Angelfish Spaghettini

flikr cc {sifu renku}

I've been working with the lovely Julie from Ocean Jewel's Fish lately, and just had to try some of her angelfish. A local fishmonger, Julie is committed to providing sustainable, SASSI green fish to the public, and works hard to keep her stocks sustainable and seasonal.

flickr cc {sifu renku}

I've got very little experience cooking with fish. For all the years I lived with my sister, she complained the few times I made it (she doesn't really like fish, preferring shellfish more), so I got out of the habit of cooking it. So while I have things like instinct and habit when cooking things like mince or chicken, with fish I'm a beginner.

I've been stalking Julie's blog (Ocean Jewel's Fish), and have been reading up on ways to cook fish that would fit into my lifestyle, and after all that.. I decided to make something up. What, you're surprised?! Do you know that I can't follow a recipe for toffee?

So here we have my attempt at a spaghetti marinara, with a light, delicate tomato sauce - similar to the one I made for my Bucatini, and gently poached and flaked angelfish, served over spaghettini, also known as angelhair pasta. Which is my version of a food pun (geddit? Angelfish Angelhair Pasta? *falls over laughing*) Right, enough of my bad jokes, let's get to the food, right?

Angelfish Spaghettini
Serves 2 (with leftovers for lunch)

Ingredients:
2 angelfish fillets
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 tsp Italian herbs
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 500ml carton of passata (strained tomatoes)
half a packet of spaghettini (spaghetti would work too, but I did like the finer texture of the spaghettini)
Salt and pepper to season
Olive oil to saute onion
Parmesan (optional)
Lemon (optional)

Method:

1. Cook pasta according to packet instructions, while you make the sauce and cook the fish. Spaghettini is finer than spaghetti, so cooked quicker. When cooked, drain, toss with a little olive oil (to prevent it clumping) and set aside.
2. In a deep, wide pan, heat a little olive oil, and saute the onion over a medium heat until soft and slightly translucent.
3. Add the garlic, Italian herbs, and smoked paprika, and stir, sauteing until fragrant - not more than a minute.
4. Pour the passata into the pan, and bring to a light simmer. 
5. Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper, and immerse in the passata, ensuring that both fillets are covered with the tomato sauce.
6. Cook the fish for about 10 minutes per inch thick - I allowed mine go for about 5-7 minutes per side. To test for doneness, check that the fish is a solid white the whole way through. There should be no translucency when it is cooked.
7. Using a spoon, flake the fish right there in the pan - you don't need this to be perfect, just break it up into smaller, more bitesize chunks. Angelfish does have small bones, but they aren't going to choke you, and they are too small to pick out before eating, and there really weren't enough to bother anyone.
8. Serve the sauce over the pasta in a bowl, with a grating of Parmesan and a squeeze of lemon.

This light, flavourful dish is cheap, quick and delightful on a cold winter's night.

PS. Forgive me the flickr pictures, this went so quickly, there was no time for photos (I did say it was a quick weeknight supper), but these pictures are pretty close. Come to think of it, a pesto drizzle at the end would also be delightful. Try Pesto Princess for some delightful pesto options.

Bucatini All'Amatriciana

Source: Kevandy on flickr creative commons

Bucatini is one of those things that remind me of my honeymoon. On our last day in Rome, when we'd walked and walked for three days, until our feet were little worlds of pain, we sat down at a funny little fast food pasta shop right by Termini, the central train station, and just ate lunch while we waited for our train to the coast. I didn't know it then, but our bucatini was served with a traditional tomato sauce, with bacon, known as Bucatini All'Amatriciana, which is native to Amatrice near Rome, and to Rome itself. A quintessential Roman dish, if you like. What a brilliant choice!

So, when we were wandering around the Cheese Festival on the weekend, and I spotted bucatini on sale, I pounced on it like a diva on discounted Manolos! This was my chance, I thought, to recreate some of the wonderful food we had on holiday, and I was so happy! 

With all the cold weather we've been having, I thought a comforting pasta would be just the ticket, but I didn't want anything particularly fancy or complicated. I did a quick google search for what goes best with bucatini, and I realised that the way we had it in Rome, what the way it's traditionally served. Bingo! That sounded right to me - short prep and cook time, minimal fuss and ingredients, and maximum satisfaction!

Just a few ingredients, about 30 minutes cook time, and you can have a warm bowl of comforting pasta on the table. And it's so simple!

Source: Kevandy on flickr creative commons

Bucatini All'Amatriciana
Adapted from ItalianFood.com

Ingredients:
250g dried bucatini (if you can't find bucatini, I think linguine would be a good substitute)
100-150g bacon, diced (you can use pancetta or guanciale, but I didn't have any)
1/2 onion, finely diced
1-2 cloves garlic, diced finely
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 cans whole Italian plum tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
Grated Parmesan to taste

Method:

1. Put the pasta water on to boil, and when it boils, add salt and pasta. Cook according to packet instructions, until just before it's cooked. It will finish cooking in the sauce.
2. Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a little olive oil, until cooked, but not crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel covered bowl, to be added back later.
3. In the same pan, fry the onion, and add the garlic as it begins to get some colour.
4. When the garlic is fragrant, add the paprika and chopped tomatoes and simmer for 5-10 minutes. If you prefer your pasta more saucy, add back some of the drained tomato water.
5. When the pasta has cooked, drain it and add it to the tomato mixture in the pan. Stir to mix thoroughly, and heat through.

Serve with grated Parmesan, slurp it up and enjoy! The hollow bucatini grabs the sauce deliciously, and the sauce is beautifully simple. Because you use so few ingredients, make sure they are good quality.

Enjoy!

Guest Post: Homemade Pasta - Lasagne

A little while ago, my lovely friend Ash swooped in and saved me from another night of mother-in-law fare and arguing over which tiler to go with, and offered to cook me dinner. At her place. WIN. Now, if you knew my friend, you'd know that she has a lot of talents she keeps very well hidden. Such as this amazing cooking talent she claims she's too 'lazy' to use most of the time.. Now, Ash, you f**ked up. Cos now I know how much you rock in the kitchen. I suspected it, but this sealed it!

The tender, perfectly cooked pasta sheets, the tasty, savoury mince and the delicious cheese perfectly crispy on top.. This was one of the most delicious lasagnes I've had in a long time, and one that I'm definitely going to be whipping up at home (as soon as my kitchen is finished!)

And now, over to you, Ash! 

Wednesday night I had your favourite blogger, Polkadotcupcake, over for dinner at my house. In keeping with my new years resolution to be healthy and fill my life with GOOD things, I decided to make my favourite comfort food from scratch: lasagne. 

Not only is it cheaper to make pasta from scratch, its tastier and healthier. And so easy to make. Total cooking time was about an hour, and this was to feed ten people.. Not that she and I eat for five people each... I have a lot of housemates. Total cost of the meal was about R90. Number of pots and bowls used: four. Could it be any easier? 

Start off by making the pasta (recipe below), and then while it dries, you can start on the mince and white sauce. 

Mix the dry ingredients together, then make a well in the middle. Beat the eggs and olive oil together in a separate bowl, and add the wet ingredients to the dry flour mix. Stir until it combines and becomes a soft dough. Sprinkle a flat surface with flour and knead the dough for about 7 minutes. Divide the dough into 5 pieces. 

Now, pull out that pasta machine that’s been sitting in your cupboard gathering dust. If you don’t have one, never fear, you can do this by hand quite easily.

Flatten a dough ball in the palm of your hand and feed it through the pasta machine at the widest setting. Carry on doing this, closing down a setting each time. My pasta machine has ten settings. By the time you get to the smallest, narrowest setting, run the pasta through twice. Now either place it on a damp dishtowel (otherwise its going to stick to your table), or hang it over a clean chair. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls.

If you don’t have a pasta machine, you’re going to have a fun time with your rolling pin. Sprinkle flour on a flat surface and start rolling until your dough ball is about 1.5mm thick. Repeat with all the dough balls. Place the lasagne on a damp dishtowel or hang it over a chair. 

Now you can start on the mince and white sauce. For the amount of lasagne I made, I used about 700 grams mince, two tins of tomato and onion mix and one onion {Editors note: you can use your favourite bolognaise recipe, or this one}. My secret ingredient is bisto (two tsp). I used about 1.3 litres of milk for the white sauce, and my secret ingredient for that is a cube of chicken stock.

The trick to home made lasagne is making it quite saucy. The liquid soaks into the pasta, softening it and allowing it to cook faster.

Start by pouring a little white sauce in the bottom of a large oven proof dish. Then put a layer of your fresh pasta in the dish. Spoon a layer of mince onto the pasta, and then a generous amount of white sauce. Repeat. I used three pasta-mince-white sauce layers. Put one last layer of pasta on top, and cover generously with the remaining white sauce. Sprinkle cheese on top, and pop in the oven at 160 Celsius for half an hour or until the cheese is golden and bubbling. 

Take it out of the oven and leave it to cool for 5 minutes. Serve with a green mixed salad.

Homemade Pasta 
Ingredients:
500ml (2 cups) flour
3 eggs
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt.

Mix the dry ingredients together, then make a well in the middle. Beat the eggs and olive oil together in a separate bowl, and add the wet ingredients to the dry flour mix. Stir until it combines and becomes a soft dough. Sprinkle a flat surface with flour and knead the dough for about 7 minutes. Divide the dough into 5 pieces.

White Sauce

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter or margerine

2 tbsp flour

(Note: no matter how much white sauce you want, you need to use double the amount of flour to butter)

± 1 litre milk

Method:

Melt butter in a pan, until liquid, but not brown or burnt. Then, add the flour, and stir to mix, incorporating all into a paste. While still over a low heat (or off the plate, if it takes too long to cool), add a little of the milk, just enough to create a more liquid paste, and use this opportunity to squash out all the lumps with the back of a spoon. This will help your final sauce to have as few lumps as possible. Once the paste is smooth, add the milk a little at a time, making sure to incorporate it. When about half is added, change to a whisk, and keep whisking until almost all the milk is added. Then, let it cook for about 5 minutes, whisking from time to time, to cook the flour, letting it thicken. If it gets too thick, add some milk, if not, remove from heat when thick, and add a grind of black pepper, or even some grated cheese.

Creamy Spring Tagliatelle

Morning!

{Image source}

Spring is in the air here in the Southern hemisphere, and although we may not always think so, summer is on its way! With the changing seasons, I start to want more fresh veggies and less of the warm, yummy comfort foods I craved over winter. However, spring isn't without its ups and downs, so while we may have fresh spring veggies around, it sometimes feels decidedly colder than it should! Last night it was freezing, and I wanted something warm, but with a spring feel to it, to get me in the mood. Add to that my new amazing veggie box from The Ethical Co-op, and we were away!

{Image source}

This pasta was born from my ignorance in how to prepare asparagus. I've just started buying a weekly organic veggie box from The Ethical Co-op and in it I got a bunch of things I've never used before. You'll have noticed that I tend to stick to the same foods, although I prepare them differently. This is partly habit, and partly just what's available at my local shop. With the veggie box, I pay a flat fee, and get a mixed box of seasonal, organic veggies. I don't choose what goes in, so I'm forced to find a way to use what comes in the box. This last week, I got asparagus, Swiss chard and mangetout, along with some others, and I've never cooked with in my life! So google to the rescue, and I figured things out.. And boy, am I glad I did! This was fresh, tasty, creamy and delicious! I hope you like it..

Creamy Spring Tagliatelle
Serves 3

Ingredients:
1 bunch of fine, early spring asparagus (about as much as you can hold in your hand, while your fingers can touch your thumb
1/2 a pack of mangetout (say, about 10)
4-6 leaves of Swiss chard, depending on size
1 onion, chopped finely
1 handful of cherry tomatoes
2 tsp minced garlic
Half a pack of tagliatelle
100-150ml cream (I use reduced fat, and it was fine)
Blue cheese (I cut 2 sides off a wedge)
Grated Parmesan (to taste)
Reserved pasta water
Salt and black pepper to taste

{Image source}

Method:

1. If you have dried pasta, put that on to cook so long, as it'll be the thing that takes the longest.
2. Prepare your asparagus and mangetout, but breaking off the woody/stalky ends, and breaking into pieces. This early season asparagus wasn't very woody at all, so I just broke off a centimeter or so, and the mangetout, I just broke off the stalk.
3. Separate the tips of the asparagus, as they will not need as much cooking as the stalks.
4. Slice the chard into more manageable pieces, and set all the greens aside.
5. Slice the onion, and fry in a little oil on a medium pan, until the onion is soft, but not very coloured.
6. Add the garlic, and stir, then add the cherry tomatoes. Fry for another couple of minutes.
7. Add the cream, and allow to heat through, letting the cream thicken, and reduce a little. Add the blue cheese and Parmesan, and stir to melt.
8. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving as much of the cooking liquid as possible.
9. Put the asparagus stalks, chard and mangetout into a strainer or steamer and lower into the cooking water. 
10. Cook for a minute, then add the asparagus tips, and cook for a further minute. Remove from the water, but don't throw the water away yet.
11. Add the cooked greens to the onion and cream mixture, and stir to mix.
12. Add the tagliatelle to the same pot, and stir, mixing it into the cream and veggies. If there is not enough liquid, spoon some over from the pasta pot. The starch from the cooked pasta will help make a lovely, silky, creamy sauce for the pasta.

Serve in a bowl, with plenty of cracked, black pepper and Parmesan cheese!

Guest Post: LadyRaven with Steak and Mushroom Pasta

As I have mentioned, while I'm away on holiday, some of my lovely blog and twitter friends have offered to guest post for me! Blown away by this amazing offer, I've given them pretty much free reign to write what they like, and just LOOK at what they've come up with!

Here's LadyRaven from Add to Taste with something amazing, just for you. Take it away!

I have been hosting guest posts for 4 weeks and I get endless joy from them. I cannot explain the joy of asking someone for a post and them agreeing to do one. So when polkadotcupcake asked for people to volunteer for guest posts while she is away, I jumped at the chance to "pay it forward"

I looked at what I had planned and what I had done and not posted, then considered the weather and some other things, then I remembered how much polkadotcupcake loves improvising in the kitchen and I had my winning dish. 

I love going to the shop with the intention of buying "something" to make for lunch then coming home and throwing together a meal. I love it even more when the meal turns out to be delicious too and that is what happened with this dish. 

My partner and I were busy baking the whole day and the idea of eating something sweet didn’t fly well with us. At the shop we picked up a beautiful piece of shin, some mushrooms and dill and created a creamy pasta dish to warm our bellies, cleanse our palates and give us the strength we needed to ice the "dead hello kitty" cake.

What you need: 
1 shin steak (or any other cut you like) 
1 punnet of mushrooms (chopped) 
1 onion 
fresh dill (to taste) 
1 tsp smoked paprika 
50ml of cream or 1 tin evaporated milk 
olive oil 
Salt and pepper (to taste) 
Pasta of choice

What to do:

1. Season the meat and grill on a high heat to your preferred level of "doneness". Set it aside. Set the pasta to cook to al dente. Do not drain it.
2. In a pan, sauté the onions until they start to brown then add the paprika and the mushrooms.
3. While the mushrooms are cooking slice up the meat and when the mushrooms are cooked, add it to the pan.
4. Pour in the cream/evaporated milk and let it simmer for a minute or 2 and then add the dill. Let it simmer for another minute.
5. Add the cooked past to the pan insuring that a bit of the cooking water goes in with it. Stir a few times and take it off the heat.
6. Serve garnished with a sprig of dill, and enjoy!

The Shopping List

Mexican Pasta

Hi!

I finally got a chance to cook last night, and discovered a half a dozen things that HAD to be eaten, or they'd be in the bin shortly. And since I was too lazy to go to shop to buy something that actually WORKED with these things, I just freestyled. And what I cam up with was, in the inimitable words of my boy, "Like, Mexican and Italian met and had babies." So yes..... That's what we have here, folks! A fridge-emptier that turned out delicious, if a little weird. But weird's alright sometimes, isn't it? Especially if it was yum!

{Image source: cremo, flickr}
And because I have far too many things going on in my head (10 days!!), I can't think of anything more interesting to write. I'm writing this as a recipe, but feel free to freestyle with whatever you have, substituting the veggies and even the meat, and the serving style. For me, it was the spices that made it Mexican, and serving it on pasta that made it Italian. It would be just as good served on rice, or even in a pita or tortilla wrap, for a more genuine Mexican meal.

{Image source: jules:stonesoup, flickr}

Mexican Pasta

Ingredients:
500g beef mince
250g broccoli florets
2 medium courgettes/baby marrows/zucchini
1 can tomato and onion mix
1 can Four Bean mix (chickpeas, red kidney beans, cannelini and borlotti)
1 handful halved cherry tomatoes
1 tomato, chopped
3 baby potatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chutney
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Heat a pan, and brown the mince, until there are no pink parts left.
2. Add the chopped courgettes and fresh tomatoes, and turn down the heat. Fry for a few minutes until the tomatoes start to get soft.
3. Add the spices and garlic salt to the mix and stir to combine.
4. Add the tinned tomatoes and tinned beans and stir, bringing the mix to a low simmer. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the mince is cooked.
5. If the mixture is looking a little dry, add the tomato paste, and add the chutney, which adds a lovely sweetness to the dish. Also, while the pasta is cooking, you can spoon a few spoons of the pasta water over to the mince mixture. It helps to loosen the mixture, and the starch in the water helps to bind it all together, and coat the pasta once you serve and mix the two.
6. Parboil the broccoli and baby potatoes in the microwave, and chop potatoes, and add both to the mixture.
7. Serve over cooked pasta (or rice/tortillas/mashed potatoes/etc)

It's a lovely, filling (if slightly weird) meal, and can be changed around to suit whatever you have on hand. Don't you love those meals that turn out great when you don't have a plan?

Italianised Shakshuka with Pork Sausage

Hi!
{Image source: JefferyW, flickr}

What a pleasure to have my kitchen back! With the last game of South Africa in the World Cup, I wanted to make something completely non-partisan, and after some suggestions to my spaghetti and meatballs post last week, I decided to make an Italianised Shakshuka. Shakshuka is something I will (ignorantly) admit to never having heard of before, but LadyRaven over at Add to Taste let me know in the comments, that poaching the egg in the tomato sauce was an Israeli dish called shakshuka. You can see her recipe for the real deal breakfast version here. I, on the other hand, as we know, can never stick to a recipe. So when I researched shakshuka a little and discovered that it's usually in a pretty spicy sauce, that struck a chord. And off I went.

{Image source: avlxyz, flickr}

This is a spicy, tomatoey (?), delicious dish with the surprise of a poached egg and some pork sausage. Frozen sausages are something I usually have in the house, and while there are better versions out there, nothing beats not having to go to the shop of an evening. The convenience gets me every time. You want something with just enough spice to heat you up? Enough protein to make the average South African sing? And to top it all off, we serve it on pasta, carb of kings! So get on, boys and girls, and make this tonight!

Italianised Shakshuka with Pork Sausage

Ingredients:
4 pork sausages
1.5 cans tomato and onion  mix
2 fresh tomatoes, diced (I had two in the fridge, which were heading into overripe territory, but this isn't crucial)
Half a yellow pepper, diced
250ml frozen peas
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp mixed Greek herbs (rosemary, thyme, origanum, etc.)
2 eggs (to serve 2 people)

Pasta to serve

Method:

1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions, drain and set aside, keeping warm.
2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan, and brown the sausages.
3. When the sausages are browned, turn down the heat to medium and add the yellow pepper and tomatoes.
4. Clear a little space on the side, and fry the cumin and cayenne pepper until fragrant, then mix in with the rest.
5. Sprinkle the Greek herb mix over, and stir to mix in.
6. Pour the tomato and onion mix over, first the first can only. If it seems to be boiling dry, you can add the other one, but it might be fine. My stovetop is insane, and gets hot and stays hot on the lowest settings, so things tend to boil away quicker.
7. Heat the mixture through, and simmer for a few minutes.
8. Remove the sausages from the mixture, and chop into bite size piece. I usually slice them in half long ways, and then roughly chop them into pieces. Cover, and set aside.
9. Bring the tomato mixture to a simmer, break the eggs carefully into the tomato mixture, cover and leave for about 10 minutes, or until the eggs are cooked to your liking. (I overcooked mine a bit last night, because the tomato mixture had cooled down too much - go figure! - and took a while to heat, dispersing the egg before it had time to set. It was still yummy, but not as lovely looking)
10. Remove the eggs from the tomato and keep warm. Return the chopped sausage to the pan, heating the sausage through before serving.
11. Serve the pasta into a bowl (we used fusilli, the screw pasta, but anything will do) and spoon the tomato mixture over it, placing the egg on top. 

This is a lovely spicy addition to the week, especially in this ridiculously cold weather! It's a spicier, less labour intensive version of the spaghetti and meatballs, and incorporates two cultures dishes into one delicious bowl!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Wooooohsah..

{Image source: Jeff Cushner, flickr}

So I'm a little eager today. I havent blogged for about a week, and now you're getting two posts in one day? What can I say, today is the kind of day when I can't work. When I'm cold, all I can think about is food. What can I do about that? I can blog, that's what!

So, last night was the Italy vs Paraguay game, and it hailed in Cape Town, about an hour before the game started, so that should give you an idea of how f%&^ing cold it was last night. I may have mentioned that I really don't deal well in the cold, so though the boy wanted to go out to eat, I voted we stay in. And my vote goes with the dog's vote, so we had a 2/3 majority, and won. Hehe. So now that we were staying home, what was I making for dinner? Something warm, something with mince (what?! I had it in the fridge!) and something a little out of the ordinary. I could've made spaghetti bolognaise, but we have that all the time, and I wanted something a little different.

{Image source: mhaithaca, flickr}

And then I remembered that I spotted an interesting recipe in this month's issue of Pnp's Fresh Living Magazine, which had meatballs, and a poached egg cooked in the tomato sauce, which I thought I could give a go. And so, as usual, since I can't follow a recipe, I used it as a guideline, and went my own way! And here is my take on their recipe. Since, I mostly made it up as I went along, I'll give you the full recipe.

Ingredients
{Meatballs}
500g mince (they used lamb, I used beef, since it's what I had.)
Half an onion, finely diced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp Italian herbs
1 tsp Kara's Greek Herb Mix
1 tbsp chutney
1 tbsp tomato sauce

{Sauce}
1 can tomato and onion mix, or chopped tomatoes
1 - 1.5 onions, diced
Half a yellow (or any other colour) bell pepper, diced
Half a head of broccoli, broken into small florets
2 tsp black olive tapenade
1 tsp garlic
1 can tomato paste OR 2 tbsp tomato sauce (I didn't have any tomato paste in the house)

2 eggs (or however many people you're serving)
Spaghetti, about half a packet


Method:

1. Put all the meatball ingredients into a bowl and combine, being careful not to mix to much, as it makes the meat tough. Oh, and a word to the wise. I used extra lean beef mince, and the meatballs were a little dry. In future, I'd use a fattier mince for these. In meatballs, I've found, as in burgers, a little bit of fat helps a lot with the flavour, so use a mince that's a little fattier that usual, and be consoled by the fact that everything else is good for you!
2. Form the mince into little bite-size balls (smaller than a golf ball), and set aside.
3. Heat a little oil in a pan, and brown the meatballs. I discovered last night that shaking the pan around prevents them from sticking, and browns them nicely all over. When browned, set aside.
4. Cook pasta according to packet instructions, drain, and set aside.
5. In the same pan, fry the onions, garlic and bell pepper, until the onions are translucent and a little bit browned.
6. Add in the tapenade, and fry a little more, adding the tomato paste and tomato and onion mix.
7. Heat through, and return the meatballs to the tomato mix, making sure to cover each meatball to prevent them drying out. Cook covered at a low temperature for about 10 minutes.
8. Take the broccoli florets, and spike them into the tomato mix, wherever you can find space. Cover again, and steam the broccoli for about 10 minutes, which will also cook the meatballs through.
9. Now, remove the meatballs and broccoli, and set aside, covered.
10. In the simmering tomato sauce, break the eggs carefully, cover and cook until the eggs are cooked to your desire. I like the white cooked through and the yolk runny, and ours took about 10 minutes to poach.
11. Once cooked, remove the eggs, and put the meatballs and broccoli back into the sauce, and heat through.
12. Serve the sauce over spaghetti, and pop the egg on top of it all. I thought it was most delicious with the yolk cut open, leaving all the silky egg in about the tomato sauce. YUM!

This has quite a few steps, but all in all I think it took about 40 minutes. I initially put in FAR too much onion - the original recipe called for a whole onion in the meatballs, and I did that. But I didn't chop them finely enough, and it was horrible, so while I was forming the balls, I had to pick a lot of the onion out. But the combination of the spicy meatballs, tomatoey sauce and silky poached egg was just divine on a freezing winters night.

Enjoy this one!

Bacon and mushroom linguine

So it was one of those weekend in which you feel like you have been force fed enough wine to float the Ark, and I was in need of some serious food to make up for the (gasp!) McDonald's we'd been eating most of the weekend!

{image source: be_khe, flickr}

So on Sunday when my dear friend came round to do my first wedding makeup trial, we were all a bit hungover, and desperately needed food before any makeup could be, well, made up. And so I went to work. I didn't know what I wanted, but I knew there had to be pig and it had to be warm. It was touch and go for while, we nearly had egg and bacon sandwiches, and then it was butter chicken. But in the end, pasta and its healing carbo-rificness won out. This was warm, creamy and delicious, and cured the hangover immediately. It had pig, how could it not?!

Well, I won't wax lyrical. Here's the bacon and mushroom linguine recipe.

Bacon and mushroom linguine

Ingredients

1/2 a punnet of mushrooms, chopped up - I used white, but brown or portobello would be great, and mixed wild mushrooms would be better
4-5 slices of bacon, chopped - I use back bacon, you can use what ever you like
250 ml cream - I use reduced fat
100 g peas - I just toss some over until it looks like enough
1 onion, diced
1 tsp garlic
1 sachet Ina Paarman's Blue Cheese sauce - or a hunk of blue cheese, which would've been better

Linguine - I use the Bavette (it's in a blue box)

Method:

1. Cook pasta according to packet instructions, until al dente.
2. Heat some oil in a pan, and spoon in the garlic. Fry for a few seconds, and add the onion. Fry until translucent.
3. When the onion is browning, throw the chopped mushrooms in. Don't stir them for few minutes, you want them to brown a little before they start releasing water.
4. Fry the mushroom mixture for a bit, until everything shrinks a little, and its all nice and browned.
5. Throw in the chopped bacon, and turn up the heat a little, frying everything until it's nicely browned.
6. Pour the cream over, and the pour the blue cheese sauce, or crumble the blue cheese over and stir to melt. I used the sauce, and it wasn't cheesy enough for my liking. But we all know I have issues with that. 
7. Heat through, and serve spooned over the linguine. A generous twist of black pepper is great, and I would've loved some grated pecorino, but we didn't have any.

Enjoy!

Four Cheese Tortellini with Bacon and Peas

So I think I hit a winner with this one! When I went to look for images (I don't have a camera, so I can't take my own pictures), I saw cheese tortellini with bacon and peas all over the place! In fact, I may even have taken inspiration for this from someone on my blogroll, but it went into my head and came out without a reference.

I made this without a recipe, so let's just say it's mine, with inspiration from the blogs I read, alright? Thanks.

Ah, cheese. What would I do without you? Cheese and I go way back, we've always loved each other, and cheese will still be there for me when all other things wither and fade away. Cheese, how I love you. Four cheese tortellini?! Yes please!! 

I've been dying to try the Pick n Pay fresh pastas, but was worried about making a sauce that would complement, not drown, them. So, with inspiration from the blogs, I came up with this.

{Image Source}

Four Cheese Tortellini with Bacon and Peas

Ingredients

1 package Four Cheese Tortellini (at ±R35 from Pnp, it's on the pricey side, but SO worth it)

5 rashers bacon (whatever cut you like, I use back bacon)

100-200g peas (depending what you like, I scatter them over until it looks enough)

6 medium size mushrooms, any kind (any kind, I used button, but portobellini would be great)

125ml cream

1 tsp garlic

1 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Method:

1. Fry the garlic in a little butter until aromatic, and lightly coloured, but not burnt.
2. Fry the bacon until cooked, and set aside to cool.
3. Fry the mushrooms with the garlic, until the water starts to draw.
4. Put the pasta on to cook. The fresh pasta will take under 5 minutes. Drain and set aside when cooked.
5. When the bacon is cool, chop into pieces, and add back to the pan with the mushrooms and garlic.
6. Scoop out about a cup (±250ml) of the pasta water, and put into the pan with the fried mushrooms, garlic and bacon.
7. Simmer for a few minutes to reduce the liquid.
8. Add the cream, a bit at a time, and allow it to come to a simmer.
9. Pour frozen peas over the sauce.
10. Simmer until slightly thickened.
11. Toss the sauce with the pasta, and toss with some chopped parsley

This is tasty, fast and easy, a great quick week night meal!
Enjoy!

Baked Spanish Style Chicken and Pasta

Well, what can I say? I love this! I had one of those days when everything you think of making seems predictable, and everything you’d like to make has ingredients you can’t find. When that happens, I wander around the store, waiting for something to jump out at me. This time, I felt like chicken, but not in any of the ways I usually make it, and I felt like pasta. I don’t usually buy chicken breasts, as you already know, I lean towards thighs. Once I had those, I was stumped.

I wandered down to the pasta aisle, past the tinned food, and an idea came to me. I wanted something warm, tasty, filling and different (for me). So I picked up some Spanish style chopped tomatoes, with paprika and peppers, and some pasta, and away I went.

At home I had some courgettes, cherry tomatoes, red and yellow peppers and red onions, so I chopped it all up, tossed it in a baking dish. I browned the chicken, laid the pieces on the veggies, seasoned them and added a little cayenne pepper, and covered it with 2/3 of the tin of Spanish style tomatoes. After baking for 30 minutes, the chicken was beautifully cooked, and the veggies had roasted up nicely. I deboned the chicken, and tossed the whole lot with some cooked pasta, and was I ever impressed!

Without further ado, here’s the recipe!

Ingredients
4 chicken thighs (or whatever pieces you like, and as many as you like, though more will obviously take longer to cook, and require more covering.)
Half a pack of cherry tomatoes
3 courgettes / baby marrows / zucchini
Half a red onion, sliced
2/3 tin of Spanish style tomatoes
Salt, pepper and cayenne pepper
Half a pack of pasta screws, cooked

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Chop the onion, and lay it out on the bottom of a flat ovenproof dish, that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
3. Chop the courgettes into wheels, or whatever shape tickles your fancy.
4. Brown the chicken pieces in a hot pan, and place on top of the onion and courgette.
5. Season the browned chicken pieces and sprinkle with cayenne pepper, rubbing to make sure the chicken is seasoned.
6. Place cherry tomatoes close to the chicken pieces, to add their flavour.
7. Cover it all fairly liberally in the Spanish style tomatoes.
8. Pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.
9. Put pasta on when you put the chicken in the oven.
10. When 30 minutes are up, test the chicken by skewering with a sharp knife in the fattest part of the meat. If the juices run clear, the chicken is cooked. If there is any sign of pink, put it back in for a few minutes.

When the chicken is cooked, you can either eat the pieces whole, on the bone with mash or rice or something. I deboned the chicken, and tossed it back into the sauce with the pasta. I then tossed the whole lot back in the oven under the grill with some grated boerenkaas I was sent my the fine people at Eat In magazine as part of the Eat In Awards, which I will tell you more about shortly.

I SO hope you enjoy this, the bf and I really did. It wasn’t heavy, was delicious and different! Let me know how it goes!

Mushroom, bacon and veggies with Linguine

Hi!

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in so long! I think it's nearly a month now, which is unforgivable! In my defence, I've been planning an engagement party, and works been picking up, so there's been minimal time. To add to that, I've had an uninspired cooking month, where nothing quite yelled 'wow' at me, and everything was just ok, not brilliant.

{Image Source}

All that changed last night! I was going to make a chicken casserole, with a 'new' casserole my gran recently gave me, but I realised I had gone and forgotten to get enough onion, so I decided just to make myself some dinner, and I'll make the casserole tonight.

I made a rather terrible dish a while ago, in which I tried to substitute smooth cottage cheese for cream or creme fraiche. The result was appalling!!!! The cottage cheese curdled, and made the whole sauce grainy! I'm not very experienced cooking with cream, I tend to avoid it, as I perceive it to be higher in fat than, say, a tomato based sauce. But I'm SO over tomato based sauces, so I got some reduced fat cream, and decided to bite the bullet and cook with cream.

This mushroom, bacon and veggie linguine was delicious!! I LOVE the pasta that I used here, in the baked rosemary and pork sausage pasta, it has a lovely texture and works so well with everything I put with it! Makes me feel like a wonder chef, but I think that quality ingredients will do that to you!

I used white mushrooms for this, since they were in stock, and quite cheap, but I think it would be even better with brown, or portobellini, or a mix of portobellini and wild mushrooms. The water released by the mushrooms really flavour this dish in an AMAZING way..

So without further ado, I give you

Mushroom, bacon and veggies with Linguine

Ingredients:

1/2 pack streaky bacon (or whatever kind you like)
1/2 pack mushrooms (white, brown, whatever, see previous note)
1/2 yellow or red pepper
1/2 a red onion (milder, sweeter taste than the yellow onion)
handful frozen peas
handful frozen corn
pinch of paprika
250ml reduced fat cream
sprinkling of powdered parmesan

Method:

1. Chop the onion, and fry in a little heated oil
2. Chop mushrooms, peppers and bacon, and toss them in to fry with the onion
3. Cook pasta according to packet instructions, with enough time so that it is ready when the sauce is ready
4. Fry all on a medium hear until the mushrooms have given up their water, the onion is soft, and the bacon cooked
5. Add the cream, lower the heat and simmer
6. The cream will thicken slightly, and I added some powdered parmesan which I had on hand to the sauce, since I can't resist putting cheese in!
7. Just before the pasta is cooked, toss in the peas and corn, either straight from frozen, or slightly zapped in some water in the microwave. It adds some more colour, and ups the deliciousness. I always have frozen peas and corn in the freezer, for occasions such as this!
8. When the pasta is cooked, serve some pasta into a bowl and serve the sauce over.
9. Eat and enjoy!!

I really enjoyed this last night, it was quick and easy to be worth preparing just for myself. There was enough left over for 2 lunches. I felt a bit bad about the cream, but I thought my reduced fat cream mitigated the decision slightly AND I don't eat cream so often, so once in a while can't kill, right? Besides, it was delicious!

Roasted Sausage and Rosemary with Linguine

Hi!

I've been awful lately, neglecting my cooking, neglecting my blogging, generally being lax. Although, in my defense, we had a public holiday this week, and I went away for the weekend! I have many, many lovely things to say about the delicious food we had while we away, but that's for another post.

Over the weekend Cape Town hosted the International Book Fair, which I always go to. It brings together publishers and authors, bookshops and bibliophiles from all across the country, and from other countries, to sell and show books, beautiful books! So, you can tell I'm a fan. This year was smaller than usual, and since I've been a regular at Paperweight this year, I didn't buy as many books as I usually do, settling for only one. But I did come across some delectable looking foodie magazines, delicious. magazine, and a Feel Good Food magazine, from Woman & Home.

In any event, I pored through these, collecting inspiration. I'm not usually very good at following recipes directly, i usually just use them as a guideline and make it up as I go along. So in Feel Good Food, I found a recipe for roasted sausages with rosemary tomatoes, and I thought, YUM!! I don't cook with rosemary often, in fact, I didn't even have any in the cupboard, but I thought this was a brilliant time to try it. We felt like 'long pasta', so we got some linguine, and I upped the liquids, to make it more saucy. I can't find a link to the recipe online, it seems to only be available in print! So here it is, for your cooking pleasure, with my changes!

Roasted Sausage and Rosemary with Linguine

Ingredients:

1 packet of fresh pork sausages (I used the skinny ones for use with pasta)

1 onion, sliced

3-5 baby marrows

3-4 yellow patty pans

1/2 packet of cherry tomatoes

1/2 whole fresh tomato, chopped small

1 tbsp rosemary leaves, fresh or dried

100ml chicken stock

cooking or olive oil for frying

1/2 packet linguine

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Heat some oil in a pan, and slice the onion. 
3. Fry the onion in the pan on a medium heat till soft. 
4. Chop the marrows and patty pans, and any other vegetable you have or think would be nice, and throw them in with the onion. The original recipe only used cherry tomatoes and onion, but I want a more rounded meal, and added the marrows in. 
5. When the onion and veggies are soft, add the rosemary, and either decant into a dish, or push to the side of the pan. 
6. Turn up the heat, and add the sausages, to brown them. I ended up removing the onion mix, as there wasn't enough space with the sausages in the pan, and I didn't want the onion to burn while the sausages browned. 
7. Once the sausages are brown, put back the onion mix, and add the chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, not more than 5. 
8. Transfer the whole lot to an oven proof dish, and pop in the cherry tomatoes and the chopped tomato. 
9. I used the chopped tomato partly because I had so few cherry tomatoes, and partly because they have more liquid, and would flavour the dish well. 
10. Put the pasta on once the dish is in the oven. 
11. Cook according to packet instructions and set aside. 
12. Pop the whole thing, uncovered, into the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the sausages are cooked. 
13. After it baked, I popped it under the grill for a few minutes, to burst the tomatoes and blacken the sausages a bit, but it's not crucial. 
14. Since I was making it for pasta, I needed a sauce, not just a gravy. So I drained the liquids back into the pan, and thickened it with a little cornflour, then poured it back on top of the rest.

When the pasta's cooked, serve into bowls, and spoon sauce over. You can also grate some Parmesan on top, but we had it without, and it was perfect! I had plates being licked left, right and centre! We all agreed that it was the rosemary that absolutely MADE this dish! Delicious! Enjoy! PS. Sorry about the lack of photos, starving family doesn't make for great photo taking, and frankly, I wasn't sure if this would work out!

Baby pasta shells with peppers and chorizo

Hi!

I'm on an eating plan at the moment, and all sorts of things have been denied me, foremost among them pizza and pasta, and all things comforting. In Cape Town's recent spate of unseasonably freezing weather, I decided to tweak my plan. I figured as long as I was eating a whole host of encouraged, recommended things, I could have it with pasta, and here's what I came up with, from what was in my fridge. I'm a fan of using what I've got, I don't like to have to buy a whole lot of new ingredients for every meal. So use what you've got, and see how it comes out. This is what I did a few nights ago.
{Image source: steeljam, flickr}

Baby pasta shells with peppers and chorizo Serves 2 (with leftovers for work the next day, score!)

Ingredients 

1/2 red pepper diced
1/2 yellow pepper
diced 4-5 yellow patty pans (or any other kind of soft marrow, baby marrow, baby squash, etc.)
1/2 a punnet, or about 10 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered, depending on size
1 onion
1 tsp garlic
150g frozen peas
1 or 2 chorizo sausages, diced
1/2 packet sundried tomato pesto
1-3 cups baby pasta shells
half a bunch (or 10-15 leaves) fresh basil

{Image source: fovea centralis, flickr}

Method

1. After chopping, dicing and otherwise preparing the veggies and chorizo, start throwing them into a non-stick pan. I always start with the onion, as it takes the longest to cook down, and unless it's a salad I don't like raw onion. So start with the onions, then the chorizo, since its quite fatty, I like to fry it on quite a high heat at first, to fry out some of the fat. I used chorizo for the spiciness of the sausage, but actually, any meat can be used, or none. Bacon, ham, chopped chicken breast, etc. would all work well here. 
2. At this point you should start the pasta. By the time it's done to packet instructions, your veggies and stuff should be more or less ready.
3. Then throw in the peppers. These are really good for you, and increase your 5 a day intake, which is great. Apparently these beasties, and their spicier cousins, the jalapeno, have all sorts of goodies in them that speed up your metabolism, and generally keep you healthy, AND, they taste good too! 
4. Toss in some garlic at this point, to allow it to fry down, then the tomatoes and anything else still left. 
5. The peas can go in a bit later, and its probably good to throw them in the microwave with some water for a short time, (3-5 mins, depending on your machine) before you throw them in. 
6. When the pasta's nearly cooked, this sauce should be a colourful, well, saucy looking thing in the frying pan. 
7. Drain off any excess oil, and tear the fresh basil into smallish pieces. Mix together the tomato pesto and the pasta, then the sauce, and stir in the fresh basil right at the end. 
8. Add sea salt and ground pepper to taste, but I found it didn't need much. Oh, and I threw some grated mozzarella on after, just to be naughty! 

This is a fantastic thing to whip up on a week night, and despite all my ramblings here, doesn't take long. Mostly only as long as it takes for pasta to cook. And if you can enrol someone else to chop the veggies? It's a breeze!! Happy dinner, people!!