I rarely cook from a recipe. Even in the days when I had a vast collection of cookery books, I mainly read them for inspiration and the pretty pictures. These days I do occasionally pick up on a recipe on the Internet, mainly from the Guardian. I enjoy Nigel Slater’s and Felicity Cloake’s writings, and they both seem to produce recipes that speak to my piggy inner self.
Ottolenghi’s recipes are mouth-watering, though almost always require ingredients that cannot be purchased in France Profonde, stopping me from making them. We do regularly make one of his. When I say “regularly” I mean perhaps once a year, though not every year. My beloved is very fond of Ottolenghi’s Champagne Jelly and he makes it for our wedding anniversary, or I make it for his birthday. Unless we go out to dinner.
Tonight’s dinner was a “use it all up” affair, no recipe involved, though it did lean heavily on a Nigel Slater recipe for courgettes with orzo and guanciale (it’s scrummy, you should try it.)
Mr L had defrosted the fridge/freezer in readiness for tomorrow’s departure.
Although it isn’t a very large fridge, it is at least twice the size of the one in the van and, although we had run stocks down, there was way too much to fit in the van fridge.
We yielded a courgette, half a bag of frozen scallops, two thirds of a pack of Pancetta, and two slightly withered tomatoes. No Orzo but out in the van we had some Avoines, the French equivalent.
Also rescued was a jar of olive oil/pork fat that I had saved from cooking some Torreznos. Ideal for tonight’s purpose. There was a half a wedge of Grana Padano too. Okay, a plan was forming.
I browned the Pancetta first, cooking it slowly in order to render as much fat as possible. I removed the Pancetta and retained the fat, then lightly browned the scallops before also lifting them out.
I supplemented the remaining Pancetta fat with my oil/fat mixture.
The courgettes received a good sizzling, with some crushed garlic.
Then the Avoines went in and soaked up the fat a little before I added the stock. The stock went in little by little, just like when making a Risotto.
After about five minutes, I threw in the two tomatoes, diced, and then cooked until the pasta was al dente.
After throwing in some Grana Padano, I returned the scallops and pancetta to the pan to heat through.
It turned out not bad, better at least than my photography 🙂 (the lens steamed up)
Okay, that’s me up to date. I may get behind again for the remainder of the month as we travel off into the unknown. We anticipate a clockwise circular tour of France this season. For the interested – there is an outline plan of our first few steps. All stops are subject to change, naturally. Fixed points are Brem sur Mer, where we have a dinner table reservation, and Nantes, where we have booked 3 nights on the campsite. The rest is up for grabs.
See you on the road!