A Quick & Easy Lunch

Tags

fast food, food, pesto, tagliatelle

I had a good friend who stopped over for a weekend visit from Manchester before heading back to Poland to spend Easter with her family. So, for the last 3 days, my days and evenings were spent being a tour guide.

Seeing as it was her first time in Spain, we were out almost all day, everyday and I did not spend any time in the kitchen cooking at all! With all that going on, I did not do any food shopping so today’s lunch was very simple.

What you will need…
• Fresh Tagliatelle
• Tinned tuna
• Pesto
• Rocket leaves
• Cracked black pepper

Method
1. In a pot, bring water to boil and drop the tagliatelle. Cook this for 5 to 6 mins.
2. Drain water, return the tagliatelle to the pot and add the tuna, pesto & cracked black pepper. Stir well.
3. Add the fresh rocket leaves, stir it around and serve with a sprinkle of grated parmesan.

Simple yet tasty!

I will get myself round to food shopping once I have recovered from all the walking my friend and I did!

Happy Tuesday to all! 😊

It’s Tagliatelle Time

Tags

Chicken, food, Italian, pasta, tagliatelle

When I was in my early 20’s, I went on a 3 week break with a couple of girlfriends to the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy. We stayed with friends up in the mountains in Pietrasanta where fire flies glowed at night and we cycled down to the beach in the mornings. We took day trips to Pisa, Viareggio, Forte dei Marmi, Florence & last but definitely not least…we walked through Cinque Terre where the coastal scenery was just breathtaking!

Since then, I have always loved Italian food. So for dinner last night I prepared a very simple pasta dish.

Ingredients

• Tagliatelle
• 2 pieces of chicken breast (sliced)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• a handful of cherry tomatoes (halved)
• Fresh basil (according to your taste)
• 50ml single cream
• 1tsp tomato purée
• salt & cracked black pepper
• half tsp sugar (to break the acidity of the tomatoes)

Method
1. In a skillet, sauté the chopped garlic together with the sliced chicken. After about 5 mins, throw in the tomatoes. Cook this till the chicken is cooked and the tomatoes are very soft/broken.
2. Add the cream, tomato purée, basil, salt & cracked black pepper, sugar and simmer on a low heat.
3. Meanwhile in a saucepan, bring water to boil and drop the tagliatelle in. I bought the packet tagliatelle so it was ready in 4 mins.
4. Now, I learnt this from Jamie Oliver…add some of the boiling pasta water to the simmering sauce to loosen it up a little.

5. Drain the pasta and stir in the sauce in the saucepan. Add a few more fresh basil and it’s ready to serve.

Fresh, simple and does not take long to prepare at all! It made me want to travel to Italy again!

But perhaps next time I should plan on going to Sicily as that was where my late great-great grandfather was from. 😊🇮🇹

Happy cooking!