Chicken with tomato, basil, capers and olives

At some point the last week I saw a headline somewhere for a recipe including chicken, tomatoes and capers. I didn't read the recipe as it was behind a paywall but I immediately thought of a couple of my recent recipes inspired by Mediterranean cooking in Sicily, Calabria (and Greece). Magna Graecia indeed! 

This time the recipe uses a mixture of large and small green and black olives which I bought locally, as well as chicken thighs which I think give better flavour than breasts for such dishes. I enjoyed the final product with some gnocchi and Parmesan. 

Ingredients

Olive oil

2 spring onions

4 cloves garlic crushed

900 gr chicken thighs

1 can (400 gr) diced tomatoes

2 heaped tbs mixed olives

3 tsp capers

3-4 tbs chopped fresh basil

Water as needed 

Mode

Heat the oil in a pan large enough to simmer all the ingredients

Chop the chicken

Chop the spring onion

Crush the garlic

Lightly fry the garlic, and spring onion

Add the chicken 

Stir fry until chicken sealed 

Add the tomatoes,  capers and olives and stir to combine

Chop basil and add it and stir to combine

Turn down heat and simmer. 

While cooking add water as needed for consistency

Simmer until everything tender and the sauce reduced

Sardines with tomatoes, olives, celery and leek

This dish, like my last similar recipe, is inspired by Mediterranean cooking in Sicily, Calabria (and Greece). Magna Graecia indeed! This time the recipe uses mammoth green olives which I was given as a present, a leek I needed to cook and the fish component was comprised of fresh filleted sardines. This week’s heat delayed my cooking but now that the cool has come (along with rain, thunder, lightning and hail) I can get on with it. I doubled the tomatoes in this recipe as the addition of the leek required this.  While cooking I also added gradually about a cup of water to keep the consistency as I wanted it.

Last time I cooked the earlier variant of the recipe I said I felt like I was in Greece. My friend Letizia said she felt she was in her homeland when she read the recipe. What will she think this time? Despite the green olives I still feel that I am in Greece (or Magna Graecia) and indeed wonder if I will ever get to Sicily or even Greece again.  

Ingredients

Olive oil

2 stalks celery including leaves

1 leek

3 cloves garlic crushed

2 cans (400 gr) diced tomatoes

10 mammoth green olives

3-4 tbs chopped fresh basil

1 tbs capers

400 gr fresh filleted sardines

1 cup water

Mode

Heat the oil in a pan large enough to simmer all the ingredients

Chop the celery

Finely slice leek

Crush the garlic

Lightly fry the garlic, celery and leek

Add the tomatoes and olives and stir occasionally

Chop basil and add it and capers

Turn down heat and simmer for about 5 minutes

While cooking add water as needed for consistency

Add the sardines and stir to cover the fish

Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes

Swordfish in tomatoes with olives and capers

I got my inspiration for this from a regular newsletter I get from eatingwell.com  And they say they were inspired by Mediterranean cooking in Sicily and Calabria. Ah Magna Graecia! I didn’t follow their recipe exactly and amongst other changes substituted their green olives with my favourite mammoth black ones. I served it one evening with roast vegetables and another with gnocchi whereas the original recipe had polenta as a core element. Mine tasted like I was in Athens. 🇬🇷

Ingredients

Olive oil

2 stalks celery including leaves

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 can (400 gr) diced tomatoes

8 mammoth black olives

3-4 tbs chopped fresh basil

1 tbs capers

400 gr swordfish

Mode

Heat the oil in a pan large enough to simmer all the ingredients

Chop the celery

Crush the garlic

Lightly fry the garlic and celery

Add the tomatoes and olives and stir occasionally

Chop basil and add it and capers

Turn down heat and simmer for about 5 minutes

Add the swordfish steaks and stir to cover the fish

Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes

Rocket pesto, salami and ricotta pizza

Ah Sunday evening! What is there to cook except a pizza after years of the tradition of Sunday night pizza? It would be very nice to meet some friends outside in a pizzeria, but that was another time before lockdowns. 

We have no idea when this time will end. So I continue to experiment. Pritikin modified pizzes are the basis of my experiments, though he would not approve of all my changes, as indeed I don’t approve of his low fat options. I have experimented with a few wholemeal/multigrain wraps or Lebanese bread. My absolute favourite to date is one produced by Wattle Valley as shown in the illustration. 

This time produced a delicious combination of wholemeal wrap, ricotta, rocket pesto, and vegetables accompanied by capers and ginger. I can’t say that it is a very traditional pizza but I enjoyed my Sunday night pizza a lot!! 

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Ricotta

Salami slices

1/4 red pepper

1/4 green pepper 

2 mushrooms 

1/2 zucchini

1 heaped tsp capers

1 tsp crushed ginger

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Place wholemeal wrap on oven tray

Spread the rocket pesto on wrap

Spread with ricotta

Grate zucchini

Slice red and green peppers and mushrooms

Crush the ginger 

Place salami on the ricotta

Add zucchini, followed by peppers and mushrooms 

Sprinkle over capers and ginger

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes

Enjoy!

Smoked salmon, ricotta and pesto pizza

During Lockdown number five in Melbourne eating and cooking and comfort food have been again on the agenda. I started experimenting with pizzas again, this time going back to methods I had learnt long ago in Pritikin-based cooking. Much has changed since then in terms of the discreditation of his calls for extreme use of low fat products including nuts for example. But there is also much that is valuable in the recipes in relation to exclusion of refined products for example.

This pizza is based on the standard Pritikin pizza base, wholemeal Lebanese bread, with the addition of pesto, ricotta, smoked salmon, grated zucchini, spring onions and capers. It was yummy.

Ingredients

1 wholemeal Lebanese bread

2 spring onions

1 dsp capers

1/2 zucchini

100 gr smoked salmon

120 gr ricotta

2 tbs pesto

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c

Chop spring onions

Grate zucchini

Spread pesto on the Lebanese bread

Add ricotta and smooth

Break smoked salmon into pieces and add

Add spring onions, capers and zucchini 

Bake in 220c oven for 12 minutes