Butterflies in Stomach

My daughter Emily has recently suggested that I should blog about the food I make than the food I have eaten every now and again. Not that I am a Master Chef, quite opposite in fact. I am a lazy cook -  I don't have patience to follow recipe, I can't be bothered about using scales or measuring spoon, etc. I just use my hand and eyes to judge how much ingredients I need when I cook.

I was watching a repeat of a TV programme called Simply Italian by Michele Chiappa on Channel 4 the other day (http://scrapbook.channel4.com/programmes/simply-italian/bookmarks/series-1/episode-1). What I like about her programme is that she shows us the easiest way to cook lovely Italian dishes.
Even making home-made pasta looks so simple when she does it and it really makes you want to try it. You don't need any super gadget or lots of ingredients, as long as you have '00' pasta flour, egg(s), a cup and a rolling pin.

I saw her recipe of Farfalle (bow-tie shape pasta) with Mozzarella and Tomato Sauce again and thought I shall try it tonight for dinner.

Unfortunately I didn't have all ingredients listed in her recipe so I just had to improvise.

Michela showed us how easy to make farfalle pasta at home but as I didn't have '00' pasta flour, I used dry farfalle pastas in the packet. I did not even have enough pasta in the packet left so I had to mix them with tricolour pasta to make up the volume.

The following recipe serves 2 - 3 people.


Boil hot water in the kettle and pour into a cooking pot to boil pasta. Put salt and a drop of olive oil if you wish.  Cook the pasta until al dante.

Michele's recipe says you need: red onion, garlic, tinned chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, cayenne pepper, chicken or vegetable stock, black olives, mozzarella cheese and baby spinach. This is all I had in the kitchen this evening.  I ran out of vegetable stock and did not have cayenne pepper, so I used few strips of anchovies instead. I used a packet of baby spinach and watercress mix.

First, heat extra virgin olive oil and fry chopped red onions until being soft.
Squash a clove of garlic with a knife, moving back and forth with a little salt, and add to the pan.

Add anchovies to let them melt and then tomatoes. Chop tomatoes as you mix in the pan and simmer for 5 - 10 minutes.

Chop watercress. Add both watercress and baby spinach into the pan along with black olives.

 

By then pasta is ready. Quickly finish the sauce by tearing in the mozzarella, add grated parmesan cheese.

Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the cooking water to add to the pan. Mix the cooked pasta into the pan.

Sprinkle with bit of baby spinach over the past, tear a bit of leftover mozzarella cheese, grate more parmesan cheese and pour over good quality extra virgin olive oil. Grind black pepper if you wish.  There you have it. My improvised version of Farfalle with mozzarella and tomato sauce. Farfalle means butterfly (farfalla) in Italian, so butterflies in stomach, ha ha ha.

This was quick and very yummy. You could add rock salt to the tomatoes in the pan whilst cooking if you like more salt in the sauce. I didn't as I thought anchovies and parmesan would be enough.

My family all enjoyed it and we were full of butterflies in stomach!
I would definitely cook again, perhaps I may even try making farfalle from scratch as Michele showed us on TV.

That's all forks!