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My week started with a surprise delivery from my Mum. A box of ingredients from Ottolenghi was sent for no reason other than that she wanted me to be able to cook the same recipes that she is making at home in Sydney during their lockdown. It reminded me of something I wrote in my diary a few years ago; I can’t be with you, but I’ll taste what you taste. I can't call when I want because I wake when you rest. You’ll be drinking coffee while I’m drunk on wine but we can always cook the same thing.

So next week I'll make the dishes we've been discussing over the phone (starting with her pistachio pasta) and in this, we'll feel the distance dissolve. Wanting to feed people you love isn't something that shifts with separation. It's why all those years ago I began to photograph what I cooked. Each image I sent to Mum was an invitation of recreation. Because in that first moment of taste, it's like we are in each other's kitchens. 

Today marks seven months of Sundays that have been spent writing this newsletter and it has become the greatest joy in my life. This week I'm writing from a hotel room in Somerset having just finished a bottle of local English wine. I've just sent Mum a photograph of a dessert I ate for lunch today, a pannacotta with a gooseberry jam. I'll spend the day tomorrow searching for a jar to send to Sydney so she can make one too.

I hope you enjoy this week's edition and thank you for reading. 

 

Conchiglioni with Ricotta and Aubergine
in a Tomato & Bay Sauce

A few years ago I went on a work trip to Corsica. I was there to write about the cuisine that makes it so special. This island, while technically part of France, is just off the coast of Italy; you can see Sardinia from its shoreline. For 500 years, it was part of the Genoese Empire, until it was sold to the French in 1768 – and you can taste every one of those five centuries in its food.

On one night in the hilltop town of Bonafacio, we went to a restaurant to eat stuffed mussels and spiny rock lobster. The waiter told me that I must try the signature dish, so special to this town that it’s named after it, Aubergine Bonifacio. Large purple aubergines are stuffed with local brocciu cheese (a soft ewe’s milk cheese similar to ricotta), along with bread, garlic, and herbs before being baked in a tomato sauce perfumed with bay leaves.

This dish is inspired by that night and the tastes of Corsica. Soft aubergine and roasted garlic cloves are stirred through ricotta before being stuffed inside pasta shells and baked in a tomato sauce full of fragrant bay leaves. I know lots of you back in Australia are in lockdown again and I wanted the recipe this week to have a mediative quality to it so this is what I thought would work well across both hemispheres. Slowly filling this seashell-shaped pasta with a glass of something good within reach is my idea of unwinding. This recipe serves two or me alone when I'm very hungry, but double the recipe if you fancy because it freezes well. 
For the shells:
  • 250g of Conchiglioni or any large pasta you can fill
  • 1 large aubergine
  • 3 big cloves of garlic
  • 250g of ricotta
  • A few tablespoons of grated parmesan
  • A teaspoon of lemon zest
  • A generous pinch of salt
For the sauce:
  • Half a white onion 
  • A clove of garlic
  • A little olive oil
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 300ml of passata
  • A pinch of red pepper flakes
Just before you pop it in the oven:
  • Some torn up mozzarella

Start with the sauce and finely chop the onion and garlic before sautéing in a little olive oil until it's translucent. Add the bay leaves into the oil and let them sizzle for a minute or so until you can smell their fragrance throughout the kitchen. Pour over the passata and season with a pinch of salt and red pepper flakes. Let this simmer for thirty minutes or so, add a little water along the way so it doesn't reduce too much. 

Turn your oven up as high as it can go and wrap the aubergine and garlic cloves up inside some foil. Roast them for half an hour until they're soft. In a mixing bowl add in the ricotta, parmesan, lemon zest, salt, and stir through the roasted garlic and aubergine. Put a pot of salty water on to boil and cook your Conchiglioni only for half the time of the packet instructions. You just want to soften each shell so they're easier to stuff but not cook them the whole way through. When they're done, drain them and drizzle over a little olive oil so they don't stick together as they cool.

Ladle a spoonful of the tomato and bay sauce into the bottom of a baking dish. When the shells are cool enough to handle, spoon a generous teaspoon of the ricotta and aubergine mix inside each shell. Place the stuffed shells inside the baking tray and when it's full pour over the rest of the sauce. Dot the top of the dish with mozzarella and bake for thirty minutes until the it is golden. 

The First Time I Ate An Oyster by Alicia Kennedy

Good writing lingers long after you've first read it, great writing is something you want to read and return to over and over again because you can't stop thinking about it. This piece by Alicia Kennedy is something that I revisit to reread often. On grief, rage, appetite, and oysters, it is spectacular and is the sort of writing I want to print onto a page and hold close. You can read it here and I know you'll feel the same. If you're not already, you should subscribe to her newsletter here

A few months ago when I was feeling uninspired by cooking it was a recipe for pillow soft Nigerian Milk Bread that got me back into the kitchen. Yinka is the most extraordinary cook and creator and uses her British-Nigerian roots to inspire the recipes she develops. While chatting to her for this newsletter I also found out that she's an inventor and lived in Boston designing barbecues including the Kettle Joe and SloRoller (seriously so so cool!). I think Yinka is one of the most inspiring people in food right now and if there was anyone who could get me building a barbecue on my balcony it's her just so I can make these smoky mussels cooked on embers.

What's the one ingredient that can instantly improve any meal?
Vinegar! When I’m cooking, the first thing I usually make is a quick pickle. It’s a welcome burst of acid. To me, vinegar straddles the gap between wine and citrus juice because it’s aged but still fruity. I’ll use it to deglaze a roasting pan, in salsas, in chocolate ganache even. My secret ingredient in an underwhelming soup is a bit of vinegar and caster sugar. It adds some depth.

Rice, pasta, or bread?
Bread. I’m betraying my Nigerian roots, rice is a very close second. I'm biased because I just baked bread. It wasn’t my best, I'm getting to know this new oven. Who cares?! My home smells like fresh bread. There is no greater joy. Breadcrumbs currently have a chokehold on my kitchen. I toast them with olive oil and rosemary and put them on everything.

The queen of BBQ condiments is?
Mustard. It’s so versatile. From a ribs marinade to a potato salad, to a tart slaw, it has a place in every BBQ. I’m a Grey Poupon snob, only because it’s mentioned in a lot of Hip Hop music.  

Your desert island dessert is?
Hot caramel brownie sundae. If I'm stuck in a desert, I want four desserts in one. I want ice cream dribbling down my fingers as the sun beats down on my face. Sundaes are underrated.  

One thing you wished more people used/or did in their cooking?
Browned things for long enough. Caramelisation and the Maillard reaction do incredible things to food. I like to grill cabbage until it’s charcoal black at the tips, that’s where the flavour is. My favourite meals involve some element of fire and burn.

Most used item in your kitchen?
My pestle and mortar. I love grinding spices and marinades. It’s also a great serving dish for dips or dressing. Mine is very heavy: great for weighing down aubergine or doing squats.

Thank you Yinka! Follow her on Instagram
here and you'll be recreating her incredible cooking soon like this Spicy Korean Aubergine and keep your eyes peeled for her supper club, Goat.


A week's worth of menu ideas featuring the best crepes to make for a fancy feeling weekend breakfast and quick comfort meals for the middle of the week. 
Start the week with a simple dish of Salmon with Buttered Garlic Corn. With ten cloves of garlic and lots of butter you really can't go too wrong. 
Any recipe that is generous with capers is one that I know I'll love and I really like the idea of frying them to put in this Tomato Cucumber Salad.
Comfort is key for middle-of-the-week cooking. You can't beat this dish of Ditalini with Chickpeas and Garlic Rosemary OilTry it with white beans if you don't have chickpeas on hand. Also, an anchovy or two draped on top is always a welcome addition. 
It doesn't matter what you make to go with Nigella's Tuscan Fries and it doesn't matter if they are the entire meal because they will be the best thing you make all week. I like them alongside a grilled steak and a tarragon heavy green salsa.
Diana Henry is a woman after my heart due to our shared devotion to peaches. This recipe for Peaches with Peach and Wine Granita is pure perfection for a summer dessert. 
 
Wake up on the weekend and make a batch of Ravneet Gill's Crepes. I did last weekend and served them with a caramelised banana and some crushed macadamias. 
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