Giant cous cous risotto

This recipe is inspired by a dish from Sardinia called fregola and mixed with some imagination.

Ingredients: giant cous cous (250 grams) or fregola, chopped butternut squash, mushrooms, sausages (one or two), 1/2 onion, olive oil, pepper, parsley, parmesan cheese.

Add chopped onion to a pan with olive oil for two minutes on a medium fire, add chopped butternut squash and mushrooms previously washed and chopped. Add sausages as well chopped with your hands in small pieces. Let it cook for 5/10 minutes until the sausages became red.

In a sauce pan boil some water with a beef cube stock.

Add giant cous cous to the pan and some stock from the sauce pan. Cover with a lid. Stir and add more stock a couple of times when it dries. When cous cous becomes soft enough you can serve your dish adding some pepper on the top, cheese and chopped parsley.

Butternut squash and mushrooms gnocchi

This is a tasty and delicous recipe which takes 10 minutes to prepare. It is healthy and good for vegetarians too, definitely a good meal to cook at lunch time or dinner time when you are alone or with friends.

Ingredients:

Butternut squash, mushrooms, 1/2 onion, garlic, cheese ( Parmesans or an other cheese) , gnocchi.

Chop the onion and a piece of garlic, add them to a pan with some extravirgin olive oil on a medium heat. After a couple of minutes when they become soft add mushrooms and small butternut squash pieces (I usually buy already chopped one). 

Let it cook for 10 minutes with a lid on. Smash the butternut squash with a fork when it gets softer.

In the mean time put a sauce pan with water on a high heat, when it boils add a nut of salt and drop gnocchi, they need to cook only for two minutes.

Once gnocchi are cooked drain them and mix them in the pan with the sauce, add some parmesan cheese on the top of it. Put them on a high heat for one more minute stiring them so that the cheese melts and if there is any water left it would dry.

The dish is ready to be served.

Seafood salad

This is a quick, healthy and low calories recipe. Very good especially in summer when refreshing and light food is needed.
Ingredients: raw prawns, squid, lemon, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, onion, celery, carrots.
Wash seafood very well.

Boil a carrot, a onion and a piece of celery in a pot of water. After 10 minutes on the fire add washed seafood and cook it go 5-10 minutes.

Drain it very well and lay it on a plate.

Add olive oil, fine chopped parsley and lemon juice. You can put the plate into the fridge for 20 minutes and eat it when it's cold.

               To make the dish more interesting you can add smoked salmon on a side
and some seeds bread.

Prawn and squid spiedini

This seafood based recipe is light and it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and 10 minutes to cook. The result is delicious and it can be served with any side, I recommend leaves salad and bread for a light dinner or chips, or boiled potatoes with some olive oil, salt and chopped parsley spread on the top if it.
Ingredients: prawns, fresh squids, breadcrumbs, lemon, parsley, garlic, extra virgin olive oil (3 or 4 spoons)

In a bowl put some breadcrumbs, add a half of a garlic piece chopped, chopped parsley, olive oil and mix all of it with your hands until you feel the breadcrumbs a bit wet, add more olive oil if needed.

Wash squids, cut them in halves and remove any dark inside and hard parts. Cut them in 4/5 pieces. Take one piece and put it in the bowl with breadcrumbs so that it sticks to the squid and then add the squid to the stick. Do it for the rest of the squid piece like in the picture.

Do the same for prawns.

Put all of the sticks in a preheated oven around 200° for 10 minutes until the color of the breadcrumbs become like gold.

When it is ready serve in a plate after squeezing lemon on the top of it.

Seafood rigatoni

Ingredients are: a bag of mussels, clams, prawns and squid (I didn't find any :( ), garlic, site wine, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, good quality passata. All seafood should be fresh bought from your local fishmonger.

Preparation:

Pour some water on to a pot with salt and leave it on the fire until it boils.

In the mean time, tip mussels and clams into the sink or a large bowl of cold water. Swish them around with your hands to wash them thoroughly. For each single mussel pull off the beards using the knife to help you if necessary – they just need a good tug. The beard is the brown wispy bit hanging out of the join in the shells. Not all mussels will have beards. take a look at the picture below if you are not sure.

Chop garlic and put into a large pot, add some olive oil, Set the pan over a medium heat for a minute.

Drain the seafood, add it to the big pot, add a little bit of white wine and  cover tightly with a lid.

Leave it cooking for 5 or 10, shaking the pan from time to time.

Seafood is cooked when all the shells are opened.

In the mean time put chopped garlic and olive oil in a pan, heat it for a minute and add peeled washed prawns. Leave it there for a minutes on medium heat and then add passata.

When clams and mussels are cooked open them one by one and tip in the pan. Leave it on low/medium fire until the end and stir it a few times.

When pasta is cooked drain it and drop it to the pan with cooked seafood. Heat it on medium fire for a minute stirring it.

Add some parsley and enjoy.

Prawns and Salmon pasta

This is a very easy and tasty recipe.
Ingridients for two people: fresh raw grey prawns, smoked salmon, double cream, penne pasta (100grams for each person or 110 if you like pasta ;) ), half of a onion, extravirgin olive oil.



Chop half of a onion and put it in a pan with extravirgin olive oil and heat it for a couple of minutes on medium/low fire.

Add prawns and sliced smoked salmon. Leave it cooking on medium fire just for 5 minutes until all prawns become pink. 
Add cream on leave it on low fire for a few moments (10/20 seconds).




On a big pot of boiling water drop pasta and let it cook for 8-10 minutes (look at the package instruction for minutes), when pasta is ready drain it and drop it to the pan.
Put the pan with pasta and seafood on a high fire for a minute and stir it gently.
You can add fine chopped parsley if you have got some to give it some colour.

Meal ready!

Cod fillet with lemon juice

This is a fresh low calories dish which can be eaten warm or kept in the fridge for the day after and be eaten cold.
It takes 10 minutes to prepare it, the most important ingridient is fish, it has to be fresh, that means it should be bought from a fishmonger or from the supermarket and cooked on the same day. I wouldn't recommend frozen fish.
The ingridients are: cod fillet or sole seafood, a carrot, half of an onion, one celery, salt, lemon, parsley.
Put some water in a pan with carrots, celery and half of a onion and heat it for 5 minutes on medium/ high fire.

Add cod seafood or sole seafood which I actually prefer for this dish. Keep them on a medium fire for 5 to 10 minutes.

With a draining spoon drain and put it on a plate and with a knife or a fork gently remove the skin.

Chop carrots and celery, add extra virgin olive oil, fine chopped parsley and lemon juice, with a little bit if salt.

Job done. ;)