Category Archives: pine nuts

olives with dates, orange and chilli

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olives with dates, pine nuts and chilli

When someone says “can you do something with these olives?” I don’ t need asking twice. Their bittersweet bite and salty character give me lots to work with, and I’ll happily eat them every day of the week. Olives from Spain have asked me to come up with a marinade or two, and this is my favourite creation.

The filling is inspired by ma’amoul, a date-filled cookie from the middle east. It is heavy with dates and nuts, although I went for pine nuts here as opposed to the standard walnuts. Just to make sure we knew we’re on savoury territory, red wine vinegar and chilli keep it on track. It’s sweet, spicy, savoury, and surprising.

The quantities below will make a portion of the marinade base. You can then blend a part of it with olive oil to make a loose drizzle. The rest can make further olive mix, or be spread over white meats before grilling or roasting.

Olives with dates, orange and chilli:

4 Medjool dates, stoned

A large pinch of chilli flakes

1 teaspoon pine nuts

Zest of half an orange

Maldon sea salt

Red wine vinegar

Spanish extra virgin olive oil

Spanish green olives

  1. Put the dates, chilli, pine nuts, orange and a pinch of sea salt in a food processor and whizz to a paste. Add a squirt of orange juice, a big splash of olive oil and a dash of red wine vinegar. Mix a little more and then taste. You will have to find a good balance of spicy, sharp and sweet with the chilli, vinegar and orange.
  2. To make the marinade, put a tablespoon of the mixture into a small bowl and blend with a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the olives and macerate uncovered for an hour before eating. Garnish with fresh pine nuts.
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aubergines stuffed with lamb and pine nuts

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ottolenghi's aubergines stuffed with lamb and pine nuts

I make no attempt to hide my love of Ottolenghi’s cooking. Since Plenty swept on to my bookshelf in 2010, his recipes and techniques have informed the way I cook on a weekly basis. It’s the tastes and combinations alien to my palette that interest, as his heritage brings with it exotic and fun flavours.

jerusalem by ottolenghiIn his latest book, Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi (Ebury Press, £27), he and long-time partner Sami retrace their shared childhood growing up in Jerusalem. A town that is politically complicated, cross-pollinated with religion and pilgrims from all over the world cannot help but produce a diverse and fascinating culinary history. Sami and Yotam grew up either side of the city and had simultaneously very different and very similar upbringings.

The book is at once a cookbook, cultural snapshot and history of this unique city. The personal affection for their childhood haunts radiate from every page, and this love transfers to the food. Pistachios, pomegranate molasses and parsley abound, with spices and herbs packed into every dish.

Aubergines feature prominently, as in this recipe with lamb and pine nuts. It’s spicy, sweet and sour and very meaty. I made a slight adjustment to the original, making more of the sweet-sour tomato sauce that accompanies it. There was also call for tamarind paste but I know I’ll use it once then it will rot away in my cupboard, so I used a little brown sauce instead, which is essentially tamarind processed just enough to make palatable to the English. It’s just the thing for Autumnal nights, and makes great leftovers the next day too.

Aubergines stuffed with lamb and pine nuts (serves 2 with plenty left):

2 aubergines halved lengthways

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 onion, finely chopped

300g lamb mince

30g pine nuts

Parsley, chopped

1 squirt tomato puree

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1 tablespoon brown sauce

2 cinnamon sticks

500g passata

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Brush the aubergines with oil, salt and pepper and put skin side down in a roasting tray. Roast for 20 mins and put to one side.
  2. While the aubergines roast fry the onion in a little oil. Add half the cumin, paprika and cinnamon. After the onion softens add the lamb, pine nuts, tomato puree, sugar and season. Cook for a further 10 minutes.
  3. Turn the oven down to 180°C. Spoon the lamb mix on top of the aubergines, and then in the frying pan add the passata, brown sauce and remaining spices. Bring to a simmer and pour around the aubergines. Cover with foil and bake for a further 1 hour 30 minutes until the aubergine are completely soft. Serve with creme fraiche and rice.


Gary Fennon
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pesto pizza

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pesto pizza

I was set a challenge by Domino’s to come up with a home-made alternative to the newest addition to their online pizza menu – the Double Decadence Basil Burst. Their creation is a crazy double-decker affair of pesto-style sauce sandwich between two bases, then tomato sauce on top with the usual toppings. Layers and layers of complexity. Bonkers.

My response is to go the other way and pull it right back as simple as possible: a lovely chewy, crusty pizza base and a punchy pesto straight from the food processor. By mixing polenta in with the flour you get a pleasing honeyed colour to the dough and a sweet flavour too. The pesto is made in seconds and of course can be pushed in any direction you fancy on a given night.

It’s hearty and tasty, and pretty cheap too. Try it out!

Pesto pizza:

For the base (enough for 2 x 30cm pizzas – dough freezes well after first proving):

500g strong bread flour

100g fine polenta

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

7g dry yeast

4 tablespoons olive oil

300ml lukewarm water

For the pesto:

Bunch of basil, leaves and stalks

75g pine nuts

50g parmesan

Zest of ½ a lemon

Extra virgin olive oil

  1. In a jug mix the yeast, oil, water and sugar together and leave for a few minutes while you get on with the other dry ingredients.
  2. For the pizza base, bring the flour, polenta and salt together in a bowl. I use a food mixer which makes the next stage dead easy.
  3. Pour the wet mix into the dry and let a dough hook do its work for about 5-6 minutes. If you’re doing it by hand push and knead it together until smooth and elastic. Cover the dough with a damp teatowel and leave somewhere warm for an hour – it should double in size.
  4. When the dough has risen, pre-heat the oven as high as it will go. If you have a pizza stone, get it in now. Otherwise a cheap but conductive metal tray will work.
  5. Push the dough into a thin, round shape on a floured surface. Go as thin as you can. When it’s ready take it to the oven – you may want to drape this over a rolling pin to help transfer it. The pizza will bake for anywhere between 8 – 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your base and the temperature of your oven. (Quicker is better).
  6. While the dough cooks, make the pesto. I do mine in a food processor, but a pestle and mortar works great. Chuck the basil in first and whizz up, then throw in the pine nuts. Add the cheese and keep on blending. When you have a lovely rubbly paste, scoop into a bowl and add enough olive oil to make it a smooth slush. Stir in the lemon zest and check for seasoning – add salt and pepper til it takes awesome.
  7. When your pizza base is ready, spread the pesto over and leave for 1 minute to let the sauce warm slightly and soak into the dough. Grate over a touch more fresh parmesan and serve.

pesto

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pesto in my beloved pestle and mortar

Pesto epitomises my favourite foods: it simultaneously celebrates the individual ingredients and yet comes together to create an exciting new taste. If that wasn’t good enough, the sauce is ready before the pasta’s boiled. I don’t know who first had the idea for this, but they are worth applauding.

It’s not much of a recipe, my son can rattle off the ingredients: garlic, basil, parmesan, pine nuts, all bashed up together and then your best olive oil is added to make a paste, finally seasoned. If I have one spare, some lemon juice makes all the difference.

It’s brilliantly summery, the flavours astonish everyone who have only ever eaten it out of a jar, and I always make sure I have the bits for it lurking round my kitchen.