food, reviews and of course coffee
If you are looking for an interesting pasta starter than the basil & pine nut margherite fresh pasta from Sainsbury’s Taste the difference range could be a good choice.
The egg and spinach flower shaped filled pasta is stuffed with a basil and pine nut filling (a bit like pesto).
Cooking in just a few minutes I served mine with a quick sauce made from creme frache and parmesan cheese, then adding some freshly ground black pepper.
I went out for lunch and had a nice piece of chargrilled tuna with vegetables from the café at Sainsburys, which was both delicious and in some ways was also surprising.
I wasn’t quite expecting them to do such a good looking and tasty dish. The sauce was nice and the accompanying vegetables was a nice touch.
The other day I made some Chorizo Frito al Vino and I used some Chorizo that I had bought from Morrisons. It had cost £1.99.
I was therefore surprised to see in Sainsburys when I wanted to buy a very similar Chorizo sausage that they were charging £2.99. It was even more expensive from the deli counter where it was £3.49.
I don’t know it if it will be a better Chorizo sausage, but if it is similar then a 50% markup is terrible.
Still missing the (fresh) cooking chorizo from Tesco.
I seem to have been buying the same sausages for ages, so the other day seeing Paul Rankin’s Irish pork sausages on the shelf the other day, decided, oh lets try them.
I was slightly hesitant as sometimes you wonder if you are paying more for the “name” than the quality of the ingredients. I did wonder if I would get cheap salty tasting sausages which though made with “succulent cuts of pork” was actually made with cheap succulent cuts of pork!
However I did remember that I use the buy Sainsburys Taste the Difference steak which was endorsed by Jamie Oliver at one point and I really could taste the difference!
So what about Paul Rankin’s sausages?
Well they cooked perfectly with very little shrinkage or water loss. They had a good texture and tasted really good. Sometimes good quality sausages can be very salty, so all you can taste is salt, with these I could taste the pork.
I will certainly be buying these again.
Well I got a bit of a bargain yesterday from the deli counter at Sainsburys.
They had some cooked mini Turkey joints (around 500g) reduced from £9.99 to 99p, a nine pound saving. It wasn’t as though the use by date was yesterday either, bought yesterday on the 29th December, to be used by the 1st January.
It was cheaper than buying a couple of slices of the cooked turkey (which is why I was at the deli counter in the first place).
It wasn’t the best or most tasty turkey, but it works well in sandwiches. Of course we didn’t have turkey at Christmas, so we didn’t have lots left over like those poor people who buy and cook those HUGE turkeys!