Thursday 4 February 2016

Some Pasta Banta

So last night, I felt like making something random. Throwing some pots, pans and pasta onto the heat, chucking in some veg and some other tasty nibbles, a dash of seasoning and tossing it all together...so I did. My ingredients were just based on things that I had in the fridge and that I couldn't imagine using for any other dish. I didn't particularly think through the flavour combinations but I've gotta say, whatever I did, it worked. It tasted pretty damn yummy. Feel free to have a go and let me know what you think!

Creative-and-Querky-Pasta-Related-Name-For-This-Dish

Ingredients:
Pasta (shape and size of your choosing, I used Farfalle...aka, the bows)
1 Garlic Clove
Mushrooms (Mine were some of those nice pots of mushrooms you can buy around and about in salad bars or near the olive section of a market. Cooked and dressed in olive oil with some chili)
Artichoke Hearts (I have a little bit of an obsession, much to the distress of my tummy, so feel free to ignore this)
Sage Leaves (lurvv sage)
Parma Ham (2 slices torn up)
Cubed Chorizo 
Vegetable Stock
A dash of flour


Method:
1. Place the pasta in a pan of boiling water, turn down the heat and allow to cook while you prepare the sauce (or whatever this particular concoction could be called)
2. Chop up the garlic clove to any size you prefer and chuck into a  reasonably deep pan with some olive oil
3. Once the garlic has browned a little (do not burn!), throw in the mushrooms, once again chopped to a preferred size. If, like me, you managed to find some nice ready dressed mushrooms, feel free to drizzle some of the additional dressings or bits and bobs into the pan
4. If you have chosen to go for the artichoke heart direction, now is the time to chop these up, or pull off the leaves and throw them into the mix. Give things a stir.
5. Take 2 or 3 sage leaves and rip these up, off the stems and into the pan allowing to soften and for the delicious flavour to seep into the other ingredients
6. You can now add the meaty bits if you like. I chose Parma Ham and some chopped up chorizo that I had left over in the fridge
7. Once these have been given a chance to heat up, it's time to add the stock. If you're lucky and have some delicious and flavoursome home-made vegetable stock available, feel free to use this but if, like me, you haven't got round to that little creation yet, just throw in one them good ol' stock cubes and add a dash of warm water. Allow time for the stock to dissolve and give the pan a stir. 
8. Finally, depending on your desired thickness of sauce, you can add a sprinkle of flour to give a little more...um...something fancy seeming to the whole affair. One more stir, drain the pasta, throw it in the pan, give it a mix and a taste and perhaps anther season (as you probably know by now, I like my garlic, so always up for a dash more), some salt and pepper, possibly even some Parmesan if ya like and...

Ta daaa!

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