🥘 Carole’s quick pasta Amatriciana…

🥘 2 🍽 Serves 4 – 6 🛒 5 ingredients €5 ⏱ 20 minutes

This pasta dish gets its name from the small town of Amatrice in central Italy.

Often made with Bucatini a long spaghetti shaped pasta, we have used Penne which soaks up the sauce very well.

Apparently, chef Francesco Leonardi, served this dish to the Pope Pius V11 in 1816.

With just five main ingredients, it is quick and easy to make. If you can’t find guanciale, pancetta is just as good.

Ingredients:

2kg tomatoes, roughly chopped. Cherry or plum tomatoes are ideal
250g guanciale cut into strips, or diced pancetta
2 small red chillies
500g dried pasta
200g pecorino, grated

Make your passata. Put the tomatoes into your food processor and blend them to a fine pulp. Pressing the pulp through a sieve with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Simmer for 20-30 minutes until reduced by a third. Season with sea salt flakes and ground black pepper and add a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
Put the guanciale (or pancetta) in a large heavy-based frying pan. Place it over a medium heat and the fat will melt slowly while the bacon cooks. Add the whole chillies and cook for 8-10 minutes. Stir in the passata, bring to the boil and simmer for 4-5 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook your pasta and add it to your sauce. Sprinkle with most of the cheese and stir it in well. Remove the chillies and serve in warmed bowls with more grated cheese on top and some fresh parsley to garnish.

Guanciale (pigs cheek) available on line from Kimbers Farm shop

Notes:

Homemade passata can be frozen. 2kg tomatoes will yield you approx 700ml passata sauce.

Tinned tomatoes work just as well and some people prefer them. To save time, I often use Napolina or Cirio passata, both available from supermarkets.

Kimbers deliver next day and if you want to stock up or share with friends, its free delivery onn orders over £150

Kimbers’ Farm Shop
Linley Farm, Charlton Musgrove, Wincanton, Somerset BA9 8HD
01963 33177 info@kimbersfarmshop.co.uk
Farming for over 300 years

4 pack of 400g tinned tomatoes
£4.70 from Tesco

🥘 Carole’s one pot creamy pasta…

🥘 Carole’s spinach, pea and pesto pasta…

Peas, pesto and pasta with spinach and basil make this a tasty, colourful vegetarian dish. We have added some chopped bacon to the meat eaters portions.

Ingredients:

200g tagliatelle, or pasta of your choice
4 rashers streaky bacon
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup of peas
50g pesto sauce
100ml single cream
1/2 bag baby spinach
handful fresh basil
2 tbsp parmesan

Step by step:

Step 1

Cook your pasta in a pan of well salted boiling water and grill or pan fry the streaky bacon.

Step 2

Meanwhile, add the olive oil to a sauté pan and fry off the onion until translucent. Add the peas and stir through the pesto sauce, add the cream, stir and cook until the peas are cooked. Now add and stir through the spinach.

Step 3

Drain off your pasta and add it to the sauce. Serve with the chopped bacon for meat eaters, plenty of chopped basil, and grated parmesan.

🥘 Carole’s avocado, feta and baby spinach salad…

***🥘 1 🍽 Serves 2 🛒 13 ingredients ⏱ 15 mins £5***

A quick, easy, and delicious salad with homemade vinaigrette.

**Maille Wholegrain Mustard £2.75 – Sainsbury’s**

Ingredients:

For your vinaigrette

125ml extra-virgin olive
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, 1 chopped or pressed
sea salt and black pepper

For your salad:

1 garlic clove, halved (optional)
1 bag mixed salad leaves
1 bag baby spinach
1 large ripe avocado, peeled and chopped
big handful of black grapes, halved
1/2 block feta (we used M&S Greek Feta)
Extra-virgin olive oil
4 slices streaky bacon, chopped

Step by step:

Step 1

Make your vinaigrette. Pour the extra-virgin olive oil into a glass jug or jar. Add the white wine vinegar and mustard.

Add the garlic and whisk it all together in the jug, or shake it in the jar.

Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.

The vinaigrette will keep in the fridge for a week.

Step 2

Make the salad. Take a large salad bowl and wipe the sides with the halved garlic clove. Tip in the salad leaves and baby spinach and toss the leaves so they pick up a hint of the garlic.

Add the avocado, grapes and feta cheese.

Meanwhile cook your bacon so it’s nice and crispy. Set it aside on kitchen towel.

Top the salad with the chopped bacon and serve with a drizzle of oil and your own vinaigrette.

Notes:

Experiment with the dressing. Try red wine vinegar which will give a stronger flavour. Balsamic vinegar make a sweeter dressing and goes well with salads containing fruit.

The old classic of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and chopped garlic with crusty bread for mopping up is hard to beat.

Just add radish, cucumber and celery to the salad if you want extra crunch

Filippo Berio is our choice for oil and vinegar.

🥘 Carole’s Spanakopita pasta…

Inspired by the flavours of the famous Greek pie, this pasta is quick and easy to make. The spinach and feta are a great combination, simply double or quadruple the quantities of ingredients to feed more than 1 person.

Ingredients:

75g penne or tagliatelle
1 tsp olive oil
1 small clove garlic, crushed
2 salad onions, finely sliced
115g baby spinach
50g low fat soft cheese
1 handful chopped basil
1/2 unwaxed lemon, zested and 2 tsp juice
40g low fat Greek feta

Step by step:

Step 1

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the pack instructions. After 5 minutes, heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the garlic and salad onions over a low-medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring well. Add the spinach and cook until wilted, pop the lid on the pan.

Step 2

Stir in the soft cheese, basil and the lemon zest and juice. Gently heat through until piping hot and season well with black pepper.

Step 3

Add the pasta to the creamy spinach mixture. Spoon into a shallow bowl and crumble over the feta cheese to serve

***M&S Light Creamy Soft Cheese £1.50***

🥘 Carole’s mushroom and celery pasta…

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 small leek, chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
6 large green olives, chopped
4 button or chestnut mushrooms, chopped
6 balls tagliatelle
1 x 250g jar Filippo Berio grilled vegetable pasta sauce
parmesan cheese
fresh parsley

Step by step:

Step 1

Add the olive oil to a pan and fry off the onions, celery, leeks and mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes. Meanwhile put your pasta in a pan of boiling, salted water and cook according the pack instructions.

Add 2 tbsp water to the vegetables and continue cooking for another 5 minutes, stirring regularly so they don’t stick.

Step 2

Add the pasta sauce, stir thoroughly and cook for another 5 minutes. Add extra water if you want to thin the sauce.

Step 3

When the celery is softening, add the olives and parsley and cook for another minute or so.

To serve

Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and stir through well. Serve in one big preheated bowl for everyone to dive into, or individual bowls.

**Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil £8.60 / 500ml**

Add a good drizzle of olive oil over the pasta and have a bowl of parmesan on the table with some crusty bread for mopping up the delicious sauce.

***Sainsbury’s Parmigiano Reggiano £3.40 / 200g***

Notes:

The quantities in the recipe here are ideal for 4 people. If there is only 2 of you, keep the leftover pasta, it makes a wonderful soup and you get two meals for £5.

Did you know?

Filippo Berio pasta sauce is gluten and lactose free. Made using only natural ingredients with no artificial flavourings or preservatives, the sauce has a traditional Italian flavour and tastes just like homemade.

Ingredients verdure grigliate sauce:

Tomato 78% (Tomato Pulp, Tomato Purée), Onion 4%, Grilled Aubergines 3%, Grilled Red Peppers 3%, Grilled Yellow Peppers 3%, Grilled Courgettes 3%, Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2%, Sugar, Garlic, Salt, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Oregano, Black Pepper.