Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I find frozen peas a bit boring, but I love the colour, plus the frozen ones are so cheap, and if you add some  onion weeds , which are free, and a little butter and salt, you have a quick and delicious side veggie. Plus you can use the leftovers to make a low cost dip just by adding a little feta.  For the peas, just clean and chop the onion weed (bulbs, stem and leaves, leave the flowers aside for decorations, they can be eaten too!). Melt a dollop of butter and add the chopped  onion weeds , then add the frozen peas (don't boil the first, it is not necessary) and a little salt. Stir, cover and simmer (add a tiny bit of water when needed, but never too much). Enjoy!!  With the leftover peas, just blend them with some feta and some of the brine from the feta (if you feta has no brine use a little water). Add more raw onion weed if you like a stronger taste. Super yummy on bread and crostini, with chips, eggs, salads or as a spread. Photos and Recip...

Nothing beats a green green green smoothie! Kale, spinach, banana, frozen mango, and coconut water as a base.  The croquettes are zucchini (raw and grated) mixed with feta, eggs, herbs and bread (stale bread soaked and crushed) and instead of frying them, as I usually do, I just drizzled them with olive oil and place them in the oven. Turn over halfway through baking and add more oil in necessary, you will be happy for how good they taste, even if they are not fried! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

A recipe from the  Forage to Feast  event held by  Slow Food Waitakere  last year: onion weed dip. Foraging is healthy and environmentally friendly, and foraging onion weed in Auckland and Waitakere is easy - remember that onion weed is, in fact, a weed, so it can be removed safely! Onion weed freezes well, just wash and cut into pieces. Every part can be eaten: bulb, stem, leaves and flowers, just make sure that it has not been sprayed or been near busy roads and dogs. To make this dip you just need some creamy feta cheese and onion weed (fresh or frozen). Blend, adding a tiny little bit of water (or olive oil if you prefer) to thin the sauce down if needed. No salt is required as feta is already salty. Refrigerate for a couple of hours and then serve as a dip or spread. Onion weed can be collected in Spring and stored in the freezer for months. It can also be used in cooking in place of onions, spring onions, chives, leeks and garlic.   Photos and...

 Just wash the asparagus and cut off the hardest bit at the end. Heat a couple of tbsp of olive oil in a pan, add a garlic clove, peeled and cut into two, and then the asparagus. Sizzle for a minute or two, stirring, then cover with a lid and turn the heat off. The asparagus will cook in their own steam. Uncover, add a tbsp of crushed pistachio nuts and cubed feta. If using halloumi, cube it first then sizzle with the garlic and olive oil, remove, add the asparagus and cook as before. Add the halloumi back at the end with the pistachio. Serve on a plate of quinoa. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Cook the linguine al dente, In the meantime clean the broccoli, cut the stalks into small pieces and the florets in fork size pieces. Heat some olive oil in a pan and add two cloves of garlic, peeled (chopped if you like a stronger garlic flavour). Sizzle the add the broccoli stalks. Stir, after one minute add the florets. Stir for a couple of minutes, add salt, cover with a lid and simmer for two minutes, then turn the element off but leave the lid on: the broccoli will cook in their steam. Cut the semi-dried tomatoes into strips and cube the feta. Drain the pasta and place in the pan with the broccoli (you can add a bit of water from the pasta or a bit more olive oil to mix everything well together. Top with the tomatoes and feta. Serve immediately.  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

You can see them in the deli department of all the supermarkets, little red peppers stuffed with feta, and they are not cheap! But mostly, if you have a big party they go too quickly! But for a fraction of the deli price you can buy a couple of jars of sweet pickled peppers and a block of creamy feta, and then you just need a few herbs from the garden, and a little milk to thin down the feta. And a bit of patience! Cut the feta (goat or cow) and place in a bowl, then with a fork start to mix it, adding some milk until you have a paste as thick as Greek yogurt. If you cannot find feta cheese, or for a milder flavor, use cream cheese. Chop some herbs like basil, dill, chives and/or parsley (or what you have fresh in the garden). You can use just one herb or a mixture of herbs. Or you can use an already flavoured feta, or dried spices like black pepper and cumin seeds (a combo that I particularly like with cream cheese).  Mix the herbs with the feta mixture. In th...

I got the idea from  this Italian blog  and although I changed almost everything in it, I kept the main ingredients: cauliflower and quinoa. I liked this idea because A: I really wanted to do something else with quinoa that didn't involve a salad or a risotto-type-of-dish, and B: I had cauliflower. Ingredients 1 cup quinoa 1 small cauliflower 200 g feta cheese 2 free range eggs Half tsp cumin seeds salt and pepper to taste olive oil Wash the quinoa, then place in a good pot with 2 cups of water. I also decided to cook the cauliflower at the same time (save gas, flavour and nutrients). Cut and wash the cauliflower florets and place over the quinoa. Simmer for 20 minutes. turn the heat of and let it rest for 15. Cube the feta and add to the quinoa and cauliflower, mixing very well. Add the eggs and mix well. With a mortar and pestle lightly crush the cumin seeds and add to the mixture. Adjust with salt and pepper. Brush a terracotta or other ...

Ingredients spinach feta egg breadcrumbs Olive oil for frying thyme (optional) Wash and cook a big bunch of spinach, then chop as finely as you can/wish. Place in a bowl and add some feta (about 100 g for each bunch of spinach), one egg and as much breadcrumbs as you need to make a mixture that can be shaped into small walnut size balls. Pan fry in olive oil turning them often until cooked. Place on some kitchen paper lined with fresh thyme (if using) to remove excess oil and give the polpettine a hint of thyme flavor. Serve hot, or even cold. My kids love them! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I though a lot about this, I am not the type to 'deconstruct' dishes, but I wanted to try.  The resulting spinach puddings are really soft but perfectly set and stable, the feta sauce easy and yummy, and the filo 'crackers' complete the dish perfectly, so you will make an impression with your guests! Ingredients For the savory spinach mini puddings: 500 g chopped frozen spinach Water 100 ml milk 2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese 3 eggs Salt to taste Salted butter to grease the ramekins For the Feta Sauce: 100 g feta A sprig of oregano (or a pinch of dried oregano) A little milk and hot water For the Filo Crackers: 5 sheets of film pastry Salted butter, melted, to brush Boil the spinach with water, then drain but do not squeeze. Put the spinach in a bowl and blend with an immersion blender. Add the milk and blend again. Add the parmesan and eggs and blend again. Taste for salt then add salt. Grease 8 ramekins with butter...

For this pizza slab I used this base recipe ( here ), but also added a tbsp of wheat gluten (these days I find that High grade flour is not 'strong' enough for making pizza). After 2-3 hours I rolled the dough on a large baking tray  (90 cm), then I put spinach (cooked and chopped) and feta on top.  I drizzled on top a little more olive oil and then I baked the pizza in the oven at 240°C for about 25 minutes.  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

The first time I used filo, long time ago now, I learned to spread melted butter every two sheets of pastry. It seemed a lot but I didn't have the courage to skip this step. Then I started to put less and less (only for baklava I keep using lots of butter, but then you only get a tiny piece so that is ok, I guess :-), or to use olive oil, which felt more 'Mediterranean' than butter. But filo pastry is very low fat in itself and I wondered if I really needed to use fat... this version has no butter or oil, and yet it tastes great!  Generally I use feta, spinach, garlic and cumin, or oregano. But while the  onion weed  abounds I thought "why not?", and made it with it. I picked, washed and chopped some onion weed, using the bulbs, stems, leaves and flowers. I mixed with 600 g of frozen chopped spinach (defrosted at room temperature) and a big block of goat feta. I used about 180 g of filo for this pie, half in the bottom, covered with the...

For the fresh pasta recipe just click  here , for instruction on how to roll the pasta with a pasta machine click  here , and to fold the tortellini just look at the pictures below. The filling was improvised: a bit of feta cheese, some breadcrumbs, and a few chopped herbs (Italian parsley, chives, basil, but anything goes).  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini, Artwork by Arantxa Zecchini Dowling  ©

If you like foraging onion weed is widely available, it is edible, and tastes very nice too. In fact when I discovered that I could eat it I stopped planting spring onions in the veggie garden, and started foraging instead. The weed has pretty white flowers and a strong spring onion smell. You can eat the flowers, the leaves, the stems, the bulbs... basically everything except the dirt!  One of the first things I make with fresh onion weeds is usually a nice raw sauce for pasta: just put the onion weed (every part of it) in the blender (leave out a few flowers for decoration) and blend with a little water, some feta cheese (Vegans can omit this and use a little tofu + salt and pepper instead) and some roasted cashew nuts. Add a little olive oil and toss into your hot pasta. This is a very filling dish and the sauce has a beautiful pale green colour. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Red Beetroot, Carrot, Feta and Coriander Salad Wash and boil the red beetroots until you can easily pierce them with a knife. Let them cool down and then peel them (keep the peels aside to colour the eggs later on). Cut them into cubes., then add a grated carrot, cubed feta cheese, chopped fresh coriander, olive oil, lemon juice (optional) and salt and pepper to taste. With this recipe I take part in the event  Weekend Herb Blogging  ( number 292 ). The creator of WHB was Kalyn di  Kalyn's Kitchen , followed then by  Haalo,  Cook (almost) anything at least once , and then by  Brii,  Briggis recept och ideer  for the Italian version. Thank you also to this week host   Erbe in Cucina . Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I like cooking fusilli with chive sauce,  this is an example . Just chives, feta, maybe a few nuts, cooking water from the pasta, and olive oil. If the feta is salty you don't need to add salt. Chop the chives before placing them in the blender or food processor with the other ingredients: if you leave them long they will take forever to blend. To top the pasta I used a few broccolini quickly cooked in a pan with garlic, salt and olive oil. A simple but filling lunch, and then back into the green bush. <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Falessandra-onlyrecipes.blogspot.com%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Falessandra-onlyrecipes.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F07%2Ffusilli-with-chive-sauce.html&description=Greens%20and%20Blues" class="pin-it-button" count-layout="horizontal">Pin It</a> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js">...

John showed me his Italian pumpkin from his veggie plot. As soon as I saw it I though of  zucca barucca,  but I am not so sure now, so many years have passed since I had one... maybe the name is not correct. I have been told by an agronomist that it is a  zucca barucca  :-), possibly a Marina di Chioggia or Mantovana. John gave me half of his pumpkin! Half is a lot, we made a soup, a sweet pie, some ravioli... and I still have some left! The kids made the ravioli. I prepared some pasta dough for them (recipe  here ), then I took out the pasta machine and handed it over to two very excited kids. They took turns rolling the pasta out, from the larger to the thinner setting, and when I say 'took turns', I mean literally: one roll each, and then start again, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl... In the meantime I made a quick filling for the ravioli: I used some steamed pumpkin (steaming is better than boiling, which would make the pumpkin too ...