Calamari, Tomato & Basil Pasta Recipe

Calamari Tomato & Basil

I’ve been enjoying the summer weather lately, and been loving the entertainment opportunities that presents too. When I have guests though, I like having pre-prepared, or quick to prepare meals as I don’t like spending ages in the kitchen! That’s just one of the reasons I really enjoy this Calamari, Tomato & Basil Pasta: it’s easy to prepare before hand, leaving just 10 minutes cooking time required.Calamari Tomato & Basil

I prefer to use fresh pasta when pasta is the main part of the meal, so I’ve used fresh pasta in this recipe. Dry pasta works, but needs to be cooked for longer. It can also be served in a salad, or with quinoa or other starch of your choice.

Use a good quality squid for this recipe too – nothing worse than leathery calamari!

Now, if you want to prepare this meal for later cooking, chop the garlic cloves, wash and dry the cherry tomatoes – halve them if they are the larger variety – wash the squid, clean it and cut it into rings, and chop the basil leaves roughly. Store all the items in the fridge till about 20 minutes before you’re going to cook them, leaving it to warm to room temperature a little.

If your calamari loses a lot of liquid in the cooking, you can pour it out about before adding the cherry tomatoes.

Serve immediately – and if you’re having wine, Calamari, Tomato & Basil Pasta pairs really well with a dry white wine, like a Pinot Grigio – a wine I don’t normally like, but it works fantastically with this. Another alternative is Riesling.

Calamari, Tomato & Basil Pasta
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
There’s a lot of flexibility in this recipe, with room for adaptations to make it your favourite. You may not like anchovies, but don’t miss them out as they really add to the flavour of this dish.
Ingredients
  • Pasta for four people
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • 1-2 garlic cloves
  • 4 anchovy fillets
  • 250g cherry tomatoes, washed and dried
  • 450g squid, cleaned and cut into rings
  • bunch cut basil leaves
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Prepare the pasta as per brand instructions. Set aside. (I bring 1000g water to boil in the Thermomix – Varoma/8 mins/ speed 4 – then add the pasta in the internal steamer for 3 – 4 minutes / Varoma/speed 4)
  2. To a heated pan, add the oil, garlic and anchovy to a frying pan and heat till the anchovy sort of ‘melts’.
  3. Add the squid and fry for 1 – 2 minutes, tossing them as you do.
  4. Next, add the cherry tomatoes and fry them for 3 – 4 minutes, till they begin to soften and leak juice – I prefer the cherry tomatoes to still have some bite to them, but it’s personal choice, really!
  5. Test the squid to make sure it’s nice and tender, then add the basil, salt and pepper.
  6. Serve with the pasta, or as a salad with green leaves.

 

Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup

Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup

This soup came about because I really don’t like a chunky soup. Contrary to popular belief this isn’t because of the texture, but rather is because I get bored half way through a bowl of same tasting bite after bite. And by the time you’ve boiled your vegetables long enough to extract the flavour into the broth, every bite tastes the same.

I prefer a deconstructed soup. It’s still hearty, filling, healthy, but it looks much prettier since everything retains it’s colour and shape, and every bite is a mini-adventure.
Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup

Take this soup for example. Butternut soup with lardons, sage and Grana Padano cheese.

The first bite has a little bit of lardon and a small sliver of sage. It’s tasty. The next bite,  has a hint of garlic, and a bit of onion along with the butternut, and tastes homey. The following spoon picks up a large piece of melted cheese, and the rich full flavour of Grana Padano accompanies the butternut down my throat. The next spoon hits a pocket of sage butter, and provides a whole other taste to any of the previous bites – and next it’s just a plain spoon of butternut, that almost cleanses your palet. And so it goes, on and on.

Grana Padano Butternut Squash Soup

Well, it works for me, and I hope you like it too!

For this soup I like to roast the butternut squash. While you can just go ahead and make it from an uncooked butternut squash, which gives it a fresh flavour, I find a roasted butternut squash has so much more depth to it. It’s definitely worth the extra 40 or so minutes.

Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup
Recipe Type: Soup
Cuisine: Italian
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3 -4
It may seem a little fiddly, but for this soup you need to roast the butternut squash. Once it’s cooked, boil the soup for 15 minutes, while at the same time cooking the lardons and sage leaves for 10 minutes each. Slice up the cheese and everything should be ready at the same time.
Ingredients
  • 1 Butternut Squash
  • 4 Garlic cloves
  • 1 Onion
  • 250ml chicken stock
  • 30g butter
  • 10 sage leaves
  • 75g pasta
  • 140g bacon lardons
  • 50g Grana Padano shards
  • pepper to taste
  • olive oil to drizzle
Instructions
  1. Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
  2. Peel four garlic cloves and put them inside the hollowed out butternut squash.
  3. Drizzle a good quality olive oil over the butternut squash, place on an oven tray and bake at 200C for about 40 mins till it’s soft all the way through. Set aside to cool slighly, then chop into rough chunks. If it’s a young butternut squash you can keep the skin, but if it’s older, discard.
In the Thermomix
  1. Add the onion and baked garlic cloves to the Thermomix and chop 3 seconds/speed 4.
  2. Cook for 3 minutes/100C/Speed 1
  3. Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook 15 mins/speed 4
  4. Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
  5. In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
  6. Thinly slice ‘shards’ of the Grana Padano cheese.
  7. To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
  8. Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.
Regular Instructions
  1. Chop and slice the onions and garlic, and saute for about 10 mins in suitable suit pot, till translucent.
  2. Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat.
  3. Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
  4. In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
  5. Thinly slice ‘shards’ of the Grana Padano cheese.
  6. To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
  7. Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.

 

Wild Garlic And Cashew Pesto

Where my inlaws live, the public bridleway is lined with wild garlic on one side and dandelions on the other. It’s a foragers feast! Last year I picked a shopping bag full of wild garlic, brought it home, cooked with it and stuck a two plants in a pot. They looked as though they were dying, so I forgot about them and got on with the year. Cleaning out the garden this spring, I found four beautiful Ramson plants! I actually did a little happy dance, because I sometimes crave this stuff!

Wild Garlic PestoWild garlic is simply delicious stuff. In the spring it has a much milder taste than late in the summer, and unlike it’s commercial counterpart, you eat the leaves and the flowers, not the bulb (although you could).

Identification: You can smell the garlic before you see the plant. It has broad, spearlike leaves, which smell like garlic, and pretty white, star-like flowers, in a rounded ball shape, which also smell like garlic. All parts are edible, the leaves preferably in spring.

Poisonous lookalikes: The leaves do look a lot like the Lily of the Valley, which is poisonous but doesn’t smell like garlic, and if it doesn’t smell like garlic, it isn’t wild garlic.

Uses: Basically, anything you could do with Basil, you can do with wild garlic. You can make a soup, add it to salads, stir fry with onion and olive oil as a vegetable (instead of spinach, for example), and add a few dandelion heads for colour.

Here’s on my favourite recipes for Wild Garlic: Wild Garlic and Cashew Pesto

(Pine nuts are seriously expensive. Cashews are a lot cheaper, and just as good.)

Wild Garlic And Cashew Pesto
Recipe Type: Dip, Sauce,
Cuisine: Pasta
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 – 6
The amounts in this recipe are rough guides. If you have more or less of an ingredient, it doesn’t matter. Cashews provide the ‘bulk’ in the ingredients, and the Ramsons are very strong in flavour, so while you can add more you don’t need to.
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup loosely packed Ramsons/Wild Garlic
  • 1/2 cup Cashew Nuts
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1/3 cup Olive Oil
Instructions
  1. If you’re using a Thermomix, place everything in the bowl, and blits on Turbo for 3 seconds and you’re done.
  2. If you’re not:
  3. Crush the cashew nuts
  4. Grate the Parmesan Cheese
  5. Place the salt into a pestle and mortar and add the wild garlic. Use the ‘friction’ of the salt to crush them together.
  6. Add the olive oil for a smooth paste, before adding the cheese and cashews and stirring in well.
  7. Pepper to taste.
Notes
Use as a spread on a rustic bread or as pesto for pasta. Keeps for around 3 days in the fridge. Top with edible Ramson flowers for prettiness.