Recipes where fresh herbs play a starring role
Chive Pull Aparts These pull-aparts are simply a scone dough rolled up with a savoury filling. So, as with any scones, the trick is not to handle the dough any more than is necessary (see video below). Use any filling you fancy, such as chopped herbs, ‘nduja, cheese, anchovies or tapenade, and serve alongside your […]
Easy Sauce Béarnaise Sauce Béarnaise is the classic accompaniment to roast beef. It’s named for Béarn in southwestern France, the birthplace of Henri IV, although the rather tenuous connection seems to be that it was created around 1830 at a Parisian restaurant called Pavilion Henri IV, rather than any association with Béarn itself. Correctly it’s […]
Ricotta Stuffed Pasta Shells in Taleggio Sauce My cooking’s often inspired by what happens to be on hand, like some delicious Vannella ricotta leftover from recipe testing and a huge bunch of chives from a herb patch gone berserk. That’s how this dish came about. Giant pasta shells, called conchiglioni, are simple to fill and […]
Steak Tartare As a reformed vegetarian, it’s odd that my favourite way to eat meat is raw, but I can rarely resist this dish when I see it on a menu. I love the theatre of it being mixed tableside by an experienced waiter and the traditional crinkly pommes gaufrettes with it, though crisped baguette […]
Chopped Salad Of course we all love to cook – but occasionally, there just isn’t time. That’s when I whip up a big bowl of this delicious chopped salad which keeps well for days in the fridge. Found all over the Middle East, it makes an interesting alternative to a leafy green salad (which doesn’t […]
Funghi Trifolati Trifolati is an Italian term for dishes cooked in olive oil with garlic and parsley; mushrooms, zucchini and kidneys are often prepared this way. This was one of my favourite starters in Sydney’s 1980s suburban Italian restaurants, where exotic oyster mushrooms seemed to be the funghi of choice, so use any mushrooms you […]
Asian Warm Beef Salad I love Asian flavours, but don’t have a lot of patience for cooking elaborate Asian dishes. So I love this Asian warm beef salad. It’s easy to toss together, looks impressive and is full of flavour. It can be adapted to use whatever’s on hand (leftover roast beef or steak for […]
Guacamole & Pico de Gallo Guacamole is one of the quickest snacks to toss together and serve with drinks. It seems lime juice is not traditional – but it’s the best way I know to stop the avocado from browning, and I like the tang it adds (storing it with the avocado seed in the […]
Chicken Kiev I love this retro dish of deep-fried chicken breast wrapped around garlicky herb butter – it looks so impressive, but is really quite easy if you follow the recipe step-by-step. I use chives, parsley and tarragon because that’s what’s in the herb patch, but any combination of herbs works well. The traditional chicken […]
Mushroom Pappardelle Like this recipe?You’ll love my online Italian cooking class featuring the food of northern Italy! I love mushrooms. ‘Meat for vegetarians’ one advertising campaign called them, and I’d suggest that this super quick mushroom pappardelle is so tasty that even die-hard carnivores won’t miss the meat. In autumn, when wild mushrooms appear in […]
