Speckled Pasta with Tomato and Anchovies Sauce

All you Youvegotmeal fans out there (insert the sound of nobody here) know that we love making honemade pasta and prefer using it over bought pasta. Even so, sometimes we feel the need to mix things up, bring a little bit of color even to a classic like homemade pasta. So we decided to make what is called speckled pasta, which means that we added finely chopped herbs (in this case we used exclusively parsley) in the dough composition. And, to give the recipe a nice little kick, we also added 5 roasted chilies and 2 fresh ones.

Summer Drinks: Lavender Lemonade

  

By now we all know that lavender is the new thing. We use it in decor, in a vase, in a pot, on your walls, in perfumes, on your cookies, in your sugar, you name it. I have to admit I am on board with this trend, I love it and I can't resist it.

I made lavender cookies in the past, I loved them  although not everybody does. This is why I hesitated for so long to try and use lavender in drinks, because if the taste comes out to intense and more on the bitter side, nobody else would enjoy it but me. The only thing that made me want to try it was the secret hope that my drink will turn out pink or purple. IT DIDN'T. :(( I've seen that some people made it pink, it didn't happen to me. But the taste of the lavender syrup... it was amazing!!! Who cares about colour anymore?

Eggplant Ricotta Bites- Appetizers August (2)

To start on an honest note, I have to say at first I wanted to cook eggplant rolls filled with ricotta, but I got really lazy and I tried to find a different solution. And I found an idea, obviously, on the Foodnetwork site.

This turned out to be perfect, because I had some gorgeous white eggplant, but it was a short fatty :), so not very suitable for rolls. That is why you can notice the slices are kind of big, not actually bite-size, but you get the picture, if you have guest coming over and your eggplants are normal size and shape you will get the perfect bites, delicious and fresh.

Let's get down to business! You will need to cut the eggplant into rather thin round slices and salt them.
To fry them you will need to put together 3 bowls: the first one with flour, the second one with 2 beaten eggs and the latter with 1 part grated parmesan and 3 parts breadcrumbs.

Heat up some oil in a skillet. To get your eggplant slices ready for frying, toss them in flour, then in the eggs, them in the parmesan-breadcrumbs mix. Fry them until they turn golden brown, about 1 minute to each side. They can burn pretty fast, so make sure you check. Also, I found it necessary to add more oil between batches.

Summer Drinks: Flavored Ice Cubes

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It seems summer is all over us these days, it's getting so hot you just wanna live underwater or in a fridge.

Summer drink will help us get through though. Previously I showed you some ideas to flavor your ice cubes to get a refresing cold coffee/ mik drink. Below you have 3 alternatives for your lemonades, ice tea or fizzy water.

This time I added mint, lavender flowers and grapefruit juice.

You just have to fill an ice cube tray with water or lemonade and then add mint leaves or lavender flowers. For the pink grapefruit one, my favorite, just fill the tray with grapefruit juice with or without the pulp, however you like it.

Here is an example of some fizzy with the grapefruit cubes. You really feel like in a spa and the effort is minimum.

xoxo,

Recap: 3 Pasta Dishes (Budget Friendly and Time Saving)

If you are looking for a dish that is really affordable and that can be done in under 30 minutes, we've rounded up 3 of our favourite pasta recipes that anybody can prepare and it won't leave a huge hole in your pocket.

1.  Farfalle with Bacon, Peas and Ricotta
2.  Spaghetti al Pomodoro e Basilico 
3.  Spaghetti Indiavolati

Spicy Tomato Soup Recipe

After a long wait, in farmer’s markets is finally tomato season in full power. Small, big, red, green, yellow, round or oval, you can find excellent quality tomatoes on the stands.

So, again, another dead easy recipe that packs a lot of flavor and that you can switch and mix to your liking. A couple of things about this first, things that I use when cooking tomato soup. I use both water and tomato juice to cook, in proportions of 1 to 3 (1 part water, 3 tomato juice) and I don’t really like celery in this. Yeah, I know it’s weird, totally, but that’s how I roll, get over it, stop giving me that look and get away from the back button on your browser. You can always add it if you like it. 

So, about 250 ml of water, 750 of tomato juice (to get that, I just cut the tomatoes in half and grate them on a medium grater, another thing, I like my tomato soup with the seeds in it), 1 spicy red chilli (on a scale from 1 to 10, I’ll have an 11), 1 medium onion, 1 carrot, 2 garlic cloves, a couple of branches of fresh thyme, 2-3 tbs of chopped parsley, 2 bay leaves, salt pepper, olive oil. Oh, and another thing, I would suggest not to use a juicer to get the tomato juice, the results tend to be a little bit too thin for my taste, and rather mild in taste. Better use this method for your Bloody Mary.

Start up by heating the olive oil on high flame, add in the finely chopped onion, finely grated or chopped carrot, the sliced garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the hot water and cook on the high heat for another 3-5 minutes. Reduce heat, add the tomato juice, salt, pepper, thyme and bay and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, after which sprinkle the parsley on top. You can mix things up, add celery sticks or root, peppers, sprinkle some olives on top in the end, add basil, oregano, whatever makes your day, that’s the beauty of this dish.

So there you have it, easy spicy tomato soup. Just toast some slices of bread, rub them with a clove of garlic, sprinkle some olive oil on the bread and enjoy the summer. And I think it goes without saying: don’t forget your nice, cooled wine. 

Enjoy,

Mr. G.

Goat-Cheese Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Because we absolutely loved our first time eating blossoms, we had to try it again as soon as we could.

I love this time of the year, the vegetables are getting better and better, their prices are dropping, and you can find really good produce in the farmer markets. One of the most abundant vegetables out there is the humble zucchini, that you can get for ridiculous low prices right now. 

Unfortunately, using this vegetable on an everyday scale isn’t really an option, so to spice things up, we also like to cook its blossoms. We showed earlier a ricotta cheese recipe, and we decided to make a goat cheese version, a recipe with a little bit more personality.

So, for 7 flowers, we used:

200 g of goat cheese (use a soft one, that you can work into a paste), 
2 green onions, 
2 tbs of chopped fennel leaves, 
1tsp nutmeg, 
1 chilli
flour and sparkling water for the batter

First and foremost, prepare the blossoms by (gently) removing each one’s pestle, which tastes terrible. No, really, they should have an emoticon for that, it is one of the most bitter things we’ve ever tasted. Oh, and check for ants, they tend to roam inside the flowers as well (or don’t, think of them as extra crunch J). 

Mix, the cheese, finely sliced onions, the chilli, fennel and nutmeg and fill the flowers, making sure the composition is well sealed inside. 

For the batter, you need to create a mix that has a slightly thicker density that a pancake one. Dip the filled blossoms in the batter, making sure they are well covered, then fry them in hot vegetable oil until they get a light brown color. 

For an extra visual effect, make sure you don’t cover the flowers with too much batter, so, when fried, the blossom will retain some of its original color (otherwise all you’ll see will be fried batter). 

Feel free to sprinkle some lemon juice on the flowers or any type of tangy vinaigrette that can bring some balance.

Enjoy!