ESPRESSO

The espresso ( not expresso) like the Turkish proverb ..... "coffee should be as black as hell, as strong as death and as sweet as love " In a couple of swallows it should be gone ...

HOME MADE RICOTTA CHEESE (1)

Make your own ricotta cheese , it is really simple , if you have a fig tree or can access figs with a stem (I have read that a small branch can be taken from the tree and stir the milk with the broken end of the branch .) Add 3 drops of fig sap to 1 litre of full cream milk ( or 1/2 milk and 1/2 cream )which is at room temperature .( Do not use UHT milk ) Mix together , cover the dish with a clean cloth and leave sit for 12 hours on your kitchen bench . Then drain the curds and there you have it , ricotta .

HOMEMADE RICOTTA CHEESE (2)

This is my first attempt at homemade ricotta cheese , it is so smooth and I sampled it with fresh honey from a local Newborough hive ( thank you Robyn Grigoleit )

PASTA AT THE MANOR (2)

Lasagne layered with mince ,passata , pasta sheets and bechamel sauce .

PASTA AT THE MANOR ( 1 )

Mushroom and ricotta filled ravioli in passata .

PASSATA

This is my recipe for passata . Peel 2 kg of tomatoes , roughly chop and place them into a large saucepan over a medium heat with drizzle of cooking oil and a peeled and thinly sliced onion. Add 2 tbs of wholegrain mustard and stir through until well blended. In a separate bowl mix together 1/4 cup of lemon juice with 1/2 cup of dry white wine . Add the liquid mix to tomatoes, stirring occasionally. Drain 1 x 400gm can of champignons stems and pieces and add the contents to the sauce, 1/4 cup of sliced black olives, 1 stick of sliced celery thinly sliced, 1/2 leek thinly sliced and 3 tbs of minced garlic . Continue to cook over the heat, stirring occasionally, the tomatoes will begin to break down. Stir through 1/2 cup of honey and season with salt and pepper to taste. Delicious !!

TIME

Sometimes the best meal requires you to forget that times exists . When you cook , you work with one of the most essential ingredients of all ...time . Think about it, every meal you eat , you eat time ....the weeks it takes to ripen a tomato, the years it takes to grow a fig tree , the time it takes for the quince blossom to turn to fruit . Every meal you prepare is time out of your day , time is really about efficiency , how to do twice as much in half the time . To cultivate inefficiency and squander our best resource to make a meal that begins in the morning and you cook it all day is the greatest use of the essential ingredient.. time .