Home

Cook with Ellen in Puglia

Join me to discover the authentic flavours and traditional recipes of southern Italy and beyond.

Meet Ellen

Featured Posts

Red cabbage and cauliflower soup

Serves 3 (6/8 if you serve it as a starter) 450 grams purple cauliflower florets 350 grams sliced red cabbage 1 medium onion 1 clove garlic 750ml (approx.) stock or water (if water you’ll need a bit of extra salt and grated cheese) generous handful of grated grana or parmesan cheese 50ml extra virgin olive…

Aperi-lunch 🙂

Everybody in Puglia loves having an ‘aperitivo’. Traditionally it is a glass of something bubbly, usually prosecco, or a non-alcoholic cocktail. Yesterday I served perfectly chilled rosato wine from the Salento region of Puglia….made from handpicked ‘negroamaro’ grapes, it has a delicate pale pink colour and appears to be filled with light …it is divine!…

Olive All’Ascolana (Stuffed Olives)

These fried olives, stuffed with three kinds of meat and cheese, are scrumptious. You can serve them alone as a starter or with a salad and some cold meat as a light lunch. Here I’ve served them with crunchy radishes, parsley pesto and capocollo – if you can’t find capocollo you can use ham or…

Lentils

A plate of lentils will be on the menu in practically every household in Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, to welcome in the New Year. Lentils are the oldest pulses known, and among the earliest crops to be cultivated. Evidence of lentil consumption dating back to 11,000 BC has been found in Greece. The tradition of…

Creamy Cheesy Cucumber Bites

These little bites are great served as part of an aperitivo. Mix 100 grams of cream cheese ( I used goat’s cheese) with a few leaves of cooked spinach…squeeze tightly to get rid of all the water. Zap with an immersion mixer. Put a spoonful onto thickish slices of cucumber…a walnut half on top. Buon…

Peperonata

4 red or yellow peppers 2 teaspoons of capers 1 clove garlic small bunch of parsley extra virgin olive oil salt and freshly ground black pepper Cook the whole peppers on a griddle pan turning regularly until the skin blackens all over (see photo). When they’ve cooled enough to handle cut off the top, if…

Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Basil (and capers if you have any :))

Serves 1 80 grams pasta (I used penne) 8 or 9 daterini tomatoes (or cherry or piccadilly) 1 clove garlic 4 leaves basil (or origano) handful grated parmesan handful fine breadcrumbs salt and freshly ground black pepper extra virgin olive oil I usually put in a teaspoon of capers but I didn’t have any today…it’s…

Mushroom Gratin

Serves 2 300 grams oyster (pleurotus) mushrooms (or any flat mushroom) 2 or 3 cherry tomatoes 1 or 2 cloves crushed garlic small bunch parsley generous handful grated pecorino cheese fine breadcrumbs salt, freshly ground black pepper extra virgin olive oil Clean the mushrooms and position them close together in an oven dish trying not…

Orecchiette Baked in a Pumpkin

I found this gorgeous little butternut squash (750 grams) in my greengrocer’s the other day and apart from the fact that it was lovely to look at, I thought it would make a perfect one-portion container. So yesterday I decided to bake orecchiette in it. I split it in half, took out the seeds and…

Orecchiette e Rape

This medieval dish has been traditional in Bari since the 12th century when the city was under Norman-Swabian domination. The name ‘orecchiette’ means ‘little ears’ and it is so called because the shape of the pasta looks a bit like an ear. Orecchiette come in a variety of sizes, today I used the really big…

Soda Bread….a taste of Ireland for Paddy’s Day

Making soda bread is about the closest I can get to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year with lockdowns and travel restrictions in place both in Ireland and Italy! So I hope you enjoy this little taste of Ireland and Beannachtai’ na Feile Padraig oraibh 🙂 450gr plain flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon bread…

Smoked Salmon and Avocado on Soda Bread Toast

So now that you know how to make soda bread you can try lots of different ways of eating it. I think for St. Patrick’s Day this green, white and gold open sandwich is just perfect. Toast a slice of soda bread and top it with mashed avocado and smoked salmon. Season with crushed black…

Ricotta Lemon and Yoghurt Cake

This cake is simple and delicious, I love it with coffee for breakfast. I’m making it a lot these days because my lemon tree is laden 🙂 The other day I had some ricotta left over and I added it in, the result is great. Hope you like it! 1 tub low-fat natural yoghurt (125…

Coquille San Nicola 😉

This is a recipe I invented a few years ago. I call it Coquilles San Nicola because I use mussels and salmon instead of scallops. Mussels are synonymous with Bari and San Nicola is the patron saint…..hence my inspiration for the name 🙂 1kg mussels (cooked following the recipe for Impepata di cozze) 200gr salmon…

Radish Rocket and Mushroom salad

It is such a pleasure to forage in your own garden 🙂 My garden was a delight this morning after all these days of rain. The rocket seems to have grown overnight 🙂 I didn’t have anything much in the fridge….just three left-over mushrooms and some radishes….so I picked a few leaves of rocket, a…

Fave e Cicorie (Fava Bean Mash with Greens)

Dried Fava Beans (Broad Beans) with Cicorie….a bitter green vegetable that is widely used in Puglia. If you can’t find it where you live you can use chard or spinach. Soak the dried fava beans for about 8 hours in cold water. Drain and place in a saucepan covered by 3 to 4 cm of…

Clams with Couscous – and a surprise ingredient 🙂

Today something a bit different. Actually it’s ‘a bit different’ only because I had decided to cook clams with pasta but when I got home from the shops I realized I didn’t have any pasta – but I did have a packet of couscous with linseeds! The result is delicious and is made even more…

Clam Chowder (light)

I had some clams left over from the Clams and Couscous recipe, so I picked some celery from my garden, defrosted a fish stock that I made last week with the head and backbone of a scorpionfish (rockfish) and I also had a drop of fresh cream in the fridge. I didn’t make a roux…

Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.

All content is the intellectual property of Ellen McCarthy. Copyright © 2021