Food In My Home

Gnudi gnudi gnudi, it's a fun word to say and a fun thing to eat. No one seems to know what this delicious little ball of amazingness is but I am going to share it with you. They are little balls similar to gnocchi rolled in semolina and filled with ricotta and parmesan which when boiled create an unusual pasta coating, served with brown sage butter, you cut through the pasta layer and out oozes this cheesy yuminess. I discovered it having dinner at The Spotted Pig in New York with a friend who took me there on my last week saying I couldn't leave without going. Well he was right we had the the famous Gnudi and it was oh sooo good. I have been thinking about it for a while, trying to work out how to do it when I came across a recipe in The River Cafe Classic Italian Cook Book. It makes sense that they would have a recipe since the head chef at The Spotted Pig is April Bloomfield who trained at the River Cafe before moving to NY. I made the River Cafe version but as I write this...

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe and it is just the best bolognese EVER. It's so good I quite often just have it with cheese on top and no spaghetti at all, kids go mad for it too. I normally make double the recipe so I can stick some in the freezer. serves 4 10 slices pancetta or smoked streaky bacon sliced 1 handful rosemary, leaves picked and roughly chopped 1 large white onion, finely chopped 3 cloves garlic finely chopped 455g lean minced beef 1 wineglass of red wine 1 tsp dried oregano 2 x 400g tinned tomatoes 1 small jar sun-dried tomatoes roughly chopped 455g spaghetti 1 handful fresh basil lots of grated cheddar cheese Preheat the oven to 180˚. In a large oven proof saucepan fry the pancetta and rosemary in a little olive oil until golden. Then add the onion and garlic and fry for a further 3 mins until soft, then add the minced beef. Stir and continue frying until the beef is a bit brown all over. Then add the wine, reduce slightly and add the oregano, all the tomatoes, sund...

  Pasta recipe (from the River Café cookbook) Makes about 1kg which serves 8 500g Tipo '00' flour, plus extra for dusting 1 tsp sea salt 4 large free range eggs 6 large free range egg yolks 50g fine semolina flour for dusting Put the flour and salt into a food processor, add the eggs and egg yolks, and pulse-blend with a dough hook until the pasta comes together into a loose ball of dough. Knead the dough on a flat surface lightly dusted with semolina and a little extra flour, for about 3 mins until smooth. If it is very stiff and difficult to knead then you may have to put it back in the processor and add another egg. Cut the dough into eight pieces, briefly knead into balls, wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 20 mins. Set your pasta machine on the widest setting. Flour the work surface and push each piece of dough through the rollers 10 times, folding the sheet into 3 each time then turning it by a quarter and pushing it through the rollers again....

Mmmm I love a good pie in the winter, but not as much as my friend Nic who I have been promising to make a pie for ages. I think he is my biggest fan so it was my pleasure to bake him his very own steak and guinness pie and as you can see from the photo he was a very happy boy. serves 6 680g stewing beef diced 2 heaped tbsps flour 1 onion peeled and roughly chopped 1 large carrot peeled and roughly chopped 4 sticks celery washed and rough chopped 2 parsnips peeled and chopped into rough chunks 1 handful of mixed herbs, rosemary, bay leaf, thyme 1 pint guinness 2 tins of tomatoes 1 pack 500g puff pastry 1 egg, beaten Season the beef generously with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the flour until lightly coated. Heat 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy based pan and fry the beef until it's a nice golden brown. Add the onion to the pan until softened, then add the carrot, celery parsnips and herbs. Fry for about 4 mins stirring to stop the veg from catching. Add the tinned to...

I went home last week for a few days and as usual the fridge was empty, all my mum seems to eat during the week is hummus and cheese and the occasional leftover from the weekend. I found some partridges in the freezer and since I hardly ever cook game I thought I would invent something. I had a look at lots of different recipes but couldn't find one that I really liked so I made this one up. It was really really delicious and an amazing wintery mixture of flavours. You could do it with any other game birds or venison would also be pretty good. Mushroom farci 8 mushrooms any kind you like, diced into small cubes a few sprigs of fresh thyme leaves 1 large clove of garlic finely chopped glug white wine Put a splash of oil and a knob of butter in a pan and when hot add the garlic and stir for a few seconds and add the mushrooms and thyme. Cook off for a few minutes and then add a splash of wine and cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed back into the mushrooms and then take of...

I went to Whole Foods today to get a very short list of things for a pie I'm making tomorrow and managed to leave an hour!!! later. Whole Foods is not a place to go when you don't have a plan, it's a bit like Westfield where you get all overexcited with the shops, loose track of time and suddenly you leave and it's dark and you haven't bought anything. After getting the things on my list I realised I had to get stuff for dinner too. My basket got fuller..then emptier while I chopped and changed my mind constantly finding all kinds of amazing stuff, attempting to smell sauces in jars unsuccessfully. Unfortunately Whole Foods is possibly the most expensive place to shop so I have to do a bit of maths as I go and check I'm not spending my weekly budget on one small meal. After 45mins of indecisive supermarket heaven I eventually left with a very simple supper. Homemade fresh taglionini, some delicious looking fresh semi-dried tomato pesto made by Sapori D'Itali...

Happy New Year! I spent mine in the Swiss Alps with the most ridiculous amount of snow that we have seen in a long time, I definitely picked a bad year not to be doing another ski season. Anyway back in London, New Year, looking for a new job and not taking on any resolutions because they never work, just making sure I have as much fun as I did in 2011. I had some girls around last night and thought I would make the pork ribs I have had stored in the freezer. Everyone seems to be on a health kick at the moment so I decided to do them more Asian style with really good fresh clean salads to cut though the salty meatiness. 1 rack of pork belly ribs about 1kg (feeds 3 girls about 3 ribs each) 4 garlic cloves crushed flat with a knife 125ml soy sauce 100ml hoisin sauce 1 tbsp honey 1 tbsp sesame oil 1 tsp chinese five spice Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and rub all over the ribs and leave for 10 mins or as long as you can, the longer the better. Any marinade that falls off keep asid...