A PACCHERI PASTA

Recipe of the week...
... Calamarata Pasta with Mushrooms, Beans and Greens

Ingredients: Extra-virgin olive oil, 1 small onion, 1 garlic clove, 1 bunch of Swiss chard, 225g mixed mushrooms, 240g cooked cannellini beans, 150g tomatoes, 450g calamarata pasta (or similarly thick, tubed pasta), salt and freshly ground black pepper

Serves: 4 bowlfuls of hearty Italian grub

Time taken: 45 mins-1 hr

Hi readers,

How are you all today??

The sun has come out! Barbecues and beer gardens and ice cream cabinets are a calling.. and everyone seems to have a spring in their step today. Has the sun got you in a good mood?

If it hasn’t already, I have a few recommendations from my last week or two which might take your week up a notch…

> CINEMA – A Quiet Place

Last week I bravely agreed to go see A Quiet Place at the cinema, as it was my other half’s turn to pick a flick, and he’s suffered a series of romantic films at home recently. So, off we went – with me thoroughly braced for a scaring. I picked up on the Twitter hype ahead of going and made sure I speedily ate my cinema snack before the film started…

And while I can’t say I enjoyed the film – I was on edge from start to finish – it was a good watch. An interesting premise and fine acting from Emily Blunt. I recommend you go see at the cinema for the surround sound experience, as I doubt it would make you jump in the same way at home. Overall – less scary and better done than I’d expected.

> MUSIC – Summery tunes

There seem to have been a few new tracks on the radio in the car lately, and the kind that have you dancing behind the wheel. I’m enjoying fresh, summery pop! My fave songs at the moment are…

 - Calvin Harris & Due Lipa – One Kiss

 - Friendly Fires –Love Like Waves

 - ZAYN – Let Me

> TV – The Bridge

FINALLY… it’s been announced the BBC will be screening Season 4 of The Bridge in May. That gives us approximately one month to catch up on the first three seasons, which have all been uploaded to iPlayer for just this reason. I started last night.

> BOOK – Milk & Honey

I was tired the other night and trying to fall asleep, and picked up Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, which I’ve had by my bed for a while now waiting to be opened. In the end, I read the book of poetry from cover to cover and highly recommend! If you’re looking for thoughtful easy reading.. it made my evening. And I’m thinking about it still.

> RECIPE – Calamarata Pasta with Mushrooms, Beans, and Greens

My recipe of the week this week, readers, is one for a vegan Italian pasta dish. I found this recipe recently in a vegan magazine, dated from sometime in 2017, which I was leafing through in the waiting room at the blood donor centre, while there to give blood. It proved a handy distraction! And I took photos of the pages for this recipe to take away and try out at home – a Calamarata Pasta with Mushrooms, Beans, and Greens.

This recipe calls for a pasta called ‘calamarata’. I googled and, as the name implies, calamarata takes its name from calamari and is shaped like squid rings. It’s normally a little thick and often with a slightly rough surface, similar to paccheri but narrower, and comes from southern Italy. But I couldn’t find any! I did try but gave up in the end and used paccheri instead – ASDA Extra Special Mezzi Paccheri.

I also failed at sourcing Swiss chard – it’s not been my best effort this week, readers, in getting the right ingredients! Instead, I bought a pack of ASDA Grower's Selection Spring Greens – a bargain at just 69p for a 500g pack.

However you fare ingredient shopping, readers, as long as you find some ingredients remotely along the right lines, here’s the recipe in just eight simple steps…

--

Recipe: Calamarata Pasta with Mushrooms, Beans, and Greens

Ingredients: Extra-virgin olive oil, 1 small onion, 1 garlic clove, 1 bunch of Swiss chard, 225g mixed mushrooms, 240g cooked cannellini beans, 150g tomatoes, 450g calamarata pasta (or similarly thick, tubed pasta), salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1.     Somehow, get yourself in the mood for a proper Italian cooking session! Set some sunny music playing, pour a hearty glass of wine, maybe some olives to nibble on as you cook?

2.     First, begin with veg prep. Slice the onion, finely chop the garlic clove, roughly chop the Swiss chard and the mushrooms, peel the tomatoes and crush with a fork.

3.     Then heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan or wok. Fry the onion and garlic in the oil, then add the Swiss chard, season with salt and leave to fry lightly over a low heat for ten minutes, stirring every so often.

4.     Meanwhile, set a kettle boiling, then empty your pasta into a large saucepan of boiling water. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain it when it is al dente, reserving the cooking liquid, and set aside.

5.     When your chard looks halfway done cooking, add the mushrooms and a little warm water, if needed, then cook covered until the chard and mushrooms are soft – it should take 15 minutes total.

6.     Next, add the beans to the pan and toss in the crushed tomatoes, then season with salt and pepper. Stir and cook for another 10 minutes.

7.     Then tip the cooked pasta into the pan, stir to combine, and sauté it everything together for a few minutes. Add a little cooking liquid, if necessary, as it shouldn’t be too dry.

8.     Spoon your pasta out between four bowls and serve with a generous grinding of black pepper. Tuck in!

--

What do you reckon, readers? Might you give this recipe a try? It went down a storm at the weekend! I cooked for the Mr and made a real effort to dress up and lay the table and put out olives and wine… we had a lovely evening.

I will say – I added a little cooking liquid, as called for in Step 7, but definitely not enough. Our pasta was a bit on the dry side, as a result, and we’d homemade garlic bread but didn’t really have much to dunk it in as there wasn’t a lot by way of sauce.

BUT… that’s me knit picking. Overall, the dish was enjoyable to cook, and tasty and filling to eat. It was nice to try new and seasonal ingredients, and the dish came together as planned, and I managed to do this on a hangover so you DEFINITELY can!

Give this recipe a go, readers, and please let me know how you get on in the kitchen.

Have fun in the sun this week!

Sauté safely,

Hayley

Autumn Series - Post #6 - Risotto and reasons for red wine

Recipe of the week...
... Green Risotto & Pan Con Tomate

Ingredients: 30g 3 seed mix, 20g fresh basil leaves, 2 ciabatta rolls, 40g Italian hard cheese, 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine, 1 vegetable stock cube, 160g arborio rice, 1 brown onion, 3 garlic cloves, 10g fresh parsley leaves, 3 tomatoes, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper

Time taken: 40 minutes max

Serves: 2 super filing, super healthy, super tasty portions

--

Hi readers,

Hope this finds you well? And feeling like a funky Friday chicken, ready to spread your wings wide, fly the coop and strut your way towards the wonderful weekend? That’s right, as I write, we are once again wearied by the week and ready for couple of days’ respite. It’s Friday, readers, and I feel some gentle yoga and soft pyjamas coming on!

And red red wine

This week at work’s been HEAVY for me, sure you know the kind. Like – the kind of workload that has you messing up basic phrases (How’re you going? What? Doing! What? Doing what? I mean how are you doing? Um… fine.) and clueless as to whether there may be milk in the fridge / change for the meter / repercussions if you buy a one-way ticket to Canada.

Although I did learn to knit, sort of. It took a few nights of gritty determination to last out the American youtube tutorials. But now I’m at it without them (thankfully) and in the process of knitting a holey square, proud as punch. And my cousin had a baby and I got to hold him and he’s smaller than I’ve ever been. Melting still. He’s a warm, wriggly fellow.

Three days' knitting progress

And yes, readers, we made it to Friday… let’s have high fives all round. So, how’s your week been? Is it the kind that’s flown by – blink and you miss it – or are we crawling over the finish line of an epic five days? Because, either way, without fail I savour that finish line feeling on a Friday when you bust out of the place and you’re heading towards two days of who knows what! Unknown wonderfulness.

Last weekend I made it down to London for a reunion with some fabulous uni friends, with cocktails and much chatter, afternoon tea and champagne, hugs and catch ups. It all was most lovely. Although the loooong coach journeys wiped me out, as anticipated, so this weekend I’m planning a much more low-key affair. But how about you, readers? Big weekend plans? Will you be living it large and busting a move or two??

Take me back

Though the very thought exhausts me – I wish you well! Go shake and shimmy what yo mamma gave you, kids. Sing and dance. Stay out late, get in early. Think not of work, care not for the Catalan people. Get yourself the chips and sod the high heels, take them off.  

Meanwhile, on the topic of food-related thinking, readers, I’ve been giving this headspace again over the past few days. Following on from the past few blog posts, in which I’ve been pondering the thought processes behind emotional eating – as a habit that loops and that perpetuates as a response to a certain cue, I’m thinking in my next few posts it would be good to look forward to the ways to  overcome an emotional eating habit loop.

In the re:wellbeing program that I’ve been following recently, Rachel suggests three possible ways to overcome this loop…

1. Address the cues
2. Increase wellbeing
3. Change the behaviour

If I start today with addressing the cues. By this, I mean addressing the cues that trigger emotions and cravings. How can you avoid getting into a situation, or falling into a thought process, which creates emotions… that then trigger cravings making you want to eat?

If you’ve followed my last few blog posts (or you can catch up on them now!) then maybe you’ve identified the situations or your thought patterns, which can prompt an emotional response, triggering a craving to eat, and keeping you stuck in the emotional eating habit loop – maybe? So, the next step moving forwards could be to change the cues that start this whole cycle off – give it a try!

Changing some of the cues could be simple and you could get rid of them in a single action. For instance, unfollowing accounts on social media that make you feel bad about yourself (even if they’re health and wellbeing accounts!). And making your favourite comfort foods harder to access. Rachel at re:wellbeing recommends you try moving foods away from where it is that you find yourself eating. You eat in bed? Then – for real – no keeping treats in your bedside table! Kick them out.

On the other hand, some cues may take longer to change and require more steps to remove from your life. For instance, thought patterns – as it’s hard not to fall back into these. You could use a mantra to steer yourself away from the thought patterns you’d like to shake off – every time you find yourself thinking these unwanted thoughts you can overcome them by reminding yourself of a powerful message – although this takes time and consistent practice.

What do you think are the most important cues that influence your emotions, and make you want to eat? How could you remove, change or respond to these? Bear in mind your surroundings, your thoughts and life experiences, your knowledge and skills, and family and friends. Are there any barriers that might stop you? If there are, how could you overcome these barriers? Might there be something that’s keeping you stuck? Might you need help?

As Rachel points out, if you can't remove a trigger completely or replace it with something different, then this is still okay. It's just important to be able to recognise and deal with the situation before it influences your emotions and behaviour. For example, say you’re going through a stressful time at work, then take 10 minutes to relax by yourself when you walk through the door in an evening. This could prevent emotional snacking or overeating at tea.

As Rachel also makes clear, “It would be overwhelming and impossible to address all of the things that you have identified above at the same time.” Focus your efforts on addressing an important cue first, the one which you think has most influence on your emotional eating, and see if the changes you make are having a positive impact on your emotions and your behaviour. Maybe you’ll find there’s something you’ve overlooked, an important factor that means you need to rethink? No worry! Start afresh if you need to. There’s plenty of time.

Food for thought, readers! One to ponder while crunching leaves and breathing in crisp fresh air.. on an autumnal walk this weekend, perhaps? That’s my plan, anyway! It’s beautiful out and about in and around Sheffield this time of year, with our many trees. AND a big walk call for hearty plateful of food upon your return SO – without further ado – I give you our recipe of the week.

This week, readers, I’m sharing with you a Gousto recipe for Green Risotto & Pan Con Tomate. A warming bowlful of tasty Italian grub to fill your boots up even after the trekkiest and hilliest of walks. Here’s the recipe in just 12 simple steps…

--

Recipe: Green Risotto & Pan Con Tomate

1.     Set some funky tunes playing in your kitchen and turn them UPUPUP. Gather your ingredients all together on the counter, set the kettle boiling and heat the oven to 220C. Dissolve the vegetable stock cube in 700ml boiled water.

2.     Heat a big non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat, add the 3 seed mix and toast for a minute or so until the seeds are just starting to brown and pop. Then remove from the pan and set them aside to cool.

3.     Peel and finely dice the brown onion, and return the pan to a medium-high heat with either a splash of cooking oil or a knob of butter. Once the pan is hot, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes until the onion’s softening but not yet coloured.

4.     Then add the arborio rice to the pan and stir briefly to coat the rice grains in oil. Add the Shaoxing wine and cook for a minute or so until this has almost all evaporated from the pan. Next, add a third of the jug of stock, along with a pinch of pepper.

5.     Keep an eye on the pan and, once this dose of stock has absorbed, continue to add the stock a little at a time until you’ve added it all. Keep stirring the contents of the pan every minute or two to prevent any from sticking to the base of the pan.

6.     Meanwhile, as your risotto cooks, you can be making the pesto. Begin by peeling and finely chopping 1 clove of garlic. Then roughly chop the basil and parsley together, including the stalks.

7.     Add the toasted seeds, basil, parsley, oregano, chopped garlic, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, a splash of water, and a pinch of salt and pepper to a food processor. Blitz to a coarse paste – this is your pesto.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: If – like me – you don’t own a food processor then you can either add everything to a smoothie maker to mix, you can crush it all in a pestle & mortar, or you can just pop everything in a bowl and try to mash together using a fork.

8.     Next, slice each ciabatta as you would a loaf of bread. Lay the slices flat on a baking try and drizzle with olive oil. Carefully transport the tray into the oven for 5 minutes or so, to toast the bread.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: If you remember, turn the ciabatta over half way through toasting. You’re aiming for both sides to be nicely toasted with no burning smell filling the kitchen.

9.     While your ciabatta slices toast, peel the remaining 2 garlic cloves and cut them each in half. Slice the tomatoes in half then grate (using your largest grater) into a bowl.

10.  Returning to your risotto pan, once all the stock has absorbed and your rice is cooked, then you can stir the pesto through the risotto. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Once you’re happy, remove from the heat and turn your hob off.

11.  When your ciabatta slices are nicely toasted, safely remove them from the oven and turn the oven off. Rub some garlic on each one and spread with grated tomato, then season with salt and pepper – this is your Pan Con Tomate.

12.  Spoon your risotto evenly between two bowls and grate the Italian hard cheese over the top to garnish. Serve your risotto with Pan Con Tomate on the side – time to tuck in to your tasty, warm tea.

Check it out! What a wonderful bowlful of food

--

In the words of Gousto…

“The base for this risotto is a pesto made from 3 seed mix, parsley and basil. It forms a soothing fragrant rice dish, accompanied by ‘pan con tomate’, which is a Spanish tapas side and translates to ‘bread with tomato’, just in case you were wondering. Italian and Spanish…. we think it works, just don’t tell either!”

And that’s all there is to it, readers! What do you think? Is this a recipe you’d take on? Because you don’t have to give up too many minutes of your weekend – this recipe is cookable and eatable in under an hour – and you’ve only a couple of tricky ingredients to source from a supermarket of the bigger kind (I’m thinking Shaoxing wine and arborio rice).

So, it’s a doddle really! A fun recipe to keep you occupied and enjoying your time in the kitchen. And then some super tasty food to enjoy for your tea after all that hard work – what’s not to like? I always feel fancy eating a risotto at home and there’s a definite moment of pride spooning it out of the pan when I’ve taken care to stir, and it’s not cemented to the bottom!

Readers, whether or not your weekend features green risotto, I do hope you have a splendid time and soak up some of the autumn scenery outside. And if you try this recipe – lemme know how it goes. Best of luck cheffing!

Toast safely,

Hayley

--

An informative footer

I’d like to note, the above is part of a series of posts that I’m currently having fun writing, while undertaking a fresh start with food. Food bloggers can’t admit they got bored with food, you say? Well, I beg to differ! In August 2017, I made two wonderful decisions; I signed up for Gousto – a food delivery company who send recipes and ingredients in the post – and I began a health & wellness program to transform my food habits, with Rachel of re:Wellbeing. In this blog post, and others like it, I share one of the wonderful recipe that I’m taking on, and an idea that I’m exploring as part of this fresh start.

If you would like to find out more about Gousto, please visit https://www.gousto.co.uk/

(I have a sneaky discount code! If you’re new to Gousto, then click HERE for 50% off your first 2 boxes and I’ll get a discount too for referring you… so errrrybody wins)

And, if you would like to learn more about re:Wellbeing, then visit https://www.rewellbeing.com/