Pappardelle with Prosciutto, Flat-Leaf Parsley, Sweet Red Peppers and Brie de Meaux

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Kate

Pappardelle with Prosciutto, Flat-Leaf Parsley, Sweet Red Peppers and Brie de Meaux

Just a quickie post to jot down a delicious pasta dish I’ve just made for lunch after a joyful 13 miler this morning (I actually sprinted the last mile home, let’s hope the training stays so positive). This pasta took moments to make (and eat), was really fresh-tasting and incredibly healthy, with a good balanced of vitamins and slow-burning carbohydrates, plus a little protein. Brie de Meaux is quite high in saturated fat, so you might want to go easy on this. On the other hand, a little goes a long way and it really does add to the dish.

Serves 2 hungry people or 4 smaller portions:

250 g fresh pappardelle ( I used fresh lasagne sheets which I cut into thick strips)
80g pack of prosciutto cut into thin strips – even better if you can buy some cut freshly at the deli, but I used the pre-packed stuff
25g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
a couple of sweet red pointed peppers, or one large standard red pepper, sliced finely
about 150g good quality brie, like brie de Meaux, sliced into thinnish slices
about 3 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
plenty of freshly-ground black pepper

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to pack instructions (fresh pasta usually only takes a couple of minutes).
Drain the pasta, saving a tablespoon of the cooking water.
Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the saucepan and then throw in the peppers, sauté for a minute and then add the pasta, the tablespoon of cooking water, the parsley and the prosciutto. Stir it all around to combine , add the brie, a little more olive oil, plenty of freshly-ground black pepper and stir to combine again.
Serve immediately, with some grated parmesan and a rocket salad on the side.

A comfort meal

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Kate

I cooked a meal for our friends Phil and Jane on Saturday, also very close friends of the lovely Julie, and I have to say that it made us all feel a bit better – sitting around a table to chat and enjoy good food and good wine can sometimes be very therapeutic – a shared experience, it’s convivial, it’s comforting and it can really bring people together.

I’m not saying I’d cook this meal before a long run, but I haven’t started my training for London yet and apart from the pudding, it is pretty wholesome and healthy, with good low G.I. carbs, protein, not too much saturated fat and plenty of vitamins and minerals.

We started with drinks, olives and a selection of nuts and seeds which I had just roasted with a little rapeseed oil and salt – cashews, brazils, pecans, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds….

Then a salad of ripe figs, nasturtium flowers, buffalo mozzarella and Serrano ham (carved off the bone from the deli) on a bed of chard and rocket leaves with a simple dressing of honey,juice tasty kalamata cold pressed olive oil – you’ll find the recipe in Go Faster Food…

Main course was basil pappardelle with melt-in-the-mouth osso bucco – veal cuts with their marrow bone, very slowly cooked with red wine, finely chopped celery, garlic, onion and carrots and then finished off with some capers and a gremolata of parsley, lemon zest and garlic. This was really good – and this is literally all you have to do:

6 osso bucco
1 onion
3 sticks of celery
1 carrot
2 large cloves garlic
600ml red wine
a sprig of fresh oregano or thyme
2 tablespoons capers
gremolata – 2 tbsp chopped parsley, 2 finely chopped cloves garlic, zest of 2-3 lemons

Chop the vegetables and garlic very finely and sweat them in some olive oil until soft.
Brown the osso bucco cuts (snip the rounded sides so they don’t curl in the pan and dip them into seasoned flour first) in some olive oil.
Place them in one layer flat in a large ovenproof dish with the vegetables and the oregano and pour over the wine. Bring to the boil and cover.
Cook at a low heat – 1bout 160 C – for a couple of hours, or until the vegetables have melted into the sauce and the meat is really tender.
Add the capers and stir into the sauce.
Taste for seasoning – you will probably need more salt, maybe some pepper.
Add the gremolata and serve with your favourite pasta and a green salad.

Pudding was a chocolate, pear and almond tart – served with a dollop of crème fraiche – I’ll post the recipe soon but I need to fiddle about with the recipe a bit as the chocolate/almond filling was gorgeous but the pears were not quite soft enough for my liking…

Stockholm Marathon

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Kate

STOCKHOLM MARATHON

Mark and I had a most wonderful kid-free weekend in sunny Stockholm, marred only by the fact that we ran the Stockholm marathon in the blazing heat on the Saturday, when other more sensible people were picnicking in the parks or swimming on the Stockholm archipelago!

No, it was good, really, and the support was tremendous, much better than expected…

Unlike most marathons which start early in the morning, the Stockholm marathon kicks off at 14.00, right in the heat of the day, which last Saturday was really quite intense (about 25-27 degrees), and just when the tarmac on the streets had had the chance to warm up nicely! A beautiful day for a picnic on the beach, but not for running a marathon! A girl from San Fransisco came in just after me and had almost expired with the heat and suffered serious cramping – ” Hey, we get up at 5 a.m. to run when it is hot, we don’t sit around and wait until the hottest part of the day”

Having said that, I must say that, unlike the dire situation at the Edinburgh marathon this weekend where the water was stolen, there were loads of drinks stations with water, quite a nice grapefruit and lemon flavoured sports drink called Maxim, vats of water to throw over you and showers to run under. Towards the end of the race there were stations serving knorr vegetable stock drink (nice and salty but no thanks), gherkins/pickles (again, no thanks), flat cola and bananas (yes please). Next time could we have slices of orange to suck on please!

And the race is really pretty – quite slow, crowded and unexpectedly hilly but very, very beautiful. Take a look at the official video for a taster.

It was not a day for personal bests. I actually ran 20 minutes slower than my target time of 3 hrs 29 and so I was quite disappointed with that. I think I was more set on getting my drinking strategy right so that I didn’t cramp. I actually stopped at most of the drinks stations and went to the loo twice (that must have wasted about 5 minutes!).

The result of that is that my recovery was almost immediate and I had no particular stiffness over the following days, unlike my normal state which usually entails the total avoidance of stairs etc! “Should’ve tried harder”, my husband keeps reminding me. It might also be because there were lots of high G.I.carbs in the goodie bag, which I managed to get down me immediately to replenish my glycogen levels, within the magic 15 minute window when the muscles are at their most receptive.

I’m quite amazed and very chuffed to see that I came 38th in my age group and 227th overall (women, that is).

So, to the pre-marathon meal. This was fab! We found a delightful little Italian restaurant called Paparazzi and had the most amazing fresh pasta – better than I have ever cooked myself. I had papardelle with lobster in a cream and brandy sauce (I would normally avoid creamy sauces and seafood before a marathon, but I couldn’t resist). Luckily it wasn’t too rich and the lobster was very fresh. After the marathon we were taken to the coolest bar in Stockholm, apparently, the Lydmar Hotel, http://www.lydmar.com/ where we had the obligatory entrecote, delicious potatoes and salad, preceded by some of the best fish soup I have ever tasted. Someone once told me that Scandinavian food was nothing special, but I have to say that my experience of Swedish food was a very positive one. Perhaps that is because I avoided the hotdogs and meatballs (yes, just like you get in Ikea) which seemed to be on offer everywhere!

Triathlon Pasta

Posted on May 19, 2009 by Kate

As an ardent pasta eater, I always welcome any new types of pasta with open arms…and this one really made me giggle. It’s brilliant. I can’t imagine who might have had the time to think up such a mad idea – the triathlete’s/runner’s answer to alphabeti spaghetti! Great to eat yourself or a perfect gift for any of your friends who are addicted to running, swimming or cycling! You can also get packs for cyclists (just pasta bikes) or marathon runners (just pasta men running).

This brilliant company Foska certainly puts the fun into training, whether you are a runner, cyclist or swimmer. Take a look at their website and you’ll find cool kit like marmite cycling tops and running shirts.

I tried the triathlon pasta out on my daughter and she was sort of impressed (although slightly embarrassed about eating little pasta men and bikes). I cooked the pasta in salted water, drained it and added it to some sauteed lardons (bacon pieces), mushrooms, spinach and garlic. We ate it topped with some parmesan shavings and torn up basil leaves in large bowls and then drizzled the whole lot with some tasty extra virgin olive oil. Fun to eat and very tasty! We fought over the green bikes though…for some reason they tasted the best.

Slow-roasted tomatoes

Posted on March 17, 2009 by Kate

Conchiglioni with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

A pot of fabulous buffalo mozzarella has been sitting in my fridge for a while now and I suddenly had the urge to make a classic italian tricolore salad of mozzarella, fresh basil and tasty tomatoes. The tomatoes were so disappointing, however, that I binned that idea, chopped them in half and slow-roasted them in the oven instead. This is a great idea for sprucing up flavourless tomatoes and produces a deliciously deep flavour, especially if you help this along by sprinkling them with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper.

You could eat these tomatoes with a lovely balsamic dressing and mop up the juices with chunks of crusty bread, you could leave them to cool and keep them for tomorrow’s lunch/lunch box…there are lots of tasty options, but I decided to use these tomatoes as the base for a pasta sauce – a much more sensible idea for fuelling the body than a salad, especially as I did a pretty hard 12 mile run yesterday and have 5 miles to do today.

I used fusilli bucati, a great fun pasta with a hole running through the centre and I reckon this goes very well with a good rich tomato sauce. Spaghetti is good as well, or conchiglioni shells .The pasta and the tomatoes have a low glycaemic index and so will release energy to your muscles slowly and gradually, the tomatoes are a rich source of several nutrients, including a vitamin C, vitamin A, and B vitamins (niacin, riboflavin, magnesium, phosphorous and calcium). They are also a good source of fibre and the antioxidant lycopene (good for fighting disease). This pasta is so quick and easy to make and is a perfect midweek staple for your training diet. Scatter with mozzarella, feta, basil leaves and crispy bacon…

Pasta with roasted tomato sauce
Serves 4-5

500g pasta
8 decent sized vine tomatoes
1/2 bottle of sugocasa (just to add a bit of bulk, you can use more fresh tomatoes instead if you have them)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
glug of olive oil
1tsp demerara sugar
Plenty of salt and black pepper
1 flaked dried chilli (optional)

1 tbsp small capers (optional)
big bunch of basil, chopped, saving a few leaves for decoration
feta cheese, cubed or slices of buffalo mozzarela
5 rashers streaky bacon or prosciutto

Method

Cut the tomatoes in half and place on a baking sheet.
Sprinkle over balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper and place in the oven at about 170.
Add the garlic about 5 minutes before you remove from the oven – after about 30-40 minutes.
Transfer to a saucepan, scraping off all the caramelised bits as well, add the sugocasa and chilli if you are using it and cook very gently, covered, for another 20 minutes or so, stirring every now and then.
Add more balsamic, olive oil, seasoning, maybe some lea & perrins etc to taste. Add the chopped basil at the last minute.
Grill the bacon until really crispy
Cook the pasta shells in salted water according to pack instructions – warning, you need a really big pan if you are cooking 500g! When you drain the pasta, leave some of the cooking liquid to stop it getting sticky, and add some olive oil.
Serve with pasta in large individual pasta dishes. Place a slice of bacon on top with some basil leaves and pieces of feta/mozzarella sprinkled over. Enjoy!