Baked rigatoni with squash, kale and ricotta

This delicious, melting and cheesy dish is also great with the addition of chorizo: just halve the ricotta and roast fat chunks of chorizo with the squash. Serves four to six.

600g butternut, acorn or onion squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
3 garlic cloves, bashed and peeled
1 pinch dried chilli
½ bunch sage, leaves picked
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
200g kale
400g rigatoni
250g ricotta
125g grated parmesan, plus extra to finish

Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Put the squash, tomatoes, garlic, chilli and sage in a roasting tray, season generously, then drizzle over the oil and mix with your hands so that every chunk of squash is coated. Roast for 25-35 minutes, shaking the tray occasionally, until the squash is a little crisp and the tomatoes are falling apart.

Meanwhile, tear the kale leaves from their stems. Bring a big pan of salted water to a boil, blanch the kale leaves until tender – no more than a few minutes – then transfer to a colander with a slotted spoon and leave to cool. Bring the water back to a boil and cook the pasta for a couple of minutes less than the instructions on the packet: you want it to be still a little firm to the bite.

Squeeze any remnants of water from the kale, finely chop and put in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the ricotta and half the parmesan with a fork, season generously, then stir half this mixture through the kale.

Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid, and return to the pan. Stir in the kale mix and enough of the reserved cooking water to make a wet sauce that coats the pasta. Tip into a big baking dish and scatter the roast squash, tomatoes and sage over the top.

Dollop the remaining ricotta mixture here and there, pushing some of it down into the pasta, sprinkle on the rest of the parmesan and drizzle with a little oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the parmesan has melted and the top is golden brown. I love this with a green salad.

How to master cooking with eggs

Is there any dish so particular in its seeming simplicity as a perfectly done, soft-boiled egg at the breakfast table, with a great heap of just-buttered fresh toast, still hot?



Boiled eggs

A rare treat is an egg laid only that morning from a chicken that has cheerily pecked away with grass underfoot and skies above.

For a hot, soft-boiled egg, lay a medium- to large-sized egg carefully into a pan of boiling water, and it will cook beautifully in 5 minutes, the white having set and the yolk remaining runny. This, swiftly settled into a cup and taken to table just as slices of very good bread are toasted well, remains a peerless dish. Only the addition of a little sea salt and freshly milled pepper is needed. I enjoy those breakfast scenes in 1930s films where the toaster was on the table, ensuring the toast was always top-notch.

Scrambled eggs

Scrambled eggs comfort and delight equally. Two eggs per person, a spoonful of cream and a thoroughly enthusiastic whisking of the eggs makes for a fine repast.

Melt 1 tsp of butter in a heavy-based pot or a nonstick pan over a gentle heat. Add the eggs and stir with a spoon in a slow figure of eight manoeuvre, allowing large curds to form. Put slices of bread in a toaster as the eggs cook. Add another 1 tsp of butter to the eggs as they finish cooking, then remove the pan from the heat. Tip this on to a plate as the toaster pops out hot slices with which to eat your now scrambled eggs.

Fried eggs

Scenes in films set in American diners invariably feature a cook, pulled from Central Casting, (and how) cracking eggs into scone cutters on a great flat top seething with bacon, sausages and pancakes. This always seemed rather natty for feeding the many. At home, however, we use a modest little frying pan, individual if you must. There are lots in Quo Vadis and I have bought a few over the years for home.

Corn Chowder Salad

This salad was a much bigger hit than I’d expected, from my husband “Bacon? corn? My new favorite!” before even trying it, to my son “This is the best salad you’ve ever made, mom,” to the babysitter and her daughter both. One note about the corn: My mega New York ears of corn yielded way more than I think was intended. The Beekman Boys created this salad as way to show off the five varieties of corn they grow (Silver Queen! Country Gentlemen!), all which sound smaller (7 to 8 inches) than what I had. Even with less corn, as I suggest below, do keep in mind that this salad is (deliciously) mostly corn and just a little potato. If you’d like to forego the bacon to make this vegetarian and vegan, you could start the recipe by frying the potatoes in 3 tablespoons of another fat. Finally, as I have a chive plant growing wild outside, I finished this with a handful.



Serves 8 as a side

4 thick slices of bacon (4 ounces), cut crosswise 1/2 inch thick
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch dice, although I made mine smaller
6 large or 8 medium ears of corn, kernels removed (I used 8 large and it was a massive salad)
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup cider vinegar
Salt and crushed red pepper to taste

Cook bacon: In a large frying pan, cook the bacon over moderately low heat, stirring a few times, until it is crisp, about 5 to 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to paper towels and let drain.

Fry potatoes, peppers and corn: Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the skillet. Add the potatoes and cook over moderately high heat until they start to brown, about about 3 to 6 minutes. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes longer, until almost tender; they’ll finish cooking with the other vegetables. Add the diced red peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes and peppers are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the corn kernels and cook, stirring, until heated through but still crisp, about 3 minutes.

Assemble and serve: Transfer the vegetables to a large bowl and stir in the onion, cider vinegar and bacon. Season with red pepper and salt to taste. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

Almond-rosewater and walnut-cardamom zebra cake

My luscious cake was inspired by the flavours of my mum’s Nowruz (Persian New Year) baked goods. The whole house filled with the aroma of rosewater and the cardamom seeds that she ground to flavour her bāghlavā (Persian almond baklavas) and other sweets. She made walnut cookies, tiny mulberry-shaped marzipans (tūt), saffron-almond lozenges (lōz) and lots more. I made my cake gluten-free so more people can enjoy it. The trick is to use a bit of rice flour to give body to the batter. The recipe makes a very large cake good for a party.

Maryam Sin’s almond-rosewater and walnut-cardamom zebra cake is inspired by the festive tastes of Persian new year. Photograph: Maryam Sin/Maryam Sin/GuardianWitness

For the almond-rosewater batter
200g ground almonds
30g rice flour
A large pinch of salt
¼ tsp baking powder
4 large eggs, separated
225g caster sugar
250ml olive oil
4 tbsp rosewater
A few drops of almond essence (optional)

For the walnut-cardamom batter
200g ground walnuts
½ tsp ground cardamom seeds
20g rice flour
¼ tsp baking powder
A large pinch of salt
4 large eggs, separated
225g caster sugar
250ml olive oil
Advertisement

To serve
Icing sugar, to decorate
30g flaked almonds
1 tbsp caster sugar

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Line a 30cm springform cake tin with baking paper and very lightly oil the sides.

2 To make the almond batter, mix the ground almonds with the rice flour, salt and baking powder, then beat the egg whites in a separate, grease-free dry bowl until stiff peaks form.

3 Beat the sugar with the olive oil in another bowl for two minutes. Add the yolks one by one, beating well after each addition (about a minute). Beat in the rosewater and almond essence (if using), then add the almond mixture by spoonfuls and beat after each addition to mix well. Add ⅓ of the batter to the whipped egg whites and gently fold to mix. Repeat until all the batter is mixed with the whites. Set aside.

4 To make the walnut batter, mix the ground walnuts, cardamom, rice flour, baking powder and salt, then mix the rest of the ingredients in the same ways as you did for the almond batter.

5 To make the zebra pattern in the cake tin, pour one cupful of the almond batter in the tin. Wait until it spreads a little. Pour a cupful of the walnut batter in the center of the almond batter and wait for a few seconds so it spreads a little, too. Continue alternating walnut and almond batters until all batter is used up, then bake the cake for 50 minutes in the centre of the oven or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides and remove the ring from the bottom of the tin. Invert the cake on a cooling rack and carefully remove the baking paper. Let the cake cool completely before transferring to a plate.

6 To decorate, put a paper doily on top of the cake and liberally sprinkle with icing sugar, then carefully lift off the doily. Put the flaked almonds in a small heavy frying pan, add the sugar and cook over medium heat for a few minutes, stirring all the time, until the sugar melts and the almond flakes are golden. Put mounds of the mix in the middle and around the edge of the cake. Enjoy with a cup of strong tea or coffee.