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

Read More

Minestrone Soup

Ingredients
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 large celery stick (including leaves), chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
large handful of mixed beans/peas (french, runner, pencil podded)
2 tablespoons tomato puree
1 pint water
1 veg stock cube/pod
1 handful of broken spaghetti
salt and pepper
Optional
either fresh basil leaves or fresh red chilli 

Method
Put all the ingredients into a pan, bring to the boil and simmer until tender. If you want the soup to be a little thicker, then continue cooking until slightly reduced.

Tip
You can also add some finely shredded green cabbage to the pot 5 minutes before serving.

Read More

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.

Read More