Zizi's Adventures - Real Food, Real Stories

Green Asparagus And Pea Ricotta Pesto Spagetthi

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I love summer because the markets (and of course nature) is colourful, bright and fragrant. Every Saturday I get up early to go to Budapest’s biggest organic farmers market. The vegetables and fruits are grown with care by the farmers I got to know in the last few years.

Since we have owned a small parcel in a community garden I appreciate the farmers hard work even more that’s why I like supporting them. As much as possible I always use fresh stuff, so the food I prepare is full of healthy ingredients that are straight from the plant or that are made with as little processing and as few added flavorings as possible, keeping nutrients and original flavors intact.

This is how this simply pasta dish was born. Green vegetables and herbs (bought at the market) lightened with creamy, white ricotta and a touch of lemon juice.

Enjoy!

Green Asparagus and Pea Ricotta Pesto Spagetthi

Ingredients (serves 2)

– 200 g spagetthi
– 150 g ricotta
– 140 g fresh green shelled peas
– 180 g green asparagus, discard the wooden parts
– 1 clove garlic
– 125 ml extra virgin olive oil
– juice of 1/2 lemon
– 6 pieces of basil leaves
– 3 pieces of mint leaves
– sea salt and black pepper

Method

In a medium sized pan bring water to a boil. Put the peas and asparagus into the water and blanch them for 1 minute, then drain and pass them under cold water for a few seconds to keep the nice bright green colour.

Add salt into the boiling water and cook the spagetthi al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a food processor blend peas, chopped asparagus with all the remaining ingredients (ricotta, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, basil and mint leaves). Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the creamy pesto sauce over the cooked spagetthi and stir well. Serve the creamy spagetthi onto plates, top with fresh peas and black pepper.

Vanilla And Honey Rhubarb Galette And A Virtual Potluck Dinner Party For Food Revolution Day

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I bet May 19, 2012 will mark an important day in history thanks to Jamie Oliver’s first-ever global Food Revolution Day. Jamie Oliver is a great guy and a huge inspiration. I got to know him (not in person unfortunatelly! yet!) 12 years ago when I used to live in the UK (before he become famous in Hungary). He is an amazing, enthusiastic person, a big fighter. This food revolution movement is for you and your family. If you care about your children and their future, take this revolution and make it your own. Educate yourself about food and cooking. Make only a few small changes, cook at home with your family from fresh ingredients and magical things will happen!

“Food Revolution Day is also an opportunity for everyone around the world to do something.” – says Jamie in a Huffington Post article. “The Food Revolution and Food Revolution Day is about empowering people through education or, frankly, just inspiring people to be more street-wise about food, where it comes from and how it affects their bodies. If you know how to cook you can save yourself money, feel better and live longer, and the chances are, your kids will follow suit. After all, we all kind of become our parents in the end.”

This is Jamie’s video about the Food Revolution Day…

We, international food bloggers and friends stand up for the real food event that’s why we decided to organize a virtual potluck for this day. Everyone cooked and baked her own food at home and today we are bringing it together on the Internet and sharing the recipes with you. The only thing we regret that this party is virtual. Hopefully we will organize something similar live in the near future.Let me introduce you our small team and the menu:
Karin (from Germany, originally from the USA) – Nibbles and Dips
Giulia (from Italy) – Green Panzanella Salad
Valeria (from Italy) – Purple Kale, Sorrel and Lancashire “Caesar” Salad
Regula (from Belgium) : Mussels with Real Traditional Belgian Fries
Emiko (from Australia): Crespelle Verdi di Pesce
Sarka (from England, originally from Czech Republic): Rhubarb and Almond Panna Cotta
Zita, myself (from Hungary): Vanilla and Honey Rhubarb Galette

Galette is a general term used in the French cuisine to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes. Galette is also a type of thin large pancake mostly associated with the regions of Normandy and Brittany, where it replaced at times bread as basic food, but it is eaten countrywide. The filling can be savory or sweet, you can add any kind of herbs and spices.

Galette is very easy to make and you can take with you for a dinner party or a picnic with friends. I used whole spelt flour and buckwheat flour that has a rich, nutty flavor and a very high nutritional value. In addition, it is gluten free. Rhubarb is one of my favorite spring vegetables although I always use it in desserts. Honey and vanilla perfectly complete the sour taste of rhubarb.

Except cane powder sugar, lemon and vanilla all of this recipe’s ingredients come from Hungary so they are locally grown and produced (I have rhubarb plants in my small community garden but I couldn’t use it yet so I bought the rhubarb at the organic farmers market in Budapest).

Vanilla and Honey Rhubarb Galette

Ingredients (serves 4)

– 200 g whole spelt flour
– 150 g buckwheat flour
– 160 g cold butter
– 3 tablespoon cane powder sugar
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– grated zest of 1/2 lemon
– 8 tablespoons cold water
– 170 g rhubarb, cleaned and cut into 5-7 cm pieces
– 3 tablespoons honey
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– freshly whipped cream to serve

Method

In a bowl mix together flours, powder sugar, salt and lemon zest. Cut butter into small chunks and add to the flour mixture. I always use my hands for this: with your fingers rub the butter into the flour until you get a crumbly mixture (pea size pieces). Mix in the cold water until the pastry comes together into a smooth, elastic ball. Wrap in plastic and place in refrigerator for at least an hour.

In a bowl mix together rhubarb with honey and vanilla.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). On a lightly floured surface, roll the pie dough out to a 30 cm (about 11,81 inch) circle and transfer to a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Place the rhubarb pieces over the pie crust, leaving about 5 cm (about 1-2 inches) boarder. Fold over the edges of the crust, pleating as needed to make an even circle. Bake galette at 170-180C (350F) for about 30-40 minutes until crust is golden brown. Serve with whipped cream.

Kale And Mushroom Lasagne

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The recipe comes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall‘s vegetarian cookbook Veg Every Day!. Hugh spent one summer to get to know the vegetables more. He’s come up with an abundance of veg-tastic recipes. I could cook and bake all the recipes from the book. With over 200 recipes and vibrant photography, River Cottage Veg Every Day is a timely eulogy to the glorious green stuff. You can watch the series on  YouTube-on.

This lasagna was a winner. Everyone in my family loved it.

Kale and Mushroom Lasagna

Ingredients (serves 4-5)

For the lasagna
– 300 g kale, tough stalks removed, leaves cut into bite size pieces
– 500 g button mushroom, sliced
– 3 cloves garlic, chopped
– 180-190 g lasagne sheets
– 30 g butter (unsalted)
– 20 g Parmesan, grated
– 2-3 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
– olive oil
– sea salt, pepper

For the béchamel sauce
– 750 ml non-dairy milk (oat, rice, soy, you can substitute with milk)
– 1 onion, chopped
– 1 small root of celery, chopped
– 50 g butter (unsalted)
– 50 g plain flour
– 2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
– 1 bay leaf
– a frew black peppercorns
– sea salt

In a pan heat the milk with bay leaf, onion, celery and peppercorns until just below simmering. Remove from the heat and set aside to infuse.

Put the kale leaves into a pan and cover with cold water. Add salt. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain well and set aside.

In a large pan heat 30 g butter, add mushroom, some salt and pepper. Cook for 5-10 minutes until the liquid released by the mushroom has evaporated. Stir in garlic and thyme, cook for 2-3 minutes longer. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).

Reheat the infused milk slowly, then strain. In a large saucepan heat 50 g butter for the béchamel sauce. Stir in the flour and cook gently for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add about a quarter of the hot milk and beat vigorously until smooth. Repeat with the remaining milk until you have a smooth sauce. Return to the heat and cook for a few minutes – stirring -, allowing it to bubble until thickened. Stir in the mustard, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Stir about half of the béchamel sauce into the kale, put to one side.

Spread half the remaining sauce over the bottom of a 29*20 cm (11,4 * 7,8 inch) ovenproof dish. Put one layer of lasagna sheets in the dish, then spoon the kale over the top. Add another layer of lasagna, then the mushrooms. Finish with a final layer of pasta and the remaining of béchamel sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan and olive oil and bake at 180C (350F) for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Vegetarian Christmas – Cheesy Leeks

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Christmas time a stress-free meal needs proper planning. There is no such thing as luck – you have to make it happen. That’s why I decided early what to make for my small family on Christmas Eve. 
Christmas is a private, family holiday in Hungary, we don’t go to parties. The main Christmas celebrations take place on Christmas Eve. The evening is called Holy Evening. Most families decorate the tree together on 24 December, but some families keep the older tradition that tree should be a surprise for children who even believe it was bought by Baby Jesus and angels. Children enter the room only when the small tree bells ring and music arises. Gifts lay around the tree with small labels saying the name of someone in the family. Family-members sing Christmas songs together, then open their gifts and spend the night together. The menu for Christmas Eve is usually fish soup from carp, fried fish with potato salad or French fries. The traditional Hungarian Christmas dessert is called beigli. It’s a pastry roll filled with poppyseed or walnut and it can be made a few days, even a week before Christmas.
I’m vegetarian so we don’t make the traditional menu on this evening. We had cranberry and pistachio nut roast – a rich and savoury vegetarian dish -, mashed pumpkin potatoes with rosemary and also this cheesy leeks (recipe from Jamie Oliver) and a vegan stuffing (I’ll share the recipe with you soon). It was the best vegetarian Christmas dinner we ever had.

Cheesy Leeks

Ingredients (serves 4)

– 2 large leeks, trimmed and washed
– 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
– 3 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
– 100 ml cream
– 100 g cheddar, grated
– 100 g brie, cut into small pieces
– sea salt
– black pepper
– olive oil

Method

Slice the leeks on an angle, about 2 cm thick. Put a pan on a medium heat and add 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, thyme and garlic. As things begin to bubble and fry (3-4 minutes), stir in the leeks. Leave to cook and check on it every few minutes to stir (make sure it doesn’t catch). After 10-15 minutes turn off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients (cream, brie, salt, pepper), stir and spoon it all into a baking dish, sprinkle over the cheddar. Pop in the oven and bake at 170-180C (350F) for 10-15 minutes until golden and bubbling.

More vegetarian Christmas recipes:
Mashed Pumpkin Potatoes with Rosemary
Cranberry and Pistachio Nut Roast
Pumpkin Pie

Vegetarian Christmas – Mashed Pumpkin Potatoes with Rosemary

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Hey, it’s still Christmas time on my blog! I want to share a few more recipes that I cooked and baked at Christmas time. The main meal was the nut roast and there were several side dishes like this mashed pumpkin potatoes. The addition of pumpkin to ordinary mashed potatoes gives the dish a nice earthiness that goes well with roasted meat and vegetarian nut roast too. Rosemary tops up its simplicity!

Mashed Pumpkin Potatoes with Rosemary

Ingredients (serves 4)

– 450 g pumpkin, peeled, cut into small cubes
– 450 g potatoes, peeled, cut into small cubes
– 100 ml cream or sour cream
– 20 g unsalted butter
– 1 sprig rosemary, leaves chopped
– sea salt
– pepper

Method

In a large sauce pan cover potatoes and pumpkin with water. Bring to boil and simmer until potatoes are tender, 20-25 minutes. Drain potatoes and pumpkin. Mash with a potato masher, mixer or immersion blender. Add cream/sour cream and butter to thin a bit and make mash creamier. Season with salt, pepper and rosemary. Serve it warm with the cranberry pistachio nut roast.

More vegetarian Christmas recipes:
Cranberry and Pistachio Nut Roast
Pumpkin Pie