Greek salad is a "very" recipe: very fast, very aromatic, very tasty, very summery, very presentable, very very!!!
You can make it a side dish or a light summer lunch dish or serve it as an appetizer, you can even bring it with you for your picnic...
Use good quality vegetables, fresh feta cheese and good Extra Virgin Olive oil !
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 4
1/2 lettuce "iceberg"salad
1-2 cucumbers
2 big tomatoes
~10 green olives
~10 black olives
200g feta cheese
1 onion
1/2 lemon
salt
oregano
EVO oil
1. Cut the onion into slices and squeeze some lemon juice over to reduce the bitterness of the onion.
2. Peel the cucumber and cut in into slices.
3. Slice the tomatoes.
4. Remove the bones from the green olives and keep the black ones whole.
Note: If your olives are boneless, add them without cutting them.
5. Cut feta cheese into cubes 1.5cm big.
6. Wash the salad and rip it into medium pieces.
Note: Ripping the salad helps to protect the salad from oxygenation and browning as a consequence.
7. Mix all the vegetables and feta cheese in a big bowl, salt the salad and season with oregano and olive oil.
Kalí óreksi!
This is really a full-flavour dish... Very poor in calories but substantial . You may serve it as a main course or as a sauce for short pasta, the best type of pasta for this dish is Paccheri.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2
600g calamari rings
handful of black olives
couple pinches of capers
8 cherry tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1/4 lemon
OR
50ml white wine
salt
chilli
oregano
EVO oil
1. Remove the bones from the olives. If the olives are soft you may just press them gently to separate the bones from the meat and then it will come out by itself.
2. Cut tomatoes into halves or if they are quite big into quarters.
3. In a large bowl marinate calamari rings with either 1tbs of lemon juice or same quantity of white wine for 5 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, olives and capers. Season with some salt and oregano. You may also add some lemon peel for flavour.
5. In a frying pan heat some EVO oil and add garlic cloves cut into halves and chilli to taste.
6. Add calamari with other ingredients and cook for 5 minutes.
7. There will be too much sauce , so drain calamari with a skimmer and put them in a bowl in which you will serve them.
8. Reduce the sauce in the pan for about 5 minute.
9. Add the sauce to the bowl with calamari to season.
Note: In case you want to use the dish as a sauce for pasta, cook any short type of pasta, like Penne, Farfalle, Tortiglioni, Rigatoni... But the best one for the dish is Paccheri.
In this case the quantities of Ingredients will become for four people.
Mix calamari with pasta and serve without cheese.
Buon Appetito!!!
Open the fridge, check for the ingredients and then decide about the recipe - that's my cooking motto. Some basic ingredients are always there, the others change. Today I have fresh cuttlefish as it was on offer at my trusted fishmonger's.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2
300g cuttlefish (1 small or half a big one)
160g Penne pasta
50g black olives
3-4 pinches of capers
2 garlic cloves
200-250 ml canned chopped tomatoes
some white wine
half veg stock
chilli
oregano
salt
sugar
EVO oil
1. First we cook the sauce. For that cut garlic cloves into halves and fry them till they're gold in some EVO oil.
2. Cut cuttlefish body into very thin stripes and leave the tentacles as they are, we'll use them as a decoration.
3. Add cuttlefish to the frying pan with oil and garlic and add a splash of white wine. When the alcohol is evaporated add half a glass of water and half a veg stock, capers and olives and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Now it's time for tomatoes: add tomato pulp from a can or if you have fresh tomatoes you may add 3 middle tomatoes cut in cubes (you need to emerge the whole tomatoes into boiling water for a couple of minutes and then into cold water, then peel them accurately and cut).
5. Tomatoes contain acid so we need to balance it with some sugar: add couple of pinches of sugar to the sauce and some salt to taste. Add also some chilli and oregano.
6. Cook the sauce for 20 more minutes adding some water when it becomes too dry.
7. Meanwhile boil water for pasta and cook penne pasta until "al dente".
8. Mix pasta with the sauce and serve. You may decorate your plate with the cuttlefish tentacles from the sauce...
The name of this dish is really bizarre !!! Translated it literally means "Spaghetti in a whore style" Yeah!!! That's right... hmm... exactly!
The origin of this name is not sure but they say that it comes either from the whorehouses in Naples where this dish was frequently served to the clients or to the prostitutes after their "hard work"... Or, as a nice story tells, it was invented by an owner of a restaurant in Ischia, and island near Naples shore. Now I'll tell you the story.
One night at the restaurant called Rancio Fellone, when the chef was already gone home, a group of friends appeared. The owner, who was not a chef but an architect, advised that the kitchen was already closed. So the fellows, who were really hungry, asked him to bring any possible "puttanata", that in Italian means kind of "piece of nonsence", but comes from a word "puttana", that, I bet, doesn't need to be translated... In short, they asked for any kind of simple dish, just to have something to soothe their hunger. So the owner checked in the kitchen and found these simple ingredients that are always stored in any restaurant, out of which he invented this dish, that was called Spaghetti alla Puttanesca.
This dish is not famouse only in Italy, it became a classical Italian recipe known worldwide.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2
160g spaghetti
handful of black olives
2-3 pinches of capers
3-4 anchovies
2 garlic cloves
10-12 cherry tomatoes
chilli
oregano
salt
EVO oil
1. Pour some oil into a frying pan and add garlic cloves a bit smashed and anchovies and adding by a wooden spoon let the anchovies melt
2. Add chilli, olives, capers and oregano, splash everything up with some wine.
3. At the end add cherry tomatoes cut in halves and heat everything up.
4. Cook spaghetti "al dente", drain and add to the sauce.
5. Mix gently and serve.
Note: Please remember: Pasta = Fish - Yes => Cheese - NO
They usually place potatoes on top the fish.... This one is an inverted version and you will see how wonderfully soft and juicy the potatoes will result!
INGREDIENTS:
400g perch
3 medium potatoes
1/2 medium onion
cherry tomatoes
black olives
capers
oregano
black pepper
salt
1. Peel potatoes and cut them into thin slices, you can do it with the mandoline slicer, it's much faster and easier.
2. Slice onions rings, olives, cut tomatoes in halves, chop capers.
3. Pour some oil in a baking pan and dress the bottom first with the potato slices, then with the onion rings, add salt, pepper and some oregano.
4. Wash fish fillet and take off all the fishbones, dry it with a paper towel.
Put it on top the potatoes, add chopped capers, olives, salt and some more oregano.
5. Salt cherry tomatoes and finally arrange them nicely on top the fish.
6. Spray with some EVO oil.
7. Cook in te oven at 200 C for about half an hour, check if the potatoes are ready. The fish will be ready for sure.
Enjoy!!!
I'm having, how to say, a healthy mood. I try to cook healthy food all the time but this one turned out to be "all natural products" dish....
INGREDIENTS
(recipe for 3-4)
1 full glass of barley
3 eggs
pickled cucumbers (to taste)
10-12 cherry tomatoes
black olives (to taste)
canned artichokes (to taste)
EVO oil
salt
basil
oregano
1. How to cook barley? It's not difficult but it needs time! Wash your barley carefully to remove excess of starch from it. Then cook it in not less then 2 liters of water for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on your taste.
Drain it and wash under current water for 5-10 seconds, as it results in being too sticky if not. Drain well!!! Don't get discouraged if you cook barley for the first time: it looks grey and not attractive.... Don't pay attention please. Barley has a great quantity of proteins so if you want to avoid eating meat - here we go!!! Healthy!!!!
2. Cut eggs and all the vegetables into small pieces.
3. Add eggs, veges and herbs to the cooled barley and mix well.
4. What is EVO oil? This is how in Italy we abbreviate "Extra Virgin Olive Oil".
Note: Lots of people think that any olive oil is almost the same.
The best oil is coming from the first cold mechanic pressing done in the first 24 hours time after gathering (if not it becomes too acid) and this oil is called Extra Virgin. It has light greenish color and it produces a slight tingling in the throat while tasting.
The other types of olive oil are produces with the help of the heating or chemicals...
So, garnish with some EVO oil and salt your salad, mix.
You can decorate it to your liking.... ENJOY!!!!
2 big tomatoes
