Silk handkerchiefs with cavolo nero and hazelnut pesto

Plus my go-to cherry tomato focaccia

Silky pasta with a vibrant autumnal pesto!

Hello lovely subscribers!

I originally planned to send recipes fornightly, but I am loving writing and sharing here so you may receive additional newsletters with new recipes, like this one today!

Last week we finished shooting my new cookbook (I can’t wait to share more!)

I cooked all week long and although I did need a little break on Saturday, yesterday I was really craving to be in the kitchen again. After the shopping at the market, I wanted to make something slow and simple. The result were these two beautifully-satisfying dishes which we ate for dinner. Probably my favourite things to make in the kitchen are those which require some sort of dough or pastry. I find it incredibly mediative and although the process can take a little time, the ingredients are usually few and the results are beautiful. High reward kind of cooking.

The first of the recipes is my go-to focaccia. I bake it in an oval copper dish, which I use for many things like chicken tray bakes, roasting fruit and potato gratin. It was an investment, but totally worth it! This focaccia is inspired by the ones you find in Puglia, made with semolina flour. This one is topped with cherry tomatoes and some torn zucchini flowers which I had growing in the garden. The trick to the focaccia is doing some folds as it rises which gives the dough a good chew and airiness, lots of extra virgin olive oil (more than you think) and quite a hot oven. I served it with some extraordinary buffalo mozzarella I had left over from the shoot. YUM!

Crispy top and bottom, soft fluffy insides!

The second recipe is some fresh pasta, it’s my staple recipe which is the common 100 g of flour and 1 egg per person. I made them into handkerchiefs or fazzoletti in Italian. They hail from Liguria and are basically large squares of pasta which are commonly dressed with pesto or can even be stuffed and then baked. They’re a great shape to make if you are short-ish on time. If you are making fresh pasta from scratch, you probably have a little time, but sometimes the thought of turning out hundreds of small pasta shapes or hand rolling something can be a little overwhelming. Fazzoletti are rather speedy to make and make for very good eating. If you don’t want to make your own pasta, simply swap for some pappardelle, tagliatelle or trenette, if you can find it. I am wary of suggesting buying fresh lasagne sheets and cutting them, as lasagne sheets are often rolled a little thicker so I suggest either making your own or using dried!

The pesto is a great one moving into the cooler months and uses quite a bit of cavolo nero! While basil pesto or pesto alla genovese is, I think much nicer, made in a mortar and pestle (so the basil leaves don’t darken), this is not the case with this cavolo nero which can be pulsed in a food processor. I still went the mortar and pestle route, but I like to give options!

Happy cooking,

Julia x

Focaccia ready to be baked. Don’t be shy with the olive oil here!