Spaghetti with rocket pesto

I bought a bag of rocket a few days ago, with a good intention of having it for a couple of lunches with prawns as a low calorie meal. Alas, my dieting didn't happen yet again, so I was looking yesterday at the sad bag of rocket, thinking it was going to wilt if I didn't do anything with it.
How about turning it into pesto for spaghetti?

Rocket pesto
Ingredients:
90g rocket
6tbsp olive oil
25g grated Grana Padano
1 clove of garlic
25g ground almonds

Blitz the rocket with olive oil, grated Grana, chopped garlic and ground almonds. Season with a bit of sea salt. Stir into freshly cooked spaghetti.
Grate a bit of Grana over the pasta.

It was quite bitter. I do love rocket, but as a main herb for pesto it is overpowering. Next time I'll try to do half-half with basil, spinach or parsley.

Since I used a bag of rocket and some of the Grana (still working on my last year's prize of cheese, which I keep in big chunks, wrapped in the fridge and freezer), I'm adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky hosted by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

Mushroom and chestnut risotto

Just in case you were wondering why I haven't been blogging much in the last month, I was super busy. My Mum was staying with us for a month, plus my in-laws came visiting from Italy for a week. That and the back to school hullabaloo left me with not much time for blogging. My in-laws have left, my Mum flew back to Russia this very morning (sob! I miss her already), and now I will need to catch up on one zillion posts that I have planned. I haven't been entirely distracted from my hobby, as I kept cooking and taking photos, but writing and editing photos was put on hold. 

When my in-laws were visiting, I cooked most of our dinners - apart from one evening when we went out to The Fleece. One of the meals that I cooked recently was a mushroom and chestnut risotto.

I have recently received my big prize from Grana Padano - a whole big wheel of cheese weighing 18kg (if you don't remember how I won it - have a look at the post - Grana Padano Top Chef Blogger Competition). That's a year's supply of cheese. I didn't imagine it would arrive all in one go. I've been sharing it with friends and neighbours, and even insisted that my in-laws and Mum should take some cheese with them, though I do appreciate it might be funny to bring an Italian cheese back to Italy.
I have also been adding it to lots of meals. It is such a beautiful tasty cheese, wonderful to nibble on and excellent in cooking too.

I've had a pack of whole natural chestnuts which are already peeled and cooked and kept in a vacuum sealed bag since before Christmas. I remember they were on offer, and I was a tad over-enthusiastic and bought several packs. I suppose I could have kept it until the next Christmas, but I wanted to cook a risotto for dinner and liked the sound of the recipe printed in the back of the box.
I have adapted the recipe, halved the amount of chestnuts and used different mushrooms as well as did some other minor changes.

Mushroom and chestnut risotto
Ingredients:
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
200g mixed exotic mushrooms
2tsp butter
200g arborio rice
2tbsp olive oil
450ml vegetable stock + more if needed
100ml white wine (or mix of dry white and rose)
100g whole cooked chestnuts (for example, Porter Foods Whole Natural Chestnuts)
100ml single cream
Grana Padano, to grate over the risotto

Finely chop an onion, add oil to the frying pan and gently fry the onion for about 5 minutes, then add the butter and chopped mushrooms. I used a pack of mixed exotic mushrooms for extra flavour, but a combination of white and chestnut mushrooms will work as well. Cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
Add the arborio rice, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. The rice should be well coated in oil and butter. Pour the wine over the rice, cook stirring until the liquid has been absorbed. Ladle some of the vegetable stock over the rice, keep stirring while cooking. Keep adding the stock until most of it has been used, then add the single cream and chopped chestnuts.
It will take 25+ minutes for a risotto to be ready. For an authentic taste, it should still be al dente. If you prefer your risotto to be well done, keep cooking until you get your desired consistency and texture.
Serve hot, with a generous helping of grated cheese on top.
Grana or Parmesan, the choice is yours.

In case you're curious I love Gallo arborio rice for cooking risottos. It's a superior rice with an excellent taste.

As I used a semi-forgotten pack of chestnuts in this recipe, I'm adding this post to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

Beef Lasagne with Napolina sauces

I have recently seen on Mumsnet that Napolina were looking for testers to try their new sauce range. I applied, thinking "Fat chance" as I presumed they would be bombarded by volunteers willing to enroll as testers. Imagine my surprise when the other day I received an email, saying that I was chosen as one of the testers. The hamper of Napolina sauces was promptly delivered the next day.
Among the selection of products there were two Napolina sauces for lasagne.

I don't often buy sauces which are specifically designed for lasagne, as when I cook the meat ragu, I use tinned tomatoes and add whichever dried or fresh herbs I have at home.

I'm rather fond of Napolina as a brand, and often buy their excellent pasta shapes. Their pasta range is extensive. Just today I saw a new addition to the range - regional pasta, and couldn't resist buying a packet of Gnocchi Sardi. But that will be a weekend project. Yesterday I cooked a big dish of beef lasagne, using two Napolina lasagne sauces - red and white.

Beef lasagne
Ingredients:
1 red onion, finely chopped
3tbsp + olive oil
900g ground beef
2 cloves of garlic
2 celery stalks
1 beef stock cube (e.g. Knorr) dissolved in 125ml hot water
1 jar of Napolina red lasagne sauce
1 jar of Napolina white lasagne sauce
9 sheets of dried lasagne
70g grated Grana Padano cheese

First prepare the ragu: heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Add a finely sliced onion and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the ground beef and sliced celery. Cook the beef for about 7-8 minutes. Add the garlic, finely chopped and half a mug of beef broth made from the beef stock cube and hot water.
I used a Knorr beef stock, but any good stock cube would do. Pour the contents of the red lasagne sauce in to the ragu. Cook on low, simmering, for 45+ minutes. The Knorr stock cube is salty enough, so I didn't add any more salt while cooking the ragu. With all the flavours going on, you don't really need extra salt.
If using dried lasagne sheets, boil a medium sized pan of water and immerse the sheets two at a time for a couple of minutes, just to soften the pasta. If using fresh lasagne sheets, skip this step.
Put three lasagne sheets at the bottom of a deep lasagne baking dish which has been oiled.
Pour half of the ragu over them. Then pour 1/3 of the white lasagne sauce.
Place the next three sheets over, then the second half of ragu and another third of the white sauce. Then top up with the remaining three sheets and more white sauce.
Put the baking dish in the oven preheated to 180C. Cook for about 40-45 minutes. Add the grated cheese in the last 5-7 minutes of cooking. Once the cheese has melted and turned golden brown, the lasagne is ready.
Serve hot with a chunk of bread and some salad (or pickles, I had mine with two pickled cucumbers from the Polish deli, I know it's not an Italian combination, but oh so tasty).

Lasagne freezes well, sliced in portions. This amount will feed 4 very-very hungry people, or 6 if you serve some sides to go with lasagne.

Of course, if you have time and inclination, prepare your own tomato sauce and white sauce from scracth. If you are a busy parent like me, and/or cannot spend the whole evening cooking, then ready-made sauces are a Godsend.
Napolina lasagne sauces are made in the best classic traditions, and make you help a delicious authentic Italian meal.
Napolina smooth red lasagne pasta sauce has no added sugar. Its ingredients include tomato puree (52%), crushed tomatoes (40%), garlic puree, basil, salt, oregano, concentrated lemon juice, ground black pepper and sweetener.
Napolina smooth white lasagne sauce includes double cream, mature Cheddar cheese, rapeseed oil, cornflour, Regato cheese, starch, mustard powder, white pepper, nutmeg.

Both sauces are free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives.

Disclosure: As mentioned above, I received a selection of Napolina products as a tester, All opinions are mine.

Leek, mushrooms and cranberry gratinata

Today I went to M&S to pick up the turkey crown I've ordered for Christmas. To say it was crowded would be an understatement. And of all days the tills in the whole shop were playing up, with one till refusing to process cards after another. I came home battered and grumpy. When I arrived home, our Christmas fruit and veg box arrived from Abel & Cole. I looked at the lovely vegetables and decided to cook an Italian-inspired dish of leek gratinata, with mushrooms and Grana Padano cheese.

Leek, mushrooms and cranberry gratinata
Ingredients:
77g pancetta cubes
3tbsp + olive oil
3 leeks
200g brown button mushrooms
1tsp dried thyme and basil
4tbsp single cream
a handful of dried cranberries
60g Grana Padano
a handful of pine nuts

Start frying pancetta cubes in the olive oil. Add finely sliced leeks, fry stirring for 5 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for another few minutes, stirring. Season with salt and dried herbs.
Put the leek and mushroom mix as well as dried cranberries into a deep ceramic roasting dish, pour the single cream over it. Scatter the grated Grana Padano cheese and cook at 180C for 10 minutes, until the cheese has melted. Add a handful of pine nuts in the last couple of minutes of cooking. Serve hot with a nice crusty bread.

Crab, lemon and cheese souffle (The Cornish house)

I feel affinity with Cornwall, and bought the Cornwall-inspired trilogy by Liz Fenwick purely on the basis of its titles. I knew nothing about the author or her novels. I really wanted to like The Cornish House by Liz Fenwick. I truly did.
I liked the cover illustration, the blurb sounded mildly interesting too.
I found the setting fascinating, an old house with a sad history, which keeps repeating in the devastating lives of its inhabitants. Old houses all have a tale to tell, and Trevenen has its share of tragedies and secrets, including a ghost.
Maddie, an artist, who was recently widowed, inherits a house in Cornwall (very conveniently, as looking after her dying husband has left her with a lot of debts, so she had to sell her house in London). Her step-daughter Hannah has severe behavioural problems. The relationship between two female protagonists is at the heart of this novel.
The story was quite cliched in many aspects. There's a handsome dark Cornishman (of course! are there any other in Cornwall?!), a love interest of Maddie. And another man: a viking with chiselled jaws. Love triangle develops under a watchful eye of a hating step-daughter. Well, add the whole village to it, as apparently everybody knows everything that goes on.
The village gossips who come across you in the pharmacy exactly when you buy a pregnancy test.
Knees go week. The earth moves after a kiss under a mistletoe, etc.
The best part for me was the story of the old house.
It's the characters I had some issues with.
I felt like slapping both Maggie and her stepdaughter Hannah. Hannah, for being so obnoxious that it was becoming too tedious. Maggie, for letting her stepdaughter treat her that way. She's an adult, and she should have set the boundaries. Hannah sounds like a teenager from hell, not very believable as a character, more of a caricature, of what an evil stepchild should be like. I also found hard to believe that Maggie would go along with her dying husband's decision. If she wanted a child that much, she should not have gone through what she did.
Her new flame Mark too. Most people do mistakes in life, and have tragedies too, but that doesn't make them behave like idiots, or at least not all of them.
I wanted to know more about the house than the main protagonists, who annoyed me one by one.
Tamsin? I cannot abide nosey people who think they have a right to ask everything about your life.
I think the only character I liked was Old Tom.

Saying all that, I now moved on to the second book in the trilogy, A Cornish Affair. So far it hasn't been connected to the first novel in any way.

There were a few mentions of the food in the novel. I liked the sound of the crab souffle.

"The souffle melted in her mouth. Maddie would love to know how the chef blended the crab, lemon and cheese in such a divine way.
"The starter please you?" Gunnar smiled.
"Very much so. It's so light yet so rich. Would you like a taste?"

Crab, lemon and cheese souffle
Ingredients:
melted butter, about 30g, enough to coat four ramekins
breadcrumbs, 2-3tbsp
crabmeat of 1 crab (over 200g)
zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp butter, melted
2tbsp self-rasing flour, heaped
150ml semi-skimmed milk
150ml double cream
75g grated Grana Padano cheese
1tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
3 egg yolks
4 egg whites
salt, pepper

First deal with the crab. I bought a ready-cooked crab from Tesco, claws and all bits and bobs still there. For a fiver it was a big beast.
It took me a while to remove the meat from all the pieces. I don't have any special kitchen tools for crab eating, as I don't buy it often, and when I do, it's already dressed, i.e. it's just a big shell filled with meat, without any legs etc. I used heavy kitchen scissors to open the claws and a wooden toothpick to get the meat out.

If you don't want all the faffle, just buy a tin of crab meat in brine though the taste won't be as good.
Butter the ramekins with the melted butter and sprinkle with fine breadcrumbs inside. Shake off the excess breadcrumbs.
In a medium sized pan melt 1tbsp of butter, then stir in the flour, cook stirring for a minute. Pour milk and cream a little bit at a time, keep stirring until you get a smooth creamy consistency. Add the zest and grated cheese, mix well. remove from the heat and beat in the egg yolks. Add the crabmeat (I used both white and dark meat) and chopped dill. Season well.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until all fluffy, then carefully fold the egg whites into the crab-cheese mixture.
Ladle the mixture into the ramekins.
Place the ramekins into a big baking tray and pour enough water around them about halfway up.
Put the tray in the oven preheated to 180C and bake for 35+ minutes until they're golden brown and all risen.

My souffles looked pretty puffed and quite high when I took the tray out of the oven. By the time I found my camera, they went down, eeek.
One day I will bake a perfectly risen souffle and keep it that way until I serve it.

They were delicious, if not perfect in shape. I can imagine the hosts of GBBO would tut-tut at my semi-floppy souffle, but hey, my family is more forgiving.
I did read you need to add a bit of cream of tartar to the egg whites for the souffle to keep its shape better. Have you tried it? Any tips on making a perfect souffle?

Grana Padano Top Chef Blogger Competition

Image credits: Nick Hallen, reproduced with kind permission from Grana Padano

I still feel like pinching myself to make sure I haven't dreamt all about it, but it must be true. Last Saturday I was crowned the winner of the Grana Padano Top Chef Blogger Competition. And to think that I almost didn't go. Thankfully, my family and friends were very supportive and literally pushed me out of the house. Just the day before I moaned on Facebook on how terrified I was of going to London on my own. And what if I make a complete mess of my cooking. I decided that if I fail completely, I'd still take lots of photos and make a funny post on How I failed to impress the Italian chef.
It's not the first time I have been invited to an event in London, but until then I refused to go. I was also worried about how my husband would cope with our two guys without me.
I'm still a bit in a haze. It was either my nerves or prosecco that affected my memory.

To get to Venturi's Table before 10.15am, I had to get up at some ungodly hour  very early to catch a bus to Oxford and then a coach to London, but thankfully at that hour the traffic wasn't too bad, and I was the first of the participants to arrive there.
The ladies met me with lovely smiles and kind words, offered me a cup of coffee and pastries and reassured me. I was still very nervous and most likely blabbed some gibberish.

There was an amazing huge Grana Padano on the table. I haven't seen a cheese this size ever before.

Image credits: Nick Hallen, reproduced with kind permission from Grana Padano

Then the other bloggers started to arrive: Jo from Simply Being Mum, Frank from Frank About Food and Federica from Pasta Bites.
Francesco Mazzei, celebrity Italian chef, and Elisabetta Serraiotto, marketing manager for Grana Padano, were to be our judges.
We had two hours to cook one sweet and one savoury dish for the competition. Both dishes had to include Grana Padano.
All the participants received a list of ingredients available at the contest as well as the list of equipment. We were allowed to bring some extra ingredients with us, if we wanted.
While I set my mind on cooking a ricotta cake with Grana as my sweet dish, I had no idea on what I was going to cook as my savoury dish. I had a hectic day before, even managed to help my older niece with an essay, and went to bed with an ipad, trying to get some inspiration for a savoury dish. I thought if anything I'd just put all the things together in the roasting tin, grate cheese over and hope for the better.
My personal challenge was not to get lost in London and not to make a complete mess of my cooking.

What did we have?
Extra virgin olive oil, butter, Grana Padano Riserva, Grana Padano 15-18, flour, mixed herbs, onion, sugar, milk, celeriac, fennel, globe artichoke, parsnip, polenta, apple, figs, hazelnuts, chicken thighs, lamb cutlets, eggs, salt and pepper.

Ingredients at my cooking station

I brought with me my old-ish bundt cake tin, cake release spray, caster sugar for the cake, a teaspoon of baking powder, pine nuts, orange, vanilla essence and icing sugar.

I started with the ricotta cake, grating, mixing and pretending I knew what I was doing, all the time feeling like a jelly inside.
In the meantime our photographer kept taking one zillion photos of every step. It did make me feel quite self-conscious. I would never be able to go on a TV cooking show exactly for that reason.
Nick is a very nice guy, but I am not used to having my photos taken non-stop (and seeing all the images of myself with a double chin I realised I really need to go on a diet. I also should know better than to pull faces at my age, shouldn't I?! My younger son laughed his socks off on seeing some of my photos).
Once the cake tin was safely chucked into the oven, I started cooking my savoury dish. I didn't want to cook lamb, as it's not my forte. I often overcook red meat, as I don't like it rare. So, chicken it is. To make it taste more Italian, I opted for cooking it with a freshly made pesto sauce.
I whizzed some fresh pesto, covered the chicken things with it, and left some for later.
I also love roast fennel. I cook it very often, with the other vegetables or on its own, with just a bit of good olive oil and herbs. As a side dish for the chicken, I cooked roast fennel and parsnip, with lots of olive oil, grated Grana Padano and pine nuts. I added the pine nuts later. In fact, I managed to burn the first batch of pine nuts as I got distracted chatting, and when I got them out of the oven, they were verrrry brown. Thankfully, I had some more left in the pack, and having toasted them, added them to the dish once the vegetables were cooked.

Image credits: Nick Hallen, courtesy of Grana Padano

Roast fennel & parsnip with Grana + chicken with pesto sauce (image credits - Nick Hallen)

Our hosts offered us tea and coffee, as well as prosecco. When I got my glass, I added a bit to the roast vegetables when they were cooking. I do enjoy prosecco. My favourite cocktail is Bellini (prosecco + peach juice).
Francesco Mazzei was a total charmer. He showed us how to prepare a simple artichoke salad. I often buy artichokes in oil (in jars), and even once attempted to cook some from scratch, but found it a real faffle. Francesco demonstrated how to slice it in an easy and quick way.
His salad of a fresh artichoke, green apple, Grana Padano and crushed hazelnuts with a simple dressing of olive oil and lemon juice was light, pure and tasty.

What did my fellow bloggers cook? Jo decided upon an English-Italian marriage of flavours and textures. She cooked a twist on a traditional Sunday roast. She also added some cute polenta and cheese whirls and Yorkshire puddings. Give me a plateful any time!
Both Federica and Frank cooked lamb, with different side dishes. Frank's creamy celeriac gratin was melt-in-the-mouth.

Judging in progress (image credits: Nick Hallen, courtesy of Grana Padano)

Federica's dessert was a marvellous mascarpone mousse in a crispy basket with Grana. It looked great and tasted delightful. Frank's polenta cake with caramelised apples was splendid too. I did toy with an idea of baking a polenta cake as well before I opted for a ricotta cake. Glad I didn't have to compete with his polenta cake version.
Jo made a very clever twist on a crumble, with apples and figs. As she was cooking at my nearest station, I could smell all the beautiful aromas coming from her fruit. Alas, my photo of her crumble turned out to be blurred, so I am not posting it. To see it and also enter a giveaway to win some Grana Padano goodies including the best cheese grater ever, visit Simply Being Mum.

Mascarpone mousse and polenta cake

My ricotta cake with Grana Padano was basically a family recipe, passed onto me by my husband's aunt. I have adapted it for the competition, and I think the flavours worked really well.

Ricotta cake with Grana Padano: image credits - Nick Hallen

I never in a million years would have expected to win. I thought my cooking was quite simple and not Masterchefy at all.
After the judges tasted all the dishes they talked through all the recipes. When they announced the winner, I was completely speechless.
And my prize is a one to one cooking class with Francesco Mazzei, a year's supply of Grana Padano, a signed copy of Francesco's new recipe book and a selection of Grana Padano goodies.
It was an amazing experience for me. I enjoyed meeting new people and learning new things. I might not be in a hurry to repeat a trip to London any time soon, but I might be less scared to travel on my own next time.

Thank you to organisers and hosts of Grana Padano Top Chef Blogger Competition!

Image credits: Nick Hallen

Image credits: Nick Hallen

Ricotta cake with Grana Padano

My ricotta cake: One of the official images by Nick Hallen, courtesy of Grana Padano

If you are my friends on Facebook or any other social media platform, you have surely shared my delight of winning the Grana Padano Top Chef Blogger Competition. I have posted photos of the event, and my beaming face, not quite believing that my cooking was worthy of the winner's title.
The event was beautifully organised, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if I was all atremble, like a wobbly jelly, inside.

One of the official images by Nick Hallen, courtesy of Grana Padano

The task was to cook one sweet and one savoury dish, using Grana Padano as one of the ingredients. I decided to cook a family recipe with a twist. The recipe I have chosen to present at the competition has been passed to me by my husband's zia Giuseppina. I have slightly adapted it.

Ricotta cake
Ingredients:
3 medium eggs
200g ricotta
200g caster sugar
1tsp baking powder
300g self-raising flour
35g grated Grana Padano
100g butter, melted
zest of 1 orange, grated
2 drops of vanilla extract (Holy Lama Spice Drops)
for the icing:
juice of 1/2 orange mixed with enough of icing sugar to get a runny icing


Beat the eggs with the ricotta cheese and sugar in a mixing bowl, then sift the baking powder and flour in the bowl. Add the grated Grana Padano, orange zest, vanilla extract and melted butter and mix well.
The cake batter is quite thick. Spoon it carefully in a well oiled bundt cake tin. Put the tin in an oven preheated to 180C for 50 minutes. Check with a wooden toothpick if it's ready. You might need to lower the temperature and bake it for another 10 minutes, until the toothpick comes clean.
Mix the icing sugar with the orange juice and pour over the warm cake.
It keeps well for a few days, wrapped in foil.

It was quite an experiment, adding grated Grana Padano to the batter, but it worked beautifully.
When you bake a butter pound cake, you are often asked to add a good pinch of salt. In case of this ricotta cake the Grana adds a piquant salty note to the cake.

I have used Holy Lama Spice Drops (vanilla extract) but you can use a good quality vanilla essence (1tsp).

Francesco Mazzei, me, Joanne Wright, Elisabetta Serraiotto, Frank Lampen and Federica from Pasta Bites (photo by Nick Hallen, courtesy of Grana Padano)

Grissini and Crostata di Spaghetti for Grana Padano Italian Maestro Blogger Competition

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you would most likely know how much I enjoy culinary challenges and competitions. I was thrilled to be invited to take part in Grana Padano Italian Maestro Blogger Competition. This competition will be judged by the renowned Italian chef Francesco Mazzei. He has recently appeared on MasterChef and from September has become a chef-patron of Sartoria in Mayfair.
As a competition participant, I received a basket of key ingredients, enough to create two courses, using Grana Padano cheese. We also received a supermarket voucher to buy any extras. The choice was to create either a starter and a main dish, or a main and a dessert.

I asked if the dessert should be cooked with Grana as well, and the reply was Yes. To err on the side of caution, I have opted for the starter and the main. I'd love to see what the other bloggers cooked as their dessert entry with Grana Padano.
My family loves Italian cuisine, and I often cook with Grana. My Italian mother-in-law uses Grana on a daily basis with pasta and risotto dishes. It is often referred to as a poor man's parmesan, a totally unjustified comparison, as Grana has its own taste and culinary qualities.

My family loves Italian breadsticks called grissini. I often buy them, either plain or with olives (we love Crosta & Mollica brand), but I haven't made them before. How difficult is it? As it happens, it is not difficult at all.

Grissini with prosciutto

Grissini 
Ingredients:
7g dried activeyeast
200ml semi-skimmed milk, warmed
325g strong white flour + for dusting
100g Grana Padano cheese, freshly grated
90g butter, melted
a pinch of salt
a handful of chopped fresh rosemary

Sprinkle 7g of dried active yeast into a bowl of warm milk. I used Allinson dried active yeast, which recommends 650g of flour per 15g of yeast. Since I didn't want a huge amount of grissini, I halved the suggested amount, hence 7g of yeast to 325g of flour. In a bigger bowl grate 100g of Grana Padano cheese, and mix it with strong white flour. Pour the milk over the flour and cheese mix, season with salt. Using hands, mix the dough. Add the butter and chopped rosemary. Knead for a few minutes.
On a flour-dusted working surface spread the dough and roll out, using a rolling pin, to about 5mm thickness. Using a knife cut into thin strips about 1cm wide and 30-35cm long (or longer).
Put the grissini on a parchment paper placed into baking trays. Bake for about 20 minutes at 180C until golden brown. When you take the trays out, the grissini will still be slightly soft.
They are delicious hot, straight from the oven, and as good cold.
Serve them with slices of prosciutto for a lovely starter.

The combination of pasta and pastry is quite common in the Italian cuisine. My husband's hometown Ferrara boasts its own pasticcio di maccheroni which is a dish of maccheroni pasta mixed with minced meat and bechamel sauce and baked in a dessert pastry casing. They also have a quirky dessert with pasta called Torta di Tagliarini which I cooked earlier this year.
For my main I have decided to cook Crostata di Spaghetti, i.e. open pie with spaghetti.

Crostata di Spaghetti
Ingredients:
1 pack of ready-made shortcrust pastry
80g dried spaghetti
77g pancetta (1 small pack)
1 red onion, finely chopped
5tbsp olive oil
150g butternut squash, cubed
100g Grana Padano, grated
4 medium eggs
1/2 pack of rocket, wilted (about 35g)
a handful of fresh basil, chopped
1tsp mixed herbs
a handful of pine nuts

Cook spaghetti in salted boiling water until al dente.
Cook the cubed pancetta with 1tbsp of olive oil until well browned. Remove the pancetta from the frying pan. Chop the onion and fry it with extra 2tbsp of olive oil until browned and translucent. Remove from the frying pan. Peel and cube the butternut squash (I used just part of the top, and cooked the rest the next day in the soup). Add more oil to the frying pan, and cook the squash cubes for about 10 minutes, stirring quite often. Add the rocket and pine nuts as well as basil and a sprinkling of mixed herbs.
In the meantime pre-cook a shell of shortcrust pastry by rolling the pastry over the pie dish. You can use baking beans to fill in the pastry case before baking for 10 minutes.
In a big mixing bowl grate the Grana Padano, add the eggs and mix together. Add the spaghetti, pancetta, squash, red onion, rocket, pine nuts and herbs to the egg and cheese mix. Stir well together. Pour the contents into the pastry case, and place the dish back in the oven for about 25 minutes until the the filling is set.
Slice before serving. It is delicious with a bit of salad on the side and a glass of wine.

Disclosure: This is my entry to Grana Padano Italian Maestro Blogger competition for which I received a hamper of foods and vouchers to buy extra ingredients.