Recipe of the Week
july
For a rich pasta sauce with an autumn flavour, melt a knob of butter and add crumbled Gorgonzola. Cook for about five minutes, stirring all the time, until the cheese has melted, then add a little double cream, some chopped walnuts and lots of black pepper. Serve stirred into fusilli pasta.
More ideas:
Liven up chicken thighs in the Turkish style by roasting them in a hot oven with whole garlic cloves and the juice of a couple of fresh pomegranates. Serve with boiled white rice into which you have stirred some dried raisins, and a salad of finely sliced red cabbage, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.
Fresh chicory makes an excellent base for a goat's cheese salad. Buy a baguette, cut rounds of bread and toast on one side. Top with slices of fresh goat's cheese and pop in a hot oven for a few minutes. Meanwhile, slice the chicory (immediately before serving to avoid discolouration). Dress with vinaigrette, then top with the cheese and bread and peeled walnuts.
For a boozy summer pudding, slice peeled peaches and nectarines and serve in glasses topped up with a very chilled fizz such as Cava (don't waste champagne on this). Add a dollop of vanilla ice cream and a sprinkling of crushed walnuts to each glass.
For a summer fish dish, try tuna tartare Caribbean style which, like the Mexican ceviche, uses raw fish ‘cooked’ in citric juices. Buy a thick slice of tuna and chop into very small pieces. Then marinate in lime juice with salt, chopped shallot, green chilli and fresh thyme. Leave for an hour in the fridge, turning once, before serving with a tomato and red onion salad.
Slice leeks across into thin rounds and then simmer with a tablespoon of olive oil, a glass of white wine, a couple of bay leaves and plenty of seasoning for about 10 minutes, until just tender. Leave to cool in the liquid then serve just warm alongside grilled pork or lamb chops, with bread to mop up the juices.
For potato salad, boil waxy potatoes (La Ratte are a good variety) in their skins, chop roughly and dress while still warm with a mustardy vinaigrette (or add a generous dollop of Dijon mustard to a ready-made vinaigrette). Add capers, chopped shallot, fresh parsley and lots of black pepper. Serve with cold beef.
For an exotic Middle Eastern-style pudding, bake fresh figs in a medium oven for 15 minutes until tender, then make a cross-shaped incision into the top. Put a tablespoon of vanilla ice cream into the middle of each fruit and drizzle over some honey. Finish with a sprinkling of crushed pistachio or almonds and serve straight away.
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