Monday's pasta and cheese

There's no picture of our Italian dinner,
but here we are in Rome.

Matt, my husband, had been mentioning on and off about recreating a pasta dish we had in Rome last year: cacio e pepe. This translates as cheese and pepper and was on offer in lots of the restaurants around where we were staying. A quick internet search (we made use of the free Wi-Fi®* in our apartment) revealed that it literally consisted of loads of grated cheese and freshly ground black pepper. This was something I wasn't keen on spending my touristical Euros on in a restaurant when we could quite easily rustle it up ourselves – especially as the apartment also came with black pepper. So we bought some spaghetti and the suggested two types of cheese (pecorino and grana padano if memory serves me correctly). There was a lot of cheese, but we like cheese. And we had ourselves a very simple and delicious dinner.

But we are not on holiday and thus such a super cheesy dinner was out of the question when normal diet rules apply. But I had been thinking about macaroni cheese a bit recently. I haven't had macaroni cheese for years. Rather than a pure macaroni cheese (which is probably on the too cheesy end of the spectrum) I decided to incorporate some spinach which wasn't going to keep much longer. And rather than macaroni I actually used whole wheat pasta bows. So it wasn't really going to be much of a macaroni at all.

I started off by making a white sauce in one pan and sweating a chopped red onion in another. The onion was easy – I have a lot of practice. The white sauce on the other hand might be a problem, my success rate is variable. I was feeling kind of optimistic because I had seen a TV cook make one the other day so had a new trick up my sleeve. I started off with a big dollop of butter (maybe I would have more success if I weighed it), melted this and then added about the same volume of plain flour. As I have deduced I cooked this for quite a while to avoid raw flour taste in the sauce – I think it is now called a roux. Once I thought the roux had cooked for long enough I added some milk – here's the new trick: the TV cook had used boiling milk. Now to me the concept of boiling milk is very worrying (visions of extreme mess in the microwave / all over the hob) but I was prepared to heat it up a bit. So I blasted my first cup of milk for 30 seconds on high to make it a bit hot. On adding this to my roux the whole lot thickened immediately. None of the tedious whisking for ages that I'm used to. I did the same with a second and third cup of milk and ended up with what looked like a rather nice white sauce.

But I wasn't after a nice white sauce, I was after cheesy spinach goodness. The cheese went in first – about half a standard size block of strong cheddar (or low(er) fat imitation in this instance), along with some ground nutmeg and black pepper. And then I tipped in my now sweated onion and the spinach. I used the whole bag of spinach which might at first seem a lot (it was 3+ colanders full) but it cooks down to a fraction of this volume. While that cooked a little bit I boiled the pasta (to save on washing up I used the same pan as for the onion).

 

It was all happening surprisingly quickly now. I tipped the cooked pasta into an oven-proof dish and poured over the spinach / cheese sauce and mixed it all up. That would probably have been enough, but for a few extra vitamins I added some cherry tomatoes, for a bit of extra texture I sprinkled over some breadcrumbs, and then just because I grated over a bit of parmesan.

 

It went into the oven at 180ºC and baked for about 15 minutes. The outcome was just as delicious as the cacio e pepe. Maybe not quite as simple, but definitely more nutritious. And it made an excellent reheat Tuesday lunch.

 

*Matt is happy to provide an explanation of why this is a registered trademark.

Wednesday's boozy mushrooms

I got excited when I got a text from Matt, my husband, the other day asking me what I'd like for dinner. The reason that this is exciting is that when he cooks it often involves cheese and I was in the mood for cheese. Nonetheless I responded suggesting potato (jacket) or pasta as we needed to be pretty swift about getting out of the house.

So I was surprised when I got home to be greeted not by the smell of cooking, but by the smell of burning timber. Apparently Matt had only asked my dinner preferences in case he needed to buy anything, by the time I replied it was too late, and he had busied himself with the skirting board project. Still, I was pleased that the skirting board project was progressing and was sure that I could concoct something for us with what we had.

It would be pasta and it would probably be mushrooms. Although there were some other possible ingredients the mushrooms looked most in need of consumption.

I had brought a 600g "family" pack of mushrooms at the supermarket a few days previously after using a little bit of algebra to calculate that this was the most economical way. I'd guesstimated that this was the case but felt the need to do the maths as usually it's better to buy things loose.

How these got named a "family" pack defeats me. An important lesson in mushroom cuisine is that that they cook down to hardly anything so this 600g would serve just Matt and me (and only for one meal). They were clearly not a family themselves (being all of approximately the same size and age) and the only family I could imagine them feeding would be one that doesn't like mushrooms very much. I suppose technically you could call a married couple who occasionally borrow a dog a family, in which case the pack description is not so misleading.

Anyway, I quartered approximately half of the mushrooms and sliced the rest (I've found this to give the best consistency to the finished product).

Prepared mushrooms

I added these to some onions and celery that had been sweating (if only there was a nicer word to use there, but I suppose it does describe the process accurately), along with some of that slack pre-chopped garlic that comes in a jar preserved in vinegar (we were out of proper garlic and this is just fine). And then you can leave it until the juices have come out of the mushrooms & they have, as predicted, cooked down to a fraction of their original volume.

So I pottered about for 20 minutes or so and then added the finishing touches:

• Some herbs from the garden - I'm pretty sure it was thyme

• Some vegetable stock powder

• Some tomato puree - a tip from my mum when I first started cooking with mushrooms

• Some crème fraiche - at least that was the plan. But what I thought was a whole pot in the fridge was less than a dollop so I augmented this with some low fat cream cheese.

• Some sherry - this wasn't the plan. I would probably have used white wine but the sherry was open.

And at the same time as the sauce was being completed I boiled the pasta. We went for the fun pasta again. There was a little less fun pasta than originally planned because I lost some in the sink in the draining process.

Sphinx passa

When it came to the eating I found a penguin and a koala in my pasta shapes, as well as a reappearance of the sphinx and some less fun shapes like apples and bows.

Penguin pasta

Koala pasta

Based on the boozy aroma coming from the pan I was a bit worried that I might have taken the finishing touches a splosh too far but it was too late to worry about that now.

 It turned out that the sherry wasn't a splosh too far. I think it turned what might have been a rather ordinary mushroom sauce into something rather more sophisticated.

 

Sherry mushroom stroganoff with fun pasta

And it was all done quickly enough that we didn't too much of our samba lesson.

Monday's risky pasta

As I had a band rehearsal to get to, a late finish at work meant that my preference for tea was reheat soup. Matt, my husband had other ideas and made it quite clear that he wanted pasta. I was up to the challenge. 

Since it had been such a glorious weekend, we were particularly devoid of fresh ingredients - grocery shopping is not, in my opinion, an appropriate activity in such fine climes. But I was optimistic that I could concoct something from the available ingredients: 

• some cherry tomatoes (brought for a picnic but then forgotten in favour of naughtier things) 
• a bag of baby spinach (not quite a fortnight past its use by date) 
• a bit of blue cheese (when I came to it a bit less than I had anticipated - I think that someone might have had some for lunch). 

I would make a variation on one of my favourite student pasta sauces of broccoli, Stilton and lemon. 

I began by frying an onion. Even this was the last useable onion in the house - I have to return one to the shop as it was gone off in that way that onions do but that you can't tell until you start chopping. Onion doesn't feature in the original student recipe but it seemed like a sensible thing to do tonight. When this was nice and soft I added the spinach. Based on its use by date this was in remarkably good condition, you have to be a bit suspicious about what they do to it to make it last so long. Hopefully I'll be able to start using spinach from our hanging basket soon, or maybe even chard if I'm feeling fancy. At the same time I added a dozen or so cherry tomatoes. 

Whilst the veggies were cooking I set about the pasta. We have a large choice of different pastas and today I opted for the "fun" pasta from my favourite garden centre. This is because I was not certain of the success of the sauce and, should it be less than delicious, fun pasta might at least distract. When the veggies looked like they were done (spinach a tiny proportion of its original volume and cherry tomatoes exploded) I stirred in the blue cheese. This didn't look like quite enough dairy so I augmented it with a dollop of cream cheese. Finished off with a good grind of black pepper. Unfortunately I forgot that you shouldn't pick up the pepper mill from the top and as well as the good grind I ended up with peppercorns scattered around the hob. 

It culminated in one of those happy coincidences where the pasta and the sauce are ready at just the same time. Furthermore, it was one of those happy coincidences where the things that you throw together from the fridge actually end up tasting pretty good.

And I don't think that it was just because we were distracted by the fun pasta. (I did identify a star, an apple and a bow shape, but these are nothing in comparison to the sphinx that Matt found). 

I'd been a bit excessive with the fun pasta, so one of us will be having even more fun tomorrow lunchtime.

Monday's chilli incident

Again, I find myself in the position of having a surfeit of courgettes. They looked so nice in their little net the other day and I am determined to use them while they are relatively nice, before they get to that pre-slime stage.

It being Monday I had to do something quick. This is because Monday night is band night. And given that we only have pathetically tiny baking potatoes (based on my knowledge of potato farming this is probably because of sub-optimal potato growing conditions recently), and that courgette doesn’t really go with baked potato anyway it would be a pasta evening.

A pasta dish would also be a good opportunity to use up some feta cheese, which has been open in the fridge since a friend wanted it on a crumpet a few weeks ago. Matt, my husband, deemed that this was still fit for human consumption.

So the pasta sauce would consist of red onion (x 2, sliced), courgette (x 4 small, “ribboned” with the peeler), chilli (tiny bit, chopped up really small), thyme (few sprigs, from the garden, still uncommonly exciting), feta (about half a block, chopped in dice sized bits), low fat soft cheese (tablespoon or so), sundried tomatoes (x 8, quartered) and black pepper (few grinds). The most difficult part was deciding what pasta to use; the options being twists, tubes or spaghetti. I went for the twists, purely on the basis that there was about the right quantity for dinner for two, which would have the consequence of freeing up a plastic canister for some pasta bows (my favourite pasta shape).

It took longer than planned to make. Mainly because I wanted to make sure that the onions were nice and soft before adding the rest of the sauce ingredients. I would not be making it to band on time and so was really hoping that my improvised cooking delay would be worth it. From somewhere I had the inspiration to add a few pine nuts just as the sauce was nearly finished. I would have grated over some parmesan before eating if we had some. But we didn’t, and low fat cheddar seemed somehow unfitting.

Even if I do say so myself it was one of the best pasta dishes I have had in ages. Based on the “mmm” sounds, Matt agreed. I was especially pleased because I seemed to have got the chilli just right for my husband’s delicate palate. It gave it a nice warmth, but didn’t make his mouth hurt or my nose run. And the pine nuts were a good inspiration, giving it just a little bit of crunch in random mouthfuls.

It was gone 8 by the time we had finished and I umm-ed and ahh-ed about whether to go to band as I was feeling very tired. But I decided to venture out (mainly to leave Matt in peace with his skirting boards).

It was a particularly comical rehearsal. I do my best to keep “smut” out of these blogs but these sound bites from our fabulous conductor just have to be shared: “Does anyone have the horn?” and “You’ve really got to feel each other”. It would have probably gone un-noticed (not the most innuendo loving room of people you could get) but for the clarinettist I was sat next to who pointed these out to me and had a little chuckle. And for some reason the mood I was in I descended into hysterics.

Having composed myself the rehearsal proceeded uneventfully for a while. And then I got a little itch in my eye, or maybe my eyes were feeling tired. Either way I gave my eyes a little rub. I had clearly not removed all traces of chilli from my fingers. I think I let out a little yelp. The chilli in the eye thing is one of those things that you always hear about but can’t really believe ever happens, or at least not to you. Well it does. And it really stings. It is one of the most sting-y things I have ever experienced.

This called for a quick dash out to the toilets but I didn’t really know what to do. My instinct would be to bathe my eye in water but I couldn’t stop thinking about when you eat a too spicy curry and water makes it worse but beer or milk makes it better. Being in the toilets of a church I had neither beer nor milk available to me. The stinging was clearly not going to go away on its own. This called for a quick call to my mum. Although she was clearly inexperienced in first aid for chilli related eye injuries she was calm in her advice to put cold water on it and I felt bolstered to follow this course of action. It helped. So much so that I was able to go back and join in the remainder of the band rehearsal unimpeded (apart from my lack of skill at high notes – there’s a reason I play 3^rd clarinet).

I think I might cook the rest of the courgettes without chilli.