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A Pancake Extravaganza by Rachel Allen

rachel pancakes

Tuesday is pancake time. In all their shapes and forms, they are a real favourite in our household. It isn’t just our children who get excited – I adore pancakes and love an excuse to make a real feast of them. There’s something so pleasingly simple, so supremely comforting about a perfectly browned pancake, unchallenging and uncomplicated, but always delicious.
We’ll make all different sorts of pancakes on different years, and often on the same day. I love thin pancakes – they’re called crepes in France, where they’re usually made with some buckwheat flour. I like to eat them rolled up with lemon and sugar, or the perennial favourite, Nutella! We like to make thin pancakes as a savoury treat too, omitting the sugar and making a creamy mushroom filling with bacon and perhaps some Gruyere cheese.
If you’d like to make your pancakes a little more elaborate than just a squeeze of lemon and sugar, you can try this divine orange butter recipe, opposite, that we often make at the cookery school.
At other times, we like to make big, fluffy American pancakes, served with rashers and plenty of maple syrup. I’ve written recipes for blueberry and lemon pancakes in these pages before, as well as in a number of my cookbooks.
The Italian recipe here is a totally different take on pancakes that I’ve made on Pancake Tuesday in previous years. It was inspired by a conversation I had with the great Italian chef, Aldo Zilli. He told me a wonderful story about his mother using light pancakes as an alternative to pasta in certain dishes, and I’ve discovered that they work wonderfully with rich tomato sauces. The Italian baked pancakes with tomato sauce recipe, opposite, uses the pancakes in place of lasagne sheets, which adds a fluffiness to the dish. It’s a perfect family dish and would make a great centrepiece to a Shrove Tuesday dinner table.
Tip
Adding melted butter to the pancake batter will make a real difference to the pancakes’ flavour and texture. It also makes it possible to cook them without having to grease the pan every time.

Pancake Recipes:

 http://www.rachelallen.com/blog/pancake-extravaganza

 

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Pasta with Mozzarella and Tomatoes in Garlic and Herb Butter

pasta-with-mozzarella-and-tomatoes-in-garlic-and-herb-butter-thumbnail

As a quick, light lunch pasta, this dish shines. The tomatoes cooked in Kerrygold Garlic & Herb Butter take on some of the aromatic flavor, while the zest of fresh herbs and the smoothness of quality mozzarella all play off one another. The secret, though, is the Kerrygold Dubliner Cheese. The sharp flavor of the grass-fed cow’s milk cheese adds just the right amount of bite and makes this dish one to remember.

Ingredients:

 Directions:

Stir halved grape tomatoes into melted Kerrygold Garlic & Herb Butter; cook for 2 minutes to heat tomatoes. Toss with hot, cooked linguine, adding additional butter to taste; season with salt and pepper. Stir small boccaccini (fresh mozzarella balls) into hot pasta. Cook just until cheese starts to melt. Top with with shredded Kerrygold Dubliner Cheese and snipped fresh basil.

http://kerrygoldusa.com/recipes/pasta-with-mozzarella-and-tomatoes-in-garlic-and-herb-butter