Review: Sacla' at The Friday Food Club

You’ve got sauce

A summer’s evening by the Thames for some quality food and vino

Despite several trips to idyllic Italy, we have never tired of its diverse landscape, achingly good wine and simple but delicious food. Last Friday we unfortunately were not on the banks of Lake Garda or trekking the undulating hills of Umbria, but attended an equally pleasing dinner courtesy of Sacla’, the Italian Food Company and The Friday Food Club.  The evening was organised to showcase Sacla’s new range of fresh produce and celebrate the brand’s 20th year. The parmesan on the pasta (ok, groan) is that not only would The Friday Food Club (Lee & Fi) be preparing the meal that evening as part of their renowned Supper Club, but they would be teaming with Masterchef Professionals Winner 2009 Steve Groves, Ex River Cottage Head Chef Mark Lloyd, renowned food terrorist John Quilter and private caterer Lily Simpson.   

 

The Mediterranean sun-gods shone down on us, as we were welcomed to the evening with a refreshing glass of Bruno Giacosa Extra Brut Spumante, on the al fresco terrace of the Auriol Kensington Rowing Club in Hammersmith.  The Spumante was light, effervescent and biscuity in taste.  We immediately relaxed us into the celebration. The hubbub of Friday evening revelry from pub goers below us and enchanting views over the Thames made us giddy with anticipation as we mingled with twitterati friends.  The attentive waiting staff glided in between guests offering platters of sage puffs, quails eggs with artichoke and basil sauce, poached mussels pesto cream crumb and goats cheese and tomato pesto calzoncini.

The amuse buche was a coriander pesto pea fritter with spiced green sauce. The coriander pesto, using cashew instead of pine nuts is part of the Sacla’ Italian range, however the pre-starter felt Asian inspired. The crisp fritter dipped in the sauce had a superb bite, and the kick from the heat had a satisfying warmth.  It was served with a Roero Arnies 2010. The wine was flaxen in colour with delicate apricot and citrus aromas. It had an intensity which married well with the fritters.

Coriander pesto pea fritter with spiced green sauce

The primi platti was Sacla’ fresh Trofie pasta with cherry tomato and wild garlic sauce and shaved aged parmesan. I enjoyed this dish as it was probably one of the truest to the Sacla’ range. Endorsements by people we trust are great, but I had been sceptical as to whether we would have the opportunity to try any of the range in its true, naked, no bells and whistles form.  Foodies do not like to admit we buy ready made meals, or eat take away. Keith and I lead busy lives and we sometimes have to take shortcuts at meal times, especially on a Friday night post a sociable Thursday evening.  We could imagine ourselves on an evening off from the kitchen, tucking into a bowl of comforting pasta smothered with a rich, tangy vine tomato sauce, sprinkled with fresh basil and parmesan shavings. 

Fresh Trofie pasta with cherry tomato and wild garlic sauce and shaved aged parmesan

Secondi platti consisted of arancini and pork bitterballen served with spicy red pepper sauce and rocket pecorino salad.  The delicious breadcrumbed risotto spheres were crisp on the surface and then oozed seductively with molten mozzarella.  The spicy red pepper sauce fired subtle heat bullets, dissipating the richness of the balls. The pork bitterballen (a Dutch mince cutlet) was equally tasty. We felt that maybe the arancini and bitterballen were a little too similar in texture.  We would have been perfectly happy eating one or the other.  This course was accompanied by Nebbiolo D’Alba a fantastic, mellow, strawberry hued wine, bursting with summer berries.  I could not resist the hypnotic, allure of the ripe bouquet. 

Arancini and pork bitterballen served with spicy red pepper sauce and rocket pecorino salad

For dessert we had bison grass vodka and mint pannacotta with candied pistachio and summer berries. Lee was concerned for the wobble, but he needn’t have been as it had the perfect Jessica Rabbit swagger.  It was deliciously light and creamy with a sexy, boozy bite but underlying hint of refreshing mint. The candied pistachio provided a crunchy texture whilst the fruity summer berry offered bursts of sweetness.

Bison grass vodka and mint pannacotta with candied pistachio and summer berries

The Supper goers of the evening were ablaze with commendations. In the morning, the Twitterati fired praise and pleasure for Sacla’, Friday Food Club and Team’s hosting efforts.  Another fabulous evening was had by all, so a special thank-you to Lee, Fi and Claire Blampied (Sacla UK’s Managing Director).  We look forward to lazy suppers with wholesome bowls of Sacla’ fresh pasta and authentic sauces accompanied by a splash of red wine. 

Say “Sacla’ Fresh”!

Sacla’ Fresh Range – available in Selfridges, Waitose and Opodo

The Friday Food Club

Steve Groves

Mark Lloyd

John Quilter

Lily Simpson

Top Chefs: Steve Groves, Mark Lloyd, Lily Simpson and John Quilter

Recipe: Pasta with pork sausage and spinach topped with garlic bread croutons

All energy fennel, all becomes you

If you love pasta, you may agree that it is easy to fall into habits where you end up preparing the same dishes with almost ritualistic regularity. We all have our favourite pasta dishes, but if you want to expand your repertoire to include another relatively quick meal, with an added twist of originality, then try this.

Good quality pork sausage meal is skinned and tossed into pasta, baby leaf spinach and garlic bread croutons. The mashed up pork and crunchy bread keeps the dish alive with texture. The distinctive flavour of fennel is very characteristic of an Italian dish of this kind. Fennel can be overwhelming, in this dish it is very subdued.

We enjoyed our pasta with a glass of Valpolicella Ripasso wine from Waitrose (£10.44) a strong flavour with ripe red berry undertones and vegetable.

Ingedients

• 175g pasta
• 125g Pork sausages, skins removed
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
• 75g Pecorino Romano cheese
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 crusty rolls or 75g crusty bread cut into 1cm dice
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 60g baby spinach leaves
• 50g sun dried tomatoes, chopped
• 175ml dry Italian red wine

Method

1. Boil your pasta according to packet instructions.
2. Sauté the sausage meat for 6 minutes until brown.
3. Whilst the sausage meat cooks, heat olive oil in another pan, add 1/3 of the garlic with the cubes of bread and oregano. Fry the bread until you have golden coloured croutons.
4. Once the meat has browned, remove from the pan into a large bowl
5. Add the onions and 2/3 of the garlic to the pan and fry gently for 2 to 3 minutes until slightly brown. Add the red wine to the onion to deglaze the pan and simmer for another 2 minutes.
6. Add the onion mixture to the sausage meat.
7. Add the spinach, fennel, sun dried tomatoes, a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Stir until the spinach has slightly wilted.
8. Stir the sausage mixture into the pasta with 2 tablespoons of the cooking water to add texture.
9. Serve in a pasta dish and top with the croutons and grated cheese.

Wine Paring

Waitrose Ripasso di Valpolicella Classico Superiore, Fratelli Recchia 2008 Veneto, Italy (£10.44 from Waitrose) A positively dry red with clearly defined red fruits and vegetable notes coming through the mid palate. There is also a dash of spice that held together beautifully with the fennel in the sauce.

Recipe: Memories of Verona - Gorgonzola and Walnut Pasta

It's a hard nut life for us

Six years ago, Keith and I were in Verona celebrating our 6 month anniversary of being married.  On the second night we stumbled upon a tiny restaurant where for forty six euros Keith and I enjoyed a feast worthy for a king, which include three courses, a prosecco aperitif, coffees and a shot of grappa (which we are not really fans of but the waiter was really friendly so it was hard to say no).  The most memorable part of the meal was the pasta which Keith has re-created tonight.  The gorgonzola cheese works perfectly with the walnuts which give the dish a lovely texture. Keith's Italian friend Tony came around for dinner this evening so the pressure was on to make something that could pass off as authentic cooking from his motherland. Thankfully, our guest was not disappointed and described the dish as heavenly.

Ingredients

• 200g pasta
• 100g Gorgonzola cheese cut into cubes
• 80g pancetta or bacon
• 100g Mushrooms, coarsley chopped
• 2 tbsp Créme fraiche
• 40g walnuts smashed or blitzed into small pieces
• 1 small ciabatta roll, blitzed into crumbs
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• chopped parsley

Method

1. Put the pasta on to boil
2. Whilst the pasta is boiling, cook the pancetta in a frying pan or skillet on a medium to high heat (no oil required)
3. Add the mushrooms to the meat after about 2 to 3 minutes, reduce the heat and cook for a further 3 minutes.
4. Remove the pancetta and mushrooms from the pan into a suitable container and set to one side.
5. Heat the pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and then add the garlic.
6. Add the bread crumbs after about 20 seconds and mix well with the garlic. Reduce the heat so you don't burn the bread or the garlic and cook toast until golden brown.
7. Drain the pasta but keep a few table spoons of the water. Return the pasta and water to the pan.
8. Stir in the cheese, walnuts and creme fraiche followed by the bacon and mushrooms and stir well.

Serve in a pasta bowl and top with the toasted crumbs and chopped parsley.

Related posts

• Recipe: Smoky and fiery salami pasta
• Chicken Stuffed with Pesto Wrapped in Prosciutto served on a bed of tagliatelle

Recipe: Smoky and fiery salami pasta

They get hope from fire and smoke

Our smoky and fiery salami pasta will have you thinking about this dish long after you have finished the last cavatappi. It's packed with good carbs and is a true winter warmer. We used an interesting salami which had fennel added. Normally I find fennel quite robust tasting and the aniseed flavour and aroma is almost too over-powering. However, if prepared correctly it can mellow and soften around the edges. Keith can eat buckets of the stuff (but then he loves marmite)!

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 400g of tinned tomatoes, chopped
• 1 beef stock cube
• 100g of Italian Salami, chopped. We used a blend which had fennel
• 1 good handful of basil, chopped
• 1 tsp paprika, heaped
• 2 tsp chilli flakes (heat to taste)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 10 button mushroom, halved
• 2 tbsp of half fat creme fraiche
• 5oz of your favourite pasta
• Small splash of olive oil
• Seasoning to taste

Method

1. Fry onions in olive oil until translucent. Then add garlic.
2. Tip in tomatoes,basil, crumble in stock, basil, chilli flakes,paprika, honey and pepper. Simmer for 10mins. Taste and add more honey if required.
3. Add salami. Stir well
4. Allow to simmer until saunce has reduced.
5. Boil pasta until al dente
6. When sauce is ready, remove it from the heat
7. Stir in creme fraiche, mix with pasta and return to the heat for a couple of minutes 

Serve in large pasta bowls with a luscious green rocket and watercress salad and maybe pop some vine cherry tomatoes on your plate too. Finally shave fresh Parmesan as desired.This is pasta dish is so jammed packed with taste that I guarantee you will be telling yourself to slow down. I hope this has the desired effect! Buon appetito!

Chicken Stuffed with Pesto Wrapped in Prosciutto served on a bed of tagliatelle

Hold a chicken in the air, Stick a deckchair up your nose

We always find ourselves in a conundrum whenever we have friends over for dinner, as you have to cater for everybody's tastes, allergy-compatibilities and foibles. Our dichotomy is a meal which is simple, tasty but also not boring. On Saturday we decided on chicken stuffed with homemade pesto, wrapped in prosciutto, served on a bed of fresh tagliatelle in a tomato, basil and oregano sauce. 

Just like antipasto homemade pesto is superior and much more rewarding, than off the shelf pesto.  A jar of pesto can cost between £1.20 for a supermarket own brand and £7.50 at the high end .  Making your own pesto if you have a herb garden, can cost you pence.

You best thing about this meal is its flexibility. If you are short of time a jarred pesto will suffice or you can prepare the pesto a couple of days in advance if you know you may be under pressure on the day. Equally, you could substitute the prosciutto for bacon which most of us have knocking around in the freezer.

Serves Four 

Ingredients 

For the pesto:

• Large handful of fresh basil leaves
• Handful of toasted pine nuts
• 1 tbsp parmesan or Italian hard cheese
• 1 clove garlic
• Juice of half a lemon
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

For the chicken:

• 4 medium chicken breasts
• Prosciutto
• 8 sprigs of fragrant thyme

Method 

Pesto

Take basil leaves, pine nuts, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil and Parmesan cheese (or any suitable Italian hard cheese) and blend until you have a smooth paste 

Chicken

1. Take each breast, and with a sharp knife cut along the long side of the chicken almost all the way through so it can be folded out. 
2. Place a couple of teaspoons of your freshly made pesto in the folded out chicken breasts. 
3. Take two slices of prosciutto, place side by side, slightly overlapping. 
4. Put two sprigs of the thyme perpendicular to the prosciutto, then roll the around the chicken
5. Wrap each of the breasts in cling film and leave in the fridge for an hour or two for the chicken firm up.
6. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180C/356F
7. Heat a frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. Remove cling film and brown the chicken breasts for four minutes, turning over half way through.
8. Place chickens in a roasting tin and cook the oven for 15-20 minutes.

We will cover the tomato sauce in the future.  This was quite simple; chopped tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, oregano, fresh basil, finely chopped onion, halved button mushrooms, a chicken stock cube, sweetened with honey.

Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese and serve with a garden salad. Belissimo! Pavarotti himself would have had thirdsies!