Broccolo Romanesco and chickpea salad

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 ©

Miso Ramen with flowers

This is a quick and easy dinner: I used a mixture of gai lan (Chinese broccoli) which have edible yellow flowers, and broccoli, carrots, onion weeds and two types of seaweed (nori and tororo kombu, a kind of 'hairy' seaweed perfect for soups. I cleaned the vegetables and keep the gai lan and onion weed flowers aside. For the stock I cooked the carrots, broccoli, gai lang stalks and leaves and onion weed bulbs in a litre of lightly salted water, then I lifted the vegetables out and added miso paste (don't boil at this point, just simmer to mix the miso.  I cooked the ramen noodles in another pot, then lifted them out of the water directly in the ramen bowls. Then I topped the noodles with the vegetables and covered everything with miso soup. To finish I added boiled eggs, all the seaweed, and the gai lan and onion weed flowers.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Orecchiette con cime di rapa (o friarielli) e broccoli

The only reason I made these with both cime di rapa and broccoli is because in the garden I had just a handful of cime di rapa, so the broccoli made them go... further.

Wash the friarielli and broccoli, cut onto manageable pieces. Boil the water for the orecchiette, adding plenty of salt when the water boils, and before adding the orecchiette. In the meantime in a pot sizzle chopped garlic and a chili with olive oil, add the cime di rapa and broccoli, a small pinch of salt, and cook them stirring often, and adding the boiling water from the orecchiette (but only after you have put the orecchiette in!) from time to time. The cooking water from pasta is very useful for pasta sauces and for cooking vegetables this way. When the orecchiette are ready drain and add to the cime di rapa, stir well, add more olive oil and serve.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

From my veggie garden

Mostly there is mud, but occasionally I can pick something! Cavolo nero still the main (although receding) crop, only one cabbage big enough to pick (and it was a miniature one!!!) and my last bock choy. But I can see more brassica trying not to drown like the fennel, and I am starting to pick a few celery legs, even if they are still small. And in the background... yes.. Cape gooseberries, but they mostly taste of water now...

Photo  by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Green palette from the garden to the table

At least winter in Auckland is ... green. We had lots of rain and veggies in the garden are growing so slowly that I actually think that some have gone to a complete stand-by. So yes, it is more broccolini and bok choy for us, fortunately I also have a few herbs, including chives, and my first Florence fennels. Only two were big enough to pick, certainly bigger than those 'bambino' fennels I see in the supermarkets here in New Zealand, but not as big as the ones I used to get in the markets in Italy. I had to find a way to make them go ... further! So I decided to cook them with bok choy, hoping that the strong fennel taste would take over. 

Go Further Fennels

Surprisingly enough it worked! I washed and cut the 2 fennels and 1 bok choy and cook them in a pan with just a little butter, then I added some vegetable stock, covered them with a lid and let them simmer on very low for quite a long time. About one hour. Slow cooking is best with fennel (unless you eat them raw), they have to become really really soft, and the bok choy kind of took in the good flavours too. 

 Fusilli with Chive Sauce

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.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©