As simple as it gets...
Welcome to EasyCooking, a website by Mario De-Cristofano. This is a central resource for all my home recipes and cooking experiments. Those that know me well know I'm incredibly passionate about food, fresh produce and good quality hospitality. As I develop new and vibrant dishes, good quality plates of food and wholesome side dishes, I pop the recipes here online for my own reference. Your more than welcome to use them, but I do not offer any kind of email reply. Nor do I want to hear about 'recommendations'. I'd be delighted if you tried them out though, there all authentic and by me!
 | Amazing Pasta, chilli & tomato comfort food |
As an Italian, I love Pasta. REALLY I DO. It's always the simplest techniques and flavour profiles which really work and this dish is a cracker! You can bang it together in about 30 minutes, it scales easily, eats really well and that alone is awesome. Pair it with a full bodied red to really make it sing!
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Ingredients
Pasta (Durum Wheat - ribbon)Base tomato stock/sauce
Mushrooms
Garlic
Onion
Chilli
Vegatable Oil
Extra Virgin Ollive Oil
Cherry tomatoes
Cheese (either pecorino or parmesan)
Get a wok, finely dice some onions and caramelise them over a medium heat. Once they have started to turn golden, pour in the prepared & cleaned mushrooms and leave for a while to break the mushrooms down. Once the mushrooms have turned brown and deep in colour, add some chopped chilli, garlic and halved cherry tomatoes. Leave to break down, adding Salt & Pepper and a little tomato stock/sauce.
In a large pan, bring some salted water to a rolling boil and add the pasta ribbons. Stir, and reduce the heat. Cook to Al-dente and once cooked, drain the pasta, and add to the wok and raise the heat.
Add a little butter, and dress with olive oil. Add some chopped rosemary at the very last minute.
Serve in a large bowl, and sprinkle some greated pecorino over the top. You can serve this with garlic bread, garlic croutons or whatever you want really!
 | I'm
really excited about purchasing a slow cooker and trying out loads of
great stew, casserole and soup recipes. It's a great way of putting
something healthy and wholesome on in the morning, going out to work,
and having a great tasty tea ready for when you get in. On a similar note, if your interested in food, I discovered Foodpickle earlier in the month. It's a great website, by food52, and their built up community of foodies respond by Twitter in realtime to your culinary disasters! A great service, and you should check them out here and dont forget to follow them on Twitter, @foodpickle  |
Sit back, take a glass of wine, and enjoy!
 | Christmas 2010 Menu Click NOW! |
And finally...
In the future, I plan to have my own allotment in the short. I'll write about my growing passion for good home made wholesome food. As and when money allows, I'm going to open a little restaraunt. But thats a long way off yet, lets get some cooking done first! My site aims to be simple and clean (like my food) and you will need primarly a small array of pots and pans. Rest assured Im not regurgitating a selection of Jamies finest or Nigellas quickest, but I take the good from the good and leave the bad where it belongs.
So whats this about then? . . .
The reason I set this site up is becuase I cook. I cook a lot. I wanted something to pass down to my children that `I wish my parents and grandparents could of passed down to me. I want my children to understand food, and the `provinence of where it comes from. I get so incredibly annoyed by people who dont learn to cook. People who eat meat, but wouldnt be prepared to kill the animal for the meat. Instead being happy with supermarket-esque shrink wrapped bright red meat or whatever.
`People who dont make an effort to try new things, to understand how food works, and to not choose to know what it feels like to nourish people. To care for them, and to feed them through great simple dishes. Learn how to make `pastry, to make dough, to make custard, home made gravy, roast a chicken, make a pizza, godd dam it!
Recipe of the month - Beany beefy cheesy bake with sausage layer
Hi stole some of this recipe from a good friend of mine, but it didnt take it long to make it my own, and make it hotter, and badder than you ever could imagine. Perfect for those cold winter nights, with a nice crisp salad, or a little pasta on the site. Even just some crusty bread and a nice glass of red wine would be epic.
 | INGREDIENTS Corned Beef English Cheddar Baked Beans Red and Green chillii's Garlic Onions Good quality pork sausages |
 | HOW ITS DONE . . . Get a nice baking dish, and layer chopped onions in the bottom. Drizzle in Olive Oil, salt and pepper and chop in the chilli and garlic. Place a sliced layer of corned beef over the top, and then some chilled baked beans, then add slices of cheese. and a few more beans. Meanwhile, par boil an mash up some potatoes, with mustard, milk and butter and put into a piping bag. Part fry some quality pork sausages, and slice into small thin wedges. Add these on top of your last cheese and bean later. Top with piped mash, and add a little more salt, Olive oil and a sprinking of grating cheese. Oven bake for 25-30 minutes, Gas mark 5 until the top is golden crispy. |
Note: This website is really for me at this stage. Whilst Ill monitor traffic, I have no real concern at the moment on offering any facilities like recipe download or such like. If you like the recipes, use them by all means. If you change something, good for you - I dont need to know about it.