Pasta Sauce – Create You Coaching

Inspiration has struck! Not to say I have not been cooking and all of us eating well but reverting to tried and tested recipes has been the theme this summer. This is one of those; my taste buds need it moments. I love sour, bitter, salty sharp flavors. Then the full round buttery flavour’s of Tuscany, sage, pepper, and brown butter. I gave a rough search for inspiration and one of my favourite chefs recipes popped up, of course, Tieghan from Halfbakedharvest.com

Ingredients:

Left over roast chicken, meat stripped	1 tsp flour
½-1 cup of sage leaves	2 tbsp of unsalted butter ( more if you like)
1 cup chicken stock	Ground black pepper
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice	½-1 tsp mixed herbs
1 shallot finely chopped	Olive oil
2 tbsp of capers	¼ cup of white wine (optional, I didn’t use it)
Roast Butternut and courgette	¼ – ½ cup of grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp lemon zest
500g Pasta, linguine or pappardelle

Method:

I roasted the vegetables earlier in the day for the children’s food, so it was all ready to go. You can swap out what I used for what you have handy or need to use up, but I do think the butternut and courgette really suited the dish. Mushrooms and sweet potato could be delicious too, experiment with what you think can work.

Put 2 tbs of butter in a small/medium saucepan with 1 tbs of olive oil, let it heat up on a medium heat. Get your shallot in there and fry off for 1 minuteor less, then add your sage leaves, once the butter has browned and it is bubbling check your sage, but it should be crispy. Remove the sage and place to one side on some kitchen towel.

Pour in the cup of stock and stir for a minute. I put the flour in a cup with some hot water from the kettle and mixed it to a paste and added it in with the broth, stir well then add your lemon juice and wine (if using it), capers, lemon zest and a few grinds of black pepper, continue to stir until the sauce thickens. Keep an eye on it as you may need to turn your burners lower, so it is simmering not boiling. Get your dried mixed herbs or fresh chopped herbs in the pot. Cook for 3 -5 minutes till a lovely consistency, taste do you need more salt or pepper? Add it if you do.

Now get your pasta on, after if has cooked for half the cooking time grab some of that cooking water ¼ cup will do. I then put it in the roasting tin of my vegetables, to get all that yummy flavour. Take the vegetable out first. Strain your pasta and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on it and get it back in the pan on the heat add your vegetables and chicken ( I heated ours in the microwave) stir add the cooking liquor and turn up the heat for 1-2 minutes, not drop the heat and add your sauce.

Use your own judgement here of how much you need. I also added half of the sage leaves slightly crumbled now and saved the rest for dressing after. Turn off the heat and add half or all your parmesan cheese stir and serve, top with your crispy sage more black pepper and yum! Enjoy! Let me know how you get on with this one please?

This is one that we use all the time if you need to get a lunch or dinner together in no time. Usually we just grate a carrot into in as it gives a lovely flavor and texture, plus loads of vitamins. We only made one meal for the twins so there was sauce left to keep for another day.

Ingredients:

1 grated carrot grated	Coconut oil (any oil you prefer)
1 small or half a medium onion finely chopped	Dried mixed herbs or oregano (Fresh is fine too!)
1 small or half medium courgetti grated	Tomato paste
1 can of chopped tomatoes	We use a little Maple syrup to balance tomato
Garlic optional (We didn’t use it, but you totally can)	Balsamic vinegar
Any Pasta, I cut the shells in half once they were cooked	Butter
Mild cheddar cheese grated (15g/ child portion)	Chilli flakes

Basically, you just cook it all in one pan, starting with the veg that take the longest. First, we fry off the onion until it browns or goes translucent (it shouldn’t be completely cooked, add the carrot and a small nob of butter fry it for 1-2 minutes till lightens in colour. Then add your courgette and fry all till the water from the courgetti has evaporated, put in a pinch of your chosen herbs, I wanted it to brown but it was taking too long so I moved on. If anything gets stuck to the pan deglazed with some balsamic vinegar, just give it 30 seconds or a minute to evaporate.

Fry onion, carrot and courgette – you could add mushroom at this point if desired

Add the can of chopped tomatoes, you can use passata if that is all you have. If you only have plum just chop them up and throw in all the juice from the can. I rinsed the can with some of the pasta water, about half a can. Let the sauce simmer and reduce for 3-5 minutes add the tomato paste and Maple syrup, you can use a ½ teaspoon of any sugar you have. At this point you can remove some for the babies and add chilli flakes for the adult portion.

Set aside a portion for the next day. This can be frozen too.

Stir the sauce through the cooked pasta and add cheese once it is removed from the heat. I added another splash of pasta water, as you would normally when making pasta. I good amount of sauce was left that we will use either for another meal for the children or for a lunch for us.

Tag: Pasta Sauce

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