Sunday comfort

The most decedent of all pasta dishes has to be those swathed in lucious creamy sauces, such as the velvety pear and Gorgonzola tortellini I had in Florence which was soft and luxurious. 

The most comforting of the creamy pasta dishes has to be Macaroni Cheese, made famous by the Americans and beloved all over the globe. 

Today, it's Sunday, I'm tired and it's raining, so good old mac n'cheese is the only thing which will sate me whilst I snuggle on the sofa with a blanket and a movie. This one has a Spanish twist with the addition of fiery chorizo sausage. 

Ingredients (serves 6)

Sauce: 2tbsp plain flour, 1.5 pint milk, 1/2 grated nutmeg, 2 cubic inch grated strong cheddar and 2 cubic inch Red Leicester cheese, 1/2tsp garlic powder, 1/2tsp chilli seeds, 2tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. 

Macaroni pasta (per pack instructions for 6 people) cooked in boiling water until tender. 1 ring of chorizo sausage cut in to pieces. 

Topping: 2 slices white bread finely chopped or processed to crumbs, 1tsp thyme, 2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese. 

Heat the olive oil in a large pan on a medium heat, add the flour, stir to a paste and cook for a few seconds. Very gradually add the milk bit by bit, stirring after each addition until the lumps have gone. Keep stirring once all the milk is combined until it comes to a simmer, and cook for a further minute. 

Add the nutmeg, garlic, chilli and cheeses and stir until the cheese melts. Take off the heat and season to taste.

Cook the chorizo in a frying pan until golden and it has released some of it's red fats in to the pan. 

Tip the cooked macaroni in to a deep oven proof dish, pour over the sauce and the chorizo and pan juices and gently stir through. 

Mix the breadcrumbs, cheese and thyme together and sprinkle on top of the pasta. 

Bake in a preheated oven at 180c for 25 minutes, until golden and bubbling. 

Simple salad

My favourite summer salad takes just minutes to throw together, yet looks and tastes sophisticated enough for guests. It can be served in smaller portions as a starter, or larger as a main course with perhaps some crusty ciabatta bread. 

Put a handful of rocket on a plate, cut an avacado in half and using a teaspoon scoop out little rounds of the flesh to scatter over the rocket. Next crumble over some semi-soft goats cheese, scatter with a few broken walnut pieces and tear some smoked salmon over the top. 

Sometimes I don't dress this at all, there are so many textures and flavours going on you don't really need dressing. However if you do like to dress, a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar does the trick. 

Tea and cake

Sunday brings tea and cake at Le Chandelier on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich http://www.lechandelier.co.uk

Gorgeous rosebud tea and an excellent red velvet cake which was light as a feather and packed with cream cheese icing. Lunch looked excellent here too, I saw some beautiful, generous looking salads coming out of the kitchen and so I'll definitely be back to try those at some point. 

They also informed me they will be opening later for dinner soon too, and I bet it will be super romantic and cosy for an evening date! 

Brixton village

We wandered down to Brixton Village in London yesterday for a bite to eat, if you have never been it's definitely worth a visit! http://brixtonmarket.net/brixton-village/

A cornucopia of cuisines from all over the world, it's loud and buzzy and the sights and scents are smashed together to make one deliciously electric atmosphere!

We finally settled on Fish Wings & Tings for fiery hot and spicy chicken wings with pineapple relish washed down with rum and ginger. Quite honestly one of the most delicious things I've eaten in London in ages, next time I go I'll be certainly asking the chef if he will share this recipe with me, although something tells me this family secret will be kept under lock and key!

This summer I'll definitely be trying my hand at jerk chicken for the BBQ, so watch this space!

Ibiza and Italy culinary tour

We recently travelled to Ibiza in Spain, the famous “white Isle”, for 12 days of partying combined with a friend’s stunning rural farmhouse wedding, followed by a week in Italy to visit beautiful Florence and Umbria for my brother-in-laws wedding in the ancient Montone village. Two weddings, two countries and seven pounds heavier and we are home, filled with inspiration from two of the culinary giants of Europe.

We ate and drank very well indeed. I never get the Spanish eating so late and going to bed with full stomachs, it’s not the healthiest way to dine, however after 3 days I got in to the swing of it. I forced myself to try alternative Spanish dishes instead of the usual chorizo and tapas and I discovered a fresher and lighter cuisine that compliments Ibiza’s laid back beach culture. The highlights being incredibly creamy burrata mozzarella in a creamy pesto sauce with beetroot marmalade,  deliciously light tuna tartar with strawberries and a wasabi dressing, and snails cooked in smoky BBQ sauce which was so invitingly light and totally different from the garlic buttered French style escargot.

This brings me on to Florence and Umbria which was the culinary polar opposite from the fresh costal cuisine of Ibiza. Bold and luscious pasta dishes, antipasti of cured meats and cheeses and rich red wines were finished off with scoops of gelato in a multitude of flavours. 

The dish that blew me away the most was tortellini pasta filled with soft sweet pear and served with a rich and salty gorgonzola cheese sauce scattered with toasted pine nuts, it was devilish and incredible and I will definitely give it a whirl at home sometime. The wedding banquet at my brother-in-laws wedding was so fantastic I doubt I’ll see food at a wedding like that in my lifetime again, the antipasti alone consisted of a table with chefs preparing fresh food from scratch, including mascarpone filled courgette flowers, prunes wrapped in bacon and fried in duck fat and rocket and mint smoothies.

No wonder I have put on so much weight, however it was totally worth it, and I cannot wait to share some of my dishes that this trip has inspired. Hopefully you will enjoy making some of them too.