2 potential pasta recipes - give em a try!

[Sparks]

Hi all saw two recipes today i thought might be nice to try so thought i would share with you guys:
Channel 4 Scrapbook - Gnocchi with spinach, crème fraîche, chilli and pancetta recipe
Penne With Courgette And Prosciutto Recipe I Sainsbury's
Havnt tried them yet so dont know what they will be like. If anyone gets round to it before me - share your thoughts!

[buckytom]

both look pretty good, even from an adopted scouser's point of view.

i might change the mint for basil (baa-sil for my american brethren) in the second recipe. just a preference.

mint, like rosemary does so often ( ), can be overwhelming in a delicate dish as such.

[Sparks]

Haha! you made me nearly spill my drink! lol
Yeah same, i can only deal with mint in ice cream. Hi from manc! By the way what do you do for basil? I really like fresh, but cant stand the dried, it just taste like tea leaves to me. However this time of year none of the supermarkets seem to have fresh, living in a climate like ours.
If anyone tries these recipes before myself please post your thoughts!

[Kylie1969]

They both look lovely, thanks Sparks

[buckytom]

from spring through early fall, basil grows pretty well outside here. i usually buy several seedlings from a nursery, then plant a few in different spots in my veggie snd herb garden (that get different amounts of sun and relative temps)so that they grow at different rates.

the trick to keep them all going is to continuously pinch back any that are bolting to seed.

in winter, i buy small pots of basil and try to keep them going on a sunny window sill.

[Dawgluver]

Or just fling some seeds around. Basil germinates well, and I usually dig up and pot whatever plants still look good that I've grown from seed in late fall to overwinter. I have fresh basil all winter. Good stuff!

[Sparks]

So i tried the Gnocchi recipe tonight and it was really good, simple but so nice! Added a couple more cloves of garlic, some parsley - brilliant. Give it a go.
Ive bought the little pots from the supermarket before, but they wilt really really quickly, tried them on a sunny windows, in conservatory where its warm, in bright but not direct light - nothing works. You manage outdoor basil? how!? isnt it way too cold? or are they resiliant enough for just planting in the ground? Its one of my fav herbs, but i never get to have it!

[acerbicacid]

Hi sparks, I buy those supermarket pots of basil and have finally found a way to keep it for longer - I just remove the bottom of the cellophane sleeve, leaving the sleeve around the pot and the plant and then put in a shallow dish and water it by pouring water in the bottom of the dish. It definitely seems to keep longer that way.

Love the gnocchi recipe.

[Dawgluver]

Sparks, if your basil is in a really little container, you may want to repot it in a slightly bigger pot. My dug-up basil is pretty ratty-looking now, but still functional!

It's not too cold here to grow basil from seed during the summer, and basil can even take some partial shade.

Glad the gnocchi was so good!