Pasta alla Amatriciana : bacon & tomato loveliness

Oh, I am so impressed with this recipe.

It has all the hallmarks of a great family meal.  Pasta, tomatoes, bacon - what's not to like there?  It is perfect for those nights when you just want something that everyone is going to eat and not complain about - and, wonder of wonders, it is really simple to make.

I found the recipe on Chow.com and it is attributed to a Chef called Robert Sietsema.  Now I have to admit that I've never heard of him, but then that's probably because I'm not a) Italian or b) American.  If this recipe is an example of his food, then he's obviously a good egg.

Now, in his version, he used Bucatini pasta (which is like spaghetti but has a hole through the middle) and cured pork guanciale (Italian bacon, prepared with pig cheeks) and I'm sure it was completely sublime.  However, as I don't have access to either of those (not for an affordable price, anyway), I either opt for good old spirali pasta or spaghetti and get some of my local butcher's bacon.  It's also worth mentioning that Matteson's are currently producing lightly smoked turkey rashers which double as bacon very nicely.

Just look at that colour - amazing!

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I've been using Tarantella tinned tomatoes in preference to other brands.  The difference really is marked and if you can find them, it's well worth changing. Their tomato puree is so gorgeous that it is tempting to have a little taster straight from the jar - and I can't say I've ever been tempted to do that with tomato puree before!

Everyone liked this dish, with clean plates all round - so I'd call that a success.

UPDATE!  It is now July 2015 and we've since discovered that hubby is sensitive to cayenne pepper, so I now substitute a pinch of red chilli flakes for the cayenne.  The end result is just as lovely and we'll definitely be using chilli again in future.  So, if you have similar issues with cayenne - help is at hand!   I also added in a couple of homeless mushrooms, with no adverse results.

PASTA ALLA AMATRICIANA  (Serves 3-4)

Ingredients :
 
A pack (350-400g) of smoked back bacon, diced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
150ml dry white wine
400g can chopped tomatoes in juice (I bought plum & chopped them myself)
1 heaped tbsp tomato puree
1 dessertspoonful runny honey or to taste
1 tsp dried or three good sprigs of fresh, basil
1 tsp paprika 
a hearty pinch of cayenne pepper (or red chilli flakes)
100ml of semi skimmed milk
fine grated Parmesan, or Grana Padano or Cheddar cheese, for sprinkling.  (All three work really well).
250-300g pasta (spirali or spaghetti).


Method :

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

In the meantime, heat a large frying pan over high heat. When the pan is hot, reduce the heat to medium, add the bacon and cook until the fat is translucent.

Add the onion and olive oil and sauté until the onion is translucent but not browned, about 4 minutes.

Add the wine and simmer until the alcohol has burned off and the wine has reduced by about half, about 2 1/2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, purée and basil and bring to a boil, then keep at a lively simmer until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 10 minutes.

Season with salt (being aware of the salt already in the dish from the bacon), honey to taste, paprika and cayenne or chilli flakes.  Stir to combine and allow to simmer for another few minutes.

Once the water boils, add the pasta and cook to the manufacturer's instructions - usually around 7-9 minutes.

While the pasta cooks, remove the sauce from the heat and add the milk which will help to prevent the acidity that often comes with tomato sauces.  Stir it in well and return to a simmer.

Once the pasta is done (with still a little chewiness in it, not completely soft) drain, add to the sauce, and toss until the pasta is well coated.

Divide the pasta among individual bowls. Top each with a sprinkling of cheese and serve.  

Printable version

More of a porky week, this week : Meal planning w/b 17 Oct 11

My favourite style of potatoes

From last week's lamby week, to this week's porky week - in one fell swoop.

As has become traditional, let's finish off last week by telling you how I got on with the idea of the Lamb with Boulangere style potatoes.


Well, it was all going so well until it went into the oven.  The lamb mince, onion and carrots tasted good - full of different flavours but in a somewhat thicker sauce than I had anticipated, but I hoped it would do well enough.  Hubby likes to have a "sauce" rather than a "broth" on his plate, you see.

I painted each layer of mandolin-cut potatoes with melted butter into which I'd added a sprinkling of chopped rosemary, so all should have been well there.

Brussels sprouts!  ~mouth waters~

The trouble was, after 2½ hrs of cooking, the carrots were tender, the potatoes were cooked through - but all the lovely flavours had left home.

I'm really not sure where they went.  For all I know, they could be hiding at the back of the cooker, just waiting until the next time I make a meringue, when they will leap out and savoury it up.

No, all joking aside, I was disappointed.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the sauce was to blame, as it had nigh-on disappeared and I suspect had taken all the flavour with it.  I jolly well knew that sauce was too thick!  Serves me right for not letting it down with some water.  But there we are, 'tis done now.

Because I'm not happy with the recipe, I'll not be passing it on.  I may well have another go one day (and make sure the sauce is right, this time) so I'll blog it if it succeeds that time.

Mind you, those little brussels sprouts were divine.  From the bottom of our garden, they were little baby sproutlings of ultimate deliciousness.  Look at their happy smiling faces!  How can you resist?

So, shaking off the unsuccessful Monday, let's have a look at what the remainder of the week has in store :

Tues : Pasta alla Amatriciana

Weds : Slow cooked pork & celeriac with crusty bread (or toasts)

Thurs : Cheese, onion & potato pie, baked beans & hash browns

Fri : Pasta bolognese with doughballs

Sat : Beef Rendang & Sag Aloo with rice

Sun : "Posh Porks", with carrots, tenderstem broccoli & rice

Mon : Full English breakfast.

So, who is thinking "some of that sounds familiar"?

Well, after last week went so severely to worms, there are two meals included in this week's list that didn't make it onto last week's dining table - and because a) I'd bought everything for one (Pasta alla Amatriciana) and b) I'd promised son & heir we'd have it (Full English breakfast), I was committed.

Being Tuesday, we've just had the Pasta alla Amatriciana for dinner and it was marvellous.  I have been using Tarantella tomatoes in preference to any other kind of tinned tomatoes just lately and have now found some Tarantella tomato puree.  The flavour is a cut above other tomatoes, they don't cook up to be so acidic, plus the colour is beautiful.  So the colour you see in the photograph is absolutely the colour that the dish turned out to be.  Utterly fab!

Mind you, I very nearly killed the entire dish through SUCH a schoolboy error - but I won't embarrass myself right now - I'll save that for later when I blog the recipe for you.

Celeriac - the ugly duckling of veg.

I found the Slow cook Pork & Celeriac recipe on the BBC Good Food website and was intrigued by the combination of flavours.  I thought it sounded completely lovely and so perfect for these colder days we're having.

I was going to serve it with crusty bread for mopping up all the lovely flavours in the sauce/gravy, however, I notice in this month's BBC Good Food Magazine there's a natty little idea for anchovy toasts to accompany a beef stew.  Now I'm not suggesting making anchovy versions, but I'm definitely pondering on some kind of toast!

Thursday's Cheese, Onion & Potato Pie is very definitely "one for the boys".

Hubby astounded me the other day by announcing that he "loves Cheese & Potato Pie".  Say what?  This, from the man who abhors every incarnation of potato except the chip and crisp?

Well okay then!  I found a likely-sounding recipe on BBC Good Food (always my first port of call for reliable recipes) and we'll be having it with "man food", i.e. baked beans and hash browns.

Having made the males in my life happy, (well, one can but hope!), I get a night off when hubby cooks us a pasta bolognese.  Once again he'll be using the Tarantella tomatoes - and he does make a pretty darned good bolognese.  It will make son & heir happy, as any dinner that involves meat + carbohydrate, minus discernible vegetables but + cheese, is dinner nirvana for him right now.

My ever-faithful slow cooker

Saturday's Beef Rendang I'm very much looking forward to cooking.  It's a recipe by Atul Kochhar which I found on the UK TV Good Food website.  I will be cooking it in the slow cooker, as the recipe demands a good 2 hrs cooking in the oven, otherwise.

Thanks to the success of the Keema Mutter and Vegetable Curry, I've got a bit of confidence in supplying two Indian dishes (and a rice) at any one time.  So, owing to the fact that I'm using the slow cooker and will have time to spare, I decided to take advantage of what seemed like a cracking recipe for Sag Aloo (from the My Dish website).  I'll be able to make the Sag Aloo while the rice is cooking.

I'm quietly excited about this one, as they both sound completely delicious.  Fingers crossed!

Before I started writing Rhubarb & Ginger, I used to keep a note of yummy recipes by blogging them on my personal blog, Timewasting.  So the other day, I decided to go through them and pick out the ones which were particularly nice, to do again and blog them onto Rhubarb & Ginger.

The first of these is a lovely recipe that now goes by the name of "Posh Porks".  Well, it's all because it uses pork and my internet nickname has long been PoshPaws.  See?

It's basically a "pork in mushroom cream sauce", served with seasonal vegetables and rice.  It was one of the first recipes that I devised completely, without any adaptation of another recipe - so I am quietly proud of it.  I think it will be interesting to cook it again, in the light of the experience I've gained since then.  I can feel (already) the urge to include some white wine in that sauce ...

Which brings us back to the Full English Breakfast, a meal of bacon, sausage, egg (but not for hubby), mushrooms (but not for son & heir), black pudding, baked beans (but not for me), tomato (but not for either chap) and fried bread (definitely not for me - I'll have toast!).

Looking at that list of likes, dislikes and dietary requirements, I'm jolly glad I'm not cooking it!

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Two days into the new week : meal planning w/b 11.10.11

Yes, I know, I should have done this blog post by now.  Oh, but you do nag!  *chuckle*

Don't ask me what I've been doing in the meantime, but I seem to have been sat at the computer without anything useful coming of it, except I have collected quite a few new recipes and ideas for menu planning in future.  I consider this to be a good thing.

This week's meal plan is quite a good'un, I reckon.  It seems to be dominated by bacon in several instances, but three out of seven isn't all bad.

So let's have a look at what I'm planning :

Tues : Pizza for son & heir, Sweet & Sour Pork with rice for us

Wed : Spicy Chicken & Bacon pasties with salad

Thurs : Meatballs and pasta

Fri : Chicken Piccata with mashed potatoes, carrots & broccoli

Sat : Pasta Alla Amatriciana

Sun : Lamb & boulangere potatoes with carrots & garden veg

Mon : Full English Breakfast.

That all sounds really nice, I reckon.  I'm looking forward to all of it!

It's now Thursday as I'm writing this, so we've already had the Sweet & Sour Pork and my goodness what a triumph it was!  Accolades have to be given to the Adora's Box blog which is where the recipe came from.  The next time I make it (and there will be a next time) I shall make sure to include son & heir in, as I'm sure he'd enjoy it.  The flavours are gentle and rounded, not at all rough or acidic as they so often are with sweet and sour recipes.  He particularly hates vinegar-like flavours, and although this recipe contains a tablespoonful of vinegar, you'd be hard pressed to know.

Anyway, it deserves a blog post of its own, so watch out for it!

Last night was the Spicy Chicken & Bacon Pasties and apart from a complete lack of being able to pleat a pasty - my skill at doing so totally deserted me - they were really successful.  This one came from a BBC Good Food "40 Chicken recipes" booklet and you can find the recipe on the BBC Good Food website.

I will be blogging about these separately, too - and will include my recipe for them, as I tinkered about with it quite a lot!

Tonight was to have been Meatballs & Pasta, produced by hubby, but we had one of those "forgetting to take it out of the freezer" moments and so the meatballs are off.  We'll have to stop at Sainsbury's and pick up a bag of salad and some fish in breadcrumbs, I reckon.

Apparently, this is what it will look like!

Tomorrow's recipe, Chicken Piccata, is one from Foodista.  However, the author is anonymous, so I can't give him or her the credit they deserve.  Anyway, it's an interesting recipe where you pan fry the flattened out chicken breasts that have been dunked in seasoned flour with lemon zest.  Then you make a sauce which involves wine, lemon juice and capers.  I'm hugely interested to know how this will turn out, so watch the blog and I'll tell you!

Saturday's Pasta Alla Amatriciana is a bit of an experiment.  I used to have an Amatriciana recipe that son & heir and I really liked, but that didn't agree with hubby and gave him terrible indigestion.  I eventually had to bin that recipe, having tried all ways to make it okay for him to eat, without success.

This one, however, is prepared completely differently and with different ingredients (in some instances) and with no chilli.  Again, I'm intrigued by it.  It comes from Chow.com and is attributed to a Chef called Robert Sietsema.  For all that I can't replicate a lot of his ingredients as they are die-hard Italian, I'll do my best to get good ingredients locally for this and we'll see how I fare!

Sunday sees a repetition of the Lamb & boulangere potatoes that got bounced from last week.  I'm determined to do this recipe as it keeps on making my mouth water!  I'm hoping that some more of the garden vegetables will be ready to use by then.  In fact, looking down the garden from the window here, I can see a Romanescu Cauliflower peeking out the top of some leaves - so we should be okay there!

Now I do think that perhaps we should skip lightly over Monday and not talk about it too much.  *blush*  Why am I so embarrassed?  Well, it's a full English Breakfast for dinner - and I'm supposed to be losing weight!  However, it's a request from son & heir who doesn't often request particular meals - and we'd all been feeling the lack of black pudding in our diets, for ages.  A large part of the meat (bacon & sausage) will be grilled and if I don't have any fried bread and opt for a poached egg instead of fried, I reckon I should be able to get by without doing too much damage!  Ah well, it only happens once in a blue moon.

I also have a conundrum to conjur with, this week.  I have been given a huge bag of apples, which are demanding to be done something creative with.  Having had a long and intense ponder, I'm currently thinking along the lines of an apple cake.  Not so much sponge, as a more robust mix such as the Marmalade cake used.  Also, not sliced apples laid on the top, more chunks of apple throughout the cake - much as you would find cherries in a cherry cake.  Maybe some caramel aspect in there too.  I dunno - I'm still working it out.  However, rest assured that you'll hear about it quick sharp if it works out well - and with rather less speed if it's a complete disaster.

So - lots to look forward to!

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