Carbs + greens + THANK YOU so much

 I am back on the basics again. More or less with a functional stomach, and mending. Hey ho. Much has been the disruption of the planned menus, but luckily it's now vegan week, which is especially editable into a series of bland meals involving something carby and a touch of something involving vitamins. 

I bought broccoli raab last week in that fancy chervil delivery (cime di rapa, turnip tops, call it what you want), and I am glad to say I can now eat it, just before all the leaves go yellow. 

 

There are proper recipes for orecchiette with cime, make your own pasta, blanch the leaves then braise, use an anchovy in the sauce etc, but I'm not at that stage yet. This was strictly boil stalks chopped, add pasta (sorry Francesca, I had fresh tagliatelle left from last week which needed eating; and I would *never* make my own orecchiette), add leaves. I did do a bit of wild garlic and oil with it, and in exciting news today, experimented with some cheese. 

This was way too much:

But it did help with the marking tonight. Morally, if not technically. 

Meanwhile, you lot are incredibly lovely. I'm so touched by this, arriving in the post today unheralded and to much squeaking from me. So many of you contributed, and it's a thing of GLORY. (Thanks to Kate J for letting her own wedding gift be nicked, too!) It does make me feel like there's good stuff from this bizarre year, both in cookery terms and in the massive mutual support you have given me and each other.

And, you know, levitating Halloween cocktails. Definitely making this one again.