"In springtime, the only pretty ring time, birds sing hey ding... a-ding, a-ding, sweet lovers love... the spring."

- Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Spring is well and truly here. Hooray!

To celebrate, I'm putting up one of my favourite recipes, for a really wonderful spring lunch.

Asparagus Rigatoni

9 oz/250 g asparagus
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 tbsp butter
3-4 cups/6-8 oz/170-225 g whole wheat rigatoni pasta (can be substituted for your favourite type of pasta)
parmesan
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Put a large pot of salted water on to boil.
2. Snap off the woody ends of the asparagus and then slice the spears finely.
3. Melt the butter in a medium-sized frying pan. Once all the butter has melted, add the sliced garlic and fry on a low heat. Just as it's starting to colour, add the sliced asparagus. Season well with salt and pepper.
4. Cook slowly for 5 minutes, stirring every so often. Add a tablespoonful of water to the pan. When the asparagus feels tender, turn off the heat and allow to sit while your pasta cooks.
5. Cook the pasta in the boiling for the amount of time the packet suggests. When it's done, drain, but be sure to keep some of the cooking water.
6. Mix the asparagus with the pasta. Grate in lots of parmesan, and stir well, adding splashes of cooking water if it starts to get sticky or dry.
7. Serve with extra parmesan, lots of pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil if you fancy.

serves 2.

Make-Your-Own Pizzas

After a week of us all taking turns to cook each other meals throughout the week (We had sardines, a pork roast, and seared rainbow trout), I decided that it would be a good idea for us all to make dinner together last night. Now, normally I am not a fan of sharing my kitchen space. The old adage 'too many cooks spoil the broth' I found has always been true, especially in the kitchen. Having one or two people to work with is fine, four is just stressful. Especially in a kitchen our size. But we thought of something that would be easy for us to all do together without getting in each other's way or having a 'too many cooks' situation: pizzas.

The plan was simple: I make the dough (as always, anyone who wanted to help could.... but no one did), then I would roll out two pizza bases; one which three of us would top with whatever we should choose, and the remaining two of us would top the other one. Then, once all was cooked, it would become a free-for-all: take whatever slice you could grasp.

Holly and Fraser assembling their 'masterpiece'

The pizzas worked out a treat. We're all of similar tastes so that we topped them with pretty much whatever we liked and then picked off any hostile toppings that happened to find their way onto our slices. What's even better, with the recipes I used I had extra dough left over, which I wrapped in foil and put in the freezer. Most definitely going to be making some pizza next weekend.

Below is the dough recipe that I used, which I adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. Definitely worth a go, fun for everyone!


Pizza Dough

4 cups/1 lb/500 g bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 7g-sachet yeast
1/2 tbsp golden caster sugar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups/11 fl oz/325 ml lukewarm water

1. Sieve the flour and salt together into a large bowl. Make a deep well in the middle of the mixture. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil with the water and leave for a few minutes. Pour into the well.

2. Using a fork, gradually bring in the flour from the sides, mixing all the time, swirling it into the liquid. Keep doing this, bringing larger amounts of the flour mix in, until it all starts to come together. At this point, draw the rest of the flour in with your hands. Tip out onto a clean, floured work surface. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

3. Place the dough into a large, floured bowl, and place flour over the top of it. Cover with a damp cloth and keep it in a warm place for an hour, or until it has doubled in size.

4. Remove the dough to a clean, floured work surface, and knead out the air in the dough. If you don't want to use it immediately, wrap up the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge/freezer.

5. Preheat the oven to 400ºF/200ºC/Gas mark 6. Roll out as many pieces of dough as you want pizzas, and leave to sit for 10 minutes. Pop in the oven for 5 minutes, just so that the base cooks enough so that it's not soggy in the middle later.

Makes 3-4 thin pizza bases

Foodie travel: Barcelona, Spain, London and Canterbury, UK

I just got back from a glorious two-week holiday. First on the journey was Barcelona, to catch up with some family and friends. After that, I journeyed back to my uni town of Canterbury. I spent a wonderful week there: eating and drinking (mostly drinking) and catching up with some of the most wonderful people I know. I finished off my trip with a few days in London visiting my sister and soaking up the sunny city.

A wonderful part of the holiday, aside from all the wonderful sights and people I got to see, was all the WONDERFUL food that I had (oh, I'm such a fattie). I made sure to make a note of them to share with you all, so here goes:

By the way, could I say wonderful more?

BARCELONA:

Txapela (Passeig de Gràcia, 8-10): A wonderful little place on one of the main streets of Barcelona that do very reasonably priced little Catalunyan pinchos.

George Payne (Plaza Urquinaona, 5): An Irish pub (yes, we're such tourists) that does great British food, if that's what you're looking for.

Gelato Fratello (Passeig Joan de Borbo): The BEST ice cream I think I've ever had. Right on the waterfront. Can't go wrong.

La Boqueria (La Rambla, 100): Barcelona's well-known food market DEFINITELY met up to my expectations. So much of every food you could ever want; plus, pretty colours!

CANTERBURY:

Deeson's (25 Sun Street): This is one of my favourite places to go in Canterbury, and where I went for my birthday lunch with my sister. They do great British, using local produce. Fabbo.

Photos courtesy of deesonsrestaurant.co.uk

The Parrot (1-9 Church Lane, St Radigunds): A great traditional English pub that's started serving up some amazing food. Check it out for good eats and great atmosphere.


LONDON:

Antipasto and Pasta (511 Battersea Park Road): A tiny authentic little Italian in Battersea. The service great– the staff are all really friendly– and every Thursday the entire menu is half price!

Photo courtesy of qype.com

Saf, Whole Foods (63-97 Kensington High Street): A Vegan-friendly raw food place that just opened up in the Whole Foods on High Street Kensington. An interesting twist on things like nachos, ravioli, and sushi.

Byron (300 King's Road): An AMAZING burger place on the King's Road. The burgers are cooked amazingly and you can have pretty much anything on it that you want. Don't expect a huge amount more than burger food, though.

Photos courtesy of byronhamburgers.com

Pea Noodle Soup

This post is dedicated to my friend Kat, who has found herself in a flat in Barcelona without an oven for five months. While despairing to me of her situation, I suggested that she make soup. Delicious, filling, lasts you for ages, and best of all: no oven.

Oh so simple. Oh so comforting.

I love Jamie Oliver. I really do. I think he might be one of my favourite chefs, ever. So perhaps it's only fitting that my first post on here is based on one of his recipes (Altamura Pea Soup, from Jamie's Italy). It was my first time trying the recipe, and– given that I am permanently incapable of following directions exactly– it turned out quite well. I didn't put in as much onion in as JO suggests, mostly because I hate chopping onions, and missing out a half an onion doesn't negatively impact the flavour. In addition to this I threw in a few more handfuls of peas. Next time I'd probably put in a bit more stock than I did, just to give it a bit more broth.

I'm posting the recipe with the changes I made, mainly with more peas and less onions, but if you want to see the original, click the link above to go to Jamie's website.

PEA NOODLE SOUP (FOR KAT)

2 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1-1 1/2 onions, peeled and finely chopped

1 litre chicken stock

 5 handfuls of frozen peas

250 g dried spaghetti, broken into short lengths

salt and pepper

fresh rosemary

small handful of parsely, chopped

1. Pour 2 tbsp olive oil into a frying pan, add the chopped onions, and fry for 10 mins.

2. Stir in the chicken stock and peas, bring to the boil and let simmer for 10 mins, while you make your pasta. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil, and add the broken up pieces of spaghetti (if you wanted you could a smaller pasta like fusilli, but I personally prefer spaghetti). Cook the pasta for 4 minutes, or about half the time it says on the packet. Drain.

3. When the pasta is half cooked and drained, add it to the soup and allow it to finish cooking. Add a little bit of rosemary (if using a sprig, remove before serving). When the pasta has finished cooking, season the soup with salt and pepper to taste. Before serving, drizzle the rest of the olive oil and a little bit of parsely over the soup.