Pizza Bianca Funghi (white pizza with mushrooms)

White pizza has fast become a favourite of mine. I first had one when I went to the Italian restaurant Zizzi and fell in love. It comes away from the classic tomato flavour that crosses between all other pizzas, whether they're thin and crispy or deep and fluffy, but it certainly doesn't lose anything. What I've done here it to really simplify it but it can be easily adapted and played around with to incorporate other ingredients and tastes. 

Tomato & Soft Cheese Pasta

We tend to eat a lot of pasta in our house. It's quick and easy. But, it's too easy to get stuck into having the same thing over and over again. That's why it's good to have a few basic recipes that can each be adapted, depending upon what you have lying around. 

For those that don't like sprouts: Sprout Gratin

Sprouts. You either hate them or you... well... you loathe them.

Ok, that might be a bit of bias coming from my side. Apologies. 

They're a festive tradition in our household. Every Christmas, and only at Christmas, I'll cook them - mainly for my Dad. So far, I've only discovered on way that I will eat them - in this gratin. I'm curious about having them raw in a winter salad, but I'm not quite brave enough to venture there yet. 

I drive past Diglake Farm on a regular basis. So, instead of picking up a bag of packaged sprouts from the supermarket, I got them from here. 

As I was prepping the sprouts, my mind started to wonder. "Sprouts are mini-cabbages. The sprout leaves are a bit cabbage-like too. I wonder if sprout leaves are edible?" And yes they are. Well the younger leaves are. They tasted not a lot like sprouts. And were quite pleasant.

Sprout Gratin

Serves 4-6 (depending how much you like sprouts)

500g-600g sprouts (about one stick), shredded

1 tbsp olive oil

100g soft French cheese, roughly cut up

300ml single cream

Few handfuls of dried breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven Gas 6 (200°C/400°F)

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the sprouts quickly, just to soften them a bit. I did this in two batches.

Put the sprouts into a bowl. Stir in the cheese and season with salt and pepper.

Compact the mixture into an ovenproof dish. Press the sprouts down, but don't squash them.

Pour in the cream - you may not need it all.

Generously coat the top with the breadcrumbs and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until it turns golden-brown and the cheesy cream bubbles up.