Mushroom and Goat's Cheese Tagliatelle

This is a rich, luxurious pasta dish. It's not a speedy one, and will demand a good half hour of your attention; but that half hour is one of gentle chopping and stirring which should slowly stroke away the stresses of your Monday.


Mushroom and Goat's Cheese Tagliatelle

1/2 onion
1 large clove garlic
4 large chestnut mushrooms
10g dried porcini
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
200ml boiling water
100ml white wine

75g tagliatelle

100g goats' cheese
1/2 tsp truffle oil

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Chop and slice the mushrooms so you have a variety of different shapes and thicknesses. Soak the dried porcini and dried tarragon in the boiling water (they will probably want around 15 minutes).

Heat a teaspoon of butter in a small saucepan, over a low heat, and gently saute the onion for 10 minutes or so, until it is soft and slightly yellow, but without browning it. Add the garlic, and saute for another minute or two, until it loses its sharp white colour. Add the fresh mushrooms, a decent pinch of salt, and saute for a couple of minutes until they start giving up their juices.

Around the same time, get the pasta water on to boil, and tip in the pasta.

Turn up the heat slightly on the mushroom pan. Remove the dried porcini from their soaking liquid (keeping the liquid itself), and chop them roughly, then add to the mushroom pan and stir in to the rest of the mixture. Tip in the wine and boil until you stop smelling the strong alcohol evaporating off: around a minute. Then add the soaking liquid from the dried porcini, stopping before you get to any gritty bits at the bottom. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce until you just have a little liquid left in the pan.

Chop the goats' cheese into 1 cm chunks. Drain the pasta and tip into the mushroom sauce pan; stir well until coated. Tip in the goats' cheese and truffle oil, stir briefly, then serve.

A more wintery quick pasta

Looking back to this post, I can't help but notice how light and summery they all are. The weather today has been miserable - grey, rainy, and windy - and frankly the last thing I want for dinner is a fresh tomato.

I had some cauliflower in the fridge left over from another recipe (more on that at a later date), and had a vague idea of a robust pasta dish like this, but with a different type of brassica flower. Then I opened the tin of anchovies, nibbled a bit of one (as is my wont when faced with an open tin of the beauties), and decided to go the whole hog and make anchovies as much the star of the show as the cauliflower.

Originally, I made this recipe with a whole tin of anchovies. I think that's too much, and I would classify myself as a serious anchovy fan, but one friend (@peteellender) suggested he'd be up for trying it. If you do give it a go, let me know what you think, and don't say I didn't warn you. Otherwise, the leftover anchovies will last for weeks in the fridge, covered in a thin layer of oil.


Cauliflower and anchovy pasta

75g short pasta shapes (orecchiette would probably be perfect)
100g cauliflower, cut into small florets
1/2 to 2/3 50g tin anchovies, including their oil
pinch chilli flakes
handful roughly chopped parsley

Start the pasta off, and at the same time heat the oil from the anchovies in a frying pan or small saucepan to which you have a lid. Tip in the cauliflower and cover, leaving to brown slightly whilst also steaming in it's own juices. You might need to add a splash or two of water after the first few minutes. Chop the anchovies finely. After 5 minutes, tip the chilli flakes and anchovies into the frying pan, and squish the anchovies until they start melting and forming a sauce. Cover the pan again and cook until your pasta is done; drain the pasta and combine the two with the parsley.

No parmesan; with all the anchovies, you really don't need it!

Quick pasta for busy people

Obviously, being single, my life is a whirl of parties and social events, which means I often only have a few minutes to cook dinner before I have to go out again.* Here are three of my favourite fast pasta sauces, none of which require more than one saucepan and the time it takes to cook the pasta:


Tomatoes, Ricotta, Basil

75g pasta (fusilli, penne, etc best here)
60g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
3 tbs ricotta cheese
large handful basil, roughly chopped

Cook pasta; drain and stir in the tomatoes, a drizzle of olive oil, and a good pinch or two of salt. Add the ricotta in teaspoonfuls, then the basil, and stir lightly to combine.

NB. I'll never normally add salt to food, but the tomatoes and the ricotta in this recipe both really need it, so do be generous.


Fresh Tart

This is an instant, fresher, version of a classic recipe called Pasta Puttanesca, or Tart's Pasta (for the original, see Delia).

75g pasta (whichever you like)
60g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 red chilli, de-seeded and de-membraned, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 or 3 anchovies, finely chopped
handful black olives, stoned and roughly chopped
tbs capers
parmesan

While the pasta's cooking, do all your chopping. Drain the pasta, then return the empty pan to the heat with a good slug of olive oil, the chilli, garlic, and anchovies, and leave for 30 seconds or so. Tip the pasta back in, adding all the other ingredients except the parmesan, which you want to grate generously over the top once it's in your bowl.


Green bean, parma ham

75g pasta (tagliatelle or other long pasta best here)
80g green beans, tops trimmed off
3 or 4 slices parma ham (or cheaper proscuitto, if you like...)
tbs creme fraiche
parmesan

Start the pasta cooking, and, when it only has 5 minutes left, add the green beans to the water. Tear the parma ham into long strips. Drain the pasta and beans, and combine with the ham and creme fraiche, grating parmesan over once it's in your bowl.


*Actually, this post was inspired/requested by my sister, who is in a relationship and yet still has a hectic social life. Far too much simultaneous cake having and cake eating going on there for my liking.

Heaven is...

Sitting in an english country garden in the last of the late May sunshine, birds tweeting in the breaks between the songs on the Glee soundtrack, getting gently sozzled on gin at your parents' expense, and this for dinner:

Tagliatelle with Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Chorizo

Ingredients
75g tagliatelle
75g chorizo
75g purple sprouting broccoli (the thinner the better)
1 clove garlic, sliced
sherry
parmesan

Method

Stick your pasta on to boil, and, 5 minutes before it's done, put a frying pan on to heat up with a drop of oil in it. Chop the chorizo into very small cubes and fry for 3-4 minutes until it's released its oils and is getting crispy, then turn the heat down low and add the garlic and the PSB. Add a glug or two of sherry and scrape the pan to get any crispy burnt-on bits into the sauce. Drain the pasta, mix with the chorizo and PSB, then serve with a little parmesan grated over the top.


I made this with the very last of the PSB grown in my Mum's garden, but it would equally work well with the very first - you want the thinnest possible stems so that you can coil them round your fork with the tagliatelle.


You should probably also drink some sherry with this, but I'd mixed my second G&T before I thought of that.

A tarragon pesto, and two things to do with it

So... this is what I did with my leftover tarragon and parsley from the last blog. It won't make herbs last quite as long as freezing them, but this pesto should last at least a week in the fridge. I love making my own pesto - it's one of those stupidly easy things to do that makes food so much better - and this is a lovely new variation on the traditional basil flavour.

Ingredients

leaves from half a bunch of tarragon - around 2 tbs in total
leaves from half a bunch of parsley - ditto (don't use the stalks, they're too tough for pesto!)
2 cloves garlic
handful almonds
juice 1 lemon
6 or so tbs olive oil (use a decent one, you can taste the difference)
salt and pepper to taste

Stick everything in a food processor and blitz until very well combined, adding more olive oil to loosen the texture if needed.


Once you've got this quantity of pesto, here's a couple of ideas for it:


Tarragon Chicken Salad

This makes two or three lunch portions (depending on how hungry you are...). I've used green peppers as the veg here, but you could use cucumber or other left-over green veg such as peas, green beans or asparagus.

3 tbs tarragon pesto
cooled cooked rice - around 100g uncooked
cooked chicken breast, torn into little strips
1 green pepper, cut into little cubes
3 spring onions, finely sliced
3 tbs creme fraiche

Combine all your ingredients and munch!


Tarragon and Tuna Pasta

1 tbs tarragon pesto
small tin tuna, drained
75g fusilli

Cook your pasta according to the pack instructions and your own taste, then combine with the pesto and flaked tuna.


I've made both these, and have a tablespoon or so of pesto left... any other ideas for what to do with it?