Rake's pasta - a twist on Pasta puttanesca

My kitchen is full of food including fruit & vegetables, tins, packets, plus the contents of the fridge and freezer, but with all this food it's still difficult to decide what to cook for lunch.

Pasta is our "go to" for lunches, as it's so quick and easy, from the simplest tossed in pesto, or carbonara, to those that involved a little more preparation.

During lockdown, my husband likes to make his own lunch, so my daughter and I take it turns to cook and today it was my turn. I put on a boiling pot of spaghetti and grabbed some basics, but no fresh parsley, so my normal "Slut's pasta" wasn't possible. I tweaked it and as we have been watching Bridgerton, so I decided to call this "Rake's pasta".

Making the sauce takes as long as the pasta takes to cook.

Ingredients

1 large shallot, finely chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tin anchovies, drained

1/2 to 1 tsp dried crushed chillies

1 clove garlic finely chopped

2 large tomatoes, chopped

10 pitted black olives, sliced into 4

1 large tablespoon capers

freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put the spaghetti on to cook.

Heat a saute pan and add the olive oil. On medium heat add the shallots and gently fry until soft. Add the drained anchovies and bash with the back of a wooden spoon so that they dissolve into the oil, add the garlic and dried chillies, fry for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes, olives and capers, fry until the tomatoes start to break down, stir regularly. Season with black pepper.

Drain spaghetti reserving some of the cooking liquid, toss the spaghetti with the sauce and add a little of the cooking liquid to loosen the sauce.

Serve

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Scallops with wild garlic and pasta

Organic Boxes

We are now into the 4th week of lockdown due to COVID-19 and we are very fortunate that we have had an organic box delivery for over 20 years. Initially, we used to collect our box from a local distribution point, then moved to Riverford, last year I set up an Abel & Cole organic box delivery as an alternative.

One weakness of many food delivery companies is that you can't have more than one address attached to your account, therefore I set up one account for my elderly parents with Riverford and another to be delivered to my workplace.

When there started to be an issue getting produce, just before lockdown, I tried to move my Riverford delivery from my work address back to my home address, but it could not be changed due to capacity issues.  I was able to organise a weekly Riverford delivery of veg, meat and milk to my parents. Fortunately, I was quick enough using Abel and Cole to set up a regular weekly delivery and the bonus is that I can still add to the order if I need to and they have a wider variety of produce available. I don't know what will arrive in my veg and fruit box though, therefore every week is a mystery.

During lockdown, it's easy to get into a food rut, so it's important to experiment with new recipes to keep the palate fresh.

What to cook for lunch?

I still had some wild garlic in my fridge and some fresh scallops from my delivery this week. What to cook? After some research at other recipes, I created the following recipe.

Ingredients (serves 2)

Linguini pasta
1 shallot finely chopped
50 g butter
2 tbsps olive oil
1 handful of chopped wild garlic
1 garlic clove, finely grated
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
125ml white wine or vermouth
grated zest lemon
6 scallops
salt and pepper

Method

Put the pasta into cook, make sure you salt the water.

In a medium saucepan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 25 g butter over a medium heat and add shallots, cook gently until soft. Add the chilli flakes, garlic and wild garlic and fry gently for 2 mins, add the white wine or vermouth and gently cook until reduced by half, season.

In a frying pan heat the 1 tbsp olive oil over a medium heat.. Wash and pat dry the scallops, season with salt and pepper. Fry scallops - don't move them around, wait 2 minutes until golden brown. Turn scallops onto other side and continue frying. Add the butter to the pan, and spoon the butter over the scallops.

When pasta is cooked, drain and add to the medium saucepan, toss with the garlic & shallot mixture. Add some freshly grated lemon rind and toss. Serve in a pasta bowl with more grated lemon rind and serve the scallops on the top.

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Courgette, Caper and Chilli Pasta

When we need a quick lunch, pasta is always our "go to". It was time to raid the fridge for veggie, then time for me to get creative.

Ingredients (serves 2)

1/2 pack of gluten free macaroni

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 courgette, cut lengthwise in half, then each piece again lengthwise. Chop across into 1 cm chunks

1 clove garlic finely chopped

2 large tomatoes roughly chopped

2 tsp capers

2 pinches ancho chilli flakes

Zest 1/2 lemon

Water

4 stems fresh basil

Salt and pepper

Method

Put a large pot of water onto boil and add salt. Add pasta when boiling and cook according to the packet. Make the sauce whilst the pasta is cooking.

In a sauté pan over a medium heat, fry the onion until soft, add the courgette and garlic, fry for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chopped tomatoes, capers, lemon zest and chilli flakes, stir and lower heat to a simmer, stir occasionally. Remove the leaves from the basil, chop the stems and add the stems to the sauté pan and stir. Season with salt and pepper. You can add a splash of water if needed, if the pan seems dry.

Carefully cut the basil leaves into a rough large chop, add to the sauce, stir and turn off heat.

Check pasta is cooked, drain, reserving some of the cooking liquor. Add the pasta to the sauce and stir the pasta into the sauce, turn back on heat to allow the pasta to absorb the flavours, add a little of the cooking liquor to help the sauce get absorbed into the pasta.

Serve with a sprig of basil.

You can also sprinkle over some fresh Parmesan to serve. I also added a couple of drops of chilli oil over mine as I like the heat.

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Pasta with tomato, courgettes and tuna sauce.

Lunchtime Dilemma

Using leftovers!
What did I have left, 1/3rd tin tuna (well I did leave for daughter yesterday, but she didn't get back until tea time), also had a box of cooked pasta left from yesterday?
I didn't want to waste this and came up with the following dish and whilst it was cooking, I could nip outside into the garden to grab the fresh flat leaved parsley.

Pasta with tomato, courgettes and tuna sauce

Ingredients (serves 3)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1 courgette, cut lengthways into quarters, then chopped along the length
1 tin tomatoes
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon fresh parsley finely chopped
1/3 tin tuna

Method

You need to cook the pasta if you haven't got any ready to reheat.
In a small pan, heat the oil gently and fry the onion until soft, add the garlic and courgette, fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes and break them up with a spoon as you cook (I prefer tinned tomatoes as they don't have as much water). Add the capers and parsley. Cook for 5 minutes. Just before serving carefully add the tuna, but try not to mask it, a couple of stirs will do. If using precooked pasta, add it to the sauce and heat through. If fresh cooked pasta drain and toss through sauce.
Serve

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Tuna Salad

Tuna Salad (serves 2)

2 oz cooked and cold Seeds of Change Semi-wholewheat Tortiglioni

2 handfuls of salad leaves with beetroot shreds

Half an avocado

2 inch chunk cucumber

1 large tomato

1/3 tin tuna fish in spring water

Extra virgin olive oil

Organic cider vinegar

Freshly ground pepper

Method

While the pasta was cooking (yes I do add a little salt to the water, it is better than salting later), I started preparing the rest of the ingredients. I find that cucumber can make some people a little gassy, my solution is to peel the cucumber, then slice horizontally through the middle of the chunk and using a teaspoon, scrape out the fleshy seedy centre. Then cut the cucumber into small cubes.

Remove the avocado from the skin, again use a dessert or tablespoon to push between the skin and the flesh to remove the edible part. Again cut into small chunks.

I like to assemble the salad on each plate as I prepare, then sprinkle over a few drops of olive oil, plus a couple of drops of cider vinegar, toss on the plate.

Add the tuna to the plate and flake and fluff gently. If you like you can add 1 teaspoon of mayonnaise to the tuna and lightly mix.

When the pasta is cooked (yes, it will be a little more chewy than the normal type, but much more tasty), drain the pasta, return to the pan and immediately run cold water over the pasta for about 1 minutes, strain and you have cold pasta.

Add pasta to the plate and serve. You may like to grind some black pepper over the salad before serving, but that is personal preference.

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Pasta Carbonara

This is one of those recipes that is really quick to make and is great to rustle up when you have to fill starving kids. It is also great as a power lunch before rehearsals etc.
It is so easy, it's great as a dish for the kids to learn to cook. If you have leftover ham, use that instead of the bacon, it also doesn't need to be frazzled first either. I always have little packets of pancetta in the fridge, there's normally some double cream and parmesan is a staple. This makes a great starter or main course.

If you wish to make a traditional carbonara, then you can leave out the cream.

To serve 4
Ingredients
250g spaghetti or linguine (cook amount you would normally cook for 4)
150g cubed pancetta or streaky bacon cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 eggs (free-range if possible)
150 ml double cream
75g parmesan cheese freshly grated
Salt and Pepper

Method
Put the pasta in to boil in lots of salted boiling water, check the pasta for timing, you want the pasta to be just al dente.
Whilst the pasta is cooking fry off the bacon/pancetta in the olive oil until browned.
In a bowl mix the eggs, cream and salt & pepper, beat well together.
As soon as the pasta has finished cooking, turn off the pasta and strain in a colander, return to the pan add in the egg mixture, toss through the pasta, the residual heat in the pasta and pan will cook it, throw in the parmesan and continue tossing, then add the bacon and toss through. It should be lovely and creamy and cling to the pasta. If the "sauce" seems a little too thin, carefully put the heat back on very low and toss carefully and quickly, you want it to thicken and not turn into scrambled eggs.

Serve. For a dinner party, you could serve with a green salad and some garlic bread.


You can also add sliced mushrooms when frying the bacon to make a change.

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