[Recipes]: Pasta Galore.

Undeniably pasta is one of may favourite foods. Spaghetti bolognese has been my all time favourite dish for as long as I can remember and as a child I would have pasta Carbonara once a week without fail before dance class. These days I try to reduce my carbohydrate intake as consuming pasta 3 times a week proved to be a bad habit. Nevertheless pasta based meals will always be my preferance, particularly if they are simple and quick to make. So here is a couple of pasta dish ideas that you may like to try.

Sundried tomato, feta and spinach pasta. (Serve cold).

Honestly I didn’t think of this combination entirely by myself, I was inspired by ‘Mark’s & Spencer’s‘ who sell this freshly prepared chilled pasta in their sandwich section. It’s a ideal lunch for taking to work, saving you time of having to wait to take your turn to use the staffroom microwave. The tangyness of the sun-dried tomatoes are perfectly counteracted by the mildness of the feta cheese. It’s filling and accompanies well with Italian herb brushetta or seeded breadsticks.

Ingredients: Pasta, jarred sun-dried tomatoes, dried oregano, dried basil, fresh spinach leaves, feta cubes.

• Simply boil your favourite average sized pasta, I used Gemelli (the tight twist type) and leave to cool down.
• Separate the contents of the jarred sun-dried tomatoes, by pouring the oil directly into the chilled pasta; reserving the actual tomatoes.
• Halve the sun dried tomatoes, stir them into the pasta with a sprinkle of dried basil and oregano.
• Gently toss the spinach leaves and drained feta cubes into the pasta, one handful of spinach per person.

Tomato, chorizo, emmental & black pepper pasta bake. (Serve 2).

This dish worked well purely out of luck. When living in France for a few months, I had a half-full jar of tomato pasta sauce, way too many packets of penne, a small bag of grated emmental and an already opened packet of sliced spicy chorizo. It’s a pretty straight forward recipe, starting with the basics.

Ingredients: Penne, one white onion, olive oil, salt, pepper, canned tomatoes/ regular tomato pasta sauce, dried basil, chorizo, emmental, half a red chilli*.

• Boil the penne in saucepan of salted water.
• On a low heat fry one white diced onion with some olive oil and a pinch of salt.
• With the fried onion combine 200ml of canned tomatoes or regular tomato pasta sauce with one tablespoon of sugar and a few dashes of dried basil. Adding half a chopped, de seeded red chilli is optional.
• Slice the choizo into similar sized pieces as the pasta, add this to the sauce. Leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
• Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, then pour it into the sauce. Stir the ingredients well.
• Top with grated emmental and plenty of ground black pepper.
• Transfer to a heatproof dish, and place in the oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.