Pea, onion weed and feta dip, and butter peas with onion weed, again!

Spring recipe for New Zealand! Personally I find frozen peas a bit boring, but I love the colour, plus the frozen ones are so cheap, and if you add some onion weeds, which are free, and a little butter and salt, you have a quick and delicious side veggie. Plus you can use the leftovers to make a low cost dip just by adding a little feta. 

For the peas, just clean and chop the onion weed (bulbs, stem and leaves, leave the flowers aside for decorations, they can be eaten too!). Melt a dollop of butter and add the chopped onion weeds, then add the frozen peas (don't boil the first, it is not necessary) and a little salt. Stir, cover and simmer (add a tiny bit of water when needed, but never too much). Enjoy!! 

With the leftover peas, just blend them with some feta and some of the brine from the feta (if you feta has no brine use a little water). Add more raw onion weed if you like a stronger taste. Super yummy on bread and crostini, with chips, eggs, salads or as a spread.

And now a photo of my cat Nikita

And of my garden! Happy weekend!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Asparagus with pistachio and Feta

Also tried with halloumi and with quinoa, very good combos! Just wash the asparagus and cut off the hardest bit at the end. Heat a couple of tbsp of olive oil in a pan, add a garlic clove, peeled and cut into two, and then the asparagus. Sizzle for a minute or two, stirring, then cover with a lid and turn the heat off. The asparagus will cook in their own steam. Uncover, add a tbsp of crushed pistachio nuts and cubed feta. If using halloumi, cube it first then sizzle with the garlic and olive oil, remove, add the asparagus and cook as before. Add the halloumi back at the end with the pistachio. Serve on a plate of quinoa.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Linguine with broccoli... and some semi-dried tomatoes and feta too!

I love pasta with broccoli, but for this dish I just felt like adding some colour... and fancy that, it looks like the Italian flag! This is not a combo I would do every day, or with all my broccoli pasta (which I prefer plain) but it seems to go very well with Kiwis, who are still keen of having several things on their pasta (never understood why...), and it is easy and tasty too!

Cook the linguine al dente, In the meantime clean the broccoli, cut the stalks into small pieces and the florets in fork size pieces. Heat some olive oil in a pan and add two cloves of garlic, peeled (chopped if you like a stronger garlic flavour). Sizzle the add the broccoli stalks. Stir, after one minute add the florets. Stir for a couple of minutes, add salt, cover with a lid and simmer for two minutes, then turn the element off but leave the lid on: the broccoli will cook in their steam. Cut the semi-dried tomatoes into strips and cube the feta. Drain the pasta and place in the pan with the broccoli (you can add a bit of water from the pasta or a bit more olive oil to mix everything well together. Top with the tomatoes and feta. Serve immediately. 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Antipasto easy easy: pickled peppers stuffed with feta and herbs

You can see them in the deli department of all the supermarkets, little red peppers stuffed with feta, and they are not cheap! But mostly, if you have a big party they go too quickly! But for a fraction of the deli price you can buy a couple of jars of sweet pickled peppers and a block of creamy feta, and then you just need a few herbs from the garden, and a little milk to thin down the feta. And a bit of patience!

Cut the feta (goat or cow) and place in a bowl, then with a fork start to mix it, adding some milk until you have a paste as thick as Greek yogurt. If you cannot find feta cheese, or for a milder flavor, use cream cheese. Chop some herbs like basil, dill, chives and/or parsley (or what you have fresh in the garden). You can use just one herb or a mixture of herbs. Or you can use an already flavoured feta, or dried spices like black pepper and cumin seeds (a combo that I particularly like with cream cheese). 

Mix the herbs with the feta mixture. In the meantime drain the pickled peppers and place open side down on a plate to drain all their liquid for 30 minutes or so. Then with a teaspoon fill all the peppers with a little feta mixture. This take time but it isn't difficult, as the cheese mixture is soft and will 'pour' easily inside the little peppers. Finally refrigerate everything for a few hours (better overnight) so that the feta mixture will set, and serve as an antipasto or canapés. Leftover feta mixture can be used as a dip.

Photos and Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Spinach and feta polpettine

Ingredients

spinach

feta

egg

breadcrumbs

Olive oil for frying

thyme (optional)

Wash and cook a big bunch of spinach, then chop as finely as you can/wish. Place in a bowl and add some feta (about 100 g for each bunch of spinach), one egg and as much breadcrumbs as you need to make a mixture that can be shaped into small walnut size balls. Pan fry in olive oil turning them often until cooked. Place on some kitchen paper lined with fresh thyme (if using) to remove excess oil and give the polpettine a hint of thyme flavor. Serve hot, or even cold. My kids love them!

I am also adding a couple of photos of my Italian Thursday night class, finally we managed to make pasta in this class, I think they liked it more that grammar...

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©