This is one of my favourite lighter pasta dishes, at the moment.
It has the benefit of the lovely gently flavoured mild goat's cheese (I use the £1.50 soft goat's cheese log from Asda, which I believe originates in France) which melts beautifully and doesn't soak into the pasta, resulting in a claggy, sticky mess as the pasta cools. Because the goat's cheese has a sharpness, it doesn't cling to your palate and each mouthful goes down as well as the first one did.
I hate pasta in thick cream sauces (particularly cream cheese-based ones) which begin to set as the pasta cools on your plate, resulting in a clagged up lump of pasta pieces that need to be cut with your fork. Bleaugh.
The recipe originally stated to use Kale, and although I love Kale, hubby has some issues with its leatheriness. As such, I swapped onto Savoy cabbage - which if you make sure to give it just 3 minutes in the pasta water, is perfectly fine.
So, it's just a brief chopping job, then a two-pan cooking job - and onto your plate.
Couldn't be easier! Which is why I booked it in for a Monday - after a day at work, I need a meal that's going to come together easily.
Don't be frightened of the goat's cheese - if you get a mild flavoured creamy one, you'll hardly notice the goatiness of it. It really is streets ahead of plain ordinary cream cheese.
BACON & GOAT'S CHEESE PASTA (Serves 3-4)
Ingredients :
400g penne or fusilli pasta
200g shredded Savoy cabbage
150g streaky bacon, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
150g soft mild goat's cheese
grated parmesan to serve.
Method :
1. Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil.
2. Cook the pasta according to the manufacturer's instructions, however, 3 minutes before the pasta is due to be cooked, add the cabbage to the pasta water.
3. In the meantime, dry-fry the bacon pieces in a frying pan until starting to brown, then drain the fat off (into a cup for roast potatoes!). Remove the bacon to keep warm.
4. Put the onion into the frying pan with 2 tsp of the bacon fat and fry lightly until softened and transparent. Return the bacon to the pan.
5. Add the goat's cheese to the bacon/onion mixture and heat slowly, adding a little milk, to help break the cheese down and make it saucy. Add seasoning (salt & black pepper) to taste.
6. Once the pasta & cabbage are done, drain (retaining a little of the cooking water) and replace in the cooking pan. Add the bacon mixture and lightly fold it through, adding a little of the cooking water if the sauce appears too thick.
Once you're happy with the consistency, serve with a bowl of grated parmesan for sprinkling over.
Yummy!
This is one everybody should like - provided you enjoy chicken, that is!
The first time I tried this recipe, son & heir was away on an extra-curricular sleepover and I had planned an entirely different meal. However, being suddenly down to two people for dinner seemed too good an opportunity to waste on standing sitting in the kitchen cooking! So I looked for something a whole lot less time consuming - and found this.
I don't remember why I didn't blog it at the time, probably just got swamped by other things. Real life does have a habit of doing that from time to time - getting in the way!
This dish really couldn't be any easier. One frying pan, one saucepan, three pasta bowls and bingo! you've got dinner.
It is very easily scaled up if you're wanting to feed more than three. Oh and one other thing - it is perfectly okay to use plain old peas, instead of the petit pois. We can't all have a bag of petit pois in the freezer, just waiting for us to need them.
CHICKEN & BACON CREAMY PASTA (serves 3)
Ingredients :
1-2 tbsp olive oil
100g smoked lardons or 3-4 rashers of smoked bacon, diced
1 red onion, chopped finely
2 garlic clove, chopped finely
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced across the grain
0.25 tsp ground black pepper
pinch of sea salt
6 medium mushrooms, sliced
180ml Chardonnay white wine
0.5 tsp dried tarragon
0.5 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1.5 tsp low salt vegetable stock powder or 1 low salt vegetable stock cube
100g frozen petits pois
5 tbsp double cream
200g pasta tubes - penne or spirali are good
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley for garnish.
Method :
Fill a large saucepan with water, add a little salt and set it to boil.
Heat the oil in a deep non-stick frying pan and add the bacon. Fry over a high heat until all the water has burned off and the bacon is beginning to caramelise. Add the onion and garlic and continue cooking, stirring often, until the onion is transparent and softened. Remove everything from the pan to a bowl and set aside to keep warm.
If necessary, add a little more olive oil and, once that is heated, add the chicken breast slices and season lightly with a little sea salt & the ground black pepper. Leave to cook over a high heat for 5 minutes or so until the chicken pieces are beginning to take on a golden colour, then turn and cook again, until the chicken has largely turned opaque.
Add the mushroom slices to the pan and stir to combine. Cook on for a few minutes, until the mushrooms are beginning to soften slightly. Add the onion/bacon/garlic mixture back into the pan and stir through.
Next, add the wine and let it bubble over a high heat until it has reduced by half. Season to taste and stir well.
The water in your large pan should have boiled by now, so add the dry pasta and stir. Cook to the manufacturer's recommendation - around 10-12 minutes, ordinarily.
While the pasta cooks, add the tarragon, Worcestershire sauce and stock powder or stock cube to the chicken and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to moderate and allow the contents of the pan to come to a lively simmer.
Add the petit pois and cream and stir through. The rest is simply personal taste. I like my sauce to have reduced quite considerably as that causes the flavour to intensify. If you like your sauce to be wetter, then stop the cooking process when you like. You can also add a little wetted cornflour to thicken the sauce, if you prefer a sauce with a thicker consistency. The choice is yours.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain it thoroughly and return to the hot pan. Add the chicken mixture and stir through. Serve straight away in warm bowls with a sprinkle of fresh parsley.
Printable version
This is a dish for those days when you want to provide a good wholesome meal that pleases everyone, but have completely run out of inspiration.
It is such a ridiculously simple dish but it is an evergreen that we simply don’t seem to be getting bored with. The original recipe was one of Jamie Oliver’s “Food for a Fiver” recipe cards produced by Sainsbury’s. However, I felt that the tomato sauce was a bit weak, so have broadened the flavours with the addition of a few extras.
If you’re feeding a number of people, you can include a green salad and/or garlic bread. However as it’s just us three and none of us need the extra calories, we don’t bother.
The dish is just as nice the following day, for lunch, so perfect for anyone carrying lunch to work provided you've a microwave there!
Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta Bake
Ingredients (to feed 3-4) :
1 pack of 8 sausages
200g approx of penne pasta
Sufficient Mozzarella to cover the top of your casserole dish. I used 3, but then we did eat almost half of one before it ever reached the dish. lol
As much broccoli as you think your family can stand.
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
1 clove of garlic, grated or chopped fine
1 small red chilli
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
A shake or two of Worcester Sauce
Half a teaspoon of Oregano
Salt & pepper
Method :
1. Place the sausages onto a baking tray and bake for 25 mins at 190deg C. You want them to be just browned, as they’re going to cook further in the casserole dish.
2. While they are cooking, put a large pan of salted water on to boil and then cook the broccoli florets for no longer than 2-3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon (reserving the cooking water for the Penne pasta) and place into the casserole dish. Place the pasta in to cook according to the instructions on the pack, once the water is back to boiling.
4. In the meantime, in a high-sided frying pan, sweat off the onion and chilli in the oil and add the garlic and oregano when almost done.
5. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, tomato ketchup and Worcester sauce. You may need to add 100ml of water, depending on how juicy the tomatoes were. Allow this to simmer gently while the pasta cooks and you chop the part-cooked sausages into four. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
6. Ultimately, combine the sausages, pasta, broccoli and sauce together in the high-sided frying pan, mixing gently to ensure everything is covered with sauce. Decant into the casserole dish, add a layer of sliced mozzarella cheese on the top (try not to eat it all!) and bake in the oven at 190deg for around 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbly.
Scrumptious "in front of the t.v." food. :-)
{Edited to add the broccoli, which I forgot to add to the ingredients list, and to say no, you're not seeing things, this is the second time I've posted this recipe. *sigh* Call it blog blindness, I'm forgetting what I've posted where!}.
