Pasta with Tomato, Chicken and Spinach

The weather continues to annoy me.
I'm sick of the rain.
I want sun.

But since I have no control over it whatsoever I guess all I can do is accept the rain and go on with life. I had chicken and spinach and wanted to bake a pie. But then I got distracted and ran out of time so I ended up making a pasta dish instead.

A big tin of peeled tomatoes, chicken breasts cubed, lots of freshly washed spinach, onion, a clove of garlic, one carrot diced, olive oil and seasoning. That was all it took. Of course fresh basil from my herb garden and lots of grated Parmesan completed the dish.

Hope you have great week ahead!

Pasta with Tomato and Blue Cheese Sauce

My new kitchen is huge.
It is just enormous.
I love it.

It is a little strange because we decided to buy exactly the same oven as we had in our old house so when I cook it feels like home. I know how my oven works and it makes me just as happy as the old one did. Except this one is all new and shiny. (Which it won't stay for long...)

Last night I made a very basic pasta dish. It went a little like this:
Take one big clove of garlic and an onion both finely diced and add to a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil which has been heated up. Let it cook on medium heat for a couple of minutes. Now add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a hand full of finely chopped basil (fresh if possible but a tablespoon of dried basil will do just fine). Stir together and let it simmer, make sure to add some water if the sauce becomes too dry.

While the sauce simmers away add enough pasta for two persons to a pot filled with boiling water. Cook as per the directions - my dried wholewheat spaghetti took about 12 minutes to cook. I added some of the pasta water to the sauce, about a third of a cup during the time the pasta was cooking.

Once the pasta is cooked and drained it is time to get back to the sauce which should be ready and smelling very garlicky by now. Simply dice about 150 grams of blue cheese and add it to the sauce. Now add the pasta to the sauce and mix it all up. Enjoy!

Spicy Sausage Pasta Sauce

Last week I made dinner ahead of time, something I never do.
A spicy sausage pasta in a tomato based sauce.
I added a lot of chili and peppadews.
Not sure why, guess the red colours seemed appealing at the time.
It was quite a treat to just heat the sauce up and not have to bother with cooking anything except the pasta. Easy peasy. And it tasted good too ;-)

Finely slice and dice one onion and one clove of garlic. Heat up a tablespoon olive and add the onion and garlic to the pan, sauté a few minutes on medium heat until the onion becomes translucent. Slice up two pork sausages (or similar sausage) and add to the pan. Cook for a few minutes until the sausage gets a nice colour - not too long since you'll be adding the sausage to the sauce later to cook through. Remove from pan but leave the onion and garlic behind. Add a tin of whole tomatoes and let it simmer for 5 minutes in the pan. Season with salt, pepper and a teaspoon of sugar. Finely slice a red chili (with or without seeds) and a few peppadews and add to the sauce. Also add a dash of balsamic vinegar. Smash the tomatoes with your wooden spoon and add the sausage pieces back to the pan. Now let it all simmer away for 10 minutes or so - you might need to add some liquid if your sauce reduces too much. The sauce is ready when the tomatoes are very soft and the pork is cooked through. Add to the pasta of your choice and mix well. Should be enough to serve two hungry people - not really for kids though unless they like chillies.

Spicy Sausage Pasta

Sometimes you need a little bit of heat.
A subtle hit of chili to wake up the senses.

That is exactly what my spicy sausage pasta did. Merques sausages, jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, tomato frito, onions and garlic. With the obligatory olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some cayenne pepper. Add a dash of cooking cream to the sauce and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Delicious and very spicy indeed!

Tuna, Courgette and Lemon Pasta

I'm sure I've mentioned this tuna pasta before... it is becoming a weekly favourite in our house.
For me and the husband, but not so much for the kids.
The best thing about it is the fact that it a quick dinner with very basic ingredients.
I tend to make enough pasta for all of us and then divide it with a tuna sauce for us and something else (like cheese!) for the kids.

You need one or two courgettes, a lemon, two cans of tuna (in oil or water), a clove of garlic, a dash or two of olive oil, 125ml creme fraiche (low fat) and the pasta of your choice.

Start with cooking your pasta - you will make the sauce while the pasta cooks which with dried pasta should take 12 - 15 minutes. Halve and then slice the courgette into thin slices, sprinkle some salt over and let it sit aside while you heat the olive oil and crush the garlic. Drain any water from the courgette and add it with the garlic to the pan. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Zest the lemon and add it to the courgette with the juice of half the lemon (I'm assuming a small to medium lemon). Once the courgette is almost cooked add the tuna to the pan and heat it through for a couple of minutes, also add the rest of the lemon juice. Now add the creme fraiche, mix it well and heat it up for about a minute. Add to the pasta and mix well - serve immediately with a bit of parmesan cheese.

Yummy!

Brussels Sprouts with Chicken Pasta

Now you know that I don't like brussels sprouts.
But my husband loves them so as long as they are in season and cheap I will be buying them.

Last week I deviated from my menu plan and made a pretty tasty pasta dish incorporating brussels sprouts. Definitely good for repetition.

It went a little like this:
Take one bag of brussels sprouts, clean them and throw them in a pot with boiling water for about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

While the brussels sprouts are cooking, heat up a grill pan and cook three chicken breasts for about 10 minutes (5 minutes per side). Season your chicken breasts as per your liking - I marinated them half an hour before cooking in lemon juice and crushed garlic with a dash of honey.

Let the chicken breasts rest while you get the pasta cooking in a big pot of boiling water - follow the directions on your packaging. I made spaghetti which needed about 9 minutes until nicely cooked.

While the pasta cooks take a big pan and heat up a dash of olive oil. Now add a finely chopped onion and sauté for a couple of minutes. Slice three rashers of bacon and add to the onions. Slice the chicken breasts into strips and add to the pan. Throw in the brussels sprouts too and give it all a nice stir before adding about 50ml of low fat cooking cream (feel free to add more). Mix it well and make sure the heat is turned off so that you don't curdle the cream. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the drained pasta to the pan and mix well.

Serve with parmesan cheese and enjoy!

 Hope you have a great week ahead!

Pasta with Sausage in a Roasted Pepper Sauce

I have a dear friend with two lovely sons. Her youngest boy of 4 years old was recently diagnosed with leukaemia. Now that just sucks. And it isn't fair.

But they are doing everything possible and following a treatment plan which if all goes well should have him better within two years. In the meantime they get to spend a lot of time at the hospital... which as you can imagine is not exactly fun.

She has a great circle of friends and lots of people who care about her so when she asked for some help in the form of frozen meals everyone immediately started cooking. Now you probably know by now that I'm not exactly someone who ever freezes food, except for the occasional muffin or banana bread. Plus my freezer is tiny.

I decided to stop my nonsense and make her something to eat. Pasta with sausage and a roasted pepper sauce. It is based on the Jamie Oliver recipe in his 15-minute meal book. I was pretty pleased with the results and it is currently in my freezer, ready for delivery this week. Hopefully she likes it!!

The recipe goes something like this and is open to interpretation: grill some beef sausages. Blend onions, garlic, roasted peppers from a jar (capsicum) and tomatoes. Make a sauce, add seasoning (mixed herbs, salt, pepper), balsamic vinegar and let it simmer for a while. Cook the pasta. Mix everything together and enjoy!

Pasta Illustration

I've been eating pasta all week long... might as well draw it!

Tuna Pasta Salad

Hot weather calls for cold food.

Hence a pasta salad for dinner.

I must admit that I'm pretty happy with this tuna pasta salad.

The sweet corn and salty green olives really worked well together.

Can I make this pasta salad twice in one week... I just might!

Here's my recipe. 

Ingredients:

250 gram penne pasta (uncooked)

1 can of tuna (in water or oil, depending on your preference)

2 ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup green olives (pitted), finely chopped

1/2 of a large cucumber, chopped

1 can sweet corn kernels (medium sized can)

3 tablespoons mayonnaise (I used a light version)

The juice of one lemon

A sprig of fresh parsley, finely chopped (about 2 tablespoons)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Cook the pasta and let it cool down

Prepare the rest of the ingredients and simply add to the cold pasta.

Add the lemon juice, olive oil and mayo last.

Mix it well and enjoy! 

P.S. you might want to add more mayo. I'm trying to be good so I used as little mayo as possible.

Pasta with Ham, Mushrooms and Asparagus

I love asparagus.

Two weeks ago I made a pretty tasty pasta dish with garlic, shallots, ham, mushrooms then I topped it with a sprinkle of parmesan and pan fried asparagus.

Of course that sounds very basic but there was some skill involved and a cup of white wine.

In this foto I applied Florabella's colour pop and ocean actions.

I quite like the subtle effect!

Lasagne!

Is it lasagne or lasagna? 

Who cares, I love making it. 

Layers of pasta with delicious tomato and meat sauce and the cheese, oh the cheese.

Of course I don't make it every week but at least once a month!

Hearty Pasta with Brussels Sprouts, Cheese and Potatoes

Nigella is fabulous.
I always find inspiration from her to make delicious things.
On new years eve I made her hearty pasta dish.
Well, it was almost the same as hers except without using her exact ingredients. Not because I did not try to find them... but simply because the grocery store did not have them in stock. It was very busy that day and after going to three, I kid you not, three stores in search of ricotta cheese I simply gave up and improvised.
It was delicious and I have witnesses!
I have a feeling that this will become one of my 'go-to' dishes.

Here is the link to Nigella's recipe.
Here is my improvised ingredient version:

Ingredients

500 gram brussels sprouts (trimmed and halved)
200 gram baking potatoes (peeled and in 2-3cm dice)
500 gram penne
1 pinch of salt (for vegetable and pasta water, to taste)
125 ml creme fraiche
200 gram really, really, really old cheese (grated)
50 gram unsalted butter (soft)
1 tablespoon garlic oil (one clove of minced garlic in olive oil)
4 sage leaves (shredded)
100 gram grated parmesan

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C, and fill a large pot with water to cook the sprouts, potato and pasta.
When the water boils, salt it generously, tip in the prepared sprouts, the potato dice and the pasta and let the water come back to the boil, then cook for about 8–10 minutes, or until the potato is tender and the pasta al dente. Just before draining, remove 2 cupfuls of the cooking liquid and put to one side.
Tip the drained pasta, sprouts and potato pieces into a roasting tin (approx. 25 x 36cm), or a lasagne dish (approx. 23 x 34cm), then add the creme fraiche and grated really, really, really old cheese and a cupful of cooking water, and toss well to combine. Add more liquid if you feel the pasta is too dry.
Warm the butter and garlic oil in a small saucepan and, when melted and beginning to sizzle gently, add the shredded sage and fry for about 30 seconds before spooning or dribbling the butter and crisp sage over the pasta bake. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, by which time the surface will be scorched a light gold. Let it rest for at least 15 minutes before eating.

Pasta with some Stuff from a Jar

It is true.
I greatly mistrust ready made food in jars and tins.
I always wonder how the food remains good for sooooooo long. Plus I wonder how they cook the meat in giant kitchens and through how many processes it has to go to reach that jar.
Now of course I understand that there is science behind it.
I get it.

My brain tells me not to think about it too much and just eat it.
My heart tells me to stay away!

So I tend to try make a lot of things from scratch.
It is not that easy and I do succumb to quite a few tins of tuna, peeled tomatoes, corn, etc.
But if you ever find a ready made meat and tomato sauce or chicken soup in my house then I'm ready to point the finger straight to my husband. He will eat anything.

I digress, back to what I made for dinner.
Pasta with a meat sauce. The meat, onions and carrots were all peeled, sliced and cooked by me but then I had no tomato base for the sauce... so I found a jar of vegetables in my cupboard. The label was in Italian so I was not sure what exactly we would be eating. Some kind of tomato based vegetable concoction. It came from a farm in Italy (La Vialla) where everything is organic so it must be ok (right?!). I decided not to think, just do. I tossed it in with the meat and a sauce was made.

Even though I hate to admit it, the sauce was good. I served it with parmesan, a salad and ciabatta bread. My husband loved it and even had a second helping.
Enough said.

Tuna Lemon Ricotta Pasta

I found this recipe in the Albert Heijn Allerhande magazine a couple of months ago. Although it is essentially marketing the supermarket, they have quite a few good recipes in there which I think are well worth trying.

This recipe for a pasta with tuna, lemon and ricotta cheese was very easy and quite tasty.
But.
Don't you just hate it when there is a but?
Well, for me there was definitely a 'but'.
My finished dish did not quite look like their photo of the finished dish.
I don't know... might be that I am not a food stylist and probably did not try very hard to make it look pretty. Might be that they tried too hard to make it look pretty.

Either way, I liked it and will most definitely make it again.

Here is a link to the original recipe.

Here is a copy, translated into English:


Ingredients
300 g farfalle (pasta)
1 lemon, wiped clean
2 cans tuna pieces in sunflower oil (a 185 g)
2 courgettes, peeled into thin ribbons
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tub ricotta (250 g)
some flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Method:
1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente. Grate the lemon peel and squeeze out the juice. Drain the tuna into a bowl and save about 3 tablespoons of the oil.
2. Heat the tuna oil in a pan and add the garlic. Cook for about 1 minute. Now add the courgette and cook for 3 minutes more. Add the lemon rind, juice, tuna, ricotta and season with salt and pepper. Turn down the heat. Let it simmer away for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the pasta to the sauce, add the parsley and serve immediately.

Credit and thanks to Maybemej Photography for the frame template and all the other cool freebies she makes.

Tuna Pasta Salad (again)

Yes, I've posted about tuna pasta salads before...

It seems like the moment the weather improves, and there is any chance of eating outside, that I want a pasta salad.

Here are a few photos of this week's pasta salad.

It is dead simple and only the pasta requires any cooking...

I usually use whatever ingredients I happen to have in the house so be creative!

Easy Holiday Pasta

We are staying in a self catering apartment with a very basic kitchen.
I mean seriously, how does anyone cope without cooking on gas?
It's quite an adjustment for me.

Our dinners have been pretty simple.
Luckily you don't need much to make a good pasta dish.

Courgette, mushrooms, onion, chicken breast and Pecorino cheese on top of lovely Italian penne pasta. That's all it took to make our dinner delicious.

Of course a bit of seasoning and maybe a dash of soy sauce helped too.

Butternut, Spinach and Caramelized Onion Pasta

This pasta dish turned out to be just lovely.

It started off with me having some fresh spinach and not knowing what to do with it.
Then I remembered something which I saw on pinterest (you just gotta love pinterest!)
It was a lasagna with squash, onions and spinach.
Since I did not have most of the ingredients, I improvised.

My recipe below is for one very hungry person, but can easily be adapted for more.

I roasted a medium sized butternut, while at the same time caramelizing one onion. The idea was that they should be done within 40 minutes and the timing worked out well.
Halfway through cooking the onion I added half a clove of crushed garlic.
Oh the smell... it was mouthwatering.
I cooked my spaghetti (100grams) and also sauteed two big hands full of spinach.
When everything was done I used about half the butternut and saved the rest for another day.
Then I poured 100gram demi creme fraiche onto the spaghetti, mixing it well and to this I added the onions, butternut and spinach.
Lastly I grated Parmesan cheese over the pasta.
Yum.

A Quick Tuna Pasta Salad

Quickly.
That is how I try to make all my dinners.
Unfortunately I don't like eating the same thing twice in a row or else I would just make everything double. Luckily some ingredients can be cleverly disguised.

I made a standard vegetarian pasta and decided to cook a little extra pasta to keep ready in the fridge for a pasta salad.

A can of lovely white tuna, one cup of cooked cold pasta, half a small cucumber finely chopped, a big juicy tomato, one red onion, half a bag of rocket leaves, lemon juice, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and ground black pepper.

(Notice how I resisted temptation and did NOT use any mayo with the tuna...)

Mix it all together and enjoy a very healthy dinner or lunch!

Kids Food #16 - Sausages and Pasta Monsters

I try to be creative and fun when cooking for the kids.
I really try.
Usually I fail because I am in a rush.
But sometimes I succeed.

These little monsters are lots of fun for the kids.
But beware, your children might end up playing with the food instead of eating it.

My husband saw this idea on the internet ages ago and finally we got around to making it for the girls.

Basically all you need is some sausages, cut into bite size pieces.
Then take spaghetti pasta and stick it through the raw sausages.
You can use as many pieces as you like.
Place in a large pot of boiling water and cook for about 12 - 15 minutes.
Serve up with or without pasta sauce and any other vegetables you manage to get your kids to eat :-)

Kids Food #15 - Penne and Cheese

Yes I am a big lover of macaroni and cheese.
The home made kind.
Not the kind that comes in a box with all kinds of weird artificial stuff in it.

I like it the way my mom has made it for years and years.
My kids like it too.

For some reason it is impossible to find nice and big macaroni in my supermarket so I always use penne as a substitute, about 250 gram. Cook it, drain it and place it in an ovenproof dish.

Loosely beat 2 eggs, add half a cup of milk and mix well.
Season to your liking. I use pretty much no salt these days, especially when cooking for kids.

Pour this mixture over the pasta and sprinkle grated cheese on top, mixing it in a little here and there, about a hand or two full of cheese.

Place in a preheated oven (190 degrees Celsius) and cook for 20 - 30 minutes until the cheese melts and the egg mixture sets.

Serve up with a salad!