Maccaroni and peas

I made this recipe a while ago already, but never wrote a post about it for some reason. 

It's one of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "Veg Everyday"- dishes. 

That's the title of his vegetarian cook book from the River Cottage series.. 

I do not own the book, but watched a video where he prepared it on the River Cottage-website and instantly wanted to try it, myself.

 It's really easy to make and I love the color of the bright green pea sauce. 

Here is what you need: 

500g green peas (4 cups), frozen or even better, fresh
500g dry maccaroni (2 cups)
50g of butter 
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced (I'd use 2 cloves!)

25g of Parmesan cheese, coarsely grated (1/2 cup) plus more for serving

fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

chopped fresh flat leaf parsley for garnish (something I didn't have...)

Directions:

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions while you make the sauce. 

Heat the butter in a small pan. Add the garlic and cook gently for a few minutes without colouring. 


Put the peas in a separate pan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer until just tender. 
This should only take a couple of minutes. 
Drain, reserving the cooking liquid. 


Put half of the peas into a blender along with 6 tbsp of the cooking water, and the melted butter and garlic. Add the cheese. Blitz until you have a smooth and loose puree, adding a bit more of the pea cooking water if needed. Combine with the whole peas and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta as soon as it is ready and toss immediately with the hot pea sauce. 


Serve topped with a hearty grinding of black pepper, some more grated Parmesan and a garnish of chopped flat leaf parsley.

I didn't have parsley, but it still looks really pretty and all lush and green...

Notes:

Only thing that I would do different than Hugh: add more spice!

I thought it was a little bland. He is British after all...

Therefore next time I would just add more garlic, pepper, salt and parmesan, and maybe even some chopped onions to sautée with the garlic. Roasted pine nuts or almond slivers to sprinkle over the dish could be pretty tasty, as well...

Or even better: MINT! Mint and peas is a phenomenal combination! Chopped mint added to the puree with a teaspoon of sugar to add some kick to the peas...yum!
Why did I not think of this earlier?

And those of you who need their meat, could also add some fried bacon or ham cubes...

That way it gets a more savory, as well. 

River Gojee.

I don't know if it's cause I'm busy with wedding preparations and my two jobs or if I'm just annoyed by not being able to take nice photos of my food due to winter darkness. For some reason I just seem to be unable to write new blogposts. It's probably a combination of both.

But I'm optimistic that it will be getting better again in the near future, once I have more time and spring is approaching.

Since I don't have a recipe to share with you I would like to leave you with two recommendations today.

The first one is "River Cottage" a British TV show that aired at the end of the 90s beginning of the ne millenium. For those who don't know this show already: Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, a food writer and chef and journalist leaves the city and moves to Britain's countryside to live a self-sufficient life. He grows everything himself, gets livestock and, of course, cooks really nice meals from what he finds on his land and around it. It is very inspiring. Thanks to Carson and Erin for recommending this to us. We watched the whole trilogy "Escape to", "Return to" and "River Cottage Forever" within a couple of days. The newer episodes I don't like as much though. They get too Jamie Oliver, kind of...
Not that I have a problem with Jamie Oliver. But one is enough and I prefer the episodes where Hugh discovers a whole bunch of new things and is rather teaching us how to be self-sufficient rather than being a chef.

Anyway, watch it. It's great!
Here is a youtube-link:

My second recommendation is the NY based food site Gojee.com. From how I understood they pick really good foodblog writers and post their recipes on their website. I may be wrong though... But, at least there is a whole bunch of food writers who contribute recipes to the Gojee page.

However, the recipes divided by food and drinks look so delicious, and before browsing you can enter what you crave, what you dislike and what you have at home.

Go check it out: www.gojee.com
(you have to register)