Pasta Pronto
Umami Pasta Magic
Hi folks
I love a bit of kitchen magic, as you will know from my previous posts and cooking is a great way to stir up good intentions and sate hungry bellies. A favourite with the daughter and husband is pasta (I’m sure many of you can relate to this) and my daughter went through a phase where the only pasta she would eat was a certain well known brand of sauce beginning with D.
My challenge was that, whilst this was very convenient and easily found on the supermarket shelves, this was highly processed pasta sauce with an umami flavour that programmed the brain to want more, and it all came wrapped up in a little plastic pot that claimed to be recyclable but was not accepted by our local authority as a recyclable item.
Answer? I decided to study the ingredients of this sauce and see if I could rustle up my own bit of umami magic for the family minus the preservatives. The result? I made a full jar of herbs to mix with passata as a simple pasta sauce or to mix into lasagne sauces, pizza sauces and well, any kind of tomato based recipe. The result was a resounding success and we have been working our way through this jar of herbs for a good few months until today, when it was time to make some more.
In the true spirit of folk, I'm sharing my recipe so you too can have this wondrous umami jar of magic fr pasta sauce, without having to reach for the processed varieties.
Here it is:
This makes just over a 500ml Kilner jar of herbs and many, many meals.
125g dried courgette, ground
25g dried leek, ground
75g dried garlic, ground
75g dried onion, ground
4tbsp dried parsley
6tbsp dried basil
3tbsp dried oregano
8tbsp dried chives
4tbsp smoked paprika
Thoroughly mix them together in a large bowl (with a bit of magic if you’d like) and decant into the Kilner jar.
To make pasta sauce, add around 2 tbsp of the mixture to around 200g of passata.
I prefer to use organic herbs, spices and passata and we love Northern Pasta co Pasta.
Here are the suppliers I use:
Passata: Riverford Organic
Pasta: Northern Pasta
Herbs & Spices: Buy Wholefoods Online
And just for fun, here’s how it all went together:
I’m currently perfecting a recipe for BBQ beans which is fast becoming another family favourite.
Buon Appetito!
Ooooooo