Spaghetti alle cozze (mussels)

Slice 3 cloves of garlic very thinly. Get the leaves from 10 g flat parsley and hack the stems. Reserve.

Wash 1 kg mussels

Bring water to the boil and add 100 g spaghetti.

Fry the garlic for 2 mins in 2 tbsp olive oil, then add the parsley stems. After another minute add the mussels and 100 ml white wine. 

Wait till the wine starts to steam, then add 200 g tinned polpa and 1/2 tsp chili flakes.

Put the lid on and steam for 3-4 mins till all mussels are well opened

Drain the pasta and stir through the mussels. Steam for another 2 mins, then add the parsley leaves

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Green gazpacho

Peel a cucumber. 

Mix 160 g Greek yoghurt with chunks of the cucumber, 1 avocado, the zest and juice of 1/4 lemon, 1 clove of garlic, 1/2 diced shallot, 10 g dill, 10 leaves of basil, 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp apple vinegar and 1/2 tbsp sugar. 

Then blend into this creamy soup. Taste and season with pepper and salt. Chill for at least 3 hours.

Serve with some extra olive oil and basil oil on top 

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Cherry and amaretti semifreddo

Mix 250 ml whipped cream with 50 g sugar and 250 g ricotta. Hack 100 g amaretti cookies. Mix everything with 250 g pitted cherries.

Line a cake tin with foil, fill with the mix and cover with the foil. Freeze for at least 4 hours.

Just before serving bring 100 ml water to the boil, add another 50 g sugar, 1 tbsp cornflour and 250 g pitted cherries. Simmer for 15 mins then add 2 tbsp cherry jam and stir.

Serve as shown, with some left over cherries for decoration

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Caramelized fennel, feta, pine nuts

Melt 20 g butter and 3 tbsp olive oil  in a heavy grill pan. Once the butter stops bubbling, place as many 1 cm slices of fennel into the pan as it will comfortably hold (usually about half of a fennel bulb ) and roast for 3-6 minutes on each side to get a decent amount of color on them. This will go a lot quicker if you resist the urge to move them around.

When the first batch of fennel has browned nicely, set it aside on a large plate or in a bowl, add 20 gr butter again and fry the second batch as before. Remove the remainder of the fennel when ready, leave the pan on the heat and add 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp fennel seeds and a good helping of salt and pepper. Shake the pan vigorously for 30 seconds or so to help the butter, oil, fennel seeds and sugar divide evenly across the bottom of the pan.

Now place all the pre-cooked fennel back into the pan and let sit on each side for 2-4 minutes until you get some REALLY good caramelisation going on
Remove from the pan and back into your large bowl or plate and mix with the finely chopped clove of garlic while still hot.
Depending on the weather and the season, serve immediately or leave until cooled covered in 120 g crumbled feta, dry roasted pine nuts, chopped fennel fronds and more seasoning to taste.

(Here the recipe by Dorothy Porker)

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Red mullet, summer veggies, sauce vierge

The (2) quartered tomatoes need to be in the oven for 4 hours at 100°C, so start early! First quarter them and sprinkle with salt, pepper, sugar, oil and lemon juice.

3 hours and 45 mins later shave 1/4 fennel on the mandoline.

Cut 1 clove of garlic finely and dry roast a tsp fennel seeds.

Heat 100 ml olive oil and gently fry the garlic. Then add 2 tbsp soy sauce,  1 tbsp Pernod and the fennel seeds.

Boil 4 green asparagus and 12 sugar snaps in 3 mins

In the same time fry some sliced courgette.

Finally panfry 4 fillets of red mullet.

Start plating with the raw fennel, then the greens and tomatoes and finally the fish and the sauce.

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Yoghurt flatbread, pearl barley and mushrooms

Start with the bread by mixing 140 g whole wheat flour, 1,5 tsp baking

powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 140 g Greek yoghurt and 3 tbsp koriander leaves. Knead for a minute, wrap in plastic foil and keep in de fridge for an hour.

Cook 50 g pearl barley in 60 g water, which will take about 50 mins.

In the meantime soak 10 gr dried porcini in 90 ml lukewarm water.

After 20 mins quarter 200 g shiitake and mushrooms and fry in 15 g butter and a splash of olive oil, with a sprig of thyme, during 4 mins. 

Then add 1 finely hacked clove of garlic and 50 ml white wine and reduce during another 5 mins.

Then add the soaked porcini and their liquid (avoid the sand, if any), simmer for 10 mins. 

Add 10 g butter and 2 tbsp parsley, 1/4 tbsp hacked preserved lemon and the barley. Season with pepper and salt, keep warm.

Divide the dough into 6 balls. Freeze 4 for future use and roll the other 2 into flat (2 mm) pancakes. Bake them in clarified butter in 2-3 mins per side.

Serve as shown with Greek yoghurt and more parsley.

(An Ottolenghi recipe)

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