Quinoa with lime and chilli

Good quality ingredients, treated with respect, is the mantra of London’s River Café. Here’s a recipe for one of their simpler, delicious pasta dishes

MY FIRST VISIT to the River Café in London was a long time ago. Back then, I was incredibly bullish about certain things. I couldn’t understand why anyone raved about food that was so boring, as far as I was concerned, but was in fact just incredibly and deliciously simple. It was during a time in which provenance of ingredients meant little and simplicity was eschewed in favour of tall food – preferably colourful and consisting of a multitude of components.

Like I said, it was a long time ago. Fast forward to about 15 years later, when the name Alice Waters actually means something to me and we find ourselves a nation of farmers’ markets and artisan producers. Customers are starting to know more about food than many of the people serving it, and in some cases, cooking it. It was on my second visit to the River Café that I humbly apologised to the owners (in my head) for not having worshipped at their temple a lot sooner.

Some people dream about meeting pop stars and supermodels. For me, great chefs and restaurateurs are a much more interesting bunch. So it is with regret that I admit I was never lucky enough to meet Rose Gray, one half of the brilliant partnership that was and still is the River Café. Sadly, she died last year.

But the restaurant still lives on, under Ruth Rogers, and the food is as good as ever. I’ve been trawling back through their books recently and one recipe for pasta with lemon and Pecorino cheese looked too good to turn down.

Sometimes, annoyingly, their recipes call for ingredients that us mere mortals will never find in the local supermarket. So one has to be creative and substitute where one must: they use a combination of fresh and aged Pecorino. I could only get regular old Pecorino, so I just used that and didn’t fret too much about it.

I also added about half a teaspoon of caster sugar to the lemon juice as it’s a little harsh. Quite possibly, the fresh Pecorino would have rounded out the flavours. Anyway, it was fast and friendly to make and tasted really good.

PASTA WITH PECORINO, LEMON AND BASIL

Serves 4-6

I always allow 100g of pasta for each person, and most packs are 500g. I made this with a whole pack, which fed three of us very generously and we had lots left over. It all depends on how greedy you are. For the record, two to three lemons yield 150ml of juice, which is what you need. I also used 300g of Pecorino and 100g of Parmesan, but use whatever combination you prefer.

Ingredients

500g dried pasta

300g Pecorino

100g Parmesan

Salt and black pepper

150ml lemon juice (2-3 lemons)

½ tsp sugar

4 tbsp olive oil

Few cloves garlic

Bunch basil

Method

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water. Grate the cheeses on the finest side of your grater. Heat the lemon juice very gently in a saucepan. You’re really just warming it through. Add the sugar, and stir until it has dissolved. Gradually add the cheese, which will melt into the lemon juice. It will look a bit like a lumpy roux. Give it some time, stir and heat gently. Then gradually add the tablespoons of olive oil, and keep mixing. Add in the crushed garlic. Then just keep it warm and give it the occasional stir.

When the pasta is cooked, add a couple of ladles of the pasta water to the cheese sauce. Drain the pasta and then add it to the sauce and mix well. Rip up the basil and mix it through. Check the seasoning. The Pecorino is quite salty.

QUINOA WITH CHILLI, LIME AND CORIANDER

Serves 4

Ingredients

300g quinoa

2 onions, very finely sliced

6 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp ground cumin

675ml stock or water

1 bunch spring onions

3 cloves garlic

Salt and pepper

1 jar of roasted red peppers, or you can roast and skin about six red peppers

Zest and juice of 3 limes

Bunch coriander

3 tsp oregano

3 tbsp cider vinegar

Good squeeze of honey

Method

Put the quinoa in a large saucepan on the heat and dry roast it for a minute on its own until you can start to smell nuttiness. Remove it to a bowl for a few minutes while you sweat the onion in the olive oil in the pan for about five minutes until it is very soft. Add the cumin and mix well, then add the quinoa back to the saucepan, add the stock and simmer with a lid on for about 10 minutes. Then remove the lid and let it dry off, if there is an excess of stock or water. Add the garlic and allow it to cool down.

When you are ready to serve, add the remaining ingredients, mix well and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

See also www.itsa.ie