Pasta Saturdays. This is what it’s all about. After a whole week of slaving away doing whatever you’re doing, you deserve this. It’s pasta, and it’s delicious in all forms.
But busy bees don’t always have a million years to create a tasty pasta dish from scratch. Imagine all of the flour, the time, the mess! More importantly, what would a busy bee do when a pasta fiend of a friend (and a hungry one at that) is moments away from their door? Panic!! Continue reading
My baby bro.
The other day he asked me if I wanted to feature a recipe of his on here. Knowing my brother’s cooking, a little slap dash but packed full of flavour, I naturally said hells yeah.
So here you are – Rupert’s legendary ‘cheat’ meatballs. Continue reading
This is definitely a dish for pasta day. Don’t deny it, you know what I’m talking about. We all do it… Pasta day is the best day, and luckily for me pasta day comes around (maybe far too) often.
This tortellini is totally simple and doesn’t need the complication of a sauce (however, it would go fantastically with a beurre blanc), I usually eat these little parcels of joy with with a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, some parmesan and loads of black pepper – mmm.
Ingredients:
Filling:
Method:
For the pasta, in a blender, add the flour, eggs and salt and mix until breadcrumbs are formed. If the mixture is a little dry add 1-2 teaspoons of ice water, then using your hands form into dough.
On a lightly floured surface knead the dough for 5 minutes, then cover in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Whilst the dough is refrigerating prepare the asparagus for the filling. Simply boil for around 7-10 minutes or until tender, drain then mash. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Set aside.
Roll the dough out on a floured surface with a rolling pin, then using a pasta machine continue to roll out the pasta to desired thickness. With tortellini I tend to roll the pasta reasonably thin, probably between 1 and 1.5mm.
For the assembly:
You can find a step by step guide with photos of how to fill and roll your tortellini here
Makes enough for one hungry mouth.
I love pasta. I could eat pasta for every meal of each day. Even better than merely eating pasta, is eating homemade pasta. It’s just incomparable. I was bought a beautiful Marcato Atlas 150 a couple of Christmas’ ago as a gift, and what a gift! I love my pasta roller!
Using a food processor to whizz up the dough is a cheat but it makes homemade pasta so much more accessible. Of course you can mix it by hand it you like, but for days where I want fresh pasta quickly there is no questioning my use of the blender.
In this recipe I made a sage pasta instead of adding the sage to the filling. I just like the speckled look of herby pasta and the distinction between the filling and the pasta itself!
Ingredients:
Filling:
Method:
For the sage pasta, in a blender, add the flour, sage, eggs and salt and mix until breadcrumbs are formed. If the mixture is a little dry add 1-2 teaspoons of ice water, then using your hands form into dough.
On a lightly floured surface knead the dough for 5 minutes, then cover in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Whilst the dough is refrigerating prepare the butternut squash. Simply boil for around 10 minutes or until tender, drain then mash. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Set aside.
Roll the dough out on a floured surface with a rolling pin, then using a pasta machine continue to roll out the pasta to desired thickness. With tortellini I tend to roll the pasta reasonably thin, probably between 1 and 1.5mm.
For the assembly:
Either using a square cutter or by hand, cut your pasta sheets into smallish squares and set aside dusting each with a little flour.
Next, take a square and place a small amount of the butternut squash mix in the centre.
Wet your index finger with a bit of water and dot the three points on one side of the pasta square, fold in half and press down on the edges to form a triangle.
Take the bottom of the triangle and fold upwards.
Place your little finger on top of the filling, then with your right hand pull each side of the pasta and pinch together in the middle.
Once you have spent a somewhat monotonous 30 mintues of tortellini making I’m sure you’ll be more than ready to eat. So cook for 2-3 minutes in plenty of generously salted boiling water.
Serve with olive oil, pepper and parmesan shavings.
Makes one hefty portion.
If you love parsley and pasta, then you can’t go wrong with this.
Ingredients:
Method:
In a blender, add the flour, parsley, eggs and salt and mix until breadcrumbs are formed. Add 1-2 teaspoons of ice water as needed to the mix and form into a dough using your hands.
Knead the dough for 5 minutes and form into a ball, cover in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Lightly dust your work surface with flour and roll the dough out using a well floured rolling pin, then using a pasta machine continue to roll out the pasta to desired thickness (this will depend on what kind of pasta you are making, tagliatelle or lasagna will need to be slightly thicker than pasta used for ravioli). I generally aim for around 1mm thick. Here I simply used a pastry cutter to make pasta ribbons which are a personal fave.
Cook in a large pan of boiling water with plenty of salt for 1-3 minutes, depending on how al dente you prefer your pasta!
Makes 4 portions
This is probably one of my all time favourite Saturday afternoon comfort meals (yes, comfort meals are not just for lazy Sundays!). Minestrone is great because you can throw in any vegetables you have lying around and you’re guaranteed a tasty outcome, and even though gnocchetti sardi isn’t typically used in minestrone, for me it’s first choice.
Ingredients:
Method:
In a large saucepan heat the oil, adding the onion, garlic and chilli. Sauté for a few minutes until soft then add the celery and carrots and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the pepper, season to taste and mix well. Add the chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock, followed by the lentils and fagioli and bring to the boil. Throw in a couple of teaspoons of oregano then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes – or until all vegetables are tender.
Meanwhile prepare the gnocchetti. Bring a large saucepan of water to boil adding plenty of salt. Cook the gnocchetti for around 9 minutes or until al dente. Drain and toss in a little olive oil, then leave to one side.
Add the pasta to the soup when ready to serve rather than adding it all at once. This will ensure that the pasta doesn’t soak up too much of the liquid and the soup stays soupy!
Serve and eat, then proceed to have seconds.
Indulge & Devour 