Ham Hock, Mustard & Macaroni Cheese Stuffed Peppers

Making Macaroni cheese is a regular meal in our house, its easy, delicious and is that all round comfort food I remember fondly growing up - don't tell mum but it was her best dish by far too! What's honestly better than an oozing bowl of golden flecked cheese loaded pasta?! With this particular version I kept it very simple - its cooked all in one pan - always a winner when there is less washing up - and made a few little extra additions in the form of stuffing some gorgeous giant red peppers I had picked up with it, along with adding a packet of ready to use shredded Ham Hock I bought from Aldi! Its the first time I'd picked it up and it was such a handy cheat ingredient!

You might notice the peppers in the photo above are in a loaf tin - its the best way I find of baking stuffed peppers, it keeps them upright and the filling on the inside!

Now I did make a bit of a boo-boo with my grocery shopping - after getting everything ready I went to get some greenery from the fridge and I had completely forgotten to buy any green or similar veggies! My friend C who lives next door also had nothing of use, we tend to go shopping together so had both failed by weird coincidence! After rummaging again through the fridge we quickly discounted the vac-pack beetroot as being a bit odd as a side, same with the sweet potatoes as not really going either and in the end I cooked some part-bake rolls and in fact, they were great as I ended up using them to make a stuffed sandwich with the cut open stuffed pepper. Yes its a bit carb on carb but it was oh so good too!!

This batch of mac n cheese makes quite a lot - I only had two peppers to be stuffed, the rest of the pasta got baked as normal in an oven tray - I reckon it would easily fill at least 6-7 peppers if wished!

Ingredients

1 pint milk

1 pint vegetable stock (I always use Marigold Bouillon)

260g macaroni

110g ready Ham Hock

2+ large red peppers 

1/2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
60g grated extra mature cheddar
35g chopped butter
35g plain flour
20g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Spray oil

Pre-heat oven to 180o (Our thermometer is long time not accurate - it should be fairly hot!)

In a large saucepan, bring the milk and vegetable stock to the boil, add the macaroni, cover and simmer for 12 minutes or until packet states.

Turn the heat up slightly, stir in the butter and flour until thickened, then stir in the mustard and ham hock, season to taste, then add 3/4 of the cheese and the parsley.

Meanwhile, carefully remove the lid off the pepper, remove the seeds, return the lid, spray with oil and place inside a loaf tin. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

When the macaroni is ready, carefully stuff the peppers and sprinkle a little extra cheese on top and put the 'lid' back on.

Return to the oven for 25 minutes or until the peppers are cooked through and softened.

Serve with er, greenery. Or go carb on carb with a bread roll!

The best way I found to attack the peppers was halving them then eating in chunks!

Disclaimer: 

Many thanks to Aldi who provided vouchers to cover the cost of my ingredients - the Ham hock is great!

A relatively new linky to me is also #CookBlogShare, this week held on Hijacked By Twins (such a cute blog name I think!)

If you fancy also stuffing some peppers, do check out these delicious links!

Red peppers stuffed with veggie haggis & Mushrooms from Planet Veggie

Or if you have no peppers, how about some chillies why not try these intriguing sounding Chocotos - Chocolate stuffed chillies from Tin and Thyme?

Keeping on the chilli theme you could also try these Creamy stuffed Jalepenos from The Veg Space

Chorizo, Pork and Kale Lasagne

Lasagne was not one of my favourite meals growing up, I avoided it fairly successfully till probably my early twenties and had dated someone who loved, it so eventually I learned to make a fairly decent one and liked it enough to eat on special occasions... though the lure of red wine going into it possibly helped too at the time, and over the last few years it didn't really cross my mind to cook it until I decided to go experimental and I cooked an awesome one last year with fennel salami in it last year...(though it was actually 18 months ago on checking! I swear it was last year!) 

So last Saturday, whilst deciding what to make for supper and rummaging through the cupboards muttering under my breath the words de-cluttering after decanting half the stuff on to my toes, I stumbled across a couple of boxes of lasagne sheets and decided it was to be lasagne. Except I had pretty much everything bar a pack of beef mince. So experimental lasagne it became again!

We are a fully signed up club chorizo lovers and I decided to base it around that flavour wise, then pretty much make it up as I went along for the rest! Overall I have declared it as the best lasagne I have ever had, it tasted just so, so good! Meaty, a little spicy, rich and packed with flavour, what more can you want? Oh and for the lasagne purists out there this is not Italian or meant to be in anyway. Its just darn delicious!

As always with my meals I love a bit of yellow sticker hunting and managed to sneak a few bargains into the lasagne! We love kale and after getting a bag for a mere 7p it seemed idea to add, the iron-ey rich greens really do add an extra layer of flavour and my cheese was a steal too at 25p! I bought about 6 packets a few weeks back and froze them, they are no use for the cheeseboard but perfect for any baked dishes! I also used a basic mozzarella to keep it more cost effective too, and the mince was on special! Oh and my thyme plant was only 13p too!

   

Time: About 2 hours including cooking

Ingredients:

Serves 6-8

165g Spanish chorizo
1 yellow pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
250g ripe vine tomatoes, chopped
400g pork mince
1/2 red onion sliced
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 ball mozzarella
75g grated cheddar, mature
100g kale, woody stalks removed
400ml milk
1 tsp cornflour

2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
12 sheets dried lasagne
Sea salt and pepper

You will need a large roasting pan- mine is 26x30cm (AKA trusty traybake tine).

1) Heat a glug of olive oil in a large saute pan, gently fry the onion for about 4 minutes stir in the peppers, chorizo and garlic, fry until the chorizo starts to leak its lovely orange oil, add the pork mince and break up with a wooden spatula or similar item until browned.

2) Add the fresh tomatoes and tinned tomatoes, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stir through the thyme leaves.

3) Meanwhile boil the kale in a saucepan for two minutes, drain keeping back 400ml of the cooking liquid. Soak the lasagne sheets in water for 15 minutes.

4) Add 200ml of the milk and 200ml of the kale water to the chorizo pan and season with salt and pepper and simmer over a moderate heat for a further 10 minutes. You need a relatively sloppy mixture.

5) Pre-heat oven to 190o.

6) Place  two scoops of the mince mixture in the bottom of the roasting dish, cover with prepared lasagne sheets, followed by half the remaining mince mixture and a little of the mozzarella. Scatter over the kale to form a layer. Top with 4 lasagne sheets, then remaining mince mix, and final layer of lasagne sheets.

7) In the now empty pan, add the remaining milk and kale water, bring to the boil scraping down any of the remaining pan juices, slacken the cornflour with a little water then whisk in until thickened, simmer for a minute then remove from the heat. Spread over the lasagne, sprinkle over the last of the mozzarella and cheese and a couple of thyme leaves.

8) Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden, lovely and bubbling.

I could pretend I served a nice green salad, which would be lovely but we had garlic bread instead!

Cheesy Sausage and Spaghetti Hoop Bake

Many apologies for the tumbleweed gathering on my blog of late! Its been a funny few months, with family being poorly I have been prioritising my time, also I've been spending time focusing also on me, following my pain management program I've found myself questioning a lot of what I do, how and why.... Plus I decided I'd had enough of the side effects for one of the meds for my Fibromyalgia and I have been weaning down slowly, which apart the current insomnia phase its been overall worthwhile!

Also managing to slice through my left index finger 3 weeks ago really has not helped with blogging in general! Typing's a nightmare, yet alone cooking and pretty much all my meal planning went out of the window and whilst there has been some pretty decent meals...they have been few and far between! On the plus side we have been busy perfecting making calamari!

Pasta bakes are one of my go to dishes - it feeds us for days and I had made this dish at the beginning of March we had family over, and it also gave us lovely leftovers too! Pasta hoops or as they are better known - spaghetti hoops - are one of my favourite pasta shapes and writing this now reminds me I must pick some up some more next time I am in town! This is by all means not my first dish with hoops - you can see here my other Spicy Toasted Cauliflower Spaghetti Hoops.

Its a bit of a naughty ingredient but I used Garlic Sausage in this, which I get in the Polish aisle - its garlicky but without being over powering and it keeps for ages before being opened, so I often keep a pack or two stashed away in the fridge for impromptu dinners! I also used some ready diced onion, its super lazy but when tight for time its a handy cheat! You might also spot there is no thickening agent - however 'loose' it might look let the oven do its magic- the al dente pasta will soon devour any excess!

Sizing wise - I used my large rectangular traybake tin for this- which worked perfectly and roughly feeds 6 to 8 people, depending on your appetites of course!

Ingredients:

300g pasta hoops, boiled as per packet instructions, until al dente
2 sticks of finely chopped celery
200g garlic sausage, chopped into 1/2 cm chunks
1 red pepper, diced
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
400ml light vegetable stock
200ml milk
1 heaped tbsp rosemary, leaves finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
100g grated extra mature cheddae
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 tbsp olive oil


Method:

1) Heat the oil in a large saute pan, fry the onion gently then add the celery and pepper, fry for about 5 minutes or until softened, then add the sausage until lightly browned, stirring regularly.

2) Add the tomato puree and rosemary to the pan, fry for a minute then add a couple of spoonfuls of the pasta water to loosen, then pour in the milk and stock, bring to the boil.

Pre-heat oven to 200o.

3) Drain the pasta and add to the pan, season to taste, then transfer into a dish large enough to hold it all!

4) Top with the grated cheese and scatter over the cherry tomatoes. Put in the oven, near the top and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden, bubbling and crispy.

When cooked and all lovely looking, serve with buttered green vegetables:

Enjoy! Its a real crowd pleasing family meal and proper comfort food!

As my pasta bake had three vegetables in it, along with on the side I am sending my dish over to this months Extra Veg Challenge - being hosted by Jo's Kitchen, which was originally set up by Fuss Free Flavours and Utterly Scrummy Food for Families

Crispy Omelette Spaghetti

Sorry for the lack of blogging! After my kitchen disaster on Mother's Day involving my left index finger and my chef's knife, cooking, and typing is a bit more challenging than usual! Its healing nicely, the dressing was changed yesterday but its still having to be dressed, and all cooking involves CSI gloves! Its made our menu planning also a bit of a challenge as stuff I cook, my boyfriend doesn't know and so we have been having lots of quick, simple dinners. Also it blew out my food budgeting, we have spent roughly a third more than normal and April will be frugal month!

Making the most of our leftovers started today! Over the past few months we have pushing the traditional English breakfast boundaries and exploring other continents and cuisines.. my love of cooking everything and anything, a fabulous friend and her cooking skills and my boyfriend coming around to the idea of not having cheerios in his bowl for breakfast has resulted in some pretty epic breakfasts! Our overall favourite to date involved fried eggs, avocado and Filipino style fried rice but we are also very open to new breakfasts too!

This morning we had leftover cooked spaghetti, from last nights dinner (Creamy sausage and squash spaghetti) and I wondered if we could peruse another new breakfast with it! After a rummage in the fridge, I decided to make an omelette style mixture, add a little garlic as to be honest our breakfasts would not feel right without it nowadays and overall it was a resounding success! Its definitely a new base recipe to add to memory!

I admittedly used a cheat item for the topping - ready fried crispy onions! They give such a lovely savoury note to dishes and are soooo tasty! A definite cupboard cheat ingredient! B gave this breakfast a 7 out of 10 - nothing will beat the fried rice but it was a good 7! 

Serves Two
Easy

225g cooked spaghetti
2 large eggs
25g grated cheddar
2 spring onions, finely sliced
4 cherry tomatoes, quartered
knob butter
1 large clove garlic, chopped
2 tbsp crispy onions

Optional - hot sauce to serve

Method

Heat the butter in a non stick frying pan, add the white part of the spring onion, tomatoes and garlic, Saute for 2 minutes, turning regularly. Slice up the spaghetti roughly and add to the pan, breaking up with a wooden spatula.Fry for about 3 minutes or until lightly golden coloured.

Beat the eggs and cheese together, season with a little salt and pepper. Make the spaghetti mixture into a layer of sorts in the pan, and pour over the eggy mixture evenly. Allow to cook for at least a minute, then gently fold the mixture in on itself, slowly, allowing it to cook through and brown a little for a few minutes.

Spoon into warmed bowls, in the empty pan warm the crispy onions and green part of the spring onions for 30 seconds before sprinkling over the spaghetti mixture.

Kale and Almond Pesto Spaghetti

Oh how I love thee Kale, I am sorry all those years I dismissed you..casting my beady eye across your green spiky leaves like you were something the cat dragged in... all that changed when I realised the magic was to cook it properly made all the difference! And it was love ever since! However this recipe turns that theory completely on its head in the fact the kale is not actually cooked! I was a little dubious prior to making it what it be like but it turned out rather delicious and made for a very tasty bowl of spaghetti! Make sure you don't eat it on date night unless you both like raw garlic - it can be a little pungent but maybe add less cloves if love is in the air!

The only real problem I encountered making this was lacking a actual food processor to grind and chop everything together. As much as I would love one again, I lack space in our stupidly tiny flat and manage to make do with a chopper thingy and a spice grinder and between the two of them I managed to succeed in turning it into pesto, so the moral of the story is don't be disheartened if you don't have the exact equipment - quite often other things will do the job too!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

50g whole almonds, toasted
25g parmesan cheese, grated (or a veggie version) + extra to serve
75g kale, leaves picked and stalks discarded
2 cloves garlic
160g spaghetti
100g sliced artichokes, from an antipasti jar - save the oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Method:

Using a mini chopper/ food processor blend the kale with the garlic, lemon juice, parmesan and season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile  boil the spaghetti in salted water as per packet instructions, when cooked reserve a cupful of the liquid and drain well.

If your machine is not up to the job grind the toasted nuts separately in a spice grinder and add to the kale mixture along with roughly ten tablespoons of the liquid from the artichoke antipasti and a good splash of the reserved pasta water to make the mixture slightly loose.

Gently toss the prepared pesto and artichokes with the kale mixture, serve in bowls topped with a little more grated parmesan.

Enjoy you glorious garlicky green bowl of goodness!

I am rather naughty at picking up random ingredients, and I had added a jar of Artichokes antipasti to the trolley at least six months ago with no specific intent other than to use in something at some point. Possibly I had seen something online or on tv that triggered me to buy them but I  don't have the foggiest now as to what it was! As they had hung around so long and I only found them having a root through the cupboard trying to find something else I am sending these into the No Waste food Challenge held by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary:

Cheesy Chorizo Gnocchi Bake

Have you ever dreamed about what it would be like to immerse yourself within a gooey spicy vat of melty cheese? No, nor me either but after making this bake it honestly doesn't seem like a bad option in the middle of winter and all its snowy grey and drizzle ridden dreariness! I know I will melt come summer and its humid fly filled evenings but I hate being cold, my body hates being cold so it really cannot come around soon enough! Cold is bad unless it involves ice cream and lots of it!

 

As much as my stretchy work trousers are suddenly feeling much more snug than I would like, winter is simply not made for salad and when the evenings are lighter, evening walks will re-commence and hopefully those trousers will become slightly less snug! Sometimes you just need a comforting, warming dish that gives you a well needed hug, and my Cheesy Chorizo Gnocchi Bake gives you a lovely sleep inducing cuddling up on the sofa with your loved one kinda hug.

 

When planning our meals they are a mixture of tried and trusted, random things I snag online or in my overflowing collection of torn out recipes and the rest I imagine ingredients I would like to eat but this dish came to me in a dream. I have only ever baked gnocchi once in a rather nice prawn dish but some reason its not an ingredient I really think of and when I was recently carrying out the reverse dad taxi role, and taking my dad shopping following some surgery I spotted a packet of Gnocchi. Then the image in my dream formed and this dish was born a few nights later! I did once attempt to make my own but its better to just buy them unless you are gnocchi master perhaps.

 

Serves 3-4 with a side

 

Ingredients:

 

125g mozzarella, torn into chunks

500g prepared gnocchi, boiled and drained.

120g spicy chorizo, sliced into thin half moons

400g tin cherry tomatoes

2 heaped tbsp grated cheddar

1 onion, finely chopped

75ml milk

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

 

 

Method:

 

In a large sauté pan, heat the oil and gently fry the onion for 3 minutes, or until starting to become translucent, add the garlic and chorizo and fry for a further 3 minutes, or until the chorizo has released its fragrant oils and has lightly browned. Stir through the tomatoes, rosemary and add the milk, gently simmer, covered for ten minutes.

 

Pre-heat oven to 200o

 

Stir the prepared gnocchi into the sauce, being careful not to break the tomatoes, and transfer into a small baking dish - I used my pie dish which is multi versatile! 

 

 

Sprinkle over the grated cheddar, transfer to the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until all lovely, golden and bubbling.

 

 

Serve hot with buttered greens:

 

As delicious as the bake was I would suggest its eaten all in one sitting - we kept some back for lunches...but the gnocchi kinda soak up the sauce and its edible but not quite as good the next day...

Ox Heart Ragu with tagliatelle

Okay lets dive in here, offal is a dirty word. Most people’s reaction to that I was cooking heart for our consumption that evening, looked at me like I was a little bit crazy (okay well I am a little..) and if I was actually serious... Or at least judging by my instagram feed it was! I hadn’t told B what I was making for dinner and when he came home from work, and lifted the pan lid he said it smelt very tasty… I almost served it under the guise of some sort of fancy game ragu but I chickened out upon serving and sweetly asked if he had eaten offal before…. Sadly B’s opinion wasn’t very high of offal and once I admitted the ragu was actually made of ox heart it was plainly obvious I was swiftly realising I was not onto a winning dish!

The idea to actually cook heart came about when me and my friend C went to a particular supermarket a bit further away and we both spotted it, then the price - £1.04 for 354g – a bit of a bargain and curiosity got the better of the cat, so to speak and it promptly took a ride in the trolley! I do try and keep our food budget down, what with everything else going up apart from our salaries and thought it was certainly worth a try at the price..

Now I must admit, whilst it was definitely edible and the sauce was actually gorgeously deep and delicious, the heart texture is an acquired taste. Very slightly chewy but I didn’t think it was anything worse than a slightly well done steak (which should be a criminal offence anyway!) and I managed to eat all of mine. B however picked all the bits of heart meat out and pushed them onto my plate. However there was a portion leftover going spare and I tubbed it for my dad, who apart from commenting it was a tiny bit salty for him was otherwise very tasty. You win some..you lose some..

Unfortunately I seem to have mislaid the most likely used envelope I had scribbled the recipe on – but it was approximately this - 

Ingredients:

354g Diced ox heart

400g tin Chopped Tomatoes

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 medium carrots, diced

2 sticks celery, finely chopped

1 large red Onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp plain flour 

S&P

1 tbsp cooking oil

1 rich beef stock pot, made up with a pint of hot water

Season the flour with salt and pepper, toss the ox heart pieces until lightly coated. Meanwhile heat a large deep sauté pan with the oil.

When hot, fry the ox heart until lightly browned, remove from the pan and add the onion, carrot and celery adding a little more oil if needed. Fry until lightly coloured, stir in the vinegar and allow it to evaporate a little, stir back through the ox heart pieces, the prepared stock and tomatoes, bring to the boil and then cover, allow to simmer away on a low heat for 2 hours with the occasional stir.

The sauce should thicken during cooking - season with salt and pepper if desired. 

Serve with freshly cooked Tagliatelle - allow about 75g per adult. Grate a little parmesan over to garnish if you have some in too!

As our somewhat unusual but delicious dinner is also very frugal I am sending it over to this months Credit Crunch Munch held by A New Addition this month. It was orginally created by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla of Fab Food 4 All to encourage dishes made with frugal ingredients:

Smoked Trout Macaroni Bake

It seems that winter is starting to claim autumn from us, littering the ground with autumn leaves and whispering a chill to the morning air, thoughts of gloves on some days when I walk to work seems a given, and all I really want to do lately is eat. In my head its salad but when it comes to cooking comfort food is calling me! 

As you may have guessed by now Pasta bake in one of its various and many forms is one of my favourite comfort foods and when naughty pictures appeared on my facebook feed, posted by another blogger called Kavey, of her mums macaroni cheese it had me craving it all week, and after accidentally buying 0% fat crème fraiche rather than the more usual full fat option I decided to give in to my cravings and embark on a slightly healthier version of pasta bake…at least I can kind of pretend its healthier... well I did use high fibre macaroni too! There is a little white wine, mainly as I happened to be partaking in a glass at the time but you could use vermouth, or a little extra stock if you don't drink/ have any in.

Overall it was a good success, though I might sneak in a little more cheese next time! The macaroni wasn't swimming in sauce but not dry either, a good balance really! The smoked trout was delicious – I am not a huge fan of Trout 'au naturel' but thanks to a kind forum friend a few months back I quite enjoy smoked trout now, its nutritious, high in vitamin D, protein and Omega 3. See didn't I say pasta bake could be healthy?

Having had a good success with a smoked mackerel version previously, I decided to test the smoked Trout in a pasta bake form (I did make a few other things to but this was the best of them!). The fish has a good meaty-ish texture and light smoke flavour running through it. There were a few small bones but were quickly removed with tweezers. As its already cooked, its also so easy to use by simply shredding the fillet by hand and combining into the cooked macaroni.

Serves Two

Ingredients:

100g macaroni
1 large egg
4 heaped tbsp 0% fat crème fraiche
15g extra mature cheddar, grated
4 large basil leaves, shredded
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
60g smoked trout fillet, flaked
1 tsp cornflour, mixed with 1 tbsp milk
Splash of white wine, dry
S&P

Method:

*You will need two individual pie/ baking dishes*

Beat the egg with the cheese, basil and 1 tbsp of the crème fraiche and season with salt and pepper

Meanwhile boil the macaroni as per packet instructions, when cooked drain well and reserve 125ml of the cooking liquor. Pre-heat your oven to about 190o (mine is completely on the blink and everythings at about 230o currently!)

Using the now empty saucepan, heat the reserved liquor, wine and 3 heaped tbsp of the crème fraiche, when its boiling whisk in the cornflour mixture, until thickened and season. Stir in the cooked macaroni and trout and fill two individual baking dishes.

Spoon over the cheese and egg mixture and dot the tomato halves and bake for 25-30 minutes or until slightly souffled on top and golden. Serve with green vegetables of your choice.

  

Many thanks to The British Trout association for my samples. 

Recipe and images remain the property of Anne's Kitchen.

Roasted Chilli and Tomato Fusilli

Whilst I do at heart believe a sharp knife is the foundation of a smooth running kitchen, its also quite nice to play with new tools now and again as well! Over the years I have gone through a variety of herb choppers, including an Italian food mill that was mostly a nightmare to clean after use, 2 electric mini choppers that were also both messy to use and clean after, a blender – too big for the job and also a pain to clean, several chopping boards and possibly even more items but on this occasion I got to play with an OXO’s new herb mincer (RRP £12) which I was sent to review.

It was quite fun to play with apart from maybe being a little too flimsy in that twice I dislodged the protective cover whilst chopping, though admittedly I was using it inside a mixing bowl which was on the small side, which probably didn’t help! (On a chopping board this didn't happen) Overall it made light work of chopping the basil leaves and kept the pine nuts in quite nice sized pieces, so it was overall quite a success, when I was a bit more gentle with it! My other comment is that I had to use a knife to safely remove stray herbs that got inside the mincer but it was easy to do. I also decided to test it to chop the chilli – great as it meant no chilli burn fingers and good if you don’t want it too finely minced – my chilli was quite big and it kept it in largish pieces but no so large it would be a mega chilli hit in the mouth!

I also received OXO UK's little salad dressing shaker (RRP £10) which I used to make the marinade up in. The dressing bottle was very busy kitchen friendly, the lid screws off easily so its easy to fill with your ingredients, with convenient measures on the side of the bottle and its stopper is leak proof even with vigorous shaking! I used all my prepared dressing on the tomatoes but it would definitely keep air tight with other home made dressings and it’s far prettier than sticking the more usual ripped label jam jar on the dining table! It was easy to clean afterwards and I really like this item for both practical and aesthetic qualities.

In my kitchen I use a variety of oils and vinegars depending on both mood and cuisine but chose Filippo Berio’s extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to make my pasta dressing , they both work well together and complemented the tomatoes perfectly. Their balsamic is sweet enough to bake without being too acidic and the oil is pleasant on the palate without being too grassy or punchy like some of my other speciality oil’s. Whilst these were both sent for review, I do buy their extra virgin olive oil on a regular basis as it’s a good all rounder type of oil and stores well.

So whilst summer is seemingly vanishing fast, I captured the last of it in my simple pasta dish, containing some beautiful tomatoes I bought in the market, which apparently are salt water grown. Something new to me but they were bursting with juicyness and tasted so good! They were a glorious hue of scarlet and their scent was heavenly! I used to grow tomatoes a few years back on my old balcony and really miss their evening scent, happy memories!

Spicy Organic Sausage and Mozzarella Baked Spaghetti

Recently on a whim I decided to make a baked spaghetti dish for supper with my dad, using odds n ends up from the fridge, it worked so well – with the spaghetti providing a nice change to usual fusilli or penne that I tend to use in pasta bake and when Sainsbury’s got in touch about creating something with one of their organic hero ingredients I decided to try out their Organic pork sausages in another version of it. To be honest I couldn’t wait to try it again as we enjoyed it so much the first time around and was more than willing to try out an organic version!

Overall I was really impressed with the ingredients – I buy a small amount of organic food, in an ideal world I would probably buy more but it just doesn’t work in our household budget but I managed to make this from mostly organic ingredients for a total of £6.55 to serve 4 comfortably, which I am very happy with! I did however add a bag of salad and made some garlic bread so upped the cost slightly, though that did cover meals for the following day too so was still affordable.

One of my favourite discoveries were the sausages, they were so delicious! Meaty, no gristle or strange goo in the grill tray and a lovely porky flavour. Definitely something affordable at £3 for 6 and when stretched out into a pasta bake it was more than enough for us! The mozzarella too was really tasty, I adore cheese anyway and liked the delicate, milky flavour though would add bigger chunks next time – I think I was too mean chopping it too small it got a little lost in the bed of spaghetti! We all loved the wholewheat spaghetti too, I have been trying to switch to more wholemeal and brown foods to boost nutrition and it worked perfectly in the bake, adding a nice nuttiness to the flavour.

Chinese Leftover Roast Pork Noodles

Firstly sorry I've not been around much this past week, I've been struggling the past few weeks with a dodgy hip among other things so I've not been cooking very much and making very good friends with the sofa! We also went away for Easter for a few days by the sea to relax, which was well needed! I hobbled around as best as I could for brief spells and we had a nice lunch out over looking the sea plus the odd ice-cream! The journey back was awful, the motorway was solid so we did a magical mystery tour of A roads and what seemed like farm tracks, including through the spectacular Cheddar Gorge! I am back home now but will off a few more weeks so I apologise now if I get a little ranty on my twitter feed from being stuck indoors!

Going back to the most important thing - food! We love noodles it is no lie. Whenever I ask B what he wants to eat it’s nearly always Noodles! I play around with my recipe as to what needs using, slowly perfecting it and this was pretty darn good! When I served it up it looked a bit small but I think it was my new dishes being quite big as I was full up afterwards! Plus we did have a plateful of freshly cooked prawn crackers alongside! I am so pleased we bought them on our last jaunt into China Town!

I made this back in February I think, (I've started dating things in my notebook now as memory fails me some days!) using up some leftover roast pork. There wasn't very much pork leftover after making some other dishes but when mixed up with everything else it was most adequate! I think noodle dishes are great for making something out of not very much! I also garnished it with ribbons of egg to help bulk out the protein and make it look attractive too!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 nests Fine egg noodles
½ courgette, sliced into half moons
½ red onion, sliced thinly
1 basics vegetable stock cube
75g leftover cooked pork, finely shredded
2 tsp garlic and ginger paste
1tsp Chinese 5 spice
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sherry/ Shaoxing wine
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp Black pepper
1 tbsp sunflower oil
3 spring onions, finely sliced
½ tsp sesame seeds
1 egg, beaten


Place the shredded pork, 5 spice, pepper, sherry, soy sauce and sesame oil in a bowl to marinade for a little while before ready to cook. 

Heat a large frying pan, spray a little oil and add the beaten egg, tilt the pan to make a thin layer, cook until browned underneath, flip for 20 seconds and remove to a chopping board. Roll up and slice finely into ribbons and keep warm.

Meanwhile cover the noodles in boiling water, crumble in the stock cube and cook as per packet instructions - normally 3-4 minutes. When cooked, drain and reserve 50ml of the cooking stock.

Add the oil to the pan and cook the onion until softened, add the courgette and fry until golden, add more oil if its burning. Reduce the heat and add the ginger and garlic paste. then add the white part of the spring onion, and fry for a minute or so. Then add the pork and its marinade, then stir through the noodles and the reserved stock and heat through. Season with salt and pepper - I find soya sauce quite salty but B likes more so adjust to your tastes!

Spoon the noodles into your serving bowls, sprinkle over the sesame seeds, egg ribbons and green parts of the spring onion

Spicy Kabanosy Fusilli

Apologies this week for not doing my meal planning post - I didn't manage to squeeze it between my shift pattern but I will be back next week! So far we have eaten jacket potatoes and a lush Spinaci pizza that Dr Oetker gave me a voucher for! I now have a few days off from work to catch up and rest my weary bones which is always welcome! I had planned to type up a curry recipe I recently made ..but I am struggling to find it! Ooops! Anyway this fusilli dish was pretty tasty so its not a complete waste!

Despite myself having Polish roots, we are not a very Polish family infact I know very little about Polish cuisine at all but I do like buying random ingredients and some of the Polish sausages are very tasty, this one being no exception. This is not meant to be reflective of Polish cuisine, its more a of a fridge raid kind of dinner! I really must try harder to learn more about it..

Rather than a traditional pasta bake, this is quicker as it only needs a couple of minutes under a got grill to crispen up the top - a tasty dinner in less than 20 minutes is always a winner! Slightly spicy with smoky sausage and cheesy top? What more do you need at the end of a long day at work?!

Serves 3/4

Ingredients

50g Kabanosy sausage, sliced

1/2 red onion, diced

1 clove crushed garlic

1 leek, sliced

3 Sundried tomatoes, shredded

1 tbsp tomato and basil puree

330g fusilli pasta

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp red chilli puree (I used Gourmet Garden's)

1 tin chopped tomatoes (save tin!)

1 tbsp dried breadcrumbs

50g grated cheddar

Heat a large frying pan soften the onion in the oil, add the garlic. leek and fry until lightly browned, stir in the sausage and tomato puree, stir well and add the tomatoes and chilli puree, bring to a rolling boil then simmer gently. Meanwhile boil the fusilli as per packet instructions.

Once the pasta has cooked, add 1/4 of the empty tomato tin filled with the pasta water into the sauce, this will help thicken it.

Drain the pasta and stir into the sauce, season to taste and transfer into a grill proof dish. Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and cheese and grill for 4/5 minutes or until lightly browned

Serve in your favourite bowls and maybe a small wedge of garlic bread on the side!

Spicy Toasted Cauliflower Spaghetti Hoops

Late last year a genuine highlight was spotting Pasta Hoops, aka spaghetti hoops in a lovely little local Italian deli, which is a little ray of sunshine in a rather small town consisting mostly of takeaways and charity shops! Shortly before spotting them, I had spotted a recipe back on Green Gourmet Giraffe but she is the other side of the world and hadn't thought I would find my hoops so quickly! How wrong was I! ...Whilst its a little embarrassing I do secretly crave those tins of spaghetti hoops and to find I can make my own but an even better grown up version is rather good for the old self esteem!

Its funny as I found out after dancing my own little secret jig in the shop that with a very small friend profiling I could tell who had grown up with spaghetti hoops. Most of my friends saw the pasta hoops and theirs eyes lit up with childhood recollection of meal times, however it took more explaining to my Polish flatmate who didn’t quite understand our excitement.. I have since had to supply friends with bags of these too for their own experiments!

The night this dinner got made, one of my girlfriends was over for dinner, and despite normally being quite organised I hadn’t really quite planned our dinner, my friend is veggie and fortunately not fussy at all (love you Miss F!) and we kinda made this up as we went along. A fully stocked fridge thanks to Dad's recent visit also helped!

Another new discovery for me was tinned cherry tomatoes, I don’t think I’d ever bought them before but I had a tin going spare from a goody bag after attending an Italian themed night with Sainsbury's last year and I really liked them! I am not sure as to why I was so surprised they were exactly like cherry tomatoes but I was...the mind boggles!!

If there is any part of this recipe I urge you to keep is that by pan frying cauliflower first, it takes up a level flavour wise, producing an almost nutty flavour and so please do not skip the frying step! Trust me once you go fry..you no go back…! I have since moved cauliflower from bottom of my favourite veggies to at least a high middle!

Serves 4
Easy

Ingredients:

2tbsp olive oil
1 medium sized cauliflower
Approx 250g Pasta hoops
1 Courgette, sliced into ½ cm dice
1 Red pepper, halved and sliced
1 tin cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1 red onion, finely sliced
½ - to 1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 large garlic aka 3 regular cloves
2 tbsp Italian herb seasoning
s&p to taste

Method:

Cook the pasta as per instructions – I was surprised that despite the hoops being relatively small it suggested 18 minutes!

Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp of the oil on a moderate heat in a large sauté pan and fry the cauliflower for about 5 minutes, turning regularly until softened and lightly browned, spoon into a bowl.

Heat the remaining oil in the same pan and fry the onion until softened, stir in the pepper and courgette and fry for a further 4-5 minutes or until lightly coloured and softened. Stir in the garlic and chilli for about 30 seconds and add the tomatoes, swirl out the tin with a little water to catch any remainders, add the reserved cauliflower and herbs, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, lightly covered, for about 15 minutes. Add the pine nuts at the end and season to taste.

Drain the pasta, and stir through the sauce. Smother with grated cheese if desired too!

Textually the pasta was great, I love the crunch of the pine nuts and cauliflower, plus the mediterranean vegetables made me think of warmer climbs, not cold and wet Surrey! Enjoy using your fork to collect up the hoops!

Creamy Sweet potato and Bacon Linguine

Whilst doing the very first meal planner of 2014, I remembered that I had bought a bag of sweet potatoes and a random tub of crème fraiche on a slight whim whilst driving back from our blissful week on holiday in Devon, knowing they both had a relatively good shelf life and could create something good later…. Once sadly home and back in the real world the brain got thinking after I had also bought some bacon on offer a few days later, and somewhere in the recesses of my mind I remembered how much I enjoyed the last dish I had made with bacon and sweet potatoes in and thought how well they might suit a creamy sauce…and I set about creating this fabulous pasta for our dinner! 

It was everything a great pasta dinner should be, full of delicious flavour's dancing harmoniously together and whilst it takes some effort to make a dish twice I really can't wait to make this again! I had originally planned spaghetti but after a rummage through to cupboard found a packet of linguine and fancied that instead so it became Creamy Sweet potato and Bacon Linguine instead! I do love how the sauce clings to the silky linguine and reminded me to buy it more often as I had clearly forgotten how good it is! It is also ready in 15 minutes, which is just wonderful as I have misbehaving feet and standing any longer at the moment is often agonizing! I so wish I could be a lady of leisure!

By trimming the bacon and using half fat creme fraiche it makes dinner become a lit bit healthier too with zero compromise on taste, all very welcome in January!

Serves Two:

Ingredients:

175g dried Linguine 

3 rashers smoked bacon, trimmed and diced roughly

25g grated parmesan + extra for garnish

250g half fat creme fraiche

135g sweet potato peeled, cut into 1/2 cm dice

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 red onion, finely sliced

1 tbsp olive oil

Good quality extra virgin olive oil for garnish

1 tsp basil paste (I used Gourmet Garden)

s&p

Start by bringing a pan of salted water to the boil and heat the olive oil in a large saute pan and prep your ingredients. Check the cooking times for the pasta, mine was 9 minutes and begin cooking it - the sauce will take about the same time.

Gently fry the onion until softened, add the sweet potato chunks and cook for about 3 minutes - you don't want to be browning but keep the pan hot enough to cook through, make a well in the middle and add the bacon pieces and fry for a further five minutes or until cooked through, stirring from time to time.

When the bacon is cooked and the sweet potato soft enough to pierce with a knife, stir in the garlic and cook for about a minute. Add a cupful of the pasta water along with the basil, simmer gently and then lower the heat and stir through the creme fraiche.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir through the parmesan and season to taste. Serve in pasta bowls with a generous sprinkling of parmesan and a drizzle of your good extra virgin olive oil.

Tuck in with glee!! I really didn't want this to end! I know I still have a few sweet potatoes spare but lacking bacon and the creme fraiche..must go shopping!!

And whilst I had some naughty but nice ingredients, I actually only used small amounts of them and the remainders got stretched into several more meals, plus it was pretty healthy too as Pasta dishes go and so its also going into Kick at the Pantry Door's January's Feel Good Food

Sausage and Courgette Carbonara

One of my favourite Christmas presents was a pair of perfect porcelain pasta dishes, and my word they have had a lot of use already! Like a supermodel perhaps, these dishes would look good in everything! They are just the right size for two relatively greedy adults and whilst its winter and they are seeing lots of pasta, come summer I can see them being rather perfect for some nice salads too! I have decided I have had enough now of this winter and my body is craving some sunshine! 

This Carbonara was not only rather delicious but it was a also quite frugal and super easy dish to make to! Most of the time I do meal planning but with going away for Christmas and New Year’s half of December was a case of anything goes, and I cooked extra bits to up cycle into newer dishes – in this case the sausages were leftover from a sausage dish the night before, and also used leftover garlicky fried courgettes which are a regular make in my kitchen! Its a great way of stretching out a small quantity of good sausages too!

Its close to it but not a traditional carbonara, we had no cream but its fairly close and I am not one for tradition, I like to break the rules when it comes to cooking!

Ready in 10 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients:

150g egg Pasta Fettuccine

2 good quality pork sausages, cooked and sliced thinly

2 eggs

4 heaped tbsp Parmesan finely grated

1 courgette, halved length ways and sliced into 1/2cm moons

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp olive oil

S&p

Start by making the courgettes. Heat a frying pan with the olive oil, fry the courgette slices for about 8 minutes, add the garlic and fry for a further minute, stirring regularly. Either cool for use or cook with sausages.

1) In a bowl beat the eggs, parmesan, salt and pepper to taste and the cooled courgettes.

2) Heat a large saute pan, gently fry the sausage to warm through - add the cooked courgettes. Meanwhile boil the pasta as per packet instructions. 

3) When the pasta is cooked through, drain quickly, add the sausage and courgettes, then the egg mixture and mix well, allow to stand for a minute with the lid on.

4) Serve on your favourite plate and garnish with a little extra parmesan and drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

I am sending my dish over to Pasta Please, created by Tinned Tomatoes and  held by The Spicy Pear for January who's theme is garlic:

Also as its a perfect warming winter cheesy bowl of goodness its going to Cheese, Please! Over at Fromage Homage

As my dish used up both leftover cooked sausages and courgettes, I have also entered it over at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary No Waste Food Challenge