Kale Pesto Pasta

I love making a good pesto, and I recently found a fantastic new recipe. For this special green pesto recipe, you can use any green leafy veg. I used Kale, but you could use Spinach or Cavelo Nero, etc. You can really be quite creative with pesto.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of almonds

about 4 handfuls of kale (only the green leaves)

about 1/4 cup of olive oil

75g parmigiana/ pecorino

2-3 garlic cloves

salt and pepper 

fresh chilli (optional)

Directions:

Blend everything in a food processor, it should be slightly lumpy. The pesto needs to be very moist, so add more olive oil, if it is too dry. Because pesto is in olive oil, it lasts quite well in the fridge. Just put in an airtight container, glass is best, and use within about 2-3 weeks.

For the rest of the dinner

Ingredients:

ham

a handful of cherry tomatoes

pasta

Directions:

Dice ham and cut tomatoes in half. Fry ham and tomatoes until slightly brown. Boil pasta. Drain and mix in the pesto (you only need about half of the pesto batch for 500g pasta). Mix in the ham mix, sprinkle with more parmesan and voilà! 

Buon appetito!

x

Cheesy Potatoes, Syrupy Carrots and Parsnips and Balsamic Oven-baked Tomatoes

Tonight, we had shop bought chicken kiev, but we had really fantastic sides. And they were really simple too. 

Cheesy potatoes:

about 5 large potatoes

butter/ olive oil

cheese

Directions:

Peel and slice, boil (to soften). Mix some butter/ oil into the potatoes, and place in an oven dish. Put cheese on, and then grill in the oven.

Syrupy Carrots and Parsnips:

a handful of carrots

a handful of parsnips

some sugar

some butter

Directions:

Peel and chop/ slice/ julienne (cut into strips). Pour everything into a pan and cook until soft.

Oven-baked Tomatoes:

vine tomatoes

balsamic

Directions:

Pop the tomatoes on an some kitchen foil, and bake until they pop their skin... Serve with some balsamic glaze/ regular balsamic vinegar.

Buon appetito! 

x

Egg in an Avo

 Oh my heavens, so two of my FAVOURITE things in the world are avocado and poached eggs. So when I saw a picture of this recipe, I had to try it. I should have read the recipe, however as no doubt it would have told me to hollow the avo a little before pouring the egg in... But messes don't = catastrophe! :) It was still DELICIOUS!

Ingredients:
avocado (the bigger the better)
eggs
salt and pepper
grated cheese

Directions:

Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees C. Hollow out the avo, and crack the egg inside. Season. You could even add some chives, or any other herb you like. Pop in the oven for about 5-10 minutes. Put cheese on top and put it back in the oven for a little longer, until the cheese is melted and yummy!

Serve with some fresh bread - we had toasted olive bread! YUM! And some salad.

                                                
                                                                         Buon appetito!
                                                                                  x