I found this Greek, traditionally made pasta and I am a sucker for nice packaging so I bought it. I also thought, let’s try it and see if we like it for the deli. I decided to prepare it with aubergines, zucchini and feta cheese. It’s not a fancy recipe, but it is really tasty and easy and nutritious.
For 4 persons, cut 2 aubergines and 3 zucchinis in strips. Sprinkle with salt and set them aside.
Prepare the pasta. It’s going to be more tasty if you boil it in vegetable broth instead of just water. In my case it was ready in 7 minutes. Drain and leave aside (try to keep a little of the water so that the pasta won’t stick).
Put two ripe tomatoes and one spring onion in the food processor but don’t completely liquidize them.
Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil and add 2 garlic cloves. When you can smell the garlic add the aubergines and a couple of minutes later the zucchini. A couple of minutes later add the tomato sauce. Season and add some dried spearmint.
When the vegetables are tender (but still retain their shape) place them in an oven dish with the pasta. Mix everything well together and add 2 cups of feta cheese in small cubes. Before you put it in the oven (180 Celsius or 356 F, or gas mark 4) sprinkle with some olive oil. Remove from the oven 15 minutes later or when the feta cheese has melted. You can also add pitted olives if you want.
Serve with some basil leaves and fresh pepper. Kali oreksi (Bon appétit in Greek).
This was another one of those days when you don’t have time to go shopping and have to make do with whatever there is in the fridge. It was my son’s birthday so I had to make the things he like best, which is soya kebabs and chips. Peas and potatoes are a staple in Greece -and also peas and artichokes- but I wanted to add something more so I added spinach and chopped cabbage. Plus some mint and lemon.
It came out really tasty and fresh and it is no trouble at all. You can add whatever greens you may have as long as they are not too bitter.
Peas with everything
First I heated 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the pan and then I added one chopped onion. I mixed in 2 potatoes coarsely cut and 2 chopped cups of white cabbage. When the potatoes started softening I added 2 cups peas and 2 cups chopped spinach. You treat it a bit like risotto, adding water as you go, or even better, vegetable stock. Finally, I sprinkled some mint and served with a slice of lemon. It goes great with feta or any other white and slightly salty cheese. You can eat it a day old and it will still taste great, it gets better with age (limit it to just one day though).
That’s a springtime classic. I should have made the ravioli myself. But I wanted this for a picnic and since it wouldn’t be served immediately and would be eaten cold, I thought “why bother”.
- 1 big packet of ravioli or 2 small ones. You need about 40-50 ravioli.
- 2-3 tbsps olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 5 tbsps mascarpone or other cream cheese
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 cup vegetable stock
- About 12 asparagus
- ½ cup chopped basil or mint
- Salt- pepper
- Grated parmesan to serve
Life definitely isn’t too short too stuff a mushroom, especially if it’s a big and juicy portobello mushroom. So I bought some portobellos the other day but didn’t want to just grill them or stuff them with cheeses. I wanted to make a meal out of them, so I decided to stuff them with some bulgur, which is wholesome and delicious. If you want a richer taste, add some tomato sauce to the boiling water.
You’ll need
- 150 gr spinach, chopped
- 1 big bell pepper
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 big onion, chopped
- 3-4 tbsps olive oil
- 8-10 tbsps parmesan (1 tablespoon for each mushroom)
- Salt and pepper
- 2 cups bulgur (cracked wheat in this case)
This is a thin and crispy dough. It’s my favourite dough because it lets me eat more pizza as I don’t feel full after the first piece.
Later, cut dough it into six pieces and just use one. Put the rest in the fridge after you have covered them with cling film.
Aubergine topping for one pizza
Serve with chopped mint leaves.
My pizza soundtrack
-Malavida / Mano Negra -Once upon a time in america (cockeys song)/Ennio Morricone -Sun hits the sky – Supergrass -That’s all right mama – Elvis
“Now they knew that she was a real princess because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds.
Hans Christian Andersen – The Princess and the Pea
Hilopittes are a kind of noodle. They are made with eggs and milk and are usually added to soups. They can be long flat ribbons like fettuccine, or tiny flat squares like the ones I used here.
- 300 gr. Hilopittes or any other small pasta
- 2-3 tbsps olive oil
- 4 spring onions
- 250 gr. peas
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp spearmint
- 600 ml Vegetable stock
- 50-60 gr pine nuts
- Salt, pepper
- Parmesan for serving
This is a recipe that combines two or three recipes I found in the New Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas and in the BBC recipes section (sadly, I had done this a long time ago and it seems I have cooked up the exact link). I had bought the Vegetarian Epicure when I was a student and needed to cook for myself, and I remember reading it at night in bed, like a novel. Because Anna Thomas writes so beautifully. All the recipes I have tried from her book are excellent and really really work.
I made this for the magazine and after the shoot, we had some out in the balcony, under the sun. It is a recipe for summer lunches.
For 4-6 servings
For the shortcrust pastry
- 1 ½ cups flour
- ½ -3/4 tsp salt
- 4 oz/115 g cold butter
- 2 ½ fl oz / 70 ml ice water
For the filling
- 2 zucchinis in slices
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 400 gr potatoes, peeled, cooked and in slices
- 350 gr tomatoes in slices
- 100 gr gruyere cheese, grated
- A handful of basil leaves
- 2 eggs
- 200 ml double cream
- 4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
Sift together flour and salt. Slice butter and drop the slices into the flour. Work the mixture until it resembles big breadcrumbs. Pour the cold water over the flour butter mixture and stir it in very quickly with a fork, until the dough gathers together. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in foil and chill it for about two hours.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough out into a circle about 2 ½ in/62 mm larger than your quiche or flan tin. Roll the circle of dough round the rolling pin and unroll it over the tart tin, centering it as well as possible. Press the sides in against the rim of the tin, pushing the extra dough down, to make an edge slightly thicker than the bottom. Crimp the ridge of dough neatly just above the rim of the tin. Prick the bottom of the shell all over with a fork and chill the shell for 30 minutes.
Line the inside of the shell with aluminium foil and fill it with dried beans or nuts so that the pastry won’t puff up. Bake the shell in a preheated oven at 450 F /230 C for about 8 minutes, then remove the beans and foil and bake for another 5 minutes until the bottom of the shell begins to colour. Allow the shell to cool slightly, then fill the tart shell with the filling.
Heat olive oil in a pan and sauté zucchinis. Layer potatoes, zucchinis and tomatoes in the pastry shell, season between layers and sprinkle with a little gruyere and basil leaves. Repeat, finishing with a layer of tomatoes. Beat together the eggs and cream. Season, stir in the remaining gruyere and half the parmesan. Pour this over the filling and sprinkle with the rest of the parmesan. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until golden and firm. Sprinkle with the remaining basil. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
My favourite scene from my favourite movie Lost in Translation, is the one where Bob (Bill Murray) realizes that the situation with his wife is rather irreversible and tries to tell her so on the phone, while he is soaking in the jacuzzi of the Japanese hotel. So he starts by telling her that something has to change but then chickens out and ends up saying “I don’t know. I just want to get healthy. I would like to start taking better care of myself. I’d like to start eating healthier – I don’t want all that pasta. I would like to start eating like Japanese food.”
4-5 servings
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 spring onions, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 tablespoons chopped fennel
- 500 gr chopped spinach
- 230 gr gruyere cheese, grated
- 300 ml single cream
- 120 gr feta cheese, crumbled
- 10-15 green olives sliced
Cook pasta in salted, boiling water. In a pan, heat olive oil and sauté onions and garlic. Add spinach and fennel and cook until the vegetables are tender.
There are countless ways to make veggie burgers, and every vegetarian / vegan knows that. I just take a look in the cupboards to see what there is available and start from there. This time it was lentils and soya, next time it might be mushrooms or chickpeas.
You’ll need:
- 100 gr lentils
- 100 gr soya mince
- 2-3 tbsps oregano
- Approximately 1 litre vegetable stock
- 2-3 tbsps flour and 2-3 tbsps oil / or 2 eggs
- Salt
Cook lentils and soya mince in vegetable stock. Drain very well and put it aside to cool down.
Puree mince and lentils in blender.
Mix puree with 2 eggs and stir very well. If you don’t want eggs, substitute with oil and a little flour. Stir in oregano and salt.
Shape into burgers and place on paper parchment.
Bake at 350 F/180 C for about 20 minutes or until done. Serve with tzatziki.
My Tzatziki
- 1 ½ cup full fat yogurt
- 1 big cucumber
- 1 aubergine
- 4-5 garlic cloves
- 3-4 tbsps olive oil
- 1 tsp vinegar
- Salt
- 3-4 tbsps olive oil for the aubergine
- 1 cup Vegetable stock for the aubergine
Grate the cucumber. You shouldn’t process it in a blender as that would make it watery. We want it to have some texture. Strain the cucumber very well.
Chop garlic.
In a bowl, combine aubergine, cucumber, yogurt, garlic, vinegar, oil, salt to taste. Stir very well. Tzatziki is served cold. It is delicious with these vegetarian burgers but you can also eat it with dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) or as a dip.
I don’t think necessity is the mother of invention – invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.
(Agatha Christie)
I thought I could make this recipe when I have people over and am too bored to cook properly for some reason (what reason?). It looks impressive although it’s very easy to make and it is very tasty, with all the vegetables of the good lord in it. And with some white wine it goes down very well indeed.
- 700 gr puff pastry
- 300 gr.mushrooms (different kinds are okay) sliced or chopped
- 2 red or orange bell peppers sliced
- 2 zucchinis sliced
- 300 gr . pecorino peeled or grated
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 100 ml white wine
- salt -
Cut the each pastry sheet in 6 oblong pieces (round are okay too). Pierce them with a fork (we don’t want them to get too puffy), place them on a baking sheet and bake them for 20 minutes or until golden, at 220°C.
In the meantime, heat half the oil and sauté the garlic and mushrooms until tender but not too tender. Add the wine, cover and let it simmer for 3 minutes.
In a frying pan pour the rest of the oil, the peppers and the zucchini and fry until tender. Mix mushrooms, peppers and zucchini and taste for seasoning.
Now the pastry is ready. On a piece of pastry layer the vegetables and sprinkle with the cheese. Top with another pastry square and again, add a layer of vegetables and cheese. Top with a third pastry square and sprinkle with cheese.
Repeat with the remaining pastry squares.
Bake the Mille Feuilles for about 5 minutes or until the cheeses have melted and serve hot with a spoonful of pesto sauce on the side.
- 1 ½ garlic clove, chopped
- 2 ½ cups fresh basil, chopped
- 120 gr. grated parmesan
- 120 gr. grated pecorino
- 1 cup good olive oil
- Salt and pepper
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