KITCHEN DELIGHT

Despite my electric kettle meal fantasies, sice we have moved into the new flat (three days ago) we have had fancy dinners. I am quickly discovering the joy of living with an unemployed cook whose home for the past year has been a white iveco van , and is now thouroghly excited by having a house and a kitchen. He stays at home lots, cooks and cleans.

We have had: radicchio risotto

pizza

and last night i performed in:

pasta ai broccoli followed by leek and potato soup (in inverted order cause the pasta was ready before the soup)

´Pasta ai broccoli` is a simple but delicious dish from Puglia. It contains all the major food groups (carbs, green stuff and garlic) and will keep you healthy throughout the winter.

Put a big (and with big I mean tall and wide) pan of water on the fire. Salt. When it boils, throw in the broccoli which you will have chopped up in "mouth size" pieces. You shouls also use the stalk of the broccoli, it is soft and delicious and there really is no need to waste it.

when the broccoli is a bit soft, but not completely cooked, throw in the pasta. the optimum pasta shape is orecchiette, but you can use any short pasta type. Spaghetti is completely wrong.

when the pasta is cooked, sieve and transfer to a frying pan containing garlic and chili pepper sizzling away in a little olive oil. mix and fry for 30 seconds, and serve, it tastes best if topped with grated cheese, parmesan or something in that direction.