Make-your-own pesto served with trout & salad
As one of my regulars, I'm now managing to get this served up in well under the half hour mark. You can chop and change what you like.
Tagged: #Foodandwinematching
Red wine marinara pasta
A cynic would say that marinara is one of those things that has been bastardised to the last. Most likely invented by Neapolitan mariners during the 16th century, there are tons of variations out there - and it is very popular as a base sauce on pizza.
Curious Davide's Mac & Cheese
Our little brother, Curious Davide, is back with another whopping recipe. I'm sharing an apartment with him now in Cork City, so whilst I have to put up with his smelly feet, he's a dab hand in the kitchen, which more than makes up for it. This is another one of my picks from his repertoire.
Momma's Lamb Kofta
Momma always used to say "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what your gonna get. " Then she'd arrive to the table with a big bowl of spicy meatballs.
Spicy pan seared scallops
Somewhat of a luxury food item, but well worth a little extra expense for something truly delicious. Scallops are actually quite versatile, so feel free to put your own spin on this if you're not too heavy handed with any one ingredient. It can be as simple or complex as you want.
Insalata Caprese
The Italians show that good food doesn't have to be complicated. This tomato, basil and mozzarella salad is ideal for a summer afternoon lunch/snack or as a starter before a BBQ. To get the best out of it, source the best ingredients.
U.S.A. Merlot beef stew
During the week I had a very enthusiastic wine and food lover stop by to stock up. We got talking and she was kind enough to pass on some excellent recipes to me, including this beef stew recipe. You may notice I've gone from metric to imperial measures.
Vegetarian lasagne
No no, please don't go, meat eaters! It's actually really good. In an effort to reduce my read meat intake, encouraged by the likes of this, I gave this vegetable lasagne a shot last weekend.
Indian Prawn Curry
This is Goan-style prawn curry from India's west coast, although at home I like to throw in some frozen vegetables and count that as one of my five-a-days. Feel free to omit. Once you have your ingredients ready it shouldn't take you any longer than 20 minutes to prepare.
Fenn's Quay's flourless chocolate pudding
I asked the lovely Kate Lawlor, head chef at Fenn's Quay restaurant in Cork City, for the recipe of something on her menu that was a customer favourite. I just put it out there, "choose what you want" said I. And then she came back with the perfect Easter treat - a flourless chocolate pudding.
Pasta olio, aglio e peperoncino
I was introduced to this super simple dish by my brother, @curiousdavide, after he returned from a six month stint in southern Italy.
Pork schnitzel
A quick and easy recipe that can be adapted to suit the accompaniments you fancy, or have to hand. Like most of the things I prepare reasonably often, it's not really a recipe at all so much as a way of getting something tasty fast, with only the main ingredient to track down.
Lancashire Hot Pot
Go to any pub in England, particularly in the north, and the Lancashire Hot Pot will almost certainly have made it on to the menu. It's a British classic, and provided you have a spare two or three hours to let it bake, it is easy to prepare and ideal for feeding large numbers.
Amarone or Chianti with your beef lasagne?
An all time classic I've been meaning to nail for a while now. Prepare your bolognese sauce beforehand. I think it actually gets better after being in the freezer for a while, so do a few batches sometime you feel like spaghetti bolognese.
Sweet Potato Soup
I think Matt should have spoken to victims of my cooking before asking me to roll up my sleeves and put on my pinny this week, but then you can't really go wrong with soup.
Ricotta & Spinach Cannelloni
With our headline promotion on Italian wines continuing until the end of this month, I think it appropriate to match classic Italian food with classic Italian wine. So here we go.
Rachel's slow-roast shoulder of pork & chocolate crème brûlée
Following on from Thursday's interview with Rachel Allen, we include two sumptuous recipes showing exactly why she is one of Ireland's most popular chefs.
Lemongrass soy chicken skewers
This is a handy recipe passed to my mother many years ago, perhaps it was even a little ahead of its time in Ireland it was that long ago. Although I love satay chicken skewers, this is a nice change with the lemongrass giving its signature Asian-style flavour.
Healthy Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup
Home-made soup is so underrated as a meal and this super-healthy hot and sour soup from Look and Taste had me salivating at the thought of all those Thai flavours and spices, with big juicy prawns as the meaty filler.
Wild Mushroom Pasta with Zucchini
As a lover of all things Italian, this devastatingly simple recipe jumped out at me, particularly for the main ingredient of wild mushrooms. If you can't get fresh, don't worry about it, dried mushrooms are great and available in any decent grocer.
Cod with Panko & Wasabi Crust
This week we asked Sean Fee, CEO of Look and Taste, for his favourite recipe from the ever-expanding Look and Taste video library: I’ve had a good couple of years to try out a few of the video recipes we have on lookandtaste and there’s a few that have become part of my limited repertoire, one o ..
The Look and Taste Show: Tips on storing wine
We've been having great fun in the last few months with the guys from Look and Taste, and Niall's recipes matched with wine are now a firm fixture on this blog.
Curious Spuds
As Niall Harbison is so quick to test out on us every Thursday, we love a good challenge, so in chatting recently with the Daily Spud, the web's most authoritative and creative chef and blogger on all things potato, we were delighted to accept the task of matching wine with spuds.
Look and Taste joins the Curious Wine Blog
Those keeping an eye on us in the last couple of weeks will have seen my contributions to the new wine blog on Look and Taste.