NUTRITIOUS FOOD STARTS AT HOME



www.theminicookingclub.org.uk

Monday 23 June 2014

Nettle pasta recipe by volunteer Annie



It's Summer Recipe month at the Mini Cooking Club! We've got an unusual recipe for nettle pasta to share with you by our cooking volunteer, Annie! Read on.

Being half Italian, I believe I’ve got a keen appreciation for all things food-related, especially when it comes to pasta. I remember my nonna and nonno spending hours together in the kitchen when I was growing up, painstakingly making pasta dough, rolling it through the machine, laying it over the little ravioli trays and filling each square with a delicious spoonful of meaty goodness.

These ravioli (we called them agnolotti) would then be stacked up in our freezer for months to come, ready to be whipped out and cooked up in about five minutes flat. Absolutely scrumptious with a bit of melted butter and some parmesan cheese.

Many years later I’ve managed to acquire a pasta-making machine of my own. Determined not to let it gather dust in my cupboard, I invited my gourmet friend over to help me make stinging nettle and ricotta cheese ravioli the other day.

Sounds a bit dodgy I know, but bear with me because the results are worth it. First step, picking the stinging nettles. We donned a pair of marigolds each and set out to our local park, which is thankfully a haven for the pesky weeds.

Attracting a few weird looks from the local dog-walkers, we stashed a big bunch of nettles safely in a bag and headed for home. After washing the nettles carefully (kept the marigolds on for this) we blanched them in boiling water (they lose their sting from the hot water) before draining and squeezing out the excess water. Then bunged them in the Magimix with 250gm of plain flour and 2 lightly beaten eggs and whizzed it all up together to form the dough.



Before you leave pasta dough to stand, you need to give it a good kneading on a lightly floured surface. This is tricky because if you over-knead it or put too much flour into the mixture, it will become heavy and lumpen and brittle. If you don’t knead it enough or there’s not enough flour then it remains sticky and wet and ends up more on your hands than anywhere else. It’s a bit of a test and learn process really, aiming to get the dough smooth and supple without over-doing it.

While the dough was resting (set it aside for an hour in cling film) we made the filling by whizzing together 700gm of ricotta cheese (surprisingly hard to find), 80gm of parmesan, 2 egg yolks and a pinch of ground nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Then came the fun bit, rolling the pasta. Obviously having watched my grandparents do it umpteen times, I thought we had this in the bag. It’s actually not as easy as they made it look. We ended up with loads of holes in the dough and had to re-run it through the machine a good few times before it started to really smooth out in a satisfyingly elastic way that stretched really well over the mould.

Then it was a simple matter of dolloping in the cheese mixture, a bit of eggwash round the edges to make the top layer of pasta stick and then pressed that into place. The little green ravioli popped out of the mould straight into a waiting pan of boiling salted water and then two minutes later hey presto...


Coated with melted butter, a few leaves of chopped up sage and a good handful of freshly grated parmesan, this was gratifyingly one of the most delicious meals I’ve eaten for a long time!


By Annie Bruzzone

Friday 6 June 2014

Happy volunteers' week!


It's the 30th anniversary of national volunteers' week and the number thirty is their theme. Volunteer Eric Ogbogbo is only 26 so he's a bit too young for that theme, but we'll let him off. Eric has always lived locally in Peckham, which is where he co-runs our Fit Foodie class at the Copleston Centre. He specialises in exercise physiology, and is keen to share his experiences with us.

How did you get involved with the Mini Cooking Club?

I got involved with MCC because I liked the work they were doing with teaching children about healthy cooking. The idea seemed fun and positive and because it was happening in my local area I thought I should get involved and add to the organisation with my expertise in exercise.

What's your favourite part of working with Club? 

My favourite part of working with the MCC is getting the chance engage with the children and seeing them have fun or learn something from the session. Its wonderful when a parent tells me their child has been talking to others about the class or that they have been really looking forwards to coming back. That is all the reward I need and makes it all worthwhile.

How important is it to take part in community activities?

I think we all have a duty to add to our community one way or another. We all have skills or experience that can aid others so it important that we are active in the community to make our society a better places to live in for ourselves, our friends and family going forwards. If we all treated others as we would like to be treated, the world would be a much better place.

How healthy is your lifestyle? Do you exercise regularly and cook from scratch?

I am an exercise physiologist and run my own health and wellbeing company www.oglifestyles.co.uk so I have to be healthy but also it is just a part of my life. I teach people how to live healthily. It can be difficult to navigate with all the bad food and our busy lifestyles but there are simple things anyone can do ensure they exercise regularly and cook from scratch. Exercise should be fun so anything that gets you moving and your heart pumping which you enjoy is great, then food is at the centre of most cultures in the world. Cooking and eating is how we connect and celebrate, and express ourselves so we should look at preparing a meal as a meaningful event then enjoy the proceeds.

How do you come up with the activities for the children to do in the sessions?

I come up with the sessions by asking the children what they want to do the week before then deciding between a few options. I plan out the points I want get across to the children such as teamwork, the importance of cardiovascular fitness, etc then I try to incoporate it into the session. I try to make the sessions organic so I try to get input or decide what direction to take the session in from how the children are responding.

What's your best tip for living a healthy lifestyle?

My best tip for having a healthy lifestyle is; believe that you deserve to be healthy, be consistent and be organised.

Thanks, Eric!

Image: Eric and volunteer Andrew running a Fit Foodie exercise session for the Mini Cooking Club.