Recipes, kitchen tips and tricks

[Flynnthistle]

I'm guessing you've made pasta alla puttanesca before?

One of my favourites mate. The prostitute pasta as its name refers to, as no doubt you'll be aware. It's superb man..

If you like authentic dishes like that Gennaro Contaldo is a must follow on YouTube. His recipes are all pretty much proper old school Italian cooking, simple pastas, long slow ragu etc. This one is one of my favourites for midweek. So quick and simple yet so flavoursome. Give it a shot mate. (Quantities in his arrabiata sauce in the blender are for numerous restaurant portions, just downscale it for how many you are cooking for, I just use a bowl and stick blender as I'm only generally cooking for two)

 

[coollino]

One of my favourites mate. The prostitute pasta as its name refers to, as no doubt you'll be aware. It's superb man..

If you like authentic dishes like that Gennaro Contaldo is a must follow on YouTube. His recipes are all pretty much proper old school Italian cooking, simple pastas, long slow ragu etc. This one is one of my favourites for midweek. So quick and simple yet so flavoursome. Give it a shot mate. (Quantities in his arrabiata sauce in the blender are for numerous restaurant portions, just downscale it for how many you are cooking for, I just use a bowl and stick blender as I'm only generally cooking for two)

Great, cheers. I'll take a look.

 

[PhilM]

Whenever you cook anything with milk, rice pudding for instance, or Custard (sauce Anglaise to us posh people) soak the pan or oven proof dish in cold water rather than hot water, it stops the cooking process and make cleaning it so much easier.

You‘re Welcome

Every good chef I know has always said that any type of pan should only be wiped over to remove residue etc. rather than properly washed.

A well-seasoned pan is a big part of adding flavouring to your food.

 

[summerisle]

Every good chef I know has always said that any type of pan should only be wiped over to remove residue etc. rather than properly washed.

A well-seasoned pan is a big part of adding flavouring to your food.

Same with Yorkshire pudding tins, just wipe, never wash.

 

[Tommy.]

Yeah mate, it's incredibly easy (and cheap) to make good authentic Italian pasta dishes, obviously because it was poor people's food back in the day.

Just as you have done in the dish you describe almost all the dishes we cooked, and I still do, include the use of the starchy, heavily salted (supposed to be like sea water) pasta cooking water, seeing folk drain the pasta without reserving all that flavoursome water makes my soul cry... It adds such flavour and provides a sauce to even the drier dishes like Spaghetti aglio e olio

Another tip, and it's widely used for many pasta dishes in northern Italy is to melt 3/4 anchovy fillets under a low heat in olive oil before cooking the main elements of the dish. I get people don't like the idea of anchovy but they just melt away to nothing, giving the oil an incredible sea salted flavour. It's adds a whole different dimension of flavour to a dish. It's a must try.

My old dear was a chef and she taught me this very early on, expecially if making a bolognese I'll keep one cup of the starchy, salted water drain the rest off get the spaghetti into a dish, water back on then bolognese on top and mix away. Really helps the sauce adhere to the spaghetti and just takes a good bolognese up a level.

 

[coollino]

My old dear was a chef and she taught me this very early on, expecially if making a bolognese I'll keep one cup of the starchy, salted water drain the rest off get the spaghetti into a dish, water back on then bolognese on top and mix away. Really helps the sauce adhere to the spaghetti and just takes a good bolognese up a level.

I also get the pasta out of the boiling water with tongs and put in the the pasta sauce as that keeps some of the water.

 

[Tommy.]

I also get the pasta out of the boiling water with tongs and put in the the pasta sauce as that keeps some of the water.

Aye mate, that'll obviously do the trick as well.
Dry sticky pasta hurts my soul.

 

[Sassy Colombian]

I used to work in an Italian restaurant, in the kitchen, was my mate's dad's place. Mainly northern Italian pasta dishes, as he was from lido, twas magic. But we would do some Roman dishes like cacio e Pepe and carbonara. Done the traditional Italian way it's nothing like the cream based rubbish you get served up in some restaurants here. Here is Rick stein cooking it, almost exactly as we did. It's magic. Try it.

Thanks for sharing this video and your other tips about making use of pasta water for sauces.

I absolutely love pasta and italian dishes. The simplicity, use of fresh ingredients, and powerful and delicious flavors makes Italian dishes one of my favorites to cook at home. I definitely look forward to making the puttanesca recipe that you shared here and make my hubby happy with a good prostitute dish made by his favorite courtesan lol

 

[Mutzo Nutzo]

I had this dish in a small taverna in a mountain village on the slopes of mt Olympus in northern Greece.

All done in a roasting tin:

Slice up a courgette
Slice up an aubergine
Slice up an onion
Slice up a red or green pepper
Slice up 2 medium size potatoes
Slice up a bulb of fennel
Slice up 4 large tomatoes
Add 5 crushed garlic cloves
Add a bayleaf
Add a large handful of chopped thyme, oregano, rosemary and dill
Add loads of olive oil
Add a big glug of honey
Add salt and pepper
Pour over a bottle of passata
Mix well

cover with foil and pop in the oven 150 deg c for 3 hrs

Serve with sprinkled feta cheese and chopped fresh parsley with loads of fresh crusty bread

Absolute heaven - got one on the go now - should be ready after the match

 

[summerisle]

Used to have Rice Krispies every day when I was a kid.

 

[marnie]

I used to work in an Italian restaurant, in the kitchen, was my mate's dad's place. Mainly northern Italian pasta dishes, as he was from lido, twas magic. But we would do some Roman dishes like cacio e Pepe and carbonara. Done the traditional Italian way it's nothing like the cream based rubbish you get served up in some restaurants here. Here is Rick stein cooking it, almost exactly as we did. It's magic. Try it.

Rick can GTF there is only one Don for this lol

 

[Sassy Colombian]

I had this dish in a small taverna in a mountain village on the slopes of mt Olympus in northern Greece.

All done in a roasting tin:

Slice up a courgette
Slice up an aubergine
Slice up an onion
Slice up a red or green pepper
Slice up 2 medium size potatoes
Slice up a bulb of fennel
Slice up 4 large tomatoes
Add 5 crushed garlic cloves
Add a bayleaf
Add a large handful of chopped thyme, oregano, rosemary and dill
Add loads of olive oil
Add a big glug of honey
Add salt and pepper
Pour over a bottle of passata
Mix well

cover with foil and pop in the oven 150 deg c for 3 hrs

Serve with sprinkled feta cheese and chopped fresh parsley with loads of fresh crusty bread

Absolute heaven - got one on the go now - should be ready after the match

It sounds heavenly for sure.

Thanks for sharing this recipe. I read that passata is a tick tomato paste, is that right? And aubergine, eggplant?

 

[Sassy Colombian]

Used to have Rice Krispies every day when I was a kid.

I used to have those too growing up with lots of sugar, loved it lol

 

[Sassy Colombian]

Rick can GTF there is only one Don for this lol

Damn you, Ged. I thought I was all settled for dinner as I was about to make Rick's recipe. But now I'm going have to watch Carlo carbonara pasta video and decide which of the two recipes to make.

 

[summerisle]

I used to have those too growing up with lots of sugar, loved it lol

Did you submerge them all, or leave a small island of dry Rice Krispies.