Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Broccolo Romanesco is a beautiful vegetable, but if you cannot find it you can substitute here with a cauliflower. Cut the florets and drop them in salted boiling water, then cook them until soft but not mushy. Cool in cold water and drain, then dress with white wine vinegar or white balsamic (about one tbsp). Drain one can of chick peas (keep the chickpea water - aquafaba, to make  vegan meringues  or  other vegan recipes ) and add to the Broccolo. Add olive oil (about 2 tbsp) and salt to taste. To finish add some olives (ascolane olives are the best, otherwise used other marinated olives). Mix well and serve at room temperature. Photo and Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I picked some lovely radishes from the vegetable garden, did you know that you can eat the leaves too? They are full of nutrients, as well as delicious! Wash the radishes well, then cut in halves (or quarters if big), keeping attached some of the centre leaves. Set the outer leaves aside to use later. These are the radishes (with the tender centre leaves) ready to pickle. Add some salt, I used Japanese unrefined salt because I had it, but ordinary kitchen salt is fine. Put another bowl over the radishes and then a weight on top (a rock, or anything heavy that you may have in the kitchen). Leave for a day and night, move the radishes from time to time if you like, to get them pressed. They will put out lots of water and create a brine. This is what they will look like the day after. Put into a jar with their brine and keep in the fridge (they will last a couple of weeks... maybe more but I don't know, we eat them quite quickly! And n...

Caprese with edible flowers and Caprese with tree tomatoes and two basils Caprese is probably one of the world best known salads (and antipasto), and there are many variations, so here a couple more: Caprese with edible flowers I used red and yellow cherry tomatoes, and mozzarelline (the cherry size), plus added some edible flowers (borage and dianthus from my garden, organic of course). Add small basil leaves too before serving, if you like. Suitable also for a cocktail party, and ever so pretty! Caprese with tree tomatoes and two basils I used a mixture of vine tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and semi-dried tomatoes, mozzarelline (but you can use regular mozzarella cut into slices or pieces) and green basil and purple basil leaves. Dress with olive oil and salt. A filling salad or light lunch. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I know that it is not season for kale, but we got quite a few seeds from the NewWorld's series  Little Garden , and now I have plenty of curly kale! I like it but not as much as  cavolo nero , but it is the best to make kale chips! I had to wash the leaves 7 times (that was my Mother's 'magic' number when I was little and my job was to wash the salad!) to remove all the little bugs from the curls! After spinning the leaves I placed them on a oven tray lined with baking paper, bushed them with olive oil and sprinkled them with salt. I baked them for about 10-15 minutes (until they looked crispy and dark green). They taste a little like roasted seaweed. A yummy snack! Garden flowers of the day: hydrangeas!   Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

When asked what is my favourite vegetable sometimes I reply that it is a  fresh  porcino  mushroom ( boletus edulis ) , and I say this knowing very well that mushrooms do not classify as vegetables... they are fungi, neither fruit nor vegetable. But no one in New Zealand ever asks me what is my favourite fungi (they do in my village in Italy, for sure), only what is my favourite vegetable, and mushrooms are usually defined as a side vegetable (even eaten at breakfast! This thing still puzzles me).   The fact is that to me mushrooms rarely take the place of a side vegetable, but they tend to be the main player: pasta with mushrooms, risotto with mushrooms, polenta with mushrooms, mushroom fritters, mushroom burgers, mushroom dumplings, stuffed mushrooms...  For a vegetarian they substitute meat, and in the old days in my mountains in Italy they used to be called  carne di bosco  'meat of the woods'. We never bought mushrooms when I was ...

The weather has been strange, one moment sunny and then rainy again, and I needed a colourful salad to keep me happy! So here is a Caprese with bocconcini, and I used cherry tomatoes, beef tomatoes and yellow tomatoes, plus green basil and purple basil. And a few very young leaves of cavolo nero from the garden :-). Drizzle with olive oil, add a pinch of salt, and the sun is shining! Photos and 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...

These type of artichokes are called mammole,  the 'petals' are rounded and not as spiky like for  carciofi . But they are excellent cooked  alla romana . Cut the outer petals off until you get to the tender heart, leave a bit of the stalks, but peel them, and then immediately put them in water and lemon (so that they don't become black) to wash them. Finely chop plenty of Italian parsley with garlic and a pinch of salt, and use this to fill the centre of each artichoke. Place the artichokes in a pot, drizzle some olive oil in the centre of each artichoke and add a little water at the bottom of the pan (about 2 fingers). Cover with a lid and simmer on low for a long time (1-2 hours) adding water from time to time. Sorry I didn't take a photo of the final product, but you can find one  here . Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I love fried eggplants, for a parmigiana, on pasta, on pizza, in a panino, as a side dish… or just by themselves, they are so versatile! Just cut them very thin (I use a bread knife) make them sweat with salt for an hour, rinse them and pat them dry. Fry them a few at the time with plenty of olive oil and a clove of garlic. Drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt. Serve or use as required. And now a few photos of peonies for my  Pinterest board . Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Red capsicums are so nice fried in olive oil, and then sprinkled with a little salt… this time I tried a different pairing though: sage! And it works really well. Of course I really like fried sage, so I guess that that help. (In the background I have some fried eggplants for the parmigiana, but you all know how to make that right?) :-) Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

This is a really yummy way to cook cauliflower, and to transform a side vegetable into a masterpiece! Remove the leaves and wash the cauliflower under running water, then place whole into a stock pot filled with salted water. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes (it will depend on the size of your cauliflower) until it just starts to soften, but it is still nice and firm (i.e. no florets breaking off!).  In the meantime prepare a marinade with plain yogurt and the spices and seasoning of your choice. I used smoked paprika, crushed garlic, cumin, olive oil and salt. Roast the cauliflower until the top is crunchy (I roasted some potatoes and onions at the same times, but the potatoes had been part-boiled before, so about 30 minutes. The cauliflower can be cut into slices, there was a lot and the leftover slices I pan fried the day after and they were even better (like all leftover fried food lol!).  I did try this recipe with a raw cauliflower to s...

I love a nice big pot of lentils, preferibly with some oven fresh crusty bread or a slice of polenta or creamy mushed potatoes. But also as pie fillers, for lasagne, or as a side dish, especially now that the weather is cold in New Zealand. For this recipes wash, soak and rinse 500 g of brown lentils, and then boil them in water with just a pinch of salt until cooked but not too soft or mushy.  In the meantime roughly chop one peeled carrot, one peeled onion, one peeled garlic clove and one stalk of celery with leaves and a few leaves of Italian parsley. This time I also added one green pepper because it was all alone in the fridge, but this is not necessary. Sizzle the vegetables with two tbsp of olive oil until the onions are soft, then add 1 tbsp of tomato puree, and if you like a little smoked paprika or a chili. Stir and sizzle for one minute. Add the lentils and their water and more salt to taste, but not too much as the water will reduce. Cover and s...

Roasted pumpkin medallions with pumpkin and sunflower seeds Slice, peel and place onto an oven tray, drizzle with olive oil, salt, smoked paprika, garlic and crushed cumin seeds. Roast until tender. Toast a few pumpkin and sunflower seeds the oven and sprinkle on the pumpkin medallions before serving. In addition I had the last zucchini in the garden, not quite a marrow but quite big, so I sliced it and baked it too: Baked zucchini Wash and slice lengthwise, drizzle with olive oil and salt, bake. That all! To serve I added some basmati and lentils Lemon basmati and lentils Wash and cook the basmati with a small pinch of salt, open a can of lentils, drain from the water and pour the lentils on top of the rice during the last five minutes of cooking. Turn off the heat, add two tbsp of lemon juice and stir. And to top some instant hummus with almond dukka: Instant hummus Open a can of chickpeas, drain and keep half of its water. Blend the ch...

I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it! Just peel and cut whole onions from the top into 6 or 8 slices, but leaving the end attached. Then, when you roast the onions they will open like lily flowers. Of course the Pinterest photo had onions that looked brighter and … raw, yes possibly more photogenic, but surely not as tasty! Roast your onions properly, until they are soft and sweet. I roasted mine with potatoes, adding olive oil, salt and spices (also, I cannot digest raw onions, so I do prefer to cook them anyway). Next time I will try to boil them first and see what happens :-). Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Look at this beautiful beetroot! Eat it raw or cook it! Below is a picture of the cooked one. For a simple salad cook the beetroot al dente, and then cool it under cold water and add extra virgin olive oil, lemon and salt. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

The other day I had a crazy craving for gomadofu, the 'tofu' made with sesame seeds. But I couldn't find it anywhere in Auckland! If anyone can help (or tell me how to make it at home!) please do! Anyway, I ended up buying konnyaku, a Japanese starchy-jelly food made from Konjak yam plant. It has nothing to do with gomadofu but perhaps the colour (a little) and to satisfy my  goma  (sesame) craving I thought of serving it with a sesame dressing. You don't need to do anything with the konnyaku except taking it out of the packet and slice it! For the veggies i steamed some cauliflowers florets and carrots (separately) and cooked some spinach. The spinach were rolled in a nori seaweed sheet (like a sushi roll, but with spinach instead of rice). For the dressing, usually I make  this miso dressing , but this time I tried to make  Nami's miso dressing , from  Just One Cookbook , mostly because I have never tried to put rice vinegar in my dressing and ...

I love beans and lentils, but I also love salads and raw food, my body feels like it needs them! I usually mix cooked beans with raw salad vegetables, but when I remember I get some bean sprouts, and I particularly like this crunchy bean combo from  Sproutman . I can just eat the sprouted beans as they are, with a drop of olive oil and lemon juice, 

Digging up the garden I pulled some ugly carrots and a few potatoes (white and yellow). I cleaned them and boiled them until cooked but firm, then I remove the skins (from the carrots too!) and sautéd them with olive oil, garlic, sage, rosemary and a pinch of salt. Really simple but super tasty!! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I have two zucchini plants in the garden, one yellow and one green. They produce a lot, the yellow three times more than the green (I don't know why) and we have been eating zucchini in 100 different ways: grilled, sautéed, fried and tempura, in soups, with pasta… fortunately they are very versatile! Here I had a few big ones (sometimes I don't pick them for a day and they double overnight! But the important thing is that they don't get to the 'marrow' state - too big and bitter) so I decided to stuff them. I cut them into two and scooped out the flesh. Then I baked the shells upside down with a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil for 15 minutes. In the meantime I blended the zucchini flesh and then added chopped parsley and chives (about 1 tbsp), salt and pepper, a tbsp of olive oil and enough breadcrumbs to make a stuffing (add the breadcrumb one tbsp at the time so that you don't add too much). The zucchini were fresh from the garden and therefo...

I love shelling fresh beans from the garden, especially borlotti, as they are so pretty! I usually put fresh beans in soups, or boil them to make a salad (and keep the water for a soup). To cook them slowly in a frying pan takes a bit longer, but they are delicious! Chop a small red onion and sauté with a little olive oil for a few minutes, then add the borlotti. Stir and add a little water and salt, cover and check form time to time, stirring well and adding more water when needed. It takes about a hour (or more if you simmer on low), so be patient. No need to add tomato paste as the onion will almost melt and make a nice colored sauce. Taste for salt at the end and adjust with black pepper, if you like. 1000 times better than baked beans!   Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©