Food ‘n Drink

The great thing with pasta is that it’s low in fat, can be part of a meal or a meal on its own, and it doesn’t have to be complex at all. Plus it’s pretty light which is great for lunch or a summer evening meal. Up until recently I ate dried pasta, only eating fresh pasta at a favourite italien restaurant of mine, however with the cut price of fresh pasta in the supermarkets recently, we’ve been buying bags of fresh tagliatelle and I think it does taste better and still very low in fat. So what can you have with it?

Pesto:
My personal favourite is Bertolli Red Pesto. It’s not too strong on the basil and you can taste the pine nuts in it. To me it’s the right balance of everything. There’s also green pesto which goes well with some chopped grilled bacon and parmesan.

Premade Tomato Sauces
Usually I would steer clear of jar sauces as I find they have too much sugar in them. However Bertolli Tomato sauces are pretty good and have a nice variety. There’s a grilled vegetable one, red wine and shallots, garlic and cheese, and others. I don’t tend to use much if it’s just the sauce and pasta, just enough to coat it, adding perhaps a small tin of tuna if I’m more hungry.

Bolognaise
The classic dish. My own recipe (courtesey of my Italien Uncle’s Mother) can be found on this site. Bolognaise is great as you can just have a simple meat sauce and pasta dish, or to be healthier you can pad it out with vegetables such as courgette, mushrooms, peppers and asparagus. A sprinkling of fresh parmesan is always good too.

On the side
I tend to add some tagliatelle pasta to the side of a salmon dish. Some steamed salmon, tagliatelle and a cheese sauce is a nice light meal for the summer. Alternatively some pasta with a little tomato sauce run through it is a great side to any poultry dish.

Pasta Salad
Finally if you have any pasta such as penne or rigatoni (tubes), you can leave this to go cold and mix it in with some mayonnaise, tuna and salad, again good on its own or as an addition to a meal or BBQ.