Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Peas are a precious crop for me, I don't like to buy big bags of frozen peas like everyone seems to do in New Zealand (and other countries), it makes them feel 'cheap' and 'common' and an everyday boring side veggie... In fact I think that in so many years of blogging I have posted only one recipe using frozen peas and it is  here  (cooked with some foraged onion weeds - so the point of that recipe was to have a very low cost dish). I like my fresh peas and I like them to be the main player in a dish, like for  risi e bisi,  a traditional risotto dish from Veneto, Italy. And the best part of growing them? Is to keep the pods, and as I am a NO-FOOD-WASTE advocate, to use them to make stock, which will be the base of the risotto. So shell the peas and keep the pods, wash them well and place them in a pot with water (I used about 1.2 litres of water for a basket of peas) and rock salt and simmer for at least one hour. You can also add a little parsley or celery l...

   This is a super risotto, I am so proud of it!! I made the recipe many years ago for a magazine but I used shaved Parmigiano, but I think that cut into chunks is better. Start like for all good risottos, with plenty of butter and a chopped onion (I used a red one to keep the colour scheme!). When the onion sizzle add the rice (I used arborio) and stir well: for a good risotto the fat at the beginning is important so make sure that the rice absorbs well the butter. Make really hot to the touch.  Boil and peeled three small/medium beetroots (or a very large one) and cut into cubes. Add the cubes to the rice and stir until hot. Remember that the rice has to be hot before you add the stock! Add the stock (vegetable in my case) ladle by ladle, and stir often, adding more stock when needed. The risotto is ready! Wow, look at the colour! Cut the Parimigiano Reggiano into small chunks with a Parmigiano knife. Get your Balsami...

Lovely colourful vegetables from the garden (except the red onions), all ready for a minestrone. From the bottom: red onions, rainbow chard, carrots, yellow beans, silverbeet stalks, celery, green beans, flat beans, kale. Just add water and salt. Wishing you all a colourful week! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

For the first time in my life I planted friarielli (cime di rapa), I got the seeds from Slow Food Auckland and I was so excited that I didn't wait for Autumn but I planted them straight away. Auckland is hot and wet, so they grew fast and started flowering quickly, I had to pick them before they seeded even if the tops were small. But they were delicious. I also have to confess that I ate some as salad, when the leaves were very young, and they are probably one of the best alternative to rocket salad around. After I got my first batch I cleaned it and then cooked in a pan with olive oil, garlic and salt. You can add chilli, but I prefer to taste the friarielli rather than the chilli. Simmer them slowly with a lid for 20-30 minutes stirring often, if they are fresh you don't need to add water (mine came directly from the veggie garden!). The best pasta to have them with is orecchiette, but I didn't have any so I used some tofe, which are close enough in shape, but d...

The Florence Fennel seeds from NewWorld Supermarket's Little Gardener have grown into big long fennels, not the round fat fennels unfortunately. So I decided to pick them before they became too tall and create something with them. I washed them, removed the leaves and cooked them with a tbs of butter and a little light vegetable stock until they were tender, and then I added another tbs of butter I blended them into a cream which I used to dress pasta with. It was delicious! I have a couple more fennels in the garden and this will be their destiny too!  PS: The leaves are just for decoration Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Hops grow wild at my Aunt Alice's in the North of Veneto Pick the new shoots and wash well, then chop. Add a small chopped onion and then sauté with butter or olive oil (if making a vegan risotto). Add carnaroli or another risotto rice and then, when the rice is hot, vegetable stock, ladle by ladle. Keep stirring and adding stock (we made this over a wood fired kitchen, it didn't take long!) Serve, by itself or with grated cheese (vegetarians) or grated toasted almonds (vegans). Flowers for Pinterest Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

A low fat, high protein vegan dish 1 bunch of cavolo nero 1 shallot 1.5 l vegetable stock 1 can chickpeas plus the same amount of water 1 cup of small pasta  salt and pepper to taste extra virgin olive oil to drizzle Wash the cavolo nero and remove the white stalks. Slice the shallot. Put everything in a pot with the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the content of the can of chick peas, plus a can of water. Simmer for other 30 minutes then blend with an immersion blend, but not too finely, leave some of the chickpeas whole. Bring back to the boil, add the pasta and simmer until the pasta is al dente. Taste for salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil before serving. It is actually better the day after! 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  ©

In Lima I heard a lot about quinotto, quinoa cooked like risotto. Many of my Italian blogger friends also  make it, and I though of trying, starting with a classic saffron style 'quinotto'. I chopped one onion and cooked it with a little olive oil (I wanted to make a vegan dish, but remember that butter is traditionally used for saffron risotto), then I added 450 g of quinoa. Once the quinoa was 'toasted' and 'greasy' with oil, I added one glass of white wine, and then, ladle by ladle, slowly slowly, and stirring often, one litre of vegetable stock. I added the saffron just at the end, when the quinotto was cooked. How was it? Well, I liked it very much, my son liked it too, but my husband and daughter weren't so sure... they ate it, but are they are not going to beg me to make it again, they prefer risotto with rice :-). And did you ever try to make quinotto? Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

In Uruguay I have discovered  this vegetable , and I thought of using it to create a pasta sauce before going back to New Zealand (where I guess that I could use zucchini or small marrows??? We'll see). Ingredients 3 zapallitos 1 tbsp butter 500 ml vegetables stock 2 garlic cloves, peeled Half cup parsley leaves salt and black pepper to taste Pasta Parmesan to serve (optional) Wash and cut the zapallitos, then put in a pan with half of the butter and one garlic clove. Sauté and when the zapallitos start to dry up add the vegetable stock and cover. Cook until all the liquid has been absorbed and the zapallitos are creamy. In the meantime finely chopped the last garlic clove with the parsley and cook the pasta al dente. I used egg  Farfalle  (bow ties), made in Uruguay. Add the remaining butter and chopped parsley to the sauce and season with salt and pepper, then drain the pasta and mix. Serve immediately.  For vegans just substit...

Well, I couldn't resist and I bought it, I never seen it before! The first thing that I tried is a classic risotto and the verdict is that this is not rice for risotto :-). Anyway, here it goes: sauté the onion in butter, add the rice, add a glass of white wine, and then slowly add the veggie stock ladle by ladle and stir until the risotto is cooked. The taste was nutty and interesting, and the colour quite amazing, but the texture was wrong. I knew it when I saw the rice, it didn't look like the right grain, but I had to try! The rest of the packet will go... not quite sure, maybe I will mix it with some long grain white rice and steam it, to see what happens. It may taste good with coconut. What do you think? Did you try this rice? Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

  Bence  and Judit are visiting from Japan (btw, they are Hungarians, not Japanese), and last night Bence made us a yummy strawberry risotto. He chopped half a onion and cooked it in butter and olive oil, then added 500g of carnaroli rice and a glass of white wine. He chopped a punnet of strawberries and added them to the rice and, always stirring, added about 1.5l of vegetable broth, ladle by ladle. At the end he added some grated parmesan cheese and topped the risotto with chopped parsley. More parmesan and some freshly ground black pepper were added to the plates. It was a super delicious risotto, thank you Bence! Recipe by  Bence Kovács, Photos by Alessandra Zecchini  ©