Spaghetti with zucchini

It's been a while but that's because most of the time I'm having something that is already on here or simply not worth publishing. This is a very simple dish; just zucchini, onion, garlic and some cheese (pecorino or parmesan). Enjoy!

Pasta with broad beans

Broad beans are one of the most delicious and easy to grow June greens. You need a lot though because the edible, or rather the tasty, bit is rather small. It is covered with first one thick pod (from which you can make stock if you don't like throwing things away) and then a chewy peel that you should really take off; it's not hard just pop it off between your fingers like when peeling an almond.

The beans have a delicate flavour so don't use strong spices. I used onion, green squash (aka zucchini, courgette) and oregano from the garden.

Almost any short pasta will do but try to pick some with a larger cavity, like gnocchetti sardi, where the beans can hide rather than the one I used.

Gnocchi with cabbage and a side of beetroot

The gnocchi are made from potato, flour and salt. You need to mash the potatoes thoroughly until very smooth. They are quite heavy so you don't need a lot.

I cooked the cabbage with onion, garlic and juniper berries and then added the cooked gnocchi. I'm no expert on cabbage so I don't know what this one is called but it was white but not as pale as white cabbage. I wasn't even sure it was edible at the time but I'm still alive so it must have been.

Incredibly good, try it!

Spaghetti with egg

This is one of the quickest dishes you could ever cook. Nevertheless it is extremely tasty. Just cook the spaghetti until nearly done and then quickly fry, stirring vigorously, with an egg in sauce pan. Add some fresh herbs if you have any.

Cannelloni

Cannello means tube in Italian; consequently these are large tubes. Fill them with anything you want (in this case spinach and cheese), cover with Béchamel sauce - or perhaps a tomato one if the filling is more meaty -and cook in the oven. How to make a tube from a pasta sheet is left to the reader to figure out. Very simple and equally delicious!

Greek salad

Not much to say except that it's difficult to find good olives here. Afterwards remember to shatter the plate on the floor whilst manically swirling around transfixing all women nearby. Then have a glass of retsina before daily football practise (remember: no forward passes). Ela ela!

Continental burgers

It's beef and salad in pita bread. A swift meal on a day filled with teleconferences; as ugly as it gets in other words. All I want is to forget.