Tuna Pasta Recipe

by C&P on 28/01/2010

Tuna pasta is the typical lunch of college students, after all, what’s quicker and cheaper that that? Drain the pasta, open the can of tuna, and it’s done, no need to add extra oil either, the one in the can will do.
The only problem is, this is too simple to have any taste, but when [...]

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Pear Risotto With Walnuts

by C&P on 27/01/2010

If  you have done risotto properly a couple of times (if not, you can start from this mushroom risotto or the saffron risotto), this pear risotto with walnuts looks like an easy one, but it’s actually very easy to mess it up.
Here is what you’ll need for 2 people:

2 medium pears
150-200g (5-7oz) risotto rice
1 glass [...]

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Cauliflower Pasta

27.01.2010

This cauliflower pasta recipe is the proof that you can make pasta with pretty much anything.The cool thing about this cauliflower pasta is that you cook the cook the pasta and the cauliflower in the same water: additional taste guaranteed.
For 2 people you will need:

160-200g (5-7oz) short pasta (ie no spaghetti)
a cauliflower
olive oil, salt and [...]

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Scallops

26.01.2010

This scallop recipe is probably the first seafood recipe ever of this blog, except for the shrimp risotto and the shrimp and zucchini pasta. I must admit I prefer meat rather than seafood, but these scallops almost made me change  my mind. The Italian name for Scallop is capasanta, I’m not sure where it comes [...]

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Homemade Pizza Recipes: a Recap

25.01.2010

This is a recap of my homemade pizza recipes for the past 3-4 months. Friday night is pizza night at the Cheese and Pears household. The pizza dough recipe remains the same, you can find it here with this thin crust pizza, or this thin pizza crust where, I just found out, I used to [...]

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Green Bean Salad With Cod: Super Fast and Easy

24.01.2010

This green bean salad with cod is a very, very easy salad recipe, made with frozen beans and cod (fresh frozen as the cook of an unfortunate restaurant said about his food in an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen nightmare USA).
This salad is so simple that I wasn’t even sure if I should post it, [...]

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Savory Pie With Broccoli Zucchini and Potatoes

10.01.2010

After surviving Christmas with the family and Year End at the Company, Cheese and Pears is back, trying to cope with a fall in the number of visits to the site, that is only second to the fall of employment rate over here in Ireland (bad joke, I know). Ice has taken possession of the [...]

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Biscotti Recipes: Cantuccini (Almond Biscuits)

14.12.2009

Cantuccini are typical of Prato, in Tuscany, but they have become very popular in all Italian cuisine. Their real name actually leaves nothing to imagination: “Biscotti di Prato” Don’t be misled though: these biscuits are not for breakfast or for snacking, they are a proper dessert, best served with a very popular sweet wine called [...]

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Risotto recipe: Shrimp Risotto With Peas

25.11.2009

Cheeseandpears is back, with a huge recipes backlog. The reason for staying away for so long is simple: I’m currently working on my plan to become rich, and as Bill Cullen would say, it takes time and commitment.
Anyway, it’s time for risotto. Seriously, do you know how to make risotto yet? I hear sometimes people [...]

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Potato Salad

06.10.2009

Here we are, posting about Italian food again after quite some time, with a very easy potato salad. Summer (sic) is gone and darkness, more than rain, is upon us. This means that from now until next March, all pictures will be taken in artificial light, in other words, they will be bad.
The original potato [...]

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Bruschetta Recipe: Brown Bread Bruschetta

18.08.2009

My huge fan base has been complaining that I haven’t been posting for a while. The truth is I haven’t been cooking a lot recently, but this is only temporary, you’ll see. In the meantime, check this super quick bruschetta recipe: brown bread bruschetta.
I’m stretching the concept of bruschetta a lot here, as I didn’t [...]

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Sicilian Recipes: Spaghetti with almonds and basil

22.07.2009

This spaghetti recipe is a sure shot, something to cook for your guests, who will be amazed by this sauce, and will ask you: “how did you do that? It’s delicious.” And you will say, in a casual I-get-that-a-lot manner “oh no, it’s really easy, it just takes ten minutes.” Except that it does.
You can [...]

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Dublin Restaurant: Ely Wine Bar

17.07.2009

This post is about food review of a Dublin restaurant I went to last weekend.
Should I quit my job at The Company and try to make it as a food critic? Someone at Ely bar wouldn’t agree…
Menupages.ie is a website where you can review restaurants, every review gives you points, that you can exchange with [...]

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Easy Recipes: Melon and ham | prosciutto e melone

07.07.2009

Another easy recipe: this dish is very popular as a summer appetizer, and just like with Cheese and Pears, is one of the few recipes where the name totally matches with the ingredients and the final result is as good as its ingredients. This usually works as appetizer, but it cam be a filling main [...]

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Risotto Recipes: Spinach Risotto with Walnuts

01.07.2009

The magic of risotto recipes has happened again: taking two flavors that you know they’ll match (and walnuts, as it turns out, match with pretty much everything) and making a risotto out of them, even if you’ve never done it before.
It’s quarter end, and we’re all pretty crazy down at The Company, so this time [...]

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Pasta Recipes: Sausage pasta with saffron

25.06.2009

Of all the pasta recipes, this is probably my favorite. My aunt Elia would be proud of me: this gnocchetti alla campidanese turned out really good. This one is a typical Sardinian dish (Campidano is a vast plain in the south part of the island), whose basic ingredients are sausage and saffron. If you add [...]

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Cookbook review: Bread: From Ciabatta to Rye

21.06.2009

I’ve had this cookbook Bread: From Ciabatta to Rye (for .co.uk click here) by Linda Collister for over a year now, but I haven’t used it enough. As many do, I’ve got into the habit of sticking to the same 3 or 4 usual recipes.
As the title suggests… the cookbook is about bread. It’s divided [...]

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Mashed potato Recipe | Baked mashed potato cake

14.06.2009

How do you get rid of 1.5 kg of spuds that have started to sprout in your kitchen? Bake a mashed potato cake. This one is taken from Gennaro’s Italian Year (for amazon.co.uk click here). The word gatò is of course the italianized version of the French gâteau. The original recipe uses a kind of [...]

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Lasagna recipe – How to make lasagna

10.06.2009

I should have maybe started with my family’s lasagna recipe (which, by the way, we call pasticcio), made with bolognese sauce and béchamel, but I went for a lighter version with tomato sauce instead.
The first thing you need for lasagna is fresh pasta. If you want to try the experience of making it yourself, follow [...]

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Homemade Biscuits recipes: Polenta biscuits

06.06.2009

This biscuit recipe is a special one. Polenta flour is nothing but cornmeal, cook it and you’ll have polenta, which is a classic peasant dish from Northern Italy (more of that in future posts).
I baked these polenta biscuits for my colleagues last week (it was my birthday), along with some classic chocolate chip cookies. An [...]

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