Carbonara

The classic carbonara - no cream in sight! 

Ingredients

• 225g of Pancetta as a 1cm slice or thick cut Bacon
• 4 cloves of Garlic
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 4 tbsp of dry White Wine
• 2 large Eggs
• 4 tbsp of freshy grated Romano Cheese
• 50g of freshly grated Parmigiano-reggiano Cheese
• freshy ground Black Pepper
• 2 tbsp of chopped flat lead Parsley
• 550g of pasta

Serves 6

Method

Cut the bacon or pancetta into strips just over half a centimeter wide. 

Bash the garlic lightly to loosen the skin which you discard. Sauté in the olive oil gently until it is a golden brown. Do not allow it to burn or it will taste bitter. 

Remove the garlic and discard.

Now cook the bacon/pancetta in the garlic infused oil until it just begins to crisp. Add the wine and cook for two minutes before turning off the heat.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl and then stir in the cheeses, the pepper and the parsley.

Once the mixture is thoroughly incorporated add the hot, cooked, pasta and toss rapidly. Make sure the mixture coats the pasta evenly. The latant heat of the pasta will cook the egg.

Warm the pancetta/bacon quickly on a high heat and then mix with the pasta.

Toss throughly and serve with more grated Parmesan. 

Spaghetti Carbonara

Pasta with a Ham, Broccoli and a Creamy Mustard Sauce

Another quick recipe, I suppose that is the point of this blog... Serve with garlic bread for a filling meal.

Ingredients

• Your Pasta of choice - Fresh or Dried
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• Half a head of Broccoli cut into small florets
• 300ml of Double Cream
• 2 tablespoons of English Mustard
• 4 slices of thick Ham
• 1 onion
• 140g of Cheddar Cheese - grated
• Salt and Pepper

Serves 4

Method

Take the broccoli and add it to a pan of boiling water. Simmer for four minutes. Drain and put to one side.

Start the dried pasta cooking (if using). If you are using fresh then get your big pan of water boiling in readiness.

Saute the onions for five minutes. Add the crushed garlic and continue cooking for a further minute. 

Start the fresh pasta cooking. Meanwhile, add the diced ham and cook for a minute. Finally add the cream and mustard stirring continuously. Once the mixture has almost reached the boil add the cooked pasta. Stir so that all the pasta is covered with the sauce.

Stir in the grated cheddar cheese, season and serve.

The Missus' Pesto Pasta

The missus' repertoire consists of just four lonely little dishes all of which are very tasty. I am willing to squeeze them in to a corner of my blog so here is the first. I will add others if she ventures back into the kitchen again this year...

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 6 rashers Bacon with all the fat cut off
• 1 small Onion, roughly chopped
• 5 large Closed cup mushrooms (or 10 button mushrooms),  peeled and roughly chopped
• 200 - 250ml Créme Fraîche
• 2 tbsp Semi-skimmed milk
• 3 whacking great teaspoons of Green pesto
• Freshly cooked pasta (enough to make you happy) - fresh is best so see my recipe on the right
• 1 tbsp grated or flaked Parmesan Cheese + more for the table

Method

Fry or grill the bacon in a heavy frying pan or wok. Cut into small strips and set aside.

Sautée the onions and mushrooms until slightly browned and then add the bacon. Mix together for one minute then remove from heat. Quickly mix in the pesto and créme fraîche and return to the heat. Stir in the hot pasta, adding a little milk to thin out the sauce and finish by stirring in the Parmesan cheese.

The Missus' Pesto Pasta

Serve with garlic bread and wine...

Vegan Macaroni Bake

I made this bake for my sister as she is a vegan and incredibly difficult to cook for. Vegetarian meals, no problem, easy to knock up something nice and tasty but vegan... This dish is very easy to make and is actually good enough to make even when you are not forced into it. If you are cooking for vegans remember to get egg free pasta though.

Ingredients

• 200g dried Macaroni
• 100g Broccoli florets
• 1 small Onion, peeled and chopped
• 50ml Olive oil, plus 1 tbsp
• 50g Plain flour
• 500ml Organic or Calcium Rice Dream
• 2 tbsp Sun-dried tomato paste
• 1 tbsp Wholegrain mustard or 1 tsp of Mustard powder
• Juice of a lemon
• 100g Sweetcorn
• 10g Fresh basil, torn
• 50g Bread torn into small chunks
• 12 Cherry tomatoes, halved

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C or 200°C for a fan oven.

Cook the dried macaroni as instructed on the pack adding the broccoli florets for the last four or five minutes of cooking. Drain and put to one side.

Sautee the onion in a large pan for about five minutes or until it just begins to colour. Add the flour and mix with the onions. Allow to gently sizzle for a couple of minutes before then adding a quarter of the Rice Dream. Stir it in making sure there are no lumps as well as making sure any errant flour has been incorporated.

Slowly add the rest of the Rice Dream while stirring then bring the mixture to the boil. Simmer gently for five minutes.  

Stir in the tomato paste, mustard, lemon juice, basil and sweetcorn. Add the cooked pasta and broccoli. Season to taste then put it all into an oven-proof bowl.

Coat the bread with the remaining olive oil, scatter over the macaroni along with the tomatoes, then bake for about 40 minutes until bubbling and browned.

(about the recipe - this one is from the Rice Dream website)

Pasta Dough

Making your own fresh pasta gives you a win on so many levels. Not only does freshly made pasta taste infinitely superior to dried, and even vacuum packed 'fresh', pasta but it is considerably lighter too. You don't get that heavy feeling in the stomach that makes you want to go for a nap! The other positive is that it is a therapeutic calming experience. Maybe I am just odd but I enjoy the kneading experience! The key to making your own pasta is to have many attempts at it as each time it will take less time and produce a better result. Before you know it you will be an artisan pasta maker!

Ingredients

• Pasta flour (preferably)/00 plain flour - you need as much as you need.
• 2 eggs

This should give you approximately 350g of pasta

My flour of choice

Method 

There is a wealth of information about making pasta on the internet. I am sure everyone has an opinion and that there is a multitude of old school Italian pasta makers spinning in their collective graves over some of the methods suggested.

I do it this way...

Put 115g of flour in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Crack two eggs into the well and whisk them with a fork until the yolk and white are combined. Once combined start to draw in some of the flour from the edge into the egg mix. Carry on mixing until that flour is incorporated then draw a little more in. Repeat this process until all the flower is mixed in. 

Now assess the mixture; if it is still very wet add a little more flour (maybe a tablespoon at a time) and mix it in until you feel that you have a mixture that you can start to manipulate with your hands without getting into a sticky mess! Now abandon the fork and bowl turning the mixture out onto a clean work surface,  Add a little more flour (I put the flour on the work surface and then sit the top and bottom of the dough mixture in it so that it is lightly covered) and then fold the top over on itself with a squashing slight stretching motion. Rotate 90° and fold the top over again.. repeat until that addition of flour is incorporated. Then add more flour. Repeat the folding/rotating action with extra flour until the dough has achieved a very smooth texture. There should be no lumps, bits or lose flour.  It should not really feel sticky at all now. 

Smooth as a baby's bottom as they say...

This could take ten or fifteen minutes and take quite a lot more flour. You can't be particularly specific on the amount of flour as it is all about the size of  the eggs and the absorbency of the type of flour you have. A lot of recipes state that you will be able to put your thumb into the mixture then withdraw it without there being any dough stuck to your hand. You tend to know when it is ready though as it will look right. It's all about getting experienced in making the dough.

Now you have dough ready to make pasta noodles or sheets.