Welcome to our new blog

Welcome to our new website and our first ever blog entry...

It’s been a four months journey to get here and I hope you enjoy the new site as much as I do. If you do however encounter any problems with it, we are here to help, so please let us know.  

I am delighted that we now have a new way to interact with you as well as giving you a platform to exchange comments and hopefully recipes, with each other.

To get you started, here is my favorite recipe and one of Carluccio’s customer’s favourite dish too- the Penne Giardiniera. Antonio came up with  this recipe on a quick visit to one of our first kitchens (at Market Place) to feed a hungry vegetarian customer in the restaurant … I am delighted it became a key dish, and today helps raise thousands of pounds for children in Liberia, with 50p being donated to Action Against Hunger for every dish sold.

Our blog is now over to you- enjoy it!
Simon Kossoff

PENNE GIARDINIERA

Serves 4

Spinach balls:

700g raw spinach (about 250g when cooked)

half a clove of garlic, minced

1 egg, beaten

a tiny pinch of nutmeg

45g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, freshly grated

70g dry breadcrumbs

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

olive oil for shallow frying

Pasta:

500g Carluccio’s Penne Regine (large artisan penne from Puglia)

80g butter

2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

20g red chillies, finely chopped

2 medium courgettes, coarsely grated

240g Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated

 
To make 28 spinach balls (7 per person):
Boil, but don’t overcook, the spinach in lightly salted water. Press it dry, break open the leaves and tear apart roughly. In a bowl, mix together the torn spinach, garlic, egg, nutmeg and Parmesan. Add about half of the breadcrumbs, to balance the moisture of the mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Roll one ball and fry it, to test for consistency and taste. (If the mixture is too wet, the ball will fall apart during cooking, but too much bread content will lessen the spinach flavour.) Add some more breadcrumbs or seasoning if needed. Fry until golden. Set aside.

To make the pasta:
In abundant salted water, boil the pasta until it’s al dente, perhaps 10-15 minutes. Drain and keep warm. In a pan, melt the butter and heat the garlic and chillies. Add the grated courgettes and fry for a minute or two. Add the cooked pasta and toss in most of the grated cheese (leave some for serving). Season with salt and pepper.

To serve:
In a deep plate or shallow bowl, serve the pasta sprinkled with spinach balls and the remaining Parmesan.

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