Pasta del Pitt
To alleviate the fears of those who worry about my diet (thanks for caring, BTW), this evening I actually made myself a pasta dish
!
It was a bit of an experiment really, I wasn't following any detailed instructions. I started by boiling up the pasta following the instructions on the packet. While that was cooking, I tried to decide what to put in it. I was going to cook a pasta last week, until I realized I didn't have any ingredients other than the pasta and Parmesan cheese.
So since then I'd collected a few. I'd bought 200g of shaved ham on Saturday for lunches and the family visiting on Sunday for Father's Day, and immediately realized that I'd got too much and that I'd have to try and use it up. So I chopped of some of the ham. I had the Parmesan, and I picked up some tinned tomatoes (which were handily on special) and a red capsicum.
Based on what people had told me about sautéing ingredients, I threw a couple of spoons of butter in the saucepan and melted them down, once melted I threw in the chopped ham, a couple of canned tomatoes and some chopped capsicum, added ground pepper and salt, and let them, um, sauté. I don't know if you're supposed to stir things around but I did.
While that was happening I grated the Parmesan, and once again proved that for me cutting cheese requires a blood sacrifice. I claim that this time though it wasn't really my fault! It turns out our cheese grater is so old and thin that as I pressed the Paramesan in to it, it folded inward, bringing the nasty slicy bit in contact with my knuckle while I was on a down stroke. Ow!
Still maybe it was a good thing, all things I construct or fix that turn out well seem to require blood sacrifice!
So I quickly put on a band-aid, and then went back to the mix. I didn't have any cream so I threw a bit of milk in and mixed that around too, and left it a bit while I drained the pasta. I poured the mix into the pasta and mixed it around keeping the pot on the hot plate and then poured most of the grated Parmesan into the pasta and tossed it around a bit. Once I thought it was thoroughly mixed, I poured it onto the plate and sprinkled the rest of the grated Parmesan on top.
Then I took the photo and sat down to eat it.
My verdict is that it was a lot better than the pasta dishes I'd made from sachets, and not that much harder to make. Constructive self criticism :
So there you go.
!
It was a bit of an experiment really, I wasn't following any detailed instructions. I started by boiling up the pasta following the instructions on the packet. While that was cooking, I tried to decide what to put in it. I was going to cook a pasta last week, until I realized I didn't have any ingredients other than the pasta and Parmesan cheese.
So since then I'd collected a few. I'd bought 200g of shaved ham on Saturday for lunches and the family visiting on Sunday for Father's Day, and immediately realized that I'd got too much and that I'd have to try and use it up. So I chopped of some of the ham. I had the Parmesan, and I picked up some tinned tomatoes (which were handily on special) and a red capsicum.
Based on what people had told me about sautéing ingredients, I threw a couple of spoons of butter in the saucepan and melted them down, once melted I threw in the chopped ham, a couple of canned tomatoes and some chopped capsicum, added ground pepper and salt, and let them, um, sauté. I don't know if you're supposed to stir things around but I did.
While that was happening I grated the Parmesan, and once again proved that for me cutting cheese requires a blood sacrifice. I claim that this time though it wasn't really my fault! It turns out our cheese grater is so old and thin that as I pressed the Paramesan in to it, it folded inward, bringing the nasty slicy bit in contact with my knuckle while I was on a down stroke. Ow!
Still maybe it was a good thing, all things I construct or fix that turn out well seem to require blood sacrifice!
So I quickly put on a band-aid, and then went back to the mix. I didn't have any cream so I threw a bit of milk in and mixed that around too, and left it a bit while I drained the pasta. I poured the mix into the pasta and mixed it around keeping the pot on the hot plate and then poured most of the grated Parmesan into the pasta and tossed it around a bit. Once I thought it was thoroughly mixed, I poured it onto the plate and sprinkled the rest of the grated Parmesan on top.
Then I took the photo and sat down to eat it.
My verdict is that it was a lot better than the pasta dishes I'd made from sachets, and not that much harder to make. Constructive self criticism :
- I think if I had nicer pasta ( as panda_pitt suggested) it would have been better.
- It might have needed some more herbs or spices to add a bit more flavour, but it was certainly tasty.
- Visually it could do with more colour, maybe green capsicum next time, or some parsley.
- The Parmesan was definitely worth it! It didn't separate as "normal" cheese has done when I've tried cooking with it in the past.
- I either didn't chop stuff up enough or didn't toss it around enough when I mixed it, because some of it clumped up a bit.
So there you go.