CBC - Strozzapreti with Salmon-Cream-Sauce

I made this on request of my better half, and it was good. Crazy good. I have no idea what made it taste so good, as it was basically only pasta + salmon + cream. But I thought not to ask, but to enjoy instead. And I am adding this to Soul-Food!!!!! Definitely.

So, the cookbook is the following: Pasta, Zabert Sandmann, 2000 (the same editor as the Antipasti-Book), page 64

Ingredients:
400gr Strozzapreti (it's a kind of thick-cut pasta)
Salt
various herbs (e.g. Basil., Rosemary, Oregano ecc.)
1 tablespoon butter
250gr cream
2 tablespoons Lemon-Juice
400gr Smoked Salmon (I think I used less)
freshly ground pepper


Preparation:
1. Cook Pasta according to package instructions.
2. wash herbs, shake dry and pick leaves from stems. Put aside some for decoration, cut the others in small stripes.
3. Heat butter in pan. Fry herbs in butter, add cream and lemon-juice, let simmer for 4 minutes.

4. Cut salmon in stripes and warm in hot sauce. Add salt and pepper to sauceas you like it.

5. Drain pasta and mix with sauce. Decorate with herbs (or not, see below).

Spaghetti alle Vongole, Fried Calamari-Rings

Ingredients:
Calamari-Rings
Flour
Clams
Tomatoes
Garlic
White Wine
Parsley
Chilis
Spaghetti
Oil (Sunflower and Olive)

Preparation:
The Calamari-Rings, must be covered well with flour, and will then be fried in hot oil. Put on a paper towel to drain off excessive oil and salt.
The Vongole (clams), prior to cooking, must be put in cold salted water where they purge themselves from sand. Throw out crushed clams or clams that are open. Heat olive oil in a pan and throw in clams. They will open and salted water will spill out, so you do not need to add water or salt. Instead, add garlic, parsley, diced tomatoes, white wine and, if you like it hot, finely cut red chili. Let simmer for some time, throw out clams which do not open up. Cook spaghetti and mix with clams. DO NOT, repeat, NOT add cheese. You will be banned for life from entering Italy.

These are the Calamari-Rings

Floured Calamari-Rings

Fried and Salted (I don't know why, but part of the flour-crust always falls off)

Vongole in a sauce of white wine, tomatoes, garlic and Chili

I forgot the parsley, here it is

 Close-Up of Parsley, if you didn't really believe me :-)))

Well, and then the most embarrassing thing happened. We were so hungry that there's no picture of the finished Spaghetti plate. So please use your imagination!!!

Smoked Haddock (Cod) and Pasta in Parsley Sauce

After yesterday's CBC-meal didn't go very well I was anxious to prepare something better tonight. Well, little did I know.... This seems to not be my cook-week at all. Actually I think it was alright, just that I didn't like it very much. The recipe calls for Thyme, and I just found out I do not like that taste.

Well, I made some pictures anyway and I'll share the recipe!

Here's the cookbook. Since this was the only recipe that inspired me and since it turned out to be inspiring, but bad-tasting, that book is useless. Anybody wants it, I'll ship it to you. I think it's quite a nice cookbook, but I'm just not a fan of seafood or elaborate fish-dishes. It's: Linda Doeser "Fabulous Fish in minutes - Quick and healthy inspirations for every meal", Lorenz Books, 1998 (recipe on page 53)

Here are the pages from the book and the close-up of ingredients and preparations. I'm too lazy to type it out. 

Variations I made: I couldn't get Haddock. Nobody seemed to know that fish, so I bought cod instead. Left out the bay leaf and didn't add almonds after cooking.

Here's my plate. Doesn't look that bad, does it?

Risotto with Salmon and Mozzarella-cheese

This was a quick and easy meal. I'm not the biggest fan of rice and especially not of Risotto, but a friend has been eating this again and again for quite some time so I thought I'd give it a try! What can I say? - IT'S AWESOME. And it was just about the first food my baby practically inhaled. Usually she's not the best eater (she likes almost everything, but after a few spoonfuls the just stops eating and instead starts throwing food everywhere...), but this risotto was a big hit. 


Here's the "original" recipe (she got the idea from watching How I met your mother, Season 2, Episode 3, where Barney and Ted's Mother talk about Salmon Risotto - Hey, so TV has some advantages after all...). I made some slight alterations, but see for yourself: 


For 2:
cubes (veggie) for stock/broth
200gr. risotto-rice
1 small onion
(white wine if you like)
150gr. smoked salmon
150gr. buffalo-mozzarella (or normal mozzarella) / Crème Fraiche
lemon juice
dill
salt/pepper


Prepare some stock [broth?] (750ml boiling water and stock-cube according to package or according to how salty you like it - I took the veggie-variety). Turn down heat but make sure the broth remains hot. Cut one small onion into small pieces and fry in butter and olive-oil (equal parts) until light golden. Add about 200gr. Risotto-rice and stir until the rice is covered with the oil/butter. De-glaze with a bit of white wine (I left this step out). Add one ladle of broth and stir gently until the rice has soaked up the liquid. Repeat until you finished the broth or until the rice is cooked (ideally, those two coincide). Add some pepper (I didn't) and about 100gr. smoked salmon (cut into small pieces; I sued more, maybe 150gr.), 1-2 tablespoons Crème Fraiche (I used about 150gr. buffalo-mozzarella, cut into small pieces), a dash of lemon juice and some dill (again, I didn't, I have no idea what it's called in Italy). Since the broth is quite salty you shouldn't need to add salt, but feel free to do so or to add other spices.


Here's the risotto and the baby:

Well, Hello Mr. Gambero

Here are a last few impressions of our super-fishy Holiday-Food:


Seafood















Seafood-Pasta















Hello Mr. Gambero, nice to meet you!