Chickpea soup with thyme oil parmesan croutons

So I’ve hit that age where I’ve started cutting down on the carbs a bit. (Cath says she’s never going to hit that age). To be honest my take on abstinence involves little more than having a bit less pasta and a bit more sauce, or a bit less bread and a bit more cheese, so it’s not exactly hair shirt territory. But when I come across a low carb, stomach filling, delicious meal I feel the delight of a zealot. This soup is one such dish. Though, as Cathy is keen to point out, it’s even more heavenly with these cheesy carb-a-licious croutons.

Ingredients for 2

Ciabatta bread – 60g/2.1oz
Parmesan cheese – 40g/1.4oz
Extra virgin olive oil with thyme – 2 tblsp
Garlic – one clove
Rosemary – couple of springs
Extra virgin olive oil – 2 tblsp
Chickpeas – one 400g/14oz tin (240g/8.5oz net weight)
Vegetable stock – 400ml/13.5fl.oz

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Cut the bread into cubes and put in a bowl with the thyme oil and the grated parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Once everything is soaked up spread the bread on a baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes, till they’re crunchy and light brown.

Chop the garlic and gently sauté with the rosemary in the plain olive oil in a saucepan. Wash the chickpeas and add them to the saucepan with the stock. Season with salt and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.
Remove the rosemary and a few whole chickpeas and liquidise the rest. Get your serving bowls, pop some of the croutons in the bottom (if they are hidden they don’t count in the carb calculation, apparently) and fill with the soup. Make it look pretty with a few whole chickpeas, more croutons and a drizzle of thyme olive oil.

Read Full Post »

How to make a salad dressing

We are sometimes asked for advice about how to make great salad dressings using our flavoured oils. We have to admit, we are very lazy on this front. We often go no further than to simply make the salad, scatter over some sea salt and thickly ground black pepper then drizzle it generously with either garlic, mint, basil or lemon oil. This method, whilst completely bone idle, is nonetheless quite consistent in producing ‘mmms’ and ‘ahs’ from those who eat it.

If you want to actually get your hands dirty, put a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a pinch of seasalt, a grind of black pepper, 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar and 8 or 9 tablespoons of a good olive oil in a jar and shake it like a crazed carnival-goer. Pour over the salad and mix it well with your hands to ensure good coverage of all those thirsty leaves.

If, on the other hand, you simply want the basic laws of making the perfect salad dressing you can’t do better than this Italian advice:

   A miser should see to the vinegar

   A spendthrift to the oil

   A wise man to the salt

   A judicious man to the pepper

   And a madman to the mixing.

With such simple advice, your next salad dressing could only be delicious.

Read Full Post »

How to cook spinach perfectly

The Smarter Alecs might say this is simple – ‘Just buy it in Italy’ – and it is true that Italian fresh spinach holds its form and doesn’t cook into a mushy mess like some lesser breeds. But whatever type of spinach you can get your hands on, here are some tricks to get the best out of it.

• If you wash the leaves, dry them in a salad spinner as one thing you don’t need is extra moisture.
• Add a grating of fresh nutmeg, a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of sea salt.
• Cook the spinach till it’s just wilted, not beyond. Watch it! It turns in a matter of seconds.
• If the spinach gives off water as it’s cooked, pour it away.

Ingredients  for 2-4 people

Spinach – 450g/1lb

Extra virgin olive oil (or garlic olive oil) – 1 tblsp

Butter – a dollop

Nutmeg – freshly grated

Salt – a pinch

Lemon Juice – 1 tblsp

Now to make it perfectly…

Wash and drain the spinach well. Use a salad spinner to dry the leaves if you have one at hand. Get a deep non-stick pan and bring it up to a medium heat.

First melt the butter and then mix in the olive oil. Once mixed, add handfuls of spinach to the pan until everything is distributed evenly in the pan.

Add your lemon juice, grated nutmeg and salt. Mix through the leaves to get the flavor to spread around.

Now you have to be carefule: by mixing the leaves (or tossing it around like a professional), only cook the spinach until it’s just wilted. Immediately take off the heat and leave for a minute to stand.

Using tongs to gather the leaves will allow excess fluid to run off in the pan whilst serving. Serve and enjoy straight away.

Read Full Post »

Luisa: a woman of great stock

Luisa is a lady who knows how to cook. She knows how to cook so well that she doesn’t even think she is a good cook – it is just a thing she does. Telling her she is a good cook is like telling someone else they are good at breathing – wow, man, you really know how to take in those lungfuls of air, hold them in for just the right amount of time, and then – respect – let them right out again, awesome stuff….

Luisa cooks things like rabbit stew like the rest of us cook a piece of toast. I was recently let into a rather lovely Luisa secret – and I warned her, I wasn’t going to keep it secret for long…

Every year, the day after Ferragosto, Luisa and her friend Maria spend the whole day cooking. The whole day is dedicated to preparing their own special ‘taste sensation’ stock mix that will last them both the whole year long. They gather bunches and bunches of all the herbs they can find – fresh rosemary, oregano, thyme, mint, marjoram, parsley, basil, sage as well as fresh garlic, onion and celery and the just-in-season chillis until the kitchen is overflowing with colour and heady with perfume.

Each ingredient has to be washed, pummelled and then slow baked in the oven – everything has to be properly dried out so that the stock is naturally preserved. It is painstaking because only small batches can be done at a time – just a layerful on each tray – hence the whole day’s labour.

Then all the elements are mixed together and ground, using the weight of fine womanly arm muscles, to a fine powder. This powder will flavour stews, soups, casseroles, brodo for the whole year ahead, bringing understated and probably underappreciated joy to husbands, friends, children and visitors.

When they’ve batched all the powder up and stuck labels on, Luisa and pal allow themselves a cheeky little glass of vino cotto. And therein lies all you need to know about how, although men still dominate headlines and boardrooms, women really make the world work.

 

Read Full Post »