Couple of easy pasta 'sauces'.

[NeilI]

When you've only got dried pasta, no jars of sauce or Pesto and you can't be bothered doing anything fancy? Try these out;

Recipe 1.

Couple of Cloves of Garlic
1 Red Onion
Couple of dried Chillis
Sliced Mushrooms
A couple of fresh Tomatoes
Some Passata, Rustica or Tomato Puree
Half a chicken stock cube
A dash of wine (optional)
Salt, Pepper, herbs.

Finely chop the onion, and add to a frying pan with a little pre-heated olive oil, over a medium-high flame.
Fry for a minute, then add the garlic, wait another minute then add the ground chilli and diced tomato. You may wish to remove the chilli seeds first!
Fry for another couple of minutes, adding the mushrooms when the tomato has softened.
Then add in seasoning, herbs (mixed, Italian, herbs de Provence etc) and your tomato product. If using puree you will need to add water. You should also add you stock and wine if using.
Simmer for a few minutes and there you go.
Drain the pasta, which will have cooked in the 10 minutes this takes, then stir in to the sauce and sevre.

Recipe 2.

4 cloves of garlic
Sliced Mushroom
A good amount of freshly ground Black Pepper
Herbs
A good wad of grated 'rubbery cheese' such as Mozzerella, Leerdammer, Jarlsberg etc, your choice
A spot of Cream (optional)

Fry the garlic in a little pre-heated Olive oil, over a med flame.
Add in the mushrooms and fry for another couple of minutes.
Pop in your pepper and add the cheese. Turn down the flame now and add your herbs and Cream if using when the cheese has melter and gone stringy.
Stir in the pasta. Easy.
The idea here is that it is really garlicy and peppery, gives a little character to otherwise quite boring dried pasta.
Takes 5 minutes max!


You can use anything, just experiment! That's the key!