Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni (serves 3-4)

Ingredients:

5-6 sheets of fresh lasagne/cannelloni pasta

2 bags of fresh spinach

1 250g tub of ricotta cheese

100g of chestnut mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic

150g of mature cheddar

1 pint of milk

1 tablespoon of flour

1 small carton of freshly chopped tomatoes

A large knob of butter or alternative

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of tomato passata
Salt & black pepper to taste

Method:

Finely chop the mushrooms & garlic, and place in a large frying pan/wok with a tablespoon of olive oil. Leave to cook gently for 5 to 10 mins.

Chop the 2 bags of fresh spinach (I use a mezzaluna for ease, but a knife will do!)

Add the chopped spinach to the pan, and turn the heat down to very low. Leave the spinach to wilt for about 5 mins, stirring occasionally.

Remove the mixture from the pan and place in a large bowl. Add the tomato, and stir. Then add the ricotta cheese and thoroughly stir through. Add a generous helping of black pepper & a pinch of salt.







Rub a little oil on the bottom of an oven proof dish, and pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

To make the cheese sauce, follow the same method as my veggie lasagne.

Take a sheet of pasta, and place a line of the spinach mixture across the middle. Then gently roll the pasta around the filling to form a tube. Place the filled roll in the oven proof dish. Continue this to fill the middle of the dish with filled pasta, leaving approx an inch around the sides for the sauce.

Pour the sauce over the pasta nearly filling the dish.

Place in the pre-heated oven for 20 mins, and that's you done.. !

The therapy of music & cooking

I never understand why people have this, "I haven't got time to cook" rant.. "I don't want to start cooking when I get home from work".. etc etc..

The first thing I do when I get home from work (especially if I have had a bad day) is start chopping veg! It's amazing how much frustration you can take out on a mushroom! What better way to divert your brain from the rubbish life brings than violently assaulting a pepper! But the best therapy is cooking with very loud music on!

My music taste lies nicely along side my cooking ideas... I hate ready made, manufactured stuff! I like locally produced food and locally produced music too..

Recently my cooking accompaniment has been a band that go by the name of "Mr & Mrs" A fantastically talented duo from Preston.

Anyone who knows me know I get excited about mandolins and fiddles etc... Ric Birtill and Chez Cullen create a great sound using a mandolin, a fiddle and an acoustic guitar. Ric's great addictive voice and their sublime lyrics are worthy of much more recognition in my humble opinion. Once in a while you hear music that sticks.. an album that you never get bored of listening to, a line that hits you with its originality, humour or emotion. They have that knack of saying things in a way you wish you thought of.. to come up with the line "spinning from the circumstantial serotonin" takes something a little special.

Their debut album - Odds and Ends.. is well worth a listen. A special album that comes along only once in a while.

Jane x

Mushroom, leek & wine soup

Ingredients: (serves 4 approx)


Knob of butter or alternative
1 tablespoon of olive oil
600g of mushrooms (or about 2 to 3 punnets)
2 large leeks
1 average sized spud
1 pint of veg stock ( I use swiss bouillion)
1 large glass of white wine (dry)
Salt & pepper to season.




Method:


Peel the potato and chop into 4, place on the boil and cook until soft. Whilst this is cooking..

Melt the butter slowly in a large pan and add the olive oil to avoid the butter burning. Add salt and pepper to the melted mixture to your own taste.

Roughly chop the mushrooms and leeks and add to the melted oil and butter.

Coat the veg using a wooden spoon in the melted butter and oil, keep stirring on a medium heat. Stir for about 5 minutes until they start to cook down a little. Then add the wine and again stir for a couple of minutes.

Place lid on pan and leave to cook down on a low heat for about 25 minutes. (keep checking there is enough moisture in the pan so the veg doesn't stick and give a quick stir if needed)

Add the stock, and the cooked potato and stir.

Salt and pepper to taste

Then blitz with a hand held blender..

Nice served with croutons and a dash of fresh (vegetarian) parmesan I feel..

Roast Mushroom & Tomato Tagliatelle

(Click on the picture to see just how nice this looks when it's BIG, Ali :-)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

250g of fresh tagliatelle

250g of mushrooms (closed cup or chestnut)

250g cherry vine tomatoes

3 teaspoons of fresh basil pesto

1 tablespoon of cream cheese

splash of balsamic vinegar

2 small fresh chillies

1 clove of garlic

2 tablespoons of olive oil

50g of blue stilton (replace with any cheese if this isn't your bag)

Handful of (vegetarian) parmesan shavings

Salt & black pepper

Method:

Coarsley chop the mushrooms and half the tomatoes, finely chop the chilli & garlic, and place in a roasting dish. Drizzle a generous helping of olive oil over the top, a few spots of balsamic vinegar, and a pinch of salt & black pepper to taste.

Place in a preheated-oven at 180 degrees. Cook for around 30 mins, but check halfway through and stir through. Once the mushroom & tomatoes begin to brown on top it's done.

Remove from oven, and pour the contents into a sauce pan.

Mix the pesto with a little bit of olive oil in a small bowl, then add to the saucepan. Stir though and then add the cream cheese, stirring thoroughly. Leave on a very low heat to simmer for around 5 mins.

Boil a large pan of water with a generous helping of salt, and a splash of olive oil. Once bubbling add the fresh pasta and cook through, make sure the water is at full boil before you add, as this will stop the pasta sticking together.

(This should take between 5 and 10 mins depending on whether you like your pasta al dente or not!)

Serve the pasta, and top with the sauce mixture, then crumble the blue stilton over the top, add a few shavings of parmesan, some black pepper and thats your lot!

A quick, easy and very nice dish!

My first potato plant!!

This is probably way too early but I had a sprouting spud and thought I'd stick it in a pot....Anyway it's growing like crazy and now I'm having to seek out a place to keep it warm.

Hopefully it will start the veg growing season off nicely. I have onion seeds sprouting too. And this weekend I'm hoping to get some timber or decking and get on with building the raised beds.

I am proud though (even though my mother says you can't fail to grow spuds)!

I may call it Nigel. If you ask anyone who knows me I have a habit of naming everything.

Ali :-)

Spicy Roast Tomato & Yellow Pepper Soup

(If you don't like it spicy, lose the chillies! )

Ingredients: (serves 4)

1 kg of vine tomatoes, size doesn't really matter in this case! (Better if you've grown them yourself though!)

3 yellow peppers (again get growing)

1 Large onion (same again!)

3 fresh chillies (or not)

A pint of good quality veg stock - (I use swiss veg bouillion)

A few drizzles of olive oil

A drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Pesto optional to garnish

Salt and pepper

Method:

Place all the tomatoes roughly chopped onion, and roughly chopped peppers in a large oven roasting dish. Finely chop the chilli and sprinkle over the top.. at this point do not rub your eye!! It hurts!

Drizzle the whole thing with generous splash of olive oil, and a few spots of balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper.

Place in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for about 30 mins. After 15 minutes check the dish and give veg a shake and stir to ensure even roasting.

Prepare stock by adding a pint of boiling water to 3 teaspoons of stock and stir.
Once veg has started to brown on top and tomatoes begin to release all their juices, add all this to a large pan. Add the stock, and stir together over a very low heat.

Blend the mixture using a hand blender if poss.. much easier than moving it into a liquidiser.. keep stirring and blending to a level to suit you! Then it's all done!

Very nice served with a drizzle of home made pesto on top and a leaf of fresh basil.