Posts Tagged ‘pasta’
Spanish Style Pasta Sauce Recipe
I’m a pasta fiend. It’s my go to meal, a bit like a pizza I don’t care it’s vegetarian, meat lover, bolognese or in this case spanish style. This was a really quick light lunch – a lazy man’s paella. I was also trying to use up a heap of home-grown tomatoes, but you could easily replace with whole-tinned tomatoes.
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1/2kg quartered tomatoes
- 1 hot chorizo
- 2 roughly chopped cloves garlic
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- pinch of saffron
- salt
- pepper
- 300gm pasta – preferrably tubes, spirals or shells
- parmesan
Method
Slice the chorizo and fry it in a good amount of olive oil. Add the garlic and when it is fragrant, add the tomatoes and cook until they are soft. Mash them with the back of your spoon and add the paprika, saffron, salt, pepper and the stock. Put the pasta on to cook. Stir the sauce and cook on medium heat. When the pasta is al dente, strain and add to the sauce and cook for a few minutes.
Serve and drizzle with a bit of extra virgin and a small sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
You should follow me on Twitter.Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe
This post is part of an ongoing series about dinner ideas.
Spaghetti Bolognese is the most Australian-Italian recipe there is. It is a staple in nearly every university student’s diet, taught by their mother with instructions something along the lines of, “This is cheap, good for you and you can freeze it for a rainy day!” Cheap it is, with enough food to feed 4 or 5 well clocking in under $15. It is so easy it is almost a case of throwing all the ingredients in a pot, boiling some pasta and serving.
The actual Italian authenticity of this recipe is doubtful. It has almost certainly been bastardised by lazy, homely cooking techniques, but one thing is for certain, it never fails to please. It is easy and almost impossible to go wrong with and there are so many ways to modify and improve this recipe.
Ingredients, to serve 4
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium-large onion
- 5 cloves of garlic, diced
- 500g good quality mince
- 2 tins of diced or crushed tomatoes
- 200ml of stock, beef or vegetable
- 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon of vegemite
- Fresh or dried basil, parsley, oregano, thyme
- 1 carrot, sliced
- 1/2 red capsicum, diced
- 2 handfuls of swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
- 500g homemade pasta (spaghetti) or 300g of dry pasta
- 1 block parmesan cheese
Process
Over a medium heat in a deep frying pan, cook onions till they are clear in the olive oil, add the garlic and cook for about a minute. With the onions and garlic, fry the mince until it is brown. Stir into the mince the tomatoes, stock, tomato paste, vegemite and finally the herbs (the more the merrier). Let this simmer for approximately 10 minutes, before adding the carrot, capsicum and mushrooms. Cover and simmer for a minimum 10 or more minutes, the longer the better.
Cook the pasta with a liberal amount of salt, strain and 5 minutes before serving add to the sauce and stir in. This step is important as the pasta absorbs the flavours in the sauce and makes the meal that much better.
Serve in a deep bowl with cracked pepper, rock salt and a generous serving of freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Wine Pairing
This meaty, tomato sauce is best eaten with an earthy, spicy, medium bodied red such as a young Cabernet Merlot, Sangiovese or Pinot Noir. Notes of tobacco, leather and dark cherries will complement but not overpower the rich tomato flavours. There is no need to overspend as most recent releases of these varieties will probably be suitable. Read the label and if the winemakers notes agree the wine will be great.
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