Kia ora everyone – I’m Laura, the latest addition to the Menumania blog writers’ guild. When I’m not posting here I enjoy absolutely zero fame and fortune through my own cooking blog, Hungry and Frozen, which I started two years ago as a penniless student. These days I’ve finished my degree in English Lit and Media and work full time. I am passionate to the point of delusion about cooking and baking and will scissor kick anyone who dares to use margarine instead of butter in my kitchen. I guess that says plenty about what I’m like as a person so I’ll choose this moment to segue into my first post for Menumania.

For many people making dinner is not so much a pleasure as an endless cycle of nightly struggle. I hope I don’t sound too smug when I say it is actually one of the things I look forward to most in the day. This doesn’t necessarily mean I always know what I want to cook, which is why I based this post on mood. Here are two recipes, one for when you are wanting to actively cook, slicing things finely and stirring attentively and never straying from the bubbling pan of food. Then there is a recipe that lets you bung everything in the oven, then go away to admire Taye Diggs in Private Practise or bathe the children or write your thesis or whatever it is that you would have been doing had you not been shackled to the kitchen, cooking dinner. It’s time for you to choose your own adventure.

Zucchini, Pea and Spinach Risotto with Feta Cheese

This is the more involved recipe. Although it is a pleasing thing to stand at the stove, stirring serenely and constantly for 25 minutes, if you’ve had a bad day it will feel torturously miserable and the rice will seemingly take forever to absorb its liquid. Consider yourself warned.

• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 4 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and finely diced
• A knob of butter
• 100g risotto rice (arborio is cheapest)
• A splash of Vermouth or other white wine
• Good vegetable stock, about 750mls or so
• 2 zucchini
• 1 cup frozen peas
• A handful of spinach leaves, chopped roughly
• 100g feta

In a wide, heavy based pan, soften the onion and garlic in the butter without letting them brown. Add the rice – and I should point out here that I spent an obscene amount on a bag of carnaroli, which was indeed lovely, but don’t go feeling like a culinary pariah if all you have is arborio from the supermarket – and stir it through the buttery onion and garlic for a minute. Pour in the wine – about 1/4 cup – and stir everything quickly together. It should smell quite heavenly at this point!  Slice the zucchini into rounds and add to the pan, stirring all the while. Get used to seeing the word stir round here.

From here, add the stock slowly (I use a ladleful at a time) stirring till it’s absorbed before adding the next measure. This will take more or less forever. Once the risotto is thick and the beads of rice have swollen and softened, stir in some more butter if you like (and I do!) then stir in the peas and spinach. Serve with the feta crumbled over.

Serves 2.

A good risotto can be comforting and elegant at the same time, and this one seems to tick both boxes. The gentle flavour of the zuchinni with the texture of the peas and more robust taste of spinach marries nicely with the generous sprinkling of creamy, tangy feta.

The next recipe requires considerably less effort, for those days when you are worn out but want something with a bit more dazzle than toast or takeaways.

Spaghetti with Roasted Vegetable Sauce

This could accompany golden roast chicken portions, or simply be eaten by the plateful on its own.

• Half a butternut squash (they are normally sold in halves)
• 1 red capsicum (or orange, but please not green)
• 1 bulb garlic
• 4 plump tomatoes
• A pinch of sweet smoked paprika
• Handful of chopped basil
• 200g spaghetti (or linguini, or anything at all really)

Set the oven to 200 C. Halve the tomatoes and capsicum,  scooping out the white seeds of the latter. Slice the butternut into small chunks, cutting off the skin as you go. Wrap the bulb of garlic (yes, a whole bulb, don’t be scared now, it mellows out in the oven) in tinfoil. Put everything on an oven tray lined with baking paper and place it in the oven. Leave it there for about an hour and a half.

When this time is up, remove the vegetables from the oven. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water till done. Meanwhile, throw all the vegetables into a food processor (you’ll need to squeeze the softened garlic cloves out of their papery skins which is, admittedly, a little fiddly) along with the basil and paprika and whizz to a smoothish sauce, adding about 1/3 cup of water and any juices left on the tray.

Mix the drained spaghetti and the sauce together, and serve sprinkled with chopped mint, almonds and feta (can you tell I’m attached to the stuff?) if desired.

Serves 2

The texture of the butternut (and you could use pumpkin of course) adds a delicious richness, while roasting really enhances the flavour of the other vegetables, making even the anemic looking tomatoes that you see so often these days taste utterly luscious, especially when paired with basil.

I’d love to hear back from anyone who happens to make these recipes, or even just anyone who feels like saying hi. Hopefully you’ll see more of me round the place as I become a regular fixture here!

Feel free to check out more of my ramblings at my blog Hungry and Frozen. It is, quite honestly, pretty fantastic. I mean, I really like it, so you might also.