In the GI News Kitchen

American dietitian and author of Good Carbs, Bad Carbs, Johanna Burani, shares favourite recipes with a low or moderate GI from her Italian kitchen. For more information, check out Johanna’s website. The photographs are by Sergio Burani. His food, travel and wine photography website is photosbysergio.com.

Tiziana’s roasted peppers.  
Tiziana is my amazing sister-in-law. I won’t divulge her age but suffice it to say that, if she lived here in the US, her Medicare card would long be rumpled and weather beaten. Her body is riddled with arthritis but you’d never know it. She keeps a pristine house, helps in her husband’s fresh produce store, watches grandchildren, family and stray pets and cooks fabulous meals in a flash. We spent some time visiting Tiziana and her husband, William, recently in their northern Italian home. The recipe below is just one of the scrumptious dishes she served us. Buon appetito! Serves approximately 6 (5 strips per person)

4 large peppers (yellow, orange or red not green)
1/3 cup water
¼ tsp salt
1–2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil (1 Australian tbsp)
4 tsp seasoned breadcrumbs
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 400ºF (200ºC).
Wash and dry the peppers. Cut off tops, remove seeds and internal membranes. Slice into eighths. Place pepper strips in a 9in x11in (23 cm x 28 cm) roasting pan.
Briskly whisk together water, salt, garlic and oil in a small bowl and spoon over peppers. Top with breadcrumbs. Roast for 25–30 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle over the parsley and serve hot.

Per serve
315kJ/75 calories; 2g protein; 5g fat (includes less than 1g saturated fat); 47g available carbs; 1g fibre

Here’s how you can cut back on the food bills and enjoy fresh-tasting, easily prepared, seasonal, satisfying and delicious low or moderate GI meals that don’t compromise on quality and flavour one little bit with our Money Saving Meals including these delicious fish cakes from FISHline, Sydney Fish Market’s free consumer advisory service.

Sweet potato fish cakes with dill sauce. 
Fish cakes are a great way to use up leftovers.  Substitute redfish, silver warehou, pink ling, jackass morwong or one of the dories if you can’t buy ribaldo or ask for the day’s best buy that will make good fish cakes. Makes 12 patties.

450g (1lb) orange-fleshed sweet potato
600g (1lb 5oz) ribaldo fillets, skin off
 ⅔ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
few drops Tabasco
 ½ cup plain flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs (made with stale bread)
½ cup olive oil
3 cups baby rocket, to serve (or more rocket to taste)
1 tbsp lemon juice, to serve

Dill sauce
1 cup natural yoghurt
 ½ cup whole-egg mayonnaise
¼ cup lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped dill

Peel and dice sweet potato and steam until tender. Mash until smooth.
Cut fish into large chunks, pulse in a food processor, in 2 batches if necessary, until coarsely chopped. Combine well with sweet potato, parsley, shallots and Tabasco and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Wet hands and divide mixture into 12 patties. Flatten slightly and lightly dust with flour, dip in beaten egg and then in breadcrumbs. Place on a plate, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile make the dill sauce: whisk all ingredients together.
Heat a frying pan over medium heat, add ¾ of the oil and, when hot, add fish cakes and cook each side for about 3 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Drain on paper towel.
Toss rocket with remaining oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mound in the centre of plates, place fish cakes on top and drizzle with dill sauce. Pass the remaining sauce separately.

Visit the FISHline for more seafood recipes, advice on seafood purchasing, storage and cooking, species information and answers to frequently asked seafood questions.

Per pattie
1330 kJ/320 calories; 16g protein; 16g fat (includes 3g saturated fat); 27g available carbs; 2.5g fibre; 300mg sodium

Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals. 
The cover describes the recipes in this book as ‘delicious,’ ‘nutritious’ and ‘super-fast’. And they are. We particularly like the fact that many are also low. Check out www.jamieoliver.com for more information.

Pesto spaghetti/lemon-steamed fish. 
Serves 4

200g (7oz) large scallops
400g (14oz) white fish fillets, scaled and pin-boned
olive oil
1 lemon
½ a dried red chilli

Pasta
320g (11oz) dried spaghetti
200g (7oz) green beans
200g (7oz) purple sprouting broccoli

Pesto
75g (2½oz) blanched almonds
1 big bunch of fresh basil
1 clove of garlic
 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (1½ Australian tbsp)
50g (1½oz) Parmesan cheese
1 lemon

Photography © David Loftus, 2012

 Ingredients out • Kettle boiled •Wok or large pan, medium heat • Large lidded pan, medium heat • Food processor (bowl blade) •Two 25cm (10in) bamboo steamers 

Score the scallops on one side in deep criss-crosses • Pour 2.5cm (1in) of boiling water into the wok or large pan • Pour the rest of the water into the other pan, add the spaghetti and a pinch of salt and cook according to packet instructions • Put the almonds into the processor, rip in most of the basil leaves and squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher • Add the extra virgin olive oil, Parmesan and the juice from ½ a lemon, blitz until smooth, then season to taste and check the balance of flavours – it should be clean and refreshing
Line the beans up and cut off the stalks, then add to the pasta pan • Put one of the steamers into the wok and add the trimmed broccoli, then put the second steamer on top • Rub the fish and scallops with a pinch of salt and pepper and lay in the second steamer • Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, finely grate over the zest of a lemon and squeeze over half the juice, then crumble over the chilli and put the steamer lid on until cooked through
Drain the pasta and beans, reserving a cupful of the starchy cooking water, then return them to the pan • Spoon in the pesto from the processor and toss together, loosening with splashes of the cooking water until silky • Squeeze in lemon juice to taste, then pour into a serving bowl with the broccoli • Sprinkle over the remaining basil leaves and serve alongside the steamer basket of fish.

Per serve 
3080 kJ/735 calories; 47g protein; 32g fat (includes 7.2g saturated fat); 59g available carbs; 10.5g fibre; 510 mg sodium.

Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals is published by Michael Joseph, Penguin and is available in good bookshops and online.