Herb and Ricotta Chicken
Recipes by Vicki Ravlich-Horan, Images by Ashlee DeCaires The game changer with this roast chook is that the ‘stuffing’ is not in its cavity but under the skin, creating a beautifully moist and flavourful bird. 1.5kg free-range chicken 250g ricotta (I love the Zany Zeus one available from Vetro) 1 garlic clove, crushed handful of […]
Confit Garlic
Words by Vicki Ravlich-Horan Images by Ashlee DeCaires Confit Garlic Confit simply means cooking in oil. Slowly cooking garlic in olive oil gives you beautiful soft garlic with a more subtle flavour than raw to use in cooking, spread on sandwiches, add to aioli and dressings and more. With New Zealand garlic back in season, […]
Pesto alla Trapanese
Words Vicki Ravlich-Horan, Images Brydie Thompson This traditional dish from the Trapani region in Sicily is one we learnt to make on our Taste of Sicily 2023 tour. Taught in an old monastery in the stunning hill top town of Erice, we learnt not only how to make this dish, including hand rolling the pasta, […]
Caponata
Serve it with pasta, on its own, or as part of a charcuterie board; in Sicily caponata goes with everything. I think breakfast time was the only time we weren’t served this sweet and sour eggplant dish. Every restaurant and nona has their own recipe, resulting in different degrees of sweetness. After asking almost everyone […]
Pork And Fennel Meatballs
These tasty little meatballs are perfect served with a tomato pasta sauce and spaghetti or as a standalone canape/snack. 500g pork mince 1 large onion, finely diced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1½ tbsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed in a mortar and pestle 1 large apple, peeled and grated zest of a lemon 1 egg ¾ […]
What a Waste
Every year the average Kiwi household sends 89kgs of edible food to landfill. This figure does not include food scraps that can’t be eaten, like egg shells and banana peels. It also doesn’t include food wasted at the source or through our supply chain i.e. what producers, distributors, supermarkets and restaurants throw away. The problem […]
Homemade Gnocchi
Recipe Bar Centrale, Images Brydie Thompson Light and fluffy, gnocchi is a delicious, inexpensive crowd pleaser for any Italian lunch you have planned. With ripe tomatoes bursting with flavour, in season my pick would be to cook some fresh tomatoes up with garlic, basil and olive oil and simply season with some fresh chili, […]
Pork, Fennel and Cabbage Pasta
I love this seriously quick pasta. Who would think that cabbage would work in pasta? But it does! If you can’t find pork and fennel sausages, a good quality pork sausage will work, just double the amount of fennel seeds added when sautéing the onions. 250g dried pasta 1 tbsp olive oil ½ onion, thinly […]
Garden greens and ricotta gnudi with sage butter sauce
We make this often, as our garden gifts us with an abundance of leafy greens all year round. Any greens will do, but make sure you have the equivalent of about 2 bunches of silverbeet, as they will shrink down once cooked. Serves 4-6 Leafy greens, thicker stems removed 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 […]
Gnocchi with Capsicum Ragu
The perfect meat-free meal the whole family will love. This dish uses ready-made gnocchi, something I always have on hand ever since discovering the shelf-stable Granoro brand available from Vetro and La Cave. Trust me, I was sceptical at first too, as store bought gnocchi is usually just hard little bullets, but the Granoro variety […]
