Pasta Bianco

Lunch today was marvellous. I made my very favorite dish right now - Jamie Oliver's Pasta Bianco. I don't feel bad about sharing his recipe - but you *should* buy the book: Jamie's Dinners. It's one of his best books, and it has so many yummy recipes! This dish is amazing. I could eat a bucketful. It's obviously not healthy, but the creamy, silky, cheesy, garlicky sauce makes it all worth it. Take a brisk walk afterwards if you feel guilty. I don't.

Pasta Bianco
Serves 1
3-5 balls of tagliatelle (depending on how hungry you are)
20 g butter
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 large handful shredded parmesan

Put on water for the pasta, and when it's boiling, add the pasta. Grate your parmesan. Grate your garlic - I use a nifty little garlic grater, but just use whatever you have on hand.


Edith, inspecting my garlic grater.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add the garlic. Fry gently for a couple of minutes. When the pasta is done, drain it over a bowl - you need some pasta water for the sauce to come together. When just doing this for one person - add the pasta directly into the saucepan with the garlic butter, also add the parmesan and a few tablespoons of pasta water. Toss the pasta and move it around until everything blends into a creamy sauce. You might need some more pasta water. Pour into a bowl, add some white pepper and some more parmesan - and enjoy immediately.

The only thing I don't like about this is that it leaves a lot of clean-up. But it is worth it.



Ah, stay-at-home-week continues, with more glorious food! It's wonderful to have so much time to cook. Last night for dinner, I made Potted Chicken, a family favorite lovingly posted about by Julie. Her post was part of a little mini-contest about fond food memories, and as soon as I read it I knew I wanted to make it. It would never occur to me to eat meatballs AND chicken in the same meal - it seems abundant and even a bit frivolous. However, it was very tasty and the chicken meat was extraordinarily tender. Next time - I think I'll do just the chicken, and I'll use ready-cut-up pieces. I really suck at cutting chicken, and I'm too squeamish for it.



Tomorrow, I will post about my first sourdough breadmaking experience. My loaves are rising, and ready to go into the oven in a little bit.