Beet Fettuccine with Shredded Spinach and Walnuts

From The Inspired Vegetarian, Louise Pickford, Stewart, Tabori & Chang Inc., 1992.

Having a cooked beetroot left over after making a salad, I decided to make a pasta coloured with the beetroot. I don’t feel that coloured pastas seem to take on much of the flavour of the colouring vegetable but they certainly look good.

I took 2 cups of strong flour, added a teaspoon salt and mixed in 2 beaten eggs and a little olive oil. To this I added about half of the large beetroot that had been pureed in the blender. With my hands I kneaded the dough for a good 5 minutes adding olive oil occasionally to get it to the right consistency. When it felt right I covered it and left it for another half an hour.

The dough was now cut into four pieces and one at a time they went through the pasta machine until they reached thickness 4. They next went through the fettuccine cutter and they were basically ready. I ended up only using two pieces of the dough as this seemed ample for two people. The rest I’ll use to make some tortellini later.

I now prepared the ingredients for the sauce. I chopped a good couple of handfuls of walnuts and set them aside. Two garlic cloves were chopped. A handful of basil leaves was chopped. A lemon was zested and the zest put with the garlic and basil. Now I washed sufficient baby spinach leaves for the dish. I could only really go by guesswork for this. The leaves were now sliced very thinly. The best was to do this was to take a number of leaves, pack them together and then slice through the lot. They cut up quite easily.  All was now ready for the final step.

A pot of salted water was put on to bring to the boil. A large frying pan was put on to heat up a couple of tablespoons walnut oil. The garlic, basil and zest went into the frying pan. The pasta went into the boiling water. It only took a minute or two before the garlic was cooked sufficiently so the spinach leaves were added to wilt. A little nutmeg was grated into the spinach as it wilted.

By now the pasta was cooked so it was drained and then added to the pan with the spinach. Tongs were used to mix this all fully and then to serve it. Walnuts were sprinkled over the helping on the plates, together with a good pinch of salt and black pepper.

This certainly looked good with the green spinach contrasting strongly with the reddened pasta. It tasted good too. The pasta was nicely al dente and the spinach came through well with its hint of nutmeg. I am used to having parmesan cheese grated over pasta but it was not missed at all with the crunchy walnuts.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

In One Word: Colourful

Red Pepper Soup with Cheese and Herb Floats

From The Inspired Vegetarian, Louise Pickford, Stewart Tabori and Chang, 1992.

This soup attracted me by the fact that it was made with roasted red capsicums and it had cheesy floats to go in the soup. There was strong appeal here for me.

Two capsicums (peppers) were placed under a grill and cooked until the skins were blackened. They were then placed in a plastic bag and left to steam.

Meanwhile a red onion and garlic were sautéed in a pan until soft. A potato cut into pieces and some chopped parsley and sage were now added and sautéed for a further few minutes. About a quart of water was now added with a chopped tomato (the recipe called for tomato juice but I decided on just using a tomato), a splash of balsamic vinegar and a pinch (large) of cayenne pepper. They were brought to the boil and simmered for about half an hour.

By now the capsicums were cool enough to handle so they were peeled and the seeds discarded, though as much of the juice as possible was retained. The capsicums and juice went into the blender with the soup and it was pureed. Before reheating to serve a little cream was added.

For the cheese floats a mixture of about 2 tablespoons of ricotta, 1 tablespoon of grated pecorino cheese, 2 tablespoons of semolina, 1 tablespoon of mixed chopped herbs, a small pinch of nutmeg and a squeeze of lemon juice were mixed together with half a beaten egg. This was seasoned to taste.

When it was serving time, a pot of salted water was brought to the boil and the float mixture was dropped in a teaspoonful at a time. I didn’t manage to make mine into oval shapes as they were not of a texture conducive to this. But they cooked all right despite their shape. The soup was served in bowls with some floats.

The soup had a wonderfully rich smoky flavour from the roasted peppers. It was a smooth rather silky texture. The disappointment was the floats. These were doughy and somehow had missed out on the flavours of both the cheeses and the herbs.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔