One thing I am enjoying about not being able to get out and about is the opportunity I am having to stretch the food I have in delicious ways.  Exploring new ways of using it, and then sharing that with you, my readers.

 

I was recently sent some nice olive oil, bottled tomatoes and pasta from an online supplier,  Cibilia, purveyors of fine Italian foods.  I used some of the things they sent me to create this delicious recipe I am sharing today. 

 

The olive oil is an Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Mono Varietal Peranzana from Apulia produced using only Organic Olives harvested in the family estate of Ramieri Rosanna mother of Amuruso Francesco, a guy in his 20s’ with a passion for agriculture. The estate is only 30 hectares and the bottl I received caame from their 2019 harvest. The Peranzana variety of olives is a typical olive grown in  the Apulia region. Apulia is the biggest producer of Olive Oil in Italy. After the harvesting, the olives go to crushing mill and get processed in less than 4 hours to make sure that the Olive Oil produced is at the best. 

In a dish where you are using very few ingredients, it helps to make sure that what you are using is the best that you can get.

 

You really want to use good tomatoes with this recipe as well.  They are one of the main ingredients so it only makes sense that you would want to use the best that you can find. Today I used Buonassai Pomodoro Pelato, Bio in Salsa.    These are fabulously delicious Italian tomatoes.  

 

The pasta I used was a ten year out of date, wagon wheel pasta.  Ideally you should use a large macaroni, but I really wanted to get this pasta used up.  Truth be told, even though it was so out of date, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

 

One thing about being in lock down, you need to be able to make good use of the things you have in the house and this recipe is a perfect example of that.  I was fortunate enough the other day to have a friend drop off some fresh salad ingredients on our doorstep along with a big bag of spinach and some nice looking fresh tomatoes.

 

All were used in this delicious recipe which I found in one of my cookbooks entitled  Lost Recipes, meals to share with friends, by the late Marion Cunningham. 

I have always loved Marion's recipes. She was the author of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which I have been using since the 1970's. I have worn out three copies of that one.

 

This is a great recipe for the times we are living in.  The bottom of a casserole dish oiled with some olive oil is lined with sliced fresh tomatoes which are seasoned. 

 

This then gets topped with a mix of torn fresh spinach and chopped parsley. True confessions here. I had to use dry parsley because it is all I have.

 

The crushed macaroni gets layed out on top of this and then you add another layer of fresh spinach and parsley.

 

Finally you top the whole thing with a quantity of tomatoes preserved in tomato juice. Marion called for stewed tomatoes.  We don't get those here in the UK, so I just used a jar of those really great Italian tomatoes.  

 

A mix of water, good olive oil and garlic gets poured over everything and here is where I got fancy with the dish. I added a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar.  It was a wise choice I think.  Tightly covered with some aluminium foil, the casserole bakes in a moderate oven for about an hour at which time the macaroni get almost creamy and the vegetables cook beautifully, all of the flavours working together to create something which is incredibly delicious and satisfying.

  

I served it with a mixed salad that I made on the side and some garlic bread fingers, also homemade.

 

I love recipes like this. They are like hidden gems, that might go unnoticed and forgotten were it not for the likes of people like Marion Cunningham who made it her goal to bring them to light and share them with the world.  This was quite simply delicious.

 

Back in the late 1970's when I was a very young Bride with two small children we lived in Calgary, Alberta for a while, and the later on near Edmonton in a small town called Stony Plain.  We were friends with a lovely family, the McNevins.  Their son had been a soldier in my ex husband's Infantry Platoon, having gone through basic training together. 

 

These people were the salt of the earth and so very kind to me.  I was thousands of miles away from my own family, with little or no support, with a husband who was often away and they kind of took me under their wing.  We often spent weekends with them and their family. 

 

Mr McNevin had been a helicopter Pilot for a Heli-Ski company and my oldest son saw him as sort of  a Grandfather of sorts, and his wife Lil was almost like a Grandmother to the kids.  They had a very old and slobbery British bulldog, named Bing,  who was very gentle. He liked to pull our daughter Eileen around the house in her walker holding onto her hand very gently with his mouth.

 

I can't say that I was exactly thrilled germ-wise with the idea of my wee girl being pulled around with her hand in a dog's mouth, but it was harmless, and the dog was gentle.  I was so shy back then I couldn't bring myself to say anything, but I always scoured and cleaned her hands very carefully afterwards.  UGH.

 

Anyways, Lil was a bit of a diamond in the rough and a fantastic cook. She had raised a large family, all girls except for Bob, who was my ex's friend. All the girls were great cooks also, and one even had her own restaurant.  Anyways, they were happy to share their recipes with me, which I laborously copied out in my Big Blue Binder.  This recipe is one of theirs.

 

You need to begin these the night before as the ribs need to be marinated in a mixture overnight.  I was lucky enough to score some short ribs in my very last grocery order a month or so ago.  They are not something you see very often here in the UK.

  

So when I saw them, I nabbed a pack.  It had been a very long time since I had eaten this delicious recipe so I was as pleased as punch to get them! 

 

Marinated over night, they are patted dry the next day, rolled in flour and then browned until golden all over.  You then pour the marinade in it's entirety over top and braise them until they are falling apart tender.

 

You can either simmer them on top of the stove, covered tightly, or braise them in the oven, again tightly covered.  This time I braised them in the oven. The resultant gravy is really delicious and that meat just melts in your mouth.

  

We enjoyed them with some oven baked potatoes. I just wash, prick with a fork, and throw them into the oven along side the casserole dish, right on the oven rack.  Plenty of air circulates around them and the skins get lovely and crisp.  I also cooked some frozen corn.

 

When I think back through the years, I can see clearly how the cook I am today has been greatly influenced by the examples of lots of great cooks through the years, each one contributing something special to the mosaic of culinary skills I possess.  I am grateful for each and every one of them. 

 

We were very grateful to have been able to get our hands on a fruit and vegetable box last week.  It was filled with all sorts of lovely things and I have been making sure that I make the most of everything that was in the box.

 

I have been enjoying eating the apples out of hand, and Todd has been enjoying the bananas.  One night I made us a cut fruit salad with some of the bananas, some cut up oranges, a kiwi and some coconut.

 

And of course we have been enjoying the potatoes, onions, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower in the box.  I still have parsnips and a butternut squash to make use of.  Not a problem.

 

There was a quantity of Conference pears, which can be awfully hard to eat out of hand, but they are beautiful for cooking with as they hold their shape well. 

 

Conference pears are a medium-sized pear with an elongated bottle aand are quite similar in appearance to the 'Bosc pear'. A table pear, it is suitable for fresh-cut processing. The skin is thick greenish-brown, becoming pale yellow when ripe. The flesh is white, but turns pale yellow when the pear is ripe. The texture is very fine and soft, and the flavour is sweet. They have always reminded me of Russet Apples in a way.

 

They are beautiful roasted!  Roasting softens them up nicely and really enhances their beautiful pear flavour.

 

This is not so much a recipe as it is a technique which you can apply to any quantity of the hard fleshed fruit. In fact you really want hard fruits for this as they stand up better in the roasting, and hold their shapes well.

 

To do this I peel the fruit and then I scoop out the seed portion of the fruit using  a metal measuring spoon, or a melon baller if you have one. This leaves a little bowl shape, which is perfect for filling with things  . . .  like little nobs of butter  . . .

 

I lay them out on a baking sheet, lined with paper, cut side up and do just that.  Pop a little knob of cold butter into each bowl.

 

It is probably not more more than 1/4 tsp.  We are awfully fond of the flavours of cinnamon and cardamom and so we also sprinkle a modicum of ground cinnamon and ground cardamom over each pear half. I finish them off with a small drizzle of honey and then I roast them in a hot oven . . .

  

It doesn't take too long . . . only about 20 minutes or so.  I start them cut side up, roast for a bit, then flip them over, roast for a bit longer, and then I flip them and cook them just for a little while longer until they are just slightly caramelised and beautifully sticky.   These are gorgeous served with a nice dollop of thick yogurt or some cream.  Ice cream would also be very nice.

 

I can't help feeling a tiny bit sad today as this was the day that I should have had my children arriving. Oh what a joyous reunion that would have been.  It has been 8 years since I have seen them. Nevermind, with any lucky and the goodness of God it will still happen later in the year.  Stay happy, stay healthy, wash those hands and, if you can,  stay home!  

 

I have become very thrifty over these past weeks. Something I am ashamed to say that I should have been practicing all along.  Nothing is going to waste in my kitchen.  They are saying it could be six months until the present crisis is over and I am keen to make everything we have stretch as far as I can.

 

Any thing hash is a great way to make good use of just whatever you have in your refrigerator that needs using up and topping it with a poached egg, turns it into a well balanced meal, containing some carbs, plenty of veg and a protein. 

 

It also makes a great vegetarian meal, for those of you who are not opposed to eating eggs.

  

The hash is composed of whatever you happen to have in the refrigerator that needs using up.  In my case I had a baked potato left from the other day, which wouldn't have fed two people normally, but when you add a host of other vegetables to it, it becomes like the loaves and fishes and magically multiplies to feed more.

 

I had a head of broccoli in the refrigerator, some carrots and a swede (rutabaga).  The stems on broccoli are often wasted and thrown away.  They can tend to be a bit fribrous, but if you trim of any fribrous bits there is no reason why you can't eat the rest. You can also eat the leaves of broccoli.

 

All of my veg was cut into 1/2 inch cubes and tossed together with a small chopped onion and then cooked together in my iron skillet, along with some oil and butter.

 

I cooked it first over low heat, covered so that the raw vegetables could cook to crispy tender and then I turned up the heat, seasoning it all with some salt and pepper, and cooking it until I had some golden brown carmelised bits.  The perfect hash.

 

You could of course add a quanitity of chopped cooked meat to this, along with some herbs, but I didn't have any lefover roast or any other meat that needed using and so I decided to top the hash with poached eggs.

 

You could, of course, do a fried egg, but I figured we would both benefit from the healthier option and so I poached us each an egg.

 

People can be a bit afraid of poaching eggs, but there is no need to be afraid really.  I have given exact instructions to give perfect results.

 

It helps if your eggs are at room temperature.  I also like to break them into a small bowl before slipping them individually into simmering water.  Don't ever tip them into boiling water or they will break up all over the place.

 

Cook them on the heat for exactly one minute, then take them off, cover the pan and let them sit for exactly ten minutes.  You will have perfectly poached eggs.  Ready to scoop out with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper towelling.

  

Once drained they are ready to use in any way you want.  In this case, atop a nice plate of crispy anything hash!

 

The skys have turned to pewter today and it is threatening of rain.  March is about to go out like a Lion methinks!  Oh well, so much for that old wive's tale as it came in like a Lion as well!