I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for months and something always seems to come before it!! So without further ado….I discovered my favourite restaurant of all time, Sugo Pasta Kitchen, some years back when we lived in Manchester and after I tasted their House Sugo I knew I would never find a better pasta dish. Time after time I went back with my hubbie, family or friends and I thought ‘I must try something else this time’ but on every single occasion I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to have a bowl of this heavenly pasta.
Category: Italian
Pork, Nduja and Fennel Ragu
I adore Nduja. What is that, you ask? It’s the most wonderful spicy, spreadable pork sausage which comes from the region of Calabria in Southern Italy. Having tried it for the first time at an Italian restaurant in Manchester, it’s an ingredient that until recently, I struggled to get my hands on regularly enough to cook with at home (now we are back in the North east). You can imagine my joy then, when I discovered that my local deli now sells it! Cue me always having a pack in the fridge, ready to add to dishes whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Spaghetti Carbonara
This recipe is so quick to prepare but it’s really important you do everything at the same time so it’s nice and hot when you serve it. In the main recipe I’ve included my take on a traditional carbonara but below I’ve also included a couple of variations which you can try if you want to either mix things up or bulk the recipe out further. Continue reading
Pizza Fries
At the very start of my maternity leave, pre all of this lockdown madness, a friend and I went out for lunch with the babies to a local restaurant. On the menu were the most delightful looking ‘pizza fries’ and, not being back on the WW wagon at that point, they sounded right up my street! Now I’m back at it however, I thought it would be the perfect thing to try and make WW friendly.
Tandoori Roast Chicken
I think I’m one of the only people I know who doesn’t LOVE a Sunday lunch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m partial to a roast every now and then, but as a fan of spice I often find a normal roast to be a bit plain and unexciting. A few weekends ago when I was brainstorming what to make for Sunday lunch, I decided to mix things up a little and put together an Indian style affair. Gorgeous, tandoori roast chicken, spiced potato wedges, garlic and coriander flatbreads, kachumba and raitha all on one plate made for the perfect Sunday roast alternative.
Broccoli Pesto and Bacon Pasta
I am a huge fan of pesto, in particular when its home made. The fresh and vibrant flavours can really lift a dish to the next level. When I was flicking through this months Good Food magazine, a recipe for Broccoli Pesto and Pancetta Pasta really took my fancy as not only did it involve pesto, but it used a whole load of broccoli which is packed with goodness. To start with I tweaked the recipe to make it WW friendly but I found that the recipe in the magazine didn’t actually have much taste so I continued to tweak and taste until it was perfect. The result is the recipe below.
Tomato and Mascarpone Risotto with Steak and Herby Breadcrumbs
I’m a huge fan of a comforting, oozy risotto. Not only does it feel like an indulgent meal, its one which is easy to make extra portions of to have the next day for lunch or dinner. Last week, after defrosting a couple of steaks from the freezer, I thought it might be a nice change to serve them with a bit of a different risotto and this lovely little dish sprang into my mind as I had some light mascarpone left over that needed using.
Speedy Sausage Pasta
As you will have seen in many of the other recipes on my site, I love using sausage meat as a cheap, quick and easy way to make a filling and tasty tea and this recipe is exactly that. Whacking everything into a blender right at the start means both minimal chopping and means that rustling up this dish doesn’t take much longer than cooking the pasta. This is also a great dish to make for little ones as blending everything disguises many of the veggies that you may find hard to get into their meals usually and you end up with a bolognaise type texture for the sauce which always goes down a storm.
Bolognese Baked Gnocchi – 10sp
Batch cooking is a great way to prepare for the week ahead and, now I’m cooking for 4 adults on a daily basis, I’ve also found it’s the quickest way to also ‘prepare’ lunch for the next day. This recipe is a real quick and easy treat which tastes like it has taken a lot more effort to prepare than it has!
Creamy Salmon Pasta with Herby Breadcrumbs – 9sp
One of my favourite changes brought about by Flex was that salmon, one of my favourite fish, became 0sp. I’d always eaten a lot of salmon anyway but, since the change, I’ve been using it in ways I may have avoided a little before, such as here with pasta and a creamy sauce.
This recipe came about one Saturday night when I wanted to make a quick and easy dinner with the ingredients I had in the fridge/store cupboard. I threw them all into a plastic bag, headed to my sisters and freestyled to see what I could come up with. The result was the delicious pasta dish which we both thoroughly enjoyed (I could have quite happily licked the bowl!).