29.3.07

Pantry Pasta



Two posts in one day - must be a record! After eating a yummy dinner of what I like to call "pantry pasta" I was inspired to post about it. A pantry pasta is one that you put together on the fly, with stuff you have lying around. Tonight, my pantry pasta included goat's cheese, walnuts, olives, lemon, mayo, tuna, red onion, sundried tomatoes and dried herbs, with a bit of parmesan grated on top for good measure. I don't cook the sauce, I just add it to the warm pasta with a bit of the cooking water and heat slightly. Don't ask me about the quantities, because I just chuck everything together willy-nilly.

Another great pantry pasta is the one pictured above by Jamie Oliver. It's simply linguine with lemon, olive oil and parmesan. Simply delicious! And there are so many variations, you can add herbs, artichokes and veggies. Jamie Oliver makes lots of wonderful pastas - there are a few recipes on his site, and his books are highly recommended.

My other pantry pasta idol is Donna Hay. She has loads of delicious and simple recipes in her magazine, and her book "Off the Shelf." Of all the cookbooks I own (and I own a lot), that's the one I refer to the most. And, all of her publications have beautiful photography and styling.

So, the next time you think that you have nothing to eat, have a closer look in your pantry - you could have the ingredients for an unexpectedly lovely pasta!

7 comments:

Shona~ LALA dex press said...

Can I add Jamie Oliver to my "things I love thurdays" post, or just piggy back on your post?
I am a HUGE fan of 1 pot cooking + he is really great at offering up great recipes using only...1 POT! I love popping on a DVD while I work + listening to him describe his cooking (let's just admit it, he's easy on the eyes too!).
I've always know "pantry" cooking as "kitchen sink" cooking because you throw in everything but the kitchen sink. The spinach pasta I mentioned a couple posts ago is a result of "pantry/ fridge" cooking.

As for TPB, I fell over when I read your comment, as did my boy. I forgot about that line, we often quote the more direct "that's a fine f***in' kitty" line. So how far ARE you from Sunnyvale TP?? To my knowledge it has not ever played on US TV (maybe on cable???) We watch it on DVD- 1 season in 1 sitting.
This is a long comment, sorry to hog the space, I don't have your e-mail on my work computer.

Anonymous said...

i was going to do an Indian meal for some friends tomorrow night, but i am having too much fun in the craft world, so i just decided to 'use what i have' as you suggested. and its great fun - what eventuated was tarte citron, salmon with herbs wrapped in foil and some lettuce from the fridge. Yum ! thanks for the inspiration! less work going to the shops and more fun yay! by the way listening to design*sponge podcasts whilst cooking was waycool!

Austen said...

This post totally saved dinner on Friday night from being a bowl of cereal (!)...thanks for inspiring me to take a closer look at what was in the fridge...hope you had a good weekend. Wasn't it nice to see some sun? (Now, all we need is some decent warm weather....) Glad that you saw your book made it to England—I was looking for something local and lovely to send and it fit the bill perfectly! Have a great week!

Marieke said...

That looks delicious!

Veronica TM said...

your pasta sounds so good! i love donna hay, have to check out that book.

trudi said...

I'm glad my humble pasta inspired some lovely sounding dinners!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the links, I love pasta and being able to throw in whatever you have to make a delicious dish, I like the sound of walnuts and olives!