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…

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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!

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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

Gratitude and great food

Recipe of the week...
... Vegan Gnocchi, with Pesto and Kale

Ingredients: 500g gnocchi, 100g kale, a generous handful of black pitted olives, a dozen baby plum tomatoes, a few spring onions, 200g chestnut mushrooms, most of a jar of free-from green pesto, 200g tinned chickpeas, cayenne pepper, paprika, olive oil, cracked black pepper and sea salt

Serves: 2 big platefuls of food

Time taken: Half an hour

Hi readers,

Happy Tuesday! How are you all today?

Again – but thinking about it properly this time – how are you?

Honestly, I’m a little tired. A little emotional. Quite happy with life. Worrying about at least four friends/family members. Aware I haven’t been exercising enough this last week or two. And I need to buy house warming gifts, I should have done that already. But I think I’m doing good, overall. Things are good. Yoga and decent sleep will sort me out later.

How about you, readers? If you have time, maybe give a moment’s thought to how you feel inside. And write a gratitude list? For everything you’re grateful for right now.

Here’s mine…

Hayley’s Gratitude List – 13^th March

1.     First, I’m grateful for my family and their health. I’m especially grateful for this, this week, as I met my other half’s dad for the first time this weekend. Who is unwell. And it made me very appreciative of my own father bear’s health. Also, we had Mother’s Day at the weekend and social media seemed flooded with posts from people missing their mums. And remembering them and sharing photos with their mums before they passed. Mine's alive and well.

2.     Secondly, I’m grateful for my other half. It’s all very new and scary and exciting, still. But he’s lovely and I wouldn’t want to be without him. And it feels like he’s making my life infinitely better.

3.     Then, third, I’m grateful this week for my home. I cleaned it, last Friday, so it’s all tidy inside and fresh and comfortable. And my landlord fixed the boiler and my radiator, so it’s warm at now and we can have hot showers again. And it rained really hard the other night and brick wall fell over onto the house – but it didn’t break us! We’ve withstood the fall of the wall.

4.     Fourthly, I’m grateful this week for my car. She drove through puddles as big as ponds yesterday when it had been raining all day. And she put in a solid effort when we had all the snow recently. She’s keeping me warm and dry and getting me from A to B. I really should treat her to a car wash and Werthers Originals soon.

5.     Finally, number five, I’m grateful for music this week. I randomly got into Bonobo the other night and have a Bonobo playlist on the go now. Somehow, it seems equally good for waking me up in the morning while I put my make up on, and also for falling asleep to at night (on a lower volume). If you haven’t listened before – I recommend! 

What do you have to lose by thinking up a Gratitude List, readers? You never know what might come out when you consider your life as it stands. Maybe think of this as your status update to yourself?

Now though – without further ado – I’ll share with you our Recipe of the Week. This recipe, readers, is one I cooked over the weekend for a date night in with my very lovely other half. It’s a vegan recipe, based on one I found on the Veganuary website (see the original here), for a Vegan Gnocchi, with Pesto and Kale.

This recipe came about as I was excited to find Le Conserve Della Nonna Free From Green Pesto for sale at ASDA (£2 per jar). I had vegan pesto – I had to find something to do with it – and I came across this recipe online which looked to be quite straightforward. No crazy ingredients, no food processor required, no need to spend hours in the kitchen.

Fancy giving it a go? Here’s the recipe in just ten simple steps…

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Recipe: Vegan Gnocchi, with Pesto and Kale

Ingredients: 500g gnocchi, 100g kale, a generous handful of black pitted olives, a dozen baby plum tomatoes, a few spring onions, 200g chestnut mushrooms, most of a jar of free-from green pesto, 200g tinned chickpeas, cayenne pepper, paprika, olive oil, cracked black pepper and sea salt

Method:

1.     Heat your oven to 200C and get all your ingredients out on the side. Begin by opening a window, turning off your phone, and pouring a drink. Maybe play some Bonobo?

2.     Then prep your chickpeas for roasting! You drain a tin of chickpeas and rinse in cold water, the pour out onto some kitchen towel and pat dry to remove as much moisture as you can.

3.     Tip the chickpeas into a bowl, add a splash of olive oil, a shake of cayenne pepper, and a shake of paprika. Mix well, pour onto a baking try and pop into the oven to roast for the next 20 mins.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Why not make too many? I used a large tin of chickpeas and then saved half my roasted chickpeas to snack on the next day – tasty!

4.     While your chickpeas roast, heat a frying pan or wok over a small flame with a generous drizzle of cooking oil. Tip your kale into the pan and season with salt and pepper. Wilt, stirring occasionally.

5.     While your kale wilts, you can be prepping your veg. Finely chop your spring onions, halve your plum tomatoes, and slice up your chestnut mushrooms.

6.     Then, save a small handful of spring onions, but otherwise add your spring onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and olives to the pan with your kale. Mix well, season with salt and pepper, and fry together for five minutes.

7.     While your veg cook, set a kettle boiling and tip your gnocchi into a large saucepan, along with a generous pinch of salt.

8.     Fill your saucepan with water and boil your gnocchi. Once cooked, drain and add your gnocchi to the frying pan, along with a large dollop of pesto.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: You’ll know your gnocchi are cooked when they float to the surface of the water in the pan – it shouldn’t take too long.

9.     Stir the contents of the pan together and cook for a few minutes, until everything is combined and has heated through. Once your chickpeas are roasted, carefully remove from the oven and switch this off.

10.  Then you can plate up! Spoon your gnocchi out between two plates or bowls, sprinkle with spring onion and roasted chickpeas, then season with cracked black pepper. And tuck in to your tasty vegan tea.

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What do you think, readers? Might this gnocchi recipe take your fancy? I’m really pleased with how it came out! The veg and gnocchi were no different to normal – I didn’t prepare them any differently in order to make the dish vegan – the only change I made was to use a free-from pesto. And this tasted fine! It tasted like pesto, just the same to me.

Then I really enjoyed the addition of roasted chickpeas to top this dish. In all honesty, without any cheese grated on my pasta, I probably would have been left feeling as though something were missing from the dish. Without the chickpeas, I’d have plated this meal up considering it to be a vegan tea (i.e. it’s almost there but something’s definitely missing...)

It took no time or effort at all – chickpeas don’t cost a lot and I just popped them in the oven to roast while I prepared the gnocchi – and this provided a simple tasty way to top off our tea. They give colour and crunch, and make the dish feel finished somehow. Or, at least, I think so anyway. How about you?

Would you give this recipe a try, readers? If you do, please let me know how you get along! Did everything run smooth in the kitchen? Were the steps easy to follow? Did your tea turn out okay? Please share your stories of how you get on with this recipe, readers, and suggest any way you might adapt the dish or tackle it differently next time.

For now, I’ll leave you to your week. Have a CRACKING TIME. I’ll be on the wine with my mum…

Roast safely,

Hayley