Anything Goes

My last recipe post seemed to be quite popular and especially after the lovely Victoria from Lily Loves Lola mentioned it. So I thought I'd share another favourite pasta dish of mine and see what you think...

Mum taught me how to make a variation of this way back when I was at uni... It has changed a lot over the years with taste and what I have in the fridge/cupboard at the time. Hence the name...

Ingredients....

- Put the kettle on and get a pan ready for your pasta

- Chop up your bacon and throw it into a frying pan on a medium heat with a little glug of oil and your chopped garlic. After a minute or 2 you can pop in your peppers and mushrooms... they can all sizzle for a few minutes until slightly coloured. I personally like the peppers with a bit of crunch still and the bacon evenly done... not cremated. Totally up to you. Just make sure you don't burn the garlic as it'll taste really bitter. 

- Put your pasta on. The dried penne I used takes about 10 mins so works out pretty well for timings... Obviously if you want to used fresh then put it on the heat a bit later...

When I made this I had a bottle of white wine that happened to be open, so I put in about 100ml along with about half a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard. Again, this is up to you, if you don't want to, don't put it in... you could substitute the wine for Cider (which also works well) or just leave both out altogether.

Once the wine (if you've used it) has reduced down then you can add the cream. I'm not going to give you measurements as it's just a case of personal taste. I like it quite creamy and put the thoughts of calories to the back of my mind. 

- Season with some black pepper... I tend to not add any salt in as the bacon is naturally quite salty and I always put a bit in with the cooking pasta.

- Drain off your pasta but keep a teeny bit of the starchy water. Mix both into the creamy sauce... let it all heat through and you're ready to get munching...

It doesn't take long at all and it's so versatile you can pop anything in. A really nice addition are a few  cherry tomatoes as they add a little sweetness... mum often uses homegrown courgettes and instead of wine and mustard she adds a few fennel seeds. If you're a veggie then leave out the bacon... or if you like an extra meaty dish then you could use up that left over roast chicken. There are lots of possibilities so I hope it's given you some ideas.

Let me know if you make it and if you do, what will you add?

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Not just for Halloween

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but with the 31st October fast approaching, I thought I'd share the closest thing to a Halloween ish recipe I have! I make it with Butternut Squash but you could easily swap it for Pumpkin if you fancied. This is one of my favourite dinners, I seem to make it more than anything else as it's just so easy.

Squashy Pasta

When I first started making this, I didn't use the Chorizo and it was still as delicious... So if you're a Vegetarian don't worry, just leave it out!

- Preheat the oven to about 200 degrees Celsius / Gas mark 6.

- Chop up the Butternut Squash and onion into chunks and put into a roasting tray. 

- Pop in a couple of chopped garlic cloves, salt & black pepper and drizzle it all with some olive oil. Stir it all so everything is nicely glistening in oil. 

- Roast in the oven for 30 minutes. 

- Around 10 mins before the time is up, put your pasta on to cook (depending on how long yours takes!) 

- At this point you also want to put your chopped up Chorizo into the pan with the squash etc. 

- Once pasta is cooked, drain it but leave a teeny bit of water left in the pan. Put the contents of the roasting tin in with the pasta and add a couple of big spoonfuls of Creme Fraiche. 

- Give it all a good stir over a low heat just so the creme fraiche heats through. It's totally up to you how much you put in... I tend to add a bit more as I like this dish quite creamy. 

- You're ready to serve. Grate some fresh Parmesan over the top with some more black pepper and enjoy! 

It's not the best looking dish I grant you but it's so yummy. I find it such an easy dish to make and I always end up making too much. It's nice the next day too heated through in the microwave. 

Let me know if you give it a go and I hope you like it! 

(Apologies for the shoddy photos... iphone and bad lighting in my tiny kitchen)

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