vrijdag 26 juni 2009

Foody Friday Gorgonzola Pasta salad and Limoncella strawberry's

I promised you a very good salad last week and here it is.
It is a pasta salad with a very special cheese sauce. The sauce is made with gorgonzola a famous soft Italian blue cheese. Combined with grapes and orange juice it give's a very special taste to the salad.
Here is the recepie
This salad is enough for 8 people to lunch on or for 12 to 15 people if you have a buffet of some kind.
750 grams of small butterfly pasta shapes
4 oranges
300 grams of gorgonzola
140 ml of cream
250 grams of blue seedless grapes
250 grams of green seedless grapes
125 gram of chopped hazelnuts or macademia or pecan nuts
1 bunch of selery sticks
150 grams of rucola leaves

First boil the pasta in boiling salted water and drain.
In the mean time you mix the nuts with the grapes and the celary that you cut in small chuncks.
Remove the rind of the cheese.Put a saucepan on the heat and boil the cream with the cheese and the grated rind of one of the oranges and the juice of all the oranges.
Let the cheese melt in the orange juice and stirr until you have a smooth sauce. You need freshly squeesed orange juice for it. Season with pepper and a bit of salt. I put the sauce trough a fine sive to remove the 'blue' parts from the sauce. You could that do before you add the grated rind of the orange, otherwise the orange rind gets sifted out too.
Let the sauce cool down a bit but don't put it in the fridge because it will sett.
Half an hour before serving mix the cheese sauce with the pasta and toss the rucola leaves also under the pasta.
You really must add the sauce at the last minute otherwise the sauce is totally absorbed by the pasta and the pastasalad becomes too dry.


Limoncella strawberry's

Limoncella is the very fragent Italian lemon liqueur that will give that extra fresh and sumery taste to your strawberry's.
This is such a simple recepie but every time I serve it is a big hit.
For six to 8 little glasses
400 grams of strawberry's chopped in small pieces
1 small bunch of fresh basil leaves
50 grams of icing sugar
15 cl of limoncella
20 cl of water
Boil the water with the sugar and when it becomes a sirop add the limoncella.
Take from the fire. Let it cool down and put in the fridge to let it get cold.
Half an hour too 1 hour before serving pour this sirop over your strawberry's.Snip the basil in small pieces and sprinkle over the strawberry mixture.
This is also very nice to take on a picnic or to a lunchon or so. I made it all in individual portions and brought it like this to the kennel club grounds.

5 opmerkingen:

LiLi M. zei

Gelukkig heb ik net stevig ontbeten, anders was ik al op weg naar de koelkast. Hier staat voor vandaag een verse pesto, italiaanse varkenshaasjes en een lekkere salade op het programma. Dat is al 1 reden waarom het voor mijn man onmogelijk is te gaan scheiden hihihi! Fijn weekend!

quitethecrow zei

These recipes sound wonderful...I love gorgonzola. I think I will have to mix some of this salad up soon. Thank you for sharing these lovely recipes.

At some point I want to try making the terrine you showcased earlier. It sounds delicious too! Take good care...Elizabeth

Cathy zei

Your salad is beautiful and I love the combination of strawberries and lemoncello. Lovely photos too.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Hope you will come back again soon.

Marja Rijnsburger zei

Dat ziet er heerlijk uit allemaal. Twee recepten die ik ga onthouden. Er staat hier al een hele poos een fles Limoncella ongebruikt in de kast maar ik heb er nu een bestemming voor.
Fijne week.

Anoniem zei

Good morning - your gorgonzola salad looks delicious and will definitely give it a try. And what perfect timing for the strawberries - our local fields are now open for the season and the berries are beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes.