Pasta has been very big in our house lately. A lot of meals have been pasta based, and I don't mean the fancy fresh filled pasta - oh no, this is the dried penne pasta which is very cheap in Aldi. Luckily, pasta is a good slow-release carbohydrate and with a few tasty additions can be very pleasant both hot and cold. It's a useful cheap alternative to anything involving expensive ingredients.
Over the weekend I made a tomato sauce to go with hot pasta, and very nice it was too. It was simply onion, garlic, a tin of tomatoes (fresh tomatoes would be even nicer), tomato puree, a pinch of sugar, a good pinch of dried basil and some chopped up green olives all cooked up together until the sauce had thickened a bit. I suppose in total the ingredients cost about 50p and it was much much nicer than any jar of pasta sauce, and without any nasty preservatives. A grating of cheddar or parmesan on top and it's a lovely quick store-cupboard meal.
Tonight is a tuna pasta salad. This is another good store-cupboard recipe as it only needs cooked pasta, a tin of tuna, red kidney beans, sweetcorn and some cherry tomatoes. These are all mixed up with an olive oil, white wine and dijon mustard dressing to make a very good alternative to a green salad. It's especially useful in hot weather as the only cooking involved is boiling the pasta.
Another favourite recipe, and one I've cooked for years, is cheese, bacon, mushroom and pasta bake. Simply cook up the pasta, fry some diced bacon and sliced mushrooms with some thyme, combine the pasta with the bacon and mushrooms, make a cheese sauce and mix with the above. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes at gas mark 5. This makes a lovely warm and filling meal on colder days.
I'd love to hear anybody elses favourite pasta recipes, as I've a feeling there will be a lot more pasta being eaten over the coming months.
Your recipes sound good. As a vegetarian I like to make cannelloni stuffed with spinach, cottage cheese( or ricotto, not sure you spell that, if it's on special)a little garlic and/or chopped mushroom and baked in a herby tomato saucewith a sprinkle of cheddar and parmesan.
Posted by: Maureen | 07/30/2008 at 06:44 AM
Your pasta recipes sound delicious, we often have a tuna chilli and tomato sauce with our pasta.
There is an award for you on my blog btw
Posted by: Heather | 07/30/2008 at 08:39 AM
I have a stack here on my cooking blog - www.reactivecooking.com. I can't add a URL on the comments, but just put "pasta" in the search box.
We're eating more and more pasta these days - nice and cheap.
Posted by: mac jordan | 07/30/2008 at 09:03 AM
We're big pasta fans in this house too, a little mince goes a long way for Spaghetti Bolognese,but I like a cheese sauce best and you can add all sorts of ingredients depending on what's in the fridge.
Posted by: Gill | 07/31/2008 at 11:45 PM
How funny, I just blogged about my pasta recipe!
Posted by: Frugal Trenches | 08/01/2008 at 08:22 PM