Fettucine with sundried tomatoes, parsley and shaved parmigiano

I was at the shop and a guy was buying before me parsley and a coke. Funny thing was that I rarely buy parsley, but I like it. I also had this great fetticine pasta and a ton of sun dried tomatoes from Rome, so it was time to put 2 and 2 together.
You get a simple, fast pasta dish that is suprisingly light.

Yes, light.

And the recipe is very basic. Add a tablespoon of salt to a pot of boiling water, add a drizzle of olive oil and cook pasta acording to package. Drain and dice dried tomatoes, chop roughly half a bunch of flat leaved parsley and shred some hard italian cheese like parmigiano. Drain the pasta, place in a pasta dish, sprinkle over with the tomatoes and parsley, add some  olive oil  over it, season with fresh cracked black pepper and top with the cheese. Serve!

Additional info: If you buy dried tomatoes, they are usually quite salty in the beginning. To make the taste bearable, try soaking in olive oil, and gradually change the oil or water out. This also works with capers.

Spaghetti polpettas! True italian meatballs

Now once upon a time you turned on theTV and saw a movie with two dogs eating spaghetti meatballs. Fast forward a few years, you go to Ikea and eat the meatballs. They're ok, but a bit tough.
Fast forward few days ago- you just HAD to make meatballs but make them delicate, creamy even, and full of flavour.
And so simple.
And the best part is- you can smuggle in veggies :)
This recipe is just how to make the polpettas-  if you want the recipe for the sauce, try this one . And cook some fettucine or spaghetti for the base- thin pasta goes well with the sauce.

To make it you don't have to be a rocket scientist- just mix, roll balls, cook and serve. Nothing more to that :)

Type of dish: main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4
Time: 30 min
Prep time: 10 min
Cooking time: 5-7 min

You'll need:
hand mixer with the chopping bowl end, a large saucepan with lid, laddle, medium mixing bowl, a large spoon, small plate, medium bowl, slotted spoon, cutting board, veggie peeler

Ingredients:

• 500 gr mixed ground meat- pork and beef
• 1 carrot
• 1 red chili
• 1 medium onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 handfull mushrooms
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
• olive oil
• 1 tsp vegeta
• 1 bunch  chives, chopped
• 1 pinch each: dried herbs: thyme, dill, parsley
•  pinch salt and pepper
• 1 bay leef
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• flour, any kind

Get your blender asembled (or mixer, magic bullet, whatever you call it), pack in mushrooms, onions, garlic, carrots and chili, and mix until everything is the size of large splinters. In a medium bowl, put in the ground meat, add the minced mixture, egg, breadcrumbs, vegeta, herbs, and chopped chives. Add salt and pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir well together and heat up the saucepan with water. Add the stock cube and bay leaf and put the lid on. In the meantime, make the polpettas. Wet your hands ( it'll be easier to make the meatballs without the meat sticking constantly to your fingers), and form small balls, that are usually about 1 heaped tbsp of the meat mixture. Turn each meatball in flour on a plate, so it's covered in flour, and set aside on the cutting board. Repeat with all the meat, and when the water is boiling, add 6-8 polpettas to the pan, giving them time to cook and to float to the surface- this takes about 5-8 min ( including 3-4 min for the floating polpettas to cook). Remove them with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl. to cool down, or, if you are making them for dinner, straight into the tomato sauce. Repeat with all the meatballs and either serve, or prep for freezing. Great for a next day office meal to share with a buddy:)

Healthy Stealthy Breakfast

When you want to have a gluten free breakfast, it's good to remember, that you should eat some oats, yoghurt, white cheese (if you are lactose intolerant like I am), a portion of fresh veggies, like cucmber, tomatoes, or some lettuce, and if you're a meat eater, some cold cuts or ham. I had delicious italian ham leftover from Christmas, so basicaly that's my meal. And, if you want more flavour to the cheese, sprinkle some chili cayenne, and on the side, sprinkle a mix of your favorite dried herbs (basil and tarragon for me!) pour some good quality olive ol over it to refresh the taste of them. Then you can mix your cheese in the oil herbs and it's delicious. I was actually well fed for most of the day with this small plate. If you feel that this is not enough, have a soft boiled egg too.
YUM!

Cheesy Toast spiced up

I have no idea where I found this recipe, but it was probably the first recipe I found and used. I was 13 and it was good. Still is, for that matter.
Make this for dinner- 2-3 is perfect for a grownup, 4 is for the hungry people. A magic 1 and 1/2 goes for a kid. Trust me, you will be making this again and again.

Ok, let's say no more, let's make it.

Type of dish: snack, dinner, toast
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 1
Time: 15 min
Prep time: 7 min
Baking time: 7-8 min


You'll need:
a grater,  a fork, a medium small mixing bowl, a baking tray, parchement paper, spoon, cutting board, sharp knife

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grated yellow cheese of any type
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard or grainy french mustard
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch pepper
• 2-3 slices of tomato
• 2-3 slices bread
• 1 egg

Heat up your broiler to at least 170C. Line your baking tray with paper. In the mixing bowl, crack the egg, add the mustard, salt and pepper and whisk a bit with a fork. Add the grated cheese and mix well. Put the bread slices on the tray, and a spoon of the cheese egg mixture on each slice. Spread it out evenly over the bread and on top of each slice, place a slice of tomato. Put inder the broiler for around 5 min, until the cheese bubbles and melts. Then turn it off and serve. Watch out, hot!

The BLT Sandwich for the hungry

There is something about the combined tastes of fried bacon, tomatoes, mayonaise and cruchy bread that will bring you to your knees whenever you'r totally hungry.
Or you just need a sandwich.
To me, BLT is the ULTIMATE sandwich. Sorry for the messy pictures.

And it's so easy to make.
I won't have you salivating here any longer, here's the recipe, get the products if you haven't got the yet, and go make yerself a good ol' BLT.
BTW- my first BLT was at the Hilton Hotel :)  Very snazzy indeed, but I'm not a fan of toast bread.

Type of dish: snack, lunch, sandwich
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 1
Time: 10 min
Preparation time: 5 min
Cooking time: 5 min


You'll need:
Cutting board, knife, frying pan, tongs or spatula, butter knife, plate


Ingredients:

• a hand- long piece of a baguette, split but not halved. Like a subway sub.
• half a tomato, thinly sliced
• 4-6 slices of bacon
• 2-3 lettuce leaves, clean and dry
• mayonaise
• 1 garlic clove
• S&P
• optional: few thin slices of onion, leftover shredded chicken

Do it, make it, how:
Heat up your frying pan on medium high. Put in your bacon and fry until it gets smaller, more wrinkly but not golden brown or crispy brown, because it won't be pliable enough. When you get the bacon done, transfer it to your cutting board, and put on the pan your bread. We are going to toast it up a bit so it has a nice crunch. Gently press in the bread so it soaks up the grease from the bacon. Let it fry until golden and crunchy, then remove.
Take the garlic clove, cut it in half and start rubbing it over the crusty bread. This will give it a great aroma. Next, spread some mayonaise over on side of the bread,  and if you have chicken meat, put it over the mayo. Now the tomato slices, use some S&P on them, then the bacon, and the lettuce. Fold the bread together and serve!

Minestrone soup- the good stuff

Ok. I will confess. I hated thinking about minestrone soup. It was a memory of a taste of pure hell, along with a particularily bad memory of some breakfast oatmeal with grits, warm apple slices and cold bananas topped with a shitload of honey. Memories from childhood can be a tragic blocker for kids or grown ups, to eat regular food without the terror coming back in the form of brussel sprouts.  And while I think everybody may have a dislike or distaste for certain things, thanks to some shitty granny or any other stupid grown-up, who force-fed us with "healthy" food, I know how hard it is to overcome this fear later as a grown up. So, forgive me for writing a "healing" post:)

I still haven't completely overcome my fear of certain foods, but I think I'm doing pretty well, considered the amount of trauma I had going on, for like, a long time.
Minestrone soup always brings to mind those nice holiday trips to Bulgaria or Croatia, camping out by the sea, and cooking that god-awful soup out of a bag. It was REALLY  DISGUSTING.
Whenever I'm in a store and I see this one on a shelf, I turn around and run. Looks quite weird. If you ever see somebody doing that in the ready-made soup aisle of a store, you just lost a chance to meet me:)
But, as I'm a sucker for making things at home, making them easy, as you may have noticed, and I know I'm a badass, but I try to give things and people a second chance. Hence my trial with this soup.

I'll tell you how to undo a terrible mind process like hating a specific thing. Food, of course, I'm not a shrink.
Either you hate the whole dish, or you hate just a piece of it, like fish. In a fish main course. Then it's hard to undo it, but still managable. Start out with shrimps:)
If you, or your loved one hates the whole dish, it's good to go through the ingredients. Like looking under the bed or checking the closet for monsters. You see there is nothing to be afraid of. Are you afraid of a can of tomatoes? Or a handful of pasta? Or, maybe you're terrified of broth? Baby spinach? Seriously, baby spinach can't hurt anybody. It's a baby, right? And it's cute. That helps.
So, now we see that the soup/thing is not that scary, you're in control, you're an adult and you know your worth. You rule!
Second option- you don't like broccoli? Oh, you poor thing, thank god we don't have to add it to absolutly everything:) Just take it out of the recipe and subsitute for something else. Green beans are usually stress-free. Hopefully.
Life gets real easy, if somebody just took the time to tell us those things before.

Ok, enough pschology for free. Time for a recipe!

Type of dish: soup, main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2-4
Time: 15 min
Preparation time: 5 min
Cooking time: 10 min

You'll need:
a medium saucepan with lid, a teaspoon, a ladle, bowls

Ingredients:

• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 cups baby spinach
• 1/2 a yellow bell pepper, diced
• 2 cups water
• 1 cube vegetable broth or chicken stock
• 1 cup dry penne or rigatoni pasta
• 1 tsp dried basil or 1 tbsp fresh chopped
• 1 tsp garlic powder 
• for garnish fresh shaved parmesan and a few basil leaves
• optional- half a onion, thinly sliced, or a handfull of green beans
• S&P
• squeeze of lemon juice, pinch of sugar

Drain the chickpeas, rinse them, drain again. Mix all the ingredients in the saucepan, apart from the spinach and S&P , and heat on high heat till it boils. Turn down the heat to medium low and cook covered for 10 min, until pasta is cooked. Add the spinach and mix so it wilts, then taste and season. Spoon in bowls and top with parmesan shavings and fresh basil leaves for extra flavour.

This is nothing like the packet soup, and thank god for that!

Additional info: You can serve this with croutons.

Amazing Tomato Sauce

You will be grateful for this recipe, because it will change your life, perspective, future choices and so on. Look into the sauce...

It's blatantly easy, so if you're planning, let's say, a pizza, this is a great sauce for the pizza base and as and additional sauce substitution for ketchup. Yes, ketchup. I think you might even make more of this sauce just to smear it anywhere- sandwiches, pasta, meat, the sort.

Trust me, everybody will like you even more once you know this recipe:)

Let's get it on... oh sugar... Let's get it on...Damn you Marvin Gaye.

Type of dish: sauce, dip
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4-6
Time: 35 min
Preparation time: 2 min
Cooking time: 30 min

You'll need:
A low, shallow but deep (?) Saucepan of the frying pan kind. , cutting board, sharp knife, spatula, medium bowl, teaspoon

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes. ( or 1kg of fresh tomatoes, skinless)
•  2-3 garlic cloves, minced 
• 1 pinch of coarse sea salt ( buy 1kg and it will serve you for a lifetime, and your friends too)
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes
• grated rind from 1 lemon
• 1 pinch sugar
• 3tbsp olive oil

Get your guns up- Don't turn anything on yet. This is going to be a gentle, fragrant process. In the saucepan, pour in olive oil, sea salt, garlic and pepper flakes. mix it evenly and turn on your cooker, on medium high. Keep close to the pan now. Stir a bit with your spatula and keep sniffing. The sniffing is key to this recipe. Sniff until you can smell the garlic and pepper beginning to smell somewhat more intense than before. The garlic should still be white during this. Let it heat up more, until you just get that the garlics turning golden and plop in the tomatoes. mash them up with your spatula, mix well so the oil incorporates with the tomatoes. Mix it mix it. Now turn  down the heat a notch or two, best if it's medium, and go away. Come back every 4-5 to 6-8 minutes to stir, because we are reduced the water in the tomatoes. The sauce has to be thicker than tomato juice, but thinner than paste. This takes about 25 mins, and until then your sauce should have the constistency you look for in a pizza sauce. You know, the kind you get when you order pizza? Turn off the heat.
Okay, now add the lemon rind, mix, and taste it. You may need to add the sugar if the sauce is a little bit too acidic/bitter. just a pinch will do.
Taste again and you're ready to go. Eat, I mean.

This recipe makes enough sauce for 3 large pizza's plus for topping them all. If you don't plan on making this for pizza and need more, either use 1 can of tomatoes, or freeze the amount you don't need.
Gotta love freezing:)

Lasagne by Garfield

As a kid I would watch the first cartoons with Garfield, but I don't remember much of them. Then, I found the comic books with strips from various years, translated to polish. That was cool. Then, when we got the iPad, we found an app that has every comic strip from Garfield since the very beginning. Now that's what I'm talking about.

Throughout all those years of drawing a fat mean cat and his owner, one thing was sure: that cat loved food. Let's call him a foodini. So his nightly trips to the fridge to say hi to to food are normal. His stealing Jon's food by switching plates- is classic. And his ability to walk through a fresh lasagne is just marvelous. That way nobody want's to eat the lasagne anymore.
Pure genius. But this means Jon can really cook :)
And so, the lasagne.
The first one I made was disgusting. I tried one spoon and it went in the bin.
Second time I decided to experiment a bit around. The problem with lasagne recipes is, that you don't know which one to follow, because you have/don't have all the ingredients. Most famous lasagne recipes comes from the USA, where they get sweet pork italian sausage, whick I can't find here. And mozzarella which is pre-cut and is square-ish. Which mozzarella ever was made square? Americans, I don't get your logic sometimes.
Then there are varieties in recipes from Italy, USA, UK, Poland: beschamel sauce, slices of mozzarella or shredded mozzarella, cottage cheese, or ricotta cheese, parmesan, or yellow gouda
 ( seriously).
Cook the pasta, don't cook the pasta. Go F*(&)k yourself.
This is all very confusing and it makes me want to stop cooking and scream a lot. I hate those kind of different recipes, that just have one thing in common- you're supposed to love it.

I decided to finally go with the "original" edamer/gouda mix cheese, parmesan and ricotta blend.
Without any sweet italian pork sausage, becuase even my Piccolo Italia didn't have it.
And the chase for ricotta cheese was wonderful. Finally, after running around 3 districts I found 1 container of the cheese. Had to do the job. And it did.
Brace yourselves for the magnificent, not-so-original-but-delicious-and-makeable Lasagne!


Type of dish: main
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4
Time: 110 min
Preparation time: 40 min
Baking time: 40 min
Cooling time: 30 min ( or you'll cry of a burnt mouth, trust me)
Oven temp: 180C

You'll need:
a super large frying pan, cutting board, sharp knife, spatula, teaspoon, a medium sized baking dish at least 7 cm high, some aluminium foil, medium sized mixing bowl, glass, egg beater.

Ingredients:

• 1kg ground beef. Use the store bought or go to a butcher and ask him to grind some nice beef for you)
• additional: 1 small carrot
• additional: 1 small celery stick
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 1 can of tomato puree
• 2 cans chopped tomatoes
• 12-16 lasange noodles ( precooked or cook them al dente)
• 100gr gouda/edamer, yellow cheese, without holes
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 container/200gr ricotta cheese
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• S&P
• dried herbs: basil, thyme, oregano ( 1 tbsp of each), sugar, lemon juice
•  olive oil

 Begin:
Chop up all you have to chop, heat the frying pan, fry the beef until it's brown. Yeah, brown. Add the garlic, onion,and if you decided to use the carrot and celery, you should have added it before the meat turned brown. Like, just after it started to dry up and turn greyish in colour.
Fry that up, add the tomatoes, puree and half of your chopped parsley to the pan, and turn the heat to medium. Let it thicken up. This is what you would also call a basic bolognese sauce. Great for freezing.
In the meantime, crack the egg, ricotta, parsley, a pinch of S&P to the bowl and mix it well with the beater to get a smooth texture. You can lick your fingers, this stuff is good!
Check on your tomato sauce, it should have reduced a bit, mix it every once in a while, this needs to get thick, but not paste thick. When the consistency is thinner than paste, try a bit, add some additional herbs, a lemon shot, sugar pinch and S&P. Taste it. You can add some cayenne pepper if you want to. I certainly did, because food without a hot spicy kick is simply not food to me.
Prep your baking dish. Did you cook your uncooked noodles? If not, you're a bad person and you'll have to wait longer for your yummy dish. Know what you're missing out on. Preheat your oven.
Okay, let's layer:
1 cup of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish. Done.
Put on 3-4 lasagne noodles to cover it up, with no spots peeking.
Now, a layer of the ricotta mixture,
yellow cheese layer,
parmesan layer,
tomato layer,
pasta layer,
ricotta layer,
yellow cheese,
parmesan
and
BAM!
you're out of noodles or ricotta. Hah.

Put aluminium foil on top of the baking dish, just so the foil doesn't touch the lasagne.And foil- shiny side down. We want the lasagne to bake faster.
Get a ziploc bag for the leftover sauce. I'll tell you what to do with it later.
Pop it in the oven, bake for 25-30 min with the foil on, after that time, take the foil off for the next 10-15 min. Lets get the top bubbly and sexy and looking handsome. Or beautiful. You'll still eat it, belive me. Okay, you're done baking after 40 minutes after you put the lasagne in, now turn off the oven, leave to oven closed and think about who you should invite to dinner, or what should you paint next- the ceiling or the walls, and what colour.
Do this kind of thinking for 25 min, paint your nails instead, and start setting the table. Don't call out anyone yet for dinner- do this last minute. Because when you say LASAGNE, everybody's there in 3 seconds flat.
Why, I don't know. I think it's because everybody has a little Garfield in them:)
Enjoy!

PS. Oh, and if you have more time on your hands, this is great for pre freezing. Make the lasagne, just don't put it in the oven, but wait till it's cold and pop it in the freezer. Defrost it the night before in the fridge and bake as usual.

Simple Couscous

There is something amazing about couscous. I think it might be that it takes minutes to prepare, and that you can have it as a main, side or dessert.  Quite versatile, don't you think?
Basicly you do what they tell you to do on the packaging ad you go from there however you want to. Sweet, savory, a combination of both, who knows?
I like doing a salad-esque kind of couscous, savory, but with sligt touches of sweetness, that bring out the rest of the flavours. And you can make this garlic free:) But please use at least a tiny amount of sweet onions:)

Check your chopping skills as there will be some involved. And look after your nails, please. I've lost too many over the years, especially after weeks of growing them, you paint them, feel awfully proud of them, then you start chopping and BAM! Half a nail gone. S#(*)T!


Go on, get prepared:

Type of dish: main, side, salad
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2 or more
Time: 20 min
Preparation time: 20min
Cooking time : 3-5 min

You'll need:
Cutting board ( no, really?), sharp knife, tablespoon, fork, large bowl ( easier for mixing), something to cover the bowl with.

Ingredients: ( for 2 servings)

• half a small red onion, finely chopped
• 100 gr couscous
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• curry powder
• half an apple, finely diced 
• half a yellow ball pepper, finely diced
• a small hand of dried apricots, diced
• half a cucumber, peeled, cored and diced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 small hand of any kind of nuts, chopped roughly
• fresh or dried herbs: parsley, basil, corriander, dill, chopped well
• lemon juice ( a few good squeezes)

So, the how to:
Set up your chopping station. Fill the bowl with the amount of couscous you need, pour hot water over it according to instructions ( tractor instructor- where did that come from?), drizzle in some olive oil, a pinch of salt, cover it up and chop away. When you chop, put it aside on the board so you seehow much of everything you have. Should be around a handfull of everything. So, now that you're all chopped up, the couscous is done, fluff it up with a fork, add everything you have to it, mix well, taste for seasoning ( S&P), add the lemon juice, mix up again and set in fridge to let the flavours work through and do their thang. This is great for a party, or picnic, or a fast lunch at the office ( just chop the stuff at home and add it to couscous cooed at work.)
There. Done!

Oh, you can add dates, pistacios, walnuts, almonds, figs, olives and other stuff too.  Or spice it up with some chilli powder or fresh stuff chopped, of course.

Pasta Arrabiata Mathafacka

Well Hello:)
We're very sorry for the lack of posts- AE had to leave to live the dream life in Italy
 ( I'm SO jealous:)), while I'm left behind without a camera. So if you don't mind the lack of picture's for some time, I will post some recipes.
Some I learned in ITALY:)
Sooo good... And yummy, you won't belive me if I tell you, that italian cuisine is hot damn simple? It is. Only problem we had ( I had) was the total lack of salt ( my beloved) and peppery pepper
( I missed you P!) We even had a brief thought of starting to carry around some of those paper sachets od S&P from some fast food place, but decided we would look way not cool. Hence, the pleading looks at our waiters, begging them to give us the s&p shakers. Tourists.
Apart from that, the freshness of the products Italian have, is unbelivable. Stuff in the supermarkets is better in quality than the stuff here straight from the bushes, as we say. Which, to me, is weird. I always heard about the great polish produce, without GMO's and other crap, but what it really lacks, is .....
SUNSHINE!
Tada.
Anyways, if you're craving some simple pasta, here's how to:
Pasta ( whatever type you have - but not lasagne!)  with the true arabiata tomato sauce

Get ready for some choping actions.

Type of dish: pasta, main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2
Time: 30 min
Preparation time: 5min
Cooking time : 25-30 min



You'll need:
cutting board, a sharp knife, a teaspoon, colander, deep frying pan, medium saucepan, spatula, medium bowl to stir things up, and plates (bowls) to serve.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 medium ripe tomatoes ( geez, if you don't have them, try chopped canned tomatos)
• 2 small chilli peppers
• 4 garlic cloves, pealed and finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• s&p
• fresh basil leaves, choppe or torn, whatever, they'll wilt in the sauce anyway.
• lemon juice
• pinch of sugar
• pasta ( as much as you need. For types like penne and that sort, the way to measure how much to cook is to use a bowl in which you will serve. One full bowl of pasta equals pasta for 2 ppl. and so on. Pretty easy, huh?)
• water to cook pasta
• olive oil

Heat water in suacepan, and cut on each tomato a cross on the round side. Put the tomatoes in the water for about 1 min, take them out and peel them. Then, using the spoon, take out the seeds and dice the rest up. Turn off the water.  Heat up the frying pan on high heat, add olive oil, add the garlic, onions and chilli and fry until onions are translucent. Then add the basil and tomatoes, sugar and lemon juice. stir it well, keep the heat now on low. The tomatoes should fall apart leaving a sauce behind. You'll gradually add more olive oil in the next 20 minutes- this will make the sauce stick well to the pasta. Mix every once in a while. Add the S&P to taste, and when the consistency is like a oily paste, boil the water again, cook your pasta, add 2 spoons of the pasta water to the sauce, drain pasta, toss in bowl, toss in the suace, mix all well, and serve.
Wou can add more basil leaves chopped up to the serving bowl for extra color but the fragrance will kick your shoes off anyway.
Remember! This is spicy! Hot! Hot! Hot!
But if you want it mild, don't add the chilli's.
So long!

Gosh, another soup: Gazpacho

You probably might be bored with all the tomato soups we have here going on, but this is served as a starter so we really don't care more than we have to. Another classic, served in wine glasses, but if you have more guests, think about shot glasses or regular drinking glasses. It's really good for using leftover pieces from tomatoes, cucumbers and bread. Kind of a trash soup, I guess, best served chilled:)

Type of dish: soup, starter
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4-8
Time: 15 min
Preparation time: 10 min
 
What you need to prepare this dish:
hand blender, table spoon, large bowl, cutting board, knife, serving glasses

Ingredients:

• 1 can tinned tomatoes
• 1/2 cucumber/ pealed
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 2 slices of bread
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 5ml olive oil
• 1 cup of water
• Splash of tabasco

How to prepare:

Put everything in the large bowl, except for 1/2 a tomato, and about 1/5 of the cucumber. Cut out the seeds from the tomato and cucumber you set aside and throw it in the bowl. Stirr a bit and turn on your blender. Blend until you see no more big pieces.  Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge to chill. As they say, revenge is a dish best served cold, and the same is with gazpacho. Cut the remaining veggies into small dice and set aside for serving time, as you can put half a spoon in each portion you serve.

Additional information:
If you have some chives you can decorate the gazpacho with a few springs. In France, now very popular are Verrines, which are nothing else but food put in shot glasses. Apparently, very fancy, but in Poland, we have other uses for shot glasses, thats why we use any glases. Wine, or beverage ones. Or, if you're not having a party but just want good food, take a bowl, you don't need our permission to use one:)

Foolproof tomato soup

I know, I know. Another tomato soup. I can bet you it's not going to be the last one either. But We're sharing this one with you because, well, it's foolproof. It never goes wrong. It's fast to make. Easy on the stomache. Good for the soul. You get the picture. Really, try this out.

Type of dish: soup

Cost: cheap

Difficulty:  easy

Time:  10 min

Serves: 2-4

Cooking time: 10 min

What you need to make this dish:

2 medium saucepans, ladle, spoon, teaspoon, colander, bowls to serve

Ingredients:

• Any kind of small pasta, 1 1/2 cup
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 2 tbsp tomato concentrate (or paste)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 squeeze of lemon juice
• Pepper
• Salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• Creme Fraiche (sour cream)

How to prepare:

Bring water to boil in both pots. In one of them, put in the stock cube and tomato paste and mix around. In the other pot, give a pinch of salt and throw in the pasta to cook the time according to package. In the soup pot, add the butter, salt, pepper, sugar and lemon juice, mix well, taste to see if it needs more salt, or pepper. Don't add any more sugar! Once the pasta is cooked, drain and divide in bowls. Pour in some soup to each bowl, add a spoon of sour cream on top and additionally garnish with fresh basil leaves of fresh cut parsley. Serve!

Additional information: 

You can make the soup more thick, by mixing half a cup of soup with a teaspoon of flour. This was our grannies method for bad times, when cream was scarce. Still, this soup works with flour, and cream. 

AE showed me a cool trick with basil today. Take a basil leaf  in your hand and clap them once. The basil releases it's fragrant aromas, and you can either serve it whole, or slice it. Enjoy!

Lecho

Ok, here's the deal. Every year, when I start feeling being de- summered (which is usually this time of the year), I make Lecho. Leczo, or lecho, is a originally Hungarian dish, very spicy and from what I know, it's not this dish. But I call it lecho either way. It's my way of cooking sunshine and fun, and great veggies into a dish. I love this dish. I could marry it. But I'm already married. But I love this dish. It's my seasonal lover. I could pack it later into a jar and store it for cold winter evenings, but I like to eat it so much, there's never any left for stowing away:(  Oh well.
 Anyhow, here's the how to:

Type of dish: main

Cost: cheap

Difficulty: easy

Time:  35 min

Serves: 4-6

Preparation time: 15 min

Cooking Time: 20 min

What you need to make this dish:

a large saucepan with lid, a wooden spoon, sharp knife, cutting board, ladle, bowls to serve

Ingredients:

• 2-3 ball peppers ( any color)

• 1 medium onion

• 3-5 tomatoes ( all colors, medium sized)

• 1 medium zucchini

• Salt

• Black pepper

• 1tsp. dried parsley

• 1 tsp. dried oregano

• 1 tsp. dried thyme

• 2 tbsp. olive oil

• ½ cup water

How to prepare:

Chop for your life! First, cut the ball peppers into dice, lets say the size of your thumbnail. Don’t cut your thumbnail! Now, dice the onion. And the tomatoes. And cut the zucchini in half, then in half, then slice it. Now, cutting time over.  Heat the saucepan with olive oil. When  it’s hot, throw in the bell peppers, stir well so they get nicely coated in oil. Let them fry a bit- this will make them softer. So, fry for about 3-5 min. Throw in the onion. Mix again, put the lid on the pot. In 5 minutes, the onion should be translucent.  Ok, now the rest- start with the zucchini, stir,  add tomatoes. Add the water, add the herbs and put the lid back on. Stir it from time to time, around every 5-10 min. you can wash up now. After 15 min turn the heat off and season to your taste with salt and pepper. Usually 1 large pinch of salt will do, and a small pinch of salt.

Additional information:

If you’re ok with garlic, add a smashed garlic clove when you’re adding the onions. Tastes great either way.

Serve with ideas:

Bread. Best is with bread. Or, if you prefer a heartier meal, boil a few potatoes, they will do nicely as well.

Creamy non cream tomato soup

\


I had no cream in my fridge. I had bread and a can of tomatoes. I was hungry. So I made tomato soup with bread instead adding cream. It was delicious, very filling. My husband is addicted to bread in any form, so he also loved this soup. Here’s the recipe:

Type of dish: soup

Cost: cheap

Difficulty: easy

Time: 25min

Serves: 2-4

Preparation time: 3min

Cooking Time: 20 min

What you need to make this dish:

Cutting board, knife, wooden spoon, ladle, 2,5 l saucepan, hand blender

Ingredients:

• 1 can of tomatoes whole or chopped

• 2 slice bread

• 1,5l water

• 1 garlic clove , smashed

• 1 medium onion chopped coarsely

• Salt

• Black pepper

• Parsley dried or fresh

• Juice from half of a lemon

• 1 tsp castor sugar

• 1 chicken stock cube

• 2 tbsp olive oil

How to prepare:

Turn on the stove on high, heat saucepan, pour in olive oil. When oil is hot, throw in onion, stir until transparent and soft, add garlic to cook, stir till garlic browns. Add canned tomatoes, lemon juice, bread, salt, pepper, parsley, sugar and stock cube. Stir well. Add water, stir again and reduce heat to half. Cover pot and leave for 14 minutes stirring occasionally. After that, take the pot off the stove, and using blender, blend until the soup is smooth. Serve in small bowls with basil leaves and a dash of olive oil on the top.

Additional information:

You can also add some grated cheese on the top (I added some sliced mini mozzarella), or if you can’t have tomato soup without cream, give it a dollop on top. If you like hot food, you can also add some tabasco sauce to the soup during blending. It’ll be just as good!