Archive for February, 2012

This beautifully refreshing mango drink is lovely and sweet and a great way to enjoy the full flavour of mango.

1 ripe Alphonso Mango
180ml natural yoghurt
2 tsp. caster sugar
3 cardamom seeds, removed from their pods

Peel the mango and put all the juice and flesh into a blender. The best way is to slice the ‘cheeks’ first, you will feel with the knife a harder core in the middle which is too hard to eat. Then work your way around the rest of the mango to get all the soft flesh into the blender.

Now add the yoghurt and sugar and blitz. If you prefer, add a touch of milk, cream or water to thin. Crush the cardamom finely and stir into the drink.

perfectly well), then sweeten very slightly to taste with caster sugar. Blitz, then thin slightly with water or milk. Remove a few cardamom seeds from the drink.

Serve and enjoy! If you like, add some chopped pistachios, almonds or mint to sprinkle on top.

180g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
30g golden caster sugar
2 eggs, separated
250ml semi skimmed milk
25g unsalted butter

Optional toppings: blueberries, maple syrup, icing sugar, caramelised bananas, bacon…

Stir together the flour, baking powder and caster sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg yolks and milk and whisk until you have a smooth batter.

In a clean bowl, whisk the eggs whites until you have soft peaks. Then gently fold into the batter.

Heat some butter in a large frying until it melts and starts to foam. Ladle the batter into the pan to form medium circles. Cook for a couple of minutes until bubbles start to form on the batter. Now it’s time to flip the pancakes, using a spatula. Cook for another minute or so on the other side. Remove from the pan and keep warm while you prepare the rest of the pancakes, repeating the process until all the batter is used.

To serve, simply add your favourite topping! We love blueberries, icing sugar, maple syrup, bananas, whipped cream…

Mammole artichokes are an incredible variety, traditionally from Rome. They have no thorns, are large and succulent, wonderfully tender when cooked. They are traditionally stewed with garlic, mint and anchovies, but are wonderful baked and stuffed too.

We import these tender artichokes direct from Milan twice a week, so they are always amazingly fresh. They are completely unlike anything you will find in the supermarket.

Don’t be daunted if you have never tried cooking with artichokes before, find recipes and advice on how to prepare them in our blog: click here.

BUY NOW – £1.32 each

We love the strong flavours of Rocket, and the Italian Wild Rocket we source from the markets is absolutely unmissable! A versatile, peppery leaf, ours is not only fantastic quality, but much better value than many versions you’ll find elsewhere…

Taste: Strong flavoured, peppery and rich, it’s incredibly flavoursome for a leafy green. That’s why it is mainly used as an additional ingredient in salads or other dishes, and rarely on its own.

Region: It’s found in the wild in all the Mediterranean area, but it’s now mainly cultivated in the Veneto region of Italy.

Quality: We only source the finest grade available on the market. Our buyers only select what is looking and tasting best!

Growing: Although this type of rocket is actually cultivated, it is still known as “wild” to differentiate it from the “domestic” variety, a larger leaf with a milder flavour.

Cost: We always let you know the price per kg so you can easily compare our prices. Our wild rocket is not only superior in quality, but also better value than what is usually found in the supermarket:

For more information and to buy, click here.

Try something a bit different by making a wonderfully peppery pesto out of our fantastic wild rocket…

1 clove of garlic
50g pine nuts
100g wild rocket
1 glass of extra virgin olive oil
50g Parmesan, grated
50g Pecorino Sardo, grated
Salt

Wash the rocket and dry it before putting it into a blender with the pine nuts, Parmesan, Percorino and garlic. Add a good pinch of salt and some of the olive oil. Start blending at a low speed, gradually adding the rest of the oil until you have a smooth mixture.

You can keep it in the fridge for a few days, just be sure to cover with a layer of olive oil and keep in a closed container.

This pesto is of course wonderful enjoyed with pasta! Add a small amount of the cooking water when you stir in the pesto to make it extra silky. Sprinkle the final dish with a few leaves of rocket, pine nuts and a sprinkling of grated cheese.

Serves 6
12 thin slices of chicken breast (made from 4 chicken breasts)
16 slices or lardo
60g breadcrumbs
60g Parmesan, grated
1 stem parsley
100g fontina, grated
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C.

First, slice each chicken breast into 3 pieces lengthways, and pound until thin.

Then grate the Parmesan and fontina, chop the parsley and 4 slices of lardo. Mix together with some salt and pepper.

Spread the mixture onto each chicken slice. Then roll up the chicken to create an ‘involtini’ and wrap with the remaining slices of lardo. You can secure with a toothpick or some kitchen string.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper then lay the involtini on top. Sprinkle with olive oil, and roast for 20 minutes.

Passe Crassane Pears – tasting incredible this week

You know something is special when a producer has taken the time to seal each precious pear’s stalk with a striking wax tip. These incredible French pears, known as ‘Passe Crassane’ are topped with wax to slow the evaporation of water – the result, a juicy, crisp pear with wonderful sweetness.

The Passe Crassane is our favourite French pear in the winter months, known for its satisfyingly dense texture and beautifully marbled yellow skin. From the first bite you’ll know you’ve discovered a very special pear.

BUY NOW – extra large, £1.67 each

This week, our Italian fruit and vegetable buyer Roberto Rossi gives us an insight into his love for the market…

I can say I was born into the market; I remember when I was 5 years old, and during the school holiday my father woke me up at sunrise to show me the work.

It’s amazing to go to the market every day, summer or winter, and take a look; you start walking through the trucks waiting to be unloaded, and you begin to have an inkling of which kind of market day it will be.

I love the minutes before opening time; porters are carrying their last pallets, running around. I see the shining water on the chard, on the carrots. I touch the leaves of radicchio. Then the market opens..

It’s a circus, each transaction is different from another; each seller and buyer judges each other before deciding his trading method. There are buyers who will scream until to the last cent, others who prefer to be more diplomatic. There is friendship, and sometimes, well, there is not…

I love the people of the market, and I feel at home there.

In all these years I learned to “see the changes”; being observant I see when a new season coming, or when a product is at its best.

How to choose? Simply using the five senses; you’ve seen the pics of the incredible camone tomatoes. So, I’m in the cold store, about six pallets of camone tomatos from Sardinia surround me…I look for a pallet in which boxes have the same colour tomato. The camone has to be red with dark green, and even if it is totally red, it has to be hard. A soft camone is a bad one. Then I cut it, and I have to see the seeds; the salty smell is typical of the Sicilian camone (sincerely I think that the Sicilian camone is the best. Then I eat it, and it must be crunchy and salty. Then I know I found my camone.

I apply the rules of the fives senses for every product, it has to be “alive”. It’s an emotion to see a pallet (for example) of fennel as those in photo, it’s incredible to taste the leaves of cicorino, knowing that it was only in the earth nine hours ago.

I think I’m very lucky being in the market every day, having Nature as my team mate.

And of course, you can enjoy these incredible tomatoes, bought by Roberto and imported directly to Natoora!

Buy camone tomatoes today

Win a recipe kit for two this Valentine’s Day

Fall in love with cooking this Valentine’s day, with your chance to win a magnificent recipe kit for two. There’s nothing more romantic than a home cooked meal, especially when it is made using the finest Natoora ingredients and with a little help from one of London’s top chefs…even better when you can receive all this for free!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER OUR COMPETITION TODAY!

Don’t forget, we have a delicious range of Valentine’s day foods available. Click here to shop

Serves 6

12 Moro blood oranges
4 tbsp. caster sugar
12g gelatine sheets

Squeeze the Moro oranges and filter the juice with the help of a strainer until you get roughly 0.5 ltr of juice.

Now put the juice in a saucepan and add the sugar, stirring it on a low heat until the sugar dissolves, but don’t let it boil.

In the meanwhile, let the gelatine sheets soften in a bowl with some cold water for about 10 minutes, then remove them and add them to the warm juice, stirring until they’re completely melted.

Now dampen the inside of 6 small silicone moulds and pour the gelatine into them, let them cool down and place them in the fridge covered with some cling film until firm.

Finally, turn the moulds gently upside down on separate plates and decorate them with some orange peel or some whipped cream and chopped pistachios.