Tuesday 3 February 2015

A Bit Less of Your Sauce!

Pasta, Fagiolina, Ciliegini, Carne Tritata & Timo
Pasta with Green Beans, Cherry Tomatoes, Ground Meat & Thyme

 

You can't go wrong with pasta- right? But you are in a hurry and you don't have time to make a sauce? Is that what you think? Awww- shucks! That's a shame!

Because, do you know what? You don't need to "make a sauce", you don't need a lot of time and you can make a delicious dish like this in just the time the pasta takes to boil. Word.


 

With just a handful of really simple ingredients and a frying pan at your disposal, you can rustle up a whole lot of flavor to dress that pasta up in- all fresh, all easy and all good!

 

So, literally, I had a handful of tender green beans, a handful of ground pork (this was left over from the other night and just about enough to have made 1 small burger from), 1 Spring onion, 6 cherry tomatoes and a sprig of thyme. Yes- that was all. And the flavor? Was incredible!

 

Yes it is simple- but at the same time, yes it is rich and delicious! Those few ingredients will easily dress up 2 portions of pasta very generously for you. No fuss, low fat and full of good fresh flavor- that's what I like!

 

So- whilst the water boils, chop up your onion, beans and tomato nice and fine.

 

Fry pork, beans and onion together with no added oil, a good pinch of salt and plenty of pepper, until the pork begins to brown nicely.

 

By now, the water will be boiling, so pop in your pasta whilst you pop the tomatoes and the thyme into the frying pan... multi-tasking is fun!

 

Keep stirring and frying for a further 4-5 minutes, until everything has rendered down nicely.

 

After 5 minutes, add the pasta to the frying pan with enough of the cooking water to cover the bottom of the pan and deglaze all of the good flavors from the meat and tomatoes.

Continue cooking , stirring gently, for a further 3-4 minutes, until the pasta has absorbed the water, which along with the tomatoes and all of the good flavors from the herbs and meat will have transformed into a lovely rich coating.


 

Serve with plenty of freshly ground pepper- and I suppose Parmesan or salted Ricotta if you will- and thoroughly enjoy!

Sauce? Who needs it?!?!


 

You can of course add garlic or chili to this, maybe trade the thyme for fennel seeds... or make any other variation you might prefer- but the same method will work every time- with all of the flavors you put into your pan cooking into the pasta and making taste as rich as any sauce... try it! You'll like it!


So- are you going to share? or eat it all by yourself, like I did?

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