Miserable day today. Cold, raining and windy. Like it was November already. Good day to grump around the house, really. Then I found beautiful swiss chard and leeks at the market. Instant inspiration. White bean swiss chard soup. This is an savoury soup, smoky from the bacon and earthy from the beans. Serve it with a bit of good bread and you have a meal in a bowl. A meal that warms from within. It’s even healthy. Loaded with legumes and dark greens. And it’s really not that much bacon after all.
italian
pork piccata
Pork piccata is a great alternative to the more obvious chicken piccata. It’s easier to prep. It’s less likely to dry out. And it has more flavour. What is not to love here?
roasted beets and carrots with goat cheese and balsamic glaze
Roasted beets and carrots with crumbled goat cheese and balsamic drizzle. A fantastic side dish for almost any dinner.
lemon thyme chicken
Lemon thyme chicken. Some flavours just work together. You see them over and over. Nothing original here but it works. A bit of white wine and some crushed chili flakes round it out. Just tasty. This is a great place to use concentrated chicken stock if you have some on hand. If you don’t, consider it seriously…
There’s not a lot of sauce though. Just a spoonful per serving. Leaves you wanting more. Lemon thyme chicken is fast enough for a weeknight but flashy enough for the weekend.
panzanella – tuscan tomato bread salad
Panzanella is a tuscan tomato bread salad from the land of endless summer. If you like tomatoes and you like bread you owe it to yourself to try it at least once.
Where I live tomatoes are trucked for miles in winter. I think they’re tomatoes. That what the sign says. The taste says nothing. Nothing. Dust. In summer though, picked at the peak of ripeness from nearby farms the tomato is a magical thing. For me, it just screams summer and I work them into almost every meal for as long as they last.
fried gnocchi
Sometimes the main isn’t the hard thing to come up with. The sides. That’s the thing. All these great recipes out there that say cook this and serve. Serve with what? Fried gnocchi often fits the bill nicely.
chicken with calabrian chilies
Braised chicken with Calabrian chilies. Delicious. And the skin stays crispy. That’s the great thing about this recipe. Tender chicken. Crispy skin.