Pasta cheat!

Sometimes, I walk past my local Italian restaurant and all I can think is alio olio alio olio alio olio...vongole...
Then I get home and realise that all my recent travel has meant that a) I have no alio b) I've killed my basil plants and c) I have not been shopping in ages and I have no fresh seafood. Like last night.

Fortunately I had a full tub of Chunky Basil, Cashew and Parmesan dip (do you remember, back in the early noughties when these first started appearing on supermarket chiller shelves? What a godsend!), a few squashy old mini-Roma tomatoes, half an onion from who-knows-when, some instant spaghetti (cooks in 8 minutes!) and my usual pantry staples.

So I boiled up the pasta and at the same time drizzled olive oil & balsamic vinegar into a frying pan and blackened the tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and powdered garlic. I then added the chopped onion and cooked through until translucent to get the flavour out of its sorry bones. I then smooshed the tomatoes hard with the back of the spoon. The basil dip tub was unceremoniously dumped into the pan and then the pasta was done so I mixed it all up in the frying pan to coat the strands and hey presto! Alio olio tomato pesto.

Handy hint - let's twist again

I still cannot thank Jamie Oliver enough. He's taught me about a very large proportion of what I like to cook, in particular, he unexpectedly helped me conquer (and pretty much own) the lamb roast.

I was on a plane recently, and had one of those fancy back of the seat tv set entertainment systems to play with, and I was lucky enough to watch his sustainable seafood show as part of the Fish Fight campaign. Sadly, I haven't been able to find the show online, but here are some great recipes on the Fish Fight site.

The crusade for sustainable seafood is extremely worthy (please, do have a look at the Fish Fight recipe and also for my lovely readers in Australia, there is an amazing Sustainable Seafood app for us too on the Australian Marine Conservation website.

However, (wait for it) - in regards to today's amazing handy hint, sustainable seafood is just... a red herring! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Jamie was demonstrating a delishy fishy recipe, and his handy hint made me gasp at the simplicity of his genius. Out loud. On a plane.

When you cook long pasta (fettucine, linguine, spaghetti) - grab it in both hands, then GIVE IT A TWIST before you drop it into the pot. GASP! This way it all fans out evenly into the boiling water, and is less likely to stick and get gluggy or clumpy. Blows my mind to think that something so simple is able to help so much when preparing a great meal instead of a merely 'okay' meal. Mind blown.

Vongole (or let's be honest, any shellfish) Linguine (or let's be honest, any long pasta)

Here's a time-travelling one for you. I recently had a conversation with my lovely bestie Woffles. I'm not entirely sure how we gave her that name between today and all those years ago in Year 5, but it is definitely spelled with an "o" as in the Woffles, the talking rabbit in the Enid Blyton books - not with an "a" as in the foodstuff; and it certainly suits her. Anyhow, I was out walking with her by the river and we were talking about my love of molluscs, in particular bivalves - I often go to the markets and buy the freshest live mussels or clams that I can find and work my dinner plans around them. A very useful recipe I have tucked away in my recipe file is this gem for Spaghetti Vongole - yet another Neil Perry / Qantas Magazine recipe. My preferred long pasta is Linguine with Vongole but Fettucine (good with mussels) or Spaghetti or otherwise works just as well. I also refer to this recipe when cooking shellfish and just use the first part of the recipe as a reminder of cooking times and accoutrements. I can't seem to find my picture of the first attempt (and thus most faithful to recipe version) but will look through my other computer just in case. In the meantime here's an adjusted, musselicious & pastaless version of the recipe:

I believe these were live Mornington Peninsula mussels purchased that day from South Melbourne Markets in honour of a parental visit... and quite delicious, if memory serves...