Category Archives: Pasta

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Meatless Day Challenge – Pasta in a grilled tomato sauce

This week’s meatless day challenge was inspired by a dish by Nigel Slater.  Using fresh tomatoes and grilling it and doing very little to it brings out the natural flavour of the sweet tangy tomatoes.

I love the idea of having pasta in a light and flavourful sauce.  The best part of this dish is that it’s not only very tasty but it’s quick, so it’s perfect for a midweek meal.

There really isn’t a recipe set in stone for this.  It really is free form and you can add any herbs you like.

Half tomatoes and place on an oven tray.  I used 6 tomatoes for 2 people but this was plenty.  Drizzle really good quality olive oil over them and season with salt and pepper.  I then added minced garlic and fresh thyme from my herb garden.  

Place under a hot grill and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft.  Place them in the bowl including all the juices that collected in the tray.  Pour a splash of red wine vinegar.  Roughly crush with a fork leaving some large pieces of tomatoes.  Mix in some fresh basil.  
To serve, combine with cooked spaghetti pasta and enjoy.
Meatless Day Challenge

Other members of the Meatless Day Challenge :
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The Cook Book Challenge – Week 12 : Eggs

Week 12 : Eggs

Recipe : Egg Pasta Dough ( Pasta all’Uovo )
Cook Book : Italia by Antonio Carluccio
I was really nervous about this weeks challenge.  I have never made pasta from scratch before but have been wanting to do it for ages. Since my mum had the  pasta machhine and never used it, I thought it was finally to give it’s first run.

I looked for the most simple recipe I could find from my cook books and found this recipe.  It only needs 2 main ingredients.  How simple is that?  Egg and Strong flour.  It is so simple that I will make my own pasta again.  The taste and texture of home made pasta is far superior to store bought dry pasta.  It’s very silky and soft and the best thing is that you know exactly what went in it

I didn’t take any photos of me using the pasta maker, simply because I didn’t want to show the huge mess I made. Flour everywhere.  I’m such a messy cook.
Recipe :
400g Italian ’00′ flour, plus extra to dust
4 large fresh eggs
large pinch of salt
Pile the flour in a mound on a surface and make a well in the middle.  Break the eggs into the well and add the salt.  Stir the eggs into the flour, with a fork at first and then with your hands, until it forms a coarse paste.  Add a little more flour if too moist and a little water if too dry.
Now knead the pasta dough using the pasta machine until it is smooth and workable, not too soft and not too hard.  Cover  the dough with a cloth and rest for 15 to 30 minutes before rolling out.

Divide the dough into 4 or 5 portions.  In the machine, pass the dough through the rollers, a portion at a time, decreasing the gap between the rollers each time, so that the dough becomes thinner and longer.  Repeat this until you obtain the desired thickness: 3-4mm for lasagne and cannelloni;  1.5-2mm for stuffed pasta.  Then either pass through the cutting rollers to make various sizes of ribbon or cut into sheets.

Cook fresh pasta in a large saucepan, allowing 1 litre water per 100g pasta plus 2 tsp salt.  Cooking time varies according to the kind of pasta, it’s thickness and whether it is stuffed, but home made pasta ribbons will take about 3 minutes.

I wanted to make lasagne so I rolled out the pasta into thin sheets and cooked for about 3 minutes a couple at a time.

The pasta sauce for the lasagne
The finished Lasagne with the home made egg pasta
I served the lasagne with home made garlic and herb bread.

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie