Quick and Easy Pasta Sauce

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Ingredients
Basic sauce

• Olive oil
• 1 tin of tomatoes (chopped for preference)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt and black pepper
• Pasta of your choice

Variations

• 8oz mushrooms, sliced
• 1 packet of sliced salami
• Pitted black olives
• Fresh basil

I thought it was about time the more southerly Greasy Trucker put in an appearance, so here I am. This dish is particularly quick and easy; an ideal one to try if you're new to the world of cooking or if your cupboard is getting empty. Follow it with Marinated Miniature Figs and Mascarpone for an effortless but wonderful meal.

Tinned tomatoes are fine for this dish, but I'd be inclined to steer clear of the very cheapest ones. Similarly, if you need an excuse to find out why certain brands of pasta cost twice as much as others, you won't go far wrong here.

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Preparation
Basic sauce
Peel and cut each clove of garlic into 4-5 pieces. Fry it in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until it begins to go golden. Don't overdo this as it will go bitter if you do. Add the tomatoes, break them up if they're not already chopped, and cook until the sauce thickens. This should take about 10 minutes, during which time you can cook the pasta. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve on top of the pasta.

This sauce more than repays the tiny amount of effort needed to make it.

Variations
Add some sliced mushrooms to the basic tomato sauce at the start of the cooking time, and some supermarket salami cut into inch squares, a dozen or so pitted black olives and a handful of fresh basil (tear it, don't cut it) at the end for a tasty variation.

Pasta
Cooking pasta always seems to involve more water than you think you'll need. Use a big pan to give the pasta plenty of room to cook in. I don't time pasta - I keep trying it until it's done the way I like it; slightly softer than 'al-dente', but not boiled limp. This usually takes about 8-10 minutes. Now drain it, put a small splash of olive oil in the bottom of the now-empty pan you used to cook the pasta in. Return the drained pasta to the pan and add some freshly ground black pepper and a splash more olive oil. Give the pasta a quick stir and serve. I haven't given quantities here, but I suggest about 4oz dried pasta per person as a rough guide.

Pasta is generally made by forcing dough through a nozzle. The nozzle has a critical part to play in the process, not only does it govern the shape of the pasta, it affects the surface. Teflon nozzles give a smooth surface and allow fast production. Bronze nozzles give a slightly rough surface to the pasta and slow down production (and, inevitably, push up the cost). The rough surface of bronze-nozzle pasta allows it to pick up more sauce than teflon-nozzle pasta. Bronze-nozzle pasta is much more readily available than it was - at least here in the UK - your supermarket will probably stock it.

The basic tomato and garlic sauce is adapted from Pizza and Pasta by Susan Conte, which is a book worth adding to your shelf. Used copies seem to be available from Amazon.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Batman and Robin, Bacon and eggs, Strawberries and Cream. Some things were just made for each other. This soup contains another classic culinary combo, Tomatoes and Worcester sauce.

Aiding the dynamic duo on this occasion is that other kitchen stalwart balsamic vinegar. Together they add a certain Kapow to this dish which comes from Marcus Wareing's How to Cook the Perfect....

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Ingredients

• 150 ml Olive Oil
• 1/2 a small Onion Chopped
• 3 Cloves of Garlic Chopped
• 1kg Ripe On the Vine Tomatoes
• 150g sun dried tomatoes in Oil
• 3 Sprigs of Basil
• 3 Sprigs Of Coriander
• 2tbsp Tomato Puree
• Worcester Sauce
• Balsamic Vinegar
• 500ml Chicken Stock
• Maldon Salt and Freshly Milled Black Pepper

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Preparation

• Heat the oven to 220C for a fan oven 240C for anything else.

• Heat a roasting tin big enough to hold the tomatoes for 3-4 mins.

• Add the Olive Oil, onion, garlic and the tomatoes.

• Season then roast for 15 minutes.

• Add the herbs, sun dried tomatoes and their oil.

• Roast for another 10 minutes.

• Stir in the tomato puree.

• Roast for a final 5 minutes.

• Tip the contents of the dish into a large bowl and add 2 tbsp of Worcester Sauce and 2tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar. Note- My wife thought it could have done with a tad less Balsamic so you may want to reduce the amount of vinegar slightly. On the other hand, I though it was fine with this amount.
  

• Cover with cling film and leave to marinade for half an hour.

• Puree in a liquidiser in batches till smooth.

• Pour through a sieve into a pan, which will get rid of the tomato skins. This is where the hard work is done in this recipe, which is one of the reasons I didn't do it (it's what a wife and son is for).
  

• Heat to simmering point and add the stock.

• Add up to 4tbsp more Worcester sauce and up to 3 tbsp more balsamic to taste.

• Season to taste.

• Serve hot with some crusty bread and a piece of cheese.

After eating this you'll feel like 'Souperman'. Up, up and puree...

Blogged with Flock

Chicken with Tomatoes and Fresh Basil

Here's my reinvention of this particular wheel.

Ingredients

• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 5 shallots coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp demerara sugar
• 6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 3 generous heaped tbsp fresh basil
• 3 chicken breasts
• 5 tbsp plain flour
• salt
• black pepper

Preparation
Chop the shallots and the garlic, heat the olive oil and fry in a saute pan until translucent. Stir in the demerara sugar, salt and black pepper and continue to fry gently for five minutes or so. Add the tin of tomatoes and keep the mixture simmering gently.

Shred three of the six rashers of bacon fairly finely and fry them in a large pan with a lid until you have nearly-crispy bacon bits. Remove from the heat and move the bacon bits to one side of the pan, tilt it and allow the oil to drain off to the other side of the pan. After a couple of minutes, remove the drained bacon bits and add them all to the saute pan with the shallots and tomatoes.

Mix 5 tbsp plain flour, 1 tsp salt and a good twist or three of black pepper together and coat the chicken breasts with it. Fry them until golden brown in the large pan with the now bacon-flavoured olive oil. This may take ten to fifteen minutes.

Once the chicken breasts are nicely browned, lay a rasher of bacon on each one, transfer the sauce from the saute pan to the large pan and cover the chicken breasts with it. Put the lid on the pan.

After twenty minutes or so, shred the basil (tear it, don't cut it - I have no idea why) and add it to the pan for the final ten minutes of cooking. Serve and enjoy. It goes pretty well with peas and a spot of plain basmati rice.

Pete Wright
Portsmouth