Linguine with lemon, parsley and mint

Hello everyone, this week's recipe is one I cut from the newspaper some time ago. It's one of those really simple pasta dishes that you can whip up in a hurry (after you have prepared the lemon oil ahead of time). It's lovely and delicate with a good tang from the lemon and mint.

Have a lovely week! Love from Jane xx

Linguine with lemon, parsley and mint

Serves four

What you need:

• 1 lemon
• 150ml extra virgin olive oil
• 500g linguine
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped mint
• Freshly ground pepper
• Sea salt

What you do:

1. Finely grate the lemon rind and squeeze the juice of the lemon into a bowl.
2. Mix in half the olive oil with the rind and juice and leave for an hour so that the lemon flavour seeps into the oil.
3. Cook the pasta.
4. When the pasta is nearly ready, warm a serving bowl.
5. In that bowl, whisk together the lemon oil mix, the remaining oil, cheese, parsley and mint and 5 or 6 spoons of the pasta cooking water.
6. Drain the pasta and toss in the bowl with the sauce, adding pepper and a little salt if needed.
7. Serve immediately.

Gnocchi with gorgonzola, spinach and walnuts

Hello everyone, I had such a piece of luck today. About six months ago I was out shopping with my friend Anne in Lane Cove and we spent some time in a small local art and craft gallery. A gorgeous brood of crackled pottery hens had just arrived and I was enormously tempted to buy them. I resisted at the time, although I really loved them, as there was something about the chickens that made me keep picking them up and stroking them. Today we went in there again and guess what, there were two chickens left, sitting on a shelf as if they were waiting for me! Of course I snapped them up straight away this time and they are now happily adorning my home.

This week's recipe is one of my favourite combinations of ingredients. It's a recipe from Good Living from a few years back, a good one for winter. It's definitely time for me to cook it again as I happen to have all of the necessary ingredients laid in, to be used in a couple of other dishes.

Have a lovely week! Love from Jane xx

Gnocchi with gorgonzola, spinach and walnuts

Serves four

What you need:

• 500g good quality gnocchi
• 100ml chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 100g gorgonzola, crumbled
• 75g baby spinach
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/3 cup fresh walnuts, lightly toasted and chopped
• Freshly chopped flat leaf parsley, to serve (which is code for optional)

What you do:

1. Cook the gnocchi in a large saucepan of boiling water until tender. Drain well.
2. Place the chicken stock and butter in a large pan over a medium-high heat.
3. Stir the stock until the butter has melted, then simmer for 2-3 minutes or until reduced by half.
4. Add the gorgonzola and stir until the cheese has just melted.
5. Toss the gnocchi with the gorgonzola sauce and baby spinach, and season with pepper.
6. Serve sprinkled with the walnuts and parsley if using.

Tagliatelle with onion sauce

Hello everyone, last night I was meeting some friends to see the wonderful Irish writer Colm Toibin as part of the Sydney Writers' Festival and we went for a bite to eat beforehand at the GPO Cheese and Wine Room in the city. It was great! It's a very atmospheric kind of place and the staff were warm and welcoming. The menu was wonderful - I really had trouble choosing. In the end my friend Ann-Maree and I shared a vegetarian dips plate and a plate with three cheeses matched to three half glasses of red wine. It was all so good. I really can't wait to go back there again and again! With some evening sessions at the upcoming Sydney Film Festival there should be more opportunities.

This week's recipe is a very simple and beautiful pasta dish. It comes from one of my favourite writers, Diane Seed, in her book The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces. I hope you like it too!

Love from Jane xxx

Tagliatelle with onion sauce

Serves four

What you need:

• 500g tagliatelle
• 100g butter
• 500g onions, thinly sliced
• Chicken stock
• 200ml cream
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Grated nutmeg
• Parmesan cheese for serving

What you do:

1. Melt the butter and cook the thinly sliced onions in a covered pan over a low heat until they are soft. Do not let them brown.
2. Cover with chicken stock and simmer, with the lid on the pan, for another 25 minutes.
3. Start cooking the pasta following the packet directions.
4. Allow the onion mix to cool a little, then puree it.
5. Stir the cream into the onions, then add the salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.
6. Drain the pasta and stir through the onion sauce.
7. Serve the pasta and sauce with Parmesan cheese served separately.

Spaghetti with ocean trout and capers

Hello everyone, yesterday I went to one of the first events at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival http://www.swf.org.au/ which was a talk by the founders of the famous Bourke Street Bakery. It was held at the Surry Hills Library and the two speakers, Paul Allam and David McGuinness, shared some of the "secrets" of the bakery. It was fascinating, and a lovely addition was on that arrival they had a generous selection of their famous tarts set out on a big table, so that everyone could have one on the way in! It was a really good start for this year's Festival for me.

This week's recipe comes from Pete Evan's book Fish, from which I have had mixed results, but this one was a real winner, particularly as I had left work late that day, so was anticipating a late dinner, but despite the lengthy list of ingredients, found that it cooked up pretty quickly and was delicious.

Have a lovely week. Love from Jane xx

Spaghetti with ocean trout and capers

Serves four

(If you don't like capers by all means leave them out, I don't think their deletion will impact too markedly on the dish).

What you need:

• 500g spaghetti
• 1/2 cup light olive oil
• 4 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped banana chilli
• 6 anchovies, roughly torn
• 60g choppped green olives
• 2 tablespoons baby capers
• A large handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 400g ocean trout, skin and bones removed and cubed (it's really important that the skin is removed, I forgot this detail when I purchased my fish and consequently had some difficulty with the cubing)
• 3 handfuls of rocket
• 4 tablespoons salmon roe (optional)

What you do:

1. Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling water until al dente.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil, garlic and chilli in a large pan until the garlic starts to turn golden.
3. Add the anchovies, olives, capers and parsley.
4. Drain the pasta, add to the pan with the garlic mix and toss well.
5. Add the lemon juice and ocean trout and season with salt and pepper.
6. Stir through for 30 seconds. The idea is for the fish to be served rare, so you are just warming it slightly around the edges and then allowing it to cook a little more when served from the heat of the pasta.
7. Add the rocket and mix through until slightly wilted.
8. Transfer the spaghetti and fish to a serving bowl and garnish with salmon roe, if using, before serving.

Lemon and parmesan spaghetti

Hello everyone, I've had a very quiet week due to a very bad cold, so that has meant more time to cook and eat at home! (And read cook books and drool over various sweet delights). One night this week I made this delicious pasta dish from my Marie-Claire Comfort book. It was quite perfect - I could have eaten double the quantity it was so good! It really is best with a thin pasta like spaghetti or spaghettini, and if you can get your hands on a good quality fresh pasta even better. I usually use Pasta Vera products which I buy from Harris Farm Markets, their pasta is better than any other brand I have tried.

Have a lovely week. Love from Jane xx

Lemon and parmesan spaghetti

Serves four

What you need:

• Grated and finely chopped zest and juice of 2 lemons (do the zesting before you juice, it will be a LOT easier)
• 400g spaghetti
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 finely chopped garlic cloves
• 2 rinsed and finely sliced leeks
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons rinsed and drained small salted capers (optional - I left them out but you might like them)
• 1 handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 bunch chives, finely snipped
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

What you do:

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add half the lemon juice.
2. Cook the pasta until al dente, then drain and keep warm.
3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat.
4. Add the garlic and the leeks and saute until the leeks are transparent.
5. Season with the black pepper.
6. Stir the cooked spaghetti into the leeks and add the lemon zest, remaining juice, capers, parsley and chives, stirring everything together gently.
7. Divide among four warmed pasta bowls and sprinkle with the cheese.

Spaghetti Vesuvio

Hello everyone, I have gradually become aware over the last few weeks that I am in a very, very small minority of people who don't watch Master Chef. Well, I don't watch TV very much and I have never been a fan of cooking shows so I just never bothered to start with this one. I am beginning to regret missing all the drama, tears and joy of it though as I hear so many people discussing it with great intensity.

Well, yesterday I was at my favourite cafe in Mosman (of course), this time with my friend Anne and her daughter Lizzie and Lizzie's friend Clare. And who else was there, having a smoked salmon bagel for lunch? Justine from Master Chef. Anne and I were the only ones blissfully unaware of her presence but everyone else knew. And my celebrity spotting didn't stop there! Later in the afternoon I was in a consignment shop in Crows Nest disposing of a handbag that is much loved but damaging my shoulder with its weight and who should walk in but Fairy Sparkle http://www.fairysparkle.com/. She was all done up in her fairy gear - I'm guessing she had some time to spare in between parties.

What an exciting day.

Today's recipe is one of those wonderful things to have at the end of the week when you are feeling tired and in need of comfort. Mum used to feed us bowls of spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese when we were little, and although I use slightly better quality ingredients these days, the effect is just as warming and comforting. This version comes from a wonderful book, The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces, by Diane Seed.

Have a happy week. Love from Jane xx

Spaghetti Vesuvio

Serves four

What you need:

• 500g spaghetti or linguini, preferably fresh
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 x 400g tins of Italian plum tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Sea salt
• A generous half cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 200g fresh mozzarella balls, diced

What you do:

1. Warm the oil and add the tomatoes with their juice, squashing them in the pan with a fork.
2. Add the oregano and salt to taste and cook rapidly for 20 minutes.
3. While the sauce is cooking, put the water on to boil for the pasta then cook.
4. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add the Parmesan, the tomato sauce and the mozzarella.
5. Toss the pasta and sauce, then cover and leave for about 3 minutes so that the mozzarella begins to melt and looks like streams of molten lava. Serve hot.

Spaghetti with chunky tomato, olive and chilli sauce

Hello everyone, I decided last week that I was going to defrost my freezer as it hadn't been done for some time. Of course, this entailed emptying the freezer, so instead of my usual recipe driven approach I chose recipes based on what was there. Two of the highlights were a fabulous chicken and vegetable pie that I made to use up some puff pastry and a gorgeous Spanish style minestrone into which went some chorizo I had picked up on my Spanish Safari a few weeks ago. So now I have a clean, ice-free, empty freezer. This week I'm going to fill it up with three different kinds of soup which will provide lunches for weeks and a great Moroccan style chicken dish that I love. It's so good having ready cooked food in the freezer, especially with winter coming on!

Now this week's recipe is for an absolutely luscious pasta sauce from Belinda Jeffery's Tried-And-True Recipes and I can tell you that when I made it I wished that I had done at least the full quantity so I could store some in the freezer to enjoy later. As it's a chunky style sauce you'll find it's really substantial and probably only needs some good bread to be served with it. I know it looks like a long list of ingredients but really once you have chopped the vegetables you are half way there.

Have a lovely week. Love from Jane xx

Spaghetti with chunky tomato, olive and chilli sauce

Serves four

What you need:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large onions, finely chopped
• 2 medium sized carrots, cut into smallish dice
• 2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 small red chilllies (seeds and all), finely chopped (use your judgement - I used half this quantity and it was just right for me)
• 1 heaped tablespoon tomato paste or sun dried tomato pesto
• 800g can diced tomatoes
• A big pinch of sugar
• Sea salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 500g spaghetti
• 150g pitted olives (use whatever olives you like, I love green olives so I used them and they were sensational)
• Large handful of basil leaves, roughly torn
• 4 scoops of fresh ricotta
• Finely grated Parmesan, to serve

What you do:

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium to high heat.
2. Tip in the onions and carrots and cook them, stirring occasionally, for ten minutes or until soft.
3. Add the garlic and chilli and stir again, cooking for a further two to three minutes.
4. Mix in the tomato paste or pesto, and cook, stirring, for one minute until fragrant.
5. Pour in the tomatoes and their juice and sprinkle on the sugar, salt and pepper.
6. Bring the sauce to the boil, then turn down the heat to low and leave to bubble away gently for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is quite thick.
7. Cook the pasta while the sauce is cooking.
8. Just before the pasta is ready, add the olives and basil to the sauce.
9. Drain the pasta and stir it into the sauce, mixing well so that all the strands are coated.
10. To serve, add a scoop of ricotta to each pasta bowl, and pour the spaghetti with sauce on top. Serve with the Parmesan.

Blue cheese and sage pasta

Hello everyone, I hope you had a happy and peaceful Christmas. On Christmas Eve I went to Melbourne for the day with one of my sisters so that we could take out our aunt to lunch. I anticipated it as the day from hell. I was quite sure that the flights would be massively delayed, the traffic to and from the airport would be horrendous and the time spent with my aunt consequently telescoped into about twenty minutes. I armed myself with a good breakfast and plenty of reading material.

Well, to my surprise, the flights were running pretty close to time (and in fact we made up time on the way down and landed ahead of schedule) and the traffic was extremely light. We were astounded at how polite Melbourne drivers are - there we were, driving along, being VERY mindful of sticking to the speed limit on an unfamiliar route, with a great big map spread out and visible to everyone who drove past, vigorously pointing and waving our arms around every time we stopped at traffic lights and had a minute to consider how to proceed. And to top off it all, the restaurant we visited in Yarraville was lovely! Very Melbourne (my code for dark and enclosed) with a nice fit out and great food. Sadly I was unable to squeeze in dessert, not having a lot of time to sit around and let my main settle before we took off back to the airport again.

So, with all that rushing around in the lead up to Christmas and of course a busy day on the 25th, I am put in mind of this soothing pasta dish that is the easiest thing in the world to whip up - perfect for lazy summer evenings. Now I know that lots of people think they don't like blue cheese, but really there are so many different varieties and you can get some really nice creamy ones. There is a very nice King Island blue you can buy at the supermarket which comes in a roll, and Milawa Blue is also one of my favourites. I also love the flavour of sage but find it's best used carefully as it can be a little overpowering if you use too much. This recipe comes from my SOS Spring/Summer book.

Have a happy new year! Love from Jane xx

Blue cheese and sage pasta

Serves any number of people - the quantities are flexible

Toss any pasta (gnocchi works well) with some cultured butter, grated parmesan or pecorino, crumbled blue cheese and chopped sage. Let the heat from the pasta melt the butter and cheese. It's divine.

Spaghetti with ricotta and radicchio

Hello everyone, I have been lucky enough to go to three really good places in the last two days with three of my favourite people. It has made it an outstanding weekend! On Friday I had a friend here from Victoria and he was staying in Mosman, so what better excuse to take him to Source for a quick lunch. I then met a friend for drinks at The Ivy. It was the first time I had been there and I have to confess with the steamroller of publicity accompanying the opening of this complex I was a little cynical about the whole thing. I have to say though that the bar we chose was lovely, the service was great and the wine delicious. I am now quite intrigued about what else is in The Ivy and want to go back and try out all the bars it contains!

Then last night I went to a restaurant called Rocket, at Chatswood, and it was fantastic! Not a great location as it is right next to the train station and the outlook over the western side of the station uninspiring. But once you are inside you forget where you are. It looks great, the service is very good and the food was divine. I know this is a big call but I think the lamb I had was the most luscious lamb I've ever had! It was a really impressive place.

This week's recipe is something very quick and easy and warming for winter. I adore ricotta so am always keen to use it. I also really like using breadcrumbs with pasta - they add a really nice crunch. Of course, the better your bread, the better the breadcrumbs,so if you can use a nice sourdough you'll get a great result. It comes from one of the SOS books published by Vogue Entertaining that I have quoted before - an endless source of great ideas for the kitchen.

Have a great week, Jane xx

Spaghetti with ricotta and radicchio

Serves four

What you need:

• 150g fresh breadcrumbs
• 80ml extra virgin olive oil
• 500g spaghetti
• 1/2 cup stock or water
• 1 head radicchio, tough outer leaves discarded, remaining leaves torn into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
• 350g really good, fresh ricotta
• 150g parmesan, grated

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Spread the breadcrumbs in a baking dish and pour over half the olive oil.
3. Bake the crumbs for 10 minutes, until golden brown. Keep an eye on them, stirring once of twice, so they don't burn. Allow to cool.
4. Cook the spaghetti and drain well.
5. Bring the stock/water and remaining olive oil to a simmer in a large pan.
6. Toss in the pasta, then the remaining ingredients, and season with salt and pepper if you wish.
7. When the radicchio is wilted and the mixture hot, remove from the heat and serve sprinkled with the breadcrumbs.

Pasta in a creamy tomato sauce with lemon

Hello everyone, I had some fun earlier today shopping for a soup I am planning to make tomorrow afternoon. I am making pea and ham soup, which I have never done before. It seems like such an old fashioned (in a good sense) thing to make. Both my Nana and my Mum used to make pea and ham soup every winter and finally I am doing so too. So because it is a first, I was a little uncertain of some of the ingredients I was purchasing, namely the peas and the ham. I needed to buy 500g of split green peas, and although I have a good sense of what 500g looks like, I had a mental image of struggling home with a sack bursting with split peas. Of course it was quite a modest sized packet I found. I then went to the butcher to inquire about ham hocks, having no idea at all what I would be buying. The butcher brought out an enormous bone with lots of ham on it, so big he suggested chopping it in two for me. He assured me it would give the soup a lovely flavour. So I did struggle home with the great big ham hock, but am very much looking forward to having some lovely warming soup for dinner tomorrow night.

This week's recipe is what I think of as a slightly unusual combination of flavours, but it works well and I have marked it in my cook book as "very nice". Regular readers will know that I love the flavour of lemon, and I also love creamy sauces, which is probably why I like this one so much. It is yet another recipe from one of my favourite books, Trattoria Pasta by Loukie Werle.

It will be interesting to see how this week unfolds in Sydney with the long anticipated World Youth Day upon us. Have a great week yourself. Love from Jane xx

Pasta in a creamy tomato sauce with lemon

Serves four

What you need:

• 1/2 cup thick cream
• Peel of one lemon, preferably in one piece if you can
• 3 ripe, medium sized tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 500g pasta
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

What you do:

1. Combine the cream and lemon peel in a large pan.
2. Slowly bring to a boil, then add the tomatoes.
3. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the sauce starts to reduce and thicken, which will take about five minutes.
4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water.
5. Remove the lemon peel from the sauce.
6. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, stirring well to coat all of the pasta.
7. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

Tomato soup with tortellini

Hello everyone, as I said I would in last week's blog, I did lots of lovely cooking over the long weekend. I made a chocolate mousse on request for my niece for her birthday cake, and also tried out a recipe I mentioned some time ago for a pear and chocolate crumble. I thought the crumble was average, so will play around with the recipe to see if I can make it more to my liking.

I was given some beautiful finger limes before the weekend, so made a few winter salads using the lime juice in the dressing and they were beautiful! Such a great flavour. Good to know I have a lime supplier sitting just four desks away from me at work.

I also made this beautiful tomato soup, which features in the May edition of delicious magazine. My favourite section in the magazine is a feature called Tuesday Night Cooking. It always has really quick and easy yummy recipes in it. I actually had quite low expectations of this soup as it's so simple, there is nothing to it. I was happy to find that the flavour was stunning and I enjoyed it all through the week for lunch as well.

Have a fantastic week, love from Jane xx

Tomato soup with tortellini

Serves four

What you need:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 6 sundried tomatoes, drained and chopped
• 2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
• 300ml vegetable stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon caster sugar
• 400g cheese and spinach tortellini

What you do:

1. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat.
2. Cook garlic for 30 seconds until fragrant.
3. Add all of the tomatoes, stock and bay leaf.
4. Bring to a boil, then simmer over a medium-low heat for 15 minutes until thickened.
5. Cool slightly then blend until smooth.
6. When ready to serve, cook the tortellini in boiling water until cooked. Drain and place in bowls.
7. Heat the soup through and season with sugar, salt and pepper.
8. Ladle soup over tortellini and serve.

As an alternative to the tortellini, when you heat up the soup you can have some coucous sitting in the serving bowls. When you pour over the hot soup it will quickly cook the couscous and your soup will thicken up.

Pasta with fresh salmon and peas

Hello everyone, what a relief for those of us in Sydney that the rain has gone away and we can finally see blue sky! I am particularly pleased for my cat, whose twenty year old bones really like having the sun on them. I used to think she was old when I was under the impression she was four years younger than she actually is, but now that I know her real age I realise she is very old and needs all the comfort she can get. Such as sharing the salmon I cooked last night for this week's dish.

The recipe I'm giving you is based on one in my Heart Of The Home book. They used smoked salmon, of which I'm not a fan, so I substituted fresh salmon. And although the thought of the cream in it was VERY appealing, given my ever present quest to lose just a few kilos, I used evaporated milk instead, which worked well, surprisingly. You can use cream if you prefer!

Have a great week and enjoy the long weekend. I'm planning to do lots of long, slow baking and hope to test another crumble recipe to share with you.

Love from Jane xxx

Pasta with fresh salmon and peas

Serves four

What you need:

• 500g fresh salmon
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 3/4 cup dry white wine or verjuice
• 4 tablespoons shallots, finely sliced
• 1 1/4 cups thickened cream or evaporated milk, depending on the state of your waistline and whether you care!
• 400-600g pasta, fresh or dried
• 4 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

What you do:

1. Cook the salmon, either in a pan on the stove or baked in the oven.
2. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.
3. Drop the peas into a pan of boiling water until thawed; drain and set aside.
4. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and cook the pasta while preparing the sauce.
5. Put the wine/verjuice and the shallots in a pan on the stove and bring to the boil.
6. Allow the wine/verjuice to reduce by about a tablespoon.
7. Lower the heat and add the cream/evaporated milk; simmer for about five minutes. (Keep an eye on it as it can separate if overheated).
8. Gently break up the cooked salmon into chunks and add, with the peas, to the sauce. Warm through.
9. When the pasta is cooked, place it in a serving bowl and pour the sauce with the salmon over it.
10. Sprinkle with the pine nuts and toss gently before serving.

Pasta with fennel, ham and potatoes

Hello everyone, my friend Rob mentioned to me recently that he loves a good pasta. I was really happy that he said this because I adore pasta and eat it several times a week, so I have been very, very conscious of not putting up too many pasta dishes on this blog (and looking back I think I went to the other extreme). Anyway, I was pleased because I thought good, that's a good reason to go back and cook one of my favourite winter pasta dishes during the week and share the recipe with you.

The recipe comes from one of my most used and treasured cook books, which used to belong to my darling Dad, and he cooked lots of recipes out of it too. It's called "Trattoria Pasta" and it's by Loukie Werle. I haven't ever spotted it in a book shop but if you do ever see it I suggest you grab it - I have never had a failure out of it, and I have made three quarters of the dishes in it!

This is a great dish for winter as it's quite hearty. I love potatoes in pasta dishes as I find the combination very soothing. I usually substitute verjuice for white wine and did when I made this dish this week. Verjuice has the same effect in cooking as does white wine, but I prefer the flavour, I think it can really lift a dish. You can buy verjuice pretty well anywhere these days, certainly in delis and good green grocers that have deli items.

Have a fabulous week. Love from Jane xx

Pasta with fennel, ham and potatoes

Serves four

What you need:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 medium fennel bulb, finely sliced
• 185g ham (preferably in chunks rather than the usual thin slices)
• 2 medium waxy potatoes, boiled in their skin, and cut into cubes
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (or verjuice)
• 500g pasta
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• 4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

What you do:

1. Put the water on to boil for the pasta.
2. Heat the oil over a medium heat and add the onion and fennel.
3. Cook until the onion is soft, stirring frequently, for about five minutes.
4. Add the ham and potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and cook for another five minutes, stirring frequently.
5. Add the wine or verjuice, cover and simmer for five minutes.
6. Meanwhile, cook the pasta.
7. Have a heated serving dish ready.
8. Drain the pasta, turn into the heated dish and add the ham and vegetables.
9. Sprinkle over the parsley and Parmesan.
10. Toss well and serve immediately.

Ricotta and spinach pasta shells

Hello everyone, it's very late for me to be blogging - nearly 10.00 on Sunday night! Way past my bedtime. I have to front up for jury duty tomorrow so I will need to be at my best. I am desperately hoping to be excused as I have been called for a six week case! Six weeks away from work would make my life impossible. Anyway, I will just have to have a good night's sleep and see what happens.

This week's recipe is something that I cooked recently when there a few hungry young boys around and they all loved it! I was besieged with requests for the recipe, so I figured it might be something that would be useful to my blog readers. It is so simple you could make it with your eyes closed (unless you actually do go the big shells, so you'll need to have your eyes open to fill them very carefully). You really do need to cook the pasta in the stock as outlined in the recipe, otherwise you'll find it gets a little dry. See, I have made all the mistakes first to save you doing the same!

Have a great week. Think about me dispensing justice.

Jane xx

Ricotta and spinach pasta shells

Serves four

What you need:
· 24 (200g) large pasta shells (or you can use little shells)
· 500g frozen spinach
· 250g ricotta
· 375ml (1 ½ cups) tomato pasta sauce
· 250ml chicken stock

What you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water for three minutes and drain.
3. Thaw the spinach and squeeze out all the excess water.
4. Combine the spinach and ricotta.
5. Spoon the ricotta mixture into the pasta shells (or if you are using small shells just mix it all together).
6. Combine the sauce and stock in a baking dish.
7. Place the shells in the sauce.
8. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes or until the pasta is tender.

Pasta with yoghurt, Parmesan and mint

Hello everyone,

Well, there was a great response to the recipe service last week with a number of new people being added to the list. I have also had a report from one subscriber who cooked last week's recipe for dinner last night. It sounded as if it went down well.

People who know me well know that I don't often cook the same thing twice as there are so many new recipes to try. However, I do have a few absolute favourites that I really love. This week's recipe is one of those. I was thinking about it with the lovely warm weather over the weekend. It is so quick and easy and tastes fresh and light.I hope you like it too. (It's vegetarian friendly - although not pregnant woman friendly sorry Dan).

Have a good week.

Love from Jane xx

Pasta with yoghurt, Parmesan and mint

Serves four

What you need:

· 1 cup plain yoghurt (use Greek yoghurt if you want a really rich flavour)
· 2 egg yolks
· 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
· 2 tablespoons freshly chopped mint
· Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
· 500g pasta

What you do:

1. Cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente.
2. While the pasta is cooking, combine the yoghurt, egg yolks, Parmesan cheese and mint in a large serving dish.
3. Stir until smooth and season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Drain the pasta and add to the serving dish. Toss thoroughly so that all the pasta is coated well with the sauce and serve immediately.