​I love this dish, it is one of my favourite things to eat. My son also loves this and the more I make it, the more the rest of my family is starting to feel the same way. 

Now I have put this in my soups categories, but it really is a cross between a soup and a pasta. Once cooked the first bowl you have, will be like a thick hearty soup, by the time you go for seconds, it has thickened up and is now a pasta. 

Don't make this if you don't have parmesan cheese or pecorino cheese rinds in your fridge, as it won't be the same, the amount of flavour the cheese rinds add is amazing. Some delis now sell rinds, but I tend to always have them in my freezer.

​Use any pasta shape you love, broken pappardelle is in the recipe, but I use any pasta shape that I feel like or have in my house at the time.

This is simple pantry cooking, but there is nothing simple about the flavour. 

​This is something I love, hope you do to.

​Recipe adapted from www.sbs.com.au/ 

Serves 4

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
100g piece smoked pancetta or speck, cut into small pieces
1 large French shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, smashed
2-3 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
2 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 piece of parmesan cheese or pecorino rind
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 
500ml (2 cups) passata 
200g dried egg pappardelle, coarsely broken with your hands (or any pasta shape)
1 small bunch cavolo nero, leaves stripped and coarsely chopped
grated pecorino, to serve
chilli oil (optional) or extra virgin olive oil, to serve 
​
Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until it starts to caramelise. Add the shallot, garlic and thyme and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in the chickpeas and cheese rind and season with a little salt. Add the passata and 400 ml water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until slightly reduced. 
Add 2 cups of boiling water to the pan to ensure there’s enough liquid to cook the pasta straight in with the chickpeas. Bring to the boil, add the broken pappardelle and stir well so the pasta doesn’t stick. Cook over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Add the cavolo nero and simmer until the pasta is cooked. You will notice that the soup thickens as the pasta cooks. Adjust the seasoning to your liking.

Let the soup stand for a few minutes before serving to allow the starch from the pasta to thicken it a little or eat it straight away if you like it a bit soupier. A generous sprinkling of grated pecorino cheese and drizzle of chili oil (or extra virgin olive oil) is highly recommended.

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This is one of my favourite things to eat, something I make for my husband and myself on a lazy Sunday. 

​This can be breakfast, lunch or dinner in our house. ​

Serves 3-4

2-3 tablespoons Sunflower oil
500g chicken livers
2 large brown onions, peeled
1/3 cup white wine
1 shallot, sliced to decorate, optional
2-3 tablespoons Sunflower oil


Wash the livers, get rid of the fat if it has and cut them into smaller bite size pieces, not too small though.

Cut the onions in half and slice them.

Take a large frying pan, over medium heat add the oil to the pan and the onions and fry until softened and just golden, takes about 6-8 minutes.

Add the livers, stir it around. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring once during this time. Check the livers, stir, now add the wine. Cook for a further 2 minutes, covered, then remove the lid increase the heat a little and cook another 2 minutes uncovered to allow the wine to reduce and thicken into a sauce, and the livers are cooked through, but not overcooked. I would rather have a runny sauce than overcooked livers.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
​
Sprinkle with shallots, if using.

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​​Strawberry Layer: Place the strawberries, rum, and pineapple juice into a blender and blend until smooth. I never get it perfectly smooth, but I like the bits of strawberry, just make sure you get it smooth enough to go through a straw.
Pour it into the bottom of 2 glasses. Clean out the blender.

Place the pineapple chunks, rum, pineapple juice, and cream of coconut into the blender and blend until smooth. This makes the pineapple coconut layer, pour it or spoon it over the strawberry layer in both glasses.

​Garnish with pineapples and strawberries if desired.

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​This is one of my sons favourite soups. It's light, yet beefy, it's aromatic, yet subtle. It's just one delicious soup.

For this recipe you make a soup from scratch, don't be tempted to use store bought stock, it won't be the same. Then once the soup is cooked, in a bowl you add cooked noodles, top it with some of the cooked meat and some raw meat. Then you pour over the hot soup, add coriander, bean sprouts, lime and sriracha, the heat from the soup cooks the raw meat and reheats the cooked meat and they are both so tender and delicious and the soup is absolutely amazing.

Warning, you do need a very large pot to make this pho. I tend to start this the day before, as the stock takes a while to cook, plus by chilling in the refrigerator overnight, you can remove some of the fat in the soup as it solidifies on the surface. This is a great soup to make on a Sunday, then on Monday after work, dinner is just reheat, add in the toppings and enjoy.

This soup uses a lot of bones, having a dog comes in handy here, you have the soup, he gets to play with bones. No waste. Now if you don't have a dog, I take as much of the meat off of the bones as possible, then add it to the other leftover meat. Recipe tin eats has a recipe of what to do with the leftover meat, which my son also enjoys. Here is the link to her Caramelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef.

Now the original recipe uses beef brisket, I just don't like it, so I used chuck steak (I just adjusted the recipe and take it out earlier, to ensure it doesn't fall apart). Meaty bones can be found in supermarkets or butchers, same for marrow bones. I do get the butcher to cut the marrow bone in half, so it will fit in my pot.

Now the original recipe uses 10 star anise, I just can't do that as I don't like it that strong. So when you make this adjust things to your taste. The original recipe also suggests thai basil and hoisin sauce as toppings, I don't add them, but if you like them, add them.

The step of charring the onion and ginger adds extra flavour to the soup, my mum has been doing this for years when making Croatian soups. Definitely toast the spices to. 

I think it helps to watch recipe tin eats video for this recipe, as it will show how simple and how beautiful this soup is. Click here to watch it.

This a simple yet delicious to soup to make when you have time and you feel like something special to eat.

Recipe adapted from www.recipetineats.com/ 

Serves 6

For the soup:
2 large onions, halved
150g ginger, sliced down the centre
3-4 star anise
4 cinnamon quills
3 cloves, the spice clove
1.5 tablespoons coriander seeds
1.5kg beef chuck steak
1kg meaty beef bones
1kg marrow bones, cut to reveal marrow
3.5 litres (15 cups) water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon salt
​
40 ml/2 tablespoons fish sauce

NOODLE SOUP:
300g dried rice sticks
180g beef rump steak, raw, very thinly sliced
18-24 chuck steak slices, cooked meat from the soup

TOPPINGS:
Beansprouts, handful per bowl
Coriander leaves, to taste
Mint leaves, to taste
Lime wedges, to taste
Finely sliced red chilli, to taste
Sriracha, for added spice


Heat a heavy based frying pan over high heat (no oil) until smoking.

Place onion and ginger in pan cut side down. Cook for a few minutes until it's charred, then turn. Remove and set aside.

Toast star anise, cinnamon, cloves and coriander seeds lightly in a dry frying pan over medium high heat for 3 minutes. 
​
Rinse bones & chuck steak, then cover with water in large stock pot. Boil for 5 minutes, then drain.
Rinse each bone and chuck steak under tap water.

For the Soup: Wipe pot clean, bring 3.5 litres water to boil. Add bones and chuck steak, onion, ginger, spices, sugar and salt, water should just barely cover everything. Cover with a lid, simmer for 2 hours. 

Remove chuck steak (it should be fall-apart tender), cool then refrigerate for later.

Simmer remaining soup covered for another 1 hour and uncovered for a further 40 minutes.

Strain broth into another pot, discard bones and spices. Should be about 2.5 litres, if loads more, reduce.

Add fish sauce, adjust salt and sugar if needed. Broth should be beefy, fragrant with spices, savoury and barely sweet.

Prepare rice noodles per packet, just prior to serving. Place noodles in bowl. Top with raw beef and brisket.

Ladle over about 400ml hot broth-will cook beef to medium rare.

Serve with Toppings on the side.

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​Simple, yet delicious.

​​Recipe adapted from the Family Circle 'Cocktails and Party Drinks' Cookbook

Makes 1

Ice
45ml Gin
15ml Lime Cordial
30-​40ml soda water, to taste
​
Half fill a large tumbler with ice.

Pour in gin and lime cordial. Top with soda water.

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Here's a new flavour I've added to my margarita collection. This ones a bit sweeter, it's fun, it's delicious.

The salt on the rim is optional, some add sugar instead, some have it with neither, make it however you like it. ​

​Recipe adapted from dinnersdishesanddesserts.com/

Makes 1

​60ml pineapple juice
30ml tequila
15ml lime juice
15ml triple sec
7.5ml simple syrup, or to taste
ice
sea salt, to serve, optional


Place your cocktail glass in the fridge to chill.

​Combine the pineapple juice, tequila, lime juice, triple sec, simple syrup and ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake well to chill.

If using salt on rim of glass. Spread salt onto a sheet of baking paper or on a plate. Using the limes that you squeezed rub a little lime onto the rim of your glass, dip the rim of the glass into the salt .

Fill glass with your pineapple margarita mix.

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When you plan dinner but your daughter reminds you that we had that a few weeks ago (and we can't repeat dishes so soon in our house) so you change your dinner, and this happens.

We loved this. It's simple, it's easy and it's tasty, what more could you want for a midweek meal.

I chose farfalle, but you could use penne or casarecce, whatever you like really.

You could make it vegetarian by taking out the chicken, it would still be lovely.

Here is something we loved, hope you do to. ​

​Recipe adapted from www.womensweeklyfood.com.au/ 

Serves 4-5

4 chicken thigh fillets, thinly sliced
375g farfalle pasta
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 clove garlic, crushed
6 small zucchini (540g), cut into matchstick
3 green onions, sliced thinly
2 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
300ml pouring cream
1/2 cup (40g) finely grated parmesan cheese


Place 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Add chicken, season with salt and pepper, cook for 5-6 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from pan.
​
Cook pasta in large saucepan of boiling water until al dente; drain.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in your frying pan; cook garlic, stirring, about 1 minute or until fragrant. Add zucchini; cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add green onions and lemon rind, stir through until onions and zucchini have softened, about 2-3 minutes.

Add cream and chicken and bring to a simmer, taste for seasoning. 

Add pasta to zucchini mixture; stir gently over low heat until mixed well.

Serve immediately, topped with parmesan cheese.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/creamy-farfalle-with-chicken-and-zucchini.html 
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​Pasta alla Norma, one of my favourite dinners, is a traditional Italian pasta made with eggplant in a tomato sauce. This is a dish that shows you by using a few simple ingredients you can make a spectacular dish.

These sorts of pastas I cook to balance out other more expensive dishes I make. As the price of meat is crazy expensive where I live, I try to make a few midweek meals like this, where you are completely satisfied, it's not expensive, it's delicious and you don't miss the meat.

I love eggplant, it is one of my favourite vegetables, it's hearty, it's like a sponge it takes on flavours so well. But frying the eggplant is time consuming, here I bake the eggplant, which makes this dish so much easier and less time consuming to make. While the eggplant is baking, you get on with the sauce. The eggplant can be made in advance, just be careful doing this, as I eat it while it's cooling.

Use any pasta you like, long or short, I used spaghetti, but you can use, penne, casarecce, linguine.

This is a simple yet delicious dinner idea, you just need to try.

Recipe adapted from www.recipetineats.com/

Serves 4

800g eggplant, about 2 large ones, cut into 2.5cm cubes
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup dry white wine
700g tomato passata
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes, optional, to taste
1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper
300g spaghetti or other pasta, long or short
​1/2 cup basil leaves, roughly torn
Parmesan cheese, grated 
​
Preheat oven to 240°C/220C° fan forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Toss the eggplant with oil, salt and pepper. Spread on the tray and roast for 20 minutes.

Flip, then roast for a further 5 minutes. Cool on tray (this helps the eggplant hold its shape when tossing).
​
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Start cooking the pasta when you have about 10 minutes left in the sauce cooking time, until al dente or to your liking.


Heat oil in a very large frying pan over medium heat. Add add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes, add garlic, sauté a further minute or until the onion is translucent and cooked through.

Increase heat to medium-high and add wine. Let it simmer, scraping the base of the pan to deglaze, until the wine mostly evaporates.

Add tomato passata. Now pour the water into the passata bottle, screw on the lid, shake, and pour that in too, waste nothing!

Add dried herbs, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir and simmer 15 minutes.

Stir in eggplant, add basil, bring back to the simmer, simmer for 5 minutes, then add cooked and drained pasta. Toss until pasta is coated in the sauce (so the eggplant doesn't turn into complete mush!).

Serve immediately, garnished with extra fresh basil and parmesan.

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​So I was shopping for dinner, I had already planned what I was making, but I saw zucchini and eggplant that I had to buy also, they just looked so good, I figured I'd use them tomorrow, not sure how, but I'd figure out something.

So tomorrow came and I had to figure out what I was going to cook with the zucchini and eggplant and things I could find in the pantry as I didn't want to go back to the shops today. I decided on two pasta dishes. With the eggplant I decided to make Spaghetti alla Norma, I've made that before and we loved it. With the zucchini, I saw a recipe I wanted to try called Spaghetti alla Nerano, but I didn't have the cheese I needed, so I thought I'd make something similar but would add cream to the sauce instead of the provolone that I needed, as I had cream at home.

We loved this, it is very, very easy to make and tastes so good.

You can fry the zucchini earlier in the day or even the day before, if you like, to save time if you are working, then just reheat and continue with the recipe. You need to get it slightly coloured and soft. So I've given a time guide, but just cook it until it is how you like it.

This is a great, simple, tasty mid week meal idea, you need to try.

​Serves 3-4

50ml extra virgin olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
​1 garlic clove, finely chopped
3 large zucchini, about 1kg
salt and pepper, to taste
150ml thick cream
40g parmesan cheese, grated
300g spaghetti

basil leaves, to serve, optional
​
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, over high heat.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic, sauté for 1 minute. Add the zucchini and fry for 6-8 minutes or until nicely coloured. Season with salt and pepper.
​
Drop the spaghetti in the boiling water and stir well to separate the strands, I stir it until the water comes back to the boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente.
​
Add the cream to the zucchini, stir, allow it to gently come to a simmer. 

When the pasta is ready, using a spaghetti spoon or tongs, transfer the spaghetti straight into the zucchini pan, dragging a little of the cooking water with it, then toss well, add up to 1/2 cup of pasta water, extra, if needed.
​
​Turn off the heat and add the parmesan and keep stirring until all the cheese has melted and the zucchini has broken down in the pan, creating a beautiful creaminess.

​Divide among bowls, drizzle with extra olive oil and serve straight away, scattered with a good grind of pepper and a few basil leaves.

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It's 4pm on Wednesday and I'm making Lemon Chicken for dinner, I found a recipe, shopped for the ingredients and then my husband calls and says "Last night I had a really bad stir fry at the restaurant I was at, can we have a beef stir fry for dinner tonight". I say "no problem, but it will need to be chicken, as I have chicken and luckily I bought some broccoli today, I'll come up with something".

Now I found a recipe, it looked good, I followed the recipe exactly, and added rice wine vinegar as per recipe, but I didn't like it. It had a tang to the dish from the vinegar, that I just didn't like. And on top of that I made the error or cooking the broccoli first, so it became a mushy mess of a dish, why I did that, I still do not know. But I knew the dish had potential. Now I rarely do this, but as I was so annoyed the dish did not meet my expectations, and now my husband has had two average stir frys, the very next day I made it again, my family were a little shocked, I never do that, but I just had to fix it. This time I made the adjustments that suited my family, and we loved it.

This is delicious. This is a saucy stir fry, the chicken is so soft, the broccoli has a bite to it (not a mushy mess), it's just so good, and so quick and easy to make.

I doubled the original recipe, feel free to halve it, if you are cooking for less people. I also added an extra 1/4 cup oyster sauce, and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, as we like it.

To toast the sesame seeds, simply dry fry them until they just start to brown.

So if you are looking for a quick, easy and delicious midweek meal, look no further. ​

​Recipe adapted from damndelicious.net/ 

Serves 6

1 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons Sriracha, optional
900g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons cornflour
​2 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
​6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 cups broccoli florets
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

​Serve with steamed rice


Make the chicken stock mixture: In a small bowl, whisk together chicken stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce and Sriracha, if using; set aside.

Toast the sesame seeds.

Season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste, remember the chicken stock mixture will add salt.

In a medium bowl, combine chicken and cornflour.

Working in batches, heat some of the sunflower oil and sesame oil in a large wok (or frying pan) over high heat.

Add chicken to the wok in a single layer and cook until golden brown, about  4-5 minutes. Remove and set aside, repeat until all the chicken is browned. Return all the chicken along with the garlic and ginger, stir fry for about 30 seconds to a minute, just to take out the rawness of the garlic.

Stir in broccoli and pour in your chicken stock mixture, cook until broccoli is just tender and the chicken is cooked through, about 3-4 minutes.

Serve immediately, with rice, garnished with sesame seeds.

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