14.11.08: Pollo alla Cacciatora and beetroot, mozz and avo salad

Instead of going out to eat as is usual on a Friday nite, they instead stayed in as He rustled up this familiar favourite resplendent with cannellini bnz, chix thighs, pancetta, crushed tomatoes and the usual herby goodness. A mozz, sweetfire beetroot, and avo salad served as its willing accomplice.

SHE SAYS: Perfect herb-heightened and tomatoey, chicken-brothy flavour, marred only by the firm-skinned bnz, which really needed some stewin'. He took Nigella at her word and served up after merely stirring them in. They've got to mellow, dude. Mozz was a pleasing surprise, subtly creamy in taste and with that fun pull-apart stringy texture.

HE SAYS: I should've cooked the bnz a little longer as they were a little less then tender but still edible. I added twice the recommended amount of the pancetta cubes although I felt it ultimately didn't benefit from the indulgence. The addition of a few shakes of hot sauce helped brighten its taste, adding to the richness, and after adding the forgotten capers (which are not part of the original recipe), the bowl delivered on its delish promise. I went back for a second heaping bowlful, obviously. The salad had a good balance of creaminess from the cheese and fruity sharpness thanks to the sweetfire beetroot; I managed a second serving of it and thus cleaned the bowl, burp.

13.10.08: Pollo alla cacciatora

Together again: We sat down to Her latest batch of what is quickly becoming the top Nigella fave rave, plus a flamboyant salad of avo, fig, spinach and watercress with a side of wasabi-lime.

SHE SAYS: I left out the sugar this time and didn't miss it a bit - I don't think I find tomatoes as sharp as most people do. But then We do have a preference for acidity, with our lemon- and lime-lovin' palates. This was as savoury and tender as ever, though I'd like to up the sauce quotient somehow. I was a little greedy with the wasabi-lime application on my salad serving and had to pinch my nose to avoid complete nasal scorch. But now We know, if we didn't before: fig and wasabi-lime love each other everso.

HE SAYS: It's less then a week since the last time we ate this meal and I don't mind a bit. This latest version stood up to past efforts with lots of rich tastes and textures. I'm still debating which I prefer between spelt pasta vs brown rice for this dish, but since the rest of the week will be heavy on the grain side I applaud Her executive decision to go the spelt penne route. Also, like Her, I didn't miss the sugar either. The ever present figs in the salad have yet to get boring and, coupled with some avo and covered in the wasabi dressing, continue to brighten up my bowl.

28.09.08: Spelt penne with veg and tomato sauce

When Sunday means simple: She stirred up some panetta cubes, shallots, portobellini mushroms, capers, and an orange pepper with some glugs of red wine and a basil-tomato sauce from good ol' Lloyd to coat some spelt penne pasta (it's back in stock!). Shavings of grana padano took top honours, while a salad of figs, toasted sunflower seeds, avo and mixed leaves peered over the edge.

SHE SAYS: Soothing and subtle, nothing you shout about, but something you quietly enjoy and linger over. And it's all the more endearing for being easy and quickish. I do think pancetta cubes are not the world's most exciting seasoning - there's a shallow undercurrent of hamminess, not a smoky or salty surge of it. Capers gave us the most interesting note, as they tend to do. Sunflower seeds held their roasty own against the playfully seed-textured figs and creamy avo.

HE SAYS: Funny, unlike Her I thought the sauce was pretty rich and bold. With the cheese, capers and red wine it was, to my taste, salty and tangy (two flavas I especially enjoy). The spelt penne was lighter in texture, also less glutinous then it's wheat cousin and did a good job of holding and delivering the sauce to me gob. Agree with her that the pancetta did not add too much to the plate and we probably could leave it out next time without forfeiting taste. The inclusion of the figs always brightens up the salad, their appearance reminds me of passion flowers, which are also sort of beautifully alien looking, but figs are probably nicer to nibble.

23.09.08: Pollo alla Cacciatora and rocket salad

He put together this fast-becoming-weekly staple stew of chicken, pancetta, crushed tomatoes, cannellini bnz and white wine reduction. As an added treat he cut up some chorizo and added it to the pot and then served it all over brown rice. A rocket salad with radishes, tomatoes, avo and physalis looked on eagerly.

HE SAYS: The inclusion of the chorizo really upped the taste stakes, a very nice addition, creating another note of spice and paprika within the sauciness of the dish. I added a touch more wine to keep the liquid ratio high and a little more chopped rosemary then the recipe called for in order to add more of an intense rustic herby flava. The chicken thighs really tasted fantastic, are a cheap cut, and helped season the broth (unlike breast meat, which although tasty doesn't release any flava and doesn't tend to infuse anything). The rocket salad was more savoury then we have had recently, the crunchy radishes making their peppery presence felt and finding only small resistance in the tiny shweetness of the physalis.

SHE SAYS: Agree the chorizo was a splendid indulgence, though this dish already packs quite an intensely savoury flavour punch. I think this version achieved the perfect ratio of brothy to saucy, and again totally agree with His observations on the infuse-ability of dark vs white meat. The tang of the physalis worked my tastebuds more strongly than His, it seems, or maybe it just gets more of my happy attention - I found the radishes more of a crunch supplier than a tastemaker.

08.09.08: Pollo alla Cacciatora

Yep, We did it again - already. She had a hankering to try the delish tomatoey-chicken dish over brown/wild rice, with a stir-thru of capers, and She made it so. The rest of the St Agur blue cheese graced a salad of sweetfire beetroot, radishes, and avocado with mixed leaves.

HE SAYS: We like this dish, we really, really like it. She cooked this one up good, a little less soupy then my try but still mighty fine. The capers added a certain tasty tang to the tomato-based sauce, me lapped it up and went back fo' more. I luvved the salad too, sweetfire beetroot and radishes! They be my bestest friends.

SHE SAYS: This is quite a mystery: even before I let the cacciatora cook with the pot lid on, it contained far less liquid than His version. So it's not the rice soaking up the gravy that's making it appear less souplike. We're using the same recipe, so it's a head-scratcher for now. Still wonderfully satisfying with that touch of woody aroma from the celery salt and the tender thigh meat. Capers def. add a little sumpin' sumpin' in the pickeldy weirdness department. Of course, We had no trouble polishing off the rest of the intensely creamy, mildly flavoursome blue cheese in an otherwise virtuous salad episode. I'm thinking St Agur is the kind of blue you could give to people wary of blue cheese intensity.

04.09.08: Nigella's Pollo Alla Cacciatora

Continuing 'do the new' week, He stirred it up good with Nigella's Pollo Alla Cacciatora, featuring chicken thighs, cannellini beans, rosemary, pancetta and a dab of oddly exotic celery salt. The everything-you-could-want salad of pear, radish, remaining fancy feta, etc met its match with Nigella's greatest hit, the wasabi-lime dressing.

SHE SAYS: Now this is a keeper. It put us both in mind of a richer minestrone, and I do think adding some brown rice would have been oh-so-nice (and stretched it to leftovers), but it was certainly a full meal without. Chicken was tender and soaked up the spiky flavours of the tomato broth nicely. It was a utensil-lickin' kind of supper, yesirree bob. Salad was good, esp with the one-two punch of the highfalutin' cheese and the nose-tingling dressing, but I think I prefer fewer ingredients (I know, the crowd is gasping! but it's true).

HE SAYS: Yesh, agree with her, it's definitely one to put on heavy rotation especially as the days grow shorter and the cold comes in. A very satisfying, hearty meal with lots of flavas to keep the taste buds happy and also very quick to put together. The lime dressing again did all that it set out to achieve and more, not only proving extremely taste-tastic but clearing my sinuses to boot.

17.05.08: Out to Strada

A pre-wedding family gathering landed us back at the blameless Strada: He plumped for the rigatoni with speck, gorgonzola, and rocket in a cream sauce, while She chose the salmon fillet wrapped in pancetta with braised lentils and green beans, all accompanied by a mustard sauce.

SHE SAYS: Overall this was a nice mix of flavours, and the mustard sauce was tangy without being too vinegary or overwhelming. Salmon was not amazing, and that one little strip of bacon was hardly 'wrapping' the fillet, but the lentils were perfectly cooked - not mushy, not too firm - as were the green beans. A fine way to line the stomach for the rest of the night's festivities.

HE SAYS: Been here numerous times over the years and this dish is the one that my eyes are drawn to nearly every time. It's a safe bet and although creamy it's also light so doesn't leave me with the rock in the stomach that cream pasta sauces usually leave me with. Nice food, good glass of wine and good company, what else could you ask for...somebody else picking up the cheque, maybe? Thanks, R+E.