Twelve Things: February's Pasta

For Christmas this year we didn't exchange presents and instead booked ourselves into a Jamie Oliver Recipease Pasta Master cookery class which we did this evening. The biggest revelation is how simple making your own pasta is - when we were in Montepulciano, the gnocci we made was pretty time consuming, but pasta is speedy and easy. The class was taught really well and concisely, and the chefs Jimmy and Simon came round and gave us extra tips and answered our questions at the end. We made four types of pasta: spaghetti, linguini, pappardelle and farfalle and a classic tomato, basil, garlic and chilli sauce with lashings of balsamic vinegar and virgin olive oil and with mounds of parmesan to taste. We all sat down after with a glass of vino and enjoyed the fruits of our labours. Now we know that pasta making is so achievable there is no excuse not to make it fresh at home... just need to get a pasta machine!

Looking back: in January I started to learn to swing.

Sticky Jam

After the fruit and veg picking I got to work making some raspberry jam. I got a really simple recipe from here and it really was so simple. They're right when they say homemade is best. Walking the dog in the park I have spotted the late blooming blackberries. After my raspberry jam success, I thought I'd give this a go. I only managed to pick around 150g of blackberries, and without planning or editing the recipe the result was a sticky disaster! Cooking is as much a science as it is an art! Nevertheless, if you abide by the recipe, homemade jam comes out a treat.

Whatcha Cookin'?

We got some cooking and baking done over the last week. Fish cakes and hot tomato salsa, recipes by Jamie Oliver, came out a treat and again I made the focaccia bread based on The Great British Bake Off. The jambalaya was another Jamie recipe and was delicious, even more so for lunch the next day. I also made a macaroni salad by 101 cookbooks.

Fine Food

Since we finished this semester, there has been more time to do the things I really love: cooking, drawing and crocheting. The weather has been absolutely beautiful so we've been able to entertain; last week we had a(n iced) tea party, so I made a pineapple chilli cake and roasted pepper focaccia. Recently I have been bookmarking lots of food blogs, and these are some of my favourites:

The Forest Feast - beautiful house and illustrations
The Wednesday Chef
Smitten Kitchen
Island Menu
Manger

Images from The Forest Feast