Lunch today was marvellous. I made my very favorite dish right now - Jamie Oliver's Pasta Bianco. I don't feel bad about sharing his recipe - but you *should* buy the book: Jamie's Dinners. It's one of his best books, and it has so many yummy recipes! This dish is amazing. I could eat a bucketful. It's obviously not healthy, but the creamy, silky, cheesy, garlicky sauce makes it all worth it. Take a brisk walk afterwards if you feel guilty. I don't.
Pasta Bianco
Serves 1
3-5 balls of tagliatelle (depending on how hungry you are)
20 g butter
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 large handful shredded parmesan
Put on water for the pasta, and when it's boiling, add the pasta. Grate your parmesan. Grate your garlic - I use a nifty little garlic grater, but just use whatever you have on hand.
Edith, inspecting my garlic grater.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add the garlic. Fry gently for a couple of minutes. When the pasta is done, drain it over a bowl - you need some pasta water for the sauce to come together. When just doing this for one person - add the pasta directly into the saucepan with the garlic butter, also add the parmesan and a few tablespoons of pasta water. Toss the pasta and move it around until everything blends into a creamy sauce. You might need some more pasta water. Pour into a bowl, add some white pepper and some more parmesan - and enjoy immediately.
The only thing I don't like about this is that it leaves a lot of clean-up. But it is worth it.
Ah, stay-at-home-week continues, with more glorious food! It's wonderful to have so much time to cook. Last night for dinner, I made Potted Chicken, a family favorite lovingly posted about by Julie. Her post was part of a little mini-contest about fond food memories, and as soon as I read it I knew I wanted to make it. It would never occur to me to eat meatballs AND chicken in the same meal - it seems abundant and even a bit frivolous. However, it was very tasty and the chicken meat was extraordinarily tender. Next time - I think I'll do just the chicken, and I'll use ready-cut-up pieces. I really suck at cutting chicken, and I'm too squeamish for it.
Tomorrow, I will post about my first sourdough breadmaking experience. My loaves are rising, and ready to go into the oven in a little bit.
There's another Jamie uncooked pasta sauce recipe I practically lived on last Summer - you mix up some olive oil, fresh lemon juice, handful fresh basil leaves, cracked pepper and a handful of freshly grated parmesan, and toss it through warm pasta. It's just incredible! Even better with a little chili as well. Mmmmm!
ReplyDeleteHi Anne,
ReplyDeletedid you like that way of cooking pasta? it's funny because that's a kind of pasta we always eat when we don't have anything to put on! Here in Italy, we call it "Pasta IN Bianco",and we eat it just with extravergin olive oil, which is much more healthier than butter,and we spread on top some fresh "Grana Padano" a tipycal cheese, just a few istants before starting eating!
Gaia
Hi Anne,
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you liked the chicken recipe. Thanks for visiting my blog, and mentioning me in yours! You have a lovely site, btw.
Esurient - thank you! That sounds like a really perfect summer recipe!! I'll definitely try that when the weather warms up a bit here!
ReplyDeleteGaia - how funny! Yes, it's absolutely addictive, I want to have it all the time now! I'll try it with olive oil, too, but it's the garlicky buttery thing that's really getting to me, I think.
Julie - thank you again for letting me try the recipe. :) I froze the leftovers and will have them for lunch this week!
Wow! That was delicious! I ended up using cheddar cheese instead of parmesan as it suits my student budget better but wow!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing.
HELP!!! Just made this and ended up with the parmesan in a big gloopy lump! What am I doing wrong? Made it for one and added all ingredients to the garlic saucepan as suggested - could it be too hot?
ReplyDeleteIsabelle - I always add the pasta first, then the parmesan, then toss. Sorry it didn't work out!
ReplyDeletemm looks awesome! I love simple recipes ( you know, the ones with just a couple of ingredients) so I will try tonight.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Marilia and I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. I have also a Blog aboutu food because I just enjoy cook a lots! I used to watch Jamie on Tv too!
ReplyDelete