What to Cook Tonight #64

Three delicious recipes for comfort and nourishment — decadent Cacio e Pepe Beans, a warming Roasted Pumpkin Soup, plus a hearty Winter Niçoise with roasted fennel and potatoes.

We have three gorgeous recipes for you this week, inspired by the simple flavours of the Mediterranean that we just can’t seem to get enough of.

For our first recipe, we decided to recreate our favourite Niçoise salad — as a winter edition. The combination of roasted fennel and potatoes with bitter winter greens and flaky tuna is heavenly in this hearty iteration. It’s always a welcome relief to have a big, substantial salad bowl in winter, it wakes up our palates with such a wonderful zing.  

Winter Niçoise

One of the things we love most about this salad is the dressing — using oil from your tuna and brine from your olives, it goes to every effort to reduce food waste and get the most out of your ingredients. With lots of fiery Dijon delivering a welcome little kick.

It’s also highly adaptable — add in sliced roasted red peppers, marinated artichokes, watercress, or baby spinach. You can also use finely shaved fennel and boiled potatoes if you don’t want to turn the oven on.

If you’re lucky enough to have access to sought-after Italian chicories like puntarelle or Castelfranco radicchio — firstly, we are very jealous, and secondly, they would be divine in this salad.

A note on olives — when buying olives, try to buy those that still have their pits in, as they have more flavour and are less likely to be dry and mealy (and avoid sliced black olives as they have a horrible soapy flavour — the demise of olives that are treated with lye).  

We added some anchovies, but these are optional if they are too fishy for you. If you don’t love tuna, use poached chicken instead. Seared steak would also be delish. 

When roasting your vegetables, arrange the potatoes around the outside so they get nice and crispy, and keep your onions in the middle so they don’t burn.

To adapt this to be vegetarian, use drained rinsed butter beans in place of the tuna (let beans sit and marinate in the dressing for 10 minutes). And skip the anchovies. You could add a few shavings of parmesan if you like.

As with all salads, this is very scalable and can easily be halved for smaller households. Yum! We hope you love this one as much as we do.

Niçoise Salad, Sicilian Summer Salad, Caesar with Anchovy & Egg

For those reading this from the northern hemisphere, you may want to make our classic Niçoise with all that fresh summer produce. Any leftovers are excellent piled into fresh ciabatta or focaccia and enjoyed as a pan bagnat, or Niçoise Sandwich.

If you are in peak summer right now, we strongly suggest you make this lovely Sicilian Summer Salad or a fresh and fabulous Greek Panzanella.

On the more wintry side of things, we recommend making this heavenly Kale Caesar with Bacon & Eggs — the perfect balance of yummy and healthy. Earthy kale, crispy croutons, luscious avocado, crunchy fried bacon, jammy eggs, and a wonderfully creamy dressing come together beautifully in this salad, making for an excellent long weekend brunch or easy mid-week dinner. Our classic Caesar with Anchovy & Egg is also excellent year-round.

Roasted Mushroom Salad, Spiced Carrot Salad, Sicilian Cauliflower Salad

For some more hearty salad inspiration, see our Roasted Mushrooms with Grains and Feta, which makes for delicious eating in any season. This Spiced Carrot Salad with Orange Maple Dressing is also fantastic, and a great use of inexpensive carrots. Another winter winner is this Sicilian Cauliflower Salad — toothsome and satisfying, it’s robust enough to take along to a picnic or potluck too.

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Cacio e Pepe Beans

Next up, we have some gorgeous Cacio e Pepe Beans — too good not to share, and perfect for a cold winter’s night. This is one of those wow-I-can’t-believe-how-easy-this-is recipes. Prepare to be blown away.

You may already be familiar with the classic Roman pasta, cacio e pepe. One of our all-time favourites — a rich cheese and pepper sauce luxuriously coasts strands of spaghetti in a decadent flavour bomb. Here, we’ve taken the concept and used protein-packed beans in place of the pasta for an extra boost of fibre, and to make it a little healthier. These decadent beans are so tasty and delicious, coming together in just ten minutes.