The way I work is often chaotic. I rarely follow a recipe; instead I have a general idea in my head, sometimes triggered by searches for ideas using key words like those in the heading above. I check the list of ingredients in the most interesting recipes, and gradually the idea takes shape.
The ingredients:
- Pasta
- Pine nuts
- Asparagus
- Leeks
- Mushrooms – seasoned in chili oil
- Sugar snaps
- Thin strips of red capsicum
- Semi-sundried tomatoes
- Caramelized onion
- Goats cheese
- Butter, sesame oil, chili oil
- Half a cup of white wine
- Thyme, basil, rosemary
- seasoning
I often set myself a challenge: to make a meal with what’s in the fridge. On this occasion, I found some Papardelle pasta – fair chance since I’m a pastaholic – some leek (another staple), sugar snaps, asparagus, half a red capsicum, a few Swiss-brown mushrooms and some semi-sundried tomatoes. The pine nuts came from the larder.
The Process:
- Roast a cup of pine nuts in a fry pan in sesame oil until they’re dark brown. Set aside.
- Soak the sliced mushrooms in a few tbsps of chili oil, add some Rosemary and seasoning, combine well and set aside. Add a few chili flakes if you want to spice it up
- Stir-fry the rest of the veggies in sesame or olive oil, adding the semi-sundried tomatoes, the caramelized onion, the soaked mushrooms and a little wine where necessary
- Stir in the cooked pasta
- Add the pine nuts, herbs and seasoning
- Crumble the goats cheese over the top just before serving.
We don’t want a sauce here, just a nice coating on everything so keep it moist. The stir-fry shouldn’t take much longer than 5 minutes in a non-stick pan if you use thin asparagus, or just the top half. You can also cut the think ends in half lengthways.
This is an open recipe, which means you can substitute the ingredients with others of your choice, except for the core ones in the heading.
