaves were stripped of their chewy central vein and shredded before being added to the pan with a glug of wine. the leaves quickly wilted down and i added a few sunblush tomatoes along with the cooked pasta. very quick, very simple and utterly delicious. the same flavours work well in a risotto.

i'me sharing this with ruth who is hosting this week's presto pasta nights!

sausage, mushroom and sun-blush tomato mafaldine

sausages and pasta is a combination which i’ve grown to love. the addition of fennel – a bulb or seeds, preferably both – usually guarantees that i’ll try a recipe and that it will be a hit with both david and i. as a result there are lots of fennelly sausage pasta recipes on here (have a look), and here’s another! 

this was quickly pulled together from a very empty fridge – mushrooms were the only fresh vegetables we had in but thankfully there was a handful of sun-blushed tomatoes to lift things.

this is my contribution to presto pasta nights which, this week, is being hosted by me!

Click to read more ...

roasted sausages with fennel and tomato

a couple of years ago i came up with a recipe for roasted sausages with fennel and cherry tomatoes. it is incredibly quick, easy and packed full of flavour.

i love it with crusty bread smeared with butter. last night we had it with a side portion of cavolo nero cooked with garlic and chilli.

the original recipe for the sausages is here but it is something you can adapt according to what you fancy. this time i tossed sausages (i still rate marks & spencer sausages as particularly good), cherry tomatoes and sliced fennel with  glugs of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and red wine. a sprinkling of chopped rosemary, dried oregano, a bay leaf, garlic, salt and pepper were the extra bits needed. an hour in the over at 200c and the result was truly delicious. you really should try it.

sausage, spinach and fennel with linguine

as for many people, january is a time of year when i think about healthy eating. often i use this month to detox, cutting out booze, caffeine and junk, however, this year i know that i haven’t got the willpower so i’m sticking to the simple aim of trying to boost my fruit and vegetable intake.

spinach is an absolute life-saver when it comes to this, as there are very few dishes which can’t cope with having a handful or two of spinach wilted in (unless, of course, you’re a member of the great spinach-hating clan who liken its cooked texture and flavour to wet socks!).

this dish ticks the hearty meaty meal box but has the added advantage of including several portions of vegetables which will ease any new year guilt that you might be feeling about what you are eating.

Click to read more ...

sausage, fennel seed and tomato penne

I finally managed to make time to try gordon ramsay’s sausage, fennel seed and tomato pappardelle. except it was penne instead of pappardelle.

this was part of an effort to try a variety of different sausage and fennel pasta recipes which i’ve seen recently, including angela hartnett’s orecchiette con salsiccia, finocchio e prezzemolol and jamie oliver’s proper bloke’s sausage fusilli.

i loved the idea of this recipe which encourages you to roll the sausage met into little meatballs. sadly i didn’t have time to do this variation but i doubt it would have affected the flavour much. the flavours in this dish are much more muted than the others, with the rosemary providing a rich but subtle undertone. i also struggled to find the fennel flavours and think it would be improved with the addition of a bulb of finely sliced or diced fennel in addition to the seeds.

i think jamie’s dish was my favourite, what about you?

Click to read more ...