Category: spring onion

Categories
chicken chorizo food spring onion sweetcorn

chicken, chorizo and sweetcorn pizza

I recently took a trip to Gordon Ramsay’s Street Pizza in St Paul’s. They offer a bottomless pizza option where the pizza is cooked constantly and is then brought round. Grab a slice of what you like!

The pizzas were all great. Even the ham and pineapple was a step above – shredded gammon, strips of pineapple but the fresh pecorino was the finishing touch.

However the one I loved was chicken and chorizo, with a sweetcorn puree base. It was a perfect combo! So much so, I had to make it myself:

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chicken, chorizo and sweetcorn pizza

Course Main Course
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 5 minutes
Servings 23 people

Equipment

  • pizza stone

Ingredients

  • 400 g strong flour
  • 1 teaspoon dried yeast
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 250 ml lukewarm water
  • 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

For the sweetcorn puree:

  • 198 g tin sweetcorn
  • 2 teaspoons creme fraiche
  • lemon juice

Other toppings:

  • 50 g mozzarella
  • 100 g shredded cooked chicken
  • 5-6 slices chorizo
  • 2 spring onions
  • coriander or parsley to garnish

Instructions

  • To make the pizza dough, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and then turn out on to a worktop. Knead thoroughly for 10 minutes until stretchy and elastic. Form into 2-3 balls and put into an oiled bowl. Cover with a teatowel and leave to rise in a warm place for 90 minutes.
  • Meanwhile make the puree. Blitz all the ingredients together and season with salt and pepper. Push through a sieve to remove the skins and keep refrigerated until needed.
  • After 90 minutes, preheat the oven as high as it will go with a pizza stone in. Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Add the sweetcorn puree and add the other toppings to taste. Cook for 4-5 minutes until golden and risen. Serve immediately.

Video

Categories
leeks parmesan pasta pesto pine nuts ricotta spring onion

green pesto penne

If you don’t follow Gennaro Contaldo on Instagram, you’re missing out. He posts great food all the time. When he posted a picture of a lunch time special, I had to make it. He didn’t really describe a recipe so here’s my recipe for a green pesto penne inspired by Gennaro Contaldo.

JI Canary Wharf Docklands Another special of the day, our own freshly homemade mezzemaniche pasta with zucchini, mint, spring onion and pecorino pesto, topped up with buffalo baked ricotta and grated pecorino #zuchinni #pesto #buffalo #ricotta #courgette #jamiesitalian

A post shared by Gennaro Contaldo (@gennarocontaldo) on

Since employing Jamie Oliver in the Neal Street restaurant in the 1990s, the two have always had a close relationship. Gennaro looks on him like a son, and Jamie gives him credit for properly teaching him Italian cuisine. Hence, Gennaro has a mentor / ambassadorial role at Jamie’s Italian, roaming their branches spreading his love and knowledge of Italian food. What joy he must bring to their kitchens, with his infectious attitude and heavily accented English. I love him when he’s on TV, and he was just as genial when I met him in 2016.

Pesto is a great catch-all recipe and this spring pesto penne recipe is a good store cupboard standby. This recipe brings together great produce and turns it into a veg-packed sauce that glows with goodness. You could easily substitute the mint for another leafy one, or swap whatever greens you have on hand. Just blanch as needed to tenderise or quieten harsh flavours. Don’t skip the ricotta, the nutty creaminesss is a perfect foil to the herby flavours.

Apart from baking the ricotta, the whole thing can be done in under 15 minutes so is a great weekday dinner.

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green pesto penne

Course Main Dish
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 250 g ricotta
  • dried oregano
  • 1 lemon
  • 3 spring onions
  • 1 courgette topped and tailed
  • 1 small leek
  • 250g penne
  • 1 mint large bunch
  • 25 g pine nuts
  • 20 g parmesan freshly grated

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 200C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Put the ricotta on this, drizzle with olive oil, grate over the zest of half a lemon, sprinkle with salt and a pinch of oregano. Bake for 30 mins or until tinged brown at the edges.
  • Get a large pan of salted water on to boil. When boiling furiously, add the spring onions, courgette and leek and blanch for two minutes to take the harsh notes out of the onion and start tendering the veg. Don't discard the water, now use it to cook your pasta.
  • While the pasta cooks, add the veg, mint, pine nuts, a swig of extra virgin olive oil and a large pinch of salt to a food processor and blitz to pieces. When everything is broken down, trickle in some more oil to make a paste. Stop the motor and grate in plenty of parmesan, lemon juice and a big splash of the pasta cooking water. Taste and add more salt, lemon or oil as required until you have a loose sauce.
  • When the pasta is cooked, drain and return to the pan. Toss the sauce with the pasta until well-coated. Serve in bowls, garnishing with rough chunks of baked ricotta, pine nuts and parmesan.
Categories
cheese food ham mustard potatoes spring onion

soufflé potatoes

twice-baked potatoes

Student food can mean an endless diet of jacket potatoes. If this is the case you can ring the changes with my puffed-up potatoes and incorporate whatever you have in the fridge to round out your dinner. The whisked egg whites lift the stodge of dense potato and gives a soufflé-like finish. It takes a little longer to make than a regular “jack pot” but I think the finish is worth it.

(In the pictures they’re accompanied by sweet and sour peppers but this is optional – there’s plenty of sustenance in the potato!).

Approximate cost  for main ingredients, excludes storecupboard ingredients (prices from Tesco.com 7th Oct 2012): 62p

Soufflé potatoes (serves 1):

1 baking potato

1 slice of smoked ham, sliced

Big handful of grated cheddar cheese

1 spring onion, sliced

1 egg, separated

1 teaspoon mustard

  1. Bake the potatoes as you would for jackets, smothering with a little oil, salt and pepper and baking in a 180°C oven for about an hour.
  2. Just before you take the potatoes out of the oven, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks. Mix the mustard into the yolks.
  3. Take the potatoes out of the oven and leave to cool for a moment (this helps loosen the flesh from the skin and makes them easier to handle).
  4. Using a teatowel to hold the spuds, cut the potatoes in half lengthways and scoop the flesh out into a bowl. Put the hollowed-out skins back on the tray.
  5. Mash the flesh with the cheese, mustard, ham, spring onion egg yolk and mustard.
  6. Fold in the egg whites and scoop into the empty skins. Put back in the oven and turn up to 220°C.
  7. Take out of the oven in about 15 minutes, or when the tops have started to brown.
Categories
asparagus cottage cheese food lasagne parmesan pasta peas spring greens spring onion

summer veg lasagne

I always mean to try interesting lasagna recipes – ones that aren’t classic lasagne al forno that is – but when I come to cook it I can’t resist meaty, tomatoey rich ragu topped with creamy bechamel. It takes Jamie Oliver to convince me to try it another way.

This Summer veg lasagne is inspired by one from his 30 Minute Meals book. It’s perfect for the Summer months and ideal for clearing out the fridge! I grabbed a bunch of things that needed using up for here and it came out lovely.

Summer veg lasagne (serves 4):

A bunch of spring onions

3 cloves of garlic

300g asparagus

Large handful frozen peas

Large handful spring greens

Large bunch of basil

150ml single cream

150ml veg stock

250g cottage cheese

250g fresh lasagne sheets

Parmesan

  1. Get the kettle on to boil, get a large frying pan on a high heat and add a splash of oil. Put the oven on 180°C.
  2. Slice up the spring onions and add to the pan. Crush in the garlic and toss well to prevent sticking. Snap off the woody bits of the asparagus then slice up the stems, but leave the tips intact and keep to one side for now. Add the chopped stems to the pan with a splash of boiled water.
  3. Add the peas and greens and keep stirring. Chop the basil and add to the pan with the cream and add plenty of seasoning. Cover with stock and bring to the boil.
  4. Get a roasting tray and start to layer up lasagne sheets and veg mix until you have used everything up. Finish with pasta. Add a splash of boiled water to the cottage cheese to slacken and then spread over your pasta. Scatter the asparagus on top of the cottage cheese and grate over plenty of parmesan. Transfer to the oven and bake until golden and crunchy. Serve with panzanella.
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