Wednesday 9 December 2015

Bugger 3 Michelin stars.



Pukka peasant food is usually the most simple and tasty of all the world's popular dishes.

Take whatever is at hand; i.e. grows (or is reared) in the garden. Combine in a simplistic way, wash down with basic wine, and you have the makings of a classic dish.

Pizza, Bubble-n-Squeak, Irish Stew, Pasta, etc, are all preferable in my book to 'Dove livers (3 ways) with a sea-food foam, wilted air-grown miniature leaves, all set on a bed of wild Lithuanian berries'. No thanks.

Simple Pizza last night; you'd never get one like this at Michel Guérard's 'Les Prés d'Eugénie'.


35 comments:

  1. That looks AMAZING! And I agree 100% about simple food prepared at home being the best!

    I made a delicious slow simmered pot roast tonight for dinner. It was just the thing for a chilly winter evening!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Everyday food should be simple, easy to prepare, not too expensive, and DELICIOUS. Yesterday's pizza did all that.

      Delete
  2. Oh, Wow ! Looks delicious Cro, did you make the base too?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have to admit that I didn't. I should have, I know, but I'm rather lazy.

      Delete
  3. I somehow cant think of pasta as being home cooking. You tip some plastic shapes from a cellophane packet into boiling water and after 10 minutes you strain out some rubbery shapes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The home-cooking bit with pasta is the sauce. It can either be smotheringly ghastly, or simple and delicious.

      Delete
    2. I do love your pizza though and now make one every week from your recipe. I can see the anchovies, yum yum.

      Delete
  4. I always buy pasta and sauce made in italy and wonder if it has the "real" tast, what ever it is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good quality dried pasta is good the world over.... I'm not so sure about bought sauces.

      Delete
  5. Home cooking beats everything else and, as you say, the simpler the better. I used to make a lot of pizzas before going gluten free. Must find a recipe for a good gf base.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That one does look delicious.

      Delete
    2. The combination of tomatoes, mozzarella, anchovy, and olives, never fails.

      Delete
  6. Oh I do so agree - your pizza looks so good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was delicious. For us it's usually a summer dish, but just as good in winter.

      Delete
  7. Oh yum that pizza looks amazing. I used to be the local "Pizzaman" in the 90's and couldn't keep up with the orders! Until I went to Africa! For pasta dishes I use dried pasta but make my own sauce.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They're great for hungry hoards, especially if you make your own dough. Dried pasta is the daily choice of all Italians. When in Rome....

      Delete
  8. A few simple ingerdients and ' voila ' , a delicious pizza is made..... mind you, I wouldn't mind tasting a couple of dove's livers with a seafood foam just for research purposes !!!!!!!!! XXXX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Simple is usually best.... I'm not so sure about the dove livers!

      Delete
    2. Cro, I was unaware that Italians eat dried pasts! You taught me something. I would love a pasta machine, but as a vegetarian, I eat lots of pasta in all shapes and textures, so the dried version is far more practical.

      Delete
  9. That pizzza looks to me like the food of the gods Cro. Do you make your own bases or do you buy them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I buy them Weave; my local supermarket sells a wonderful herb-rich pizza dough which is perfect.

      Delete
  10. I have found recently that we cook better at home than the food we are served in restaurants.

    Do the anchovies melt in slightly? I have seen them on a puff pastry base with lots of onions in Aubetterre sur drone when we stayed there. it was delicious. I might try my hand at making it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm afraid it's becoming a sad truth about home versus restaurant cooking. I blame the celebrity chef culture; every tom dick and harry thinks he can be a top class chef. He can't.

      Delete
  11. Some of my best meals are done in a slow cooker with what I have on hand in my fridge. Simple, healthy, and a wonderful aroma that fills up my home for the day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Slow cooking in winter is probably the best of all. It also means we can use cheaper cuts of meat that become really tender.

      Delete
  12. I subscribe to your simple home cooking preference, and try to use ingredients available seasonally in the weekly farmers market. It's now the end of tomato season here...a sad time, but lots of other choices have appeared. (I admit to using sun-dried tomatoes in winter sauces.)

    Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love sun-dried toms, there's always a jar around somewhere.

      Delete
  13. Pizza is one meal we purchase instead of creating at home. It is a small local family owned business since the 50's and it is wonderful. Made half vegetarian half meat lovers special.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We used to have a nearby pizza restaurant with it's own pukka wood fired oven etc. Sadly it's now closed, but their pizzas were as good as one could get.

      Delete
  14. Home made pizza is great, throw what ever you want on. Love that work Pukka, Indian derivation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've just used it again above. It doesn't seem to have a better alternative.

      Delete
  15. I adore food in Athens Greece, all simple with lemon juice. Lamb, fish, chicken, all barbecued . Served with simple salad n feta cheese, olives. Tourists get chips , but I speak a little Greek, no chips , little taramousalata, tzaziki, n salad.yummmmmmmm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've not been to mainland Greece; only to the islands where the food was wonderfully simple and delicious.... all washed down with lots of Retsina, of course.

      Delete
  16. OMG! For an unwilling GF/DF eater, that looks worth dying for! Totally agree on the simple dishes being the best.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...