Spaceships at Sizergh
By Catherine Lee, 28 September 2011 –
When my niece saw the cropshare bag this week she declared, with delight, that we had got another spaceship! The patty pan squash is new to many of us, including my niece, but can be used in the same way as other squashes. Although we’ve had some lovely warm days recently, I still felt the need for some homemade soup, so decided to use it to make a simple one, with shallots. I served the Patty Pan Squash Soup with freshly baked bread and a jar of pesto on the table; spoon the pesto into the soup for a lovely summery taste.
As the spring greens are still going strong into late summer I thought I would use them to warm things up a bit. Chilli Spring Greens are a lovely accompaniment to meat or fish and provide an alternative use of the vegetable with very little extra effort.
Thankful that a bag of spinach is still appearing in the bag, I turned to one of the, now, classic recipes; Spinach & Ricotta Pancakes. It’s a dish that never fails to delight and is often overlooked these days in favour of more contemporary, or perhaps that shoud read 'traditional' Italian cuisine. Due to a very busy week, I cheated and used shop-bought pancakes and sauce…yes, I can hear the gasps of horror…oh well, they tasted great, were put together in a flash, and that’s all that matters!