Ingredient Pasta & Noodles

Fried sweet potato noodles

Here is my take on the traditional Korean noodle dish Japchae. It’s a beautifully light noodle dish with a wonderful sweet and salty flavour. The noodles are made from sweet potato starch which is a great alternative to the usually…

Pasta puttanesca

There was once a time when I could spend a whole afternoon in the kitchen.  Uninterrupted.  Undistracted.  These days I’m lucky if my culinary forays last more than forty-five minutes.  My pots are often found upturned on the kitchen floor…

Beef Meatball Pasta Bake

Dani our awesome intern from the food design institute in Dunedin spent a couple of weeks in our Auckland office cooking up a storm.  Now at she’s gone back down South we are really missing the flood of delicious treats!…

Zucchini Noodles

If you’re a big zucchini fan like me, then you’ll have been enjoying the abundance of them around at the moment. I’ve been heading down to my local farmers market to pick up beautiful fresh ones of varying shapes, sizes…

Walnut and Mint Linguine

While travelling around Southern Italy earlier this year, I reconnected with many things – the sun (we had a particularly average summer in Dunedin this year), reading books (made from paper! With wine in one hand, feet up – time…

Pad Thai

I’ve been wanting to post pad Thai for a while but have been a little hesitant as it’s one of those foods that has history, tradition and with it a whole line of followers. It’s a bit of an institution…

Roast Pork Ramen

Students aren’t the only ones who need ramen to survive but sometimes a 30 cent packet of the instant version just doesn’t cut the mustard (or in this case the wasabi). Ramen is the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese Lo mein…

Miso Tofu Noodle Soup

Miso feels so nourishing and wholesome.  I love a cup when I have a sore tummy or am feeling a little low.  Its salty, rich flavour always perks me up.  This soup recipe is super easy and has become a…

Lasagne

If you can make a good Bolognese sauce then you can make a good lasagne, and if you can make a good lasagne then strangely you’ll always find you have plenty of friends gathered round your dining table! 

Spaghetti bolognese

For as long as I have been contributing to this blog I have toyed with the idea of posting a recipe for spaghetti Bolognese.  Long has it been a staple meal in our family and I am pretty sure that…

cao lau noodles

This is a great flavour packed dish that I enjoyed on a trip to Vietnam during last years Christmas holidays. Inspired by a cooking class that my wife and I attended in the little historic coastal trading port of Hoi An.

Prawn and chilli pasta

If by nature you are indecisive, shopping for pasta can be tricky. There are so many varieties on offer: wholemeal spaghetti (my favourite), squid ink tagliatelle, rainbow bow ties, alphabet letters and farm yard animals, even gluten free varieties made…