Cooking Essential - Lemon Squeezer

I use lemons like a condiment. They are always in my fridge. I add the juice to all sorts of dishes that need oomph or use them in marinades and salads. This lovely and stylish tool juices lemons better than anything else. It is the perfect shape for getting every last drop of juice out and you can squeeze the lemon directly onto whatever it is you are cooking rather than collect it all in a dish first. Be warned, seeds do go astray with it so I advise squeezing over a tea strainer or small sieve. Feeling inspired? These squeezers are available all over the place, I bought mine locally. Go out, get yourself one, then try my spinach and lemon pasta dish below.

This is a green recipe

Serves 1 greedy person.

- Spaghetti, lasagne or linguine (so hard to measure and depends on your appetite, maybe a 1/4 of pound?)
- 1/2 bunch of spinach
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1/2 small lemon
- 2 tablespoons of parmesan, pecorino or a mixture of both plus a couple of teaspoons for sprinkling
- pinch of nutmeg

Cook the spaghetti in well salted (please!) boiling water.
While it's boiling, blanch the spinach if it is young (just pour boiling water over it in a colander) or cook in a little water for a few minutes if it is coarse.
Drain spinach, squeeze dry and chop.
Once the pasta is al dente, drain and transfer back to the still warm pot.
Add the egg, lemon juice and cheese, mix well and then cover for a few minutes - OFF the heat, otherwise the egg will scramble.
Once the sauce has cooked and thickened, add the spinach.
Transfer to a warm plate or bowl, sprinkle with a little nutmeg and remaining cheese.

*Make sure the spinach is as dry as possible otherwise it will make the pasta watery. I don't add salt here because the pecorino is pretty salty, especially if it is Romano.*

Rabbit Ragu (ragu di coniglio)

Asheville's tailgate markets are such an asset to the city. At weekends and during the week you can find markets bursting with local produce allover the city; cheese, cured meats, handmade baked goods and even soaps, all find a place here. We are lucky enough to have one almost at the bottom of our hill. A favourite vendor of mine is East Fork Farms, because they provide two of my favourite meats - lamb and rabbit. Their ground lamb bursts with rich flavour and has elevated my already pretty good meat loaf to something intense and delicious.

The rabbit we bought from them was still whole (though thankfully without its head or fur), so I had to cut it up myself, fine but not for the Bugs Bunny lover! The advantage of a whole rabbit is that I could use the giblets and bones to make stock.

The picture above is of the tremendous ragu I made, and the recipe comes from Mille Fiori Favoriti, a great blog. If you try the recipe, be warned that the ingredients omit chicken broth though it's mentioned in the method. I added 1 cup of GOOD QUALITY stock in with the tomatoes. Don't be tempted to cut back on the cooking time, rabbit has no fat so needs slow cooking in some kind of liquid to keep moist and tender. Once the rabbit is cooked and falls of the bone, you could leave it whole and puree the sauce for a decadent variation.

What’s Your Guilty Pleasure

Regardless of our refined our tastes may be, we all have a few guilty pleasures. Foods that we just love even though we know we shouldn't. I am very much against processed food, but there are some to which I just can't seem to shake my addiction! I have to admit that a lot of these were introduced to me on my trips to the US, like Twinkies, peppermint patties and potato bread. Even now back in Zambia I crave potato bread hot dogs. I also love canned pasta, especially Heinz Macaroni Cheese. When I was in Italy I fell in love with Kinder Brioche, a type of oblong cake that Italians like to eat for breakfast. Again I still pine after these tasty sponge cakes that are just wonderful dipped in coffee and I wonder why they have never been for sale in the UK. Then of course the ultimate sin – pork fat (crispy) and roast chicken skin. Most of my guilty pleasures are comfort foods or foods that remind me of a particular time in my life. Sometimes it's just reverting back to my childhood, who doesn't want to do that every now and then?

So, share with me, what's your list of guilty pleasures?

Aubergine/Eggplant Baked Pasta

I know, I know, yet another pasta al forno dish! I can’t help it, I find baked pasta so comforting and easy for larger numbers. Make sure you make enough sauce otherwise it gets really dry when baked.

Serves 3-4

- One 500 gram packet of short pasta (rigatoni, macaroni, gomiti, penne etc)
- 1 tablespoon of light olive oil
- 800 gram tin of plum tomatoes
- ½ pint of yoghurt
- Tablespoon of pesto (the best you can get or homemade is ideal)
- 1 large aubergine (eggplant) finely sliced into rounds
- Salt and pepper
- 1 cup of hard Italian cheese – a mixture of pecorino and parmesan would be great

- Heat the oil and add the tomatoes

- Cook down to make a thick sauce (this takes quite while, about 40 minutes) , add salt to taste

- At the same time cook the pasta in well salted water

- Add the pesto and mix well – remove from heat

- Add yoghurt and mix well

- Put the cooked pasta in a baking dish

- Pour over the sauce

- Top with aubergine and cheese

- Cover and bake for 30 minutes

- Cook uncovered for another 10 minutes until cheese is bubbling and the aubergine is cooked through

Pasta Al Forno

Pasta al forno is baked pasta. Probably the most famous is lasagne, this recipe is kind of a deconstructed lasagne inspired by the Greek baked pasta dish pasticcio. It is less time consuming than lasagne, and would be great for a dinner party with a green salad.

Serves 4

375 grams of short pasta – macaroni, elbows, rigatoni

Meat Sauce

1 bottle of passata (about 690gram or 720 ml)

1 large onion finely chopped

500 grams of minced beef

A large bunch of fresh oregano roughly chopped or a couple of teaspoons of dried

White sauce:

1 large dessertspoon of butter

1 large dessertspoon of white flour

2 bay leaves

300 - 500 mls of milk

1 large egg beaten

½ teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg

2 ½ cups of strong cheese

Salt and pepper

First make the meat sauce:

Fry the onion until soft and transparent

Add the beef and brown

Add the passata and oregano and simmer for about 2 hours

Test for salt and pepper

The sauce should be thick and with very little extra liquid.

When this sauce is ready, preheat the oven to 150 c and start on the white sauce and pasta.

Melt the butter with the flour and cook the paste for a couple of minutes.

Add the bay leaves

Dribble in the milk a little at a time, don't rush as you will get lumps

When the sauce is the consistency of single cream, cook until thick, stirring all the time.

While your sauce is thickening, cook the pasta until a little soft but still quite hard in the middle – about 4 or 5 minutes.

When the white sauce has thickened, remove from heat and leave to cool a little, add the beaten egg and nutmeg

In a large bakind dish or pan add the pasta and sprinkle half the cheese over the pasta, then add a layer of meat sauce – you may need to use all, you want to cove the pasta but not drown it.

Spread over the white sauce and the rest of the cheese,

Bake for 30 minutes until sizzling and cheese is melted.

Orecchiette Zambian Style

It's funny the things you find in supermarkets here. You cannot imagine how excited I was to find orecchiette. For those of you unfamiliar, this is a type of pasta native to the Puglia region of southern Italy and means 'little ears'. It's quite a dense and creamy pasta when cooked and is traditionally served with broccoli sprouts or 'cime di rapa'.

Cime di rapa isn't available here, but another, similar green vegetable 'rape' is. As you can see, it's a lot like spring greens or kale. It has an irony, mustardy taste and is a common dish here. You can use in salads as well, though I doubt many Zambians ever eat it raw.

For this quick pasta dish, simply cook the orecchiette in lots of well-salted water while you fry a little garlic in oil (preferably olive). Add to this a finely sliced tomato (I use a cheese grater) which you fry until it starts to soften, then add a good handful of slice rape – it shrinks like spinach so add quite a bit, season with salt. Wilt in the pan, conserve some of the water from the pasta to add when draining and add to the rape, you can spritz with some lemon juice for a bit of a kick, but it isn't essential. Return the pasta to the pan and add the vegetables, add pecorino or parmesan if you have it, but it's good without too. Enjoy!

Pizza in London

Pizza Naplolitana - Da Mario's


Pappadelle with spinach, cream and pine nuts - Da Mario's

When looking for a decent pizzeria in Britain I have certain criteria.

Is there a wood burning stove?

Are the staff, mostly Italian?

Does it smell like the places I used to go to in Italy?

And finally, perhaps more importantly:

Are there any Italians eating in there?

If the answer to all of these questions is yes, then you can be confident that the pizza will probably be pretty good.

Pizzeria Pappagone in Finsbury Park marks 100% on the above check list and makes good sized pizzas not like those piddly ones at Pizza Express (which I don't rate at all.). Plus their staff are really nice and the service excellent

Then there is Da Mario on the Gloucester Road, a favourite of the late Princess Diana, also does great pizza albeit slightly smaller. And yes, they got a tick for every aspect of the checklist, as well as having a rather interesting oil painting of the late Princess looking saintly as chef makes a pizza.

So keep the above quetions in mind and you can't go far wrong.