We have recently returned from our holiday touring round Spain.  For five nights we stayed at the Valencia home of our young Spanish friend Miryam.  Every morning she prepared this simple dish for breakfast.

Serves 2

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
3 large tomatoes
sea salt
extra virgin olive oil

Method
Halve the tomatoes and grate the flesh directly into a shallow dish, discard the skin.  Season to taste with sea salt and a good glug of extra virgin olive oil.  Serve with freshly made toast, left over baguette is ideal.

We’ve now got all the onions into the polytunnels to dry out before they’re put into storage. Next big job: keeping an eye on our ripening squashes and deciding when best to harvest and cure them.

In all the boxes: –
*onions
*tomatoes – yellow, red
*parsley
*cabbage
*courgettes – green, yellow (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
tenderstem  (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*aubergines or peppers
*cucumbers
*mixed lettuce, endive

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated. Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

This delicious recipe, featured in The Guardian recently, is by Rachel Roddy.  I served it with feta cheese crumbled over the top.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
250g dried chickpeas, soaked and cooked, or 400g tinned chickpeas, drained
600g chard
12 cherry tomatoes
6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
2 garlic cloves
salt and black pepper
A handful of parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
Ricotta, feta, goat’s cheese, lamb chops, or a poached egg, to serve

Method
Wash the chard and cut the stems from the leaves, trimming tough ends and pulling away any stringy bits.  Cut the stems into short lengths, then roll the leaves into cigars and chop roughly.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add salt. Add the stems for 1-2 minutes, then add the leaves for a few minutes more or until tender.  Drain.

Warm the olive oil over a medium-low heat.  Peel and crush the garlic for a milder flavour, or slice for a stronger hit.  Add to the pan with the cherry tomatoes.  Fry, squashing the tomatoes gently with the back of a spoon, until they are soft and the oil is tinted red.  Add the chard and stir until it glistens with oil, add the chickpeas and cook for a few minutes more.

Remove from the heat, add the parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, then let it sit for a while.  Before serving, check seasoning, and pour over a little more oil.

Our Golden Nugget squashes have thrived this season in Cornwall. They take only 12 weeks to mature from planting out and were developed in the US to grow as a substitute for sweet potato in areas with a short summer.

In all the boxes: –
*Golden Nugget squash
*tomatoes – yellow or red
*Swiss / rainbow chard
*cucumber
*’Marjorie Seedling’ plums or ‘Katy’ apples (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
beetroot (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*aubergine
*cavolo nero or sprouting calabrese
runner beans (Polmorla Market Garden, Wadebridge)

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated. Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

I’m posting this recipe in solidarity with all those affected by the earthquake in Italy last week which was centred on Amatrice.  More than 600 restaurants across Italy have been putting pasta all’Amatriciana on their menus and donating €2 from each one sold to the Red Cross.  If you are making the tomato sauce from scratch you will need to add another hour to the cooking time. This version is in The Geometry of Pasta by Caz Hildebrand and Jacob Kennedy.

Serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a main

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
200 g rigatoni or penne
120 g guanciale (cured pig’s cheek) or pancetta
a small pinch of crushed dried chilli
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
170 ml tomato sauce (see below)
90 g grated Pecorino Romano or parmesan, to serve

Method
Cut the guanciale or pancetta into 5 mm slices and then 1 cm batons.  Whilst the rigatoni is boiling, place the guanciale in a frying pan over a high heat and fry until fiercely smoking and just starting to colour (it will release plenty of fat, which makes the sauce).  Take the pan off the heat for a few moments (for safety’s sake), add the chilli flakes followed by the tomato sauce, 2 tablespoons of the cooking water and the black pepper.  Bring back to simmering, add the drained pasta and serve with the grated cheese on the side.

Tomato sauce
Ingredients (for 600ml sauce)
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
a small pinch of crushed chilli flakes
500 g ripe vine tomatoes, chopped
500 g tinned tomatoes, chopped or crushed
1/2 rounded tsp fine sea salt

Method
Fry the garlic in the oil until it just begins to colour, then add the chilli flakes, then the tomatoes and salt along with a few grinds of black pepper.  Cook at a brisk simmer until thickened – about an hour.

In all the boxes: –
*basil – green and purple
*tomatoes – yellow or red
beetroot
*mixed lettuce and rocket bag
*courgettes – green and yellow (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
tenderstem or calabrese  (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*cucumbers
*aubergine or green pepper
runner beans (Polmorla Market Garden, Wadebridge)

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated. Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

In all the boxes: –
*tomatoes – yellow and red
*Swiss / rainbow chard
*onions
*mixed lettuce and rocket bag
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
cauliflower (Restharrow)
calabrese (Restharrow)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*broad beans OR French beans
*cucumbers
*radishes

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated. Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

The compact Golden Nugget and green acorn squashes in our veg boxes this week are delicious cut in half, seasoned and roasted. You can enjoy them just as they are as a simple accompaniment to grilled chicken or sausages. The roasted halves are transformed into a more substantial main dish if you fill them with stuffing and roast for a further 15 minutes.

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes – 1 hour

Ingredients
2 Golden Nugget or acorn squash, cut in half lengthwise
50g butter
salt and black pepper
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg or cinnamon

Method
Scrub the squashes clean, then cut in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and soft fibres and score the flesh with a sharp knife to ensure the heat gets to the inside. Dot the cavity with butter and season with salt, black pepper and the cinnamon or nutmeg.

Place the squash halves cut sides upwards in an ovenproof dish. Bake in an oven preheated to 200C/Gas 6 for 45 minutes until the flesh feels tender when pierced with a knife.

For the stuffing:
There are lots of easy ways to stuff squash once you’ve roasted them, depending on what ingredients you’ve got to hand. If you intend to stuff them, omit the nutmeg or cinnamon at the initial roasting stage.

Nigel Slater suggests a spicy caramelised onion filling.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recommends a blue cheese and walnuts or Gruyere cheese and crispy bacon filling.

We all have Golden Nugget squash in our boxes this week. This fast-maturing variety with its deep orange skin and bright golden flesh is ready to cook and eat only 12 weeks after planting. It’s about the size of a grapefruit; cut in half then roasted, it’s just the right size for a single serving.

In all the boxes: –
*Golden Nugget squashes
*tomatoes – yellow or red
*broad beans OR French beans OR peas
*basil – green and purple
*cucumbers
potatoes (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*Swiss chard
cauliflower (Restharrow)

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated. Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

This luscious teatime treat was recommended by a friend on our Facebook page in a conversation about courgette olive oil bread. It comes from Nigella Lawson’s classic How to be a Domestic Goddess, and is reproduced here thanks to Irish community gardening guru Dee Sewell of Greenside Up.

Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients
60g sultanas, optional
250g courgettes (2-3), weighed before grating
2 large free range eggs
125ml organic rapeseed oil
150g caster sugar, sieved
225g self-raising flour
half teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
half teaspoon baking powder

lime curd for filling (buy in shop or make your own)
2 x 21cm sandwich tins, greased and lined

Method
If you’re using sultanas, put them in a bowl and cover with warm water to plump them up.

Wipe the courgettes with kitchen towel (don’t peel them), then grate.  The coarse side of an ordinary grater is best as anything finer or smaller can make them mushy).  When the courgettes are grated turn them into a sieve over the sink to remove excess water.

Put the eggs, oil and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy.  Sieve in the flour, bicarb and baking powder and continue to beat until well combined.  Now stir in the grated courgette and add the drained sultanas.

Equally pour the mixture into the tins and bake for 30 minutes until slightly browned and firm to the touch.  While they’re in the oven, make the icing. When baked, leave the cake in the tins on a rack for 5-10 mins then turn out and allow them to cool. Fill with lime curd and ice the top.

Lime and pistachio icing:
200g cream cheese
100g icing sugar, sieved
juice of 1 lime, or more to taste
2-3 tablespoons chopped pistachio nuts

Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth, add the icing sugar, beating well to combine, then stir in the lime juice to taste. Sprinkle the pistachio nuts over the top.

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