Roast Tomato and Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

This combo works really well in a lasagne, so I thought it would be good for a pasta sauce - and I was right!  Roast some ripe fresh tomatoes, chunks of butternut, onion and garlic, blend with some roasted red peppers from a jar and lots of basil, and you have a sweet sauce that coats penne or other pasta shapes perfectly.  I imagine this would be a popular sauce for kids, with its sweet tomatoey flavour they seem to love.  Frankly, you couldn't cram more veg in to them if you stuck a funnel down their throats and force-fed them like fois gras geese.  Anyway, simply chop and de-seed a small butternut, and sprinkle with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.  Do the same with three or four big, ripe tomatoes.  Peel and quarter a large onion and drizzle with oil.  Roast at 180C for half-an-hour, then tip it all into a food processor, (scoop the butternut flesh from the skin) with the drained contents of half a jar of roasted red peppers, and blitz to your desired consistency.  I like it chunky, but kids might prefer a smooth texture.  Reheat until bubbling, thinning with a little hot water if you want, adjust the seasoning, stir through some fresh basil, and then fold through freshly-coooked pasta.  Lots of grated parmesan is a must to add some counter-balance to the sweetness.  Easy, simple, and cheap - definitely an under a fiver job.

Vincisgrassi

"What?" - I hear you asking - "is Vincisgrassi"?  It is how Italians in the Marche region made Lasagne before tomatoes became popular, and is an old traditional recipe, popularised in the UK about 20 years ago when Franco Taruschio was cooking at the Walnut Tree restaurant near Abergavenny.  His recipe consisted of home-made egg lasagne, layered with a rich, cream-based besciamella sauce of mushrooms (dried and fresh), minced Parma ham, garlic, parsley, and truffles, topped with Parmesan and baked until golden.  People travelled from all over the country to eat it, apparently.  My version is less rich, made with skimmed milk and no cream, and no truffles - too rich for me!  Also, I used dried pasta which is just fine, and added chopped chard to turn it into a complete meal.  As with any lasagne, it is a construction job of several elements, so set plenty of time aside, but when done, it can happily sit in the fridge for up to a day before baking.  A great dish for entertaining. 

Stage 1: Mince 50g of Parma ham in a food processor or mini chopper.  Slice 500g of good field mushrooms.  Chop a couple of cloves of garlic and a shallot.  Melt 50g of butter in a pan, add all these ingredients, and cook for 5 minutes or so until mushrooms are tender and juicy.  Stir in a heaped tablespoon of flour, then gradually add a pint of milk (full-fat if you like), bring to the boil, then stir in 50g of grated Parmesan.  Season well and set aside.
Stage 2: Bring a pan of water to the boil and plunge in 9 sheets of dried lasagne.  Boil for 3 minutes, then drain, rinse under cool water and lay out on a tea towel.  I do this even if the pack says it can be cooked from dry.  Finely chop the stems of a bunch of swiss chard and roughly chop the leaves.  Saute in a glug of olive oil until wilted and all liquid has been driven off, then season well with lots of grated nutmeg, and salt and pepper.
Stage 3: Assemble in an appropriately-sized roasting or gratin dish.  I line mine with baking parchment to save scrubbing for weeks.  Put 1/4 of the mushroom bechamel sauce in the bottom.  Cover with 3 sheets of lasagne, half the chard and another 1/4 of the sauce.  Repeat this layer, ending with the remaining pasta.  Cover with the last 1/4 of the sauce, sprinkle with a further 25g or so of Parmesan, then bake for 40 minutes until bubbling brown.  Leave to sit for 5 minutes, cut into four and eat.  Warning: this is very delicious, and my husband is already asking when I'll be making it again

Pasticcio

This'll put hairs on your chest.  A Pasticcio is essentially a greek version of an Italian meat and pasta bake.  The pasta is mixed with a ragu made from minced lamb, onions, garlic and tomatoes, and seasoned with ground cinnamon (not too much) and dried oregano.  Once thick and reduced, mix the sauce with cooked pasta - a chunky variety such as rigatoni is good, then top with a cheesy, nutmeggy white sauce and parmesan and baked until set and bubbly-brown on top.  The cinnamon gives it a really different flavour and is what edges it a couple of countries to the right from Italy to Greece - a moussaka lasagne, if you like.  Anyway, for 4, use 500g of minced lamb and a regular tin of tomatoes, and you will need around 300g of pasta, and half a pint of cheese sauce.  This makes a cheap and substantial dinner, and could be done for around the fiver mark, depending on the cost of your meat - however, I'd say go for good quality and then it might push it up to the six quid bracket.  Still great value though.

Pasta alla Norma

The divine Giorgio Locatelli has just published a magisterial book on Sicilian cooking, and I have already book-marked about 20 things to cook.  The Sicilians are very influenced by the Moors who once ruled their island, and it is thought that they made pasta well before it was introduced on the mainland.  Pasta alla Norma is one of their most famous dishes, and Giorgio's version is rich with roasted and deep-fried aubergines, masses of olive oil, and a cheese called ricotta salata or salted and semi-hard ricotta.  I have simplified this to cut down the need to deep-fry the aubergine, but it is still delicious and a great veggie pasta dish.  Even given that aubergines aren't that cheap, this will still qualify as an 'under a fiver' dish for 4 - easily halved as well.  Start off by cutting two aubergines into chunks about 2cm across.  Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a non-stick pan until hot and then fry the aubergines over a highish heat until golden brown and soft on all sides.  It will drink up the oil - don't be tempted to add more, just keep turning the pieces regularly and it will be fine.  Now make a tomato sauce with a large onion, 4 cloves of garlic (both finely chopped), another couple of tablespoons of olive oil and 2 x 400g tins of good tomatoes - Cirio brand for me.  When the sauce is thick and reduced, add the aubergines and about 20g of chopped fresh basil.  Heat through, whilst cooking 400g of pasta - rigatoni, penne or even bucatini, the thick southern-Italian spaghetti.  Drain the pasta, keeping a little of the cooking water back, and toss with the aubergine and tomato sauce, adding a little cooking water to slacken everything and help it coat.  If you are lucky enough to get hold of ricotta salata, grate it over everything and serve pronto.  If not, Pecorino Romano or Parmesan is good, and I also stirred some chopped mozarella through right at the end.  Why not pop on a CD of Bellini's opera 'Norma', after which the dish is named, whilst you prepare and eat - I favour the recording with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne or Callas/Ludwig.

Tortelloni Soup

This soup, or versions of it, has been doing the food blog rounds this winter, so I thought I'd give it a go.  It breathes life into bought tortelloni, and makes a substantial, low fat meal-in-a-bowl, especially with salad and garlic bread.  You can go veggie too, varying the pasta fillling and using veg stock.  I do think it needs a good stock, though, so I made some chicken stock with yesterdays' roast chicken, about a litre and a half for 4 people.  Then I added a tin of chopped tomatoes, a sliced leek and onion, a sliced carrot and a couple of cloves of garlic, crushed or grated.  Simmer for 30 minutes or so until the veg is tender, then add a good handful of baby spinach leaves, chopped chard or greens - whatever you have, and simmer for another few minutes to wilt and soften the greens.  In a separate pot, boil a 500g pack of tortelloni or ravioli - whatever filling takes your fancy, though I went just for cheese and tomato.  Drain and add to the soup along with some shredded leftover chicken if you have any.  Dish up with grated parmesan.  Depending on the brand and filling of pasta, this falls well under the fiver price barrier and is good and filling - we have loads of leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Broccoli and Salmon Pasta Bake

Nursing two broken toes has meant a rather less ambitious couple of weeks in the kitchen, hence the quietness on here recently (although I did manage to make 8 Christmas puddings last weekend......).  So it is nice to be able to be a little more ambitious in the last day or two as they get better.  This adaptation of a BBC Good Food recipe went down well.  It is, essentially, raw fillets of boneless, skinless salmon laid on a baking dish, topped with penne and broccoli in a cheese sauce, then baked for 20 minutes until brown and bubbling and the fish cooked through.  The sauce also has sun-dried tomatoes, basil and capers added (and anchovies, if liked - I don't).  The original recipe uses mascarpone and, lovely though that is, it is too rich for a week-day supper.  So I just used  ordinary milk and made a bechamel with it instead.  You'll find the original recipe on the Good Food website - a nice way to use ubiquitous salmon, and filling and comforting as the nights get colder.  You could vary this endlessly - use leeks, spinach, Swiss chard or mushrooms instead of broccoli, and chicken or ham instead of salmon (though I'd probably lightly cook the chicken first).

Nigel Slater's Roasted Peppers with Pasta and Basil

We have been getting some wonderful long 'ramiro' peppers from Riverford this Autumn.  They are sweeter than traditional 'bell' peppers, and when I saw this recipe on Nigel's recent 'Simple Cooking' series, I knew I had to make it.  It is a variation on Piedmontese Peppers, where the halved peppers are stuffed with cherry tomatoes and garlic.  You make basil oil by blitzing a lot of fresh basil with olive oil, spoon over the peppers and tomatoes, and bake for 20 minutes or so, until the peppers are soft and juicy.  Serve with orechiette pasta, dressed in the remaining basil oil and the juices from the baking tin.  A delightful dish.  It would work with regular peppers, I'm sure, but do try to get the ramiro ones

Ina Garten's Italian Wedding Soup

I have been watching Ina Garten's 'Back to Basics' on the UK Food Network (obsessively, my husband would assert) and saw her make this the other day.  It is a famous recipe in the blogosphere, and consists of little chicken meatballs in a good chicken broth with diced carrots, onions, spinach and parsley.   Tiny pasta is added, in my case risoni, and it is topped with grated Parmesan.  I made the meatballs by mixing a couple of skinned pork sausages (Ina recommends chicken sausages, but it is tricky to find good quality ones), with some minced cooked chicken, some breadcrumbs, garlic, grated Parmesan, an egg and lots of chopped parsley.  The little balls are baked in the oven, which keeps the fat down.  Meanwhile, cook the carrot and onion in the stock until tender - use good homemade stock, and we got through 2 pints of it for our dinner! - and then add the pasta about 10 minutes before serving.  In the final minute, add a handful of chopped spinach, the meatballs and lots of parsley and serve piping hot with Parmesan on top.  Delicious!

Pasta with Salmon and Courgette Sauce

I was ticked off today for not doing enough blogging over the last week, so, simple though this dish is, I thought I'd placate my fans and publish it!  I had some poached salmon left over from the weekend, so whilst a pan of pasta was cooking, I lightly sauteed a sliced courgette in a little butter with the zest of half a lemon, then added 40ml of Noilly Prat vermouth (or use white wine), the juice of the lemon, a heaped tablespoon of creme fraiche (use half-fat if watching your intake) and the flaked salmon.  GENTLY heat through (you don't want to split the cream or make the salmon go 'woolly'), and then drain the pasta, reserving a little cooking water, and toss the pasta in the sauce.  Thin with a little cooking water if needed.  Grind in lots of black pepper and some chopped parsley, and serve piping hot.  Italinas would never dream of adding Parmesan to a fish sauce, neither would I, but don't let me stop you, it's YOUR tea!

Pasta Primavera

Normally, recipes for this dish are very heavy on the butter and/or cream, but it is possible to lighten it up with much less fat, through using chicken or veg stock.  Go with whatever veg you have in that is good and seasonal - I went for carrot, broad beans, courgettes, asparagus tips and some peas, with baby spinach folded in at the end.  This is a good way to get your five-a-day!.. Sweat a finely diced onion in 10g of butter and a teaspoon of olive oil.  Keep the heat gentle and a lid on.  Prepare all the other veg, addding first the carrot, then the asparagus and then the courgettes and peas, allowing each to sweat a little in the covered pan to soften before adding th next.  Add about 150ml of stock, cover, and simmer gently whilst you boil the pasta.  Drain pasta, add baby spinach and mix, and sprinkle with some parmesan.  So delicate and summery. 

Rigatoni with Beef Tagliata, Roast Tomatoes, Beans and Light Pesto

I've always enjoyed the taste of a good steak, but been somewhat put off by a large lump of meat, bleeding onto my plate.  The Italians, as with so much in life, have it right, by serving the steak tagliata, or in slices - this makes it easier to eat, and makes the meat stretch further.  This was a delicious invention, if I say so myself, and I am sorry I didn't take a pic of the finished dish.  Advance prep is best - blanch and skin some broad beans and blanch some fresh sliced green beans, and meanwhile, quarter three ripe tomatoes, spritz with a little olive oil, and roast for 20 minutes.  All the veg turned up in the Riverford box today, and were soooo fresh!  Make some pesto, either the traditional way, or using my amazing, patented low-fat version.  In a mini chopper, blitz 25g basil leaves, a small clove of garlic, a heaped tablespoon of 0% Greek Yoghurt or low-fat cottage cheese, and about 15g of grated fresh parmesan.  Cook your pasta (150g for 2) and chargrill your steak, letting it rest for a minute or two while the pasta finishes. 1x150g steak was plenty for us to share.  Just before serving, slice the meat across the grain.  When done, drain the pasta, return to the hot pot, and throw all the ingredients in, giving it all a good stir, and serve on hot plates with a little extra Parmesan grated over.  No idea of the calories really - guessing around 550 a portion?  But really low fat, and totally delicious.  I will make it again, and take pictures, I promise!

Chicken, Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

Usually I make cannelloni with lots of bechamel sauce, cheese, olive-oil rich tomato sauce - not a low fat dish!  However, I brought this under 450 cals per portion and a perfectly reasonable fat content by using a couple of tablespoons of ricotta, no bechamel but a rich tomato sauce (with not much oil) and some fresh parmesan on top at the end.  This used the last of the roast chicken from Sunday, which was blitzed in a processor with the ricotta, some cooked spinach and lots of nutmeg.  Use sheets of dried lasagne that have been boiled for 5 minutes, refreshed in cold water and dried.  Spread the filling and roll up, then top with tomato sauce, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. You tend to eat much less pasta in this format (and lasagne) than if it was a bowl of the stuff dressed with sauce - probably only about 50g each, hence the lower calories on the bottom line.  Not as rich (or a satisfying?) as with a lovely cheesy sauce, but still good to eat.

Spaghetti Puttanesca

Now, this is a challenge.  Puttanesca needs oil and olives and cheese and plenty of pasta.  Something's gotta give!  I decided that we needed the carbs and have been good all week, so it is the full 100g portion each of pasta for us tonight, not the measly 75g that most books say - my hubby could put 150g away in one serving.  I also used a full tablespoon of oil - this seems quite a shocking amount now, even after just a week.  So, 1 tablespoon of oil in which you saute some sliced onion and a couple of cloves of garlic - keeping the lid on during this process creates steam and helps the cooking process.  I also added some fresh fennel bulb, very finely sliced, the remains of a tin of tomatoes from last night's chilli, some fresh cherry tomatoes, about 10 olives and some rinsed salted nonpareilles capers.  I don't use anchovy in my puttanesca, as I think it makes it smell like cat sick.  Simmer until all the veg are tender and the sauce has reduced a little, add some fresh oregano if you have it, and serve up with the pasta and just a little grated parmesan.  Dunno how many calories, but this isn't a diet, rather it is a healthy eating regime!

Pasta with Tomato, Mascarpone , Asparagus and Basil

Okay, so you could make this sauce by gently simmering onions, garlic, tomatoes and mascarpone until smooth and tender - or you could go to Marks and Sparks and pick up a tub of their ready-made, which is really very good.  Guess which I did?  Anyway, once you have your said sauce, tart it up a bit with some fresh pesto and basil leaves stirred through, along with a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan.  Towards the end of the pasta cooking time (I used shells as they hold the sauce nicely) throw in some asparagus, cut on the diagonal into pieces.  When all cooked, drain the pasta and asparagus, mix with the sauce, add more parmesan and tuck in.  Scrummy, and you'd never guess the sauce was ready-made.  Ooops!

Asparagus and Cheese Penne Pasta

Another simple veggie supper - slice some asparagus on the diagonal, add to the pot of pasta 3 or 4 minutes before the end of cooking is up, drain and mix with a creamy cheesy bechamel sauce with some fresh parsley.  I add some 'poke' to the sauce by adding mustard and Cayenne pepper, along with a good grating of nutmeg.  You can take this dish off in different directions by adding chopped ham, crisp bacon, sliced tomatoes, smoked salmon.  You can also tip it into a dish, top with cheese and brown under the grill. 

Butternut Squash, Spinach and Tomato Lasagne

I know - another squash recipe!  They arrive regularly in our veg box, and it is an (enjoyable) challenge to find new ways to use them.  This was a very delicious solution to the weekly 'what do we do with the squash this time?' conundrum, and I found the recipe on the BBC Good Food site.  It was quite time-consuming to make, because of all the various stages, but none of them are hard and it whiled away a lazy Saturday afternoon.  It is worth using the tinned cherry tomatoes, as they do add a different texture to the proceedings.  Anyway, great veggie dish and worth considering as a Christmas dinner alternative, I would think.

Gratin of Penne with Leeks and Bacon

I love macaroni cheese - it is such a warming thing to eat on a cold night like tonight, and Delia's take on it includes leeks and a little bacon for savoury yumminess.  Here is Delia's recipe - I didn't use the cream, as I thought it rich enough, but by all means go ahead and use it if your arteries are younger than mine.

Mushroom and Mascarpone Sauce for Pasta

This isn't low fat, for sure, but it got supper on the table in 15 minutes and was warming and filling on a freezing foggy Autumn night.  Whilst your pasta is cooking, what ever shape you fancy, saute a finely chopped onion in a tablespoon of olive oil until starting to soften, then add a clove of crushed garlic and stir for a minute or two.  Then add a punnet of chopped mushrooms, whatever you have to hand - I used two wonderful big Portobello mushrooms from the Riverford veg box - and saute for a minute or two over a brisk heat until lovely and juicy.  Strip three or four small sprigs of fresh thyme and stir into the pot.  Now, stir in around half a tub of mascarpone, about 125g.  I know, I know, stop whingeing, it is for 2 people!  Allow it to melt and bubble into the mushrooms.  Taste and adjust the seasoning, stirring in a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan.  Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the cooking water.  Add drained pasta to the pan and stir well with the sauce, adding a little of the reserved cooking water if needed.  Add some chopped parsley if you have it. Spoon into hot bowls, sprinkle a little more parmesan over, and tuck in!  Now what to make with the remaining mascarpone?  Same again?  Or spoon it through a hot tomato sauce for another creamy pasta option!

Chard and Ricotta Cannelloni

I had a bag of mixed chard leaves from the Riverford box - ruby, golden and green.  They were quite small with not much stem, so I had no qualms about throwing away some of the stems, although I would normally want to use them too.  The blanched leaves were chopped finely and mixed with ricotta, nutmeg and grated Parmesan.  I use lasagne sheets rather than cannelloni tubes, cooking them for a few minutes to soften and drying on kitchen paper.  Marcella Hazan's tip is to spread the filling all over the sheet of lasagne and then roll up, rather than having a wodge of filling in the middle and several layers of pasta round it.  This makes for a much lighter finish.  Place the rolls on a layer of chopped, skinned fresh tomatoes, and then top with a simple bechamel sauce and more Parmesan.  Forty minutes in a medium oven, until all is tender and bubbling with a golden cheesy crust, makes for a most scrummy dinner.  Use spinach if you don't have chard.

Orecchiette with Broccoli, Garlic and Chilli

There are probably as many recipes for this as there are Italian cooks, but however you do it, it makes for a cheap yet nourishing and filling supper. Do use the orecchiette pasta, though, as it has a particular texture - firm and chewy - that is 'right' for this. I think it means 'little ears' and they certainly resemble them! For 2: Whilst the pasta is cooking (it takes about 13-14 minutes, a little longer than other pasta), steam or boil a head of broccoli, broken into florets, you don't need the stem for this but do add any leaves, chopped. Then, heat 2 or three tablespoons of good olive oil in a pan and gently soften 2 or 3 cloves of chopped garlic - don't be afraid to let it go a little golden and toasty, but not brown when it becomes bitter. Add a chopped red chilli (to taste, but it should have some 'poke') and then the cooked broccoli. Continue to saute until the broccoli starts to break down a little but remains green, seasoning with a little salt and lots of black pepper. Strain the pasta, keeping back a few spoons of water, and stir through the sauce, adding the reserved water if it is dry and another spoon of oil. Serve with fresh parmesan, quite coarsely grated. Very nice for the end of the month, no money blues!