Linguine with Porcini Mushrooms, Marsala and Mascarpone

Linguine with Porcini Mushrooms, Marsala and Mascarpone

My Comments

I have made this twice now and it is very quick and tasty. The Marsala wine adds loads of flavour to the mushrooms and brings the pasta to life.

I found that there was quite a bit of liquid remaining which made the creamy pasta sauce very wet and I’d rather have it thicker and creamier rather than runny, but it did not distract from the flavour.

 

Serves 2

Ingredients

15g dried porcini mushrooms
60ml Marsala
60ml water
125g mascarpone
freshly grated nutmeg
ground pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, plus extra to serve
250g dried Linguine
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 small garlic clove, peeled
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan

Method

1.    Put the porcini into to the smallest pan you have. Pour in the Marsala and the water, bring to boil over medium heat and then, just as it starts to boil, take it off the heat and leave for about 10 minutes. The mushrooms need to be submerged in the liquid so that they soften.

2.    Put the mascarpone into a small bowl, add a good amount of grated nutmeg and some ground pepper. Once the porcini have softened, strain them into the bowl, letting the soaking liquid mix with the mascarpone. Whisk to combine.

3.    Chop the porcini and the parsley together on a chopping board.

4.    Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water according to packet instructions.

5.    In a large pan, warm the butter and add the grated garlic. Stir it together, then mix in the mushrooms and parsley and cook for a few minutes. Pour the mascarpone into the pan and cook for another minute. Remove it from the heat.

6.    Reserve a cup of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta and pour it into the pan with the mascarpone and toss to coat. Add a little of the reserved pasta cooking water if it looks a little dry.

7.    Add the Parmesan, toss everything together and check the seasoning. Serve with more parsley and Parmesan.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake

Nigella Says

I don’t know if I should apologize for this or boast about it. Either way, I feel you will thank me for it. The thing is that it’s embarrassingly easy and, although I first started making it last Christmas – a lot – reckoning that it was just the sort of count-no calorie indulgence tbat the season demands, I have since decided that something this good, and this speedily simple to conjure into being, needs to be in our lives all year round.

Don’t be tempted to let the cheesecake come to room temperature before serving it slices and eats better with a bit of fridge chill on it.

However, you must have both Nutella and cream cheese at room temperature before making it. To simplify your life a little, you can buy the hazelnuts ready chopped and toasted.

I Say

I have made this several times for family, friends and colleagues and has always gone down well and people are always surprised at how easy it is when I share the recipe with them.

Though I would say dish works better with less hazelnuts on the top, you need some for bite and texture but coating the top with nuts can make it a little overwhelming.

Need

1 x 22 or 23 cm Springform Cake tin

Ingredients

250g Digestive Biscuits

75g Soft unsalted butter

1 x 400g Jar Nutella or equivalent chocolate hazelnut spread at room temperature

100g Chopped Toasted Hazelnuts

500g Cream Cheese at room temperature

60g Icing Sugar

Method

1.      Break  the biscuits into the bowl of a food processor, then add the butter and 1 x 15 ml tablespoon of Nutella and Blitz until the mixture starts to clump. Add 25g of the toasted hazelnuts, and continue to pulse until you have a damp, sandy mixture.

2.      Tip this into the springform tin and press it into the base, using either your hands or the back of a spoon. Place in the fridge to chill while you get o with the filling

3.      Beat together the cream cheese and icing sugar until smooth and soft, then patiently scrape the rest of the Nutella out of its jar and into the cream cheese mixture and continue beating until combined

4.      Take the springform tin out of the fridge. Carefully scrape and smooth the Nutella mixture over the biscuit base and scatter the remaining chopped hazelnuts on top to cover. Place the tin in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

5.      Serve straight from the fridge for best results, unspringing the cake from the tin, still on its base, just before you eat. To cut it, dip a sharp knife in cold water, wiping it and dipping again between each cut. And don’t worry: it may look disappointingly flat when whole, but when sliced its dark depths are revealed 

Venetian Stew

Nigella Says

There is an old Venetian Dish called, in dialect, Manai, that is the inspiration for this. And I emphasize the word “inspiration”: Manai, which broadly speaking involves polenta with beans, bacon and local raisins, is the fruitful starting point for my pink-hued stew, with its beans and bacon and radicchio (my innovation, but it does come from Venice), echoing the cinnamon-rose colours of the palazzo that line the Grand Canal.

I suspect that the original stew would have used speck (think along the lines of smoked bacon) rather than unsmoked pancetta, but either will do. If you can, though do buy a good Italian can of borlotti beans as the juice they come in us usable; the gloop in cheaper supermarket own-label brands can be disconcertingly smelly and frankly unfit for consumption. Still, if the only beans you can find need to be rinsed vigorously, you will have to add more water to make sure the beans are covered as they cook. That in turn will make for a runnier stew, so maybe mash some of the beans at the end just to help thicken it.

I adore this salty stew ladled in bowls over a mounded pile of sweet yellow polenta. Though some unsalty Italian bread with it is enough for me; either way, this is pretty well instant, soothing and substantial supper.

I Say

I made this dish without the instant polenta I used already made polenta as I couldn’t fund the instant sort in my supermarket so I just grilled some and served it alongside some vegetables and the stew and it worked well.

The dish was nice the most hearty of stews I have had and I couldn’t obtain Radicchio either so I used chicory which I felt still worked in the dish.

The cumin gave the dish the real flavour I would do it again if I wanted something quick but I wouldn’t rush to do it again.

Serves 2

Ingredients

Stew

25g Raisins

125ml Boiling Water

2 Tsp Garlic Oil

150g Pancetta cubes or diced speak or jamon Serrano

1 banana shallot, finely chopped

½ tsp ground cumin

1 x 400g can Borlotti Beans

½ heard Radicchio (approx, 125g) finely shredded

For the Polenta

675ml Water

1 tsp Sea Salt

½ tsp pouring salt or to taste

100g instant polenta

2 x 15ml tbsp grated parmesan

1 x 15ml tbsp (15g) unsalted butter

Method

1.      Put the raisins into a cup or bowl and pour the 125ml boiling water over them

2.      Put 675ml water in a pan for the polenta and set it on to boil

3.      Heat the garlic oil in a heavy pan and cook the pancetta cubes for 3-5 minutes, stirring every now and again,, then add the chopped shallot and cook for another 3-5 minutes, until the pancetta is bronzed and the shallot soft.

4.      Stir in the cumin (not Italian, but Venice was the hub of the spice trade so I allow its inauthentic addition) then add the raisins with their soaking water and let it buddle up before tipping in the borlotti beans and their liquid (but see introduction above if your bean gloop is unusable).

5.      Bring to the boil, then add the shredded radicchio and, once the stew starts bubbling again, turn off the heat, put on the lid, and get on with the polenta.

6.      Add salt (to taste) to the now bubbling polenta water, then stir in the polenta, pouring it into the pan in a steady but gentle stream, and cook till smooth and thickened, I use more than the usual ratio of water to polenta here, as I want the finished polenta creamy not set. Once it is cooked, take the pan off the heat and beat in the Parmesan and butter, seasoning to taste. Decant into a warmed serving bowl.

7.      Check the bean stew seasoning, then bring it to the table with the golden polenta.

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Nigella Says

Although I first came up with this recipe because I had someone coming for supper who genuinely couldn’t eat wheat or dairy, it is so meltingly good I now make it all the time for those whose life and diet are not so unfairly constrained, myself included.

It is slightly heavier with the almonds – though not in a bad way – so if you want a lighter crumb, rather than a squidgy interior, and are not making the cake for the gluten-intolerant, then replace the 150g ground almonds with 125g plain flour. This has the built in bonus of making it perhaps more suitable for an everyday cake.

Made with the almonds, it has more of a supper-party pudding feel about it and I love it still a bit warm, with some raspberries or some such on the side, as well as a dollop of mascarpone or ice cream

I Say

I have made this cake with and without flour, the without flour recipe came out dense and moist and really good, however the flour version came out light and fluffy and was lovely.

Need

22-23 cm springform cake tin

Ingredients

150ml Regular Olive Oil, plus More for greasing

50g Cocoa Powder Sifted

125ml Boiling Water

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

½ teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of Salt

200g Caster Sugar

3 eggs

Method

1.      Preheat your oven to gas mark 3. Grease your springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.

2.      Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.

3.      In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt

4.      Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.

5.      Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.

6.      Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre on top still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.

7.      Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat whilte still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.

Italian Apple Pie

Nigella Says

There is something so cosy making about the way new technology recreates the recipe sharing traditions of older communities. This recipe is a case in point. Francesa Petracca, one of my Italian Twitter followers, tweeted a picture of her family’s Torta di Mele and where we are.

The English title Francesca gave to her Torta di Mele was Italian Apple Pie, and I have stayed faithful to it, although the finished product is really more of a cake. Whatever it is, it is just wonderful: simple to make, and alluringly rustic. I like it best served still warm, as a kind of pudding-cake, with custard, mascarpone or double cream (whopped or runny), but la famiglia Petracca prefer to eat slices as an accompaniment to a cup of tea or an espresso “in the company of lovely friends” Who can argue with that?

I used Pink Lady applies here, as I don’t peel the slices that go on top of the cake, and a firm, red-skinned apple works well and looks pretty. But it’s not worth going for a red-skinned apple that won’t hold its shape such as a Red Delicious so bear that in mind while shopping; the colour of the skin is not the crucial factor here. Perhaps I should mention that the original recipe, as posted on my website, stipulates that all the apples be peeled; what follows is my lazy version..

As ever with baking, all the ingredients should, of course, be at room temperature

I Say

This apple pie/cake was fantastic. I made the batter really quickly I did add a little extra water to the mixture to make it slightly less firm and more batter like before placing into my tray. I also didn’t use a springform tin I haven’t got one so I used my brownie tray and it worked fine, but I didn’t try for a nice concentric circles, straight lines worked fine for me.

I also added a little allspice to the cinnamon and sugar topping and that worked really well, and ok I perhaps added a little extra sugar to the topping as well.

After the hour of waiting I pulled it out of the tray and both myself and my wife had a slice with a cup of tea and it was fantastic. I even caught her going back for seconds later.

Ingredients

22-23 cm springform cake tin

100 g soft unsalted butter and more for greasing
250 g Plain flour 
2 teaspoons baking powder 
pinch of salt 
150 g  caster sugar 
2 eggs 
zest of 1 lemon 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
75 ml full fat milk at room temperature
3 apples crisp ones like Pink Lady

1 teaspoon of brown sugar 

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 

Method

1.      Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6, butter your springform tin and line the bottom with baking parchment

2.      Into a food processor, put the flour, baking powder, salt, 100g soft butter, caster sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla extract, and blitz till it forms a thick, smooth batter. Then with the motor still running, pour the milk in gradually down the funnel to lighten the mixture.

3.      Halve 1 of the apples, then peel, core and chop one half into cubes, add these to the batter and either pulse to mix or beat in. Pour your batter into the springform tin.

4.      Quarter and core the remaining apples (including the unused half apple) leaving the skin on finely slice them and arrange in a pleasing concentric circles on top of the cake batter.

5.      Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle this over the applies then bake for 40-45 minutes by which time the cake should be risen and golden. Pierce with a cake tester, which should have only a few crumbs sticking to it when removed

6.      Leave to cool for 1 hour before springing it out of the tin to cut and serve warm, or leave to cool completely once out of the tin.

Lamb Ragu

Nigella Says

‘Ragout’ is French, ‘ragù’ Italian, and this meat sauce is certainly inspired by the Sicilian combination of sweet lamb, dried wild mint and crushed chilli flakes, though I’ve added an Anglo note with a little redcurrant jelly. Pappardelle, those egg-rich, wide ribbons, are my favourite here, but do choose any pasta you want. And if you can find a bit of fresh mint to add as you serve, then go for it.

I Say

This dish works it is a quick an easy pasta dish I browned the meat and then drained any fat off before putting the tomatoes and other ingredients in. I think I went a little overboard on the chilli flakes but the mint and other herbs worked very well.

If I were to do it again which I probably will, I would perhaps use some fresh chilli to reduce the intensity of the chilli flavour.

Ingredients

·         1.5 tablespoon(s) garlic infused olive oil

·         4 spring onion(s) (finely sliced)

·         1 teaspoon(s) dried mint

·         1 teaspoon(s) oregano

·         ¼ teaspoon(s) chillies (crushed)

·         250 gram(s) minced lamb

·         240 gram(s) chopped tomato(es)

·         1 tablespoon(s) redcurrant jelly

·         1.5 teaspoon(s) worcester sauce

·         1 pinch of salt

·         1 pinch of pepper

·         250 gram(s) pappardelle

For the serving

·         1 handful fresh mint

Method

1.       Put a large pan of water on to boil for the pasta, and warm the garlic oil in a small, heavy-based pan that comes with a lid, and cook the spring onions, stirring for a minute or so.

2.       Sprinkle in the herbs and chilli, stirring again before adding the meat. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring, until it loses a bit of its pinkness.

3.       Add the tomatoes, redcurrant jelly, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, then give a good stir and bring to a bubble. Partially cover with the lid and simmer for 20 minutes.

4.       At the appropriate time, salt the boiling water and cook the pasta according to packet instructions (ours took eight minutes), and once cooked and drained, dress with the lamb ragù. Sprinkle a little bit of fresh mint onto each bowl to serve.

Yellow Spaghetti

Nigella Says

Although this recipe does not itself issue from Italy, the inspiration is entirely Italian. One of my favourite things to eat is a risotto Milanese, sometimes called “risotto giallo” – or yellow risotto – and it occurred to me that pasta cooked similarly, or at least cooked to taste similar, would be perfect, and very easy. So here it is: spaghetti in an eggy saffron-tinted, lightly cheesed and creamy sauce: it is a bowlful of golden heaven.

I Say

Again this another quick pasta dish. It was my first time using Marsala wine which I sipped to see what it was like, and it was rather like a decent sherry.

The whole receipt came together easily and as such I would say it is one to have on a weekday night like I did on Wednesday.

Personally I felt it tasted like a carbonara without the meat. Which is fine but if I do it again I either need to ensure the creamy, egg and cheese mixture is more thoroughly mixed through the pasta or I would add some bacon and maybe some mushroom to the mixture and perhaps forgo the saffron.

Ingredients

¼ Teaspoon Saffron Strands

3 x 15ml Tablespoons Marsala

200g Spaghetti

Salt for pasta water to taste

2 eggs

4 x 15ml Tablespoons grated parmesan plus more to serve

Salt and pepper to taste

1 x 15ml Tablespoon £15g) Soft Unsalted Butter

Method

1.      Put plentiful water on for the pasta and at the same time put the saffron and Marsala into the littlest saucepan you have – such as one you’d melt butter in – and when the Marsala starts bubbling, take it off the heat and leave to steep.

2.      When the pasta water comes to the boil, salt generously, then add the spaghetti and cook according to packet instructions, though start testing 2 minutes early. You want to make sure it’s al dente, as it will swell a little in the sauce later.

3.      While the spaghetti is cooking, get on with the creamy sauce, by whisking together the eggs, cheese and cream in a small bowl, adding a sprinkling of salt and grinding of pepper.

4.      Just before draining the spaghetti, remove a cupful of the starchy cooking liquid, then return the loosely drained pasta to its pan along with the butter and toss it over a low heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the pasta-cooking liquid to the saffron and Marsala in the little pan before pouring it over the pasta. Toss straightaway, working the sauce through the spaghetti, and watch the pale yellow of the spaghetti strands take on the deeper tint of the saffron; then remove the pan from the heat.

5.      Now throw the egg, cheese and cream mixture over the pasta, and toss to combine gently but thoroughly, before checking for seasoning and dividing between 2 warmed bowls or plates. Serve with more grated Parmesan on the side.

Pasta with Courgettes

Nigella Says

This is one of my favourite Pastas, but I must stat with a warning: it isn’t as easy on the eye as on the palate; this is a dish made for pleasure not a photo-op. In order for the courgettes to acquire the sweet, braised flavour they imbue the pasta with here, they are cooked to a squashy khaki.

I feel somewhat self-conscious using the French word, courgettes, here but I would feel even more so were I to dub them (outside of Italy or North America) zucchini. Whatever they’re called, this is how I prepared them: before dicing them, I peel away strips of skin, which gives them a striped look. This habit is a maternal legacy that I don’t expect you to inherit too. So peel or don’t peel, wholly or in stripes, as you see fit.

I like casarecce pasta, which for all that it means “homemade”, is produced by most good pasta manufactures and indeed is so common that I find it at mu local supermarket. Casarecce are small, loosely rolled tubes with a  gap– where the roll doesn’t quite meet up along the side – which catches every bit of flavoursome sauce. The more colourfully named strozzapreti (“priest-stranglers”) work in much the same way. Please don’t be put off making this should either of these shapes elude you. My Italian friends blithely suggest, as an alternative, either penne or farfalle.

I Say

This pasta dish like the last I cooked was so quick to cook and it works so well and has a very fresh clean flavour which I feel is a nice break from heavy rich tomato sauces or creamy pasta sauces. My wife and I loved it and added a good side salad and garlic dough balls to accompany the dish.

I used Penne Pasta and since I didn’t have any garlic oil to hand I used some garlic and olive oil in the base of the pan to add the garlic flavour. I had also forgotten the spring onions so added a small cooking onion and it all worked well. Well it would since it is such a minor tweak

This is one I’d definitely do again.

Ingredients

200g Casarecce Pasta (Or whatever you have to hand)

Salt for pasta water to taste

2 x 15ml Tablespoons Garlic Oil

4 Spring Onions finely sliced

500g Courgettes finely diced

60ml Dry White wine or vermouth

Small bunch of parsley chopped

3 x 15ml Tablespoons grated parmesan plus (optional) more for sprinkling

Salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons unsalted butter

Method

1.       Put a pan of water on for the pasta, salting generously (or to taste) when it comes to the boil, then add the Casarecce cooking as per packet instructions, though tasting a couple of minutes before they’re meant to be ready and get on with the sauce

2.       Put the garlic oil and chopped spring onion sin a heavy-based pan (that comes with a lid) on a medium heat and cook, stirring for 1 minute

3.       Add the diced courgettes and cook for 5 minutes, stirring every now and again

4.       Add the wine or vermouth, letting it bubble up, followed by 2 tablespoons of the chopped parsley, salt to taste, then lower the heat, cover with the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes, by which time the courgettes should be gorgeously tender

5.       Before draining the pasta, remove a cupful of starchy cooking water.

6.       Tip the drained pasta back into the pan, add the braised courgettes, or add the pasta to the pan of courgettes, along with 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan and 4 tablespoons of pasta-cooking liquid. Combine thoroughly and taste to see if you wish to add more cheese or salt or pepper or, indeed cooking liquid, then stir in the butter and most of the remaining parsley and divided between 2 warmed bowls, sprinkling with the rest of the parsley, and more Parmesan if wished, on serving

Sicilian Pasta with Tomatoes, Garlic and Almonds

Nigella Comments

I have come across more than one version of “pesto Trapanese”, the Sicilian pasta sauce from Trapani that differs from the more popularly known Genoese variety in a number of ways. Chief of these is that almonds, not pine nuts, are ground into the mix a divergence whose origins (in common with a lot of Sicilian food) owe much to Arabic cooking.

Throughout Italy, eaters do not grate Parmesan over pasta sauces that contain fish (or are very garlicky), so you should consider cheese here doubly ill-advised, unless you wish to substitute 4 tablespoons grated pecorino for anchovies.

I like the use fusilli lunghi, which are like long golden ringlets, but if you can’t find them, simply substitute regulation-size fusilli (or indeed any pasta of your choice)

Since the sauce is unheated, it would be wise to warm the serving bowl first but, having said that, I absolutely adore eating this Sicilian pasta cold, should any be left over. It is so easy to make, and, being both simple and spectacular, is first on my list for a pasta dish to serve when you have people round.

My Comments

I found this a very easy dish to bring together and it produced a very nice pasta sauce. The sauce was full of flavour thanks to the anchovy and capers. Personally I’d add a little less capers and anchovy to soften the flavour a little. And as my picture below shows my version didn’t come out quite as rich in colour as Nigellas picture suggests. I was expecting a more deep red but the flavour was still there which is the main thing. But with my rather anemic looking sauce I wouldn’t perhaps serve this to friends as Nigella suggests.

Ingredients

• 500g/1lb 2oz fusilli lunghi or other pasta of your choice
• salt, to taste
• 250g/9oz cherry tomatoes
• 6 anchovy fillets
• 25g/1oz sultanas
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed
• 50g/2oz blanched almonds
• 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• small bunch basil, leaves picked

Preparation method

1. Put abundant water on to boil for the pasta, waiting for it to come to the boil before salting it. Add the pasta and cook according to packet instructions, though start checking it a good two minutes before it’s meant to be ready.
2. While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce by putting all the remaining ingredients, bar the basil, into a processor and blitzing until you have a nubbly-textured sauce.
3. Just before draining the pasta, remove a cupful of pasta-cooking water and add two tablespoons of it down the full of the processor, pulsing as you go.
4. Tip the drained pasta into your warmed serving bowl, Pour and scrape the sauce on top, tossing to coat (add a little more pasta-cooking water if you need it) and strew with basil leaves.