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My Mum loves to cook tomato pasta. Last time she cooked for me she made a delicious pasta using chorizo. She used her Bacon & Tomato Pasta recipe that features on my Meal Plan page and simply substituted the bacon for chorizo. It was really yummy and really quick as she made it in under 30 minutes.

Here’s the recipe:

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1tsp oil
1 pack sliced chorizo (approx 150g)
1 onion, diced
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp chopped rosemary
2 tsp mixed herbs
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 red pepper, chopped
1 carrot finely chopped
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tin of chopped tomatoes 400g
1 glass of red wine
1 tbsp sliced olives or a handful of whole olives
100g grated cheese

Pasta (any type) 75g per person (however hungry you are serve more or less pasta)

*(2 tins makes lots of yummy sauce, but 1 tin will stretch to serve 4)

Method:

1. Heat oil, over a medium heat, in a large frying pan. Cut chorizo into small pieces and add to the pan with onion, herbs, fennel seeds, ground pepper (as much as you like) and last the garlic (as it can burn); stir.
2. Brown the ingredients , add all of the chopped vegetables, continue to cook for approximately another 2/3 minutes.
3. Add the tomato puree, tinned tomatoes, wine and olives; stir.
4. Reduce the heat under the sauce to your lowest setting and pop on a lid (use a plate if your frying pan does not have a lid). Cook for approx 10 mins.
5. Put pasta on to cook.
6. Simmer sauce until the pasta is ready, but do check on it and add a little liquid if it is reducing more than you would like.
7. Pour cooked pasta and grated cheese into the frying pan and stir.

Serving Suggestion:

Watercress and rocket salad.

I often try to persuade my husband to eat meat free meals, not just because they are healthy but because they are also cheap. I’ve found a winner with this pasta recipe which, as with all my recipes, is quick and easy. Baby G likes this too as he really loves olives.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 150g pasta
• 1 medium head of broccoli
• 3/4 bay leaves
• 50g sliced green olives
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large garlic clove (finely chopped)
• 50g ground almonds
• 3 tbsp toasted breadcrumbs

Method:

1. Cook pasta until al dente, meanwhile cut the broccoli into florets and steam along with bay leaves for approx 6 mins, or until tender.
2. Heat the oil and garlic gently in a frying pan, add the olives and ground almonds, and add a spoonful of water.
3. Drain pasta and add with broccoli and breadcrumbs to the frying pan, mix well together.
4. Add extra olive oil, maybe some parmesan and plenty of black pepper before serving.

I’ve been working on a good quick Spaghetti Bolognese recipe requested for my meal plans for men page; plus Baby G is currently loving mince and pasta. It is great fun seeing him with a bright red tomato smeared face and discovering spaghetti he has hidden up his nose. He does make meal times fun!

Here’s my recipe and to make it quick you really need to use steak mince or the meat will be chewy and tough.

Ingredients:

2 tsp olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 clove garlic crushed
2 tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp oregano
ground black pepper
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
500g steak mince
2 tsp tomato puree
1 tub passata
(optional – 1 glass red wine)

75g spaghetti per person

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan, add all ingredients except the passata and cook for roughly 3-5 mins or until soft.
2. Add steak mince and fry until browned.
3. Add passata (wine if using) to frying pan, simmer for 15-20 mins.

Serve with spaghetti and a green salad.

Added 5 A Day:

Grate a carrot into the mixture at stage 3 with the passata.

Ways to Make this Recipe Quicker:

Use 4 spring onions instead of a chopped onion. Peeling and chopping a whole white onion is fiddly, I often use spring onions as they are very quick to prepare.

Following on from my post ‘Leftovers – Use Your Roast Chicken’ I found this great recipe on an American blog called Annie Eats. It really looks delicious and I will definitely be cooking this next time we have roast chicken; it is ideal for using up the leftovers and making them into another tasty dish.

I think it also important to note that I love the blog Annie Eats. Like me Annie is young, married, with a baby, only two months older than my own son and she loves cooking. The only difference is she is American and I am British, oh and she has been blogging a lot longer than me! Her blog has beautiful recipes and pictures and the site itself is beautiful designed. It is interesting to note that for other Mums the blog does include ideas on food for your baby and since my baby is a similar age it is perfect for me.

I hope you enjoy the site as much as I have.

I was impressed with how quickly I was able to throw this meal together. It really takes as long as the pasta takes to cook.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

150g spaghetti
1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 spring onions chopped
1 garlic clove thinly sliced
1 tsp mixed herbs
black pepper (as much as you like)
1 salad bag of watercress, roughly chopped
1 glass white wine
150-200g cooked prawns
150 ml creme fraiche

Method:

1. Cook spaghetti.
2. Fry spring onions with garlic, mixed herbs and black pepper until soft.
3. Pour in glass of white wine.
4. Add cooked prawns when pasta is a few minutes from being ready.*
5. Open bag of watercress and add to the pan, stir through with creme fraiche.
6. Add cooked spaghetti to the frying pan, mix well and serve.

*It is important that they are heated through but if they cook for too long they will become tough.

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