So, just yesterday, a few lucky friends came over for dinner and I decided to cook some of my favourites. The menu. For entree, puy lentil salad with grilled haloumi and sourdough bread. For main, home-made basil pesto pasta and roasted tomato tart. Desert consisted of mixed berries with vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate mousse. Nina and Cesar bought the berries, ice cream and mousse, so there’s no recipe for that. Everything else I made. The puy lentil salad is something Sara fell in love with in France. This is also where she got me on to puy lentils. I’ve made this a lot for Sara because it makes her happy, which makes me happy. She prefers to add preserved lemons to the salad, but last night I added my favourite ingredient: grilled haloumi. Basil pesto has to be one of my favourite ingredients, especially if you have a basil bush in the backyard. Making pasta is pretty onerous given the ease with which you can buy fresh pasta, bring it home and boil it. But, making it is fun – even therapeutic. I’ve done this with my nephews and niece and they love it – partly because it’s so messy, but also because they love pasta! I used to like making my own pasta because it usually meant I had a lot of time on my hands to spare. But, I’m getting better at it now and can whip it up with some shortcuts. So, this dinner was kind of a ‘Best Of’. Of course, I bought some Tempranillo wine to have with the main. Here are the recipes…
Puy lentil salad
This recipe is pretty much verbatim out of the bible (i.e. Stephanie Alexander’s Cooking Companion).
Ingredients:
- 2 cups puy lentils (otherwise known as fine green/brown/french-style lentils)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley (Italian flat-leaf is nicer, I reckon)
- 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions:
Soak lentils in plenty of water for 2 hours, then drain well, reserving a cup of soaking water. Heat olive oil in saucepan and sauté onion until golden. Add garlic and sauté for a minute. Add lentils, salt and reserved cooking water. I tend to add around half a cup when cooking with the puy lentils. Cook, stirring frequently, over a moderate heat for 20-25 minutes until water has evaporated and lentils are cooked. They should not be mushy and should still have a nuttiness to them. Tip lentils ito a bowl and stir in parsley, vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil. Grind on plenty of pepper. Feel free to expand salad. My favourite is to add some grilled haloumi marinated in lemon and oregano. Serve with some bread, if you want (pita or sourdough loaf is nice).
Basil pesto
This is from Stephanie’s with some of my own added suggestions. This basic recipe should be modified according to your taste and the occasion. For example, when I’m making this for a pasta dish, I tend to put less parmesan than in the recipe. This way, people can add fresh parmesan to their dish while eating. Or, if I know I’m going to be storing the pesto in the fridge I use the least possible amount of oil as possible. This is because you will continually add oil to the pesto after use to keep it fresh in the fridge. Another thing to note: you can blend the pesto to different consistencies to get different flavours and textures. Blending it more brings out the basil, blending it less brings out other flavours. I find the chunky version is nice as a spread. The only other thing to remember is that a basil pesto is only as good as the basil you use.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup well-packed basil leaves
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- salt
- 60 g best-quality parmesan, grated
Instructions:
Blend basil, oil, pine nuts, garlic and salt until smooth. This can be done most easily in a blender, food processor or mortar and pestle. When evenly blended, scrape into a bowl and stir in cheese. Store, covered with a film of olive oil, in a screw-top jar.
When using as a pasta sauce, reserve some cooking water to thin the pesto so it mixes nicely with the freshly cooked pasta. Depending on how you use it, this can last ages. I find when I use it as a pasta sauce it will serve around 12-14.
Home-made pasta
This is pretty much a combination of pasta recipes from Stephanie’s and from Jamie Oliver. This recipe makes about 500g of pasta, which is usually enough for 5-6 people. I’m not even going to bother offer instructions on how to do this without a pasta machine – they’re widely available and it’s the best 50 bucks you will ever spend. But, I will provide instruction on how to make this with or without a food processor. Using a food processor provides the most consistent dough, in my opinion.
Ingredients:
- 400g plain flour (I think the Tip 00, finely sifted flour is best)
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten (or 8 egg yolks, if you want a stronger flavoured pasta)
Instructions:
Using food processor: Combine flour and salt in food processor. With motor running, add eggs. Process for a few minutes until dough clings together and feels springy (it should not feel sticky).
Without food processor: Sift the flour and salt onto a large workbench. It should form a mound. Create a large well in the mound and pour in lightly beaten eggs. Using a fork, gently mix the flour into the eggs by skimming some flour from the wall of the well into the egg mixture. Hopefully by the time the wall of flour is too small to hold in the mixture, the mixture will already have taken on a doughy texture and it will just be a question of kneading in the remaining flour. Sometimes the walls of the flour mound break and the egg mixture goes everywhere. Don’t panic, just mix the flour into any egg spilling and then mix that into the mixture in the well. The dough may end up not mixed as well or even dry. Simply knead the dough for longer and/or have some water on hand whilst you’re kneading to add some of the moisture that was lost.
On a workbench, knead dough for a few minutes, then wrap it in plastic film and let it rest for 1 hour at room temperature. I sometimes skip the last step if I’m not striving for perfection and just continue kneading.
Make sure you have a long stretch of bench on which to roll out the pasta. Make sure the surface is dry. Have some extra flour on hand.
Rip off a piece of dough roughly about the size of a tennis ball. Ensure the rest of the dough remains wrapped in plastic. Flatten out the ball of dough – using the palm of your hand does the job. You just don’t want the dough going through the machine to be too fat, otherwise it stretches and dries the dough out. Make sure pasta machine is on the widest setting. Roll dough through machine. Put machine to next setting and roll pasta through x 3. Fold the pasta into three (two will do, though). Put machine to widest setting and roll dough through. Put machine to next setting and roll pasta through x 3. Fold the pasta into three (two will do, though). Put machine to widest setting and roll dough through. Put machine to next setting and roll pasta to desired thickness – this will obviously depend on what type of pasta you want to make. At any point that the dough starts to get too sticky in this process, sprinkle some flour over the dough and spread it over the whole surface. Flip the dough and repeat before running it through the machine again. Avoid doing this right before folding the dough. Also, if the pasta doesn’t feel that ‘silky’ you can run it through the machine and fold it a few more times before rolling it out to your desired thickness. If you are cutting the pasta, add the attachment and roll the dough through. Once done, have some sort of hanging rack (e.g. clothes horse) on which to hang the pasta to dry. Repeat the instructions in this paragraph until you have finished the dough.
Cook the pasta as soon as you can in boiling salted water with some olive oil. Drain thoroughly and serve immediately.
Roasted Tomato Tarts
There was this other recipe I had for a tomato and olive tart that was just so nice, but I couldn’t remember it. This was as close as I could get. I’d actually never made it before, but it’s sooooo easy. It’s from Donna Hay’s No Time to Cook.
Ingredients:
- 1 sheet puff pastry
- 200g fresh ricotta
- 20g parmesan, finely grated
- sea salt
- cracked pepper
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- thyme leaves, finely chopped
- olive oil
Instructions:
Thaw puff pastry at room temperature, but just before it thaws, cut into 4 squares. Combine ricotta, parmesan, salt (to taste) and pepper (to taste). Spread ricotta mixture over puff pastry squares, leaving a border. Top each pastry with 3 cherry tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with thyme leaves. Bake in pre-heated 180°C oven for 20-25 minutes or until pastry is puffed and golden. Serves 4.
