Three Delicious Recipes for the Weekend from Skye McAlpine
Food that was made for caring and sharing, why not try three of Skye's favourite recipes and treat someone you love this weekend
With chapters devoted to how food can comfort, seduce, spoil and cocoon, Skye McAlpine's A Table Full Of Love has exactly the right recipe for every moment.
Pollo alla Pizzaiola
While chicken breast is undoubtedly an easy, quick and uncontroversial option for supper, I find it often to be quite disappointing: a little bland, usually dry and just a bit boring. Except when cooked this way: the meat is browned, then lightly poached in rich tomato sauce so it stays exquisitely tender, and each piece comes enrobed in a blanket of melting mozzarella cheese. Absolutely essential with this is some crusty bread for wiping up all the juices on your plate. And depending on your mood, you might also want a light salad or a few greens.
Rhubarb and Cheddar Tart
This travels most easily on the tray it was baked on, just covered with reusable food wrap. It keeps for up to two days in the fridge, just warm gently in the oven to serve. It's the Valentine's sugar-pink of the rhubarb, blushing under a blanket of melted Cheddar, that makes this feel like romantic food for me; though it's the flavour - rhubarb's intense earthy sourness counterbalanced by rich buttery pastry and melting cheese - that makes me long to eat it. As much as you might associate rhubarb with puddings and nursery fare, don't be fooled: this is very much a savoury business and also very much a 'grown-up' dish. I'll be honest: the portions here are more than generous for two, but to make half a tart seems mean, and this is one of those dishes that everyone always eats more of than seems sensible, so I prefer to err on the side of plenty. And while it really does taste its very best warm straight from the oven, the cheese melting in your mouth, I nonetheless always look forward to leftovers.
White Chocolate and Pistachio Tortini
These will keep in the freezer in their little ramekins for three months. Make sure to include a note with baking instructions, if you're dropping them off as a gift. A wonderfully fudgy dessert somehow in the same family as sticky toffee pudding. The tortino or 'little cake' is made from white chocolate, which gives it that intensely dense texture, then baked at its centre is a dollop of melting sweet pistachio cream. This you can buy in jars - most Italian delicatessens or specialist online suppliers stock it - or make for yourself. I love white chocolate and pistachio together, but you could equally substitute a dollop of chocolate-hazelnut spread for the pistachio cream. Once prepared, these need to rest in the freezer for a few hours, so you do need to think ahead; but on the flip side you can make them in advance and have them ready to pop in the oven when needed.
