Skipped Rocket Pesto

I'm in Vienna at the moment. With a friend, I found two packets of organic rocket (or ruccola in German) in a skip near an eco shop. The ruccola was on the way out, so I decided to make rocket pesto, so it would last a few days longer.

 I washed then sliced up the ruccola finely and add lots of diced garlic, oils (olive, peanut, and pumpkin seed), lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a few finely diced capers for extra flavour. I left it overnight to let the flavours get to know each other. Then, when the time came to feast (it is always time to feast), I just stirred it in to some nice brown organic (or bio as they say here) pasta.

I used 500g of pasta and it was still rather oily. I'd recommend bread for soakage. Afterwards I turned the remainder of oily the mixture into another meal, which you can see in the next post. Hope to see you there. Goodbye for now.

- Dara

Camping

Here are edibles for a 4-day camping trip:

What you see up there fed two people for a period of four days - that's three meals a day plus snacks. We bought some much appreciated grapes and raspberries, and a baked potato with veg curry between the two of us, but apart from that it's all up there.

Below are four meals that came out of the above ingredients. Read and imagine!

This is cous cous with sprouting beans, flavoured with chilli mix and tomato paste.

Amazingly fresh tasting and filling.

Now, this one was a stroke of genius. It's TVP with the chilli spices and tomato paste again, this time with sun dried tomatoes and lovingly surrounded by a tortilla wrap.

Again with the TVP - this time with pasta, stir-in pasta sauce (light to carry!) and sun dried tomatoes. You would not believe how warm and comforting that lovely thick sauce was in a cold Scottish field. Beautiful.

Now, before thinking too much about the meal below please remember that camping is hungry work, and by the fourth day having something hot that will sit there in your belly making its presence known is exactly what you want.

Ok, so please find below a pitta bread topped with baked beans, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, TVP and (ahem...) red wine. It tasted good. Honestly.

There's something strangely satisfying about seeds that have soaked up a load of liquid - their texture becomes easier to eat and - I'm told - digest. And no-one can deny that red wine is a good liquid. As is bean juice. Just take a look at this concoction...

Homemade Pasta with Leek, Mushroom and Broccoli Sauce.

This is me showing off my new pasta machine.

Pasta dough is just flour and eggs with a bit of lukewarm water. I've made it before using a rolling pin, but a pasta machine is just very very cool. And surprisingly therapeutic. Word of warning though - it does take a wee while.

For the sauce I sauted some leeks and garlic in olive oil then added some sliced mushrooms and cooked them till they were nicely juicy. Then I slopped in half a pot of creme fraiche and some black pepper and added the whole lot to the cooked pasta. I also threw in some very finely cut cooked broccoli.

Pasta should be cooked in lots and lots of boiling water. I demand that you eat it while it still has a bit of bite rather than letting it turn to slop. Ask any Italian and they will tell you that sloppy pasta is only fit for old people's homes.

To serve I added some slices of mozzarella.

Voila!