Zilli weekend - take 2!

Continuing with the Zilli theme, I tried two recipes this Sunday - one for supper, and one to take to work for lunch for the next couple of days. It's new year, so both have a healthier theme than normal - which I expect will disappear soon enough...

1. The lunch option - Root vegetable salad (Verdure e Insalata)

2 large carrots

1 small celeriac

1 large potato

1 small cauliflower, cut into small florets

1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets

1 bulb of fennel, sliced very thinly

2 celery sticks,sliced

--- As an aside at this point, I used six parsnips, four carrots and a bulb of fennel, as Tesco didn't have any celeriac and I didn't want to use potato,broccoli or cauliflower. Also, I hate celery - but I expect you can substitute any root / other vegetables as you wish----

4 garlic cloves (I used 6)

25g fresh rosemary leaves, chopped roughly

25g fresh basil leaves,chopped roughly

---another aside - I used rosemary, basil and parsley as I had run out of enough basil and, well, I love flat leaf parsley. It worked nicely---

 300ml extra virgin olive oil (I don't think this is necessary - I used maybe 100ml and it was fine for roasting, it depends what your preference is)

Juice of 2 lemons

200g rocket

salt and freshly ground black pepper

45m balsamic vinegar, to serve

Preheat the oven to 160C (fan assisted-if your oven is not fan assisted,the recipe suggests 180C).

I chopped the parsnips and carrots into c1cm cubes, and scattered them on a roasting tray. I then sprinkled half the rosemary, basil and parsley and the chopped garlic on top of the root vegetables, topped with a generous few glugs of olive oil (c 100ml) and the lemon juice as well as salt and pepper, and stirred before placing into the oven. The veg then needs to roast slowly until soft or to taste -it took about 1 hour for me and came out smelling (and tasting) lovely.

In the meantime, I sliced the fennel thinly using a ProCook mandolin, a gift from my parents for Christmas and I love it,which is why I feel the need to include a photo of it as well as use it for things that could have been perfectly well with a knife.

Once the roasted veg had cooled, I stirred in the remaining herbs, then added to the fennel. When they were well mixed, I poured them onto a bed of rocket (and a bit of lamb's lettuce left over from the other night). The mix of fresh and roasted herbs with the lemon is divine. I'm storing it in the fridge for lunches (see below) - one portion is already in a box for tomorrow, with a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar over the top. [Note - Zilli suggests later in his book, although not in this recipe, that the best way to use balsamic for salads is to decant it into a pan and heated until the liquid is reduced by about half. Apparently this makes it sweeter and less overpowering. May try this tomorrow, as I have only made balsamic reduction with sugar before]

2. Supper - wild mushroom risotto (funghi selvatici e olio di tartufo), the "light" version

30ml extra virgin olive oil (c2 tbsp)

25g butter (I didn't use butter, instead added an extra splash of olive oil)

4 banana shallots,chopped finely

450g mixed wild mushrooms, sliced (I boringly used chestnut and button mushrooms as Tesco wasn't great on stock again- I expect using shitake or oyster mushrooms would add a stronger flavour, I'd even add porcini to the mix)

2 garlic cloves (I used 4. There are vampires in Putney)

320g arborio risotto rice

250ml white wine

1.5 litres vegetable or fish stock (I used vegetable, and needed much less than 1.5l - maybe slightly less than 1l-before the risotto was done)

1 tbsp truffle oil

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

4 tbsp parmesan cheese (I didn't use this)

salt/freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients shown below, along with brand new Joseph Joseph elevate utensils which I used for cooking/serving. If you don't have them, and are missing any sort of kitchen utensils, get them...

I heated the oil in a medium sized heavy bottomed pan (and accidentally included the truffle oil at this point as I hadn't bothered to read the recipe to the end - not that I think it mattered) and fried the shallots on a low-medium heat until softened (about 3 minutes or so). I then added the mushrooms and garlic and fried (still on low-medium heat) until the mushrooms had softened slightly and released their juices (yes I just said that).

I then mixed in the rice until fully incorporated and then added the wine. Once the wine had been absorbed, I added a small amount (maybe a cupful) of stock and added salt and pepper. Then, a cup at a time, I added more stock until the risotto was done, plus the juice of about half a lemon (as I like lemon in risotto). As mentioned above, my risotto was done after about 750ml-1l stock - but I'd just do it to taste.

When the risotto seemed more risotto-ish and less soupy, I took it off the heat and stirred in the parsley plus a dash of truffle oil (at this point the recipe suggests adding the grated parmesan, which I excluded), and left to stand for a couple of minutes before serving.

I chose to serve the risotto with a few prawns, fried in a bit of olive oil and lemon - the prawns worked well with the risotto, which was met with great feedback (if I had left Mark in the kitchen unsupervised, it would all have been gone) despite the lack of butter and cheese. Result!

Zilli weekend

So let's begin with the first recipe. I cooked with my father on Thursday night and (re-)discovered The Zilli Cookbook, by Aldo Zilli. He was born in the Abruzzo region of Italy and learnt to cook from his mother. He now owns the Zilli Fish restaurant and Zilli Cafe in central London. The cookbook we used was published in 2003, is in hardback with a nice cover (see below) and well weathered. After flicking through, I loved so many of the recipes, that I borrowed/stole the book from my father to use at home.

The recipe I chose to cook last night was simple - I had some scallops from Cornwall that I had decided to defrost, and wanted to cook something that wouldn't overpower their flavour. So I chose Spaghetti with Olive Oil, Garlic and Chilli:

4 tablespoons of good olive oil

3 Garlic cloves

2 fresh red chillies, de-seeded and chopped finely

400g spaghetti

100g parmesan cheese - I used Comte, as I had a lot from a recent trip to France. This does NOT work as well as Parmesan, as it has a lighter flavour and is softer, so is stickier than Parmesan

10 fresh basil leaves, torn

2 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (I used a little more than this, as I love fresh parsley)

Serves 4 (this is pretty accurate, or two people plus one hungry male), preparation and cooking time c25 minutes

A pretty simple dish this one - For anyone interested, I chopped the garlic with my new Christmas present, a Joseph Joseph garlic rocker. If you don't have one, I recommend you get one - it's very effective, easy to clean and leaves you without that 48 hour garlic smell on your hands. Lovely.

I heated the olive oil in a pan on medium heat until it was hot enough to sizzle, and then sauteed the crushed garlic and chopped chillies for a couple of minutes until the garlic was soft. In parallel, I cooked the spaghetti until al dente, drained and kept a cupful of the pasta water.

When the pasta was drained,I added the oil mixture into the pasta with a splash of pasta water.The recipe suggests that you can discard the garlic from the mixture, as the flavour is already in the oil - I chose not to. I also added grated cheese and mixed in well. It was slightly sticky (due to use of Comte rather than Parmesan I expect) but tasted beautiful. I added pepper, but no need to add salt unless you want to.

The recipe suggests serving with the basil and parsley sprinkled on top - I chose to stir them in immediately before serving, which worked well. 

Finally, I briefly sauteed the scallops in some olive oil and lemon, and then served with the juice from the scallops poured over the top of them. To finish off,I squeezed a lemon over both the scallops and the pasta, which added a bit of extra bite to the pasta. 

Feedback was very positive, so it's an easy win!! However in future, I'd 1) use Parmesan or Pecorino and 2) use more garlic. Enjoy!