Poor man's italian dinner (broccoli and pesto farfalle)

If you've ever had one of these (pictured below), you know you want to make some Italian food to go with it.

I have recently found out that Italians have a very interesting ingredient - Pangritata, also called 'poor man's parmesan'. It is basically fried breadcrumbs. Oddly enough, it's nothing like parmesan, but it does taste good.

This dish goes well with a glass of medium-bodied red wine, something not too punchy, like Malbec or Torrontes. You could go with white, but the dish would overtake the flavour of the wine. The recipe below should be enough for two people.

First, make the pangritata:

3 tbsp oil,

1 garlic clove, sliced

2 tbsp chopped rosemary or thyme

50g breadcrumbs

1 or less chopped chilli

1) Mix the above ingredients and fry in oil for 2 minutes until crisp golden;

2) Season with salt and pepper and dry on kitchen paper.

For the pasta:

200g Farfalle pasta (or something boring like Penne)

150g broccoli,

2 tbsp pesto,

Zest of 1/2 lemon,

2 tbsp parmesan, grated

1) Cook the pasta, leaving tiny bit of the cooking water;

2) Mix in the rest of ingredients and sprinkle over the pangritata. Done.

Nosy about Rosy: mixed roasted nuts with rosemary

I have to admit - I am nuts about nuts! I can go through a jar of peanut butter in two days if I'm in the mood, if not, I can do it in four.

Wherever you store them, the crunchy rosemary salt left at the bottom is the best bit. Moist your finger to scoop out the salt and have a few roast nuts - gorgeous!


Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chilli
2 cups mixed nuts (pecans, cashews and hazelnuts)


Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 180 C (350 degrees F).
2) Melt butter with rosemary, salt, and cayenne. Pour this mixture over 3 cups mixed nuts, tossing to coat them.
3) Bake the nuts on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.