Pizza Rhules…..

Once kids are in the picture dinner parties become a thing of the past, or should I say civilised dinner parties become a thing of the past!  Now we opt for dinner with friends that everyone can take part in – including the kids! Over the summer we had a couple of pizza nights – having made the dough and sauce – everyone makes up their own pizzas with whatever toppings they fancy. James and I have developed a good system – I prepare the dough and James rolls it out. Works great, and I have to say that they taste so much better then store bought versions. Maybe part of that is the taste of satisfaction when you are feeling all Nigella like for having prepared everything from scratch! I expected it all to be more complicated but it is simple! Make sure you buy a pizza stone – definitely worth it.

This weekend our good buddies the Rhule’s (Jon, Justine & Easton) came over for a spot of face painting and pizza making. All done just in time to settle down in front of X Factor!

A couple of very funny Clowns!!

Could there be a cook book more appropriate than ‘Jamie’s Italy’ to turn to in search of a recipe for pizza dough??

Basic Pizza dough (courtesy of Jamie Oliver – Jamie’s Italy)

Ingredients:-

800g strong white bread flour

200g fine ground semolina flour or strong white bread flour

1 level Tbsp fine sea salt

2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast

1 Tbsp golden caster sugar

around 650ml / just over 1 pint lukewarm water

Pile the flours and salt on to a clean surface and make an 18cm well in the centre. Add your yeast and sugar to the tepid water, mix up with a fork and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well (or just chuck it all in the electric mixer like I do!). Using a fork and a circular movement, slowly bring in the flour from the inner edge of the well and mix into the water. It will look like stodgy porridge – continue to mix, bringing in all the flour. When the dough comes together and becomes too hard to mix with your fork, flour your hands and begin to pat into a ball. Knead the dough by rolling it backwards and forwards, using your left hand to stretch the dough towards you and your right hand to push the dough away from you at the same time. Repeat this for 10 minutes until you have a smooth springy soft dough.

Flour the top of the dough, cover it with clingfilm and let it rest for at least 15 minutes at room temperature. This will make it easier to roll it thinly. Now divide the dough into as many balls as you want to make pizzas i.e. lots of small ones or a few larger ones, but 6 is a good quantity for the dough.

Timing-wise it’s nice to roll the pizzas out 15 to 30 minutes before you start to cook them. If you want to work more in advance, it’s better to keep the dough in clingfilm in the fridge. Take a piece of dough, dust your surface and the dough with a little flour, and roll it out into a rough circle about 1/2 cm thick. Tear off an approximately sized piece of tin foil and rub it with olive oil, dust it well with flour and place the pizza base on top. Continue doing the same with another piece and then if you dust with a little flour you can pile them up into a stack, cover them with clingfilm and put them in the fridge.

When you are ready to cook them, preheat your oven to 250C. At this stage you can apply your toppings. Remember, less is more. If you can, cook the pizza’s on a piece of granite in a conventional oven, if not, do them one by one on the bars of the oven shelf towards the bottom of the oven. (If you are going to cook your pizza’s on the bars of the oven, make sure they are not too big – otherwise they will be difficult to manoeuvre). Cook for 7-10 mins until the pizza’s are golden and crispy.

Family fun

I like to put out a variety of toppings and let everyone just go for it. Some suggestions are:-

Salami, Pepperoni, Chorizo, Ham, Chicken, Turkey, Anchovies

Courgettes, Corn, Pine nuts, Mushrooms, Peppers, Tomatoes, Red Onion, Pineapple, Olives, Capers, Jalapeno, Chilli

Grated Mozzarella, Goats Cheese, Brie, Blue Cheese…..basically any sort of cheese

Justine's turn...the vegetarian version!

Jon's up...

Try not to overload too much – I like a good selection but just little bits of this and that. If you overload it the base can go a bit soggy. Being proper pizza rather than a pan base they are not as sturdy for huge amounts of topping.

Of course, a good pizza needs a good tomato sauce……

Tomato Sauce (a la Jamie of course)

Note: I double up on this and find it makes the right amount for 6 pizzas. Always better to have too much than not enough plus you can always throw leftovers in the freezer .

Ingredients:-

Extra virgin olive oil

1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely sliced

bunch of fresh bail, leaves picked

1 x 400g of good quality plum tomatoes

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Heat a saucepan, add a splash of oil and the sliced garlic and cook gently. When the garlic has turned light golden, add half the basil, the tomatoes and a few pinches of S & P. Cook gently for about 20 minutes, mashing the tomatoes until smooth, then taste, season again and put to one side.

There is a small mystery to Jamie’s recipe….where does the rest of the basil go???

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Kids in the Kitchen

I am really trying to encourage Izzy to join me/us in the kitchen and to be honest not a lot of encouragement is needed. Often I start cooking and Izzy drags one of the dining room chairs up to the bench and she is straight up with her hands into anything and everything! Sure it can be a messier and more time consuming but I think that getting Izzy involved with the prep makes her more interested in actually eating the food. Plus it is a nice way to spend some family time at the end of the day.

This week we turned to one of my favourite domestic goddesses and her latest release – Rachel Allen’s ‘Home Cooking’. This is a fantastic book – jam  packed with loads of great family recipes. I just didn’t know where to start!! A definite recommendation for anyone out there in search of a great all-round cookbook that will never leave the kitchen counter!

We decided on Salmon fish fingers – very simple but it works beautifully!

Salmon Fish Fingers with a Tomato & Basil dip (courtesy of Rachel Allen – Home Cooking)

Ingredients:-

500g centre cut skinless salmon fillet

3 Tbsp plain flour

2 eggs

110g fresh white breadcrumbs

salt & freshly ground black pepper

25g butter (if shallow frying, I prefer to bake)

2 Tbsp olive oi

Lemon wedges, to serve

For the tomato & basil dip

275g tomatoes, roughly chopped

110ml creme fraiche (or half fat creme fraiche for the more calorie conscious!)

1 Tbsp finely shredded basil

Preheat the oven (if using) to 220C.

Cut the piece of salmon in half across the width and then cut each half into six equal sized fingers down the length. Sift the flour onto a plate or into a wide bowl, beat the eggs in another bowl, beat the eggs in another bowl and place the breadcrumbs in a third.  Season each with salt & pepper. First dust the salmon fingers in the flour, then dip them in the flour, then dip them in the beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumbs, to evenly coat.

Izzy working hard in the kitchen.

Drizzle oil on a large baking sheet and arrange the fish fingers on the oiled sheet. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, turning halfway through cooking, until crisp, golden and cooked through.

Meanwhile, prepare the tomato dip. Blitz the chopped tomato in a blender or using a hand held blender until smooth. Push through a fine sieve into a small saucepan and simmer on a low heat for 4-5 minutes or until reduced and thickened. remove and leave to cool completely (very important as we didn’t have time to do this and ended up with a very loose dip) before stirring into the creme fraiche with the bail and a little salt & pepper.

Serve the salmon fish fingers with lemon wedges for people to squeeze over together with a bowl of the tomato and basil creme fraiche to dip into.

Who needs a wash and a haircut?!?!

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Many hands make light work

Meredith & Isobel were hanging out with us this afternoon and it got to that time on Sunday that we needed to star thinking about dinner – always early on a Sunday due to shorter trading hours. As Mer was needing to do exactly the same as me – shop & cook – it made sense to do it together. A quick trip to the supermarket later we were in possession of a chicken and a medley of veg. It was a win win situation – half the grocery bill and great company while preparing together.

Mer had also picked up a Graffiti Cauliflower on the way over this morning – this was completely new to me as never seen or heard of it before. What a beautiful sight it is – vibrant purple. Much much more interesting than the usual boring white cauliflower! We decided to make this into a cauliflower cheese which I haven’t had in years.  Once the cauliflower had been simmered for 8 minutes the water was bright blue.

Beautiful!

Apart from the Cauliflower Cheese there was no recipe to follow – just some Lemon stuffed into the chicken with some garlic and rosemary, chopped up butternut squash, carrots & parsnips and a drizzling of oilve oil….oh and a sprinkle of S & P.

Once everything was cooked we split everything in half and Mer & Isobel headed home to Stu with dinner in tow. Worked really well as was the perfect  amount of chicken & veg – no leftovers in this house!

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Remembering Maidstone Intermediate & Mrs Otter

When Mum came over earlier this year she had a wonderful  surprise in her suitcase – my Maidstone Intermediate Cookbooks! YAY!!!

Now anyone who went to Maidstone Intermediate (James & I both did) will remember Technicraft. A very exciting prospect which included Sewing with Mrs Bruce, Metalwork with Mr Crombie, Woodwork with Mr Livesey and of course Cooking with Mrs Otter. Every student who came out of Maidstone in those years is familiar with making lemon drink, mousetraps, rock cakes and so much more. It is fantastic to be able to flick through the pages of my Technicraft books and relive these days and ever since I got these little beauties back into my hands I have been meaning to recreate some of these recipes. This weekend seemed to be as good a time as any and with Mackie here for a sleep over I had 2 hungry little girls to satisfy!

First up were Chinese Chicken Wings – sticky & delicious, and just as good as I remember. The girls loved them and relished picking them up with their fingers and getting stuck in. What a mess but nothing that a wet wipe doesn’t clean up!

Chinese Chicken Wings (courtesy of Mrs Otter, Maidstone Intermediate)

Ingredients:-

4-5 chicken wings

2 Tbsp tomato sauce

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp chilli or other hot sauce

1/4 tsp five spice

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 clove garlic or garlic salt

1/4 tsp ginger

Boil chicken for 10 mins. Combine all other ingredients and mix well. Place cooked wings in a baking dish. Brush or pour sauce over wings.

Bake (200C – 15 mins), bbq or grill until crisp and brown.

So very simple – well it needs to be as it was being prepared by a class of 10-12 year olds!!

The girls certainly looked like they were enjoying themselves – judge for yourself!

My 11 year old creative talents!

Just out of the oven

Yum yum!!

Let's see how much Broccoli I can fit in my mouth!

Caveman Style!

The girls enjoying home made juice iceblocks for dessert.

Second recipe of the weekend was Savoury Sausage Roll – tasted just like I remembered and is a great way to make 4 sausages go a lot further. Make sure they are good quality sausages – will make a big difference. For all those Kiwi’s who love a Sizzler (why, oh why?) this is not the type of sausage I mean!!

Savoury Sausage Roll (once again courtesy of Mrs Otter, Maidstone Intermediate)

Ingredients:-

2 Tbsp breadcrumbs

1 small onion

salt & pepper

200g sausage meat or 3-4 sausages

1 Tbsp flour

1 apple

1 carrot

Sprinkle breadcrumbs and flour on a piece of lunch paper.

Remove skins from the sausages. Pat sausage meat out on the breadcrumbs to a long rectangle approx 5mm thick.

Prepare filling ingredients – chop onion finely, peel & grate carrot, core & grate apple

Spread filling over the sausage meat. Season with salt & pepper.

Roll up like a pin wheel. Place in a baking dish with a little oil.

Bake 30-40 minutes in oven 180C.

Another stunning piece of artwork!

Ready for the oven

Lunch time!

Mrs Otter’s recipe says you can use 1 mashed banana in place of the apple – haven’t tried this but don’t think this sounds particularly appealing.

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Bill’s Bircher Muesli

Weekends are a great opportunity to break away from the run of the mill week day breakfast. I have made Bill Granger’s Bircher Muesli  a few times and I think it is delicious!

On Saturday we took another trip out to Hewitts Farm for some end of season pick your own. Our stash included 2 big bags of apples (there were about 10 varieties available), lots of beetroot, a cabbage, sweetcorn & a couple of small heads of brocolli. Plus we raided the farm shop for 3 more Crown Prince Pumpkins, small squashes, a celeriac, potatoes, carrots & turnips. Think we are set for the week!!

Our very own Cabbage Patch Kid!

When we got home James put the juicer to work and about 25 apples later we had 1.5 litres of apple juice. Enough for the Bircher Muesli and more for the fridge. With our last batch I took some juice and blended with some mango and then poured them into ice block moulds – Izzy loves them. We can even get away with bribing her with them!

So back to Bill’s Bircher- you must try it – so yummy!

Bircher Muesli with Pear & Blueberries (courtesy of Bill Granger – Bill’s Food)

Ingredients:-

200g rolled oats or mixed rolled oats, barley & rye

375ml pear juice (I used apple)

2 pears, skin left on and grated (I used 1 pear & 1 apple)

125g plain yoghurt

4 Tbsp toasted chopped almonds (would no doubt add more delciousness but I didn’t have any to hand)

80g blueberries (I used a mix of raspberries, blueberries & blackberries)

Put the rolled oats, barley & rye in a bowl with the pear juice and leave to soak for 1 hour, or overnight, in the fridge. Add the grated pear and yoghurt and mix well. Spoon the muesli into serving bowls and top each each with toasted almonds & blueberries. Serves 4.

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From one friend to another

Woke up this morning to the news of the Tsunami & earthquake that has rocked Samoa. It’s just so sad – these things always happen to people who have the least (in a material sense) and therefore have the most to lose. My parents have been visiting Samoa over the last couple of years and are full of praise for the Samoan people – so friendly and hospitable. My first thought was for their friends and so sent a quick text to Mum. Luckily they live in the hills and so were safe. I picked up the paper on the way home tonight and my stomach lurched when I saw the headline about the 2 year old boy who was swept away from his parents – makes me feel so sick. What a cruel world this can be sometimes. My thoughts are with his family and with all those in Samoa who have lost loved ones or are now suffering the anxiety of missing loved ones. I can’t even begin to imagine.

It’s been a busy few days with quarter end (as anyone who works in financial services knows) and I am pleased that another quarter is over! Time to start on the next one!!! So this is the first time I have had a chance to sit down and catch you up on our most recent culinary experiences – but know that I have left off some not so successful dishes!!!

A year or so ago our friend Kerry shared this recipe with us. Is a lasagne that substitutes pumpkin & courgettes for pasta (great for those who are doing the whole wheat free thing). We have made it lots of times now and it has the comfort factor without the stodge feeling. I just think it works really well and is another great way to add veges to a dish for kids. We all enjoy this and I like to serve it with a salad (made up with whatever is handy at the time!). It also works made ahead of time as I made this up on Sunday, put in the fridge and then heated it up on Tuesday.

Mince & Pumpkin Lasagne

Ingredients:-

500g mince beef

400g pumpkin, thinly sliced

400g tinned diced tomatoes

1 cup or more of grated mozzarella cheese

200g courgette (or zucchini – depending on where you are), thinly sliced

100g onion, diced

Handful of pumpkin seeds

1/8 cup oregano

1/8 cup parsley

1 clove of garlic, peeled & crushed

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 180C. Fry mince in a little oilve oil until browned, add herbs, onion & capsicum (or pepper – once again depending on where you are, but I forgot to put this in anyway!!). Fry until tender, add tomatoes and simmer until thick.

In a greased lasagne dish place a layer of pumpkin slices and cover with half of the mince mixture.

Place a layer of zucchini on top and add half the cheese. Then cover with the remaining mince mixture and top with left over cheese and pumpkin seeds.

Bake in oven for 40 mins. Serves 6-8.

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Like Mother, Like Daughter

This week I had a great email from Mum with this recipe which comes highly recommended so thought I would share it with you. According to Marty (AKA Dad) they are ‘Outstanding’ – high praise indeed!!

Pea & Caper Fishcakes

Ingredients:-

500g snapper fillets, finely diced  ( I used Gurnard )
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 Tbsp baby salted capers, rinsed
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup plain flour
1 Tbsp olive oil
Lemon wedges, to serve

Put the fish, peas, capers, lemon rind, mustard, egg and flour in a
large bowl and stir until well combined. Divide the mixture into 8 equal
portions, then shape each portion into a patty.

Heat a barbecue hotplate ( I just did them in a sauté pan with a
little olive oil ) to medium heat and spread oil over the plate. Add fish
cakes and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden and cooked
through. Serve with lemon wedges.

These are very yummy….. I served them with Feta, Beetroot and Red
Onion Salad and Fresh Asparagus

Looks great Mum – this will be on the menu for next week 🙂

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Oven baked risotto – easy peasy!

Just a quick entry as I have a bit of a back log – so many yummy recipes, so little time!

The leaves are changing and although it is a beautiful sight it is also a tad depressing. Each morning is a little darker than the last and another winter is stretching out before us – boooooo!! However one thing I do look forward to is the pumpkin harvest. Mum makes a great pumpkin soup and it is my all time favourite. Pumpkin is a popular food in NZ, especially as a roast dinner accompaniment but not so much here in the UK. Over the years I have tried to make pumpkin soup a few times but the pumpkins I managed to find were tasteless and bland 😦 That all changed last year when we went on a pumpkin seeking mission and discovered Crockford Bridge Farm and there we found the Crown Prince Pumpkin – now that is more like it! The perfect pumpkin soup pumpkin!

When we went to Hewitts last weekend for PYO I found a couple of Crown Prince’s in the farm shop and so this will be the first of many pumpkin entries!

Baked Pumpkin and Fresh Pea Risotto (courtesy of Tana Ramsay – Family Kitchen)

Ingredients:-

400g risotto rice

1 1/2 litres chicken stock

50g butter

500g pumpkin, peeled & chopped into cubes

12 slices pancetta, or unsmoked streaky bacon

Handful of fresh peas

250g grated parmesan

1 Tbsp flat parsley

Place the rice, stock, butter and pumpkin in an oven proof dish, cover tightly with either a lid or foil and bake for 30 mins at 200C.

Meanwhile, place the pancetta under the grill until crispy. Lay it onto some kitchen roll to absorb any excess oil.

Take out the risotto and remove the lid. Stir through, making sure to relieve any bits stuck on the bottom. There will be some liquid, but this will be absorbed.

Sprinkle in the fresh peas and stir through. They will cook in the stock very quickly (approx 3-4 mins).

Sprinkle over the parmesan, stir all through. This will now thicken.

Dish into bowls and lay pancetta over the top, either whole or broken into pieces. Sprinkle over the flat leaf parsley and serve.

Now James cooked this and so it is only appropriate that any additional comments come from him, here we go……

1. We used pancetta cubes and dry fried in frying pan and then rested on kitchen towel. Was then stirred through with the parmesan.

2. We used frozen peas so added slightly earlier.

3. We ended up adding about 15 – 20 mins to the cooking time as there was too much liquid left – we put this down to the heavy Le Creuset pan?

Bon Appetit! A great dish for all the family – Izzy loved it!

Most recipes are for between 4 and 6 people and there are only 2 1/2 of us most the time. Hence we often have a good amount of leftovers in the fridge. This works well for us as means that we can heat this up 2 nights later making a minimum effort dinner. Plus James will take anything in the fridge for his lunch.

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In need of comfort food?

I don’t know about you but the last few months have felt like nothing but doom and gloom. Almost everyone around me has suffered a loss or a bad situation. I have never known anything like it and I can honestly say I am looking forward to the end of 2009 and then start of a fresh and prosperous year for everyone! All this in the midst of a recession too – crappy!

With all this going on around us sometimes it feels like we have little control over our lives. However one thing we do have control over is what we put in our bodies. In these strange times I have found a real sense of peace in my kitchen. There is a great satisfaction in preparing a meal for loved ones, baking goodies for Izzy’s nursery or our offices or taking a slice of whatever is freshly baked over to our neighbour Sam. I must say I am not totally altruistic – I probably get more satisfaction cooking it than they do eating it.

Comfort food is perfect in these times however traditional comfort food can be stodgy and heavy in the stomach. My ultimate comfort food is mashed potato – love it love it love it! These days I don’t have it very often but James knows when it is needed, just as Mum did for many years!

Tonight we added some mashed potato and although it was not necessarily needed I did have a few potatoes starting to sprout and so needed to be used or they would be in the bin (which goes against my waste not, want not..). The rest of the dinner also consisted of what was in the fridge and cupboards (I am getting good at this!) and we will definitely be making this a Wright family favourite over winter. A perfect comfort food and with chicken and a simple tomato sauce!

I have only recently discovered Rachel Allen and I find that since she is a Mother herself her recipes are very family friendly. One of my work associates told me yesterday that he thinks she is the perfect woman as he imagines that after a night between the sheets she will not only get up and make the breakfast but also bake a cake! Each to their own I guess!

Chicken Casserole with Chorizo, Tomatoes and Beans (courtesy of Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home – Rachel Allen)

Ingredients:-

1 large chicken, cut into pieces (I used chicken breast as this is what I had in the freezer)

2 Tbsp olive oil

125g chorizo, cut into 8mm slices

2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole (I crushed – I love my garlic press and so it is always crushed in this house)

Salt, freshly ground black pepper and sugar

2 x 400g tins of pre-cooked beans, drained

Squeeze of lemon juice

Brown the chicken in a flameproof casserole with the 2 Tbsp of olive oil. Add the slices of chorizo, tomatoes & garlic. Season with salt, pepper and 1 or 2 good pinches of sugar. Bring up to the boil, cover with a lid and cook (on top of hob or in an oven preheated to 180C) for 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked.

Remove from the oven and add the drained beans and simmer for another 5 minutes. Season to taste, adding a squeeze of lemon juice if necessary.

Rachel recommends serving with orzo, boiled rice or pilaff rice. I found mashed potato works for me!

James and I made this up last night and then put it in the fridge so tonight it was just a case of heating it up – easy peasy!

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Waste not, Want not….

Earlier this week I happened to catch a few minutes of Economy Gastronomy and I’m glad I did as Allegra provided a recipe that is perfect for clearing out the bottom of your vegetable bin! Pasta e fagioli is basically Italian peasant food (can’t get more rustic than that!) and translates as pasta & beans. Looking in my vege bin I found half a pumpkin, a leek, some odd shaped courgettes from our garden, 1/4 bag of carrot sticks and 3 ears of corn from our PYO session last weekend. Seems like a perfect time to try out Allegra’s recipe as I didn’t need to go and buy anything and when it gets past 4pm on a Sunday you don’t really have a choice other than to make do with what is in the cupboard! Once peeled and chopped my veges came to about 1kg so I added another 300ml of stock and a tin of tomatoes. I am not one for experimenting but this recipe is so easy to adapt to whatever you have in the cupboard. I am getting much better at using what’s in the cupboard and I am trying really hard not to waste anything (it’s taken me a long time to realise this is the same as chucking the money in the bin – sounds obvious I know!) so I am feeling like I am making less trips to the supermarkets and consequently spending less.

We had picked up a fresh wholemeal loaf from the Blackheath Farmers Market which made a perfect accompaniment. It was delicious and filling which is lucky as it made a huge batch and so we will be having it for dinner at least twice this week!!

Izzy was a bit picky at dinner tonight and we managed to cajole her into eating about 10 mouthfuls but I think that on a normal day she would have scoffed it. One of the things James and I both enjoyed was the contrast between the hot soup and the cold chopped tomato on top – gave it an interesting twist.

Pasta e fagioli (courtesy of Economy Gastronomy – Allegra McEvedy)

90ml/3¼fl oz extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
1 onion, peeled, chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
600g/1lb 5oz mixed vegetables (such as courgette, fennel, swede, potato, sweet potato, leek, celery, carrot or peas), chopped into 1cm/½in cubes
3-4 pinches dried mixed herbs (such as rosemary, oregano and thyme)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 litre/1¾ pints chicken or vegetable stock, preferably home-made
80g/2¾oz dried pasta, such as penne
1 x 400g/14oz can beans (such as cannellini, borlotti, haricot or chickpeas), drained and rinsed
2 fresh bay leaves
50g/2oz freshly grated parmesan
1 large or 2 small very ripe tomatoes, finely chopped

Heat 60ml/2¼fl oz of the oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and chilli flakes and fry for 2-3 minutes, or until softened. Add all of the mixed vegetables (except the peas, if using) and the dried mixed herbs to the pan. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Fry for 2-3 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened.

Reduce the heat to medium, cover the pan with a lid and continue to fry for 10-15 minutes, stirring regularly, or until the vegetables have softened and are pale golden-brown. Add the stock, pasta, beans, bay leaves and peas (if using), then bring the mixture to the boil. Return the mixture to a simmer and continue to simmer, covered, for 20-25 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the pasta has absorbed some of the liquid and is tender. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly before serving.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix together the parmesan, chopped tomatoes and the remaining 30ml/1fl oz of olive oil until well combined. To serve, spoon the pasta e fagioli into four serving bowls. Spoon over the parmesan and tomato mixture. Season, to taste, with freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle a splash of olive oil over each serving.

So Pasta e fagioli finished off a lovely day that included a trip into London on the train (well that part wasn’t exciting for James & I but Izzy loved it!) with our bikes to take part in London’s Skyride. It was great fun taking to the car-free streets with 50,000 others and cycling past many of London’s monuments. A great day out! Thanks Boris!!

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