Quick spaghetti bolognese

Ingredients:

• Minced pork
  
• Minced beef
• Canned tomatoes (I prefer whole and smoosh 'em myself)
• Garlic
• Onion
• Olive oil
  
• Salt
• Oregano (dried)
• Spaghetti
• Herb bread to accompany.
  

Method:

1. Chop onion finely (I've had good results grating it too, just more tears) and fry it and the garlic in some olive oil.
2. Chuck in the mince and brown it.
3. Smoosh up the tomatoes and chuck them in.
4. Sprinkle in some oregano
5. Head oven to 220 degrees C
   
6. Simmer until thick
7. Cook spaghetti as per packet, whilst heating herb bread.

Time to cook: 35 minutes
Cost per serve: $5
Inspiration: Very little

Tomato and Sausage Risoni

Ingredients:

• Beef sausages
• Risoni
• Tomato passata (is that a tautology?)
• Onion (half, finely sliced)
• Capsicum
• Garlic
  
• Rocket
• Parmesan slivers
• Oregano (dried, I think it's better than fresh)
  
• Salt

Method

1. Cook sausages and then slice.
2. Stick garlic bread in 220 degree C oven
   
3. Fry onions, garlic and capsicum until soft.
4. Add oregano
   
5. Pour in passata and 4 cups of water, bring to the boil
6. Dump in risoni
7. Boil the crap out of it for 10 minutes until risoni is soft.
8. Serve topped with rocket, Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil and a couple of bits of garlic bread.

Time to cook: 35 minutes
Cost per serve: $7.50
Inspiration: A 30 minute recipe from taste website.

Rigatoni with Mushroom, Lemon, Parsley, Spinach and Prosciutto

Rigatoni with Mushroom, Lemon, Parsley, Spinach and Prosciutto












Tonights dinner was adapted from the pages of a Donna Hay magazine and for once it was tasty rather than just pretty. I added the prosciutto as the carnivore in me has problems with veg meals, they always seem incomplete. Everyone ate this with gusto.

Ingredients

• Rigatoni
• Mushrooms
• Garlic
• Parsley
• Lemon zest and juice
• Prosciutto
• Spinach

Method
Cook the pasta
Fry the prosciutto until crisp.
Chop 'shrooms and stick 'em in a baking tray with some unpeeled garlic, sprinkle with Olive oil and salt, roast in hot oven until tender. When done squeeze garlic out of skin and whack back in tray, along with the chopped parsley, lemon zest and broken up prosciutto, stir to combine. Then whack the whole lot in with the drained pasta and pour in the lemon juice and salt to taste. Serve with shaved parmeasan cheese.

Time to prepare: 30 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $25
Number of serves: 5
Recipe inspiration: July edition of Donna Hay magazine.

Tagliatelle With Pesto, Beans, Potatoes and Sausage

Taglietelle With Pesto, Beans, Potatoes and Sausage












Bit of a comedown from last nights dinner, but tasty all the same and wonder upon wonder the three year old cleared his plate without the normal pleading, cajoling and threatening. The wife also cleared the plate and proclaimed can you please give me smaller serves in the future, I clear the plate cos it's tasty not cos I want to eat it all.

Ingredients:

• Tagliatelle
• Pesto
• Green beans
• Potatoes
• Sausage
  
• Parmesan cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt

Fry sausage, blanch beans, boil spuds (I used the pinenut pan for the sausage well actually I used the sausage pan for the pine nuts, and the pasta pot for the spuds and beans). Stuff in pan with a little oil and then add cooked pasta. Stir through pesto. Season, taste smile.

Tagliatelle

• '00' flour
• Eggs
• Salt

I still haven't figured out portion control yet, how much does a person eat in fresh pasta. I've been whittling it down from 200g to 150 to 100g and it still seems I have leftovers. That aside making pasta is a dodle. 100g flour to 1 large egg to 1 pinch of salt dumped in the kitchen aid with the dough hook and left on slow until it forms a smooth shiny mass. Run that through the pasta rolling machine thingy and you are done.

Pesto

• Basil
• Garlic
• Pine nuts
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan and then apply more machinery, bung all ingredients in food processor and blitz adding enough oil at end to make 'wet enough'

Cost of ingredients: $30 ( I stupidly bought a kg of pine nuts which jacked the price as I include the cost of the pine nuts that hit the floor when I tried to pour them into my pinenut jar.)
Time to prepare: 45 minutes
Number of serves: 4
Recipe inspiration: Tagliatelle genovese in one of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks

Pappardelle with Swiss Brown Mushrooms and Poached Chicken in Cream Parmesan Sauce.

Pappardelle with poached chicken and swiss brown mushrooms in creamy parmesan Sauce











This one was just a tasty delight, the 3 year old liked it, the wife liked it, the mother outlaw liked it. I earned a good load of brownie points tonight.

Ingredients

• Pappardelle
• Swiss brown mushrooms
• Poached chicken
• Cream
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt
• Parsley
• Butter
• Olive oil

Pappardelle

• '00' flour
• eggs

Poached chicken

• White wine
• Salt
• Coriander seeds
  
• Cumin seeds
• Bay leaves
  
• Water
• Chicken stock

Time to prepare: About 25 minutes
Number of serves: 5
Cost of ingredients: $28
Recipe inspiration: This one was all mine baby, it's been tried in many many variations up to now.

Risoni with Chorizo and Eggplant

Risoni with Chorizo and Eggplant, with Rocket and Parmesan Garnish












This turned out very tasty, however I discovered that my three year old hasn't really learned to chew properly and the pieces of eggplant with skin triggered his gag reflex with spectacular results.

Ingredients

• Risoni
• Chorizo
• Eggplant
• Onion
• Diced tomato, canned
• Chicken stock
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Rocket
• Parmesan

Time to prepare: About 30 minutes
Cost of ingredients: About $15
Number of serves: 6
Recipe inspiration: Subliminally probably the Donna Hay chorizo special in the paper's sunday magazine, but I didn't reference them when creating.

Gnocchi, with Bolognese and Meatballs

Gnocchi with Bolognese, Meatballs and a baby vegetable salad.












Nice and quick to prepare (especially when you cheat and buy the gnocchi), which apparently meant I could spend more time on the photography (note I managed to capture steam for the second time in about 50 posts). I couldn't get any pork mince tonight, so it was just veal and the bolognese suffered for it. The gnocchi was cooked to perfection and the crunchy salad made me feel virtuous as I enjoyed it so much. Managed to get the 3 year old to try all items on his plate, he wouldn't eat the rocket, but he really liked the cucumber.


Ingredients:

• Veal mince
• Tomatoes, canned
• Tomato paste
• Onion
• Garlic
• Salt
  
• Basil
• Spicy sausage, cases removed
• Gnocchi
• Baby veg salad.

Baby veg salad

• Cherry tomatoes
• Golden cherry tomatoes
• Baby cucumbers
• Baby rocket
• Baby spinach leaves
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt

Time to prepare: About 45 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $25
Number of serves: 6
Recipe inspiration: Supermarket isle browsing.

Veal Osso Bucco

Veal Osso Bucco













This was my first attempt at transcribing a recipe from a tv show (Better Homes and Gardens) to the table, all in all it worked out alright. 4 happy people sucking on bones and mopping up plates with garlic bread. The 3 year old wasn't so enthusiastic, but he muddled through too.

• Veal shin
• Ciocchetti pasta
• Panceta
  
• Carrots
• Celery
• Shallots
  
• Chicken stock (I didn't have any veal bones to make veal stock)
  
• Parsley
  
• Salt
• Pepper
  

Pasta

• 00 flour
• eggs
• salt

Chicken Stock (purchased)

• Chicken frames, roasted
• Water
• Parsley stalks
• Celery
• Carrot
• Salt
• Pepper

Time to cook: 6 hours (including making the stock 4 hours)
Cost of ingredients: About $40
Number of serves: 5

Spaghetti Bolognese(ish)

Spaghetti Bolognese(ish)













Tonight was a bit of a poop, I had visions of salmon fillets crusted with crushed wasabi peas, but my wife still has a pregnancy induced aversion to salmon, so that dish idea died a quick death. Backup plan? Spag bol, but I'm sure my version has about as much to do with the authentic recipe as a McDonalds "sandwich" has with a real hamburger. Still it was eaten and enjoyed by all, but I still have _no_ idea about portion size for pastas.


Bolognese(ish) sauce.

• Pork mince
• Veal mince
• Onion
• Garlic
• Tinned diced tomatoes
• Tomato paste
• Basil
• Salt
• Pepper

Pasta.

• 00 Flour
• Eggs
• Salt

Time to prepare: 40 minutes (needed more simmering I think)
Cost of ingredients: $15
Number of serves: 4 of pasta, 8 of sauce. (sigh)

Chicken Pesto Fettucini

Chicken Pesto Fettucini












Food photography is hard! That aside this one all started with a trip to the Dromana drive-in Sunday market. There was a guy there selling herbs and vegetables so fresh they still had the dew on them from when he picked them that morning. The enormous bunch of basil screamed pesto. Add a little fettucini and some shredded chicken and a tasty meal ensues. Enjoyed by all who partook.

• Chicken thigh, shredded
• Pesto sauce
• Fettucini
• Salt
• Olive oil

Pesto Sauce

• Basil
• Garlic
• Salt
• Lemon
• Olive oil
• Pine nuts
• Parmesan cheese

Fettucini

• '00' flour
• eggs
• egg yolk
• salt
  

Time to cook: 45 minutes
Cost of ingredients: About $15
Number of serves: 4

Spaghetti with chicken, chili and marscapone

Spaghetti with Chicken, Chili, Marscapone, Bacon and Spring Onions












One of my wife's favourite meals, tangy and cooling all in one mouthful and the crunchy bacon is a nice contrast. Spring onions add some crunch. I may have overdone the chili though as my three year old proclaimed 'Its burning holes in my tongue, can I have some more please'.

• Spaghetti
• Chili (I used sambel olek)
• Marscapone
• Bacon
• Salt
• Olive oil
  
• Spring onions (scallions I think they are also called)
• Chicken tenderloins
• Garlic bread.

Time to cook: 15 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $15
Number of serves: 4.5

Chicken Pesto Tortellini

Chicken Pesto Tortellini













Just me for dinner tonight, wife and child ate red rooster at the drive-in. (BTW Meet the robinson's is a cool movie for 3 year olds). Tortellini was insipid, but the sauce was tasty. Moral? Make your own tortellini.

• Beef tortellini
• Shredded chicken
• Garlic
• Cream
• Parsley
• Spring Onion

Pesto

• Basil
• Pine nuts
• Parmesan cheese
• Olive oil
• Garlic

Time to cook: About 15 minutes
Cost of ingredients: About $15

Spaghetti with Chili, Crab, Coriander and Lemon

Spaghetti with Chili, Crab, Coriander and Lemon











My wife's not much of a fan of seafood, so this was a bit of a risk but she ate it without leaving any (always the acid test). The 3 year old scoffed the lot, without requiring much garlic bread bribery (also an acid test)

• Spaghetti no 3
  
• Crab meat
• Chili
• Lemon zest
• Coriander
• Olive Oil
• Salt

Time to cook: 25 minutes
Cost of ingredients: about $20

Tomato Ricotta Risoni with Lamb Cutlets

Risoni with Tomato, Ricotta and Lamb Cutlets











Fairly yummy, but nothing to write a blog about.

• Risoni
• Lamb Cutlets
  
• Ricotta
• Semi Dried Tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Spinach
• Garlic
• Salt
• Lemon juice
  
• Olive Oil
• Pepper

Time to cook: 15 minutes.

Leftover Pasta

Tortellini with Tomato and Basil sauce.











Another late night home and no motivation to cook, so leftovers it was see previous post for details



Time to "cook": 3 minutes (on high)

Tortellini with tomato and basil sauce

Tortellini with tomato and basil sauce











Tasty, I think I got the seasoning just right for once.

• 00 flour
• egg
• veal mince
• pork mince
• salt
• pepper
• parmesan
  
• roma tomato
• basil

Cooking time: 60 minutes (I'm a slow tortellini maker)

Fettuccine with Mushrooms, Chili, Coriander and Chicken

Fettuccine with Mushrooms, Chili, Coriander and Chicken.










Tasty to me and my three year old son, who's philosophy on food can be summed up if I can pick it up with my fingers or dip it in sauce I love it, but my wife gave it the nose up.

• Fettuccine
• Shiitake Mushrooms (I used reconstituted dried ones, fresh would have been better)
  
• Coriander
• Chili
  
• Roast Chicken legs
  
• Olive Oil
• Salt

Time to cook: 50 minutes (mostly roasting the chicken)