Les Poissonchats

Et voilà and it’s already February. The extraordinarily cold days are behind us, now it’s the ordinary cold days and The Great Wet that has taken hold of our world. Muddy lanes and a fine drizzle, low hanging clouds, the trees and shrubs are entirely bare now except for the two life trees in the park, home to a little colony of squirrels who apparently don’t bother the weather, the daredevils they are when they walz through the branches or play cliff hanger on wall of the big tower. 

It’s not my favourite time of the year, I admit, yet the quiet it brings and the serenity of happy afternoons spent writing away, or sewing, or doing research for my latest venture of writing „The Complete (/sarc) History of the Seigneurie de Chemilly, Hte Saône“. Considering the latter I did find out tons of interesting things really, to be sure things that make a history aficionado’s heart beat (I’m aware we are a rare and curious breed, judging by the general public’s bewilderment at such enthusiasm for irrelevantly dead things), for instance I found out whose family the enigmatic coat of arms (pictured below) in the drawing room is, at least the one half, a funny story really because it’s from gentle folks very near to where I grew up, which is a super unlikely coincidence. Also it involves a bear, how exciting. Yet I’m still looking for the owner of the shield with three stirrups, if ever you fellow history aficionado do stumble across it let me know! 

In the kitchen it’s all about rich and nourishing foods now, also turning to my stash of preserves and dried mushrooms. The other day we had pasta with a simple Napolitano sauce and some smoked mozzarella, just the perfect thing at this time of the year. I’ve written up the how to for you further down. 

The kitchen renovations are long over yet it’s a bit of a mess as I currently also use it as my office, I have included a picture of it below, awful with the freshly mopped floor but it’s the only one I currently have. The kitchen is two tiny rooms really with one for washing up and chopping and doing the preps, while the other one is for sitting and cooking. It’s too cosy which is why I have to share it with all of the cats. We also started the restoration of the upper tower room, which is going to be glorious I’m sure, currently it rather isn’t. It’s going to be the third guest room, the view from it is absolutely fantastic. If all goes well it’s going to be available for the 2024 retreats! Speaking of retreats, I’ve added the 2025 dates.

What you’ll need

Some home made, freshly cooked pasta. You will find my very own recipe in my cookbook, it’s still available here, and totally worth it if you’d like to know my secret ingredient!

A bottle of tomato purée: I always make my own at the end of the season when they’re super ripe and juicy and full of flavour. Usually a big crate, letting it sit for another week after harvesting, then cooking them in a really big pot for quite some time, only adding salt, and then purée. Sterilised in glass jars in the oven, it would probably keep forever except in my house good things generally don’t, so I couldn’t tell. 

• Parsley, finely chopped
• A big clove of garlic, finely chopped
• Fleur de sel and pepper
• Half a ball of smoked mozzarella per person
• Some very good olive oil

How to cook it

Preheat the oven to 160°C. 

While the pasta cooks, fry the chopped garlic in a lot of olive oil in a wide pan, be careful not to let it go too dark. Then add the tomato purée and the parsley, season with fleur de sel and pepper. Then add the cooked pasta and a ladle of pasta water, let it cook away for another couple of minutes. 

Arrange in the plates and cover with thin slivers of smoked mozzarella. Put in the upper half of your oven, switch on the grill function so the cheese melts and bake for another seven minutes. 

How to eat it

Steaming hot from the oven, also a glass of strong man wine, given we drink French wine only, I like a sunny Côtes de Rhône or even Bordeaux muscle champ with any Italy inspired foods. Make sure there’s some tiny little sweet treat for dessert to counter all that bravado.