Hot smoked salmon, fennel and pea pasta

I often buy ready cooked hot smoked salmon when I am out shopping as its a good fridge standby for a healthy quick meal with salad, its also popular with MR LF too. Most supermarkets and even some fishmongers normally stock a packed version alongside the smoked mackerel.

This dish hardly needs a recipe as its so easy and can be whipped up in minutes, from store cupboard and freezer basics, the dish is enhanced by using fresh from the garden fennel fronds, but if you don't have them dried dill or fennel will work almost as well.

What you need

• Pasta - macaroni or farfelle work well, gluten free if you like
• 1 pack of hot smoked salmon - skin removed and flaked
• Frozen petit pois or peas
• Dill or fennel - fronds, freshly chopped or use dried herbs
• Creme fraiche

What you do

• Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the pack, for the last 3 minutes add the frozen peas and bring back to the boil to finish cooking the pasta and the peas
• Drain the pasta  and peas using a colander, return back to pan which now contains very little water and toss with 3 tbsp of creme fraiche and the flaked salmon.
• Strewn with the fresh dill or fennel fronds, and lightly toss
• Serve with a little freshly ground black pepper.

Delicious and so simple supper can be on the table in 15 minutes or less

This post is being linked up to "Pasta Please" created by Tinned Tomatoes and hosted this month by Slice of Me.

                                            

And Recipe of The Week over at A Mummy Too

                                                                  

Jamie Oliver -squash and spinach rotolo from Save with Jamie

Mr Lancashire Food has been oh so kind and bought me an early christmas pressie already, the latest work from Jamie Oliver (JO). Save with Jamie, features a selection of frugal recipes which aim to be popular with all the family, first impressions suggest this will be as popular as all his other books, of which I have quite a few.

To a lot of people Jamie Oliver can be a bit like marmite, you either love him or you hate him, personally I think that despite JO being a multi millionaire he has his feet firmly placed on the ground and admire the works he has done with young people and also with families encouraging them to get home cooking again.

The first recipe I chose to attempt from this book was his squash and spinach rotolo, JO's books always have a good Italian content and this one is no different, he has re invented one of his previous recipes from Jamie's Italy and made it more frugal by upping the vegetable content and more healthy too.

The recipe for the rotolo can be found here and its a recipe I would definitely make again as it made tasty supper dish, as always JO recipes are generous. 

Its a lovely book, my only compliant is that its a bit lacking on the dessert front, otherwise it a great book and one that I am happy to have on my bookshelf. In the next few weeks I'll be cooking more from the book, again like some of his other books he uses mothership recipes to springboard to linked recipes using the leftovers from the mothership in other dishes. There is plenty of vegeterian choice as well as meat and fish dishes and most of these are pretty frugal. 

On another note this is a cracking photo by Mr LF, in my humble opinion even better than the one in the book by the mighty Mr David Loftus no less. 

                                   

One pot pasta

I initially spotted a version of this recipe on Martha Stewart's website, intrigued I thought I would give this a go. Apparently cooking pasta and its sauce in the same pan is a traditional way of cooking pasta in the Puglia region of Italy, given that I love Italian food and its saves washing up what had I to lose. I haven't slavishy followed Martha's recipe and have created my own variation.

What you need

I am making a meal for 2 people

• 3oz of dried pasta per person (penne, spaghetti, farfelle, etc)
• Tin of chopped tomatoes
• Handful of fresh basil
• Pinch of dried oregano
• Pinch of chilli
• Chopped sun dried tomatoes (optional)
• 2 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
• 1 small white onion - finely sliced
• Glug of olive oil
• 2 cups of vegetable stock
• Salt and pepper
• Parmesan cheese - to serve (freshly grated)

You will also need a large heavy cooking pot, I used my cast iron pot with a lid.

What you do

• Place everything in pan (except the parmesan)
• Bring to the simmer, cover and stir to prevent sticking every few minutes.
• Once the pasta is nearly tender, remove the lid, give it a stir and then continue to simmer until most of the moisture have come off the dish.
• Serve at once with freshly grated parmesan.

I was impressed by this dish as the pasta is cooked al dente and has a lovely creamy coating sauce on it. You could also add chopped cooked chicken, bacon or prawns at the end of the cooking if you want to up the protein content of the dish. Why not give it a try.

Courgette and mushroom pasta

What to make with courgettes from the garden for this season ? something quick, light and easy. These small perfectly formed beauties are going to marry with some button mushrooms in a quick pasta sauce with some cream friache. I use creme fraiche a lot in my cooking as it lasts so well in the fridge and has a lovely sharp twang to it that cuts the richness beautifully in sauces.

The other great thing is it uses loads of courgettes too, so when you are fighting a losing battle against your glut its a great recipe to have in your arsenal.The addition of thyme to the recipe cuts the richness of the sauce and brings a lovely herby note to the dish.

What you need 

• Courgettes - thinly sliced
• Mushrooms - finely chopped
• Olive oil
• Creme fraiche
• Fresh thyme - chopped
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Parmesan cheese - freshly grated
• Pasta - we used penne

What you do

• Put your pasta on to cook in boiling water
• Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the courgettes gently until softened and they are slightly golden
• Add the sliced mushrooms to the pan and continue to cook until the mushroom are tender
• Add creme fraiche to the pan and if you want a looser sauce a little of the pasta cooking water, add the fresh picked thyme 
• Season with pepper
• Remove from heat and toss in the drained pasta
• Serve topped with freshly grated parmesan and more freshly ground pepper.

I am also entering this post in Lavender and Lovage's Cooking with Herbs Challenge 

                                      

Spiral Pasta with tasty creations Lancashire cheese sauce, mushrooms and parma ham

Recently here at Lancashire Food, we were approached by Tasty Creations a local company who produces ready made luxury cheese sauces from great local produce to sample their sauces. 

Tastycreations is small specialist food company based in the North West and they produce a range of premium cheese sauces using some of the excellent award winning local and British produced cheeses and specialist food ingredients. They buy their cheeses and milk from Lancashire and Cheshire, herbs from Yorkshire, onions from Lancashire, stock from Cheshire and their packaging is made in the UK. In the Lancashire Cheese sauce they use award winning DEWLAY Tasty Lancashire cheese. 

Having worked in the food industry for many years, Steven uses his culinary skills and knowledge of the specialist food and drink industry to produce a delicious selection of cheese sauces that are both convenient and versatile to use.

The sauces can be poured hot on top of chicken, fish, meat, pork, vegetables, potatoes or use as a cooking sauce to make a fish pie, pasta, lasagne, quiche, soufflé or use it as a dip. The chilled sauces  take two minutes to re-heat and can also be frozen for up to three months. They have also won a Great Taste Gold award in 2012.

We have chosen to use the sauces in a couple of recipes but they would also be great alongside a steak in the case of the Garstang Blue sauce , simple fish or grilled chicken and I am sure your cauliflower cheese would be enhanced by one of these fine sauces.

Our favourite was the "Lancashire Cheese Sauce" of course, in which you could really taste the Lancashire cheese l, this was a great base sauce for this pasta dish.

Ingredients 

• 1 pot of Tasty Creations Lancashire Cheese Sauce
• Fusilli pasta - suitable quantity for the number of portions you are making
• Mushrooms - thinly sliced
• Prosciutto or parma ham - finely sliced
• Parmesan cheese to serve
• A little olive oil

Method

• cook your pasta in boiling water for the specified time on the packet
• Whilst the pasta is cooking, quickly fry off the mushrooms in a little oil, once cooked add the Tasty Creations sauce
• Cook until the sauce is hot
• Now add the ham or prosciutto
• Serve over your drained cooked pasta, sprinkle with some freshly grated Parmesan to serve

Tasty Creations sauces are available from a number of outlets, details on the website.

Minestrone soup with orzo

Minestrone must be one of the easiest soups in the world to make, infinitely forgiving as it uses what ever vegetables you have left moldering in the fridge and any small starch grain to bulk it out to give that rib sticking quality that you need on a cold day. In fact as long as it contains tomatoes it pretty much qualifies, Italian in origin and you can see why this is frugal cooking at its best, it can be a vegetarian or meat based soup, its a great dish served with homemade bread.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of celery chopped
• Tin of tomatoes
• 1 onion - chopped
• 1 small red pepper chopped
• 2 small carrots - peeled and chopped
• Couple of cabbage leaves - finely chopped
• Vegetable stock
• Handful of Orzo pasta ( rice, vermecelli, broken spaghetti, etc)
• Salt and pepper
• Parmesan cheese to serve
• Little oil or butter
• Herbs

Method

• Heat the oil or butter in a large saucepan
• Add the onion and garlic and sweat off to soften without colouring
• Add the carrots, celery, pepper, to the pan
• Now add the tomatoes and the vegetable stock just enough to cover the vegetables
• Bring to a gentle simmer 
• Add the cabbage, and continue to cook until all the vegetable are softened slightly
• Now add the orzo and herbs if using and simmer until the orzo is cooked
• Serve in warmed bowls with grated parmesan cheese and chunky slices of bread.

Fresh handmade tagliatelle and tomato sauce with sun dried tomatoes and creme fraiche

We are so happy to be invited to take part in a one off return of #BoothsCheers for the launch of Booths family of won label Italian wines. The selection includes a Chanti, Gavi Gavi, Pinot Grigio and a Prosecco all carefully sourced for the finest Italian vineyards by Booths.

We have devised this quick supper dish to perfectly complement the Pinot Grigio which is delicious chilled, the slight acidity of the wine perfectly cutting the creamy edge to the tomato sauce. The pasta of course is homemade using our homelaid eggs.

Pasta Ingredients ( per portion)

• 100g pasta flour
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt
• splash of water 

Pasta Method

• Sieve your flour and salt onto your work surface making a volcano crater like hole in the middle for your egg(s)
• Drop your egg(s) in to the hole

• Mix with your fingers until you have combined all the egg and have a soft sticky dough
• Knead this for about 5-7 minutes
• Leave to rest for approx 15 - 20 minutes , wrapped loosely in cling or a plastic bag, divide the dough by half to ease rolling out.
• If you don't have a pasta machine then you are now going to roll the pasta out manually, roll up your sleeve and flour your work surface well, Roll out until very thin and you can see a tea towel through the rolled out dough. 
• If using a pasta machine then put the dough through the machine on each setting approximately 5 /6 times, until the dough is smooth and very thin.

• Now leave the dough to dry for 10 minutes or so, on a clean  tea towel

• Cut the pasta into your desired shapes, I used my machine to make tagliatelle

• Toss in flour or polenta until ready to cook

• Cook by adding to boiling salted water , the pasta is cooked when it rises to the top of the water
• Drain and do as the italian's do and tosh the pasta with the sauce in the pan
• Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

Sauce Ingredients

• 1 clove of garlic - crushed
• 1 tin of tomatoes - crushed
• 1tbsp tomato puree
• 3 tbsp creme friache
• 1 tbsp sun dried tomatoes - chopped
• Flat leaf parsley - chopped
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive oil or oil off sun dried tomatoes
• Splash balsamic vinegar

Sauce Method

• Heat a little oil in a saucepan and gently fry the garlic until lightly golden
• Add the tin of tomatoes and the tomato puree to the pan, cook on a gentle simmer for 5 minutes
• Next add the sun dried tomatoes and the splash of balsamic
• Cook for a couple of minutes longer, remove from heat and stir in the creme fraiche and parsley
• Bring back to hot , but don't boil as your creme fraiche may split.
• Taste for seasoning and dress the pasta.

Serve with freshly grated parmesan and a glass of #BoothsCheers Pinot Grigio