Saffron Roasted Tomatoes with Labneh and Triple Tomato Quinoa Risotto with Black Olives & Feta

For the first time since I started this blog, some five and a half years ago, I'm experiencing some serious writer's block.  I've been trying to write this post for the last week, and every time I sit down at the desk to write I allow myself to be distracted by just about anything else - that great "crack house" that is Pinterest (who of us can't get lost in that for hours), a little bit of filing (even though filing is my least favourite thing to do), a couple of scraps of paper, a magazine, I've even developed an uncommon interest in the tiniest speck of dust.  Pretty much anything to distract me from the admission that perhaps I have nothing to say!

Right now it's a glorious Sunday morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the cicadas are chirping, and it is taking every shred of willpower I possess to resist the siren call of the sea and sand.  But I've vowed not to hit the beach until this post is done, so perhaps I better get on with it.

I fully intended to bring you these glorious saffron-roasted tomatoes last week, when my friends and I at I Heart Cook Clubs were exploring the theme Along the Spice Trail with our current chef, Diana Henry.  For reasons already disclosed, that just didn't happen.  Which is sad, because withholding these from you is nothing short of a travesty. On a positive note though, this is Pot Luck week at IHCC, so I still get to share this plate of deliciousness with you.  When I brought you these Maple Roasted Tomatoes, way back when my blog was in its infancy, I thought I was really onto something, and I've been making them that way ever since.  Taking inspiration however from Diana's book A Change of Appetite, and adding harissa and saffron into the mix elevates these tomatoes to something positively sublime.  The kick of heat from the harissa, and the earthiness of the saffron, lend perfect balance to the sweet tomatoes, and some cooling tang from garlicky, herby labneh on top is the perfect accompaniment.

I didn't depart too much from Diana's recipe, though I pretty much ignored quantities and just used what suited me. This is the kind of dish where you really don't need to adhere to things too closely, which is something I always like in a recipe.  You need to begin by making your labneh ... Set a sieve over a bowl and line it with a paper towel or piece of clean muslin.  Add a few good dollops of natural yoghurt to the sieve, and place in the fridge for several hours until all the liquid has drained away, and you are left with something the consistency of thick cream cheese.  I use lovely thick Greek yoghurt that really only takes a couple of hours, but depending on the yoghurt you start with it may take up to 24 hours.  Once yoghurt has reached it's desired consistency, remove from sieve to a small bowl and mix in a clove of crushed garlic, some chopped herbs of your liking, and season with salt and pepper.  Now onto the tomatoes ... Choose several of your favourite tomatoes - I used a variety of tomatoes picked straight from the garden.  Cut them in half and lay them in a single layer in an ovenproof dish.  In a small bowl mix together a generous slosh or two of olive oil, two or three tablespoons of harissa, and a good pinch of saffron threads.  Pour the mixture over the tomatoes, and turn them to make sure they are well coated all over.  Set the tomatoes cut side up, drizzle liberally with maple syrup, and season generously.  Roast them in a preheated oven, 190 degrees C (375 degrees F) for around 45 minutes, remove from oven, and leave to cool slightly.  Arrange the roasted tomatoes on a platter and top with good dollops of the labneh.  Drizzle with any of the cooking juices, and strew a few toasted almonds and coriander leaves over the top to finish.

These are sensational served warm or at room temperature.  I tossed some of them with a few peppery rocket leaves and served them with this harissa marinated fish.

As is frequently the case in my house, however, I did end up with quite a lot of leftovers, which I decided to turn into risotto.  Since I'm on a bit of a "health-kick" at the moment, I experimented with using quinoa for my risotto instead of the traditional arborio rice, and I have to say I was pretty pleased with the results.  The quinoa had a really pleasant nutty flavour and slight chew to it, but the best thing of all was that I wasn't left with that heavy, weighed down kind of feeling afterwards.  This delivered all the comforting satisfaction that you expect from a risotto, with none of the "heft".  I love bringing layers of flavour and texture to a dish, and I achieved that here by using tomatoes three ways - the leftover saffron roasted tomatoes, a few sun-dried tomatoes, and finished off with a few fresh tomatoes.  The other great thing I discovered about using the quinoa in this risotto, is that it reheated really well the next day, which cannot generally be said for a risotto made with arborio rice.  Making risotto with quinoa is definitely set to become a regular feature in my kitchen now, and I can't wait to experiment with a few different flavours.  In the meantime, I hope you'll give this one a try.

On that note, I'm off to the beach now.  Enjoy what's left of your weekend xo

Triple Tomato Quinoa Risotto with Black Olives & Feta Recipe
a Couscous & Consciousness original

olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 small leek, finely sliced

1 cup quinoa

juice of 1/2 lemon

2 to 3 cups of vegetable stock, hot

3x saffron-roasted tomatoes (= 6x halves), roughly chopped (see above)

3 or 4 sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

half a dozen fresh cherry tomatoes, halved

generous handful of black olives

chunks of crumbled goat feta - as much or as little as you like

flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

fresh basil leaves, roughly torn, to finish

Heat a good slosh of olive oil in a heavy based pan over medium heat.  Add the leek and garlic to the pan - cooking until they just begin to soften - take care not to burn the garlic.  Almost as soon as you can smell the garlic it is time to add the quinoa to the pan.  Continue cooking the quinoa with the leek and garlic, stirring constantly, until every single grain is coated with the oil and it begins to appear a little "toasted".

Now is the time to add the lemon juice, and continue stirring until virtually all the liquid has been absorbed by the quinoa.  Then reduce the heat a little, and begin to add the stock, one ladleful at a time - stirring constantly until each ladleful has been absorbed before adding the next.

Keep stirring and adding stock until the quinoa has plumped up and is tender (but not mushy) to the bite - this will probably take around 20 minutes.  Round about the 10 minute mark, stir in the chopped roasted tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes.

Once the quinoa is cooked, remove from the heat, stir in the fresh tomatoes, olives, feta and basil.  Taste, then season to your liking with flaky sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Stir to combine, then cover and leave to rest for 5 minutes to enable all the flavours to infuse.

Serve immediately, with some extra fresh basil on top.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

"Tuesday Pasta" - "Pantry Pasta" Recipe

About 16 years ago, at a restaurant in Santa Monica (the name of which I have long since forgotten), my husband and I enjoyed a wonderful dish of pasta in a tomato based sauce with artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, and black olives.

We loved it so much that I couldn't wait to get home and try to recreate something similar. I'm pleased to say that my creation was a hit, and it became a "regular" in our household. So much so that we called it "Tuesday Pasta" because, you guessed it, I made it most Tuesday nights. For the life of me I don't remember why we always had it on Tuesdays - that, like the name of the restaurant where this dish was inspired, is but a distant memory. Much time has gone by since then, and habits have changed, as in fact have my marital circumstances, so I no longer make this pasta dish with quite the same regularity, and not necessarily on Tuesdays.

It is still, however, probably my all time favourite pasta dish, and if I could only ever share one recipe in my life this would probably be it. As I always have all of the necessary ingredients in my pantry all of the time, I now think of this as my "Pantry Pasta" recipe. This is the dish that I can whip up when I haven't had time to go shopping, and I want to get dinner on the table in about 15 minutes - really! All the preparation can be done while you are waiting for the pasta water to come to the boil, and then the sauce comes together in the time it takes for the pasta to cook.

I should also mention that what follows should be treated more as a guide than a recipe that needs to be strictly adhered to - simply use what you have on hand or if you want to add more of something you like and less of something you don't then simply adjust to suit your tastes. I use artichoke hearts - I like the roasted ones, but unroasted is fine; sundried tomatoes; black olives - green are just as good if they are your preference; capers - I like the salted ones best, but the ones in brine are fine if that's what you have, or leave them out altogether - I actually used green peppercorns once instead of the capers (not successful I might add, they just somehow didn't work in this dish at all); diced pancetta, or bacon, or chorizo sausage, or when I want a vegetarian option this works fantastically well with eggplant; a few anchovies (entirely optional) - these just melt into the sauce and add a bit of complexity to the flavour of the sauce without any discernable "fishy" taste; and fresh herbs - I think basil works best, but flat-leaf parsley and rocket are also good and I have on occasion even put in a handful of baby spinach just before serving. As you may now have suspected, I'm very much a "handful of this - a dollop of that" kind of cook, and that very much applies to this dish - I think I have made it hundreds of times and I'm sure it has never tasted exactly the same twice. So feel free to put your own twist on this, enjoy playing around with it, and if you come up with something sensational I would love to hear about it.

Pasta with Artichoke Hearts,
Sundried Tomatoes & Olives Recipe
"Pantry Pasta"

Click here for printable copy of this recipe

200g pancetta cubed, or bacon cut into small pieces
(substitute sliced chorizo sausage if desired)
(vegetarian substitute - 1 small eggplant cut into 1" cubes)
2x cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2T olive oil
2T tomato paste (I like the stuff that comes in tubes)
1/2tsp - 1tsp chilli flakes, optional
1x tin tomatoes or jar of tomato passata
8x artichoke hearts, roasted
(cut in half if smallish, or into quarters if large)
6x sundried tomatoes, cut into thin strips
2x handfuls of black olives
2T capers
4-6 anchovies, optional
generous handful of basil leaves, torn
salt & pepper
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
250g pasta shapes, whatever is your favourite

Place a large pot of water over high heat, and bring to the boil.

While water is boiling, chop the bacon (or chorizo, or eggplant), mince garlic, chop artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes, tear basil leaves into small pieces, and grate parmesan cheese (pecorino also makes a good substitute if you prefer).

Once water has come to a rolling boil, add a good handful of salt and pasta. Boil until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet, and cook bacon until brown. When bacon is almost brown, add garlic to pan (don't put the garlic in earlier or it will burn and turn bitter).

Once the bacon and garlic are browned, add the tomato concentrate and 1/2 tsp of the chilli flakes (if using), and cook for a couple of minutes allowing the sugars in the tomato concentrate to caramelise - it will turn quite a dark brown. This is a really important step - it adds lots of flavour and rich colour to your sauce.

Add the anchovies and cook for another 30 seconds.

Next add the tinned tomatoes or passata to the pan. If using whole tinned tomatoes, break them up a bit with a wooden spoon. This will start to bubble immediately - keep stirring scraping up all the bits of browned tomato concentrate. Then turn heat down to a simmer. Add half of the torn-up basil leaves, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, olives and capers.

Cook for another minute or two until everything is warmed through. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary. Then keep warm until pasta is finished cooking.

Drain pasta, reserving a little of the pasta water (use this reserved water to loosen the sauce if necessary).

Add the drained pasta to the sauce. Stir in half the parmesan cheese and another sprinkling of chilli flakes if you like it spicy. Lastly stir in the remaining basil leaves.

Serve in warm bowls with remaining parmesan sprinkled over the top.

This makes 3 generous servings, but could easily feed 4 with the addition of a fresh green salad, some good crusty bread to mop up the sauce, and I like to wash it down with a glass or two of Valpolicella.

Buon Appetito!