Category Archives: What’s for dinner?

Chorizo, courgette gnocchi

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Gnocchi – aka potato dumplings – are big in northern Italy. My paternal grandmother, from Parma, used to make them and I would help her by swooshing them along the prongs of a fork, which is how you get the pattern on them if you make them at home. She made it look so easy so of course I thought it was easy.

It isn’t. I don’t try to make them now as it’s so dependent on things like ambient temperature, how much water the potatoes take up. Well that’s how I’ve found it anyway. Hard and with unpredictable results. So gnocchi is not something I try to make.

I originally got this from the now defunct Easy Living and, as time has gone on, I’ve adapted it and made sure it has more veg. My children love this.

 

This dish is so easy but so delicious. I thoroughly recommend it. It serves four.

This is what you need:

Olive oil

120g chorizo – but I never weigh it and just use what I have/fancy

1 clove of garlic, crushed

3-4 courgettes, julienned (I use a peeler from Lakeland), easy as.

350-500g gnocchi

Basil leaves to serve (not essential)

grated Parmesan.

This is what you do:

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan, everything in the ingredients list will end up in this pan so make sure it’s big enough. Add the chorizo and throw it around the pan for about 2 mins.

Have a pan of boiling, salted water on the go.

Now to the frying pan, add the garlic and courgettes and cook, stirring, for about 3 mins. Meanwhile cook the gnocchi according to the instructions (1-2 mins usually), drain when ready and then mix into the frying pan with the courgettes, chorizo etc. Mix and serve with sprinkled Parmesan and basil.

An easy summer dessert

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My summer dessert special. If you come to my house during berry season, this is likely what you’ll get.

This is, actually, really, a dessert I invented myself. You can tell by just how imprecise everything is. It was probably borne out of that great motivator: greed.

This is what you need:

Some amaretti biscuits

Mascarpone, you need about 1-2 tablespoons per person depending on size of glass.

Some yoghurt

Lemon curd

Some berries

Some icing sugar

Some pretty glasses

Long spoons

 

Crush the amaretti biscuits. Whip up the mascarpone with the yoghurt and lemon curd – to taste. I tend to have a 60/30/10 split mascarpone/yoghurt/lemon curd. And when I say whip up, I mean just kinda loosen it with a fork until it’s all homogenised.

Take some of the berries and whizz them up in a liquidiser with the icing sugar. Just a tablespoon or so of the icing sugar! This is for the syrupy part.

Then you just layer everything, a layer of crushed biscuits, a layer of fruit, layer of the mascarpone mixture, a bit of the syrup repeat, etc. The syrup makes things really tasty, so don’t skimp on it. I like to end up with a  sprinkling of the amaretti or some chopped hazelnuts on top of a top layer of the mascarpone mixture.

You can make these in advance and bring them out at the end. With a flourish.

 

Pete’s pizza dough

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This isn’t sourdough, and it’s a bread machine recipe. But it’s a lovely pizza dough, and one which Pete, my partner, has perfected over the years.

I don’t understand people who ooh-ahh over the fact that we make our own pizzas. It’s simplicity itself and you can make them in advance.

I make these in two Mermaid trays – but I like them thin. If you like your pizzas thick well, I’m not sure I have much to say to you really. Pizzas shouldn’t be thick.

From start to finish you can have pizzas on the table in about fifty-five minutes. The pizza-dough cycle on my bread machine takes 40 mins, then you just roll out, put toppings on and they’re cooked in 8-10 mins. And for those of you who have children, this is a lovely thing to get them involved in.

Here’s what you need (Pete works in ounces, I work in grams, I’ve kept true to his recipe here):

8floz hand hot water
2tablespoons olive oil
12oz of plain white, soft flour (note: not bread flour)
1teaspoon caster sugar
1teaspoon salt
2teaspoons yeast

You put all the ingredients in your bread machine in the order the manufacturer recommends, above is the order I put mine in as that’s what Panasonic recommends. The pizza dough cycle is, as I said, 40 mins long on my machine. (The regular dough cycle is 2.20mins so that should give you an idea, you don’t want a long cycle.)

The pizza dough before rolling

When it’s done, oil a suitable surface (I use a very large chopping board so that I can move it about if need be) and your hands, and take the dough out. Sometimes this dough is really sticky, other times more manageable. It makes for a better dough when it’s stickier (higher hydration) so there is a compensation.

Because I use the dough across two baking trays, I cut mine in half; but if you’re making – say – four round pizzas, cut into four..etc. I’m sure you can work it out..

Roll out the dough, as thin as you can, to fit your tray/tin. If you can do that thing of throwing the dough up in the air to make it thin, great: do teach me how to do it too!

When it’s rolled out to an approximate size, I lay it on the tray (note: I oil the tray and coat it with polenta/cornmeal), rest if for five mins and then stretch it into the corners/sides.

Now you can, at this stage, go straight into doing the toppings and either cook it or put it in the fridge (naked or with all the toppings on, I put mine in naked). You can also freeze it (in which case cook straight from frozen, just give it a few more mins). I cover mine with cling film place one tray on top of another (if no toppings on) to save space in the fridge.

When you’re ready to cook, if you haven’t already, put on whatever toppings you want. For the tomato bit on the top, I use Waitrose Sundried Tomato paste – a tiny amount spread on the pizza base (it’s quite salty so go carefully). Then I put on artichoke hearts, salami slices, olives, ham, mushrooms, mozzarella, asparagus if in season etc. Or just the tomato paste and some mozzarella for those who like it really simple (boring..) Just before it goes into the oven, splash some olive oil on it and cook it for 7-10 mins. My oven is very hot and has a pizza setting, yours might too. You can tell when it’s done as it will have bubbled up and be golden.

Take out and slide onto a chopping board, slice up, eat and feel very virtuous. Pizza doesn’t have to be unhealthy..or at least whilst not pretending this is a health food, it’s as healthy as pizza can be.

La pizza, I put the rocket on after it came out of the oven