Caponata

Aubergine caponata, Clarence Court eggs, parsley, pine nuts, good bread for dipping.
This dish is such a treasure. In fact, it’s so tasty I had it for breakfast and dinner.
It’s that perfect combination of “dippy ingredients” that have so much flavour you can’t stop eating it. 

Caponata is a Sicilian aubergine/ veg based dish. I can’t claim to have an authentic recipe but trust me, my take on it is delicious.
Save this recipe for endless brunches/ lunches/ speedy dinners.
It keeps well in the fridge for 3 days. 

Ingredients for 2

1 large aubergine, thickly sliced 
1 stick of celery, diced 
1/2 pepper, diced 
2 shallots/ 1 small onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tin of chopped tomatoes 
A handful of olives (optional)
A handful of pine nuts, toasted 
A handful of fresh parsley 
Rapeseed oil for cooking 
Sea salt & black pepper to season
As many eggs as you would like 
Good bread for dipping

Method:
Slice the aubergine and drizzle each slice with some rapeseed oil.
Fry in a frying pan over a medium-high heat until it starts to colour. Do this is in batches. 
Wipe the frying pan and add a splash of rapeseed oil.
Pop it on a low heat with the onion & celery and cook for around 5 minutes until softened. 
Add the aubergine, tomato, garlic, lots of sea salt and black pepper, the diced pepper and cook until thickened. Around 15 minutes on a medium heat. 
Throw in the olives. 
Check the seasoning and season again if needed. 
Divide the mixture between two plates.
Top with eggs, pine nuts and parsley. 
Serve with good bread for dipping.

Toasted walnut, endive & watercress casarecce

Salad weather is officially done, so for now, I will mainly be living on pasta. 
This one is toasted walnut, endive & watercress on casarecce, my fave pasta shape. 
Caserecce holds the sauce very well but if you can’t get hold of it then don’t worry too much. Something like fusilli will also do the trick.

Endive and watercress may seem like odd vegetables to add but they are both “bitter” greens that are especially beneficial for the digestive system.
Nerd fact: bitter foods are fab for bile flow. Bile is involved in the digestion process of fats and helps the small intestine stay healthy. In a nutshell, bitter foods are good to beat the bloat.

And if you don’t care about that then here is a delicious plate of pasta:

Ingredients for 2:

100g walnuts
200g pasta (casarecce)
1 chicory/ endive (150g), shredded
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
75g watercress, roughly chopped 
Juice & zest of 1/2 lemon
Organic extra virgin olive oil 
Salt & pepper 
Parmesan (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, toast the walnuts slightly (10 mins) then pulse roughly. You’ll want it to be like crumbs rather than flour. 
2. Bring a large pan of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta to packet instructions & drain reserving some of the pasta water. 
3. Pop a frying pan on a medium heat, add a splash of oil, the garlic & endive & cook for a minute until softened. Add a splash of water if it’s starting to colour. Colouring it will turn it too bitter. 
4. Stir in the walnuts & lemon zest, the pasta, a generous splash of pasta water, the lemon juice and season really well with salt & pepper. 
5. Take it off the heat. Stir in the watercress and a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. 

Serve with fresh parmesan shavings or if you are skipping this part then season with a touch more sea salt.