Tag: pasta recipe

Cheesy, Tomatoey Sausage Pasta Bake

Cheesy, Tomatoey, Italian Sausage Pasta Bake

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This is one of my go to comfort, hangover dishes. We’re talking cheesy carbs with a real punch of herby, tomatoey flavour. This dish was inspired by one of my fave Chrissy Tiegen recipes – her pasta alla norma. I really liked what she called ‘mozzarella bombs’ – her dish and this one have chunks of mozzarella studded throughout the pasta that get all melty and stretchy as the pasta bakes. When your fork hits a mozzarella clump its like the best treasure discovery you’ve ever experienced. I mean just look at the cheese pull in that pic. The portion sizes on this dish are quite large, because I’m basing it on what I’d eat on a very hungover Sunday (which turns out to be enough pasta for a 2 person standard serving). So be warned when you’re making this – I would say it serves 2 high appetite people, or 3-4 regular appetite.

Cheesy, Tomatoey, Sausage Pasta Bake

Serves 2-3 (2 very hungry) | 1 hour + 40 mins baking

Ingredients

1tbsp olive oil

1tsp butter

1 white onion, sliced crossways into thin half moons

1/2 my Italian Sausage Meat without the garlic

2-3 large cloves garlic minced

2tbsp tomato puree

1 400g tin whole plum tomatoes

Hanful parsley minced

Hanfdul basil minced

A few sprigs of rosemary minced

300g short pasta of choice, rigatoni or dusili

125g ricotta

150g ball of mozzarella cut into 1.5cm cubes

A grating of parm to taste

Method

  1. Heat the oil and buttere in a large saucepan or casserole over low heat. Once melted, add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook with the lid on, stirring often, until it partially caramelises (~15-20 mins).
  2. Once the onions are ready, push to one side of thee pan and splash a little oil in the other. Turn the heat to medium/high. Add the sausage meat – don’t stir for the first minute or 2. You want to form a nice caramelised crust. At this point start to break up the sausage into large chunks. Cook until caramelised all over and a nice fond has formed. Stir through with the onions.
  3. Add the garlic and good for a minute or two until fragrant.
  4. Add the tomato puree, stir and cook for another few minutes until slightly darkened in colour.
  5. Add the tomatoes and about half a tin of water, crush the tomatoes into smaller chunks with a spatula. Add the herbs. Bring to the boil and then immediately turn the heat to low.
  6. Simmer for 20-25 mins. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in heavily salted boiling water until al dente.
  7. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan
  8. Once the sauce is cooked, stir through the ricotta and add salt, pepper and parm and taste for seasoning. Add the pasta and 3/4 of the mozzarella chunks – stir to combine and transfer to your baking dish.
  9. Bake in the oven for 30-40 mins until bubbling and the mozzarella is nice and melty. Leave on the side for 5 mins and serve!
Chilli garlic tomato pappardelle with dressed mozzarella with parm

Garlic, Chilli Tomatoey Pappardelle With Dressed Mozzarella

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We’re back, and it’s another pasta recipe (surprise surprise). Can you tell pasta’s my favourite food? This one is a super tomatoey, garlicky and punchy dish. Think arich, garlic, chilli and tomato sauce over pappardelle with a super tasty and fresh seasoned mozzarella on top. This another quick one, perfect for a weekday dinner. The creamy mozzarella really balances out that rich tomato and mild heat from the chilli. If you can get it, I’d recommend going for a high quality buffalo mozzarella for this dish. The mozzarella is served raw so we’re really after high quality ingredients as there’s no hiding. I’m gonna give you fair warning, this is a very garlicky dish (cooked in the sauce and raw with the mozzarella) so I don’t recommend eating this right before a social gathering, unless you’re all eating it.

Garlic, Chilli Tomatoey Pappardelle With Dressed Mozzarella

Sevres 2 | 30-40 mins cook + Prep

Ingredients

1 ball good quality buffalo mozzarella

4 cloves garlic, 1 clove minced and the rest thinly sliced

2 red chillis, deseeded and thinly sliced

Large handful basil minced

Large handful parsley minced

1tsp red wine vinegar

A few good glugs of good quality extra virgin olive oil

1 tin plum tomatoes

180g dried pappardelle

2-3tbsp grated parm + more to serve

Method

  1. Tear the mozzarella into bitesize chunks and place in a bowl. Add the minced garlic, 1/4 of the chilli, a small handful of parsley & basil, red wine vinegar and a good few glugs of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, stir, cover and chill in the fridge until ready to eat. This can be done a few hours ahead
  2. Heat 2-3 tbsp olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium/high heat. Add the sliced garlic and the rest of the chilli. Cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic just begins to turn golden and is fragrant (should take around 5 mins, depending on your hob).
  3. Add the tomatoes, and about 1/2 tin of water. Squish the tomatoes with a spoon. Bring this to a boil then lower the temperature and simmer for 20-30 mins until the sauce has thickened.
  4. Add in the rest of the parsley & basil, and the grated parm. Season to taste with salt & pepper.
  5. Cook the pappardelle in heavily salted pasta water until al dente. Reserve a mug of pasta water towards the end of the cooking time. Combine the pasta & sauce, and add some pasta water to reach your desired sauce consistency.
  6. Serve the pasta with the torn mozzarella on top & more parm if you like!
Pistachio Pesto Pasta With Burrata

Pistachio Pesto Pasta With Burrata

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This is another one of my super quick & easy pasta dishes, but this one has a little extra wow (and by wow I mean a whole burrata on top). Which makes this the perfect dish for trying to impress friends with very little prep time. It consists pasta, a super flavourful and simple pistachio pesto and a whole burrata on top. What’s not to love? My favourite pasta to use here is trofie. This is an eggless semolina based pasta, which means the texture is a little chewier and has more bite than a standard egg pasta. This pasta type + pasta water and pesto make for a really luxurious feeling sauce. I’ve added pancetta to mine for a little extra salty crunch, but this is totally optional. It’s just as delicious without!

Pistachio Pesto Pasta With Burrata

Serves 2 | 20mins cook + prep

Ingredients

30g basil

1/2tbsp pine nuts

2tbsp pistachios

1 clove garlic

30g grated parmesan

4tbsp extra virgin olive oil + more to serve.

180g pasta (I prefer to use trofie for this)

1 burrata

Optional: 90g pancetta

Method

  1. Toast the nuts in a dry frying pan over medium high heat until lightly toasted – watch this like a hawk as it can burn really quickly. Set aside to cool
  2. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to the boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Reserve a mug of pasta water near the end of the cooking time.
  3. If using, add the pancetta to a cold pan and put this over medium high heat. Cook until crisp and the fat has rendered.
  4. Meanwhile, make your pesto. Pestle & Mortar method (my preferred method, see notes): add the cooled nuts, garlic and a pinch of salt to a mortar and grind using the pestle in circular motions, pushing the mix against the edge of the bowl, until it forms a paste. Next add the basil (you may need to do this in stages to get it to fit) and grind until a paste forms. Add the grated parmesan, grind to combine. Transfer this mix to another bowl and add the olive oil while stirring. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Alternatively, if you prefer to use a food processor, add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until a paste forms. Season to taste
  6. Once cooked, combine the pasta with the pesto, pancetta (if using) and a splash of cooking water – add more if needed reach your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper as needed.
  7. Transfer to a serving dish, place the burrata on top and cut it open, allowing the creamy middle to run over the pasta. Add more salt & pepper on top, and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Note: I generally prefer the pestle & mortar method as a food processor can bruise the basil and leave you with a bitter tasting pesto. The pestle and mortar method makes for a much creamier pesto

Creamy Sausage Ragu

Creamy White Sausage Ragu

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For me there is no better way to spend a Sunday than making a ragu. There is something so relaxing and therapeutic about focussing your whole mind on cooking for a few hours. Every step requires so much care and attention from chopping all the veggies perfectly to simmering it all down. All that time and effort is immediately made worth it when you taste the first bite and you realise you’ve made something really special. Making a ragu such a rewarding experience in so many ways – the process of cooking it and the amazing meal you get at the end. Anyway, enough of my love letter to ragus – lets talk about this sauce.

This sauce is the culmination of all my ragu-related learnings over the years from the Italian cooking heroes Anna Del Conte & Marcella Hazan. I always like to have a ragu in my freezer as it makes for such an easy but still tasty and high quality dinner. So I usually have a few boxes of ADC or Marcella bolognese, and now I’m adding this white ragu as a freezer staple (high praise as I only have a half freezer & 1 of the drawers is unusable from constantly freezing shut). It’s a much richer and creamy version of its tomatoey conterpart, and there is space for both in my heart. The sauce is SO flavourful from the love and time that goes into cooking it – I really can’t recommend it enough!

Creamy White Sausage Ragu

Serves 4-8 (depending on how saucy you like pasta – see notes) | 2.5-3.5 hours prep + simmer time

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic

25g butter

1tbsp olive oil

1 white onion

1 bulb fennel

454g sausage meat (or sausages removed from their casing)

3 tsp fennel seeds toasted & crushed (or fennel pollen)

2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dried oregano

150ml milk

150ml dry white wine

200ml chicken stock

150ml cream

Large handful of parsley, finely chopped

25g grated parmesan

Method

  1. Prep the veggies: peel and crush the garlic with the side of a knife; finely dice the onion; quarter the fennel, remove the core and finely slice.
  2. In a casserole dish/dutch oven, heat the butter and oil over medium/low heat. Add the garlic and cook until golden. Remove the garlic and set aside.
  3. Add the onions and cook until starting to soften and turn translucent. Add the fennel and cook until slightly softened – 10-15 mins.
  4. While the veggies are cooking, combine the sausage meat with the fennel, thyme, oregano and salt & pepper.
  5. Once the veggies are cooked, turn the heat up to high and pushed the vegetables to the side of the pan and add the sausage meat – this ensures the meat browns rather than stews. Leave the to cook undisturbed for a minute or two until brown, flip the meat and repeat on the other side. Leaving the meat like this allows it to brown & form chunks, this adds so much flavour and means it won’t completely break down in cooking.
  6. Use a spatula to break the sausage meat in large chunks and stir through the vegetables. Cook, stirring occasionally until the meat is cooked through with lots of brown/caramelised pieces. A good fond will start to form (this is the brown stuff sticking to the bottom of the pan) – don’t be afraid! This will be a source of a lot of flavour.
  7. Once the sausage is ready, add the milk, bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the milk has almost completely disappeared, through this step scrape the bottom of the pan to release the tasty tasty fond. Marcella says to add the milk before the wine as it protects the meat from the acid of the wine, and I trust that woman with my life. Add the wine and again reduce until all the liquid is almost gone.
  8. Add the stock, turn the heat as low as it’ll go and place the lid on the pan slightly askew. Leave this to simmer for 30-45 mins. Add the cream and simmer for a further 45-60 mins.
  9. Once cooked, take off the heat stir through the parsley and parmesan. Serve with your favourite pasta and more parm and parsley on top.

Notes: you’ll notice the service size is quite a big range. This is because the way Italians & English have their pasta is very different. The english way is to add a lot of sauce, but the Italian way is to be much more sparing with sauce. I lean towards the Italian way, especially with this sauce – it’s so flavourful so a little goes a long way. When I have this dish I usually combine the sauce with a little pasta water to thin it out slightly to cover all the pasta.

Pasta Puttanesca

Puttanesca (-esque) Sauce

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I learnt about this sauce from the Series of Unfortunate Events movie (IYKYK) and I’ve never looked back. Its a super salty, umami, rich tomatoey sauce – it really packs a punch without feeling too heavy. This is such a great go to weeknight dinner, sped up even more by using a frozen batch of my marinara. I always have a stock of this in my freezer as it can be adapted for so many dishes, and having the sauce ready knocks a good 20 mins off cooking times. This is another of my 15 minute pasta dishes where the sauce is prepped & cooked in the time it takes the pasta to cook. I’ve called this puttaensca-esque as I’ve included tuna which the original doesn’t – I love the addition of tuna for some extra fishiness and protein which keeps me fuller longer.

Putanesca (-esque) Sauce

Serves 1 | 15 mins prep + cook

Ingredients

100g fusilli or other short pasta (or 75g if you aren’t very hungry like me 95% of the time)

1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced

3 jarred/tinned anchovy fillets

1/2 tin tuna (drained)

1/4 batch of my marinara sauce

35g black olives roughly chopped

1tbsp capers

Sprinkle of chilli flakes, to taste

Handful parsley finely chopped

Squeeze of lemon to taste

Parmesan to serve

Method

  1. Cook the pasta in a heavily salted pan of water until al dente.
  2. Meanwhile, heat a splash of olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Add the anchovies and fry, stirring often, until they dissolve into the oil.
  3. Add the garlic and frying until golden. Keep a close eye on this as this will burn quickly. Add the tuna and stir until combined
  4. Reduce the heat to low and add the marinara, capers, olives and chilli flakes (if using). Stir until warmed through. If the sauce is too thick at this point, add some pasta water to reach the desired consistency.
  5. Take off the heat, add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Stir through the parsley (reserve some to serve) and set aside.
  6. Once the pasta is cooked, combine with the sauce and serve with the remaining parsley sprinkled on top and some grated parmesan.