Vegan MoFo Day 13 - Free Fridays - Creamy green pasta sauce with homemade gnocchi

This week my theme for Free Friday is called Flashback Friday. Back in my vegetarian days I used to make a decadent cream and parmesan based pasta sauce to serve over potato gnocchi on a semi-regular basis which was a favourite meal with my fellows. The gnocchi was hand made if I could afford the time as it was so much softer and lighter than any gnocchi that came out of a packet. In my early vegan days and prior to discovering the almighty powers of cashews I made a vegan version of the pasta sauce which turned out rather well. This dish had slipped my mind until I started to crave gnocchi recently (my gnocchi cravings are similar to pizza and taco cravings, once they resurface they have to be fuelled).

The creamy sauce used to be stirred through sautéed garlic, mushrooms, spring onions, sun-dried tomatoes and wilted spinach leaves before it was poured on top of the gnocchi. I was all set to recreate it this way until Kari from Bite-sized thoughts posted a recipe for a pureed spinach and white bean pasta sauce recently. I adored the colour in Kari's pasta sauce and even though I still made my own cashew based sauce I changed up the method and blended the spinach in with the rest of the sauce ingredients which resulted in a vibrant green sauce.

The mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes were hidden by this colourful sauce and I will be tempted to omit them next time I make this as the sauce is flavourful enough without them. I loved this sauce so much I won't be waiting until I can bothered making gnocchi again as the sauce would be great with any type of pasta. As I don't have time to post a version of the gnocchi recipe right now, here is the link to the recipe I have referred to for many years which always results in extremely soft gnocchi that almost melts in your mouth.

Creamy green pasta sauce 

½ cup raw unsalted cashews
1 1/3 cups soy milk
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
30 fresh basil leaves
100g baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

Optional extras
100-150g button mushrooms, sliced
50g sundried tomatoes, drained of oil and cut into thin strips
4 spring onions, sliced
freshly cracked black pepper

Place the cashews, soy milk, nutritional yeast, sea salt, Dijon mustard and lemon juice in a blender and process until no chunks of cashews remain and the sauce is smooth. Add the basil and spinach leaves and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides a few times of necessary to incorporate any stray pieces of basil and spinach.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and fry the garlic for 30 seconds or until fragrant and starting to colour slightly. If using mushrooms, add them to the pan and saute until they have softened and released their juices. Pour in the contents of the blender then rinse out the blender jar with ¼ - ½ cup of water and add this to the pan. Stir through the sundried tomatoes and spring onions (if using) and allow the sauce to heat through. Serve with pasta of your choice garnished with freshly cracked black pepper.

Esperance and the drive home

Norseman marks the start/end point of the Nullarbor crossing, from this town there are two main roads leading to Perth. The first is via the historic mining town of Kalgoorlie which we visited on our way over and the other takes you through the seaside town of Esperance. Before commencing our long drive home we planned to spend two nights in Esperance at a caravan park until I made a last minute discovery of some moderately priced pet-friendly accommodation. After an eight hour drive it was great to be able to check-in to the studio unit and not have to bother about unpacking and setting up camp.

Although the unit was equipped with a kitchenette I was tired from the drive on our first night so once again we ate heat and eat curries. Different varieties of the Tasty Bite curries had been available at the majority of decent sized supermarkets, punjab eggplant had remained one of our favourites throughout the trip. It wasn't until Margaret River that I spotted a different brand called Maharajah's Choice. The range in this brand wasn't as diverse, dhal tadka and saffron rice were the only ones I was able to find that were vegan.

Before leaving Cowaramup I picked some silverbeet/swiss chard and spinach from the garden, cooked them together and sealed them in a snap lock bag. The greens were stirred through the dal to provide some additional goodness. I went slightly overboard with the greens as they dominated the dal slightly too much yet I was still able to determine that this brand had a more interesting blend of spices than the Tasty Bite variety. The saffron rice wasn't terribly exciting, it was nowhere near as good as the basmati rice and peas we ate in the Pattu range.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms set in overnight and the weather was still looking very glum the following morning. We had planned to tour around the Esperance beaches some of which have been voted as Australia's best. As the rain looked like it was going to stick around for a while, instead of checking out the local beaches we took an hour long drive to Wharton Beach in the hope that we would out drive the bad weather.

The rain and heavy clouds followed us the whole way although it started to clear a little when we reached Wharton Beach. We had some fun with Ollie on the pristine, isolated beach with the whitest sand I've even seen before hopping in the car and heading back to Esperance. The weather was clearing when we reached Esperance so we took a shorter drive along the coast to marvel at more stunning beaches (top photo - lookout over Blue Haven beach).

Twilight Beach was named Australia's best beach in 2006. The white sands combined with crystal clear waters and tranquil rock surroundings were simply breathtaking. It was one of the only beaches where dogs were not permitted which didn't matter as the beaches just around the corner were equally gorgeous spots where you could exercise dogs.

The man was exhausted after so much driving and given we had to hit the Nullarbor the next day I suggested that he have an afternoon nap while I did some final bits of food shopping, filled up the car with fuel and took Ollie for a last romp at the beach. This was my best solo decision of the holiday as I spotted a pod of dolphins surfing the waves about 50 metres offshore. I watched them in awe and neglected Ollie's ball game until they eventually disappeared. Even though the sky became full of heavy clouds once again, it was the most perfect ending to the trip!

For dinner we ate a big bowl of spaghetti with a bolognese styled sauce topped with grated Vegusto piquant cheese. I usually make this type of sauce with lentils but couldn't find any dried or tinned lentils at a smallish IGA so I bought a tin of 4 bean mix instead. The sauce also included carrots, mushrooms and zucchini with a touch of chilli. I made a big batch of sauce as I figured it might be an easy meal to eat while travelling home.

After departing Esperance we had three full days of driving to get home which also meant two nights of setting and packing up camp. In the afternoon we started discussing possible stop off points for the night and the man asked how I would feel if he kept on driving. The only concern I voiced was regarding wildlife, night driving in these areas is considered extremely dangerous as it's when the animals are most active. Colliding with kangaroos or wild camels has claimed the lives of many drivers. I probably haven't mentioned before now that the man drove the entire time we were away!

Without going into all of the details, we did continue driving and made it home the following evening. Just under 3000 kms in 36 hours and neither of us had a wink of sleep! It was a crazy thing to do and I wouldn't recommend anyone do the same. The drive had some harrowing moments such as almost running out of fuel because there were no 24 hour service stations on the Eyre Peninsula, passing a huge kangaroo on the opposite side of the highway in the middle of the night, big groups of kangaroos grazing by the side of the road in the night, peak hour traffic in Adelaide, long weekend traffic and road works between Adelaide and Melbourne and more peak hour traffic when we made it back to Melbourne. We did manage to have a lengthy stop in a nice park in Adelaide to stretch Ollie's legs as well as our own.

After such a long drive it was wonderful to be home, especially as we had the young man and our cat Monty waiting for us. The entire trip was such an enjoyable travelling experience which has fuelled my passion for further road trips around this vast country. Over the past month we saw kangaroos, emus, dingos, goannas, lizards, frogs, dolphins, turtles, sting rays, colourful reef fish, water birds, birds of prey, parrots and a beautiful owl in Kalbarri. The total distance we travelled was almost 13,000 kms.

That brings me to the end of my travel posts. The emphasis wasn't solely on food so I apologise for that and thank you all for reading along. More food focussed blogging will be back very soon!

Eating out around Perth

After a six hour drive from Kalgoorlie, unpacking the car and driving out to the airport to pick up the young man (he spent six nights with us in Perth before heading back home to start University), a quick meal was in order. I envisaged we would be tired and hungry on our first night in Perth and had printed a menu from Sri Melaka's website so we could pick up some take away food on our way back from the airport to the rental house. Sri Melaka vegetarian restaurant was one of the recommendations Steph suggested when I mentioned my travel plans to Perth. Steph formerly lived in Perth and is now based in Melbourne, so I used her blog as one of my resources for seeking out vegan food.  

Sri Melaka’s menu is Malaysian styled Nyonya cuisine predominately based on mock meat. It was difficult to choose from a large number of dishes as they all sounded fantastic. We ordered Chicken Kapitan, Kangkong Belacan and two of our favourite dishes Mee Goreng noodles and Lamb Rendang. The Chicken Kapitan contained chunks of mock meat and potatoes in a very spicy coconut curry gravy, the Lamb Rendang was 100% mock meat in a thick spicy coconut paste. Mee Goreng had a combination of vegetables, mock prawns and possibly some other form of mock meat I couldn’t identify and the Kangkong was Asian water spinach stir fried with chillies and mock shrimp paste. Every single dish was very spicy and our noses were running by the end of the meal. No-one could pick a favourite as we thoroughly enjoyed them all. I’ve been to a few Asian mock meat restaurants around Melbourne but none of them have managed to serve up food as delicious as this! It cost a little over $50 and there were enough leftovers to provide the three of us with a light lunch so it was also very good value.   

After reading about the Thai Vegan stall located at the Fremantle markets on Happy Cow, I put it high on my must visit list. I’ve travelled to Thailand a couple of times and haven’t been able to enjoy Thai food in Melbourne restaurants since. A reviewer on Happy Cow piqued my interest by mentioning that the food was that best they had eaten outside of Thailand. The stall is open on market days (Friday to Sunday) and is managed by two lovely women who were run off their feet pounding fresh herbs and spices, stir-frying and preparing fresh salads in addition to taking many orders. There are only a couple of seats to eat at the stall but there is a park nearby as well as plenty of benches in the surrounding streets.

In addition to a few precooked deep fried snacks, the menu is largely based on Thai salads, soups and noodle dishes (priced between $7 - $11). The man had left me to organise our food while he waited outside with Ollie and the young man ventured off to eat whatever he pleased. Salads are usually not popular with the man yet I recalled that he enjoyed the ones we ate in Thailand and boldly ordered a Larb salad, two spicy tofu sticks and a Pad Se Ew noodles. Somehow I managed to order an extra noodle dish which may have been due to the noise level in the markets and my substandard hearing. The amount of heat can be varied to your personal taste so I ordered all of our meals to be spicy.

The spicy tofu sticks ($3 each) consisted of three triangular pieces of crispy tofu on skewers, they were slightly disappointing as they didn't live up to their name in the spice department yet they were tasty enough to enjoy as a starter. The Larb salad was made up of lettuce, spinach, carrot, green papaya and cucumber topped with soy mince and was bursting with fresh flavours of lemongrass, chilli, coriander, mint and lime. It reminded us of the fantastic salads we had eaten in Thailand and I was thrilled that my brave selection turned out to be a success. Pad Se Ew was full of an assortment of vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, cabbage and bean sprouts) as well as nicely seasoned tofu and lovely wide rice noodles. I think the extra noodle dish was called Rad Na, it had the same vegetables, tofu and noodles as Pad Se Ew yet it contained more sour flavours and it was spiciest dish of the lot. We loved both of the noodle dishes although the man said that the Rad Na was verging on being too spicy for him.    

Perth is fortunate to have a couple of Loving Hut restaurants which are located a suburb apart from each other. Loving Hut at Victoria Park is open for lunches (Wednesday to Sunday) and weekend breakfasts and East Victoria Park is open for dinners (Wednesday to Sunday). I had looked at both of their online menus and after mentioning to the man that there was an opportunity to eat pizza with vegan cheese he was super keen to drive across and get some take away food.

The menu begins with Asian entrees, mains are a combination of Asian meals, pasta dishes and pizza. They also offer a range of desserts and like all of the stores in the Loving Hut chain, everything on the menu is vegan. We were in the mood for pizza and pasta, the entrees also sounded great so we ordered way too much food! The spring rolls and samosas were both good but it was the crispy bites (above) that were the most popular starter. These pieces of mock meat coated in a slightly spicy batter and deep fried may not have been the healthiest choice but boy did they taste good! I've been requested to pull out the deep fryer and recreate this at home one day.

While the vegan pizza had been a draw card, it ended up to be slightly disappointing. The base wasn't great, it was thin but the edges were not rolled out evenly and it was unlike a base you would get from a pizza shop. The vegetable toppings of capsicum, mushrooms, spinach and pineapple were fine but there was a scant quantity of Notzarella cheese covering them. By the time we demolished this amount of food we were too full to tackle the pasta dishes and put them aside for next days lunch. We enjoyed ravioli with a tomato based sauce and I was less impressed with spaghetti carbonara with mushrooms as I thought the sauce had a weird flavour but the man seemed to enjoy it. Loving Hut's strengths may be in their Asian meals given the success we had with the entrees. We paid $64 for three entrees, a pizza and two pasta dishes which was pretty good value.

Beautiful dog beach at Swanbourne which had a clear blue sky every day

The Naked Fig in Swanbourne boasts a lovely view across the ocean and was on our daily walking route from our accommodation to the closest dog beach. It is one of three trendy restaurants in Perth, their other locations are in Swanbourne and Fremantle and each of them has a dedicated vego night. We ordered take away soy lattes (with extra shots of coffee) from The Naked Fig twice after early morning swims. We decided not to return as the wait times were 15 minutes one day, over 20 minutes the following day and the coffees were very weak and milky, apparently made with St Ali coffee beans from Melbourne. It was a shame as The Naked Fig had a vegan breakfast on their menu and veggie burgers with vegan options for lunch and dinner.

Ollie waiting for the ball to be thrown in the ocean (yet again)

There were several other eateries I had wanted to visit but was most disappointed that we didn't make it to Heavenly Plate in Applecross as Kari's pre-wedding high tea sounded amazing as did Steph's dining experience there. The man spent half of his childhood growing up in Perth and was astounded by the amount of vegan food that is on offer these days. Vegans who are planning a trip to Perth should check out the following blogs for heaps of food options around town: Vegan4Life, Bite Sized Thoughts, vegan about town and Vegan Sparkles as well as Happy Cow.

2012 - The unblogged edition

The 18th January marks the anniversary of my blog which has been going for two years now. During 2012 I only managed to publish 101 posts, which was a bit lower than 138 posts in 2011. Challenges on and off throughout the year prevented me from writing as much as I would have have liked and ever since Ollie's arrival in July a lot of my usual free time has been devoted to training and exercising him (which is very rewarding, good exercise and lots of fun). Although it wasn't the most productive year in the blogging sense, there were many recipes from other blogs I tried along the way so here's a round up of a few I can recall (with photos of ones I've been able to locate).  

Post Punk Kitchen - Chesapeake tempeh cakes. Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe posted about this recipe at a time when I was struggling to like tempeh much at all. I found the tempeh in these tasty little "crab" cakes to be very enjoyable although I wasn't particularly fond of the remoulade drizzled on top. I must make these again soon!

Seitan is my motor - Pasta with walnut, mushroom and tempeh sauce. This recipe was given high praise from vegan about town and where's the beef so I was keen to give it a try. Unfortunately it wasn't a winner for us, we didn't enjoy the tempeh in this meal and the flavour of the walnuts in the sauce were too strong for our tastes, so I'll stick to using cashews in creamy pasta sauces.

Holy Cow - Aloo posto. The man and I have a similar distaste for potatoes in curries so I generally steer clear of these types of recipes. I was intrigued by Vaishali's potato based curry as I had never seen a poppy seed paste in a curry previously so I made the recipe with cabbage instead. Even though my blender struggled to break down the poppy seeds completely it was still a very enjoyable dish which my extended family enjoyed too.

Fat Free Vegan - Okara crab cakes. This is an older recipe from Susan V's archives I stumbled upon when searching for okara recipe ideas after making home made tofu. I added the upper end of the stated amount of Old Bay Seasoning (purchased from USA Foods) which resulted in a strong peppery flavour that none of us were particularly fond of.

Inspired eats- Pan fried shiitake mushroom bacon. I was curious to see if a recipe that listed so few ingredients (mushrooms, oil, salt) would actually taste like bacon. The flavour was quite impressive given there was no liquid smoke or smoked paprika involved and they tasted great on baked potatoes with a spicy noochy sauce. It hasn't replaced my favourite tofu bacon but it was fun to try out another facon recipe.

Diet, dessert and dogs - Greek inspired chickpea scramble and Quinoa pizza balls. Both of these recipes tasted fantastic, the chickpea scramble made with besan was full of delicious Mediterranean flavours and is a great alternative to a regular tofu scramble. The quinoa and bean based pizza balls flavoured with tomato paste and herbs turned out a little softer than I expected but they were still lovely to snack on.

Sweet Roots - Coconut milk cheddar - There is something about coconut products that just doesn't work with my palate and I really need to stop experimenting. Heavily spiced coconut based curries are about the only savoury meals where I enjoy coconut and anything else just doesn't appeal. The coconut flavour in this cheese was way too strong for my liking and put me off vegan cheese making for a while.

Wheres the beef - Kentucky Fried Tofu. Cindy's not so secret blend of herbs and spices in this recipe that was written up in the Planet VeGMeL zine last year was really delicious and rather simple to prepare for a slightly indulgent nostalgic meal.

Tales of a Vegan Food Fetishist / Wrapped in Pastry - I'm a huge fan of Leigh Drew's recipes and was rapt to get my guys on board with split peas in her garlic lemon dal recipe as they usually associate split peas with soup. The man and young man were also highly impressed with the Subway style "meatball" subs I made early last year. Pate en croute and pissaldiere (bottom right in the photo above) from Leigh's latest cookbook Wrapped in Pastry were popular at family Christmas gatherings last year. I loved both of these recipes but the man wasn't crazy about the pate en croute.

Vegan Dad - Corned Beef. The man used to have a penchant for corned beef back in the day so I gave this version a try. I wasn't able to track down all of the ingredients and made a couple of substitutions which may have contributed to it's failure. The accompanying white sauce with capers I whipped up wasn't fantastic either. I was sad to read recently that Vegan Dad has farewelled the blogging world as I've enjoyed several recipes from his blog over the years.

Vegan about town - Dan dan mian. I was really disappointed that the man didn't share my enthusiasm for this delicious bowl of noodles and tempeh in a super spicy broth as I was so happy to find another tempeh dish that I enjoyed. We usually have similar tolerances to chilli but on this occasion it was too spicy for him and perfect for me. Perhaps if it's toned down a fraction I may have better success next time?

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I would like to finish this post with a huge thank you to all readers of this blog, everyone who has tried a recipe or two, readers that have left me a comment during these years and the many people I have connected with through regular comments on my blog as well as their own. It really means a lot and all of the feedback I receive is much appreciated. I hope you are looking forward to another year of posts with plenty more stopovers from around the world to come!

Favourite foods from 2012

Happy belated new year to all my readers! I hope everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable and restful festive season full of delicious food.

Apologies for such a lengthy break between posts, it feels like ages since my last post was published and I'm also way behind in responding to reader comments as well as reading other blogs. After my family Christmas obligations ended, we spent a few days away camping in the bush which was relaxing as we spent our days swimming, playing with Ollie and watching the different native birds in the area. Instead of being rejuvenated by the camping experience, I picked up a bug just after we got home (the first illness I've had in over 2.5 years!) and have been feeling extremely worn out after dragging myself back to work last week. Now that my head is finally feeling clearer, it's time to get back on track with the first of a couple of posts I've been working on to sum up 2012 in my kitchen.

Favourite soup - Smoky cauliflower (and tofu bacon) soup. With or without tofu bacon this simple blended soup has become a household favourite. Red lentils are a sneaky ingredient to provide the soup with added protein and make it a more substantial bowl.

Favourite Mexican meal - Tofu adobe with refried beans. This has become our standard Mexican meal, when Mexican is requested this is what my fellows are after! We pile refried beans from Viva Vegan along with Tofu with adobe paste (from the Tofu Xpress recipe booklet) onto tortillas with some lettuce, tomato, cashew cream, guacamole and hot sauce. There's an art to how much filling you can load in the tortillas before they become a very messy eating experience.

Favourite meal that can be served anytime of the day - Mexican inspired tofu scramble. I've been making this scramble for such a long time and it never fails to satisfy our taste buds. It's loaded up with heaps of veggies and beans and pairs well with toast for an easy dinner or wrapped into tortillas for breakfast burritos.

Favourite fried food - Tofu “fish” fingers with tartare sauce. We adore Bryanna Clark Grogan's tofu "fish" recipe and have scoffed them down on a few occasions. I also tried a baked version with a polenta coating but they turned out rather dry so I recommend shallow or deep frying them for the the ultimate eating experience.

Favourite finger food - Gobi (cauliflower) pakoras are superb when paired with a coriander chutney from Vegan Eats World. I made these a few times by frying them in a wok and have been meaning to make them again in our relatively new deep fryer.

Favourite noodles - Steph from vegan about town's Char Kueh Teow recipe isn't actually restricted to our favourite noodle dish of 2012, it first appeared in my kitchen in 2011 and has been on semi-regular rotation since. It's a super tasty meal for minimal effort.

Favourite quick meal – Smoky Alfred with broccoli, asparagus, spinach or broad beans. I've been making this pasta dish for years (originally based on Hurry Up Alfredo in Vegan Yum Yum) and we never tire of it for a speedy weeknight meal. I change it up frequently by adding in some seasonal greens and enjoy it with tofu bacon on occasion too.

Favourite from around the world posts - Sri Lankan pan rolls. Although they took a couple of attempts to perfect, I've been very happy with my version of these deep fried snacks that we used to enjoy years ago. Stay tuned for another delicious Sri Lankan snack soon which I've been playing around with recently.

Favourite sweet - Sfoof (Semolina cake) and Chocolate chip cookies. As I rarely feel the urge to eat sweet things I'm leaving this one up to my fellows. Bryanna Clark Grogan's semolina cake with lemon or lime syrup from World Vegan Feast was the definite winner for the man last year, when he is craving a cake this is what he always asks me to make. The young man's choice is slightly more mundane, chocolate chip cookies are his fave which is fairly predictable coming from a teenage boy.

Number 1 household favourite - Calzones. The regularity of our calzone nights has dropped back from fortnightly to about once a month but they are still without a doubt the recipe I am requested to make if I ask the others what they feel like eating. I can't imagine them disappearing from meal rotations in the near future either!

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 11 - Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan doesn't have a lot of vegetable based dishes to offer in their cuisine. Their people were mainly nomadic until around 100 years ago so meat was traditionally a large part of their diets and still remains this way today. A dish called oromo can be served with or without meat so I decided to give this one a try as it sounded like an interesting thing to make. I remembered to take a few photos along the way to talk you through the process of making oromo.  

Oromo is an unleavened dough that is stuffed, rolled into a coil and then steamed. The dough is mixed/lightly kneaded until it becomes smooth and then it is rested for 30 minutes. After the resting period, the dough is rolled into a rectangular shape with a thickness of 2-3mm.

After spreading the carrot, potato, lentil and onion mixture on the dough, the dough is rolled up tightly into a long log.

This log is curled it into a coil shape, which is steamed for 30 minutes. The oromo is cut into pieces and served with tomato puree with spices or yoghurt mixed with greens and spices.

The word around our table was that the meal was interesting and I did have to agree with that sentiment. It wasn't spectacular, nor was it completely boring or bland yet I can't say it's something I would be rushing back to make this way again. I really did enjoy preparing this meal as it was such a different cooking experience so I'm pleased to have stopped over in Kyrgyzstan!


Oromo (Adapted from National Cuisines of Kyrgyzstan)

Dough

250g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon Orgran egg replacer mixed with 1 tablespoon water
100ml warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt

Place the flour in a large bowl. Dissolve the salt into a jug with warm water. Pour the water and egg replacer into the flour and mix with your hands until it becomes a smooth dough. Use additional flour if the dough is too sticky. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Filling

1/3 cup puy lentils
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 small carrots (200g), peeled and grated
1 medium potato (200g), peeled and grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place the lentils in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Drain in a colander then place in a bowl with the onion, carrots, potato, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.

Assembly

Roll the dough into a large rectangular shape to a thickness of about 2-3mm. Spread the filling on the dough leaving 1-2cm of the edges plain. Roll the dough into a long log with your hands. Take one end of the dough and curl it up into a coil.

Steam for 30 minutes.

Cut into serving size pieces and serve with spiced tomato sauce.

Spiced tomato sauce

400ml tomato passata (pureed tomatoes)
pinch cayenne pepper
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped

Place the tomato passata and cayenne pepper in a small saucepan and heat gently. Season with salt and pepper. Stir through parsley just before serving.

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Did you know?

Over 70% of Kyrgyzstan is made up of mountain terrain and there are a total of 88 mountain ranges in the country.

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.