it’s not been a very healthy week for me – i’ve had several bugs, one after the other, and am still feeling a bit worn out and run down.

food has been quite low on my list of priorities however this pasta dish really did hit the spot! it’s very simple – a flavoursome tomato sauce with lots garlic, basil and a hint of chilli into which a handful of mozzarella cubes are added just before serving. the cheese slowly melts into the sauce and before you know it you’re twirling mozzarella strands round your fork as well as linguine.

the melting cheese was wonderfully comforting and the fresh tomato flavours made me feel like i was eating my way back to health. and as it was so delicious, i’d like to share this with ruth at once upon a feast for this week’s round of presto pasta nights.

Click to read more ...

19-25 may is national vegetarian week here in the uk. as with last year, this is, i think, a perfect excuse to encourage food bloggers to share their favourite vegetarian recipes.

“vegetables, beautiful vegetables” is an annual event where food bloggers around the world are invited to show off their skills at creating fantastic vegetarian dishes.

to participate:

• tell us about a vegetarian dish that you have cooked, complete with recipe. or maybe review a favourite vegetarian restaurant. or take a photo of your weekly vegetable purchases and tell us what you plan to do with them.
• post about this on your blog by 25 may.
• link to this post and send me details (see below)

i’ll then do a summary of all the great ideas out there. please get involved! and hopefully you won’t find it too difficult given most of us eat at least one vegetarian meal each week.

getting involved:

once you’ve posted about something vegetarian send an email with “vegetables, beautiful vegetables” in the subject line to: abby (at) eattherightstuff (dot) com by midnight, 25 may with the following information:

• your name
• your location
• the name of your blog and its url
• a link to your post
• a copy of your main photo (if you use one)

i had a busy weekend – we had friends round for supper on saturday and then more friends came for lunch on sunday. sunday lunch was ribs but it was preceded by a meze of dips and flatbread, as was supper on saturday.

the reason for choosing dips was the spiced chickpea and sundried tomato purée that aoife from yumbrosia raves about. aoife is my partner in taste and create which is a blogging event organised by nicole, where participants are allocated a partner from whose blog they need to cook something.

as ever, deciding which recipe to choose was tricky but, seeing that aoife has a favourites category for her recipes i knew i needed to choose something from here and it was this which first caught my eye.

i made three dips - in addition to aoife’s spiced chickpea and sundried tomato purée i made beetroot purée and roasted tomato & red pepper purée, both from skye gyngell’s a year in my kitchen. aoife’s purée was far and away my favourite – the sweet sundried tomatoes add a great depth of flavour to the spiced chickpea mix and i liked the freshness that the lemon adds.

Click to read more ...

several months ago i saw a recipe in a magazine for a spinach and butterbean bruschetta. it looked fabulous in the photos and when i read through the recipe i was sold – this was something that i needed to try. i then forgot which magazine it was in and, given i usually have several piles of recipe cuttings lying around, tracking it down wasn’t easy.

however, i spent a couple of days over a long and wet weekend sorting through these recipes and filing them away and, as a result, i found the bruschetta recipe.

i made it for friends (it preceded my lentil and spinach lasagne) and it was fabulous! the depth of flavour reminded me of the bruschetta di cavolo nero, fagioli (black eye beans) con l’occio e por we had in siena last year and it is a much more interesting bruschetta than the tomato and basil version that is often people’s default choice.

Click to read more ...

one of the things i love most about cooking is when a combination of ingredients work together so beautifully they just sing. they come together with a set of flavours that make you smile as you slowly try the first mouthful, and then more quickly the second, third and fourth. the final mouthfuls are again eaten slowly so you can savour each and every nuance of flavour. unless of course there’s a little extra in the pan, in which case rapid eating means you can stake your claim to extras.

this happened with this absolutely superb nigel slater recipe for chickpeas with pumpkin (butternut squash in my case), lemongrass and coriander. the dish has, as he says, “the citrus hit of lemongrass, the warmth of mustard seed and the luxury of coconut milk.”

i ate this with a smile on my face while making appreciative murmurs with every mouthful. as i ate it, i was thankful there was enough in the pan for a second meal and i mentally checked my diary to see how quickly i could eat it again. i then thought about which foodie friends i needed to email about this dish and tell them to try it. and when i’d finished eating, i added all necessary the ingredients to the shopping list so i could make another batch next week.

this is what good cooking is about and it’s why i believe that people should learn to cook and take chances with new and different recipes, so that everyone can have the pleasure of food which, if the world ended, would have been a perfectly good final meal.

this wonderful yellow curry is my contribution to a taste of yellow, the annual event run by barbara from winos and foodies, to support livestrong day, which recognises the impact that cancer has on many of our lives. i’m incredibly lucky not to have been directly affected by cancer but many friends and family have been and i’m supporting this event with, and for, all of you.

Click to read more ...