Ilse's Kitchen - culinary adventures of a girl who loves to eat

Every now and then you have to indulge. This is an indulgence pasta dish. There’s nothing light about it, but sometimes that just doesn’t matter one bit: the heart - and belly - want what they want. I like to give in, especially on rainy days. My belly was grateful. Ingredients (serves 2): 120g fettuccini (or other pasta of your choice) 300g shrimp, peeled and deveined. 200g cherry tomatoes 1 tablespoon Cajun spices 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon butter Alfredo sauce 120g cream cheese 250ml whole milk 50g butter 1 cup finely grated parmesan 1/2 teaspoon Italian herbs 1 tablespoon freshly minced garlic freshly ground black pepper to taste fresh parsley to garnish Instructions: 1. Cook the fettuccini according to the instructions on the packet. When it’s ready, set aside to use in step 4. 2. Rub the shrimp in Cajun spices, salt and pepper. Melt the tablespoon of butter in a skillet and add the shrimp. Cook for 3-4 min...

I had in my hand one zucchini, and one want. After gobbling up an entire pizza yesterday, that want was a strong desire to go (practically) carb-free today. Carb-free, but not cheese-free - I don’t think I’ve wanted to go cheese-free a day in my life thus far. I don’t see them coming either. So what I came up with after some googling is zucchini ravioli. I found a lovely recipe at Half Baked Harvest, played around with it to adjust it to what I had at home, and voila. I think I gobbled it all up in under five minutes. Ingredients (makes 4 zucchini ravioli and serves 2 as a starter or 1 as a main): 1/2 large zucchini 1 cup cherry tomatoes 1 large clove garlic 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1 handful fresh oregano, plus some to garnish a few sprigs fresh thyme, plus some to garnish salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/3 cup ricotta cheese 1 tablespoon goat cheese 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese 7-8 basil leaves, chopped Instructions: Preheat the...

Some days you just want to go easy. Easy as a no-work meal, but one that still tastes like home cooking. I wanted something somewhat warm and I wanted cherry tomatoes. But I didn’t want to cook, and I didn’t want them cold. So I used a recipe from Bon Appetit, slightly altering the spices. The result is a warm spin-off of the regular Caprese salad. It was lovely! Ingredients (serves 2): 4 cups cherry tomatoes 1 ball of mozzarella 6 sprigs thyme (I used a mix of regular thyme and lemon thyme). 60 mL (about 1/4 cup, or 4 tablespoons) olive oil 5 cloves garlic, smashed flakey sea salt and freshly grated black pepper Instructions: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. 1. Place some aluminium foil or baking parchment on a rimmed oven tray. On top, place the tomatoes and the garlic. Drizzle over the olive oil and the thyme leaves, sprinkle a bit of salt over it, and toss fully coat the tomatoes. Place in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the tomatoes are bursting and lightly brown...

Slow Sundays are for great brunch dishes - and since I recently learned how to poach an egg, I decided to go poached. Not a bad choice: this dish made my day before the clock even hit noon. The roast tomatoes are a lovely compliment to the avocado and egg. Ingredients: 2 very fresh eggs 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar handful cherry tomatoes 2 slices wholewheat bread 1 avocado juice of 1/2 lime a dash of tabasco sauce or sprinkling of chili flakes salt and freshly ground pepper to taste olive oil Instructions: Preheat your grill. 1. Place the tomatoes in an oven-proof dish and stick in the oven under the grill for about 15 minutes. 2. Brush some olive oil on the top and bottom of each slice of bread and place under the grill, removing when nice and crispy. 3. Mash together the avocado and lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Instead of tabasco, I stirred in some chili flakes. (Be careful not to add more lime juice or your avocado smash will get ...

One-pot meals are a great way to save time and stress. The happiness of taking them out of the oven, knowing you have nothing left to do... aaahhh. And obviously, the better the dish, the greater the pleasure. Grateful to Martha Stewart for this one :) Ingredients (serves 2): 2 whole trout, scaled, gutted and cleaned 300g waxy potatoes 320g cherry tomatoes 1 tablespoon fresh oregano 1 clove garlic, smashed 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus 1 extra teaspoon 1 teaspoon course salt 1 lemon Instructions: Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. 1. Toss together the potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, oregano, olive oil, and half a teaspoon salt. Season with black pepper. Arrange in a 20x30cm baking dish - first layer the potatoes, overlapping them slightly if needed, then toss the tomatoes on top (you don’t see the layering on my picture because I cooked for one and made half the recipe. The baking dish was large enough not to have to layer). 2. Roast about 20 minutes until the po...

Recently, I shared a rocket pesto recipe with you. Here’s an example of what you can do with it. :) Ingredients (serves 2): 120g penne 1 small red onion, finely chopped 300g cherry tomatoes 2 handfuls arugula (rocket lettuce) 15g shaved parmesan 6-8 tbsp rocket walnut pesto Instructions: 1. Prepare the pasta according to instructions. 2. Place onion in a large skillet and sauté for 3-4 minutes, then add the cherry tomatoes and sauté for another 2 minutes. 3. Add the penne and the pesto and mix over low heat for a couple of minutes, then remove from heat. 4. Toss in some fresh arugula, divide over two plates and serve topped with parmesan shavings.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE risotto. And I love it creamy, so creamy that it feels like it melts in my mouth -  with lots of veggies, with meat, with fish; you can go practically every which way. I was planning to make a simple cherry tomato and mozzarella risotto but then I saw the bratwurst in my fridge and thought why not, so I tossed it in. And you know what? It works. But it works fine without it too, so if you’re vegetarian skip the bratwurst, replace the chicken stock with veggie stock, and you’re good to go. Ingredients: 250g cherry tomatoes or small Roma tomatoes, halved 1 medium-sized yellow onion, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 1 bratwurst (optional), chopped in small squares 125g mozzarella, chopped 100g arborio rice 10 basil leaves 1L chicken bouillon 15g gratedparmesan cheese 15g butter Olive oil Instructions: 1. In a large skillet, heat some olive oil and add the onion. Fruit for a few minutes until slightly glazed. 2. Add the bratwurst and sauté f...

My go-to easy meals are almost always pastas - I can think of few feel-good meals that are easier and less time consuming to make. What I love most is that you can add just about anything you like. It doesn’t matter if you stray from the traditional, just combine the flavours that make your heart sing.  Here’s a lovely smoked salmon and cherry tomato penne.  Ingredients (serves 2): 120g penne (use 50-60g per person for dried pasta, or 90g per person if you use fresh pasta) 100g smoked salmon 250g cherry tomatoes, halved 1 small red onion 1 clove garlic 250 mL cream Dash of white wine 1 tbsp Olive oil Salt, pepper and parmesan to taste Instructions: 1. Chop the onion and sauté for 3-4 minutes. 2. Press the garlic over the onion mixture and add the cherry tomatoes. Sauté for another 2-3 minutes, then add a dash of white wine. 3. Sauté for a 2-3 minutes more, then add the cream. Heat, stir and add almost all the salmon (reserve a tiny bit for the en...

Beautiful summer days call for food that is fresh, simple, and as little hassle as possible. After all, who wants to slave away in the kitchen when it’s gorgeous outside. And I like tasting the sun in my mouth. This recipe meets all those criteria - it’s quick, light, easy, but with fragrant summer flavours. At first sight, this recipe might look a little counter-intuitive. Tomatoes and strawberries? Strawberries and balsamic vinegar? But if you set your scepticism aside for a minute you’ll find that the tartness of the balsamic vinegar, the sweetness of the strawberries, that hint of basil - it all just works. Balsamic vinegar really brings out the flavor (and colour!) in strawberries - they get ever so slightly less sweet, but gain in 'umph'. Ingredients (serves 2): 200g small roma or cherry tomatoes 200g strawberries 10 leaves basil (basilicum) 2-3 tsp balsamic vinegar Instructions: 1. Slice the tomatoes and strawberries in half lengthwise and put them in a bow...