So here we go with the second part of the recipes from our first session at The Flavour Academy where we featured and cooked dishes from the Campania region. Obviously we featured “pomodoro” and “vongole”. Check these out they are delicious!
Caprese Salad Recipe
Serves 2 / Ease of Recipe: Little Effort / Prep time 15 min
Ingredients:
LOVE
2 Large vine-ripened tomatoes sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 Large Fior di latte Mozzarella ball, sliced 1/4 inch thick
10 Fresh Basil leaves
30ml Extra-virgin olive oil
3g Fine sea salt to taste
3g Freshly ground black pepper to taste
a dash of fantastic balsamic vinegar
Method:
1. On a large platter arrange tomato and Mozzarella slices and Basil
leaves, alternating and overlapping them. Drizzle with olive oil.
2. Season salad with salt and pepper. Our modern twist is to build
caprese towers with your tomato and Basil and Mozzarella. Any of
the above are beautiful.
Spaghetti Vongole
Serves 2 / Ease of Recipe: Moderate / Prep time 25min
Ingredients:
LOVE
300g Small clams (16 clams), scrubbed clean and soaked in cold water
10g Fresh flat-leaf Parsley
10g Garlic sliced
10 Cherry tomatoes oven roasted (See recipe below)
70ml White wine optional
250gr Dried spaghetti
2g Salt
1g Ground black pepper
60ml Extra virgin olive oil
1 Dried or fresh chilli optional
1 Lemon (zest and juice)
60g Butter (for finishing)
For the roasted cherry tomatoes
10 Cherry tomatoes
2 Cloves of garlic (Cleaned & thinly sliced)
20ml Extra virgin olive oil
2g Dried oreganum
Salt & black pepper for taste
Method:
1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees, place the cherry tomatoes on
an oven tray and drizzle with olive oil, salt, black pepper,
oreganum and the sliced garlic. Place the tray in the oven and
roast until the tomatoes are semi soft. Remove the tray from the
oven, set aside and allow to cool and remove skins for later use in
the pasta.
2. Place a large pot of water over medium heat and bring to the boil.
3. Place a large sauce pan with a lid on a high heat and allow to heat up. Finely slice the Parsley stalks, then set them aside and roughly chop the leaves. Peel and chop the garlic, and get your wine ready.
4. Add the pasta to the boiling water with a good pinch of salt and cook until al dente. About 6-8 minutes before your pasta is ready, get ready to start cooking the rest of the items.
5. Place extra virgin olive oil into a hot pan and add the garlic, Parsley stalks and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Crumble in the dried chilli and then add the lemon zest and white wine. Stir everything around constantly and just as the garlic starts to lightly colour, add the clams and pour in the wine. It will splutter and steam, so give everything a good shake and put the lid on the pan. After about 3 or 4 minutes the clams will start to open, so keep shuffling the pan around until all of them have opened. Take the pan off the heat. Discard of any clams that haven’t opened. Spoon some of the pasta water foam / starches into the pasta sauce.
6. By now your pasta should be just about perfect. Drain and add to the pan of clams along with the Parsley leaves and an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Stir or toss for a further minute or two to let the juices from the clams be absorbed into the pasta, add butter for a more creamy consistency. Lastly add the roasted cherry tomatoes and its juices.
7. Remove from the heat and serve immediately.
Chefs tip:
A great variation is to do a garlic Parsley white wine cream sauce with a touch of orange zest.. best with spaghetti naturally