Pasta with mushrooms

This was a really tasty pasta dish. Since I'd already made the mushroom ragu it was ready in the time it took the pasta to cook (just under 10 minutes). 

Pasta with mushrooms and walnuts

Pasta with mushrooms ingredients

• 2 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
• 1 portion leftover mushroom ragu (which contains Stilton)
• A v small handful walnuts
• Sploosh red wine
• a slice feta, crumbled
• About 50ml cream, or as much as you have left over from something else
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• 50 ml milk if needed
• Enough pasta for 2 people (I used conchiglie)

How to make pasta with mushrooms

1. Boil the kettle then fill a large pan with boiling water.
2. Add a large pinch of salt to the water, then add the pasta. 
3. Heat a large frying pan on a high heat
4. Add the chopped streaky bacon and fry until the fat begins to render and the bacon is crisp.
5. Add the walnuts and fry for about a minute.
6. Add the red wine and cook till most of the liquid has evaporated.
7. Reduce the heat and add the mushroom ragu and tomatoes.
8. Cook till the ragu has warmed through, the tomatoes have burst and the pasta is ready.
9. Drain the pasta, reserving a small amount of the water, and blanch with freshly boiled water. 
10. Add the cream and the reserved cooking water to the sauce. If it is still a little too tick, add the milk.
11. Tip the pasta back into the pan and pour in the sauce.
12. Add the crumbled feta and toss to coat the pasta with the sauce.
13. Serve in warm bowls.

Salami and vegetable pasta with feta

Another really quick and easy pasta dish that can be ready in the time it takes your pasta to cook (unless you use fresh pasta which cooks in 2 minutes).  

Pasta with salami, vegetables and pasta ingredients

• 1 medium or 2 large fresh plum tomatoes, chopped into 8th or quarters
• 1 large handful frozen grilled mixed veg (from Waitrose, others may exist, I haven't found them if they do)
• 1 large slice from a pack of feta (or half fat feta), crumbled
• 1-2 tablespoons homemade pesto
• 4 or 5  salami (I used a few slices of mixed salami from Aldi - some were actually a bit spicy)
• Enough spaghetti for 2 people 

How to make salami and vegetable pasta with feta

1. Put the pasta in a pan of boiling water and cook for 2 minutes under the cooking time stated on the packet.
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat a frying pan to a high heat then add the frozen vegetables.
3. Cut the salami into strips. 
4. Cook the vegetables for a a few minutes till cooked through then turn off the heat.
5. Add the tomatoes and salami to the vegetables and stir through. 
6. Drain the pasta then tip it back into the pan and stir through the pesto.
7. Add the vegetables and feta to the pasta and stir through.

Just back from holiday spaghetti

O is obsessed with spaghetti. On a recent trip to Bruges he claimed it was 'the Venice of the North', famous for its spaghetti. Sadly, he didn't manage to have any spaghetti while in Bruges, so I made some for him the day we got back from holiday.

Spaghetti with sundriend tomatoies

Since we'd only been away for a couple of days I had some parsley and an onion to hand. The beauty of this recipe, though, is that you can still make it using only store cupboard/freezer ingredients in a matter of about 20 minutes from start to finish. 

 Easy, speedy spaghetti ingedients

• 6 sundried tomatoes in oil
• A handful flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
• A handful toasted pine nuts
• 1/3 pack low fat feta cheese
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 rashers streaky smoked bacon 
• Enough spaghetti for 2 people

How to make easy, speedy spaghetti

1. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat.
2. Fill the kettle and switch it on to boil. 
3. Add the bacon to the frying pan and cook till crisp then remove from the pan.
4. Chop the onion in half, peel, then slice each half into thin slices.
5. Turn down the heat under the frying pan and add the onion. 
6. Fill a large pan with the boiled water from the kettle, add a little salt, then add the spaghetti.
7. Refill the kettle and put it on to boil. 
8. Cook the onion till slightly caramelised, ie do not move around too much. Add a little olive oil if there is insufficient fat from the bacon left in the pan.
9. Finely chop the garlic or crush using a garlic crusher and add to the pan.
10. Continue to cook for a few minutes taking care not to let the garlic burn. 
11. Using kitchen scissors cut the sundried tomatoes into small pieces then add to the frying pan.
12. Drain the pasta once it it al dente - this will probably be about 3 minutes before the cooking time specified on the packet.
13. Rinse the cooked pasta with just boiled water from the kettle and shake the colander to remove most of the water. 
14. Return the pasta to the pan you cooked it in and tip in the contents of the frying pan. 
15. Add the feta, crumbled, the chopped parsley and the pine nuts.
16. Toss together with the spaghetti and serve.

Magic number tomato sauce

The magic cooking number is 190⁰C fan assisted. If in doubt about oven temperature, this is what you use. But sometimes, just like in life, 3 is the magic number. 

Here is my 3 is the Magic Number utility tomato sauce recipe.

I used to make tomato sauce using approximate quantities of 2, but this leaves an annoyingly small amount of leftover sauce which is not quite enough for another meal. So I thought I'd make one and a half quantity, which also happens to be an easy recipe to remember. 

Magic Number tomato sauce ingredients

• 3 onions
• 3 tins plum tomatoes (not chopped - this makes the sauce to watery)
• 3 very fat garlic cloves
• 3 celery sticks
• 1.5 carrots. The 3 ratio slips a little here as 3 carrots would make a very sweet sauce, unless they were very small. I hope you can remember to use 1.5 carrots instead.
• 3 herbs: parsley, thyme and oregano
• 3 small bay leaves
• Splash red wine (optional)

A very bad photo of tomato sauce

This is a basic tomato sauce that goes with a myriad of dishes. Today I am making a batch for vegetable lasagne so will add some grilled veg, but will have enough to stick in the freezer for another meal. This may be sausages and lentil, pasta and feta, gnocchi and cream, pizza base, white fish...

How to make 3 is the Magic Number tomato sauce

1. Heat a little olive oil in a large casserole dish.
2. Chop the onion as finely or roughly as you want.
3. Chop the celery into very fine slices - some people hate cooked celery so it's best to try and make it look like pieces of onion and deny its existence. 
4. Add these to the pan and fry till soft. 
5. Finely chop the garlic.
6. Grate the carrot. 
7. Add the garlic and the carrot to the pan and stir everything round. 
8. Cook for a further 5 minutes till softened.
9. If you want to add a little richness to the sauce, add a splash of red wine to the pan and turn  up the heat till most of the wine has evaporated (otherwise it will taste harsh and horrible).
10. Add the tins of tomatoes to the pan.
11. Add a little water to one of the empty tomato tins and swill it round to dislodge any remaining juice from the side of the tin.
12. Pour this into the next empty tin and repeat, till you have rinsed the remaining juice from all 3 tins. Pour this into the sauce.
13. Bring the sauce to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes.
14. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.
15. Leave to simmer for a further 15 or so minutes till the sauce thickens slightly. 

Your tomato sauce s now ready to use.

Pasta Nigellissima

70s style dining experience

Unlike Nigella I do not have packets of pasta that I just look at because they are pretty.  I don't have space in my kitchen or my life for this kind of frivolity. I don't really think I have space in my life for Nigella, but she is a little bit lovely.

This is nothing like Nigella's pasta recipe - the only ingredients I think it has in common are smoked mackerel, capers and pasta. 

However, when I saw her make her version it did make me think about making a pasta and mackerel dish. Although I intended to make something using orzo, I didn't have enough for 2 people and so made a slightly different dish using fusili and whatever was in my fridge that I thought would go.

Pasta Nigellissima ingredients

• As much pasta as you want for 2 people
• 2 small smoked mackerel fillets (100-150g), flaked
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers, finely chopped
• 2 handfuls rocket
• A handful cherry tomatoes, halved
•  1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
•  3 tablespoons breadcrumbs

How to make pasta with smoked mackerel

1. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente.
2. Meanwhile, heat about a dessert spoon olive oil in a large frying pan, and when hot, fry the breadcrumbs until lightly browned.  
3. Turn the oven onto a low heat and warm two pasta bowls.
4. Just before the the pasta is cooked, reserve a small cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta and blanch with boiling water.
5. Tip the pasta back into the pan you used for cooking it in, and put it on a low heat.
6. Add the mackerel, spring onions, chopped capers, rocket and cherry tomatoes, and stir thoroughly.
7. Season well with salt and pepper.
8. Add a little of the reserved cooking water to help the ingredients soften a little and coat the pasta. Start with about a tablespoon; add more if you think it needs it.  
9. Remove from the heat then stir in the parsley and crisped breadcrumbs.
10. Tip into the warmed bowls and serve immediately. 

Pasta, prawns, peppers

Pasta is boring. It's what you eat at home when there's nobody else around. Its not something you serve to guests (unless you actually made the pasta yourself) and its not something you choose when eating out. It is lazy cooking. But it can be damn tasty.

If pasta recipes are as easy to write as they are to cook I may be about to enter an extremely prolific blogging phase.

Pasta with prawns and peppers (OK, plus a few more ingredients) 

• 2 small portions fusili pasta (wholewheat or tricolore)
• I bag raw king prawns
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes
• 4 sundried tomatoes
• 1 bag rocket
• Chilli oil
• Unwaxed lemon, rind only

How to make pasta with prawns and a few other ingredients

 

1. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan.
2. Cut the peppers into very thin strips and fry gently in the oil until they start to blacken a little at the edges -- about 5 minutes.
3. Add the pasta to a pan of boiling, salted water and set the timer for 3  minutes shorter than the cooking time given on the packet.
4. Chop the sundried tomatoes into very small pieces.
5. Cut the cherry tomatoes into a mixture of halves and quarters.
6. Add the prawns to the pan with the peppers and stir fry till pink and cooked through (about 4 minutes).
7. Drain the pasta and blanch with boiling water, reserving a tiny amount of the cooking water in a cup.
8. Put the pasta back in the saucepan, mix together with the peppers, prawns and tomatoes; season.
9. Add a little chilli oil, a little reserved cooking liquid and the rocket.
10. Toss until the rocket has wilted.
11. Serve with a little lemon rind grated over.

More pasta recipes:

Spag bol

Macaroni cheese

Macaroni cheese

Believe it or not, macaroni cheese is O’s desert island meal. I normally refuse to make it at weekends when I have time to cook something that takes more than 20 minutes. Today, however, I have relented. The addition of cauliflower and broccoli bumps up your vegetable intake for the day, but you can leave these out if you want.

This version is perfect for a quick weekday supper, and if you make a little extra you have tomorrow’s lunch for free sorted too. It is lower fat than most versions as it uses 0% fat Greek yoghurt for the sauce. To stop the macaroni cheese from drying out when you reheat it in the microwave add a little more olive oil and a couple more cherry tomatoes before reheating.

Macaroni cheese ingredients

I have no idea about precise quantities but the rough quantities given below will work as is or scaled up.

Serves 2 generously, with enough left over for a free lunch at work the next day.

• Dried macaroni – measure about one third dried pasta of the bowl you want to fill. Penne works too but not as well as short pasta such as macaroni. 
• About half a cauliflower and the same quantity broccoli
• A 170g tub 0% Greek yoghurt
• A handful grated mature cheddar
• About 1/3 teaspoon English mustard
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 2 or 3 rasher streaky bacon, cut into small pieces (omit for a veggie version)
• A small handful breadcrumbs
• Linseeds, a scattering
• Parmesan
• Cherry or pomodorino tomatoes – a small punnet

How to make macaroni cheese

1. Boil the kettle, then empty into a large saucepan. I don’t understand people who boil water for pasta in the saucepan; it takes forever and I am convinced a kettle is more energy-efficient.
2. Add a pinch of salt to the water then add the pasta. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer.
3. Dry-fry the bacon in a frying pan till crisp.
4. Cut the cauliflower and broccoli into small florets.
5. Tip the Greek yoghurt into a shallow dish. Add the mustard and stir to mix.
   Mustard enhances the flavour of cheese, so you don’t need to use quite as much.
6. Add the grated cheese to the dish and mix with the yoghurt.
7. About 8 minutes before the pasta is ready, put a bamboo steamer over the pan and add the cauliflower to the steamer. Cover with the steamer lid.
8. About 5 minutes before the pasta is ready, add the broccoli to the steamer.
9. Put the kettle on to boil.
10. Heat the grill to high (about 230C)
11. About 3 minutes before the pasta is ready according to the packet instructions, remove the pan from the heat.
12. Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking liquid in a cup.
13. Pour boiling water over the pasta and shake any excess off.
14. Mix the pasta with the yoghurt and cheese.
15. Add a little of the reserved cooking liquid to give a loose sauce.
16. Add the fried bacon, chopped spring onions and black pepper.
17. Place the cauliflower, broccoli and tomatoes over the pasta.
18. Grate over a little Parmesan, then sprinkle with the linseeds and breadcrumbs. This will make a crunchy topping.
19. Whack under the grill for about 5 minutes, till the top is golden brown and the tomatoes have burst.

Spaghetti bolognese

For Kate and Nellie

I’ve been meaning to write up my spag bol recipe for my friend Kate for ages but it’s been a while since I made it and I had no idea what quantity of mince I use. I always buy meat from the butcher’s so I ask for the amount I want by eye rather than weight. Today, though, they had 500g packs of minced lamb already weighed out, so that’s what I’m using. You can of course use minced beef if you prefer.

I heard Antonio Carluccio on Woman’s Hour once saying how spag bol should take half an hour to make, not 3 hours. This version takes somewhere in between. He also insists that minced pork should be included – I have tried this and agree it does make for a tasty version but don’t think a porkless version is any the worse for the omission.

Others also insist on including pancetta or streaky bacon. I find this totally unnecessary – this dish already contains a large amount of meat, I don’t see that you need to introduce more, especially cured, given the other strong flavours in this dish. In fact, I often add some Quorn to my spag bol to make it ever so slightly healthier. Don’t be taken in by the adverts though, a Quorn-only spag bol would be insipid, but you can get away with adding a little.

Spaghetti bolognese ingredients

• 1 large or 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 2 fat cloves garlic
• 2 carrot, grated
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 500g minced lamb or beef
• 2 tins plum tomatoes
• Chestnut mushrooms, sliced or quartered, as you prefer. Oops – I forgot to weigh how much. Probably a supermarket punnet worth
• Dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf

Optional spag bol ingredients

• A splash of red wine – I say optional if Kate is making this for 3-year -old Nellie, though I wouldn't dream of omitting this in my version
• Fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped 
• Quorn – probably about 100g
• Red lentils – I sometimes add a handful to thicken the sauce

How to make spaghetti bolognese 

This really is one of the simplest meals to make.

1. Heat a little olive oil gently in a large casserole pan
2. Add the onion and fry till soft
3. Add the garlic, celery and carrot, and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently
4. Turn the heat up to high and add the meat
5. Cook, stirring, until the meat is browned
6. Add the wine, if using, and continue to cook on a high heat till it has almost all evaporated
7. Add both tins of tomatoes.
8. Rinse out the tomato tins with a little water to get any juice left on the side of the tin, and add this too
9. Season with salt and pepper and the oregano and rosemary if using, and bring to the boil.
10. Add the mushrooms then reduce the heat to a lively simmer.
11. Simmer for about an hour, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and you are left with a concentrated sauce.

This makes enough for 2 very large portions served with wholemeal spaghetti and freshly grated Parmesan, plus enough to make a lasagne for 4 people.