Another Summer Pasta

Another simple pasta dish for you today, another I chucked this together and it tasted good dinner!

I wanted to eat within 10 minutes after a marathon session with my trainer, and I wanted lots of food!

So you need (for two);
linguine, I used two balls per person
150g prawns
3 spring onions, chopped
2 handfuls watercress, torn up
100g peas (I used way more but I am obsessed with peas)
sprinkle of toasted pine nuts
2 tablespoons half fat creme fraiche
zest of 1 lemon

1. Cook your pasta, I never cook for more than 5 minutes as I like mine with bite, ditto with the peas I boiled mine for 2 minutes.

2. Toast your pine nuts for 1-2 minutes, keep an eye on them don’t let them burn!

3. Toss the pasta and peas with the watercress (torn up) then your prawns and spring onions then the creme fraiche, season well with sea salt and black pepper and the lemon zest and top with the pine nuts.

My I was feeling greedy that day, that’s a lot of food!

I also want to apologise in advance for the lack of posting over the next two weeks, I am now less than two weeks away from getting married and I doubt very much I’ll be cooking, even less so that I’ll be cooking anything interesting or worth blogging!

So wish me luck! I might be back I might not… otherwise I promise to share my wedding breakfast with you very soon!

 

Waldorf Pasta

This was a chuck-some-leftovers-together supper last week… I thought I would share because it was 1. EASY! and 2. delicious!

More of a quick dinner idea than a recipe… I have given rough estimates of what I used, but it is easy to change to how much of each ingredient you want, how many people there are.

You need;
Tagliatelle (3 balls dried per person, best you can get)
Stilton (2 slices about 0.5 centimetre)
walnuts (a small handful)
red onion (2 small)
rocket (2 good handfuls)
creme fraiche (3 good spoonfuls)
apple/pear chucks (1 piece fruit)
sea salt and black pepper
olive oil
brown sugar (tsp)

1. Caramelise your red onions, with the sugar and oil. Fry for about 5-10 minutes

2. Cook your pasta, I always like mine al-dente (5-6 minutes)

3. When the pasta is cooked, drain then add the onions and rocket and stir, then add the creme fraiche, season, then half of the Stilton and the fruit and stir well.

Immediately serve into hot bowls (this will cool quickly). Finally crunch the walnuts and crumble the rest of the cheese over the top.

Courgette and Goats Cheese Spaghetti

Another recipe from 101 Cookbooks Heidi once again thank you for a lovely dinner!

It’s August and so the markets are still full of courgette, I managed to grab some yellow and green this week to make a colourful spaghetti dish…

You need;
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3 medium shallots, thinly sliced
fine grain sea salt
2 medium courgette, sliced into 1/4-inch thick coins
a good handful of dill, chopped
1/4 cup sliced almonds

First boil a pan of salted water and add whole-wheat spaghetti and cook for 6-7 for al dente, more if you like it soggy!

In your largest skillet heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Stir in the garlic and cook until it starts to take on a hint of color.
Stir in the shallots and a big pinch of salt, and cook until they start to soften, a couple of minutes.

Add the courgette, stir to get it coated with a bit of oil, and arrange the coins in as much of a single layer as your pan permits.
Dial the heat up a bit if needed, add another pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally until the courgette browns – ten minutes or so.

Remove from heat and fold in the dill and almonds before serving.
Taste, and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

I then chucked it all together in a large mixing bowl to stir everything through and divided into bowls before adding a big scoop of very soft goats cheese.

You could also try this with other herbs, I think basil or mint would be great.

The original recipe is here

10 Minute Dinner

This is a dinner I made using the leftover ingredients from the Chorizo hash… it takes 10 minutes if the prep is done, a little longer if not…

For 2;
2 handfuls of spaghetti/linguine
1/2 tinned chopped tomatoes
punnet roasted tomatoes
2 tbsps tomato puree
2 garlic cloves chopped/crushed
1 onion chopped
1/2 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
punnet mushrooms
2 rashers bacon per person (optional)
slug red wine
fresh basil
sea salt and black pepper

I used my sauce left from the Chorizo Hash recipe but if you need to start from scratch here you go;

1. Roast your tomatoes (roughly 15-20 minutes at 180)
2. Add to the tinned chopped tomatoes, add the red wine and cook off
3. Add the garlic and 1/2 fresh basil chopped
pop to one side

To make the pasta;
1. boil your pasta for about 7-10 minutes depending on whether you like it Al Dente or not
2. If add bacon pop under the grill now
3. Pan fry your onion, for 2-3 minutes then add the mushrooms cook for a further 2-3 minutes before adding the peppers, then add the tomato sauce and mix well. If having bacon add now.
4. Add half the sauce to the pasta and mix well and serve with the rest of the sauce piled on top.
5. Serve with fresh basil, add some parmesan if you like!

Very healthy if you leave the bacon (or try chorizo or sausage) and parmesan, but even more yummy with!

10 Minute Dinner

Last night I made a very healthy yummy dinner that took just 10 minutes… the following is for 2 people

1 salmon fillet
2 portions linguine
1 lemon
2 portions asparagus (as little or as many as you want)
2 portions cherry tomatoes (as little or as many as you want)
half fat crème fraiche 

First boil some water and cook your pasta, I like my al dente so only cooked for about 7 minutes but this can take up to 10 as well, at the same time pop the salmon in the oven at 180C for about 10 minutes (this will vary depending on your oven), you could also poach or grill the salmon.

I sprayed it with a little olive oil and cracked some seat salt and black pepper over the top.

Then zest your lemon and add to about half a small pot of crème fraiche depending on your taste (whether you want a thin coating or lots of sauce), juice half of the lemon and add this as well, then crack some seat salt and black pepper into it to taste.

Steam your asparagus for 3 minutes to keep it nice and crunchy then cut into 1 inch piece, then half your cherry tomatoes and mix it all together, maybe heat for 2 minutes and serve!