This dish is not Genovese sauce but it is inspired by those simple flavours, and a lot more filling.

Ingredients
1 tbs olive oil
2 chicken breast fillets
10 medium-sized mushrooms (Swiss browns are good)
½ cup pesto
1 cup cream, marscarpone or crème fraiche

Method

Cut the chicken into small pieces and fry in olive oil on medium heat until golden.

Slice the mushrooms and add to the pan. Mix through until coated with pan juices and starting to cook through.

Reduce the heat to low, and stir the pesto through. Heat through until fragrant.

Add the cream and bring to a simmer. Stir until thickened, leaving enough liquid to coat freshly cooked pasta.

 Bellissimo!

One of the greatest things about summer is basil. Yes, you can get it all year round these days, but summer is when basil is in season and you really get the full flavour. At the moment, the leaves are big and green, and it has a lovely sweet fragrance.

When basil is at its best I like to make pesto. Pesto is wonderful on bread or fresh pasta. It’s simple and delicious with that rustic Italian feel.

Today we had pesto for lunch on ciabatta with perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes and marinated goat’s feta, accompanied with a chilled bottle of Dominique Portet Rosé. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Here’s my recipe:

2 cups basil leaves
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbs pine nuts, toasted
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
20g freshly grated Parmesan reggiano cheese

Put the basil leaves, garlic, toasted pine nuts and half the oil in the food processor and blend until smooth. Scrape into a bowl, stir in the cheese and remaining oil, and mix well. Serve immediately, or store in a screw-top jar. Seal in the freshness and stop the leaves from blackening, cover the pesto with a thin film of olive oil before closing the jar. The recipe makes about 1½ cups of pesto.

The days are getting shorter, the light is paler and there’s a definite chill in the air. Winter is coming and that means perfect weather for soup.

Proper, hearty (and healthy) soup made from fresh vegetables and simmered gently on the stove top, filling the house with a gorgeous aroma that makes you salivate the minute you walk through the door. Mmmmm, so good you can hardly wait to eat it with a few slices of crusty bread.

We make a lot of soup in winter but the all-time favourite would have to be minestrone. It’s a delicious way to dish up a big serve of vegetables. The leftovers are even better the next day and it also keeps well in the freezer.

We can’t take full credit for it. It’s based on a Jamie Oliver recipe but, over time, we’ve adjusted the quantities to suit our taste.

1 tbs olive oil
6 slices rindless shortcut bacon, chopped
1 Spanish onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
1 bulb fennel, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ a bunch basil, leaves and green stalks chopped
800g canned Roma tomatoes
175ml red wine
2 zucchinis, chopped
3 to 4 leaves silverbeet, roughly chopped stalks and all
400g canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly
500ml chicken stock
2 handfuls of short pasta
Parmesan cheese to serve

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and add the chopped bacon. Fry gently for a minute then add onion, carrots, celery, fennel, garlic and basil. On a very low heat and with the lid slightly ajar, allow the bacon and vegetables to sweat for around 20 minutes until soft. The heat should be low enough that nothing browns.

Add the zucchini, tomatoes and wine, and simmer gently until it thickens slightly. Add the silverbeet, chicken stock, cannellini beans and pasta. Simmer until the pasta is cooked.

When ready, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

Nothing lifts the humble piece of steak or fish as quickly and easily as a compound butter.

So what is compound butter? Basically, it is flavoured butter. Using salted or unsalted butter, mix in a selection of your favourite herbs or other ingredients.

Some simple combinations include:

• garlic, lemon and parsley
• parsley with tarragon, chervil or dill
• wholegrain mustard, lemon and chives
• capers and lemon

The combinations are endless but one of our favourites for beef is basil butter…mmmm, so good!

What you’ll need:
125g softened butter
1 tbs Dijon mustard
½ cup fresh basil, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbs green peppercorns, crushed (optional)

In a bowl mash the softened butter a few times with the back of a fork. Combine the mustard, basil and garlic with the butter and mix until well combined.

Roll the butter mixture into a log shape in some foil and refrigerate to set. When you serve your steaks simply slice off some butter, smear it on the steak and watch it melt into a delicious sauce.

Another way we use compound butter is to refrigerate only half the butter and use the other half to rub into a piece of eye fillet, which is then baked in the oven – divine! When the eye fillet is cooked to your liking serve it with the other half of the butter on the side, so you can add additional flavour if you want it.