Tonight we were supposed be enjoying sausages from Hollies Farm Shop in Northwich (a new discovery when we bought a new car from the area a week or so ago).

However, Anthony had to have a tooth out this afternoon so wasn’t up for anything but soup and with sausages on the intended menu, that certainly means he really couldn’t eat anything.

Back to the mushrooms though. Every time I make something like this it is just thrown together at the drop of a hat, no recipe in sight. Tonight’s was quite delicious & I thought it about time I share (& post!).

Mushroom & Thyme Pasta for One

• 6 Chestnut mushrooms
• 1/2 small white onion, chopped
• Sprig of fresh thyme
• 2 Tablespoons low fat creme fraiche
• Pasta

Method

• Put pasta on to cook (10-12 minutes)
• Fry onion in a little olive oil & a small pinch of salt until soft
• Add thyme sprig (a few leaves can be removed from sprig as this will be taken out before serving)
• Add mushrooms until soft
• Season further with pepper
• Stir in creme fraiche, take off heat
• Drain pasta & mix

Ingredients (for 2) – slightly altered to what we had in…

Ingredients

• 1 large fennel, roughly chopped
• 1 red onion, roughly sliced
• 10 sage leaves, chopped
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons Pernod
• 25g butter
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
• 50g pine nuts
• 75g tagliatelle
• 1 Tablespoon creme fraiche
• Parmesan – to serve

The Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 150 °c
2. Put onion, fennel, sage leaves in oven dish with butter & oil
3. Season with salt & pepper and cover dish and braise for 1 hour
4. Just before fennel is ready heat water for pasta & put on to cook
5. Toast pine nuts
6. When fennel ready blitz in food processor – leave it quite chunky
7. Drain pasta, mix in fennel, creme fraiche & pine nuts
8. Serve with Parmesan

Yum yum yum…

To cut this story short, I was leafing through Jamie’s Italy earlier in the week and hit a small jackpot – tuna meatballs!

I made them last night and they were surprisingly pleasant. The cinnamon on the tuna was a great mix.

Le migliori polpette di tonna (Serves 4)

For the sauce:

• olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 x 400g tin plum tomatoes
• red wine vinegar

For The Tunaballs:

• 400g steak tuna
• olive oil
• 55g pinenuts
• 1 level teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• handful chopped fresh parsley
• 100g stale breadcrumbs
• 55g Parmesan
• 2 eggs
• juice of 1 lemon

How to Do It

1. Chop the tuna in 1″ squares
2. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan
3. Add the tuna, cinnamon and pinenuts. Season with salt & pepper and cook until tuna has browned on all sides
4. Tip the tuna mixture into a big bowl and leave to cool for 5 minutes
5. Once cooled, add the other ingredients and using your hands mix together
6. Squeeze the mixture into small balls (slightly smaller than a golf ball)
7. Pop the meatballs on an oiled baking tray and leave them in the fridge for an hour

As soon as the meatballs go in the fridge, start the tomato sauce:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil on pan and gently fry the onion and garlic until soft
2. Add the oregano, tomatoes and season with salt & pepper
3. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes
4. Then using a hand held blender liquidise until smooth
5. Taste for seasoning & add a dash of red wine vinegar if needed
6. Once out of the fridge, heat oil in the same frying pan as before and gently fry the meatballs until golden all over – be careful as my first batch crumbled away into lots of bits!

Serve with the tomato sauce and spaggetti

I made 1/2 the tuna amount but the full amount of tomato sauce and have frozen it for next time – or another pasta dish.

To serve 5 (or 2 hungry mains & 2 lunches):

• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic oil (or normal oil + 1 smushed up garlic piece to remove before eating)
• 1 x 410g chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of double cream
• 500g penne pasta
• 65ml vodka
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Parmesan for serving

How to Do It

1. Heat oil & gently cook onion until soft (with a good sprinkling of salt) – about 15 mins
2. Tip in the tomatoes & simmer for 15-20 minutes nb. 10 mins before your ready put your pasta on.
3. Take sauce off heat & stir in cream.
4. Drain pasta & put back in pan with butter & vodka
5. Mix pasta in with sauce and serve with parmesan and some black pepper

Its so simple but deliciously moreish

Nigella says she thinks the pasta is especially good cold – I don’t agree, its much better warm but by making this much we have plenty for an easy lunch the next day and with a nice side salad it fills me up for the afternoon.

1 onion.

1 clove garlic.

Soften in olive oil.

Add a generous glug of vermouth or white wine.

Add spinach (wilted) & a glug of single cream & parmesan.

Serve mixed into tagliatelle.

Not bad as a quick meal.

Some rocky road (this one included a few cherries, marshmallows, left over maltesers & sultanas – oh, & a few mini eggs for good measure!!) *recipe below:

And after a baking morning I put together a ratatouille bake (from Delicious magazine) for tea, so that’s batch one of my Tuesday cook-down used! Served with garlic bread & some nice Italian prosecco…

This was very tasty but the olives we had put in it were the worst we have ever had so we picked them all out!

And whilst I was cooking, Anthony managed to finally put the wallpaper up that we bought some 6 months ago!

On Wednesday I put together a greek salad for tea.

We haven’t had one in ages & its the kind of thing you can eat too often. But once in a while & its really fresh and tasty – especially with some nice crusty bread & butter.

Salad: Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, green olives, feta (was in oil so this was drizzled) & balsamic vinegar.

Rocky Road Recipe:

• 100g butter
• 200g dark chocolate
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 225g digestive biscuits (finely crush half of them and lightly crush the other half)
• Anything else you want to chuck in (I threw in some sultanas, cherries, marshmallows, left over maltesers – but they were difficult to cut through & mini-egg – cos it was Easter!!)

All you need to do is melt together the butter, chocolate and syrup in a pan then add all the biscuits and anything else you want to throw in. Mix together quickly then pour into a swiss roll tin that has been lined with cling film then chill till set (though I used a loaf tin)