pasta with chicken, blue cheese and broccoli

using up: half a head of broccoli, some everlasting chicken

We had a mound of cold roast chicken left from Saturday’s roast – we had cold with steamed new potatoes and red cabbage, and chicken sandwiches, and dhal with shredded chicken, have put all the bits and bones in the freezer, and were still left with a bowlful of chicken that would feed us for two more meals.

We also had a half a head of broccoli to use up, and we wanted something quick last night as we were both going out.

So, cut the broccoli into florets, and steamed for 6 minutes. Fished it out into a colanader, topped up the pan with some more boiling water and put in some pasta. As an aside, I have taken to weighing pasta (120g) and rice (80g), as I’m watching my carbs – this is about half the amount of both we used to eat, and it’s plenty!

Fried off a roughly chopped onion in olive oil, and added some thyme from the garden. Then lobbed in some chopped up cold cooked chicken and stirred it all around. When the pasta was almost done, I added the broccoli to the chicken pan, then in went the pasta, and about 100g of blue cheese. Stirred all that around till the cheese melted, then served in bowls.

It was nice, but I thought it was lacking something – not sure what. I shall ponder.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

mushrooms and tagliatelle

We had some button mushrooms and a little cream waiting to be used up, and this seemed an ideal way to do it on a hot day.

Finely chopped two shallots and three cloves of garlic, and cooked them down in olive oil. Added some chopped rosemary and thyme from the herb garden^H^H pots, which are coming along nicely. Sliced the mushrooms and added them to the pan, with a glug of white wine, and let them cook very slowly, while I boiled some tagliatelle.

Added the cream to the mushroom mix and warmed through, then drained the pasta and stirred it in. Ate out of bowls, topped with grated parmesan. Followed by the last of the plum and pear crumble, with ice cream.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

roasted asparagus with pasta

“What’s this?” you cry; “two posts in one day? You’re spoiling us.”

We are going to a meeting tonight at 6 p.m. and thought we’d eat our main meal at lunchtime, and just grab a sandwich before we go out. I bought a bunch of  English asparagus at the greengrocer yesterday – don’t suppose there’ll be much more this year, so must gorge while we can. We have a handful of standard recipes we cook with it, but fancied a change. So:

Trimmed the asparagus and put it in a baking tray lined with foil – I generally do this now, as the washing up is so much easier. Drizzled it with a generous quantity of olive oil, and sprinkled some sesame seeds on it. Pete finely chopped a couple of cloves of garlic, which were duly added, then I mussed it all up with fingers; sometimes that’s the only way to do it.

It went into the oven at 180C for 15 minutes, while I cooked some fusilli to accompany it. Then further inspiration struck, and I whipped up a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice.

Pasta, covered with asparagus, covered with the dressing. It really was rather nice, and there’s still half a bunch of asparagus left!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

chicken and fennel with pasta

Our local Co-Op had special offers on chicken last week – two packs of diced breast for a fiver, and the same for whole breast.  I picked up two packs of each and stowed them in the freezer, not least because I’m trying to cut down my red meat consumption.

There was also a head of fennel in the fridge; I love fennel, but tend to forget about it and just lob it in the soup, so I wanted to actually, you know, make something with it deliberately.

In the morning, I took half of one pack of diced chicken – it was in a plastic tray divided into two, so that was simple, and I stuck the other half into a poly bag and replaced it in the freezer.

This evening, I cut the chicken into slightly smaller chunks, and browned it in some olive oil.  Put it in a brown bowl, then added sliced fennel and a chopped red onion to tha pan.  Sauted the veg until soft, then added a spoonful of Dijon mustard and stirred it round.  Added a knob of butter to the pan, and when melted, returned the chicken, and added about a wineglass full of cider, and some seasoning.

Stuck a lid on the pan, and left it for about 12 minutes, then took the lid off and reduced the liquor down, finally adding a little double cream.  We ate this with pasta – my share of that was about 35g, which ain’t too bad.

No idea of the calorific value of the rest of the meal, but as Pete and I went for a 6 mile walk this morning, I reckon I’ve earned it :)

Powered by Bookmarkify™

reactive entertaining

Last night’s supper was already planned, insofar as I knew we needed to use up some of the veg in the fridge, and we’d been eating rice for a few days, so it was time for pasta for a change.

I chopped up a fat leek, a red romano pepper, and several cloves of garlic, and set them to sauté down in some olive oil.  Then I went to answer the door, as someone had just knocked.  It was a friend from up the road, who wanted to watch himself on the local news (he doesn’t have a television).  So we offered him supper.

I added another red pepper, and some strips of pancetta, while Pete grated up lots of parmesan.  Boiled some big pasta shells, chopped some sage from the garden, put it all into the pan and served in bowls.  Instant supper, and very nice.

Well, we thought so!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

broad beans, feta and pasta

Another big bag of broad beans in the box this week. I wanted something quick and simple for supper, but of course failed to allow the time required to shell a big bag of broad beans. Ho hum.

Once they were released from their furry prisons, I set (far too much) pasta on to boil, and simmered the beans for about 7 minutes. Chopped an onion and sauteéd it in olive oil. Chopped the half a pack of feta that was in the fridge. Hurled everything into one pan when done, and stirred round with a little more olive oil and the juice of the half lemon lurking in the fridge.

Nice quick, fresh, summer supper (even with the bean depodding time).

Powered by Bookmarkify™

green beans and pasta

I reviewed the contents of the veg drawer last night – to my shame, there were two small turnips going mouldy, so they had to go.  A wide assortment of carrots was hurled into the slow cooker for carrot and coriander soup for lunch today.  And there were a lot of green beans.

We like green beans, but we tend to do the same sort of stuff with them every time, and I wanted to try something different, so this is what I did.  It was lovely – perfect summer food.

Topped and tailed the beans, and then cut them into chunks of about 2cm.  Set them to simmer for about  seven minutes, I guess.

Put on some pasta quills to boil.

Got Pete to grate a lot of parmesan, rummaged for the tired half lemon in the fridge, and went and cut some fennel fronds from the garden, which I chopped up small.

Combined beans, pasta, parmesan, black pepper, lemon juice, fennel and some cream, and scoffed from bowls.

Followed it with local strawberries and a home made brownie.  Lovely.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

green beans and tomato

We’re a bit over veg’d this week, as we bought mushrooms and asparagus as well as the box, and so we’re starting to panic a bit over what’s left this week, given another box arrives tomorrow.  Think I’ll have to cancel next week’s …

Tonight, we looked at the large number of runner beans, and I used half of them thus:

Topped and tailed the beans, cut them into chunks of about – oh – 3cm, I guess, and simmered them for about six minutes.  While that was going on, Pete chopped an onion and some garlic, and I sautéd them in some olive oil till soft, then added a carton of passata (sieved tomatoes, for those who haven’t tried it).

Put some fusilli on to boil.

We had half a bunch of parsley in the fridge, left from making a beef stroganoff on Saturday (bad, bad …) – I wouldn’t normally buy parsley at this time of year, but mine has been slow to take off in the herb garden this year.   So Pete chopped up the remains and we added it to the tomatoey mix close to the end; added some fresh ground pepper too.

We topped it with grated parmesan, and it was really nice – very simple summer food. It would work with all sorts of veg, I reckon.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

pasta with meatballs and courgettes

Using up:  sausagemeat

Apologies for the lack of posting – Pete and I have been laid low from the lurgy, and very little has been happening in the cooking department.  We made the last of the goose into a risotto, and then we had macaroni cheese on Wednesday – one of the best comfort foods in the world.

While rummaging through the fridge yesterday, I found some sausagemeat – not enough to turn into sausage rolls, but enough to do something with.

I turned a couple of slices of bread into breadcrumbs in the Magimix, then combined the sausage meat with enough crumbs to make a nice texture, and added some dried oregano.  Browned them off in some olive oil, then popped them in the Remoska to continue cooking while I did the rest.  I love that little gadget, and now I want a bigger one!

Chopped an onion and a few cloves of garlic, and sautéd them down in some olive oil.  Sliced up a couple of courgettes and added them to the pan, and stirred about a bit, then hurled in a tin of tomatoes and a chopped dried chilli, and a sloosh of red wine.

Left that lot to cook while I boiled some quick pasta.  When it was done, I transferred the meatballs to a casserole dish, added the pasta, then poured the tomato and veg over it, stirred it about a bit, and popped a chopped mozarella on the top, and some basil leaves.

Gas 6 / 200 for 25 minutes.  Lovely.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

cabbage, bacon and mozzarella

We seem to have a cabbage glut – two of them in the fridge at the start of the week, which is bad planning. I mandolined half of one on Monday for this week’s soup, so only one and a half to go …

There were a few bits (I couldn’t call them rashers, really) of streaky smoked bacon in the fridge, so they were derinded and chopped up, and sautéd in olive oil with some onion.

Bunged some pasta on to boil, thinly sliced the half cabbage left from Monday, and added it to the onion/bacon mix. Stirred it around to coat in oil, added black pepper and about a tablespoon of water, and put a lid on it for about 10 minutes.

Drained the pasta, added it to the cabbage pan and dolloped in a chopped up mozzarella.

Served it in bowls – quick, easy, tasty.

Powered by Bookmarkify™