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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Tapas style Crevettes (Jumbo prawns) with Tomato and Lemon

We love a bargain, especially when you find amazing produce in the reduced section of the supermarket. Today was one of those days, hubby came back with a massive bag of cooked crevettes that should have been over £7 reduced to £2, a perfect ingredient for lunch. After shelling them, I was left with at least 20 jumbo prawns to cook, I also had 1/3 of a gluten-free tiger loaf left.

I wanted to cook something that had some sauce to mop up with the crusty bread.

Tip - A quick way to freshen the bread is to pop it in an oven Gas 6 for about 10 minutes, this will warm it through and give it a lovely crust, so I did this once I started cooking the prawns.

Ingredients

4 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
large prawns
juice 1/2 lemon
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
salt and black pepper

Method

In a large frying pan, heat the oil over a medium heat, add the shallots, garlic and chilli and gently fry until soft (about 3 minutes). Add the smoked paprika and prawns, fry stirring often for about 2 minutes, add the lemon juice and tomato, season with freshly ground salt and pepper and continue cooking, frequently stirring (3 mins). Taste and adjust seasoning. Sprinkle over the parsley, stir well and serve with chunks of crusty bread.

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Chicken Fricassee

I bought a whole free range chicken and then took the breast off for our meal.

Electric Steamer

We were lucky to receive an electric steamer last year from my sister-in-law, which is brilliant for cooking the vegetables to serve with the dinner, just pop them in using however many tiers as necessary, I even cook my rice in it too, saves on pots and pans and also doesn't need to be watched. The biggest benefit is you don't need salt and keep the vitamins and minerals in the veg, none is cooked away in the water.

Potato Ricer

I also have a potato ricer, this is amazing, no worry of lumps and I don't need butter or milk unless turning into "creamed potatoes". I use the potato ricer to produce small threads of potato, I carefully spoon them onto the plate when serving without compressing them. I also use the ricer directly onto fish pies and cottage style pies, low calorie, lovely crunchy top.

Chicken Fricassee

Ingredients (serves 3)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 banana shallots, finely diced

1 red pepper (I used a long thin pepper) cut into thin strips

2 large chestnut mushrooms, halved and cut into thin slices

1 organic chicken stock cube

1/2 pint water

1 free range chicken breast, cut into small bite sized chunks

handful of french beans, cut into small pieces

Skimmed milk

2 tablespoons cornflour

Method

Heat the oil gently and add the shallots, gently fry the shallots until soft, then add the peppers, keep frying until they soften. Once the peppers and shallots are soft add the mushrooms and fry for another minute.

Add the water and stock cube and turn up the heat until the stock is bubbling, add the chicken and beans and lower to a simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes until chicken is cooked and the beans are just tender.

Mix the cornflour in a small cup with enough water to make a thin paste. Carefully add this to the pan stirring constantly, thin out the sauce with milk until it is the desired thickness, it should be thick enough to cover the vegetables and chicken with a thick layer.

Check seasoning and add pepper if needed.

I served with mashed (riced) potatoes, tender stem broccoli and carrot batons

Feedback from family was yum.

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