Category: pasta

Posted on

Pasta with Tomato and Rosemary

Pasta in a tomato and rosemary sauce

This was a quick pasta dish I threw together recently which was enjoyed by all around the table.

I took some tricolour fusilli pasta, you know the one with plain, green (spinach) and red (tomato) pasta spirals. There I cooked in a large pan of boiling water.

MushroomsIn the meantime in a large frying pan I cooked some mushrooms. When they cooked I added the tomato sauce. For the bulk of the sauce I used a jar of Red Onion and Rosemary Pasta Sauce from Jamie Oliver. The rosemary was quite strong and certainly overpowered the tomato and I couldn’t distinguish any hint of red onion. Now I like rosemary, so I quite liked the sauce, but I can imagine that if you don’t then you wouldn’t, but you probably wouldn’t buy a jar like this anyhow!

After cooking the pasta, I drained and added the sauce to the pasta before serving.

Posted on

Puttanesca Linguine

Tomato Linguine

I didn’t buy it, but was quite impressed with the Lloyd Grossman Puttanesca tomato sauce. It tasted fresh and you could certainly taste the chilli, olives and even a hint of anchovies in the sauce, as well as the tomatoes.

Generally I am not a fan of prepared sauces, they often taste processed and too salty. However as I am not the only person who cooks in the house, sometimes they prefer the convenience of a jar of sauce. This one though we quite liked.

For the dish in the photograph I first cooked off some diced chicken breast before adding some diced onion, red pepper and courgette. I cooked this for a further five minutes before adding some chopped mushrooms.

Once the linguine was cooked, I added the sauce to the pan with the chicken, onions, pepper, courgette and mushrooms and heated it through.

I then tossed the linguine with the sauce before serving with some freshly grated parmesan.

According to Italian tradition I should have used spaghetti, but we didn’t have that in the house and I actually prefer linguine myself.

Posted on

Simple Pesto Pasta Salad

I do quite like pasta based salads which are basically can be best described as cold pasta! Though there is a little more work required than just letting cooked pasta going cold…

For this salad I cooked some fusilli pasta twists and after they had cooked, I immersed them in cold water. Iced cold water would be better, but I had no ice, so just plain cold water would do. This is for two reasons, firstly to make the pasta cold, ready for the salad, secondly to stop the cooking process. If you just cooked the pasta an let it go cold, it would go all soggy as it continued to cook after you drained it. So even if you intend to eat your pasta salad later, still plunge it into cold water to stop the cooking process. Just as an aside this is often how restaurants “cook” pasta. They cook the pasta until just about done, before plunging the pasta into ice cold water. They can then finish the cooking of the pasta when needed and it will only take a minute to finish the pasta before adding a sauce.

So with the cooked pasta I added a couple of spoonfuls of basil pesto and some chicken.

Mixed and served.

You could add some fresh basil leaves to up the basil flavour. Another option would be to add some cooked spinach.

Posted on

Linguine

Linguine

I like pasta dishes and this was a quick and easy recipe. I took some linguine pasta and cooked it for ten minutes in boiling water. I never add salt or oil and never have a problem with cooking time, flavour or pasta sticking together.

When the pasta was cooked, I drained and then immediately added a beaten egg, creme frache and grated parmesan cheese. This was then served with a little freshly ground black pepper.

Posted on

Penne with Spicy Sausage

I recently had lunch at a small Turkish place and decided to go with the penne pasta in a chilli sauce with spicy sausage.

It was very nice and quite tasty.

I don’t think the pasta was freshly cooked, it tasted in some respects like fresh pasta, but knowing the place I was in, I wonder if they used frozen pasta? The chilli was done well, nice and spicy but still subtle and not overpowering.

Posted on

Spaghetti Bolognaise

I am not a great fan of Spaghetti Bolognaise but other members of my family like it.

So when we were at Bottelino’s recently they ordered a dish of it.

They really enjoyed it and would order it again. I always think there is a little too much pasta sauce and not enough pasta.

Posted on

Casarecce Pasta in a tomato sauce

I have been quite impressed with the Seriously Good pasta sauces and very easy to use. Unlike other sauces I have used in the past these taste very fresh, though obviously they’re not! I used the Bolognese and Red Wine sauce in the above picture.

An authentically rich tomato Bolognese sauce which puts the rest to shame. Loaded with balsamic vinegar, red wine and thyme – it’s all you need to make a classic Spag Bol or Lasagne al Forno. Perfection.

I used it with some Casarecce pasta, finished off with some fresh parmesan.

I served it with some Jamie Oliver Italian Sausages, which I was less impressed with.

Posted on

Linguine with pesto, green beans and rocket

I wanted something quick and easy to cook, I decided to cook linguine.

I took a large pan of boiling water and placed the linguine to cook. I also in another pan cooked some sliced green beans.

When the linguine was cooked, I drained it and added a splash of olive oil. I then stirred in some pesto, pine nuts, the rocket and the cooked green beans.

Though nice on its own, I served mine with some chargrilled pork steaks.

Posted on

Jamie Oliver, I do like your Pesto

Last week I mentioned how disappointed I was with Jamie Oliver’s Italian Sausages. Well this time I was trying out his pesto.

To be honest I was a lot more impressed.

Unlike other pesto I have used, this had a lovely smooth flavour, you could taste the basil, you could taste (and feel) the pine nuts, the parmesan was not overpowering as it sometimes can be in pesto and the olive oil was subtle without the harshness of cheap oil you find in some cheap pesto.

It worked well with the linguine I had.

I will be buying it again.

Jamie Oliver, I do like your Pesto!

Posted on

Fusilli Pasta

I do eat a lot of pasta, and this is one of my regular recipes.

It is a simple recipe that is quick and easy.

In a pan cook off some diced onions, pepper and pancetta.

Cook the fusilli pasta in lots of boiling water. The key for me for cooking pasta is lots of water. I don’t use salt and I most certainly don’t add any oil to the water.

Once the pasta is cooked, add the cooked onions, pepper and pancetta. Also add creme frache and grated parmesan. Season with black pepper and serve.