spaghetti Archives - Sugar et al

Pasta with Kale-Almond Pesto and Salmon

18|05|2014

A delicious pasta dish made with kale pesto sauce and served with salmon to make a great weeknight dinner.

t’s been a while since I shared a quick weeknight dinner recipe in this space. Weeknights haven’t changed, neither has there been a dearth of exploring new recipes or ingredients. But weeknights are all about quick cooking and quick eating. Tired feet, hungry stomachs, the evening chill and no natural light. There is little or no room for photography. And food that looks delicious and tastes better, deserves to be photographed and shared.

Having said that, there is always excitement around dinner. With little prep and planning, the stress is taken away from cooking a meal from scratch and a warm nutritious dinner is ready to be savoured without the guilt of consuming loads of calories.

Jars of homemade pesto have come to my rescue for years of cooking simple delicious meals. How convenient is it when dinner is a matter of opening a jar and stirring through its contents through a pot of freshly cooked pasta. To spruce up the dish are flakes of pan fried salmon, a generous shaving of parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. And that is all. Does that mean it lacks in flavour? By no means. The flavours are packed inside the jar of homemade pesto.

I’ve tried numerous variations of herbs in pesto. In fact, I feel there are no hard and fast rules when making pesto at home. The only factor that remains unchanged for me is the presence of herbs, nuts and olive oil. I add a mix of herbs from my garden as I go. Its all about building flavours and of course nutrition. Kale is great in a pesto. It turns to a coarse paste which coats the pasta really well. If you do not like heat, leave out the chillies in the pesto.

I am not a fan of rich sauces in my pasta so this recipe is great for a simple stir-through. Salmon can be replaced with any protein of your choice. I like the flavour of fresh pan fried salmon. You can skip this step and use canned salmon flakes instead. It would certainly make the recipe simpler and quicker. For a vegetarian version replace salmon with roasted pumpkin or sweet potato.

Pasta with Kale-Almond Pesto and Salmon
Serves 4

1 tbsp. olive oil
2 fillets of salmon, skin and bones removed
salt and pepper, for seasoning
375 g spaghetti (or pasta of your choice)
1 cup kale-almond pesto
Shaved Parmesan, to serve
Freshly cracked pepper, to serve
Extra Virgin olive oil to serve

Kale-Almond Pesto
1/3 cup almonds
1 long red chilli
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
150 g kale leaves, stems removed and blanched
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves
2 tbsp. oregano leaves
1 tbsp. lemon juice
salt and cracked pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan

Combine salmon, salt and pepper in a bowl. Heat the olive oil a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook salmon for 3-4 minutes on each side till cooked on the sides and still pink in the centre.or until cooked to your liking. Remove from heat and cool slightly. With a fork divide into flakes.

Cook pasta in a large saucepan of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, reserving 60ml (1/4 cup) cooking liquid. Return pasta to pan.

Add the pesto and reserved cooking liquid to pasta and toss to combine. Add the salmon and stir through. Divide among bowls, top with shaved parmesan and cracked pepper. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

To make the pesto: Place the almonds, chilli and garlic on a small baking tray and drizzle with oil. Roast for 8-10 minutes or almonds are golden brown.
Squeeze the garlic from their skins and deseed the chilli.
Place the almonds, chilli and garlic in a food processor with kale, parsley, oregano, lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil. Process to a coarse paste. Stir through the grated parmesan. Store in the refrigerator till needed.

Mushroom and Breadcrumb Pasta

9|02|2014

Quick smart dinners are becoming a way of life in our house. Why lock myself up in the kitchen and get involved in stages of cooking when a delicious dinner can be produced at the table within minutes with the least effort. Don’t get me wrong. I love cooking elaborate meals, 4 course dinners and over anything else spending time in the kitchen. But summer evenings don’t last forever and hanging around outside with the kids in the lingering daylight can at times sound like a better proposition.

Quite a few of my go-to recipes in such a scenario happen to come from Donna Hay’s Fast Fresh Simple. This simple vegetarian pasta dish is not only easy to put together and delicious, it uses a few ingredients. And a unique way of using them. When I first saw the recipe with breadcrumbs, I was quite unsure how it would turn out. But since it involved dried porcini mushrooms which happened to be at home, I was willing to take the risk as I really love the deep earthy flavour of mushrooms. I am not a big fan of thick, heavy sauces with my pasta so I found this a refreshing change. Crunchy bits of porcini flavoured crumbs thoroughly coating threads of spaghetti. Some herbs, garlic, lemon zest and parmesan and that’s about it. To serve I like to add torn Bocconcini to the pasta that melts a tad bid from the heat in the pasta making it even more delicious. I also found it a great way of using up old bread.

Mushroom and Breadcrumb Pasta (adapted with a slight variation from Donna Hay’s Fast Fresh Simple)
Serves 2-3

20 g dried porcini
200 g spaghetti
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp thyme leaves
70 g breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper, to taste
Olive oil and finely grated parmesan, to serve
Bocconcini cheese, to serve

Place the porcini in a bowl, cover with boiling water and set aside. Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for 8–10 minutes or until al dente. Drain and keep warm.

Place the pan back on the heat. Add the oil, garlic, lemon zest and thyme and cook for 2 minutes. Drain the porcini and roughly chop.

Add the porcini to the pan with the breadcrumbs and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until crumbs are golden. Add the pasta to the pan with salt and pepper and toss to coat.

Divide between serving plates and sprinkle with parmesan, extra virgin olive oil and Bocconcini cheese.

Garlic and Chilli Prawn Spaghetti

8|12|2013

I could eat cookies for all meals and still have an appetite for more. But in a house full of boys that may not be the ideal scenario. They are on the look out for ‘real food’ and sadly cookies don’t fit into that category. So a tiny little break from Cookies!

By now, you already know how much we love noodles and such things. Whether in Asian recipes or in its Italian form…noodles/pasta are a staple in our house. Though personally I prefer the fettuccine or pappardelle over spaghetti, it is the most obvious choice for kids. So we have a kid friendly version of this recipe minus the chillies and really hot one with lots of dry chilli flakes for the adults.

This is again a recipe that is ready under 15 minutes and yet filling and full of flavour. And this dish just confirm the fact that you don’t need a lot of ingredients to come up with a tasty meal. Substitute the prawns with your favourite meat if you want to and adjust the heat to your liking. You could use fresh red chillies too. I like to add dried chilli flakes for texture and I find it easier to include it in a meal at the last-minute.

Garlic and Chilli Prawn Spaghetti
(adapted with variation from Donna Hay, Fast, Fresh, Simple)
Serves 2-3

200g spaghetti, angel hair or linguine
1tbsp butter
1 tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
10-15 small uncooked prawns (fresh or frozen), cleaned
1 tbsp. lemon juice (optional)
2 tbsp. tomato puree or passata
a few flat leaf parsley leaves, roughly torn
salt and cracked pepper for seasoning

Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water for 8-10 minutes or until al dente. Drain and keep warm.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the butter and olive oil and cook until butter has melted. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for two minutes. Add the prawns and cook, stirring for 3 minutes or until prawns are tender. Add the tomato puree, pasta, lemon juice, salt and pepper to the pan and toss to combine. Serve warm.