Linguine with Fennel, Capers and Lemon
My fennel carpaccio with salty capers and lemon is one of my favourite winter salads, I always have a couple bulbs in the fridge to prepare this 2-minute lunch or dinner for us. The vegetable is a tasty alternative to cabbages because, for whatever reason, it retains its strong aroma even when it's out of its (natural) season. It's always strong and present, be it baked in the oven as a gratin with Parmesan sprinkled on top, with butter beans in a hearty soup or as a crunchy addition to salads. I would definitely suffer much more from the absence of summery tomatoes, zucchini and bell pepper if there wasn't fennel in the house!
It's been a while since we had a plate of pasta on our table, which is quite unusual for us. Inspired by my carpaccio, I pulled the linguine package out of the pantry and mixed it with thin fennel slices sautéed for just 2 minutes, a handful of capers from Gozo, lemon zest and juice. It was a quick and light dish, tasty and simply good!
Linguine with Fennel, Capers and Lemon
For 2 people you need
linguine 200g / 7 ounces
medium fennel bulb, bottom cut off, very thinly sliced, 1
capers, rinsed and dried, a small handful, to taste
lemon zest to taste
freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1-2 tablespoons, to taste
salt
black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar, to taste
olive oil
Cook the pasta in salted water al dente, keep some of the water in a mug and set aside.
In a pan, heat a splash of olive oil and sauté the fennel for 1 minute on each side on medium-high heat. Add the cooked pasta to the pan and stir in a splash of the water used to cook the linguine and the lemon juice. Sprinkle with capers and season with salt, pepper and lemon zest and juice to taste.
Linguine with Chickpeas, Grilled Aubergine and Lemon
What an amazing anniversary! Thank you so much for your sweet wishes and support of eat in my kitchen. It's been a perfect celebration of an extraordinary year and the beginning of a new chapter, the second year of the blog!
Let's start the new week with an easy pasta dish, chickpeas (canned, so there's no soaking and cooking involved), grilled aubergine slices, lemon and basil! I got the inspiration for this composition from a sandwich which is very popular in Israel, it made it onto the blog last January, the fantastic Sabih. Velvety hummus, grilled aubergines and a boiled egg on juicy homemade olive bread, it tastes divine! Our godchild's father told me about this sandwich classic from his home country, he praised it with such passion that I had to try it. It became a new standard, with great potential to inspire various recipes. For my linguine, I left out the egg, although I think it would have fit but instead I added lemon and basil for an aromatic southern Mediterranean feeling. The aubergine and chickpeas were so smooth, almost sweet, that it needed a bit of a contrast, a task that my beloved lemon zest always manages with ease.
When I grill aubergines, I always prepare two or three of them right away. You can use them for your pizza or roll them up with ricotta. Although they need (and soak up) quite a bit of olive oil, I found that you can minimize it by stacking them on top of each other as soon as you take them out of the oven. I brush them with a thin layer of oil on both sides before they cook. Don't worry, they tend to look a bit dry at first when they are done but they will turn into perfect juicy and oily bites after a couple minutes of soaking and softening each other.
Linguine with Chickpeas, Grilled Aubergine and Lemon
For 4 people you need
linguine pasta 400g / 14 ounces
chickpeas, canned, rinsed and drained, 300g / 10.5 ounces
large aubergine, cut into 1/2cm / 1/4″ slices, 1
garlic, crushed, 1 clove
olive oil
salt
black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar, for the topping, to taste
lemon zest, for the topping, to taste
basil leaves, a small handful
Cook the pasta in salted water al dente and keep some of the cooking water.
Brush the aubergines with olive oil on both sides, season them with salt and pepper and grill them in the oven until golden brown on both sides, they will darken partly but that’s fine. Mine needed 7 minutes on one side and 5 minutes on the other but that depends on the oven. Set the aubergines aside and stack them, that will keep them moist and soft. Cut them into thick slices.
In a pan, heat a splash of olive oil, add the garlic and cook it for 1 minute on medium heat. Add the chickpeas, season with salt and pepper, close with a lid and cook for 4 minutes on medium-low heat. Add the pasta and a little of the water they cooked in and season with salt. Stir in the aubergine and sprinkle with the crushed black peppercorns, lemon zest and basil.
Enjoy warm or with short pasta as a salad.
King Prawns, Ginger and Leek Pasta for a special night
Sometimes when I visit my mother and it's just the two of us, we go for a luxurious mother and daughter treat. In our case that's not a day at the spa but a sumptuous meal. We both love seafood, so we go to the fish shop and buy a few king prawns for one of our favourite meals. We fry the prawns, add some ginger, garlic and leek and mix them together with Linguine pasta - so simple yet so delicious! The pasta is glazed with the gingery oil infused with the aroma of the prawns which are so strong on their own that you just have to fry them in hot oil to unfold their pure quality. No sauce, no further distraction, just a subtle spiciness from the leek and ginger. We love it!
It's one of those days again, my mother is at my home at the moment, we went to some great restaurants in the past few days and had some wonderful dinners out but now it's time to cook together in my kitchen again, but first it's time to go shopping! I mentioned my favourite department store when I wrote about my Camembert and Pomegranate Sandwich because of their amazing (and huge) cheese section. I started my own tradition more than 20 years ago when I was still only a regular visitor to my current home city. I would always visit their food section whenever close by, and I still can't resist its attraction. I walk around, take a look at the displayed goods and I always end up in the seafood section to buy a shrimp sandwich. Yesterday I went there with my mother, I ate my shrimps in a crisp bun and she had a few oysters. We bought some king prawns for our dinner, fresh from the open sea, we also chose some wine, cheese and petit fours for dessert and couldn't wait to get home to prepare our special dinner.
I must admit we're still two girls so we didn't just leave it at the food. The fashion section was nearly as attractive as the food so we ended up spending some time there as well. A perfect day - and night!
King Prawns, Ginger and Leek Linguine
For 4 people you need
king prawns, uncooked, rinsed, cleaned, the head removed but with the shell, 12 (we got the ones with head and shell, their taste is stronger and you can make an amazing broth with the shells)
linguine pasta 400g / 14 ounces
leek, cut into thin slices, 1
ginger, cut into strips, 3 tablespoons
garlic, cut in half, 3 cloves
white wine for deglazing and a little of the water used for cooking the pasta
salt and black pepper
olive oil for frying
In a large pot, cook the Linguine al dente. While the pasta is cooking you can continue with the prawns.
In a large and heavy pan, fry the prawns in hot oil for a couple minutes on each side until their shells turns golden brown. Take the prawns aside (I leave mine in their shell but you can also peel them before you mix them with the pasta). Pour some more oil into the pan and fry the leek, ginger and garlic for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Deglaze with a splash of white wine, add half a cup of the water used for cooking the pasta and season with salt and pepper. When the leek is soft, add the pasta and prawns. Mix everything and divide between the plates.
You can make a delicious broth with the hard shells and heads, fry them in hot oil and deglaze them with Noilly Prat or white wine. Add an onion, 1/2 leek, 1-2 carrots, 1 small parsley root, 1 celery stalk, 4 black pepper corns and 2 bay leaves and cover everything with 1800ml of water. Cook for half an hour and pour through a sieve. I fill mine in containers and put them in the freezer.
