I've bragged about making colourful pasta recently, today the more interesting variety I've been making: pasta decorated with leaves. It's absolutely gorgeous - both visually and flavour-wise! Might seem a bit on a time-consuming side, but I guess if I've got time to make my own pasta, adding a few bits (or a sparkle, if you like) to it is not too much to ask for. The ingredients are identical to the plain plain pasta recipe: 200 g plain flour 2 eggs a pinch of salt a handful of leaves (basil, oregano, mint, rucola, chervil or parsley) Mix the ingredients in a large bowl and knead the pasta until smooth and elastic. Cover with cling film and leave in a fridge for 30 minutes to rest. Roll it as thin as possible - this is when the pasta maker comes handy - I don't honestly think I'd be able to roll it as thin as it does. I roll it through all the setting (from 1 to 9 on mine). Each time you need to get 2 similar sheets of pasta. Place one on a ...

If you think it's all about the sauce, and pasta is used merely to bulk the dish, you couldn't be more wrong. I've advanced my pasta making to decorative varieties. :-) First off, the colourful pasta. So far I've mastered the white shade (basic pasta dough), green and red - so a pasta dish in Italian coluors was inevitable. Due to the proportions, we ended up with enough food for 3 meals (ravioli), and at least 5 servings of soup pasta! :-) Red pasta: 200g of plain flour 1 egg 75 g cooked beetroot a pinch of salt extra flour for dusting Blend the beetroot in a food processor to a smooth paste. Add flour, salt and egg, mix all the ingredients into a dough, adding more flour if too sticky, which often happens with this type of dough as beetroots tend to be really moist. . Knead for a couple of minutes, until it's smooth and flexible. Cover the dough with cling filma and put it into the fridge for about 30 minutes to rest. Roll and cut into desired shap...

I first tried this meal back in Italy, and fell in love with it instantly. It is a great example of how to get the maximum of flavour with minimum of ingredients. Usually, we either have a small portion of it as a starter, followed up by the main course (most often involtini di pollo), or a large portion of smoked cheese is the main course, after a pasta dish first (pomodoro e basilico is my natural choice here). Today, however, as the temperature has hit over 30C, we decided to go for a small meal. You need: a large piece of smoked cheese a handful of fresh sage leaves 5-6 slices of parma ham a dash of olive oil salt and pepper Cut the cheese into slices of about 2cm thick. Place a sage leave on each slice of cheese, and wrap a slice of ham around it and season. Put the slices into a bake dish, or a small baking tray, sprinkle them with a dash of olive. Grill it for about 15-20 minutes.

 I often find visiting restaurants inspirational and later try to make the same meals at home. Usually it takes a few attempts, this time with a stroke of luck I got it right at first go. Funny thing about this meal is that I had it at the restaurant serving Polish cuisine, yet the dish was called "Swiss Style Cutlet"... I'm not entirely sure about the connection to Swiss cuisine, but it tastes great, plus it's easy and relatively quick to make, so does the origin really matter? To make the cutlet you need: A doubke chicken breast A few slices of tinend pineapple A few slices of cheese Salt, pepper, oregano, a pinch of chili powder to season A bit of cranberry sauce Wash the chicken breast and dry it with kitchen roll. Cut off any spare bits and beat it gently with a mullet. Season with spices, put pineapple slices on top and put into the oven pre-heated to about 160C (I amke it in a fan oven) for about 40 minutes. Then place cheese on top and put back int...

I really like making cakes. Although I have a really sweet tooth, I could venture to say that it is the making of the cake that I enjoy the most, eating it is just an extra :) Carrot cake is one of my favourites, and really easy to make, I guess it could be labelled "fool proof". Initially I used to make it without the icing - I would simply sprinkle icing sugar on top. Yet, I must admit that the icing definitely gives the cake the finishing touch, and fantastically complements the flavour. For the cake you need: 3-4 large, sweet carrots (the quality of carrots is crucial here - they can really spoil the cake if they aren't sweet enough) 1 apple 2 large cups of flour (250 millilitres) 1 large cup of sugar 1 large cup of oil 4 eggs 2 teaspoons of baking powder 1 heaped teaspoon of cinnamon Peel and finely grate the carrots. Mix flour, sugar and baking powder and cinnamon in a large bowl, add the eggs and oil, stir in grated carrots. Mix all the ingredients we...

My husband surprised me yesterday bringing me a present, a cookbook based on a TV series that I've been watching recently. The programme is situated in a restaurant and generally features the so-called "trendy cooking", rather than traditional recipes, thus I was a bit surprised to find a recipe for tomato soup. When it comes to soups, it's not a secret that they are rather easy to prepare, yet I didn't quite expected a recipe that doesn't require either chicken or vegetable stock! I knew I had to alter the recipe a little, as following the proportions given in the book we would obtain water mixture with a faint tomato flavour - not exactly what we want :) To make the soup I used: 10 large, ripe tomatoes 1 litre of water 3 bay leaves 4-5 allspice berries a pinch of dried dill 1 tablespoon of dried vegetables 1 table spoon of butter salt and pepper to taste cream or yoghurt a handful of pasta (farfale or other) Put tomatoes into a bowl o...

Every now and then I feel a need to make fuss of a meal and go for a three dish dinner thing. Today was one of those days :) The whole meal was prepared in Italian style, however after the main we were so full that  dessert comprised only of Italian espresso, still delicious though! I got the idea for the starter from one of the Italian places we frequent for lunches and dinners - bread balls (made of pizza dough) served with pesto genovese (basil based pesto), pesto rosso (pesto with sun dried tomatoes), and salted butter. For the starter you need: about half a cup of flour a pinch of yeast salt lukewarm water or milk a splash of olive oil Mix all ingredients and knead the dough well until it's soft and playable. Sprinkle olive oil onto it place it in a bowl, and leave in a warm place to grow for about half an hour. Then form small balls and place them on a baking tray, leave some space between them as they'll grow during baking. Preheat the oven to about 180C ...

Every now and again the day comes when I hear the question 'Could we possibly have some real meat?'. "The real meat" being something else than chicken, which for some reason tends to appear in a great majority of my favourite meals. So, every now and again I back down, buy some pork or beef to later ask myself why I don't do it more often! Beef, after all is actually the king of meats - not only is it tender, soft and flavoursome, but it is also filling and amazingly simple and quick to prepare. The idea for this meal has been following me for a few days, and finally today I got around to making it. This beef-based dish is great for lunch or dinner, and in my opinion gives plenty of energy to keep warm, thus it's ideal for this time of year. The simplicity of preparation and short cooking time are just a bonus here! :) I used about 250-300g piece of beef, which I sliced, seasoned with pepper and put thinly sliced garlic on each side of the chops.The thin...

Although I really like cooking and could spend ages in the kitchen preparing, tasting and 'bringing the meal to perfection', on an average day time is of essence so lunch must be tasty, but  most of all quick. It took us a while to fight the temptation of takeaways or fast food bars (old habits! :) as an option for quick lunch, but by now, I've developed quite a selection of quick and tasty meals. The luxury of 'slow cooking' is reserved for the weekends and actually, the first time I prepared this meal was indeed at the weekend, as I expected the preparation to be much longer than it really is.  I was quite shocked how quickly the parcels were ready to be served (only to disappear from the plates even faster!). The meal combines the necessary requirements for a 'weekday lunch' - it is stunningly easy to prepare and truly delicious - could one ask for more? Depending in the imagination they may be square, triangular, or circular shaped. I usually go for ...

I remember "assisting" my Nan when she was baking those delicious custard cupcakes. There was probably more disturbance than help on my side, and unfortunately I was a bit too small back then to learn how to make them properly. Now, by cupcakes I mean something sightly different to the iced sponges you see everywhere - the Polish cupcake is more of a sweet pastry case with a gooey filling - all generously dusted with enough icing sugar to give my husband a coughing fit. These days, this type of cakes is available pretty much in any cake shop, but there's nothing like home-made ones! Maybe it's just me, but that seems to be the case with all cakes - you can buy them to save yourself the hassle of preparation, but the bought ones are never quite as good. Plus, there's a part of my that will make me try to make it 'just the way it should be' :) This time though, as it sometimes happens, not everything went according to the plan. The recipe is really easy...